Thursday, July 31, 2003If you track our Feedster Stats page at all (and yeah its slow to display and I know I need to make a cached version) then you'll see something interesting: 160,000 + feeds now. That's right. Last night we added every Live Journal user to Feedster which doubled our database size. My hat's definitely tipped to Francois whose crawler architecture happily crawled 1,500,000 posts in 12 hours. Nice job man! Jon Thompson nicely pointed out to me that while we might have implemented Sherlock support, we made it hard to find. Thanks man. Done! Now its linked to from the home page until it finds a permanent home.
[The FuzzyStuff: Feedster]
7:27:28 PM
comment [] trackback [] American Rhetoric
This site has an amazing collection of speeches. It has both text and audio of real speeches, plus speeches from the movies. [The J-Walk Blog]
7:03:26 PM
comment [] trackback [] New weblog community built around GPS
The Redtail Canyon Geo-Community combines weblogging with an atlas, photo albums, search engine, and travel guide.
The site, created by developers David and Yuko Knight in Tokyo, encourages the publication of weblog entries tied to a particular geographic location by GPS coordinates, such as this item on Aral Sea destruction. Entries can be viewed by navigating maps like this U.S. East Coast view, which become satellite images as you click empty spots to zoom in.
Here's a nice shot of the Castillo De San Marcos in Saint Augustine. [Workbench]
6:49:20 PM
comment [] trackback [] Plastic Balls
addiction alert! Flash alert. (via random abstract) [MetaFilter]
6:32:46 PM
comment [] trackback [] Chris Lydon interviews Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds
[Scripting News]
6:19:33 PM
comment [] trackback [] Knowledge Management as a monster
Ton has a great post on how the genuinely revolutionary brand of knowledge management (KM) might only make its way into organizational culture somewhat covertly, in a bottom-up fashion. His starting point is an article titled "Exorcising monsters: the cultural domestication of new technologies", by technological philosopher Martijntje Smits. Ton says implementing KM-as-it-should-be might actually turn out to involve unlearning the term KM, as well as displacing cultural boundaries. A must-read, which reminds me of a passage on culture change I blogged back in October, under the title: Shift happens. One person at a time. [Seb's Open Research]
5:47:08 PM
comment [] trackback [] Why RDF Sucks
RDF sucks because its proponents want people to use it directly. RDF syntaxes has little in themselves except as possible normalized data storage format. Please don't throw nuts and bolts into people face when they are expecting knobs and buttons. [Don Park's Daily Habit]
1:51:46 PM
comment [] trackback [] Earth and Moon Viewer
You can view either a map of the Earth showing the day and night regions at this moment, or view the Earth from the Sun, the Moon, the night side of the Earth, above any location on the planet specified by latitude, longitude and altitude, from a satellite in Earth orbit, or above various cities around the globe. In addition to the Earth, you can also view the Moon from the Earth, Sun, night side, above named formations on the lunar s...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
3:26:27 AM
comment [] trackback [] There is no cheap metadata
In his series of articles on search, Tim Bray explores the value of metadata but also its cost - noting that "There is no cheap metadata." [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
3:08:42 AM
comment [] trackback [] Onfocus - Amazon RSS feeds
"Several people have mentioned that it would be nice to show the newest products in the Amazon RSS feeds rather than the top-selling products. There's a quick hack to make this happen." [Scripting News]
2:35:59 AM
comment [] trackback [] Wednesday, July 30, 2003[0xDECAFBAD]
3:26:14 PM
comment [] trackback [] Ethnic clustering in blogging communities This report by Hat Nim Choi studied and compared the LiveJournal and Xanga web... [thomas n. burg | randgänge]
2:53:39 PM
comment [] trackback [] Paul Stacey
"Its been quite a while since a technology 'blew me away' but last Friday I had one of those Eureka moments while riding the bus from downtown Vancouver to White Rock where I live -- all because of RSS feeds & blogs." [Scripting News]
2:48:02 AM
comment [] trackback [] Globally positioned blogging
Roland Piquepaille summarizes a TechRepublic article on the merging of GPS systems and the web. Suppose you're standing somewhere in the middle of a foreign city with a couple of friends. Everyone's getting hungry and you had better find a good place to eat. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to instantly look up, say, all restaurant reviews within a 1000-feet radius of where you are? And then intersect the results with your personal web of trust to increase your confidence in the info?
[Seb's Open Research]
2:40:43 AM
comment [] trackback [] Morse Code Migrating To The Net
Rosco P. Coltrane writes "With Morse code slowly disappearing off the air, there seems to be a growing number of people who carry out conversations in Morse ... [Slashdot]
2:37:39 AM
comment [] trackback [] Aggregator agendas
Tom Coates, in suggesting it's time to "balkanise our aggregators": "Blogdex, Daypop, Popdex, Technorati and the like are no longer simple reflectors of a community's activities - they are also one of our community's best mechanisms for news discovery... Unfortunately it also means that the country with the most weblogs sets the international community's agenda." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
1:56:25 AM
comment [] trackback [] An interview with Jeffrey Veen
Digital Web Magazine: There are amazing things happening on the Web, and, interestingly enough, most businesses couldn't imagine living without it. We're spending an increasing amount of our time at Adaptive Path trying to understand the value of a quality user experience. [Tomalak's Realm]
1:28:18 AM
comment [] trackback [] Tuesday, July 29, 2003The exciting hobby of collecting Cinematographica is a great resource whether you are a collector or if you just found some old family home movie relics. Browse the 100 Years of Film Sizes or salivate over the author's own collection. Perhaps, you, a do-it yourselfer like myself, do have some old family movies laying around that you want to digitalize. Read the tips about converting before you jump in and possibly spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. [MetaFilter]
9:31:53 PM
comment [] trackback [] Internet Explorer's market share now 95.4%
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) now has a record market share of 95.4%, according to the most recent report by Web analytics firm OneStat.com. IE 6.0 has 66.3% of the market, with 14.5% for IE 5.5 and 12.7% for IE 5.0. "Mozilla is in fourth place with 1.6% of the market, but the total market share for browsers based on Mozilla technology is about 4.1%. The alternative browsers -- Opera Software's Opera and Apple's Safari -- barely register on the chart, with 0.6 and 0.25% of the market, respectively" reports WinInfo. The OneStat press release is here. [onlineblog.com]
2:35:26 PM
comment [] trackback [] Image Savant
Page after page of incredible eye candy from Image Savant Image Savant is a fine art studio located in Hollywood, California, owned and operated by me, Richard "dr." Baily. My primary focus is digital fx animation, but occasionally I compose music, paint, and write.. (via Dublog) [The J-Walk Blog]
2:24:00 PM
comment [] trackback [] Iraqis Log On to Voice Chat
And I thought I was really starting to like instant messaging.... "If the government knew what I was doing, I am sure they would kill me, because they would think I was a spy," says Al-Sharqi.
[Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
2:04:20 PM
comment [] trackback [] BlogAds
Henry Copeland on the news that Time Out New York has placed ads on New York-based blogs Blogads represents: "This is our first metro-specific order. Expect lots more..." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
1:46:30 PM
comment [] trackback [] UDDI and RSS by Karsten Januszewski.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]
1:31:22 PM
comment [] trackback [] UDDI and OPML by Clemens Vasters.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]
1:30:55 PM
comment [] trackback [] Weblog Network
A portion of the revenue model for the Weblog Network will be a tie into web service APIs from Amazon and others (depending on revenue share optimization). [John Robb: The Weblog Network]
1:22:41 PM
comment [] trackback [] Slashdot on the Tim O'Reilly Interview about DRM
s4 news machine writes "The UK webcaster stage4 has published a lengthy interview with Tim O'Reilly in which he talks about why DRM will fail, Macromedia ... [Slashdot]
12:53:47 PM
comment [] trackback [] Monday, July 28, 2003A [BBC] collection of your visions for the year 2020.
4:30:43 AM
comment [] trackback [] The World Votes
"464 days from now, U.S. citizens will elect their new President. The outcome of these elections directly influences the lives of citizens around the world. In an effort to establish global democracy, theworldvotes.org gives people all around the world a voice in the forthcoming U.S. Presidential Election." [Blogalization Community]
2:02:34 AM
comment [] trackback [] Bovine Freedom
Cows with Guns is the most hilarious Shockwave animation I've seen for a long time. Found this gem somewhere in the usual linkfilter chaos. [The Cartoonist]
1:57:29 AM
comment [] trackback [] German Constitutional Court Blocks Napster Suit
djmutex writes "In an urgent ruling, the German Constitutional Court has temporarily blocked the Napster copyright violations class action of several American recording companies and artists against Bertelsmann... [Slashdot]
12:59:16 AM
comment [] trackback [] Sunday, July 27, 2003Amazon.com Syndicated Content is delivered in RSS format. RSS is a standard format (in XML) for delivering content that changes on a regular basis. Content is delivered in small chunks, generally a synopsis, preview, or headline. Selected categories, subcategories and search results in Amazon.com stores now have RSS feeds associated with them, delivering a headline-view of the top 10 bestsellers in that category or set of search results.
