Current list of supported services via Pixelpipe:

Photo & Video: Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Photobucket, Nokia Ovi, Phanfare, Smugmug, vimeo, ImageShack, pikeo, webshots, kyte, FotoTime, Zooomr, Fotki, DRR.net, 23hq, 72 photos, ipernity

Micro-Blogs: Pownce, FriendFeed, TwitPic, Seesmic,

Social Networks: Facebook, Friendster, imeem, Vox

Blogs: Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, tumbler, LiveJournal, Atom enabled, MetaWeblog

Photo Printing/Sharing: Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, photobox

Widgets: imageloop

Online storage: box.net, Acrobat.com

Generic: FTP, Email

Blogging is not ‘writing a blog’. Blogging is linking and commenting. Any writing is a bonus.

A picture is worth a thousand words. More importantly, a picture is worth a thousand words in two hundred countries. The fact that readers don’t need to speak English to understand what you’re communicating can make a word-free post - or at least one with a good image - your most successful one.

Pingback/trackback is a wonderful thing, a form of distribution news websites are still struggling to match. What can be more interesting than someone who is interested in you?

The best reason to blog is not to show everyone else what you know, but to find out what everyone else knows

Content is not king.

Conversation is king.

Conversation is the kingdom.

We shouldn’t try to be the media

Do what you do best and link to the rest

Lists have become the biggest cliche in blogging and the most shameless tactic for getting to the top of delicious/digg/reddit.

But people still read them.

Have you bookmarked this yet, by the way?

1000 things I’ve learned about blogging

How to Enter: Comment on the giveaway post at Family Review Network with who you’d take to see the movie. Earn extra entries by subscribing to the feed, blogging about the giveaway, or placing the button in your sidebar.

Enter Before/By: 9/10/08.

How Often to Enter: Up to four times.

Who Can Enter: United States.

What You Can Win: Two movie tickets to see “The Women”.

I'm blogging about this giveaway for an extra entry. Your comments here are always welcome, but please remember to visit the source -as described- for your own entry. Good Luck!

Browsing through some of the documentation, I came across an optional tool that might be useful. It's called EduBlogger and once enabled, seems to all each student in the course to have a blog and the instructor to track it all. Blackboard also has a forum, of course, so it got me thinking about what would be the pros and cons of using a blog vs a forum to encourage either student participation outside of the classroom or allow the students to engage with the material in a media other than essays/exams.

I was thinking of using the discussion board feature of blackboard this term. I'd perhaps post some questions about the readings ahead of time and invite students to respond to them or post reactions of their own to the readings before the class. They could earn extra points for doing so, particularly if they engage in fruitful discussion with their classmates. The bonus would be to get them thinking before class and to allow shy students to get some extra marks.

In future, when I design the course myself (currently I'm just a TA), I'd create a class blog and make it more of an assignment. For this term, I might stick to the discussion board.

As an aside, I found this post on education blogs that was interesting and had many useful links. A lot of resources on using blogs on education seem to be related or geared towards primary and secondary school. Let me know if you find any discussions of it in a university context.

The ending of John "The Coat-hanger" McCain's speech was the best part - not just because it came to an end, but because he actually looked like someone who could inspire the American people to go in a different direction. I scored that part of his speech 3/5 - not bad at all.

Many pundits were comparing his to his sole mates speech - hers, in my eyes got 1/5 - not because of who she is, but because it was smug and full of sarcasm. Not at all presidential or vice-presidential as the case remains, for now anyway.

What I did find quite amusing was that this was John McCain standing in front of a few thousand Bush voters - he insulted them and they laughed with him, whooped with delight and smiled ever so broadly. I thought it an odd situation that McCain said that all they had voted for over the last 8 years was wrong - and they loved him for it.

McCain went on to his "change" aspect - and that he was bringing Sarah Palin to Washington to sell Air force 1 on eBay - what a bloody good idea that will be! Or not as that case is, too. Now, change has me wondering. If you haven't been a part of the establishment for a long time you can take stock of what you see and then - if you have the power, you change it. This was my major problem with Hillary, too. John McCain has been a part of Washington for a quarter of a century - and changed what?

