AKA the links from this month’s IRN that I find most intriguing:
Category: internet
The Library of Congress celebrates its 207th birthday by … launching a blog! GNC reports:/
site: Library of Congress Blog
An blog devoted to library videos? You bet! Plus I get to test out Scribefire, another Firefox extension. Seems a bit more extensive than Clipmarks, though no more complicated. Hurray for fancy webiness.
Categories
RSS? WTF!?
From lisnews.org
Do you have three minutes to learn about these three letters: RSS? Watch the Common Craft Show and let Lee LeFever explain the concept of updates from your favorite websites coming to you. He does it with a delightful mix of low- and hi-tech (i.e. paper and online video) tools.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the incredible number of library and library-related (and heck, information-related) websites out there, then perhaps libSite, which launched just today, will be able to ease your anxiety. Among the services it lists, libSite allows users to recommend sites, rate other people’s sites, save sites to a favorites list, create rss feeds and email alerts, and more. You can also create a libSite widget to put on your homepage, keeping you and your users up to date of the newest library-related sites to make the list.
It seemed a fitting diversion to stop in and mention it, since otherwise I’m sitting here trying to write a paper on what the next ten years hold for library services and collections. I don’t know if libSite is it, per se, but it’s certainly facing in the right general direction, plus you don’t have to wait ten years. That’s always nice.
Check it out now: libSite.org.
You can also check out the widget over on my sidebar. Neat-o.
Old Gregg, from The Mighty Boosh! Just more proof that the British are batshit insane.
I’m really interested in talking about Seth Godin’s blog about “High resolution mistakes”, and how concern about metrics, and drawing the Digg crowd (or blogging for popularity in general), can ruin what might otherwise be an entertaining, personal blog. I mean, if you can write, you can write, and you can find stories in your life that are interesting. Following the cookie cutter model to popular blogging means you’ll just end up with another robotic technopolisci blog among thousands. I like his list of “common metrics”, and their possible real points, but to me the crux of his article lies here:
There are literally millions of bloggers that have become so focused on measurable traffic that they end up posting nonsense designed to do nothing but attract a Digg. Look back at a blog like that a month later and it appears to be a series of gimmicks, all designed to maximize a metric that’s almost totally irrelevant to what the blogger set out to do in the first place.
I wanted to be popular once. Thankfully, these days I just want to be me.
Crossstitch has way too many S’s in a row. I kinda dig it. But wanna know what I really dig?
I really dig this I am 10 ninja crossstitch idea. Seriously, if someone wanted to do something like this, say for my birthday, in April, or just because it’s awesome, and I’m usually awesome, and it would therefore (usually) suit me – well, then I wouldn’t complain at all.
Also, while we’re on the subject; I know I’ve linked to it before, but it’s been awhile: Subversive Crossstitch
Go nuts.
Today’s comic over at Penny Arcade is both amusing and topical. Buzz marketing and fake viral advertising is the most worrisome and morally corrupt way to get at consumers, ever. As always, Tycho’s comments are also incredibly worthwhile.
Opinions on the internet are huge. They’re powerful. When I want to buy something on Amazon, the choice is made or broken by how people have rated it and how they’ve reviewed it. I bought a new digital camera recently, and a large part of the decision process was other (assumed) camera owners describing their experience with the camera. I was aware the entire time that people get paid to do this (I have been ever since I read William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition), and I would be lying if I said that it didn’t make me uneasy, but the fact remains that user reviews are the most current, unbiased, and broad-spectrum way to learn how worthwhile an item is in the hands of your average user.
Thankfully, the FTC is moving on the issue, or at least taking some tentative first steps. Force needs to be brought to bear on both advertising and product companies to let them know that marketing via anonymous, paid comments will not be allowed. The internet is a large conversation, taking place simultaneously among thousands of people across the world. Between folksonomically-tagged content, sites ranked in relevance to the number of people talking about them, and user-ranked consumerism, the voice of the individual stands out more, day after day, in this global conversation. It’s important then, in terms of this conversation, to know exactly who is speaking, and what agenda they’re harboring.
Why does a person do a Google search for cake pony, and then link to my blog from the results, despite the fact that my blog is something like the 54th item on the list? Is my cake pony reference somehow better than everyone else’s cake pony references? Have I definatively defined the cake pony blogging experience?
Somehow I doubt it. Sadly, it will likely always remain a mystery.
