The Demo Blog

Changes - Reposted With Comments

2006-12-11T22:58:00.000-08:00

"Changes" was originally posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 in Demo Junk (our old test blog). I am reposting it because it relates to this post and I am deleting the test blog.

Changes

I removed some things from Firemind and put them here.

Clustrmaps shows where visitors are from. It's fun for a while but then gets boring.

Tag Cloud may be useful in the future but is too buggy now. It analyzes keywords and creates clickable tags. So far it seems to only read the index page and lists any common word. For example, it will list "Party! Party! Party!" as one word. Another problem is frequency. I liked seeing blog listed but found multiple links to the same post where I used the word a few times. This is NOT how it is supposed to work. It isn't as good as wordpress categories.

Update: Read the comments for more on Clustrmaps.

Discussion In Comments:

Marc said...

Hi (Marc from the ClustrMaps team here); naturally our views will differ given where I'm coming from, but I just wanted to say that

a) regarding 'boring' I think this is obviously a personal thing and depends on the rate of growth of the dots on the maps; you can go in to the Admin page and change the archive frequency (for example) so you have fresh maps more often; it is also the only setup that allows you to see the 'gestalt' of thousands of visitors to your site at a quick glance. Sure, if your maps gets covered quickly in clouds of dots then that might get tedious, but if you alter the update and archive frequencies, the emerging patterns are of great interest and use to many people.

b) in your front page summary you comment that the images are slow to load; I'd be interested for you to double-check this in some controlled experiments; you'll see that the thumbnail image is pre-computed by us, so you are literally loading a 12K image; not actually an enormous overhead, given the 'gestalt' view it provides, and given that on your main blog page you're already using stuff like a 6.7K background image (http://www.blogblog.com/dots/bg_dots.gif)

Naturally, it's all about cost/benefit analysis for the individual user, but I think your claim of "causes your blog to load slowly in browsers." is unwarranted... please let me know if your later experiments confirm or refute this claim!!! All the best...

-Marc

Leon said...

Marc - 'boring' - yes this is a personal thing. When I first used the program it was fun and new and I would check it a lot. As time went on my map filled with red dots and changes weren't as noticeable. I also miss the Hitmap features of being able to zoom into various areas such as North America.

"I think your claim of "causes your blog to load slowly in browsers." is unwarranted..." - I can only go by my own experience on this. Some outside programs can cause a blogger blog to load slowly depending on circumstances.

I have seen this happen with Flickr badges, Blogrolling blogrolls, and other programs. What I see is "contacting (or loading) clustrmaps" (for example) at the bottom of my browser.

One slow loading item can mess up my whole sidebar. I had been ignoring my clustrmap for a while and only noticed it when it was slow to load for about a week straight. I was frustrated because I had trouble checking other items. Since I wasn't interested in it anymore I decided to remove it from my blog.

I hope this explains my comments. I wasn't planning on doing a full review and discussed it with some other members already. Thanks for reminding us our comments/opinions are public.

Marc said...

Thanks for responding and clarifying your views... nice to see some clear and well-thought-out constructive commentary (instead of just flames)!

I think you'll find that the 'slowness' issue is a thing of the past - an artifact of an older server hosting environment that we have moved away from, and we'd be keen for you to try again!

Regarding the 'zoom to continents' feature: we describe in our FAQ that we still have this feature but have had to restrict this to new "ClustrMaps+" users (available for a token 99 cents monthly), and for a good reason -- in a nutshell, your desire for speedy maps and your desire for 'zoom to continents' are diametrically opposed, and we've been 'walking the tightrope' to meet both sets of needs!

The solution is that we pre-calculate *ALL* images for our users (hence the shiny new server farm!). This means that delivery is relatively compact and fast, but at the cost of some inevitable storage overheads for us. This means that if you get the balance of update and archive frequency correct (your own choice), you get (i) more interesting and rapidly changing thumbnail images; (ii) very speedy thumbnail map delivery always; (iii) great-looking continent maps, that are pretty fast, and on separate pages don't slow down your site anyway!

I say all of this because as you can see we're keen both to correct any mistaken impressions *AND* to 'get you back on board' - email me directly if there's anything we can do to help run any tests and/or convince you that all those objections have been satisfactorily met! [I'll pick it up via anything sent to the Contact addresses at ClustrMaps

Finally, although your comments are more or less directed at your own 'interest group', once Technorati grabs em, the summary that appears to the world is pretty devastating ('boring', 'slow', 'junk'... from the name) and completely turns off potential users ... (hence my enthusiasm for setting the record straight) ;-)

All the best, and thanks for listening!!

-Marc

Learning 2.0 - The Things

2006-11-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

Learning 2.0 - The Things

June Theme

2006-06-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

The June photography theme at OPB is Photographer's Choice. Be inventive and have fun.

April And May Themes

2006-04-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Things are chaotic right now so OPB theme ideas are hard to come up with.

So:

April (What's left of it): Spring: New Things, New Photos. Recent pictures of Spring and anything new and interesting.

May: I haven't a clue yet. Any suggestions?

March Theme: Photographer's Choice

2006-03-06T05:21:00.000-08:00

Post whatever you want at OPB this month.

February Theme: Words And Writing

2006-02-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

The intro for the February theme is posted at OPB. Any photo with some form of writing in it is appropriate.

February Theme Ideas

2006-01-19T01:19:00.000-08:00

What shall we post for February?

I have two theme ideas. Feel free to post your own.

1. Things We Love - any pic of something we like - kind of to go with feb 14.

2. Words And Writing - any pics with writing in them. To go with a planned event at 2 lazy 2 Blog.

January Theme = Old And New

2006-01-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

The January Theme description has been posted at OPB. Post any old or new pics. Old pics, new pics, any pics that fit your definition of old and/or new qualify. Have fun!

