So I’ve been messing with my RSS aggregator for the better part of a day now and I have this to say: I enjoy reading sites in the aggregator whose only [or main] function is to provide content. In fact, in some instances reading blogs this way allows me to avoid some very busy pages and just read all their content as black on white text with nice blue links. This is great for news sites, pretty good for most blogs, and downright disturbing for more arty sites where the design is really part of the content, or accentuates the content in some important way. I know the big push in good web design is to separate content from presentation from structure specifically to enable this sort of approach [and allow people to access content via phones, browsers, PDAs etc] which think is great. However I also see a lot of sites really designing specifically for syndication which means bland sites, no “flavor text” in the sidebars, very few images, and no extra content that isn’t their blog or longer blog entries. No real problem, just that watching the shift happen over the past few years has been interesting, and there has been a shift. In my role as web content provider, I’m happy to know how this all works and pleased to be able to both read news this way and provide content this way. As my role as a public librarian in rural Vermont where most of our library patrons are still learning to double-click, I’ll be on the lookout for RSS’s utility.
Category: ‘puters
a good model for what “free” means in an internet context
Slightly off-topic, but I really think you will enjoy this article: Cooking pot markets: an economic model for the trade in free goods and services on the Internet. From the always wonderful people at First Monday.
[Linus] Torvalds remained in the University out of choice, not necessity. Linux has paid back, because the reputation it’s earned him is a convertible commodity. “Yes, you can trade in your reputation for money,” says Torvalds, ” [so] I don’t exactly expect to go hungry if I decide to leave the University. ‘Resume: Linux’ looks pretty good in many places.”
UDC, down with me, UDC
ibiblio has a list where they organize their collection by UDC. They are serious about keeping the “library” in digital library.
VT100 in the house
Back before ibiblio was ibiblio, they were a BBS system serving mainly UNC alumni. Here’s a help file telling you how to access onlione library catalogs, using mainly telnet, from 1991.
very practical as well
Thanks to copy-cataloging, small errors now get reproduced worldwide. Here’s a helpful list of Typographical Errors in Library Databases and its new companion More Typographical Errors in Library Databases to help you track down errors in your own catalog. As an informal note, these librarians mention that the most misspelled word on the Internet seems to be information.