Sunday, June 29, 2003

Comments from MetaPop Interesting comments on MetaPop concerning the RSS vs. "Echo" disaster: http://meta.popdex.com/link/340 8:41:11 PM

Renaissance potters were nanotechnologists. Tiny metal particles give 15th century Italian ceramics lustre. [Nature Science Update] 6:10:29 PM

"Halley Suitt" [Daypop Top 40] 6:08:01 PM

Mediaburn Supports Dave Winer and RSS This points to the recent Mediaburn post on MetaPop. Dave Winer is shutting down his weblog for awhile. His syndication format, RSS, and other work, has helped blogging tremendously. "Echo" essentially aims to do away with RSS and much of what has been accomplished. "Echo" has taken an ugly turn. I'm an independent. My only connection with Dave Winer and Userland is that I use the Radio software for my blog. I encourage other bloggers to support Dave Winer and RSS. - Gary Santoro Mediaburn Supports Dave Winer and RSS. Entry titled To Echo or Not to Echo from the Mediaburn Radio Weblog. [Metapop] 1:39:37 PM

Dave Winer Blogging Moratorium We're taking a break!. And Dave Winer wants you to know: So I'm shutting down Scripting News now, to give me some time to think, and to give you all a demo of what it would be like if it weren't here. These last few days have been really awful. You can't imagine what it's like to have so many people screaming at you. It's inhuman, especially considering that my health isn't that good. The only conclusion I can come to is that I shouldn't be doing this. Have the Echo vs. RSS wars gone too far? Or are some people too emotionally involved (I don't dare to call names)? Would you go this far? By (hooverdirt). [Metapop] 1:22:59 PM

Saguaro Park blaze at 75% containment. Where other wildfires stand: [Arizona Daily Star: Front Page] 1:43:08 AM

Crews continue to gain on fire. Firefighters continued to get the upper hand against the Aspen fire Saturday, though officials are still concerned about the blaze's southern edge near Romero Canyon, where rocky terrain is preventing a straightforward attack. [Arizona Daily Star: Front Page] 1:41:06 AM

"an analysis of sentient computing" [Daypop Top 40] 1:09:26 AM

To Echo or Not to Echo Why am I NOT excited about this new weblog syndication method called Echo? It seems to disregard what's out there in the blogosphere, not a wise course. It's probably money motivated (in a bad way, as in greed.) Somebody who doesn't truly understand blogging and the blogosphere wants to get in on the action and make some bucks. They want to push the existing blogging structure aside and come in with their own game-plan. This of course is just my opinion. I could be wrong, but the obvious lack of continuity is such poor thinking. Poor decision-making. Poor management. Perhaps yet another crooked, lame-brained investment banker just heard about blogs and RSS? Is this what's behind Echo? Something tells me it's too late for Echo anyway. Blogging and RSS is already out on the streets. Echo basically sounds cheesy (that's a technical, engineering term). The spirit of RSS and the blogosphere will continue, with or without "Echo", whatever the hell "Echo" is... Below is a funny conversation with the fictional character "Mr. Safe": "Conversation with Mr. Safe" [Daypop Top 40] 12:55:04 AM

"Joshua Allen's Mr. Safe interview" [Daypop Top 40] 12:17:23 AM

New Site Syndication Format mailing list. Announcement: The Site Syndication Format development list is a focused, short-term mailing list for the discussion of ambiguities in the RSS 2.0 specification. The goal is to develop a new specification from scratch, code-named "Site Syndication Format," that clarifies or corrects these issues -- which can then be submitted to UserLand Software, a standards body, or published as a profile describing RSS 2.0 best practices. The list's members will vote on the final disposition of the new specification. The members of the list should be developers who have written software that produces or consumes RSS 2.0. I'm moderating the list so that it remains focused on answering a simple question: What parts of the format as presently specified are genuinely broken for implementors and what can be done to most easily fix them? [Workbench] 12:13:12 AM

Robert Poor. Wireless Sensor Network Nation. Technology Review interviews Robert Poor about the future of jillions of sentient things. Few people have any idea that we are heading into an era in which trillions of iinfinitesmal, radio-linked microchips will pervade the built and manufactured environment. Is anybody thinking about the unpredicted emergent side-effects? (Via boingboing) [Smart Mobs] Cool - I finally get to blog about Robert Poor.  We go back 28 years - to Oberlin - where his girlfriend was my girlfriend's best friend.  We both were part of a nascent electronic music department - studying with our guru Dary John Mizelle - before he was kicked out.  I then ran into Robert again at CCRMA, then Lukasfilm (where his eyeball is Capt. Kirk's during an eyescan log-in in Star Trek II), then NeXT and then again when he was VP R&D for OpCode and then he went back to school to become super nerdy on embedded systems and tiny wireless mesh networks. [Marc's Voice] 12:10:38 AM