JBlogEditor just added a built-in Flickr uploader (uploadr?) so I thought I’d give it a try. Pretty nice. Go Eclipse RCP.
Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
My new slogan. It said so.
I had too much caffeine too late in the evening today and so I find myself at 3am converging my blog, Flickr photos, and Furl bookmarks into one uber newsfeed. Try it out. I’ve also got rotating headlines from this feed on my personal page now.
I’m glad to have these three foci of my web generative activity in one feed. What I still need is a way to provide this feed to people who don’t want to deal with anything other than e-mail. I’m surprised there isn’t any service out there that sends a daily e-mail snapshot of a feed (or feeds). If there was, FeedBurner could provide it as one of their click-through subscription mechanisms. Such a service would likely not last long as newsfeeds become a greater part of the net software ecosystem.
Incidentally, last night at the 2604 houseparty I had a great conversation with a guy named Nick who’s starting his doctoral program in the Berkeley sociology dept. He says sociologists aren’t paying attention to the internet. Amazing. He was really excited by the “what did you call it?” “social bookmarking.” I am too. Now if it was just easy enough for my mom to use.
Update: I just noticed that the animated headline box doesn’t splice in the Flickr and Furl items as I expected. I’ve reported this to Feedburner; I hope they fix it.
That’s the power of P2P content distribution networks.
Ask it for turadg and jello
UPDATE: How to get exactly two results. This posting got googled.
When Friendster came out it was clearly only the tip of an iceberg of social software. It was also clear that Friendster could be no more because it wasn’t scalable. And people have learned not to become dependent on monopolies. I looked for an open-standards distributed alternative and found FOAF. It’s a framework, not an application. The only people to find in the network where zealots like myself. I dreamed of making something as easy to use as Friendster but using FOAF and other open technologies.
After a while of filling my head with FOAF and thinking about what to do with it, I realized that I wasn’t in the position to make something big. I could make some neat application of the network, but I couldn’t make the growth. Then TypePad showed up and it used FOAF to code the connections between members. Even the Dean campaign website used FOAF.
While I was on the FOAF development mailing lists, I learned of a project called PLINK (People Link) that did a lot of what I was planning on. I figured I’d wait and see how that went. Well, it’s here now and it’s pretty promising. You can browse a person and the FOAF files that were culled.
Of course, even with this growth it’s still far from the radar of Joe Netuser. Friendster’s still growing and Orkut is gaining a lot of attention.
What’s the use of all this? I’m not sure yet. But somehow, though perhaps perversely, it is fun. If you want to play, add me to your FOAF.
I had these links all sitting in a folder called ToShare. Why? Why do I care to share? I suspect I have a preternatural inclination to disseminate memes. When I read I think, “who else should read this?” Usually the answer I feel is “everybody” but then I refine my query, “who can I share this with who would want to receive it?”
That’s a tough question. I don’t know everyone’s wants. I don’t even know everyone. I have friends; I know what they like. I know what they’re receptive to. I send them articles and such that I know they would appreciate receiving. I am warmed by making the world more informed and fulfilled.
I started this blog, in part, to be able to share with people who I don’t know or who I don’t know well enough to be sure they’ll be glad to receive what I’m sharing. The tough part is, there’s no feedback. When I share with someone verbally, I get to see their eyes glaze over.
I think a key component of the practice of sharing is feedback. You remember Show and Tell. Sometimes everyone gaped slack-jawed at your new Transformer, and other times your peers were more engrossed by the cavities of their noses.
Why doesn’t MovableType have a little 1-5 ranking button? Make it unbearably easy for someone to give you feedback. Then you can see what your audience is into. What size it is. Whether you have one.
Do I have one? If not, I at least take solice that the links below will increase the Google pagerank of these worthwhile memes.
Read the rest of this entry »
THE SEARCH TERM CALLED YOU
“I knew that when people Googled me, what came up was a lot of
random stuff, and I wanted to control what was found about me.
And O.K., I also loved to see how manytimes I got Googled in a
week.”
Entrepreneur Mark Pincus, on buying his name as an ad on
Google, The New York Times, 22 January 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/22/technology/circuits/22sear.html
For better or worse, I’m perfectly unique.
Looking at Amazon reviews for StarOffice 7, I came across this one:
Save your money October 29, 2003
If you need a Office Suite that will increase your productivity and help you then you need Microsoft Office 2003. Star Office is slow, buggy and the user interface leaves a lot to be desired.
You will be much happier using MS Office 2003, the Office suite is the best on the market and I have used them all.
Then I clicked to see what other reviews this guy wrote. He’s a gushing Microsoft fanboy.
I can understand reluctant concetion to Microsoft’s accomplish, but not passionate praise. Weird.