People speak of this Maverick - but why? What has he done other than a few insults to both other congressmen/women, his current wife and people who needed him like the MIA/POW associations. Why hasn't he changed things before now? He had the opportunity because he was a part of the American congress - he was a legislator so he could have "stretched out his hand" and done more, but he didn't - why? As was mentioned in the analysis part of the CNN coverage - how is John McCain and his government going to balance a budget with so much spending and cutting taxes? Of course, it will be a matter that the taxes of the lower paid and poor will go up - the rich won't see a rise, a cut in fact, and massive spending.

The American government and its programs are a monolith. Deregulation has led, in some part, to where the US economy is now. Now it is a matter of putting beef and John McCain and sarcastic Mary will have to say what they will do about the economy.

This is where the two men will be judged.

John McCain - failed Bush policy and the same as it were, or Barack Obama who will bring about a change - not complete change, that cannot happen in his first term, but he can get somewhat there.

80% of the American voters want change - and John McCain cannot bring it.

McCain: 'Fight with me' - CNN.com.

How to Enter: Comment on the giveaway post at An Island Review with your favorite doll from Cabbage Patch Kids. Earn extra entries by subscribing to the feed, blogging about the giveaway, or placing the button in your sidebar.

Enter Before/By: 9/8/08.

How Often to Enter: Up to four entries.

Who Can Enter: United States and Canada.

What You Can Win: Rosario Howell, born on March 21st (ARV $40.00).

I'm blogging about this giveaway for an extra entry. Your comments here are always welcome, but please remember to visit the source -as described- for your own entry. Good Luck!

So I'm new to this whole blog world.  And I have a handful of blogs in my blogroll, and more in my feedreader that I'm still getting to know.   But the rule to this award is that you must bestow it upon seven other bloggers.   Seven?!    Here we go, in no particular order . . .

Domestic Spaz would be get my vote, but I know that SHE was the one who sent it over to Michelle!   Let's still count her as one, though.  Just because.  It's my award now and I can do with it what I will!

The Mother Tongue.  I've been reading Heather's posts for a while now, and sometimes she just hits the nail right on the head!  See the very spirited comments on her breastfeeding post, and her post on the female atheletes' Olympic uniforms.  She took the words right from my mouth!!  I found her blog from a little blurb in Parenting magazine, because Heather was a contestant on Jeopardy.  You just have to read her comments about losing on the show!  I could link to some other posts, but I don't know Heather and have only commented a few times to her -- so let's hope she doesn't think I'm a stalker.  Let's move on, shall we?

Amy at Milk Breath and Margaritas.  I found her blog and had to check it out just based on the name alone!  And she is funny!

Here's another blog I Heart and you just have to visit:  Pocketfuls of Sunshine is brand new and she's posting away!!  Take a look at life from a mom of two under two (and only 13 months apart).  Give her some love and tell her you how you found her . . . and by the way, she's my cousin, too.  Nepotism strikes again!

I recently found The 3 R's:  Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness and we share a love for books!!  Say hello to Florinda (yes, that's her real name.  I thought at first it was maybe Linda and she lived in Florida?  But no, I was wrong.)

I'll put one of the big-time bloggers up here, too -- Dawn from Because I Said So.  I started reading Dawn's blog during the whole e-bay phenomenon -- she posted some Pokemon cards with a hilarious commentary about how they somehow got in her shopping cart when she took all 6 kids to the store!  What an internet sensation -- and now she has a book deal with Guideposts, with her first book to debut around Mother's Day 2009.  See?  Blogging CAN get you somewhere!

Well, that's six, and we'll count Michelle as seven, since I really do love her blog, too.   Thanks for the award, Michelle!!

For all you faithful readers (there might be 3 of you or so, including my mom -- I get a lot of hits only when I participate in a carnival), go visit these bloggers, tell them I sent you, and leave a comment!  Let me know in my comment section what other blogs I should start reading, too.

Have a great weekend!

I am Ona Lou Britton, Reference & Instructional Services Coordinator at Chambers Library, and your contact person for incorporating library instruction into online classes. What follows are some ideas for assisting students in online classes with research assignments

Available Now: Lists of Resources

Option #1 -- General Subject Guides

The library's databases are arranged by subject on the Chambers Library Website. Clicking on the Find Articles link on the homepage will display these guides.

