Name my blog!
At last I have taken the mighty leap into the late ’90s, and added my own tiny rectangle to the blogofractal.
If you add the man who came up with the term "weblog" to the man who shortened the word to "blog" and divide by two, then you get something that looks quite like me.
So, clearly, my own idle words of timeless wisdom, and of course the insightful commentary of my faithful readers, will similarly revolutionise the weblog, uh, paradigm.
I’ll still be doing Dan’s Data, of course; the reviews and endless bloomin’ letters columns will continue. This blog’s for… everything else.
First order of business: This blog needs a name (and a tagline).
I’ve never been very good at names. I came up with "Dan’s Data", in 1998, because Blue’s News seemed to have been doing quite well. That’s about as far as my own naming talent goes.
So I invite you all, friends, strangers and spambots, to make your name (and/or tagline) suggestions in the comments.
[UPDATE: My brillant Spaminator config just terminated the first few comments, probably because they contained the letter "i" or something. I’ve set it back to defaults. E-mail me if your valid comments keep being flagged as spam, especially if you have a deep and intimate understanding of Wordpress and can put me on the fast track to Getting It Right. I hate overactive comment spam blockers (hello, Joe!), and I’m determined to make sure that jive don’t happen here. Well, not often, anyway.]
How about this:
Fire, gadgets,
Kittens, and magnets.
Comment by James — October 13, 2006 @ 3:01 am
Be like Borat:
Dan: Truthful Learnings of Gadgets for Make Benefit Glorious Education of Internets
Comment by TheMatt — October 13, 2006 @ 3:21 am
Good luck with the blog! I look forward to reading it regularly.
A good spam blocker already comes with Wordpress (Akismet). It uses a centralized server, so it is always up to date with the latest spam techniques to look for. You just need to get a Wordpress Key to enable it.
One disadvantage may be that is their server ever goes down, spam won't be blocked. But I haven't heard of that happening.
So far Akismet has blocked over 1000 spam comments on my blog, with no reports of false positives.
Another good one is Spam Karma 2, which I used before Akismet. I haven't had problems with that one either, and it is highly configurable in case you do ever have problems.
I'm surprized you're using Blogsome to host your blog, instead of your own server... I have already had a couple problems with timeouts in the 5 minutes I've been on your blog (creating an account, etc).
Comment by lowlight — October 13, 2006 @ 3:25 am
Hmm, I suck at naming things too. My blog is called Peace For All. That is the name I used to give to my Kingdomes in Falcon's Eye (old BBS game) and other such varients, mostly because nobody would ever bother wasting money sending spies to a country called Peace For All so I could build up a huge army without others knowing.
Oddly enough the tactic worked now and then. :)
Wow Blogsome has the world's easiest to break captcha. Oh why didn't you go with Wordpress.com? Though they do limit more heavily what you can and cannot do, hmm.
Comment by com2kid — October 13, 2006 @ 3:39 am
Since Dan's Data will still exist, logically this blog should be a place for everything that isn't data. "Dan's Lack of Data", maybe? Or "Dan's Metadata"?
Well, I guess I suck at naming things as well. I've been thinking about it for a good five minutes and the only name I came up with that sounds even remotely cool is "Rutter's Paradise". You know, like Gangsta's Paradise, only... not. I'll shut up now.
Comment by lummox — October 13, 2006 @ 4:22 am
How about:
"Dan's Summary of the Universe"
"What Matters"
"Matters That Don't"
:)
Comment by Hotdog — October 13, 2006 @ 4:26 am
That's easy.
Dan's Metadata
What do I win? ;)
... And damn. I see that I've already been beaten to the punch. :( Well, I guess that makes 2 votes then, huzzah!
Comment by HitScan — October 13, 2006 @ 4:41 am
I always thought your wild looks made you look somewhat 'caveman', so how about:
Chrome Magnon; or
New Andertal?
=)
Comment by gadgetophile — October 13, 2006 @ 4:42 am
Oh and SpamKarma is the best Wordpress antispam plugin ever.
Comment by gadgetophile — October 13, 2006 @ 4:43 am
call it DANS SERIF
Comment by balistic — October 13, 2006 @ 4:50 am
of course, you'd have to change to a sans serif font for that to really work.
Comment by balistic — October 13, 2006 @ 4:51 am
"Dans Data Blog" = "Data and Blogs" in Anagram-ese. Someone with more patience than me will no doubt find a better one.
Many thanks for years of good reading :-)
Comment by orderandchaos — October 13, 2006 @ 5:25 am
My favourites from the suggestions made by the unfairly terminated first-posters, by the way:
Dantastic
How to spot a psychopath
Mesophile
Comment by Administrator — October 13, 2006 @ 5:33 am
Of course! Anagrams!
And every one a gem, too :-)!
Comment by Administrator — October 13, 2006 @ 5:36 am
Or maybe "rutter nonsense" ;-)
Comment by orderandchaos — October 13, 2006 @ 5:39 am
Some semi-random ideas:
Yum Cha - other Data from Dan
[name]
[tagline]
Guru Meditations
While the Kitten Purrs
PEBKAC
Looking forward to future posts somewhat more than is healthy ...
