Dave Winer has made the Mac version of his OPML editor (it's really much more than that) available. Here's the page about it:
OPML Editor support: Welcome to the OPML Editor
And here's the download.
Fredy López sends word of a new, multilingual online cultural magazine that he has launched with other pals in San Cristóbal de las Casas, including Chip Morris, Janet Schwartz, and Megan O'Neill. Congratulations to them all for a first edition that looks great and reflects the diverse culture of the town we love so well.
Jovel News "El rostro amable de Chiapas"
Sorry, they didn't "nail it" as this report suggests. Everything listed is from another neighborhood. Not the East Village. The photos are interesting but they are mockups. Still to be built.
Curbed: Las Vegas' East Village: They Nailed It
I took a look around, and here are two good sources.
[blog.forret.com]: Podcast icons: what's available
Mainly concerned with economics of coffee shop level hotspots, but interesting.
Slashdot | The Case for Free WiFi?
Andrew Hedges has put together an excellent tutorial on building widgets. Much clearer than anything I've run across, and more helpful to the non-geek than the dashboard developers' list. Thanks Andrew!
Addressing the digital divide with a crank powered mesh enabled laptop.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Negroponte's Hundred Dollar Laptop
The folks at EchoDitto keep bringing out more goodies for Drupal-based websites.
For now there's:
- echo_bat - a Dean campaign-esque bat/thermometer
- echopetition - an exensible petition module
- echodump - reporting and dumps to Excel
- echoinvite - create tell-a-friend nodes
- blacklist - prevent comment spam
- googlesearch - add a block to search your site with google
Keep an eye on their website and their open source page.
Maybe someday I'll be an Airstream Bohemian. Or just an old guy in my trailer.
airstreamBOHEMIA - restoration resource
The Mod Pod / An SF architect gives Airstream trailers a modernist makeover
And the classics:
Fred's Airstream Motorhome Class A Archives - Home
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Mel Gibson filming historic epic
I met Jay last week after a panel discussion on the digital divide at EyeBeam, sponsored by City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (Bruce Lai was representing her office). Jay took a bit of a tangent in his comments but was an inspiring and vivid addition to the conversation.
NewsForge | Jay Sulzberger on Free Software (and computing freedom) advocacy
Getting geeky here. I usually try to get a glimmer of the latest buzzwords on the web. Often I don't get much further. Occasionally I get some use out of it.
From this readable and useful explanation of AJAX by Cameron Adams:
"Essentially, remote scripting allows client-side JavaScript to request data from a server without having to refresh the Web page. That's it."
AJAX: Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting [JavaScript & DHTML Tutorials]
I'll need this later. Thanks to Sam Churchill.
Daily Wireless - Are City Clouds Safe?
Why worry? As the quoted report in Mobile Pipeline points out, it's all just too easy.
WordTech Software: Open Source Applications and Packages for Mac OS X: AquaEthereal
File under "Online global persistent distributed co-op backup"
Two items in Daily Wireless today with useful info for those dreaming of cheap (or free) wifi for their communities.
Daily Wireless - Philly Chooses 3 Finalists
Daily Wireless - Citywide Voice over WiFi
Pedal and solar powered PC and communications system | Inveneo.org
EchoDitto has created some of its best websites on a foundation of the Drupal open source content management system. Now they are beginning to make their elegant add-ons open and available. Cheers to Nicco and the team!
EchoDitto's Open-Source Software
Must be Science Wednesday at the Daily Glyph.
Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites
I finally got a statistics service for this weblog and I've been watching what people search for to get here. I'm in the top 10 in many odd Google searches. But I noticed today that someone looked at an old post of mine about the Periodic Table of Desserts.
Then today I saw a post in Slashdot about a new approach to the periodic table of the elements. And that post included a link to a great selection of tables, humorous and otherwise:
Design Observer: writings about design & culture: Culture Is Not Always Popular
Sounds serious. But scroll down and you'll see some unusual tables of information.
