This isennis.com
June 28, 2005
Blog Url: This is ennis
Name: Ryan Ennis
Age: 20
Sex: male
Location: St. John’s, Newfoundland
1. When did u start your blog?
April 2005.
2. Did anyone inspire you to Start a blog?
Nope. Always had an interest in websites tho, and having a blog was a
way of getting started on my first webpage to learn php and improve
my html >skills
3. What powers your Blog? (blogger/wordpress..etc..)
Wordpress
4. Name 3 blogs that inspire/captivate/captures yr attention.
5. What is your blog mainly about?
Me, friends, family, school, work….pretty much everything.
6. You have a download section on it..tell us more..
The download section of my site is a school download section i
created for my classmates. Those from school can go to this section of
my site, download any software we are using in the school labs so they
can use it at home. It also has all the handouts, projects
and assignments that the instructors hand out for them to download
incase they lose it or need another copy.
7. What’s the idea behind having a forum for your blog?
The forums is a place where anyone can go and discuss recent invents
in the news, any personal issues, or discuss any computer problems
they have and hopefully find their answer to their problem or be
placed in the right direction to find their answer.
8. Your fav music is…
Alternative, Rap, Rock, Classic Rock..I like mostly everything, except
for heavy metal.
9. Do you blog regularly?
Whenever theirs and update to be made. Usually once a day.
10. Your advice for people just beginning to start a blog…..
When starting a blog, keep your theme clean. Don’t block it with
things that will slow it up, and never give up making it unique. Show
your creativity and whenever a problem arises, stick with it.
11. Google…what do you think about google?
The answer to all problems
12. The Future of Blogs…Bright,dim,don’t care?
Lookin pretty bright. Always look forward to what the future can
bring and the new additions people develop.
13.Your Motto in life
Live life to the fullest and don’t let anyone stop you from persuing
your dreams
14. Name 3 blogs that makes you go ..wow!
Lucky-33
Jowra
IAmsteve
15. What do you think makes your blog special?
Its unique. Its a bit of my creativity, mixed with a bit of my
personality mixed together giving a special blog.
16. If you were not blogging..you would…..
If i wasn’t blogging, i’d probably be wishing i still had my own site
to blog on like i had been before april.
17. Describe your blog in less than 500 words.
My blog. Well its about me. Ryan Ennis. A 20 year old canadian from
St. John’s,Newfoundland. It contains info on new technology, important
information for my classmates, what i do during the week, and what i
think of recent events. It also is a place to get my good buddy John
Howard, and his band Built By Leggo some exposure to the world and get
people to go to their concerts.
Ennis
Site Admin
ThisisEnnis.com
Avinash.vora
June 27, 2005
A quick Thank You to Avinash Vora, for his time in answering this questions.
Head on over to his Blog, to find out more, especially the download section. 
The Following are questions submmited to Avinash:
Blog Url: Avinash.Vora
Name:
Avinash Vora
Age:
18
Sex:
Male
Location:
Earth
1. When did u start your blog?
03/03/05, according to the first post on my blog.
2. What is your blog about? what is the main focus?
I basically write about whatever I find interesting and whatever I think
others will find interesting. This could be everything from technology
talk, quantum physics, politics or religion. I try to write for a wide
variety of people and hope that it’s reaching out.
3.YourBlog is powered by? (wordpress,blogger..etc..)
WordPress 1.5
4. Is your blog design custom?
It’s a modified design - it is a modified version of MinimaPlus by the
excellent Theron Parlin of thoughtmechanics.
5. Do you have friends that blog too?
Not many in real life. One, maybe two. Friends I’ve made over the
Internet? Many.
6. Name 3 blogs that captures your attention.
Binary Bonsai - Michael is an excellent writer
and a talented designer.
Airios - That design captivates me.
If Else - Writes some excellent material, and
provides good content.
7. Your Fav Music is..?
That’s tough - but I listen to all forms of rock (folksy/acoustic stuff to
melodic metal), jazz, flamenco (contemporary and classical), classical, and
a very limited amount of rap (grandmaster flash and sugarhill gang).
8. Your motto in Life?
Hmm. “Life’s a bitch, but it’s your bitch.”
9. If you were not blogging..you would……?
…be playing guitar, recording that album that’s on hold.
10.Your Blog has a download section…tell us more about it…
Well, I program from time to time, and some of the stuff I’ve created that I
found useful is up there. This might be my tutorials, some PHP scripts or
any useful software that I’ve written. They usually go up because people
have contacted me with interest to having these items publicly available, or
if someone asks me to code something, then I put that up too. There is a
lot more stuff that doesn’t make the downloads page that should, but I have
to design a better system. Once my exams are over this will take priority.