Comment by Bjoreman — October 13, 2006 @ 5:43 am
Ooo... just realized that you could combine some of my earlier suggestions...
I now submit:
How to spot a psychopathic mesophile!
Comment by Stark — October 13, 2006 @ 6:16 am
Screw my earlier suggestions, "How to spot a psychopath" is a great name for a blog! I definitely second that.
Comment by lummox — October 13, 2006 @ 7:21 am
Okay, as you'll see, I'm not so good at the naming, but here goes:
"Words From a Clicky Keyboard..."
"Who gives a Dan?"
"Universal Dan, Renaissance Man."
Uh, yeah. Um..."Of Fuel Scams, Capacitors, and Heavy PC Peripherals!" No, too long.
Well, sorry couldn't be more helpful. I do enjoy everything you do, so thanks, and good luck!
Comment by sidspappy — October 13, 2006 @ 7:46 am
I like the anagram idea.
I do remember once discovering that "Daniel Rutter" anagrams to "Unread Litter", which might be apt in an ironic kinda way.
"Daniel Rutter's Blog" has many more possibilities of course. Personally, I like "Lurid Rotten Bagels".
Keep up the fantastic work!
Comment by mookers — October 13, 2006 @ 8:00 am
What about "Cybernetic Demon nazis" or "Radioactive Hippo Bites"?
Of teh anagrams, I think "Drat, inert globules" is my favourite...
Comment by Byrn — October 13, 2006 @ 8:03 am
Anagrams, schmanagrams - alliteration is much cooler!
How about "Rutter's Ramblings"? Or, with 50% extra alliteration, "Rutter's Random Ramblings"!
Perhaps "Dan's Doodling" isn't quite it for some reason(s), but there's always "Dan's Dithering Distractionator"... or maybe not.
If none of those tickle your fancy, then I lend my support to Bachelor #2. Nice.
Comment by Cods — October 13, 2006 @ 9:01 am
How about "Rembrandt Q. Einstein Presents"?
Comment by RichVR — October 13, 2006 @ 9:12 am
Dan Quibbled Thus
Comment by iffracem — October 13, 2006 @ 9:33 am
I generally give things names like fred or crap, asaplace holder, then end up too lazy to change it.
Or even worse - in another sign of laziness - hardcode those names into other things, so I end with fred using/calling crap in turn calling fred1 (becaue fred is already taken...)
So, the only advice I have to give you on naming things is don't ask me. Then again, I did manage to talk the missus out of naming our first born "travis".
BUT... I have played a bit with wordpress, so give me an email if you need a hand.
Comment by martin-english — October 13, 2006 @ 12:20 pm
How about Dan's Nada? close enough to Dan's Data and like you said, for everything else thats not the letters column! :P (ok ok almost everything else)
Comment by hazeaway — October 13, 2006 @ 1:12 pm
Names fall into different categories. Some are practical, such as Dan's Data. Others are clever, like Dans Serif. Some a spastic, like my brothers 'dadada'. Others try for popularity, MeeTooBay'R'Us-zon. The names I try to go for are meaningful. Suggesting a meaningful name is hard, because I don't know what the blog means to you, nor what you want to do with it. So I'll suggest some from all categories.
Dan Down Under.
Dan's Dan's Revolution.
A Brief History of Mine.
Hear Rutter Mutter.
Rutter's Reading.
Hope we get you something you like.
Comment by Tilendor — October 13, 2006 @ 2:44 pm
Given your well-loved rambling antics, how about "Technical Verbosity"?
Comment by Paulpounds — October 13, 2006 @ 3:32 pm
Dan's Errata? :)
Comment by Notdan — October 13, 2006 @ 3:33 pm
How about "the Dannolog Blog" or "Dannoblog" or Dan the Manalog" or variations thereof.
Cograts on the new site Dan, been reading your old site for years. Kattomba is lovely but the south coast is better:)
Comment by gloonk — October 13, 2006 @ 7:19 pm
err.... Katoomba is even nicer than Kattomba, but still not as nice as the south coast:)
Comment by gloonk — October 13, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
I find that Askimet spam blocker works pretty well for me.
Comment by yellek — October 13, 2006 @ 8:18 pm
How about Rutterdan - sort of like Amsterdam in that one is a place for mutterings by Dan while the other is also a place for ahh other stuff...
Comment by iamlsd — October 13, 2006 @ 10:14 pm
Rutter's Ramblings
Comment by matt — October 13, 2006 @ 11:50 pm
I'm a little pooped at the moment so I didn't check the previous suggestions. Pardon me if it's already been suggested.
How about "Dan's Little Rut".
Or "(R)Utterly Dan".
"What I Do When The Kitten's Asleep".
Comment by JL — October 14, 2006 @ 2:29 am
I'm a little pooped at the moment so I didn't check the previous suggestions. Pardon me if it's already been suggested.
