Blog #12

Here tis, my final blog. Wow, I thought I was going to run out of things to say by week five. I have successfully gripped, wrote enthusiastically, whined, and probably some other things, all to get to blog #12. Anyway, as I promised last week, I was going to provide you with successful bloggers ideas to make one supposedly a successful blogger. So as not to keep you waiting, I will leave anymore fluff out and get started. This blog was adapted from the article titled So You Want to Be a Blogging Star? From The New York Times Business Day, Section C8 on March 20, 2008.
According to Mr. Cuban, don’t go into blogging to make a living. He believes whether a person blogs to earn a little money, to influence opinion or for sheer ego gratification, amassing a large audience is the goal.
The following information was provided by successful bloggers with successful non-blogging careers.
1. Don’t expect to get rich. If you blog, you can place automatically served ad banners from Google or AdBrite onto your blog. You will receive a check only if the account builds to a set amount. Philip Kaplan, president of AdBrite, cautions that only one in six blogs draws 500 page views a day. That adds up to almost $45.00 a month.
2. Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice. Mr. Cuban indicated, “Blog about your passions. Don’t blog about what you think your audience wants. Post because you have something you are dying to write about.”
3. Fit blogging into the holes in your schedule. Glen Reynolds advises “deal with the rest of your life first.” “The blog is best handled by inserting it into the small bits of free time that rest among the bigger chunks of your work.”
4. Just post it already! Xeni Jardin indicates: “Don’t bottle up your ideas forever believing you have to hit the same kind of mature, complete, perfect point as you would with a magazine or newspaper article. Blogs are always in progress.”
4. Keep a regular rhythm. Bloggers apparently disagree on how often one should post. What has been agreed upon is, that you establish a reliable rhythm for your readers, so they know they can rely on you to have new material posted. Also, there is no specific length for a post. Consistency seems to be the answer to any disagreements throughout this section.
5. Join the community, such as it is. Linking to other bloggers is the best way to get them to link to you. This increases your readership twofold. First, it sends readers directly from other sites, and second, it raises your ranking in search engine results. However, do not use other bloggers’ photos or excerpt their writing without a link back to the original. When in doubt, give credit.
6. Plug yourself. This is what the name-brand bloggers do. A more direct way to draw a crowd is to submit your blog posts to news aggregation sites such as, Digg, Fark and Boing Boing. It will help if your blog post includes a home video of something totally off-the-wall. Those are the types that get passed around in an instant.
In conclusion, the largest threat is not that you will fail to learn to blog. It is that if you blog regularly for long enough, and begin to get comments and links from other bloggers, you will have trouble doing your day job.
So, there you have it, six easy steps to becoming a well rounded and renowned blogger. Although, I have had a more enjoyable time blogging than I had originally thought, I must say that this will be my final blog post. I know I have many more important things in life to do (my day job) than to sit here watching my blog for comments to come rolling in. So, farewell to all of you in Indy and VIC land. It has been enjoyable. Maybe we will all meet again someday in another form of technology.
Technologically speaking, signing off……………………………………. Sianara

Blog #11

I totally hit the jackpot this week. I found an article in The New York Times about the Flip video camcorder, that Dr. Ball showed us in class on March 20th. I also learned about the #2 in line behind the #1 iPod Nano. It is called the Sansa Fuze player. I also learned about Acer’s virtual theater in a laptop. It is a Blueray player and offers several features I will mention in a minute. They had an article about a stay-in-place wireless headset called the JayBird. I also learned about a new mini surge protector with an U.S.B. Charger. Last but not least, I am going to save what I feel to be an appropriate ending to our blogs, an article titled So You Want to Be a Blogging Star? The article provides information from successful bloggers, on how to be successful in the blogging world. That will have to wait for my grand finale in blog #12.

Now to get back to all of the other cool information I found in Thursday March 20, 2008 in The New York Times Business Day, Section C.

The Flip video camcorder: This camcorder, invented a year ago, has since taken 13% of the camcorder market. The latest model is called the Flip Ultra. It has slightly improved video quality, greater capacity, a tripod mount and better looks. It has been Amazon.com’s best-selling camcorder since its debut, six months ago.

