–Note From Caleb: This post is no longer current. I have switched to Flickr for my picture hosting needs.
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of hits on the site here of people searching for information on picture servers like I have set up. So, I thought I would very briefly cover how I set that up and how it works. Hit the link for more.
You are a reasonably competent internet surfer. You find yourself using the internet at least once a day. You’ve even managed to develop some internet habits. You always check the weather at one site, then you go check the news at another site. You visit another site to check stocks. Then you read about your favorite sports team somewhere else. Then it is off to a comic site to see the latest comic strip. Then back to the news site to see if there are any recent news stories. Then you visit a few internet forums to see if there are any new posts you are interested in. Maybe you do more, maybe you do less.
The point is simply this: there are certain website that you visit regularly.
Now, if you were really ambitious, perhaps you created bookmarks in your browser. That means that when you want to visit a certain site, you have to navigate some sort of menu system and find a link and then click it. Then your browser will pull up the site you are interested in and you can scan it for new things that might interest you.
If you are a little less ambitious, maybe you just always type the address into the address bar.
What if I told you there was an easier way? What if there was a way where you could just go about your normal routine and anytime there was something new on any of those websites, you would know about it right away? What if I told you that not only would you know about it, but you’d know what it was and you’d know whether or not is was worth actually visiting the site to read the whole thing?
Good news! There is a way to do that! It is called RSS. Follow the link below to learn how.
I’ve invited all of my family to check out this website. Many of them have been drug, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century and probably don’t know what a blog is. This post is for them.
The word “blog” is short for weB LOG. The basic idea is that a blog is a relatively simple website where the owner/operator can post content and vistors can read it. Initially, they started out as simple online diaries. They have exploded in popularity in recent years and now many blogs are reputable news sources (as in there are people that get their news from blogs instead of CNN), some blogs are great sources of comedy and entertainment… and others are just wastes of internet space. Many of the more successful blogs are significant sources of income for the owners via ad revenue. In fact, it is now possible to be a full time blogger.
So, the short answer is that a blog is anything that you can make out of words, pictures, and internet links that is maintained by a small group of people.
My hope for this blog is to:
1) Stay in touch with friends and family.
2) Provide a creative outlet for myself.
3) Learn more about the internet and how it works.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I expect to have personal friends as well as family visit here. I plan on discussing lots of different things. You can keep track of posts on various topics by using the “Categories” section over in the sidebar. Likely topics include family, computers, personal finance, my job, and anything else I think is blog-worthy.
So, please keep an eye here. My next post will be about RSS, which is the best way for you to keep up with what happens here (and in a lot of other places) without having to visit a dozen websites a day.
-Caleb
Caleb’s Newest Videos
Caleb's Place 
