Aspiring bloggers can choose from variety of weblog solutions

Blogging was a major technology trend a few years ago. The 2004 election was a coming-out party for blogging in the mainstream, with political bloggers taking a share of time on the major cable news networks.

While mainstream buzz on blogs has died off a bit, the options for potential bloggers to start their own blog have become more diverse, with companies offering different solutions based on a user's needs.

One of the most popular solutions is Google's Blogger.com. Blogger was one of the original hosted blogging solutions on the Web and offers a no-frills option for those who want an online home to write down their thoughts.

Blogger nicely integrates with Google services such as Feedburner and the Adwords advertising program, which makes it possible to earn money on blog writings. Blogger also has a great e-mail gateway that lets you send posts to your site from your mobile phone or e-mail client.

If you're looking to share more than just words, Six Apart's Vox.com lets users not only write regular blog posts, but also include various types of mixed media, such as audio, video, books and photos.

I like Vox more than Blogger because it lets a user write traditional blog posts, but it also makes it easy to upload and embed photos and video into my posts: no Web development knowledge required.

I've recently rekindled my interest in personal blogging after switching my personal site, carpeaqua.com, from Wordpress to Tumblr.

Tumblr.com is a hosted blogging solution that lets users create a tumblelog. Tumblelogs are a specialized type of weblog that focus more on shorter, more diversified types of Web posts than the punditry found on typical blogs.

Tumblr allows users to easily add those posts, but it also has support for adding quotes, chat conversations, photos and video to your weblog. It eliminates the guilt many bloggers feel for writing only a paragraph per post instead of a full essay.

If you're more tech-savvy and want to host your own weblog, my favorite software is Wordpress. Wordpress is a free, open source weblog solution developed by hundreds of developers from around the world.

Wordpress' major appeal is its easy customization. Users can download or design their own templates to give their blog its own unique look and feel.

The software also supports a plug-in architecture that lets developers add new functionality to the software without relying on the main Wordpress contributors to build it themselves.

Setting up your own Wordpress installation is not for the faint of heart. Wordpress' parent company, Automattic, offers a hosted version of their software at Wordpress.com. Wordpress has both free and for-pay versions of its software that are tiered based on the user's needs.

Whether you want to blog about your family and hobbies or just want to share photos and other things you find on the Internet, each of these weblog solutions makes it easy to begin publishing today.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Originally published in The Evansville Courier & Press

Geocoding helps ID location of photos

I hope more people begin geocoding their photographs over the next few years,

Aside from retaining the actual pixels of the shot, your digital camera also stores information about shutter speed and aperture.

Photographers can store their own information inside each photo — copyright notice, contact details and information on where the photo was shot. One way to store this location data is by storing its geocoordinates, the latitude and longitude.

The need for storing geographic data may not seem obvious at first, but there are some interesting uses.

A real estate agent could generate a map of his current listings based on the geocoordinates. Potential buyers could navigate the map to look at photos of houses in the area they're interested in, either on the Internet or by using an application such as Google Earth.

Flickr, the Yahoo photo-sharing service, is a proponent of geocoded photography. When a user uploads a photo to Flickr, it has the ability to automatically read the latitude and longitude from the photo's EXIF data, or the user can manually place photos on a map.

Users can browse a map of their own photos, but the more interesting use is on the global map. The global map shows all user photos on a world map, which makes finding great photos of certain regions or locations as easy as finding driving directions.

Pierre Bernard, the developer of the Mac-based geocoding application HoudahGeo, sees geocoding becoming more mainstream. He believes phones are "the perfect device to use as a track logger for photo geocoding."

Until cameras or applications such as Picassa or Apple iPhoto get native support for reading and writing geocoordinate information, third-party solutions such as Bernard's HoudahGeo and the Windows-based RoboGeo are the best way to encode your pictures. Both applications allow you to manually pinpoint a photo's location via a map, or it can read a track log from a handheld GPS device and synchronize the photo's time stamp with the GPS data.

To gain mass adoption, geocoding needs a completely hands-off approach. While GPS is becoming ubiquitous, not everyone wants to take the time to associate geographical data with their photographs.

Adding a built-in GPS to digital cameras is the logical next step for camera manufacturers. Now, only Ricoh offers a camera with a GPS, though its high price and bulky design is a turn-off to most consumers. Let's hope Canon, Sony and other manufacturers will shift from trying to one-up each other on megapixels and instead begin adding more value-added features such as geocoding support.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Originally published in The Evansville Courier & Press

Facebook just a bit too social

I was late to the Facebook game. I created my account in the past year, but as the company expands its reach with its new advertising model, I'm starting to regret signing up.

