Even if you’re not a blogger yourself, chances are you read a few of them. It seems like everyone is blogging these days, including my mom on occasion (so ok, maybe not recently). Heck, even when you aren’t intending to read a blog, you may end up doing so after following a link from a search engine when you’re looking for something specific. Let’s face it – blogs are everywhere.

Obviously, blogging is a central part of my life. The work I do here plays a large part in not only my work life, but my personal one, as well. I like to think I’ve found a good balance between the two, and try to keep them as “equal” as possible here on my site. My friend Robert Scoble is the same way. If you go through his blog, you’ll see that he also has managed to balance life/work/family, and wrap it all nicely into his blog.

To me, that’s the way a blog should be. I’ve seen people who have several different blogs. They may post work-related things to one, personal to another, and social things to yet another. Where’s the sense in that? Why can you not post everything in one central place? Both Robert and I – along with many, MANY others, have managed to do so. If you have more than one blog, why do you? I would like to hear from some of you “multi-bloggers”, and hear your reasons as to why you do things the way you do. Understand that I’m not putting down the way you do things. I honestly feel that maybe I am missing something, and not seeing the whole picture.

In any case, blogs are important. They can be a source of information. They can keep you current on what’s hot – and what’s not. They can give you different viewpoints on matters that you may not have otherwise thought of. And, they can make you laugh. So, I ask you…

How do reading blogs impact your life? For the blogs you go back to time and again, what attracts you? Is it the content itself, or the author’s writing style? Are you gaining information, educating yourself, or just having a good laugh? What types of blogs do you subscribe to – and how many of them?

Our Lockergnome community is devoted entirely to bloggers, with topics ranging from IT to Dogs – and everything you can think of in between. Over on Geeks, we have a large number of bloggers, as well. How many of these people are you taking the time to follow? If you aren’t checking them out, you’re missing out.

• Cisco routers for the desperate – router and switch management the easy way!
• Are hackers suffering due to the rotten economy?
• Are you trying to put together the computer security puzzle?
• Does Windows 7 boot up faster than Vista – or not?
• Microsoft has announced that two lucky bloggers (one woman, one student) will win a trip to the Winter Olympics!
• Do you need to know how to create a system repair disc in Windows 7?
• Have you ever noticed that the older we get, the more we act like computers?
• Which Linux distro has the most users?
• It is possible to secure lower costs for your holiday flights than you could last year.
• A new publication offers security tips for WiMAX.
• Stumble me this one.

I have a team of people working hard every day to bring you updates on all of your favorite programs and apps, and let you know about the best new ones available. Keep your eyes on what’s new every day, so that you don’t miss out on anything!

What Role Do Blogs Play in Your Life?

Don’t expect every one of these searches to yeild results, though. The output was generated by a single OPML file and the Optimal OPML WordPress Plugin. Looking for other easy ways to display the OPML from Gada.be right now. Hell, entirely new sites could be built on top of the OPML we produce – much like RSS, it’s a poor man’s API.

Over 300 Tag Searches in One Spot

I listen to KUOW in my car all the time. If the dial isn’t tuned in to NPR, the radio simply isn’t on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken extra laps around the block just so I could listen to a full broadcast. Last Thursday, I heard a great segment on the origins of marriage (What is a Traditional Marriage) – I wanted Ponzi to hear it, too. That’s when I remembred: NPR has podcasts! And let’s face it – NPR owns the podcast space. I’d give my left nut to have a show on NPR (and my left nut is slightly more valuable than my right nut, FWIW). The problem is that NPR has over 300 podcasts as of today, making them impossible to manage and subscribe to en masse. So, I’m asking the NPR gods: please give us a single, permanent OPML URL? You can keep the same dichotomy, just put in a more transportable / importable format. If the NPR OPML is always at the same URL, we can always have the latest set of NPR shows a finger-click away. And if you already have a master OPML for NPR, why haven’t you linked to it from your podcast page?

NPR Needs OPML