Blogging for Dummies: Create a Blog in 15 Minutes

The following tutorial shows you how to easily set up a Blog using Google's free Blogger service. It takes only 15 minutes to set up. If you have an email account, you can create a free blog with Blogger (the other main rival is WordPress but Blogger is a lot easier). This blog here was created with Blogger. I have two other Blogger sites:

http://freesiu.blogspot.com/

http://raceandliberty.blogspot.com (to promote my last book. Note that I was able to upload and insert audio files, links to reviews, etc.).

I also have a national blog site via my think tank but they use WordPress (another blog creation tool): http://blog.independent.org/author/jbean/

You can allow comments or not. There are many tutorials on Youtube (also owned by Google!) that teach you in a few minutes. The following tutorial gives you the basics. Ask me for help if you need it but please come to my office so I have a computer handy! Use your blog to post thoughts about classes, get started on writing a paper, keep a diary, whatever pleases you.

NOTE: Double click on the following video thumbnail to get it in full screen. Hit ESC when you are done. The source is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aze0a4Row58

Ninite: One-Click Batch Install and Update Your Programs!

The new school year is upon us and students will arrive on campus with new PCs. One of the pains of configuring a PC (or Mac, for that matter) is installing all the programs that are not bundled with the computer: Firefox, Google Chrome, Dropbox, and much more.

Ninite solves this problem. Go to http://ninite.com and click on all the programs you want. I selected about 20 programs that I would normally have to download one by one. Click the "Get Installer" green button and a small Ninite file will appear on your PC (a Ninite for Mac version is forthcoming). Click on that one file and it will batch download all 20 programs, eliminate junk toolbars--all without requesting any information from you.

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Here's the great added feature of Ninite: if you click on the Ninite file you downloaded, it will update to the latest versions. Moreover, Ninite knows whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. If a program has both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, then Ninite will download the 64-bit program to your 64-bit PC.

This is all free. For $10 you can get it to auto-update or you can simply click that file once a month to update all your programs. NOTE: While many programs auto-update on their own, many do not so this is a great feature. Also, the programs that do update (like Google and Apple products) will install obnoxious update programs in your start-up, thus sucking your memory away until you actually use them. So Ninite can lighten your PC as well.

Ninite does not have all programs in the universe but it does an excellent job of keeping its inventory up-to-date. For a much more expansive alternative, check out http://allmyapps.com which contains about every software known to Windows or Linux (again, Mac version is forthcoming). Problem is Allmyapps store has many outdated programs and will actually "update" to older versions if you are not careful! It has great potential but hasn't been able to keep its thousands of programs up to date.

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For a short video tutorial, check out this video from Youtube. The one thing the tutorial fails to mention is the update feature of Ninite, either manual one-click (free) or auto-update ($10).

Youtube Trick for Presentations

This is a good trick I found for Youtube. If you are in the classroom (or home) and want to jump to a certain point in your presentation, then do what they say the above hyper-linked article.

It really works: I tried it with several historical clips on Youtube. The alternative is to download, edit or fast forward but this is easier for those “pinch hit” moments in presentations of all kinds.

Billionaires Back Free Textbook Movement

Over at my FreeU blog, I posted an entry on how two tech billionaires are changing the game and pushing the "free textbook" pedal with lots of their own money and tech savvy.

Read here

*HOT PICK*: Skydrive Explorer Manages Cloud Storage With Drag-and-Drop Ease (and no browser!)

Many users find online storage accounts ("cloud" storage) useful to upload documents, music, Powerpoints, etc. so that they -- or others -- can access from anywhere in the world. Such cloud storage also provides an additional form of backup storage (although I would always have a portable backup to the data on your PC.

Problem 1: Cloud storage is expensive. Most sites provide only a few GB for free and then charge you for more (Dropbox costs $120/year!).

Solution: Windows Live Skydrive. For the cost of a Live or Hotmail account (free), you can use that Live username/password to log on and create a Skydrive account with 25GB of free storage per account.

Problem 2: Skydrive allows you to create folders (and subfolders) but uploading is one file at a time with any browser other than Internet Explorer.

