Posts (page 2)
“Blog” is a combination of the words ‘web’ and ‘log’. People who write blogs are bloggers, and the act of writing is calling blogging. It’s kind of like an online diary or newsletter. What makes a blog different is the ability for the blogger to update their posts easily, and for visitors to comment on the entries. Each blogger has their own ‘voice’ or tone, and the way they view their subject matter. Blogs are usually updated very regularly. What you are reading here is a blog!
RSS feeds (see yesterday’s post for more about RSS feeds) make it easy for users to subscribe to a blog, and then they can read new articles without having to visit the site regularly. The greatest thing about blogs is how specialized they can be. There are blogs available on every conceivable subject, meaning you can find and subscribe to any topic that interests you. You can contribute to the ‘blogosphere’ by creating your own blog, as well. There are many free services you can sign up for and begin blogging today:
Over the past 3 weeks, I have bought 3 brand new PCs from Dell. A 17″ laptop for my husband, a 15″ laptop for me, and a Dimension desktop for my mother in law. And Windows Vista came on all 3. I don’t like it, the systems are slower than my other computers, and I really just wanted XP. It did what I needed it to do. I have no interest in flashy pretty interfaces. I just want to get my work done! And now, this….
Friday, April 20, 2007
Dell Reinstates Windows XP As New PC Option
Dell, beaten to a pulp by the stick of public demand, is reinstating Windows XP as an option on new PCs, reversing a January decision to shift entirely to Vista.
You can now grab Home or Professional XP from the bullet points on their configurator, which has for the last three months been a giant ad for their competitors, as far as PC owners unwilling to deal with Vista’s quirks are concerned.
Why would Dell take action that Microsoft would rather it not take? The magic line, “Dell is currently the second-largest PC seller in the world” is why: the top spot was recently nabbed by HP, which, as of today, still foists compulsory Vista on us, at least when buying from their online store.
Remember that Microsoft plans to retire XP in only eight months. The brass balls required to kill off your most popular product to force people to buy its sequel speaks to a breathtaking degree of market control, and that they don’t have any fear whatsoever of OSX or Linux. As a crude but, I hope, effective analogy, could you imagine Sony taking the PS2 off the shelves to “force” people to buy PlayStation3?
The BBC has a great quote in its story, wherein a Gartner analyst wonders why people would prefer XP over Vista. Talk about the ivory tower…
FIGURES.
Over on the westXdesign site, I posted an introduction to the social uses of the internet. Sometimes I have a hard time explaining what this ‘newness’ of community on the web is all about. I forget that very few people started where I did, and all of this is new and novel and amazing to them. Networks of friends, interacting through comments, chat, sharing files, pictures, videos, information. But that’s what the internet has ALWAYS been about. The only difference is the way in which it is happening. Today, it’s easier, and more interconnected. People don’t have to know anything about computers or programming to take part, and that wasn’t the case when I started.
Well, when DID you start, you ask….
without dating myself *too* much…
My first online community was a dial-up bulletin board which I interacted with using an Atari 800 and an 835 modem. That’s right. I wasn’t part of the Commodore crowd. And never joined the Apple bandwagon. It was Atari for me, and continued to be Atari all the way through until I bought my first Windows based PC in 199-something. I don’t want to say what year I got that first PC because I continued using my Atari ST longer than I care to admit. By this time, I was dialing into a local network, and accessing the web using a text-based browser. That’s back when the web was small.
My first experience with true real-time internet-based networking and socialization was the MUD (Multi User Dimension/Domain/Dungeon whatever). Specifically: TCZ (The Chatting Zone). Which still operates today. It’s through TCZ that I got hooked on the social aspects of the internet. I had friends from all over the world there, and no matter what time of day I logged in, there they were. I still have fond memories of many conversations and shenanigans involving Predator. I was Pegasus in case any of you reading care to know….
I built on my BASIC programming skills, and just naturally migrated to CGI and HTML. It was all fun and games, I loved the challenge and the friendships. By 1996, I was fully immersed in the online world, and have grown and changed as much as it has. So the social circles we have today with MySpace, Virb, Jaiku, Twitter, Flickr, RSS feeds…it’s all natural. This is where we’ve been heading all along. It’s where I’VE been heading all along…
The web has always been a place for people to share ideas and post their views and comments, but it hasn’t always been easy. Today, the web has become much friendlier, with the popularity of such sites as MySpace and Wikipedia. The software behind these types of sites makes contributing, and taking part, in the online community easy and more personal for users. Even novices are finding their way into the social community of the new web.