My thoughts and condolences go out to the victims of yesterday’s attack. I’ve spent the past hour or so reading Gill’s online journal and looking at his pictures. I really don’t understand what drives a person to such acts of violence, but then, I don’t think I’m capable of any form of actual violence, on even the smallest level. I wish that people realized that there are other options and other ways to be. I wish we could always show each other kindness and compassion. I wish that we would respond to … well, President Clinton was quoted by Sarah Vowell in her essay Ike was a handsome man, and perhaps he said it best (at that time at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial service):
When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death let us honor life.
I’m avoiding linking to articles about it. The news is too sad as it is, and certainly easy enough to find and even hard to avoid. As for me, I’m fine, alive, and not afraid. I’m just so sad that things like this happen to people, both the victims and the shooter. Why must it come to this? It’s a question with no good answer.
Hy hy, I'v got m som Flickr powr going on! That includs picturs from my trip across th country! Chck 'm out, and b sur to chck back for updats.
The Dada Detective hits 100 strips, and catches my attention. It's about a detective hired by a French Mime to find her missing duck. Absurdism and punishness abound, and he drinks from a bottle labeled, Old Andalusian Dog. In case you don't get it.
The Perry Bible Fellowship, which recently one some WCCA award or another, has its new website which you'll be pleased to learn allows for direct linking to specific comics, something the old site didn't support. Now you can share your favorite PBFs with ease, so get to it!
Achewood joins Webcomics Nation. Somehow, Onstad doing anything not entirely on his own seems incredibly weird to me, maybe because Achewood is just so damned strange and, even though I read his semi-normal blog, I still can't imagine having a conversation with the guy. Still, I wish him luck, and I wish Webcomics Nation luck too, just in case. You never know with these guys.
Adultwebcomics.com. I think that speaks for itself. Their first comic is called Jess Fink's Dirty Limericks, which I can't check out yet due to my current locale (i.e. work), but it sounds promising.
(links via lore and comixpedia)
The LA Times story by Claire Hoffman on Joe Francis and Girls Gone Wild has really been getting a lot of press lately. I've gotten a lot of hits on my write-up about it, mostly from the Chicagoist post which was nice enough to throw me a link. Pandagon also has an interesting take on it, stating that for Joe Francis the main pleasure in Girls Gone Wild is actually in forcing women to do things they don't actually want to do. While I'd love to agree with Amanda on this, I think that in this case it's really too easy to villainize Francis, letting the women completely off the hook. One must bear in mind that the places in which Girls Gone Wild operates are the sorts of places where people frequently "get wild". There are always more private, demure clubs for the girls who really are not interested in flashing their boobies.
On sort of a different side of the issue, John at Dealbreaker.com states that even Francis's business philosophy is full of crap.
Girls Gone Wild came to Olympia once, not too long ago, to the now-vanished (not surprising) Barcode. People got arrested, and the bar was practically fined out of existence for allowing nudity, sex, raucous behavior, and other sundry perversions. Good on ya, Olympia.
Diesel Sweeties covers Girls Gone Wild, which makes sense because R. Stevens' blog was the first place I saw the article linked. Quote of the day is definately: "My dignity fits me better." Hooray for dignity!
If I would keep up with my webcomics in a more timely fashion (silly me, I must be busy getting ready to MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY), I would have noticed that Jeffry "Snakes on a mutha' fuckin' plane" Rowland has also, in webcomics form, stepped up the assault on Joe Francis. For those not in the know, The Poopmonster (aka R. Stevens) is the one who strangles Joe Francis from behind in panel 5.
I'm sure there are plenty more webcomics out there using their voices to shout down Joe Francis, Girls Gone Wild, and inebriated booby-bobbing. Which is one of the greatest things about webcomics, really. They're funny, sure, but they're pertinent as well!
Yesterday was Ze's 100th "the show". It's vlogging at its best, funnier and with faster download times than Amanda Congdon! On top of the humor aspect of the site, Ze's doing some interesting things with interactive content, including but not limited to a worldwide project to make an earth sandwich and playing a game of chess over a wiki. Talk about vlog 2.0!
Ze's been on the web for a long time, being goofy. In fact, I linked to him back in December of 2004. Go me!
Lore reports that Warren Ellis is starting a comics collective called, as you may have guessed from the title, Rocket Pirates! Submissions are open, and will remain open indefinately, or as Warren puts it: "The submissions process will remain permanently open. Unless, you know, I change my mind. I am unpredictable and I drink a lot."
All comics on the collective will be free to access, at all times, which is, in my humble opinion, the only way to go. I guess I wasn't busy enough, after all. Time to get cracking on those solo comic projects I've been dreaming up! Or get Theo motivated, but honestly, that could be a whole lot more difficult.
