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November 2005 - Posts

Congrats Kevin!

One of my favourite feed generators (ok, he's a human called Kevin) has just landed a new job with MSN / Windows Live team. Congrats Kevin ! Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 11:01 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments

Jack Ozzie on RSS: Why SSE?

Jack Ozzie ( Ray's brother ) has just posted his first, er, post since joining Microsoft. It is all about RSS + SSE and provides some info on a mailing list and achives so you can join the spec conversation. I hope to read his thoughts on OPML soon... Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 10:13 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Lightnet

J.D Lasica, author of a most excellent read, Darknet, points to the new, new Darknet . The Lightnet. "You've heard of the Darknet. Now try on its antithesis: Lightnet. An intiguing new meme from Lucas Gonze , with contributions by Mike Linksvayer and Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 7:41 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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More Attention / OPML podcasts:

Steve Gillmor with Dave Winer : "And speaking of AttentionTech, all three parts of the Dave Winer/Dan Farber special are now on line. Ladies and gentlemen, start your business models…" The Big Suitcase Part I Hello and welcome to the first of a special Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 6:51 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Note to self

Note to self: You will check the spelling of any names before hitting post You will check the spelling of any names before hitting post You will check the spelling of any names before hitting post You will check the spelling of any names before hitting Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 6:26 PM by alexbarn | 4 Comments

Corante Network

Well, it is all pretty 'live' now , so I'm safe to blog. I am of course referring to the launch of the Corante Network . Steve Bowd Stowe Boyd does a good job of explaining it all, as does Hylton Jolliffe ... Om Malik explains the fuss is about. As it Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 2:21 PM by alexbarn | 9 Comments
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More on Fremont

Seattle PI's Tod Bishop has been speaking with Garry Wiseman, the product unit manager (PUM) of Microsoft's new Fremont project: "An upcoming online classified service from Microsoft Corp. may sound like Craigslist or the new Google Base, but the team Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 9:43 AM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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Transcribr - podcast transcription service, sample

Last week Pete Cashmore blogged about a new podcast transcription service called Trancribr . I wanted to test it out so I got out my Paypal wallett and splurged $11 for 11 mintues of a podcast I recorded last week. It was dead simple to sign up and I Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 8:30 AM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Windows Live Mail Beta update: features + pics

Imran Qureshi provides an update on Windows Live Mail Beta. " The wait will soon be over. This week we will be releasing the “M4” (Milestone 4) update to the Windows Live Mail beta (codename: Kahuna)." Imran also lists out the new features plus provides Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 7:57 AM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Packaging Web 3.0

Packaging Web 3.0 , an alternative screencast by J Wynia . Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 10:55 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Privacy, lost.

About five years ago, I had the good fortune of meeting MIT Media Lab's Nicholas Negroponte . I asked him what we should be doing to reverse the ever-increasing loss of our privacy. To my dismay he replied, "Don't bother - we've lost it anyway and we're Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 10:19 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Tell me something I don't know.

'Tell me something I don't know'. Apparently this is one of Sergey Brin's stardard interview questions . You can learn a lot this way. I assume he knows what a Googly is , but does he know what LBW is ? Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 4:28 PM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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MSN Search - searching for your input

Brady Forrest of the MSN Search team is actively searching for anyone who wants to shape the future of their product. "A little over a year ago we began inviting groups of academics, bloggers, siteowners, and technologists out to Redmond to talk about Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 3:53 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Attention, OPML and nails on head

If you've been following my blog, especially this month , you can't have failed to notice me banging on about this Attention / OPML topic for a while now ( and here and here and here and here ). Not that I've been obsessed or anything... Anyway, Nick Read More...
Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 11:50 PM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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OPML - can do it in browser if you *want*, but you don't *have* to.

Lisa is doing a create job of trawling the net for some OPML gems. If you are interested at all in OPML, you need to subscribe to her feed . Tonight Lisa pointed out this post by Jim Moore : "People are now consciously creating and sharing reading lists Read More...
Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 11:16 PM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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One more wish for the wishlist wishlist

Marc Hedlund provides his Amazon wishlist wishlist . One item I'd add to the wishlist wishlist is the ability to export the wishlist (and import). After all, it is YOUR wishlist, right? Then I could manage and share the wishlist as I like , refer to it Read More...
Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 1:08 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Do you really think that it is simply a coincidence that today is my Xbox 360 arrival day *and* I have today and tomorrow off for vacation?

