Firstly, there are those people who have jobs and are not that interested in making money from the internet. More and more of them appear to be joining Facebook. My age group isn’t going for Myspace. My friends are using it for advertising social events and it seems to work quite well. Then again there are still those real life friends of mine who would never join Facebook because they don’t want their information anywhere on the net. A natural fear, but one which doesn’t have to be frightening if one is very clear about what one writes down and shares in terms of their lives.

These sort of people would probably use Skype as well. Skype has improved a lot with video and webcams so that you can see your companion. Skype too is used by people who do actually find people in the world who they would like to become more familiar with in real life. There are at least two people I know who have created romances using this form of communication.

Blogging is really for those who hope to make money from the internet. Well, I don’t know about you, but my Google cheques are really drying up and I’ve heard the same is so for other bloggers and web site owners.

Twitter is really taking off and there are so many applications for Twitter. It combines well with Facebook.

There’s been at least one traffic generator I know of which has closed down – BlogRush. So there must be more.

Here’s a list of social networking sites from wikipedia

Do contribute with your thoughts about who will survive and who won’t and what is happening out there right now.

This new acquisition is for the gym. It does get boring doing 25 minutes on the bike and I’ve now read all the magazines available. I tried a Running magazine last time. I’m not about to run a marathon at my age, so that was no use.

Anyway, have to now fill it up with music and podcasts. The other use is to have it on when my partner plays opera loudly.

Then looking further and ignoring costs, they now have MP3 players which can store photos, videos, audio and just about anything else you might want. Are MP3 players now competing against mobiles. Why would you need both, especially if you have a G3 mobile.

They are so enticing though, and I haven’t even looked at blackberries yet. Still don’t know how they differ. Is the world going mad?

I think I’ll end up going to my local store and buying an old ipod so I can download podcasts I want to hear.

If I got something that showed me TV as well as everything else and which was a mobile as well, I’d never have to leave my bed. Now I know why kids are getting obese. I thought it was just computer games and those Nintendo things. But no, my son just bought an Xbox something and he is 24.

I feel overwhelmed with choice. Too much choice can be very stressful. I hate this form of capitalism.

Terry Lane ( my guru on cameras and gadgets) has reviewed both SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black) and Sony 8GB Digital Music Player – Pink (NWZA728PNK)
Terry Lane, Green Guide, The Age, Thursday, July 3, 2008

These MP3 Players are much more sophisticated than I was contemplating for myself, but if you want more than just music have a look at these links.

1. All data related to your own web sites and blogs are generally on your host’s servers.

2. If you use web mail, like gmail, your emails are on the web. I advise forwarding many of your important emails to gmail. There’s certainly enough space for them.

3. Google has begun the process of allowing free storage of spreadsheets, word processing, maps and videos.

4. Images, videos and podcasts can be stored on web pages.

5. I have heard of places where you can store data for a fee.

Now Microsoft, in its eternal competition with google, is using a beta form of this, called Live Mesh, but it will cost. It is currently offering 5GB of online storage to 10,000 people in this beta form.

Facebook and My Space are joining the race also. They allow third party developers to write applications for them.

Google is rumoured to be developing a web based operating system that ties all of it’s online applications together. It already has Google Gears which allows access to Google applications while offline.

Amazon too allows huge storage on its servers.

To see the video which Microsoft has developed for it’s Live Mesh you can visit it at Live Mesh

Who would use these storage spaces for a fee though, when so much is free on Google? We’ll have to wait and see. I’d certainly spend time moving most of my stuff over to a storage space on-line. This seems to be the trend, so get going folks! No more worrying about PCs crashing.

Today, the 13th February 2008, Prime Minister Rudd moved a motion in parliament which was to record an apology to those aborigines who had been removed from their parents in order to assimilate them into white society. They are called the Stolen generations.

As I was listening to the radio most of the day, I heard that this apology has induced much emotion and reflection round the country. It has also induced hostility from both sides with white people saying there was no need to say sorry and with the aborigines who attended the parliament in Canberra turning their backs on the leader of the Opposition, who, when in government, refused to say sorry.

