First off, I’ve found a bunch of Mac Gems — a column constantly updated: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems.html

Secondly, TED.com was brought up to me by a friend. I started watching some videos today, and that stuff is alright. I’ve yet to see an exceptional one (I’ve only watched two — one about a writer turning into a homeless person, and one about a physicist explaining explanation, which I didn’t understand at all I’m not ashamed to admit). I think this is the direction that I want to put CutEdge.org in.

Thirdly, I’ve discovered Chuck Anderson’s graphic designs. Anderson is the designer that created (from scratch) the wallpaper and login screen of the recently released Windows 7. You can find his portfolio at: http://www.nopattern.com/nopattern/

I’ve always been interested in graphic design, so that’s a possibility of pushing CutEdge.org into that direction too. Of course, I’m still an amateur, so there won’t be any tuts.

Oh, the possibilities.

Here are some shouts to everyone that helped — yeah, yeah, it’s always cool to have your name mentioned on the net, right?

First and foremost, to Rohan “Nahor” Sovig from Your World Wired (I’ll even link to you, *sigh*, hahaha just kidding) for getting me into blogging.  If it hadn’t been for early summer of 2007, I’d still be sitting on my Ikea chair…rotting.

Scott “Scotty D” Davidson, Michael “Mike (sorry, I couldn’t think of anything and “hammer” sounds kinda cheezy)” Chan, Nicholas “Nicholas Picholas” Chan (upcoming designer — http://nickchan.ca — yeah, it should be running soon), Amanda “Kool Mandy” Scarlato (who actually gave me the idea for this post, so I’ll make your entry longer Kool Mandy), Tom “Tommy Wommy” Kwok (Tommy Wommy’s as good as his actual name), and the rest of the Tech Design crew for making me chuckle.

Gary “G-Baby” Chan for being the enthusiast that he is, and pushing me to get those latest gadgets.

Terrence “Jayden” Wong for commenting every so often, and always informing me of the latest news.

Dhruv “Dhruvy from Dubai” Vyas for lending me that external drive — without it I never would’ve been able to write this post (heck, I wouldn’t have seen the importance in backing up altogether).

Cameron “Heawad” Amini (actually, Heawad’s his real middle name…) for keeping CutEdge.org set as his homepage and never complaining.  And being such a good sport about me smacking him everytime I lost at Gears of War 2.

Our quiet, and supportive, sponsors (on left sidebar — most of them are on the home page), who help to support CutEdge.org and its running fees.

All the PR people who’ve taken the time out to contact me: I’m not even lying, you guys really build my anticipation everyday when I check my e-mails.  Ah, and my apologies to those that I didn’t get a chance to reply to — sorry, folks!

To Farhan “Farhanali” Mohamed and Aaron “AK (47?)” Korbacher just cause they’re my friends (yeah, I knew you’d feel left out).

Definitely, to Jonathan Kwan of APH Networks — without your mentoring, pushing, and badgering, I’d have never learned to write a review (or meet deadlines, hahahaha).  Yipes, then again, maybe he doesn’t want people finding out we’re related hahaha.

Almost forgot Melissa “Money Mel (or Melonhead)” Huang for being so enthusiastic about those other blogs I tried (and failed) starting.

And last, but certainly not least, to you dear reader, for sticking with CutEdge.org and me (you stick with me, you don’t stick with I) in 2008 — and I look forward to seeing you again 2009.  …and you better come back, or else I’ll have more than just one little tear trickling.  Ah, and keep those comments and e-mails coming, I love hearing from you folks!

Hm, lots of chuckles in that post.  Probably should fix that?  …nah.

That’s why I’m taking an announced break, so you readers can have a chance to explore older content, and I’ll be able to reflect on what I can improve upon, and how to apply pieces of advice I’ve recently received.

I hope you stick around to see the new CutEdge (and no, I don’t think I’ll be redoing the theme just yet – but I won’t count that idea out).

Speaking of focus, I’ve changed focus many times over one year (as well as themes). CutEdge initially started as a gizmo blog, but that was of no use – it didn’t work well for original material. I decided to start writing reviews of free software, and then recently, start parting advice to you all on the consumption of technology.

There have been a few things that have halted my development of CutEdge:

• The search of a good theme – I’ve decided to focus on other things though. This will be the temporary final revision (haha) until I have enough money to either purchase a premium theme or hire a designer.
• The review bug – I’ve been bitten by the review bug. I think I might’ve bitten off a bit more than I could chew, so I’ve been busy with many projects as of late (collaborating with other sites as well).
• The challenge of Fight Club – last weekend, I watched Fight Club – and felt challenged by its message about consumerism.

I will not necessarily change focus again, but perhaps change priorities a bit – instead of focusing on buying buying buying, I will focus on how to buy smart.

The things you own will end up owning you.

Tyler Durden – Fight Club

Everyone, look forward to a much more magazine-y CutEdge and more original content. 

I myself look forward to getting out of coding mode and back into what I love most – writing.  Hopefully, I don’t run out of ideas too soon (just kidding folks).

I know I’ve been scarcely on.  PLEASE, bear with me for just another week.

Of course, I’ll still be pumping out new material.  Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday (this one’s my replacement post for the one I didn’t write yesterday – sorry, funeral).

Have a good one.

I’m going to confess – I’ve been feeling a bit unmotivated lately when it comes to CutEdge to do a variety of reasons: I’ve realized that taking on the entire technological industry isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do. I’ve also been having a bit of trouble coming up with new content, and thus the Samsung Instinct really proved to be a catalyst to creating new content and ended up spawning this post. Also, my readership hasn’t seemed to be growing much, but thanks to MacSurfer I’ve experienced a spike in traffic (and hope to continue creating content that will make you readers proud).

I’m now focusing more on content than ever before, and realize that spending time marketing and all won’t matter if there’s no content to support me. Plus, I want to make content so great other people will share it – please, if you’ve got any comments, e-mail me or put ‘em down.

Oh, and proof – of course. No offense meant to any of the links above or below my point, just wanted to emphasize the CutEdge part of the image, haha.

I’ve got a ton of stuff running around at the moment, so I’m not going to beat around the bush – I’m having a bit of trouble primming the blog as of recently.  However, as usual, I’ve also got stuff being planned for the future – and it’s really drastic stuff.  Like, life-altering stuff.

Anyway, firstly: I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.5 – and wow.  While WordPress 2.3 focused on mainly functionality, WordPress 2.5 definitely re-worked the GUI.  I’m very impressed by the control panel change, and I’m not even exaggerating.  Like – wow.

Secondly, I’m planning on an opportunity to start another blog – one more targeted, because I realize that it’s an uphill battle when one man decides to try to take on the entire tech industry.  I’m not giving up the war, but fighting the battle with a different strategy.

Finally, thanks for being so patient with me, as usual, my readers.  However, I’m surprised – my ZLoop community is a lot more quiet than I thought it’d be – where’s the spirit?  Haha.

From,

Herbert

Due to some recent maintenance problems, I’ve decided to upgrade to WordPress 2.3.3.  As you may have noticed, like a few readers pointed out, the category sections did not work throughout the site.  Also, the WordPress 2.3 tagging system was pretty high-profile and well-accepted, so I decided to give it a try.  Unfortunately, since the upgrade was very recent, I still haven’t gotten the chance to explore the tagging system, which I hope to do in the near future.

Hopefully you’re not too disappointed with the lack of an article today (besides this one, I mean).  Feel free to watch the video on Mixing Two or More Tracks into One – hey, I thought it was interesting, although I was pretty nervous while making it.

Keep sticking around!

From,

Herbert

In case you were concerned, I am still alive. Sorry for the lack of posts in the recent weeks, I have been pre-occupied with many educational examinations. In any case, I know that this has been pretty inexcusable, so I’m going to try to compensate with more posts.

I realize that I’ve been quite inconsistent with my posting, which is something I will be trying to work on. Please, if you ever feel the need to motivate me, do so.

Loving the readers,

Herbert