I have added four new blogs to the Log My Blog website, my first for 2010!

Danger Room

Author: group blog
Web Address: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/

If you can put your sense of moral outrage on hold, this is a great interesting blog. Many of the technologies that we use every day were originally developed for military use such as the Internet. If you wish to get a look at what future technology may look like this is the blog for you.

Many of these technologies sound ridiculous such as psychic soldiers and the authors really know how to play to this sense of the ridiculous with a great deal of humour.

Face it blowing shit up is cool.

A word of warning for all wired sites is the advertising. Some ads creep across the screen in the most annoying manner.

Blog-rank: 8 / 10

Flying Solo

Author: group blog
Web Address: http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/

This is a website dedicated to solo and freelance business people – people who run a business from home with a staff of one. The blog is only one facet of this website with users encouraged to visit the flying solo forums. Most posts are about ideas and techniques to improve your business and your business life. It is a very busy website with lots of ads and nagging links, but the website is still worth a look for solo and small business owners.

The content of this blog is good, but the package frankly gives me a headache. Everything could be spaced out a bit more and the advertising could be a little more subtle.

This could be excused by the quality of the content. I am a little biased as I really don’t like the latest fashion of packing the maximum amount of things in the smallest amount of space. With increases in monitor size there is really no excuse for this.

Rating: 5 / 10

Defamer

Author: group blog
Web Address: http://defamer.gawker.com/

This is an American gossip blog featuring snarky commentary about various global celebrities, TV shows, movies and music. If you are into gossip magazines this is the site for you. A word of warning this is a very busy site with lots of links to and content shared with other closely affiliated blogs.

This is an interesting blog with lots of info about celebrities and their more shady activities.

It also provides insights into TV shows and movies that you don’t usually see.

Rating: 7 / 10

Personal Development for Polymaths

Author: Hunter Nuttall
Web Address: http://hunternuttall.com/blog/

Personal Development for Polymaths is a terribly boring name for an interesting site. A polymath is intelligent person with a broad range of skills and interests. As you would expect the author writes about a broad range of topics from artificial intelligence to finance and literature. His posts are very philosophical long and detailed. If you are interested in science, technology and finance this blog is worth a look.

This is a good blog for somebody interested in science or science fiction. The author writes long and detailed posts in an easy to read essay style. His posts focus on the more philosophical aspects of scientific development such as artificial intelligence.

It is a thought-provoking blog which is well worth a look for any thinking intelligent being.

Rating: 7 / 10

Even though I have been blogging for almost 7 years now I still find it difficult to find good new blogs to read. I don’t have a blogging sixth sense that allows me to feel a ripple in the force when a good blog is near.

Over the last few months my brother and I have been working on a website called Log My Blog. The idea of the website is for people to find a good blog fast. Users are able to add blogs to the site and review them. The blogs are given a rating out of 10 allowing the best blogs to bubble to the top.

Users are also able to subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed directly from our website. RSS feeds are often difficult to find on blogs, but every blog, besides a rare few, has one. For those people that only view blogs through RSS this is a great feature.

Log My Blog will drive traffic to good blogs and give new people an access point to the sometimes confusing world of the blogosphere.

There are many blogging directories out there, but only a few make an effort to sort the directory into any kind of order. Most are simple lists that are rarely updated making finding a blog a hit and miss affair. Others give you the Google Page Rank or the popularity of a blog as a guide to how good the blog is, but as any frustrated author will tell you – popular does not necessarily mean good.

Log My Blog separates blogs into many different categories. A blog is often in more than one category. Each blog is given a blog rank, which is the average of all the ratings left by reviewers. Users are able to easily sort the list of blogs by, blog rank, popularity, A to Z, Z to A and most reviewed. The list can also be sorted by Post Frequency and whether or not the blog allows comments.

Log My Blog will make money through advertising. The ads will be non-obtrusive, placed in positions that do not irritate the user or interfere with the normal operation of the website or the browser used to view the website. I know how frustrating it can be on a website like wired.com that is constantly having those stupid ads drifting across the screen.

Log My Blog will have its own blog continually updated by my brother and I. I will be shifting the majority of my blogging from my old blog ChrisFryer.com to the Log My Blog Blog. This blog will be the place to report bugs or tell me about things you like or dislike. If you do not wish your blog to be on the website you can also tell me that here.