Why is such a cheesy looking camcorder so wildly popular? It is the very definition of “less is more.” You turn it on, and in two seconds, it is ready to start filming. The size and shape allow you to carry it in something as small as your coat pocket. The video and audio are surprisingly good and far superior to a cellphone video. According to the article, the shocker is the Flip’s low-light abilities, which trump even $1,000.00 camcorders.

The Flip has other features and the article went on to explain its competition. If you are interested in reading the article, it is titled Camcorder Brings Zen To the Shoot.

Sansa Fuze player: This little gadget is competing mainly on price with the iPod Nano. It is 4-gigabytes and priced $50.00 less than the iPod Nano. iTunes service does not work with the Fuze. However, the device does work with Rhapsody, Napster, Urge and Yahoo Music. Its main advantage over the Nano, may be its slot for a microSD flash memory card that has the ability to add as much as 8 gigabytes of storage.

Acer Aspire 8920G: The price ranges anywhere from $900-$1,700. All versions feature a wide 18.4 inch screen to display high-definition video that comes from the laptop’s Blueray player. It comes with a socket for an H.D.M.I. cable that can connect to an HDTV. It also has an impressive six speakers and a subwoofer. You can upgrade the graphics card for playing “intense” video games, and it also comes with an optional TV tuner.

JayBird: Not out until April of 2008, this Bluetooth headset transmits stereo audio and phone calls. It includes an iPod adapter that adds wireless Bluetooth ability to almost any Apple music player. This waterproof headset fits into the ears and is secured with a loop behind the ears. The internal rechargeable battery lasts up to six hours. Price: $160.00

Belkin $25.00 Mini Surge Protector with U.S.B Charger: Belkin is apparently so sure your electronics will be protected against electrical surges; it provides a $75,000 warranty for connected equipment. This surge protector makes three outlets out of one, and is small enough to fit in a laptop bag. It will be available in April. You can check it out under the Power link at catalog.belkin.com

Ok, I think I have gone well past my 250 words. I just wanted to share my excitement of what I found in The New York Times on the same day that we worked with the Flip video.

Talk to you next week when I tell you how to become a master blogger.

Blog #10

I decided after picking up another The New York Times newspaper, I would stick with cellphones and the different types of services that are out there waiting to be utilized. This week, I found an article titled: Social Networking Move to the Cellphone. Because the Library 2.0 book for class briefly overviews this type of information, I thought it would be fitting for this internet social networking blog.
The article began by stating that there are currently so many “mobile social networking” upstarts that Britain’s New Media Age magazine was able to name ten companies for the “ones to watch” list. These “mobile social networking” upstarts such as GyPSii, Bliin, MyGamma and Itsmy.com all see the world’s 3.3 billion cellphone users as their market. This number far surpasses internet use. The advantage of utilizing a mobile social network with a cellphone is that it is in real-time due to global positioning satellites and other related technologies.
According to an Informa Telecoms report, 50 million people or 2.3% of all cellphone users already use their cellphones for social networking. This includes chat services and multimedia sharing. Their prediction indicates that 12.5% of the users will be social networking via their cellphones within five years.
Currently, the majority of the social networks mentioned above are located outside of the United States. These companies mainly seek to capitalize on location information, and are able to show users where friends and other members are in real-time. Just to add my two cents worth here, do I really need or care to know exactly where my friends and other members are right now? No! For goodness sakes, let people breathe once and awhile. Do your friends and other members need to know this second you are driving down the interstate either picking your nose or stuffing your face with a Big Mac? I honestly don’t think so. However, I guess I could send out a warning to those unfaithful spouses. Your mate will no longer have to pay good money for a detective to catch you in the act. Ok, so back to the article.
GyPSii shows users where their friends are in real-time by displaying a map of their environs dotted with photos, videos and information about other members. It is predicted they will have more members in one year than Facebook had in three. (Yippee!)
Bliin allows users to update and post their whereabouts every fifteen seconds. Good idea if someone is truly in a harmful situation. However, they could be dead in fifteen seconds.
MyGamma is based in Singapore and draws most of its users from developing Asian countries where the mobile phone is the only source of internet. According to a BuzzCity study, member’s sessions typically last 30 minutes to an hour.
Itsmy.com currently has one million registered members. The article did not mention what type of a social network it is; however, it has released its product in several foreign languages.
AOL, Yahoo and Nokia do not believe their users will invite this mobile networking. Therefore, they have initiatives to create discrete communities out of their cellphone users. (Whatever that is suppose to mean) Their users use cellphones much differently, viewing mobile as an extension of the online site.
I realize all of this social networking is VERY important to the up-and-coming generation. However, what happened to the great saying “distance makes the heart grow fonder?” There was a time when a husband left his family for months to find work or do business and no one would hear from him the entire time he was gone. During the time the husband was gone, the family had to grow stronger and more independent. Floundering around in the deep end had to be overcome quickly or there would have been a dead family the husband came back to. To me, I do not see where the younger generation is learning the independency and willingness to learn what is needed to survive through this ever growing “mobile social networking.” I guess I am still too old fashioned.
The information came from The New York Times newspaper Business Day section C. March 6, 2008.
Talk to you next week.

