rebecca's pocket
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Internet
How to successfully seed a new wiki
» William Hertling—who has created 2 successful wikis inside organizations that weren't necessarily interested in having wikis—reflects on what it takes to get people to rely on (and contribute to) a new wiki.
When I launched my first wiki, I thought...I would put a few documents in the wiki, and presto - everyone would start using it. Of course, that wasn't enough. Odds are that people in the community of users that you want to attract are already sharing information - even if they're doing it in a disfunctional way. So it's not enough to put a few tidbits in there. You've got to make it compelling.
I disagree with Will's conclusion about Britannica, by the way, because I think it misses the point. Britannica is interested in selling information, not giving it away. My idea (and I've shared this with them) is that they should offer yearly (or even monthly) subscriptions to Britannica online, and they should focus on selling these subscriptions to their customary audiences: schools, libraries, and parents.
The price point for the individual subscriptions should be slightly below the cost of a basic cable television package—and that's the way they should advertise it. This would not only enable them to sell many more units to individuals than they ever have before (encyclopedias on paper are notoriously expensive), it would gain Britannica mindshare with the next generation, who would learn to associate "reliable information" with their brand. [ 09/13/07 ]
Deep Web resources for academics and librarians
» For those of you who are looking for a better means of searching the academic deep Web, try OAIster (pronounced "oyster").
We gather all potential digital resources out there in an effort to build a comprehensive digital union catalog.
Eliminate dead ends. Users retrieve not only descriptions (metadata) about resources, they have access to the real digital resources. For instance, instead of just the catalog records of a slide collection of Van Gogh's works, users are able to view images of the actual works.
Heather Morrison has posted a lengthy list of other open access sources for librarians. (via irw) [ 09/12/07 ]
The truth about the Web
» Oh, brilliant. It's funny because it's true.... [ 09/10/07 ]
OK Go has a Flickr feed!
» Hey! Did you know that OK Go has a Flickr feed? / (1) Comments / [ 07/25/07 ]
Who is IM Street, and why is it in my AIM Buddy List?
» Oh goodie! As of this morning, I have a new instant messaging buddy: IM Street. AOL please give me a way to opt out of your advertising deals. / (5) Comments / [ 07/23/07 ]
Combatting infomation overload with online sabbaticals
» Tuning out technology: Pressures of the wired world drive some to cut back on e-mail and electronic gadgets.
For Leda Dederich, there came a point about a year ago when she realized her life was overly shaped by technology. The manager of an Oakland-based online consulting firm for nonprofit groups, Dederich was a leader in her field, but she started feeling that high-tech culture was dramatically out of balance -- "like a combination of a hamster wheel and an echo chamber."
I love my computer, but the last two weeks of checking email once or twice a day and spending the rest of my time offline have been truly lovely. Highly recommended. (via 43f) [ 07/19/07 ]
People and their gaming avatars
» NYT Magazine Photo Essay: Absolutely fascinating: People and their gaming avatars. There's no pattern here at all, that I can discern. It's obvious why some people have chosen their avatars; others.... (thanks, jjg!) [ 06/19/07 ]
Geekiest Earrings Ever, and an Awesome Riddle
» Geekiest Earrings Ever. (via amorphism, who also has an awesome riddle for you to solve) [ 06/15/07 ]
Who are Prof Gilzot, Spleak, and Sharethisdotcom and why are they in my AIM buddy list?
» Two days ago, I opened my chat client and discovered some new buddies: Prof Gilzot, Spleak, Sharethisdotcom, and WSJ. A little investigation showed that they had been inserted into numerous buddy lists—though not my husband's, for some reason.
I'm just assuming that AIM has devised a great new revenue scheme that involves putting selected chatbots into users buddy lists. It's intrusive, and ill-conceived—I believe will put people off to discover that AOL is willing to insert strange new "buddies" into contact lists that users consider to be both "private" and "theirs".
But whatever. I deleted the strangers from my list and thought no more about it. Imagine my surprise to discover Prof Gilzot, Spleak, and Sharethisdotcom in my buddy list again this morning! To insert them once was annoying (and thus, from a business point of view, stupid). To re-insert them after I deleted them is unforgivable.
I wonder if I should switch to another chat service? / (14) Comments / [ 06/14/07 ]
Overheard
» Electronic eavesdropping:
- Overheard on XBox live this weekend: "Sean, get out of the glitch and start fighting."
- Search term leading to Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget: "trying to live on 1 income with a money waster"
[ 06/12/07 ]
The Music Industry Doesn't Seem to be Able to Sell CDs Anymore
» New Media I: Plunge in CD Sales Shakes Up Big Labels details the record industry's decline and is notable for two things:
- Paul McCartney is releasing his next CD on the Starbucks Label, and released the first video for the album on YouTube. Sir Paul's explanation: "It's a new world."
- This piece: "[Music executives] ... add that the labels squandered years on failed attempts to restrict digital music instead of converting more fans into paying consumers. "They were so slow to react, and let things get totally out of hand," said Russ Crupnick, a senior entertainment industry analyst at NPD, the research company. "They just missed the boat."
I (and many others) have been making that exact point for the last 8 years. Add to their shortsightedness, the music industry's well-earned reputation for completely reaming anyone (particularly artists) who doesn't have the clout to withstand them. As I said to my husband the other night, it's hard to have sympathy for anyone who's both stupid and evil. [ 06/04/07 ]
How to be a more effective researcher
» Q: Question: How do I start researching? Answer: Treat research as a lifestyle not an assignment. A great approach from what appears to be an academic librarian, including a new (to me) term: The Invisible College. [Wikipedia article] Bloggers will immediately see themselves in this role, so it's worth pointing out that anyone who limits themselves to blogs will miss many other communities of interest, online and off. / (1) Comments / [ 06/01/07 ]
119 Sources for Searching the Deep Web
» Online Education Database: Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources. (via wl) [ 05/09/07 ]
Magicbike: WiFi Bicycle
» Neat. Magicbike is a bicycle modified to provide wireless Internet access wherever it is parked or ridden.
