Bill Brandon: blogStuff

Tracking weblog comments.

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 18:45:55 GMT

Keeping up with the conversation.

Another really useful online service -- and it's free, so far. (Entry from TechCrunch edited)

CoComent is a popular browser tool for tracking conversations in the comments sections of blogs. It catches the comments you’ve made around the web and comments made after yours. Most important is that CoComment will now track all comments made after yours - not just comments made by other CoComment users.

New player in the space Commentful does the same thing but appears to offer a simpler feature set for more casual use (30 item tracking limit, blinking notification of every new comment).

Another new feature is called “track this conversation” - enabling you to track comments on blog posts that you haven’t commented on yourself. Still another very cool new feature is the MetaConversation option, which lets you create a comment space tied to a page but off-site in order to leave comments about a page that doesn’t support commenting.

[TechCrunch]

Stashed - look at this later

Mon, 01 May 2006 22:24:36 GMT

Personal Gnowledge. Along with the new release (0.9.0) of Gnowsis, the Semantic Desktop tool, Leo Sauermann and his team have published a doc on PIMO, their approach to personal information management with the help of ontologies. I must confess to still not having had a close look at Gnowsis yet, and also of having had the occasional skeptical thought about some of the things they've been doing (XML-RPC, ew!). My first impressions of the PIMO doc were a bit like this, until i noticed one particular thing I believe they've got [Raw]

The goodness of blogging Part Two

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:44:58 GMT

Big names weigh in on Boston Globe article.

Blogging and Careers. Some folks are talking about the Boston Globe article on blogging being essential to a good career.

... the "challenges" of blogging are also touched on. I'd add that another downside is information leakage. Sometimes, personal info you don't intend to share gets inferred, shared, or found and known to others in awkward manners.

[Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger]

The goodness of blogging

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:11:57 GMT

Boston Globe says blogging is good.

(In case you needed any validation)

The media figured out Blogs 'essential' to a good career (Boston Globe). "A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field.

Link: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/04…

View discussion

[tech.memeorandum]

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 04:19:26 GMT

Let's do BloggerCon IV in San Francisco, the week of June 19. If you have office space we can use in San Francisco's business district or South of Market, please post a comment, or send an email. I'm thinking about a distributed multi-track conference over two days (Friday and Saturday?), covering a very wide range of interests to bloggers, podcasters, journalists, broadcasters, academics, librarians, programmers, business people, entrepreneurs, investors, retirees and students, and everyone else. An all-inclusive, no invitation required, $0, everyone welcome, free-for-all unconference of idea sharing and whoopee-making! [Scripting News]

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 20:18:42 GMT

Ray Ozzie: Really Simple Sharing.

Ray Ozzie on Really Simple Sharing:. Important to note that Microsoft has released the draft specification under a Creative Commons License.

[elearnspace]

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:49:00 GMT

Wikipages for Drupal.

I got tired of the fact that Drupal requires the use of a permissions module to implement a basic wiki. Thus, wikipage.module. Using the directions in How to create your own simple node type (from story node), I used the story module in 4.6.3 to create a new module with an additional access control permission: "edit all wikipages." Sure would be nice if we could just add this permission for the page module in Drupal core.

[cyberdash - cyberteacher cyberculture cyberlearner]

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:11:23 GMT

Talk Back To The Web With Flock, The Social Browser. If you are an early adopter, one of those like me who likes to try and experiment as early as possible with these fascinating new media technologies, you are already probably familiar with Flock, the social browser built on top...... [Online Collaboration :: Robin Good's Latest News]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:40:46 GMT

More uses for del.icio.us. Sure, social bookmarking is the bread and butter of del.icio.us. But how you use del.icio.us is totally up to you to decide. Del.icio.us has a few suggestions of their own for how else you might... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:40:03 GMT

Optimize your site with Google Sitemap. Google Sitemaps has just added a whole bunch of cool Google statistics for your verified web page. With Google Sitemaps you get: Statistics about your site and information about URLs we had trouble... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:39:20 GMT

Get high security passwords from Perfect Passwords. Lock down your wireless network with near-bulletproof passwords provided by web app Perfect Passwords. Every time this page is displayed, our server generates a unique set of custom, high quality,... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:38:58 GMT

Wikipedia's big list of open source software. If you're a fan of open source (who isn't?!), you'd do well to check out Wikipedia's giant list of open source software packages. Wikipedia has organized an exhaustive list of free, open source... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:38:29 GMT

10 ideas for your next blog post. Are you a blogger with writer's block? The Performancing blog has 10 great post ideas to help you get started on your next post. Ever get writer's block? 'Course you do, we all do at one time. Have... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:38:00 GMT

Robin Good's New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic n. 26.

