Category: Uncategorized

A multitude of green penguins welcome you to Emptywishes.net. This pretty much sets the tone for the blog.

While the name “Emptywishes” may imply the “woe-is-me” blog that we’re all sick of, this blog is nothing of the sort. Kim, the self-described “misplaced American” (Arizonian-gone-French) and author of Emptywishes.net has created a wonderful read, effortlesley injecting humor, cynicism, and plain ole’ common sense into each and every post.

The layout is fun and and simple, composing of the aforementioned penguins paired with classic black-on-white text. My only complaint is that the blog posts are displayed on the main page by week, and so you must heavily rely on the archives to move around the site.

A great bonus to the site is Kim’s photography. She has captured some really beautiful and really bizarre things in her city, and so the photolog is well worth checking out.

Emptywishes is a great blog to check out for some laughs and some wonderful, tell-it-like-it-is writing. It’s well deserving of repeat visits.emptywishes.net

At first Anachronic appears to be the weblog of your average Joe. The layout does nicely, there are some links, photos, wishlists etc along the side navigation bar and the writing is lined up neatly and inoffensively on a white background. But it’s when you begin to read that you realise you’ll be sticking around a lot longer than you were expecting.

Jon describes himself as a “philosopher, almost.” So considering I stereotype all philosophers as rambling and argumentative, I found his original, to the point and often witty writing refreshing. Through his posts you can often pick up his mood and thoughts at the time. Topics get clumped together, such as several posts in February relating to high school. More recently Jon writes about Asian culture, encompassing asian-american films/movies, stereotypes and family. His sharp perceptions make for fascinating reading.

There is a simple but effective design. I’ve seen the same layout used in other weblogs but the colour choices work well. Going through the archives you can see that Jon changes his layout quite often. My favourite is headed with an image of a leafy suburb. Whilst a frequently changing layout can be a sign that there is more interest in the layout than content, here it just seems to show the author’s interest in his blog. Overall, the current layout is nothing flash or unique, but is carried off well.

To get all philosophical, almost, everyone is fascinating and yet there are so many dull blogs out there. Anachronic is an exception. In the words of Rowan Williams, “We can’t assume that any human face we see has no divine secret to disclose.” As Jon shows us through Anachronic, some people bring this to their weblog better than others.anachronic

“Everything but what’s on my mind” is the weblog of Sharon, who describes herself as “new and improved at 18 years old, but still tragicomically inept”. When I was 18, I didn’t even know what tragicomically meant, and to be honest, I had to look it up even now. Apparently, tragicomically is an extension of the word tragicomedy, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a drama or a situation blending tragic and comic elements”. Good to know, I thought to myself.

Nearing almost a year in existence, “Everything but what’s on my mind” doesn’t give off the essence that it’s from a teen-aged writer. Not at all. While the entertaining antics are typically those enjoyed by people that fall into the same age group as the author, the writing is far better. The word choice, sentence structure, and just overall writing style of each entry seems to be that of a well-seasoned author, not that of someone who’s just beginning their search for the right college.

The design of the site it one of the generic template Blogger offers its users, and the site is hosted via BlogSpot. While not a terrible design by any means, I personally felt like the writing alone deserved something a little more. The main point of the site, however, IS the writing and that’s certainly what draws you in the most. Bordering on the right of the semi-daily entries, you find two brief sentences about the author, links to the monthly archives, and the standard of links to other weblogs.

Most readers that fall into the age group this weblog is written for and by might not find the interest or want to take the time to read the detailed entries Sharon jots down. Actually spending time easily forming the mental picture that the author leads us to see is definitely one of the finer points of this weblog. While you may not get exact details of what a certain person looks like or the complete play-by-play of the evening, the author provides readers with enough information that creating the situation and/or people involved in your mind is easy to do.

From experiences in the past, I tend to lump any weblog written by someone barely old enough to vote into a group of undereducated, attention-hungry kids who really only need to share their weblog with their friends. “Everything but what’s on my mind” is very far from that. While it still has a few bits and pieces that are probably only understood by those near and dear to the author’s personal life, I felt like she was really writing for absolutely anyone that stumbled upon the site and that’s the kind of thing that brings readers back. Everything but what’s on my mind

My first impression of the site was “clean in shades of gray.” Feels rather melancholy, when really there’s little of melancholy written here. Never trust what you see at first glance, this guy is definitely a techie.

