Daily Information Store

2003-10-05T07:40:00.000+10:00

Blogs and Masses

Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar? : Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...

: "Jay Rosen: There are no masses, there are just ways of seeing people as masses."

2003-10-05T07:39:00.000+10:00

Power Law of the Blog Curve

Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar? : Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...

: "Kevin Marks: The net changes the power law of the media curve. If you look at relative popularity on the web, using something like Technorati, you get a power curve that goes all the way down gradually, to the bottom where you see pages that got just a single click. If you look at popularity in the 'real' world--best-selling books, or top music--the power curve drops like a stone from a very high level. That's because in order to get a book published, or a piece of music recorded, you have to convince somebody that you're going to sell a million copies. You end up in a zero-sum game, where people pour enormous resources into being number one, because number two is only half as good. The promise of the net is that the power of all those little links can outweigh the power of the top ten."

2003-10-05T07:37:00.000+10:00

US-Centric Nature of BloggerCon

Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar? : Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...

: "Adam Curry: The discussion today has been very US-centric. We talk about big media as big US media--we talk about Iraq, and Washington politics. That's not what blogs in Europe are talking about."

2003-10-04T05:56:00.000+10:00

Cashcow Topic

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Second sight: "Blogs, argue their proponents (and I would number among them) were supposed to be about honesty, informed opinions and publishing power to the people. But when a weblog entry on a cash cow topic promises a likelier Adsense click-through (some people are already shaping their blogs this way) and when bloggers believe the freedom to publish should equate with a cheque, blogs are no better than advertorials - which are at least identified as such in newspapers."

2003-09-22T06:20:00.000+10:00

BEWARE THE MICROSOFT EMAIL

Worm Wears A 'Patch' For Disguise (TechNews.com): "Disguised as an official e-mail from Microsoft, the file comes attached to a note asking the recipient to install a 'September 2003, cumulative patch' to protect against vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser and Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs.

If installed, the program, known as Swen or Gibe.F, attempts to disable firewall and antivirus software, gather password information and replicate itself via e-mail, as well as the Kazaa peer-to-peer network and Internet Relay Chat instant-messaging."

2003-09-22T05:50:00.000+10:00

SLIM DUSTY - AN AUSTRALIAN ICON

kuro5hin.org || Slim Dusty dead at 76: "Slim Dusty, one of Australia's most well-loved country music icons, died yesterday in his home in Sydney, surrounded by his wife and children."

2003-09-22T05:48:00.000+10:00

The ATKINS STORM

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Official: Atkins diet can be deadly: "A spokeswoman for the Atkins company argued that research showed it was consumption of large amounts of carbohydrates with a high-glycemic index, such as white bread, white rice or white potatoes, which increased the risk of coronary heart disease.

'At all stages of Atkins, we encourage consumption of nutrient-dense foods including plenty of vegetables, with the introduction of fruits and wholegrains later in the programme as one approaches ideal weight,' she added."

2003-09-22T05:43:00.000+10:00

Information and Security - Information is Power

Curtailing online education in the name of homeland security: "With regard to online education and international students studying in the United States, the USA PATRIOT Act has created a situation that emphasizes security over academic freedom and the ability to provide educational opportunities to students through the World Wide Web. Given the many important roles that international students and scholars can play, from expanding research to promoting goodwill for the United States abroad, it seems short-sighted to limit the academic opportunities of international students who come to study in the United States. "

2003-09-20T22:48:00.000+10:00

Reason Needed to Use The Net

BBC NEWS | Technology | Net 'worth little to many Brits': "Access to the internet is easier for most Britons, but many still need a reason to use it, says a study.

Some 59% use the net regularly and only four per cent have no access to somewhere with web connection.

'While the battle for digital access is being won, we now face a struggle to convince everyone the net is worth using,' said Professor Richard Rose, of the Oxford Internet Institute."

2003-09-20T22:46:00.000+10:00

Dangers of Using Highly Popular Software

BBC NEWS | Technology | Virus poses as Microsoft update: "A Windows virus masquerading as a security update from Microsoft is spreading via e-mail, warn experts.

The worm, dubbed Swen or Gibe, comes as an e-mail attachment and exploits a two-year-old hole in Internet Explorer."

2003-09-20T14:08:00.000+10:00

Do Jobs Get Shuffled Around?

Salon.com Technology | Welcome to the machine?: "Knowledge largely rests in human minds. Marxism has now been turned on its head: The means of production rests in the minds of individuals. Having abolished slavery, these individuals now own the means of production. The workplaces of the future will have invisible balance sheets for most of their capital, unless they somehow find a way to measure and include human capital.'"

2003-09-15T08:30:00.000+10:00

Related Searches at Google

Related Searches (Google Weblog): "Google is testing a new feature that suggests related searches (screenshot). The something different link apparently suggests a whole new batch of related searches."

2003-09-15T08:28:00.000+10:00

Switching to Windows?

Netcraft: Linux Switchers Not an Aberration: "And the Internet-usage-tracking organization notes that the number of Windows Server 2003 sites is continuing to grow, primarily as a result of upgrades from older versions of Windows. But defections from Linux to Windows 2003 also are continuing at a constant clip, according to Netcraft. 'Notably, the number of sites switching from Linux has proportionately kept pace since July when many commentators thought the 5% of sites switched to Windows 2003 from Linux was an aberration,' says Netcraft."