Option #2 -- Specialized Lists for particular topics & Mini Demonstrations for Specific Tasks

We have used blogs effectively to create lists of resources for specific subjects, particularly for advanced classes.

Dr. Evans' Fundamentals of Public School Administration serves as an example. This blog was created for an in-person class, but this kind of blog would transfer well to an online class format.

We also created a blog for Dr. Garcia's Career Guidance class currently offered online. This blog includes a list of appropriate databases as well as search strategies and videos for specific tasks.

Brief videos work well if students have to find something specific. For example, Ms. Johnson's Methods of Design students needed subject specific Master's Theses. This blog contains a video about finding them using the worldwide electronic catalog, Worldcat.

Similarly, Dr. Chew's Criminal Justice Ethics course contains a specific video for finding government documents on current events topics.

Option #3 -- Specific Resources and Tutorials for Specific Assignments

Dr. Kusler's Business Communication class had several assignments requiring various resources. Her blog reflects the use of different resources for different assignments, incorporating keyword suggestions, source lists, and mini demos.

Option #4 -- Videos and Slides for Specific Assignments and Resources

Dr. Green's Professional Teacher Education class utilizes Mental Measurements Yearbook both online and in print. Instruction librarian Amanda Lemon created a blog for this class including both slides and video for explanation about how and where to use MMY.

In the Works

General Tutorials for WebCT

The library's Searchpath tutorial is available. We are in the process of making it WebCT compatible.

Virtual Meetings with a Librarian

The instruction librarians would like to be available for virtual meetings with students in regards to library assignments. We will arrange these when the technology becomes available.

Thank you! Please contact me for any assistance with library assignments!

Ona Lou Britton

Básicamente Sartori nos dice que la imagen está transformando al homo sapiens en homo videns y todo lo que ello implica: la sustitución de la palabra por la imagen, pérdida de la capacidad de abstracción e incapacidad para comunicar. ¡Tremenda siníntesis!. La obra que gira en torno a la revolución de la televisión como medio masivo de comunicación es un tanto purista, soberbia y, lamentablemente, razonable.

Más allá de aprovechar esto para volver al ruedo con el blog, después de una breve pausa, y para recomendar esa buena tesis, quería marcar algunas cuestiones para darte cuenta de que no sólo estás teledirigido, sino extremada y sumamente enajenado.

Cualquier parecido con la coincidencia es pura realidad.

- Mientras lees el blog, tenés de fondo la TV. Por las dudas... no sé de qué.

- Llegas a tu casa y antes de sacarte las zapa, prendes el tele.

- Te reís de los chistes de los programas que se relacionan a cosas internas de la producción. ¿De qué te reís?.

- Estás tirado con tu novio/a y mientras se besan espiás con un ojo la pantalla.

- No bajás el volumen para poder hablar, sino que gritas para superar el volumen del Dios TV.

- Un aspecto relacionado, indirectamente, es descargar por internet las series que se emiten por TV para ver las temporadas enteras. No soporás la idea de verlas sólo una vez a la semana. No tolerás la idea de prender la tv y que no aparezca esa serie. La intriga te carcome. Necesitas quedarte hasta las 05 de la madrugada y saber que fue lo qué pasó.

- Otro gran síntoma es el sleep. Ni siquiera tenés la capacidad de decidir cuando dormir. Necesitás que el sueño (complotado con la imagen televisiva) te venza. Y no sólo eso, siquiera podés apagar el tele antes de apagarte a vos mismo. Y no queda ahí, tu necesidad de adicción a él sobrepasa la frontera de la vigilia.

- Disminuir el paso de la caminata al pasar por el frente de un comercio de electrodomésticos, con teles en la vidriera.

- Ahhh.... algo importante. Saberte los 125 canales (si tenés cable) en su orden correcto, es patológico. Pero peor aún, es deprimirte y desanimarte por que tu operador de cable cambió el orden de los canales y todavía no te los pudiste aprender.

- Además hay otro tipo de detonantes que denotan una persona excluida de todos los puntos anteriores pero que quisiera estar tele-dirigida. Se pueden visualizar mucho en aquellos estudiantes que se trasladan a las grandes urbes a estudiar o trabajar. Estos muchas veces no tienen ni cable, ni televisión satelital (por supuesto), por lo cual cuando van a lo de un amigo que tiene más que los canales de aire, lo primero que hace es agarrar el control remoto.