January Theme at OPB

2006-01-03T09:38:00.000-08:00

So what shall we do at OPB this month? Old and new pics? New pics with a theme of...well new things?

What do you think?

Comments Opened

2005-12-15T22:23:00.000-08:00

I have changed the comments from "team members only" to "blogger users" and activated word verification. I still want to use this blog to handle the work aspects of Our Photoblog rather than filling up that blog with text.

OPB Theme? Winter Holidays

2005-12-03T22:40:00.000-08:00

We are off to a late start but what about winter plus holidays? We will surely get some pics out of this mix.

Welcome Smeagol

2005-11-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

We have a new member whose nickname is Smeagol. I will help him with his blog. Smeagol if you have blog things you need help with and I am not online just post them here and someone may be able to help.

The next thing we will do when you are ready is make a test blog.

About Us.

2005-11-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

The Demo Blog is a volunteer run training blog. We teach the basics of blogging with Blogger. This all started in November of 2004 when a blogger asked for help. Several of us offered help and I started this blog to make things easier for us.

Our Goals:

To make blogging fun and easy for new bloggers.
To provide a community for new bloggers.

Rules:

Help other members if you can.
Treat others with respect.
If you become a member and want help - expect to do some work on your blog.
This blog is for assignments, ideas, and 'work' related posts.

Benefits:

Help from fellow bloggers.
You may post photos to Our Photoblog if you wish.

Method:

Members create a test blog and invite me as a member. Then they promote me to admin so I can show them exactly where links, etc, can be placed.
We usually work in the test blogs although instant messaging has proven useful in the past.
Members state what they want and we discuss ways of doing that. We work in the test blogs and then each member recreates the work in his or her blog.

Guidelines:

We are all busy, but new members should check in about once a week. This gets you used to posting regularly.
This may look like a lot of work, but its not really. As a member you do what you can when you can.

Old version

November Theme set at OPB.

2005-11-07T00:56:00.000-08:00

So post away.

Happy Anniversary!/November Theme

2005-11-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

On November 1st, 2004 this blog became a group blog and I invited Gale and Lou to join. Later on Christine, Keith and others joined. Things are quiet now, but we have had some busy and fun times. This blog started many of my online friendships that are still going strong. Thanks everyone. Happy Anniversary.

To commemorate this we could have "Old and New" as our November theme at Our Photoblog. We could post pics from the last year that we haven't posted before and we could post new pics too. This would allow those of us too busy for photography to participate.

Blog Survey

2005-10-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

The Great Canadian blog Survey reults are posted online.

Via (Blogs Canada).

Testing Backlinks

2005-10-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

I am experimenting with Backlinks at Firemind and 2 Lazy 2 Blog. Links from within Firemind seem to work fine. I do find the comments pages longer and slightly more confusing.

Links from outside of Firemind are a bit more spotty. I tested this by checking my Second Annual Online Potluck post. Two links don't show up. Shahid linked early and thus linked to my invitation and not the potluck itself. Keith's link doesn't show up but may when he reposts.

It does take some time for links to show up.

The number of backlinks doesn't show like the number of comments does. That would be a handy tool.

Backlinks seems like a useful tool for bloggers in any case.

Fair Reviews

2005-10-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

When I wrote my mini review of Clustrmaps I was directing my words to members of this group. One thing we have to remember when reviewing websites and programs here is that we do get read by many other people. The terms we use and mention are also searchable using Technorati.

Marc of Clustrmaps left comments in response to my post at Demo Junk and the one here. He addressed the comments I made and did it well. He also reminded me of an important point.

Finally, although your comments are more or less directed at your own 'interest group', once Technorati grabs em, the summary that appears to the world is pretty devastating ('boring', 'slow', 'junk'... from the name) and completely turns off potential users ... (hence my enthusiasm for setting the record straight) ;-)

I hesitate to 'reprimand' myself because I didn't mean any harm. The program didn't meet my expectations and I removed it from my blog. If I had written the review when I removed it from my blog I may have written the information I discussed with Marc in my test blog (who knew that name could be so devastating). But I didn't.

Most of my issues with the program were based on my changing expectations and my opinions formed around them. I liked the program enough to try it and used it for quite a while. Like other bloggers I used the excuse of slow browser loading to clean up my sidebar.

Many things can cause a blog to load slowly. As I write this I have another window open with The Demo Blog in it. The blog has been trying to load for about 5 minutes. One of the few sidebar items is holding things up. Until this item loads up I can't see the blog.

Any outside application can cause a blog to load slowly if it gets out of sync with the blog program. The more applications you have in a sidebar the more chances your blog will load slowly. You then have a choice: accept the situation or get rid of the nifty-but-unnecessary sidebar item.

One thing to learn from this experience is that we are not isolated. We may not agree with everybody but we can at least be fair.

OPB October Theme Posted

2005-10-01T01:37:00.000-07:00

The introduction to our October Theme has been written at OPB. Let's post some pics about Fall Transitions.

Stolen From Lou

2005-09-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the last post I was experimenting with Tagcloud. I also checked out the Imagination Prompt Generator and found it to be a useful meme for bloggers.

I bookmarked both of these sites at del.icio.us/firemind (called Firemind Bookmarks in my blog's sidebar). I found them in Lou's del.icio.us and copied them to mine.

