Upgrading the Blogging Arsenal

Here’s another one of those posts that has nothing to do with toys or art, but since it’s about the tools that I use to maintain and update battlegrip.com I figured that some of you might find this entertaining.

• I recently upgraded to a new netbook, a newer version of the Acer Aspire One*. I’ve been using the red netbook for a year and as soon as I determined the cost to repair  the netbook I decided it was time for an upgrade. This new netbook is purple, so I doubt I’ll misplace it. I should get a skin for it, though, to personalize the machine.
• I also grabbed a new messenger bag, and it’s possible that this will be the bag that keeps me happy. I typically pay between $20 and $40 for a messenger bag, but this time around I paid the $80 for a Timbuk2 brand messenger bag*. It feels good, but we’ll see how it works after a month or so.
• Google Chrome with Zemanta. I had been using Firefox, but I decided to give Google Chrome a shot and so far it’s working great. And as I was adding extensions I came across Zemanta, a blogging tool, so I figured I’d try it out. It’s too early to say whether or not this will be a useful tool, but I like the idea and some of the features. Expect to see more of the “related articles” block, because I love the idea of giving you guys more things to read online. Besides, you should waste as much time on the web as I do.
• Changing the “affiliate links earn money” approach. I had been posting a stock line in any post with affiliate links, but it’s ugly and doesn’t play well with Zemanta. So now it’s just a standard line in a sidebar, and any affiliate link will be marked (*). That should make things cleaner.

And that’s about it for now. July is over and it’s time to dive into August. I’ll get the “top reviews” post up soon, and I’ve already got August reviews started.

Thanks to everyone who comments here at the site, and links to the site from other blogs and forums; the feedback is great and keeps me plugging away. And if you’ve been reading battlegrip.com but have never left a comment, please shout out at me here. Are you happy with the type of posts? What do you think of the new “related articles” section? Is there anything you’d like me to be covering that I’m not?

Related articles by Zemanta

• The New Netbook (whatever.scalzi.com)
• Timbuk2 Freestyle Netbook Messenger (macworld.com)
• Techno Tuesday: Zemanta (fromtheashgrove.blogspot.com)