So, I marked everything as read in Bloglines, exported the OPML file, and imported it into Google Reader. This process was pretty seamless. The only thing that bugged me was the order my feeds are listed in Bloglines is not the same in Google Reader. I’m guessing OPML does not support ordering of feeds, but this was a minor issue.

The main differences between the 2 is that when reading a feed in Google Reader, it literally feels never ending. As you continue to scroll the feed, Google Reader keeps on loading more and more posts, thus for high content feeds such as Techcrunch, you never know when you have reached the end of the un-reads without having to glance around the interface to find the number of unread posts left.

You do have the option of viewing just the updated feeds, which eliminates this problem, but then I don’t get to see a list of all my feeds in the left column.

Then there is the marking a post as read. In Bloglines, once I have clicked on a feed to view, it assumes that I will scroll down all the posts and “read” them, so it automatically marks the entire feed as read. In Google Reader, you have to literally scroll through or click on a post to mark it as read. Time consuming!

Mark all as read

I have a feeling that because of the above way Google marks feeds as read, its why people make use of the mark all feeds as read in Google. Its just too much clicking to quickly skim say 100 unread posts, where in Bloglines, I can just mark those high volume feeds as read by simply clicking on them once.

Conclusion

Apart from Bloglines also showing the favicon of each of my feeds (which adds to a sexier interface), Bloglines uses far fewer mouse movements, clicks and time to read my RSS feeds. In a world where time is money, I can quickly get to all my feeds far quicker in Bloglines than in Google Reader. Yes, I really wish Bloglines had Trends and the ability to share posts with friends like Google Reader does, but these 2 features are not enough to keep me coming back.

So, I’m sticking to Bloglines and I’m glad that this debate in my head is well and truly over! (I am glad that for once that I am able to choose a product over Google!)

• Hottest Gossip – Entertainment
• Kak Duidelik – Humorous, Entertainment
• Cape Town Daily Photo – Photographic
• Loner.co.za – Music, Entertainment
• MonkeysFist – Music
• Taste Matters – Food and Wine
• Relax with Dax – Food and Wine
• Wine Country – Food and Wine
• SA Rocks – Blog of the year, original writing, entertainment
• Constitutionally Speaking – Politics
• Bossom Buddies – Personal
• Roxilla – Writing, Entertainment
• Charl van Niekerk – Technology
• The coffee shop schmuck – original writing, humorous
• iScatterlings – Overseas
• StrategyOnline – Humorous, Personal
• Terri’s Web Stuff – overseas
• Cosmedia – Business, original writing
• Some No One – Personal
• Inside Politics – Politics
• The Bass Boat – Sport, Undiscovered
• Lavaink – Business

Looking at this list, it’s pretty difficult to find blogs for each and every category. But don’t worry, the power of the masses will fill the categories and we will find some real gems to vote for.

So, run off to http://www.sablogawards.com and nominate! You have until Friday 22nd of February. Oh, and while you at it, try and maybe find a spot for me. ;-) Maybe best undiscovered blog?

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Update: Seems that whenever you make a list of blogs, there are always people you will miss! ;-) I was going to list Mr. imod, but considering his traffic, he will get tons of nominations (Along with mine…) anyway! Oh, and sorry that I left your blogs out Charl. Heres a special list just for you.

• Bandwidth Blog -Technology
• Charl Norman – Personal, Undiscovered
• Car Blog – Entertainment

Did I forget any that you want nominated? ;-)

And here are a few more that commented that would like to be in the list:

• Chris M – Technology, Original Writing, Undiscovered
• Cheap Flights South Africa – Undiscovered
• From the Old – Technology, New Blog

Thats enough now. If you want a nomination from my readers, you are welcome to post a comment and punt yourself. I have already submitted my nominations. :-)

1. I actually own and run 7 blogs.
2. I currently have my own room in my fiance’s parents house. (This obviously will all change as of point no.3)
3. I got engaged on the 27th of November 2007, and am currently planning a pretty big Portuguese wedding for the 6th of December.
4. I used to support Manchester United until the end of 1999. What an idiot I was.
5. I was given a genuine leather Ferrari keyring by my parents for my 20th birthday. It is sitting in its original box in my drawer and will bear the key of my first Ferrari.
6. For my 21st birthday, I was taken for a test drive in a Ferrari 360 Modena at Vigletti Motors in Cape Town.
7. The biggest prize I ever won, was a R10 000 shopping spree by FHM. I blew it in about 2 hours in Canal Walk

If you didn’t know by now, seven is the new 8. Chris, it is now officially your turn.

Its pretty strange having people actually recognise you from the online world in real life. I don’t have a massive presence online (but that is changing boys!), but I think Charl said it best “its the avatar on twitter man!”

