April 2007

02-Apr-2007

• Last week I asked Brandon CS Sanders and JasonParmer what they wanted and they said wireless electricity: Wireless Power Moves from Science Fiction to Reality - MarkDilley
• Apple Computers and EMI today announced that starting in May, the popular iTunes store with start carrying high-quality DRM-free songs from the EMI catalog, for $1.29. This is a major first step in fixing (ie. abolishing) the horrible DRM (Digital Rights Management) movement which caused users to not be able to move songs they've purchased into other formats or to other music players. See: EMI Press Release and Apple's Press Release. -- TakKendrick | Talk
  • They've also increased the compression quality to 256k. EMI still says they'll use DRM outside of iTunes, but this is a good start. ScottKeeler | :::talk:::

1-Apr-2007

• JibJab.com has a new vide out: What We Call The News? - it is good.
• I just Nominated the article on OpenSource.org because it looks quite good now.--Spacegeek4 08:12, 1 April 2007 (PDT)
  • Awesome! -- TakKendrick | Talk

31-Mar-2007

• I just redid the page on WhenU.com adding stuff to it.--Spacegeek4 20:00, 31 March 2007 (PDT)
  • This looks great! This featured wiki page from a month ago has been much improved (and it was pretty good back on Feb. 18 when we first feature it). Good work to Spacegeek4 for continuing to update the page even after it was featured. Everyone should check it out, it really is a great model of what a robust wiki page should look like. I love that he's also added a section addressing the spyware concerns. -- TakKendrick | Talk
• Macintalk.com has written up a good Mac OS X broswer benchmark. As far as speed goes OmniGroup's OmniWeb browser wins by a landslide. Since reading this I've installed OmniWeb and can confirm that this thing is indeed a burner. Read the article to see how the rest fared. ScottKeeler | :::talk:::
• Chow.com has this great video: Is it a possibility to have video this good for WikiAnatomy - Screencast series? --> How to Seat Your Dinner Guests and
• I turned off the ads, because it was painful to see it in IE. I will have another conversation with AdBrite.com about this. MarkDilley

30-Mar-2007

• Renaissance weirdos?

Read the Meme-Rocket.com blog post here. Also check out the page he made, RegisterFlyImpactRegistry.

"Wouldn’t it be great if there was a ready-made site that hosted DNS meta-data and discussion? A site editable and usable by all. A free site where a guy could create a forwarding address registry for just this purpose. Well as it turns out there is just such a site operated by a bunch of renaissance wierdos out of Portland, Oregon. It’s called AboutUs.org and it hosts a page about every domain on the ‘Net."

• This is brilliant!!!

• Here's what the Community Portal looks like to IE users. The upload page is also effected, and I'm sure there are others.

• • It's also happening to a lesser extent in Firefox on a Mac (gasp!). Only effect page views where the main content box is small, I've noticed it in a few places other than the upload window (shown below). Less of a problem than the IE, admittedly. -- TakKendrick | Talk

• The Download.com blog has a second part to the Roll Your Own Adobe C3 For Free post I mentioned the other day. Today's topics, using Synfig Studio instead of Flash; Scribus as an alternative to InDesign; using Audacity for sound work; and how Jahshaka is beginning to emerge as a viable open-source video editor. -- TakKendrick | Talk
  • BTW: If you use Synfig Studio or are just interested in it, they also run a wiki with documentation, feature requests, and other wiki'd information at http://wiki.synfig.com .
• Read a story in yesterday's Boston Globe about a sneaky move by Google.com in replacing their satellite images in Google Maps and Google Earth with pre-Katrina images of New Orleans. Let's hope this was just some strange technical glitch over a Google, not the complex conspiracy that The Globe story intimates. read the story. -- TakKendrick | Talk

29-Mar-2007

• Interesting, we are [blocked by spam filter-top-50/ 37th] in the latest SEO challenge, and we aren't even trying...is that correct?
• I´m having trouble with new search bar with IE6 - Ray
  • me too - Gregory note that it is Mar 30th.. my aboutus page is TOTALLY messed up, no search window, either above or to the side..
  • This is a known issue, and dev is working on it. ScottKeeler | :::talk:::
• I started playing around with a more personalized signature. {{TakTalk}} if you're interested. I then just sign things {{subst:TakTalk}} and it does all the magic, including the "talk" which actually calls the "adds a new comment section" to my talk page. Pretty slick. If people like it, I can help build a universal template for users to create their own. -- TakKendrick | talk
  • Ha...you're awesome. I'll have to do something similar. ScottKeeler | :::talk:::
  • Switched to just signing it {{TakTalk}} because the SUBST added a bunch of code that could be intimidating. MarkDilley also showed me how to replace it in my "signature preferences" so that entering ~~~ just put in the template for my signature. Now I can sign things with my "advanced" style with only three keystrokes. Neat! -- TakKendrick | talk
• We're still experiencing some issues with the search bar, so I'm creating a SearchBarAnamolies page. Please list any odd behavior you're getting. If possible please list what browser type (eg. Firefox or Internet Explorer) as well as what operating system you're using. -- TakKendrick | talk

