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/