The first person to say hello to me was Rafiq. We chatted briefly as the evening got going. He really is an awesome guy, but one thing I cannot understand how he only sleeps like 1 hour a day? Well I guess when you wwworking, who has time to sleep, hey Rafiq? :-)

I also met Foxinni for the first time. Funny thing was he introduced himself as Malan, and the first few hours I kept thinking “whats this oke’s claim to fame?”. I mean he was rolling with “the Norman” so I guessed he must do something interesting. Only later did I hear his nickname: Foxinni! That put everything thing into perspective. Great oke, and one damn great designer. ;-)

Mr. Imod, Chris Mills was there pretty early. It was also good to meet him, as we have run into each other a number of times online, but never off. We had some really interesting conversations from domain spammingbuying to Facebook. He was with Rox, from Rox in the City fame, now Roxilla. (Yes Rox, you are pretty famous! Not many female bloggers out there). Her actual claim to fame I rate, is she organised the very first geek dinner way back in 2005!

Vinny rolled in (with his BMW M3 might I add ;-) ) which was cool. He is a real jet-setter, so to see him make some time to come have a chat with us bloggers was neat. He bought everyone that looked thirsty a few drinks, so thanks for that Vinny!

As the night rolled on and people left, I was eventually found sitting at a table with Charl, Foxinni, Vince and Matthew. It was great to chat to the okes behind the Mail & Gardian netsites (Ya, “Bolton”). I have been a big fan of their work from Amatomu, M&G photos to Amagama and Thought Leader. I know a few people online don’t really get along with Vince, but I dig guys that give just as much as they get. Matthew is a really down to earth guy and we had a interesting chat on PHP versus dot Net and the likes.

Some notable others that I met where Tristan and Rowan from MyVideo.co.za, Brandon Golding that probably took like 3500 photos or something, Chris from Stormhoek that supplied some very good wine and Henk from Skyrove – who popped me some free Skyrove credits. Shot!

2 things that I will have to clear up before the next meetup

1. Be able to sum myself up in like 1 sentence. Vince put me on the spot, so next time, I will be ready! ;-)
2. Sort out this whole debate with regards to the web and desktop. My passion totally lies with the Web, and currently I am learning dot Net from a desktop app perspective, moving towards the web. I already know PHP pretty well, so I am just adding more tools to my toolbox! – so this one sorted, yes? ;-)

It was a great evening with some great company and interesting conversations. I’ll definitely make the trip from the Strand again for sure!

Increase readership on Jasonbagley.com to over 150 RSS readers.

Well, not quite. :-( I have seen a number of bloggers post about this phenomenon of their Feedburner chicklet showing hundreds, if not thousands of new readers in 1 day. I checked some of my other blogs, and none of them were affected except this one. The reason has to do with Feedblitz. (Only this blog uses Feedblitz for its RSS to email. My other blogs use Feedburner exclusively.)

Anyway, here is a screenshot just so that I can say I achieved one of my goals very early on in 2008. ;-) (Although I’m not going to tick it off my list just yet. hehe!)

Ever since I started blogging and making a some pocket money online, I really haven’t put as much effort into my online presence as I have wanted to. I have seen other guys with just as little time as me (well most of the times more) expand their online presence and increase their “pocket money” in 2007, and I have been somewhat envious (in a good way envious – just makes me believe that I can do it too!). So what I am going to do is document a few of my goals here and see if I can achieve them in 2008. The goals below are based mostly on this blog, but there are some goals that are personal and some that pertain to a few of my other blogs that I am not going to list. Another time maybe. ;-)

Jason’s 2008 goals

• Finish off the redesign of Jasonbagley.com
• Create a blogging roadmap to put on my wall – A blogging schedule of sorts with ideas and proposed implementation dates.
• Increase readership on Jasonbagley.com to over 150 RSS readers.
• Increase monthly online earnings to more than $1000
• Open a CC for this increase in online earnings. Sole traders suck. ;-)
• Give. (More on this after the redesign.)
• Make at least 1 new online contact a week.
• Increase traffic to this blog to more than 200 unique visitors a day. Currently my average is below 50. (Don’t laugh ok.)

There are a few more that I will add once the most important one – the redesign – is out. The one thing about these goals is that they are measurable. Having goals like “make money online” or “increase readership” isn’t very clear, so if you are going to create your own goals list like me, make sure they are measurable.

Anyway, here is to a very successful 2008 in my personal life as well as online!

Best New Blog: Steve Se Spoeg Blok.
Say what!? Steve Hofmeyr’s a freakin blogger! Way out….

Best blog about food: Cape Table
Yeah, some Cape Town love!

Best Music blog: The Muso
Never visited The Muso before… some awesome free mp3′s from top SA bands!

Best blog about polotics: Steve again!
Can you believe this oke?

Best writing on a blog: Tertia – So Close
I couldn’t agree more!

Best entertainment blog: Trash Media
Another blog I’ve never seen – some really “interesting” posts over there!

Best blog about Technology: Mike Stopforth
Enjoy that Dell laptop Mike, you finally got one for free!

