Archives for July 2007

If you are looking for another technical blog, stop and check out the blog Per Henrik Lausten, a blog on Lotus Domino, IT Architecture, Technology, and Other Stuff at  The author, is an IT Architect at IBM from Denmark and writes entirely about tips and tricks on his industry. I will admit, I do not now nor ever will profess to know very much about this topic, but that does not take away from what I notice about the blog. From first glance the readership is very good, sitting at about 177 on the feed right now, and his posts are well populated with comments, s clearly his niche has found the market his blog needs. If you are interested in IT or Lotus Domino, you should take the time to check out his recent posts: Fast NSF: Domino Performance articles and tips, Dojomino: Info and Tutorials for using Dojo, New Laptop from Zepto with Intel Santa Rosa technology, Lotus Software Nordic meeting in Second Life, Podcast: Mike Rhodin on Lotus Notes 8, Join Impact 2007 in Second Life, Joost Invites, Danish Lotus Notes and Domino Job site, Lotus Notes 8 Beta reception in second life, and Blog on Lotus and Websphere in Norwegian.

Navigation on the site is very straightforward. Posts are left marginalized with a right navigation bar. Text is standard black on white background. The right navigation bar contains the profile of the blogger, RSS feed, and a recommended links menu containing recommended links from what looks like a “Show N Tell Thursday” category: Architectural Patterns and Domino (Show’n Tell Thursday), Lotus Domino and Designing for Accessibility (Show’n Tell Thursday), getItem Value String and Domino 6.5.5 and 7.0 (Show’n Tell Thursday), Sorting a Notes Document Collection by multiple field values (Show’n Tell Thursday). There is also a nice list of fellow IBM bloggers and the archive listing in the right navigation menu.

I will give this blog a 3.3 based on our criteria. This blog could use a category menu to sort and organize posts a little better. The posting is somewhat sporadic so I think perhaps a couple of more posts a week would bring the mark up a little bit. I would like to suggest pictures, just so that the blog seems a little more interesting. And it may help to add a user friendly component or definitions category to this page for those like me that don’t know much about the topic. However, overall the blog is doing well with its readership of 177 readers, and I can’t offer much more advice to help it other than adding some user friendly or “easy readability” features for the non-techies out there. I enjoy reading blogs of all niches, regardless of if I am a guru in them or not, and for others of the same inclination that stumbled on this blog a user friendly category would gain even more readership than this blog already has. Otherwise, I think this blogs readers and devoted commenters would agree when I say this blog is heading in the right direction.

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– Chrissie

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If you are looking for a blog that offers a little more than the ordinary, the Daily Perspective would be an excellent choice. Here at “Daily Perspective“ you will find the author’s connections between headlines of today with headlines of yesterday. I find the concept of this blog extremely intriguing, and think everyone could find useful tidbits here even if they are not history buffs. The authors work for a company called Heritage Microfilm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and are using this blog as a means to allow you to explore and interact with the history that shapes our future. The Daily Perspective is a source for often forgotten information with a refreshing dose of historical perspective. One of my favorite posts that highlights this is “Can children be Mailed?” which brings us back to 1920 when in fact, the United States Postal Service put a ban on the mailing of actual children. Other interesting tidbits you will find here include “Newspaper Archive.com releases celebrate freedom project”, “Flag Burning: Should it Be Protected?”, and “Concert to Celebrate Princess Diana’s Life”.

Navigation on this blog is very easy, with posts being left marginalized and a very comprehensive right navigation bar. Posts are black text on white background with a pale blue border and a red header. I get a very distinct All-American feel from this which suits the niche very nicely. There is no advertising on this blog, and this shows the thought of the authors into the intent of their project. However it does seem to have some readers so it may do well if they decide to reconsider this. The right navigation bar has an archive menu, about me page, a newsletter subscription, and a very comprehensive list of categories. If you are a history buff you will enjoy browsing the categories to see the extensive listing on everything from Abraham Lincoln to the Titanic and every American historical event in between listed here. The authors have clearly left nothing out.

I would say a 3 for this one at this point, it needs a little more work, but not much. I think activity is hurting the blog review the most with only 17 posts listed in 2007. For a blog that is called the Daily Perspective, I would suggest more content definitely. Though the content that is there is refreshing and very well written, and this blog could be very successful if it keeps that up. I think the blog has a wide enough niche that daily or even every other day content could be included very easily. I also wouldn’t mind seeing more pictures of the historical events they talk of, perhaps a then and now kind of juxtaposition to move with the them of the blog. On other counts however, the blog is easy to navigate, has a very appealing appearance, and a unique concept. With just a few more regular postings, this blog could do very well.

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– Chrissie

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If you ever wondered what went on behind closed doors of a secret society, then you may want to have a look at the “Masonic Traveler’s Blog“. While you may not be given privilege to the secrets of this society, at least you will be given the opportunity to learn more about it. The blogger wishes to bring to you a pursuit of an understanding of “the divine in context of the relativism of man over his nihilistic individuality. We are in this together.” As I don’t quite understand that quote, I am going to guess it has something to do with the Masonry, as the secret societies and Greek organizations are highly ordered and speak very divinely. That being said, not understanding that will not mean you won’t enjoy the blog. If nothing else, you will get an education from reading this blog. You will learn that “free masonry is an order that is fraternal (men only) and is founded on the universal belief in the Divine, illustrated by a certain landmark of tenants and virtues, that teach symbolically a progressive system of discovery that leads ultimately to a personal degree of self-improvement and an inclination towards the betterment of society.”

The journey of the blog is the journey of one man’s Freemasonry experiences, and he stresses that it is not a vehicle of any specific lodge or Grand Lodge. He is interested in the exotic aspects of the work, and hopes to bring his enlightenings to you. You can get a feel for any of these enlightenings through the recent posts What is Freemasonry? That Shrine Guy, Chicken Little, Free Mason Underground of Philadelphia, Impact, Good St. John the Baptist Day, The Role of Grand Lodges, Grail Call, Whole Lot of Meme’ing Going Around, and a Saintly Throngs.

Navigation on the site is fairly straightforward though there are some formatting issues with the right navigation bar which seem to be exclusive to Internet Explorer viewers. Posts are centered and there is both a left and right navigation bar. The left bar contains the “who is” information and information on free masonry. You will also find here the fraternity store, free masonry in the news, and advertising. In the right navigation bar, you won’t find much here, and you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get to it. This seems to be an IE issue, and not a format issue with the blog per se. In the right nav bar you will find the about me information, other Masonic blog links, blog widgets, advertising, and a menu with a listing of headlines current in masonry news. I like the headlines menus, there are updates from as little as 2 hours ago. I also like how the AdSense is incorporated into the blog design, it is barely noticeable. I am generally not fond of the white text on black background look, but it seems to suit the mood of this blog so I won’t think twice about it. I did have problems with empty space in the right nav bar however that simply said “text text text” or “more to come”. These spots are better left empty than with text essentially advertising there is no content to put there. I also did not see either a categories menu or a recent posts menu which to me are two critical blog features. These make usability of the blog so much more appealing for readers and I do recommend them to the blogger.

I will go with a 3 for this one, and I think my main suggestions have already been indicated. I think the blog is well written, so content wise it will not lose points here. There are appropriate pictures as well that are relevant to each post, and the theme of the blog is very interesting. The blog is also not losing points on activity, there was an updated post during my review, so that is always good to see active blogging. With just a few format changes, this blog could be a tremendous success. Best of luck!