ResourceShelf, Aug. 22, 2003
Gary Price’s Resource Shelf always has interesting items. This one is
another example of how attempts to “filter” content on the web to make it “safe” have problems.
XML.com: What is RSS? [Dec. 18, 2002]
December 18, 2002,
by Mark Pilgrim
For those wanting to know which of the 7(!) different RSS specifications to use, this article is indispensable.
“RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it’s not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS….
“The name ‘RSS’ is an umbrella term for a format that spans several different versions of at least two different (but parallel) formats.”
For more, see overview article at CoverPages and the competing new format Pie/Echo/Atom project.
I thought I’d get into the act, since everyone’s talking about the recall. Here’s a site from the Sacremento Bee on news and information related to the CA recall.
XML.com: Should Atom Use RDF? [Aug. 20, 2003]
The “Syndicate this Site” link on this and many other blogs is based on a standard called “RSS,” a way to encode information in XML. RSS is five years old and there are several different versions still in common use. So, there are movements afoot to change the specification,
Atom being one of them.
RDF, The Resource Description Framework, “integrates a variety of applications from library catalogs and world-wide directories to syndication and aggregation of news, software, and content to personal collections of music, photos, and events using XML as an interchange syntax.” (See W3C.)
This article examines in some detail the technical issues involved.
It seems that PowerPoint is ubiquitous these days. Anyone who has had to sit through boring presentations with seemingly endless repetition of what the speaker says unnecessarily flashed on the wall will appreciate Edward Tufte’s newest work:
The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
Edward R. Tufte
Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press LLC, 2003.
$7 postpaid. 800-822-2454. http://www.edwardtufte.com
But it is, I think, even more important for anyone who uses PowerPoint to read this short (24 page) publication.
Tufte, is the author of such excellent books as Visual Explanations, and Envisioning Information, and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and has
received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design.
The Quiet War Over Open-Source (TechNews.com) By Jonathan Krim,
Washinton Post
Thursday, August 21, 2003; Page E01.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations and administers 23 international treaties dealing with different aspects of intellectual property protection. When a WIPO official
said that they welcomed a meeting to discuss open source software, lobbyists from Microsoft-funded trade groups started pushing officials at the State Department and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to squelch the meeting. The organization has said it no longer has plans for an open-source gathering.
See earlier post here
Everything considered harmful [dive into mark] a link to three new articles on xml.com as well as a laundry list of others things considered harmful–including “”Considered Harmful” Essays Considered Harmful”!
Salon.com Technology | Keeping the Net neutral Aug. 12, 2003.
By Farhad Manjoo. More on “stealing the internet.”
They are trying to apply the cable television business model to the Internet…
Open Directory - Digital Divide
by David Dillard.
Same as Google Directory Digital Divide
The Gender Genie let the gender genie guess whether you’re male or female by your writing style. (it was wrong in my case!)