Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
August 01, 2005
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Volume 1, Number 7 -- Monday, August 1, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
6. Blogging
Some people create their blogs as single-author sites. They may focus on a single topic or may vary among a number of topics. Blog authors may be writing for others, providing informative content (e.g., JenSense, which focuses on Google's Adsense content-driven advertising such as you can find on my sites. Another is GrokLaw, which provides documents and commentary on legal action affecting the Open Source community. A number of GrokLaw documents and comments have focused on the SCO lawsuits. Other blogs are written for fun, such as James McClellan's Bug's Bleat.
A number of magazines are creating blogs to create more interest in their website. More interest means more visitors, which means more interest by advertisers, which means more advertising income for the magazine. Many, like Infoworld.com, have daily or at least weekly articles added to each blog.
Some sites are technically blogs, but are really communities of users. Slashdot.org, sometimes written as "/." is an example of the blog community. Slashdot is focussed on computer technical subjects. Many, many readers also post comments, and the comments far outweigh the initial posted articles -- usually 400 or more to 1.
I started blogging last year for fun, with the blog software actually running on my Linux box in my house. It was not accessable to anyone else, but it was a fun thing for me to do. Eventually, I moved it into my Powweb account and set up a domain for it. You can read my blog "The Next Window" at http://www.TheNextWindow.com. Most days, I post an article to my blog.
7. Unmitigated Bragging
Last week, I created a new web site for the Baton Rouge Section of the Americal Institute of Chemical Engineers. You can see their old site here for a few more days. Their new site is http://www.aiche-br.org.
8. JUST FOR FUN
Google has two fantastic new products: Google Earth and Google Moon. If you have a DSL or cable connection, you wil enjoy both. If you have dialup, you'll he happy visiting the Google Moon http://moon.google.com, which uses only your web browser.
You can see all the moon landing sites, as well as zoom out or way into on moon picture. Be sure to read about the various Google Moon projects in "More about Google Moon."
Google Earth http://earth.google.com starts with a 10 megabyte download and installation of the program.
Once you have installed it, double-clicking on its icon opens up a small globe. There the fun starts. Roll your mouse button towards you and you zoom in on the world. Click on a spot and it centers.
Playing around in the map of my old home town, I found my old house, my elementary school, my wife's old house and more. I could even see the car sitting in front of the house!
Google Earch is a composite of satellite images to create a browseable world model. You can even add "pins" in the map for important points.
Bottom line: Google Earth is cool!
Volume 1, Number 7 -- Monday, August 1, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Copyright © 2005 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
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