Today was a bi-partisan apology though.

My father was  involved with the aborigines in the 50′s and 60′s and he fought with others for the aborigines to be included in the census. They were now people, not animals. The referendum was held in 1962 and 92% of Australians voted for aborigines to be included in the census.
Much has happened since then – the Mabo agreement, the Wik agreement, land rights and so on. We thought that the land was the most important cure. And the land is important. But the stolen people were taken off the land and removed to urban areas, mostly.

The apology is very historic and important because most of those aborigines might have been loved by their adoptive parents and got a better education, but being torn from your mother and/or father at an early age must be horrific. The unconditional love one receives from one’s biological parents is irreplaceable.  Your life is ruined without it. The aborigines found it extremely difficult to find their biological parents and siblings again later as records were not kept very well and many of the parents had died. In 2001, the life expectancy at birth for an indigenous male was 56 years, and for an indigenous female, 63 years. Comparable life expectancies were experienced by males in the total population in 1901-10, and females in 1920-22. Today males in the total Australian population have a life expectancy of 76 years and females 82 years.

Also the adoptive parents were not told these children were aboriginal. These children were ‘whiter’, usually of white and black descent. Many of these children were brought up white and never knew of their aboriginality or the adoptive parents lied about it. Many were never placed with adoptive parents but were sent to Homes. That’s an identity stolen.

I’m glad this has happened. The UN has been at Australia for so long about our treatment of aborigines. People have wanted to apologize for so long and the new government has finally done it.

There is still much to do however. But that was not missed in the resolution.

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• Aborigines make first appearance in Australia election (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

2) Social bookmark *everything* – and I do mean everything – you can bookmark each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem tedious, it’s worth it. You’ll see a strong increase in traffic if you social bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries
3) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org – it’s not easy to get listed there, but worth the effort. I have never been able to do this, but I wonder really how often people go to DMOZ

4) Review: if you can review hot new products or books within your market, head on over to Amazon and start positioning yourself as an expert. In order to do this effectively you’ll want to create an Amazon profile and make sure and sign each review with a reference to your URL (your web site). You can also go to Epinions and Revoo to review products as well.

5) Offer a freebie on Craig’s List: you’ll be amazed at how much traffic you get from a single Craig’s List ad. The key here is to send people to a page on your site and make sure
they have to sign up for something (like your email newsletter) before they can grab their freebie. That way you’re not just getting traffic, you’re also building your list.

6) Create a “recommended by” list on your Delicious . You can add a link to this page in your email signature line or on your web site.

7) Create an email signature
Lend a helping hand: you can be an answer person at Yahoo Answers – you don’t have to spend hours on there, but maybe a few minutes a week. Make sure and include a link back to your site following your answers.

9) Set up a social networking site using Facebook, LinkedIn, or Squidoo. There are heaps of others to join. It’s free and easy to do, just don’t forget the all-important link back to your site!

10) Make sure your blog has an RSS feed so if you capture a reader you don’t lose them if they forget to bookmark your site or blog. Use RSS submit to add more feeds to more sites

11) Add social networking widgets so your visitors can add them to these sites. My blog has a bookmark widget at the end of each post.

12) Join relevant groups at Yahoo groups.
13) Podcasting is another great way to drive traffic. Start a podcast by going to Audio Acrobat. There are other programs you can use, but I love Audio Acrobat. You can record the podcast over the phone quickly and easily and then hit the “send” button on your computer once it’s recorded and the system will syndicate it to 27 podcast directories including iTunes. It’s a great way to let people know about you and your web site! I also use My Podcast

14) Start a blog and then once you do, start commenting on other people’s blogs, linking to them from your site or adding them to your blogroll.

15) Inbound links: don’t squander your time (or a perfectly good link) on smaller low-traffic sites. Instead spend your time going after high traffic, high quality sites. Good sites should have a PR (page ranking) of 4-6 depending on the market. You can find out what a site’s page ranking is by downloading the Google toolbar which comes with a PR feature built in.