This is very cool, though the feeds a little hard to find at first. Don’t look for the orange XML or RSS buttons – use RSS autodiscovery to find the feed associated with a search. (In other words, the URL will be in a link tag in the header of a search results page.)
And though I don’t really want to stir up trouble, I find it strange that Amazon uses RSS v0.91, and that they link to Netscape (an all but defunct entity) and not a spec hosted by UserLand or Harvard.
Anyway, at least they‘re providing feeds in some format! [0xDECAFBAD]11:47:41 PM
comment [] trackback [] Net trend
RSS 2.0 is now the #1 return on Google again for the keyterm RSS. Two weeks ago it wasn't even in the system. What happened? [John Robb's Weblog]
6:47:36 PM
comment [] trackback [] Saturday, July 26, 2003with a great browser-based user interface, no SDK.
[Scripting News]
3:57:12 PM
comment [] trackback [] Collect Britain:
From the british library. OK - I've spent a few hours looking around. The British Library has what will ultimately amount to an uber-site that will make it into my bookmarks (I have 11 at the moment). Go there - it won't be finished... [tingilinde]
3:42:33 PM
comment [] trackback [] Amazon goes RSS: A mere 7 months after I wrote about last-minute business RSS here Amazon gets it. Nearly. Amazon now provides RSS feeds embedded inside the HTML pages. To actually subscribe to the RSS you will need to take a look at the source of the page and then find the link to manually add it to your RSS newsreader (at least my version of NetNewsWire can't "auto-discover" the RSS feed). Here is an example RSS feed. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
2:59:47 PM
comment [] trackback [] Modulo 26..
A work of understated beauty.
[Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]
2:34:23 PM
comment [] trackback [] Zen and The Art of Nano Publishing..
Time is an illusion. You and I think we have a year, or a month, or a day in which to accomplish something. Yet, is it not a fact that you never have a day! All you have is a moment, this moment, and this moment. There is nothing more than a moment you have that we call now. The present moment is all you ever have. In a similar vein of thought, we must also see that software is an illusion. Microsoft create nice packages, and print books and print pretty shiny patterns on CD disks and we are told we are purchasing sofware - a thing. Really, software is an illusion. It does not really exist. [Microdoc News] 9:00:16 AM
comment [] trackback [] A look at recent user level activity in the RSS world (real long post):
I've been an advocate of RSS and the less recognized value of the aggregator side of the blogging world for some time. There have been a whole series of recent examples of RSS applications worth noting. I thought I'd pull together a niumber of the items gracing my aggregator on the topic...
[McGee's Musings]8:10:24 AM
comment [] trackback [] Organizing Your Digital Detritus:. From John Robb's Weblog, I'm learning a little — enough to scratch my head about whether this is interesting at all — about this new class of apps that promise, as Robb describes it, to "provide a PC-based organizational system for all the digital data a person accumulates during a lifetime... (to) make sense of the gobs of information we are going to store in our 1 Tb computers in 2006..." There's MyLifeBits, for PCs, which is from Microsoft and which Robb suggests will be seriously flawed by being inflexible and monolithic. DevonThink, so far only for OSX, is a "freeform database with a browser interface that organizes your local data by similarity" and looks pretty interesting to him. And then there's Dashboard, about which all the recent buzz is about.
I'll surely investigate this phenomenon further, but for now I'm dubious about their usefulness to me. Maybe I need to get the terabyte hard drive first or progress further along the continuum to benign senescent forgetfulness (in which case a terabyte-range handheld PC will be more useful to me than a desktop, of course). Robb suggests these will be great for webloggers but I suspect he doesn't mean my style of weblogging.
As Robb asks, "what do we call this category of software" anyway? And, other than the amount of their muscle, how is it different from the heavily-indexed freeform databases (like Ask Sam) or the index-based PC explorers (like Lotus Magellan) I've made use of in my remote past? Here are Dashboard's stabs at answers to both of those questions:
The dashboard is a piece of software which performs a continous, automatic search of your personal information space to show you things in your life that are related to whatever you happen to be doing with your computer at the time.Part of my hesitancy is about that "friendly way". I'd be relieved if I didn't find it intrusive and annoying, even if my machine's performance didn't take a hit. I sound like the computerist version of a luddite, I realize, but I'm reminded of that old Twilight Zone episode in which the aliens arrive promising all sorts of boons to humanity. At the end, just as the world's leaders are about to place their fate entirely in the hands of the aliens, our hero runs up breathlessly to announce that he has just finished translating the aliens' handbook, To Serve Man. "It's a cookbook!!" he stammers. [Follow Me Here...]While you read email, browse the web, write a document, or talk to your friends on IM, dashboard does its best to proactively find objects that are relevant to your current activity, and to display them in a friendly way.
We call the dashboard an "association engine."
7:34:16 AM
comment [] trackback [] Savings
Here's the TLC (Technorati link cosmos) for Saving the Net. Impressive.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]
7:27:33 AM
comment [] trackback [] Evan deconstructs a "Google is being spammed by weblogs" example. [John Robb's Weblog]
7:22:32 AM
comment [] trackback [] Web Zen: Graffitti Zen. (1) banksy
(2) vandal squad
(3) wooster collective
(4) laussanne
(5) stencil revolution
(6) guerilla parenting
(plus, a bonus link from me to you: my favorite tag, above left).
web zen home, web zen store, Discuss (Thanks, Frank) [Boing Boing Blog]
7:21:04 AM
comment [] trackback [] PayHole On the one hand, I believe PayPal is one of the greatest inventions in the history of the Web.
On the other hand, I hate it.
I think I may have made one successful payment for something with PayPal, a long time ago. But since last Fall, I've been in PayPal hell, and I can't get out......
There has to be a better way.
[Later...] Says here Roland Tanglao and his partner Pete have one. Check it out.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]7:07:30 AM
comment [] trackback [] GeoPing [Daypop Top 40]
7:00:09 AM
comment [] trackback [] Read On.
I was about to address this post to anyone visiting from today's ABA Journal eReport article on lawyer blogs, then remembered that eReport articles supply no hyperlinks...
No matter, if you went to the extra effort of finding Bag and Baggage through a search engine (or if you followed an inbound link from a Web page that by definition would have somewhat less on the eBall than a bona fide eReport), and are curious to read what people much smarter than I have to say about relationships between the Web, organizations, individuals, and society, then by all means please visit, buy, and/or sign up for:
- World of Ends: What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else
- Cluetrain, the Manifesto
- Cluetrain, the Book
- Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices
- Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web
- Up2Speed
- Up2Speed's Business Weblogs—The Big List, and the weblogs there referenced
- BloggingWorks
- John Lawlor
- And just to wake you up and blow your mind, the first interview since May '02 with the "gentle person with a piercing vision" and Cluetrain co-author who started me down this rosy path, including the outline for his book-in-process, and more allusions and illusions—literary, psychosocial, philosophical and I'm leaving some out—than you can shake a Dali at.
- [Update] Bad on me for initially omitting Robert Scoble's Corporate Weblog Manifesto too.
6:57:11 AM
comment [] trackback [] Wash Cycle: Rory Perry: "There's been a wash of articles this month that appear to solidify weblogs as a solid online content platform for politics, business and public information. This continued level of acceptance will hopefully enable more conservative institutions (like courts) to embrace the platform more widely." Rory's roundup. [Bag and Baggage]
6:50:41 AM
comment [] trackback [] Chris Lydon Interview
Amazing what he can do with such a tight budget and in such a short amount of time. I've been a big fan of his work, so I jumped at the chance when he called me up and asked for an interview. We did it amazingly quickly - he called me up, we talked for 30 minutes, and 2 hours later, the interview was posted to the web. Chris is onto something...... [Sifry's Alerts]
6:20:41 AM
comment [] trackback [] Amazon is offering an RSS interface. Not sure how to find all the feeds. They have an example feed for top-selling DVDs. [Scripting News]
4:51:32 AM
comment [] trackback [] Crimson: Harvard to House Blog Standards. [Scripting News]
4:48:52 AM
comment [] trackback [] The coming wonderworld - Technorati: Christopher Lydon in introducing his interview with Dave Sifry: "Technorati is for me the simplest clearest sketch we have of the coming wonderworld..." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
2:25:42 AM
comment [] trackback [] Stacy Cowley on Blogathon: "This year, 545 participants have enlisted, with US$56,000 pledged so far. At 6 a.m. Pacific time Saturday, they'll embark upon 24 hours of blogging..." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
12:46:38 AM
comment [] trackback [] Clare Booth Luce. "Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there." [Quotes of the Day]
12:37:16 AM
comment [] trackback [] Friday, July 25, 200311:47:30 PM
comment [] trackback [] Jon Udell is doing an experiment with his RSS feed. [Scripting News]
11:44:28 PM
comment [] trackback [] Düsseldorf gets public MetroLAN. Today the city of Düsseldorf started the first public hotspots for wireless LAN access. THe hotspots are installed in public schools on top of the school network provided by Deutsche Telekom. Students, teachers and members of the city council have free access. Other users will have to pay a small fee. [owrede_log]
4:57:56 AM
comment [] trackback [] douglas adams mp3 audio archive ... "The Douglas Adams media archive is presented here by the wi2600.org groups for your enjoyment. This allso is to serve as a tribute to Mr. Adams's great, but suddely shortened career. Those who have not heard his voice and those who know it well will both enjoy having this material available. We will miss him!" [MetaFilter]
4:51:23 AM
comment [] trackback [] Cringely Proposes a Music Sharing Alternative. WEFUNK writes "The I, Cringely 'Pulpit' column at PBS presents an interesting idea for a new business model to take on the RIAA. He suggests that a publicly ... [Slashdot]
4:38:57 AM
comment [] trackback [] You think it's moving but it's not..