Raiding friends' bookmarks is a great way to find out new things (to post about) and you can't get arrested.:)

Demo Junk Examples

2005-09-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone had their own test blog except me. I have been using "our" test blog: Demo Junk. I finally stole it for my self. :)

I have examples of Clustrmaps (Hitmaps) and Tag Cloud there that I removed from Firemind. Clicking on the examples will take you to the websites. The Tag Cloud can be found at the bottom of each page.

There is a brief analysis of both in the post called Changes.

Quick Review
Clustrmaps is boring and causes your blog to load slowly in browsers. Tagcloud is buggy and tags the wrong words.

Update: Clustrmaps - see my clarifications regarding Clustrmaps in the comments following the post. I may add post them as an addendum in this blog.

October OPB Theme

2005-09-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

October is coming and it is time to think of a theme for Our Photoblog. I am open to suggestions but here is my suggestion and reasons.

I thought a fall theme would be nice. "Changing seasons, changing lives". Something like that. Rain, snow, leaves and trees and maybe people doing fall things. (Including returning to school).

A fall theme would mean we could participate in Animationman's Fall Fest. I would list OPB as a participant and exchange links with him. We could also link from individual posts. I will certainly be participating.

Btw you can also participate in Fall Fest by writing something in your own blogs. Let's support a fellow blogger.

Blogging And Learning

2005-09-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

I remember a conversation with a friend who doesn't blog. He is a professional and feels blogging is not needed for most professions. I mentioned an article I had read that said blogging could be a useful tool for librarians. (Mainly because of the need to share ideas in a timely way).

I remembered this conversation when I found a blog called MISt it up! The blogger, Alex, is a student in the Faculty Of Information Studies at the University Of Toronto.

The website for the program says:

Reflecting the expanding role of the profession, FIS incorporated three diverse, though related disciplines within a single graduate program, namely: library and information science, archives and records management, and information systems.

Alex is in Library and Information Studies stream. MISt it up! was created for a course with a section on blogging. The course outline says: "Set up Blog (www.blogger.com) and comment on others' blogs".

Here we see a professional program at an accredited university encouraging students to blog. Our hobby is finding a space in mainstream academia. What's more it is being used as it was meant to be used. Not for profit (ie: business blogs) but for sharing information and interesting ideas.

I commented in the blog and mentioned this blog. I also looked at some of the other class blogs. It will be interesting to see how many of the students keep blogging. It will be interesting to see what blogs evolve.

Dead Guestbook

2005-09-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

Blogtools is unavailable for a while so our guestbook is down. I may allow outside comments with word verification. What do you think?

Update: It's back.

Using Tags Part 1

2005-09-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

Technorati

At Fire Links I have been experimenting with using Technorati tags and Blogger together to:

simulate Wordpress categories

use tags to create a usable Blogger blog directory

integrate these ideas with del.icio.us.

So far I am disappointed with the results. I find the task of adding tons of tags a bit tiresome and I find that some tags never seem to appear at Technorati. Furthermore I find that Technorati tags are so widespread that individual blogs get lost in the babble.

When I look at Lou's Wordpress blog I find the Wordpress categories more useful. The Technorati material is nice but hasn't been useful yet. Maybe I just don't get Technorati.

Here is a question for those who use Technorati a lot. Do you ever use the tags to search for content or do you just list/tag your own content?

del.icio.us

I am almost ready to stop playing with Technorati at Fire Links and use the blog as a place to explain my FireLinks del.icio.us site and sign up blogs that want to be listed.

I enjoy using del.icio.us to bookmark interesting things I find on the web. I also 'troll' other peoples bookmarks for info.

My FireLinks site can be easily set up around a chosen set of common tags which bloggers use to define their blogs. The only requirement would be a link on their sidebar. They would have an easy to use blog directory that (unlike 99% of those operating now) isn't clogged with dead links.

I think del.icio.us is an interesting and useful tool. I use it to store info I want to blog about later. I also use just for bookmarking interesting things.

I found a blog that uses del.icio.us in an interesting way and I will comment on it in Part 2 of this post. I want to have a good look at the blog first.

Feedback is appreciated. Especially about my Technorati questions.

Free Ping Service

2005-09-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Through a blog that I read I have discovered a new free Ping Service calledPingoat. The ping service has only been up and running since July, 2005 and it appears to be quite expansive in its ping service covering general, non-english and specialized servers. I have not experienced any problems with it yet but it does have very strict rules about "blacklisting" so check out the link on the main page first before signing up.

Sept OPB Theme

2005-09-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, Parties and Celebrations it is. I am writing up an intro tonight.

September OPB Theme

2005-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

September is already here and we don't have a theme for Our Photoblog. Does any one have any ideas? Shall we ask our readers?

Ideas:

Fall
Back to School
Parties and celebrations
???

August OPB Theme.

2005-08-03T01:53:00.000-07:00

Our August theme introduction has been posted at OPB.

August OPB Theme/Online Potluck

2005-07-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about our August theme at OPB and came up with the idea of 'Photographer's Choice' - ie- post what you want. This could work well for the Online Potluck. We could post food pics here and link to/from the potluck post at Firemind.

What do you think?

Blogger Templates

2005-07-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

Blogger Templates (via notmyown). They look cool. I used the 'Kubrick' template when experimenting with Wordpress.

July Theme 2/Photoblogs

2005-07-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

OPB July Theme

Parks and Playgrounds it is. I will post a mini intro at OPB.

Photoblogs

I posted a topic at Flickr to find some photoblogs for Photo Links. If you have any comments or suggestions let me know.

Blogging Tips

2005-07-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

Jim Elve at BlogsCanada has written an interesting post called A Few Blogging Tips. The tips are useful and will work for any blog. He does say (in comments) that the tips "are primarily about building readership".

