Importing comments from radiocomments.userland.com to pycs.net

I've finally (last night) got my comment importing script working, so now I can grab all the comments for a user on radiocomments.userland com or radiocomments2.userland.com and push them into the pycs.net comment system. If you want to switch your comments from the UserLand server over to mine, drop me a line, and I can do it fairly easily.
[Second p0st]

 

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Scoble's Vision of Blogging's Future

Dave Winer is asking for visions of what the future of Weblogging tools and services might look like.

I've already seen the future. How can I say that? Because it's already here. The problem is that no one tool has wrapped up what's cool. Let's look:

First, TypePad has the business model down. And they have great looking templates that are standards-based (many comply with XHTML spec and validator and use CSS to separate design from content). $4.95 a month for basic and $14.95 a month for pro.

Second, Radio UserLand is cool cause it is a SmartClient. What do I mean by that? Well, if my wireless went down right now I'd still be able to work with all my weblog data. Radio is a locally-run app. No server really needed until you want to post your data to the public Internet. This means I can weblog in an airplane. And, all my data is backed up. If UserLand's servers were hit by terrorists, for instance, I would be able to get all my data back up and running within hours on a different server. I bet your weblog tool can't do that.

My coworker Jeff has been playing with Das Blog. It has the most useful referer information I've ever seen in a weblog tool. His weblog even emails him everytime I point to his weblog and send him a new referer. I wish my tool had a referer log like Das Blog has.

Another person I know, Lauri Evans, has started an interesting conservative site (yeah, I don't agree with their point of view most of the time either) but she's really done something interesting. She has mixed the weblog format with a forum/web board format. Here, visit one of her posts and scroll down to "Discuss it here with us..." Click on that and instead of getting flat weblog-style comments you're thrown into a nice web-based forum. I really wish I had that too.

Scott Watermasyk's ".TEXT" tool is the best way to create group weblogs. MSDN used his technology, for instance, to create http://blogs.msdn.com which is where most of the Microsoft employees hang out. I want to create group blogs for other things and his system really is the best.

Some other things I want, but haven't found?

1) An Outlook plugin. I read 1296 feeds. When I find something cool I want to drag it to a folder and have it AUTOMAGICALLY put it up on a weblog. I don't even want to click post. So, I want to have a "really public folder." Greg, is this something you can do?

2) I want an XHTML WYSIWYG editor that writes nice and consistent code. You might not know this, but I hand code all the HTML on my blog (I'm typing into the HTML editor in Radio UserLand). Why do I do that? Because it's the only way that I can ensure that my page complies with the validator and gives consistent HTML markup so that my CSS style sheets (ugly as they are) can work properly.

3) Add in some service integration. Technorati and Feedster are two that I'd love to see integrated in some way into my tools/services.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for a blogging tool that wraps it all up.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

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IMN Launches RSS Tracking Service

ClickZ reports: “Email firm IMN claimed dibs on being the first company to launch a syndication tracking service for publishers employing the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. RSSAds made similar claims two weeks ago, although its application hasn’t yet launched.” [ Via MarketingWonk ]
By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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YAAAB: Yet Another Article About Blogging

ZDNet: What's up with blogging, and why should you care?
[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

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How Big Companies are Testing RSS Feeds to Circumvent Email

From MarketingSherpa.com: “Getting the wrinkles ironed out of your email program? Figured out a CAN-SPAM compliance program? Don’t rest on your laurels. You might be facing a defection of customers who want to bypass email for a spam—free format called RSS. RSS — shorthand for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication — isn’t new. Technogeeks have been using it to keep up with each other’s Blogs and other Web publishing efforts for years. MarketingSherpa estimates perhaps a quarter of a million users around the world have downloaded the reader software they need to get headlines and news via RSS feeds.”By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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Importing Remote RSS Files

“In this article, get an example of making a request for a remote RSS file, and then importing each individual item into a database. Running a directory like WWWCoder.com requires a way of making things manageable for one person. With RSS you can really make life simple by accepting the RSS feeds and creating an import routine for your database table that stores sites. In this article we will provide some examples of obtaining RSS files and then importing the information into a database.”By meryl@lockergnome.com (Meryl). [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]

 

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SmartManila Beta Available

SocialDynamX is ready to share our next product with Manila and Radio users.  Code named "SmartManila", this beta1 application allows multiple Manila and Radio sites to be managed within a single interface.  Once setup, you can quickly switch between different services and not lose any data retrieved or the connection established to communicate with each unique server.