You think it's moving but it's not. [MetaFilter]
2:44:41 AM
comment [] trackback [] Bubble, bubble, who's got my bubble?. And you thought real bubble wrap was fun this digital bubble wrap never runs out and is 17% more awesometacular! Manic mode turns that fun knob way up past 11. Hot damn. [MetaFilter]
2:42:54 AM
comment [] trackback [] Historical London maps: The Crace Collection online - zoomable and searchable. This is fantastic. Found at the Map Room.
This is the essential guide to the development of the capital from the 16th to the 19th centuries, brought together by the Victorian designer, Frederick Crace. [The Cartoonist]
2:30:36 AM
comment [] trackback [] Buzz narrowly escapes his 15 minutes of fame. Today's NY Times story on back channels at conferences has provoked lots of interesting commentary around the web today. One tidbit to pass along. The story includes the archetypal conference blogging story of the impact of Doc Searls and Dan Gillmor sharing a link from Both "forwarded by a reader in Florida." If you want the story behind the story, go check out Buzz Bruggeman's blog buzzmodo. Buzz was that "reader in Florida" and he describes his near 15 minutes of fame. [McGee's Musings]
2:05:49 AM
comment [] trackback [] Netomat .."introduces two-way personal multimedia communication."
netomat is XML and Java based and built upon open formats, standards and protocols, more technical users can author directly in nml, our powerful and intuitive new XML dialect.
[thanks to the druids over at Industrial Technology & Witchcraft]
1:46:37 AM
comment [] trackback [] Technorati Profiles.
I've just finished adding my profile over at Technorati and adding this code over on the right. [McGee's Musings]A new feature you may have noticed at Technorati is Member Profiles. They're an easy way to find out more information about the people behind the weblogs. Anyone can become a Technorati member simply by signing up.
Once you're a member, you can choose to give more information about yourself and the weblogs for which you are an author.
You can "claim" your weblogs by submitting the weblog URL and then adding a small HTML snippet to the front page of your weblog. Technorati verifies that you are indeed an author of the weblog by spidering your weblog, looking for the special code you placed on your weblog.
Once you've done this, your picture and profile will be associated with all links to your weblog in any Technorati Link Cosmos. We're also working on a bunch of new features that will make writing (and reading!) weblogs more fun. Watch this space. You can "claim" your weblogs by submitting the weblog URL and then adding a small HTML snippet to the front page of your weblog. One of the first benefits you get as a Technorati member is that your profile information is available whenever your weblog is mentioned in a Technorati Link Cosmos. We're also working on a bunch of new features that make writing (and reading!) weblogs more fun. Watch this space. [Smart Mobs]
1:32:07 AM
comment [] trackback [] Thursday, July 24, 2003Link, Discuss (Thanks, mark!)
[Boing Boing Blog]
11:42:29 PM comment [] trackback []
Flash mob alert! Paris, Rome, now.. A Parisian flash mob appears to be coalescing right now, (Link), and another is forming in Rome (Link), Discuss . (Thanks, (Howard!) [Boing Boing Blog]
11:40:35 PM comment [] trackback []
"SlashDoc"
11:38:36 PM comment [] trackback []
Maze Maker. Go to Maze Maker and make a maze. Just enter the parameters, click a button, and you've got it.
Of, if you have a copy of Excel, you can create a maze in a worksheet by using the VBA macro listed below. Copy the code and paste it into a VBA module. Then select a range of cells in a worksheet, and press Alt+F8. In the Macros dialog box select MakeMaze and click Run.
The mazes aren't as good as those produced with Maze Maker, but it does produce some interesting patterns. The original author of...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
7:50:30 PM comment [] trackback []
Essay: What changed with RSS? [Scripting News]
7:47:47 PM comment [] trackback []
google advanced news search. Give Google's Advanced News Search a go if you haven't tried it yet.... [tingilinde]
1:13:30 PM comment [] trackback []
"Saving the Net". The editor of LinuxJournal, Doc Searls, has a very interesting article about how regulation in the telecommunications and broadcast industries is leaking its way into the Internet. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
5:46:34 AM comment [] trackback []
Happiness is a new RSS application from Wired News. [Scripting News]
5:42:54 AM comment [] trackback []
Remote Driver. Baby you can drive my car. Mini RC cars are all the rage but how often do you get to control a RC car in Tokyo from your browser. Bascule created a web interface for controling an RC car in their office, hooked up a couple of web cams on the track and now allows anyone with the Flash 6 plug-in to log in and drive their car for 60 seconds. [MetaFilter]
5:32:48 AM comment [] trackback []
Hmmm. Interesting. I had never seen this Yahoo search interface before. [John Robb's Weblog]
5:20:55 AM comment [] trackback []
Are there any WiFi-enabled criminals out there? Someone would like to speak with you; please read:
As many of you are quite well aware, whenever you sit down at a conference or hotel or park or cafe or harbor with "open WiFi", your network activity is possibly being recorded and reviewed by someone else very close to you. It doesn't take a rocket scientist: it's trivial to do such things with tools such as this one.
Personal sniffing of open WiFi networks might ultimately be ruled legal, or might not. (Ask yourself: is there a "reasonable expecation of privacy" on open WiFi networks? Would you send attorney/client privileged information on an open WiFi network?) Of course, if you did it, I can assure you that you'd quickly come to the conclusion that doing so is of a questionable ethical nature: your jaw will drop as you see peoples' XML-RPC blog passwords and private email messages flying by.
WiFi sniffing is EASY to do, it is commonly done, and the real question is at what point will someone do real damage by using what they sniff, and when will this be brought to the public's eye by the courts or by congress?
Think about it. How long will it take before someone starts methodically wardriving in front of major politicians' or executives' homes, looking for open access points and sniffing interesting traffic by sitting in their car across the street each evening? Don't you think it's already happening?
In 1997, a cell phone conversation of Newt Gingrich was recorded by a scanner user and the tape was turned over to the media. This spawned bills HR1964 and HR2369 threatening to end scanning as a hobby. Would a major WiFi-catalyzed insider trading scandal, or political scandal cause new laws to be passed that might change the wireless data landscape as we know it? It seems like just a matter of time before we'll find out.
In the meantime, I've been contacted by a big-name business publication that is considering writing an article about this subject. But instead of talking to "industry experts", they'd like instead to talk to someone who is actively sniffing open WiFi networks for personal gain. Based upon the reputation of the publication, it seems quite likely that confidentiality will be preserved. 978.336.0235 [Ray Ozzie's Weblog]
5:12:57 AM comment [] trackback []
Translocations. An online exhibition of network-based art from Brazil, China, Croatia, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States. [Blogalization Community]
5:12:38 AM comment [] trackback []
science and technology milestones. Today in Science History is a candidate for the "visit once a day" list. While very little information is given on daily milestones and significant figures in science and technology, it represents a nice source of questions for google.... [tingilinde]
4:55:51 AM comment [] trackback []
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Some of the programs in the proce55ing electronic media series just amaze and fascinate me everytime I run them. I am particularly impressed with the organic simplicity of Golan Levin's Yellowtail programs. Just try!
(found via Alf Eaton)
[Seb's Open Research]11:59:26 PM
comment [] trackback [] eBay still not using SSL. eBay still does not use SSL for passwords. Although there is an option to use it during signin, this is largely negated by the fact that you have to continuously re-sign in to perform various commands, the fact that you cannot have SSL be the 'default' login, the fact that most eBay sellers are not techno-knowledgable enough to understand what secure-sign-in is anyways so they wont click the tiny 'secure signin' link, and the fact that the eBay 'change your password' web page not only sends your new password back to them completely unencrypted but also has no option for using SSL to do the change. [kuro5hin.org]
11:56:53 PM
comment [] trackback [] So Scott, What RSS Reader Do You Recommend?.
Man have I gotten this question a lot recently. I mean with the range of readers including:
- BottomFeeder
- Awasu
- FeedDemon
- SharpReader
- AmphetaDesk
- NewsMonster
- Radio
- Drupal
- Net News Wire
- NewsGator
- Many, Many More
Its no surprise that people are asking me this. And you'd think that with a) my rather large mouth (ok blog) as well as b) more than a little closeness to RSS, I'd be happy to sit on my high horse and answer it, right? Actually that would be no. I say again no. Why? Well I have serious, serious bias here. I mean do I go with a recommendation of Net News Wire ? Well then I have to point out that I'm forever in debt to Brent of NNW who pushed me to add RSS output to Feedster. And do I recommend BottomFeeder? If so then I have to point out that (if memory is correct and much of the past few months is a giant incoherent blur) that BottomFeeder was the 1st aggregator to build Feedster support in directly. And so on. Clearly I'm just hugely biased and while I try not to let that bias intrude into my recommendations, on this one I just can't. I think I pretty much have a close relationship with most of the people making aggregators and I don't feel that makes me a credible person to recommend anything here. And if you make an aggregator and haven't talked to me about Feedster support then drop me an IM or email. So you best get that recommendation elsewhere.
