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AWesome
My first impressions of the site were not accurate. A picture of a baby and a title that appeared to be a play on words, which I couldn’t fathom. An orange and yellow template, (the colour scheme did nothing for me). A personal web log? No. The site is techie site.
AWesome is a clever title. The site concerns Active Words software. It is authored by Marjolein Hoekstra who has decided to share tricks, tips and undocumented features of the software with us.
The design is straight forward. The top line contains a home page icon, and links to an about me section, and links to the software’s site and a community forum concerning the software. The about me section is informative, contains a mission statement for the web log and contains some random family snaps. There are two side panels, left and right. There are links to previous posts, Active Words software related sites and downloads, a search engine, and a Yahoo messenger online indicator to initiate instant messaging. Navigating the site is easy and all the links are functional. The only draw back for me would be that the page is a little cluttered, but not badly so.
I watched a live demo, Basic ActiveWords Functionality, http://www.activewords.com/demos.html in order to get a feel for the software. I haven’t used the software nor am I familiar with scripting. However I now understand that the software uses text as commands to… launch programs, open files, open folders, substitute text, navigate to web sites, send e-mail messages, and execute commands. Very nifty.
The main posts contain technical information about using the software and links to other helpful information. The site has been up and running since March 20th 2004 and Marjolein has posted 32 times with different slants on the software. They are categorised into amongst others; ‘tips and tricks’, ‘beginners’, ‘active words website’, ‘weblogs’, ‘promotion’, and ‘blogging tools.’ The posts are very well written and contain screen shots to help the reader understand the process being described. I am a reasonably skilled PC user and found the articles easy to follow.
I tried to download one of the WordBases, but the file extension conflicted with a Real Player wide band content file type. The download worked though.
The target audience for this site would be users of the Active Words software. It appears to be a useful site, which is well written and presented. Marjolein is enthusiastic and committed to her project. I feel it is worth a four out of five.
This site was reviewed on 2004-06-09 by Duween.
They felt this site belonged in the Computer category.
Duween felt that AWesome deserved a rating of 4.
When I initially had a peek at AWesome, I thought "Oh goody! A computer blog with a more personable edge!" after noting the cute baby picture that's proudly displayed on the blog. Was I ever wrong. This blog is designed as a sort of how-to for using ActiveWords, a Windows scripting software and that's pretty much it. Fair enough, says I. The blog's written by a lady from the Netherlands by the name of Marjolein who seems to have an obsession about Active Words (hence the blog all about using it).
I popped on over to check out her bio. Her 30-second elevator pitch reads as such:
You probably ended up here because you are curious what the AWesome blog is all about. The 30-second elevator pitch on AWesome is that it discusses tips, tricks and undocumented features of the software tool ActiveWords.
And true to form with such blogs, what you see is what you get! For ActiveWords users, this blog would probably be a dream as it's written in clear, concise, straight forward English which I'd assume would be great for newbies and pros alike. She's gone so far as to put in images and examples demonstrating the software and how to use it in conjunction with various other tools. Sadly, I can't review her personal blog (because Marjolein asked for AWesome to be reviewed) but some other information, such as her being a surrogate mother was also listed on her bio and that was a real eye-opener.
The blog itself could use some help in the organisation side of things as it is very messy and the design doesn't suit the purpose of Marjolein's writing at all. I found myself getting dizzy trying to access all the entries. It's quick to load on a 56k connection and the whole layout has been done in a very basic fashion, but that's about it. Oh, and it's very yellow. I believe that such a blog calls for a cleaner, more structured interface so that people looking for tutorials and tips would be able to find things and not get a headache from all the yellowness.
All that said however, I believe that this blog is a great beginning as a technical resource on the web!
This site was reviewed on 2004-06-09 by Ren.
They felt this site belonged in the Computer category.
Ren felt that AWesome deserved a rating of 3.5.
AWesome. An interesting title. Awesome has reasonably exciting connotations, as words go and it reminds me of “Bill and Ted” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and surfer types (none of which are even remotely connected with this blog by the way). An interesting little capitalisation of the AW was also noted – the plot thickens. I clicked on the link and launched myself in to the weblog. I was first hit by a somewhat gaudy coloured Typepad blog – various shades of orange never seem to work on screen somehow. Technically, it has an About Me page and some photos of the author’s child, though these seemed somewhat out of context as the child (or any other personal content) is barely mentioned in the blog. The ubiquitous links, webrings and other sidebar buttons and boxes are all present and correct too.
Ok, enough drivel. The blog looks ok, but nothing inspiring. It contains what it needs but little more. So moving swiftly on to the content…and swiftly back off the content too if I can help it because I found it INCREDIBLY dull. Now, before I upset the author too much, I say this with one reservation- it probably isn’t dull at all to anyone who is interested in a program called ActiveWords. The AW of the title is suddenly revealed! This program creates shortcuts within windows and is a pseudo programming language from what I can gather. The thing is, I am in rather a difficult position because I am not here to review ActiveWords (which may very well be the fantastic program it is portrayed to be on this blog). I am here to review the weblog itself and I am ashamed to say that, despite the weblog only going back a couple of months, I couldn’t bring myself to read all the archives. They were written in a very “techie” style – which is probably appropriate for a subject such as this, but makes for incredibly difficult reading for someone who is not familiar, interested in or currently making practical use of the subject matter.
The point is that those users of ActiveWords out there will probably find this helpful- there seems to be a lot of good, practical advice which is explained methodically, with pictures and downloads too. Just don’t ask me what any of it means.
The comments also seemed supportive – “great blog, really useful, keep up the good work”, that kind of thing. So for the community of users, I am sure this is a helpful resource. The author also is able to give support over IM and email, which I thought was good of her.
So I am really perplexed how to score this blog with regards to content, as it is one of the most black and white examples I have ever come across. Either people will (presumably) love it and find it useful (i.e. other ActiveWords users) or will find it irrelevant and move swiftly on (i.e. everyone else). So um….3, I guess.
And in case anyone is wondering, no I won’t be downloading ActiveWords and giving it a go myself, at least not today. It seems like rather a lot of unnecessary fannying about, if you ask me.
This site was reviewed on 2004-06-09 by ODAAT.
They felt this site belonged in the Computer category.
ODAAT felt that AWesome deserved a rating of 3.
3 reviewers gave AWesome an average rating of 3.5000
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Site Category: Computer
Reader Rating: 0.2500 based on 1 votes
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