I’ve thought for a while now that RSS needs something big to happen (by “big” I mean a huge push by AOL or Microsoft) if it is ever to be anything more than a niche technology. My Yahoo has moved things in the right direction, and now The Guardian is trying to give a little push. Says The Guardian’s Simon Waldman: “We think that once you get beyond the early adopter crowd, the best way to bring people into RSS etc. is through leveraging existing brand relationships.”Amen.
But the most interesting thing he says is this: “So, in any RSS activity we do in the future – Newspoint included – classified [advertising] is going to play an important part.” Considering how badly eBay has hurt classified advertising, this is important. Can the newspapers use RSS to hold on to their cash cow?
I just stumbled accross the ant farm from SpireMedia. Spire CEO Mike Gellman is a friend who I admire. Spire is not just another web development shop. They’ve built a distinct identity and Mike has done a terrific job managing the company through uncertain times. This is just one of many examples of their creativity that have impressed me.
Hat tip: Terry Gold (another entrepreneur I admire)
A bunch of us on a discussion list were talking about various books and joking about how much money we spend on Amazon. In the last year I’ve developed the habit of only buying books that I think I will want to read or reference multiple times. For everything else, I try to use the library (if the book is available). Anyhoo, Dori Smith pointed me to this rocking LibraryLookup bookmarklet, which allows you to look up the current book you’re viewing on Amazon at your local library. This is exactly what I needed. Thanks Dori!
Update: BTW, if you happen to live in Boulder, here’s the bookmarklet for the Boulder Public Library. Just drag it to your toolbar, or right click and choose “Add to Favorites…”:
Boulder Public Library
A couple of weeks ago a friend of my wife sent her an email with the tragic news that her newborn baby boy was born with a tumor in his heart which would kill him if he didn’t receive a transplant. Her husband created a web site and they sent email to everyone they know asking for help.
We posted information about this on HappyMudan and passed it along to everyone we know as well.
Today I was delighted to learn that a donor was found and a new heart transplanted last week. Make sure you go look a the video on their site – it will really brighten your day, though it’s still sad to think that another family is grieving their lost child while we celebrate.
Who knew the heavy metal umlaut could be so illustrative of why wikis are cool?
I actually us a wiki for a big part of my personal information mangement. Check out WikidPad. Below is a screen shot of what it looks like on my computer. I have it in my startup folder, so it’s the first thing I see every day after bootup. I’ve organized it around the principles from Getting Things Done (aff.).
(Special thanks to geekanddiva for inspiring me to be more disciplined in using WikiPad with Getting Things Done.)
Update: Here’s another, more close-up screenshot in response to a discussion on the WikidPad discussion list.
I’m testing out w.bloggar for posting. Earlier I did a couple of posts with BlogJet. They’re both very nice, but I give the UI edge to BlogJet because of the wysiwyg editor. W.bloggar is free (or maybe I should say freeish, – they ask for donations), so it’s a tough decision.
Can you believe it? Raging Bull is 25 years old!