I’ve added a new feature to the weblog, a boxlet called Inroads. It’s a list of sites that lead to this blog in some fashion – blog indexes, update notification sites, rss feed search engines. Upon reflection, I should probably add Google to the list. For now, here’s a rundown of the sites listed currently appearing in the Inroads boxlet(on the right… acroll down if you don’t see it):
- Blogdex – A project of the MIT Media Laboratory, it tracks the disemination of ideas via links read from websites. Collect data via spider.
- Bloglines – A web-based News Aggregator. Subscribes to RSS Feeds, allows you to read your subscriptions from anywhere.
- Blogrolling.com – A set of Blogroll (a list of web links) management tools. Among other things, lets you know when a site you read has been updated. Accepts ‘pings’ (update notification messages). This blog began pinging yesterday, thanks to Tatsuhiko Miyagawa’s ping_weblogs_com_rpc plugin for Blosxom.
- Blo.gs – Another site that lets you track sites you read for updates. Offers various forms of notification. Accepts pings just like Blogrolling.com; I’m pinging them the same way.
- Blogtracker – Allows you to track sites you read, see recent updates. Offers browser integration. Gets update date from Weblogs.com (see below).
- Feedster – Feed search engine. Indexes RSS (and Atom) feeds, allowing you to search the content of nearly 250,000 blogs and other sites that offer feeds.
- Syndic8 – Directory of RSS Feeds. Find feeds (news, sports, blogs, you name it) based on almost any criteria.
- Weblogs.com – Lists weblogs that have changed in the last three hours. Offers its data as XML. Accepts pings, which I provide as outlined above. As far as I know, this is the original ‘ping me when your site updates’ website.
There are many other sites out there like these. Why did I list these sites? Each site listed links to jclark.org in some manner. I have either registered with these sites (to be spidered or have my feeds polled), or someone else reads this site via on of these services, or I ping them when I update. Some of these are services I’ve used myself (such as Feedster and Syndic8). Some are sites I’ve found in my access logs (referer URLs of User-Agent strings), such as Bloglines. Weblogs.com is one that I’ve been meaning to ping for a long time now, and it turns out that blo.gs and Blogrolling.com use the same interface for pinging. Three birds with one stone; and each site offers something unique as well.
This list may grow; I had intended to list Technorati but they seem to be having technical difficulties as of late. If you find any of these helpful, drop me a comment. Likewise if you want to recommend a similar service.
Update: Fixed the link for Blogtracker.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve become spoiled by the ubiquity of RSS Feeds. And now, there’s no more excuses not to have a feed. The fine folks at Feedster are now offering Feedster Builder, a service that will create a RSS feed for your site automatically. All you have to do is add a few tags to your blog templates. What could be simpler? It will help keep your bandwith down too, since Feedster will be hosting the actual feed.
An article at jeffcroft.com, written in response to another article at whatdoiknow.org, asks the question “how might we encourage the adoption of a greater variety of web fonts?”
A quality set of web-ready Free (as in freedom AND beer) fonts seems like what is really needed here; distribution can happen later (more on this below). Granted, I know next to nothing about font design, but I know there are many talented people out there who believe in doing things for the good of the public domain. If someone could organize a project to create a set of high-quality, web ready fonts (for all platforms) that could freely be distributed, I think the distribution could be managed.
Why do I say that? Look at the Web Standards Project – A project to increase public awareness of the need to upgrade older browsers, and to get browser manufacturers to write standards-compliant browsers. It took time, but it accomplished its goal. The same thing could be done for Web Standard Fonts. At the same time, get try to get browser manufacturers to include the fonts. With the growing popularity of Firebird, this could cover alot of desktops. Additionally, as others have mentioned, free fonts are perfect for auto-download of fonts. I’d guess this technology still exists in browsers (like IE) it was designed for.
Better fonts for all is a great idea… I hope it will continue to generate some steam.
Well, I made it through my little surgery. Coming out from under general anesthesia is just a wierd as I remember (I had it several years ago when I had my wisdom teeth out). The surgery was an umbilical (on my stomach) hernia repair; it went a bit longer than expect as the damage was a bit more than expected. It hurt like the devil when I came to, and it took a couple of tries with the feel-good juice before something worked. However, it all went well. The nurses at the surgical center were very nice. I have alot of respect for everyone who chooses healthcare as a career.
I knew alot about what to expect from what others have told me about surgical experiences, such as being repeatedly quizzed by various staff as to what procedure I’d be having. I consider this a good thing, we’ve all heard the stories of people getting the wrong procedure. I also got a request I hadn’t expected, and a missed opportunity. When I was asked to disrobe and don the paper gown, I was given a skin marker, and asked to ‘circle or put an X on’ the area where I was having my surgery. It was only later, after I had finished marking and changing, that I realized I should have written a note to the surgeon next to my X. The message? “I’m Blogging This.”