Explaining this side journal

My account primarily exists for a very simple purpose - I'm here to help you with your post-calculus math homework. That's really about it. I'm going to work some problem sets, post some counterexamples to show why some of the "nitpicking" in the proofs really isn't nitpicking, at all, and throw in a few pieces of requested advice. In other words, an outgrowth of my activity on Yahoo answers and similar services, in a setting in which the functionality isn't so frustratingly limited, and in which I go into greater depth. Think of how much easier a geometric proof will be to follow, when I can embed the diagrams into the proof.

Google offers a number of services (knols, notebooks, etc), many of which look like they'll fit nicely into my plans, which probably isn't too surprising, given the academic backgrounds of the founders of the company. When I create a new one, or update an old one, I'll write about that here, with links going to the pages in question, which will link back to here, and sometimes to my Google profile, which is going to end up being a sort of central index for my pages on Google. Yes, it will too small for listing all of those, eventually, but I can establish sub-indices for various subjects, and list and link to those sub-indices from my profile. This blog, then, ends up being an update blog for my profile, one might say.

Originally, I was going to do this from Google groups, which doesn't have as much functionality, but seems to see a lot of traffic. I might still post there, for that reason, but given the foolish decision on the part of Google to eliminate the group descriptions, I can't really link to any groups I have there. How would I link back? Where would be the clear path back to my other pages, and to any rings people might have entered from? No, far easier to discuss the updates here, mention them on Googlegroups, and then link from the posts on Google groups to posts on this blog, for those who, having seen the Googlegroups post, want to see more. Give an opening excerpt, and then a link, and if Googlegroups should be phased out at some point in the future, then I won't be losing anything of real value, and neither will the reader.

Yes, the comments are turned off on this blog. I've found that those posting them were almost always abusing the privilege elsewhere, posting spam or abuse, and so decided to be rid of them, altogether. Is that a strange choice to make for a Math help, blog? How does one get help, if one isn't free to ask for it? Perhaps, but in the beginning, I'm going to be focused on building up an archive of worked problems, and that's what the blog will be about, at first. A lot of these problems, in various forms, are seen over and over, so that archive will probably end up answering most questions, saving everybody a lot of time - and to be honest, I do have a lot of refreshing to do, as I write this. But, eventually, I'll have links to an accompanying forum, and to a profile at Yahoo answers, and maybe a few other places. Just because I'm not opening one particular route of communications, that doesn't mean that I don't ever want to hear from any of you. It just means that I'm shying away from one particular bad experience.

I hope that answers any questions, for now - and with any luck, there should be more questions that need answering, later.