Category: Technology

Blogs at 11

I guess I’m easily amazed, because the blog phenomenon continues to amaze me. We all know about the blackouts that occurred yesterday (and are still occurring somewhat today) in New England. And we’ve probably read news from professional, reputable web sites or heard it on the radio, saw it on TV or in a newspaper.

But what about blogs?

Personally, I think blogs hold enormous potential as an informal news source. Sure, you’re not going to get the big picture, but you get a very interesting person-specific view of it, which is something you can use to put a piece of the picture together. I’m not suggesting you get all your news that way, but it’s an interesting exercise.

When you combine it with a GeoURL listing (which I’ve mentioned earlier) of all the blogs within a 500-mile radius of New York City, for instance, you find quite a few blogs that report on the incident.

Like this one.
Or this one.
That one.
One over here.
Here.
Or here.
Or there.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Portuguese! (With translation.)

Obviously it just keeps going, but it’s an interesting way to find information, isn’t it? No spin. No agenda. Personal bias still exists, but there’s no corporate threat of “If you say that I’ll fire you,” or even usually “This is the opinion we want the viewer to come away with,” to taint your picture of what’s going on. I like how raw it is. I pulled most of these last night, so I’m sure there are a lot more up right now than before.

Blog upgrade

I changed a few things in the code for this blog so that it would hopefully display more correctly in Internet Explorer on Windows, and I also added a little “tag line” that randomly generates each time you load the blog. See it on the left there? Hopefully I’ll eventually have a few hundred of those. That should be fun.

Oh, by the way Windows users, I’d be very interested how close I’m actually getting on Windows to how it’s supposed to look. I know the “jeans” background doesn’t show, but I’d like to know what else is different. Post in the Peanut Gallery or email me, okay?

I’m sorry, I can’t allow you to learn that

Have you ever heard the word “fromage?” I believe I had heard it before yesterday, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to remember what it meant. So when I read it, I thought, “Hey, I know of an online dictionary, I’ll just go look it up.” Take a gander at the definition for "fromage" over at Dictionary.com. Fascinating, no? It turns out the generous wordsmiths over there have decided that there are certain words that common folk like us really shouldn’t have free access to, and unless we fork over $3 each month, they’re going to do what they can to keep that word out of our pitiful little lexicon. The really interesting question, it seems to me, is how exactly did they choose which words were worth charging for?

Beyond that, I can only imagine what happens when you let your subscription run out. Perhaps they send out a team of knowledge-sucking specialists to surgically remove those words from your vocabulary? Or if surgery is too risky, I imagine all they have to do is sit you down and make you watch a few episodes of “Married with Children” or something. That oughta do it. “From-age? What was that? Maybe the quality of bein’ from somethin’?”

Maybe while they’re in there they can help you to forget that you subscribed in the first place, just to boost re-subscription rates. Their sales must be skyrocketing!

It’s a kind of French cheese, by the way. Just trying to help.

So Sad

This is just sad.

How exactly is it that Apple has failed to convert Windows users even when Windows is that bad? Admittedly it isn’t that bad for everyone, but obviously it’s that bad for some people or those numbers wouldn’t be coming in. So, what’s the deal? Leave your opinion in the Peanut Gallery.

Note to Windows-haters: there is a better alternative.

The World as a Blog

[Edit: link to brainoff dot com slash geoblog removed because the brainoff site became infected with malware]

This might be one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen the Internet do. Yes, that’s real time. It’s like being able to see little digital prayers floating up to heaven all over the world, and reading the words as they go up, so private and yet so public. Thousands of people, all as intricate and important as you and I.

That is so insane I can’t even believe it. In fact… I’m going to have to write a letter.

Dear Internet,

I love you.

Sincerely,
Josh Lewis

And as if that wasn’t enough, after following a few links from the above page and adding a couple special “meta” tags in my source code I’ve got a list of every (registered) blogger within 500 miles of my house.

Feel free to post links to your own “whoa, that’s amazing” sites in the Peanut Gallery.

Audio Test

I’m going to be expanding the way I blog soon (never satisfied I guess), and I need you all to help me out. I’m asking that every single person who reads this make a comment in the Peanut Gallery (by clicking “Peanut Gallery” below this post) or email me. Let me explain.

[I removed this audio because the way I did it stunk. Please refer to the “Audio Test #2” entry or something more recent for a better example]

Above this paragraph you should see some kind of picture that says “Click here to listen to this audio blog.” If you don’t see that, then something isn’t working. If you click it and absolutely nothing happens, something isn’t working. However if you see it and click it, and hear my voice, then something is working. So if it’s working, tell me so. If it’s not working, tell me that. But whatever you do, don’t neglect to comment in the Peanut Gallery or email me! I need all the test cases I can get. If the Peanut Gallery isn’t working for you, email me at [email protected] with your response.

Oh, one last thing. When you comment, please tell me what operating system you’re using (Mac OS 8, 9, X, Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP) and what browser you’re using (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla, etc.). If you don’t know what browser or OS you’re using, that’s fine. Simply say so.

That’s all for now! Thank you for your help! If I get enough responses and I can fix the problems that may come up, I’ll be doing audio blogs soon.