We need to hear from real Manila users and let you tell us what we need to do to make this tool better for your needs. Here is the ZIP file. Download it, unzip it and run SmartManila.exe.

Download it here: SmartManilaBeta1

and please provide feedback at our SmartManila Beta Test Site.

[Blogging Alone]

 

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WARE: Expression Engine

I've seen the future and the future is full of expressions. Expression Engine, that is. Still confused? Well not for long. How many of you have a blog? How many of you have a Content Management System? How many of you have been looking for blog software and a CMS package? I've seen the future and the future is Expression Engine.

Released currently as a public beta (1.0b), Expression Engine is a killer app that is sure to change the face of blogging software to come. For those of you who remember my pMachine review awhile back you'll be familiar with the company. Expression Engine is pMachine on steroids. Expression Engine is modular, it's OOP, user friendly, easy to modify, and it's almost 100% plug-ins. What does that mean, almost 100% plug-ins? It means the system was designed from the ground up to be expanded upon, to have things plugged in and unplugged. For you developers, this means an awesome API that is sure to make problem solving a simple task.

I installed Expression Engine, also lovingly referred to as EE, or E squared, or the big double E, in 15 seconds (not including upload times, which will vary). It comes with 12 templates to choose from - or ignore them and create you own. Believe me, in 15 seconds I was running around with a blog that will put most to shame with features and expandability. What features, you ask ?

• Data Modeling
• Speed via page or paragraph caching
• 160 bit SHA1 password encryption
• Double opt-in mailing lists
• Google-friendly URLs
• Multiple categories for postings
• Member groups and associated privileges
• Workflow - Yes, Timmy, you can have the post as first draft, or pending, or in revision
• Image resizing and thumbnailing from your blog entries
• Stat tracking - logged-in members, guests, anonymous, and more
• XHTML compliant Control panel - it is fast. Really fast.

Trust me, if you are serious about your blog or about the CMS on your site, you owe it to yourself to check this product out. I could fill up pages upon pages of how customizable EE is. Imagine each and every user in your system having a different control panel with different privileges, views, powers, and more. You can't fathom the extensibility of EE and I can't wait to dive into it and push it to the edge - if the edge can ever be found!

Stop thinking! Go grab it now and you'll wonder how you ever survived with those other "content tools." It's time to stop having a weblog and move up to an Expression Engine, where your true thoughts are delivered the way you intended them to be. [Eric]

[Lockergnome Web Developers]

 

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Coolstop Daily Pick

Today's Pick 

I've seen the site a few times before and its recently being added to linkdup was a reminder with perfect timing.  Redesigned just over a week ago (clean and simple), today's pick makes a nice starting point, with links to hundreds of well-designed websites.  Registered users can rate listed sites or comment on them, plus build their own favorites list.  Great screenshots and sorting options too.  Go explore and enjoy...

This coolstop site review is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

[Coolstop Daily Pick]

 

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Multiple Users of RU

This can easily be done with the Multi-Author Weblog Tool. The individual writers maintain blogs and publish in RSS or other formats that Radio understands. Your copy of Radio uses the multiAuthorWeblogTool to pull the RSS, parse it, then post it via upstreaming to your Radio-managed weblog.

This will work for categories of a weblog, too. Create a category, use the mulitAuthorWeblogTool for it's content, and add a #upstream.xml file and your Radio software will create an *entirely separate* website using the RSS-published content from others.

Here's what I did for a short time:

http://houseofwarwick.com/categories/userland/

It's the aggregated posting from Userland's management team.

Good Luck,

Steve Kirks http://houseofwarwick.com/ [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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It was an RSS Demo

InternetWeek: All about RSS at Demo.

