JillFlorio

There are just too many options with GPS units. I want all the features I need and don’t want to pay for the ones I don’t.

For the holidays we getting ourselves a GPS unit. A nice splurge and a way to forestall lots of arguments on the road. You know, the ones that go…“No, I have no idea what exit is coming up. Why are those signs so small? Oh, shit…that’s it, get over now!”

So to fulfill this productive goal of merrier marital harmony we need a GPS.

We have the price range nailed down ($300-500, so we can get a good one). We even have a long trip coming up to really test the new device’s paces.

The problem is there are too many choices and all the features I want don’t exist on the same unit.

• I want Exit POIs and AAA Roadside Assistance (Magellan).
• I want a feature that sends sound through my FW radio and has an incredibly easy user interface (Garmin).
• And I want Advance Trip Planning and Darth Vader to tell me where to go (Tom Tom).

So the consumer, me and you, have to chart out the pros and the cons and the deal breakers. In an effort to wade through the choss I published a few articles on the subject: Shopping, Selecting your New GPS and Top Portable GPS Models.

But they won’t really help. This stuff is just too complicated. Can’t I customize my GPS? Like buying a Dell computer? Now that would be a great start-up idea for someone.

I’ll be your first customer.

A big, flashy car - whether a rental or your own - is only a come-on for thieves. Try a junker instead…

A big, flashy car - whether a rental or your own - is only a come-on for thieves. I try to keep a low profile during my own business trips so I don’t have to worry about people messing with my stuff, stealing my ride, or targeting me for unfriendly attention. Unless you really need to impress clients with your automobile, downsize your vehicular expectations.

I like a hands-free device for driving, walking and conducting most business with my cell phones. The problem is finding a good one. I don’t like things INSIDE my ears or cords that dangle and twist too much or loud mikes that pick up every little bark and siren and breeze and my heartbeat too.

Maybe I am asking too much? Well, in a perfect world my headset would be cordless, sit comfortably on my head, have a few phone controls on the device itself and be a fair price.

I’ll be starting to review the headsets I stumble across, starting with the Jabra Ear Wave Boom.

Watch your laptop. Nail it down. At least back the thing up. Laptop theft in coffee shops is increasing.

In a disturbing new trend, crooks are snatching laptops right from the hands of cafe-going travelers.

According to the The San Francisco Chronicle article linked above, the Bay area is the major “hot spot” for this type of activity, although they mention Berkeley coffee shops are also at risk.

I’d suggest that any hip, urban center full of coffee shops and laptop people will only attract more of this unwelcome attention. Think New York, Seattle, Bellevue, Ann Arbor, Austin, Boulder. Coffee towns. Maybe your own town.

Will a laptop leash help? Maybe. Or enjoying your notebook at a coffeeshop with a friend, buddying up at cafe tables? Probably more so on that one. I’d suggest keeping your eyes open - not disappearing into your Internet world - and not going alone (if you can help it).

Lastly, and always important to do - back up your laptop. And keep the backups somewhere safe. It’s not the law, but it’s still a REALLY GOOD IDEA. If your precious laptop does get snatched, you at least will have your irreplacable data.

Get live stock quotes from your cell phone.

Poking around my obligatory USA Today (free with my hotel room) and noticing I can check stock prices over my cell phone if I wanted.

I’m not a “play the stocks” guy. I understand we have a few mutual funds and have a few environmentally green stocks on the side, but I don’t check on such things. Not my interests, really.

But if I WAS on a business trip and I cared, it’s nice that I could just use my cell, anywhere I have a signal, and see live quotes.

USA Today says to send a text message to 4INFO (44636) with: Stock Ticker (Dell) or Fund trader (AGTHX).

Have fun.

This is a super little book about blogging that establishes a niche of its own. Starting with the unlikely cover pic of an Eskimo with laptop, apparently blogging on a seat of furs in an expanse of endless ice and snow, the book logs into unusual textual terrain as well.

The first few chapters, 1 through 4, discuss the rise of blogging - what blogs are, how to find them on the blogosphere, how to subscribe to blog readers…there’s a swift grounding.

Chapters 5 through 8 cover the set up basics; there is actually (albeit barely) enough to get you off the ground from blog hosting to blog design.

Chapter 9 discusses blogorrhea, finding your voice, how to be interesting and honest online, editing your work, and building your audience.

The traffic chapter is concise - and far from comprehensive. Nothing here will teach you to get to the top of the search engine rankings. But the tips about sitemeters, IP addresses, page rank (and even Google bombing) are at least a start.

Pages 64-65 cover the basic elements of a post, from tips on titling, to time stamps, pull quotes, adding comments and permalinking. The next pages discuss why Times Roman and Georgia are the most common blogger serif fonts, and how Verdana and Courier new can be useful as sans serif choices. There is some neat stuff here I have not seen in other books of this ilk.

Especially enjoyable are the many chapters (about half of the actual book) about popular blogs in different genres. It’s neat to read the screen captures and mini-reviews of the best blogs in fields like politics and journalism, diaries and journaling, education and business.

The author’s personal blogroll is fascinating as well, including lists of neat blogs on art, cars, celebrities, design, food, gossip, pets, knitting, law, literature, sports and sex. These great lists are well worth the price of admission alone.

This is a really fun book. Recommended as a supplemental blogging guide, best used beside a more complete introductory blog text like Blogging for Dummies or the Everything Blogging Book.

