Minutes from New York City W3C Atom discussion

Minutes from today’s W3C Atom discussion in New York City are posted on the W3C site.

Eric Miller, W3C: “In the past 6 months, RDF support has gotten stronger. At the same time, I’ve talked with Tim Berners-Lee, and he has said this will not be done by fiat.”

Sam Ruby: “I would like to see more pull from W3C. Work on W3cCharter. IETF is a black hole. I’m not thrilled with them. But it has an external perception of being open.”

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac

I installed Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac last night. Notice how Microsoft’s site was last updated a month ago, and even though I have the product on my computer and it is selling in stores (#6 top seller on Amazon), I cannot read about the new program features on Microsoft’s own Web site. Bloggers within Microsoft did more to promote the released product than Microsoft corporate!

[Update: 10:05 PM] Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac is now live on Microsoft’s site.

Peter Loforte video demo Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005

Robert Scoble interviewed Peter Loforte, general manager of the Tablet PC team, and asked him to show off some of the new features of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. The interview is posted on Channel 9.

Context based inking is very cool. I did not know the level of context involved until I watched the video. Entering a state name in the United States? The recognizer will try to match your scribble to one of 50 options. Entering a URL? The recognizer was trained on top site URLs from around the world, and also checks your history for a possible close match.

Open wireless access point

Micah Joel of Salon promotes open wireless networks for his own personal security. “By making my Internet connection available to any and all who happen upon it, I have no way to be certain what kinds of songs, movies and pictures will be downloaded by other people using my IP address. And more important, my ISP has no way to be certain if it’s me.”

I am still torn. I use Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) Personal encryption at home. I live in an apartment building and others may be able to benefit from my wireless connection. Should I open my wireless access point?

Newsfeed reader user interface, improvements

I have three newsfeed readers open, subscribed to the same feeds, and each program presents each channel, and the items within, notably differently. I examined the default configuration of each application.

The traditional model is an alphabetical listing of all channels in a group. Channels with unread items are highlighted, and the number of unread items displayed. Ranchero Software’s NetNewsWire follows this model.

A modified model orders the channels by their latest item’s publish date. Graham Parks’ Shrook follows this model.

Freshly Squeezed Software’s PulpFiction displays items chronologically, without the navigation through channel listings. The item’s creator appears before the subscription.

I view these differences as a sign of personal reading habits. Some users choose a channel and then its item, others are in search of the freshest news. What does the future hold for newsfeed readers?

  1. Related feeds. A site has the same content available as summary or full in multiple syndication formats. Help me switch. There is a comment thread, a trackback, and a Technorati cosmos for this item. How do you tap into that information for the full discussion circle?
  2. Subject threads for all subscribed channels. Every post commenting on Movable Type 3 and pointing at the same location are grouped into a thread.
  3. Increased author importance. How do you establish your trusted news source, both by channel and by item creators within the channel? Can I subscribe to BoingBoing and only receive posts by Cory? Can I define category experts?
  4. Location search. This idea would be facilitated either by an extended Technorati profile or RSS namespace. Next time a major event happens, such as an earthquake in San Francisco, your source can be identified by proximity. This feature might also help determine if a user attends a conference or if they are commenting on an issue raised at the conference.
  5. Suggestion engine. Could utilize Alexa data in the first generation, for sites and/or authors on their own domain. People who visit Scripting.com also visit these sites.
  6. And of course better support for enclosures.