A more in-depth report on the weblogger panel is in the new Red Herring blog kept by Mitch Ratcliffe where I told the audience how RSS lets me keep in touch with what 1300 people are saying on blogs. Mitch was showing off his new Canon Rebel Digital SLR. He said the picture of me was cut out of a small part of an overall picture he took of the panel.

[The Scobleizer -- Celebrating the Geek lifestyle]

 

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Need to review this "external hard drive with Radio" thread:

Re: Utilize Apple iDisk for Radio?. Simone Bettin wrote a WebDAV Client Tool for Radio. This solution does not require you to mount your iDisk. Once I got it configured I never had to look at it again. In other words, it works beautifully.

http://radio.userland.com/discuss/msgReader$7026#7046 [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Macro For Recent Posts

Dave still loves to tinker.    ;-)    Good thing for all of us. Posted to remind me of the Radio version of the macro.

New macro: recentNewsItems.

A new Manila macro, available only on Harvard's server (for now) is a clone of the Radio macro that displays recent blog posts.

{recentnewsitems (maxPosts:25, maxTitleLength:35, flIncludeWhen:true, cellspacing:5)}

You can see the macro in use on this site, in the right margin. It shows the last 25 posts and the date they were posted.

You can use it on your site by clicking on the Edit button in the right margin (if your site has one) or by editing the template of your site. (In the Editors Only menu choose Prefs, then Advanced, then Template.)

If you have questions post them as a comment here.

PS: If you're running a Manila server, the source code for the macro is available.

[crimson1 News]

 

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Deleting Radio UserLand Weblog

Radio UserLand tip from the customer support forum: How to recover a lost password and delete a weblog from UserLand's server. [Workbench]

 

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Changing Desktop Website WYSIWYG Editor Size

From Julie's notes:

first of all I need to write this down so I don't have to keep trying to find it:
changing the desktop website wysiwyg editor size (only for advanced users)

Open Radio > Tools > Developers > Jump > system.verbs.builtins.html.editor.wysiwygEditor

2nd line of code: <table id="editorTable" width="90%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="1" bgcolor="gainsboro">

changing the width percentage to 90% today..because my screen looks bigger..last week it was set at 80%

[Sexy Magick]

 

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RSS Explorer Tool

Another update for old documentation.

 

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Toggling Checkboxes in the Radio News Aggregator

A while back I wrote a modification to the Radio news aggregator page which added a button for toggling all the checkboxes on or off. This was pretty handy but trashed by a Userland update. I could never muster the willpower to figure out how I did it again, and watch it disappear again at some unspecified point in the future so i've done without.

Today I slapped myself for being a fool and wrote a JavaScript <a href="javascript:(function(){var inputs=document.getElementsByTagName('input');for(var i=0;ibookmarket which does the same thing. It just toggles every checkbox it finds on the page.

I've learned some more tricks for writing Bookmarklets, since last time, so this [Curiouser and curiouser!]

 

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Text-Editing Cheat Sheet
The RSS for this item from the discussion board does not display the examples properly. Follow the link in the item title instead. 

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Dave Winer Nomination at WIRED
Dave nominated for a Rave Award at WIRED for his RSS work. 

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New User Guide For Radio UserLand
This is a great start. Hope it is followed by bug fixes and new features.

New Radio User Guide. You can now find a new organization for Radio UserLand documentation in the Radio UserLand User Guide. Scott Shuda announces the new Guide. [UserLand Product News]

 

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Aggregator Scripts To Review

Re: news aggregator. If everything else seems to be working and you just can seem to make the aggregator run hourly you could set up a script say in the workspace table whose contents are:

xml.aggregator.readAllServices()

name this script. kickStartAggregator Now the script is at workspace.kickStartAggregator

Run the following line in the QuickScript window

user.scheduler.hourly.runAggregator = @workspace.kickStartAggregator

That should put an hourly schedule into play that will run the aggregator. Not perfect but it should work.

Andy [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Configuring FTP in Radio

FTP option. The FTP option preferences page in Radio allows you to upstream your weblog through FTP to another server.

Settings 

User name -- May be case-sensitive on some servers.

Password -- The password for your FTP account.

