February 28, 2005

Spamming problems on Del.icio.us; you don't really need to validate your account A thing I just observed on theDel.icio.us bookmarking system       I was surprised to see, this morning, a sort of bookmark spam attack in one of my Del.icio.us feed (tag:writing). I had around 30 bookmark entries with user names like: rollofle500, rollofle502, rollofle503… etc. All the messages have been sent at a minute of interval with different tags, different topics and all linked to the same website: http://torrents.on.nimp.org/?u=rolloffle that redirect us to http://www.gnaa.us/. I think the attack have been performed with an automated script that worked like this:   1-     He creates an account with a random name and a random email address. 2-     He login to this newly created account. 3-     He post a bookmark with this newly create account and put random tags that he get in a special word dictionary created for this effect. 4-     Finally he restarts the whole process.   It seems that the administrator of Del.icio.us had deleted these users and entries. They probably have been alerted of the situation and deleted them on the spot.   The problem is that erasing all the entries hadn't repaired the entire problem because their feeds have been infected and distributed to hundred of subscribed users.   We are in right two ask this question: Why this situation happened? The answer is ease: because their authentication is not working properly. You can post bookmarks without validating your account. This is the real problem and why the spammer had been able to perform this sort spam attack. Even if you see this message:   » A verification email has been sent. Please check your mail. If it does not arrive shortly, go to the settings page and ask for another verification email.   You can do what you wish with your account.   What's the solution to prevent future bookmark spam attacks on Del.icio.us? They will need to upgrade their registration and validation system to prevent the new users to be able to post bookmarks without being validated by the system.   Technorati Tags: [spam] [delicious] [bookmark] [authentication] [security] 2:05:27 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 26, 2005

Web texts editing: bold your key words term to increase the scannability of your articles A trick I read in a Sun Microsystems article   79% of web readers scan pages instead of reading them word-for-word. How to increase the scannability of your blog's posts? By bolding the key term of each paragraphs. This is an editing trick for web texts that I read in an article of Sun Microsystems.   It's a really simple and evident thing to do when you think about it. So, I'll start to apply the principle in my posts. The bold key words will be an addition to the new Technorati tags I added to each of my posts. Then my readers will be able to find where in the text these tags refer.   I wish that this new editing trick will be helpful to my readers. Personally I think that the text is really simpler to read. Now we know, in a second, what the post is about by reading the title, sub title and bold terms. Do you have the same feeling? Do you think that this is a good addition and will be helpful for you? Please leave me your feelings about it! The principle will be better with time because I'll learn how to spot and bold the best terms.   So enjoy it and share your feelings about it! Technorati Tags: [writing] [editing] [publishing] [web] [internet] 11:50:06 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 25, 2005

It seems that there are fewer connections between languages and mathematics understanding in our brain How our brain seem to understand these two syntaxes.     I just finished to read Mathematics is a language of is own pointed out by MathForge. "A team of scientists led by Rosemary Varley at the University of Sheffield, UK, studied three people who had extensive damage to the left hemisphere of their brain, the so-called Apollonian half that includes linguistic skill areas". They observed that those people were able to understand the difference in mathematical sentences of the type "7 - 2" and "2 - 7" but were not able to understand differences in language sentences like "The boy chased the girl" and "The girl chased the boy".   The experience is really interesting. It seems that the brains zones involved in the understanding of basic mathematical sentences are not the same as the one of the traditional, written, languages. Good; but what about more complexes mathematical sentences? Everybody who tried to demonstrate theorems of any sorts in algebra or  set theories know that this is not just a question of syntax understanding but more a question of imagination.   By example, if you work in the field of computer sciences, you know what formal specifications of software are. This is a method used to prove that your software is consistent with himself, it help to clarify, without ambiguities, the specifications of your software (it help for many other things but I'll not discourse on the subject of software format specification in this post). Basically, formal specifications are a way to write a software program (his specifications) in a formal mathematic syntax. Now, my question is: if I got these brains damage cited up there, will I always be able to read and understand a specification wrote in Z (a formal specification language)? Personally I have doubts because I think that there are more things involved then just mathematical syntax understanding. Technorati Tags: [mathematics] [language] [brain] [learning] [neurology] 1:24:42 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 22, 2005

