kuro5hin: The Detention of Jaoudat Abouazza. "24-year-old Palestinian activist and Canadian citizen Jaoudat Abouazza is being held by the INS... Since his May 30 arrest, Abouazza has been held on suspicions of terrorism, interrogated without a lawyer, beaten, and had four of his teeth forcibly extracted without consent..."

Ok, now this kind of thing scares the fuck out of me. Please remind me again what century it is?...
03:41'04    comment [ 0]

From [Jakes Radio Blog]

» Reading this I'm really not sure what to say.  Despair is a word that springs to mind...

The topics being used in liveTopics now are likely, if you're like me, to be quite simple.  Usually one word, or two words joined with a hyphen.  This is fine when you're blogging alone.

However in preparation for adding topicRolls where you can share your topics with others it becomes a little more complicated.  Where I might be talking about aids in the sense of AIDS you might be talking about hearing aids.

It seems sensible to have some kind of scheme for allowing topics to crop up in different contexts: "aids with respect to deafness" versus "AIDS as a disease" and so on.   I've written them in this rather stilted way to avoid introducing a syntax too early.

This will inevitably complicate the interface a little.  However it may also make it simpler to use.  At the moment the drop-down for selecting pre-existing topics fills up pretty quickly.  Selecting a "topic theme" might drastically reduce the choices to be waded through looking for the right topic.

I'd welcome feedback...

 

A feature that I have planned for the next release of liveTopics (the finishing touches go on the 1.0 release this week, for definite) is the topicRoll.

In the same way as a blogroll represents your subscription to other what other people are writing, the topicRoll represents your subscription to what other people are writing about -- their topics.

Whenever you add a topic to a post it is added to your topicRoll and (optionally) published automatically to your weblog.   In turn you can subscribe to as many other topicRolls as you like.  This means that as soon as someone uses a new topic, it is automatically added to the topics that your copy of liveTopics has ready for you to use.  In the same way other users can see & re-use the topics you are using.

When combined with the idea of topicMiner (also due in version 1.5) this will allow you to thread together existing archived discussions in a completely new way.  Mining topics allows you to find existing topics in archived posts.  You will be able to mine other peoples topics from your own posts and vice verca.

I'm hoping this will enable some interesting cross-blog exchanges.

 

 

Okay re-installation time and what is the first thing that goes on after Radio?  The google search bar.

What caught me out was that I automatically found myself clicking the "Always trust content from Google.com" button.  This is the first time I have ever done this.  I just don't, on principle.

But really I do trust Google.  I have no idea what kind of a company they are really, but they seem very warm and fuzzy to me.  I trust them.

That must be a helluva brand.

 

Strangely enough being made redundant on Monday was not the most unnerving that has happened to me this week.

What is more unnerving is my decision not to look immediately for another job.  Instead I have made the decision to see if I can make an adhoc mixture (as I see it now) of blogging, k-logging, knowledge management, intranets, collaboration and communities into a compelling business proposition and make a living from it.

For some time now I have wanted to strike out in my own direction.  To lead rather than be led.  It seems fate just handed me my chance. This is not a risk-free strategy, and I'm just beginning to admit to myself what I'm letting myself in for.

So from here onwards I will happily entertain any offers of work, suggestions about what works (and what doesn't).  Ideas, novel solutions, novel problems.  It's all good.   I've also got an acre of understanding to do, here goes!

Suddenly I feel like I am growing into my weblog title.

Matt

 

The KMpings Experiment.

I created a little blog called KMpings that allows any blogger writing about knowledge management to ping their post to a tracking page (if their software supports it). Think of it as a themed www.weblogs.com for the knowledge management community.

I wanted to try out this experiment since I think the TrackBack function created by Movable Type has a lot of potential for aggregating blog posts within communities of practice on the web or an intranet. Please post any feed back you have to this message or shoot me an e-mail.

[High Context]

» I really want TrackBack for Radio.

And KMpings sounds like a great idea.

 

MEDLINEplus: Nightmare scenario of antibiotic resistance has arrived, experts say.

Quote: "Medical experts have long described it as the nightmare scenario of antibiotic resistance: the day when staphylococcus aureus, cause of some of the most common and troublesome infections to afflict man, becomes resistant to the antibiotic arsenal's weapon of last resort, vancomycin.

The nightmare scenario has arrived."

Comment: Off-topic, but important.

[Serious Instructional Technology]

» Being pretty uninformed in these matters it is not clear to me why new antibiotic agents can't be found.  Is there an arbitrary limit to the number of antibiotic drugs?  Or is the just no money in the research.

I guess there may be money if people start dying in large numbers.