A Magicbike hotspot operates like standard hotspots, able to serve up to 250 users in a radius of 30 meters indoors and 100 meters outdoors.... A group of bikes can repeat and/or bridge the signal down a chain of wireless bikes. Meaning, a bicycle gang can snake into subways stations or across hilltops to provide Internet connectivity to (fringe but) vital communities and spaces ignored by the traditional telecommunications industry. A grassroots bottom-up wireless infrastructure can be formed and pedaled to any place accessible by bicycle. (emphasis mine)
Think that's cool? Check out this proposed wifi rickshaw from 2003. (Thanks, Rory!) / (1) Comments / [ 05/02/07 ]
10 Steps into the Spanish-Speaking Blogosphere
» 10 Steps into the Spanish-Speaking Blogosphere. [ 05/02/07 ]
Online Reputation Monitoring
» Here's a primer for businesses and organizations that want to take a more active role in tracking their reputation on the Internet: Online Reputation Monitoring Beginners Guide. (via sew) [ 04/25/07 ]
Negative Intelligence
» Jorn (feeling that "weblog" is the least interesting of the bunch) has posted a list of terms he has coined over the years. I love his concept of negative intelligence—the internet phenomenon where bad ideas drive out good—a concept he proposed in 1996.
[W]hat I notice on netnews is that negative intelligence rules almost everywhere-- newsgroups are great sucking black-holes of negative intelligence, where the greatest bigots have the loudest voices, and the greatest say...
The way people get smarter, generally, is by looking at multiple points of view, and letting these pov's 'debate among themselves' in the most even-handed manner possible. But in newsgroups, people who try to lay things out evenhandedly get massively squelched....
You may wish to substitute the term "political blogs" for "netnews" as you are reading this. / (1) Comments / [ 04/25/07 ]
William Hertling's Blog Posting Strategies
» William Hertling has come up with a terrific list of strategies for those who find that they have trouble finding the time to blog. Highly recommended. / (1) Comments / [ 04/12/07 ]
Airfare deals on the Web
» NYT: Damon Darlin has pulled together a nice summary of a few next-generation airline fare-comparison sites, including one site that is built on the idea that human beings—in this case, a staff of 5—are better at spotting the best deals than computers can be. [ 04/10/07 ]
Young people are giving up social networking sites for Lent
» Gimme that old-time religion: Students give up social networks for Lent. Why not? I do think it's a cheat, though, to substitute one site for another. "Some of my friends think it's silly, since people usually give up food. I wanted to give up something that's really hard for me." Emily Montgomery, 16, who has given up logging onto MySpace for Lent. / (6) Comments / [ 03/29/07 ]
Will our present-day be too ephemeral to be found again?
» History 1980-2000 has disappeared into the ether. Sorry.
I have recently spent many hours in the National Archives, ferreting through the wartime records of MI5. The sheer richness of written material is overwhelming: letters, memos, telephone transcripts, diaries, scribbled notes in the margins. You can smell the pipe smoke and personalities wafting off the pages.
When MI5’s current files are released decades hence, historians will have a far drier time of it. Electronic messages not deemed to be of “archival” value are routinely deleted by civil servants...
(via dm) [ 03/26/07 ]
Hillary 1984
» A Hillary Clinton/1984 Apple Super Bowl ad mashup is on YouTube—but no one knows where it came from. ["Hillary 1984" represents] "a new era, a new wave of politics ... because it's not about Obama. It's about the end of the broadcast era." Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute. / (2) Comments / [ 03/19/07 ]
The Several Habits of Wildly Successful Twitter Users
» The Several Habits of Wildly Successful Twitter Users. The only useful application of this service I've ever heard of is using it to discern who was at which bar at SXSW. / (3) Comments / [ 03/16/07 ]
The Future of Twitter
» Dave Winer: The Future of Twitter. This is Dave at his best: smart, generous, and insightful. Project management! / (2) Comments / [ 03/16/07 ]
Cake Tourism
» Fabulous. Cake Tourism: Eating cake around the globe. I strongly recommend they try the Dutch Apple Pie. (And who says there aren't any new ideas for blogs anymore? ) (via jh) [ 03/15/07 ]
Bloggers on Blogging: Trine-Maria Kristensen
» My latest Bloggers on Blogging interview is with Trine-Maria Kristensen, a Danish blogger and co-founder (with Reboot's Thomas Madsen-Mygdal) of Social Square. We talk about the importance of blogging for businesses, the impact blogging will have on journalism, and the moment when she "got" weblogs.
People from all over the world, forming an open network right there in front of me, speaking to me—even listening to me if I had something intelligent to say. Wow!
[ 02/22/07 ]
How professional writers and political hacks changed blogging for the worse
» In light of the recent resignation of the Edwards bloggers, Garret Vreeland offers a thoughtful perspective on the culture of blogging—both what it was and what has changed as partisans (for whom making a point matters more than being fair) and professional writers (for whom editing is writing) enter the stage. A good read, highly recommended.
A side comment: What are politicians to do? Thoughtful, evenhanded analysis simply doesn't drive traffic as effectively as outrageously stated opinions. It's unlikely that political campaigns will even be able to identify the bloggers who can provide them with good thinking, good writing, and comparatively inoffensive archives, since their more strident brethren will be the ones at the top of everyone's blogrolls.
Some of these standards will inevitably change. Too many people are living online now, and that means a paper trail. No one is always at their best. At the same time, I hope it will start to dawn on some of the newcomers that they are publishing, and lead them to moderate accordingly.
A second comment: Hiring these particular bloggers was the equivalent of hiring Molly Ivins to write for your campaign—except without her years of experience, and without the filter of the editors who taught her how to moderate even brash opinions to appeal to the broadest possible audience. You might have loved Molly Ivin's writing, but she was at her best speaking truth to power, not speaking on behalf of the powerful. / (3) Comments / [ 02/19/07 ]
Reaping what the political blogosphere has sown
» Wow, does Reid get this right.
It's your right to express your political opinions in the harshest manner you can muster, dump ad hominem all over your opponents, and cuss at will. It's your blog, and your right to try and make a difference with how ever many read it in whatever way you please.
This is the price. When you can really make a difference, it will come back to bite you....
Update: Rafe weighs in: Your permanent record. / (2) Comments / [ 02/14/07 ]
Yahoo abuses customer trust
» More on corporate abuses of trust: Reevaluating our relationship.
While I was certainly glad to give you all the benefit of the doubt on the whole Flickr account merge issue, it didn’t help when you betrayed that trust by trying to trick me into a premium email service by withholding information at the precise moment I would need it in order to make an informed choice. You were this close to having a customer who was solidly baffled by the group of folks who question their ability to trust Yahoo with their Flickr accounts; instead, you managed to make me question whether it’s reasonable to trust you as a company.
