ME and Ophelia

DELL ENGINEER HERE AGAIN
Replaced mother board and key board

Dell engineer just left. He has replaced mother board and keyboard. Keyboard actually feels better. Maybe my imagination but the buttons feel slightly larger and sturdier. Machine has not shut down. Only one draw back. The high pitched noise of the fan. I can hear it from the kitchen. When you are ill, all noise sounds louder and it's draining. At the moment I am finding it a bit stressful but hopefully I will get used to it. The old fan made the machine almost silent. If I don't get used to it, don't know what I can do. Probably just have to use it less. Right now all I want to do is switch it off to get peace and quiet. What a disappointment. I should have gone with my initial gut instinct and chosen the 17" Apple laptop for the same price.

Had weight not been an issue, I would have definitely purchased an Apple Powerbook. It hurts my arms when I lift my cat Ophelia. She is 3 kg. The Apple Powerbook was heavier than Ophelia. This Dell Latitude C400 weighs half of Ophelia. It is the most lightweight laptop on the market. What helped sway me to Microsoft was that some people said Apple files would not be compatible and I'd be out on my own when it came to sharing tips or if anything went wrong. I did not know about bloggers before I made the purchase. Had I known, I might have chosen Apple because a lot of them use Macintosh. I feel sad. Like I've lost an old companion. And made a major purchase mistake, something I can ill afford to do.
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New styles and templates for weblogs

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DELL ENGINEER STARTS A BLOG
Ten tips for a better weblog

Last Friday, I encouraged the visiting Dell engineer to start up a blog through Blogger.com. He had never heard of blogging. This morning I received an email saying he has started up a BlogSpot named Computer Man.

I emailed him back with my list of six search engines, HaloScan commenting facility and Site Meter visitor counter and statistics tracker.

He, and another person, said it was not easy to understand how to find other bloggers. My short answer was to click into my sidebar, and look in the sidebar of all those bloggers and keep on surfing. Also, I advised him to write something about himself and provide an email contact address.

Yesterday, Joi Ito blogged about Rebecca Blood and her 10 tips for a better weblog:

Ten Tips For A Better Weblog

1. Choose an updating tool that is easy to use. Try out several services. Some are free, some cost a little money, but don't commit to a tool until you have had a chance to try it out. Pick the one that works best for you.

2. Determine your purpose. Weblogs are used to filter information, organize businesses, share family news, establish professional reputations, foment social change, and muse about the meaning of life. Knowing what you hope to accomplish with your weblog will allow you to begin in a more focused way.

3. Know your intended audience. You conduct yourself differently with your friends than you do with professional associates, strangers, customers, or your grandmother. Knowing for whom you are writing will allow you to adopt an appropriate tone.

4. Be real. Even a professional weblog can be engaging. Avoid marketese. Speak in a real voice about real things.

5. Write about what you love. A weblog is the place for strong opinions, whether about politics, music, social issues, gardening, or your profession. The more engaged you are with your subject, the more interesting your writing will be.

6. Update frequently. Interested readers will return to your site if there is likely to be something new. You needn't update every day, but try to post several times a week.

7. Establish your credibility. To the best of your ability, be truthful. Be respectful to your audience and to your fellow bloggers. Understand that on the Internet, your words may live forever, whether they are self-published or archived on another site. In the Weblog Handbook, I propose a set of Weblog Ethics; think about your own standards, and then adhere to them.

8. Link to your sources. The Web allows a transparency that no other medium can duplicate. When you link to a news story, an essay, a government document, a speech, or another blogger's entry, you allow your readers access to your primary material, empowering them to make informed judgements.

9. Link to other weblogs. Your readers may enjoy being introduced to the weblogs you most enjoy reading. The Web is a democratic medium and bloggers amplify each other's voices when they link to each other. Generously linking to other weblogs enlarges the grassroots network of information sharing and social alliances we are creating together on the Web.

10. Be patient. Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates your audience will grow. You may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to your site regularly will come because they are interested in what you have to say.

Bonus tip: Have fun! Whether your weblog is a hobby or a professional tool, it will be more rewarding for you if you allow yourself to experiment a little. Even a subject-specific weblog benefits from a bit of whimsy now and again.
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Note: Currently I am thinking about tip number 3 and writing a post about this.