I would suggest that you check out the different resources available including Michael Fagan's stuff. Or Hebig's stuff (recommended). Or Abbe's stuff. Or go see what other users like Chris Pirillo use. [The FuzzyStuff: aaBlog_Roogle]
1:27:23 PM
comment [] trackback [] Really Interesting Aggregator.
I just got the nicest email from the wticker folks. Very interesting. Check it out. [The FuzzyStuff: aaBlog_Roogle]
1:22:49 PM
comment [] trackback [] B.O. Blivion, in an essay on blogging: "I look to the Internet not for the friendships I lack in real life, but for conversation on topics that interest me, the lack of which in everyday life being what draws me into these things." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
1:12:48 PM
comment [] trackback [] Homage to Blogalonia. George Orwell's wartime columns have much in common with today's blogs: They were often trivial and idiosyncratic, but bore within them the seeds of something greater. [Der Schockwellenreiter]
1:00:46 PM
comment [] trackback [] Die ODEM.org-Tour: Die Tour ist die beste Möglichkeit, ODEM.org zu verstehen.
12:58:48 PM
comment [] trackback [] SOAP Debugger.
Altova, the XML Spy folks, has a SOAP debugger. Interesting. I found it by clicking on one the AdSense ads that appeared on my frontpage. Cool.
[Don Park's Daily Habit]4:33:56 AM
comment [] trackback [] Jim Coudal: "We have not built a web site in the last year for a client that in some way did not incorporate blogging technology." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
2:42:59 AM
comment [] trackback [] Tuesday, July 22, 2003
From Gawker:"Friendster couture -- Another example of Friendster run amok: Tom Gillis from Glossosaurus is making t-shirts with random Friendster profiles on them. [Tom, right, in a t-shirt featuring Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing's profile]. Friendster t-shirts [Glossosaurus]"
There are so many overlapping memes in that photo, I fear the entire blogosphere may implode any minute now. On his blog, Tom says: "If there's any interest in this, I'm going to be selling [random Friendster profile shirts] for $10 (hand made and unique) + $5 for shipping outiside Chicago (up to 3 shirts).... pretend it's 1993, and this is a zine or something. Except that then there wouldn't be anything like Friendster, and we'd all be wearing fake auto mechanic t shirts with other people's names embroidered on them." Discuss
[Boing Boing Blog]
11:45:42 PM comment [] trackback []
Creative Commons: comes to Communist China [Blogalization Community]
11:38:07 PM comment [] trackback []
"Blog Change Bot" [Daypop Top 40]
11:33:54 PM comment [] trackback []
Getting Back Into Shape While At The Office?. rhuntley12 writes "Personally, I sit at a computer desk for 10 hours a day with very little actual work. Your also started to get a little belly and out of ... [Slashdot]
10:20:07 PM comment [] trackback []
Sites you might be interested in. Nanodot: Slashdot for futurists, managed by Foresight. Smartmobs: group weblog (needs a redesign). Daily Rotation: filtered newsfeeds from tech sites, including weblogs. [John Robb's Weblog]
10:17:18 PM comment [] trackback []
Technorati talks FOAF. Technorati reads the FOAF file from your blog and creates a profile. Your picture from your FOAF file and a link to your profile shows up when you appear in people's cosmos listings. A good reason to get a FOAF file. TypePad has FOAF built in. If you want to build a FOAF file, you can go to this foaf-a-matic site (thanks for the link Sifry) and make a FOAF file. Put the FOAF file on a server and point to in from your blog with a link tag like this:
<link rel="meta" type="application/rdf+xml" title="FOAF" href="http://joi.ito.com/foaf.rdf" />
FOAF stands for "Friend of a Friend" and it is a project to create a machine readable format for putting information about yourself and your friends on web pages.
Here's Marc Canter's profile
Update: As Dave Sifry says in the comments section, you must get an account on Technorati and "claim your blog" before it will make a profile from your FOAF. You can do that here.Technorati reads the FOAF file from your blog and creates a profile. Your picture from your FOAF file and a link to your profile shows up when you appear in people's cosmos listings. A good reason to get a FOAF file. TypePad has FOAF built in. If you want to build a FOAF file, you can go to this foaf-a-matic site (thanks for the link Sifry) and make a FOAF file. Put the FOAF file on a server and point to in from your blog with a link tag like this:
<link rel="meta" type="application/rdf+xml" title="FOAF" href="http://joi.ito.com/foaf.rdf" />
FOAF stands for "Friend of a Friend" and it is a project to create a machine readable format for putting information about yourself and your friends on web pages.
Here's Marc Canter's profile
Update: As Dave Sifry says in the comments section, you must get an account on Technorati and "claim your blog" before it will make a profile from your FOAF. You can do that here. [Joi Ito's Web Lite]
9:50:32 PM comment [] trackback []
Thoughts on micro-content, metadata and trends. My investors, my readers and a variety of other people keep trying to get me to explain what I'm interested and why I'm interested in it. Here's a first shot at this. Thanks to Steph, Kevin Marks and others on #joiito for a first pass edit. I've put it on the wiki as well so we can continue to work on this. [Joi Ito's Web Lite]
9:48:35 PM comment [] trackback []
asynchronous scribbling. Netomat is a new service that allows you to post test, drawings, photos, sounds, etc on the web and have others interact with them. The service is currently in beta and is somewhat slow, but give my page a try... [tingilinde]
8:07:12 PM comment [] trackback []
Tim Porter, on the blog of the Dallas Morning News' editorial board: "It takes the decision-making out of the room and into the public... Smart move. I'll expect other papers will follow suit." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
7:58:23 PM comment [] trackback []
Virtual Dali. A wonderful website about the great surrealist. Plain brilliant. Via dublog. [The Cartoonist]
6:51:28 PM comment [] trackback []
The Impending IP Crisis. Factomatic writes "With the supply of IP addresses expected to run out by 2005 due to the popularity explosion of the Internet and the expectation that ... [Slashdot]
6:50:15 PM comment [] trackback []
Public weblog portability. I was e-mailing with xian about the portability of weblogs and how to maintain presence online. Sure, there is nothing you can do if the people who own the domain you are using shut down your weblog or go out of business in regards to a seamless transition, however, there is alot that can be done. Like what? Here are some ideas for a service that would be really useful:
- First, I would start with single repository of weblogs where the owner of the weblog can change the location of their weblog and other descriptive data by signing into an account. This service would need to be tightly controlled and trusted. If you don't own the domain, your hosting company or hosting sponsor would need to support the account creation. If you don't get this support from the domain owner, you are truly SOL (an old pilot term).
- Second, weblog tools would need to support the option of using this repository as a means of keeping blogrolls and RSS subscriptions up to date. A once a day check for new changes is all it would take.
- Third, this repository would be extremely useful if you could update Google and Yahoo automatically so that search returns on their tools find the intended data. For example: replace jrobb.userland.com with jrobb.mindplex.com. In this case, all the the links to posts made in the past would work. If there was some glitch in the folder structure, it couldn't get much worse that 100% 404 errors.
6:49:12 PM
comment [] trackback [] FOAF day. Technorati's support for FOAF pushed me over the top to create a file. For your FOAF'ing pleasure, I'm putting up the links that I looked at all in title="FOAF-a-Matic">FOAF-a-Matic.
6:48:46 PM
comment [] trackback [] More FOAF.
- Marcus Campbell has autofoaf which searches your OPML blogroll for FOAF files and updates your FOAF file with any new entries.
- Ken MacLeod has written a FOAF checker that checks a signed FOAF file and retreives key information. That information can be used to do things like supply comment poster information on weblogs.
6:46:52 PM
comment [] trackback [] Chris Lydon interviews Doc Searls. [Scripting News]
6:42:56 PM
comment [] trackback [] More on weblogs in business.
Thomas Burg points to B- Blogs Listing (see also for I-Blog Discussion List) and BloggingWorks Workshops. Business blogs world is speeding up. [Mathemagenic]
6:29:38 PM comment [] trackback []
The World Summit on the Information Society. "Civil society" gears up for Geneva and Tunisia talks on the digital divide, basic communications rights. [Blogalization Community]
6:12:18 PM comment [] trackback []
The Sharer of Secrets - Anonymous Blogging
The Village Voice had a very nice long piece on anonymous blogging that hangs on the story of Hasidic Rebel using an anonymous blogging tool called Invisiblog. Invisiblog uses GPG and the Mixmaster anonymous remailer network which allow blogging without any need to divulge identity.
"Political activists, independent journalists, whistleblowersâo[per thou]anyone who is prevented from publishing by repressive laws or threats of violence" can benefit from covert-blogging software, writes Charles Farley of Invisiblog. Indeed, over the past year, online diarists in Cuba, Iran, and Tunisia have been jailed for publishing. Like these writers, Yeedel and several other Hasidic bloggers have put their lifestyle, if not their lives, on the line with their contentious chronicles.
