Monday, December 01, 2003

Dwight Shih has standalone Trackback for Radio. 

A new feature in the right margin of Scripting News links to categories that have new posts in the last seven days, sorted by number of posts in the seven days. This gives you a rough idea of what's topics are hot over the last week, and a way to get more background going back further in time (click on a link). Now that I've been categorizing stuff for a few weeks, the payoff may be here now. Let me know what you think. 

Command Post: Edwards Launches Spanish-Language Blog. 

Rogers Cadenhead on the OPML 1.1 spec. Note, we're reactivating the OPML-DEV mail list, with a clear heads-up re the charter, and what's on-topic and off-topic. My hope is that users will be able to participate in the discussions if they're sufficiently interested, esp librarians and information architects. We're not talking about format design, or why OPML as a format is or is not good. Not a debating list. We are talking about applications and cleaning up loose ends. For those who are interested, here's why OPML is a cool format.  

William Grosso: "Someone dropped a meme in the water supply again." 

ThinkTank packaging circa 1983, thanks to Dwight Harm. 

Greenspun: "Thus did students who are within months of graduating with their $160,000 computer science degrees learn how modern information systems are actually built." 

NY Times: Eisner's 19 Years at Disney. 

AP: Man Changes Name to Bubba Bubba Bubba. 

Two articles, both from the NY Times, by coincidence happened to show up one after the other in my aggregator, a stark contrast of how two kinds of Americans live. The first article details the luxurious cruise ship Tom DeLay is bringing to the Republican National Convention in NYC in August, where George Bush will, presumably, be nominated for a second term as President. It's a very beautiful ship, very nice. The second article is the daily report of US soldiers killed in Iraq. Yesterday only one soldier died, David Goldberg, 20, an engineer in the Army reserve, based in Layton, Utah. Needless to say he won't be going to the Republican National Convention or riding on any cruise ships.  

And by the way, do you think it was a coincidence that Bush showed up in Baghdad just hours before Hillary Clinton? Perhaps the Republicans got wind of her trip and decided to upstage her? Can you imagine the giggles in the Oval Office. How unseemly, given that Americans are dying every day in Iraq. I don't think these guys get it. And remind me please, why Iraq, of all countries? Why not China or Burma or East Timor? Or South Africa, Liberia, Ghana or Namibia? The Ukraine or Georgia? What about Argentina? Venezuela? Mexico? Pakistan and India. Is Iraq the only country that needed our help? Couldn't our billions have done more good elsewhere? Did so many Americans have to die? Is it a coincidence that we have an Oil Company President? I'm sorry. This shit is keeping me up at night. Forget about stupid, they must think we're total complete morons to fall for this bullshit. One more thing, how are we going to get out? I can only think of one way, elect a Democrat who makes an explicit pledge to do exactly that. The Democrats are pretty gutless. Al Sharpton puts it well. By fighting for the center the Democrats have lost Congress, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court. Maybe it would be a good time to actually stand for something? Just a thought.