Since the time I started doing this site (I hate calling it a blog) I have been searching for a decent way to post without using the online WordPress interface. Call me old school but I hate online apps. I always have. Unlike most people I know I have clients for almost everything I do on the internet. I like using a POP client for e-mail (Mail.app) and iChat for Google Talk. 

WordPress isn’t bad. Really. It has always been very stable and the current version (2.7, I think) is a huge improvement over its predecessor in terms of its user interface. It’s speedy too if you have Google Gears (Something that lets websites cache content to your computer to be more desktop app-like) installed. My problem is that Gears doesn’t work in my browser of choice, Opera and more importantly I don’t trust web based editors.

I was thinking about this the other day and have figured out what this habit (or preference) stems from. A lot of people I know who grew up in the same era I did, have the same preference for desktop apps and it stems from a word that brings up really, really bad memories.

Dial-up.

Thats right. Unlike most people, who take always online, ridiculously fast, unmetered broadband for granted, I remember the dial-up days. Not in a fond, nostalgic, sepia tinted way but in a manner that gives me the shakes and at times a cold sweat. Nowadays connecting to the internet is as simple as putting a password for a WiFi Network into your computer but ‘back in the dizzay’ you would have to mess with TCP/IP stacks, strings for your modem and all kinds of crap. To connect to the internet you had to pay your telephone company for the privilege AND you had to go out and buy hours from an internet company. I used to use Mantra Online, 30 hours of internet fun for 600 bucks or so. That would last me about a month if I was really careful. Nowadays that would last me about… 30 hours.

So here’s how I would check my e-mail.
1. Check that no one is using or might want to use the telephone for the next 10 minutes or so.
2. Fire up my dialer.
3. Receive a busy tone from Mantra Online’s modems.
4. Put in a different telephone number. Try dialling again.
5. Success! Verifying username and password…

At this point I would have my mouse pointer poised over the Send & Receive button in Outlook Express and I made a sport out of checking my mail and disconnecting from Mantra’s servers before my username and password was even verified.
Don’t laugh. Kids with no friends or muscle mass to speak off play these kinds of games.

So I never used webmail. When I wrote email I wanted to put a bit of thought into what I was saying (Unlike when I spoke) rather than worry about running up a huge phone bill. Even though I was ‘undefeated world champion’ at the quick mail check, every month the week after the phone bill was delivered to the Singh family household was not a pleasant one.

Also this was the age before FireFox, Camino or any alternative browsers existed (that I knew off) and I had to put up with Internet Exploder V 5.0 which would invariably crash the one time I decided to compose a mail in a web page. What a steaming pile of turds IE was is. Anyway, offline was where it was at.

So. I don’t trust web apps. I don’t use web apps. Never have.

On to Blogo.

I’ve only been testing it for a couple of days but it already feels right. One really important thing about any third party app on the Mac is its feel. For an app to fit in well with this platform it has to feel Mac-like. (I know, I know. Ewww. That sentence is cringe inducing) It’s UI should be simple and intuitive with a layer of sophistication and advanced controls for those who need them, hidden under a facade of simplicity that lets newbies get on with it.

Also, pretty. Over-rated in people, under-rated in apps. An app in which you spend hours composing, editing and generally doing stuff should be easy on the eyes.

Blogo checks all these boxes. It has a clean simple monochrome interface that is pretty without being distracting, it is has just the right balance of features and simplicity and one feature I really like. It automatically downloads the style sheet from your site and previews drafts as if online. Also if for some reason you lose your connection it automatically saves a local draft. No more retyping thousand word posts from scratch. It is an excellent example of a great little indie app for the Mac platform and I’m probably going to pony up the 750 INR for a licence once my evaluation period ends.

Try it out. Your mileage may vary.

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