How hard—seriously—is it to look at your corporation's actions from the customer's point of view? / (6) Comments / [ 02/09/07 ]
John Foraker Swings, Misses
» I often speak to business audiences to help them understand the value of interacting with blogs and other online media. So I was happy to see John Foraker, CEO of Annie’s Homegrown, dive right into the fray in response to a recent Salon article which attacked one of his products.
And then I read what he wrote.
It's not that the letter he reposts in Megnut's comments is so filled with marketese. Sometimes old dogs can learn just one new trick at a time. It's that he appears to think blog readers are stupid:
On our product boxes we recommend using lowfat milk for the healthiest product that, when prepared, contains fewer calories (280), less total fat (4 g) and less sodium (550 mg) than Kraft, which can contain up to 380 calories, 15 grams of fat and 740 milligrams of sodium per serving.
"Can contain up to?" Eventually, one of Meg's commenters noticed that he had pulled a fast one:
John, let's be fair here. You are comparing Annie's made with low-fat milk to Kraft made with whole milk. The "light prep" on Kraft's is only 290 calories, 5g fat and 600mg sodium.
His response? "Shannon, you make some great points. Thanks." And then he goes on to talk about something else.
Sure, John Foraker's statement is accurate. But it's deliberately misleading, comparing a low-fat version of his product to a full-fat version of his competitor's. Falling back on "recommended preparations" doesn't cut it. His statement is designed to give the impression that, all things being equal, Annie's macaroni and cheese is noteably lower in calories, fat, and sodium than Kraft's.
It would have been so easy to say, "We believe our product is superior because it contains no artificial colors and no synthetic chemicals. We don't like to eat that stuff, and we've built our company on the idea that there are other people who don't want to, either. The high quality of our ingredients also makes our macaroni and cheese taste better, or at least we think so."
And that would have been enough.
I came away the Salon article reminded that "natural" doesn't actually mean very much when it comes to food, but also reminded that—for a convenience food— Annie's Mac and Cheese has a slight edge on Kraft because it contains fewer food additives. I came away from John Foraker's remarks knowing that he's willing to deliberately obfuscate the merits of his and his competitor's products in order to deflect criticism of his company. And he's willing to go out of his way to do that in a supposedly "transparent" form, on a blog.
I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. And a markedly lower opinion of the Annie's brand.
John, whomever is advising you about the blogosphere, it's time to find someone who can do more than point you to the most prominent food bloggers. You need someone who can help you understand the idea of transparency and who can explain to you that on blogs, as in most of life, charm is no substitute for honesty. / (7) Comments / [ 02/06/07 ]
The value of nitpicking
» In The Merits of Nitpicking: A Doctor Diagnoses House, Henry Jenkins explains how popular culture can excite interest in obscure subjects, and muses on the ways that "nitpicking" might be incorporated into the educational system. [ 01/23/07 ]
Leslie Harpold, RIP
» Apparently the terrible rumor is true: Leslie Harpold has passed on. I only met Leslie a couple of times, but I found her to be smart, funny, a great raconteur, and very, very nice. She has been a fixture on the Web from the time I found it, a pioneer of the personal publishing genre. Thanks for everything, Leslie. We will miss you.
Update: Merlin Mann remembers his dear friend.
Another dear friend remembers.
The full story. / (12) Comments / [ 12/12/06 ]
Leslie Harpold's Advent Calendar
» Leslie Harpold's 2006 Advent Calendar is up. Each day contains a link, a holiday memory, and something special. (Leslie is still looking for holiday memories to include—send yours in today.) Still one of the most delightful Web projects in existence. Bookmark it, and check back every day.
Leslie Harpold has passed on. / (2) Comments / [ 12/01/06 ]
Unhelpful Error Messages
» I tried to use a new feature on my HMO website: sending an email to my doctor. I just got a return email directing me to pick up a new email on their website - I suppose they do this for security purposes. So I went to their website, logged in, was directed to click on another link, and this is the message that waited for me:
Sorry. The application failed to start because of an error. Please contact your system administrator. Unable to obtain connection to the database server - environment name:PRODGGM.
Dear MyChart®,
If you are going to give me, the patient, idiotic and unhelpful messages like that, could you please include a link that will allow me to email said system administrator with the news that your product isn't working? Thanks!
Your friend,
Rebecca Blood
Aha! Dan Lyke has discovered another little problem with the software. / (2) Comments / [ 11/30/06 ]
Encyclopedia Britannica hath a blog
» Encyclopedia Britannica has a weblog! (via dm) / (1) Comments / [ 11/29/06 ]
Harold McGee hath a blog
» Hey! Harold McGee, author of the classic On Food and Cooking, has a blog. (via abw) [ 11/16/06 ]
Sizeasy: Online size comparison tool
» Do you find it hard to visualize the sizes of things when shopping online? Sizeasy allows you to input the object's dimensions, and then compare it to everyday objects. (via wl) [ 11/08/06 ]
Virtual Standup Meetings
» Software firm 37Signals on their method for holding daily "standup meetings" with a dispersed online workforce. (Read through the comments for more detail on the kind of information they share in their [IN] and [OUT] communications.) [ 11/02/06 ]
Google posters for libraries
» Interesting. Google has produced a series of posters for use inside libraries outlining effective use of their tools. / (1) Comments / [ 10/27/06 ]
Otavo: purpose-driven social bookmarking
» Otavo is social bookmarking with a purpose. My test quest: Where can I find a pair of black leather or suede granny boots with about a 2-inch heel? Can the Otavo community find me a pair?
But have you noticed that each new social networking site wants you to fill in page after page of personal information to build up your profile and make it easier to connect with others using the service? Who has time? I'd either like someone to create a single repository for that information that could be used to update each of these sites at my request, or I'd like new services to offer the ability to scrape information from another one of my profiles instead of expecting me to fill in these forms time and time again. / (2) Comments / [ 10/26/06 ]
Rafe's Law
» Heh. Rafe's law. "Let's say you've created a new service, like Ning, or a new blog publishing tool, like Mephisto. How do you know if it's a success? Just consider Rafe's Law. If the spammers care about your service, you've made it." [ 10/20/06 ]
How Social Media Works
» Yesterday I posted a link to a former United Airlines employee's outline of the criteria for upgrading customers to First Class. That post got me to thinking about social media, and how it really works.
