February 29, 2004
Casshern
I have no idea what this movie is, or what it's doing, but you have to go check out the trailer.
Holy crap.
February 28, 2004
More on the Music Industry
Links to a couple of articles from John Dvorak at PC Magazine.
Ode to Napster, Music's Last Hope
I can provide a data point to verify Dvorak's conjecture regarding the real reason for the downturn in music sales.
During the Napster and Kazaa heyday I spent $40/month on music. I learned about all the music I bought from these file sharing programs. I then went and bought cds because I didn't like the quality of what was available, and I couldn't trust the information associated with the song. I used to find a song and then verifying the album and artist info at Amazon (to check all the possible remixes). Sometimes I would then purchase the album from Amazon. When the RIAA started suing people, I stopped using all file sharing software and subsequently stopped buying music. I can't remember buying a single music album in the entire calendar year 2003.
Recently, the legal digital music sellers have actually produced a service worthy of interest. I use Itunes. Why? The interface. Apple just makes things that are easy and fun to use. But the selection at the music store sucks. Despite the limited availability of stuff to download I still find music that interests me. How? The shared music feature. People on a local area network can share the contents of their Itunes libraries with each other. This is exactly what Napster was, access to music other people burned of their purchsed cds. Smart move Itunes. Living in college dorms I learn of groups like Manu Chao and then find myself back in brick-and-mortar music stores, back on Amazon looking for more information and buying cds again. I've spent more in the last two months on music than I have in the last two years. All thanks to Itunes, thanks to the sweet interface and the reasonable allowance of music sharing.
For those of you who follow this log on a regular basis, I'd like to tie this explanation to two earlier discussions, Do You Live the Dijalog Lifestyle? and Grey Tuesday. The problem is one of information access, something with which those of us living the digital media lifestyle are intimately familiar. The big five labels of the RIAA have established channels for disseminating information via hype and know what's going to happen when they rev up their marketing machines. This creates a controlled situation in which they can make their money. They're slow and unwilling to recognize and take advantage of new mediums for the dissemination of information (which file sharing really is, it's not primarily about dissemination of product) because they lose control. They have a harder time hedging their bets that new talent will sell. Hence, the ridiculous response to DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album. If they were to take the money and run, they would be admitting that money could be made without the need for the bloated production, development and marketing budgets that allow artists to make $1 per cd that costs the consumer $18.
It's just a sad, sad state of affairs when Apple knows the future of the music industry better than the RIAA and builds a compelling, revenue generating product. At least the RIAA can be dragged kicking and screaming into the digital music world. Now if they would just stop the completely pointless exercise of suing people for helping them generate profit.
February 27, 2004
The Geek Wedding
An excerpt from an email communication between bride and groom concerning choice of wedding cakes and font-face for invitation:
No comparison, really. Except, of course, in cost ($56)...
But really gorgeous.
I've called a few cake places. I had been imagining a cake that looked like stacked books, but that's custom and gets pricy (at least few hundred more than the $400 budgeted). I've found a place, however, that does an opened-book cake (like the kind that has a cheesy message written on it), for $250 or so. Is it worth being a stickler on this sort of thing?
We can talk more tomorrow...
Kendra
At 03:25 PM 2/27/2004 -0500, you wrote:
This is what I'm gonna, what I've been looking for for awhile.
The baskerville punches and matrices were lost shortly after baskerville's death, then rediscoverd much later and given to the Cambridge Press. Many modern typesetters have made digital versions, all more or less altering the spirit of the original to meet current sensibilities. Isaac Moore made a nice imitation for the Fry Foundry not long after Baskerville became famous. Until now, that variation, called Baskerville Old Face (you used to occasionally get it with MS Word) was the closest you could get to the way baskerville's type actually looked on paper 250 years ago.
This guy, Lars, finally has given me exactly what I wanted, an electronic version of exactly what Baskerville was using to print his great folio bible (or at least as close as I'll ever get).
The Baskerville 1757 type http://www.fountain.nu/catalogue/baskerville1757.asp
About the Baskerville Old Face
http://www.linotype.com/10825/baskervilleefoldface-font.html
At linotype you can compare Old Face to other modern baskerville versions. The difference is immediately, glaringly obvious to me. Try comparing it to the other EF Baskervilles.
http://www.linotype.com/117/baskervilleef-family.html
Rob
Oh yeah, we're book people.
Do You Live the Dijalog Lifestyle?