If you haven't seen it, feel free to check out the comic Theo and I did between October 2005 and May 2006. It had its good moments. 🙂
On the evening of July 27th, the Deleting Online Predators Act passed in the House with 410-15-7; otherwise known as a ridiculously gigantic margin. The bill, which is incredibly vague, threatens once again federal internet subsidies for schools and libraries unless they take measures to block social networking sites and chatrooms. The goal is to block children, specifically; adults should still be able to ask permission to access the sites.
How many times are we going to try and put walls around the internet? How long will it take us to realize that our kids are smarter than we are and that the only way to really protect them is to be there, paying attention to their lives, and getting involved.
Though advocates for the bill constantly mentioned MySpace, the bill is broad enough that any site that allows "communication among users" could be blocked. In the Web2.0 world, this could mean pretty much every site out there, before too long. Blogs, forums, chat, IM, Skype, Amazon, Ebay, Livejournal, and online games are all at risk. Why not just outlaw the internet for anyone under 18 years of age, or better yet, 21, and see how much we've shot ourselves in the foot when, in less than a generation, we don't have any web innovators anymore.
From Library Journal:
"This unnecessary and overly broad legislation will hinder students' ability to engage in distance learning and block library computer users from accessing a wide array of essential Internet applications including instant messaging, email, wikis and blogs," said ALA president Leslie Burger. "Under DOPA, people who use library and school computers as their primary conduits to the Internet will be unfairly blocked from accessing some of the web's most powerful emerging technologies and learning applications. As libraries are already required to block content that is "harmful to minors" under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), DOPA is redundant and unnecessary legislation."
DOPA is in the senate now, and it needs to be stopped. Please make your voice heard on this one, or else it's another Patriot Act in the making.
ZDNet has a great rundown on DOPA if you want the background skinny.
(via geekaresexy)
Picking a WordPress theme is like buying a car. It feels like a big decision, and there are lots of shiny options available. Themes, of course, are much less expensive than cars, but to date they've also been more difficult to find. Most sites list themes by name, with little or no rating system and very few sorting options. I found this to be less than a little helpful and more than a lot aggravating. But that all changed on June 17th with the launch of the WP Theme Viewer.
Theme Viewer allows you to sort by any number of options, including number of columns, color, widget-readiness, width style, and even sidebar side-preference. You are also shown a thumbnail of the theme, the number of times it's been downloaded, and the average rating. The accompanying blog is handy for keeping up to date on changes, additions, and theme news.
Of course, if you're not that interested in searching and installing a theme yourself, updating to WordPress 2.0.3 offers fifty included themes, all washed and polished and ready to drive home today. This theme was one of them, and I'm quite fond of it so far.
While I'm talking about WordPress:
The WordPress Widgets Blog has updates and downloads of the newest widgets that you didn't know you needed.
Archivist is a plugin that allows you to post a selected number of random archived posts on your front page.
WP-Alexify pulls website thumbnails from Alexa.com and previews them when people scroll over your links.
EditorMonkey is a huge plugin that replaces the default WordPress text editor with a TinyMCE or FCKeditor WYSIWYG editor. It integrates spellcheck as well as find/replace and advanced link options, and is very customizable. (Evidently WordPress 2.1 will incorporate spellcheck as well, but why wait?)
The Feedburner Feed Replacement plugin allows you to route your RSS feed into Feedburner, which gives you many more options regarding your feed, as well as keeping track of feed statistics and making your feed universally readable. Note that while this plugin streamlines the process a bit that it isn't strictly necessary for setting up your WP blog with Feedburner. If you do end up using the Feedburner service, you should probably update your feeds autodiscovery links, as described here.
Google Sitemaps creates a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog.
Last but not least, Ultimate Tag Warrior, which has been around forever and may be the most well known plugin (after Akismet), lets you tag the holy hell out of your posts, and gives you plenty of options for how to display those tags (or not, as the case may be).
I may be a little plugin happy, I admit, but those are the ones I use and I love them all. I'm also planning on adding a "nicer archives" plugin, once I can find one that says it works in WordPress 2.0+, and I'd like a stat tracker as well. If you have suggestions for either, please do tell.
Pandora owns my heart when it comes to listening to music over the internet, but I allow myself certain infidelities from time to time. Mercora uses the power of Ajax in that effective manner that makes you wonder how pages managed to ever seem smooth before. The idea behind the site is interesting: the users are the DJs, the users are the listeners. Essentially it’s a peer-to-peer music-sharing service, but with streaming instead of torrenting, and legal listening instead of pirating. One perk over Pandora is that you can actually search out specific songs and play them on the spot. Instant gratification for your ears.
This is perhaps the best, most hilarious marketing website I’ve ever seen. Be sure to watch the music video, but pretty much everything on the site is top-rate humor.
(via Gizmodo)