This is day two in my week long experiment to review seven web sites in hopes of developing a matrix to further evaluate web sites.  If you missed my first post, it was about Project Gutenburg.  Today’s web site for review is under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management and is the repository for the General Land Office Records for many states.  The link is below:

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/

Summary:  Once in awhile you find a site that you just type in random names to see what pulls up.  This is exactly the kind of web site you can spend hours plugging in your great grandparents names and get information about where they lived and in some cases how much they paid for their land.  My first impression is that this is a very clean site, though I’m not sure how the row of landscape pictures across the top serves a purpose for the overall User Interface design and therefore recommend it’s removal and the site would look a step up in the realm of presentation.  After using the site for a over 100 searches of my ancestral home lands, I was impressed by the performance of the site and its ease of use, which is obviously a goal the developers placed high on the requirements list.

For example my Great Grandfather Charley F Reynolds lived in Arkansas I found in less than a minute and I even spelled his first name incorrectly.  The document that was provided listed the legal land description.  Some one with a little more skill than I have acquired to date, might be able to determine the exact location where Charley lived, unfortunately I’ll just use the City, State and County information to do more genealogical research.  One final recommendation for change… in addition to legal land descriptions, integrate with either Bing Maps or Google Maps and show your users exactly where the land is located.

Pros:

• Direct and to the point this site will allow quick searches in addition to providing scans of original documents to the user in multiple file formats
• Performance of this web site is snappy and image optimization is high
• This is a government web site so accessibility is a concern and this site adheres to Section 508 compliance.
• Loved the small add in the bottom right advertising the wild horse and burro program

Cons:

• Ok, does every government web site have to look the same?
• Legal land description is hard to pinpoint on a map
• Well, maybe only hard core genealogists really care about this site

I’ve decided to do a short experiment.  For the next seven days I will review one web site, afterwards I’ll analyze my reviews for common points and create a matrix which I will use to review more web sites, though I won’t make the promise/commitment of doing one per day after my initial seven.

First up, is Project Guttenburg. 

Summary:  As far as web sites are concerned, if you fall into the camp that content is king then this web site is right up your alley.  With over 28,000 downloadable classic novels and many off the ordinary beat books you can easily get your high class reading material here, for free.

Pros: 

• Many classical authors that you’ve always wanted to read, yet didn’t want to pay for
• There are roughly 1,000 audio books, again many of the classics… so if you don’t want to read, you could potentially listen to your next reading assignment
• Quick loading site with little to no fluff
• Volunteers transcribe books and proof read, so a life skill can also be acquired through the site
• Typical information is provided about the project via the About Us heading, though I wish it were a separate page so it would get indexed higher in search rankings

Cons:

• Not every book is available in the format you’d like to have it.  Not many PDFs, though many are text only, or a combination of HTML and images.
• Not sure who’s funding the site as it appears to be a donation only web site… I’m curious about the stability of the site and ownership continuity.
• Search is rather minimal.  Most searches are done via author or Title (or words int hat title)
• Left hand only navigation is very old school

MSN's Wonderwall is an intense web site with lots of features. I propose it's too feature intense. With the loading of many pictures that I just don't care to see in order to read the 3 paragraphs that I wanted to read, I want to scream. Nowadays, I mouse over the link to see if I must visit the Wonder "when it's going to load" wall. What irks me even more is the guys analyzing the statics for this site. I'd wager they see increased site loyalty and fewer bounces than before, but not for the right reasons. When I visit I do click more than usual and stay longer, because I don't plan on coming back anytime soon -- read as I don't visit as often analytical gurus. You can visit the Wonderwall, if it loads quickly I’ll claim that Microsoft saw my article and invested heavily in speed ;)

My Favorite lense to shoot wildlife with...

Searching is my life long mantra.  I searched for 25 years for my wife and found perfection.  I’ve searched for 2 years for blog software… and I still haven’t found the perfect tool.

The hang up is I want to write my own controls like an image rotator with some domain logic, but I don’t want to write all the features, just this one.  So far my best choices are listed below:

http://www.dasblog.info/

and

http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/

I’m a fan, probably too much.  My cheeks turn a slight shade of pink when I think how much Stephenie Meyer’s books influence my actions.

If you can’t get enough, too, check out the story called Midnight Sun (Edward’s version of Twilight) at her web site.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

 

 

I received a phone call tonight asking if I was the Michael Reynolds who was accused of deserting the Army Reserve.  No, I'm not being held in the Johnson County jail and my family will be just fine.  Thanks for your concern.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/19241295/detail.html

Mike’s fast, very fast.  Reader that is.  Recently, I read the entire Twilight Saga in 1 week (I even worked overtime :) I subscribe to 40+ blogs and listen to a dozen podcasts.  No doubt that I’m living it up in the information age.  But all is not blissful, there are still a few topics not in my mainstream reading that I want more of…

1. How other balance their online lives on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
2. How to make flash modifications for cameras with design plans
3. Tips on buying a classic Mustang
4. How to manage your kids online time effectively
5. Methods for parents to teach kids about Chemistry
6. Cool activities for Cub Scout leaders
7. Most effective exercises for toning abs
8. Why some people only attend Church on Christmas Eve
9. Best places to view wildlife in Kansas City
10. How to make a living on the internet
11. Best places to take outdoor portraits
12. How to organize a portrait taking event
13. Too many questions, not enough answers
14. What’s the optimum number of computers for a family of four?
15. Why should I be a Republican?
16. Basic car maintenance for a 2003 PT Cruiser
17. How to motivate employees during an economic crisis
18. Best ways to generate traffic to my blog (OK, that’s selfish)
19. Best training resources for photographers (not looking for free stuff)
20. Mentors experiences in the God and Country program

No mistake about it, I work for a large company.  When you have 20,000 employees there is just so much overlap and finding the one person who knows how to help you is tough.

I wish that my company had a status update like Facebook.com.  That way I could see what people are working on and offer my advice if I’ve done something similar.  My status would be updated about 20 times a day though, because I’m so attention deficit inattentive to any one thing.  I so want to pitch status updating to my management…  I need to figure out how to sell it… you know, got to have business value.

Who writes this stuff?
I’m Mike Reynolds, a software developer and avid photographer.  I studied Spanish, Education and Civil Engineering at more universities than any one I know.  Yes, I graduated multiple times!  I have taught web and database programming at Intel, Sprint and AT&T and loved every minute.  I manage a small group of software developers and help as many people achieve their dreams as humanly possible

When/why did you start this blog?
Originally, I launched this blog to rant about technology, but I’m quickly ramping up on the photography side more than ever.  One day I’ll focus my attention on a single topic, but until then enjoy my randomness.

How much time do you spend blogging?
I spend about 8 hours a week and have tons of fun doing so.  Chris, my wife, loves reading my typos as it makes me look more human.

What Blogger template do you use?
I use DAS Blog, because Scott Hanselman does.  He’s my favorite rock star famous programmer.  If he’s smart enough to figure it out, I figured I could, too.

How do I subscribe to your blog?
I make my entire post available over RSS feeds. You can subscribe by clicking here.