I think I’m falling in love with an online newsletter site. TechRepublic, a self-professed “resource for IT professionals”, is all that and more! It’s an excellent example of how the Web can be used effectively as a means of both education and networking of a more human kind.
Technically speaking, TechRepublic is part of the CNET Networks family of websites, and it has the same kind of warm but geeky feel to its articles, blogs and video segments. My favorite blogs are pretty indicative of my techie interests:
- Geekend, hosted by Jay Garmon, feeds the geek-child in me that loves toys and movies and trivia. His reviews lack the cultural snobbery from which many “mainstream” movie reviewers suffer, and cover the issues that true geeks want to hear about. His Geek Trivia newsletter is chock-full of details and minutia than should satisfy the needs of even the most hard-core trivia junkie. And his other posts, like the T-shirt of the week, reflect a cheerful irreverence that always makes me smile.
- Tech Sanity Check, by Jason Hiner, helps keep in in the loop about how big and little players in the IT world are doing, and feeds my trivia habit, too. Jason manges to cut through the nonsense of IT management, power politics and make it all interesting. Staying informed was never so good!
- ITDojo, by Bill Detwiler, provides more practical tips on how to keep my silicon beastie purring like a contented kitten. These tid-bits often include video segments that show step-by-step which screens and/or menus you need to wade through in order to fine tune or fix my computing pal.
- And 10 Things, hosted by Jody Gilbert, is exactly what it sounds like. Short, sweet articles highlighting 10 things at a time on various topics from SQL Server data types to stupid things the users do to mess up their computers.
I only hope that CBS (who recently bought CNET and acquired TechRepublic in the process) has enough sense to leave well enough alone and let a good thing stay that way.
Time will tell…
B
