My entries have been so thin lately because I've been with my family on vacation. This post is a quick "catch up" on most of the entries I would have noted if I had the time.
Information Week featured an article on blogging on its front page. "Are You Blogging Yet?" does a pretty good job. It’s exciting to see the use of blogging in business being discussed in a major industry publication like this one. I thought their description of Weblogs was pretty bland and lacked the eloquence or spirit that others like Meg Hourihan have captured in their articles.
The good people who run BlogRoots (which includes Meg) and are the authors of the forthcoming book "We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs" have published one chapter on Using Blogs in Business for free online
The NY Times asks "How do I set up a Weblog of my own?"
Reuters (via CNET) published a piece on "floppy TV" technology. This is similar to the "electronic ink" I highlighted not too long ago. This is really exciting to me because display technology has been the lagert in the computing space. While the prices have dropped over the years, my monitor has only gotten larger and it still adds quite a bit of expense to desktop systems. The dropping prices of flat-panel LCDs is helpful, but a replacement for my 19inch monitor is more expensive then a loaded desktop system.
The O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) took place in San Deigo last week. Dan Gillmor blogged his observations and notes the most interesting of the OSCON blogs is the collective one found here using the TrackBack feature introduced in the latest version of MovableType. Incidentally Ben and Mena Trott presented at OSCON. Of note was their avocation of TrackBack in other weblogging systems. Gillmor posted a summary of their presentation here.
Ben Trott: My Favorite Features in Perl 6.
As expected Userland and Salon announced the launch of Salon Blogs. Dan Gillmor writes:
As expected, Salon and Userland have launched Salon Blogs. I believe this could turn into a pivotal moment in the growth of blogging as a media/journalism format of great value and authority.Congratulations, folks -- you're breaking new ground.
I agree. I'm happier to see clean, readable and well-designed templates being generated by Radio. Not to knock the good people at Userland because I'm not much of a designer myself, but the default templates that Radio use are an eye sore. Too many damn table cells that don't print so well. (Yes blogs are an online medium, but some of us do use it from time to time because paper is still the most portable information device around.) I know they exist, but not by default.
RealNetworks announced an open source streaming media platform project called Helix. Of note is its indended support of Ogg Vorbis the open-source, royalty free audio format that could eventually challenge the MP3 format. Bruce Perens discusses the reasoning of Real's move in this article on CNET.
A highly controversial bill has been introduced into congress that would allow authority to secretly hack consumers if they are caught downloading copyrighted material illegally. Dave Winer and Dan Gillmor, amongst others, weigh in with their outrage on the absurdity of this bills notions and the lengths the entertainment industry are going willing to go to protect their pampered arses.
