Category: Weblogging

Categories
Weblogging

Touch not the weblogger

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Words have power. A word said in one context is just a word, but in another context lights the fuse to a bomb.

“word”

KA-BOOM!

(Crispy fragments of confused wonderment)

Power words are given their power through worry, fear, anger, insecurity, sadness, or hurt. Especially hurt. Nothing gives a power word more energy, more kick, more bang per syllable, than hurt.

Unfortunately, there are different power words for each of us, and pity the poor person who says the word or words in the right context and releases a veritable torrent of reaction.

What’s difficult for the unwary is the circumstances surrounding our acquisition of a new power word are such that we don’t particularly care to share them with the world at large. So some poor sod can be walking happily along and between one sentence fragment and the next, the ground quickens beneath his or her feet, and “SLURP!” — they’re sucked into the vortex of power word wipeout. It’s not a pretty sight.

Luckily, wipeouts leave visible marks that trace around the power word, forming chalk outlines on the psyche, warning signs to touch not the weblogger.

Not that I have any words. Not me.

Categories
Technology Weblogging

Threadneedle meets BlogMD

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I spent some time today hanging around at the BlogMD discussion group, talking about RDF, RSS, embedding problems, data models and so on.

As much of a lone wolf as I must seem to people, I prefer working these types of problem as a team. There is something about multiple heads working together that can make the most complicated problem seem solvable.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if any of the weblogging tool builders are involved in this effort. Too bad. The only way something like ThreadNeedle, or TrackBack, is really going to work is if we can get buy in from, at the least, Userland, Movable Type, and Blogger.

Categories
Technology Weblogging

Tech stuff

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Back is still quite painful, and has now been joined by cable modem. A case of new technology on old wires — for the modem, that is, not the back. Until the repair person comes out a week from tomorrow, my online access is going to be sporadic.

Sam Ruby has provided a very abbreviated introduction to RSS. I appreciate Sam’s effort, though I think it’s important to note that the RSS 0.9x and the RSS 1.0 efforts are following two separate and not necessarily parallel paths. Small correction — I believe the original expansion for RSS was “Rich Site Summary”. (Thanks to Mark for link.)

There’s a new effort for defining weblogging data with the BlogMD initiative. I’m not sure whether the group would be interested in the RDF vocabulary I designed for ThreadNeedle. From current discussion in the associated forum, probably not.

Speaking of which: the active effort of embedding RDF (data) for ThreadNeedle in each weblog posting is out — doesn’t work with existing weblogging tools. I’m now working on a webbot and scanning for links and building discussions from same, which will then be stored in a respository. From this I will then generate RDF documents of a discussion.

Frankly, after the rather unenthusiastic response I’m seeing with TrackBack, I’m not sure weblogging really needs or wants some of the technology the techies keep wanting to provide.

Categories
Just Shelley Weblogging

Arghh

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I somehow hurt my neck and upper back along the spine and am unsure of how long I’ll be able to stay online. Even laying down, trying to type into the computer just isn’t working out.

If you email and I don’t respond, I’m not being rude and ignoring you. Same with comments to postings.

In the meantime, check out the webloggers song in the making.

Update: AKMA, I’m not sure why your emails to me are bouncing. If it continues, drop me a note in the comments to this post and I’ll see if I can find a problem in my email server. I definitely don’t want to miss your emails, and I’m keen to keep up with your important research.

Open question to my Etherworld friends: anyone else’s emails to me bouncing?

Categories
Weblogging Writing

Browsin’ them links, written’ them postings

Loren wrote a wonderful essay about To Kill a Mockingbird for the Banned Books project that’s a must read. For the record, I am also quite fond of this book, as well as the movie based on the book starring Gregory Peck.

I am aware that the book does use racially explosive and derogatory terms, the primary reason it appeared on the banned books list. However, the tight integration into the material makes the phrases/words an integral part of the story — they add to the richness of the scenes and provide defining nuances for both the time and the place.

In addition to the essay, following my earlier discussion about trying to write a weblog posting or two based on the style of writing demonstrated in whatever book just finished reading, Loren uses the style of writing from To Kill a Mockingbird in a new posting that, well, tripped me into a full throated, from the belly, rip-roarin’ guffaw.

Thankfully I work on home.

(Loren is packin’ his weblog and movin’ it over to that there Movable Type. This means that we’in these parts can comment and use these new fangled permalink things. That’s a rought smart move, boy.)