What is blog about? A quote of John Hope Franklin will give you a part of the answer                 "We must get beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths... and tell the world the glories of our journey."     I got this quote some times ago from A Quote a Day's feed. I remember that I directly linked it to blog's purpose. It's sure that blogs can be other things but his essence is in this quote. We need to tell the world the glories of our journey. We don't need our journey published, no; we just need to tell it to anyone who want to ear it. The best medium I know to do this is incontestably: Blog. It's exactly why blogs are so interesting, because we can get beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths. Technorati Tags: [blog] [quote] [glories] [journey] 5:00:23 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 21, 2005

The paradox of human colors Why no cultures seem to like their natural color?     I was reading Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road by Anthony Weller. It's a travel log of his trip on the grand trunk road in India and Pakistan. I was amused to read a passage that said that Pakistani people was paling their skin. The author asked them the question: Why? The answer was that they want to look like occidental people. It was a sign of success like possession things of occidental brands. I know that Japanese also pale their skins to look like occidental people. The paradox is that occidental people are tanning their skins to look like them. Why? Because it's a sign of good health and it suggest that you are a traveler, a free person. Is that not funny? Sometimes humans actions are hard to understand... Technorati Tags: [culture] [occident] [skin] [paradox] [human] 11:42:15 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 20, 2005

A new way to promote your blog's feed A market trick for your feed's content     Today I receive an email from Max. He ask me my opinion about an idea he had while reading my recent posts on feeds [1][2][3]. There is the idea he shared with' me in his email message:               Lately you're writing good stuff about RSS feeds and their capabilities. So, I decided to express to you an idea I had about it. [...] I'd like to know your opinion. [...]   Some days ago I wrote that I don't care if someone read my blog via browser, feed or whatsoever. Well, I changed my mind: RSS readers are special. They're not casual readers; they decide to subscribe your site because they want to follow it. So, why don't give 'em more? This could be a way to promote RSS feeds use. [...]   Here's my idea: why don't add to ordinary blog feeds another one, as a supplement? Many newspapers have a Sunday supplement, or similar. After all, a weblog is a kind of newspaper, for some aspects. The supplement should be strictly related to the blog, but not necessarily with the same arguments. It could be a monothematic dissertation, or simply something you don't want to publish on the blog because not coherent enough.   The following could be the main goals of this concept:   ****Only supplement feed subscribers could read those extra contents. --> Promotion of RSS feeds use, special treatment to those. **** ****Extra feed subscribers could be invited to contribute to this "magazine" via email or maybe by co-author account --> Interaction. ****   Technically I think it's easy to do: just open a new blog, modify the template to not show the posts, then publish, promote the extra-feed, and it's done.   Do you know if somebody has already done this? Anyway, let me know what you think about it [...]     Many interesting ideas are presents in this email. This (new?) idea is, at my sense, a really good way to promote your feed. Personally I think that feeds are more important then blogs. Why? Because they create the more direct link between you and your readers. In this sense, it's always a good idea to promote it. This added value to your feed will certainly help to insist your blog's visitors to subscribe to it. But there are two rules that you need to take into account: (1) you need to promote the fact that there are an added value to your feed's content and (2) you need to basically have a good content to make this added value a real one at the eyes of your readers.   This said, I have an interrogation about this idea. As beautiful as it is, there is no archive of this feed only content. The added content will only be archived by your readers and possibly online services like Bloglines and NewsGator. It's why blogs are interesting: everyone(thing) can keep an archive of it; Google cache, MSNSeach cache, etc, etc, etc. This is not a real problem in itself; it's more a personal question that the bloggers will need to ask to him: do I need to put a part of the content I create available to only some subscribed readers or to all the Internet users? Depending of your goals you'll answer differently to this question and finally find the whole idea more or less interesting.   There would be some technical problems to create such a feed, especially if you are using services like Radio, MovableType, Blogger, MSNSpaces, etc. The idea is to aggregate new content to existing feeds when users request the feed's new posts. The only service I know that do this sort of thing is Feedburner. They give you the possibility to add things to you feed's content. By example, they give you the opportunity to add a Del.icio.us feed to your blog's feed. If you would like to implement this idea you'll need to create such a service. This is not really complicated in itself but its works and times.   Finally, depending of your goals, you'll find this idea really interesting or just another way to market your feed. The idea is really good; the only question is how it can be useful in your case. Technorati Tags: [marketing] [feed] [rss] [promote] [idea] 9:50:39 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 19, 2005

