Magzalez’s eyes on media

Off for the holidays I go. Blogging should start up again shortly after the new year.

To not make this post a complete waste, I’ll leave you with this video of my band, Wanda Lee and the Drum Machine, playing at a battle of the bands a few years ago.

Since coming to work with the University of Florida Web Administration, I’ve been shown a bunch of useful Firefox add-on tool bars for Web developers.

Here are some that have been shown to me and I whole-heartedly recommend:

• Web Developer: This one is a no-brainer. This add-on is by far the best Firefox add-on for Web developing.
• LinkChecker: This add-on scans a page for an broken links, so you don’t have to click them one by one.
• del.icio.us bookmarks: the best and easiest way to post links to your del.icio.us account.
• IE Tab: This is an add-on that allows you to embed an Internet Explorer page in a Firefox tab, so you could check your page in Firefox and IE at the same time.
• Firebug: Add-on allows you to edit and monitor CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. A pretty cool little tool.

Am I missing anything?

I redesigned my portfolio Web site recently. I hope to add a section with some examples of my Web content and another with some videos I’ve done. I’m just still tinkering with some of the JavaScript stuff.It will all come in due time. For now, what do you think of the site?

I was a little late to the whole RSS thing. I never realized how helpful it could actually be. Whenever I see other people’s RSS I always see hundreds of feeds with thousands of posts. I just figured it would be a clutter.

When I was interviewing for my job at the University of Florida Web Administration office, I was asked how I look at blogs and my favorite sites. I knew what they wanted to hear. I told them that I did not use RSS however. After that I got to thinking there was something I was missing out on. And, of course, I was. So, here is my very short list of RSS subscriptions. I like to keep it compact and manageable:

Online Journalism:

• Online Journalism Blog: Paul Bradshaw’s comments and analysis of the going’s on in online media
• Teaching Online Journalism: Mindy McAdams’ advice and comments about online media with a special emphasis on media production
• Ponto Media: António Granado’s Portuguese-language blog about online media; he provides plenty of interesting, helpful links

Sports:

• Dolphins in Depth: Armando Salguero has been a Dolphins beat writer for The Miami Herald forever. This is his not-very-well-written-but-still-interesting blog.
• Random Evidence of a Cluttered Blog: Greg Cote’s very funny and very entertaining Dolphins blog
• Tennis Served Fresh: this is the closest thing I have to a good Tennis blog; I am still looking for one great Tennis blog. I’ve only just started reading this one; I need to give it more time.

Other:

• Noel’s Scene: my girlfriend’s blog about music and artsy fun stuff in Gainesville, Fla.
• Reeling with René Rodríguez: The Miami Herald’s senior movie critic’s blog
• Super Smash Bros. Dojo: Daily updates on the comings-along of Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Is there anything else you might recommend?

I had to make a map for my reporting for online media class. There is no real journalistic value to it unless you live in Gainesville and want to check out some of my favorite eateries.

Because this entry has yet to have something useful in it, here is a list of sites for beginners to make maps:

• quikmaps
• Atlas
• Wayfaring

A professor of mine, Dave Stanton, put together a really good slide presentation with plenty of good information on mapping for journalists.