Interestingly much of the writing on invisiblog blogs is much more about emotions and feelings than politics or revolution. It feels stragely like evesdropping on a phychiatric session instead of listening to a bullhorn-wielding, masked anarchist.
[By way of BoingBoing]
[Corante: Amateur Hour]5:57:05 PM
comment [] trackback [] Digging Holes in Google. Kurt LoVerde writes "Though google has become synonymous with searching, the folks over at MSN have written up an interesting article on our favorite search ... [Slashdot]
5:52:45 PM
comment [] trackback [] Tools for boycotting the RIAA. Sure, we'd like to boycott the RIAA, but how do we go about it? With the RIAA Radar, that's how. The Radar can tell you whether a particular album was released by a member of the RIAA. Not only that, it will show you the RIAA membership of the top 100 albums as well as the the top 100 non-RIAA albums on Amazon. There's even a bookmarklet. [via magnetbox] [MetaFilter]
5:51:06 PM
comment [] trackback [] Biz Stratergy MS uses. Google: the God that failed? is the title of the article on MSN Slate. All of us know Microsoft is working on a new search engine technology. Till date everyone considers Google to be the Guru. MS obviously doesn't like that, so what it is doing? Well, the same thing it always does - to survive competition, eliminate it. The reasons being given by the article are pretty silly and more aimed at 'faming down' Google. Here's why... [MetaFilter]
5:43:29 PM
comment [] trackback [] A Poli-Geek's Wet Dream. GWU's Encyclopedia to the 2003/2004 Election Cycle - I was impressed when I checked out "Democracy In Action", GWU's excellent breakdown of everything political in the 2003/2004 cycle. It features an excellent detailed comparison of Democratic presidential candidates (e.g., here's my personal fave) featuring their voting record, stances, finances, and organization. Also, you can understand how a candidate campaigns in NH or IA, see ads that were placed by interest groups, check out which member of congress has endorsed who, where all the staffers from the 2000 election are working now, -- you can even see who's on the Green Party's Presidential Exploritory Committee. Thanks, GWU -- I'll never be productive ever again! [MetaFilter]
5:42:22 PM
comment [] trackback [] Popup Blocker Mayhem.
No doubt about it, popularity of popup blockers is rising above the ignorable level for those who use it for legitimate reasons. Google Toolbar and Mozilla/Firebird are two primary causes. Content-rich services like AOL, MSN, and Yahoo are likely to add fuel to the fire with controlled popup blocking which will block everyone else's but their own and their partner's.
While I hate annoying popup ads like everyone else, I feel that blocking all popups amounts to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Popup is a very useful tool in UI designer's toolbox and it would be a shame to lose it or resort to using complicated pseudo-popups, artifacts that just looks like a popup window.
For now, I am advising everyone to avoid using popups until we can find a cheap solution. One solution I am looking at now is the use of copyright law to discourage use of popups for advertising by businesses. The idea is simple:
Copyright and restrict use of a unique string or image that popup blockers can use to recognize legitimate popups.
The ultimate cause of popup ads is money. And, where there is money, there is usually someone who can be sued. While I hate unnecessary litigations, I prefer simple social solutions to complicated technical solutions. There is a major flaw in this solution though. There is no powerful industry association like RIAA to stab the legal jeopardy straight into the heart of popup advertisers.
[Don Park's Daily Habit]5:27:47 PM
comment [] trackback [] More IBE Info.
If my post on Voltage Security peaked your interested in IBE (Identity-Based Encryption), check out O'Reilly interview with Terence Spies (cool last name for a security startup VP ;-), VP of Engineering at Voltage Security. If you are math-enabled or just want to roll your eyeballs, this page is a good starting point. BTW, some parts of Voltage's IBE technology is patented. But this shouldn't surprise anyone since VCs are not likely to invest in a patentless security company.
[Don Park's Daily Habit]5:26:27 PM
comment [] trackback [] If I could be Steve for a day..... Don't take this too seriously, okay? But since Guy and I were talking about stuff, and it turned into a little chat about blueskying future technologies... [Teal Sunglasses]
5:15:17 PM
comment [] trackback [] »Blogs are the democratisation of publishing«. BBC: A blog for everyone. »You know a web trend has reached a high pitch of popularity when AOL starts including it in its basic software. But can blogs be truly mainstream?« [Der Schockwellenreiter]
5:06:19 PM
comment [] trackback [] 
The Smart Patrol. New old clips at The Bunker: Devo, Dead Kennedys with "Holiday in Cambodia', Comsat Angels, John Foxx and many more. Sad: Please note due to lack of web space / server limit they are only clips! (Approx 1 minute To 2 minutes maximum).Hopefully the clips will be changed every other month or so.
If anyone out there ... ... can supply similiar clips of more esoteric groups (1970's Kraut Rock, Early C93, NWW, Death In June, This Heat, Early 4AD - Mass, Rema Rema & more!) via Mpeg, Divx, Video or Dvd please let me know , Thanks. (Not me of course - mail the guys at The Bunker.) [The Cartoonist]
4:52:16 PM comment [] trackback []
InfoWorld: Debate over RSS. [John Robb's Weblog]
4:47:23 PM comment [] trackback []
Monday, July 21, 20031:56:56 AM
comment [] trackback [] P2P Prohibition: Top 11 Signs your ISP has given you up to the RIAA. Pho list cofounder JP points us to the...
Top 11 Signs your ISP has given you up to the RIAA as a dangerous KaZaA user:Link, Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
11. All the files in your favorite MP3 play list are now "Lars Ulrich sings 'Feelings'"10. Your KaZaA rating changes to "Defendant"
9. Eminem insults your mother in his next single
8. Recording Industry Association of America president Hillary Rosen sends you e-mail messages with embedded .wav files of heavy breathing
7. All the spam in your inbox is from Motion Picture Association CEO Jack Valenti
6. You get a bill retroactively charging you 99 cents per downloaded track. Total bill: $29,700
5. A Tommy Mottola screen saver suddenly pops up on your computer
4. Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer picket your home with signs that read, "Piracy don't pay my bills"
3. You receive a request from someone using outdated hacker wannabe slang claiming a friend said you could "hook me up" with the latest Snoop Dogg album
2. You suddenly have numerous songs from someone named Avril Lavigne
1. CD-shaped crop circles appear in your backyard
1:55:36 AM
comment [] trackback [] Deep Linking Legal in Germany. BlueWonder writes "German news site Heise Online reports a recent decision of the Bundesgerichtshof, the highest court in Germany: Deep linking is not illegal. ... [Slashdot]
1:31:10 AM
comment [] trackback [] Similarity Searching Now Available !.
If you do a Feedster search now, you'll see a link in the result set "similar posts" (next to "cached") and, when selected, it uses the selected article to return all other articles like it. Right now this is, unfortunately, hard wired to english. And it operates by content analysis not by link analysis. We had actually planned to release this later this week but we did a massive update dealing with the DDOS issues and it just happened to sneak out into the wild when we moved stuff from our dev box to our production box. Ah well.
[The FuzzyStuff: aaaaFeedster]1:24:40 AM
comment [] trackback [] I'm curious; perhaps someone out there knows...
[Ray Ozzie's Weblog]Has anyone yet attempted to create "RSS email", where the "feeds" served to a feedreader might be automatically synthesized from the emails themselves as things such as Person (from or to), Thread, Folder, etc? (One could probably easily implement this as a straight layer on top of IMAP.) Rather than just inserting RSS into an email client paradigm as in Newsgator, it might be amusing to invert the solution and explore the usability issues of rethinking email as being just another form of feed served up to a reader, with plug-ins for creating & replying, etc. Hmm.
Has anyone yet attempted to create what I guess I'd refer to as a "Hyki" - that is, a character-by-character real-time collaborative (Hydra-like, Groove Text Tool-like) editor with automatic creation of real-time linked sub-documents when CamelCase words are typed, etc. ??
1:21:35 AM
comment [] trackback [] Are you freaked out yet? Keep watching.. This animation freaks me out. And now it will freak you out too! via the everlasting blort [MetaFilter]
1:09:16 AM
comment [] trackback [] 
At last night's dinner, which was a lot of fun, Marc Canter said that a lot of people don't know that RSS 2.0 is extensible. They think it can't evolve without changing the spec. He said I should do something to correct the misunderstanding. I agree. So here's a list of modules that extend RSS 2.0. In a way it's like the list of implementations for XML-RPC or SOAP. The larger and more diverse the list of extensions, the richer the environment. The authors of these modules claim that their namespaces work with RSS 2.0. As with the XML-RPC implementations, as new modules come online I'll keep you posted so you can watch it grow. [Scripting News] 1:04:47 AM
comment [] trackback [] Unbrand America. A Plague of Black Dots: "In the coming months a black spot will pop up everywhere . . . on store windows and newspaper boxes, on gas pumps and supermarket shelves. Open a magazine or newspaper - it's there. It's on TV. It stains the logos and smears the nerve centers of the world's biggest, dirtiest corporations.
This is the mark of the people who don't approve of Bush's plan to control the world, who don't want countries 'liberated' without UN backing, who can't stand anymore neo-con bravado shoved down their throats.