2003-09-15T08:23:00.000+10:00

A Lesson in Economics

Ming the Mechanic: Monkey Money: "One of the best demonstrations of economics I've gotten, I got from ... a monkey. It was a little monkey at City Walk by Universal Studios in L.A. It had its owner with it, who was playing an old-fashioned organ where you grind the handle and it plays a corny old tune. The monkey was dressed in a silly costume, and there was a sign presenting the simple business proposition: Get out a quarter and the monkey will come over and get it out of your hand. Get out a dollar bill and the monkey will not only come and get it, but he will also shake your hand. Which is all cute, and well worth a quarter or a dollar, just to see that the monkey knows how to get the money, and to feel that it actually shakes your hand. I got out a dollar. The monkey snapped it up, shook my hand, and moved on to other businesss. Not so much as a smile, but I still felt satisfied with the transaction. "

2003-09-10T06:43:00.000+10:00

Downside of Google

MediaGuardian.co.uk | City | Leader: Google the big engine: "And the downside? The biggest is that Google and others will worsen the digital divide by unintentionally expanding an underclass that does not have access to the treasure chest of instant knowledge that search engines offer. It could also start to misuse its own position by allowing monetary considerations to triumph over its current 'quality first' policy. This is quite likely if it becomes a public company - as is probable - and succumbs to Wall Street pressure to improve earnings every quarter. One way to avoid this would be to turn itself into a mutual company, a living monument to the founding principles of the internet. "

2003-09-10T06:25:00.000+10:00

Google Five

USATODAY.com - The search engine that could: "As Google prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary Sept. 7, it's expanding beyond basic searches. Google now embraces comparison shopping, news, the personal online journals called Weblogs and even a service that blocks pesky pop-up ads. It answers 200 million search requests a day "

2003-09-08T06:56:00.000+10:00

Weblogs Facilitators of Mass Amateurisation

plasticbag.org | weblog | (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...: "This flexibility of publishing creates a fluid and living form of self-representation, the 'homepage (as a place)' has become the 'weblog (as a person)' that can articulate a voice. And when there are a multiplicity of voices in space, then the possibility arises of conversations. And where there is conversation there is the sharing of information. And conversation about what? Well everything from music and movies and animation and medical information. Weblogs are becoming the bridge between the individual and the community in cyberspace - a place where one can self-publicise and self-describe but also learn, debate and engage in community. In other words, weblogs are not only a representative sample of mass amateurisation, they're becoming enmeshed in the very structures of information-retrival, community interaction and media distibution themselves. Weblogs are now facilitators of mass amateurisation. "

2003-09-08T06:51:00.000+10:00

Weblogs as amateurisation

plasticbag.org | weblog | (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...: "But what both of these attempts to understand weblogging have in common is this sense of amateurisation. They both argue that weblogging software constitutes a radical simplification of previously complex tools. Updating a website on a daily basis is no longer an activity that only a trained professional (or a passionate hobbyist) can accomplish. It's now open to pretty much everyone, cost-free and practically effortlessly..."

2003-09-08T06:50:00.000+10:00

Make nothing from weblogging - Shirky

Shirky: Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing: "A lot of people in the weblog world are asking 'How can we make money doing this?' The answer is that most of us can't. Weblogs are not a new kind of publishing that requires a new system of financial reward. Instead, weblogs mark a radical break. They are such an efficient tool for distributing the written word that they make publishing a financially worthless activity. It's intuitively appealing to believe that by making the connection between writer and reader more direct, weblogs will improve the environment for direct payments as well, but the opposite is true. By removing the barriers to publishing, weblogs ensure that the few people who earn anything from their weblogs will make their money indirectly. "

2003-09-08T06:48:00.000+10:00

Make no money out of Weblogging

plasticbag.org | weblog | (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...: "In his piece, he described the way in which weblogging simplifies the concept of 'Publishing' to the point that not only is it now so simple that anyone can do it, it's also so simple that there's no way of making money out of it. Publishing has come to the masses... This idea - of a form of publishing that's almost completely lacking in barriers and cost - is fundamental to an understanding of weblogging."

2003-08-29T06:24:00.000+10:00

Extolling the Virtues of Teoma

Google Faces Battle Atop Search Engine Heap: "The advantages might not be immediately apparent to the casual visitor to the Teoma.com site. Pay attention, though, to the 'refinements' you see on the right side of the screen after a search. Teoma's software has, in effect, found a 'community of experts' associated with your search, and is listing what related topics that community is 'discussing.' For 'power blackout,' the refinements Friday included 'electrical surge' and 'cost of downtime.'
It's a great way to learn about a topic, or to find the precise thing for which you are looking, without having to actually go to a lot of links. AltaVista has a similarly useful, if slightly less complete, offering. But Google doesn't.

Something better than the vaunted Google? Draw your own conclusions."

2003-08-29T06:22:00.000+10:00

Where is the Google Rival?

Google rival in the picture - smh.com.au: "The good news is that a preview version of Grokker for Mac OS X 10.2 is now available for downloading. The bad news is that Grokker is not free, as is Google. Groxis asks $US99.95 ($A153) for the preview, which also entitles you to the finished version on its release. For we of the emaciated dollar, that is a bit of a lump, but you get access to what could be the next revolution in web browsing.

'The Mac version of Grokker is designed specifically to take advantage of the stability and speed of Apple's powerful OS X platform,' says the opening blurb on the website. 'Grokker is also integrated with Safari, Apple's new web browser, which loads pages more quickly than any other Mac browser and uses the advanced interface technologies underlying Mac OS X to offer you a much easier-to-use view of the web.'"

2003-08-27T06:58:00.000+10:00

Page Rank

The Register: "Now that rivals have cottoned onto PageRankâ„¢ and all the nuisances that entails (Google has downgraded PageRank significantly), a rival search can be eating into Google's lunch in no time. It might even want to try Google's early tactic of not serving up annoying ads for the first couple of years..."