Jim suggests that bloggers register with as many blog directories as possible. I agree with this to a certain extent but think people consider how much effort they want to put into promotion.

Many directories are bloated with out of date listings and your blog may get lost in the mess. When I am browsing directories I hate to troll through many dead links or blogs. Make sure the directory you use is maintained regularly.

Some bloggers I know have experimented with 'traffic exchange' services like BlogExplosion. The consensus seems to be that: while your readership will go up; it is hard to attract loyal readers. Sometimes users have to read blogs they don't like and comment to 'make hits'. It is interesting to note that Jim doesn't include such services in his list of examples.

Photo Links

2005-06-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

Have a look at the links in Photo Links and let me know what you think. I will add gallery links and more photography links later. If you have suggestions please comment.

July Theme

2005-06-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our June Theme at OPB was fun and we posted lots of neat pics.

July Theme Suggestions:

Festivals: due to Canada Day and Independence Day.

Cityscenes

Parks and Playgrounds: This would probably be the easiest because we all have lots of pics and summer is perfect for going out with a camera.

Photoblogs

2005-06-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

It seems like Glimpse may have started something. There are many new photoblogs being produced by Flickr groups. I will look into this further and may do a write up about it.

Alcoholix gets me all the bloggers near this pub

2005-06-29T21:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.getfridged.com/alcoholix/index.php

If you, as a blogger, enter some information like street, city and country at that site, other bloggers who live in the vicinity of your nearby pub, can be shown on map.
For that matter enter any address to find the pubs nearby then pick a pub and the map will display people who live nearby and also blog. how about that?

Who blogs near my pub?

2005-06-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Alcoholix

June Theme!!

2005-06-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

Check the photoblog for our June theme. We started late but can still have fun.

June Photo Theme?

2005-05-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

What should we do for June in Our Photoblog?

Flickr Webring

2005-05-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

Keith told me about a 'Blogs that Flickr' webring. I checked it out and added the code to Firemind. I added some comments in the rings blog. We will let you know how things go.

The associated Flickr group is Get Flickrd!

Bloglines Tutorial

2005-05-02T02:26:00.000-07:00

Bloglines is a popular newsreader/aggregator people use to keep track of different blogs. Some of our members use it. I found an interesting tutorial while checking out this blog.

Our Photoblog Theme For May.

2005-05-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Our Photoblog theme for May is Favourites: Old and New. See that blog for details. Happy posting.

What del.icio.us Is.

2005-04-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

I love del.icio.us.

It is an online bookmark manager. Instead of bookmarking a site in their web browser, people click their del.icio.us bookmarklet to save it to the del.icio.us website. Then it doesn't matter where they are - at the library, at their friend's place, at school - they have access to all their bookmarklets. They simply go to the del.icio.us website. For example, here's mine.

A cool side-effect of del.icio.us is that they publish the most linked-to sites each day. So you can go to this third-party website to see the most popular ideas/memes of the day. What's even better is that everything in del.icio.us has an associated feed!).

I love the fact that I can get at my bookmarks even when I am away from my home computer.

by Jonathan Aquino (via email) (Reprinted with permission).

HaloScan

2005-04-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Recently I checked into Comment Services for my new blog and ran across HaloScan. The service provides your usual commenting service by use of pop-up windows which collects and displays info. posted to your blog. I went ahead and added the basic service to my blog. Then I realized that HaloScan didn't provide the basic service of e-mail notification for you unless you upgrade your account with them. The cost is $12 (USD) for 12 months, which isn't alot, but since Blogger already provided the service for free, I switched back to Blogger comments. An account upgrade with HaloScan also provides Full Template Customization, Comment Searching, and increased post length from 3,000 characters to 10,000 characters.

Technorati Tags

2005-04-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about adding some tags to my blog posts from the Technorati service. Do any of you use this tag service? How would you rate the service? Have you had many site hits by use of this tag service? Any info. would be appreciated on this or any other blog tag services.

BlogPulse

2005-04-15T03:12:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with BlogPulse. I searched for 'Firemind' and 'Learning To Blog' so far. The 'Firemind' search led to some blogs that have blogged my flickr pics. The 'Learning To Blog' search lead to an interesting blog post about why blogging is good for you. I will link it and commentwhen I can.

I want to play with the site again and then decide if I want to submit my/our blogs to their database.

Welcome Keith/Cleaning House.

2005-04-13T01:58:00.000-07:00

Keith is joining us here at The Demo Blog and will join Our Photoblog. We have set up a test blog too.

Speaking of blogs I now have 21 I am a member of. Most of them are test blogs shared with members. I would like to weed out some of the unused test blogs from my list. Christine, Gale, and Lou: if you aren't using your test blog right now can you boot me out as a member? You can always invite me back if you need to.

I will be contacting some members who haven't stopped by for a while. I will check on how they are doing and remind them we are here. If they don't wish to participate that is ok. I won't boot anyone without reason.

Our Photoblog was showing 45 posts before Blogger stats stopped working. I just counted 73 posts. I do enjoy sharing the photoblog with you all.

Linking For Keith

2005-04-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

Keith have a look at the Edit Html and/or Compose bar above the space where you write.

You will see a green dot with a sideways 8 or infinty sign.

Click on this button and you will see a pop up box open. Copy the url you want to link into the box and click ok. This Is A Good Link To Your Blog.

If the link doesn't work check the link html.

(a href="http://wwwbtiger.blogspot.com/")This Is A Good Link To Your Blog(/a). Replace the () with <> to make a working link.

A common problem is copying the url and not overwriting the http:// that Blogger inserts into the popup box. This leads to a bad link.