It is so close, I can smell it! Do you really think that it is simply a coincidence that today is my Xbox 360 arrival day *and* I have today and tomorrow off for vacation? (btw, it is a coincidence, but I like to think it is all part of my cunning master Read More...
Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 9:21 AM by alexbarn | 5 Comments
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Scoble's OPML broohaha

What a laugh, Robert wants to get done something *simple* done, and it becomes a royal pain in the RSS . In case you end up having the same issues Robert did, you could watch this short screencast done by Raymond that explains how you get out of this Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 27, 2005 10:06 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Grokking RSS + SSE, but what about OPML + SSE?

It has been a week since the RSS / OPML/ SSE proposal was announced by Ray Ozzie and Dave Winer . There is plenty of grokking going on with respect to RSS + SEE, but I've yet to come across any posts taking the time to think through the implications of Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 27, 2005 9:20 PM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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Xbox 360 - a 3rd possible orientation

CorkChop asks about the orientation of the Xbox 360 "Did Microsoft want to make the Xbox 360 more like the new PS2 which can sit vertically? Did they want to make the new Xbox appear more like a computer, I mean, the case is now white instead of black Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 27, 2005 2:46 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Flickr is having a massage

There are certain advantages to being in permanent Beta. This is one of them. Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 27, 2005 12:20 AM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Web 2.0 Workgroup

It is my pleasure to inform that this blog has joined the Web 2.0 Workgroup , a non-formal network created in October by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch , Richard MacManus of Read/WriteWeb , and Frederico Oliveira of WeBreakstuff . The Web 2.0 Workgroup Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 27, 2005 12:06 AM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Halo 2 on the 360

Russell Beattie tried out Halo 2 on his new Xbox 360: "the killer app of the 360 is the same killer app of the original: Halo. It’s just fun and works just like it should, and now it looks better than ever. Cool stuff." Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 11:03 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Follow-the-sun search

Follow-the-sun search . Via Joe Heck . Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 10:57 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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You used to have 2 customers: advertisers and readers. You now have a 3rd: mashers.

Matt McAlister of Yahoo! has some good advice for online publishers. His last observation nails it: "You used to have 2 customers: advertisers and readers. You now have a 3rd: mashers." Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 9:57 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Attention podcast part 2, Joshua Porter and Alex Barnett

Here's the second of the two part Attention podcast Skype call I recorded with Joshua Porter : Part 2: .(mp3, 46mb, 48min) Part 1 notes ( .mp3, 43mb, 45min) We've already got some feedback to the first half/part of the podcast. In particular I wanted Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 2:36 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments

Tim. SDN ain't exactly sorted

Tim Bray : "Oh yes, and since we’re talking about standards, would MSDN please get a clue !?!?." Good call Tim, however, I'd like to point out SDN ain't exactly 'sorted '. I agree, we should sort this mess out. Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 10:46 AM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Attention podcast part 1, Joshua Porter and Alex Barnett, part 1

This is the first of a two part podcast Skype chat with Joshua Porter and I ( part 1: .mp3, 43mb, 45mins ). Part 2 tomorrow. (update, here it is ). Joshua is a little faint to hear at first, gets a bit better later though, sorry about this. Notes and Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 12:59 AM by alexbarn | 5 Comments

OPML sampling

One of the nice things about sharing our OPML is the ability to sample feeds you've not tried before, but this can be hard work. Example: Pete Cashmore and Chris Anderson (editor of Wired) have made their RSS feed subscriptions available for others to Read More...
Posted Friday, November 25, 2005 5:43 PM by alexbarn | 6 Comments
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attentional blink

Dave Munger on a phenomenon apprarently called 'attentional blink': "Take a look at the following three animations. Each will flash very rapidly through a set of words (9 words per second!). Your job is to watch carefully and see if you notice a word Read More...
Posted Friday, November 25, 2005 12:20 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Alex and Raymond's screencast mash-up (or Collaborative Screencasting)

Well, the future of screencasting is already here. Internet time stuff, eh? We talked about it, so then Raymond and I went and did it . We've created two separate screencasts: his and mine . As you see there are two screencasts containing common clips Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 9:55 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments

The future of screencasting

I've been following Raymond Kristiansen's Don't Lose the Question (DLTQ) blog for sometime. He's an interesting guy: a media experimenter extraordinaire. You might know Raymond from the BBC news story in September leading up to the Norwegian elections Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 4:31 PM by alexbarn | 5 Comments
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Mashable OPML attention

Pete Cashmore has uploaded his OPML file / blogroll into opmlmanager.com too. Worth browsing / importing and seeing what his RSS subscriptions is you're interested in Web 2.0 / API / Mash ups . He's also been following the OPML / Attention conversation: Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 11:42 AM by alexbarn | 6 Comments
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I didn't touch anything, I swear.

