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You’ve heard about it from your friends and family. Maybe your children. “Blogs.” “Blogging.” “Bloggers.” Heck, you’ve heard that people are actually out there making money from just talking about themselves and their lives. There are even a few who live off what they make from blogging.

Or maybe you have been faithfully reading blogs for quite a while now but have never taken the leap into writing your own.

But then again, it all sounds a bit complicated with all the different ‘platforms’ and things you can do with them. It can be a bit overwhelming to get a start on it all.

So how do you start? Where do you start?

First off, don’t worry about whether or not you’re too ‘late’ to start blogging. People all over the world are starting new blogs every day and many people have been blogging for years, so you’ll be entering into a massive huge arena with people both new and experienced with the world of blogging.

Second, don’t let other people overwhelm you with all the jargon and lingo surrounding blogging. Starting next week, I’ll be taking you through things step by step, and if you have any questions along the way – no matter how you feel about how they may sound – you can always ask in the comments or using the ‘comment me’ button under the site description on the right.

The most important thing to remember about blogging is that blogging is what you make of it. You reap what you sow, so to say and blogging can be a truly great experience if you’re willing to put the time into it.

We’ll get started next week with what blog platforms are and how you choose the one that’s best for you.

Have a great weekend!

On the other side are aligned a much smaller number of scientists, some dedicated amateurs, very little money (the grants get taken away as soon as it’s clear the research is leading away from AGW) and a lot of measurements that get ‘invalidated’ regularly each time they show anything contrary to the AGW hypothesis.

It’s hard to know who to believe. But on the AGW side there’s some seriously poor science going on. Early on, one Michael Mann, now PhD, presented the ‘Hockey Stick’ graph seen below in Using the Net as evidence that in the 1900’s the temperature began to climb. The problem is, the graph is made up of tree ring data for the period up to 1900, then measurements made in the 20th century for the ‘blade’ of the hockey stick.

Another problem is that Mann was, at that time a PhD student, (hard to claim he was a ‘leading scientist’) and also a Leading Reviewer for the IPCC report, so he got to help make the decision to accept his Hockey Stick graph as a significant piece of evidence.

The tree ring data fails to show two events we know from history actually happened – the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period. Look them up – they happened, yet the Hockey Stick graph fails to show them. This invalidates the use of tree rings to show global temperature changes.

And if tree rings are so good as data, how come they didn’t simply use the 20th century tree rings to complete the hockey stick? There would seem to be something wrong with a ‘conclusive’ case that requires manipulation of evidence, don’t you think?

More problems come with how many times the pro-AGW side invalidates previously accepted measurements – not interpretations or theories, but actual measurements and then applies ‘corrections’ to the data so it shows what they are saying is happening. Yet before the IPCC came along, there seemed to be nothing wrong with those measurements.

Back in the 1970’s, there was voiced concern over whether the Earth was heading into a new Ice Age – the average temperatures had been trending down for something like thirty years. Yet now, the pro-AGW scientists have applied a ‘correction’ to show those measurements were actually wrong and that really, things were getting warmer during that three decades and the scientists of those times simply didn’t notice.

Your mission, should you accept it, is to use the information here to go and inform yourself as to what might be really going on. Don’t let a bureaucratic ‘inter-governmental’ body with an agenda decide what you will think – use the internet as it is meant to be used and go take a look for yourself.

In Using the Net and Finding the Truth I used the search for information about Anthropogenetic Global Warming (AGW – Human-caused Global Warming) to talk about Internet use.

Here is an example of how use of the Internet can undo the media-driven ideas that seem set to change our world. Note that I am not claiming that there is no warming happening, nor am I going into the very real possibility that global warming could trigger an ice age like that which occurred back around 1600AD or worse.

It’s an ongoing debate across the internet and has been for the past few years. Al Gore has made himself a Noble Peace Prize (oh, and for two thousand five hundred of the world’s ‘leading scientists’) for a movie called ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (AIT) where they make a case for how human-generated carbon dioxide is the cause for Global Warming.

But there’s another side – less famous, but well presented, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ is worth a watch. They talk about ‘AIT’ and some of the ‘errors’ made in the movie. Things like the slight misalignment of two graphs, one showing the temperature rises across thousands of years and the other the rise in carbon dioxide.

Also have a read of http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

Looking at the AIT version, it seems that CO2 rises bring on warming, but when the graphs (derived from ice cores from Greenland) are matched properly, the situation gets reversed – first the temperature rises, then several hundred years later, the levels of CO2 rise.

In other words, Global Warming causes carbon dioxide levels to rise, not the other way around.

On one side are aligned the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – an organization specifically set up to investigate AGW, apparently at least two thousand five hundred of the world’s ‘leading scientists,’ billions of dollars of research grants and a mountain of papers Evil Knievel would be hard pressed to jump over.

There are some apparent problems with the two thousand five hundred of the world’s ‘leading scientists,’ in that many of them haven’t been in a laboratory since school days; some are ‘Administrative’ personnel.

While getting on to a forum and posting (especially for the first time) can be a lot of fun and exhilarating, there is a sobering note that comes along with joining forums (and with communicating with anyone you don’t know on the internet).

