SteveOH is a personal blog of Steve Hernandez, a programmer, systems engineer, and overall technological guru. As this is primarily a personal blog, entries included a wide variety of topics, from personal to academic advice, as well as entries on technology, which constitute the bulk of the author?s writings.
The ups
The writing style of the author can be characterized as narrative, so even people who are not particularly well versed with technology parlance will find his blog entries readable. His entries are not too technical and can be appreciated by those who may want to follow the latest in technology but do not have the know-how or the patience to really understand techie language.
Among the common entries in this blog are his dealings with technical support agents. An entry entitled Comcast Outage gives the reader an idea how Hernandez is as a person and as a writer. His deadpan humor is usually mixed with a hint of sarcasm. A number of other entries that may prove really helpful are his entries on graduate school survival and leading people. However, these posts were actually written by other authors. As for other features, such as links, tags, comments, blog rolls, and other blog staples, they are present.
The downs
For the downside, people may find Hernandez?s blog to be a drab, since the page is all in black (even the green heading fades into black), and the blog entries are in white font. There are no pictures, as in zero. A visual reader may find the blog too text-heavy. Even the ordinary reader will not find anything he can rest his eyes on; there is only a black background and white text. Moreover, the entries that fit on the main page are published in their entirety, making it difficult to scroll to the next entry, especially if one entry is extremely long.
The Interfolio blog is part of a website of the higher education, online portfolio service and credentials company Interfolio. The blog has two content writers, Mike Lovell and Frank Fessenden, with most recent entries attributed to Lovell. What this blog is basically all about are entries, tips and news items about tertiary and higher education and how technology plays a crucial and helpful role in its advancement. The target audience is academics, people who are interested in pursuing a career in the education field, or people who just want to find out about the latest news on how advanced technology is being utilized in the field of higher learning.
What you’ll like about this blog
The entries that make up the blog are quite brief and straightforward. For example, there is an entry about the significance of social media to an academic?s life is pretty much an overview of the topics. The same can be said with all of the entries: a brief presentation of the facts related to the topic and a short paragraph or two of related information and developments on the entry topic. Upon reaching the blog, you will get the sense of it being a no-nonsense, clear-cut site. There are a number of pictures placed to add dynamics. The presentation is quite streamlined, with link to monthly archives, information on the two blog authors, links to Interfolio?s Twitter and Facebook page, and tags of the more prominent topics. There is also a link for signing up for Interfolio?s services.
What’s lacking
Anyone looking for in-depth discussion of the topics presented in the blog might be left wanting. That is to say that the blog is very informative, but only to a point. Opinions and thorough analysis of information are not really the blog?s strongest points. In an effort to make the blog more interactive, there are links for the readers to put their comments in, although there seems to be a lack of entries in the comment links. All in all, this blog serves its purpose satisfactorily and is a passable information source for its target audience.
The Diversity in Education blog is a site dedicated to the Diversity in Education program of the Mayo Clinic?s educational arm. Written by Jessica Silva, a Mayo Clinic College of Medicine student, most of the entries in the blog profile staff and students of the Mayo Clinic are racially diverse. Interviews focus on the experiences, work, specialties, and goals of Mayo Clinic?s staff and students that have racial affiliations ranging from African-American to Hispanic and even Native American. There are also a number of entries on the writer?s personal experiences, particularly with her academic life.
What the blog is all about
An entry entitled American “City Indian” Physician Research Scientist: Dr. Judith Kaur profiles Dr. Judith Kaur, one of only two Native American Indian medical oncologists in the United States. As with all the interviews, questions include how Kaur started working for the Mayo Clinic, her work, how she feels about the diversity of the Mayo program she is affiliated with, how her cultural diversity has helped her in her career, and how diversity plays an important role in the workplace and her continuing learning process.
The blog is successful in profiling how a seemingly all-American institution such as the Mayo Clinic has diversified itself through the years. The interviews are quite informative and even inspirational. Its targeted audience can be people who are interested in finding out about the success stories in the institution?s Diversity in Education program. However, it can also be a good read for anyone who is involved in programs that promote racial equality and diversity. The blog is well-organized with its tags, archives dating back to April 2008, recent posts and comments, links to other programs of the Mayo Clinic, a calendar, and an RSS feed link. Also, the interviews have pictures of the subjects that will give readers a face to relate to the interview subject.
Minor glitches
There aren?t really weak points in the blog, except that the blog entries come in sporadic intervals. Sometimes, the blog is only updated twice to thrice in a month. Other than that, this blog should be a good read for people interested in the cultural and racial diversity of Mayo Clinic in particular and the medical profession in general.
The capsGRAD blog is part of the website for the Graduate and Professional Student Services division of the University of California San Diego?s (UCSD?s) Student Services department. As one of the blogs under the Graduate and Professional page, CAPS, which stands for Counseling and Psychological Services, provides its target audience (graduate and professional students of the university) information on a number of topics particularly affecting them.
What to say about the blog
There are currently only seven entries in the blog written by the teaching staff and officers of the university?s graduate school. The seven topics are as follows: advisory relationship, completing your thesis or dissertation, promoting optimal functioning, social adjustment, stress management, time management, and transitioning out of graduate school. As obviously seen in the topics, the entries are primarily for graduate school students of the UCSD. A number of the topics may be helpful and applicable to graduate students in general. The first entry, The Advisory Relationship, is written by the graduate school liaison officer, Dr. Christina Castro. This entry, like the others, are well-written with expert opinions and particularly sound and helpful advice.
The blog is only one page long, so you can actually read all its content in one scroll, although there is a list of links at the top of the page that will lead you to one of the seven entries that you may be probably most interested to read. The sidebar on the left side of the blog page is filled with links to other graduate school pages, such as the home page for grad services and grad campus and community resources. On the top portion of the page are links to CAPS pages such as emergency assistance and information on their staff.
A few glitches
The blog is in its primary stages, so the content is still quite limited so far to psychology-related topics. More content will be very much appreciated. The blog may not be most appealing and eye-catching, but it is quite effective in its goal of assisting graduate school students of the university with valuable advice on how to manage their post-university studies.
The Benchfly blog offers interesting reads for people who are interested in science, in pursuing further education and a career in the scientific field, and to know how a person who works in the scientific field lives. This blog is written by a group of authors, including Alan Marnett. The authors? writing styles are somewhat informal and very lively in tone, and effectively comes to play whether they are writing entries about the difficulties of one?s last year in graduate school or how better mechanisms have made the transport of bananas possible all year round. His blog entry writing is characterized by crisp and smart language with a slight dash of humor.
What’s so mighty about Benchfly
A particularly interesting entry is an article written by Australian writer Joanne Gibson about how she survived on the Indian staple dahl while she was in school. This entry even has a recipe for dahl. These entries, among others, give the blog a truly entertaining quality to it, making its audience not strictly confined to science enthusiasts or graduate school students. The blog?s readability is quite high.
The blog entries include a comment link that is usually populated with a couple of entries, testifying to the popularity of the blog. The layout of the blog is very clean and refreshing, with clean lines and the nifty use of green and orange in the subcategory headings. There is a search facility allowing readers to look at previous entries that relate to a particular topic, links to top channels or categories, Benchfly?s Twitter, Facebook, and RSS feeds, and the most popular entries, plus a poll. The blog is well-maintained and has new entries almost every day.
Some suggestions
Owing to the good maintenance of the site, there is not much to say about any bad points. Perhaps the blog can use the addition of an archive, where readers could click on links to previous entries by date.