I didn't touch anything , I swear. ( a la Tara , in reference to this ) Tags: OPML , Attention attentiontrust attention.xml Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 9:50 AM by alexbarn | 5 Comments
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Windows Live Mail (codename:Kahuna): spellchecker video

Windows Live Program Manager, Imran Qureshi: "Today I'd like to give you a sneak preview of one the most exciting features we have coming in our next beta refresh of Windows Live Mail (codename:Kahuna): Spell Check As You Type ." Windows Live Mail (codename:Kahuna) Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 2:58 AM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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Wow, an OPML browser and wishlist

The guys who developed opmlmanager.com , Bernard Flach and Peter Overbleeke have now released World Outlined Web (WOW!) OPML broswer . Nice job! Note: hey, mum & dad - you can check out my Christmas OPML wishlist in your browser right now (in case Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 1:52 AM by alexbarn | 5 Comments
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Identity 2.0

I missed this first, second and third time around. Not this time. Just watched it. First class: Identity 2.0 by Dick Hardt of Sxip . Thanks to Liz Lawley for the pointer. Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 1:38 AM by alexbarn | 6 Comments
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Tags and liberal interpretations

This poppeed into my RSS reader just now. It was tagged as 'UI' in Flickr . The tagger in question must either be an exceptionally lateral thinker to consider this plate of green beans and a bit of chicken as a user interface, or he/she ate this in the Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 6:30 PM by alexbarn | 4 Comments
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the value of your OPML file

Raymond* says that his OPML file could soon become one of his greatest assets . He's created a very cool OPMLish screencast explaining why : "OPML has so much potential. If I spend time on my OPML file, I will eventually build a multi-layered outline Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 8:08 AM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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'my friendly neighbourhood OPML freak'

He said it , not me . Tags: OPML , freak , opmlfreak Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 7:48 AM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Uh, oh, I've been spotted.

Cristian has worked me out . - Tags: Attention , OPML Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 1:47 AM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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404

In case you've ever wondered ... via Digg . Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 1:45 AM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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Attention, Cars and OPML

I had a chance Skype call with Joshua Porter (thanks Richard for connecting us). I've been following Joshua's blog for a while. We got talking about some of each other's recent posts that interested us, this one of his particular: Attention, Buying a Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 1:36 AM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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'my OPML file is a mini blogosphere'

Library clips : "my OPML file is a mini blogosphere" (via Raymond ,via OPML) Tags: OPML , Attention Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 12:23 AM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Did Wells predict the Internet?

Jack William Bell asks if H.G. Wells predicted the internet. From reading this 1937 essay, 'The World Brain' , I'd agree with Jack - Wells came very close: "There is no practical obstacle whatever now to the creation of an efficient index to all human Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 10:48 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Why the Brightcove deal matters

Why does the Brightcove deal matter? Here's three reasons I've given previously: Media will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 50 years Ourmedia.org and Brightcove: 2 sides of the broadband content coin Jeremy Allaire launches Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 5:53 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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tracking my Xbox 360 delivery via RSS

I've blogged parcel tracking via RSS before , but I've actually got a UPS package I want to track via RSS . Tha package is my belated birthday present, the much antipicated and much blogged Xbox 360 . Be HERE! Tomorrow morning perhaps? Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 4:38 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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Lisa gets Attention via OPML

I'm enjoying Lisa William's OPML blog She 'gets' what I'm talking about re: OPML and Attention : "For years I have wanted a decent wishlist software... ...I want to be able to easily make one for my kids with their clothing sizes and ages, and I want Read More...
Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 9:54 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Startup 2.0

Kevin Burton just pinged me about a crazy idea he's just had : "Around a month ago I started playing with some community funding activities to see if I could continue funding TailRank simply from the good will of the community. I have to admit that I Read More...
Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 2:52 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments

Microsoft proposal: Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML

(Updating with reactions, below) - Dave Winer : " Microsoft has unveiled a new proposal called SSE, which stands for Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML. ... So we need some way to share subscriptions between different applications, between vendors Read More...
Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 7:22 AM by alexbarn | 6 Comments
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Loser Generated Warning Label

Loser generated using the Warning Label Generator , via Assaf and Richard . Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 9:55 PM by alexbarn | 4 Comments
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Digg + slashdot + del.icio.us/popular = diggdot.us

Digg + slashdot + del.icio.us/popular = diggdot.us Here's the RSS feed. via John Musser (again) Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 9:41 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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'with great power comes great responsibility'

"with great power comes great responsibility" Source: Uncle Ben to Peter Parker in Spider-Man (that's not Doctor Octopus, btw) Michael Swanson has quoted this recent Spidy classic when describing XAML and Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly known Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 8:51 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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entertaining ideas: attention data in OPML

Dare Obasanjo: "My advice to Nick and others who are entertaining ideas around standardizing attention data in OPML; go build some features first and see which ones work for end users and which ones don't. Once we've figured that out amongst multiple Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 7:22 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Conversations on Attention, OPML and Attention.xml

