Q: How to plan a wiki?

A: Hash out ideas on a wiki.

So we set up a wiki and we're holding a barn raising there. You're invited.

Our objective is to plan a "Get Content" wiki, a scalable catalog of "some rights reserved" and "no rights reserved" works.

A truly international catalog of CC and PD works. A Wikipedia of Free Culture, democratically maintained and curated.

Can this work? We have a hunch that it can, but we've doubtless missed many solutions and innumerable problems.

What we have thought of is of course on the wiki, where you should go without further adieu and add your ideas.

Note for anyone excited about the idea: we're planning at this stage. The wiki we're using for the planning may not be the one we use to implement the "Get Content" wiki (do help us figure that one out) -- so you may wish to curb your enthusiasm for raw cataloging just right now.

Now dive in!

[Creative Commons: weblog]

ZDNet's David Berlind explains why a sometimes infuriatingly complicated patch process reveals both timing flaws and potential vulnerabilities in Microsoft's thinking. [CNET News.com]

eWeek columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols says Internet Explorer is too dangerous to use."Internet Explorer, like Outlook, has finally become, to my mind, a permanent security hole that masquerades as a useful application."He has a point. Now that financial information can... [Technology in Plain Language]

“Why can’t my computer automatically show me things that will help me with what I’m doing, instead of making me search around for them? The goal of the dashboard is to automatically show a user useful files and other objects as he goes about his day. While you read email, browse the web, write a document, or talk to your friends on IM, the dashboard does its best to proactively find objects that are relevant to your current activity, and to display them in a friendly way, saving you from digging around through your stuff like a disorganized filing clerk. For example, if a friend IMs you and says ‘I can’t wait for our camping trip this weekend!’ the dashboard will show things like your recent emails about the camping trip, your camping bookmarks, and any files or notes you’ve got on your hard drive about camping. Microsoft is biting off us and calls this concept ‘implicit query.’ ” “Friedman…says Dashboard will be ready as early as this summer.” [Lockergnome]

A man who has admitted to nine murders helps French police find two bodies in a chateau he used to own. [BBC News]

Via Doc: “The ListGarden™ program is a tool for manually creating and maintaining RSS feeds. Written in Perl, it is an easy to use open source authoring tool operated with a browser interface that can run locally on a computer running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, or accessed remotely through a web server. The resulting XML file may be stored locally or automatically copied to a remote web server using FTP. It is useful for RSS feeds that need to be maintained without an automatic system that has built-in RSS generation capability.” [Lockergnome's RSS Resource]

Several thousand people took to the streets of London for the annual Gay Pride parade and festival. [BBC News]

Politician Jack Ryan speaks out about sex allegations that derailed his Senate bid. [ABC News: Politics]

This is something we have long been looking for to use: Google News in RSS.

If you want to subscribe, search and aggregate Google News content, you can finally do so.

You can now access all of the national Google news from around the world in your favourite, ad-free, news distribution format: RSS.

Get your Google News in RSS. [Lockergnome's RSS Resource]

“The truth is, for all the hype about RSS, it’s still trapped in geekland. It’s moving mainstream, but it is taking time. So, what will it take for RSS to reach a tipping point? The answer is not mass adoption by news outlets, but mass adoption by b-to-b and b-to-c e-commerce sites. Take a look back in history for perspective.” [Lockergnome's RSS Resource]

"John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president of the United States, and he had to reassure voters that he would not let his religion rule his presidency.

"Four decades later, another Democratic senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, wants to be the country's second Catholic president, and he faces fire for not being religious enough." [Christdot]

Ben Stein talks about true stars, and about why he will no longer be writing a column for E! [Christdot]

Ok, this'll be a fun one for the holiday weekend. This is a question inspired by a column in Relevant Magazine, but it's irked me for a while as well. What is the Cheesiest Church Sign that you've come accross in your travels?