Server -- IP address or hostname of FTP server.

Path -- It can be an absolute path from the root directory eg. "/usr/www/users/mydocs/workspace/" or a relative path from your home directory eg. "~/public_html/workspace/".

Using an FTP client, you can find the path to your directory by finding the folder you want to publish to and typing "PWD" which asks the server to tell you which directory you are in.

The path requires a trailing slash and may be case-sensitive on some servers.

URL -- URL where the contents of the FTP directory can be viewed over the Web (eg. "http://www.yourdomain.com/weblog/").

The URL requires a trailing slash and may be case-sensitive on some servers.

Passive/active mode -- If you need to use active mode for FTP transfers, you can uncheck the "use passive mode" box.

Links 

FTP upstreaming Events Log page error messages

[Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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What to do after a 10060 time out error

Re: What to do after a 10060 time out error. I found the wrong answer before I found the correct one, or at least one that worked better than the first thing I tried :) And I think the answer is, "touch" all the files to update the date/time and then do a QuickScript (Ctrl + ;) with:

radio.upstream.folderNeedsScan(user.radio.prefs.wwwfolder + "images" + file.getPathChar ())

I looks like this will cause Radio to rescan the images folder where I had dropped my files. I think I still needed to "touch" the files to change the date/time before Radio would upstream. I'm not certain as I initially did some other upstream verbs that tried to upstream the complete images tree rather than just the files I wanted to upstream.

I will try to remember to do this again the next time this happens and figure whether I can get away with just "touch"ing the subfolder to see if that will upstream all the files in that folder (I doubt it), or if I have to do a batch "touch" and get all the individual file date/times changed.

Sounds like a good opportunity for me to write some code to prompt for a folder, touch all the files in that folder to update the date/time, and then call the folderNeedsScan() verb to automagically retry the upstream of that folder.

Rod [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Thoughts on choosing a news aggregator.

“After months of resistance I set up a news aggregator today: FeedDemon. I also checked out sharpreader, newzcrawler, and awasu. I picked FeedDemon because its UI was the easiest to use after 3 minutes’ evaluation.”

Finally got Paul learning about RSS and he is trying out aggregators, too.

[Lockergnome’s RSS Resource] 

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FeedDemon Tutorial
The FeedDemon tutorial shows you how to create categories and add feeds. The same concept can apply to most aggregators. Thanks, Nick, for his help and an easy-to-use feed reader.
[Lockergnome’s RSS Resource] 

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Radio UserLand Stats Script From Matt Mower
DIY blogging stats. In case any other Radio users would like to do what I've just done I've uploaded the script necessary. Import this into Radio and run it. It will create two files in your gems folder called posting-history.csv, and, summary-posting-history.csv, respectively. These can be imported into Excel, sorted and used however you fancy. [Curiouser and curiouser!] 

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Scott Shuda's RSS Intro
Scott Shuda, UserLand's new CFO provides an introduction to RSS. 

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Scott Shuda's Radio Guide to Using Pictures and Graphics
Scott Shuda, the new UserLand CFO, has contributed items recently to the Radio UserLand discussion forum. This article links to several methods for posting pictures and graphics in Radio. 

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Gnomedex 2004

I'm seriously considering a trip to Tahoe. Maria also wants to come. Don't think she realizes what a geekfest this will be. Not that there's anything wrong with that.   ;-)

Hope I won't be the only old fool in attendance. A few of the uber geeks in the field must have also reached their 5th decade. I hope. 

GNOMEREPORT: Westward, Tahoe!.

In 2001, we hosted the first Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2002, we hosted the second Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2003, we hosted the third Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2004, we're hosting the fourth annual Gnomdex in Lake Tahoe, California. And if that's too much change for you to handle, we're offering early bird registrations at last year's rate of $99 per pass. What's more, we're gonna be doing it at Harrah's Lake Tahoe with an OPEN BAR all weekend long. That's not a typo - that's a promise! Oh, and we're arranging for party buses to take you to and from the airport. If you've never been on one of those, you're in for quite a treat. We based this year's event on YOUR feedback and our experience with previous Gnomedexes. The speakers, sponsors, and spazzes haven't been nailed down yet - but we finally have a date for you to circle on your calendar. Details are sure to trickle in over the coming months, and you know that I won't shut up about it until it's over and done with (or we max out the hotel, whichever comes first). Just consider this a pre-announcement, as we don't even have the registration form ready to rock! Sorry, I could hardly contain myself. Can you believe we're doing a three-day long open bar for $99? Oh, and... talking about all sorts of cool technology stuff, too. *ahem* Can't forget about that part.