This is the mark of the people who want the Kyoto Protocol for the environment, who want the International Criminal Court for greater justice, who want a world where all nations, including the U.S.A., are free of weapons of mass destruction, and who pledge to take their country back.
![[Image 'http://www.adbusters.org/home/images/2003_07_04/unbrand.gif' cannot be displayed]](http://www.adbusters.org/home/images/2003_07_04/unbrand.gif "xxx")
Take the pledge and spread the meme." Adbusters [Follow Me Here...]
12:32:10 AM comment [] trackback []
Basic features of the web (deep links) not illegal... Deep-Linking in Suchmaschinen in Deutschland nicht rechtswidrig. Aus einer Pressemeldung des Bundesgerichtshofes geht hervor, dass der u.a. für das Urheber- und Wettbewerbsrecht zuständige I. Zivilsenat des Bundesgerichtshofs in einem Urteil vom 17. Juli 2003 entschieden hat, dass Anbieter, die das Internet für ihre ihre Angebote nutzen, auch die Beschränkungen in Kauf nehmen müssen, die sich aus dem Allgemeininteresse an der Funktionsfähigkeit des Internets für die Durchsetzung ihrer Interessen ergeben. Dazu gehören z.B. auch Suchmaschinen und deren Einsatz von Hyperlinks (gerade in der Form von Deep-Links). Ohne diese sei die sinnvolle Nutzung der unübersehbaren Informationsfülle im World Wide Web praktisch ausgeschlossen. (Quelle: Pressestelle des Bundesgerichtshofs) [WebDEV]
12:30:23 AM comment [] trackback []
Sunday, July 20, 20032:40:24 AM
comment [] trackback [] Saturday, July 19, 20037:09:22 PM
comment [] trackback [] Web Services: Buzzword or programming tool?
The Web Services panel here at AlwaysOn was more lively and entertaining than the preceding morning sessions. Ray Lane, freed from the need to defend anyone's interests, plied the needle skillfully and was helped along by some rather sophisticated heckling in the bigscreen chat window.
The remarks can be roughly separated into three threads, representing the semantic heat death that is engulfing the Web Services term:
- Web Services as an instance of the software-as-service vs. software-as-product vs. software-as-consulting debate.
- Web Services as a battleground for the open-source vs. proprietary software wars.
- Web Services as a catchword for a set of application integration technologies, centered on XML, SOAP and related standards.
I'll punt the first issue, defer the second until after the (explicitly) Open Source panel, and address the third:
Web Services in the integration standards sense is indeed a step ahead. We can quit fighting about fun issues like big- vs. little-end binary over the net, and just accept the overhead of squashing everything into marked up character streams. Cool, the world marches on. I can parse XML for arguments and metadata, instead of reading raw binary or ASCII armor.
But anyone thinking this really solves a deep standards problem is kidding themselves. We've getting a nice new surface syntax that takes away much of the ugliness of defining and late-binding interfaces across a network. The real work is - as always - in defining the semantics of the interface, and getting others to play the game your way. And the latter is just a new battleground for the platform wars. Behold, today's battle.
Amazon's external web services aside, my intelligence says the overwhelming use of Web Services standards today is within the firewall. It's mostly used for covering and integrating legacy apps. With the general hold on new enterprise software initiatives, there's not a lot of 'native' app building. So keep an eye on that open networked web services future, but right now, this looks like a programming tools market. [Due Diligence]
6:39:06 PM comment [] trackback []
404 Not Found. I'd like to pause for a moment in tribute to a key innovation which made the Web possible, the 404 Not Found Error. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
6:35:11 PM comment [] trackback []
Bad Boys II: Hacker without a clue [Ars Technica]
4:08:53 AM comment [] trackback []
Get an RSS Feed From Google Search. Oh, boy, is this cool: Google Alert tracking service. Automatically search the web 24/7 Spotted on CyberJournalist.... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
4:04:25 AM comment [] trackback []
Richard Tallent has a great article on the pros and cons of browser-based and smart client applications. [The Scobleizer Weblog]
3:37:57 AM comment [] trackback []
SecurityFocus' Scott Granneman: "Blogs: Another Tool in the Security Pro's Toolkit." [The Scobleizer Weblog]
3:37:20 AM comment [] trackback []
Slate: "Google isn't perfect." [The Scobleizer Weblog]
3:32:49 AM comment [] trackback []
Windows users, please update your systems. We found a major security hole today. We've built a patch for it. If you leave the hole open, someone could come and take over your computer. Not good. I won't speak on behalf of the anthill here often, but sorry about that. We're working real hard to find these weaknesses in our systems and close them up. [The Scobleizer Weblog]
3:31:59 AM comment [] trackback []
Oh, cool, there are some new SQL Blogs coming. I've LOVED Scott W's .NET Weblogs. I can't wait until I can hear all about Yukon (the next version of SQL Server). Awesome awesome awesome.
3:22:15 AM
comment [] trackback [] Marc 'Idea' Fest.
I like the way Marc Fest thinks. He not only thinks about similar problems as I do, he also likes simple solutions. His Quickbrowse.com is a simple idea with simple benefits: replace page-flipping browser tedium with quick scan down a single page. OnlineHomeBase.com is another simple yet effective idea: server-side PostIt notes. Thanks to Scott Loftesness for mentioning Marc. I got a smile out of the deal.
[Don Park's Daily Habit]3:20:58 AM
comment [] trackback [] Wired News: Upload a File, Go to Prison [Daypop Top 40]
3:12:20 AM
comment [] trackback [] Visually Triangulating on Musical Artists.
Thanks to Alf's amazing TouchGraph Audioscrobbler Browser, a dream of mine has come to life. I can now pick a number of bands that I like and find not just the sets of artists that relate to those bands individually, but also identify new artists who are in the intersection of these sets. Play around with it - it's great fun!
In the same vein: this and this.
[Seb's Open Research]2:53:35 AM
comment [] trackback [] Top-notch newly discovered blogs.
A few great blogs have emerged in recent months, and I didn't get around to introducing them on Seb's Open Research. Here they are.
- Paul Resnick's Sabbatical Musings - First rate thinking about reputation systems, online economics, and social capital. Examples: these two posts on Global Organizing of Local Activity
- Richard Soderberg's Floating Atoll - Nuggets of wisdom on social software. Example: Lawmobs.
- Eugene Eric Kim's EEK Speaks - Enlightened discourse on collaboration processes and tools. Examples: this post on the possible link between synchronous communication and motivation (an a-ha moment for me), and Whining in Private.
- Dave Pollard's How to Save the World - mindful, visionary musings on the interaction between social nets and knowledge management, and the experience of being human. Example: Well, every friggin' post over there is worth reading. Just pick one at random.
2:52:20 AM
comment [] trackback [] Jack, we hardly knew ye. Six Degrees of Jack Nicholson (Photoshop mastery). [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]
2:50:16 AM
comment [] trackback [] Passing the buck, or 25, to MacSurfer. As a firm believer in passing the buck, in a good way, I just paid $25 for a one-year subscription to Macsurfer's Headline News. The site is still free, but it is looking for support. Sounds familiar. [Mac Net Journal]
2:39:08 AM
comment [] trackback [] AO Reflections.
Settling in after some very intense days at the Always On Innovation Summit. It was a great experience, excellent networking and a different use of Social Software for events. Socialtext provided an integrated video/chat/wiki conference support system.
During the first day, wifi was frustratingly spotty, so the bulk of its use was from remote participants. High quality video streaming allowed people to listen, the BackChat allowed people to interact and the wiki to annotate. Unfortunately the lack of in-room connectivity led to less wiki collaboration and public blog posting right at the time when it usually engenders wider participation.
But the real dynamic took hold on the second day, wifi enabled, where it became part of the program. The Remote Posse and the people Blogging Always On really had an impact. The BackChat was particularly vibrant, with in-room and remote participants (from as far away as Tokyo and the Netherlands) exchanging commentary. A big font version of the chat program was projected on to the big screen, the feedback loop was complete:
- BackChat participants kept the discussion relatively high brow. They fact checked, posed questions, had side discussions that were pertainent and in general participate without denegrating into vulgarities or
- Moderators fielded questions from the chat, particularly with the open source panel
- Panel members interjected requests to respond to things on the chat and in general were kept in check from being to commercial, not revealing bias or ducking questions.
- One member of a panel noticed that people were paying more attention to the BackChat screen than the panel itself.
The golden moment was at the end of the show, when I had them project JoiTV. We caught Joi in his underwear and the heckler became the hecklee. Joi waved, we all waved back. Some folks told me that was when something clicked with them about how large the room really was. And many of the remote posse enjoyed a richer participation experience than they have had before.
You have to hand it to Tony for having the vision to run with an untested mix of video with our conference system. You also have to hand it to him for having the grace to extend blogging passes. I hope he has set a precedent for other events.
A bit on some of the folks there. Chris took great photos. Scott posted beyond the limits of connectivity. Jason had his camera phone (took a nice snapshot of me, Pete & Adina). Ev wore a blogger shirt. Dave left shortly to do other things. Adina kept it real. Esther is community. Ramana gets information flow. Richard gets biology. Zack was fully on. Edward is still settling in. Keith is into real-time people. Eric, Larry & Sergey still don't have a blog but that's okay. Dan is our hero.
