March 7, 2004

Monday Morning Middling

Hello all,

Don’t take my comment to the left to be any sort of dig against either Rainbow Brite or Care Bears. I had a younger sister growing up, and I am fully acquainted with the mystical powers that emanate from the Care Bears’ magical tummies – so no nasty notes, please. I’d hate to have to sic Grumpy Bear on you.

I was looking at last week’s Theme question and had meant to write about it – what was the first computer you ever used? I actually had a discussion about this with a friend who is in computers not long ago. His first was an Apple IIe, but I had him beat by far. The first computer I ever used was the Timex Sinclair ZX-81, a technological wonder with 2K of RAM (expandable with 16K memory paks, but we didn’t have one), cassette tape storage, and a really hard to use membrane keyboard. It plugged into your TV, and I don’t remember there being any software for it. My dad brought it home after work one night – he’s an engineer, and he was attracted by the sheer geeky/gadgetness of it. He hooked it up and powered it on – and there it was on our TV screen – a total blank with a blinking cursor. My brother and I figured out how to write a loop in BASIC that would add or subtract numbers – that’s all I ever remember doing with it.

There’s something to be said for the stark beauty of the blinking cursor interface – the old C:> prompt, teasing you, betting you that you didn’t know what to do with it. Trying to do the simplest things with a computer was a challenge – you had to know what you were doing, and you could get respect for just knowing the proper syntax for XCOPY. I’m starting to feel a “back in the old days” rant coming on, so I better stop. No need to sound any older or wheezier than I already do.

I don’t normally go for alliteration in my entry titles, but that one is so stupid I’m not touching it. Anyways, a few things for this Monday:

1) I’ve heard from OD Plus diarists who were concerned because when they logged out of the system, they were taken to the Plus home page and were still seeing their non-public entries on the page (if they have a non-public diary). This has been fixed so that if you look at that page without being logged in, you only see entries from public diaries.

2) I noticed yesterday that the individual screens for Interests (did you know there’s one for Care Bears and Rainbow Brite? awesome.) were showing diaries of people who hadn’t updated in over 90 days. They’ve been filtered out so they work like all the other search and index screens – you only show up if your diary has been updated within 90 days.

3) Quick review: we keep diaries on the system for 180 days (six months) before they are actually removed for inactivity. Meaning that if you don’t write in your diary for six months, it will be removed from the system. After 90 days of inactivity, the diary won’t show up in searches or indexes – but you can still unlock it and use it, and as soon as it is updated it shows up again. And remember, none of this applies to OD Plus subscribers. If you have an OD Plus subscription, we keep your diary as long as the subscription is current – whether you use it or not.

4) Speaking of removal, there still seem to be some people who subscribe to OD Plus, and think that if their subscription runs out their diary will be removed from the site. That was the old OD Plus. Now, if your subscription runs out, your diary simply returns to free status – meaning you’ll see ads again, and won’t have access to the other Plus features, but it won’t be deleted.

5) There was a bug that was causing some diaries that were set to private notes only to do an irritating thing – you would go to leave a note and there was no “Leave Note” button on the screen. Sort of defeats the purpose, unless you wanted to leave the ultra-private invisible and nonexistent note. It’s been fixed.

6) Finally, I’m looking for some testimonials about Open Diary. I’d like to have some entries I could link to that would give people who know nothing about the site a taste of what OD is and what it can do for them. I think a large majority of people who visit a site like ours have no idea what they would use a diary for or how it can change their life.

I think keeping an online diary can be very beneficial in many ways – and I’d like to share that a little with the world. If you have a story to tell about how Open Diary has changed your life (for the better, I hope), and you wouldn’t mind sharing it with other people, write an entry about it and let me know here with a note. Depending on what sort of response there is, I may collect some of the best and link to it from the front page for visitors to read.

Thanks,

The DiaryMaster

P.S. Speaking of misconceptions (i was, up there, somewhere), I’ve received several notes from people saying, “there’s a mysterious grey box appearing in the last few entries of yours with writing in it – I assume it’s not yours, so I thought you should know about it.” I had a snarky comment in mind about being so clueless I wouldn’t know somebody else was adding things to my diary, or being so boring that I can only write about system bugs and fixes…but I’ll save it – no room for snarkiness here.

P.P.S. Glad I could provide some entertainment to those who read this in the first two minutes and saw my typo – I wrote “illiteration” where I meant “alliteration”. Several definitions were offered for what I might have meant, but my favorite was, “Illiteration would be something like the act of rendering everyone reading your post illiterate.” Funny.

LOL I had meant to write about that computer thing too but forgot! =) Mine was sinclair spectrum 48k! It seems like 1000 years ago!

RE your PS: you’re kidding, right?

er, I’d actually have to think hard about whether I’d want to have any of my OD writing used in a “public” testimonial, but I actually accidentally wrote one on 2/29. 🙂 here ya go: http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=C105751&entry=10426&mode= let me know if this is something you want ‘cos I may say, “I wanna stay totally private!!!!!” 🙂 I love your little gray box writing btw

this is an older entry, back from when it was OD’s anniversary, but i think it expresses what OD is for me and what it has done for me: http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=C102712&entry=10885&mode=chapter&chapter=3

You rock, DM.

