Since I changed the graphic theme on this blog, I realized that I’ve added a little something to it that could maybe look confusing at first.

See this little link under posts, where it says “trackback”? That’s it. So what’s a trackback, one might ask?

Most people who use blogs already know what a permanent link (commonly called “permalink”) is: the direct link to a post. For instance, for this very entry I’m writing now, the permalink will be “http://ylogs.com/index.php/archives/trackbacks-unveiled” (easily available by simply clicking on the title of the post). Thanks to permalinks, it becomes easy to refer to entries from other blogs, and not direct your visitors to some front page with instructions of “scroll down to August 12th, the third article, made at 9:15” (which is, evidently, not convenient, especially knowing that blogs are very dynamic pages).

Trackbacks act in the exact same way, with a notable difference: it allows a blogger to notify you that they’ve published an entry about a particular post of yours.

I can proudly mention it: as a part of his 100 blogs in 100 days project, Duncan at The Blog Herald decided that my little corner of the web was worth a shot, and posted a nice little entry about it. To anyone reading these words and coming from there, thanks for paying a vist. I do hope that you’ll find here a few things that will get your interest.

Once again, I’d really encourage anyone remotely interested in discovering new blogs to head there and pay a visit to the blogs who are and will be featured. Duncan sure isn’t here to pick the first random blogs passing his way, and so far the ones he’s linked to have all proved to be interesting.

Y Tags: 100blogs | blogging

The first time I ever read one of his works, I was in junior high and the book was called Martians, Go Home—where little green men out of the imagination of a failed author appear on Earth, driving everyone crazy by their silly attitude. Weird? Yes, weird, like many of Brown’s stories, from the knee-slapping funny ones to the disturbingly somber atmosphere instillated in the others. Weird, but so pleasant to read.

At the time, I probably was a little too young to really appreciate this book. Fast-forward to high-school, when I picked one of his collections of short stories. At the very moment I was putting the book down, I realized that I liked this author, and that what I preferred above all were his endings. Each time I finished reading one of his short stories, I had one of these “I should’ve known it’d end like this!” jolts. They’re surprising, somewhat amusing, somewhat bittersweet, somewhat even more than that.

It’s not only about science-fiction (he wrote in the mystery genre, too).. It’s about his writing as a whole, about his way of taking everyday people and situations, wondering “what if?...”, and firing off the pen and paper (today we’d probably say “the laptop”) to give them a much unexpected turn. Granted, not all of his works are of even quality, and the fact that he wrote in two different genres (science-fiction and mystery) may make it a little hard to fully dive into either of them, if one is a “categorizing reader”, that is.

For whoever wants to search around, there are plenty of websites describing his life and works more in depth. However, I’m going to primary link to a few of his short stories. They’re indeed very short, not necessarily his most known ones, yet they’re already a good way to familiarize oneself with what is to be expected from his other works.

Y Tags: authors | books | stories | science-fiction

It was almost a given that I’d write about this soon, given how much I like using WordPress and am convinced that it’s really one of the best free blogging platforms available out there at the moment. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to test it myself as of yet (it’s not live yet, and on invite only at the moment). Not a problem, though, I already know enough to realize that whether I can test it or not, it’s going to be great.

So what’s the fuss about WordPress.com? All that simply, it’s a system very similar to TypePad, in that it will host a blog for you in exchange for a payment (how much will this be, I don’t know yet; Typepad is 4.95$/month for the basic membership, if this can be a tool for comparison). The difference, evidently, is that said blog will be powered by WordPress and not Movable Type. The user doesn’t have to worry about renting webspace, tinkering with databases, going through the whole installation, and the likes. Sign up, create a blog, pick a theme, start blogging: that’s all there is to it. It’s not really a complicated process, is it?

For more information, you can head at Lorelle’s blog at WordPress.com, where she posts about what you can and can’t do with this “new” installation. Sure, it won’t be free like, say, Blog*Spot. However, it’s also way better, and depending on the pricing and what one’s ready to invest, it can be a very valuable choice. Time will tell (soon, I hope) how this venture is going to turn out.

Y Tags: wordpress

As you, faithful readers, can tell from the new layout here, I didn’t have too much time today to peruse more in depth the woes of the writer or the Secret Art of Blogging. My apologies for this. It’s past 10 pm, and I very much doubt that I’ll still have the energy to write a long, meaningful post before bedtime.

With this said… Did I grow tired already of my former layout? Not exactly. I simply had this urge to tinker more deeply with a completely different kind of theme, this time in three columns (and not purple!), as it had been a while I was considering one. I did test it on a… test blog, yes, and with three browsers (namely FireFox 1.06, IE 6 and Netscape 7.0). However, if you were to notice any problems with it, please let me know. I’ll feel obliged to learn more by breaking the theme into pieces again and trying to fix the problem.

Y Tags: theme | wordpress