Gadgets, web and miscellany
Archive for March, 2006
Improv Everywhere
1Just listening to a really interesting This American Life (listen to Mind Games in RealAudio) about a group called Improv Everywhere who stage Missions. Great story!
Fight! Fight! Nature vs. Encyclopaedia Britannica
112 years ago
by Dave
in Technology & Gadgets
Gotta love a good public dust-up. Here’s the background, in December 2005, Nature published an article and editorial that showed Wikipedia was better than Encyclopaedia Britannica and encouraged scientists to contribute to Wikipedia. Britannica struck back by publishing a response questioning the methodology and results of the original Nature article. This whole sequence of events is documented here and here . I even like the part about the Britannica calling Wikipedia a "Faith-based Encyclopedia" and comparing it to followers of Intelligent Design.
CIRA withdraws from ICANN
012 years ago
by Dave
in Technology & Gadgets
Well, if you’ve used the .CA address to get here, this is interesting. As you might know, I currently own kabal.net , kabal.org and Canadian domain kabal.ca .
Many folks (here , here ) have been protesting ICANN ‘s unwaivering support of Verisign for the administration of the top-level .com domains. Finally a national registry, traditionally quite cozy with ICANN , has pulled out of ICANN in protest of the February 28th announcement by ICANN.
This is one of those open-market things for me. I don’t believe that the internet spun out of control when InterNic turned Network Solutions lost exclusive TLD control for .net, .org, etc.
Cheney’s got a gun
0It was bound to happen, someone has done an animated take on the popular phrase that sprang up after the Cheney shooting.
First DVR-only commercial
012 years ago
by Dave
in Technology & Gadgets
DVR’s are now becoming common, as evidenced by this KFC commercial, complete with a single frame with a coupon:
Article in WSJ , subscription required.
engadget caught stealing from another site
012 years ago
by Dave
in Technology & Gadgets
I like both the victim and perpetrator sites mentioned in the article.
Fugly websites and the power of advertising
0Here’s a neat article describing the benefits of ugly websites.
BTW, here’s my nomination for ugly and difficult to use.
Internet searching for CIA agents
0CNN article shows another use for internet searching. That’s an easier way to out Wilson’s wife.
Joomla chosen, tentatively….
012 years ago
by Dave
in Technology & Gadgets
It looks like I’m going to Joomla for the Boulder Heights website. Here’s why I picked Joomla, at least for now:
- Built-in forum module with support for registered users
- VirtueMart plugin for e-commerce (requested by a few) -> This is key for supporting purchases of the Boulder Heights directory.
- Classified module for local classifieds (or, could use JoomlaBoard)
- TinyMCE WYSIWYG support
- No need to touch anything under the hood. Components self install.
- Easiest installation, ever…. 2 minutes total!
You can see my progress at getting this up and running here.