I'll start the ball rolling. The worst Church sign I've ever seen read, "Free Trip To Heaven, Inquire Within." [Christdot]

John Dowdell at Macromedia is wondering why I haven't said anything about our government's recommendation to use non-IE browsers.

One, I've been spending time with my son the past week and a half, so have been far behind in blogging. I just caught up tonight on my RSS feeds and posting to my link blog.

Second, I've been arguing internally with myself and have two points of view. One point of view is that the government is right. Go to Firefox or Opera.

But, the other is that most people don't want to switch so what then? Look at myself. I use Firefox about 40% of the time right now (that means I use IE 60% of the time). How do I protect myself? So, while I argue with myself, make sure you take the steps needed to protect yourself.

Visit microsoft.com/security and keep up to date and follow the guidance there.

What's sad is this is all due to criminal activity.

Protect yourself at www.microsoft.com/protect even if you have already switched to a non-IE browser. Why? There are bad people out there. They want to do you harm. Make sure you are following the best practices to best protect your system.

Now, I know that many people will use this as an opportunity to pitch their favorite products and try to get people to use them. But, ask yourself: "can you guarantee that the product you are recommending is 100% secure?" And, if not, why should I stick up for you when the criminals come after you?

[Scobleizer]

Wired Magazine: Mozilla feeds on rival's woes.

[Scobleizer]

With Apple's iTunes Music Store fast approaching 100 million songs sold and competing services sprouting up around the Internet, the Recording Industry Association of American has announced that it will award Gold and Platinum status to downloaded music, according to a Hollywood Reporter story carried by Reuters and other media outlets. While physical sales must reach 500,000 and 1,000,000 copies for Gold and Platinum awards, respectively, downloads will require sales of 100,000 copies for Gold and 400,000 for Platinum. Multi-Platinum status will be recognized for each 200,000 copies sold above 400,000. The official launch of the new awards will happen in late Aug. during an event still to be announced, Hollywood Reporter said. [MacCentral]

I just got done reading a new Apress book named Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.

It's all about the dangers of life on the Internet. Not how it's done, but the artifacts of it. And it introduces us to the face of the bad guys who want to steal your identity, your money, your time (or use your computer to do it to other people).

A friend who hangs around the red-light-district on the Internet was IM'ing me tonight and said "check out this spammer." Sent me to http://www.ytcracker.com/. This is a 22-year-old who is proud of making money off of spam and other nefarious things (is a famous defacer of Web sites). Even sings rap songs about it. Contains potentially offensive language. Not to me, mind you, but some of my readers might not like hearing a profanity or two. But, I link to him to show the attitude and the kind of person we're up against.

Anyway, the book is a good primer for those who don't know about the dangers that lurk on the Internet. Be careful out there.

[Scobleizer]

Christianity Today Jul 2 2004 6:42AM GMT [Moreover - Christianity news]

Axis of Logic Jul 3 2004 7:10PM GMT [Moreover - Christianity news]

It's well worth reading this Boston Globe article on Operations Research--the field of figuring out how to improve the operations of fairly hum drum activities such as lines, restocking shelves, etc.

The area of ops research I've become most familiar with is queuing theory which was cooked up in 1909 by a Danish engineer for the Copenhagen telephone company. One of the central units in queueing theory when applied to the phone business is named after him, the Erlang.

Over a century later, people are still using it and refining it to improve their operations. Remarkable. [winterspeak.com]

Knowing God = Strength + Approval

What is one benefit of "knowing" God? God's provision of strength to those that know him.

• Daniel 11:32 -He will flatter those who have violated the covenant and win them over to his side. But the people who know their God will be strong and will resist (the enemy).
• Knowing God = Strength

How can we know more about God? By studying his word - the Bible.

• 2 Timothy 2:15- Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
• Knowing God = Approval

• I need to understand that I need to study God's word (because that is what God wants us to do) and understand that when we do he will provide us strength in daily living (because that is what he wants to do).
• Knowing God = Strength and Approval

[Christian Walk Idea Engagement Area]

"The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]