house of warwick

Trackbacks are Dead.

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 02:41:49 GMT

Jeremy Zawadny started it today with a "Trackback is Dead" post called "Trackback is Dead", drawing some great comments. Anil Dash, Six Apart bastion, wrote a reasoned rebuttal (not as a trackback--bummer) which drew out some real A-Listers of the blogosphere. In my mind, trackback is very dead for all of the reasons that Grant says in his comment. There's on my weblog as a curiosity and to make sure the Radio macro works correctly. Right now, it works but the server doesn't--it's my server, not UserLand's and it's my fault--long story. The real gem here is this comment by Phil Ringnalda:

"I'm willing to tolerate a few false positives, so I've just been rejecting any trackback ping from a source that doesn't have the RDF to support trackback autodiscovery in reply for a year and a half now. In that time, I've gotten exactly one trackback spam..."

I read that and fired off a quick email to Jake with the link. He thinks it's worth looking at Radio's code to make sure we're doing something similar. A side note: trackbacks are a good distributed system similar to fallout shelters of the 50's. At the time, we really needed them, but now with the rise of Technorati, Feedster and PubSub, we have something much better than trackback. We should never forget that we have the tools to create these links on our own, but let's retire it to the woodshed for awhile.

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 20:14:23 GMT

Slashfood: "Foodporn: Pizza crust slideshow"

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:34:06 GMT

Andrew Grumet: "...I wonder if their strategy is to capture all digital content in existence. Not just the public content, but everything that flows on the net. If you had that data, what could you do with it? On the other hand, maybe it's not the content at all, but the people. Replace our standard apps one app at a time."

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:20:56 GMT

OK. I'm at work and my iChat client is configured with Jabber and connected to Google. I'm steve.kirks@gmail.com

Google Talk will support SIP

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 12:27:12 GMT

From their developer page you'll find this nugget:

Do you plan to support other real-time communication protocols?
Google Talk supports XMPP with the beta release. We plan to support SIP in a future release. Additionally, we will evaluate other protocols as appropriate, to continue to deliver on our commitment to open communications.

SIP is a key communications protocol for VoIP. Google + Skype anyone?

Google Talk now live

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 12:24:27 GMT

Google Talk: "They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for freeâ€“anytime, anywhere in the world." This is great news, but I'm wondering when the other shoe will drop. All of Google's products have some type of advertising included. Can't you see where this is going? The GoogleBot will IM you: "Hey Steve, would you like to see some ads for barbecue grills?" That said, this feature now allows me to drop my .Mac account since I never used the sync feature or web storage. It's good timing too because it was scheduled to renew in October. I guess I have a month or so to try this out and see if it's the real deal.

Beef: It's what I'm eating for dinner.

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 20:43:05 GMT

I'm eating out tonight at Flame (no link, can't find their site) -- a newer Springfield restaurant specializing in high quality steak and wine. I would normally choose Agrario, Eric Zachrison's outstanding Mediterranean place, but our friends Matt and Sarah correctly pointed out that trying something new is good too. There's a fixed-price menu tonight: $41.20 for two gets the following:

Appetizers: calamari or vegetarian Garbage Salad (split appetizers)
EntrÃ©es: aged top sirloin with choice of sides or bistro medallion with demi-glaze sauce and choice of sides
Desserts: cheesecake or chocolate cup

Some of the proceeds benefit our local Big Brothers/Big Sisters chapter so I get to eat steak and help a worthy cause. Look for the review tomorrow... Bonus enclouse: PDF of beef cuts

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 13:41:13 GMT

Wes Felter "Intel is going to ship compilers for OS X. Predictably, they don't support Objective C. (Scoop?)"

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 01:28:07 GMT

MAKE Magazine: "A new process has been developed at the University of Missouri-Columbia for converting glycerin, a byproduct of the biodiesel production process, into propylene glycol, which can be used as nontoxic antifreeze for automobiles."

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:00:24 GMT

Terry Frazier: "Customer Evangelism University"

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:43:14 GMT

Dan Bricklin: "What if VisiCalc had been patented?"