11.There’s even a link to your devianart page…your a graphic designer?
Yes, I am proficient in Photoshop, and dabbled in 3D Studio Max before. I
love to just open up an empty canvas in Photoshop and just start creating
abstract stuff and seeing where it goes. It’s satisfying to see my thoughts
at that time just flow onto the page.
12. What do you think of Google?
Google…it’s basically mixed feelings. On one hand, I admire them for what
they have done for the Internet - easily the greatest search ever, fantastic
email, aggregated news, images etc. etc. On the other hand, they have got
to where they are by doing some fairly inexcusable stuff. Where have I
explicitly written that I want my copyrighted artwork to be available
through Google Images? Why shouldn’t Reuters be paid royalties for letting
(well, not letting, but Google taking) Google take their newsfeeds and
present it on a site, reducing Reuters traffic.
13. 5 year from now…you’ll still be blogging?
Oh I sure hope so. I’d like to, but life leads you strange places. One
year ago I wouldn’t have thought I would even be blogging.
14. Do you blog on a regular basis?
I go through patches where I make multiple posts a day, to times when I
manage a post a week, to times when I didn’t post for half a month. Ideally
I’d like to make at least one post a day, but time constraints and real life
come in the way.
15. Your advice to people who want to start blogging..
Make sure you customize everything before you actually start blogging -
changing themes, adding new plugins, changing post styles etc. can be a pain
once you have a full database.
Backup often - you’d be surprised how many “good” servers have little quirks
in them. Use phpMyAdmin and backup your database, download the rest of the
content through FTP, and archive it. Make a folder in your hard disk and
keep everything there, ordered by date. When it becomes too big, burn it to
a disc. I have had so many problems when updating the blog core messed up
and WordPress corrupted, and I had to reinstall a previous backup of my
database. I would love to backup daily, but that’s not practical. I would
say a database backup is good every 10 posts, and a content backup is good
at least once a month, ideally once a week.
Get help from people who know how it’s done - WordPress for example has an
excellent support forum where people can get help. When I started off, I
knew nothing, and had to teach myself. Head over to the support forum of
whatever blog software you choose and ask questions, search for similar
problems to yours.
16. Decribe your blog in less than 500 words.
The absolutely crazed corner of the Internet of a programmer/web
designer/musician/digital artist/photographer with a love and knack for
sarcasm and the art of subtle satire.
[How about 25?]
Thank You to Avinash Vora for his time.
Nullmind’s Lair
June 17, 2005
Blog Url:Nullmind
Name: Carlos Rego
Age: 31
Sex: Male
Location: Cardiff, UK
1. When did u start your blog?
I started blogging with MT back in April 2003, initially all my
entries were (and some still are) private, back then I was going thru
some tough times, and used the blog as a means to release my
frustration and confine to a digital medium, but still keeping it to
my eyes only, but lately I have been revisiting those same entries
and slowly making them public .. for the past year however, all my
entries are public, I believe the more you blog, the bolder you
become and open up more.
2. Did anyone inspire you to Start a blog?
Not really, back when I was a kid, I had a journal, it sounds the
sort of thing girls do, but I loved mine, I would draw allot on it
and take notes of new experiences, places and things. The succession
of it to a blog was a natural one.
3. What powers your Blog? (blogger/wordpress..etc..)
Currently is powered by Wordpress, initially when I started I was
using MovableType, but I never been too keen on CGI (perl), so at the
end of 2003 I moved to b2evolution .. but after seeing that project
go nowhere (development stalled) I decided it was time to move on,
MovableType was the obvious choice .. another tool I use and love is
“ecto” .. it allows me to create my posts in OSX, complete with
images and technorati tags and then publish them to the blog, very
handy.
4. Name 3 blogs that inspire/captivate/captures yr attention.
Not sure if it qualifies as a blog, but close enough, http://
slashdot.org/, other than that, i just jump on technorati and look
for blogs on whatever tecnorati categories I am writing that day, and
the occasional check on the linuxCult.com blog’s - http://
linuxcult.com/forum/journal.php
5. Your Fav Music
I’m a big fan of Project bands like “Deep Forest” … I also enjoy
Enya’s music, basically any mixture of classical and techno will do
me in, I cant stand POP .. but then again, I am getting old.
