September 8, 2008 by dave.

Like many Blogs, mine has ended up on the popular Blogged.com web site.  This site categorizes, indexes, and even reviews Blogs of many types.  It even offers RSS feeds which allow individuals to ’subscribe’ to specific web sites and Blogs so you know when a new posting has shown up.  The site even rates the Blogs and the site states (regarding ratings) “Editor reviews are provided by professional editors who evaluate a blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of updates, Relevance of content, Site design, and Writing style”.

I teach a class called ‘Web Expressions‘ at Plymouth State University and a significant component of the class focuses on creating and maintaining a worthwhile Blog. I’ll be using my personal Blog as a sort of ‘laboratory‘ for the class; mainly to show examples of Blog entries, the importance of hyperlinking, and how pictures can add creativity to the Blog.  I’ll also refer my class to Blogged.com as a resource and hopefully my students will get excited about Blogging and it will facilitate them expressing themselves on the web.

Posted in Web Sites, Technology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

May 20, 2008 by dave.

I used to feel privileged to receive solicitations from credit card companies. I also used to enjoy getting the occasional unsolicited catalog, and even junk mail once in a while. Well once I bought a house it got a bit crazy - the amount of unsolicited ‘crap’ that I was receiving. I recall a few years ago my wife and I had looked in to ways to cut down the amount we were receiving and we did succeed…things got better. I recall the solution had a finite time period attached to it. Recently though it seems to have picked up again….so I assume we’ve passed that time period. It also makes me aware of all the wasted paper. Go Green and stop some of the junk…..

Here’s some helpful sites to help you out. Don’t worry - they are not scams:

OPT-OUT of Direct Marketing (junk mail)

OPT-OUT credit card offers (they look at your credit report…don’t let them!)

While you are at it….don’t forget that we all get a free annual credit report. You can get a report from ALL of the 3 major credit reporting companies. You simply start at this web site:

Annual Credit Report

Lastly, since I’m being so helpful - here’s a way to get a ‘free’ long-distance phone number: See….in order to have an unlisted number you need to pay a monthly charge. The simple solution is to put your phone in another name. We use my wife’s maiden name which helps even more when we get an unsolicited call (don’t forget to sign up for the national DO NOT CALL list) and they ask for Mr. <insert wife’s maiden name>. I’ve also heard of others putting the phone in the name of a pet. I’d love to be able to tell a marketer that <insert cat’s name’> can’t come to the phone because they are busy in the litter-box.

Posted in Household Stuff, Health & Environment, Web Sites, Annoying Things, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »