Every once in a while, I stumble upon something that really gives me that all-over fuzzy feeling of “Yeah. This is just it! THIS is what the internet is about.”

That’s exactly the feeling that I got tonight when Twitter went abuzz about Geoff Smith’s UStream concert, exactly a year since the first. Thanks to Cali Lewis, TheMacMommy and many others for pointing me to Geoff’s Ustream page, which is still open and active as ever as I write this blog post.

Geoff Smith, a rather popular internet musician for his many podcast jingles (notable shows include TWiT, GeekBrief TV and The Daily Source Code), makes a regular event of broadcasting a ridiculously informal “concert” from the comfort of his home. He’s got a guitar, piano, and a bottle of beer (along with the shades) at his side as he takes requests from the chat room, creating an on-the-fly montage of original songs and popular hits.

What makes this so cool is that it’s not a big stage! There aren’t any huge lights. No fog machines, strobes or huge amps to drown out the screaming crowds. Geoff is literally sitting in his living room, entertaining his audience of 200+ online viewers more than any club entertainer ever could. Over the time I’ve been watching, Smith has had a short chat with his wife about dinner before returning to the piano, and has even walked over to the front door to put out his cat, stopping to explain why the cat door is blocked (they have a Chihuahua that gets out).

I’ve enjoyed myself tonight watching this little concert, and now that I’m done with this post I’m off to watch some more. Check out Geoff’s Ustream page here, and why not his Twitter and “company“.

(Except, may I say… poor dogs! Forced to wear a cardboard box and walk down the street for humans’ perverse canine/gaming console entertainment! But it’s still hilarious.)

Happy Halloween!

P.S.: Sorry for the echo! I can’t run this studio very well, it appears. Maybe I should write myself a manual. - Dave

Episode 33:

• Small Potato offers refunds
• WordPress 2.6.3 released!
• Liz hosts SOB Birthday party!
• YouTube supports deep linking
• Blogging Idol 2 now open
• WordPress Tip of the Week: Using Smilies
• Daniel’s Pick: Leopard Admin
• [submiminal: appleuniversepodcast.com]
• Kym’s pick: Moderator (thanks to Jeff for that one)
• Dave’s pick: Flutter (confusing but cool)
• What should we do to give away a $50 value?

Thanks to Derek K. Miller for our music.

Download this week’s podcast

Episode 30:

• 2.7 Wireframes
• Matt on the State of WordPress
• Solostream sold out
• 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Media
• WordPress Tip of the Week: Getting back to disappearing documents
• Tags in a dropdown menu
• Readability and blog themes
• Liz’s pick: WordPress Related posts and Zemanta
• Kym’s pick: Blue Grace Theme by Vlad
• Dave’s pick: WP DB Manager plugin
• WordCamp Update from http://wordcamp.info
• The forums are cool.
  

Thanks to Derek K. Miller for our absolutely incredible theme music.

Download this week’s podcast

Episode 29:

• WordCamp Denver Facebook Page launched
• Lorelle’s Portand Keynote was amazing.
• State of the Blogophere 2008
• Twitter posts in your WordPress: the right way to do it.
• Martha Stewart hosts a TV show on nothing else but blogging!
• WordPress for iPhone Downloaded over 100,000 times
• 2.7 Feature Update from Ryan Boren
• Tips of the Week: Changing the number of posts displayed in WordPress, and all about WordPress MU
• Dave’s pick: Role Scoper Plugin
• Lorelle’s pick: Viper’s Video Quicktags Plugin

Thanks to Derek K. Miller for our music.

Download this week’s podcast

The highly anticipated new version, 2.7, of the blogging platform and content management system (CMS) is continuing to inch closer to its release, and it appears that many new features and changes have already been thrown in. Ryan Boren, lead developer of WordPress, recently released a list of the features that have been added so far, including things as advanced as an SSH2 filesystem supporting SFTP and inline post editing on the content index pages, as well as some simpler features like sticky posts and keyboard shortcuts. According to Ryan, “Not all of those features are complete yet, but they are getting close”.

Earlier this month, Automattic opened up a survey (closed on the 18th) for users to share their comments, questions, ideas and suggestions for a new administration panel in 2.7, and it is evident that the interface is being changed. The new UI (user interface) includes a different style of navigation (sidebar) and a new menu heirarchy. The survey played a key role in the development of the new admin interface. I took the survey the day that it came out; I was excited about some of the design screenshots shown. I am also intrigued by many of the features that are on the list for 2.7, dubbed “Crazyhorse”. I have felt that automatic plugin installation (plugins being third-party add-ons that add functionality to WordPress) has been a “must have” feature for WordPress for a long time now. Though some have tried to make plugins to add this feature, I have yet to see one that gets it right. I am hoping the official WordPress attempt will be better than the others.

However, not everything that is on my list is on that of Automattic, such as the return of drag-and-drop when arranging your sidebar. In previous versions, users had the ability to drag and drop different elements to include in their blog’s sidebar, allowing for easy arranging of different blocks, called “widgets”. This was removed in WordPress 2.5. Also, is it too much to ask for a “delete whole page” button for comment spam? I would love to simply search through spam posted to my blog and delete one page when I have a chance. This sort of feature is offered elsewhere in WordPress, so why not with spam? Many high-profile organizations run WordPress, such as FOX News, Ford Motors, and CBS - perhaps some of these features would make the platform more appealing option for companies like this.

The WordPress development “roadmap” has 2.7 at about a quarter of completion, and there is not yet a stated estimate for the official release of the update. I am sure that more features are to come, and I will certainly use WordPress despite the features it will most likely lack. In fact, not having everything included in this version gives me and the other millions of WordPress bloggers something to look forward to in version 2.8.

The burger team is excited to announce our NAWT SECOND (#1) Book, “I Can Has Cheezburger? A Lolcat Colleckshun”. On stands October 7th, and available for pre-sale nao at these fine establishments!

Not sure if I want to buy this. I’m not THAT LOLcrazy. The official website for the book is lulzftw.com.

Leaves have already started to fall, though you can’t see it in this picture (of course). I saw Charlotte sitting over underneath the tree, opened up Photobooth and took this. Are you ready for fall? Wish summer would stay a bit longer? Just want to move on to winter?

Live TV : Ustream

ustream page | digg story