It initiates the resource model this model uses to commit data to the database.
So in this case that would be the file app/code/[local|community]/Magentotutorials/Weblog/Model/Resource/Blogpost.php
[EDIT] to answer @easymoden00b question, the _init
method can be found in Mage_Core_Model_Abstract
which directly calls _setResourceModel
in the same class
/**
* Set resource names
*
* If collection name is ommited, resource name will be used with _collection appended
*
* @param string $resourceName
* @param string|null $resourceCollectionName
*/
protected function _setResourceModel($resourceName, $resourceCollectionName=null)
{
$this->_resourceName = $resourceName;
if (is_null($resourceCollectionName)) {
$resourceCollectionName = $resourceName.'_collection';
}
$this->_resourceCollectionName = $resourceCollectionName;
}
This stores the Resource item and collection class names for further use when retrieving and writting to and from the database