"September 30th through October 3rd" is when we request the presence of your body in Lake Tahoe. Why isn't it happening in Iowa again? Largely because most of Lockergnome's staff now resides on the West coast. That, and more tech companies are located in Los Angeles, San Diego, Silicon Valley, Portland, and Redmond. For those who live "in a galaxy far, far away," we're working with a major airline or two to line up ticket discounts (so don't reserve anything until we give you the signal). There's "enough" to do in Tahoe, but not so much that you'll be distracted from attending our gathering. You can bring the family along, but we'd encourage you to help the young'ns find other venues for entertainment. It's not like we're planning on pulling a "Janet Jackson" or anything, but we ARE saying that this is a conference for adults who don't mind geeking out with other adults. I guarantee that willing participants will: (a) have fun; (b) meet industry leaders; and (c) leave knowing far more than they did coming in. We were more than disappointed to discover that we only scored a 92.9 out of 100 last year. Sure, we blew away the competition, but some of you weren't there to share that victory with the rest of us. Would you rather live with regret or a weekend full of memories that'll last a lifetime? Gnomedex! You know you wanna do it.

Digitally yours,
Chris Pirillo

[Lockergnome Windows Fanatics]

 

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Marc Barrot's Radio Documentation
Marc Barrot, the activeRenderer King, contributes to the wealth of Radio UserLand documentation.

New Radio Documentation Resource. Radio's documentation is plentyful, but scattered all over Userland's sites and the whole Web: it can be difficult for new users, even programmers, to locate the exact piece of information they are looking for.

Being bugged by activeRenderer users with Radio related questions, I've tried to add a small contribution: The updated Radio Userland Facts page describes all Radio features, includes a navigation directory through Userland's rich online documentation, and a Radio docs query widget.

I'll eventually update the documentation Directory with all suggested links. [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Scott Shuda Markets Radio UserLand
Scott Shuda, UserLand's new CFO, bolsters his marketing pitch with comments from the faithful. Though lacking some basic features (spell checker, post to the past, etc.) and suffering from stability issues (crashing on shutdown, etc.), I still use Radio. Although you wouldn't know it if from my posting hiatus, Radio (particularly the news aggregator and outliner) is a constant companion. Good software value for $40. 

Advantages of Radio's Desktop Website. UserLand Radio's desktop weblog approach clearly distinguishes it from today's other leading weblog applications. Because the Radio application and your weblog content reside on your own computer, Radio is in effect both an Internet client and a web server. This gives Radio users the following advantages:

Integrated News Aggregator: Radio UserLand is not only a powerful weblog editor but also includes an integrated news aggregator. Located just one click away from your desktop website (Screen shot.), Radio's news aggregator works automatically to read news feeds that you're subscribed to, whether 2 or more than 200, and posts the headlines to a single, easy to view page. (Screen shot.)

When you see an item in Radio's news aggregator that you want to amplify with your own comments, or pass on to others in your organization or interest group, all you need do is click on the "POST" button and that item is immediately copied to the editing box of your desktop website. You can edit the entry or provide your own comments and then, with one more click, publish the item and your comments to your own weblog.

It would be a major challenge for a hosted weblog company to provide this level of integrated functionality. Imagine the processing hardware necessary to maintain the ever changing subscription lists and news feeds for even 10,000 simultanious users! Then, there is the issue of constantly downloading all that dynamic content to users. Radio UserLand avoids these problems with a grid computing model by putting the power of personal web publishing on each user's desktop.