2003-08-25T08:04:00.000+10:00

WHY DO OBJECTS NEED TO LOOK LIKE A PROGRAMMER CREATED THEM?

tima thinking outloud. > Hacks: Object-Oriented Weblog Publishing: "Generally speaking, object-oriented techniques eliminate redundant effort, ease maintenance and future modification, increase reuse and improve quality. Object-oriented techniques also better support evolutionary, iterative and incremental development then other means. For those not familiar with object-oriented development theory we will not be able to go into the topic any further. There are dozens of books and scholarly papers written on the topic if you're interested."

2003-08-23T06:37:00.000+10:00

Cascading Failures: "Cascading failures are common in most complex networks. They take place on the Internet, where traffic is rerouted to bypass malfunctioning routers, occasionally creating denial of service attacks on routers that are not equipped to handle extra traffic. We witnessed one in 1997, when the International Monetary Fund pressured the central banks of several Pacific nations to limit their credit. That started a cascading monetary failure that left behind scores of failed banks and corporations around the world."

2003-08-23T06:36:00.000+10:00

Cascading Failures

: "Cascading failures are common in most complex networks. They take place on the Internet, where traffic is rerouted to bypass malfunctioning routers, occasionally creating denial of service attacks on routers that are not equipped to handle extra traffic. We witnessed one in 1997, when the International Monetary Fund pressured the central banks of several Pacific nations to limit their credit. That started a cascading monetary failure that left behind scores of failed banks and corporations around the world."

2003-08-23T05:33:00.000+10:00

EMAIL PROBLEMS

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: "Kevin says the SoBig virus may be the last straw and We have to confront the reality: either email is broken, Microsoft's email software is broken, or those two statements are the same.."

2003-08-23T05:32:00.000+10:00

2003-08-23T05:23:00.000+10:00

A GENRE WORTH KILLING

Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil: "Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall. Yet slideware -computer programs for presentations -is everywhere: in corporate America, in government bureaucracies, even in our schools. Several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint are churning out trillions of slides each year. Slideware may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for the speaker can be punishing to both content and audience. The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch."

2003-08-12T07:52:00.001+10:00

Kottke's Inaccurate Ideas About Google

Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert (kottke.org): "Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert posted August 01, 2003 at 03:30 pm ET"

2003-08-12T07:52:00.000+10:00

Jason Kottke

jason kottke's bio: "Jason Kottke designs, codes, and writes for the web live from New York City, with a special interest in clear, simple, user-centered design, microcontent, and the writable web."

2003-08-12T06:08:00.000+10:00

Web Demonization

anil dash - archives: "It always seems to be news organizations with a background in print or television that contribute to this demonization of the web in these stories, of course. I suppose it'd fall under the headline of 'Dead Tree Scaremongering on the Rise'."

2003-08-12T05:56:00.000+10:00

Crap JOurnalism

ext|circ: All in my head: "Tom on 'two years' of weblogs--a vast proportion of 'bloggers' might be crap journalists, but that doesn't preclude journalists from being crap, either. And it gets bloody irritating."

2003-08-12T05:55:00.000+10:00

Coates on Journalist Errors in Reporting

plasticbag.org | weblog | On 'two years' of weblogs...: "So where does that leave us with weblogs vs. journalism? Well I still stand by my word - for the most part proper news gathering is better done by paid professionals with the budgets, access and accountability. There's still space for professionalism. And as soon as I find that professionalism evidencing itself in the opinion section of the BBC News Technology supplement, I'll let you know..."

2003-08-12T05:54:00.000+10:00

Blogging Reports Erroneous

Radio Free Blogistan: Tom Coates fact-checks the BBC: "The gaffe this time? A bunch of brainless copy form Bill Thompson at the BBC (All over for blogs?), in which he wonders how webloggers have kept it up for two long years now with only their cats to blog about. What exercises Tom is this idea that blogging has only been around for two years, when it was six years ago that Jorn Barger gave 'web log' its new connotation (before that it was - and still is - sometimes used to refer to server logs), and some consider the first What's New page at CERN to have been the first weblog over twelve years ago, blah blah."

2003-08-11T09:30:00.000+10:00

Anil Dash Comment on Owning Hosting

Radio Free Blogistan: Robb's Law: "Wouldn't a more sensible policy be to just be sure of the terms on which your weblog's hosted? I mean, there's hundreds of thousands of sites on blogspot that are run by people who don't own Google, but that doesn't mean they're in any danger, assuming Google's a going concern, right? I'd trust Google's server farm over some random fly-by-night hosting company."

2003-08-11T09:29:00.000+10:00

Robb's Law

Radio Free Blogistan: Robb's Law: "Robb's Law NEVER (under any circumstances) publish a weblog to a domain that you don't control. - John Robb I hereby christen the above quotation Robb's Law or Robb's Law of Weblog Hosting in full. I suppose it could be broadeneed to web publishing in general. I certainly think owning your own domains and when possible running your own servers is the ideal scenario for any web publisher."

