A minor request to the blogging world

I read blogs almost exclusively via RSS in a reader (bloglines), and as a result I never get to see the purty formatting, links, etc. that people have on their pages for non-reader-using viewers. I'm fine with missing out on the window dressing, but I do have a gripe that I think individual bloggers need to address: don't refer to "the above post" or those links "over to the side" of your current post. In fact, don't use any locational references at all; they mean nothing to me, because all I see is pretty much plain old RSS and no special formatting. Because *I* control the order in which I read posts and because I happen to like having the posts show up most recent first in my reader, it makes no sense to refer to something "above" the current entry, because 1) "above" means after for me, not before; 2) the post I am reading might be the only one on the page rather than part of a long line of them.

Now, you might argue that because it is my choice to read posts in newest-to-oldest order, I have taken it upon myself to figure out the sorting and references and too bad for me if it isn't chronological the way the author intended. I would counter by saying that by choosing to publish a RSS feed you are putting your content out there in a way that you should reasonably expect someone to consume it differently from what you intended. Maybe most people *don't* read in reverse chronological order like I do, but other methods of getting to your post, like permanent linking into archives, etc. will suffer the same problem.

I do have a solution to go with all this griping: make the reference to the other location a hyperlink. Keep on using the locational language if you have to (it *does* admittedly add at least some context in the sense that it points to a time in the past, but link to it as well, so that if I am looking at a feed with only the one post on it and you refer to something else and I want to know what the heck you are talking about, I can just follow the link.

Here's an example:

• Down below, when I made fun of Comcast, I forgot to take into account that I might be hurting their feelings of fiber-envy.
• Earlier, when I made fun of Comcast, I forgot to take into account that I might be hurting their feelings of fiber-envy.
  

Which is easier to follow?

Test post from IE to see if Blogger is broken

So here is a test post from IE7 to see if the problem is browser related.

[UPDATE] So it looks like there is a problem with Blogger if you try to post from Firefox. I keep getting this error message: "URL contains illegal characters" without any explanation about which URL or what characters. Looking around Blogger's help turns up nothing useful that does not relate to URLs to images (I wasn't posting with an image). So, I tried posting from IE7 instead of Firefox, and encountered no problems.

Just for kicks, I am linking to the search results in Blogger's help just to see if embedding a hyperlink really does cause trouble.

Comcast "fiber optics" vs. Verizon FIOS

UPDATE: I didn't get a picture of the billboard, but I did get a mailer the other day with basically the same message:


We are getting FIOS from Verizon installed today now that it is available in our neighborhood. For the same price ($55/month) that Comcast charges us for 1.5ish down/500 - 700ish up, we will be getting 15 down/2 up from Verizon. Comcast is good sometimes, but not always, and that's a problem. The thing with cable broadband is that depending on how much your neighbors are using the bandwidth that is shared in your neighborhood area, your bandwidth may be severely limited.

My installation experience so far has been good. The initial sales person was very professional, and all the steps he told me would happen (initial survey/line painting for other buried utilities, trenching of fiber from the local box, installer appointment) have happened as described and on time. The installer called today to say he was about half an hour away, and while I had him on the phone I described our existing setup and asked what his plan was for running copper from the fiber terminal to the location where I want the router. He said that because we already are using the coax for DirecTV, he will run CAT5 into the room, and even asked where we would like the wall plate to be located which I think is awesome (we had back luck trying to run DirecTV and Comcast over the same coax, so I didn't want to add yet another service into the mix, even though we will be getting rid of Comcast as soon as possible).

Anyhow, Comcast must be getting hammered by Verizon and losing customers left and right, if the billboard on the major road through our town is any indication. I don't have a picture of it, but it cracks me up every time I see it. It is a photograph of a bundle of fiber optic strands with the words "Comcast: powered by fiber optics" in big letters on the other half of the billboard. I guess they hope unsuspecting consumers will think twice about getting FIOS because, at least according to the billboard, they already have fiber optic service from Comcast.

I'm not falling for it, and I can't wait to compare the two side by side, right before I ditch Comcast for good.