What's the utility of a RSS feed? To create relationship between the web site and his readers     I was enjoying reading Scobleizer this morning. I came across another of his interesting post that talks about a web site that didn't publish a RSS feed because they say that their new web site is a non-geek one. So Robert raised an interesting point: why should you publish a RSS feed of the content you put on your website? The answer: to create a relationship between you and your readers. He is right. RSS feeds can be seen as a socializing tool. Why? Because you converse with your readers. At first, it is a one way relation. You didn't get immediate feedbacks. But to strengthen the principle, your readers usually have access to a comment system. These two systems, together, help to create a social relationship between the blogger (or the webmaster) and his readers. It can also create relationships between readers. Then we probably can say that there is an emerging community around the blog, more precisely, around the content of it and his emerging ideas. Technorati Tags:   [rss] [feed] [social] [relationship] 5:13:01 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 17, 2005

Updates on: Quebec dams open to terrorists' attacks A week later, a journalist of TVA enters LG2 without being intercepted.     There are some updates on yesterday news. Mr. Caillé knew that Radio Canada would broadcast this report for more than a week. Yesterday a journalist of TVA, another French Canadian news network, had entered in LG2, without being seen. They explored the site for about 2 hours; they entered a repair shop, found blue print plans and Hydro-Quebec trucks with keys on the starter. It's unbelievable. What do they need to do the make them react? Do they need to put bombs at LG2? If I'm going there tomorrow, will I be able to go anywhere I want without seeing any security agents and enter every door I see (because they are virtually all unlocked)? It's not a game; it's serious: they need to do something. These people, these administrators, don't seem to understand what is going on, what’s the treat. We don't live in wonderlands. Is 9/11 already forgotten? Did we learn anything from this event? ...I can't believe it.     Video report of TVA (french) Technorati Tags: [security] [terrorism] [quebec] [dams] 12:04:35 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 16, 2005

Quebec dams open to terrorists' attacks And the USA his one of our main client.     First, read this piece of news about the security of Quebec's dams: Quebec dams open to attack, probe suggests. Everybody is talking about this report done by a journalist of Radio Canada. I saw the report on the TV and it's awesome. The authorities can't say that the security is correct; it is not. The journalist had reached the core of two major dams in the north of Quebec without being seen. Was he hiding? No, he looked like a tourist with a huge camera on his shoulder and his big white truck. He was able to stop the electric production of about 500 000 homes; he reached the main controls of the power plants without anyone intercepting him… he was alone in the complex. He never meets any employee or security guards in about 1 hour of door opening and investigation on each site. There was no evident camera (the authorities say that they are hidden). The problem is that it seems that they are not monitored by permanent security guards. Sorry but tell you it, Mr. Caillé, but Hydro-Québec is not a chain of corner shops; the camera don't have the same utility in a corner store and in power plant of billions of dollars. Cameras in the first one are there to know who the criminal was. In the second, they are there to prevent criminals to reach the dam.   Okay, you know what's the problem? It's probably easiest to enter in this critical infrastructure of Quebec than to enter in any home on the territory. This situation is definitely unacceptable after the 11 September 2001. Some ones will say that we have nothing to fear; that we don't have any enemies and it would be an unnecessary spend of money. To them, I'll say that: first, we get problems with French separatists for more than 40 years. Last years, an unknown group had put dynamite on a main transmission pole and they pull the trigger. What if they had reached the core of the Manic 5 central, or LG2? The result had would be catastrophic. What if they do this in a cold wave of 1 or 2 weeks with temperatures under 30 or 40 degree Celsius? We probably wouldn't be able to buy electricity at the USA or Ontario because they just wouldn't have enough. Then, we would be in great troubles.   After, think about it. Our greatest electric client is the USA. We sell megawatts of electricity on the east cost market. If two of our main dams are the target of international terrorism it'll not just be a catastrophe for the village around the dams (who will probably be flooded) but also for the entire east cost of America. Think back, the major black out that occurs a year or two ago on the east cost. The electric switch in new New-York city was turned at off and they didn't have electricity at all for some days; no air conditioning in the middle of a dog days. This total back out was the result of a problem in a switch complex somewhere in the north east of the USA. Think about what it would be like if 2 or 3 of the main dams of the north east of America would be shutdown or destroyed? I don't want to think about it. If international terrorists need to hurt the USA, then one of their best bet would probably to destroy these dams. It's easy, as demonstrated above, and effective.   Finally, if there is no security at all for these dams, what's the security of our nuclear power plant? Is this the same situation? I hope no, otherwise it would be the problem of many more person than the millions habitants of the east coast of America. It's my reaction to the situation. I hope the government of Quebec will get enough pressure to move and spent money to arrange the situation. The current situation is unacceptable; and for the stability of the Quebec, the Canada and the United-States, we need to act now.   What can we do? Talk about the situation. Are you Canadian or American? Talk about it, wrote about it in hope that these things put pressure on Hydro-Québec and the government of Quebec to obligated them to act and increase the security of these sites.     Update 17-02-2005: The video report(french) Technorati Tags: [security] [terrorism] [quebec] [dams] 12:03:26 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 15, 2005

