It seems that many blog platforms such as WordPress have owners who load them with Web 2.0 widgets for social tagging, advertising, and so on. All these little Javascripts and Flash apps are fetching data from other servers, slowing down page loads, and making the client browser work overtime. This isn’t a big deal for a desktop computer but for a mobile device it spells doom.

I use my Nokia E61 to read news feeds, browse the web, listen to podcasts - all the stuff a computer can do but stripped down. The Webkit-based browser renders pages well, even those using AJAX, but it will die on doo-dad heavy sites. What’s ironic are sites that cover mobile technology such Nokia’s Symbian OS but don’t render on a mobile browser because of the Flash and Javascript.

There are design options: remove extraneous doo-dads and put JavaScript-heavy social networking badges on another page. Better yet, modify your blog’s theme to be mobile-friendly.

For lazy bloggers there’s a solution: WordPress Mobile Edition by Alex King. This WordPress plug-in autodetects mobile browsers and renders pages using text links and no graphics or scripts. Navigation links, posts, comments, and pages are rearranged to make them easier to browse. Best of all there’s nothing to configure: install and activate.

For visitors coming here after news of Divester’s retirement, hello!

It was a great run thanks to Willy’s devotion. Sadly, there isn’t a replacement for Divester and where you thnk it would exist (something centralized from PADI or ScubaDiving.com), it doesn’t. But you can be sure that wherever you find Willy, you’ll find the center of the diving blogosphere.

My personal blog (hint: you are here) is a hodge-podge of topics but stick around. I’ll resume posting “eco-ocean-friendly” stories for subjects that really light me up. If you’re a recent Mac convert or considering becoming one, stay tuned for a project I’m launching in mid-February.

Drop me a note if you keep a blog and I’ll add you to my RSS reader.

I’m a regular reader of Tom Calhoun’s blog The Adventurer’s Club which is a self-described “cornucopia of pop culture tidbits.” I’m most fascinated by the posts where action figures are involved but Tom’s posts have moved on.

Yesterday’s post got me laughing about “The Five Laws of Show Biz.” The Muppets tell us how it is.

It all started with Gizmodo. My realization that blogs are more than a place to rant about this or that. They are a platform for spreading the word about a topic in less than 200 words instead of three newspaper columns. The content comes fast and furious, even titalating at times when it’s so new you can smell the ink drying.

I quickly learned there is more than just Gizmodo…much more. Why did these bloggers pound out so much content? What else besides the subject matter was driving them? Were they some sadistic group of volunteers with too much time to kill?

Then I found Divester, a blog dedicated to scuba diving. More than just trip reviews - a mix of everything from the environment to accident prevention to animal trivia to interviews. Right up my alley so I started reading stories and posting comments. I rose to the top of the comment chart and figured it was time to ask my questions.

I’ll leave the answers for another time, but it comes to this: write about your passions and be passionate about writing. Did I mention you also get paid for it?

September 4th marks my official entree into that world. It’s the first (real) step in my pursuit of a creative career with my words. Much thanks to Willy and the WIN team for giving me the chance.

I absolutely love the open-source project Gallery2. It’s full-featured, extensible, and compatible with a number of CMS and blogging systems. But all this goodness has a drawback: maintenance. Every month or two I have to backup the database and source files because of a security update. Then I realize I have over 300 MB of images on my host that I should be backing up in the event some yahoo hacks the site.

One day it dawned on me: I don’t have time for this.

Whether Gallery2 is the best thing since sliced bread or not, I take photos for enjoyment and maintaining software doesn’t fall into my definition of fun.

I started to rebuild my photo galleries in Fotki. It doesn’t have all the bells-and-whistles of Gallery2 but they maintain the system, back it up, even provide a means to sell photos and purchase inexpensive prints. After months of rebuilding my photo albums the Fotki-based photo gallery is ready to show.

You may notice the gallery looks nothing like a generic Fotki site. I spent a couple of hours hacking my WordPress theme to work with Fotki’s co-branding feature. Aside from a few errant DIV tags which Fotki needs to fix, it was easy and didn’t require me to learn the syntax of a theme engine.

Finally I can focus on taking great photos, which is after all, the point of a photo gallery.

EDIT: At the moment the photo gallery does not match because I can’t make up my mind about a blog theme. One day I tell you.