Niall Kennedy's weblog, newest first. Page 48 of 72.
The Atom entry link structure detailed by Mark Pilgrim has some interesting search applications. What if the rel started to carry more meaning? You could then semantically track trends and soruces with less parsing, enabling new applications….
Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan have a map of The Simpsons’ hometown of Springfield. (via Slashdot) It even includes the Matlock Expressway!…
Steven Levy writes about Nick Denton and Gawker Media in Wired magazine. Writers are typically paid $1500 a month (contract, not full time) and build a reputation good enough for a traditional publisher. Levy estimates Gawker Media nets $80,000 per blog per year. “Denton’s move to professionalize blogs bestowed instant credibility on an unknown single-writer Web site.”…
Apple released Mac OS X v10.3.4 update today. Key enhancements: Improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS), PPTP, and wireless networksimproved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics driversImproved disc burning and recording functionalityiPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and iSyncAdditional FireWire audio and USB device compatibilityUpdated Address Book, Mail, Safari, Stickies, and QuickTime applications…
Vividence has a semi-annual report on the search industry. PDF link to report. In its May report Google received top rank for customer experience and satisfaction, and last for ad activity. Customer experience and satisfaction rankings: GoogleYahoo!Ask JeevesLycosMSN Ask Jeeves and MSN had a similar pre-search brand image, but MSN did not deliver the same post-search experience. 75% of users say they have one primary search engine. “Although actual search results returned by the leading five search engines do not differ substantially by some measures, Google users reported a higher perceived rate of success and satisfaction with search results.”…
Space.com: “The Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) is expected next month to certify that the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center as a non-federal spaceport to handle horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft.”…
ResponDesign plans to release Yourself!Fitnesss, a virtual personal trainer for your Xbox. Choose a backdrop and music track while Maya, your personal trainer, works through some of her 600 exercies. Eric Taub of the New York Times profiles Yourself!Fitness in today’s New York Times….
Google is reportedly preparing to release desktop search software: project Puffin. CNET News.com analyzes Google’s move to the desktop, similar attempts by other companies past and present, and why Google needs to make this move well before Longhorn ships….
Kendall Grant Clark, faculty research associate in the University of Maryland’s semantic web lab, wrote an interesting XML.com article about the courtship of Atom and who’s courting whom. FOAF plus Atom (or FOAF plus your favorite RSS flavor) is to the Semantic Web what home pages were to the Web. A machine-readable description of a person, plus a machine-readable version of that person’s web space, is enough Semantic Web for us to do really great things, whether or not the hard KR stuff ever amounts to anything at all. This idea is exactly what I was trying to get Technorati…
Next month’s Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference features a bird of a feather meeting on RSS, Web Services and Online Content in Cocoa Apps. I do not have a conference pass, but I will try to attend the exhibits and this BoF. This BoF discussion delves into recent developments in desktop applications that integrate with content and services on the Internet. Such applications include RSS readers like Shrook and NetNewsWire and weblog editing tools like Ecto and Xjournal. Come get answers and share ideas about rich network client design and implementation….
John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly have one whopper of a conference planned in October: Web 2.0. The speaker list is incredible, especially if you are interested in search technology. $1695 for the conference sessions only if you register before June 7. Registration is currently by invitation only. If I know you and you are interested in an invitation send me an e-mail….
Adam Baer of The New York Times writes about the MusicPad from FreeHand Systems. You simply touch the 12-inch LCD display or use a remote control to switch pages. In much the way that portable digital audio players have changed the way people consume tunes, tablets like the MusicPad are changing the way musicians use sheet music….
I attended the Technorati Developers Salon tonight in San Francisco. I arrived at a non-descript side entrance and rang an unlabeled call box. Kevin Marks answered the door, and I knew I was in the right place. After an hour of mingling, pizza, salad, and Anchor Steam, the group of about 40 people headed downstairs. Sputnik wireless access covered the entire two story office space. The office space is very large, considering Technorati employs only 8 people. They should be able to expand to 50 people at least in this office space. Dave Sifry started things off. Technorati picks up,…
Technorati released a new version of its APIs tonight. Details are available on the Technorati developers wiki. Use apibeta.technorati.com for now but, if there are no major issues, beta will end in about a week. Technorati will now return your query as RSS if you specify your format parameter. Data are returned in UTF-8 format. The new API has better error handling, including appropriate HTTP responses for bad data or no data. Outbound links are sorted by dates and duplicate links stripped. The new API also allows you to limit the number of returned items….
John Markoff of The New York Times writes about Puffin, Google’s consumer local search application expected any day now. Will it be ad free?…
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.”…
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….
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…
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…
The Seattle Times has a slideshow of the new Seattle Central Library. Vibrant colors, lots of glass. Hopefully user friendly too! (via Jason Kottke)…
Brand Marketers of San Francisco introduced the marketing world to moving image advertising on a t-shirt at E3 and Wired NextFest over the last week. Hollywood Reporter profiles the new technology. The t-shirts are embedded with 11-inch monitors and four stereo speakers and can play any type of media. Fox plans to use the devices to promote its upcoming movie, “I, Robot.” (via BoingBoing)…
Michael Schrage, codirector of the MIT Media Lab’s eMarkets Initiative, examines project management weblogs within Fortune 500 corporations. (via Slashdot)…
Sabra Chartrand of the New York Times: “University of Tulsa professor and a former graduate student of his won a patent for software that analyzes and monitors illegal music swapping on file-sharing networks, and then systematically inserts decoy files into the mix.”…
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…
Why has the world of online marketing not picked up on the image campaigns of radio stations and trade shows? There are individuals willing to wear your t-shirt, place a bumper sticker on their car, or answer their phone proclaiming their love for your product if there is a chance of a product giveaway reward for compliance. The street team, the random person in the trade show crowd that just might sight you and reward you with an iPod or free concert tickets. In the world of weblogs, a marketing company would team up with Technorati for a marketing campaign….