Track your blog readers habbits: How and Why Using statcounter.com       All bloggers need to know who are reading them and where are they come from. Personally I'm checking my logs between 4 to 6 times a day. It's a sort of compulsion, it's a reward. But it's more than this. It can be a way to discover who is linking to you, who discuss of your blog or posts. These traffic logs are a really interesting and useful to analysis. It can help you to upgrade your blog; to know who your readers are and what they are reading on your blog. You can track their movement through your posts, over time. Now how can you archive this?   Personally I'm using statcounter.com. This is the best, free, web traffic logging service I found. How it work? It's easy. You sing-up for an account and after you can add many projects to this account. Then, if you have 2 or 3 blogs, you can have one account with one entry for each of them. Statcounter is basically a free system. You have a permanent counter of you page views, unique and returning visitors, with a related graph graduated by days, months or years. With this graph you can see the evolution of your blog, see peaks when you published a popular article, etc. There is the graph of my traffic since the first days of this blog:     With the free service you also have a traffic log of the 100 last visits of your project. It's the must useful part of the service. With this information, you know the time, the OS and the browser used by your readers. You also know the resolution of their screens, the country they came from and, the most important, the pages they visit and the pages they come from. If you wish, you can pay to upgrade the length of this detailed log. Personally I don't have the funds to pay for this and, for the moment, the 100 entries free log is enough for me. But if I would get more hits, I would consider the possibility to upgrade my account. What I personally appreciate with this service that other don't give is the returning visitor counter. With this one, you know how many people, each day, are returning to your blog. There is a snippet of what look like the detailed log:     Many statistics are computed by the system with the detailed log:     With these statistics you can know everything about your readers. The path they took through your blog, the things they read, the time they spend, your popular pages, etc, etc. It's most then important to know these things. It will give you the knowledge of what your readers are interested in without them saying it to you. Then it gives you hints of what to change on your blog to enhance the experience of your visitors.   There are two other things that I really like with the service. The first one is the possibility to put your IP address on the ban list. Then your visits will not be logged in the system. Is that not beautiful? Yes it is! The second thing is that you can show or hide the counter on your blog. If you wish, it can be totally invisible to your readers. It's the first free system I saw that give you this opportunity.   Finally this system was not created for blog; it was for general purpose websites. But all his features are perfect to track the traffic post by post. For all his features, his statistics and his price I make him the best blog traffic tracking system I found. Technorati Tags: [blog] [profiling] [analysis] [traffic] [statcounter] 1:04:18 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 14, 2005

Introduction of ads in feed content? If it the price to pay to have complete feed post, why not?       Yesterday I talked about snipped of post in feeds content. Max reacted to it today and brings a really good point into the discussion:   "[...] In these cases, I could understand they don't want entirely syndicate their posts. A solution could be inserting ads even in feeds (like Yahoo! and others do)[...]"     The question is legitimate. As he says, many bloggers add Google AdSense and other ads systems to their web site to cover the cost of their blogs hosting. In this case, they want to have the bread and the cash of the bread. Then they create feed but only put snippet of post in them to bring readers to their web site in hope they click on their ads. This situation can reopen, or refresh, a debate on feeds: will we see ads in feeds in the futures?   Personally, in the light of this situation, if you put ads in your feeds AND you put entire posts with these ads, then, I can consider the pertinence to put ads in RSS or Atom feeds. I'm ready to pay the price.   Think about it: you are at the airport; you just connected to the ATT Wireless services for 10 minutes with your Tablet PC. You refresh your entire feed list with your favorite RSS reader, close the connection and get onboard. You are seated and ready to read all of your feeds, you have 10 hours above you. Then you start to read them, but more than the half are just snippets. Don't you think that this situation can be a determinant factor for air rage? Technorati Tags: [blog] [feed] [rss] [ads] 12:20:37 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 13, 2005