28-Mar-2007

• Made a first attempt at the much-needed (IMHO) How to Create Subdomain Pages, and have transcluded it into the How do I create a new article? page. If anyone has a better way of explaining how to create a new page to do the {{subst:Subdomain}} into, please edit away. (BTW: {{Subdomain}} is basically the Domain Page Boilerplate put into a form that make it easy to "subst" into a new page, so it could be used for top-level domain page creation by hand as well.) -- TakKendrick
• This is going to be an annoying side-effect of moving the search bar. I've already found a few "Help" topics that make note of using the search bar to the left (or worse, make note of the "add missing domain" box that was rolled into the search bar months ago). Anyway, I'm sure I only found a few places where this info needs to be updated. If you happen to be pawing through stuff and see references to the search bar to the left, please fix. Thanks. -- TakKendrick
• We're experimenting with our searchbar stylesheets. You may notice some weird side-effects. We'll have them fixed in a sec! Jacob
  • I love it up there. I think it also has the added benefit of drawing attention to the tabs at the top. You almost have to look at them now. I think it would be better directly over the tabs, instead of centered. ScottKeeler | :::talk:::
• Download.com's blog has a great post today called Roll Your Own Adobe CS3 for Free which offers low cost alternatives to paying up to $2,500 for the new Adobe suite. Alternatives include the freeware image editor Gimp instead of Photoshop and Inkscape instead of Illustrator. There's also suggestions for PDF software ala Acrobat and web-creation software with features like Dreamweaver. -- TakKendrick
• Traffic at AboutUs.org has been growing steadily, with an average of 63,000 visits per day in the past month. In these past two days, traffic has been a total record of 92 and 95K visits respectively. Woo-Hoo! - Ray

27-Mar-2007

• Should pages include sections on the history of a domain name? I'm thinking of sites that have had more than one site associated with a domain name over the past eight or nine years, and where the old site ceased to exist and a new site is currently operating from that domain name. Is this the sort of wiki for recording the history of domain names or is the preference to focus on detailing current sites? --Faye Dunaway's teeth 12:49, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
  • I don't know what every else thinks, but I certainly think this wiki is a great place for this information. I don't think it should be autogenerated or even required, but if you know a bit about the history of a particular domain, it's not a bad idea to have it up in it's own section on that domain's wiki page. -- TakKendrick
    • Yeah, I'd love to see this kind of information on wiki pages. :ScottKeeler | talk
      • An example one I've been watching is TimeLord.co.uk which has such a history section. I didn't write the initial draft, but I tweaked it a little this evening to clarify the history is that of the domain name rather than the current site detailed on the rest of the page. --Faye Dunaway's teeth 15:31, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
• AboutUs is hiring! We're currently looking for a talented web designer. Take a look on our Jobs page for more info.
• We're still fine-tuning the featured wiki page nomination process. Thanks to input from many in the community, we've created a page that shows all the various potential nominees so that community members can see who's been nominated and weight in on the discussion. Through the magic of transclusion, these are the very same discussions happening on the nominated pages, meaning making a change in one place effects both listings. Sweet! -- TakKendrick
  • Please feel free to weigh in on the process and make suggestions for improvements as well, this is a wiki, so it's all a work in progress! -- TakKendrick
  • One more thing, if you see a great page, be sure to nominate it! See the instructions, or just ad {{subst:FeatureMe}} to the "Discussion" section of any wiki page (including user pages, portals and domain/sub-domain pages). -- TakKendrick
• It's hard to believe, but Reuters.com reports that Life Magazine's run as a print magazine is ending on April 20th. The magazine will continue it's life online at Time.com. As part of the switch Life's library of over 10 million images (97% of which the public has never seen) will be made available. The most important images of the 20th century will be free for personal use. ScottKeeler | talk
• DomainTools.com posts a real good weblog post on picking a registrar, that would be a good portal / comparison chart here!
  • Tucows Blog Post
• AboutUsNews: Colin discovers AboutUs!
• I just "broke" the redirect at Ted. Before my change, it redirected to my user page. Maybe that's fine and convient today, when I'm the only Ted here (that we know of), but my thinking is that it's better to break it now than when it's needed, because I might not know it's needed until after AboutUs has lost a potential contributer that tries to put in their own first name and finds it already taken. Just something to think about for others using shortcuts to their names. -- TedErnst | talk
  • Love it... :ScottKeeler | talk
  • I've been pushing for this for awhile Ted, and I have a name that's a little more unique (in English speaking countries at least). -- TakKendrick
• Is this where the feature section idea came from? :-) Did you know? (YouTube.com via BlackSmythe.com) -- MarkDilley
  • Nope. Just blind coincidence. -- TakKendrick