Hi there. I was reading this entry earlier and I read the part about you wanting entries on how OD has changed lives. Well, I just wanted to let you know I wrote an entry and I hope you’ll come and read it :o) If you decide to use it, let me know. Buh bye!

I had an Atari when I was little. We actually had two. One for games and one for “work stuff” since my dad and his brother ran a business. I miss those old simple games. These 3D ones tha are out today I can’t play. I just can’t wrap my brain around them. Man, I feel old.

It’s me again… How ’bout allowing me to post pics that are in my hard drive???????????? *grins*

I’ll try to write a testimonial within the next few days. This place most definitely changed my life for the better–I know several people, myself included, that met the love of their life here. 🙂 ~Azriel

How old ARE you anyway? And I wrote an entry about OD somewhere for a theme entry. Maybe you could go back and check old themes.

1. You crack me up. 2. It’s funny that people were “worried” about the entries in your diary. 3. The testimonials thing is a good idea.

I put up a testimonial…it’s under “Why Open Diary is Good”

I just wanted to tell you that I thought your note to Chuck on his recent entry about allowing himself to write about suicide was excellent and so true. He may be a curmudgeon at times, but there’s something about him that makes me want him to try.

dang. I think I forgot to finish the last sentence. “try to survive.” whew! happy Monday. Oh, by the way, the timing out problem is/was completely related to Outlook and hasn’t occurred for a while. Thanks so much for your help. 🙂

Our first computer was a Commodore 64. I never did find out what it were supposed to be used for. All I ever did was create a few midi-type songs and play Lemonade Stand.

Are you planning on ever returning e-mails? Ever? (Getting cranky here.) 🙁

ryn: I re-sent it earlier today with the subject line: Fw: 108264 Information / Suggestion. I am wondering about importing one diary to another. Does that delete the diary that is imported, or just copy it? Also (this was another note/e-mail, I forget which) why can’t we write “glad.stone” as a single word? What’s the deal w/ Glad.stone? It’s the name of a restaurant I am going to soon but (c)

(2) won’t be able to write about without working around the glad.stone block. I mean, really — glad.stone? In any case, thank you for finally replying. I get uncranky when I am finally acknowledged. As they taught us in coach training: Underpromise and Overdeliver AND stay in contact. It really is pretty simple. Oh, and I like the gray box. Makes you seem less drudge-like and more human. 🙂

I’ve recieved the same email five times, regarding the main mailing server being unavailable for the next few days. Is this that mail worm? If so, how is it that my opendiary mail account has been sent this message five times in the last two days?

Okay, gold star for you today … and a big cheer (in my mind) when we are at Gladstone’s (let’s see if it really works) when we eat the gigantinormous chocolate cake — the real reason for going to Gladstone’s for Fish! Thanks! 🙂

nice

Hi there, I usually don’t make my diary public but I saw what you wrote today, Monday March 8 about you looking for Testimonials about what OD has changed our lives while writing a diary. I actually said something yesterday after reading my past entries and it was weird that I did that and then seen you wanted something like that to show others. The name I go under is SilverWolf. Thanks *s*

Hey DM, Thought you should know there is an error when you try and add a imaged background to the top menu.

thank you for the welcome back, 3 yrs strong on OD, been neglecting my writing though… ::Shrug:: thnx again for the note.

<href="http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=B145180&entry=10540&mode="I have written a testimonial. I hope it helps! Sincerely, Robert

Sorry, last note didn’t post properly. I wrote a testimonial for you. http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=B145180&entry=10540&mode= Sincerely, Robert

um. Just letting you know your thing keeps showing “leave a note” twice. I’d also like to ask a question. Now, I know you do TOD also (I have a diary there) however, you don’t seem to update it as much and there are alot of bugs. Is this because you prefer OD over TOD? Personally, if it wasn’t for the annoying bar in the middle of the screen I would move all my diaries here. 🙂

Hey I Just Wented to know why we can make new diary on TOD but we can’t make entries for it. I’ve tried and its never Work alot of other people have been have promlbes with it to.

Hi, I’ll let my favs know your sugestion about testimonials and try to work on one. Thank-you for all you’ve done btw, great job! I’m writing for another reason however, I received a *strange* e-mail. I did not open the attachment, but I’m betting it’s not alright. . It is from cwi4nde@msn.com It says RE: and I did not contact this person first. But if it’s legit, I would like to know.

I have been here for 4 years and I would be happy to write something. Will let you know, DM. Good marketing move!

My diary has a bit of a testimonial… My entry – 2/6/04 – The last one?

I’m glad somebody else in the world remembers the ZX-81. That was my first “computer”, too.

I didn’t take your comment for anything. I was a “Care Bear” and “Rainbow Bright” fan as a child. I was glad you mentioned them, and some people like those cute things. Thanks for the updates and improvements on the site!

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