6. Do You Blog regularly?
Sometimes 2-3 times a day, then i’ll go a couple of days witouth an
entry, I only blog what has meaning to me, I hate the fact most blogs
nowadays are all news oriented, I wont comment on a news-topic unless
I feel strong about it, most bloggers seem to just copy the news
article into a post and call it a blog.
7. How many friends of yours Blog too?
I know of 3 or 4 who do, sometimes they need a little incentive to
get writing again, but it’s catching on.
8. Did you design your own Blog?
I took an existing skin (MX4) and went to work on it, it gave me the
layout structure I was looking, if you look at it and the skin it’s
based, it’s quite different now, I also went on a mission for cool
plugins, I was able to nicely integrate jVisitors with the theme, and
my DVD collection as well.
9. What do you think makes your blog interesting?
I write about the simplest of things, and the coolest of things (that
I buy), I love to shop for the latest and greatest on the tech world,
when i get myself a new toy I make sure to write about it from my
point of view, the everyday joe, and no the paid reviewer.
I also write about everyday stuff that mean something to me, I might
see a stupid sign on a road and write about it, I try to write mostly
to myself, and not for an audience.
10. Your advice for people just beginning to start a blog…..
Like Nike says “Just Do It”, a blog is a great thing for prosperity,
I envision 20 or 30 years from now, having my kids read it and go “I
never knew DAD was like that”.
11. 5 years from now..do u think u will still be blogging?
Of course, I have much more of myself that I wish to share with
others, especially my family and growing kids.
12. The future of Blogs…..where would it lead to? in your opinion.
Personal journals haven’t changed for milenia, I dont think blogs
will change much either, there might be a few cool gizmos and plugins
here and there, but ultimately it is a bonified digital journal,
people telling the world their story, secrets, hope and dreams ..
13. your motto in life
Try not to look back, and try not to dwell on the mistaques of the
past … the future is allot more fun, that’s the way I try to live,
sometimes it doesn’t quite work that way, but I’ll keep trying.
14. If you were not blogging you would……..
Work, I’m a workaholic ..
15. Google…what do You think about Google?
Google is a outstanding, clutter free search tool, it is also the
depiction of lust, it’s over inflated stock makes it bigger than
media companies like Time Warner, who gross 10x as more than Google,
it shows us what a messed-up financial times we live in.
16. What do You think Makes your Blog Special?
It’s not a news repository.
17. what is your blog mainly about?
Everything that is part of an ordinary geek’s life, from the latest
cool supercomputer, to the family trip, just a human being’s small
part on this increasingly small planet.
18. Decribe your blog in less than 500 words…
NullMind’s Lair is the blog of a multi faceted individual, who loves
computers, art, traveling, family and work.
It depicts every day events, and once in a while, very opinionated
comments about the state of the society we live on, the blog does not
have a single theme, the blogger does not have a single interest.
Null also uses the blog to share any tips or tricks he might come
across on his everyday job as a Sysadmin that other might find useful.
Blog Url:Nullmind
Introducing Nik Cubrilovic
June 13, 2005
Nik Cubrilovic’s blog can be found at Perfected.org.
– BASICS –
Name: Nik Cubrilovic
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Location: near Sydney, Australia
– BLOG INFO –
When did you begin blogging?
My current archives go back to November 2002, but I had a blogspot prior to that, and prior to that had an ordinary plain HTML website that served as a weblog as well. My first website was up in 1996 with articles, and I would have started with a simple weblog in around late 1998.
What inspired you to begin a blog? What keeps you motivated at present?
It started as a good way to keep a group of friends and peers informed as to what I was working on, and grew from that. At the moment posting to my blog is second nature, like sending an email to a group of people, so no real motivating factor since I use it as a form of communication.
How often do you post?
At the moment I average about 3 posts a week. I could post a lot more often, but I tend to avoid amplifying memes or the latest news stories and instead try to write mini-articles, my own content. If I find something interesting online and want to link to it with a comment, I keep that on del.icio.us to reduce noise on the main blog. The links from del.icio.us are displayed on my main weblog in the sidebar.
What topic do you most often write about? Why is that?
Technology and Business. Since it is my job and my life. I tend to be very opinionated and don’t mind stepping on toes.
What is the most interesting aspect of keeping your blog?
There are a few reasons. The first is the people I meet via my blog, meeting new people often comes about from being linked by other blogs. Keeping a blog for so long has opened up opportunities that I otherwise would not have found, new jobs, new clients and new friends. It is an excellent way to maintain existing connections with people, well at least with people who read it frequently. I often get emails from old friends or associates as a result.
Who are your readers? What makes them return to your blog?