Security and Control over Weblog Content: Because your weblog content is stored in the Radio:root database on your own PC, each user is in control of his or her own weblog and content. When you make changes on your local copy of Radio, those changes are updated or "served" to the online website hosted by UserLand. The data resides in two places, but the individual user is in control - any changes you make to Radio on your PC will be followed on your online website. This gives users tremendous control over their personal website and advanced users are always inventing new formats and functionality for their Radio weblogs.

Because your Radio content exists in two places (on your PC and online), users can take precautions to protect their data. Steve Hooker, whose weblog can be found at http://www.cybersaps.org/, writes, "My pictures and blog items of my children are now in two places (six actually - the server's version, my local copy of Radio's version and within the folder from my digital camera; then, there's the two back up versions, one locally, one on the server; and, of course, I have two mirrored hard disks, and numerous off site CD back ups). Were I using a hosted solution, my pictures and blogged items would be in just one place far out of my control. I'd only have my digicam's directory and one instance of my items in a proprietary version on someone else's machine, with no portability, and my hard disk back up of those pictures, but no blogged items locally."

Portability: Steve Hooker writes, "If anything ever happens to Radio UserLand, or if I just I wanted to do it, I can create backups and export all my years of family blogging for storage and security. I want my kids to be able to see that content for the next 100 years. For this my blogged items must remain portable, accessible, malleable. Being locked in to a single weblog solution would be a bad thing."

Categories and Multiple Weblogs: Anyone wishing to blog about more than one area of interest will appreciate Radio's category feature. Every copy of Radio will support an unlimited number of categories and each categories is in essence, a seperate weblog with a different URL address and its own independent RSS feed. Some Radio users have used this feature to use one copy of Radio to create and maintain two or more completely seperate blogs at different domains (link).

Work Offline: Because the Radio application resides on your PC and not on a server accessable only through a live Internet connection, weblogging with Radio is possible anywhere you have access to your PC. Just open Radio, draft your posts and upstream the next time you are online. You can also read your new aggregator while offline. One neat trick is logging on in the morning, then disconnecting for the train ride into work. During the ride, you can read through your news feed, check posts made by other bloggers you read, then draft your own posts and update the public version of your weblog as soon as you log in at work.

Speed Advantages: With Radio running on your PC, changes to your posts or your site settings are almost immediate. Updates to the public version of your site may take a few moments, but your instructions have been recorded and won't be lost due to a bad Internet connection or problems with your host's servers. [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Exploring Footers

Exploring Footers.

"by Bobby van der Sluis - With old-school table layout methods, vertical positioning is a piece of cake. With CSS layout, it’s a piece of something else. New ALA contributing writer Bobby van der Sluis shows how to regain control of footers and other vertically positioned layout elements via CSS, JavaScript, and the DOM."

[BryanBell.com]

 

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Re: Advantages Of Radio's Desktop Website

Re: Advantages of Radio's Desktop Website. Pete:

I do this:

http://www.houseofwarwick.com/stories/2003/08/04/runningRadioOnAHomeServer.html

If you have an "always on" internet connection, it's great. I can use the web interface for news reading 24 hours a day, no matter where I am on the planet, including my cell phone (Handspring Treo 600). I've tried a few different combinations, but always come back to this.

Buy an old PC, load it with Windows 98--or buy an old Mac (even a beige G3)--and install your Radio copy there.

Yes, it's a little geeky, but the results are well worth it. Radio is a personal content management system, complete with a built in web server and scripting language, so take advantage of it!

Steve Kirks http://houseofwarwick.com/ [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Want More Blog Traffic? Here's How.

Want more blog traffic? Here's how.

How to get your weblog more exposure: RSSTop55. Very useful listing of best blog directory and RSS submission sites.

Actually up to 59 sites now, including my favorite http://feeds.scripting.com.

[The Scobleizer -- Celebrating the Geek lifestyle]

 

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Free or Inexpensive Web Analytics

Re: hit counter. Try sitemeter or blogpatrol [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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Advantages of Radio's Desktop Website
Yes, I like Radio. Still, I hope UserLand will address the significant disadvantages of their package in the near future. This may be tough if they adhere to their long-standing "break nothing" policy.