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:42:35 GMT

Kerner on Food: "I've now had the opportunity to sample all of them and must say I'm hooked on Adagio. It is some of the finest tea I've ever tasted." This looks like something I need to try...

A Day of Meat, Beer and St. Louis

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 22:12:58 GMT

I've decided that three of my favorite things are: meat, beer and St. Louis.

Michael (Suzanne's husband) and I spent the day on a tour of classic St. Louis, Missouri. I've seen parts of St. Louis that most of it's residents ignore or don't know they exist. Fabulous yet forgotten architecture of duplexes, apartment buildings, churches and small house are all within a 15 minute radius of Jameson and Chippewa. The area is infested with simple brick buildings that have the structural influences of larger buildings typical of the 1940's. Whether big houses or small bungalows, they all carry a charm of the era of war success and the idea that pride in your home equalled pride in America. It's a time that I would have loved to have seen.

Tammy has been up here for a couple of days researching a shopping article for 417 Magazine but I met her last night, driving up from Springfield on my own. I made sure to take my iBook, iPod and a camera and the trusty Canon A40 pulled of some great shots this morning. At about 9:30 a.m. after the second carafe of coffee was empty, I stepped outside and snapped a variety of photos. They two so far are from a our host's house of brick (great texture!) and a plant up close. By the way, if you have a Canon A-series camera, take a moment to learn how to use the macro feature under the Manual settings. That's how I pulled these two photos off with little or no photography experience. My favorite from the morning's snapshots is the flower to the left--I'll ask them what kind it is and leave an update later..

But what about the meat and beer?

Ah, the meat. Michael drove us to G&W Sausages, a German butcher shop with a long St. Louis tradition. No, not the one in the suburbs--the real store, wedged in between two car lots, a body shop and a neighborhood you don't frequent at night. You walk in the door on a Saturday and the owner greets you with, "Hey, you want a beer?". Really. New customer or old regular, you always get asked. The answer is a simple "yes" or "no" and if yes, he'll reach under the meat case from a mystery location and hand you an ice cold can of Busch, of course. There's something very bonding about the act of a hardworking shop owner handing you a beer. He hasn't sold you anything yet and demands nothing of you other than the courtesy to look and ask questions. So here I am, standing in the middle of this place, holding a can of beer and feeling like a king--what did I do? I bought meat! I spent close to $27.00 on an array of "Grant's Farm" brats, smoked liverwurst and cheeses. By the way, it never hurts to tip a butcher, especially when they round down the weight of your purchase.

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 15:19:42 GMT

BoingBoing: "Excellent series of redneck photos purchased at an estate sale"

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 15:19:06 GMT

BoingBoing: "Unfortunate children's books: photo set"

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 15:18:15 GMT

BoingBoing: "A South Carolina man packed up a brush trimmer for a FedEx return to Country Home Products in Vermont and inadvertently included five kittens with the shipment."

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 02:29:41 GMT

Alwin Hawkins: "I thought we had bonded before, but the absence of the rest of the “pack” during the day and only my presence at night seems to have intensified that link."

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 02:24:56 GMT

Autoblog: "Or so a quote goes about a 9-minute short film called “C’était un Rendezvous” in which a man drives like a maniac through the streets of 1970’s Paris with only an engine roaring and tires squealing for a soundtrack."

Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:34:53 GMT

Gizmodo: "These surprising monster M&Ms just came out and I knew nothing about them."

Thu, 04 Aug 2005 02:09:22 GMT

UserLand Blog: "The Radio Team has been hard at work on the 8.2 release. There are several major additions in Radio 8.2 where the theme has been performance improvements, particularly in the flexibility of the upstreaming code."

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:27:46 GMT

Autoblog: "EPA retains old fuel-economy testing method".

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:26:34 GMT

Autoblog: "To introduce the public to its new MX-5, Mazda is holding a nationwide tour called ‘Zoom-Zoom Live.’ The event will include ride-and drive opportunities for the public in the new MX-5 as well as other Mazda products such as the Mazda6 and RX-8. The tour will visit 10 cities nationwide and will also include dealer sales training for the new MX-5."