Bonus Esférico: Este punto no fue analizado por mi, pero me pareció sumamente posteable. Es más, quizá por eso comencé a pensar los otros.

- Masturbarte con el control remoto en la otra mano es sumamente... (todavía no encuentro el término preciso).

No quería volver sin dejarles algo para ver. Esto que quizá muchos ya hayan visto, yo la última vez que lo ví girado fue en lo de Sinchi. Otra buena observación.

Espero que si alguien se anima mande más observaciones de teledirigidos (propias o ajenas).

Eric certainly puts a very different spin on things than most people do. Yes, there's a lot of astrology in his column.  With or without that, the man has something to say:

Here is a quote from today's post:

"Plenty of people say they want the truth. Usually they say so not recognizing the necessary confrontation that it takes to establish the truth, the duration of that confrontation or the personal cost involved. If we want the truth, we need to be ready to pay for it, and to hear it and to deal with it. "

Isn't that the truth?

You can read more here:  http://planetwaves.net/astrologynews/1396085833.html

~ Stacy

How to Enter: Sign up for the newsletter. Earn extra entries by blogging about the giveaway; Stumbling, Digging, Tweeting, or posting about the giveaway on message boards; or buy the book Sweet Life and email your receipt.

Enter Before/By: 9/27/08.

How Often to Enter: Unlimited entries.

Who Can Enter: United States, at least 18 years of age.

What You Can Win: (25) “Life is Sweet” chocolate, cookie and signed books gift basket (ARV $80+).

I'm blogging about this giveaway for extra entries. Your comments here are always welcome, but please remember to visit the source -as described- for your own entry. Good Luck!

So yesterday, the portions of the book that I read yesterday focused on just being present with students. This is so hard for me (and I imagine for youth workers everywhere). It is hard to not have an agenda when your with students. When you're hanging out, it is hard to not try to sell your programs or your next big event. It is hard to just be with students.

So yesterday, i hung out with two different groups of students and just really focused on being with them. I just hung out with them. 

Taco Bell was awesome. My time with the students filled my heart. It refreshed me. And when time came to leave, the guys didn't want to. 

There is something about having the undivided attention who expects nothing from you that students NEVER get to experience in todays world.

When you are on the go with no way of recharging your iPod or your iPhone, usually you'd just do the unthinkable and switch them off. No More! Kensington is coming to the rescue with its new battery back, that will work with both types of devices.

My latest from Unplggd...

How to Enter: Comment on the giveaway post at An Island Review with which recipe you'd like to try from the Mia King website. Earn extra entries by subscribing to the feed, blogging about the giveaway, leaving a comment for Mia on her blog, or placing the button in your sidebar.

Enter Before/By: 9/10/08.

How Often to Enter: Up to five entries.

Who Can Enter: United States.

What You Can Win: Sweet Life signed by Mia King.

I'm blogging about this giveaway for an extra entry. Your comments here are always welcome, but please remember to visit the source -as described- for your own entry. Good Luck!

As a follow up to my What Are Blogs post a couple of months ago, I'll give you a quick tutorial about how to get started blogging and how to keep a blog going.

Getting a blog started is very easy. There are myriad free options available and if you're interested in more robust options, you can also pay for some blogging services.

Free Options:

• Blogger/Blogspot:
  • Blogger is a free service (owned by Google) and is probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to get started blogging.
  • It contains an handful of themes and lets you customize your blog without needing to have a deep knowledge of HTML or webpage structure.
  • Blogger also allows you to make edits directly to your page via HTML coding, making it quite versatile.
• Wordpress:
  • We currently use Wordpress for our Tourism Blogs (College Towns, Outdoor Rec, Motorcycle Rides and the Visit Indiana blog)
  • Wordpress offers more versatility and options than Blogger, but requires a bit more knowledge of HTML and webpage structure.
  • If your organization doesn't have a website, you can fairly easily create one using Wordpress. More than just a blog, Wordpress allows you to create entire pages.
  • Wordpress offers a great import option that allows you to very easily import blogs that are hosted elsewhere into your new Wordpress blog.
• LiveJournal:
  • LiveJournal is another free blogging solution, but I don't feel that they offer as much customization or ease of use as Blogger and Wordpress offer.
  • LiveJournal also hosts their own ads on your site unless you upgrade to a paid option.

