Unsung Blogger of the Week #12

Filed in Unsung Blogger.., November 20, 2005, 11:16 am by

This week’s featured blogger is Jeff Ferrell and his blog Ferrellweb.com. Its a fine example of a  Boss Blog as Seth Godin calls it. The text from the email interview follows: 1. Please write a brief profile of you and your involvement with
blogging.  I’ve been teaching English at a rural high school in the state of
Tennessee since 1993, and first experimented with a class- and school-related web site in 1996. I noticed web logs sometime around 2003, I suppose, and adopted a blog as the foundation for my own site, hoping it would make updating easier. It certainly did, though it probably didn’t make the actual *posts* any more frequent. My blog (and web site in general) is aimed at a pretty narrow target- group: my high school students. I use it to try to provide them with information beyond the regular curriculum, to direct them to current material related to class lessons and discussions, or to point them to sites, articles, and ideas they might not normally run into on their usual Internet rounds. I try to post things I hope they might find generally interesting, intriguing, or heck, just plain fun from time to time. Even though there’s little personal information
(deliberately so, considering the focus), I hope the site as a whole
manages to convey my personality, and proves useful or entertaining to anyone else who wanders in!

2. How do you publicize your blog? Publicizing has never been a top priority of mine; so I haven’t given
this angle much thought. I’ve dreamed of developing a massive
resource-site for students and teachers, but it’s always tricky
finding the time. Until then, I’ve always considered it a “work in
progress” and haven’t tried to actively draw in outside traffic.

3. Which techniques have worked for you and which ones have not? Since I’m not actively seeking publicity, it’s hard to say — I’m
sure word-of-mouth is my biggest hit-generator, and most of my
referral links come from my school district’s web site. I do get hits
(in spurts) from a few other sites that are connected to teacher web
site development workshops, and that’s pretty flattering.

4. What do you consider as your best post so far? You can include
 upto 3. This is a tough one, since my posts are usually derivative — I’m
usually just writing about *somebody else’s* material, rather than
posting my own. If I had to pick one, though, it would have to be “A Man of Many Talents” ( a post triggered by a class discussion of Julius Caesar and ancient Rome that included the question, “How much is that in dollars?” when young Caesar’s debts came up. It’s the only post I’ve really written totally from scratch, and it occasionally gets hits from web searches like “talent worth in dollars” and “drachma equivalent ancient rome,” which is pretty encouraging. It’s the kind of stuff I wish I had more time to research and write. [Excellent post. – Ed.].

5.   What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that are not in any Top 100/500 lists). I’m not too sure about who’s on what list, but here are a few I check in with on a regular basis: Desbladet  makes me grin.[Don’t miss Desbladet’s Getting Cold causes Colds  -Ed.].  The Comics Curmudgeon  makes me laugh out loud [“I read the comics so you don’t have to” is the old name of this blog. -Ed.]. Heather Armstrong’s Dooce continually renews my faith in the possibility of domestic bliss, although that may not be her intention, exactly… The Languagehat  makes me wish I read 1/4 as much, and knew a few more languages.
Slacktivist  makes me think. And Creating Passionate Users (
makes me try to think of ways to help my students kick ass. 😉 [This is the 2nd mention for Headrush in this series. – Ed.]
 
6.  What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient). I’m reading criticism right now; interesting, but maybe not exciting
for all. Here’s some general stuff, though: I really dig books by Umberto Eco. Really. For pure escapism, I grab any of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels;
sometimes I dream of being Archie — confident, self-assured,
impeccably dressed, and packing heat. Sometimes, it’s Nero — either futzing around with orchids, reading, or sitting in my chair drinking beer and issuing diatribes. Either way, I win. 🙂

7. What are your current movie recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient) I’m not too big in the “current movie” scene… I spend a lot of time
backing up over all the movies I’m too young to have seen on the
first run. I recently caught Sunset Boulevard for the first time in
quite a few years on Turner Classic Movies, and loved it again.

