Geodog

Why I Bought Radio

Well, today I finally anted up that $40 to Userland and purchased Radio. I did this just after losing half an hour's work to the click away from the browser and lose your work feature that Scott Johnson warns so eloquently about. Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C -- I'm doing my best to remember. Actually, half the time now I compose in NoteTab then copy to the edit window. I guess I should  blame the whole thing on Scott - it was his writing that convinced me to try Radio in the first place.

I fought against buying Radio. I have another blog going using Movable Type, and it is very easy to do categories, change styles, add pictures, send out notifications, and just enter text. It just works, and I had it figured out enough to use after about 30 minutes, and it only took me 30 minutes to change the template to something I can live with. With Radio on the other hand, I still haven't figured out how to change the templates (as you can see), or how all the different files are inter-related. I have lost work several times. Things often don't work the way I think they should, and sometimes it seems like the program just sits there when I have told it do something. Technical support is iffy, although someone named Lawrence Lee seems to do a great job responding sometime. So why buy Radio?

I like playing with toys, and it's clear that Radio is going to be a great toy. As an experienced software development manager, I shudder in fear sometimes at Dave Winer's new feature of the day approach, especially as he builds up his user base - the costs of a mistake are probably growing logarithmically. However, I feel like I am living on the cutting edge (sometimes the bleeding edge) of what is happening with web logging, and that is lots of fun. Plus, I am getting to learn a lot, which is also fun. Finally, it's only $40 bucks. I've spent a lot more for a lot worse toys.