Monthly Archives: October 2007

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links for 2007-10-31

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links for 2007-10-30

Forrester.com
Charlene Li of Forrester Research explains — quite well — why your customers are revolting.

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blogs, ethics, events 3 Comments

Blogging Ethics: What are the issues?

Graydancer Toby Bloomberg
Charlotte-Anne Lucas Christopher Calicott
My Blogging Ethics panelists. Clockwise from top left: Graydancer, Toby Bloomberg, Christopher Calicott, and Charlotte-Anne Lucas.

As I’m preparing for my Nov. 8 BlogWorld Expo panel on Blogging Ethics, I’m trying to map out the territory. Specifically, what are the main ethical issues that bloggers encounter?

Based on my initial research, it seems that these issues fall into two main camps: issues of form (since blogs generally have certain commonalities of presentation and delivery, regardless of content) and issues of function (the purpose of your blog, the kind of content you’re trying to deliver through that blog, and which communities you’re trying to connect with).

It seems to me (and please comment below if you disagree) that, as with most communication media, blogging ethics aren’t absolute. That’s because blogs are a tool with myriad uses.

…That said, it seems like the issues of form might be closer to absolute across the blogosphere than issues of function.

I’m trying to map out the key root-level aspects of blogging that entail ethical issues. Here’s where I’m at so far. I’d appreciate your help with designing this list…

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links for 2007-10-29

Swivel.com
Swivel: Fun free tool for data visualization. Basic, but useful.

  • TG Daily
    Another reason to use mac or Linux: “Acrobat & Adobe Reader became hot programs for spammers after a glitch was discovered to exploit the program’s “mailto” command. Hackers used this with malicious PDF code to send e-mails w/ dangerous PDF attachments.” (tags: security technology problems)

Amy's Adventures 4 Comments

My Radio-Controlled Clock Goofed. Did Yours?

NIST
Radio-controlled clocks can be… entertaining…

No, daylight savings time 2007 did NOT end in the US today. That’s next Sunday, Nov. 4. Over in the EU the clocks did change today, but not here. So why did the radio-controlled clock in my living room, which is governed by the WWVB radio signal from the atomic clock at the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST, which is right here in Boulder, CO) think today was the day to roll back an hour?

I tried resetting the clock, but got the same result. Eventually I had to change the setting to Central time (an hour ahead of my Mountain time zone) to get it to show the “right” time. And next Sunday, I suppose I’ll have to switch it back.

Did this happen to anyone else today?

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links for 2007-10-28

e-mail, services, tools 2 Comments

Gmail Space: Still Growing….

On Oct. 18 I posted about how Google’s free Gmail service has been gradually increasing the storage space allocated to its users. Around Oct. 15 the space in my account was at about 2.9 G, with 59% of it used. As of today, I’m at just over 4.4G, with only 40% of that space used.

gmail2.jpg

So what? For me, it matters because I rely on Gmail to manage my tasks and priorities via GTDinbox. One reason I do that is because Gmail has an excellent search capability for the content of messages. So for me, more space means that I can search back over a longer history. And free matters to me because, well, I prefer to save money where it makes sense to do so.

However, I know other people have taken to using Gmail as a backup service — either by e-mailing important files to themselves, or by using utilities like GMFS.

Personally, I don’t use Gmail as a backup service because I want my backup to be something I can easily restore to my computer in the event of hardware loss or damage, or accidental deletion. I back up my computer regularly to both and external hard drive and a cheap online backup service (Mozy). Also, as far as I know Gmail’s search functions does not yet include the content of attachments, which for me significantly reduces the temptation to use Gmail for backup purposes. (I like to be able to search for specific stuff in my backup, occasionally). But that’s just me.

Anyway, I’ll continue to update my own storage space below. (All times listed are in the U.S. Mountain time zone):

Oct. 27:
- 12:20 pm: 4439 MB

Oct. 28:
- 5:00 pm: 4467 MB

Oct. 29:
- 1:00 pm: 4494 MB

Oct. 30:
- 5:00 pm: 4520 MB

Oct. 31:
- 1:00 pm: 4548 MB

Nov. 2:
- 11:15 am: 4580 MB
- 1:00 pm: 4602 MB

Nov. 3:
- 6:45 pm: 4635 MB

Nov. 5:
- 7:00 pm: 4683 MB

Nov. 6:
- 3:00 pm: 4712 MB (39% used)

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links for 2007-10-27

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links for 2007-10-26

NowPublic.com
Collaborative news sites like NowPublic: The forefront of Web 2.0 news.

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experience, Microblogging, services, social media 1 Comment

Twitter wildfire updates: Useful, or not?

Twittermap
Twittermap is one way to find recent individual “tweets” from the wildfire region — or anywhere.

As I intimated in today’s linkblog post, the widely trivialized microblogging service Twitter seems to be redeeming itself somewhat during the current Southern CA wildfire crisis.

HyperGene Media Blog noted yesterday that the free mobile-friendly service is being used by news outlets and emergency services to deliver text updates. (The best example of this so far, in my opinion, is from NPR affiliate radio station KPBS in San Diego.) And of course, many individual Twitter users in the affected regions are posting their own updates — one way to find these is TwitterMap.

My question for Twitter users: Are you using Twitter to follow (or post) news and updates about the Southern CA fires?

If so:

  • Is this useful for you?
  • Which kinds of news/updates are most helpful or significant to you? (Give examples)
  • Which fire-related tweets do you think are least helpful, or even annoying or potentially harmful? (Give examples)

Please comment below. Thanks!