I posted the link because it was interesting to me, and I thought it would be of interest to some of my readers. My source for the information was rc3.org, one of the very early weblogs. Rafe Colburn, the editor of rc3.org, is a programmer, and he's been posting his views on programming, politics, and American culture since I started reading blogs. I think Rafe is smart, and I enjoy reading his thoughtful views on politics (which I would describe as "left-leaning moderate") as a reality check to many of the more "party line" views I find on other blogs. He frequently posts tidbits like this one. I just ignore his posts on programming.
Here's what Rafe said about that Flyertalk thread:
This post must be worth a million dollars to United Airlines. In one fell swoop, he disabuses airline customers of the notion that being a nuisance at the gate will help you get upgrades, and more importantly, that the handing out of these upgrades is completely arbitrary. Instead he confirms that the best way to get free service from the airline is to be a loyal customer who gives the airline lots of cash. The airlines make all their money on loyal customers who give them lots of cash, so this is the best kind of publicity they can get.
No marketing information on all of the airline web sites in the world could convince me of the value of attaining an elite status and then sticking with that airline as well as this one forum posting has. Such is the power of the Internet, where one authentic voice can outdo all of the marketing dollars a company can spend.
For those who are interested in figuring out how social media can help them affect their service or product, that point by itself is worth pondering.
But, I'd like to point something else out. When I saw that post, I instantly posted the link to my own blog. Based on my Technorati rank, I have a larger audience than most bloggers do, but it is still very small compared to the most popular blogs, and teeny compared to mass media audiences. From tracking my statistics, I can predict that about 500 people will see that post today; about 1500-2000 people will see it over the course of a week; and a miniscule proportion of all of those people will click through to read the forum. Depending on how interested my readers are I would expect that 20-30 people will click through today, and that by Monday morning about 60-80 will have clicked through to read the thread. (I could be way off: approximately 3 people click through any given article I post about torture—go figure.)
I don't know how many readers Rafe has, but I would guess that his readership is roughly the size of mine, though he probably has many more programmers reading his site than I have reading mine. Let's pretend that 150 of the people who read my site also read his. Together, Rafe and I, with our modest audiences, have put that link in front of some 3000 people, and generated about 120 clickthroughs from interested readers.
One or two other bloggers may have picked up the link from Rafe, and one or two may pick it up from me, and their (likely smaller) audiences have also generated a small percentage of click-throughs. Some readers may email it to their friends. Incrementally, the word about this site, and this specific forum, will spread.
Also note that sometime yesterday, Google and Yahoo! and many others indexed my site, and Rafe's site, and from now on I'll receive visits from people who are on the Web searching for information on upgrades. The vast majority of my site traffic is not to my blog—it's to archived posts and essays, and the lists of resources I've put together on various subjects. That traffic comes primarily from search engines. People referred by search engines are (I would judge) highly likely to click through links, because they are actively looking for information on a specific topic.
This is a long post about a simple blog entry, but I really think the journey from the Flyertalk forum (mavens!) to rc3.org (maven/connector—and a trusted source to his readers), to my site (maven/connector/trusted source) and then into the Google database (connector) vividly demonstrates the way social media spreads information and gets it in front of the people who are likely to be most interested in receiving it. / (3) Comments / [ 10/06/06 ]
VideoJug
» VideoJug aims to become a comprehensive online resource of How-to videos. They are apparently producing their own material, and they are seeking contributions. It's a neat idea, but that name—also "My Jug"? [ 08/25/06 ]
Medieval and Renaissance Food and Miscellany
» Those of you who enjoy Geoffrey Chaucer's delightful blog may also enjoy perusing Cariadoc's Miscellany (especially the "Articles in Persona") and the Medieval and Renaissance Food Homepage. I love, love, love these old-fashioned webpages, and they are a dying breed. Every new site, it seems, is a blog (as if that's the only way to order information) and no one seems willing to put up a plain, unstyled piece of information anymore. / (2) Comments / [ 08/16/06 ]
Wal-Mart/Yahoo! Avatar Fashion Show
» Yahoo and Wal-Mart have teamed up to create an avatar fashion show, designed to promote "Wal-Mart style". [ 08/11/06 ]
Entertainment industry: mix tapes are stealing
» The entertainment industry's new term for making mix tapes for your friends: songlifting. They just don't know when to stop. [ 08/10/06 ]
Bloggers on Blogging: Jason Kottke
» I'm pleased to point you to my most recent interview in the Bloggers on Blogging series: Jason Kottke. We discuss everything from blogging fulltime, to the perils of being married to another blogger, to handling flames.
After more than 10 years of publishing stuff online, I'm more or less fireproof. Which is not to say that when flamed I simply insulate myself with the belief that I'm right and the flamer is wrong (which is a maddenly common approach among bloggers); the key is not to take it personally. Maintaining calm in the face of criticism can be difficult, especially when the best flames contain real truths, and it's helpful to remember that when you read something.
/ (1) Comments / [ 08/08/06 ]
How to tell if a Paypal or Ebay email is real
» A foolproof way to tell if an email from Paypal or Ebay is real. Ask.
Update: Paul Beard has put together an Applescript that will automatically forward a suspect piece of mail to the appropriate company inquiring if it is legitimate. His instructions are "Install the script (copy it into place), select a suspicious piece of mail, and run the script." Macs only, sorry. [ 08/04/06 ]
Mycroft: New Human Microtask Aggregator
» I recently linked to an item about Amazon's Mechanical Turk, a service which pays people a small amount to perform tasks that are easy for them, but hard for computers. Now, meet Mycroft, a company that plans to distribute microtasks across the Web via banner ads. If I were on the Board of Directors, I would instantly improve the payment scheme by allowing people to apply earned credits toward participating charities. I think this would be a strong incentive for some people who otherwise will quickly lose interest in the whole scheme.
Mycroft, by the way, is named after Sherlock Holmes's mysterious older brother, a "sort of human computer". [ 08/04/06 ]
Jack Keler's Wine-making Blog
» Jack Keler's Winemaking Blog has it all, from identifying grapes to weather effects on fermenting wine. And the recipes! Banana Wine, Mesquite Wine, Daylily Wine, Mint Jelly, and Mint Jelly Wine.... There are no permalinks, so scroll down to see what a vasty resource this is. / (1) Comments / [ 08/04/06 ]
Prevent hotlinking without mod_rewrite
» Web Publishers: a recipe for preventing hotlinking without the use of mod_rewrite, courtesy of the fine support staff at my Web host, Pair. Add this bit of code to your .htaccess file:
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://example.com" valid_link=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://www.example.com/" valid_link=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^$" valid_link=1
<FilesMatch "\.(gif|png|jpe?g)$">
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from env=valid_link
</FilesMatch>
Change "example.com" to your own domain. No, I can't troubleshoot it for you. / (4) Comments / [ 07/14/06 ]
What is a blog carnival?
