When
· Naughties
· · 2006
· · · March
· · · · 09 (7 entries)
Atom Bits & Pieces · FeedBurner’s FeedFlare API looks interesting. (Actually, there are a ton of Web APIs out there looking interesting, nobody could keep up.) But follow that link above and search for “Atom”; they’re abstracting the universe of feed formats using Atom 1.0 to give you something consistent and useful to write XPaths against. Microsoft’s doing the same thing in the IE7 API, but they’re abstracting to a bastardized not-quite-RSS2.0 format they made up themselves, which is kind of a confusing thing to do and will make the world learn yet another model. Atom’s popping up over in Ning-land too, they’re using the format to expose their applications and data, and are working on making it all writeable via the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP). And at ETech I heard about a couple more guerilla APP implementations, at big smart well-known outfits, not comprehensive or intended for exposure (yet) to the world, just cooked up in a hurry to get something done that needed doing. My spidey sense is tingling.
ETech — On Attention · The conference blurb said “It’s time to build The Attention Economy”. What’s that, I wonder? The shindig was certainly equipped with lots of people holding forth on the subject, so this was my chance to find out. I took to accosting total strangers in the hallways saying “What do you think about this whole ‘Attention’ thing?” ...
ETech — Good Pitches · This is just a potpourri of pitches, specifically the ones that were good and memorable. Includes rare complimentary remarks about Microsoft technology ...
ETech — San Diego Trolley · It’s a nice enough town, but it’s out of the way and, in my experience, not that easy to get around in. The hotel was sold out when I tried to get in a couple weeks ago (but some last-minute arrivals got in fine, hrumph). Anyhow, I ended up at a Doubletree at a place called “Hazard Center” which is bit of a ways out, but when I was driving the rental in I noticed something that looked like a train station across the street. Sure enough, the San Diego Trolley will take you from there to the convention hotel in about 20 minutes for $1.50, which beats struggling through the traffic in the car and paying at least ten times that for parking. Oddly, the people on the train were few in number, and they all seemed well-dressed, well-fed, and well-rested; a typical-California ethnic mashup, and most were reading books. This isn’t like public transport in other places. On the other hand, when you want to go home after ten at night, the trains run less often, and many of the people are neither well-dressed, well-fed, nor well-rested (you can tell because they’re asleep). But the trains aren’t crowded then either. All in all, it seems to be a fine system.
Family Fun · For my “Atom as a Case Study” presentation at ETech, I wanted to give the audience a feel for the endless, wearing nastiness in the syndication community. It wasn’t hard to find a couple of samples of ignorant childish vituperation from the week before the conference to hold up as examples, but I thought that a little light relief was in order, too. So I put together a photomontage slide show to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries, 25 pictures of battlefield panoramas, alien invaders, monsters fighting, Mexican wrestling, superhero combat, slavering vampires, frightened soldiers, crashing planes, fantasy warriors with big ugly weapons, and so on. It was kind of amusing, if I say so myself. After the talk someone came up and asked “What tag did you use to find that stuff?” It wasn’t like that; back at home on the weekend I was poking around Google and Yahoo image search looking for things like “combat”, “monster”, “explosion“, “battle”, “weapon”, and so on and the six-year-old cruised by and looked at my screen. Boy, was he ever hooked. So I settled him into the chair beside me and we spent a really enjoyable half-hour cruising the Internet for pictures of violence and destruction (Safe Search definitely on). He was quick to pipe up “Ooh, that one, Daddy!” but puzzled by a couple of my picks. Quality time, they call it, bonding, that kind of thing. Am I a Bad Parent?
ETech — Mark Pilgrim · Hey, I finally got to meet Mark Pilgrim, with whom I’ve had a lengthy and occasionally vexed online relationship. This fragment is mostly just an excuse to post a picture ...
More Family Fun · Check out Lauren’s news. Having a combined age in excess of 90 does not constitute birth control. Expect less from me this summer.
