Where do you start blogging?

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It must be the one question that many wannabe-bloggers are asking themselves. I know one friend who just didn’t know anywhere else apart from Blogger itself. But if you want to have a real blog, Blogger is just not the best place to start. Even if it is the most obvious.

If you are deciding to blog, then you need to consider what your priorities are. Having blogged on and off since 2005, I think that they can be boiled down to five points

1. Goals – These are often the most obvious, and they are often met with blank stares: I just want to have a blog. But what is your blog for? Who do you expect to read your blog? What do you expect to put there? There are a million answers available for each question. If you’re not sure, perhaps look around and make a list of things you think are important.

2. Expandability – Often when you start with a blog, you’ll find that you may want to have two or three blogs or that your blog takes off in a totally unexpected direction. With many hosting plans, you can be sure that you can have the additional resources for expanding your online presence without adding much cost.

3. Platform – Choose a broadly supported package or platform to support your blog! When you face problems, you will find it easy to get support, both free and paid-for support. Choosing one of the lesser known platforms will make things a lot harder when you have issues or bugs. Also, choosing a broader platform will mean more choice over plugins, themes, and additional services.

4. Pricing – If you are starting out blogging, affordability can often be a problem. Decide what your budget is for hosting. Don’t expect to make much or any money at the beginning. If you do, you’ll only be disappointed. Really. By choosing a host with room to grow, you’ll also avoid future extra costs should your site become popular.

5. Reliability – I was quite happy with my original host for a long time, but then we started to have lots of issues with their servers. While they were forthright, and I felt comfortable staying with them, not all hosts are able, or willing, to fix the issues as responsibly as mine was.

These concerns will surely be uppermost when you start to seek out your own web hosting however you decide to do it.

Google Docs Tip: Including Published Spreadsheets

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I have published several Google Documents on my Google Account but couldn’t figure out how to publish them ON MY BLOG. Well, there is an easy way to do this, it is an <iframe>. It works simply.

Remember to add the width=’x’ and height=’x’ and frameborder= ‘x’ where x is a number of pixels. I usually use a standard 500px width for this blog. The code is shown in the jpeg below.

You can also obtain the code for sharing a document within your blog. In fact, you can look at some stats for Taiwan in September 2008 that I made available because it was stuck in an Excel worksheet.

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Here’s the sample document inserted for you. Enjoy!

When buying digital cameras, don’t skimp on the price!

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I’ve been the owner of three different models of digital camera over the years. My first camera was a disaster: the pictures were fuzzy and low quality. In fact, the only way to get decent pictures was to resize them to a very small size. In fact, the photographs are actually quite reminiscent of photographs taken by an older cell phone camera!

If you’re looking to enlarge your photos for your LCD TV or other multimedia, you would be sorely disappointed by the quality. Perhaps it’s best that I forgot which brand that camera was… And this is based on my own personal experience…

Sample 1: OEM Unbranded Model

The *unnamed* camera produced pictures that were at best barely acceptable even in broad daylight. Anything else resulted in grainy images that were seriously blurred. Take a look. The picture looks okay when reduced to a small size, but as soon as you enlarge it, you see ALL the problems. It cost nearly US$100 to buy at the time, and was a total waste of money. I regretted buying it and it is still sitting in a drawer somewhere.

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(Taken inside at a school demo lesson with Tommy).

Sample 2: Kodak Camera C360

My second camera was a Kodak Camera C360 which took great pictures for my budget, and was perfect for blogging. The other positive factor was that I could just use ‘AA’ batteries (if the rechargeable died) in an emergency. Very handy to drop into 7-Eleven and buy some at a pinch. But it still didn’t give great shots for high definition purposes. This camera was purchased for a trip to the UK in 2005, and was a very successful choice.

The Kodak Camera produced much better resolution photographs with its 5mp capabilities, though there was some softness and chromatic aberration in some areas. But it produced great color images that were attractive. And it was a highly versatile little camera. Unfortunately, I also bought a new Kodak when I replaced it, but the replacement was just not as good.

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Taken in 2005 at Ullapool in Scotland.

After losing my Kodak, I quickly purchased my third and most recent camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC series FX-30 model which has several really neat features including a 28mm lens. This makes a wider angle and far more landscape style – which is great for the scenery of Taiwan.

Sample 3: The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FX30

This camera is much better than either of the first two, with its 7.2mp, multiple shot modes, and high resolution modes. I’ve been very happy with this camera choice for its ability to take great landscape shots as well as decent portraits. These photographs are perhaps the best for enlarging for digital TVs or enjoying at full screen size on your laptop computer. It doesn’t deal with haze well or night time shots… but otherwise it’s much better.

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Taken in 2008 at Hyde Park in early Autumn.

In fact, when I was in the UK, I was able to purchase a small laptop that I used to show my digi-photos to family and friends, in full size, of course. It was perfect way to set the screensaver or presentation mode, and let the photographs play in the background. I never figured out how to connect it to the TV, though. But as a portable solution, it was perfect.

I didn’t read any reviews of the cameras I bought… it’s probably not worth reading them for me, as I find it difficult to get the exact models here in Taiwan. Also, the models turn over so fast! So I finally decided to go with brand names I trusted. Also, I avoided buying the most ‘economical’ models after the first one. It just wasn’t worth the additional disappointment. I reluctantly bought a model with no replaceable batteries, but that hasn’t been much of a problem. But I’m not a professional photographer by any means! I only wish I was!