The most important part of Log My Blog is of course the users. We will try our hardest to make log my blog a fun and useful website. With your support I am sure we will be a success.

Over the past few days I have been trying to integrate my new blog with twitter. I also plan on shifting my blogging activities from ChrisFryer.com to Log My Blog.

The main problem with me twitterising my blog is that I don’t really understand twitter.

I had a number of questions about twitter that I couldn’t answer no matter how hard I tried searching for one on Google or Wikipedia. Nevertheless, I have managed to answer them.

Q: What is the point of twitter?
A: I guess it is another method of communication designed to make money for somebody without the users being aware of it. Some people have called a social networking site, kind of like Facebook without the book.

Q: Can you reply to your own tweet?
A: Seemingly not, but why not? It seems kind of strange that you cannot reply to your own tweet, after all in e-mail and text messages you can. It is probably a method of cutting down on spam.

Q: What is a retweet and how do you do it?
A: Contrary to popular opinion, a retweet is not a hotel for birds. It is when you re-post another person’s tweet on your own account, usually with the prefix RT, this is usually followed by a @ followed by the username of the person you are retweeting. This ends up looking like: twitter_user_1 RT @twitter_user_2 twitter sucks balls!

Q: How does a blog post know when someone is tweeting about it?
A: Usually (on a WordPress blog anyway) an easily installed plug-in takes care of finding the tweets for a particular blog post. Unless I was to interview a plug-in programmer or reverse engineer the plug-in myself I can’t answer this question. I would really love someone to answer this question for me in the comments.

Does anybody have twitter frustrations? I am looking forward to your questions and answers in the comments.

Many bloggers have no doubt heard about Rupert Murdoch’s swipe at Google, Wikipedia and blog sites over theft of news articles. He believes that free online websites should not quote news articles without paying for them. To some people this may sound fair, but I think if Mr. Murdoch goes through with this plan to try and make blogs and news aggregators pay for quoted content it will seriously damage his business.

Rupert Murdoch is forgetting that almost every single time one of his precious news articles is quoted there is a link showing where the article came from. 99% of bloggers quote a small part and then link back to the article that inspired their story. There are not many bloggers who will quote an entire article and if they do that is stealing. Fair use provisions in copyright law in most countries mean that it is legal to quote a small part of a copyrighted article as long as you say where you got it from.

By taking a swipe at Google he is also on the wrong track. Seldom does Google News contain an entire article. Google News collects the most popular articles and then provides numerous links to a wide variety of similar articles. I never visit the website of the Sydney Morning Herald or the Washington Post I get sent there by Google News. These sites probably wouldn’t get half the visitors they do without the Google search engine and news site.

Wikipedia does cop a lot of flak from academics and those in the media. Wikipedia does seem to be updated very quickly, but it is not a news site. Users of Wikipedia are not allowed to copy articles word for word and if they do the piece is quickly taken down. An absolute defence against plagiarism has always been to write what you have taken in from a particular article in your own words. Wikipedia articles also link to the source material.

I believe Rupert may be upset about the slow death of traditional media. It is sad when a newspaper dies, but I believe there is no reason why newspapers cannot transform themselves for a new age. It is possible to make money online and if the Murdochs embrace their entrepreneurial spirit their empire will not crumble. If Rupert picks a fight with the Internet, that is kind of like fighting the ocean or the weather – it is not a fight a man can win.

You have no doubt heard about the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. According to recent reports the Tamil Tigers are all but defeated. Of course this war is taking a terrible toll on the ordinary Tamil population.

Recently, Tamils around the world have been calling for a ceasefire in northern Sri Lanka. Whenever I see these protests on the news there are people holding up a particular flag. Of course all protest groups have flags. A flag represents who you are. But have a close look at the flag of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

There is a fierce tiger in the middle surrounded by a halo of what look like bullets above crossed rifles with bayonets attached. And if this wasn’t enough the background of the flag is red. Which just happens to be the colour of well…. you know.

What is an ordinary person, who knows nothing about the conflict, supposed to think when they see protesters waving a flag such as this? Do they immediately write to their local member and say: please tell the Prime Minister to support a ceasefire? Or instead do they think it is the cynical last gasp of a terrorist organisation? It is beyond ironic that people who wave of flag like this would ask for a ceasefire.

