A couple of people have asked me about my desktop and how I know when certain people have updated their blog sites. Here is how I do it.

I have a little program installed in my desktop called Google Desktop (download it here). You can customize this with and which ever way you want it. Add gadgets and stuff. As you can see in the picture on the right, that is a screenshot of my Google desktop. I have mine set to "sidebar" (that's the best-looking for me, personally). Anyway, what I have are just the basic gadgets I need... clock, weather, photos, scratch pad, web list, and the google search gadgets.

Now, for the Web clips feed. They call that RSS (Really Simple Syndication / RDF Site Summary / Rich Site Summary) feeds.

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format.^[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed," "web feed,"^[3] or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.^[3] (swiped from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format))

After you add the Web clips gadget, you basically customize it for your own use. When you point your arrow on the top right side of the web clips gadget, a little menu box will appear. Click the down arrow icon, and go to Options. This is where you will add your websites that you want to be updated about for new posts (or comments). You will need however to know and put in the RSS url. You can also set it to how many entries (for each clip) you want to appear on your desktop. I have mine set to 10.

Just for your convenience, here are the RSS for the following sites.

For Mortier/Macaraeg sites: http://name.domain.org/?feed=rss2 (example: http://kimberly.mortier.org/?feed=rss2)
CrossingIslands would be: http://crossingislands.com/frontpage/rss (this only feeds on the items published on the frontpage though)

Some sites have different RSS urls. You can easily feed or subscribe to a site when you see this icon or the phrase "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)". It can also give you the URL to put it your RSS feeder (like Google Desktop's Web clip gadget).

Questions? Send me a comment. :)

I finally got my mouse and keyboard yesterday, and now I am back to my desktop :) It is always nice to work on your own workstation/desktop, even though a laptop is nice for its' convenience and portability. Well, not so with the laptop I was using (it's Jordan's). It is 6 other different old laptops scrapped and made into this one laptop. It has very limited RAM and HD space, not much software, a slow processor, battery won't work (which means it has to be plugged at ALL TIMES). Other than that, the wireless and internet browser works, which is mostly what I need to updating my blog. It is mostly for running the kids' educational learning software and sites using Linux.

Anyway, now that I have a mouse and keyboard again, my fans for my tower unit is all shut, meaning my computer would turn off automatically anytime when the components would overheat. We will need to get new fans to replace the old (unless we can see if we can get the other fans to work yet). *sighs* one thing after the other... it is wearing me out!

On another happy note, I got my early birthday present and late mother's day present from Jebby. He got me a really nice rice cooker/slow cooker/warmer/steamer all in one. Besides that, he got me a new digital camera. Our old digital camera is starting to retire on us. We have had it for almost 6+ years now, and it served its' purpose. It won't turn on and off like it should anymore and it is a little too slow to take pictures, especially for my kids! The moment the shutter shuts off, the kids are off the frame or the "moment" you want to capture is gone. Now, I have a really nice one that takes super fast pictures! I like it :)

One awesome thing Jeb did with my camera is install a little program called chdk on the chip where it would do tons more of functions and feature for the camera (besides the already built-in features). Normal camera's (mine is a Canon Powershot SD870 IS -- thanks to Newegg!) would take just so large of a picture. However, with this added little program that resides in your card it can take RAW formats for your pictures! I know maybe a lot of this techy stuff just goes over your head, but anyways... it is way too cool. My camera can act like an SLR camera now with that added little program. It can take time-lapse, HDR shots (click this link for examples of what HDR pictures are). HDR is pretty much a combination of all pictures taken of the same thing at different times and merging all the colors together. It is pretty neat. Well, at least that is the lay-man's explanation Jeb gave me. I still don't know how to use that function, but I thought it is pretty cool. I'll be reading the user's guide to know more about the features and functions of this little tiny thing we call a digital camera -- to get the most out of it.

PS. I really like my new mouse and keyboard! I am turning to be such a geek :)

(Photos and Specs courtesy of Newegg)