Here is Robin Good’s weekly basket of new media resources, software and articles that I would like to share with you. They are all powerful digital weapons for participating in the user-driven publishing revolution Robin is chronicling. Feel free to test, download and freely use any of the little gems listed here below. Personalized start page and content aggregator service Music software to record, store and connect online Pro search service for Usenet-based multimedia content…

By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Robin Good). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:36:47 GMT

Hyper-Contextual Search Results with Swicki. Eurekster’s Swicki search service officially launches later today (November 16, 2005). Eurekster, a twenty person company located in San Francisco and New Zealand, has a profitable business (called Search Publisher) that provides customized search results to a number of large websites. Steven Marder, Eurekster’s CEO, tells me Eurekster’s current products are generating 25+ million monthly [...] [TechCrunch]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:33:35 GMT

PodCast Directories.

You can find the links to these podcast directories by doing a search for them on your favorite search engine.

Podcast Alley: podcasts by topic, name or ranking
Audio.Weblogs.com: Last 100 podcasts made/updated
Podcast.net: Podcast directory (organized like Yahoo.com)
Odeo: A place to find new podcasts or create your own
iPodder.org: Podcast Directory – categorized directory of podcasts
Podcast Central: Podcast RSS feeds
Potkast: Podcast search engine
The New, New Podcast Review: Reviews of podcasts
DownloadRadio.org: Peer to peer (P2P) network of podcasts
PodcastDirectory.com: International podcasts
New Time Radio: Podcasts and radio shows
Podcast SA: Podcasting in South Africa
Loomia: Podcast/videocast search engine
Podcasting Station: Podcast directory arranged like Yahoo.com
Podsafe Music Network: Music podcasts
Podcast Shuffle: A podcast shuffle & directory
My Podcast Center: Directory of podcasts and podcasting web sites
Podscope: Podcast search engine
Yahoo! Podcasts: Find & subscribe to podcasts
Teen Podcaster’s Network: Podcasts created by teenagers
Podfeed.net: Find or share your own podcasts
Women in Podcasting: List of podcasts hosted/cohosted by women

[PodCast Radio Show: PodCast Marketing]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:32:50 GMT

OPML revisited. Dave Winer’s reviewing his OPML outliner format, a new spec is mentioned, and asking for use cases for extension mechanisms with XML namespaces in mind. I’m not exactly what you’d call a fan of OPML, but people are using it for feedlists, and there’s been talk of it being used ... [Raw]

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 04:12:23 GMT

Ask Lifehacker: Flickr glossary. Dear Lifehacker, Flickr confuses me. Could someone explain the difference between a set, a tag, a group and my contacts? And why can't I make one of my own photographs a... [Lifehacker]

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 18:48:08 GMT

Ask Lifehacker: How do I back up my blog?. Dear Lifehacker, What's the best way for me to back up my Blogger blog? I'm on a Mac. Signed, In Need of Backup Dear In Need, When you're not hosting your own weblog and using a web-based... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 04:38:44 GMT

Get free images for your blog. If you've ever wondered where you can find good, free images to use on your blog, I've got a resource for you. About.com has a page that lists the top 10 places to find free images for your blog. If... [Lifehacker]

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 04:14:18 GMT

SITE NEWS: Introducing widgets for your blog or web site.

Want to include top memeorandum headlines in your blog sidebar?

Just use the following Javascript snippet:

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://memeorandum.net/pwidget-gray.js" type="text/javascript"></script> 

For tech.memeorandum headlines instead of (Political) memeorandum headlines, change pwidget to twidget.

Here's the resulting widget:

Note the widget headlines link to futher discussion on memeorandum.

Of course the widget will shrink to fit your sidebar just fine. See for yourself at TechCrunch, which has just added a widget and mentions this new feature here.

Different colors are available too. Don't like gray? Change the word gray in the Javascript snippet to blue, green, tan, or white.

Finally, if you're a style hacker and want to code the css yourself, use unstyled in place of gray. From the code in http://memeorandum.net/pwidget-unstyled.js, you'll note the relevant class definitions are memewid_box, memewid_title, memewid_link, and memewid_byline.

[tech.memeorandum]

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 04:30:08 GMT

My Thoughts on Reading Lists.

Dave Winer has been thinking about, and recently writing about, a new idea: Reading Lists.

OPML is a really useful file structure that just about everyone who uses a feed aggregator, like bloglines, is already using without necessarily knowing it. Most readers keep subscribed feeds for a user in OPML format, for easy importing and exporting. If you export your OPML feed you get a XML file of your feeds, which other feed readers understand.

The problem with opml files from readers is that they are static, meaning I can give you my OPML file but you will never know if I add or delete feeds unless I tell you and give you the new file. All you get is a snapshot of my feeds from the moment that I share my file with you.

