Monday, June 27, 2005

An example of exemplary blogging

Some blogs stand out from others. Sanity Adrift is one such blog. From Reality Me:

I have to say some of the most entertaining, creative writing I can find on the web is at Sanity Adrift. His posts are spaced out as if each is being drafted, proofed, re-written, tossed out, pulled from the garbage, written again, edited and finally published against a relunctant deadline of "I must move on to another topic." The time between posts is rewarded with a post of several paragraphs from which you cannot divert your eyes. It's not lengthy in the sense that you want to skim to get to the end. At Sanity Adrift the writing is so well done that you want to read each word and sometimes twice. TV deserves to be published! I'll leave it to the curious to explore and figure out "TV." His bio is as much a pleasure to view as is his blog.
Feel free to point out your favorite blogs in the comments of this post.


Posted by: djuggler | 12:23 AM |

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Posting pictures to a blogspot blog

CrispAds Blog Advertising
I have just posted instructions on how to post a picture to your blogspot blog on my createablogblog.
Funny picture too so go look!


Posted by: Jethro | 9:42 PM |

Monday, June 20, 2005

CrispAds Blog AdvertisingThis is a test blog entry for the CrispAds network. There should be an advert to the left of this text. You too can use CrispAds on your blog. Check out how to do it.
CrispAds Blog Advertising


Posted by: Jethro | 8:50 AM |

Friday, June 17, 2005

Picasa updates

Picasa has a bunch of exciting things that can be done with it that aren't obvious to the casual glance. Here's the low down from Picasa on backing up your photos.

Are your photos backed up?
No? Well, you're not alone; 3 out of 4 of us use our computer's hard drive as our primary method for storing photos, and many of us have never saved backup copies to another storage location like a CD, DVD or external drive. But why let one blue screen of death erase your most precious memories when Picasa makes the backup process a snap? Picasa remembers which photos in your library you've backed up, and which (yikes!) you haven't; preserves any edits or changes you've made to your photos with Picasa; and even lets you undo any backed up changes later on.
So.
The project: Create a backup set of photos using Picasa. It takes only minutes.

You'll need: A blank CD or DVD (the kind you use in your computer, not the TV) or an external drive; a computer with a CD/DVD writeable drive.

1. Open Picasa (make sure you are using version 2; if not, download it now from www.picasa.com). In the menu at the top of your screen, go to Tools > Backup Pictures, or click the "Backup" button at the top of your screen. This will open a box containing backup instructions in the lower third of your screen.

2. Under Step 1, click the "New Set" button to name your backup set (a set is all the pictures you want saved). A "New Backup Set" box opens.


3. Type in the name for your backup in 16 characters or less.

4.Select a backup type, either "CD or DVD backup" or a "Disk-to-disk backup (for external and network drives)."

5.Select the files to back up, either all file types, all pictures excluding movies, or only JPGs with camera information (information like camera make and model and if a flash was used).

6.Click the "Create" button. This will close the "New Backup Set" box and return to the backup instructions.

7. Look at the list of folders and labels along the left side of your screen. A checkbox has appeared to the left of each name. The folder that's currently active has an "X" in the checkbox; you'll be backing up these photos.

8. To add more photos to this backup set, put an "X" next to every folder and label that you want archived. You can do this one at a time or, under Step 2, click the "Select All Pictures" button to have Picasa add an "X" next to all the photos in your collection.

9. As you select more photos, look at the message appearing on the blue bar across the lower third of your screen. This tells you how much space your backup will require, including the number of CDs you'll need.

10. Are all your photos selected? Make sure you have a CD or DVD in your writeable drive, or that the external drive you're saving to is connected. Now click the "Burn" button. If you chose "CD or DVD backup," Picasa will prompt you when you need to insert an additional disk to your drive.

11. Relax! You're now far less likely to ever lose any of those irreplaceable pics.


Posted by: Jethro | 12:08 AM |

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Rush Limbaugh against copyrights?!

Boing Boing labels Rush Limbaugh a "copyfighter" stating that "He sounds like an EFF attorney!"


Posted by: djuggler | 7:37 PM |

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig is a name we all should know. He is a superhero for the Internet fighting for justice!

A great presentation of the book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.
Same for The Future of Ideas.
And Free Culture.
He also has Code v.2 setup as a wiki.
I recommend visiting each of the four links above if for any reason simply to study their presentation.


Posted by: djuggler | 7:21 PM |

Blogging for Bucks - CrispADs Offers Alternative to Adsense

Linuxct.tk introduces us to CrispADs - Blog Advertising Network.

Dec 10, 2005 - MarketProven Inc. Launches CrispAds.com: Text based advertising network for blogs and RSS feeds.
To the advertisers:To the publishers:
Unlike other advertising networks, CrispAds.com specializes exclusively in blogs. Our system was designed with bloggers in mind.
Google's Adsense is a powerful tool and has proven itself to be an income producer with some bloggers reporting income as much as $5000 per month while others in over a year have yet to see a check. Google's case studies claim earning enough to hire an employee. Haden McCabe claims to make $43,500 per month in what seems like a ploy to get you to buy into their mentoring program.

