I'm sad 

Do you ever feel a let down when you finish a book you like? And even more let down when you finish a series? It's kind of the end of a little era for you. I just finished re-reading what I call the "Older Ender series," Orson Scott Card's segment of the Ender's Game books that take place on Lusitania 3,000 years after Ender battled the buggers from Earth. I don't read much science fiction or fantasy, or really any other genre lit except these and a couple others. I like the whole series, probably Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow best, then these three I just finished, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, and I'd have to say I like the most recent sequels to the Earth stories the least. But I like them all a lot. So, I'm sorry for myself that I don't get to take one to bed with me tonight. I don't know what to do. Guess I'll look around and see what I have in stock.

Lots of new stuff in the new version of Dreamweaver 

Check this out. The newest version of Dreamweaver has all kinds of XML and XSL stuff, which I think the typical Dreamweaver user would use mostly for RSS. That’s one thing I’d do with it at work. Take content from a blog on our Linux server and output the feed on our server running IIS. Or figure out some way to output the feeds on our independent chapters’ sites. Except it’s RSS 1.0.

I need a tool like this to make it easy for me to get my head into putting content into some kind of XML. I think the designers of our books and magazines would need something like this too, to put something all slick and draggydroppy between themselves and the tags. I should push this. Maybe this is the time. Would there be any advantage in putting the content of periodicals in OPML? But not books, I don't think. Some kind of XML makes sense as more bits of our textbooks are made into online training.

Oh that reminds me. I meant to post a request on the opmlsupport mailing list for help in thinking through using the instant outliner for workgroup collaboration. Is the Yahoo group still used at all, or does more discussion actually take place in the form of blog posts. Isn't it funny how that happened? That's why I keep thinking that some sort of pooled commenting system might work for OPML blogs.

The People's tunes player 

WinAmp is supposed to support podcasting now. I got the new version but haven't checked out how the ipodder part works yet.

First name basis 

My big guy (oldest son, 21) asked me why I was in such a good mood. I told him it's because a woman is president of the U.S., and it's a great day for America and for sisterhood around the world, so I'm happy about that. He offered an opinion that I'd never considered. He thinks the president is in big trouble from a whacko assassin when an African-American or a woman becomes vice president.

Hmmm, maybe. I have a more optimistic view. The scenario Adam is describing sounds like he thinks a woman or Black president is way off in the future. It doesn't feel like such a stretch to me anymore. I can see Hillary, or Barack Obama in the oval office.

Why do I call Hillary by her first name? Is that sexist? I hope not; I don't think so. It's probably more about her having been first lady and familiar, than about her being a woman who doesn't deserve the courtesy of more formal address.

Hmmmm, maybe not. Go up the family tree to my dad. I think I remember him referring to Geraldine Ferraro as "Gerry" in a not so respectful way, though he did like her looks and stage presence.

So, maybe we should call Hillary "Hillary Clinton" if we want her to be taken seriously. On the other hand it's kind of cool to think of your president as your pal.

Well, thanks for helping me talk this through, even though I'm still not sure about the first name thing.

New passage 

My newest podcast is up. Who Said literature game, passage #74

Can wikis have tags? 

Trying to think how to do something.

Coming to you live from the campus of Duke University 

Looks like an OPML blogger is live-blogging the Duke podcasting symposium. Nice!

Audible's there and an exec is speaking. I didn't know they had a podcasting business unit. They must be ticked off in a way that they're in a bigger sea now. Kind of in the same way that a teensy part of me may be slightly annoyed if the new Oliver Twist adaptation sparks a flurry of Dickens reading, the way the Austen adaptations caught fire 8-10 years ago. (OK. Well, maybe they were little brush fires.) But of course I'll brush it off; it won't be hard because I'm only 0.5% annoyed. Dickens isn't mine. I'll be 99.5% happy for literacy. I wonder how happy Audible is for the good of the order.

What is this post about? 

Steve Baker at Business Week tells about SurfWax, a new RSS search engine. Steve says that bloggers like me have to start making post titles less cutebiguous and more descriptive. I suppose that means bloggers like Dave would be entirely missed because he doesn't use titles at all unless a post is quite long.

One Web Day 

Susan Crawford is planning for an event next September that would be like Earth Day, only webbier.