Caution: Your blog url can make things weird for you if you are not careful. http://wwwbtiger.blogspot.com - you added a www to your blog name. Blogspot blogs use http://someblogname.blogspot.com - note that the www is not used. For example: http://thedemoblog.blogspot.com

Photo Links

2005-04-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the links page for Our Photoblog. I called it simply Photo Links and arranged it a bit. If members are happy with the format I will start adding links and then add a link to it in the sidebar of Our Photoblog.

Let me know what you think.

About Us

2005-04-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned this blog to some people lately and wanted to provide a quick intro.

This blog is open to people using Blogger.
There is no charge but some obligations.
We will help with questions and ideas.
When you know how to do something you may be asked to write a mini tutorial. This helps you and helps others.
You will be invited to become a member of this blog and can use it to post questions and ideas related to blogging and/or your blog.
You will be invited to join 'Our Photoblog' and post pictures.
We also have an associated group at Flickr. It is handy for communication. Flickr is a lot of fun. Flickr is optional.
Each member has a test blog and invites me or another experienced member to join. That way we can test ideas with out trashing your blog.

Obligations:

Treat other members with respect.
Members should post here at least once a month. This is important for new members because it keeps them in contact and not afraid to ask for help.
Your first priority is your blog. If something interesting about blogging comes up consider writing it in your blog first and then linking here. (Unless it doesn't 'fit').

I may add some more ideas later. Consider this a rough draft. It does summarize this blog's purpose and methods.

Updated Version

Rutland Herald

2005-03-31T03:30:00.000-08:00

Rutland Herald: "Officials at Proctor Jr.-Sr. High School have banned access from school computers to an Internet site that students have been using to post to weblogs, or blogs.

Principal Chris Sousa said the decision to block the site from school was made because blogging is not an educational use of school computers."

AN interesting article about blogging and education because it is similar in my school.
[via BoingBoing]

Updates

2005-03-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick updates of what is happening.

March Theme
The April theme for Our Photoblog is Spring. Post pictures of the cheery signs of Spring such as plants, animals, weather, snow melt, and other things. I will add a little intro as usual.

New Member
We have a new member who we will be teaching/learning from. His Flickr name is tmsunflower. When he gets set up in Blogger we'll let you know and you can pop in and say hello.

Victoria Photo Club
Part of the reason I started this group blog was to teach blogging to people in Victoria. I also will be heading a photography club for a local agency. The final approval went through and my ad is in our newsletter.

We should have new members coming in the next month or so. We will introduce photography, then flickr, then photoblogging. If all goes as planned. For out of town members your role would be as it has been - a friendly voice in cyberspace who can occasionally help out.

Photo Links
I want to create a links page for Our Photoblog. It will contain galleries and blogs we like and are nice to look at. For example will link to Christine's 'Pictorial Evidence' and Lou's moblog gallery (if it is back online). Think of sites to add.

I will make a seperate 'blog' for it so that it doesn't muck up OPB.

Educational Bloggers
Lou directed me to this Flickr group. I checked it out and joined. It should provide some interesting contacts and ideas for us.

Template Creation

2005-03-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

One of my goals when we first started the Demo Blog was to be able to create my own Blogger templates. Since then a lot of things have happened and I eventually switched from Blogger to Wordpress as my main blogging engine. When I moved my host of my domain, I got a free domain to go with it. I decided that it would be cool to get a domain with my own name and just play around.

I wanted to have a blog on it, and the easiest way to do I would be Blogger. I spent a while re-acquainting myself with the Blogger templates. After I made a design on my own, I started to make it into a Blogger template. After an hour or so I had completed the template. It was fun. If you want to see how it looks, take a look at loutamposi.net.

I would really like feedback on this. Also, If anyone is interested, I think I have a good enough grip on Blogger templates to write a tutorial. So if you want to learn, I'll be happy to write one.

lou tamposi's video blog

2005-03-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

lou tamposi's video blog

I decided to give it a try, vblogging I mean. It's quite easy and fun. Cool.

MyBlogLog and Freevlog

2005-03-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

MyBlogLog is a cool stat type thing that helps you track what links people follow of of your site. It is free for the basic version, but you'll like it so much that you will pay for the paid version with extra features within days. Of course your first week is a free pro version so you have time to decide.

If you ever wanted to try Videoblogging, the super technical version of audioblogging, then FreeVLog is for you. It has easy steps to setting up a free videoblog using blogger. The only thing you need to pay for is the tool you will use to record your posts. I am going to give it a try, you should to.

March Theme Proposition

2005-02-21T13:51:00.000-08:00

March is coming soon and we still need a theme for Our Photoblog. I have one suggestion right now- Toys.

We could do spring, but as it doesn't start until late March I think that would better go as an April theme.

Any other suggestions?

Flickr: Educational Bloggers

2005-02-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Flickr: Educational Bloggers

I found a group on Flickr for uses for blogs in education. Sweet!

80x15 button maker

2005-02-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

80x15 buttons are all the rage with bloggers these days... now you can make your own!

Make 'em with out images!

Make 'em with images!

It's great fun!

Blogging Blog

2005-02-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

Blogging Blog

Did you know that we are listed on their blog roll?

CSS and other tutorials

2005-01-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

I found the W3Schools Online site when checking out a blog that showed up in our Truefresco Referrer.

Blogs, Writing and Education

2005-01-29T23:56:00.000-08:00

I read Blogging by Biz Stone and enjoyed it. I have been waiting for his new book, Who Let The Blogs Out, to appear in local bookstores. I liked this review at Cafenut.

Writing is a passion of mine and I like finding good articles dealing with the topic. I found this article by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti quite enlightening.

