BLOGGING FOR FREEDOM |
UPLOADING PICTURES IN RADIO USERLAND |
The idea behind My Pictures is that you routinely put digital photos in that special folder, and they all get upstreamed to their available spots online. That part of it is slightly easier than manually copying pictures to the Images
folder, but you still have to code the photo’s location into an entry box in Source mode, which is unfriendly no matter how you get there. Radio UserLand is primarily about blogging information, presented as text. The section describes one of its strongest features: the built-in newsreader. Using the Built-In Newsreader Many bloggers, especially those writing topical blogs about current events, rely on newsreaders to provide a full range of articles and commentary from around the Web.
If you don’t use a newsreader or don’t understand how newsreaders fit into blogging,Radio UserLand was founded by the same person who helped invent RSS.So it’s natural that the program includes some kind of RSS functionality.Indeed, Radio UserLand shows off one of the most powerful combinations of newsreading functions and blogging features. Blending news with a blog platform isn’t unique to Radio UserLand. Sites such as Bloglines, Technorati, and Digg encourage some level of blog creation, but the blogging features are sometimes rudimentary at sites whose primary function is searching for or displaying news. Radio UserLand reverses that formula by matching strong blogging with a newsreader that is,to be frank, a little primitive compared to dedicated newsreaders. The newsreader in Radio UserLand has three basic functions:
Subscribe to any RSS feed Display a list of stories from your subscribed feeds Create an entry directly from a news story Manipulating your feeds, mixing them to create unique news feeds, and autotracking what you’ve read — these basic features of dedicated newsreaders are lacking in Radio UserLand. But I find the built-in newsreader convenient
for tracking a few important feeds — especially feeds whose items often form the basis of a blog post — while another newsreader performs the heavy lifting of handling dozens or hundreds of feeds.
In Radio UserLand, a theme is a site design. For those who like tons of features,heavy blog programs are fun to grapple with, but hoisting those programs to a server and installing them correctly can be far removed from anything resembling fun. Not every painter wants to construct his own canvas, and not every blogger wants to install his or her own program. Recognizing a need for installation services, some Web hosts offer domainhosting accounts with Movable Type and WordPress preinstalled. A domain is the last part of a Web address: www.domain.com. The most popular domain type is .com, but others are available, such as .net, .org, and .biz. Domains are bought and sold like virtual real estate. Most people buy unclaimed domains at domain registrars, companies sanctioned by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). A domain name is the address of a Web site, which may or may not be a blog. Domains are hosted by Web hosting companies. If you own a domain name, you can lease space on a Web host’s server and build your blog on that server.
Many Web hosts are also sanctioned registrars, or work with an official registrar. In both cases, users can register their domains at the Web host’s site, which streamlines the process of assigning the domain to the Web host’s server. This chapter highlights several Web hosts that offer preinstalled Movable Type or WordPress programs. The Unique Power of Hybrid Hosts Great features combined with ease of use make a powerful mix. The servicesprofiled in this chapter offer easy startup with one of the most powerful and popular blogging programs around — Movable Type.