There are many Tamils who are suffering tremendously because of this war. If you want help from the international community you need to persuade them to your cause. A flag of such violent symbolism is not going to convince people that your cause is just.

The time has come for my blog to have some rules. My blog is my own personal corner of the net, it is mine and it is not a democracy. I try to be fair I listen to everyone’s opinions, but everyone who comes to my site is a guest. For 4 years this has worked just great, but then I made a post about Tibet (I thought I was quite fair to the Chinese in this post) and this fellow named Yun was drawn to my site.

Yun didn’t seem to be able to handle any criticism whatsoever of the Chinese government. People are entitled to their opinions, but I don’t think Yun agrees with this. I believe this may be due to a cultural difference.

In Yun’s first sentence he referred to the US, UK, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand as enemy countries. Later on in the same comment he threatened the world with nuclear weapons on China’s behalf. He later tried to back pedal by saying he wasn’t really threatening.

Of course tried to argue with him his statement is becoming more and more offensive. Things like: “I will lay back and enjoy more of the terrorists masterpieces in the years to come. And I will have no sympathy for you westerners at all. YOU GUYS WELL DESERVE IT!” Opinions like this are impossible for me to understand. I still didn’t ban him for it. But after this he started posting articles from various sources probably infringing copyright laws. At one stage he posted the same article in several different comment threads. I deleted them all and banned him.

This whole incident set me thinking that I do need some rules.

1. Don’t post copyrighted material or any other material that isn’t your own and in response to the original post. Limited quoting and Links is okay.

2. Don’t make death threats.

3. Try not to accuse people of being Nazis, the next Hitler, Osama Bin-Laden, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama!

4. Don’t spam.

I will properly think of some more at a later date.

As some readers of this blog will know my brother runs a Web development business from home, Constitution Computing. We both started making websites way back in 2000. Most sites back then were static and hard coded. In the case of database driven Web sites we coded the site from scratch.

Nowadays this is not the way things are done. Websites usually use a content management system, the problem is there are hundreds of them on the market. We have also been bitten on the arse by content management systems before – where numerous inexplicable bugs would appear for no apparent reason.

I have used a content management system for my blog for many years. When I first started I tried to develop my own blog software and in the end I gave up because other people had already done it for me. I moved on to a program called Movable Type. This program used a combination of Pearl, PHP and CGI. It was a little bit of a disaster because of it. Movable type was only a tiny bit easier than operating my own blog software.

Finally I moved on to WordPress 3.0.2 – by far the best blog software I’ve seen. The only problem with using popular software is that it can sometimes be abused by spammers. The one thing I never had to worry about when running my own Web software is that only I used it – there was no point for spammers to develop spam bots to target only one site. Spam was a constant battle on both Movable Type and WordPress. Track back spam was by far the worst on both platforms.

Yesterday I decided to install the latest version of WordPress. Upgrading was a big thing for me as it has always caused innumerable problems later on. I’d also just updated the theme on my website – a surprisingly fiddly all day process. Upgrading could potentially negate all my hard work, but it needed to be done.

I am a firm believer in pessimism. Contrary to popular belief pessimists are far more likely to be happy. I always prepare myself for the worst. This way if the worst does not occur I am pleasantly surprised, if it does, I have the satisfaction knowing I was correct. It’s a win-win.

I backed up my old WordPress installation and then deleted it off the Web server. I then uploaded the latest version of WordPress. In the browser I then went to the update page. It immediately detected my old WordPress database and automatically upgraded it so it would work with the new version. I went to my website and it worked!

At this stage I was still a little worried as my nice new theme had been deleted by the new WordPress installation. The fix for this was incredibly easy. My layout was an edited version of the WordPress default theme. I simply went to where I had backed up my old WordPress installation and changed the name of the theme from default to christheme. I uploaded it and then went to the themes page in WordPress admin selected the theme and it worked.

I was then overcome with a feeling of pleasantly surpriseadness.

Anyway I told my brother about my experiences with WordPress. This set us wondering whether content management systems have reached the maturity we need to make Web site development easier?

We have been looking at Joomla and Drupal both open source content management systems. It’s a difficult decision.

If anyone has any experience with content management systems we would love to hear from you in the comments.

Tim Blair has cancer, as fellow human being I sympathise with him and hope he gets better fast.