The blog should fall into the category of technical, considering at his young age he’s been writing for some major technical magazines and online magazines. You learn something about his Indian culture from his entries, and goodness knows there are a lot of us that could use some culture. He has a great writing style and a good grasp of the language. There’s a lot of techno-babble, so sometimes the reader might find themselves lost. There’s the occasional personal entry, which is very personal and these entries are filled with a hint of the spiritual, bringing the reader closer to the author.

The design is simple but works. There are no images, so there’s a fast load time for slower connection. It’s not hard on the eyes, but it’s not overly beautiful either. It fits very well, however, with this author’s writing style and subject.

The first thing I visited was the about me page and you can’t help but feel somewhat in awe of his accomplishments a writer. The main site has scripts and articles as well as a newsletter. There are definitely many reasons for readers to stop by and visit. The archives only go back ten entries at a time, so it’s a little time consuming if you want to go way back.

It seems that some of the better blogs are hiding in the guise of simplistic design. There are many interesting entries worth reading (May 11) and this blog is definitely an interesting read. Nothing out of the ordinary or extravagant here, but definitely worth a visit. Again, if there was a section called technical, this would definitely fit there.Premshree Pillai’s Journal

So you’re feeling pretty good about how savvy you are as a netizen? You’ve been around since it was DARPA Net? You can enter the perfect mix and word order on AltaVista, Excite, or Lycos, and get the exact site you need to answer your query? You think you could have written “Google Hacks” better because you know more about how to manipulate and utilize Google?

Think again…

I’ve been around the ‘net for a long time. I remember when IRC was the cool new way the students and researchers at Duke and UNC would “talk” to each other about whatever. I used to be an AltaVista snob as it was the only search engine worth while.

The author of “Google Blogoscoped” has me beat. If there’s anything you want to know about Googling, this site probably has it. And the best part is, it surprisingly well written.

Why “surprisingly” you ask? Most übergeeks are great at being geeks. They got that way by completely ignoring grammar, spelling, and vocabulary in favor of being “733t” by writing things like “ur 2 gr8” and “OU812”. (Okay so the last one is a Van Halen album…sue me.) The author of this site writes very well, and will teach you something.

I found myself still reading the site about 90 minutes later, trying out the various “Googleisms”, totally lost in time, and not really caring. Maybe it’s the geek in me, but I really enjoyed the research, writing, and attention to detail in this site.

Initially, I didn’t think I’d like it much. Truthfully, the graphics and layout weren’t that great, but still not bad. I didn’t find myself running for the closest Boeing 737 looking for a barf-bag. I just didn’t like it much.

Then, I started reading. Once I started reading, I started learning. Once I started learning, I got sucked in. The article about what to expect from Google over the next 17 years is really insightful. I kind of like the idea of telling my computer “I’m hungry but too lazy to cook” and having my computer search Google, let me know there are no tables available at my local chinese food joint, but offer to place a take out of my “usual” or suggest another place close by.

The content of this site is for the geek, or wannabe-geek in many of us. Although I can’t recommend this site for the average ‘net newbie, those of us wearing the Internet Merit Badge will find it interesting, informative, and enjoyable.

A few small suggestions I’d like to make…

1. A clearer definition between the posts. It’s a little hard to tell when one starts and another begins. Especially when you’re really into what’s being learned. It’s a good thing the writing is good enough to keep you interested, but when you realize you’re off on some tangent, you end up looking back a paragraph or two to see you’ve already finished the article and are on a different one.

2. Use a serif font. This is just a personal pet peeve. I much prefer to see a serif font used when I’m reading typefaces that size. It’s easier on the eyes and helps the flow. I wouldn’t count off anything for this at all, though since it’s just a personal preference, and I’ve even worked on sites where I just get a “feeling” about using a sans-serif font.

3. Clean up the graphics. I’d like to see the graphics be as pleasing as the writing. Initially, they were distracting, but that was only until I finished the second paragraph.

Outside of those few little things, I find this site to be written with a level of confidence, and a level of Google expertise. It keeps your attention, and has an amazingly good flow. Keep up the good work.Google Blogoscoped