Best photographic blog: Gosu
Never been there before either… some really awesome pics.

Most humourous blog: Peas on Toast
They win this award by default because of their URL!

Best GLBT blog: Reluctant Nomad

Best Podcast: The ZA Show
Next time Amplitude. ;-)

Best overseas blog: The Hollywood Reporter

Best Business blog: Cherryflava
Matchfixing! kidding… well deserved.

Best designed blog: Trash Media
Award no.2 – best designed? maybe…

Best post on a blog: Mavis strikes again by 2oceansvibe
Blog? you mean webpage hey? I thought so…

And finally…. (drumroll please)

Blog of the year

Tertia – So Close

Kudos to Jon Cherry and The links for running the show. From what I’ve read it was an awesome night. Watch the video if you don’t believe me!

Apple fan boys around the world are hailing the iPhone as the solution to the worlds problems. Hell it can even cure aids, some have said. Whether it can or cannot do these aforementioned things, one thing stands out. Free Publicity. Microsoft tried to buy that with their Acer Ferrari laptop “giveaway-to-bloggers”, but it backfired because of the way they handled the situation. (requesting reviews, disclosing that they received the laptops, play poker etc.)

Me, a fanboy?

I got my very first Apple product for Christmas – an iPod nano. Apple build some seriously sweet hardware, not to mention iTunes, which is by far the best Mp3 organiser on the planet. So, am I a fanboy? Well not quite. Maybe if I was given an Apple macbook to test, I’m might fall in love like the rest. What I do really love, is the way that thousands of bloggers – some of whom I read daily, will not touch any Computer related thing, unless its made by Apple.

Back to the free publicity thing

The world might not be littered with Apple macs and macbooks like PC’s are, but every single person that owns or uses Apple products, loves the company. You cannot say that for many (if any?) computer related companies out there. Whatever Apple has done, and I think Steve Jobs has a huge part to play in their success, know how to hype and then deliver on those products.

So I’ll leave you with the free publicity I read this morning in my RSS reader. Enjoy.

• Carsonified – I will give my right arm for an iPhone
• 456 berea street – Apple iPhone is cool but where is my keypad
• Jason Santa Maria – Wanted: Apple mobile device
• Duncan Riley – Steve Jobs at macworld iLame
• Mike Davidson – iPhone. S.A.N.D. in your hand
• Paul Stamatiou – my thoughts on todays stevenote
• Business Logs – Real Apple iPhone pictures
• Jason Kottke – The Apple iPhone
• Cherryflava – Geek Centrefold
• Techcrunch – Apple announces iPhone, stock soars
• The gadgeteer – one word. wow.
• TechDirt – Move On, Rumormongers: The iPhone Is Finally Real
• Slashdot – iPhone, Apple TV Headline MacWorld Keynote
• Engadget – Todays Apple announcements at Macworld 2007

There hasn’t been much happening on my blog of late. Exactly 1 post in July, can you believe. But I’m almost sure that if I can get this offline blogging thing to work, you’ll definitely be hearing more of me. Anyway, heres what’s been cooking…

Sushi

After borrowing a sushi chef’s knife on my birthday to make sushi, I just had to get my own. I really love sushi, and being able to make it myself at home, is awesome. The only problem making sushi at home is finding fish at a decent price. Salmon retails for around R200/kg at Woolworths as well as at the local sushi restaurant around the corner. So if anyone knows where I could get salmon a little cheaper in Cape Town, please let me know. Heres a pic of my dinner plate from my birthday. (I made it all myself!)

Work

David, who gave me my first “big break” has taken up the position of CEO of one of our divisions, which meant he had to move Namibia. David is one of the most awesome people you could meet, and he has taught me so much about programming, business and life. We surely going to miss him in our office. We will still be working with David, but the distance will always feel like he has gone.

But there is always a bright side. Especially when a theres a ring at the gate, and a courier comes to drop off a couple of laptops, 19″ LCD’s, leather bags and a multi-function laser printer. These laptops absolutely fly. It’s heart is a Centrino duo which beats at 1.8GHz, biceps the size of 2GB, and a stomach able to hold 120GB. And when you hook it up to one of those LCD’s, there really is tons of desktop space to go around. No need for multiple desktops, ala Linux styles.

Life

As you might know, I recently received my Virgin credit card, but they sent me the wrong one. (The one on the right.) So I gave them a call and in a week, they sent me my Bling. I have heard of people complaining about the service and delays in receiving cards, but the benefits will pay off in the long run. Give them a chance to find their feet. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are all the hiccups ironed out when launching a nationwide business in South Africa. Hey, I can’t complain about getting 5% interest on any spare cash I have lying in it. ;-)

So, even though I don’t have a decent connection at home, at least being able to watch TV and blog like this is pretty cool. When I get to work in the morning, all I’ll do is hit the synchronise button, and this post goes live! No need to sit at home on a dial-up and hope and pray I don’t get dropped half way through this sentence. Cheers.