Many other bloggers both left and right feel the same way, but some feel it necessary to stoke his ego as well.

Suddenly everyone is his best friend. He is now not only the most popular blogger in Australia, but, “is hands down one of the best bloggers on the planet. His writing is concise, witty, and cuts like a knife. I always get a good chuckle — at the expense of lefties — when I read his stuff. I hope he gets well.”

And, “He is THE voice of reason in a crazy coldening world.” I thought the world was getting hotter…

And there’s more, “For those of you who don’t read him, he is brilliantly witty, and his comment section is hilarious. I’ve never registered to post over there, but I read it when I need a dose of glee.” So you never bothered to write anything about Tim Blair before, but now something has changed?

This downpour of sympathy is making me feel physically ill. Here is a few rules for those that wish to look genuinely sympathetic. Making up lies like you’re his best friend or saying he is the nicest, most talented person you have ever met just makes you look shallow. Try to think of things that are actually true. Such as, he actually responds to e-mails sent to him by readers of his blog. Or the fact that he has one of the highest comment counts then any other blog. Or that he has one of the oldest blogs around.

Remember cancer is one of the most common diseases. I have heard one in three people will suffer it in their lifetimes. Both my parents have had run-ins with this disease. Treatments are now overwhelmingly successful. He will get better and he will get back to blogging, so don’t break your back attempting to be the most sympathetic person in the southern hemisphere.

Johnny has finally been voted out, but I don’t think MrLefty can handle the fact. Everyone, left right and center, has been telling me how good they thought John Howard’s last speech was. But I log on to An Onymous Lefty and he seems to be the only one in Australia who thought his speech was shit.

The speech was good. It was positive; he congratulated the other guy and wished him the best. He thanked all the people that should be thanked. It seemed genuine and nonpolitical. He also didn’t seem bitter or upset with the Australian people – he accepted the fact that Australia wanted change. It affirmed what is great about a democratic system.

He even accepted full responsibility for his, frankly pigheaded, decision to lead the Liberal party into one last election. Overall, a good speech.

I was no John Howard fan. I despised the Howard government and especially their policies. I hated the way John Howard lied to the electorate multiple times. I was very fucking pleased when the Liberal party were voted out and even more pleased when Howard lost his seat. I hated Howard the politician. But Howard the man seemed like a relatively nice guy.

We can stop hating the Howard government because it doesn’t exist any more. Hating Howard the man is stupid and pointless. Unfortunately, some of Lefty’s latest posts do seem targeted at Howard the man.

The age of John Howard is over – he even lost his seat. So please stop flogging a dead horse and stop mentioning people who are politically irrelevant. Your target, as you have said yourself, is now Kevin Rudd and the Liberal party minus John Howard.

Blogs, like all other living things are born, grow, age and die. Some blogs get sick, others change their name or fall victim to foul play. Some blogs even mutate into something unrecognisable to the casual observer. The concluion is my blog roll has become very out of date and desperately needs updating.

I will use this unique opportunity to take a closer look at the current status of the blogs that live in my corner of ozblogostan.

An Onymous Lefty The pre-eminent, melbourne based, left wing political blog. This popular blog started in 2004 within a week of my own under the name of melbourne lefty. The author was forced to give up the blog, but the author was soon back with a new name, Mr Lefty. His blog was now known as Anonymous Lefty. Soon after this his blog was actually stolen and Mr Left’s real identity revealed. But luckily Jeremy got his blog back with the name An Onymous Lefty as he is now almost completely onymous. Jeremy receives more comments than the rest of the blogs is here altogether and he should really be proud of the community that has formed on his blog.

A Western Heart A formerly popular right wing blog it seems to lean further and further to the right with every blog post. If you can manage to get the writers and visitors to this blog to have an honest conversation about politics they can sometimes be considered reasonably ok people. However, the numerous examples of death threats (in jest of course) against left wingers make this site rarely visited by myself. Unlike the politics admired by the authors of AWH, this blog is still very much alive.

Mike Jericho This was the blog of a former contributor to AWH. Mike is probably the most human, friendly and reasonable of the AWH crew this might be the reason why he maintained his own blog. Mike became a friend of mine and this is probably why I initially refused to take his now dead blog off my blog roll – it’s gone now.