The importance of your blog's feeds contents A message to bloggers; a wish as a reader       A week ago I started a series of post about a certain sort of blogging "etiquette"; a wish list that bloggers would be able to follow to enhance the experience of their readers. I talked of the importance of posts' titles; today I'll talk about the content we put in our feeds.   When we blog we have normally two mediums of publication. The first one is what appears on the web site of the blog with all his features. The other is the Atom or RSS feed that our subscribed readers download every morning. What is really interesting with RSS feeds is that you can, at one place, aggregate many source of information. You can scan the content of your feed and read what catch your attention. Another interesting thing that you can do, depending of the RSS reader you are using, is to search in your old feed posts as if you were searching for stuff on Google. Everybody knows the fact but where is the problem?   The problem is that some blogger put entire posts on their website and only excerpt of these posts in their feeds. My question is: Why? This is probably to increase the traffic on their website; it's the only thing I can think of. The problem is that this practice cut the readers with a vital source of information. What is interesting with feed is to have a local copy of posts to have the ability to search in them. Without the full post, this feature is useless. More and more bloggers are doing this. More and more frustrated I become and less and less I subscribe to such feeds. What's beautiful is the decentralization of the information in the system; not his centralization in a focal point.   Think about it as a reader and as a publisher. As a blogger, think what are your goals: is this to get the greater number of hits on your website or to be read and commented? If it's to be read then your preoccupation would be to publish your entire posts in your feed.   Technorati Tags: [blog] [feed] [rss] [content] 4:08:31 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 12, 2005

The Scobleizer effect and other thoughts. My comments and their results in Robert's posts.       This morning I was commenting on 2 different posts on Scobleizer. The first one was Making sure the right story gets out about corporate blogging at Microsoft, a correction to an article appear on Economist.com. The second is Microsoft is rotting, Malone says. I was subscribed to Robert's feed since some months. I read some of his posts but I never commented on them before. I never really understand how he got his popularity. I thought that I knew it after I read the Economist's article on Robert; but I was wrong. I fully understood the root of his success when I read the correction to the article. I say that I fully understand… I'm possibly wrong but I'm probably on the good path. Why is he so popular? The answer to this question can be somewhat simple: because he his authentic in his writing. He has an undeniable talent in writing and public relations and these talents help him pass his message, his ideas and his thoughts. He has the capacity to say things as they are, a sort of modesty, and give credit to others. When we read him, we know we'll not be bullshitted.    Some ideas had surfaced when I read/post comments on these articles. The first one is the power of small ideas, and normal person; how they emerge; how they are promoted and why they changed the world. You just have to think about blogs, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Silicon Valley and Einstein. They are all examples of small ideas or normal folks that changed the world. Why? How? This is the more interesting part of the story because nobody knows the answer to this question. Personally I think that all of these ideas/persons have a focal point: the ability to communicate their ideas; the ability to make these ideas understandable to their community. They are probably the result of their creator's writing and communication genius. Without these traits, they would not have changed the world.   The second interesting idea that emerges from the discussion was the capacity of enterprises to cope with the changing market. The next big change in today's market will come from the East. Enterprises will need to change the way they work and the way they communicate if they don't want to disappear. Microsoft is doing it. Some person didn't seem to see it or understand it but it's the case. I personally thing that they are now where HP was some decades ago when they were at war with Digital. They won it because they cope with the market's changes. They started to communicate with smaller Silicon Valley companies. Like Microsoft or not, we are here now partly by the ingenuity of people working for it.   I suggest you to read the posts and comments to fully understand what I wrote there ;) Technorati Tags: [scobleizer] [scoble] [writing] [communication] 2:38:04 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 11, 2005

A9 search engine: a funny result on Google     Since some weeks I had some strange results when I was checking my traffic logs. Many people were coming from Google with this search key: "a9.com search engine". I didn't take care of it unless I took too many hits from this string. Then, I checked myself what was going on with this one and there is what I found:     At my great surprise one of my old articles was the second hit with this search string. What I find funny in this result is the title I give to it: The consequences on your privacy. By its disposition it's like if Google was sending us a caution.   It's not a great post that I'm making today but I think it can raise a smile ;) Technorati Tags: [a9] [searchengine] [security] 9:38:32 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 10, 2005