» Have you heard of "blog carnivals"? They are recurring events in which bloggers submit posts on a pre-selected topic, which are collated by a carnival host. And they are on every topic imaginable: homeschooling, microbiology, personal finance, and a million flavors of politics. There's even a carnival of German-American relations. For bloggers, they are a way to promote your blog (or establish leadership in your cluster, if you organize a carnival). For readers, they are a way to read a regular selection of posts on topics that may be of interest to you. Here is a list of blog carnivals for those who want to explore further. / (1) Comments / [ 07/12/06 ]
Protest music, banned by corporate radio and TV, lives on the Internet
» Where is the protest music of today's young singer-songwriters? In MTV's trashcan, on corporate radio's "don't add" lists, and on the Internet. / (1) Comments / [ 07/06/06 ]
Summer Podcasting Lists
» Jon Udell updates the venerable summer reading list by offering his suggestions for a Summer Listening List. He's also created "Summer Listening" tags on del.icio.us and Technorati in the hope that other people will contribute lists of their favorite podcasts. [ 06/28/06 ]
ESV's use of Mechanical Turk to provide Bible metadata
» Producers of the English Standard Version Bible wanted an electronic database that would identify all 5,500 direct quotes in the Bible by speaker. So they uploaded all of the quotes to Amazon's Mechanical Turk, a service that pays volunteers a small amount to perform tasks computers have trouble with—in this case, two cents a quote. The result? A Bible database that is unique in the world, for a cost of about $75. (via rw) [ 06/27/06 ]
Breaking up in a social-networking age
» Jessamyn has a thought-provoking post on social networking and how it amplifies the weirdness that is always associated with breaking up. "I started this relationship before the dawn of most social software and the ubiquitous presence of 'network' in my life, and I’m ending it afterwards. [...] Do I take my ex off my buddy list? Do I remove his blog from my RSS feed reader? Should I stop commenting on his Flickr pictures or block him from commenting on mine? How many passwords do I need to change?" [ 06/27/06 ]
Booksprice whole-cart comparison shopper
» BooksPrice.com is a new online comparison service that allows you to place several books, DVDs and CDs into a cart, and then compare prices between online services on the full order, including shipping. [ 06/22/06 ]
Cork'd - Social Wine Reviewing site
» Also from A Full Belly, Cork'd, a community site for reviewing wines. As someone who is always looking for an inexpensive, great-tasting wine, this looks like a promising resource. [ 06/21/06 ]
Geoffrey Chaucer's Ocks-men, and interview
» Geoffrey Chaucer is planning his new work, a title that will be set around a new group of superheroes, The Ocks-menne.
Noble heroes from al estates of the kyngdom aren broughte togedir by Professir William of Ockham, yclepede PROFESSIR OCKS, who beth confynede to a wheelchayre syn that daye longe agoon when he dide soore wounde hym selfe wyth a deadlie razor of hys owene makynge. He doth seeke oute folke wyth speciale poweres of magicke, who shal kepe reson and justice in the reaume. Thei do fighte ayeinst the evil JOHANNES GOWERE (who hath no powere othere than to produce boredom, the whiche ys dedely enogh).
You'll also enjoy reading this recent piece: Geoffrey Chaucer hath been interviewed.
What has been your worst blogging experience? Johannes Gowere tryinge to messe up my game.
(via jch) / (1) Comments / [ 06/19/06 ]
Do online sales cut musicians out of the profits?
» Well, this is disappointing, if not surprising. Weird Al says he makes less on downloaded songs than on CDs, in spite of the lower overhead required for online sales. (There are, of course, IT costs but these would be borne primarily by the store selling the music, not the recording company.) And the recording industry can't understand why so many people don't mind cutting them out of the profit stream—they've made a career of doing that to musicians. (thanks, Kevin!)
According to widely circulated data from the coverage of The Alman Brothers suit against Sony BMG, you could expect something like $45 of each thousand songs sold to be paid to you in royalties. That's around 4% of the amount paid to Apple for your work, and around 5.7% of what was paid to the label. For The Almans', that works out to $24,000 when taking Nielsen SoundScan data of 538,000 Almans' songs sold as downloads since mid-2002. I don't have SoundScan data on your sales, but I'm sure you do. So the labels and Apple got 96% and you got %4. And as you said, there were no packaging, shipping or storage costs for your album sold though iTunes.
[ 06/19/06 ]
An Interaction Design Summer Reading List
» An Interaction Design Summer Reading List by Dan Saffer, Senior Interaction Designer at Adaptive Path and author of the upcoming Designing For Interaction. No books here, just a list of PDFs. [ 06/09/06 ]
The Rise of Crowdsourcing
» I call it "Participatory Culture". Others have called it The Pro-Am Revolution [pdf] and "Mass Amateurization". I think it marks the end of the Industrial Age, and it's the very thing I've been speaking about this year, on this trip and elsewhere. Meet the Packagers, the Tinkerers, and the Masses: The Rise of Crowdsourcing.
Pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly funded InnoCentive’s launch in 2001 as a way to connect with brainpower outside the company—people who could help develop drugs and speed them to market. [...] The companies...pay "solvers" anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per solution. [...] Jill Panetta, InnoCentive’s chief scientific officer, says more than 30 percent of the problems posted on the site have been cracked, "which is 30 percent more than would have been solved using a traditional, in-house approach."
The solvers are not who you might expect. Many are hobbyists working from their proverbial garage, like the University of Dallas undergrad who came up with a chemical to use in art restoration, or the Cary, North Carolina, patent lawyer who devised a novel way to mix large batches of chemical compounds.