The Rough Guide to Blogging at Amazon.com

Like many Dummies books, the Blogging for Dummies book is comprehensive! It’s a thorough introduction to blogging from rank Internet newbie, to the typical active blogger seeking to learn more about the medium.

As a 2008 book, it’s reasonably current. This is one of those Dummies books the publishers will need to update annually. I recommend readers always seek the latest possible edition of any blogging book, as popular technologies change so rapidly in the field. RSS, comment spam, social networks and podcasting are all given their due space. An entire chapter is devoted to adding and managing photos for your blog.

Two large chapters offer the fundamentals of blogging for business and adding advertising. This won’t be specific enough to get any would-be pro blogger rich, but *does* provide enough basics to get started with affiliates, AdSense, TextLink Ads, AdBright and the like.

Lots of screen captures and sidebars explain complex concepts quite clearly. I enjoyed one sidebar in particular about why comment spam exists (and hint; it’s more about page rank juice than possible click-throughs).

I’d recommend this book for the newbie through advanced blogging beginner. Intermediate level bloggers looking to to brush up on the basics would likely enjoy adding this as a reference to the bookshelf, and might find a few gems they originally missed.

Advanced bloggers won’t find much useful here…but as it’s a Dummies book, that’s to be expected!

From all the blogging books targeting the beginner, this one offers the most bang for your buck, and really does a nice job of holding your hand along the way.

Buy Blogging For Dummies at Amazon.com

The Everything Blogging Book is a great starter source for newbie bloggers looking to simply set up and run a blog. There is a TON of useful info to be mined here about what a blog is, who is out there blogging, and why one might build their online journal.

The author discusses such deeper points as establishing your blogging voice/persona, identifying your market and determining your blogging goals, as well as the nuts and bolts of archiving posts, selecting blog hosts and designing layout.

Types of blogs are discussed in detail: political/pundit blogs; health and wellness blogs; blogs for writers and artists; family journals and personal diaries. A lot of attention is paid to how to wring the most enjoyment as possible from your blogging efforts.

Chapter titles:
1. Welcome to Blogging
2. Blogs as Useful Tools
3. Popular Blog Topics
4. Who is Blogging?
5. Why Build a Blog
6. Understanding Online Publishing
7. Planning Your Blog
8. Finding Your Blog Host
9 Deciding on a Blog Host
10. Starting Your Blog
11. Blog Designs
12. Blog Content Development
13. Building Blog Communities
14. Popular Blog Tools
15. Bloggers Beware (disclaimers, copyright)
16. Secrets of Successful Blogs
17. Outside the Blog Box (art,craft and photography blogs, group blogs, multimedia blogs)
18. Blogging Got Business
19. Marketing Your Blog
20. Maintaining Your Blog
21. Measuring Blog Traffic
22. Beyond the Blog (podcasting, vlogging, hand held and mobile blogging)
23. Impact of Blogging (society and the Internet)

This book in particular seems specifically aimed at the personal blogger, not the would-be professional. Some bare bones monetizing info is provided in Chapter 18 (Blogging for Business). While the chapter won’t make anyone rich, it’s a start to introduce small or home businesses to basic online selling principles.

Well recommended for the average person wanting a one stop, complete blogging resource. Not for the aspiring professional blogger - there are other blogging books for that demographic.

The Everything Blogging Book: Publish Your Ideas, Get Feedback, And Create Your Own Worldwide Network

This short book is a very clear and easy read; just about right for blogging novices seeking a quick introduction to the basics. The pages are written in “sound bites” for the busy non-tech professional, in lucid language, with no padding. You get just the facts needed to get your business blog set up, from idea to reality, in a reading that should not take more than one afternoon.

My major beef with the book: the author’s single-minded focus on Typepad as a blogging platform. What about Blogger and Word Press? Exactly *half* of this book reads like a how-to manual for TypePad.

Although I understand this is the author’s choice and probably the blogging platform he is most comfortable with, nowhere on the jacket blurb is TypePad mentioned. I would like to have known this if I was buying the book! What if I already had the start of a WordPress blog and wanted to know how to develop it? Half this book, short enough already, would be wasted cash for me. I find this a bit disingenuous on the part of the publisher.

I would recommend this book only if the blogger-to-be wanted a step-by-step description of starting a blog from *scratch* on Typepad.

For people already owning a blog, the book is just a bit too remedial. For the price, there are other books for the beginning blogger that should prove more useful and take one beyond the baby steps offered here.

Blogwild!: A Guide for Small Business Blogging

Too often I’ve seen this happen - a cutting-edge social media book becomes out of date a year after the publishing date. This 2007 book is no exception.

MySpace is given a lot of pages, while Facebook is barely mentioned in passing. Texting as a social phenomenon is ignored, while Twitter is not named at all. LinkedIn, Wickipedia, uTube and Flickr get their due discussion, however, as does the possible future of podcasting.

The short chapters are set up as compare/contrast essays, for example, discussing the merits of the Wickipedia vs the Brittanica, whether blogging hurts or helps journalism and whether or not social networks are doomed to failure.

While these are all fascinating topics, the writing here is pedantic and scholarly. I had forgotten how much I dislike the academic voice. Reading this took me back to the days of college sociology assignments.

It’s not that the information is useless - there are good points made in each chapter. And it’s a quick read - I was able to start and finish this in one afternoon. I just feel that if someone is seeking of-the-moment information on social media, then a “just published” book might be more appropriate. Or better yet, seek current websites blogging about social media on the Internet!

User-Generated Content (At Issue Series)