10 August 2002

Sighting: NewsViews Tool for Radio Mike Maron -- Infomaniacs need NewsViews because it allows the news aggregator to display more than a single page. But it doesn't feed news into blogs.

Silent Tracking in the Blogging Neighbourhood TIG's Corner -- Dave Rahul points to another effect of blogging: effective tracking. He explains how tracking is simple and efficient. Use the GUID attribute Dave introduced into RSS. Let it be the URL of the post or something else unique. Now say I pick Dave in my aggregator, and I make a comment on his post. Then say John Robb picks me up and makes a comment on mine. Let's assume these comments are published as items to our respective blogs, with own GUID. Now let Dave search your neighbourhood, which is a combination of your bookmarks, blogroll, and subscribtions. Even if he doesn't find me, he will find John (Robb), and by using the GIUD's, he can reconstruct the conversation and show it on the blog item, changing every hour, reflecting the neighbourhood's thoughts on it, and expanding beyond the neighbourhood in a controlled fashion through overlapping conversations. Now think about doing it recursively, by referring conversations on neighbourhood blogs. Curtail it at some reasonable radius.

Ear Creep NEW SCIENTIST -- Ears creep towards the Dumbo end of the aural spectrum as the years pass. Scientists have even calculated the average annual increase in ear circumference.

Sighting: iPod Update APPLE -- The new iPod update includes improved calendar integration, support for equalisation in iTunes, and lots of UI tweaks. This is one flexible piece of hardware.

Free the Mouse BumperActive is giving away free "Free the Mouse" bumper stickers to help the world show its support for the Eldred case, where Larry Lessig is fighting to repeal the repeated extension of copyright every time Mickey Mouse's earliest films are in danger of entering the public domain.