By now it should come as no surprise to all 12 of you that regularly read these pages that I pay attention to what goes on at xml.com.
And now it seems xml.com is paying attention to what goes on at metametadata.net (with a little help)
Kendall Clark has begun a new column in which he seems to have drawn a perfect picture of me and wants to discuss it in depth.
I was even moved to comment on the column and steer folks back here to share in the metametameta craziness.
Reading the column I'm reminded of Yellow River's obsession with his ipod and the stacks and stacks of cds he's got all around his desk.
February 24, 2004
War, good god, what is it good for?
Just an interesting bit of information, take it with a grain of salt (especially as its unsourced). Does not constitute an endorsement of either candidacy on anyone's part (especially mine).
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/02/02_400.html
February 23, 2004
Making with the funny stuff
A couple of quick amusements that wandered across my desk via the email.
First, courtesy of Dragonfly, thank you very much.
Check these out:
http://www.kersbergen.com/temp/worstalbumcovers.html
Second, via The Underground Libraries.
Very cute, non-allergenic, and very low maintenance...
http://home.wanadoo.nl/annekebroenink/maukie2.swf
And now a message from your keeper.
I'm still working on the personal part of this website, metametadata. I'd like to add some of you folks who comment and post weblogs to the contributor page. Please go there and look at the metadata on the right. You need to write your own funny description, such as "This date misrepresents the last time <Your Name Here> pleasured him/herself." Of course your descriptions will actually be funny, right?
February 20, 2004
Grey Tuesday
An update on the Grey Album from DJ Danger Mouse (via boingboing)
Seem's I'm not the only one in favor of the addition of compulsory licensing for sampling to Title 17 of the U.S. Code.
Grey Tuesday, (press release here) scheduled for the 24th of February will be a 24 hour flood of sites that will mirror (that is make available for download) DJ Dangermouse's critically acclaimed marriage of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatle's White Album.
You really should check the album out, it's pretty amazing.
SEXXXBETH
A friend to some, an unknown face to others, but a trip to many. Ms. Beth Gottfried writes many online columns here and there, usually on the subject of "pop tv culture" bruhaha. Unfortunately, I don't have too much patience for "pop tv culture" bruhaha. But this article, which is non "pop tv culture" bruhaha, caught my attention. Little Devil.
http://www.subterraboston.com/sexsexsex.html
February 19, 2004
Effective Information Food
So conversation with The Kenj has identified a need for The Keeper to shorten his posts.
Apparently, The Keeper has unreal expectations for his readers concerning their information gathering behavior in an electronic environment.
In other words, y'all skim.
So, The Keeper'll be brief, or here's a quickie for ya.
From the digest of the ASIST SIGIA listserv, on websites (not this one!) that are the most effective from an Information Architecture perspective:
Apparently, the IA folks love the "usability" and "intuitiveness" of the "interaction."
And of course, as soon as someone recommended a British site for food and cooking recommendations, hilarity ensued.
Anyway, that's all The Keeper has to say about that. I bet The Kenj will even read this post and follow all the links.
February 18, 2004
More freaky shit
A couple of lists. Thanks to Chhavi and The Kenj.
- From Chhavi
start the day with wonder ...
hee hee
C*
--------------
HISTORICAL COINCIDENCE
--------From:--WLS-- Feb 10, 2004Some presidential history!
Look what happens when a President gets elected in a year with a "0" at the end.
Also notice it goes in increments of 20 years:
1840:-- William Henry Harrison--- (died in office)
1860:-- Abraham Lincoln------------ (assassinated)
1880:-- James A. Garfield------------ (assassinated)
1900:-- William McKinley----------- (assassinated)
1920:-- Warren G. Harding--------- (died in office)
1940:-- Franklin D. Roosevelt------ (dies in office)
1960:-- John F. Kennedy------------ (assassinated)
1980:-- Ronald Reagan-------------- (survived assassination attempt)
2000:--George W. Bush------------ ????????????And to think that we had two guys fighting it out in the courts to be the one elected in 2000.
You might also be interested in this. Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can:
-- Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
-- John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.-- Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
-- John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
-- Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
-- Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
-- Both Presidents were shot in the head.Now it gets really weird:
-- Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
-- Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.-- Both were assassinated by Southerners.
-- Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.-- Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
-- Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.-- John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
-- Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.-- Both assassins were known by their three names.
-- Both names are composed of fifteen letters.Now hang on to your seat:
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by 'Ford.'Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here's the kicker...
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.-- Creepy, huh?