The way we are using the internet is changing; we wait that information come to us Thank to RSS feeds and other information broadcast channels   Internet is changing. The way we use it is also changing. In the past, the main application of Internet was to search for stuff. We used search engine. Now the role seems change. As I observe what is going on, I perceive that people are now using internet not just to search for stuff, but to wait that the stuff comes to them. They don't search for information; they wait until that information come to them. They seem to be, in a sense, less active and more passive. Search engines are now sending information to their users (not the results of a specific search but information that can interest his users); think of MSN Search. People now have the possibility to have a bookmark inbox and wait to receive new cool links that are in relation with subscribed tags (interests). It's getting rare that I perform search on search engines. I only do it when I search for technical things, like while programming or on specific subjects. Paradoxically I never before spend as many time as I spend on all kind of websites; I never found before as many stuff on the Internet as I found now. Why? Because I subscribe to some information channels and I wait that information come to me. Many unexpected stuff arrive by some information channels; I read it and I enjoy it. I would never find it with a traditional search, because I would never think about it. Thank to RSS feeds. Technorati Tags: [internet] [information] [change] [blog] [feed] 9:55:25 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 9, 2005

How to publish, freely and without ads, a RSS feed on your blog Use Feed2Js services       Yesterday I talked about how del.icio.us was inventive and genial. I talked on how and why I use it. But I had a problem: it was to publish the content of it on my blog. Radio Userland didn't permit such a thing; the system is not made to refresh content if the Radio software isn't running. So I had a problem. I searched and tested many solutions but no one was what I needed. I needed a simple, ease and reliable way to post a RSS feed onto my blog with a layout that fit in it.   I finally found what I needed. Feed2JS is a project of the Maricopa Community Colleges. What's Feed2JS? This is a way to publish a RSS feed on your blog using JavaScript. How it work? You need to generate your feed's code on their website. After you have to cut and paste the generated code on your webpage and it's done. After, at each hour, their servers will scan your feed and refresh it with his new content. It's free, it takes 2 minutes to implement and it's without ads. You can't really find a better service.   You also can create your own style for the feed's box. It use CSS and you can find style examples there. The only thing you have to do is to generate the CSS code and put it at the top of the page where the feed will be displayed.   If you have access to your own server that run a PHP Interpreter then you can download the source code of Feed2JS, modify it, and run it on you server.   It's really a good publishing tool for you blog and it's the best I found around. Try it, you have nothing to lose.   Good publishing. Technorati Tags: [rss] [feed] [publish] [blog] [feed2js] 9:40:04 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 8, 2005

My new del.icio.us feed The perfect way to share cool stuff I find everyday on the internet.     As you can see at the bottom right of this page, I added a " My Del.icio.us " section. I have been convinced by reading Todd and Slacker to add it. What's del.icio.us? It's a social bookmark. You create an account and you add your bookmark when you find interesting stuff on the Internet. It's just this. All bookmark entries are joining with tags. Tags can be seeing as folders; it's a word in relation with the bookmark's content. What is interesting is the definition you write with your bookmark entries.   This is a social bookmark. Who says social, say community and also say sharing. No bookmarks are private in the system. Everybody can see your bookmarks and they are automatically added to each tags' pages. Then, they are rapidly viewable by thousands of people. It's why the definition you'll write about your bookmarks entries is important: it'll help other users to figure out what it talk about. By correctly entering it you'll participate to increase the quality of the product, then, the quality community.   Another cool feature is the ability to subscribe to other users entries. It's called an inbox. Each time one of your subscribed users posts a new entry, it'll immediately appear in your inbox. It's a kind of bookmark aggregator. It's really efficient and interesting when you subscribe to users that post interesting stuffs.   How to use it? Todd and Slacker are suggesting using Splur on internet explorer. Splur is the same type of system but you have an add-in software available on IE, Mozilla and Firefox to help you to bookmark your pages. One of the system's options is to synchronize your Splur and del.icio.us account together; it's what make it interesting. But I found that the best tool for del.icio.us available is a small Firefox add-in called delicious. It's easy to use, small, fast and full of features.   Why I had added this feed content on my blog? Because I found really useful stuff each days on the Internet. The problem is that I'll not do a post for each of them. I don't want to make this blog a link repository; I want to make this blog a repository of my written thoughts. So, the del.icio.us feed broadcast on my blog is the best tool to archive these two goals: write my thoughts and share my findings. So, I wish that you’ll enjoy this addition! Technorati Tags: [delicious] [feed] [social] [bookmark] [splur] 9:41:33 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 7, 2005