Paid Options:

• Typepad:
   
  • Typepad is a great option if you're willing to pay a bit for your blogging platform.
  • Typepad offers great versatility and even has mobile options available so you can update your blog even if you're not near your computer.
• Wordpress.com:
  • Wordpress is available as a free hosted blog (wordpress.com) but you can upgrade your account to allow you such features as more storage space, more users for a community blog and programming options that allow you to customize your blog.
• Wordpress.org:
• If you are interested in hosting a blog on your own website, rather than using a subdomain of Typepad or Wordpress, you can download the free wordpress software and host in on your own servers.
• This is by far the most versatile version of Wordpress, as you can download or create your own custom plugins to create exactly the blog you want.
• Compendium Blogware:
  • One other great option for a paid blog is working with Indianapolis-based Compendium Blogware.
  • Compendium will work with you to create corporate blogging solution that allow your organization to begin blogging. They'll also help you create a blogging plan that will meet the goals you set up.

There is no shortage of blogging platforms out there, and the most important thing is to find one that works for you. It might be worth trying out a few different platforms before you launch headlong into one. Blogging is an easy thing to begin, but the key lies in continuing to provide relevant content to your readers through frequency and quality of your posts.

Once you've started your blog, it's a good idea to set up a blogging schedule. You don't need to set aside a specific time to blog each day or each week, rather, commit to blogging once a week or 2-3 times a month instead. This will give you the flexibility to blog when a topic comes to mind, rather than blogging about something that is unrelated to the topic of your blog.

I'll be back later with another post Why Should I Blog (3 of 3), and I'll discuss what kinds of benefits blogging can bring to your organization. Until then, have fun looking through some blogging solutions and leave me a comment if you have any questions!

Logitech presentó tres nuevos teclados, entre ellos, el Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, con luz de fondo optimizada, sistema de teclas Logitech PerfectStroke y diseño delgado; el Logitech diNovo Keyboard for Notebooks, para los usuarios de laptops que utilizan mouse y que necesitan un teclado para completar sus herramientas de escritorio con mayor comodidad; y el  Logitech Cordless Desktop S520 que es una combinación de teclado y mouse.

Leer nota completa aquí.

Esta noticia es muy interesante. La plataforma Wordpress a llegado a más de 4 millones de blogs hospedados, dando un impulso más a la blogosfera en sus servidores gratuitos. Wordpress.com se ha convertido en todo un hito en esto. Además de constantemente incorporarle actualizaciones a su servicio, la calidad del mismo es muy buena así como su ayuda en línea. Felicitaciones!

En este sentido, se está tratando también de romper otra barrera: la cantidad de páginas visitadas, que aún no llegan a los 40 millones, pero anda muy cerca de eso. Puede ser observado en su página de estadísticas

Check out this unique and amazing blog. This photographer decided to take a photo of Legos every single day. Cool concept and focus.

How to Enter: Comment on the giveaway post at The Book Lady’s Blog. Earn an extra entry by blogging about the giveaway.

Enter Before/By: 9/9/08.

How Often to Enter: Up to two entries.

Who Can Enter: Not specified.

What You Can Win: ARC of After the Fire by Robin Gaby Fisher.

I'm blogging about this giveaway for an extra entry. Your comments here are always welcome, but please remember to visit the source -as described- for your own entry. Good Luck!

Investigadores y estudiantes de la Universidad de Génova, al norte de Italia, descubrieron un "talón de Aquiles" en el buscador en Internet Google, que dejó al descubierto fallas en uno de sus sistemas de seguridad de datos. 

Leer nota completa aquí.

How to Enter: Comment on the giveaway post at Michele - only one 'L'. Earn five extra entries by blogging about the giveaway.

Enter Before/By: 9/16/08.

How Often to Enter: Up to six entries.

Who Can Enter: United States and Canada.

What You Can Win: (5) Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts.

I'm blogging about this giveaway for extra entries. Your comments here are always welcome, but please remember to visit the source -as described- for your own entry. Good Luck!