Blog #9

After talking positively about the technology devices that I enjoy or have come to expect as a part of my life, I picked up a New York Times newspaper the other day and wa la, an article about cell phones was in the Business Day section.

This article, Hoping to Make Phone Buyers Flip: Plumbing the Consumer’s Psyche to Come up with the Next Hit for some reason intrigued me. The article began with how LG Electronics asks their focus groups to keep a journal and to jot down their feelings about cell phone features they like the most. The term focus group pulled my interest in, because I have been studying about library evaluation, survey’s and focus groups in my Library Evaluation Class this semester.

As I read further into the article, I noted several points of interest that I thought I would share with you. According to Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president, their job is to be behaviorists and psychologists. Executives and industry analysts say it has become important to understand the psyche of consumers and why they pick one phone over another. The cell phone market, like fashion and entertainment, is hit-driven, and if a new cell phone model does not “fly” off the shelves within weeks of its debut, it is considered a dud. The most interesting part of the article indicated that the most gadget-conscious shoppers buy a new phone every nine months, twice as fast as they did a few years ago. In addition, the Razr phone that all of us just have to have because that is the “in” thing, according to the article that is outdated and the fortunes that it made for Motorola have tumbled.

The article went on to mention that the speed of innovation makes it harder for companies to compete. Ten years ago, the wireless carriers and mobile phone makers could thrive by offering consumers two to three new options a year. However, now with nearly 80% of Americans owning a cell phone, the companies are forced to give consumers what they want even before they know they want it.

One last thing that was of interest, Nokia’s designers and researchers became fixated on the notion that the company makes 16 mobile phones a second and that many of them end up in the garbage heap. Therefore, they have shifted their thinking from examining the personalization of phones to understanding how to make a more environmentally sound product. Nokia will be introducing the Remade this month. This is a prototype of a mobile phone made entirely out of recycled aluminum cans, old tires and plastic soda bottles. It also will have a more efficient battery.

So there you have it, we are now going to even have the option to “go green” when we talk to people in their environmentally green cars such as the Prius’s.

The article that I used for this blog was from The New York Times, February 29, 2008. Section C.
Talk to you soon.

Blog #8

I once again checked out Wired magazine online. This week’s magazine had an article on the court ruling pertaining to this country’s first amendment, and information that was posted on a whistle-blower wiki. I have heard about these whistle-blower sites, but have never checked on one before. I perked up when I saw that this one was a wiki. Wikileaks states on its Home page the following: “Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis. Our primary interests are in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we expect to be of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.” (http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks, 2008) I clicked on a few of the links, however the deeper I investigated, the more I had a feeling I should not be on something like this. From the looks of it, there is an abundant amount of information on this site that could possibly enable the wrong kind of person to do dangerous things.