Among other reasons, because 7-10% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from concrete (portland cement) manufacture. If my Dad were around, I'd ask him.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Reinventing Concrete
The rumor has it, as early as September.
WSJ.com - Apple Looks to Sell Videos -- and Maybe iPods to Play Them
PBS | I, Cringely . July 14, 2005 - More Shoes
Apple To The Rescue...Again? - Forbes.com
The only one I miss on this chart is civicspace, built on drupal. For a multiple author, open blogging system it works great. But I think the choices in the chart are probably much easier to set up and simpler for each individual author to use.
Blog software comparison chart
Thanks to Dave Winer for the pointer.
How To Publish a Podcast on the iTunes Music Store
Thanks to Dori at Backup Brain for the link to this new Airstream model. What is this obsession I have with tiny trailers?
Nissan Airstream BaseCamp Trailer | Uncrate
But Bambi still looks good.
Here's a direct link to the July 17th story regarding opposition to the plan in Palenque to run traffic through an important forested corner of town. There has been no study of the environmental impact of this road construction project.
The loss of this patch of jungle would turn Palenque (the town, not the ruins) into the dismal dusty place it has always threatened to be, and would degrade its tourism potential.
Tabasco Hoy - Se oponen al proyecto de La Cañada
I'll want to get back to these: the first two tools I've found to help write the XML for enhanced podcasts, and a forum for chapter tool tips and questions.
ScriptBuilders: PodCastEnhancer 0.3
Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes - Playlist Tracks to ChapterTool XML v1.1
[Apple Chapter Tool Beta] - iPodlounge Forums Archive
It's a geek thing, not a jungle thing. The comments also have some good tips on setting up control of remote Macs without displays of their own.
A brief review of John Markoff's "What the Dormouse Said, How the 60’s counterculture shaped the Personal Computer Industry."
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Francis Pisani: Let's Not Forget What We Owe the Hippies
Here's the best roundup so far of information about enhanced podcasts, the new (4.9) capability of creating podcasts that have chapters, graphics and links built-in.
PodcastChapterTool - Voxmedia Wiki
Still playing with this. I'll always love that oxbow that holds that ancient Maya city of Yaxchilan. And with this you can see every beach, every turn that we followed on our 10-day raft trips down the river.
Google Maps - Yaxchilan, Mexico
Can't get very close, but I guess that's good news.
Google Maps - "San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico"
A followup to my earlier post on the Backpack Hotspot. The New York Times gets reactions from Verizon, whose cellular internet connections are being shared by these devices.
For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares - New York Times
I have to admit I barely made it through the first Harry Potter book. I think I saw one of the movies. But this tickles my long-dormant English major funny bone - the scene of Dumbledore's death, in the style of many other authors, submitted by readers of the Guardian, apparently a literary and devilish crowd.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Special Reports | Dumbledore's death
Via Making Light
A powder which, when added to water, produces hydrogen safely.
Start-up zeros in on hydrogen fuel cells | CNET News.com
Lefenfeld, who is working on a PhD in chemistry at Columbia, admits that luck, and a general reluctance to work with these materials, helped.
"That side of the periodic table people tend to ignore," he said.
Good essay on Apple's promotion of podcasting, good and bad, and how it might fix what's lacking.
Daring Fireball: Is That a Podcast in Your Pocket?
Charles Stross' new novel is available for download online. SF, pre- and post-singularity. If you like Gibson, Sterling, Doctorow, this will grab you.
A post by Dave Winer that is timely, since he is releasing his OPML editor. I saw a demo of it two nights ago, and was impressed again by the potential of OPML. I'm one of the people he refers to who have been hand-coding their node (mine is the Travel category) of the ipodder.org community directory, an early experiment in a community run, distributed structure based on OPML. If I can do it, anyone can. But the ease and elegance of the new editor application is an impressive sign of new things on the horizon.
www.podcatch.com : The community directory
An excerpt:
The podcasting community did more than bootstrap a new medium in record time. As if that wasn't enough, it also bootstrapped a directory of podcasting resources and podcasts themselves, and a way of doing directories in communities that goes way beyond podcasting in importance. It's a structure of interlinked OPML directories, maintained by the community, linked together by the architecture of OPML. It's the small pieces loosely joined philosophy applied to directories, and it works. There is no official top level of the directory, but many people think of Adam Curry's ipodder.org directory as the top level. For many months Adam toiled over this directory, using an early version of the OPML Editor that I created for him. Many of the people who create directories that Adam links to actually code the OPML by hand, that's how dedicated and visionary these people are.