Facebook is the online social network that started as a way for college students to connect with one another, but it now allows anyone to join.

I signed up because it was a great way to keep up with colleagues and friends. Anytime someone moved, changed his e-mail or got a new phone number, he would update his Facebook profile and I could easily find the information. Unlike MySpace, Facebook had a clean and readable interface.

My love affair with the site began to dwindle in May the launch of Facebook's application platform. Facebook applications let users add a variety of widgets and gadgets to their profile. Some are fun and useful, such as the ability to sync Twitter with Facebook and to syndicate Flickr photos to Facebook.

These applications have made Facebook's user experience chaotic — much the same as MySpace. Information is difficult to find and pages are slow to load, and it's just annoying to wade through.

More infuriating than the decline in usability is that certain applications allow users to request that their friends add the application to their profile.

If a user tries to send me a message using the SuperPoke application, it requests that I add the application to my profile.

No thanks.

Facebook's latest update has me considering canceling my account.

In early November, the company announced its new social advertising platform. Part of that includes a service called Beacon.

Beacon allows third-party Web sites, such as eBay, Fandango and Blockbuster, to post updates to your Facebook profile when you purchase something on their site. For example, if I purchase movie tickets from Fandango.com, it would send an update to all of my friends reporting that I purchased tickets.

When the service debuted, it was an "opt out" service, which meant I had to remove the notifications from the get-go. Many users saw this as an invasion of privacy.

Allowing hundreds of people I interact with on Facebook know my purchasing habits isn't something I want to do. Facebook responded to the criticism: It now requires users to add the items to their profile, and has an option to opt out of the program.

Even with these changes, I can't shake the bitter taste from the entire situation.

Facebook isn't the only one to blame for Beacon. The companies that signed up for the service should be much more transparent about their desire to send data to Facebook.

Facebook offers its services for free, and obviously it has to find a way to make a profit. But doing so at the expense of privacy is not something with which I'm comfortable.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Good gifts aren't limited to digital cameras

With the holiday gift-giving season just around the corner, I've been scouring the Web to compile a list of gadgets that would make excellent gifts. While it's easy to just stick another iPod or digital camera under the tree, there are new tech toys that would make excellent gifts for the tech geek in the family.

One of my favorite technologies is satellite radio. Both the XM Xpress RC ($150) and Sirius' Sportster 5 ($170) feature a color screen and come bundled with all the necessary cables and mounts to install the units in any vehicle.

Both satellite services offer the same music genre choices, but differ in premium and sports content. Sirius has the NFL, NASCAR and Howard Stern, while XM has Major League Baseball, the NHL and "Opie and Anthony."

The bookworm in the family may be interested in either the Sony or Amazon eBook readers.

The Sony PRS-500 ($350) allows you to purchase books online via Sony's Connect store. The books then sync to the device the next time it's plugged in to your Windows PC.

Book prices via the Sony store average around $10 to $15.

Amazon's Kindle ($400) uses a built-in EVDO wireless connection to download new books. Books purchased for the device cost about $9.99, and the selection looks to be much larger than Sony's.

One of my favorite devices I've purchased this year is Apple TV ($300). The Apple TV hasn't sold as well as the company might hope, which is why the product doesn't garner nearly as much press as the iPod or Mac hardware.

I purchase a lot of TV shows off the iTunes Store and let iTunes automatically transfer the purchases to the AppleTV connected to my television. It's a much more enjoyable experience than sitting in front of my Mac to catch up on a show.

I also have some of my favorite movies on the device, so I can watch them at my convenience and not have to fumble around for the DVD disc.

If there is a member of your family who refuses to embrace the trendy iPod revolution, look to Microsoft's newly redesigned Zune.

While the original Zune was derided for its boring design, bad user experience and brown coloring, reviews of the new device claim that it's much improved.

The new Zune comes in 4GB to 80GB versions and costs from $150 to $250.

The smaller Zune resembles the previous generation iPod Nano, while the larger device resemble an iPod classic, but with a much larger screen. Unlike the iPod, the Zune is Windows-only.

One thing I really like about the Zune is the Zune Pass, which allows users to download as much music as they'd like for $15 a month. I have not gotten my hands on a Zune, so I am withholding personal judgment on it.

If you want to find some other unique tech gifts, I recommend checking out either Engadget.com or Gizmodo.com.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Originally published in The Evansville Courier & Press