After being scared out of the Wikileaks, I checked out what the authors of Wired thought about the Quaranta solar-assisted hybrid supercar. They think that it is ugly. Well, it sure looks better than the older Prius. If they would bring out a sporty and fast hybrid car like the Quaranta, I would certainly look into purchasing one. However, until they do, I will continue to drain my pocketbook to keep my good-looking sporty car. If you are interested in looking at a picture of the Quaranta, the link is http://blog.wired.com/cars/

Blog #7

Ok, I have vowed not to be negative toward technology in my blog this week. However, I do have a couple of good reasons why I could be negative. I will spare you the drama and just say that I am very happy I did not lose any masterpieces over the course of the week.

As I sit here, I am once again trying to think of things to say. Our wiki group did get our wiki established this week. I think we are on a good-paced track. Kathy is keeping us well up-to-date on everything that needs to take place over the next few weeks. I was actually able to set up a test page on the class wiki.

I guess I could talk about technology in a different sort of light. I am going to think of ways in which technology has enhanced my life over the past 30 years.

1) Hmmmm……….
2) You know, maybe its not that it has enhanced my life, maybe it’s that it has made me more requiring of it. Such things of this caliber include:

· Electric car windows
· Tape and CD ability in my car
· Ability to work/locate articles for school papers from home
· Typing out my papers in Word - spell check, re-writing of my grammatically deficient papers
· Although often times frustrating - Microsoft Office in general makes school work much easier
· Internet - being able to locate all kinds of cool stuff
· Instant updates on banking statements
· Credit Card acceptance in fast food restaurants or pretty much anywhere for that matter
· ATM machines
· Pay at the Pump - absolutely one of the best technological achievements yet
· Internet access of weather radar so I know whether I am going to stay dry while riding my bike or running
· Cell Phones – Although I have never come close to using all of my minutes, I no longer own a landline and only about ten people know my number. I can call anybody, anytime, from anywhere, because I keep my cell phone with me at all times. It is also very handy when I have an “emergency” and get to wake my husband up from a snoring sleep to come get me. That is the coolest part of having a cell phone.
· Digital cameras – Boy, with over 2,000 pictures downloaded to my computer, you would never know that I love my doggies and the instantaneous picture developments
· Self-checkouts – Oftentimes much faster and more personable than a slightly warm body standing there putting your groceries together in the wrong bags.

I could probably keep going, however I believe most of us could say that a majority of these things are important to all of us. I finally did away with owning a TV in 2001. I did not have a problem with getting rid of that, but I wonder how inconvenienced I would be if I no longer had my cell phone, internet and pay at the pump? At this point, I feel no need to do away with any of my mentioned technological conveniences. I did however, have no problem making this list, I hope as new technological conveniences come along, I won’t become as accustomed as I have to these!!

Talk to you next week.

Blog #6

I can say this week I am at a total stand still as to what I could put in a blog. Our group did meet with our wiki client, Michelle Farley. Everyone seems to be very interested in getting started. However, we are in limbo until we get an answer from Dr. Ball as to exactly who is going to set up the wiki space.

I was sitting here trying to think of something to write about in my blog. Having nothing come to mind, I googled “modern technology.” The only thing that looked remotely interesting was an article about amber that was found in France in 1997. Due to my religious beliefs, I have a difficult time measuring the earth in millions of years, but the article indicated that this amber was developed many millions of years ago. It noted that at the time it was developed, France would have been in the tropical zone. France being in the tropical zone was of some interest to me.

I also went to Wired magazine. I clicked on the title: The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You. The article address is: http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2008/ff_secretlife_1602 What you may find interesting about this article is the very in-depth and detailed; should I say it? Fl, Fl, Fl, Flow-chart diagram. UGH. Flow-chart diagramming. Have we not had enough of that in the last two weeks? This diagram is all color coordinated with all kinds of neat features. It was definitely produced by a computer techy type geeky person. More power to him or her!

Because I have had so much on my plate with school this semester, I have been unable to read as I should. Therefore, I checked out Tony Dungy’s audio book Quiet Strength. Now there is a book well worth listening to or reading. I recommend this book to anyone struggling with life and wondering what he or she can do to cope. His message is very simple and well integrated with his life’s work. I suggest listening to it on audio book, because Tony reads the book and makes it more personal sounding.