- From Kenj
The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners.1 - Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
2 - Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
3 - Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4 - Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5 - Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
6 - Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
7 - Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
8 - Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
9 - Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
10- Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
11- Glibido: All talk and no action.
12- Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13- Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
14- Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15- Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
16- And the pick of the literature: Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an a***ole.
Heheh
Random fun/cool shit
Alright, alright, alright, hey ladies, what's happenin'
Here comes the good stuff.
If you're not already, you should be checkin' out the Gothamist blog on a regular basis. Three recent posts.
Dave Chappelle is way cool (from gothamist)
Dave Chapelle is probably my favorite comedian. Unfortunately, living in the dorms means no cable! So I can't watch his show on comedy central. I'm just gonna have to get the dvd, <hint>maybe even for my upcoming birthday.</hint>
Let's all hope the Chinatown buses don't go away (from Gothamist)
Apparently they're no longer flying under the radar (and I mean that literally, less than 3.5 hours to New York!).
DJ Danger Mouse: The Gray Album (from Gothamist)
Especially check out the wired article. I'm checking this out today, I expect big, big things. This is the kind of cool shit that we should be able to look forward to from the current artistic scene and its wonderful new tools (heheh, tools). <rant>Instead we have major record labels subverting the copyright protection to try and control artistic output. A copyright owner should be paid whenever someone samples their work, but they should NOT be able to stop that sample. They shouldn't be able to say no. That's not what copyright is for. Copyright is supposed to encourage artists, both the originator and the sampler, to do their things because they know they will be able to make a living off of it. The only way you should be able to control the use of your music is by not making it public, never performing it. Do you see now what copyright is intended to do? To make it safe to make your music public? To make it so you don't have to jealously keep it under lock and key? Dumbasses want to be able to predict every big seller so that they can make sure they're gettin' their millions right from the start. This is why we get huge labels putting out schlock, cryin' over the cost to hype the damn thing, stiffin' the artists and tryin' to shove the digital music genie back in the bottle. Their own hype machine they can control. They know how to get 12-18 year olds to go buy a cd. They just haven't figured out how to take advantage of the file-swapping/remix-makin'/word-on-the-street hype machine yet. There's no reason they can't. I am unable to fathom their resistance to the new distribution/creation medium. It's not any different, its still all about what's cool and what's good. It's the same kids, just new toys. Get with the freakin' program here.</rant>
More freaky shit to come.
February 16, 2004
Updates!
Here it is: version 1.0, although it's debatable whether the site is actually ready for prime time.
The feature list:
- A new stylesheet, ooh, isn't it pretty?
- A new set of archives, organizing the entries by category.
- Links to these category archives at the bottom of each post, e.g. "more on Metametadata"
- Navigation menu available from every page, including single-entry pages, and date- and category-based archives.
- New double-secret Members Only link. For more information just ask, I guess.
- Added lily as an author. Welcome lily, we look forward to your first post.
- I updated the rest of the site as well, go check out metametadata.net
So I haven't been slacking this long weekend. And there will be more posts from me soon. I hope we'll all see posts from the other authors as well. If you're interested in becoming an author, please submit a comment of no more than 25 words explaining why you would be the greatest blog author of all time and our best friend forever and ever.
As for the new categories. They're kind of cool. Now anyone who only wants to see the funny stuff and couldn't care less about the metadata or the fantasy stuff can just ignore the boring parts and go straight to the raunchy bits.
Moveable Type allows you to provide one primary category and as many secondary categories as you want. When creating an archive for each category, it will include any post that has the category as either a primary or secondary. So posts will end up in more than one list. The category list is exactly what you see on the menu. Any author can create a new category. I would ask authors to remember that the link at the bottom of the entry reads "more on ...", so use the plural where appropriate ("more on feet", not, "more on foot", etc.). Authors, please also try to pick the one primary category that the entry belongs to more than any other. I'll periodically check the entries and add secondary categories where appropriate.
I hope everyone is enjoying the site and that you're all loking forward to becoming active members of the little community we're getting going here.
Your friendly Keeper.
February 13, 2004
Ice Fisheth
Good brisk day yall,
Excited I am, but not as excited about myself schlepping 80lbs of kielbasa, fleece and batteries. It is because I looketh liketh a tard. Ray Todd. My dingle of a dangle sleeping bag nearly touches the sidewalk when I parade from place to place. The left hemisphere of my body is conjoined with a 40lb EMS duffel. My right hand grips several pounds of frozen potato hash. I expect kind folk to hand me some change. My co-workers let it be known that I share a semblance to a homeless person. "I am going Ice Fisheth," I say proudly. "With Joshy!"