[ 06/08/06 ]
New Accessibility Paradigm envisioned by a blind inventor
» A blind inventor plans to make Internet accessible to visually impaired people by rethinking the whole damn thing. "To use a screenreader you have to understand the visual paradigm—what dialogue boxes are, radio buttons and all the rest. That's the wrong model as far as I'm concerned. What you really want is a model that is intrinsically orientated towards a one-dimensional audio stream." Chris Mairs, founder of assistive technology charity A-Technic. [ 06/07/06 ]
Smart article on Lost
» You know, I started watching Lost at the very beginning, but I couldn't summon up sufficient interest (it seemed like exactly one thing happened in every one-hour show) and then we stopped before we'd even completed the first season. But as interest in the show increases, I am starting to regret that. The activity around the show sounds like fun, and I've been very impressed with the smart ways the shows creators have used the Web to develop and interact with their fan base. Anyway, here's a terrific article that should be interesting even to those of you who are familiar with the various fan theories, with a few clues from the producers ("What's cool about the fan community is that it doesn't seem to care what we say or don't say.") and some smart commentary from Orson Scott Card and others on what makes the show so appealing, and so addictive, to it constituency. "The story line and the action develop on multiple levels. There are hidden clues that function like the Easter eggs in gaming. Lost is a big game, and the act of watching it forces you to play along." Joyce Millman, contributor to the upcoming book of essays, Getting Lost: Survival, Baggage and Starting Over in J.J. Abrams' Lost, edited by Orson Scott Card. [ 05/30/06 ]
Jane Siberry's payment incentive system
» The Freakonomics blog examines how musician Jane Siberry's a voluntary payment system uses incentives to subtly influence her fans to pay more than perhaps they otherwise would. (via rw) [ 05/05/06 ]
Eaglecam babies
» Eaglecam Update: The note above the image says that three eaglets have hatched, but I see only one. (Requires IE and Windows Media for the live feed.) / (3) Comments / [ 05/04/06 ]
Network Neutrality: What's at stake
» Salon has an excellent article that explains network neutrality and what is really at stake if the Telcos get their wish. For an analogy, think of the way cable companies operate. Have we seen competition emerge amongst cable companies within individual cities and neighborhoods? Do they always choose the programs you want to see for "Basic cable"? Do you have any recourse if they decide not to carry a particular station you want to watch? Now imagine that same state of affairs when you surf the Web. If this issue is new to you, it's worth your while to understand why the Telcos are lobbying Congress so hard. (via rc3oi) / (1) Comments / [ 05/03/06 ]
Flickr: A Day without Immigrants
» Flickr photos arranged by "Interestingness": A Day Without Immigrants. [ 05/02/06 ]
Cell phone as film ticket
» Whither implants? Mobile Box Office allows you to buy movie tickets with your cell phone, then use your phone as your movie ticket (via an on-screen barcode). The pilot program is being implemented in Michigan-based Emagine Theatres. (via ibt) [ 05/01/06 ]
Bloggers on Blogging: Not Martha
» I'm pleased to introduce the latest in my series Bloggers on Blogging: Megan Reardon, better known to most people as Not Martha. We talk about crafting, fear of writing, frustrating photography, and the many uses of blogging.
What appealed to me in general was the personal voice of blogs at that time. They were like zines, but they made sense. And they were like being allowed to read someone's diary. At that time in my life I was discovering the post-college lack of meaningful communication with others, and weblogs as they were being written filled in where intimate conversations had been diminishing.
[ 04/28/06 ]
Antweb uses Google Earth to map world's ants
» Have you heard of Antweb? It's a project from the California Academy of Sciences that uses Google Earth to create an interactive map of the earth's ant population. [ 04/26/06 ]
How to tie shoelaces 16 different ways
» Ian's Shoelace Site will teach you 16 different knots for your shoes. (thanks, lizard!) [ 04/20/06 ]
More on Flickr-powered collaborative photojournalism
» Emily Turrettini notices the difference between the Flickr slideshow of the CPE protests I linked here last week, and other CPE photo compilations on the Web, which depict a much more peaceful event. She wonders whether the slideshow photos depicting vandalism were taken during the French riots in November, and then deliberately mis-tagged "CPE", but I don't think that's the case. The slideshow I linked was organized by "interestingness", which is likely to skew to the sensational. The "most recent" slideshow presents a much less dramatic series of images. Note that neither is a measure of "importance" or "fairness", values that will likely always require human editorial judgement.
Of course it would be easy to deliberately mis-tag photos as they were uploaded. I posted here about the inherent limitations of tagging back in January 2005. At the time, others joined me in commenting on the potential to game the system. But Flickr is still a relatively unknown phenomenon, and I would be surprised if, at this point, anyone is trying to game it for political gain. That will likely change once Flickr becomes more widely known. Perhaps the automatic inclusion of GPS and time/date information when photos are uploaded would provide enough information to allow viewers to make more accurate assessments.
Emily is correct when she says "Caution and good judgment must prevail, not only toward the traditional media, but with regard to collaborative citizen journalism as well" — but that applies equally to the other sites she links. Organizations that participate in an event will document just one version of the event: their own. This version might be carefully constructed to present a particular narrative of the event and of the organization's role (think of the narratives routinely presented by political parties). At its least contrived, organizational records will consist of of "our favorite moments" — the parts participants themselves most want to look back on. This is right and natural and how we all organize our personal memory-markers. It is one reason I've argued that narratives must be written by a third party in order to be classified as "journalism" instead of memoir.
People photograph that which they think is "interesting". Photographers then apply another filter of "worthness" before they upload their photos to the server — or show them to friends. Every photograph has a point of view. Every series of photos creates a narrative. It will never be complete, or unbiased. Even so, barring a large-scale misinformation campaign, Flickr photos of any event should, in aggregate, represent a relatively impartial account of what could be be captured on film.
That lack of editorial control provides some protection against any person or organization seeking to control the narrative of any given event. Everyone's photos are published, regardless of their political standing or intent. Given enough participants, Flickr's inclusive nature will work against anyone deliberately skewing coverage of an event.
We need to be on guard against fraud. We need to create technological systems that will support transparency and reduce distortion. But in the end, one of our best weapons against deliberate manipulation and misinformation may be the simple, non-technical principle of inclusion. In fact, the framers of our Constitution were onto this 200 years ago. It's a little thing they liked to call "a Free Press". / (7) Comments / [ 04/17/06 ]
Smithsonian Museum Blog: Eye Level
» Eye Level is a blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Using the museum’s collection as a touchstone, the conversation at Eye Level will be dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture." [ 04/12/06 ]
The KittenAuth Test
» You know those sites that make you reproduce a wavy password in order to prove you're a human? Here's a better idea: The KittenAuth Test. / (3) Comments / [ 04/12/06 ]
How Flickr single-handedly invented collaborative photojournalism
» What is collaborative journalism? I would define it as news reporting, enabled by the Internet, done by a dispersed, unorganized group of people — or a group that spontaneously (and temporarily) organizes around their interest in a particular event. It's a compelling idea, but unfortunately — and in spite of many millions of blogs and wikis and online forums — actual examples are few and far between.