Solution: SDExplorer (formerly Skydrive Explorer). SDExplorer is a small but powerful tool that creates a new drive on you Windows Explorer shell (the "tree" you use all day long to copy/cut/paste between folders). On my PC, it appears as a new drive "G" and shows all the folders that I have online -- without having to open a browser!

Here is the productivity boost: open your Windows Explorer and you can simply copy, drag-and-drop, or paste files from your PC to the SDExplorer (online) drive. The changes take effect immediately up in the "cloud." You can also create a new folder on your SDExplorer drive with a simple right-click. And you can delete folders that you have online from your SDExplorer drive.

The Pro version has a few additional features (including no more 50MB cap on single file size uploads). SDExplorer costs $13 for a lifetime license.

Free or Pro, this is a useful little tool to have on your PC.

REVIEWS:

http://lifehacker.com/5433481/skydrive-explorer-mounts-your-skydrive-in-windows-explorer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021804606.html

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/10/30/access-skydrive-from-windows-explorer-my-computer/

Note: If you tried an early version of this program and it didn't work, the latest versions 2.1+ are very stable and polished).

Job Sites for History Majors

GENERAL ADVICE

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06collegeadvice.html

Cost of living and other vital data (includes small towns like Carbondale!):

http://www.bestplaces.net/

Just looking at cost of living, it costs 2.5X as much to live in San Francisco. Other clicks compare crime, demographics, etc.

Compare Cities: Carbondale, IL - San Francisco, CA

COST OF LIVING Carbondale San Francisco

Overall 79 187
Grocery 97 122.3
Health 94 166
Housing 42 296
Utilities 112 144
Transportation 96 130
Miscellaneous 98 110

TEACHING

Job Bank: http://www.illinoiseducationjobbank.org/pages/

Illinois teacher salaries: http://www.championnews.net/salaries.php

PUBLIC HISTORY

This one is a cool one to get started:

http://www.beyondacademe.com/realjobs.html

http://publichistorian.wordpress.com/job-search/

http://ncph.org/cms/publications-resources/resources/

http://ncph.org/cms/careers-training/jobs/

http://www.museumsusa.org/

http://www.daddezio.com/society/hill/index.html

GRADUATE SCHOOL:

Widely read blog with fascinating data and insights into what grad school really does for (and to) you! (Read older posts -- new site not as good)

http://phdinhistory.blogspot.com/

COLLEGE TEACHING:

Community College Teaching (SIUC has the only certificate in this area!). Contact Marybelle Keim for more information (mkeim@siu.edu)

Read this first:

http://www.oah.org/pubs/commcoll/index.html

http://www.higheredjobs.com/community/default.cfm?type=1#Faculty

Four-year teaching jobs (job market data available upon request -- U.S. market is tough, Asian, Latin American better -- any field that requires languages).

http://chronicle.com/section/Jobs/61/

LITIGATION SUPPORT

A growing and lucrative field:

http://www.historyassociates.com/

http://www.hrltd.org/about_hrl.htm

http://www.morganangel.com/

There are others. See my packet on the topic.

Got recommendations for other sites?

Students! Stop Buying Software at Retail Price!

Living in a college town, I often run into students at the local Wal Mart. When I see them eyeballing software at retail prices, I point out that they can get the same software at a steep discount through our university. The same is true of K-12 students.

If you have an educational affiliation of any sort, start saving money on software and just about everything else. Educational discounts on everything from software to hotels make for the lowest prices possible.

Example: At my university, students may purchase Windows 7 at $80 instead of $199 + $16 tax ($216). That is a savings of $136!

Even better, if a student works for the college (even work study), they may qualify for the best discounts of all: faculty/staff discounts. At my university, staff may purchase a five-license DVD for Windows 7. Cost: $9.97! Same price for Office 2007 (PC) or Office 2008 (Mac).

For software not sold through your school, go to Academic Superstore.com for similar-sized discounts.

Above all, remember that freeware is often equal or superior to commercial software. See my "Best Free Software for Students (and Others)"