Did I tell you the time when I was sitting on the ground in front of a music store waiting for a friend to get off work and someone gave me $2.00?
Stay tuned for the Mun-day report illusatrating the perilous adventures of Josh Dastardly and Pilgrim Pitstop.
February 11, 2004
Shaolin Softball
Greetings to my dear friends. There will be a time soon that we should commence our softball training, led by Coach Wolfe. Sifu has even said that he would comply to a summer beer league event perhaps just one or many. At any rate lettuce think about lettuce.
What do you think?
The Website
Two posts in one day! It's like a record.
Okay so I totally redesigned the website. I know, you're all like there's a website? Isn't this it?
No ladies and gentleman this very much is not it. This is just a part of it.
Metametadata is my website about things in my life. The weblog is quickly (and enjoyably) becoming a collaborative effort.
Since metametadata captures information about the record capturing information about the object, and I am that record, I think that this log should from now on be called metametametadata, to recognize that it is capturing information about the capture of information about the record about the object, follow? Knew you did.
This way the log can be our thing and still a part of my thing.
So that's its name.
At the website check out all four sections. At the contribute page notice that kenj and I are listed. If you too would like to be listed as a contributor to the site (and anyone who has made the least comment is already a contributor), then you need to think up a cool description for the date. For example: This date represents the last time x bathed.
You'll all get to be validators.
Cool, eh?
The only links on the site that shouldn't work are the booklists on the identifier page. Those are next up to bat and will be blogged about, then its a note about making a derive, then a note about the metametadataschema (once I fill in that section).
Okay kids, knock yourself out. And while your at it check out the website I built for work.
February 10, 2004
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
So I'm reading this Amber series of sword and sorcerey books by Roger Zelazny.
This fact is not so important to this log except as background. In the fifth book, The Courts of Chaos, I came across this passage:
I finished my wine. She moved to pour me more and I stayed her hand.
She looked up at me. I smiled.
"You almost persuaded me," I said.
Then I closed her eyes with kisses four, so as not to break the charm, and I went and mounted Star. The sedge was not withered, but he was right about the no birds. Hell of a way to run a railroad, though.
"Goodbye, Lady."
This is an allusion to the poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats. In making this allusion Zelazny is not drawing any comparison between the characters in the two works, not by allegory or simile. Rather he is intimating that they are one and the same person, who happened to enter into the experiences, and therefore stories, of both authors.
This device falls squarely into the Tolkein tradition of adding depth to a myth by having a character make reference to even older myths. Of course Tolkien wrote his own older myths, Zelazny here borrows one. Keats borrowed this myth from older sources when he sat to write his poem. Even Tolkein did some borrowing of his own, basing material for both his oldest and his youngest layers on existing Scandanavian and Germanic folklore.
I like this device because it either, allows me to feel smart becuase I know what he's talking about, or it gives me a new avenue of research. Tolkein would do a better job because he wouldn't rely on his reader being well-read to understand the paragraph, rather he would adapt the bit of folklore to make sense within his story and allow his audience to decide whether or not they thought there was some real bit of myth behind it and were interested in further research (you bet your sweet bippy I am!).
I happen to know about La Belle Dame Sans Merci through my expereince working at the Houghton Library.
Le Belle Dame Sans Merci is a ballad Keats wrote based on a medieval song about a femme fatale. A reworking/remaking of an old myth the way Tolkien would have done it. Follow the link to a very good introduction.
Keats left two finished versions of the poem. Naturally, critics differ about which one is better.
You can decide for yourself:
Manuscript Published
I I
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering? Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake, The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing. And no birds sing.
II II
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone? So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full, The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done. And the harvest's done.
III III
I see a lily on thy brow, I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew, With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheeks a fading rose And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too. Fast withereth too.
IV IV
I met a lady in the meads, I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful - a faery's child, Full beautiful - a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light, Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild. And her eyes were wild.
V V
I made a garland for her head, I set her on my pacing steed,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; And nothing else saw all day long,
She looked at me as she did love, For sideways would she lean, and sing
And made sweet moan. A faery's song.
VI VI
I set her on my pacing steed, I made a garland for her head,
And nothing else saw all day long, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
For sidelong would she bend, and sin She look'd at me as she did love,
A faery's song. And made sweet moan.