2003-08-11T09:28:00.000+10:00

Domain Ownership

The Importance of Domain Ownership : "The Importance of Domain Ownership http://www.satn.org/archive/2003_07_20_archive.html"

2003-08-11T09:26:00.000+10:00

John Robb's Law

Burningbird: John Robb's new Location: "John Robb, in his new weblog location, wrote: NEVER (under any circumstances) publish a weblog to a domain that you don't control. Considering that the majority of webloggers publish to domains they don't control (i.e. blogspot, Bloghorn, Live Journal, JournURL, AOL, and even John's new effort at Mindplex), this might be a bit difficult for most folks to follow. Difficult, but not impossible, if a few rules were agreed to by weblogging tool builders and hosts:"

2003-08-11T09:18:00.000+10:00

John Robb's Cut from the Past

Weblogging for Poets: Weblog Links: Part 1 -- The Impermanence of Permalinks: "This happened recently with a well-known weblogger, John Robb. When John left his old employer, Userland, his Userland-hosted weblog was literally yanked from the server. No one knew where he was; no one knew how to find him. It took a combination of emails and links and word of mouth among the webloggers before we re-discovered him, and I imagine that he's still listed as 'missing in action' in more than one blogroll."

2003-08-11T09:16:00.000+10:00

Changing Weblog Addresses

Weblogging for Poets: Weblog Links: Part 1 -- The Impermanence of Permalinks: "Webloggers may vary in their support of technologies such as comments and trackbacks and RSS, but two things most agree on: weblogs support archives for older posts, and each post is accessible individually with a URL called a permalink. In fact, it is these two items that give all webloggers pause before they switch from one weblogging tool to another -- none of the weblogging tools support a standardized permalink/archive structure, and moving can result in that horror of all horrors for webloggers -- broken permalinks."

2003-08-11T06:39:00.000+10:00

Great Movie -- I also watched it

: "Last night I watched Frida, a beautiful movie about art. I am a big fan of the two main characters in the movie, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. I love the style of their art, the Mexican themes and colors, their joy of life, the solitary suffering. The thing that was so cool about the movie is that it came from Hollywood and didn't fit into the usual mindless template that they repeat over and over, inspired by Star Wars. And they exposed the theme that's the secret to bliss between the genders. See the apparent flaws as the source of beauty."

2003-08-11T06:20:00.000+10:00

Ordinary People Making the News

OJR article: What is Participatory Journalism?: "Part of the problem in the is-it-or-isn't-it-journalism debate arises from the relatively new idea of ordinary people publishing online -- some of them reporting news. 'For the first time, people at the edges of the network have the ability to create their own news entities,' says Dan Gillmor, a San Jose Mercury News journalist who is writing a book about participatory journalism."

2003-08-11T06:18:00.000+10:00

Participatory Journalism

OJR article: What is Participatory Journalism?: "But when bloggers comment on and link to news stories, is that journalism? Usually no -- but it depends. When the blogger adds personal commentary that relies on original research, or if it is done by someone considered an authority on the subject, some would consider it journalism. When a blogger conducts a phone interview with a newsworthy subject and posts it to his Weblog -- or does some research to turn up the address, phone number and e-mail of an alleged rape victim, as a number of bloggers did in July -- some would consider those acts of journalism, too."

2003-08-11T06:08:00.000+10:00

Stealing the Freedom of the Internet

TOMPAINE.com - Stealing The Internet: "This new world of metering, monitoring and monetizing Internet content has prompted new business ventures, such as cable firms exploring partnerships with the videogame industry, where there's plenty of money to be made in high-volume interactive uses. In fact, the reason Hollywood has delayed the deployment of next-generation digital television, besides their fear of digital piracy, is they have not yet figured out how to impose their pricing model -- to extend their current distribution and sales monopoly."

2003-08-11T06:06:00.000+10:00

The Forthcoming Internet Revolution

Smart Mobs -: "eff Chester, executive director of The Center for Digital Democracy has written an eye-opener about Stealing The Internet. Ten years ago, in The Virtual Community, I wrote: ''What we know and do now is important because it is still possible for people around the world to make sure this new sphere of vital human discourse remains open to the citizens of the planet before the political and economic big boys seize it, censor it, meter it, and sell it back to us.' The window of opportunity to defend the freedom of citizens to publish, debate, broadcast, and organize is closing rapidly."

2003-08-10T08:46:00.000+10:00

THE RSS DEBATE

Battle of the blog | CNET News.com: "As commercial interests have increasingly dominated the Internet, Web logs have come to represent a bastion of individual expression and pure democracy for millions of bloggers."

2003-08-10T07:57:00.000+10:00

GOOD ARTICLE on SIGNIFICANCE OF BLOGS

The Death Of The Webmaster: Why Weblogs Bring A True Revolution To Internet Publishing - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings: "The Death Of The Webmaster: Why Weblogs Bring A True Revolution To Internet Publishing"

2003-08-09T05:08:00.000+10:00

SEEDING AOL BLOGS

WHATEVER: Now It Can Be Told: "To expand: As many of you know, America Online has built a new blogging tool and area, which it is calling AOL Journals. Jeff Jarvis and other selected bloggers got a peek at the tool a little while back (here Jeff's entry on it, as well as his AOL beta blog); and the buzz was pretty good -- the general consensus was that AOL was making a pretty good attempt to provide a useful and usable tool for its members. Well, to that end, consider me an extension of that attempt for the usefulness and usability of AOL Journals; broadly speaking, my job will be to show AOL members how blogging and journaling is done, both by example (i.e., by blogging and opining myself) and by acting as a sort of tutor/instigator/spotlight operator for AOL Journals. I'll also be doing time as a general cheerleader for the concept of writing online in all its forms."

2003-08-09T05:02:00.000+10:00

GOOGLETTE

Google: Director, Product Management, Googlette: "Director of Product Management, Googlette What is a Googlette? It's a new business inside of Google that is just getting started â€“ the start-up within the start-up. We're looking for an experienced, entrepreneurial manager capable of offering direction to a team of PMs working on a wide array of Googlettes. You will define Google's innovation engine and grow the leaders of our next generation of businesses."

