Day: March 22, 2004

NPR’s Neal Conan reads listener mail on Talk of the Nation (apparently a Monday task). Today, one reader asked how he could trust anything on the internet. Sreenath Sreenivasan, a Columbia University new media professor and a columnist for the media Web site, Poynter.org, runs through some obvious good ideas (check facts, etc.) and then calls out CNET News.com for having a strong corrections policy, along with its good tech news. Kind words, indeed. Sree doesn’t mention any other sites, although there are certainly others with strong, clear policies. That’s rewarding that News.com came to mind first. Working with strong, ethical people (journalists, in this case) is a pleasure.

I’ve been using Radio Userland for my blog for a while. I actually tried it first back in 2000, around when the boy was born… I’m not sure it was even called Radio then. I’ve been publishing this blog for nearly a year, and my year license is about to expire. That event is triggering some thought about what’s next. Do I stick with what’s familiar, or is it time to make the move to something that’s seeing a bit more advancement and is web-based?

I’ve appreciated the desktop backup of the client approach, and I’m very fond of the philosophy of not locking in my data (all XML files). But a web browser is still what I do my editing in, so why not convert to a location-less tool for posting? Radio — both here on my Mac and at work on my Windows PC — has a recurring habit of eating CPU time, even to the point of slowing down my typing (which, in a modern computer, is insane). Also, I’m lazy, but I still want better URL structures, better comments (not pop-up, and not dependent on a central service), and an easier-to-follow community-based support (since the company is small enough that I’ve found support hard to come by).

I’ve also been surprised that when I wrote the company in response to the polite “your license will expire soon” email I received, I never got a response. I have some valid questions, like “What’s the future of Radio?” since it hasn’t seen any improvements that I know of for a couple of years. It’s possible any reply never made it through my spam filter, so I’m not angry, but I am disappointed. And the spam filter isn’t that strong — it let in the original notification, and since I replied to the address, it should have been whitelisted.

Anyway, I’m possibly restless (but also lazy/busy), so ideas about tools you’re happy with are invited… and any links on how to convert Radio files into the suggested tool are also welcome.

Glad to see Technorati take another step forward. Still labelled beta, but clearly much further along than previously. Good luck Rich, David, Dan, et al.

Yeah, I finally caught up with the rest of the you and watched Lost in Translation (thank you, Netflix). A quiet movie that didn’t drag = worth the time. And, maybe, the hype. (Although I dislike the pop-up on their website trumpeting the awards the film has won. If you’re that thrilled, put it on the home page already!) I couldn’t stay awake for all the special features, but word is that Bill Murray does the Bill Murray thing in the ‘making the film’ documentary. Which is good, since the film isn’t a venue for the Bill Murray that (Stripes) automatically (Ghostbusters) comes (Caddyshack) to (Quick Change) mind. Confession: I have not yet seen Caddyshack all the way through. I promise to complete my education soon.