VII VII
She found me roots of relish sweet, She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew, And honey wild, and manna dew;
And sure in language strange she said - And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true'. 'I love thee true.'
VIII VIII
She took me to her elfin grot, She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore, And there she gazed, and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four. So kiss'd to sleep.
IX IX
And there she lulled me asleep And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! - And there I dream'd - Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dreamt The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill side. On the cold hill side.
X X
I saw pale kings and princes too, I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they al Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!' Hath thee in thrall!'
XI XI
I saw their starved lips in the gloam, I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide, With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here, And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill's side. On the cold hill side.
XII XII
And this is why I sojourn here And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering, Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake, Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing. And no birds sing.
What makes the manuscript version of this poem special for me is that he wrote it out in a letter to his brother George (who was living in St. Louis, Missouri). In the letter he pokes fun at himself saying:
Why four kisses -- you will way -- why four? Because I wish to restrain the headlong impetuosity of my Muse -- she would have fain said "score" without hurting the rhyme -- but we must temper the imagination as the critics say with judgment. I was obliged to choose an even number that both eyes might have fair play: and to speak truly I think two apiece quite sufficient. Suppose I had said seven; there would have been three and a half apiece -- a very awkward affair -- and well got out of on my side --
Now, the Houghton Library has the largest collection of Keats material in the world, and has dedicated one room in its building to the collection. There you can find, as I have, the very letter mentioned above. Reading this as an undergraduate and enjoying the ballad in Keats' own hand was one of the main joys of my Harvard experience. It is no wonder that I became a librarian.
And if you're all interested I can arrange a tour of the library, including the Keats collection, through the Keeper of the Printed Book at the Houghton Library (Imagine that's the title of your job, Keeper of the Printed Book, as if you had all of the output of the western intellectual tradition in your care).
If you want, you too can see these words in Keats' own hand with your own eyes.
And, if you really want to know why I became a librarian its so I can one day be called Keeper of something.
February 09, 2004
Thnikkaman!!!
I keep my buttons on scroll,
And all the ladies in check,
There's a new STRONG BAD EMAIL!
At the end don't forget to check the computer screen for easter eggs!
February 07, 2004
Super Titties Yum!
Janet Jackson Breast Cupcakes? (via Rawbrick, via boing boing)
I highly recommend that (in addition to slavishly following metametadata) you syndicate/aggregate both of these extremely pertinent, very well done websites.
More shameless rip-offs, I mean good stuff from boing boing
- This one's for Pilgrim (via boing boing)
- Did you know my new fighting technique is unstoppable? (via boing boing)
I can't in good conscience link to any more, you're just going to have to go there and find the rest yourself.
Just one more for Pilgrim.
And just one more for the geeks (not me!),
- Are you madder than mad Al-hazred? Then you just might win the Necronomicontest. (via boing boing)
Okay, two more for the geeks.
- This one's for The Kenj. Aww, nerd love. (thank you boing boing)
- Do you have way too much time on your hands (then raise 'em)? Do you like to overanalyze popular culture? Then one day we just might find ourselves publishing something like this. (via boing boing)
You might want to check this out too.
My First Post
He (guess who) is making me do this. To demonstrate that I know what I am doing, and can do it again later when I have something interesting to say. Hard to be interesting when he is standing over my shoulder. No doubt he will have something to say about this, but he will have to post his own comment later. This is my post. Mine.
February 05, 2004
J Commander Salute
All Hail Commander J!
Welcome, Commander, to our humble vessel. I'm sure that you will provide a steady hand at the helm and will mainain a full log.
I am posting your comment re the Information Architecture entry so as to incorporate the html elements.
This site--which hasn't changed a <tr> or <td> in, like, 8 years--is kind of a primitive, human-filtered version of an aggregator that also incorporates a compelling link/topic heavy design: www.aldaily.com (I know some of your are already aware of it). Now you must be willing to accept their article choices, but I swear by it for lunch breaks and Saturday morning cereal. So does Edward Tufte, I hear. So there.
Commander J, thank you very much for your comments. We all look forward to your future contributions.
Information Architecture
Okay, here's a quickie.
Working with metadata in libraries, I follow the field of endeavor recently cobbled together under the ill-defined title Information Architecture (see links on the extended entry page). One of the ways I stay 'plugged in' to the IA community is by keeping track of the email list for the ASIST SIG-IA (American Society of Information Science and Technology) (Special Interest Group-Information Architecture).