2003-08-09T04:52:00.000+10:00

CANNOT USE EBAY IN GOOGLE ADS

Paid Search and Normative Use: "EBay has apparently requested that Google remove EBAY as a keyword that can be purchased through the AdWord program, thus affecting the EBAY cottage industry. As one vendor of eBay ancillary software notes, the irony is that EBAY is itself a heavy purchaser of third-party trademarks (the example of GUCCI given in the article appears to have changed - I just put in PRADA and got an EBAY ad). Not only that, but without commenting on the applicability of this provision to eBay, I note that search engines' relevancy policies tend to frown on the purchase of keywords by other search engines (in eBay's defense, it's 'landing pages' do provide information relevant to the searched term)."

2003-08-07T08:39:00.000+10:00

Google News Alerts

Jeremy Zawodny's blog: Google News Alerts: "Launched today on Google Labs is Google News Alerts. Google News Alerts are sent by email when news articles appear online that match the topics you specify. Some handy uses of Google News Alerts include: * monitoring a developing news story * keeping current on a competitor or industry * getting the latest on a celebrity or event * keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams Too bad it doesn't search blogs too, huh?"

2003-08-07T08:38:00.000+10:00

JUST HOPE SCO GETS MURDERED BY RED HAT AND OTHERS

John Robb on SCO Stock: "SCOs stock is zoooooming. There's money in them thar copyrights. I don't think most people understand the situation. SCO isn't going after the small fry that uses Linux because they don't have any money. They are going to start hammering businesses that would be happier paying $100,000 k in licensing fees rather than paying $100,000 k in lawyers fees, audit costs, and turmoil/confusion. I've seen this in action and it works."

2003-08-07T08:12:00.000+10:00

WHAT IS GOOGLE-WATCH?

In my and most other people's opinion, one man's opinion that is mostly erroneous and wrong. He knows squat about me and yet has the gall to advertise things that are totally false.

Google Watch Watch: "Meet Daniel Brandt. He is a self-proclaimed public interest activist and the owner of Google-Watch.org Mr. Brandt founded Google-Watch.org after his own site, Namebase.org, did not get a good Google PageRank. Promoting his site or putting more work into it apparently never entered Mr. Brandt's mind, instead he decided that the fault wasn't with his site, but rather with Google. Thus he has started a campaign that badmouths the search engine and complains that its ranking algorithms are unfair. Unfair to whom? Well to Mr. Brandt's site that's who."

2003-08-07T08:06:00.000+10:00

ABOUT TIME SOMEONE POINTED OUT THE REALITY WITH GOOGLE WATCH

Watchdog-watchdog on GoogleWatch: "One of the interesting items: a heads-up on a new watchdog-watchdog site called Google Watch Watch at www.google-watch-watch.org. One article doesn't a website make, but anything that acts as a counterweight to Daniel Brandt's one-sided rants (which masquerade under the guise of public interest) is fine by me."

2003-08-07T07:01:00.000+10:00

Technology like the phone system will not die -- just used a differen way

textually.org: Millions use only their cell

Mobile Tracker comments on a Wired article on something most people already knew—the amount of people who have had enough of landlines. According to the article, there are "as many as 7.5 million Americans who have "cut the cord" and gone solo with their cells."

Interestly enough cell phones already compose of 43% of all phones in the US… With landlines dropping in numbers (down 5 million in the last 3 years), it’s just a matter of time before we’re all going to be wireless.

2003-08-07T06:57:00.000+10:00

Let's Hope that it is not based on Windows Software that crashes 30 million times a day

Smart Mobs -: "This new high-tech robot is currently being tested at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. And so far, it has visited 20 pleased patients."

2003-08-07T06:41:00.000+10:00

BUILD NEW CODE TO AVOID INFRINGEMENT

SCO Copyright Claims Questioned: "Also, if it turns out there is any infringing material in the Linux program, the coders would repair any such infringement and then distribute non-infringing versions of the work, something that normally happens when there is a copyright violation, he said."

2003-08-07T06:37:00.000+10:00

RED HAT USERS NOT INFRINGING

SCO Copyright Claims Questioned: "Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day told eWEEK on Monday that it has still not seen any of the offending Unix code and has complete confidence that its Linux offerings do not infringe any other intellectual property rights. 'We see no validity in their claims and we therefore see no reason for our customers to feel that they need to buy a license from SCO,' she said."

2003-08-07T05:58:00.000+10:00

THE POWER OF BLOGGING

ON ANIL DASH: "Anil Dash (on the fourth anniversary of Dashes): 'I've made lots of great friends through this weblog, gotten a dream job, and improved my life in countless other immeasurable ways.' [via Hylton Joliffe]"

2003-08-07T05:57:00.000+10:00

Thirty billion Windows crashes a Year

Magic Number: 30 Billion: "My guess is that XP crashes do not represent 35 percent of total crashes. XP should be responsible for fewer such incidents than legacy versions of Windows, although the jury is still out on whether XP dies more often or less often than Windows 2000. From my experience, the number of crashes for each operating system is about equal. But the majority of legacy systems out there run Windows 98 with some Windows 95 holdouts and a few operating on Windows Me. These machines bomb more than XPâ€”that's for sure. Windows 98 represents about 25 percent of the market at this point. It has to crash 10 to 20 percent more often than XP. I think that when we put all the numbers together, we can estimate that there are a minimum of 30 billion Windows system crashes a year."

