0xDECAFBAD OPML Blog

OPML Editor + XSLT = Flexibility 

More rationale behind why I want to eventually see XSLT support revived and working for the OPML Editor:

I figure pretty much all the gripes I've had with OPML as a format are eased by the fun I'm having with the Editor, and can be further ameliorated by XSLT-powered conversions. If XSLT were built into the OPML Editor, other formats could be as close as a Save As. Of course, UserTalk scripts to save in other formats are possible as well - but XSLT can live a life outside the Editor, say, on PHP-powered servers.

I wrote an XSLT-based RSS/Atom feed scraper that I think would make a good companion to the NewsRiver tool, if it could run on the same platform.

I suppose, as a mockup, I could start stubbing out some XSLT scripts that use the W3C XSLT servlet or a PHP script on my server to perform the transformations until an updated DLL is available.

I know I've initiated a slew of potential projects since I began playing with the OPML Editor, though I won't be able to do much in depth for a little while. I'm mostly queueing up work for myself after I finish this book, and hoping that a few of these leads get stolen by others with more time on their hands. Think of it as public brainstorming or doodles. 

Although, I do worry sometimes that there might be a few people out there who think I'm going off some manic deep end with all this sudden blogging activity. But really, this is the sort of thing that runs through my head a lot of the time, but it tends to evaporate or disappear onto post-its I lose shortly thereafter. It's like quantum mental foam, might amount to vacuum nothing or it might collapse into something material. I don't think that metaphor's quite right - but anyway, it's just been too easy to spew notions into published outline nodes, so I've been going with it. In the meantime, I hope my enthusiasm is entertaining at least. 

That said, here's another notion: I wonder how the OPML Editor could be used to help facilitate Structured Blogging? 

Here's something I just stumbled upon: I've seen some people wondering just what gets updated after getting the latest code for the OPML Editor. Well, if you jump to user.rootUpdates.prefs and set flShowUpdatesToUser to true, you'll start seeing granular update reports. I don't think this breaks anything, but I haven't dug deep enough to be sure. Also, the messages are a bit cryptic if you're not familiar with the ODB structure. So, as usual, know that Here Be Dragons. 

There's a scene in Stargate Atlantis tonight, where there's a busboy clearing a table in the canteen. What's it got to be like to be a busboy in another galaxy? Like, not a soldier or a researcher - just a busboy. 

Anne Zelenka tries out the OPML Editor. Bug me (or the list!) with questions, if you have any! 

More on the blogosphere as a tuple space 

On introducing people to blogging, Dave wrote:

Then someday, when you're in the shower or lying in bed in the morning and get an idea that you wish you could tell everyone, remember that you have a blog, and go to the computer, and write it up and publish it. That actually feels pretty good, even if you think no one will read it, because you got it off your chest.

Then in a few days Google will probably visit your site and index the post, and then when someone searches for that subject, your page will come up, and maybe you'll pass that idea on to someone who can use it, or meet someone who agrees, or someone who disagrees. And that's blogging, and that's all it is.

When I've written about the blogosphere being like a tuple space, this is basically what I mean - only I use nerdier terms so that I can think about the tools and data structures involved.

Dave says: "That's what we're doing, perfecting a tool for easier, quicker, blogging on a smaller scale." I totally agree, and this is exciting to me. (Hey, you see how that works? I just did it.) 

Also from Dave: "Sure, I could create a Wordpress blog post for a sentence or a phrase, but that's like driving to the supermarket to pick up a pea." This is how I've been thinking for quite awhile now. In fact, here's me about a year ago. 

Hot: The Onion Radio News is now a podcast! I don't know when this happened, but I do know that a month or two ago, I'd tossed a might-do item on my list for writing a scraper to make a podcast out of this for myself. 

Ben Hammersley says, about his switch from Movable Type to iWeb: "I'm using iWeb, and I like it. There I admitted it. Forgive me, web purists, but this is really nice. ... The whole thing is frictionless - and frictionless tools are what I want this year." This is the feeling I got from the OPML Editor when I started trying it out as a blogging tool. 

In another entry, Ben rails against "validation porn" - and then, as if to just tweak the web geek's nose... the whole text of the article is a solid image, inpenetrable to copy-and-paste quotation. I think I threw up in my mouth a little there, but I get his point. 

Morning all. TGIF. Coffee, good. 

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What Is This?

This is where a blogroll would go if I took the time to maintain it.