I had believed that was because most people are just not that interested in reporting the news, but I was wrong. Most of us can't wait to "break" a story to our friends, whether we've just witnessed a car accident, a celebrity sighting, or discovered that friends who were dating have broken up.
I'm beginning to suspect that what citizen reporters lack is the proper tool. Because the Flickr slideshow of photos of the French employment riots [Flash required] amply demonstrates that, on Flickr at least, collaborative photojournalism is thriving. That success is at least as much a product of Flickr itself as it is a product of the contributing photographers.
For those who don't know, Flickr allows members to upload photos to a public viewing area, and then "tag" them to denote their subject matter. Flickr then rates each photo according to "interestingness", a quality that is based on the ways in which other users interact with that photo. No one (outside of the Flickr team) knows exactly what that algorithm is based on, but I would guess that it measures things like the number of times each photo is viewed, the number of times another member calls it a favorite, the number of times it's emailed to others — those sorts of things.
The above slideshow consists of all public photos with a certain tag. So the first thing Flickr is doing is aggregating them. Then they are arranged by "interestingness" which means that the best photos (as judged by the community) come first. It also means that as new photos are added to the stream, it will continue to change, and more interesting photos will percolate to the top. If you haven't looked at a Flickr stream before, you'll be astonished by the high quality of these photographs.
Now, with or without Flickr, there would be people out on the streets watching the riots. But I would judge that Flickr members are now more inclined to document what they see, knowing that they can share it with others when they get home. I don't know what tools could make it this easy for other kinds of journalists to assemble a compelling story in pieces, but clearly Flickr has made something possible for photographers that was not possible before. [Updated to more clearly distinguish between written journalism and photojournalism.] (via rw)
Update: More on Flickr-powered collaborative journalism. / (8) Comments / [ 04/11/06 ]Library Elf loan manager
» Library Elf will send you notifications via email or rss of upcoming due dates and holds that have come available. (via sp) [ 04/10/06 ]
Couch surfing for Bloggers
» CanICrash? is a wiki that lets you lend your sofa to travelling bloggers. / (2) Comments / [ 04/06/06 ]
Superpatron: Library patron blog
» As you know, thanks to the library bookmarklet, I've fallen in love with libraries in the last year (and saved a ton of money on books!). So I was interested to find Superpatron, which calls itself "a weblog for library patrons who love their libraries, who take advantage of everything they have to offer, and are always on the lookout for great ideas from libraries around the world. It's like Friends of the Library for the net." [ 04/06/06 ]
Lostpedia on the Third Policeman
» The Lostpedia entry on The Third Policeman. I just like that there is a Lostpedia. (via rw) / (1) Comments / [ 04/03/06 ]
Eagle Cam
» A great way to waste time online: the Bald Eagle Cam. Update: They moved the EagleCam. Here is the new URL. / (5) Comments / [ 03/30/06 ]
Most linked blogs 2000
» I've been getting a lot of hits lately from Beebo's Most linked blogs, September 2000. This list in itself refutes the notion that blog-popularity is just a pyramid scheme in which the longest-standing blogs win. Only 3 of these weblogs are in the Technorati Top 100 today. Likely only 3 of today's Technorati Top 100 will be there 6 years from now.
And I'll dispute Michael's assertion that there were no political blogs at the time. I was one of the first bloggers to post about politics. And I would say that Medley pioneered the long-form political commentary that is the norm for most political blogs today — though I'll wager none of them have heard of that blog. The difference then was that few, if any, of us were focused strictly on one topic: our weblogs were a reflection of all of our interests, not just one obsession. / (1) Comments / [ 03/24/06 ]
Academic lectures for sale and for free
» Last fall, Productive Strategies compiled a sampling of Academic Lecture Podcasts from several universities. And my pal Jeremy Cherfas is raving about the lectures available from The Teaching Company. [ 03/22/06 ]
The re-emergence of Acoustic-Era Pop
» How Pop Sounded Before It Popped describes the resurgence of interest in turn-of-the-20th-century pop music, long shunned by roots enthusiasts for its crass commercialism — and for the uncomfortable questions it raises about the artistic merit of entertainment that is based on racial stereotyping. "Acoustic-era music is the historical underdog. These are scratchy records, with 19th-century aesthetics, with racist material all over the place, with artists you've never heard of. This stuff is completely unknown, and it's a treasure trove." Richard Martin, co-owner of Archeophone Records, a label that specializes in acoustic-era pop. [ 03/22/06 ]
10 Tips for Corporate Blogging
» When I met Jeremiah Owyang last August, his company didn't have a blog, nor did they want one. Thanks to his efforts, 6 months later they did. He has put together an outstanding and very practical 10 Tips for Becoming a Corporate Blog Evangelist. If you're interested in convincing your organization to start a blog, print this out and pin it to the wall of your cubicle. And then add Jeremiah to your daily rotation. His blog is full of insight and practical advice on the emerging field of corporate blogging. / (1) Comments / [ 03/21/06 ]
Placesite geographical social networking
» Placesite is a new service that allows patrons of wifi cafes to connect with one another by reading profiles of the other (online) people there, chatting, and contributing to message forums tied to that particular place. It is an attempt to counteract the zombie effect of having so many people staring at their computers by bringing social networking to geographic places. It's interesting, but two objections spring to mind. First, a certain percentage of people have always used cafes to read and write and study. What's the difference? Second, won't this just create two classes of people, those who are able to interact with others on their computer, and those who are not? (via phblog) / (1) Comments / [ 03/21/06 ]
Home Hygiene Routines
» What the Web was Made For: Home Hygiene/Home Routines. [ 03/20/06 ]
Convert dollars to oil barrels automagically
» Oil Standard is a web browser plug-in that converts all prices from U.S. Dollars into the equivalent value in barrels of crude oil. When you load a web page, the script seamlessly inserts converted prices into the page. As the cost of oil fluctuates on the commodities exchange, prices rise and fall in real-time. Here's a screenshot. (via rw) / (1) Comments / [ 03/16/06 ]
Pray as you go Podcasts