Socialization on the web takes place through the many ways users can build communities if friends and family who share the same interests or views: sharing of pictures and videos, conversations through comments, and online ‘presence’ streams through such sites as Jaiku or Twitter.
Over the next few days, I’m going to cover some of the sites and tools that I find fun, useful, or just plain interesting. But before we get too far, an important tool to understand is content syndication or RSS Feeds, and a general defining of the term “Web 2.0″
Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many
Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Britannica Online Wikipedia personal websites blogging publishing participation directories tagging stickiness syndication
It means distributing your resources onto the internet network. Think of it as the Internet Operating System. Almost everything you use your computer for now will done online, without software installed on your computer. And many tasks you don’t use your computer for can be done more efficiently online.
Web 2.0 Meme map from “What is Web 2.0” by O’Reilly
In the 1.0 model, you bookmarked a web site you found interesting, and maybe you remembered later to return to it and check for new content. Today, syndication is major part of almost all regularly updated sites. Syndication is accomplished through RSS Feeds.
The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, it was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. A great (simple) explanation of RSS can be found at “How to Explain RSS the Oprah Way”
So, to make RSS much easier to understand, we’ll say RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite sites all in one place.
Suppose you have 50 sites that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each site everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a the site, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours.That one place where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the headlines from all the sites you have subscribed to.
To “subscribe” to a site’s RSS feed simply means that you are telling that site, “Yes please. Send me your story headlines.” It’s like subscribing to a magazine or newsletter. Instead of getting a magazine or email, you will just get a list of headlines sent to your RSS reader. If the headline looks interesting to you, all you have to do is click on the headline and you’ll be sent to the whole story.
In order to subscribe to a site’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS symbol like one of those shown in the diagram above, or a text link of the words “Subscribe to our RSS feed”.
If you’d like your RSS list to be accessible from any computer or mobile device you may have like a PDA, laptop, or cell phone, some popular RSS readers include
MyYahoo
MyMSN
MyAOL
Google Reader
Bloglines
NetVibesAnd many popular email programs have the ability the add RSS feeds, as well. Then, when you check your email, you’ll get your subscription feeds as well.
Another use of RSS feeds is for you to consolidate all of your own online presence streams, comments, and networks into one, such as importing all of your blog posts, Jaiku postings, photos, videos, music, and friends onto one consolidated site such Virb, Zude, or PageFlakes. (we’ll cover these later in the week…)
Feel free to add to the conversation with your comments or questions. And if you have a favorite social or aggregate site we don’t mention, please share it with us!
No longer taboo or a mark of deviancy (or motorcycle ownership), tattoos have become a regular part of our modern culture.
Most of us get our tattoos to either memorialize events or people, or to identity a part of ourselves that are usaully within us in a way for everyone around to see. Tell your tattoo story… Here are mine:
I got my first tattoo in May of 2004. I felt like I had lived an entire lifetime, and was beginning a whole second life. A failed marriage, raising 2 kids alone, working 3 jobs to make ends meet while trying to get my education. Fighting for security, both financial and emotional, for myself and my children. Then in 2003, things began to turn around. I had been promoted at my primary job and no longer needed to work more than 1 job, I was getting closer to earning my degree, and coming to terms with the scars left on my family. Then I met Brian, and from that day on, things got better and better. 2 days before receiving my degree, I went with Brian to his regular tattoo artist, and decided it was time. I chose a design that for me meant strength, hanging on, and beauty. Not knowing what to expect, I also made sure it was simple. While some people find the experience of getting a tattoo painful, I wouldn’t call it pain - just an uncomfortable feeling at times, and not much at the rest. This one is on my right calf.
The symbol of the dragon evolved between myself and Brian as sort of “our” theme. Honest, brave, tenacious, strong, protective. That was our relationship. He was my dragon, and I was his. We brought out the best in each other, and filled in the weaknesses we had. When we married, we used entwined dragons as our theme.
I finally got my second tattoo just this year (March). I took the image that been drawn for our wedding invitations, and added tribal markings and color to create an original tattoo. It is another symbol for my relationship with Brian, and after celebrating our second anniversary, it was my way of saying I meant ‘forever’. This one is on my left upper arm.
Use the comments to tell the story of your tattoos, or what you would get if you don’t have one. If you have pictures, email them to me and I’ll add them to this post so we can see what you’re talking about!
The newest site developed by westXdesign is a very very simple, one-page version of the flyer produced by the coordinators of the Shining Star Motorcycle Rally.
