Tuesday, April 01, 2003

GoogleBoxing Display the result of a Google query on your blog in a special box by using the Google API.  You can integrate Radio UserLand and Frontier by using Google Glue.  The Google API is a web service.

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Jon Udell on the ChannelRoll Jon describes the process for publicizing your Radio UserLand subscription list.

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Movable Type Plug-ins Cool.  I'm beginning to think that I will begin to use fewer packages and systems that do not allow integration, customization, and extensibility.  A few applications for Microsoft Windows (especially MS Office) ship with Visual Basic for Applications that allows customization and extensibility by using Automation and COM objects to script custom tools. Radio UserLand offers a very open architecture complete with an object database and a rendering engine.  It's amazing what kind of underlying horsepower you get for the $39.95 initial price tag. And, not for the faint of heart, there's always the open source world of applications based in Perl, PHP, Java, etc. that allow customization at a minimum. But Movable Type is a great example of an application where customization and extensibility is built into the architecture.  That rocks!

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Yo, can u plz help me write English? From USA Today: Parents fear online chatting ruins kids' language skills April Fool's (maybe) I first spotted this article on the front page of USA Today for April 1, 2003.  The teaser read like this: u r what u write Language of online chat mangles grammar and omits punctuation - 9D After turning to page 9D I quickly saw that there was no article by that title.  I couldn't find it on the next page either.  I'm thinking, "How cute!  USA Today made a funny on April Fool's day."  As it turns out the article was at the top of 8D instead. Ah, yes, irony.  An article about English skills is put on a different page than advertised.  The problem with being a pedant (as I well know) is that every time I take an opportunity to criticize and critique, I usually make mistakes in or near my critique. On to the article You can find the online version of the article at USA Today's website. My favorite quote: A father realized that his son put this on his job application: "i want 2 b a counselor because i love 2 work with kids."  The father immediately yanked AOL instant messenger from their computer.  Yikes! Funny fingers I tend to be a perfectionist about all of the grammar and spelling rules that I can remember from school.  I even bought an American English usage guide recently so I could refresh my skills.  Strangely, though, my fingers seem to have a mind of their own (some might call it "muscle memory").  I often find that my fingers have typed letters or words that sound the same as the word I am thinking about.  (Examples: "there" for "their," and "no" for "know") Fear of the future Sometimes I worry that the new "script kiddies" with their "k3wln355" (coolness) will eclipse technologists with more experience just because they are able to tackle the new, cool stuff quickly.  But then I think, "It will still be a while before the generation currently in charge will hand over big corporate dollars to these 'dudes.'"

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