Month: November 2004

Categories
Technology

Extending the Syndication feeds

I have never been one to jump on the syndication and aggregator wagons, following all the latest innovations. I still don’t provide full feeds for my syndication feeds at Burningbird; and I think Podcasting is half craze, half pirate radio station without the élan of continually escaping the clutches of the FCC.

But I do provide feeds and use Bloglines to keep up with the webloggers I read. Well, I did.

One of the problems I’ve found with Bloglines, and I imagine the same can be said for all syndication tools, is that they only provide part of the information I need about a weblog–they tell me when someone has updated. That’s good, and helps me keep up to date with my favorite reads. But what about the people who don’t update? It can be a long time before I notice that one person I read hasn’t updated for a time, perhaps even weeks. All of a sudden I think to myself, “Hey, I haven’t heard a thing from so an so for the longest time. Where are they?” and rush over to their site, only to discover that the writer has quietly folded up his or her tent and drifted away. I wasn’t even there to say good-bye, because the loss of communication doesn’t show up in my aggregator.

When I accessed the sites I read through a blogroll, I would go through the list once a day; I would notice if the person hadn’t updated. I would also notice new site designs, new comments, and various other tidbits of information that just don’t through a syndication feed, and aren’t picked up by an aggregator.

If you read hundreds, even thousands, of feeds a day, you need an aggregator. There is no better tool to use to keep up with that flow of informaiton. But if you’re like me, the flow of information isn’t as important to me, as reading a new essay by a favorite writer, and why hasn’t he updated in ever so long?

Aggregators and syndication feeds need to capture new information, such as the following:

  • How long it’s been since a person last updated.
  • Recent comments (yes I know these can be syndicated, but I want an overall activity report for the site).
  • A note that the person has redesigned their site, and I should stop reading their posts in the aggregator and go take a look and comment.
  • An indicator if the person seems discouraged because not enough ‘real people’ are clicking through and they wonder if they’re read.
  • A flag that something isn’t right with the person, which can only be deduced when looking at all of the their writing on one page, one post after another.
  • A suggested style, soft, faded gray, when the weblogger is gone forever.
Categories
Technology

Disconnected connected development

I do most of my development on remote servers, either at my client’s or my own sites. However, when contemplating server-side development in a disconnected environment, I had to decide if I wanted to create the local work space on my PC or my Mac.

The PC has more space, but most applications run into problems when working with Windows. I should say, most open source applications run into problems when working in Windows. In addition, I haven’t upgraded my Linux dual-boot in the longest times, and frankly, just wasn’t that interested in dealing with it at the moment.

My Mac, a PowerBook G4, 500 MHz with 512MB of memory has a Unix core underlying all that bubble stuff. I’ve used up much of the disk space, though I am clearing it and putting all my photos on CDs. The big question is will everything I need work on the Mac?

From a software perspective, what I need is a working install of MySQL, PHP, Apache, WordPress, and OsCommerce. And possibly Drupal. The Drupal and OsCommerce are for clients; the WordPress is for my work on Wordform.

Tiny bits of research later: MacZealots covers getting WordPress and MySQL running so that takes care of that. (It also has a guide on installing Drupal.) And I’ve found an installation guide of putting OsCommerce on the Mac. Not only that but there’s a support forum for Mac users running OsCommerce.

My Mac has now gone from being just my main photography/Adobe Photoshop site, to my new open source development machine and photo site. I hate to sound like a Mac bigot — but I am really turning into a Mac bigot. I love my Mac, even if I still haven’t gotten that damn battery lose yet.

I still use the Windows box, though. You know, for old times sake.

Categories
Stuff

Of course, there is this

For those who positively, absolutely, cannot stand to live in America any longer AND who are single: Marry a Canadian!

Many of the profiles are very funny (or, I certainly hope were meant to be funny) and just what we need right now. My favorite is from the 50 year old minister who says what he’s looking for is A fine, upright woman interested in spreading the WORD, and checkers tournaments in the Rec Centre.

You have to love those Canadians — they know how to liven things up.

Categories
Political

Through the rubble, gently

I had planned on heading to Arkansas yesterday, but the weather worked against me. And I need to finish an article on Adobe’s new DNG format and converter. More on this later.

I wish I had, though, because going through the weblogs yesterday was like attending an Irish wake; with much lamentations mixed in with what must be a record amount of either anger or gloating. I wrote a post about this at the Kitchen saying that if yesterday was the big test of weblogger open communication, well, we bombed badly.

I think what got me most was seeing in comments in more than one weblog, people who have read each other and commented on each other’s posts for a long time, sometimes even years, say such things to each other as to be beyond repair — just because one happened to vote Republican and the other Democrat. And still others pointed a finger of blame at those of us who supported Kerry, telling us we didn’t work hard enough. Well, screw you, boyo.