Well, that is all for now. Talk to you all next week.

Blog #5

Well, after a rather stressful week of finishing papers and stressing over how I am going to handle working with teams in all three of my classes, I guess I am ok. I keep thinking about that light at the end of the tunnel coming on May 11th.

I have had one irritation with technology this week. My group in management class conducted an interview for one of our upcoming presentations. Two out of the five members were unable to attend the interview due to work. One of the two was me. I was not overly concerned about missing it, until I received an email from the member who taped the interview. The email started something like “sorry, but……” My heart instantly sank to my feet. I did not have to read another word. Therefore, once again, technology has failed to deliver. Now I must rely on everyone’s notes. What is funny though, it reminded me about the blog I left a comment on last week. The woman, due to technology malfunctions, ended up copying five pages of the same information that she had already typed into the database. Overall, she printed five sheets of paper, used an envelope and a stamp for something she was suppose to be able take care of online. Because the recorder for our interview did not work, three members must reorganize their notes, type them out, and make two sets of copies or email them to the two of us. Of course you know what we are going to do with them? That’s right—print them! One of the team members has also attempted twice to send needed information to another member, but to no avail.

I sometimes feel that I tend to be rather negative towards technology and I guess I am. However, everyone is always commenting about the shortness of life. Can you imagine if you added up all of the hours that everyone has wasted trying to get some sort of a technological device to work correctly; how many years or even lifetimes that would be counted? I bet the number is mind staggering.

I hope that next week I will be in a more technologically positive mood. Until then, Happy Valentines Day!

Blog #4

This week I can say I have not learned anything new technologically. Instead, I strolled down memory lane to the first computer class I took as a child. I first must mention that I was raised in a traditional family setting. My father owned an Indiana limestone business and my mother was a homemaker. I am an only child. We owned two T.V.’s, however, cable was not allowed. At one point, we owned the game that played Pong on the TV set. We quickly lost interest in Pong and allowed the server box to collect dust until my mom got tired of looking at it and pitched it. My grandparents did have cable and eventually bought the grandchildren an Atari. I spent a lot of weekends during high school at my grandparents playing Atari and watching MTV.
For the majority of my childhood I was under the impression, due to my mom’s lack of confidence in technology, and my father never mentioning it, I thought that computers and technology would be a passing societal phase. That was why I was shocked when my mom signed me up for my first computer course over my summer vacation sometime around 1980 or 1981. What a joke! The class was taught by a computer nerd (I am married to an IT project developer, so I am allowed to say “nerd” or “geek!”) who had a pocket protector, a swoop, and absolutely no disciplining skills. The only thing I remember about the class, other than the teacher, was that I missed time being out in the sun, flirting with the cute guy in the front row, and the sugar cubes I ate located on the coffee counter along the way to the restroom.
The next experience I had with computers was in a high school class. Being from Bloomington, our local schools were guinea pigs for IU’s “new teaching innovations.” Therefore, during this guinea pig teaching innovation era we were on our own to learn however we could. It took me the entire semester to learn how to get Happy Birthday to blink on my screen. Wow, I learned a lot there!!
The third occasion I recall occurred during my undergrad studies. David, my boyfriend now husband, wrote out the instructions for me to save one school paper on a 5 1/4 inch floppy disc. I had two floppy’s and this long set of instructions that told me when I needed to insert a specific floppy, remove it, insert the other floppy, etc… etc…..etc…. All I remember is that it was very time consuming, frustrating, and again I was missing being out in the sun.
Finally, when David and I got our first PC, I very nervously would write my school papers in Word and save them to the desktop. I had to wait until David could save them to a 3 ½ inch floppy because I had previously lost one great paper trying to save it that way. So from then on I left the dirty work of saving to a disc to David. I also had a problem of “mysterious icon movings” on occasion. David would fix that problem also.
I think back over the past twenty five years of my limited and most of the time frustrating technological encounters and wonder where I would be today technologically if I had not married an IT guy. I probably would not own a computer and be even further in the dark technologically than I am today.
As my mom once said when I used to make fun of the geeks as technology was moving forward: “Those geeks are going to rule the world one day.”
Don’t you hate it when your mom is right?
Talk to you next week.