2003-08-07T05:53:00.000+10:00

How Many Windows Crashes a Year

Thirty Billion Times: "Like so many others, I laughed/cried at Marc Pilgrim's guide to installing Windows XP in 5 hours or less. An apt accompaniment would seem to be John Dvorak's August 4 column ('Magic Number: 30 Billion'), in which he works out, and puts in perspective, the estimated number of Windows system crashes per year. ('To give you an idea of how ridiculous that number is, here are few comparisons....')"

Another reason to install Linux today.

2003-08-07T05:47:00.000+10:00

All the more reason to install Linux Now

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Europe Taking on Microsoft?: "It probably won't matter. Microsoft can use the legal system there the same way it's used the system here -- fight like hell, delay wherever possible and stall when the inevitable settlement is written. And then, of course, fail to honor the terms of the settlement, forcing the legal system to step in again. So by the time any serious action is undertaken, it's too late. Worked pretty well in the U.S., except that Microsoft got the government itself to change sides. Let's see, $50 billion in cash, and counting, and more power than ever in its monopoly markets, plus real (if not yet appreciated) inroads into vital new markets."

2003-08-07T05:44:00.000+10:00

Personal Blogging Missing

OJR article: Dean'sÂ BlogÂ BuildsÂ Support Despite a Lack of Personal Input: "The former Vermont governor has a slick and informative Weblog, but if you hope to glean some insight about the man, you might be better off shaking hands with him in person."

2003-08-07T05:43:00.000+10:00

Staff Blogging - Ghost writing done poorly

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Dean Campaign Blog Isn't Candidate Blog: "The essential reality about the official Dean blog is that it's a campaign document, not a candidate document. Although Dean occasionally drops a comment or two on the thing, this is much more of an organizing tool than a compendium of the candidate's views, much less his innermost thoughts."

2003-08-06T06:03:00.000+10:00

Publishing Using the Email Interface

: "I suspect the next step with Newsgator is to add publishing to a weblog via e-mail (Manila, Blogger, and MT). Despite what people say about MS Word, the primary text editor people use is their e-mail system. Given the direction of Newsgator, e-mail posting to weblogs is a natural evolution of the product."

2003-08-06T06:00:00.000+10:00

Kotte.org Expert Listings in Google

Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert (kottke.org)

Google doesn't think anything about you . . . it just lists what it locates through its robot. So, Google can't help it if you splatter your brains on the wall -- googlebot locates that splatter and reports it. It is up to you to generate text that displays your expertise.

2003-08-06T05:49:00.000+10:00

Ross Mayfield on Play

: "July 28-Aug 1: The Future of Work is Play * Pat Kane, author of the forthcoming book, The Play Ethic: Living Creatively in the New Century (MacMillan 2004). 'Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society - our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value.' See Brain Waves Post: Harry Potter and the Rise of Kidults"

2003-08-06T05:47:00.000+10:00

Play The future of Production

T H E P L A Y E T H I C: "PAT KANE, 38, is director of ThePlayEthic.com, a cultural consultancy based in Glasgow, Scotland. Since its founding in October 2000, Pat Kane's clients have included Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Lowe Lintas, St.Luke's, Demos, Forum for the Future, the Design Council, Poiesis, The Strategic Futures Unit @ The Cabinet Office, International Futures Forum/BP, and the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA)."

2003-08-05T16:21:00.000+10:00

Google is not a one-word wonder either

Evhead on Google: "After just discussing (again) whether or not blogs were clogging Google, with a reporter, a thought occurred to me: The first-name testâ€”e.g., saying Steven Johnson shouldn't show up before Steven Spielberg, because Steven Spielberg is clearly more famousâ€”sounds interesting, but it misses something: That's not what Google is for. Google is not a famousness-ranking-by-first-name engine. It's a search engine. And if you're searching for information about Steven Spielberg, you're not going to do it by just entering his first name. And even if you don't know how to spell his last name, Google does. 'Ownership,' in Google, of first names is an entertaining ego-stroking diversion by bloggers, but it probably has very little relevance for people trying to find information."

2003-08-05T08:45:00.000+10:00

Synonyms in Google

Waxy.org: Daily Log: Fun with Google's New Synonym Operator: "Curious about what synonyms Google is using for its new synonym operator? Try searching for your synonym keyword and then exclude the same keyword from results, like so:"

2003-08-05T08:42:00.000+10:00

Search with Synonyms in Google

Big News! New Google Operator (Google Weblog): "Today, Google introduced a new advanced search feature that enables users to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. This is accomplished by placing a ~ character directly in front of the keyword in the search box. For example, to search for browser help as well as browser guides and tutorials users can search for browser ~help. The ~ character was chosen because it's shorthand for approximate and a good way for users to express their wish to expand searches to include synonyms. More information about this feature is available."

2003-08-05T08:38:00.000+10:00

NEWS ITEM ON GOOGLE ADSENSE

If You Liked the Web Page, You'll Love the Ad: "wo Internet companies, Google and Overture, have made a brisk business of selling ads that appear alongside Web search results. But so far, the big customers for these ad services have been online merchants and operators of search sites. Now, though, online publishers are beginning to sense the possibilities of having Google or Overture serve ads to their audiences."

2003-08-05T06:13:00.000+10:00

NEW SITE ON PERSONAL JOURNALISM

The Blogonian: "Blogware in Beta Web host and resellerTuCows is rolling its own self-publishing application, called Blogware. Ross Rader's Random Bytes and Joey deVilla's The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century seem to be the first sites. The system is only available wholesale and, according to the authors, not yet ready for prime time."

2003-08-04T18:16:00.000+10:00

TypePad Preview Release Launch

Joi Ito's Web: Type Preview Release Launch: "TypePad registration will open on Monday, August 4 at 11:59 pm (Pacific) as a Preview Release. Features will continue to be added and the system will still be considered to be under development, but the service will be open for any user to sign up."

