To blog or not to blog......what the heck is a blog anyway?

So, here I am airing my views about blogs on a......well, blog! That should give you a hint as to what my views are likely to be!

For those of you reading this blog, you already know what a blog is: an online journal. Short for weblog, blogging has grown like wildfire over the last few years as more and more folks start taking advantage of free opportunities widely available on the 'net to publish their own views, reviews, musings, rants, raves...whatever. According to www.wisegeek.com, Merriam-Webster even chose the word blog as word of the year in 2004. Although the very first blog is also rumored to have been the very first website around 1992, the practice didn't really gain steam until the late 1990s and has been steadily gaining in popularity since 2000. Personally, I don't think I'd ever heard of one until about two years ago and even then wasn't particularly interested in doing my own since I have a website. After becoming a member of the International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce, I started hearing from my fellow businesswomen how they were using blogs to enahance their own websites and I decided to give it a try. Needless to say, I was hooked! That was in April of 2005. After starting my own (this blog was originally called Chicken Scratches) I started blogging the wrap-up of the weekly PC Primer radio show. It was a lot easier than posting on my own website.

In this chick's view, blogging is just too cool! You don't have to learn HTML. You can blog about anything. Anybody with an Internet connection can read what you have to say (and even leave comments, which is the coolest part in my opinion). You can even subscribe to your favorite blogs and be notified in your newsreader whenever there's a new post or update. After explaining to the radio listeners what blogging is, I was suprised to find out that one of our most faithful listeners, Jane from Dixon, has been blogging for about four years! Jane's blog is not for the public, but has been a great way for family to keep up with each other and what's going on in their lives. Another listener, Pastor Paul, started blogging about a month ago to keep friends and family apprised of his wife's condition in her battle with cancer. Mary lost that battle just this month and my heart goes out to Pastor Paul but I can't help thinking that having a blog to share his thoughts during such an emotionally wrenching time for himself and his family offered some comfort to him. I also have a long time cyberfriend, Mary, who has a couple of blogs, both business and personal. I comment quite regularly on her blog for solo entrepreneurs (solopreneurs). I've also been keeping up with the progress of CoolCast radio on the BX Internet blog and Matt Hartley's blog. (Well, Jane, I can say that between the two of us, we've sparked Lee's interest. He plans to start his own Sports Zone blog in the near future.)

Yep, I'd definitely recommend blogging to anyone who wants to publish online without actually registering a domain and designing a website. In my case, blogging has definitely enhanced my own website as well as the website for PC Primer. Now that I've joined the blogging community, I'm anxious to find out just who else is a member. Take advantage of the comments section here at Views from the Coop and make yourself known!

[And the Views continue...]

Are you ready to exchange your credit card for a cellphone?

This week on PC Primer, Views from the Coop looked at the news from PC World about a technology that gives a cellphone user the ability to pay for certain purchases using nothing but his or her cellphone. According to PC World in an article from September 19 they did some testing of a technology that allowed the author to pay for his meal in a Boston restaurant by using his Treo 600. There's even a cellphone payment system being used in Florida by the city parking department that allows folks to pay for parking. If the meeting runs long, you just call in and extend your time. No more looking for loose change and finding tickets under the wipers because you forgot to feed the meter. You even get a friendly text message reminding you that your time is up and asking if you've left the parking place, or if you want to extend your time. It's a great article and makes me wonder what's around the corner.

Personally, I'm cellphone challanged. I can make and receive calls. I can even upload ringtones to my phone from my computer via USB using the Magix Ringtone Maker software. I start getting in over my head when I try to answer a call that's coming in while I'm already talking to someone else. I always manage to cut one of them off. Of course I tend to do that on my landline at home, too...I got a cellphone because I wanted to be able to make and receive phone calls away from home without having to find a payphone. I must admit, I don't always remember to turn my phone on and when I change the ringtone to silent when I don't want to be disturbed, I forget to turn it back up. I guess you can say I'm not enamored of all the cool things my phone is capable of doing just because I haven't found a need to use all the features. My husband, on the other hand, just got his first camera phone and has started a collection of my worst facial expressions. He's even activated a feature that allows him to e-mail his pictures. I just hope he doesn't e-mail any of those awful pictures he took of me to anybody...

Ah, but I digress. Would I like to have a cellphone as a wallet? Probably not. It's not that I don't think it's a cool technology and could be quite useful to people who travel a lot. I just don't have a need for it currently. I do fine with my credit cards and I don't ever park in spaces that have parking meters. Of course I live in a small town and don't do a lot of traveling. Of course, if you lose your wallet, you lose your credit cards. If you lose your phone, you still have a phone nunber you can call from a different phone. If some enterprising thief takes your phone and discovers the toll-free number in your address book, he or she still won't be able to make charges to your credit card without knowing the unique ID you have to enter into the automated system to complete a transaction.

I suppose this sort of thing would mostly appeal to those people I see walking around with a Bluetooth earpiece hanging from their ear (another technology I'm not particularly crazy about). If you don't get out of the house without your cellphone and like to stay continuously connected, then maybe this technology is something you'll be excited about using. I'd love to hear what you think, so please leave your feedback. How attached are you to your to your cellphone? What would you need to know before you used it to pay for your meal (or your parking space)? Are we heading to a cashless society????????

[And the Views continue...]

OK, so the Broadband isn't here, so how about dialup?

I had a satellite connection to the Internet for over 2 years and decided it just wasn't worth what I was paying for it. I moved my home office to my mom's house (she has DSL) and unsubscribed to satellite (yep, I dumped it...). Since my husband, Rick, still uses the Internet at home, I subscribed to dialup. Was it worth it?

OK, I have a 56k modem which never connects at a greater speed than 33.6, usually I connect at 28.8. I understand that my ISP can't guarantee I'll connect at 56k, or even at 33.6. My phone lines come into play here, too. A few questions we need to ask are:

• Do my phone lines support 56k? If they don't there's NO way I'll even come close to getting that kind of speed. It's time to call the phone company!


• Am I using the same protocol to connect that my ISP uses? Not all 56k modems are created equally. If I'm using one protocol and my ISP using something different, I probably can't expect to get the fastest speed my phone lines will support. Are we both using x2, K56flex, or V.90? I can call my ISP and check this out.


• Is my modem connected directly to the wall outlet, or does it go through a surge protector? Even though the modem is supposed to ignore other devices that are connected to it when it's online, that's not always the case.


• Should I unplug my fax machine? Even though my fax machine is not plugged into my modem, they're still using the same phone line. I do have a fax machine and probably need to check my connection speed with it unplugged.

Even if you don't know a lot about computers, you can still do a little troubleshooting using the above steps. Hey, I need to follow my own advice...after all, dialup isn't a problem for me, but Rick's not too thrilled about it.

[And the Views continue...]