New Features

I’m trying to add a few new things to the blog again, hopefully all one or two of you who read my blog will find them worth using.

The first thing I’m adding is an integration with Twitter. I’ve set up my blog so that every time I write something new, it will send an announcement to anyone who follows me on Twitter. If you’ve never heard of twitter, it’s a sort of social network tool and microblog service. I can send very short messages through it, which get sent out to anyone who chooses to follow my twitter account. It will send it to you by your choice of email, text message, or IM. The nice thing about it is that I can follow you as well, so that if you send a tweet (a twitter message), I’ll get it. It’s a great way to keep up with what your friends are doing, and to keep them posted on your status.

That Twitter integration is also working the other way around. Not only will my blog send a tweet when I write a new posts, but all of my recent tweets will be listed on the side of the blog. So if you don’t get my status messages by sms or email, you can always look at the most recent ones right here on the blog.

I’m also going to start using DIGG buttons on some of my blog posts. If I am writing something that’s not a primarily personal post, I’ll include a small square DIGG icon to the right of the post. If you think what I wrote is good, and worth sharing with other people (the general public), click the DIGG button. DIGG is a social bookmarking site, where a post gets added to their list and ranked by how many DIGGs it gets. A post might start at the top of the list, but if nobody diggs it, it goes down fast. If lots of people digg it, that means it’s worth reading, and it goes to the top of the list.

The last feature I’m adding tonight is related to everybody’s favorite web store, Amazon.com. I’ve signed up for an associate account with amazon, and will begin linking to items I talk about in the blog. If you click the link and decide to buy the item, I get a small percentage of the cost. I’m not going to link to things just to try and get people to buy them. The links are there more as a convenience to readers, and as a ‘just in case’ thing if someone should want to buy what I talk about. For example, if I write a short post talking about a book I am reading, I’ll link to the book on Amazon. If you read my review of it and decide you want to read it yourself, you can buy the book in just a couple of clicks, and a few cents from your purchase goes to me. Also, even if you don’t buy that particular book, but end up ordering something else, if you went to amazon through my link, I still get the percentage of it. Again, I don’t expect people to go out and buy things just to give me money, but if you happen to be buying something from amazon anyway, please use these links. This Link will take you right to the main amazon page, so you can search for whatever you want, and includes my associate link.

So, that’s about it for now. Nothing major, but 3 small new features for the blog that I hope people will use and enjoy. I’ve also added a couple more widgets to the right side column of the blog, and moved things around a bit. Check it all out!