How about "Dan's Little Rut".
Or "(R)Utterly Dan".
"What I Do When The Kitten's Asleep".
Comment by JL — October 14, 2006 @ 2:29 am
"Dan's Data" is pretty concise, I think it would be wrong to go with something overly clever.
So I'm going to suggest something like "Rutter's Rants". (Or "Ravings", perhaps. "Rutter Nonsense" above is pretty clever too.)
I note I'm not the first to go in that direction, but the others probably live in some weird timeshifted far-off hemisphere anyway, and so have an unfair advantage.
Or it might be better to wait and see what direction it takes first.
Comment by magetoo — October 14, 2006 @ 2:43 am
"Delightful Geekery!"
Other than that, I got nothin'.
Comment by jaranath — October 14, 2006 @ 4:12 am
How about "DanBlog", as in that "Dan" (read damn) Blog?
The tagline might be something like "There be stuff here!" or maybe "There be DanStuff here!".
I also really, really like a previous poster's idea of putting Yum Cha in the name, so maybe something like "Dan's Yum Cha" or maybe a tagline like "Yum cha for the masses."
Comment by Ubertakter — October 14, 2006 @ 5:55 am
How about Everything Happens Twice - since it's your second blog (and I just got through reading a poem by the same name so it's on my mind).
Other suggestions (I can't help it, I love, love, love, naming things):
- An Index of Possibilities
- World Citizen
- Here We Go Again
- Rutter Ramblings (in contrast to Dan's Data)
Ok, I'll stop.
Comment by szlea — October 14, 2006 @ 7:10 am
How 'bout:
Dan's todo lo dem
Comment by Feersum Earthworm — October 14, 2006 @ 7:25 am
Veni, Vidi, got bored and took a nap.
Comment by Stark — October 14, 2006 @ 8:56 am
My first thought (which is usually the best) was
"Dan's Blata" crossing the original with the Blog,
Then there's "Dan's Yada Yada"
- or there's some spooner-ish alternatives - e.g.:
Butter Rullsh!t
Blan's Dog
Nutter Ronsense (hmmm suit's me better that one)
...and a tagline?
how about "..leave your sanity at the door."
Comment by NoRelationToNed — October 14, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
Well, I kinda fancy something of the sort of "Life, the Universe and Everyting"... wha...? got the idea already...? Damn this new 'net thing... the first thing that you learn, I say, is that you can never really be the first... Try to google whatever crosses your mind right now, you'll see what I mean... :) Aaaanyway, good luck with the blog and it's name! Cheers!
- Max,
Dan's Data vet
P.S. Darn! Gosh darn! And double-darn! My good fellow, have you got any idea what sites like are for...? Or why do they exist? People just HATE to have to register to... dunno... cross the street while they browse! In fact, can you imagine the proverbial chicken, preparing to cross that damn road, staring at a small roadsign reading "please LOGIN first to cross"...? I don't usually register just because I'm required to, you know...
Comment by max — October 15, 2006 @ 2:04 am
...Arrrright, 'nuff already, I screwed up, sorry, okay? Not only isn't there a preview, I can't edit my own posts if fail to remember a href tag properly...? Tsk-tsk... shame on me, anyway. So I'll just go now and curl up in a dark place somewhere, and copy-paste HTML syntax on a chalk blackboard a thousand times as punishment, until I get it right... Seeya...
Comment by max — October 15, 2006 @ 2:14 am
Ah, a lot of mighty fine suggestions here! (in my best Les Claypool voice)
How about "Dan's Redundance: Here be monsters. ? :)
It is, actually, a great name! And besides, it sounds absolutely... kinda like Cockatoos usually look, methinks. ;) And "Dan's Entropy" wouldn't sound that cool, too. :)
Have a great time with your blog. I really love both of your sites. :) (It is another of those occasions when I tend to find myself staring at my trusty CRT at 5 AM. Right about now. :)
Ah, well. 'Night to you all. :)
Comment by marius-the-mad — October 15, 2006 @ 1:23 pm
P.S. Oh, and, um... As for the anagrams, "A Belletrist Ground" sounds fun. ;-)
Comment by marius-the-mad — October 15, 2006 @ 1:33 pm
Hi Dan,
Here are my suggestions:
1) DanSanity (me! me! Pick Me!)
2) TechnoCratii
3) Tech-Fu [2nd Dan]
4) LightThought
5) UberDan (yes, I really think so)
6) ClearThought
Good Luck! And I still think you should run for president. Of the World.
Comment by AdrianV — October 15, 2006 @ 5:29 pm
I really like the DanSanity, but how about a small change:
- DanSanitii
Comment by AdrianV — October 15, 2006 @ 5:30 pm
Simple, The DanIversity. Or the DanIverse.
Comment by Abouna — October 16, 2006 @ 9:58 am
A bit late but: Dan's Parallel Serial?
Comment by Hendo — October 17, 2006 @ 1:18 am