A behind the curtain look at the data backends of some well known services:
Part 1: Second Life
Part 2: bloglines and memeorandum
Part 3: Flickr
Part 4: NASA World Wind
Part 5: craigslist
Philadelphia bloggers engage the local political establishment
Monday’s Daily News profiled Hanna Miller, Albert Yee, and Chris Bowers and their efforts to not just speak out – but to make a difference by getting involved in the political process here in Philadelphia. There are a lot of challenges, and one of the not so surprising ones is that long time local leaders fear the new faces and the new passion for civil service in their midst.
Chris posted a summary of his first ward committee endorsement meeting last night. It’s a great example of how someone involved in civil service and politics, using this medium, can change the process to be more transparent, open, and participatory. In short – more Democratic.
Congrats to Albert on his migration to WordPress and his new design.
I’ve been meaning to post about this since Monday, but it’s been a crazy week.
“Power Law of Participation”
Ross Mayfield’s Weblog: Power Law of Participation:
Most of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail examples have focused on models of consumption, not production, where intelligence is largely artificial. Amazonian algorythms guide users down the long tail from Britney Spears to Nobodys, made available without the constraints of shelf space. But the interesting question is will the tail wag? Can users discover their own power together to either discover something great, or even create it?
As we engage with the web, we leave behind breadcrumbs of attention. Even when we Read, our patterns are picked up in referral logs (especially with expressly designed tools, like Measure Map), creating a feedback loop. But reading alone isn’t enough to fulfill our innate desire to remix our media, consumption is active for consumers turned users.
Philly Future featured nomination time again
Python snippet to change Windows wallpaper
With so many pictures of Emma, I have an urge to write a wallpaper swapping script. This looks like the beginning of one.
Vaccinations make it a scary night
Emma got three vaccination shots yesterday. I wasn’t at the doctor’s, I was at work at the time, but I believe Richelle when she tells me I would have cried at seeing Emma in the pain she was in. I felt like crying seeing her in pain when I got home. I feel guilty for not being there. For the next round I definitely will be.
She was very, very uncomfortable last night. While she didn’t display any of the symptoms of a vaccination gone wrong (talk to your doctor before giving your baby a vaccination – be aware), the pain she was in was still scary. When she screamed, which would happen in these short frightening bursts, it would rip right into you and vibrate there. Some Tylenol (on doctor’s advice) and lots of TLC went a long ways. Emma so far this morning seems herself.
The Internet’s future is being decided
Get informed. Make a decision. Then make your voice heard.
ScrapBook
I have a huge library of articles and stories from the web on my PC that was growing out of control. 700 megs worth of knowledge and history that just sits there, backed up on CD. Not anymore. Using ScrapBook, a Firefox extension, I’ve organized my library and now it is a searchable personal reference. Lifehacker has a handy howto.
I need to get around to trying EverNote, a similar free tool with more capability, however, I’ve been looking for a lightweight, simple tool that gets out of my way and lets me work the way I work and ScrapBook is just about perfect. I’m partial to using my file system as a database, I don’t want to need the software to access my library directly. ScrapBook does that and builds a RDF document describing my library’s contents that I can parse for reusing my library in different ways with a little bit of Python or Perl. Shoot, I could simply consume the RDF and library (it’s HTML after all) and build my own UI with minimal effort.
“the best feeling in the entire world”
Emma is now very, very aware of her surroundings. Her smile fills up my heart like nothing else. She’s shares it all the time now – when she recognizes faces, hears voices in the room, when Richelle or me baby talk, when she’s being changed, even when she catches a glance of Xena walking by.
So when I read, anonymous rowhouse, the other day, this spoke to me:
i used to wonder what made people take their kids to all kinds of crazy places, i mean if i had my druthers sometimes i wish it were 1862 and my child(ren) would sit quietly making samplers while i worked on my latest collection of poetry (we’d be wealthy and have domestics).
but that isn’t what it’s really like.
somewhere between conception and kindergarten, if not at the moment of their arrival, you develop an almost palpable determination to hear your offspring go, “wow!” and see their eyes get big and witness all their delight and wonder at the smallest happenstance.
that is the best feeling in the entire world.
it starts, perhaps with the very first laugh … and continues through every redemption of prize tickets, rollercoaster, and bucket of seawater with a little crab in it, all through the seasons of their growing up.