Jul 29, 2008 | administrative, ANA, Baltimore, shows
There does not seem to be much going on as the numismatic world concentrates in Baltimore. As I continue to recover from surgery I am considering my plan of attack for this week. For now, I will be in Charm City for the opening of the World’s Fair of Money—after all, I am the president of one of the sponsoring clubs. Sure, it will be a shlep, but it is a job I am looking forward to doing!
For this show, I’m going to try something different. I will try to file reports from the bourse floor. Using my newly purchased iPhone 3G and software called Twitterific, I will post messages (called Tweets) to the blog’s Twitter account. You can read my announcement about the use of Twitter in this post.
You can either follow the user coinsblog on Twitter or visit the blog often and refresh the page to see the last five posts on the left side of this page.
My ability to post messages to Twitter will depend on my ability to find a wireless connection to the Internet from the bourse floor. If I cannot find a signal, I will try to post updates when I am in wireless range. I hope this works because I think it will be fun!
Stay tuned!
Image courtesy of the ANA.
Jul 10, 2008 | administrative
For the last two years, I have been experience knee pain that has only become worse over time. Now I am down to my last option: surgery. Tomorrow (7/11), rather than purchasing an iPhone 3G (I really want one), I will be having multiple problems arthroscopically repaired.
After spending the week trying like mad to finish “real work” (as in the work my employer is paying me for), I will be taking the next few days off from the computer. I will be back shortly.
I would like to thank everyone for reading. I do have fun writing this blog and I like it when I know people are reading. So as they used to say when the transmission towers would go down in the old days of television, please stand by.
Mar 23, 2008 | administrative
Over the last few months I have watched as the statistics for this blog has shown between 45-50 consistent readers. To all the regulars, new readers, and those who drop in for an occasional peek I would like to THANK YOU for reading and your feedback. I hope you are enjoying reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them.
In my spare time, when I am not blogging, working with my collection, being with my wife, playing with our dog, or running errands, I earn my living in the computer business. It is a profession that I have be a part of for nearly 30 years. I started as a programmer but later moved to systems analysis and information security. Today, I have to keep up with the latest technologies, fads, and online looniness so I know how to help our clients keep their systems secure. Sometimes this makes me reluctant to using new technologies until I can study them and understand any potential risks.
Sometimes, the looniness can be fun and provide a great benefit. That is why I signed up for Twitter and added the posts to this blog (see the left column). Twitter is an online short message service (sometimes called text messaging) based on the web that allows people to send a short message (140 characters) to anyone logged into the service. Twitter can also be viewed on a cell phone or your instant messenger client (like AIM).
For this blog, I will use Twitter when I want to add a little information but do not have time to write a complete blog entry. If you sign up for Twitter, you can “follow” my postings and reply. Replies will appear on Twitter but not on this page. Twitter also has RSS capabilities—look at the bottom left corner of the page;
To find the blog on Twitter, just search for the user CoinsBlog (or click the link). I set it up so that there is an open subscription so anyone can read my posts, request to be a Follower, and reply. Please remember that Twitter is a public system, so be careful what you post.
Thank you and now back to collecting!
Sep 28, 2007 | administrative
When I started writing this blog, nearly two years ago, I was not sure if anyone would be interested in reading what I had to say. I wanted to have a mix of reporting the news, talk about my collecting, editorialize on some issues, and write about something other than the information security issues I do for the federal government. While I like my work, I need another outlet. And judging by the multiple statistical reports I receive, there are quite a few people following my my musings. Thank you!
Those who have been reading a while should notice that I like playing with the format of the page. Whenever I find something interesting that looks interesting, I will see how I can use it to improved your reading of this blog. Not long ago, I changed the format of the page to a three-column view. My primary motivation was the find a place for the few advertisements I use. Since this is not a commercial blog and the money goes to offset my Internet access bill (so far, it has paid less than one bill in two years), I wanted to keep the ads prominent but not obtrusive. I think this format helps.
Recently, I just installed a tool on this site called Snap Shots. If you move your mouse over a link, it will show you a little preview of the site. Using Snap Shots, every link that points to an external site like for Wikipedia articles, book recommendations at Amazon.com, related videos, stock prices, or just about anything else. Snap Shots’ standard blurb says that they bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not. Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.
As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to send them to me.
Aug 19, 2007 | administrative
Did you ever walk into your house or apartment and decide you needed a change? Rather than buying new furniture, you decide to buy a new rug, maybe a new picture, and rearrange the furniture. It gives the place a fresh look. Something new to come home to.
That is how I felt about the layout of this blog. I liked it, but it needed refreshing. While poking around the blogoshpere, one of my regular reads changed their look. They used this site named PsycHo to generate a new template. After trying PsycHo for a while, I decided to try creating a template that I liked.
PsycHo did not do exactly what I wanted, but it gave me the basis of a good three-column design. I downloaded the XHTML code and added my own customizations. Ok… I hacked the template, but I was able to do what I wanted. I added a new background to give the page a cleaner look. I like it!
I hope you like it, too. If you have any comments on the new layout, leave them here. I would love to know what you think.
NOTE: Comments are moderated to prevent what is called “comment spamming.” Comment spamming is when someone starts their statement with what looks like a legitimate statement but it digresses into an ad. As long as you do not post comment spam I will allow your comment to post… especially those who do not agree with me.
May 17, 2007 | administrative
For those of us who use MacOS X 10.4 and its later updates, we have found great uses for Dashboard widgets. Although there are some neat widgets available, none watches the RSS feed for this blog. So while playing with Dashcode, Apple’s beta development tool for creating widgets that will be included with MacOS X 10.5 Leopard, I created a widget to display the RSS feed in Dashboard. Not bad for the first project using Dashcode!
If you use MacOS X 10.4 and its later updates, you can download the Coin Collectors’ Blog RSS Widget here. If you use it, please let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Dec 27, 2006 | administrative
Recently, Google updated their blogger.com service with more features and a better interface for authors to use the system. Last night, the Coin Collectors Blog was converted to the new system. One of the new features of the conversion is the ability to tag postings and new template options, which I might not use because I like the template I developed.
Over the next few days, I will be going through the blog and adding tags to the posts. Tags will allow readers to find similar postings on various topics. Currently, I have defined tags for “coins,” “currency,” “grading,” “legal,” and “legislative.” There may be a few more. Watch future postings for more categories.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank the readers of the Coin Collectors Blog. I hope you enjoy reading these posting as much as I enjoy writing them.
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