Via Slashdot. A Google map Firefox plugin that puts a Google map in any page that has an address or location data.
Relevant to what we are doing in the Girls Club, that's for sure.
DDN Communities: Bridging the Gender Gap in Technology
The Zapatista leader is taking on his most visible and influential role since the March to Mexico City in 2001. But his criticism of current frontrunner Lopez Obrador in the race for the presidency will cost MLO votes. Will Marcos extract promises from the new president or become a spoiler, tilting the race toward the PRI and PAN?
Bloomberg.com: Latin America - Mexico's Marcos Emerges as Critic Before Presidential Contest
Via Daily Wireless, a collection of links.
O'Reilly Radar > Where 2.0: A Collection of Map Hacking Goodies
Leaving in an hour to drive back to the city for a day or so. Back to my insanely crowded, hip, noisy neighborhood.
Last week, American Honda Motor Co. signed a two-year leasing contract with the family of Jon Spallino in California to use its FCX fuel-cell car for $500 a month, making Honda the first automaker in the world to deliver its FCV to an individual customer.
Honda's and Toyota's pollution-free FCVs in mid-June became the first to receive motor-vehicle type certification from the Japanese government, paving the way for mass production and marketing.
Another mobile communications backpack. But this is the real deal.
Apple didn't wait too long making this available. The most useful part is an automator action that creates the RSS feed for the podcasts, presumably including the new fields that Apple expects for the iTunes store listings. (via The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Podcast Actions - Automator Actions
Alfonso Morales sent this disturbing story - the possible end of a lush, quiet corner of Palenque, Mexico. Residents of La Cañada have successfully prevented a main thoroughfare from passing through the jungle habitat of howler monkeys and other wildlife. A vote will soon determine whether the road will be extended to connect to a main highway. Here's the direct link at Cuarto Poder.
(click MORE to see all of the story)
Plebiscito para el fin de La Cañada
PALENQUE Abrirían una carretera que acabaría con árboles centenarios y el hábitat de especies animales.
Enrique Romero CP. Sobreviviente de administraciones municipales que buscaron meterle el tráfico pesado del centro, víctima incluso de sus mayores beneficiarios, muchos de los empresarios que ahí tienen sus hoteles y restaurantes, pero que también han talado sus vetustos árboles, "La Cañada" supo mantenerse en las últimas décadas como un sitio turístico emblemático de Palenque.
Como la única parte arbolada de esta mal planeada ciudad que adolece de áreas verdes y jardines, fue el oasis del desierto urbano, el pulmón que oxigena y la única reserva forestal urbana.
Desde este miércoles, a través de un carro de sonido, el Ayuntamiento convoca a un plebiscito -este domingo- para que la ciudadanía se pronuncie sobre si ve conveniente que se continúe la Avenida Hidalgo abriéndose paso a través de "La Cañada", para desembocar en la carretera federal, con lo que se daría otro acceso a la estrangulada vialidad de Palenque, pero que al incorporar el tránsito pesado acabaría, desde la ejecución del proyecto mismo, con árboles centenarios, y el hábitat de otras especies, tanto vegetales como animales, que en "La Cañada" tienen su último reducto.
El vocero municipal confirmó a este medio lo del plebiscito, y agregó que en realidad sólo se trata de juntar unas dos mil firmas que estén a favor del proyecto para que éste se ejecute, pero no se informó, a tres días del referéndum, cuáles son los objetivos de esta obra, si ya hay un estudio científico de impacto ambiental, cuánto dinero costará y con qué fondos se edificará ni qué afectaciones haría a propiedades privadas tituladas.