Dave thinks these files should be dynamic, which means that I can share my opml file, or as he calls it my reading list, and anyone who subscribes to it will always have the current version, no matter how often I amend that list.

There is very little technology needed to allow this to happen - the various feed readers simply need to agree to support dynamic lists and allow people to share them permanently. Dave’s trying to make this happen.

If he succeeds, we’ll all be able to subscribe to reading lists from people we trust on a given subject, and good feeds will be that much easier to find.

Fred Oliveira wrote about this recently as well. In a comment, Eric Lin writes:

i could easily see this not only as a way to share my reading list with others i know, but also to be matched with others i donâ€™t know with common interests. what if the system could match me with other people who have similar tech, music or lifestyle feeds as i do. it would be a fantastic way to make new connections as well as strengthen existing ones, and i could see communities forming around overlapping feeds. these communities might be stronger than those that form around a single website because theyâ€™d have more in common.

Yeah, exactly. As soon as people start to think about this idea, a lot of other interesting ideas start to spring up.

A real world example of where we need this is our Web2.0WorkGroup. Feeds for each blog are linked, and we have a static OPML file that we are updating as new feeds join. However, because the file is static, anyone who downloads the file has to check back frequently as new feeds are added. Let’s automate this process.

Tags: rss, opml, readinglists, davewiner, techcrunch, web2.0, web+2.0

[TechCrunch]

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:33:12 GMT

Everything TypePad: TypePad Turns Two!.

We're celebrating two years of TypePad this month! And what better way to celebrate its birthday than to toast ten special things you may not know you can do with TypePad.

Share feeds. Have a favorite news source or blog you'd love to promote? Want to share the links you keep on del.icio.us, or even the posts from another one of your blogs on TypePad? You can add any RSS or Atom feed to the sidebar of your blog, and TypePad will keep it up to date for your readers.
Be present. Let your readers see if youâ€™re online and available on AIM, Yahoo IM, or ICQ, right in the sidebar of your blog.
Shout it out. Podcasting in TypePad is as easy as uploading your MP3 or AAC file into a new post. TypePad automatically creates an RSS 2.0 feed, which you can share on the sidebar of your blog.
Get paid. TypePad makes it easy to earn a little extra cash from your blog, thanks to integrated text ads. With just a few clicks, Pro users can add contextual ads to the sidebar of their blog and start turning posts into cash.
Collect tips. Ads arenâ€™t your thing? Then let your readers say "thanks" by adding a PayPal-powered donation button to your blog. You can use those funds to pay for your TypePad subscription, or for that new iPod Nano you've been coveting.
Express yourself. TypePad features more than 35 professionally designed themes that you can apply to your blog with a simple point and click. There are even special themes for weddings, food, travel, knitting and babies.
Deck it out. Once youâ€™ve picked a theme, deck out your blog with badges, blogrolls and bling. TypeLists let you share lists of your friends, your favorite sites, the books youâ€™re reading or the music you're listening to. And we've just added a â€œNotesâ€ TypeList, which lets you copy and paste in free-form HTML for your favorite badges, whether itâ€™s a Red Cross donation button or a FeedBurner FeedCount graphic.
Apply some feng shui. Once youâ€™ve picked your perfect mix of blog bling, you can use TypePad's drag and drop design tools to customize the layout of your blog. Find that perfect balance of links, photos, lists and posts.
Update from the road. TypePad has powerful tools for moblogging. We give you a secret email address, you give us your pictures and posts from your phone, and we'll automatically post them to your blog or photo album. Or, use Nokiaâ€™s LifeBlog and easily post photos, videos, MMS and SMS messages from your Nokia Series 60 phone.
Protect from prying eyes. You donâ€™t have to go public with your blog. Use TypePad's password protection feature to keep a private blog or photo album for your family, your work group, or even just for yourself.

Happy birthday, TypePad! Weâ€™re proud of what youâ€™ve been able to accomplish in your short life, and look forward to whatâ€™s coming next.

[Six Apart News]

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 20:56:27 GMT

Duncan Riley/The Blog Herald: The Blog Herald Blog Count October 2005: over 100 million blogs created.

The Blog Herald Blog Count October 2005: over 100 million blogs created — Its been three months since the last Blog Herald Blog Count due to the richness of the figures I've been collecting and the time its takes, but the Blog Count returns for October, and will now be published quarterly.

Source: The Blog Herald: more blog news more often
Author: Duncan Riley
Link: http://www.blogherald.com/2005/10/10/the-blog-herald-blog-count-october-2005/

View discussion

[tech.memeorandum]

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 20:44:06 GMT

Gada - Tag Meta Search Done Right.

Chris Pirillo has launched Gada.be today - a powerful tag meta-search engine that has an incredibly simple and thoughtful design. Shayne Sweeney is the developer who’s building Gada. [TechCrunch]