The folks who regularly post to that list never cease to amuse me.
Anyway, the reason for this post is to send you to this website, http://www.mcmaster.com/, presented to the list as an answer to the following two questions,
- How many top-level categories on a web-site is best.
- How many levels of links are best.
Defying conventional wisdom this site works!
Quoting the poster:
"as many as needed" is usually the answer. for example, my husband thinks
this site < http://www.mcmaster.com> is the best thing since sliced bread,
and points out how great the homepage is. Now that would rate as clutter to
most designers.. but not to the geeky happy free-wheeling scientist whose
dream of being able to buy one .05 millimeter ball bearing, or a sheet of 24
carat gold mesh can come true
here..
Metal Cam-and-Groove Hose Couplings!
Straps & Hangers!
Lubricants & Penetrants!
Drivers & Knockout Punches!
Rotary Motion Vibrators!
Standard and Slug-Buster Round Knockout Punches and Sets!
Duct Tape!
Information Architecture links:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/infotecture/
February 03, 2004
A Public Service Announcement
From the "I really don't have enough ways to waste my time" newsdesk.
--Some websites/blogs that I follow and an introduction to RSS.
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is metadata scheme that defines a standard way to format the contents of a website or weblog (using xml) so that any number of different programs can access and understand this content. When RSS is universally adopted by the publishers of websites and weblogs, a program that can read RSS will be able to find the content of any site/log, get that content and republish it however it wants.
Programs that read RSS (called syndicators or aggregators) come in the usual two flavors. They are either web-based and client-based. The difference is just in the display medium. Web-based programs transform the xml into html. Client programs have their own graphical-user-interface(GUI), into which they plug the xml content.
Most well-run blogs (including this one) offer an RSS version of their content. To see this blog's RSS, just click on the link "Syndicate this Site (XML)". If you look at the rdf for this weblog, the rest of my website will start to make more sense. I'm applying xml to format the display of information, in addition to its intended use to format the organization of information. You can make your own decision as to how successful I am.
Once you install a syndicator, or sign up online for a web-based aggregator, then all you have to do is travel once to all the blogs you want to follow (including this one) and gather the http addresses for the RSS xml (you can cut and paste this from the address line). Then whenever you run the syndicator it will read these files (which are automatically updated by each blog's content management system) and prepare a list of the current entries/articles.
In the future when we all have mulitple personality disorder and our own reality tv show, everyone will be able to speak the Advanced Really-simple Syndicated Expression language (ARSE). Implants will enhance our ability to code our thoughts in ARSE, allowing us to publish our unvarnished (or varnished) mental states (with video!) straight to the infernet where we will all use our ability to speak ARSE to aggregate each others thoughts by sorting through the noise on the radiation band specifically designated for mass telepathic communications.
We're talking everyone knowing what everyone else knows in real-time, the collective subconscious, learning through osmosis.
Were all gonna be syndicated, baby.
In the meantime, here are some aggregators that will have to do. I like Amphetadesk.
--In the newly established Metametadata tradition, the following are not links to the actual aggregators, but links to lists of links to the aggregators (you know, for context). Some of the links are other blogs that you may want to aggregate. Isn't aggregating fun!
- http://www.hebig.org/blogs/archives/main/000877.php
- http://blogspace.com/rss/readers
- http://www.ourpla.net/cgi-bin/pikie.cgi?RssReaders
- http://rss.lockergnome.com/resources/
Or, how about articles about aggregators?
- http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,60053,00.html
- http://www.onlinemag.net/nov02/OnTheNet.htm
And now for the blogs/feeds I aggregate.
- Gothamist -- http://www.gothamist.com/index.rdf
- Itunes 10 New Releases -- http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wpa/MRSS/newreleases/limit=10/rss.xml
- Lockergnome's Technology News -- http://www.lockergnome.com/lockergnome.xml
- Montague Institute Review -- http://www.montaguelab.com/digest.xml
- Broog: Alien Film Critic -- Despite (because of?) his vast alien intelligence Broog does not syndicate his criticisms, you must travel to his webpage to be brainwashed (and eaten?)
Librarians, these folks do it way better than I do at the moment.
- Rawbrick -- http://www.rawbrick.net/remaindered.xml
- Bookslut -- http://www.bookslut.com/blog/index.rdf
- The Shifted Librarian -- http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/rss.xml
And you absolutely have to go to this site, bookmark it, learn it, live it, love it, you know.