After Grog Blog This well named blog is a feature of almost every blog roll in Ozblogostan. This very funny blog is sometimes considered unintelligible by those who lack an Australian upbringing. If you have an interest in cricket or just wish to populise the phrase, “Get a dog up ya!”, this site is for you.

Darpism Darpism, was once one of the most popular left wing blogs in Australia. His favourite target was the home of the hypocrite- the Hillsong church. He gained infamy among the right wing religious establishment when he set off stink bombs in the middle of a sermon at the Hillsong church. Unfortunately, just like an olympic athlete who wins 8 gold medals, there was only one way this ball shaving blogger could go after this – that was down. Darpism was struggling for life and now has now finally died.

Troppo Armadillo This is a mainly politically centrist blog. Troppo Armadillo was started by Ken Parish, but has many other high profile contributors. It has changed homes many times and is now known as Club Troppo. This blog provides very in depth political and economic Commentary. This is very much the thinking person’s blog and if you wish to learn something new visit here often. Troppo is also well-known for their Missing Link. This is a rundown of all the blog posts from Ozblogostan in that week that the guys at Troppo think are worthy of greater attention.

The Inflatable Voodoo Dolls This is the blog of the band The Inflatable Voodoo Dolls. This is a mutant cameleon blog I am not certen what it will become next. At the moment it on Livejournal.com and continues to live quite happily. Joe the guy who, I believe, runs this blog was a popular visitor to my site and when he left a comment it was always a pissa.

A Yobbo’s View The name says it all. This blog came close to dying when its author contracted a terrible disease – World of Warcraft addiction. He does post every now and then. I do believe this blog will be back stronger than ever when Yobbo recovers from his addiction.

Reasons You Will Hate Me (Ms Fits) I believe this blog is run by Marieke Hardy. She is one of the most foulmouthed and funny bloggers I’ve come across. She has a particular skill in offending those of the right wing political persuasion. It was her that set off the famous panda gate blog war – which she won in convincing fashion.

DREADNOUGHT (John Heard) A gay cathloc is the blog. Much of what he writes infureates me. He is a right-wing religious conservative, but he loves posting pictures of hot naked men – did I mention this guy is a cathloc? This maze of contradictions puzzles me greatly I no longer visit this blog in case I turn gay.

Hecho En Mexico This hardy beast is the spawn of a public transport obsessed young male human. This blog is way too cool for me so I seldom visit it. If you wear sunglasses in dim nightclubs this may be the place for you.

The Road to Surfdom (Tim Dunlop) Tim Dunlop is very popular Australian blogger who has has been around the Internet’s inception. The centre-left political blog is still alive.

Guru Ann I don’t know much about this blog as I never visit it. But it is still ticking along. Its author is a Hume city councillor who is very active in her community belonging to many committees: Vice President of Sunbury Jnr Footy Club, Vice President of Sunbury ALP, Vice President of Sunbury Downs College Council, Member of Empowering Sunbury Committee, Member of Sunbury Festival Committee, Member of Calder Action Group, Board Member of Sunbury Cemetery Trust and Member of VLGA. She must be very busy woman and that is probably why her blog hasn’t been updated recently.

Sterne (Tim) The author of this blog is a genuine comic genius. This blog features some of the greatest piss takes I’ve ever seen. If there is only one blog you visit this lifetime make it this one.

Right Wing Death Bogan (Nilknarf) Well the name says it all really, except she isn’t really a bogan she is just a little bit too politically aware to be a true ugboot wearing bogan. If you are a lefty and want a good argument this blog is for you.

Lightning Struck Itself (Clem) This was the blog of Clem Bastow a funny female music journalist writer and blogger with a penchant for the word cunt! Unfortunately, Clem has moved onto greener pastures and her blog has now starved to death.

No Talent Time (Martie) The name here is misleading, but says something about the quality of the author. This humourous blog mainly follows the life and times of Martie sometimes psychologically challenged Brain.

I hope I’ve given you a small glimpse into the blogs that live in my small corner of the blogosphere.

This post was a real strain to write as there were so many blogs on my blog roll most of whom were dead. I defined dead by not having posted for six months or more. There was a lot a research mostly searching through my own buggy memory. Many of the blogs I couldn’t remember, I never visited or didn’t have a clue how they ended up on my blog roll. If you know of a blog or have a blog that you think I should know about tell me about it in the comments.