» Fabulous. A group of British Jesuits is offering a popular new service: free, 12-minute worship sessions in MP3 format, with an automated "Pray as you Go" process to automate downloading to the user's iPod. (via trevor cook) [ 03/15/06 ]
China's first Web meme plays havoc with culture
» After the highly anticipated Chinese film The Promise tanked, Hu Ge created a spoof for his friends — who posted it to the Web. Perhaps you can imagine how that has played out in a culture that places high value on respect for authority, correct behavior, and is new to the Web. [ 03/14/06 ]
Electronic Communications Commandments
» Kelly Thul's Electronic communication commandments look like an interesting start. I'm especially enamoured with his Rule of Email. "Whereas — Freedom without accountability results in bad things... Whereas — Markets and scarcity promote thoughtful actions... Whereas — Keystroke distribution is becoming a profound element of communication... The following electronic communication commandments are proposed." [ 03/14/06 ]
Google Mars
» I guess you've seen Google Mars. [About.] [ 03/13/06 ]
Free services lose 1-2% of email
» Craig Newmark says that free online mail services lose 1-2% of their email. (via rc3oi) [ 03/10/06 ]
The Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute
» What the Web was made for: The Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute, featuring the live Rutacam. (thanks, Dr. Elvin!) / (2) Comments / [ 03/09/06 ]
OCLC Fiction Finder
» OCLC Fiction Finder (click on Alice to enter) seems to be better for browsing than for searching. [ 03/07/06 ]
Social Media Rules
» Yahoo!'s Bradley Horowitz starts blogging with a terrific post on why 100% participation in social media services is not only unnecessary, it's undesirable. [ 03/02/06 ]
Online automated book swap
» Bookins is a free, automated swap-by-mail book exchange. "Q: Does Bookins profit from this service? A: The goal of our service is first to provide a worry-free way for booklovers to swap books, and second to eventually make a profit. We make money on the shipping fee ($3.99 to receive a book using prepaid postage provided as noted on the homepage). About $1 per book is profit, after we pay for the postage itself, delivery confirmation, credit card fees, and fee for printing prepaid postage." (via swiss miss) [ 02/28/06 ]
Flu Wiki on CNN
» Hey, the Flu Wiki made CNN! Remember, you saw it here first. [ 02/27/06 ]
Compare airfares by day
» The Consumerist has posted a brief on two proposed airfare comparison services that will let you chart ticket prices to find the cheapest day to fly. [ 02/22/06 ]
Netflix for books
» Zoomba is using the Netflix model to automatically ship member boks they have requested, one a month, for $9.95 each. Thanks to the library bookmarklet, I now use the library this way, requesting any book that seems interesting to me, and then picking them up from my branch as they come available. (via elv) [ 02/21/06 ]
Google acquires Measuremap
» Have you heard the news? My husband founded that company. [ 02/15/06 ]
Waterboro Library Reading Lists
» May I just point you to the Waterloo Waterboro Public Library booklists? Actually, it is a list of lists with wonderful descriptions of both the genres and the lists themselves. To wit:
Cozies and Domestic Mysteries
Cozies contain generally a minimum of violence and graphic unpleasantness (blunt instruments and poisons are popular weapons), and they often take place in a house, village, small town, academic setting, or other benign, familiar and conventional social setting, with characters who are usually civilised and mannerly. The mystery is usually solved by an amateur detective who understands human nature and is gifted in observation and deduction. "Cozy" is pretty much the opposite of "hard-boiled."
The Game's Afoot (Johnson County Library, KS)
Novels featuring puzzles and games. Author, title, summary, webcat link for more than 40 novels, from David Baldacci's The Winner to D.B. Weiss's Lucky Wander Boy. Some games include gambling and casinos, the lottery, video games, dominoes, bridge, charades, go, chess, mah-jongg, cribbage, word games, Scrabble.
There are lists of Financial, Business and Math Fiction, Fiction Featuring Modes of Transportation, and of course a metalist of lists of thrillers to read if you like the DaVinci Code. And they have a blog. [ 02/13/06 ]
Artistshare lets fans finance the work
» Artistshare has developed a new music business model that allows artists to build and manage their fanbase, and to monetize their "creative process" by enlisting the help of their fans and involving them in the creative process. In 2005, ArtistShare produced the first Grammy-winning recording with internet-only distribution.
The creative process is delivered to the fans through the Participant Offers. These Participant Offers are specifically tailored to the Artist’s fan base and include unique opportunities for the fan to witness the creative process of their favorite artist. This creates a myriad of product possibilities for the Artist as well as a very personal experience for the fan.
Meta sells. (via c'ist) [ 02/10/06 ]
Best Practices: Privacy Policy Changes
» Best Practices News: The new Google Talk Privacy Policy includes a link to the older version, marked up to show what has changed. Quite honestly, the very best practice would be one that allowed you to opt-out of a service — meaning that they would erase your personal data — if you didn't like the changes that had been made. (via sew) [ 02/08/06 ]
Book recommender
» DebbiesIdea.com is a collaborative website that recommends which authors' books to start with, and which to avoid.
Long before the Internet was commonly available, Debbie had the idea that it would be useful to have a reference work suggesting which book of an unfamiliar author would be best to read first. Start reading an author with a poor or atypical example of his work, she observed, and you would likely never read that writer again—perhaps losing in the process a world of pleasure and knowledge. On the other hand, since there would seldom be one right book to read first, the resource would have to be a compendium of opinions.
[ 01/31/06 ]
The Beermapping Project
» The Beermapping Project. Like beer? Like maps? You're home. (via KIP) [ 01/30/06 ]
2006 Sundance Short films online
» The 2006 Sundance Festival Short Films are available online. (via cn) [ 01/26/06 ]
Favicons for the masses
» Pages and pages of favicons (that little image that you see next to the URL at the top of your browser). You can find me on this page. [ 01/25/06 ]
Raw News
» Want to know what actually happened? No Comment is a source for unedited news video with original sound. (via rw) [ 01/19/06 ]
Web Typography
» The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web: A Practical Guide to Web Typography. They have an RSS feed! (via s1a) [ 01/17/06 ]
Anonymity vs Accountablity
» Bruce Schneier: Anonymity vs Accountablity. "The problem isn't anonymity; it's accountability. If someone isn't accountable, then knowing his name doesn't help. If you have someone who is completely anonymous, yet just as completely accountable, then — heck, just call him Fred." [ 01/16/06 ]