Tsunami-orphaned hippo adopted by a 100-year-old tortoise

Filed in General Interest, November 17, 2005, 11:00 pm by

Its a bit dated, but a heart warming tale of how a 100 year old tortoise has adopted a hippo orphaned by the tsunami in Nairobi, Kenya. (Via Priya Raju)

Unsung Blogger of the Week #11

Filed in Unsung Blogger.., November 13, 2005, 12:49 pm by

This week’s featured blogger is Mark Draughn. He has been maintaining his blog Windypundit for over 3 years now. The text of the email interview follows: 1. Please write a brief profile of you and your involvement with blogging I live and work from home as a software developer on the north west side of Chicago, Illinois, USA. I’ve got a BS and MS in Computer Science from IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology, not the one in India). I had started on a Ph.D., but I decided to relax and enjoy my life instead. I started Windypundit in July 2002 (when it was still not completely lame to name your blog something-pundit) as a generally  commentary and opinion blog. Although Chicago is the “Windy City,” I don’t confine myself to Chicago-related topics. This year  I’ve started teaching myself photography, so I’m posting some of the better pictures, either as standalone photoblogging or as editorial content. 2. How do you publicize your blog? I only just started thinking about this. Sometimes I get readers –and eventually links—from sites where I’ve posted comments, but I don’t post comments just to get traffic. If I post original content (not just my opinion) such as my photographs of Chicago-area buildings threatened by abuse of eminent domain, then I’ll send a few links to others who’ve blogged about the subject. Also, I’ve recently joined the
“Life, Liberty, Property” community at TTLB. 3. Which techniques have worked for you and which ones
have not? The LLP community at TTLB has raised my position in the TTLB
ecosystem. I went from a rank of about 13000 to about 3200
in a week. On the other hand, syndication through Bloglines hasn’t really paid off. Only a couple of people subscribe. My biggest splash in the blogosphere was a total accident. I used to be a subscriber to Keyhole’s software for displaying satellite photos on a virtual globe. Google bought them and released an upgraded product called Google Earth. As a subscriber, I got a beta copy, and I installed it and blogged about it that evening, including pictures and a list of new features. Unknown to me, I had just broke the Google Earth story. “Content Is King” is a cliché because it’s true: I got Slashdotted and saw a three-hundred-fold
surge in visits over about 2 days.
[Google + Keyhole = Google Earth – the slashdotted post. -Ed.] I suppose if I wanted to, I could exploit all that attention by starting a digital mapping site, but I’m just not that interested in mapping. Most of the traffic died off pretty quickly, but to this day, I still get more visits to that single page than to the whole rest of the blog. 4. What do you consider as your best post so far? You can
include upto 3. A lot of people have told me they like my Memorial Day post.
[Some superb pictures here from Naperville’s Riverwalk. -Ed.] Here’s one of my angrier political posts about the seemingly
saintly folks at MADD. Finally, here’s a little piece about “The Greatest American”
and all the different ways to be great. 5. What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include
only those that are not in any Top 100/500 lists). Google Blogoscoped – Lots of interesting stuff about Google
and search technology, by Philipp Lenssen.
Drug WarRant – Pete Guither arguing for peace in the War On
Drugs.
CrimLaw – Links and stories by Ken Lammers, a criminal
defense attorney in Virginia. [Make sure to read “Dial G for Murder“.
Google can be too much of a good thing sometimes! – Ed.]
Capital Freedom – Solid free-market thinking…that’s not
too hard on the eyes. Anne Arkham – Other than the Windy City, we have nothing in common, but she’s an interesting read. [Interesting
indeed. Anne has a post on her meeting with Bill Clinton. -Ed.]
6. What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2
is sufficient). Way before Freakonomics, there was The Armchair Economist: Economics And Everyday Life
by Steven Landsburg

Currently reading In The Red Zone by Steven Vincent
 7. What are your current movie recommendations ?
(1 or 2 is sufficient) Nothing these days looks good. I’m currently going through
the first season of “The Wire” on DVD.

Reuters echoes our views on Blackberry

Filed in Uncategorized, November 9, 2005, 11:00 pm by ,

Lucas Van Grinsven on the topic of rising competition to the Blackberry.  Our article “RIM Blackberry faces an uphill battle” aired June 26,2005!

Last guy standing in Delhi.

Filed in Uncategorized, November 8, 2005, 1:00 am by

TTG’s response to a lonely Delhi gal. Hilarious.