Get the most out of this blog!

I'm waiting for my host to provide me with access to a new song I uploaded this morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to post it soon.

In the meantime, blogging today can get pretty technical, so allow me to provide a brief tour of this page.

A blog ("web log") is usually a web page with articles organized by date. A podcast is similar to a blog, but contains audio that can be picked up by podcast listening software. Piano by Joel is both a blog and a podcast.

A blog can also include several other features:

• Comments - clicking the comments link under each article displays a popup window containing comments that readers have made. These comments also get e-mailed to me, and are a big part of making this an interactive reading and listening experience.
• Trackback - Sometimes another blogger somewhere will post an article on his or her blog, in reference to one of my posts. Clicking the trackback link under one of my articles will show you a list of other related articles on other blog sites.
• E-mail - You can e-mail a post to someone by clicking the little envelope icon, displayed next to the trackback and comments links.
• Permanent Link - If you like a particular post, you can right-click on the permanent link link at the bottom of the post, which will popup a menu (in Internet Explorer, anyway.) Select copy shortcut on the menu, and you now have the link to that article. Just paste it into an e-mail or into your own web page.

You can imagine how tough it is for someone who likes to read blogs to actually keep up with them all. But unlike a normal web page, you can subscribe to a blog. All you need to do is set up an account with an online service like Bloglines (free), My Yahoo (free), or Newsgator. The easiest way is to click one of the subscribe buttons to the right. For example, clicking the "sub Bloglines" button will take you to the Bloglines site, let you sign up (quick and free) if you haven't yet, and provide you with a page that alerts you to any new articles:

Finally, there are a few images at the bottom of the screen:

• Blogger - My blog host. You can get a free blog here.
• Haloscan - A free service that provides trackback for me (see above.)
• CC - Some Rights Reserved - This is the Creative Commons license. I short, it allows people to copy and distribute my work all they want, as long as they attribute it to me. Permission is still required for commercial use. I'll make special mention if a different license applies to anything. So go ahead, burn all the CDs you want, and pass them out to all your friends.

There it is, a brief tour of the strange things you may see on this page. I encourage you to start your own blog. Please let me know if you do, I'd like to stop in for a visit.

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