(If you're really not up for reading this, or want more thoughts, you can listen to my podcast (.mp3, 10mb) I recorded this morning. BIG thanks to Lisa (OPML fan :-) for hosting the file . More related podcasts / conversations listed below) Attention, Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 3:00 PM by alexbarn | 7 Comments
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No Error

Joseph Heck : "I've never seen an error page that read: "No Error"." Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 2:19 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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tag-tástico

Tecnocitas puts this another way . "2006 será un año tag-tástico" Tag-tastico...love it! Tags: tag-tastico , tagtastic tag , tagging Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 1:29 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Help needed: who can host a podcast for me?

Am desparate here, need your help. Having issues with ftp this morning...can anyone host a 10mb mp3 until I get things sorted? Ourmedia takes to long (days before approved), and don't want to pay for more hosting.... thanks. Update: thanks to Lisa , looks Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:45 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments

MSN Messenger World's Best App Contest

John Musser : "a number of entries for MSN Messenger’s World’s Best App Contest are now listed here under the Messenger API page . These extensions are built using their new Activity API and many of them pull and mash online data into the Messenger chat Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 19, 2005 6:19 PM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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RSS überuser screencast

J Wynia has created a screencast (.wmv) showing how he reads and manages his RSS. From what I can see, he's a RSS überuser. "I couple of weeks ago, Alex Barnett was listing the things that he considered requirements for a good RSS reader. It appeared Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 19, 2005 3:27 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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2006 will be a tagtastic year

Greg Prosl pinged me about a video sports service he has just launched: BroadbandSports.com . The interesting part for me at least is the tagging side. I can tag the videos with any tag I like ( Del.icio.us -syle) and browse and search videos by tags Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:31 PM by alexbarn | 6 Comments
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1 billion searches in a year sounds like a lot

IT Facts : "Annual Web search usage and volume is projected to cross the 100 bln threshold during the next 12 months, driven by a range of advances and new developments in general and vertical search as well as video and multimedia search. Local commercial Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 19, 2005 12:44 AM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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My neck that gets as stiff as a piece of wood

And now for something completely different. Here is a snippet from MSDN Korea's latest VS2005 rap music video : "키보드 자판만큼 딱딱해진 내 고개 My neck that gets as stiff as a piece of wood" Via Frankie Fresh . Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 11:29 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Ajax whois

Ajax whois . Why not? Via Digg (the slashdot killer ...this digger doesn't agree ) Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 10:16 PM by alexbarn | 2 Comments
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What is Screencasting article, a good intro.

Jon Udell lit up this Del.icio.us feed to the screencast tag , with this What is Screencasting article . It's a good intro to the art. Jon inspired me to do these screencasts . I should do more. Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 10:05 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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RSS, the Web 2.0 glue

Don Hinchcliffe : "Problematically, RSS is still not quite a household word yet, and even the software industry is just beginning to realize the importance of this workhorse syndication format. Though at this point it's already clear RSS will be the key Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 10:01 PM by alexbarn | 1 Comments
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Looks like a wind up to me.

Business 2.0 Blog: "MIT's Nicholas Negroponte showed his much-anticipated $100 laptop at the U.N. tech summit in Tunisia. Aimed at children in developing countries—"one laptop per child" is the slogan—the lime-green unit is powered by a hand-crank and Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 9:42 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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Listening to Web 2.0

I'm listening to a presentation Joshua Porter gave at an event called Buy, Hack, or Build: Optimizing your Systems for Your Users and Your Sanity : "...I wasn’t going to define Web 2.0, as most of the definitions I’ve heard are ambiguous, to say the least. Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 8:39 PM by alexbarn | 0 Comments
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OPML and the road to Attention data: Progress

Steve Gillmor informs us of Dave Winer's OPML namepace news: "Basically, I think OPML should have a way to include elements from other namespaces, much as RSS 2.0 does. Developers should, whenever possible, use capabilities that are already in use by Read More...
Posted Friday, November 18, 2005 1:23 AM by alexbarn | 11 Comments
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'where we place our RSS links'

Nice post by Nick Wilson: "I'm talking about where we place our rss links. On the right, you can see a map that was produced as part of the EyeTrack 3 study written up by Steve Outing last year. It shows you how people's eyes move over a web page, particularly, Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 17, 2005 11:04 PM by alexbarn | 3 Comments
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Open letter to Chris Law and Paul Martino

The creators of WSFinder, a wiki-based directory of web services and APIs that people are using to create mash-ups, are working on a new project that caught my eye - WSRelater. WSRelater is a recommendations web service that enables a website to easily Read More...
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