2003-08-04T18:10:00.000+10:00

BLOGS DO GET READ REGARDLESS OF YOUR INTEREST

Blogs Do Get Read: "'Some of you are probably thinking that no one will read what you have to say. When I started my blog, Open Stacks, I shared your skepticism. As it turns out, no matter who you are and what you write about, there will be others who share your interests. I was surprised to discover that, as a librarian, you already have a built-in community of people interested in you and your perspective. You can, and probably will, meet people that you may not have met otherwise, becoming part of a very progressive segment of the LIS community...."

2003-08-04T17:59:00.000+10:00

SELLING EBOOKS TO EDUCATORS DIFFICULT

Selling to educators: "Lora has a great rant about the difficulty that this industry has in getting educators to buy technology (in this case eBooks)."

2003-08-04T05:43:00.000+10:00

Visual Trickery

The Moving Still: "You think it's moving... http://www.blogt.nl/images/juli2003/raareffect.jpg ... but it's not. Posted by Jason Jordan at July 26, 2003 03:35 PM"

2003-08-04T05:41:00.000+10:00

Walking Characters

"Cool": "Cool"

2003-08-04T05:40:00.000+10:00

Visual Trickery

: "You think it's moving... http://www.blogt.nl/images/juli2003/raareffect.jpg ... but it's not. Posted by Jason Jordan at July 26, 2003 03:35 PM"

2003-08-04T04:44:00.000+10:00

Collection of Logos Worldwide

www.logotypes.ru

2003-08-04T04:26:00.000+10:00

Localization Not Appreciated in India

Popular search engine throws a googly: "n the meanwhile a controversy of sorts is brewing over the fact that Google India serves a Hindi version of the page by default. Many feel that Hindi is not a majority language for Indian Web users. Suresh points out that a) most of India's online population is English literate, b) Hindi is not a language that's spoken by a huge number of Indians and c) several people prefer English on the whole. 'No. It's not a very good move on Google's part.'"

2003-08-04T04:23:00.000+10:00

Popularity of Google Hacks

anil dash - archives: "I'm kind of creeped out by how pervasive the weblog influence is in some circles... I had just hopped on a plane the other morning and was settling in when the guy next to me pulled his book out of his bag and I noticed that it was Google Hacks. I asked him what he thought of the book and he replied that he'd just started it, but that it seemed really good. I explained I was curious because I'd liked the book and knew the editor, and he became more effusive. As it turned out, the guy works at another search company and saw the book as a brainstorming guide."

2003-08-03T05:19:00.000+10:00

Is this an indication Google is busted?

Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert (kottke.org): "Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert posted August 01, 2003 at 03:30 pm ET"

2003-08-03T05:17:00.000+10:00

GOOGLE OPINION ON EXPERT FIELDS

Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert (kottke.org): "Topics on which Google thinks I am an expert posted August 01, 2003 at 03:30 pm ET"

2003-08-02T05:16:00.000+10:00

Yahoo and MSN Gang Up on Google

Get Google - How Yahoo and MSN Plan to Go After Google: "The battle between Yahoo, MSN and Google continues to heat up and Google is now finding itself on the losing end of the stick more often than not. Over the past few weeks we've covered acquisitions, mergers and buy-outs. This week, we're looking at some of the new strategies being used by Yahoo and MSN or companies associated with them to go after Google."

2003-08-02T04:52:00.000+10:00

GRAB A NICHE

Ex Libris--an E-Zine for Librarians and Information Junkies -- issue 185: "By all means, we should use the web to stake our claim on a particular information niche and make ourselves known to our peers. But more importantly, we should use it to stake our library's claim to the right to exist, by providing information that is absolutely critical to our community, right now, and then promoting it like crazy."

2003-08-01T06:54:00.000+10:00

Pointer to AOL New Blogs: "AOL Journals demo. Here is the home page for AOL Journals. Here are lots of screen captures depicting the AOL Journal editing interface (thanks Matt):"

2003-08-01T06:44:00.000+10:00

The BloggerCon 2003 Weblog: Postcard Back 1: "The BloggerCon 2003 Weblog"

2003-08-01T06:38:00.000+10:00

: "For some bloggers, just writing is enough. For most of us, though, we're looking to the blogosphere to provide us with useful and interesting information, education, entertainment and/or inspiration for our writing, and feedback, a critical audience, and help with the creative and publishing process. That process looks (to me at least) something like this:"

2003-08-01T06:24:00.000+10:00

AOL MISSES THE POINT -- WHERE IS THE POWER?

: "AOL Journals. Here are lots of screen captures depicting the AOL Journal editing interface (thanks Matt):"

2003-08-01T06:18:00.000+10:00

VIRAL PARODY -- BRINGS HUMMER TO THE FORE

Hummerdinger - Sierra Club: "Although the Hummer gets only around 10 miles to the gallon, compared to 25 in the original Model T, General Motors insists that it has not fallen behind on the technology curve. The new Hummer sports advanced tailfin designs, a dent-resistant bumper and 7-inch halogen head lamps. Nevertheless, with gas prices edging up towards 35 cents a gallon, consumers may not be as willing to sacrifice fuel economy."

2003-08-01T06:11:00.000+10:00

BASICS OF NEW MEDIA -- VIRAL ACTIVITY

: "A big virus Emphasis on the big part. Hummer Parody. I think the interesting part is an ordinarily staid non-profit can find a way to interact with a large number of people by doing something that seems risky. Of course, it's a safe strategy, compared to buying yet another ad, anyway. Worth clicking through to the Experiment, the agency that built the site. A little too much self-reflection on the site, but also a neat way to look at how the death of advertising is changing the very agencies that make it."