I only know about my readers from emails, comments and logs. Most of them I either know them personally, or they are 2 degrees away from me via somebody who I personally know. The other reader section is people who have found something they are interested in, and as a result now re-visit. There was a time when it was much more personal, but the traffic to the site has really picked up over the past few years and that means that I am not in touch with a lot of the readers. I do know that the majority of the people reading my weblog are more technically advanced people, because of the subject matter and the fact that 50% are Firefox users, and around 15% of daily visitors are reading via the Atom feed.
Have you ever experienced blog burnout or simply think of giving it up? What helps you overcome such thoughts and feelings?
There have been periods where I was too busy or traveling, but in general I see posting to my blog as just another form of communication along side email, MSN etc. Content is never a problem, there are always interesting things that I find via work or something that I am hacking away on in my spare time. I keep a lot of notes, and weblog entries are usually just these notes expanded and edited.
Is there any particular goal you wish to accomplish with your blog, or by blogging itself?
If there were any goals, I think I am there already. I use it as an effective communication method. I am not the type who obsesses over my weblog, staring at log files and begging for the next visitor or link. So you will not hear me say that a goal for my weblog is to be in the Technorati Top100. My website serves my own purposes, and I would like to think serves its visitors and readers.
– TECHNICAL INFORMATION –
What blogging software do you use?
WordPress. I have used almost every other alternative and settled on WordPress because of its ease of use, flexibility, support, plugin infrastructure and the fact that it is Open Source software (which means they will not turn around tomorrow and ask me for money like others have done).
Who hosts your website? In your opinion, is this particular host worthy of your money?
The weblog is hosted on a virtual private server with JohnCompanies.com. I have been with them for 4 years or so and find the service to be excellent and it suits my requirements.
Tell me about your weblog design.
It is my own theme based on the standard Wordpress template. The sidebar has been modified to include custom information, and the actual design is something I did from scratch. Simplicity is the key and the main aim was to make the site compatible with as many browsers as possible, and easy to read. Most regular readers use the Atom feed so they view it in their own news reader, so they do not see the design at all.
– OTHER VARIOUS QUESTIONS –
What blogs do you read on a regular basis? Why do these weblogs appeal to you, or what about them motivates you to visit daily/weekly?
I am subscribed to 70 feeds, of which about 60 are blogs. I try to keep this number down so that I can actually read or scan everything. I rely on all of these sources, and don’t really have favorites. In trying to avoid repeating a list of weblogs that most people know about, I will mention the following:
- Dans Data - Australian tech blog
- Channel9 - A community weblog about MS technologies
- Ajaxian Blog - Weblog about AJAX
- Ars Technica - Another general news tech weblog
I keep my newsreader open next to my email, and reading my feeds is like checking email.
In your opinion, who is the most remarkable writer within the blogging world?
Dean Allen at Textism was an early inspiration, but he does not blog as often anymore. Now for me it is Om Malik just because he talks sense and breaks stories at a rate that gives C|Net and other bigger sources a good run.
Two years from now, do you honestly think blogging will still be a part of your life?
Yes, definitely.
What irritates you most about (1) blogs in general, (2) the blogging community, and/or (3) certain blogging (or blogger) characteristics?
I try not to get caught up in the whole ‘blogosphere’. What peeves me most are egos. The blogging world seems to attract the biggest egos. For example, what pisses me off at the moment is the talk about who ‘invented’ podcasting. I mean, its not an invention or anything that great, it is just a sound file in a news feed. The blogging world has too many people who take one technology, alter it a bit or just put two-and-two together, give it a new name, then claim they have invented something. But the problem is that instead of applying technology, they talk about it ad nauseum. It seems to be its own little world, which makes it easy to ignore.
What blogging plug-in makes life a whole lot cooler, if any?
I will plug my own WordPress plugin, Kramer which takes inbound links to a weblog post and adds them as comments. It means you can have ‘virtual conversations’ without the need for pingback/traceback.
– DESCRIPTION –
Creatively describe your blog in five hundred words or less.
Perfected.org is a place that Nik Cubrilovic keeps a weblog about current technology, his software development work and rants about things that are not right in the world.
Nik creates client software and web applications for a number of platforms, both Open Source and commercialware, but does not like being categorized as only a programmer. On his weblog, he tries not to be biased, sexist, or racist or speak about himself in the third person.
Blog Directory
June 7, 2005
If you have a blog then you can submit it to these directories which can bring additional exposure to your blog.
* Blogdex
* Blogwise
* eatonweb
* Blo.gs
* Blograma
* lsblogs
and of course…… AwesomeBlogs…. 
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