The importance of your blog's posts titles A message to bloggers; a wish as a reader     Are you a blogger? Do you take care of the titles of your posts? Personally I try to. I don't know if I'm efficient at it but I try. The title is probably as important as the content of your posts. Why? It's really simple: most of feed reader software only shows the title of your posts. If the user clicks on it then he'll read the content; otherwise he'll not. The first battle is to get subscribers. It's really not ease but it's possible. If you get some, the war is not won. After you need your posts read by your subscribed readers. Think about it, what happen if he scans 100 feeds daily with over 200 messages? Will he take care of you posts if the title he read is not attractive, short and relevant with what his under it? I don't think so.   It's why the titles of your posts are so important. It helps you to be read but it also help the reader to scan for what he need and didn't need to read. I subscribed to many feeds and many authors don't take care of their titles. I know that I didn't read really interesting post because the title didn't catch my attention. It's sad because I know that I pass beside many interesting posts. Technorati Tags: [blog] [title] [writing] [posts] [etiquette] 2:17:00 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 6, 2005

The new MSN RSS search engine feature via Moreover Use it to promote your blog     As I already discussed before, the new MSN search engine as implemented a really interesting feature: the possibility to search for RSS file types. As some had probably remarked, they use Moreover to do their searches. It was basically a test, but it seems to become the norm. You have now two good reasons to ping Moreover when you post a message on your blog. I read a really interesting article by Robin Good that talk about the relation between MSN and Moreover and the future features that will emerge from it.   Basically you can ping the Moreover server by entering this string in your browser:   http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=X               Where X is the address of your RSS feed.   Personally I’m using Ping-O-Matic. It’s probably the best free ping service available for the moment. If I’m wrong, please tell me where the best free is :)   Good publications! Technorati Tags: [msn] [rss] [feed] [moreover] 4:41:43 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 5, 2005

Remarks on Expository Writing in Mathematics How to write a readable mathematics text       I came across this article from MathForge. It's a really interesting reading for anyone who needs to write a text on mathematic. It can seem really a specific reading but his goal is more than important. The reader targeted by it is the graduate student in mathematics. Personally I think that this article needs to be read by any university students in sciences. Writing is probably the core skill of all sciences. You need to know how to write your ideas to make them understandable by your peers. It's essential not just for publication but for everyday works. This assertion is more and more true with the place the Internet is now taking in universities around the world. Some can think that video and voice chat are the future. Personally I don't think so; even if it will be the case, for the moment, writing is the privileged communication medium. Technorati Tags: [writing] [mathematics] [university] [student] 7:36:46 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 4, 2005

Create your words repository Use Word to keep track of your words search       I'm using Word as a translation tool since some months. Why? Because it's easy, powerful and it's integrated in the environment I'm using to write these posts. With Word 2003, Microsoft comes up with an interesting language side bar. If you select the "All Reference books" and search for a term, you'll have answers from many, more than useful, works. Encarta English dictionary, English thesaurus, the French translation and French thesaurus (dependent the translation language you selected). His that not perfect? In a single click I have access to a word that I didn't know with his definition, his synonyms and his translation. Okay, there is why I'm using this tool.   I also use it as a words repository. A word repository is especially interesting when you are learning a new language. It's a place where you'll put new words that you learn with his definition and translation. What make Word interesting as a word repository is that you only have to create a Word document call "word repository.doc". Then when you are searching for the translation of a word that you don't understand, you open this file, you search for the word's translation in the translation tool; you copy the definition and the thesaurus entry and paste it into your document and save it. Then you have, in few seconds, keep track of your new learned word. Your words repository is now started.   What's the purpose of a word repository? It's a way to keep track of new learned words. It's a place where you'll be able to easily find words that you already searched for. The problem with languages is that this is not because you use a work once that you know this word. You need to use it few times in different contexts to master it. It's where a word repository is interesting. You can easily get tracks of your own words and rapidly search through it. You also can enhance it with an excerpt of where and how you are using it.   I said that it was really useful when you are learning a new language; but keep in mind that it also can be really useful with your native tongue. Use it to refine his writing and speaking; to master his subtleties.     Technorati Tags: [writing] [words] [language] [translation] 9:23:15 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 3, 2005