It was a post in Mike Golby’s weblog — yes, that Mike Golby, known far and wide for his, shall we say, passionate writing against Bush– who put some needed perspective on all of this. He was writing about a South African political cartoonist, Zapiro, and specifically one cartoon that’s causing some heated debate in his country.

As relates to our recent election, Mike wrote:

I do not know Zapiro, but I did come to know his mother, Gaby. She was, without doubt, a great, selfless and humble South African. She was also as feisty as all hell.

Were she an American voter on the receiving end of a sound thrashing, I doubt she’d bat an eyelid, resort to beating her breast, cry foul or feel ‘done out’. She’d take solace in the fact that democracy works and, as a citizen mindful of the legitimate laws of her land, continue her work, bettering the lives of those around her.

With her eyes fixed on future victories, of course…

Yes, democracy works, and did work this week. This election was not stolen, and was not rigged, and from what we now know, 51% of the voters in this country voted to retain President Bush. That’s a fact of life, and either learn to live with it or move to Canada.

(What do you mean, Canada says, thanks but no thanks?)

Also contrary to the assertions voiced by many, the people who voted for Bush are not stupid, blind, selfish, ignorant, violent, and hateful bigots, who allowed religion to determine their votes. Some are, but then, the same can be said of some Democrats, too. Keep making assumptions that the only educated and intelligent voters are those who live in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco and other coastal cities, and you’re going to continue to find yourself on the outside of any power structure, whining into your Starbuck’s lattes. Boo, grande, hoo.

No, there were a lot of reasons why people voted for Bush, and didn’t vote for Kerry, and we either learn more about these reasons and do better in the future when it comes to communicating with these folks; or we can continue spinning our wheels indulging in anger and spite, and ain’t it great that webloggers can be so damn passionate?

(However, if you choose the latter, remember this: we spent the last four years angry, and what we have to show for it is four more years of Bush, and from what I can see, an even stronger foothold in Congress for the Republican Party. )

Right now my concerns are focused on what can I do in the next four years to help minimize negative impact on issues of importance to me: support for gay rights; countering our aggressive behavior both internally and external to the country; promoting global health insurance, and more corporate accountability; and especially the environment, an issue I feel I can have the most impact with. The first move in this direction is to have my broadband internet connection yanked on the 20th. Less time here more time out there.

Now, why do I have the feeling that with this writing I just got off the Cluetrain? But then, it doesn’t run through backwoods states like Missouri, anyway.

Categories
Weblogging

Pledges now, is it?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Jeff Jarvis has started a pledge he wants bloggers to sign on to. It reads:

After the election results are in, I promise to:
: Support the President, even if I didn’t vote for him.
: Criticize the President, even if I did vote for him.
: Uphold standards of civilized discourse in blogs and in media while pushing both to be better.
: Unite as a nation, putting country over party, even as we work together to make America better.

I can agree without reservation to civilized discourse, though I’m not sure we understand what that is. To some, it means not calling each other names; to others, it means not to disagree. The beauty of this environment is that we each bring a different understanding. That’s also the beast.

But if Jarvis means refraining from calling each other names, then, yeah, that would be nice.

I can also agree about pulling together as a country. I think that’s going to be easier said than done, but I’m for giving it a try,

As for support, when asked to clarify, Jarvis responded with:

I mean acknowledging that the president is the president and especially in a time of war, we need to stand together against our enemies — namely, Islamofascist terrorists — and not act, as too many have during this administration (and the one before it) that the enemy is in the White House. No, we’re on the same side.

That’s a little like the logic of saying to a person, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Jarvis has framed the question so that it reflects what he considers our most dangerous enemy: Islamofascist terrorists. I can’t agree with his call for support, because I can’t agree with the definition of the enemy.

You see, I consider our worst enemy to be intolerance. Intolerance on the part of some Muslims about other non-Muslim people from the west, true. But also the intolerance demonstrated in this country — towards gays, towards women, towards people of color, towards those who don’t follow what others deem the One True and Right Way.

When Jarvis says will I pledge to support the President as he combats the enemy, my answer has to be, yes, if we can agree on what is the enemy.

As for the last part, about being critical about our leaders, we shouldn’t have to take a pledge to do this — it’s part of our duty to this country to be critical. And aware.

We don’t know yet who is going to win the Presidency, the race is too close to call. Regardless of who does, I am concerned about my country and the direction it will take in the next four years. More, I am concerned about how others outside of this country will view us, we their American friends, once the results are known.

Based on this, I would like to add a fifth part to this pledge, if we can do such a thing: that we don’t hold each other’s flags as a barrier between us. It would be a shame to toss aside all the great connectivity the internet brings, just when we were starting to get it right.