Both Shahid (Cafenut) and Sadi are members of Geek2Geek. Lou and I are also members.

In December I wrote a post called Blogging in School 2 and mentioned Will Richardson and his blogs. He maintains a list called The Read Write Web in Schools and lists The Demo Blog. We're not a school but we do teach and learn together. It is nice to be recognized.

Read Me - Leon's OPB Theme Proposal For February

2005-01-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

The theme is Read Me - ie any type of reading material, or location. We could have a mini scavenger hunt and ask for pictures of newspapers, magazines, books, bookcases/collections, bookstores (with pics of books). The first three should be things you have/are/planning to read. Use existing pics but look for new ones.

Members without cameras can check out creative commons pics at flickr if they participate.

TTLB And February Theme For Our Photoblog

2005-01-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

TTLB

This post is an answer in part to Lou's last post. I added TTLB to the sidebars of this blog and Our Photoblog. We are back to being microbes in the evolutionary tree but we have to start somewhere. Thanks Lou.

February Theme

Some of the suggestions passed about during IM include: Books, Spring, Travel.

Travel - I won't have a holiday for months now so this topic wouldn't be much fun for me.

Spring - If we wait until March we could really celebrate Spring since the official start is March 21st.

Books - I suggested this one in part because I know many of us are book nuts and have pictures or large collections to photograph. As I thought of this I modified my idea to encompass reading in general. I will post my proposal in the next post.

The only other idea that pops in my head is Valentine's Day.

So think of a theme and we will vote on it.

TTLB Ecosystem

2005-01-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

TTLB Ecosystem: Add Weblog
Leon, do you think we should add TDB and OPB to the TTLB Ecosystem? Just follow the link and fill out the info to do it.

HOT SWIMMING

2005-01-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

I finished designing my swim team's website. All that is left is adding the content. Tell me how I did, I designed the whole thing by hand using CSS (yes I am learning!) and HTML. I am proud of my self.

Edit
Sorry, forgot the site

Happy Holidays!

2005-01-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a happy holiday time. But I have a QUESTION. Does anyone know how to make like a rotating thing for a bannder ad. Like if I wanted to have a banner randomly displayed and linking to a site. Any ideas? Thanks.

Photoblog Theme For January.

2005-01-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

This month's theme at Our Photoblog is "I'm Hungry". Drop in and share a snack!

Captain Crunch Is Back!

2005-01-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

David and I managed to get his blog back in action. Teamwork pays off! Of course I am using his account to post this.

Check out Gale's Test blog to see how her Whale Tales blog will look.

- Leon.

Audio? / January

2004-12-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

So is anyone else going to try an audio post?

In January we shall have lots to do.

Working

2004-12-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

I have been working pretty much constantly on getting my blog in to shape. I've had a few distractions along the way, but it is getting there.

Wordpress is really working well, and because I couldn't figure what template I wanted I made it so the reader can choose. I want to try and figure out a way to get this for blogger templates, which I want to start making soon. If I finish one, I will post it here first.

This was just a check in, so check out my blog and tell me how it looks now.

Audio Greetings

2004-12-16T05:43:00.000-08:00

This is an example of an audioblog. Lou has used them in his blog during the hurricanes. I have experimented with them before. It costs a flat rate from Victoria. I think is was five dollars for the two posts. if you want to stop in and say hi.

I will audioblog to Firemind also.

Our Photoblog Listed

2004-12-14T01:32:00.000-08:00

I checked Globe Of Blogs and Our Photoblog is now showing up in the directory. It is on this page and this page.

Because of the way I had to list the blogs nationality Lou, Gale, and Christine have become honourary Canadians. I guess we will have to teach you to say "Eh!".

Messages and Timeline

2004-12-12T05:22:00.000-08:00

Gale - Whale Tales looks great. Two links on your Table of Contents still lead to Gale test but that is easy to change. Your first listing with blogtools is done. Look at Globe Of Blogs and Globe.

Everyone - Timeline

Things are getting busy for me so I will be out of contact periodically until after Christmas. When needed please assist other members with problems. People requesting help should keep in mind that we are all busy. I for one am going to stop puttering with my different blogs structures until the New Year. What little computer time I have available will be to write and read blogs.

Late December/New Years - A holiday theme at Our Photoblog.

January - our misplaced blogwarming party and hopefully tutorials.

Coming Soon - Geek 2 Geek

Blogging in School 2

2004-12-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

Hunterdon Central Regional High School - uses blogs in many ways. Click on the links to see some of them. Will Richardson the 'Supervisor of Instructional Technology and Communications' at this school has an interesting blog.

The Power of Science - is another example of a blog used in schools.

Normally I would add information like the above to Linknut. Since it fits with the last post I wanted to post it here.

Lou - I realize you are busy right now and will be changing classes soon. However, mention this post and the previous to some of your teachers. They may find the information interesting.

Blogging In School

2004-12-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

The Demo Blog is a learning blog. We teach each other about blogging and I hope to use our blog in workshops early next year. We then are concerned with education.

Yesterday Lou wrote a post called Blogging at School that I found interesting. It reminded me of a post about education blogs I had written. One of the links was to the profile of Ms. Fitterman. She and her students are using Blogger. I mentioned the teacher to Lou and we thought that it would be interesting and beneficial to contact her. I left a comment in one of the blogs directed to the teacher.

One of the reasons I decided to contact the teacher was to share ideas about teaching blogging. In our group we have used tutorials, and direct teaching using instant messaging. We are interacting and building community. We have two very active blogs and a series of test blogs. We came together because people needed help and others wanted to help.