While a certain level of trust is involved when talking to any stranger, talking to people you don’t know on the internet involves even more trust. The person talking to you who says she is a twenty year old woman from Germany could actually be a twelve year old girl from Michigan. While you can do some (more…)

While forums come in many shapes and sizes on a variety of subjects, almost all forums have a few things in common. One big thing is the forum personalities who take part in the forums. You’ll often hear members call other members things like ‘flamer’, ‘troll’, ‘royalty’ or other terms.

Like in life, some personalities are good, and some aren’t so great. You mostly learn the hard way, but by paying attention to the labels given, you can avoid some trouble.

Here are a few of the personalities you might encounter:

*Trolls – ‘Troll’ is probably (more…)

The more members a forum has, the more likely it is that someone is going to have your username. But if you are ‘always’ a certain username but that name is taken on the forum, don’t worry. You can think of another one.

However, there are a few aspects to usernames that are sure to get you ridicule and/or make you sick of them after a certain amount of time. The last thing you want is to choose a name that you’re going to want to change soon after.

Here are a few tips for picking out a username that will last you for a long time and won’t open you up for insults:

*Don’t use your real name. As tempting as (more…)

You have the computer, you have the internet, and now you want to start talking to people. Right? You have heard all about how the internet connects people from across the world, so why not get connecting?

Internet forums are a great way to talk to people, make friends, learn new things and have your say as well. And the beauty of forums is you can find several different forums for any subject – everything from creative writing to travel to music and just having a casual chat. Even more niche subjects like House (the television show) have spaces on the internet.

Where do you get started?

The first step is the easiest (more…)

I guess the most obvious question about being a part of the internet is ‘Why?’ Some people may always be observers but not participants, using their access to read, view and download but never actually putting things out there for others to read, view and download.

Others spend their time playing online games – sometimes for money, which involves participation but rarely contributing to the morass of data that is the web. Yet if everybody felt this way, there would be no internet.

The web can be a safety valve, not just (more…)

In the previous post I used the example of the Hockey Stick graph used successfully by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control) to ramp up awareness of the warming trend caused (they say) by human industry and consumption.

Keep in mind, the above graph is what, until the IPCC got on the case, was an agreed record of global temperature trends. Agreed across Science, backed by historical records as well as things like ice core data.

So what happened? If you enter a search in your favourite search engine of ‘hockey stick graph’ you will find the main author was Dr Michael Mann. He was an IPCC lead reviewer who somehow got to highlight his own work as being most indicative of the AGW. (Anthropogenic Global Warming – the warming caused (more…)

For those who may have been exploring their Consciousness in a cave in the Andes, or perhaps have 5 children under five years old to look after, and thus may not know, for some time now there has been a controversy raging over whether or not Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is occurring.

This graph is the major source of the problem

Keep in mind, in this argument, nobody is suggesting we haven’t had recent warm weather, nor even that the Earth isn’t getting warmer. Indeed, standard Science has said all along that, since an event called The Little Ice Age about four hundred years ago, the Earth has been on a steady warming trend. (more…)

So if you have a reason to upgrade, and the money to do it, you should spend a little bit of time to work out just what needs upgrading. In the examples from Upgrading a Computer, Part 1, there’s not a lot of point in buying a new computer if all you want is more space. Most computers have extra hard disk connectors so you can simply add in a new hard disk.

For better game play, you can add more memory to your computer or purchase a new video card and see a remarkable difference in how your machine responds. Most games don’t actually (more…)

One of the pleasures in owning a computer is the variety of things you can do with it. Or rather the pleasures of owning a computer and the Internet. Or maybe it should be the pleasures of owning a computer and the Internet and high speed access.

You don’t really know how much pleasure high speed access is until it is suddenly not there. It isn’t so frustrating to use dial-up for internet access - until you have had the use of ADSL (Broadband) that runs at 10 or more times the speed of dial-up.

We have a Broadband plan that runs at ADSL2+ speeds. This means, particularly at the off peak times, speeds that allow downloads of 200MB’s in just a few minutes. It’s not unusual to start a download of sixty or seventy MB’s & have it finish so quickly you think something went wrong with the download.

So, what do you do with all that speed and bandwidth? Well, Mr JM regularly downloads TV shows that I haven’t seen. He downloaded a couple of seasons of Charmed for me – I hadn’t been able to watch them before I came to Australia – and we’ve caught up on all the new Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes.

But one of the most addictive things to do is Google Earth.
Google Earth lets you strap on a satellite (more…)

Have you looked, really looked at what is on your TV lately? I mean, leave behind the ideas about the shows you ‘can’t miss,’ the daydreams about the actor(s) you are never going to get into your bed but really wish you could, & take a good honest look at the content of your weekly viewing.

Take away the soap operas. They have no redeeming value at all – they’ve become so far removed from anything approaching normal life they can’t even be viewed as societal commentary.

Minus the ‘interview’ shows – programs like Oprah or Dr. Phil have (more…)

Spyware can be hard to spot and the effects are many and varied. Spyware sounds like all it does is spy on us, but it can do much more.

It doesn’t restrict itself to watching what we do, although that is a big part of why it gets installed. Spyware watches what is done and tracks website visits, but it goes further.
Spyware can install other software, can (more…)

In our ‘modern’ society, we’ve moved away from knowing the people around us.

Once, back in time, we lived in communities, close knit and small enough that we would know everybody we were likely to see. Depending on the circumstances, strangers were either welcome distractions or hostile presences needing to be removed soonest.

Now most of us (more…)