I’ve been browsing more than a few blogs recently, to get some ideas for some projects. One thing that I noticed, which I’ve never picked up on before, is the “Recent Entries” list. More specifically, its inclusion on a site home page.

Call me crazy, but unless you only have one or two entries on your home page, isn’t it just duplicating content? You (usually) have your most recent entries as the content of the home page, so why also include a sidebar menu that lists the titles of the same recent entries?

Fair enough, having it on an archive page – it gives visitors an inkling to what else can be found on your site. But on the home page? Is it worth the screen space it takes up? Couldn’t something more useful be put in its place (says he with the near-empty sidebar)?

Or am I missing something? Is it a usability thing? An SEO trick to increase Google traffic? Or are people so used to seeing it they put it in automatically?

I’ve googled and I’ve browsed various forums and haven’t found the answer, so I’ll put my plea here. Is there an easy way to share one iPod between 2 computers? Normally, I just sync my 20GB iPod at home and leave it at that. However, the full-sized iPod started to feel a bit bulky to be carrying around all the time – so I’ve just bought myself a 1GB iPod Shuffle for the daily commute. Now I’d like to be able to sync it at home and at work.

When you plug an iPod into a machine with a different iTunes library to the one you have it set it up for, the software asks you if you want to associate the iPod with the new library. Doing so wipes out all the tracks on the iPod and if you wanted to sync with your original library, you have to repeat the process. I read somewhere that if you click “No” when it asks you to associate with the library, the iPod should work in “manual” mode – it shows in iTunes but you have to drag tracks onto it to load them in. This doesn’t seem to work for me, as the Shuffle never shows in iTunes.

My home library is on my iBook and my work machine is running XP, if that makes a difference.

I would prefer to stick to using iTunes, if possible, but if there’s a good bit of cross-platform software that will do what I want, I’d be willing to give it a try. So… anyone got any ideas?