Another reason I want contact with other learning groups is our diversity. When I tell people about our group they are often amazed. We range in age from 14 to 61 and cover 3 countries and 2 continents. We have a variety of skills and experience. I hope we can serve as an example of something that works and that people are interested in what we have to say.

Finally I want to promote blogging as a useful tool for education. Lou's comment about 'no blogging' makes me think somebody is missing the point. I read somewhere that 'you don't have to be a good writer to blog, but if you keep writing you will become one.' I have seen blogs that started out full of slang and typos become better written and more grammatical. My friend Laura – Jane's blog is a good example. (See this example and this one.)

Blogging is a combination of writing and cybersocial interaction. We write for ourselves and hopefully please our readers. When we comment in other blogs we begin to interact with people all over the world. Our peer group expands dramatically. Blogging is a way for us to interact and keep challenging ourselves. Why shouldn't it be a part of the curriculum?

Notes:

Our comments are set to members only. Guests may use the guestbook in the sidebar.

My Truefresco Referrer picked up one of the student blogs after someone popped into Firemind. I followed the link back to Ms. Fitters profile.

Reply to James and Gale

2004-12-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

James - I wrote a short tutorial specific to adding links to your blog. It is in your test blog.

Gale - 1. More work in your test blog and whale blog. We are getting there.

2. back up - I write my major posts and save them on my computer before I post. If I do write a post in blogger first I copy the whole post including the date stamp and title to my wordprocessor and save. I am not sure about other back up methods unless you do like my friend and get a tape back up machine. Whether it would work for webstuff I am not sure.

A Few of My Thoughts

2004-12-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being rather absent over the last while... Even in the weeks before my dad passed away. And thanks for all your thoughts during that tough time. I posted the entire eulogy I wrote for my dad on my blog - http://carjunky.blogspot.com

I'm not having second thoughts over blogging in general, but just that I truly do like my more simplistic blog. I just don't necessarily want an ultra-fantastic "all the latest bells and whistles" blog. My blog is generally semi-personal, I mention it to friends and family (it is also in my profiles in a couple of places on the internet), and beyond that whoever else happens to stumble across it.

I really have a very simple wish list:

1) I want a small links list; I went through all the options and couldn't seem to find where to start that

2) Perhaps post a small macro button for British Car Forum, one of my other internet hangouts, I know there is (or certainly was at one time) a way to post that on a website, I should be able to acquire the HTML coding, but then how to incorporate that

So, that's where I'm at, I haven't entirely disappeared and I did post one picture on the Photo Blog tonight.

Back up?

2004-12-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

What is the best way to back up a blog.... just in case I end up liking what I wrote?

Learn Blogger

2004-12-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Learning to blog just got easier. (via Cafenut). I knew I was on the right track.

Google Groups : demoblog

2004-12-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

Google Groups : demoblog:

Subscribe to the demo blog

Email:

Browse Archives at groups-beta.google.com

I created a google group for the demo blog. Maybe it will come in handy, maybe it won't. It's probably just another way to confuse us!

Lou - Moving Blogger Archives

2004-12-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Because you used blogger in both places - ie the old and new hosts - did you have to copy and post to the past or were you able to export your blog?

Wordpress Experiment

2004-12-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I am experimenting with Wordpress right now, just to get a feel for some other blogging places. It is pretty easy to install, but you need to have your own hosting and stuff. You can see on my post there what i am trying to do right now. I suppose I will keep you updated.
Wordpress blog

Fun With Buttons

2004-12-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

Made with Buttonmaker via Order Confirmed. The second, third, and last buttons were made by Lou.

I had to edit the html a bit as there were too many spaces and other little problems. But I like the buttons and will try them on my blogs.

Ready

2004-12-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

Just letting you know that the address for my blog is no longer onthegergo.blogspot.com but infact tamposi.net/lou/blog. It is ready for visitors but /lou and the main page itself are NOT ready. But the blog is up and running.

Making Faces

2004-12-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

Have fun with your blog. I made a self portrait using Ultimate Flash Face.

Promoting 2

2004-12-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

The buttonmaker is fun to experiment with Lou.

1. Should we stick to consistent buttons for The Demo Blog and Our Photoblog? I made one for this blog that looks like the RSS fed one. Your 'Our Photoblog' one is nice.

2. If we use them may we upload them to our storage sites - it would save you the bandwidth.

Hotlinking

2004-12-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

When you hotlink to a picture, mp3, or any other file you are stealing from the site owner. Quite often hotlinking hurts other bloggers more than it hurts the big companies "who can afford it. Lovedonnaz has written an interesting post dealing with hotlinking and ways to deal with it.

Hotlinking to pictures is when someone does this:

I like this idea:

And will have to check it out.

If you are not hosting either at a free site or your own website it is better to link like this. Using this method means that your readers can see the picture and yet you are not stealing the bandwith required to link the pic to your site. Some sites still will block a user who has too many visitors but this is a slightly different problem.

I found this discussion about hotlinking at Ask Metafilter.

Promoting the Blog

2004-12-02T03:55:00.000-08:00

If you are a big fan of those 80x15 buttons, I made one for the group:

In real life, it doesn't have that border. ;)

Truefresco, Gale and Lou

2004-11-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

We are a busy bunch.

Gale has been busy experimenting in her test blog. She asked about counters and referers so I added Truefresco to her test blog so she could check it out. Her version is in the sidebar with some extra scripting to keep it from mucking up her layout. Check the source code.

I added the code to the footer of this blog. I didn't use the extra script because the footer extends across the page. I am thinking of adding one to the sidebar of Our Photoblog.

Do we want both sitemeter and statcounter for the photoblog? Statcounter would probably be better for me because one account would cover everything.