Blog #3

Today I am feeling more confident in my abilities to handle the situations that may be thrown at me throughout this semester. The wiki project possibilities for the “Indianapolis” group sound rather inviting, and have definitely peaked my interest. I believe the FFA project could be interesting because of the possibility of learning about the FFA’s history. Although I am not medically educated, I also thought the HIV wiki could be a useful way for me/the team to learn more about the HIV community. Often the public does not understand the HIV community because it does not communicate with it. A wiki could help recently diagnosed HIV patients to join a more personal community in helping answer the many questions they probably have. The wiki for incoming medical students could also be of tremendous help for students that feel overwhelmed by 1) such a large medical campus and 2) getting the help needed to locate important people in the field of medicine.
On another note, I was so bored at work the other day I actually decided to thumb through the current People Magazine. This is something I do maybe once every six months because Hollywood is such a bore to me. Anyway, I noticed the “What’s in, and What’s out” page. I was rather intrigued to read that under the “What’s out” section the two online communities of MySpace and Facebook were listed. The comment read “Enough with people who tell us to contact them via their MySpace or Facebook page! Cant’ you just give us your e-mail address? We have no interest in seeing photos of you and your friends drunk and making fools of yourselves.” (People. Dec‘07/Jan’08 56) It seems to me the online community is the up-and-coming thing. Maybe the Midwesterners just have not caught on to it and it still seems new, whereas, it is considered “old hat” and boring in the Hollywood world.
I tried to get back online to see what new information Wired magazine had, but school work won out over an online magazine.
That is all for this week. I look forward to seeing who I am teamed up with and what wiki I will be helping to produce with my team.

Blog #2

Hello all. I came to a realization this week. I realized that I have unconsciously made a conscious effort since signing up for this class to learn everything I can about the different technologies I hear about through general conversations.

I realize to most people what I have learned is probably old school, but, to someone who is 38, has no children and does not own a television, I believe that I have come a long way. Now don’t get me wrong, I do watch movies on my computer and have become a real You Tube junky over the past few months. I enjoy watching old MTV videos, old commercials, and television shows from my generation. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed watching old Carol Burnette shows over the weekend. You Tube has definitely not left me lacking for continuous entertainment. If you don’t believe me, check out this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvsEx_SRJpU Have we women come a long way in just 40 years?

I have made a conscious effort to learn about the technologies because I do want to be a better educated person and understand what people are talking about. I came across a Wired magazine lying around the library where I work last September. I looked through it and found that it held some interest to me. Therefore, I made a decision to regularly check the magazine out online. I also looked more into this Guitar Hero that seems so popular. Wow, have you seen the website? I guess you all probably have. These communities truly amaze me. Like I mentioned in my first blog, when you are as private as I am, web communities truly amaze you.

Well, I have gone well-past my required word count. I will save more for the next blog.

My first blog on blogger

Technology. Hmmm, well that is a very large word in my vocabulary. However, it becomes smaller every day when I log onto my computer and communicate with people. Over Christmas vacation, I learned what those funky little tags with the US flag and a phone number located next to websites are for. I also learned about Skype, even signed up for it, as if I will ever use it or learn how to use it for that matter. Nevertheless, I am all-official with Skype downloaded to my computer.

I am a rather illiterate individual when it comes to technology. I skimmed through our textbooks for this class, and although everything sounds familiar, I could not begin to tell you how to use any of the products. Nor for that matter, do I really want to use most of the products. However, I do want to understand what is out there, and I believe this is just the class to educate me about the current products on the market. Who knows, I may at some point be able to carry on a semi-intelligent technological conversation with a library patron as technologically illiterate as myself!

In setting up this blog, I honestly can say I remember only one part of the textbook that I read. The quote is from page 77. “If you don’t have something to say, don’t start a blog. Please. I’m begging you.” This made me chuckle as I am a very private person who does not force my opinions on people. As I sit here fumbling through thoughts to write down, I just have to wonder what all I will have written in this blog by April 25th.