May 12, 2003

REST-ful Technorati API

Dave Sifry’s just publicly announced the Technorati API (link via Ben), which seems very timely (for Dave) given the recent report of a new Google-powered blog search engine.

Also with Google’s blog-enlightenment, will Technorati become the next Daja or more specifically the next Google search tab?

As for the API, I like the fact that it’s REST-ful, which should enable simple integration. I just scooped up my Technorati API-Key and may give it a try on my blog and perhaps internally on an internet portal.

May 9, 2003

Google, Blogs and clutter?

A quote from the article titled Google to fix blog
noise problem found on The Register…

“The main problem with blogs is that, as far as Google is
concerned, they masquerade as useful information when all they contain is
idle chatter,” wrote Roddy. “And through some fluke of their evil software,
they seem to get indexed really fast, so when a major political or social
event happens, Google is noised to the brim with blogs and you have to start
at result number 40 or so before you get past the blogs.”

May 8, 2003

Enterprise Meets the Borg

I think the Star Trek Enterprise Regeneration episode last night was one of the best in the series thus far. However, I have to agree with Jeremey Zawodny in that I was at first confused about the timeline, but I do think they pulled it together nicely.

As a few people have already mentioned on Jeremey’s blog, when the Borg contacted the Enterprise, they didn’t say, “We are Borg…”, which coincides with the storyline in ST:NG whereby they didn’t know of the Borg.

May 7, 2003

Suit Settled for Students Downloading Music Online

A quote in the [NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/national/02STUD.html?ex=1052539200&e n=62f647db4d1433df&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND) from Howard Ende
of DB&R about the suit:

“This suit is about the industry’s attempt to intimidate
Internet users and instill fear of lawsuits against users of the Internet,
particularly students,” said Howard Ende, a lawyer from Drinker, Biddle &
Reath who is representing Mr. Peng. “They need to find some other way to
protect their economic interests than bringing suits against bright creative
young people.”

May 7, 2003

Nation’s Dogs Dangerously Underpetted, Say Dogs

I got this one from Ted, which of course came from here (LOL!!)

“NEW YORKÂ—At a press conference Monday, representatives of the Association of
American Dogs announced that the nation’s canines are dangerously
underpetted. “Every night, thousands of U.S. dogs go to bed without so much
as a scritch behind the ears,” AAD president Banjo said. “If this sort of
neglect from our masters continues, it could lead to widespread jumping on
the furniture.” Upon his owner’s arrival in the press-conference room, Banjo
abruptly ended his speech, frantically barking, leaping, and rolling over on
his back in an effort to communicate his need for a vigorous belly rub.”

May 7, 2003

How To Make A Telemarketer Cry

Mark Eckenwiler
details his experience suing a telemarketer (link via [Doc](http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/05/07#theContinuingDeathOfAdvertisingAsUsu al))
I love this stuff!
Good summary of Mark’s work:

“The Small Claims process in D.C. – at least what I saw of it – was so
painless as to be dangerously addictive. While the decor in the clerk’s
office leaves a lot to be desired, the staff were consistently helpful and
professional during my phone calls and in-person visits, and you can’t beat
the results if your case has merit. (While sharing news of my success, I
learned from a work colleague that she had used Small Claims previously to
recover $5,000 from a crooked used-car dealer.)”

May 6, 2003

Lockergnome Text Ads

Hmm, looks like Lockergnome’s Bits & Bytes started to put text Ads into its RSS feed on Friday.

May 5, 2003

Flash Face

This is pretty slick — create your very own mug shot with Flash Face

May 4, 2003

Collaborative Filtering Visualization Tool for Music

Audioscrobbler Browser — “[is] a visualisation tool for finding new music by exploring links between related artists”

Wow! I found relationships between artists that I never realized existed.

For example, Nina Simone and Portishead are releated via Radiohead.

May 2, 2003

Blogging complements the water-cooler

Anders Jacobsen, whose blog I have just started to read on a regular bases (due to his comments here that I still need to respond too), has some rather compelling posts about KM and blogging, like for example this response to the recent Business 2.0 article on Management by Blog:

Anders Jacobsen: “I don’t think blogging in businesses will be capturing the water-cooler buzz… On the other hand blogs definitely have potential to smoothen out the intranet / knowledge database submission process. “