Lou's home page is looking good. He has been busy getting ready to blog to his website. Lou - don't forget to post here when you are ready for visitors. I have other suggestions which I will post to your test blog.

Our Photoblog is cool! Don't forget to link to it from your blogs.

Please Read

2004-11-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

James I hope I am not intruding at this time. I just wanted you to know that your online friends are thinking about you.

Everyone - stop in at James' blog and say hi. James lost his father this week.

Just a quick Test

2004-11-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

I am having some troubles posting to Order Confirmed. Just testing to see if I can post here.

Interesting Blog with Tutorials

2004-11-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

Rolandog has an interesting blog that is full of ideas and tutorials. One of the more interesting is the Scrolling Photo-Log.

I find all that movement a bit much for my tastes, but I like a blog with innovative ideas. I will have to visit the site again.

Javascript Sidebar Menu / Banner Ad

2004-11-26T03:47:00.000-08:00

Javascript Sidebar Menu

I had a copy of Xara Webstyle from a magazine and remembered making buttons for websites. The choices were limited, but fun to use.

I found the Xara Online site and signed up for the free service. I tried some different styles. The choices are extremely limited in both style and number of links. Furthermore, each account only gets one item of each type. One benefit of the service is that Xara hosts everything.

An example has been added to the Demo Junk sidebar.

Banner Ad

I also made a basic banner ad to promote Our Photoblog. Check Demo Junk for this too.

Both items can be modified with having to change the template.

Testing Ideas

2004-11-26T01:23:00.000-08:00

I have been testing ideas in Demo Junk.

I made a button to link to one of my blogs and added it to the sidebar. It worked out ok, but the button needs to be clearer.

I also turned the Archives into an Archive Menu. I will do the same at Firemind because my archive list is getting quite long.

I have also been experimenting at Firemind. I modified my Truefresco Referrer as explained in this tutorial. I had to change the width to 180px to keep my blogger page viewable at 800x600 without using a scrollbar. I am pleased with the results. The Referrer has been useful, but it could be an eyesore.

I will add Referrers to Our Photoblog and The Demo Blog.

Using A Flash Menu In Blogger

2004-11-25T03:16:00.000-08:00

I was going to try using a flash menu in my test blog. The menu worked fine on my computer. Flickr, however, doesn't accept swf files. It would be interesting to see if this menu works in blogger.

I created the menu at Flashbuttons.com

Blogger Basics

2004-11-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

I added a sidebar link to Blogger Basics to Gale's test blog and to this blog. It saves new members the hassle of finding the pages at Blogger help.

Side Blog

2004-11-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

I have been experimenting in my test blog on how to make a "sideblog" type thing. You know, for stuff that doesn't really qualify for for a post to the main blog but is good enough to mention. Kinda like the Furl Bookmarker but with added comments you can see. After a bit of experimenting, I think I figured out how to do it. You can see an example on my test blog. I am still working out the kinks and it should work better after I get my hosting because I can host the sideblog there rather than blogger. But it is pretty nifty and if you want to know how it is done, pay attention.

Step one- Create your "side blog"
To do this, create a new blog with a simple template.

Step two- Edit the template
You need to delete anything irrelevant to the post. That includes the sidebar, comments, footer, even the heading.

Step three- Insert the sideblog into your blog
For this you need some HTML. The cide is pretty simple. What you are doing is getting the sideblog and inserting it into your main blog. The code is as follows:(object data="(url of imported blog)" type="text/html")(/object). You can optionally insert custom height and width attributes as well. This code is then inserted in the sidebar of you blog.

Step four- Preview
Always preview after making template hacks. Ypu don;t want to publish crap. If you like the way it looks, you are done.

Notes- I figured out how to do this with the help of this tutorial.
If you have any questions, you can ask me or look at that.
Also, you might want to drag this into your toolbar. It is the BlogThis window. This will help you update your sideblog on the fly. At least thats how I do it.

Linking To Words Within A Post

2004-11-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here is your text relating to the dolphin article:

"as the ones who rescued the swimmers in New Zealand".

Here is your link:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1349802004

This is perfectly acceptable, but with the tools in Blogger it is easy to make it look nicer and easier to check out.

Method 1:
"as the ones who rescued the swimmers in New Zealand".

Read the full story.

(a href="http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1349802004")Read the full story.(/a) The () will be <> of course.

Method 2:

"as the ones who rescued the swimmers in New Zealand".

"as the ones who (a href="http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1349802004")rescued the swimmers(/a) in New Zealand".

Here you use key words to link to the story without interupting the flow of your writing. Many bloggers prefer this method and use the former when this one seems awkward for some reason.

Links are made the same way as sidebar links:

1. Write your post.
2. Paste the link you want to use. Put it at the end of the post.
3. Decide what method you wish to use when linking.
4. Copy the link.
5. Highlight the words you want to associate the link with.
6. Click on the green insert link button in the toolbar.
7. Paste in the link.
8. Click ok
9. Save the post 'as draft'.
10. Re open the post to edit.
11. Click on preview in the upper right toolbar.
12. Click on the link and see if it works.
13. Click the back button to return to your work.
14. If the link works delete the link you posted in #2.
15. Publish Post.

Gale - you posted essentially the same material to Whale Tales2 and Our Photoblog. This is called 'cross posting'. I will cross post this tutorial to The Demo Blog.

Looking Far For New Members

2004-11-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

I have been had a strange evening wherein I followed links to sites in the Falkland Islands. The information was interesting and so I looked for any weblogs, but couldn't find any. Therefore I left a message on a community message board inviting people to contact us if they are interested in blogging. I wonder what will happen?