2003-08-01T06:02:00.000+10:00

RDF SUCKS -- WHO IN THE WORLD KNOWS WHAT RDF IS? -- ONLY GEEKS

: "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."

2003-08-01T06:00:00.000+10:00

WHY THIS EMPHASIS ON EDITORS? UNDER PRESSURE FROM ALL THESE ONLINE JOURNALS THAT DO NTO HAVE EDITORS?

Poynter Online - The Power of Editing: "The work of a good editor, like the work of a good teacher, does not reveal itself directly. It is reflected in the accomplishments of others. Bob Gerdy was a consummately good editor. He had the qualities that were needed. He was generous, he was sensitive, he was tactful, he was modest, he was patient, he was imaginative, he was unfailingly tuned in. He never suffered from the editor's occupational delusion that he is writing as the writer's work. He found his own joy in helping other people bring their writings to a state of something like perfection."

2003-08-01T05:59:00.000+10:00

THE IMPORTANCE OF DOMAIN NAME CARE -- THIS IS YOUR BRAND ONLINE

: "Tuesday, July 29, 2003 Meme Watch: Weapons of Mass Distraction EasyJets ads may be confusing but they are not offensive. While reprimanded for ads that don't clearly disclose fare information, its ads that disclose women's breasts with the tagline 'Discover Weapons of Mass Distraction' were found by the UK Advertising Advertising Authority to be distasteful but not offensive. Via AdRants. JupiterResearch reports that the woman whose breasts they were wasn't aware those were her breasts in the ad. People have filed U.S. trademark applications for WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WEAPONS OF MASS CONSTRUCTION and WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION, but have not yet filed for WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION. 9:32:34 PM Gallons per Mile Parody The Sierra Club advises us that: Hummerdinger.com is a work of parody and is in no way affiliated with or authorized by General Motors Corporation, as far as we know. Also, any resemblances or similarities between this aforementioned work of parody and real life are either a) crafted with satiric intent or b) complete and utter coincidence. 9:13:19 PM League of Extraordinary Derivative Works of Public Domain Materials Via Prof. Lessig's blog, a movie review from Newsweek of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN. It is not a rave review of the movie, but it is a rave review of artists reworking material in the public domain. Tidbit: The movie has a character referred to AN INVISIBLE MAN because of prior rights in THE INVISIBLE MAN. 5:20:54 PM Ultimate Search and the Skeletons of Domain Names When domain names expire they leave skeletons - networks of inbound links that continue to funnel traffic to that name, even if ownership has changed. Via eWeek, we learn that Microsoft owned HARDWARE-UPDATE.COM and used the name for a site featuring Windows drivers. The domain name is embedded in various error messages in Windows 2000. However, Microsoft did not renew the domain name and Ultimate Search, a company that specializes in this sort of thing, scooped it up. Now the page provides sponsored links, courtesy of Overture. The article reports that the top sponsored link pays over $3 a click-through. 4:58:06 PM"

2003-07-31T19:45:00.000+10:00

CYCLE OF BLOGGING

via Shifted Librarian

: Is Blogging Cyclical? Duh. weblog churn and activity distributions 'prompted in part by a fantastic post by cameron 'blogdex' marlow on weblog churn rates , maciej ceglowski does some calculations on a subset of the blogcensus data and finds that 1 in 3 blogs are likely, '...abandoned, unused, or very much out of date...' and that around 8 weeks since the last post seems to be a good arbitrary point for determining whether or not a blog is 'active'.' [snowdeal.org > ex machina] And does the 13-month anniversary of a blog mark the hurdle for achieving long-term blogging?"

2003-07-31T13:06:00.000+10:00

RDF -- THE BOOK

XML.com: RDF: Ready for Prime Time [Jul. 30, 2003]: "It's funny in a way, but I can sit down and rattle off a dozen uses for the RDF data model and the associated RDF/XML without once mentioning its primary purpose, which is to provide support for the Semantic Web efforts. All uses of RDF for any purpose are good because they increase our familiarity with the specification as well as the syntax. In addition, applications that increase the level of RDF/XML out on the web add to the pool of accessible data on which we are slowly building the Semantic Web. Through the use of RDF, we know that all of the vocabularies are compatible. Beyond these good and practical uses of RDF I've described earlier in the article, and unlike XML or HTML or XHTML, the RDF model, and its associated syntax, brings with it the ability to define statements about data, rather than to just record pieces of data. Add to this the use of OWL, and we begin to have the ability to mine for knowledge, not just words."

2003-07-31T13:00:00.000+10:00

Mozilla Comparison with Netscape Version

Blogcritics.org: Mozilla Fights Pop-ups, Spam: "The Mozilla browser and e-mail package is essentially the same as Netscape 7; in fact, Netscape 7 was developed from the Mozilla software code. Mozilla/Netscape used to be part of the AOL/Time Warner empire, but was cut loose in July, 2003 into its own non-profit organization, the Mozilla Foundation at http://www.mozilla.org/"

2003-07-31T09:37:00.000+10:00

Celebrity Styled Bloggering

: "Coulter, gagged : I have the TV on behind me. Ann Coulter is on FoxNews. I don't know what makes me think this but, I swear, she sounds constipated. : Maybe that's why she has never put a post on her weblog, which was announced with much fanfare back on June 23. : Meanwhile, Geraldo Rivera hasn't updated his weblog since April 24."