Sometimes, all that is needed is another venue for people to find information about you, your organization, or an event. This site in particular will add more information about who is performing, and when, as well as vendors. This type of information can’t be updated in their print advertising, but new and updated information can be found at the site. So, even though they aren’t going with a big, interactive web site, the ability to provide updates is crucial.
If you have been thinking that you don’t have a need for a web site because of various reasons, consider what the Shining Star Rally is doing, and how it is helping them promote their event more easily.
For individuals and businesses just beginning to work online, the process of building a web site can be daunting. Here is a quick and dirty tutorial to help you better understand what it is you are doing, or what you are hiring someone to do for you.
- First you will need a Domain Name. Example: www.your_business.com. Your domain name must be unique. It is registered with companies such as register.com or Network Solutions and the cost varies, anywhere from $9.95 to $25 per year. You may register your domain name for any number of years in advance. Sometimes your domain registration is included in your hosting costs (see #2). There are different extensions available. Some of the most popular are: com or biz for commercial type sites such as most businesses (com is more popular), org for organizations, and net for networks. When you register a domain name, the server you are hosting the pages on is registered with it. this enables other computers on the internet to know where your web site is located.
- Hosting. Your web site must reside on a web server. There are many companies that offer hosting, including your local internet service providers. Costs on hosting can range from $9.95 to $50 or more per month.
- Design. If you are not creating your own pages, you must employ a web site programmer/designer. Design and set up costs vary greatly, from $20 per page, $50 per hour, or even $1,000 or more per site.
- Promotion. Once your web site is available, it is not automatically found through search engines. This is a 4th process to getting your site up and running. Your web site address and information must be provided to each of the major search engines. The quality of the design and the meta information provided by the designer will greatly determine your success here. In the beginning, the most effective way to get visitors to your web site is to include your web site address in all advertising, business cards, etc. Having your site return in online searches may take many months. Other methods that are very often employed to help promote the site and it’s ranking include having other sites link to you, participating in other forums related to the site to help establish you as a leader in your field, and ensuring that your content is always fresh and relevant.
You could be dealing with 3 different entities when setting up your web site: domain registrar, hosting company, and designer. To make the process easier, select companies that will take care of your domain registration, hosting services, and design for you in one place. Designers all have their own styles and personalities, and the ability to work closely with the designer to get what you want is very important.
Do you need a designer or a code-monkey?
It’s an important question. Consider the following:
- Do you need a professional to help you design a great web presence?
- Do you expect the person or company you hire to make the decisions regarding the best layout and presentation for your site?
- Are you willing to pay for their expertise regarding standards and accessibility?
or
- Do you have a specific design planned?
- Do you have your content exactly the way you want it, including all text?
- Are you wanting your plan implemented exactly with no deviation?
If you answer ‘yes’ to more of the first set of questions, you’re looking for a designer. If you answered ‘yes’ to more of the second set, you’re looking for a code-monkey. The difference? You hire a designer for their professional expertise regarding design, layout, and standards, you hire a code-monkey to make your idea work on the web in any way possible.
Before you start firing off a 3 page missive about my use of the term “code-monkey”, please let me explain: I have no problem being hired as a code-monkey. I’m in a small business, in a small community, and if that’s what my customer wants, that’s what I’ll deliver. I also make sure they know my opinion concerning their chosen design/content. Usually, they listen and I can work with them to deliver a better site.
Every now and then, I can spend hours straight with a client, and they will still insist on me implementing a site with bad layout, bad color, and even worse…bad grammar. I had this happen very recently. I couldn’t even convince the client to use correct grammar in their text. I tried for hours begging for simple changes to their content alone. In the end, nothing changed, and I wasted 4 hours that I can’t bill for because all this client wanted was a code-monkey to deliver their idea in an online format. In a perfect world, I would have walked away in the first 30 minutes after having told them that perhaps I was not the best company to work with them. But I feel more strongly about helping my clients, and my community, than I do about wasting non-billable hours, and fought for as long as the client would allow.
What can you learn from this? When you are working with your designer, please value their expertise and opinion. You hire your accountant and trust their knowledge in making decisions about your finances. You go to a physician and trust their knowledge concerning your health. You hire a plumber and trust he/she knows which pipe to replace and how to do it to make everything work right.
Trust your designer to help you deliver a great web site. And if you know right off that you want a code-monkey to implement your plan exactly as presented, then please, please tell your chosen design company this FIRST.
- Grab the book closest to you.
- Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
- Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
- Include the title and the author’s name.
“Beside him, Alice began to cry. It was the sort of out-of-breath weeping a tired child might make. One who is used to punishment.”
from the paperback edition of Cell by Stephen King.
Meme from Book Through Thursday