Please share your CrispAds.com and Google Adsense experiences in the comments of this post.

djuggler's personal blog is Reality Me and consults as Superior Internet Designs


Posted by: djuggler | 1:51 AM |

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Blogger Rights Legal Guide

Boing Boing has posted "EFF legal guide for bloggers."

EFF has released a long, comprehensive, accessible guide to the law and blogging, aimed at bloggers who are worried about protecting their sources' anonymity, about libel, about copyright and trademark infringement claims, and all the other legal risks that might stop a blogger from saying her piece.
From the EFF site:
To be clear, this guide isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you're being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
In their guilde, the EFF has covered Blogger Legal Liability Issues (including Liability, Intellectual Property, Defamation, Section 230 Protections, and Privacy), Bloggers As Journalists (including Reporter's Privilege and Media Access), and Other Legal Issues for Bloggers (including Election Law and Labor Law).

In related information, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has posted Rebecca Mackinnon's thoughts on free speech, blogging, China and Microsoft. And that election commissioner Brad Smith is "not too encouraging regarding the future of free speech under existing election laws."

Keeping posting everyone!

djuggler's personal blog is Reality Me and consults as Superior Internet Designs


Posted by: djuggler | 4:14 AM |

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Turn blogs into books

Blogbinders.com helps you turn your blog into a bound book - great as a gift, an archive, or even to sell to your readers!

It is quick, easy, and affordable to turn your blog into a printed book. All it takes is a few easy steps:

Provide information about your blog account
Select styles, cover/back and customizations
Review automatically generated proof
It's that simple! In under a week, your book will arrive.

Blog types supported include:
Moveable type
Manila
Blogwware
LiveJournal
WordPress
TypePad
Radio
Blogger
AboutMyLife
GreatestJournal

They also support several languages.

Pricing is very reasonable based on number of pages and the binding type.

Check out Blogbinders if you would like to save your journal in hard copy for yourself or others to read.


Posted by: Jethro | 12:57 AM |

Saturday, June 04, 2005

cntl-A cntl-c THEN preview

For all you Blogger users. Have you ever typed a long post only to hit "Preview" and have text missing? This anomaly has occurred for me so many times that I had almost given up on the preview link in favor of publishing the post and re-editing. A simplier solution is to develop a better habit. Instead of typing your post and immediately clicking "Preview" try adding two keystrokes. On a windows based PC, holding down the control key (Ctrl) and pressing "A" will select all the text in the window with the current focus (in most cases). Ctrl-c will copy that text into the Windows cut and paste buffer. Ctrl-v will paste whatever is in the cut and paste buffer.

So your new steps are:

  1. Create your post
  2. Ctrl-a to select everything you typed and then ctrl-c to copy to the clipboard
  3. Click Preview to make sure everything is correct
  4. If text is missing after returning from the preview, click into the editing window and type ctrl-a to select all text then type ctrl-v to paste your saved post
  5. Now click the button that has a checkmark under ABC for spell checking

Note: On Macintoshes I believe command-a will select all while command-c and command-v will cut and paste respectively.

djuggler's personal blog is Reality Me and consults as Superior Internet Designs


Posted by: djuggler | 10:47 PM |

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Blog Explosion Battle of the Blogs

BlogExplosion has a new promotion on called Battle of the Blogs.

BlogExplosion is proud to announce the newest addition to BlogExplosion called Battle of the Blogs! Win BlogExplosion traffic credits by challenging other members and voting for the best blogs on BlogExplosion.

Many of you might remember on MTV where you could vote for your favorite music group on shows like Battle of the Bands.. Well we took that format and now members can compete directly with other members to see who has the best blog!

How does Battle of the Blogs work?

Members can set up a new Battle of the Blogs challenge then waits until another BlogExplosion member accepts their challenge. Members can wager anywhere from 10-100 credits on a challenge.

Once a challenge has been accepted 9 other members vote for both blogs. The person with the most votes wins the challenge and gets 75% of the total credits wagered. The 9 members who have voted on who is the best blog split the remaining 25% of the total credits wagered

Ready to battle for blog supremacy? Check out Battle of the Blogs now!

Note: For Battle of the Blogs
- This is a new feature still and we will continue to make improvements to how it will work best, so please be patient with us as we make ongoing changes
- Things like Battle of the Blogs email notifications may be made optional
- We are looking into how to best calculate the Top50 and provide additional statistics for members moving forward

Remember features like Battle of the Blogs has been designed for entertainment purposes and to create a better sense of community on BlogExplosion. So have some fun while visiting the site!

New Features in the works!
Although it may seem that BlogExplosion has been launching mostly entertainment/game type features, the truth is that we are also working on a couple of very large projects at the same time as well. These other projects are features that will continue to improve the quality of traffic being produced on BlogExplosion making BE a smarter and more useful resource for bloggers looking to increase readership to their blogs.

We have been working from a short-term 6 month strategic plan that includes another 8-10 major updates that will hopefully make BlogExplosion a great site to visit. So for those skeptical users that dismiss the validity of BlogExplosion we ask that you wait and make your decisions after we get all of the functionality out for you to try first.


Posted by: Jethro | 7:44 PM |