Bloggers are not journalists and nobody cares about bloggers' writings.   Also: moleskines sucks and we waste our time ;)       I was reading a conversation on Moleskineries this morning and I came across a post, from an anonymous writer that wrote:               ----- 1. Moleskins suck. 2. Bloggers are not journalists 3. Repeat 2. 16,789 times 4. Nobody cares what bloggers write I feel sorry for your wasted time.             -----     This is a really funny post. First, I think that people don't understand or just didn't want to. Some seem to fear the new communication medium that are blogs. They don't understand their implications their popularity. Blogging seem to be implemented in the news system and would probably not go. The interaction between blogs and traditional news networks had begun some years ago; the interactions became more and more important. Blogs use traditional Medias to discuss the world's situation and traditional Medias use blogs to discuss the world's situation. Is that bad? Certainly not. But it can be a fearful situation for someone that work in traditional Medias and that want to keep is job or that didn't like change. Sorry to disappoint you but they are there and will not disappear tomorrow.   Personally I blog for myself otherwise I would not blog. You think that the 1.5 million of MSN space bloggers are writers? I don't think so. They do this for them, for their friends and family. There are writers who blog; there are journalist who blog; there are CEO who blog; there are also normal person who blog. Anybody can blog, it's the beauty of blogging; it's probably one of the best free speech medium. Go check Iranian blogs or Iraqi blogs; you’ll understand what I say. Technorati Tags: [bloggers] [journalists] [writing] 9:13:00 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 2, 2005

The magic of blogging; the pleasure of writing. Personal communications: the underground of blogs     Blogging bring me an unexpected thing. This is the possibility to correspond with really interesting persons. I'm not talking of meeting people on chat system or contact websites. No no no; I'm talking of the old way of correspondence, like 10 or 15 years ago when one of the only services available was emails: the reflected writing, not the writing on the fly.   What I have underestimated is that when a person blog, he'll share is view of world; his passions; a hobby; his life, etc. If a blogger write about a specific thing, it's because that he have joy by writing on it, otherwise he would not do it. If a person read his posts, it's probably because he shares the same view of the world; the same passions; the same hobby or lived the same things. Otherwise, he would not read it. This specific situation is the catalyst of future conversions. They will try too deepening the subjects, off the blog, by email. Then you just enter in the underground of blogs. However, you need to take in count that this situation will only happen with the will of the read; if he initiates the conversion. If the conversation is initiated then things will emerge from them. Then new idea will be written by the bloggers for future readers, etc, etc, etc. You see the cycle? Is this not so beautiful? This is just a way to humans to search for new ideas and concepts in conversations; but in this case, with the help of a new technology. Technorati Tags: [blogging] [writing] [pleasure] 9:43:20 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

February 1, 2005

New version of MSN Search Some cool innovations in the engine     Microsoft just released the new version of MSN search. I was using the beta version since some months. I'm really impressed by the work they done. They started from scratch and do this in 2 or 3 years (don't remember the exact numbers). His look and options make him look like Google; but he is not. One of the main features of a search is that you have the power of how you want to perform your search. All indexed links are composed of 3 new characteristics: the update frequency, the popularity and the accuracy of the match. You have many more power on the result you'll get. The one I particularly like is the popularity tag. The problem with Google is that most of the time you always have the same 10 or 20 first results; always on the same sites. If you want an obscure website, you need to scroll 500 pages. But with the popularity tag, you can put it at 0 and you'll have all the obscure sites you want. This search flexibility is the real innovation for this type of search engine. It gives more power in the users' hands. How can you change them? Click on the "search builder" then click on the "results ranking" tab and you'll got it. There are also other cool features like the integration of Encarta entries in your search results.   A new feature that is not essential but is so cool is the RSS search feature. You can build a query like this:   http://search.msn.com/news/results.aspx?q=SEARCHTAG&;format=rss   SEARCHTAG is the search query string. Replace it by "moleskine", put it in your RSS reader and check the result.   Finally there are many other cool things. You just have to play with it and read the help section. It's sure that it's not ease to change your searching habits but I just tell you to try it for some searches, and after some you’ll know if you like it or not. Technorati Tags: [msn] [searchengine] [rss] [feed] [moreover] 9:15:59 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]