Experimental Functionality

Heh.  I have to extend a virtual pat on the back not to myself but to Richard.  Richard IM'd me this morning around 5 am and started asking me about extending Feedster to search via geourls i.e. latitude and longitude.  A little discussion, a bunch of work and I've added params for it -- icbmlat and icbmlong.

Here's an example url using Richard's longitude.

Now here are the caveats

• UI free!  Add the location query via convenient, url variables
• Not carried throughout the bulk of the search navigation interface
• Not carried into RSS feeds (and before you slap me upside the head, I know I need a major revision on all the RSS generation and I'm gearing up for it)
• I'm sure there's more and I'd gladly accept criticism on this
• Only 200 odd of 30,000+ rss feeds are presently categorized.  I can run the crawler to add geourl's on the rest of the feeds if there's interest.
• Geourls are stored at the feed, not post level so all feeds from Richard have one set of coordinates (unless he has multiple feeds)

So here's the big question:

• Does anyone care?
• What's the query interface look like ?  I'd think it needs to be graphical but comments really wanted here.  Anyone know of a map style component for making the query ?
• Should I tie it into Feedster Images ?
• Other thoughts ?

However even with those limitations, it is smart enough, however, to offer a Googlesque experience when it can't use the geourls.  Example.

1:57:37 PM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This   

Pathetic

Well Blogging Hacks has been cancelled which I guess obviates the need for my O'Reilly rant of earlier today.  Still no sense in deleting the post -- the aggregators have it.

How very odd -- from new book to cancelled book in 3 days.  Trouble at O'Reilly ?

12:56:50 PM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This   

Blogging Hacks is Coming

Interesting.  Here's the details on Ben's new book:

M y next book, Blogging Hacks is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and .co.uk Amazon are giving 30% off right now. This book rocks very hard indeed - with contributions from Brad Choate, Tim Appnel, the Waypath guys, Tom Coates, Cal Henderson and many more. 

More...

I just did an Amazon pre-order for it so when August rolls around, I'll be pleasantly surprised when it materializes on my doorstep.  Now before we move into the RANT section of this post, I'm expecting to like this book a lot -- I loved Ben's RSS book and from the few details I've been able to dredge up, this one should be a goodie too.

And now I'll continue with your regularly scheduled rant.  If you're an O'Reilly devotee then perhaps you want to skip this one ...

<RANT>

I'm a bit surprised that as an O'Reilly co-author of a book on Blogging, I find out from a weblog that this even exists.  Wouldn't you think that O'Reilly (not Ben, I view this as publisher level work) would do one of these:

• Invite me to participate ?
• Let me know it exists ?  I mean why the ever loving smack am I finding out through a search engine I wrote myself ?
• Get me involved in the review process ?
• Do something remotely rational that might aid Ben's sales ? 

Notes: Of course given the difficult relationship I had with O'Reilly during the writing of Essential Blogging, I could well be on someone's list of "less than favorite authors".  And given the disappointing* sales of Essential Blogging, they could well have said "All those authors are lame; heck with them!". 

*I say disappointing since when I calculated the ratio between $advance (roflol), $royalties and time invested, I would have been better served with a job as a fry cook in a third world knock off of McDonalds in an all vegetarian country.

</RANT>

7:42:39 AM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This   

Things I Learned Yesterday from Feedster Images

Naturally since I'm developing Feedster Images, I'm constantly checking it, tweaking it, etc.  So I'm very, very aware of what's being published.  Here are something I learned yesterday that I simply wouldn't have without it:

• Camera phones are leading to a whole new style of voyeurism -- new technologies exploit sex first and no surprise here  Inner Mind
• Galactus has a weblog.  -- I laughed my ass off at this one.  It was just perfect.  Comic Book Resources  Via SwitchCase
• What people really think of Slashdot.  Random Bytes.
• Apparently Ben has a new book on Blogging coming out.  4 banalitaten
• What Leo looks like.  Nosuch.

With two exceptions (Ben and Nosuch), none of these are blogs I would have found otherwise.  Very cool.

And this was recommended that I look at it.  A quick gander at the source made me grin.

7:32:09 AM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This