16) Start an email newsletter

17) And speaking of offline efforts: if you’re ever quoted in a magazine or other publication, make sure and mention your URL as it’s appropriate to the topic. Don’t be too pushy about this, but do not forget to tell folks you have a web site that may be a great resource for the topic of your interview.

18) If you have products to sell, why not get a store on eBay? This site gets a tremendous amount of traffic and on your sales page you’re allowed to list your URL. It’s another great way to get an inbound link and a way for people to find you.

19) Load a video on YouTube and 57 other video sites (the rest listed on Red Hot Internet Publicity blog).
20) While this isn’t a tip per se, it’s still important. If you’re going to go through all the trouble of getting traffic to your site, make sure your site is converting this traffic into something. Get folks to sign up for something, your newsletter, the RSS feed on your blog. Whatever it is, getting their email address will help you remarket to them when the time is right. Studies show that visitors landing on a site often don’t buy the first time. That’s ok! You want to get them into your marketing funnel so you can market to them again and again – not in a way that’s obtrusive, offensive or downright annoying, but in a way that is helping them with their own mission.

21) Go to forums and create a signature. Help people out. They will want to see your site if your advice is good.
Adapted and edited from a post by Penny C. Sansevieri, from

http://www.amarketingexpert.com/

The site where you can make free podcast is here.

However, If you want to learn about podcasting and check out a lot of podcasting sites for teachers visit my page here:

Howard (our PM) has announced that unless history is taught with his list of milestone dates, federal funding will cease for all schools who do not employ what he is asking. States are responsible for education, but the federal government has traditionally provided such things as libraries and science blocks. This is what I would call arrogant, ignorant, bullying and extortion. Because what sort of history does Howard want taught? What he sees as important in terms of dates. Like Gallipoli, the Gold Rush, settlement of white people, cricket facts, for God’s sake, Burke and Wills travels, settlement of Port Phillip Bay, rail line constructions, the great depression, Korean war, Australian led intervention of East Timor are just some of the milestones he wishes our students to learn. There are 70 of the dates to include and given that there are only 150 hours to be spent on Australian History in the curriculum, it looks like we are back to learning dates and not understanding the context of anything.

Who was on his study team? Why Geoffrey Blainey of course, someone who denies the genocide of Australian aborigines. I do notice that one of the genocides is on the 70 dates to be learned, but as for the Port Phillip settlement, I very much doubt that what my father studied about that will appear as it factually was.

It all sounds like boring sludge to me. Teachers are constantly working out new and better ways to educate their students. That is their job. The History teachers federation of Australia exists as the peak body for history teachers.

The other members of the team, apart from Geoffrey Blainey, who worked out this crazy scheme were the conservative journalist Gerard Henderson, a PLC principal and an ANU academic. Sorry, but I can’t see any on the ground teachers in that group.

Years ago, the VCE (final 2 years of high school) instituted a study called Australian Studies. It didn’t last long. Finally it was so unpopular that the subject has been dropped.

I’m not of course opposed to the teaching of history. In fact it is very important for people to know their past and to know their mistakes, thereby and their successes. But it seems to me to be a very biased and conservative set of history dates to learn and a backward step in pedagogical theory. And it comes from a conservative view of society.

Where do women fit into this history? What is important? Whose history is it? Is it taught from the victor’s standpoint or the victims?

Our PM is notably not a multicultural supporter. He never uses the word. He only uses the word “Australian”. But many of our citizens see themselves as dual identities. Greek and Australian, for example. And now, in Melbourne, the second most spoken language is Chinese. There seems little in the milestones to investigate in terms of the immigration and refugee status of this country.

Well, like many of you in the USA, many of us want to rid ourselves of this very right wing conservative PM. Elections are due soon, so let’s hope that his new initiative does not get through without consultation with the states and the teachers who teach history.

Note: since I wrote this the newly elected Labor Government has rejected this idea.

Related articles

• Webquest on Australian History (brighthub.com)
• Professional Development for Teaching and Learning (deakin.edu.au)