Planeación
Tampoco se sabe si el programa de reordenamiento y rescate de "La Cañada" que promueve el Gobierno del Estado está vinculado con esta iniciativa o se contrapone a la misma.
Tampoco se mencionó qué estudio de ingeniería de tránsito indica que es la mejor opción para mejorar la vialidad de la ciudad, ni si ya hubo consenso con los empresarios y propietarios que en "La Cañada" tienen propiedades, lo que de acuerdo con Carlos Alberto Sánchez Morales, presidente de la asociación civil que representa a todos los habitantes e inversionistas de "La Cañada" no ha ocurrido y a su juicio existen obras de mayor prioridad como el agua potable, que el abrir una calle a costa del único pulmón de Palenque y sin que los periféricos y la misma Avenida Juárez estén en buenas condiciones.
Por ello, consideró que convocar a un plebiscito, con sólo unos días de anticipación, sin dar a la población información estratégica para decidir sobre un asunto de la mayor importancia, en términos de ecología y medio ambiente, pero también en términos de infraestructura turística, generación de más de 200 empleos directos y un número mayor de empleos indirectos que actualmente "La Cañada" provee, pareciera "madruguete".
Algunos de sus habitantes, como la señora Ludivina Velásquez Campos, o el doctor Roberto Conde, médico internista que tiene su clínica justo donde el Barrio "Chino" y "La Cañada" se unen, manifestaron su preocupación por este plebiscito que decidirá la suerte de algunos saraguatos, ardillas y otros mamíferos.
Films via WiMax. Another piece of the puzzle.
Daily Wireless - Intel Inside Movie Distribution
No WiMax connection was mentioned in Intel's press release today, but at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the premiere of Rize was delivered via WiMax to a Ski Lodge in Park City Utah.
Intel technicians in Hillsboro, Oregon, encrypted Rize, which was shot in high-definition digital video. The file was streamed to Salt Lake City, then beamed via microwave to Park City and through a WiMax connection to the top of a 10,000-foot mountain. A receiver at the ski lodge sent the file to an HP Media Center PC, where it was decoded and projected through a high-end digital projector. The film was encoded in high-definition using Microsoft Windows Media 10 and used Alvarion and Mountain Wireless, an ISP, to deliver the goods.
A constituent relationship manager that is compatible with CivicSpace and Drupal.
From ZDNet via Slashdot.
Slashdot | Google Invests in Power-Line Broadband
The accuracy of a study of remittances to Mexico by immigrants in the U.S. is being questioned. One issue is whether the study supports or undercuts Fox's claims that he has reduced poverty in Mexico.
Study Challenges Assumptions About Money Being Remitted to Mexico - New York Times
After notably failing to take a stand against the proposed, now shelved, Usumacinta dam plan, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) of Mexico has added the watershed to a list that joins UNESCO's World Heritage sites.
Diario.com.mx - Se incorporan 16 nuevos sitios a la Lista de Patrimonio Mundial
Versión traducida de http://www.gomaya.com/glyph/
Brady Witt runs a great site with a great title. He's got the only other quirky archaeology site that I know of. Que viva Shovelmonkey!
Still unclear what the recent "red alert" by the Zapatistas is about, but they've gotten the attention of the world press again.
Mexico Braces for Next Move by Elusive Leader of Zapatista Rebels - New York Times
Via PressThink. A 1964 essay by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life". I met his daughter Sarah in 1970, soon after Hofstadter had died. Another brilliant mind.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics
I found the link in Jay Rosen's invitation to Norman Mailer to re-enter journalism as a blogger, something Mailer has recently allowed as a possibility.
PressThink: Don't Be a Blogger Manqué, Norman Mailer
No it's not in the Usumacinta, but it may be the largest freshwater fish ever caught, found in the Mekong River.
Science Blog -- Grizzly-sized catfish caught in Thailand -- (Slashdot Effect Version)