Chat with Google Founders (photo by Chris Gulker)
And remote posse awards go to Greg, Ed, Kevin & Joi.
[Ross Mayfield: On Blogging]2:32:59 AM
comment [] trackback [] BGH erlaubt "Deep Linking" (heise) [STOP1984]
2:30:22 AM
comment [] trackback [] /opendir poetry. Simple and sweet, a sort of minimalist web/joke/poem/object. No Flash required, no high bandwidth required. (via Geisha) Link, Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
2:16:33 AM
comment [] trackback [] Web Zen: Cartoon Zen. etch-a-sketch | flea toon | walmart | unh! project | drawn and quarterly | kevin cornell | edward gorey
web zen home, web zen store, Discuss (Thanks, Frank) [Boing Boing Blog]
2:13:19 AM
comment [] trackback [] Proximity und Kommunikationstools. Howard, thanks for that link. I was even able to figure out where to find the RSS -feed of his Livejournal blog. Paul Resn... [thomas n. burg | randgänge]
1:24:49 AM
comment [] trackback [] Meet Bink. Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and consultant Steven Bink runs a site that provides the latest on Microsoft service packs, betas and other related matters. Here's an article about him and his site. [Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley]
1:22:19 AM
comment [] trackback [] Rafat Ali on nanopublishing in an interview of him in Wired News: "The great thing about doing everything so lean is that you are very flexible and fast, so you can mold your site to whatever trends are emerging." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
1:15:55 AM
comment [] trackback [] Harvard now owns RSS. "The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is the new keeper of the specification for a popular Web log tool. The Berkman Center took over ownership of the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 2.0 specification this week after UserLand, a company owned by RSS 2.0 author David Winer, transferred the copyright to the center," reports CNet. Earlier this year, Berkman gave Winer a fellowship to help them get blogging.
[onlineblog.com]
1:08:24 AM
comment [] trackback [] Spam: The EU says "opt-in" only. From the Educause daily email letter:
"Describing spam as a global problem that will require global cooperation to address, the European Commission is calling on the United States to support strict measures to combat the growing tide of unsolicited e-mail. A tough anti-spam law goes into effect this fall in the European Union (EU), and the Commission this week introduced what it called the "second step" in the battle against spam. The EU estimates that one-third of all spam originates in the United States, meaning that cooperation with officials in the United States will be a necessary component to an EU anti-spam strategy. Unlike the opt-out approach apparently favored by the United States, however, European Commissioners are pushing for an opt-in strategy. Philippe Gerard, an official in the office of one European Commissioner, said the EU's pursuit of an opt-in approach would be hampered by an opt-out system in the United States. Gerard said U.S. officials tend to see only malicious or deceptive spam as damaging, whereas EU officials consider any unsolicited message a drain on resources." IDG, 15 July 2003
I think I concur; unless presented with a better contrarian argument. And the sooner. the better! [Harvey Kirkpatrick: itopik.com News]
1:02:36 AM comment [] trackback []
Blinkenlights @ Chaos Communication Camp 2003. cavac writes "From 07.-10. August, we from the Chaos Computer Club have another Chaos Communication Camp. Please be sure to visit us at the BlinkenArea, a ... [Slashdot]
12:35:16 AM comment [] trackback []
Instant Messaging Giveaway. An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft is planning on giving away $1000/hr randomly to users of the new MSN messenger. They are going to send instant messages ... [Slashdot]
12:31:07 AM comment [] trackback []
iTunes AAC Encoding/Submission Service. Is iTunes now open to indies? [MacRumors]
12:28:16 AM comment [] trackback []
Defend Your Castle. Defend your castle! Just in time for flash friday...Watch out, it's addictive :) [MetaFilter]
12:14:43 AM comment [] trackback []
filter (n.) - c.1400, from M.L. filtrum. The Online Etymology Dictionary. I'll be spending most of my day here. [MetaFilter]
12:13:19 AM comment [] trackback []
Friday, July 18, 2003
As someone who has been working on a new RSS 2.0 spec at SSF-DEV, I'm glad to see it moving to a community development model. There are a lot of implementors and users who are eager to participate, as evidenced by the 39 people who have joined SSF-DEV in the last month. [Workbench]
11:57:27 PM comment [] trackback []
David Galbraith on Technorati's new feature: "Over the longer term, this is perhaps as ground breaking as what weblogs have done for web publishing and ultimately will leverage the weblog model to its full potential..." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
11:49:25 PM comment [] trackback []
The Art of Not Getting It. One of the things that I like about the Dean campaign is the way that they get the Net. They... [Backup Brain]
12:08:00 PM comment [] trackback []
Information Wants to be Almost Free.... From Chuck Taggart I learn about "eMusic, an online MP3 subscription service that, in some ways, beats the living crap out of Apple's iTunes Music Store. Not that I don't love iTunes -- in fact, I spent about $45 in there over the last few weeks, and there'll probably always be stuff I want in there. But the kinds of music I'm really interested in -- lots of roots, folk, trad, blues and indie rock/pop -- are much more prevalent at eMusic than in iTunes." I'm on it... [Follow Me Here...]
12:06:08 PM comment [] trackback []
Dear Mr. President:. The White House has a new system for email from the public. Dashing off a rant, a rave or a question to president@whitehouse.gov won't cut it anymore. Now it takes a maze of forms and clicks and filters. The first question: is this a supportive message or a differing opinion? Then you have to pick your topic from various menu lists. And list a name and address and email. And reply to an automated message making sure it's really your email.
White House tech guy tells the NYTimes: "When it comes to a Web site, it's a bit like a movie. Some will say it's a tour de force; some will say it fell flat."
Fun Fact: all emails are saved and must be publicly disclosed in 12 years. [MetaFilter]
10:57:52 AM comment [] trackback []
CNN on RSS and news aggregators. Christine Boese writes an overview of news aggregators as a new way to read weblogs and news sites.
"Less wasted time and more efficient surfing might appeal to folks dealing with harassing pop-up windows and masses of spam. It helps to balance the signal-to-noise ratio back in our favor." [ranchero.com]
10:57:10 AM comment [] trackback []
Homeland Security Irony. I'm not the only person to notice the obvious irony of these two news articles: Microsoft chosen as exclusive Homeland Security contractor Microsoft admits critical flaw in nearly all Windows software It's astonishing how few people remember that just a... [CamWorld: Thinking Outside the Box]
1:48:20 AM comment [] trackback []
Echo vs. RSS. Ron Burt on Echo: Bandwidth and Echo: Trust, Information and Gossip in Social Networks ("pdf", 144 KB). »Pretty much explains what's driving the RSS-vs-Echo wars, imo. No wonder they want to rename their format« "smile" [Der Schockwellenreiter]
1:34:20 AM comment [] trackback []
Google viewless.
The interface has an interesting CD player like styling to it. But in IE6 I got a script error that prevented it from doing anything more than look interesting. Bummer. [Curiouser and curiouser!]Deploying Google Viewer. Greg reports that some of his search results contain a "View results as slide show" link, presumably using Google viewer. Have you seen this?... [Google Weblog]
1:24:26 AM
comment [] trackback [] Thursday, July 17, 20032:55:14 AM
comment [] trackback [] Jon Udell: Publishing, permanence, and transparency. Jon Udell: Publishing, permanence, and transparency:
First, as with email, we're going to have to accept that what goes to the Web tends to stay there. Second, since we are all going to make mistakes, say things we wish we hadn't, and suffer the effects of software glitches, we're all going to have to learn to cut one another a lot more slack.Amen. Be liberal in what you accept, conservative in what you produce. (In other words, that's a geeky way of saying grin & bear it, but say nice things. Not always easy.) [0xDECAFBAD]
2:22:25 AM
comment [] trackback [] Tribute to George Orwell [ via STOP1984]
2:12:15 AM
comment [] trackback [] Netomat: Group-editable multi-media canvas tool thingie. Clay Shirky says:
Maciej Wisniewski, creator of the original netomat art piece has now launched netomat.net, which gives you a desktop tool for creating multi-media canvasses that can be emailed to other users or posted to a web page, and the recipients continue to edit them. Part tool, part platform, it defies easy description -- the Writeable Drawable Voice-Annotatable Web, Hydra re-invented as a collage tool, what wikis would be like if they'd been designed by Alan Kay. As usual with odd new tools, their own home page sucks for communicating the possible uses -- netomat only starts to make sense when you make something and give it to someone else to change.Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
2:10:35 AM
comment [] trackback [] Two Fun Links.
- MatrixXP (Requires Quicktime) [via Adam Curry's Weblog]
- N.A.I.L.S. (Requires Flash 6) - the guy performed different actions the two times I visited today [via Andy B.]
2:07:41 AM
comment [] trackback [] Blogging the Blogathon.