Advantages of Radio's Desktop Website. This is a work in progress -- please feel free to comment, make corrections or suggest additional content.

UserLand Radio's desktop weblog approach clearly distinguishes it from today's other leading weblog applications. Because the Radio application and your weblog content reside on your own computer, Radio is in effect both an Internet client and a web server. This gives Radio users the following advantages:

Integrated News Aggregator: Radio UserLand is not only a powerful weblog editor but also includes an integrated news aggregator. Located just one click away from your desktop website (Screen shot.), Radio's news aggregator works automatically to read news feeds that you're subscribed to, whether 2 or more than 200, and posts the headlines to a single, easy to view page. (Screen shot.)

When you see an item in Radio's news aggregator that you want to amplify with your own comments, or pass on to others in your organization or interest group, all you need do is click on the "POST" button and that item is immediately copied to the editing box of your desktop website. You can edit the entry or provide your own comments and then, with one more click, publish the item and your comments to your own weblog.

It would be a major challenge for a hosted weblog company to provide this level of integrated functionality. Imagine the processing hardware necessary to maintain the ever changing subscription lists and news feeds for 100,000 simultanious users! Then, there is the issue of constantly downloading all that dynamic content to users. Radio UserLand avoids these problems with a grid computing model by putting the power of personal web publishing on each user's desktop.

Security and Control over Weblog Content: Because your weblog content is stored in the Radio:root database on your own PC, each user is in control of his or her own weblog and content. When you make changes on your local copy of Radio, those changes are updated or "served" to the online website hosted by UserLand. The data resides in two places, but the individual user is in control - any changes you make to Radio on your PC will be followed on your online website. This gives users tremendous control over their personal website and advanced users are always inventing new formats and functionality for their Radio weblogs.

Because your Radio content exists in two places (on your PC and online), users can take precautions to protect their data. Steve Hooker, whose weblog can be found at http://www.cybersaps.org/, writes, "My pictures and blog items of my children are now in two places (six actually - the server's version, my local copy of Radio's version and within the folder from my digital camera; then, there's the two back up versions, one locally, one on the server; and, of course, I have two mirrored hard disks, and numerous off site CD back ups). Were I using a hosted solution, my pictures and blogged items would be in just one place far out of my control. I'd only have my digicam's directory and one instance of my items in a proprietary version on someone else's machine, with no portability, and my hard disk back up of those pictures, but no blogged items locally."

Portability: Steve Hooker writes, "If anything ever happens to Radio UserLand, or if I just I wanted to do it, I can create backups and export all my years of family blogging for storage and security. I want my kids to be able to see that content for the next 100 years. For this my blogged items must remain portable, accessible, malleable. Being locked in to a single weblog solution would be a bad thing."

To come (assistance is welcome):

+ ability to use categories to create and easily manage multiple weblogs

+ ability to work offline - can draft on beach and post next time online

+ speed advantages - the app server is your PC--you can't get a faster connection than that [Radio UserLand Messages]

 

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RSS: It's Not Just For Bloggers Anymore

RSS: It's Not Just for Bloggers Anymore.

E-mail is dead. Last week's experience with the MyDoom worm and its variants tells us much about the future of e-mail. Many companies were without e-mail for a couple of days: Some closed their systems to all incoming mail, others to all mail in both directions. Yet work kept getting done. Files were transferred via alternate e-mail addresses, FTP, or Web postings. Unless you were foolish enough to click on the malevolent file -- or brave enough to live without a basic spam filter -- last week's events were more annoying than they were project or job threatening. Rest of the story: RSS: It's Not Just for Bloggers Anymore.

[Lockergnome's RSS Resource]

 

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Six Tips For Better RSS Feeds

Six tips for better RSS feeds.

RSS and XML-based content syndication are really taking off. News organizations (like the NY Times) and business are increasingly using RSS to syndicate their content. RSS is also becoming the spam-free alternative to email newsletters. Most RSS feeds are automagically generated from a content management system. As more feeds spring up, and more content is consumed through an RSS aggregator, content producers will need to think about how to create qualtiy RSS feeds.

[Lockergnome's RSS Resource]

 

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