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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.

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Thursday, May 1, 2003

Multiple RSS Feeds

It works pretty well and Stapler does a good job, but this is a less-than-optimal solution. IMO the aggregator should filter feeds the way a user wants to see them, rather than me having to provide multiple feeds. The RSS reader ought to be configurable to the point that it shows as much, or as little, of the feed as wanted.

The other thing that would be nice is an option for a "summary" of an item to be specifically called out. This would be especially valuable for longer posts. It's a technique John Udell uses pretty often. It's also supported in Conversant, though I'm not sure how it works within the RSS files.

Ideally, the summary text would be an RSS module that would be read if present, ignored otherwise. And the aggregator could be set to display the summary in full (if present), or display some truncated version of the full post otherwise.

I see the summary being used by folks who usually create longer, essay-style posts or by publications that want to syndicate full articles with a summary attached. Maybe something like this already exists. I'd like to know.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 2:58 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: RSS, Technology, Userland Radio

Sunday, January 12, 2003

Educating the Governers

We need to be diligent in educating our representatives about Readers'/Users' Rights and our intent to keep them, as well as our opposition to ill-conceived technology legislation. We need to keep our legislators in touch with their colleagues who do understand the issues, and we need to support good legislation when it arises. Such work isn't easy, but it is important -- much more important than writing letters to support your favorite TV show. And despite what you may have read on other weblogs, e-mail is a useful way to reach your Congressman. Claims to the contrary not withstanding, I know it works because I've used it.

So, as distasteful as it is, pay attention to politics. Know who our friends are, and try to teach your representatives that artists aren't starving in the streets because your daughter downloaded an MP3 file. If we can keep the playing field open for innovation and entrepreneurship we can build a system that benefits all parties, not just the established old-line businesses (who have apparently been cheating both suppliers and customers for decades.) Publishers and distributors will have a place in the new system as they learn to provide services that technology-savvy customers value.

Help your congressman understand these things. Oh, and maybe send them a TiVo for Valentine's Day.

The Home Office are at it again.

Make your stand now

Paul Makepeace at Ecademy:

Take a stand on UK ID cards [Paul Makepeace]. Once again the UK govt is trying to foist a national ID system on the Brits. Stand.org.uk has prepared a piece to enable people to review the govt docs, and send an email to Those In Charge. There isn't a lot of time left. If you're going to do this, do it now. It's worth noting that this kind of protest killed off the RIP bill, so it works. It's very easy - read the page -- lively, short and entertainingly informative -- then click on the relevant checkboxes in Step 1, edit the form they present, and then off it goes. You must edit the box as it contains instructions that would look particularly stupid if sent. Here's what I hastily threw together, Dear Sir/Madam, I was dismayed recently to learn about the Government's proposals for Entitlement Cards (aka ID cards). [Ecademy: user blogs]

Is restriction of liberty hardwired into politicians? [Dangerous thinking]

Here we go again.

Part of the problem is that MP's are, by and large, horribly ill-informed about IT issues. Couple this with a need to be seen to be doing something and you have a nasty situation where any loud voice is likely to receive widespread support.

My own MP gets most of her information from the Home Office. She's a Labour MP so I guess she feels she can trust them. This is bad. Of course my own guilty secret is that I was supposed to be sending them information about where they kind find other opinions about RIP. I could have thrown in some stuff about identity cards too. I still should.

In the meantime it's off to the Stand. [Curiouser and curiouser!]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:51 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Copyright, Music, Technology

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

The One-Way Internet

Defining Broadband in Only One Direction. Wall Street Journal: After Internet's Big Bust, Broadband Shift Went On. Much of the new content being developed for broadband users is premised on the unproved assumption that people will be willing to pay for a wide range of entertainment on the Web. If they are, get ready for a two-tiered Internet, with the hottest content sites charging subscription fees.

Implicit in this story, and the attitudes of the reporter and the companies mentioned, is the idea that broadband is solely about the delivery of "content" to consumers. This is little more than television, updated for online.

Oh, there will be some interactivity -- some clicking by users on buttons that say "Buy This" and "Vote" and other such things. But real interactivity requires bandwidth to be fast upstream, not just down.[...] [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Dan Gillmor's description of the broadband conundrum is on target. The very notion of Asynchronous DSL is brain-damaged and a clear demonstration that broadband providers never imagined users would actually use the Internet. Rather, all they could see was consumers swallowing whatever providers could shove down the pipes. As Bob Frankston has said regarding the Net industry's fixation on entertainment, "You'd think the purpose of a roof is to keep rain off the television."

The media industry seemingly views itself as the only industry, and sees the only possible use for upstream bandwidth as a tool to steal from them. When stated so bluntly it's a preposterous position, but it is a real one.

The upstream speed on my DSL line is a pathetic 5-10k/sec. I use remote access software to get to my computer from outside the office, and even on high-speed lines the delay is interminable. There's no way I could ever run a server from home.

But I'd love to. I go to ClarkConnect in a heartbeat and buy one of their pre-packaged Linux home servers for $125 if I had decent bandwidth. And I'd sign up for their $7/month intrusion monitoring plan. No, I wouldn't host all my own web sites, but I'd host a single domain that I could use for storing photos, documents, and whatever else I wanted to access remotely. I'd start experimenting with audio and video blogging, and I'd develop my own photo albums for family.

I'm hopeful that eventually the old regimes will fall and we'll get to the point that the Internet can be used to improve the way we live and work on a broad scale. For that to happen we must get to a realistic market structure for bandwidth, and past the idea that the Internet is a one-way street.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 6:21 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Technology, Productivity

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