Blogathon 2003
'During the Blogathon, people update their websites every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. For this, they collect sponsorships. Pledges can be a flat donation, or a certain amount for every hour the blogger manages to stay awake.' Even if you just want to enjoy the spectacle, mark your calendar for July 26th. Everything starts at 6:00am Pacific Time.Also noteworthy is the fact that several of the participating bloggers are earning money for Book Aid International, which works to provide books, training and support to public libraries in Africa." [Libraryman]
A few people have asked if I am going to participate in this year's Blogathon, but I won't be able to because I'll be on vacation far, far away from any internet connection. I encourage others to join, though. We need a list of library bloggers we can sponsor, so leave a comment if you know of any.
[The Shifted Librarian]2:05:14 AM
comment [] trackback [] Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo, says that the architecture of blogs conforms to the way we organize things and that email clients will follow blogs' lead: "Imagine keeping e-mail a bit more like a blog. Then suddenly, you've got instant messaging qualities and e-mail qualities happening at the same time." [Corante: Corante on Blogging]
1:21:48 AM
comment [] trackback [] Who's who among digerati?. General Thinking "began in early 2001 as a collaboration between Remo Giuffré, Geoffrey Gifford, along with a shared intuitive desire to gather together a global Network of Thinkers who shared certain Beliefs." Their "roster" includes Erik "MetaDesign" Spiekermann and a variety of interesting folks. Friendster for the digerati? Always interesting to read what the elite think of their peers... [MetaFilter]
1:15:31 AM
comment [] trackback [] 
Drainspotting is a website with pictures of manhole covers, drains, grates and trench covers. I actually find it quite interesting. Mhm - this surely must have been blogged before somewhere? Anyway, just found the link at linkfilter. [The Cartoonist] 1:11:40 AM
comment [] trackback [] Cartoons. Advertising. OS X. Raumpatrouille. [Scripting News]
12:48:04 AM
comment [] trackback [] 126 and counting. Welcome to my readers from Macau. You are from the 126th nation or territory this website reached in 2003 so... (30 words, 2 comment(s).) [hebig.org/blog]
12:00:44 AM
comment [] trackback [] How the President got spammed. Okay, let me recap, I want to be sure I haven't missed anything:
- Some Nigerian weirdo invents something about Nigerian selling Uranium to Iraq (must be in the same group of those sending you spam asking if they can move $4M to your bank account)
- then he sells the news to the Italian secret service
- they think appropriate to report to the British secret services
- who will then pass the news to the CIA
- who will send it over at the White House
- just in time to get it included in the President's address to the nation.
And somebody is accusing bloggers of not checking facts before posting? [Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]
12:00:01 AM comment [] trackback []
Wednesday, July 16, 200311:53:42 PM
comment [] trackback [] Semantic Studios: International Information Architecture. The ways we categorize are rooted in language and culture. This creates unique challenges for information architects. For example, a web site targeted for a Japanese audience may require a completely different structure and organization than its German equivalent. Localization isn't limited to translation. [Tomalak's Realm]
11:49:03 PM
comment [] trackback [] Freenet 0.5.2 Released. FurbyXL writes "With the RIAA roaring to grab peer-to-peer users by their IP addresses, Freenet - fully anonymized production and consumption of content - is ... [Slashdot]
11:44:05 PM
comment [] trackback [] A Wordplay Blog. Here's a group blog with a twist.
Form a sentence from the acronym of the last word found on the latest post. Quirky, funny, nasty, silly, serious, whatever your post may be, the words are yours. Every correct entry gives you 1 point(via Side Salad) Permalink Created Wed, 16 Jul 2003 [The J-Walk Blog]
11:12:22 PM
comment [] trackback [] Bulwer-Lytton contest results. The annual Bulwer-Lytton contest recognizes and awards the very worst opening sentences found in novels. The 2003 results are in (2002 results, 2001 results) and the winning entry begins "They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese..." [via girlhacker] [MetaFilter]
7:33:52 PM
comment [] trackback [] Information foraging and weblogs as snack-bars.
Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster by Jakob Nielsen
A bit of definition:
Information foraging is the most important concept to emerge from Human-Computer Interaction research since 1993. Developed at the Palo Alto Research Center (previously Xerox PARC) by Stuart Card, Peter Pirolli, and colleagues, information foraging uses the analogy of wild animals gathering food to analyze how humans collect information online.
[Read the middle yourself] and then:
The patch-leaving model thus predicts that visits will become ever shorter. Google and always-on connections have changed the most fruitful design strategy to one with three components:Next to the fact that it's a useful theory for my work, it also calls for some parallels with blogging:
- Support short visits; be a snack
- Encourage users to return; use mechanisms such as newsletters as a reminder
- Emphasize search engine visibility and other ways of increasing frequent visits by addressing users' immediate needs
- Weblogs are rather snack-bars then restaurants: you can come often, find something to eat and leave fast. They are even better: snacks are changing (there is always something new), but the cook is the same, so you can easily get a feeling of cooking style and quality.
- Weblogs use RSS feeds to notify you when something tasty is served (and you can even try it without going there).
- Google loves blogs and brings readers directly to snack they want.
From this perspective the only problem with blog-snack-bar is that once you are there you can hardly find anything beyond the front raw of snacks :)
I also wonder when Jakob Nielsen will write a bit more about weblogs (because there are only 4 pages with this word now and because his Alertbox was a role-model for me when I started my weblog).
[Mathemagenic]7:28:40 PM
comment [] trackback [] Roundup list of websites that shorten urls for you. Spotted on Jason DeFillippo's (there! I spelled it correctly!) blog, via Feedster: a list of websites that shorten web urls. Includes a tool-by-tool feature set chart so you can compare how the url-shorteners stack up.
Link, Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
7:25:25 PM comment [] trackback []
Cultural Assumptions in the Wiki World. The grandfather of all wikis on the terms of intercultural conversation. [Blogalization Community]
7:24:13 PM comment [] trackback []
Publishing, permanence, and transparency.
|
A palimpsest is a manuscript on which an earlier text has been effaced and the vellum or parchment reused for another.
|
Now that people have set up a system to record everything on Scripting that I post within five minute intervals, I don't think I'll be writing any more of that stuff here. I guess it's time for weblogs to become like television. Polished and politically correct. Impersonal. Commercial. [Scripting News]I understand and sympathize, but I think a bigger story is unfolding around us. Last year, I wrote an item entitled Walking the fault lines about my experiences with SOAP and WSDL. Scripting News picked up on it. (This was the same posting that began my serendipitous association with an Indian programmer named Nishant S. [1, 2].) Later that day, using the Meerkat aggregator, I noticed there were two versions of Dave's commentary, and I wrote: ... [Jon's Radio]
7:10:57 PM
comment [] trackback [] Marc of rotten.com running AIDS marathon -- donate!. Mark Powell from rotten really isn't all that rotten:
Link to online donation page, or email [marc at rotten dot com] to arrange an offline donation. Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]In June I began training for the Honolulu Marathon with the AIDS Marathon training program. The marathon takes place on December 14, 2003. The training program raises money for HIV services through sponsorships of volunteer runners like myself.
From June until December, I'll be logging nearly 500 miles in this six-month training program put on by the National AIDS Marathon. I train during the week, and have a 'big run' every Saturday at the crack of dawn in Golden Gate Park. This past weekend, I ran 8 miles, the longest I have ever run before in my life. Doing something I am not sure if I can do is a great thrill, almost as compelling as helping to combat the pandemic of HIV on this planet.
In San Francisco, 1 out of every 50 residents lives with HIV/AIDS. 40 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV. One million Americans are infected, and countless other lives are affected by HIV.
I would like to ask your support- I have personally committed to raise at least $3,000 by September 3, 2003. Any contribution you can make would mean a lot to me and to people who benefit from HIV service and prevention programs in the Bay Area. Contributions are tax deductible and can be made through the simple website listed below. By contributing, you will be making a huge difference in the lives of thousands of people you have never met, and you will help me to reach my goal of completing a marathon in the service of our fellow man.
7:00:31 PM
comment [] trackback [] Between bloggers and their employers (2).
From notes of the Voxpolitics event on blogs and politics (I have no idea what it was, you can start digging in from here) [via Cindy Lemcke-Hoong], about Stephen Pollard, "first major journalist in the country to be running a weblog":
And he's not writing for free - people respond to his comments and inspire him to write pieces for which he gets paid.
This simple phrase gets the value of blogging for free - it inspires you to come up with other pieces (with more insight/analysis/depth/structure) to get paid for.
For me it would also draw a border for copyrights: I'd like to "own" my blog (to give it away under Creative Commons) even if it is related to my work, while my company owns more elaborate products (e.g. papers) that can be inspired by it (of course when a company pays me to work on these products :).
In fact I don't like to get paid to blog, because I want the freedom of doing it and I want to own the content. I'm also addicted to blogging enough to think that I would not be happy if I couldn't do it. And I have scary phrases in my contract to worry about these issues :(
[Related: What Does European Law Say About Blog Ownership? (thanks to Martin Roell), Between bloggers and their employers, Bloggers Gain Libel Protection, BlogTalk: who owns narrated experiences?]
[Mathemagenic]6:43:40 PM
comment [] trackback [] New campaign finance market mechanics.
The Dean Campaign's BlogForAmerica points this morning (without providing a link) to Carol C. Darr's USA Today editorial, Internet Donors Can Clean Up National Campaign Financing. She nails i