When you decide to start your own blog, there are many choices to be made. The very first choice is which platform to use. The most popular blog platforms are Blogger, Typepad, and WordPress. This article will explain the basic differences of these platforms and the pros and cons of each.

Exciting new blogs pour into the BlogHer blogrolls all the time. I'm supposed to keep you up with some of the great new finds in the Web & Technology area. I've been slacking in the show and tell department. I don't slack in the reading department. I read fascinating posts in the technology blogs daily. It's time to share with a little show and tell.

Do you know that on midnight Feb 18th television as we know it will cease to exist?  Now don't panic. For most of you that won't be a problem because you have cable TV, satellite TV or a TV set that receives digital TV signals.  However for the rest of you---several million households---you're going to have to take action to make sure your weekly fix of "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," or "CSI" isn't interrupted. That's because the government has mandated that as of midnight February 18th all television stations must stop broadcasting analog signals and broadcast digital signals only.  

BlogHer is kicking off a 12 week series on blogging. The series is called "Do it Better – Life, Money, Happiness and . . . Blogging." But here's the thing. We need to know what information you need to be a better blogger. What questions do you have? What goals do you want to accomplish with your blog? What tools, techniques, tips, incentives, aids, and empowering ideas do you wish were in your blogging repertoire?

Have art, illustrations and photos that you want to share, or even sell? A site you might take a look at is Red Bubble. The site claims to have shipped 114,000 items of art to 71 different countries in the last few months.

I recently ran across an article about the Japanese cell phone novel. Have you heard of this? Five or six years ago people in Japan started writing stories on their cell phones, dropping colorful phrases that painted some kind of angsty story of the life of a (usually) a young female narrator. Heartbreak, disappointments, incest, and many other juicy topics spewed forth from the phones of young people who wanted to tell a story.

Bloggers love to come together to network and learn from each other. Conferences give us the opportunity to do just that and there is no shortage of blogging conferences for 2009. I've compiled a list (by no means complete--there are too many opportunities to list!) of conferences that cater to beginning, intermediate, and advanced bloggers. International? I didn't forget you! This list includes information on conferences in the United States, Canada, India, Italy, and England.

With so many people in need, so many problems in the world, how do you pick the things you give to, the people you help? I tend to pick organizatons that I think will do something I approve of with my money: Global Giving, Heifer International and the like. One woman decided to get very specific on her blog and she managed to help raise enough money to allow some friends of hers to avoid foreclosure and stay in their home.

You know how when you learn a new word, you suddenly hear it all the time? Well, that's what it's been like lately with the word Pandora. I didn't just learn the word, but I just learned about the internet radio site called Pandora. Now that I know about it, I find all sorts of people talking about it. The latest comment was from a friend who said she turned her mom on to Pandora so they could listen to holiday music around the house for the holidays. Seems her mom took off with the idea and set up all sorts of playlists.

You know how you can only remember seven of the eight reindeers' names? Or 11 of the 12 Jewish tribes?Well, I find that "year in review" posts work in the reverse: I never have trouble coming up with what to review. The trouble is in keeping the review to a manageable size.

Because of the world-wide recession, retail sales everywhere have been down this year. As a result, many retailers have offered what would have been Boxing Day sales, before Boxing Day. This may have an effect on a) how much more (if any) the sale discount will be and b) how much inventory will be available by the time the Boxing Day sales begin.

Chances are a new game system, computer, iPod, cell phone or other electronics will come into your house this holiday season. What are you going to do with the older version the new goodie will replace? If you don't plan to use it yourself or pass it on to another member of the family, here are some ideas for recycling or freecyling those electronics.