26-Mar-2007

• Today is Skype Gift Day. Just log in to your account before midnight and you'll receive 10 free minutes.
• So learning about AssumeGoodFaith is a constant thing. We don't even always get it right! This weekend we made two mistakes: First with a Spanish person who was just playing with cutting and pasting text, but we thought he was trying to "take" people's identities, so we reverted him, often, but really he was just playing. In the second case, an anonymous user made a bunch of edits, some even as quickly as 3 a minute. They added the same content to many pages. We reverted... they were trying to be constructive, as they ask the question, why? - Sorry folks, this is a learning process for all of us! Best, the RecentChanges patrol team.
• Care2.com has a ThePetitionSite.com effort underway! The FDA could soon allow milk and meat from cloned animals to be sold as food, without any labeling requirements. The deadline for public comments is just one week away - take action today! Tell FDA you don't want cloned meat for dinner!
• It's Last Thursday week. Anyone wanting to join me for a rain or shine trip up and down and around Alberta St. should let me know. Check out more info at ArtOnAlberta.org
• Just created a CommunityNeeds page as a mechanism for prioritizing the work the AboutUs Team is working on. Take a look at some of the projects and sound off on what's important to you. -- TakKendrick

25-Mar-2007

• Whois is has been a hotly debated topic for years among the ICANN community -- some are in favor of maintaining it's more open and public nature, while others argue for more privacy. A Task Force on the subject has recently posted it's final report here, and (live from Lisbon), here are meeting notes posted on ICANNWiki.org. - Ray

24-Mar-2007

• Want to know what the content and community team is up to? Check out the ProjectPage. While just a seedling right now, the page will eventually contain a general overview of all the projects we're currently working on with links to a detailed project description page. Contribute to the discussion area to help the page grow, or if you have project requests. Scott

23-Mar-2007

• A certain someone :-) has brought houseplants from PortlandNursery.com into the office! Yea!!! Thanks! MarkDilley
• Okay, it's not for everyone, but I've now watched the Tribute to the American Hairband a couple of times on YouTube and it just gets better and better. Props to Anything80s.com for having this linked on their website. -- TakKendrick
• Is there an easy way for someone to point their entire domain to a wiki page? in AboutUs.org or somewhere? Greg
  • Not that I know of. I do think it's a function we need to get though. -- TakKendrick
• Ever wonder why those McDonalds Chicken McNuggets are so gosh darn tastey? Check out AlNyeTheLawyerGuy.com's latest blog post on what goes into making one of the most popular staples of the fast food diet. Also check out The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan at Powells.com

• Are you passionate about increased levels of participation? See RiskParticipation

22-Mar-2007

• AdBrite.com is our next expiremental step on how to become a self sustaining website. Look for ads in the next day and leave comments on the AdBrite.com page about what your experience with the ads are.
• Just created a new DidYouKnow page for common "advanced" wiki techniques that many users might not know about. The idea is that every once in awhile, we'll push one of these tips to the home page as a quick community learning opportunity. I've populated DidYouKnow with just a few things to begin with, but please feel free to add things you find helpful or tricks for common problems we might be seeing in Recent Changes. Also, if you think there's a tip that needs to be written, throw a note there as well. -- TakKendrick
• Today is World Water Day as designated in 1992 by the UN General Assembly. MarkDilley

21-Mar-2007

• After a month or two of hard work AboutUs has developed its first portal! The LASIK Portal began as an organizational experiment and quickly morphed into an exploration into, and demonstration of, the possibilities of the AboutUs wiki. The initial idea was to synthesize encyclopedic information and commercial listings into a richly interlinked framework. Building off of a generic portal concept, we set to work researching the LASIK procedure and building out pages on its history, the surgery itself, after care, equipment, etc. Once these general informational sections were complete, we built out a location-specific segment of the portal for Manhattan (sections for other cities are being built as we speak). To make our resource truly unique, we personally interviewed every available LASIK center in Manhattan to garnish as much information as humanly possible. After filling out individual profiles for each provider on their respective AboutUs pages, we migrated the information into a comparative matrix for all LASIK centers in Manhattan.

Now that we’ve accumulated what we believe to be a substantive resource, we’d like to open it to the community. Come visit, read, and—most importantly—EDIT! We’re going to continue to build out individual cities within the LASIK Portal, so we’ll keep you posted on that. Ultimately, we hope that LASIK can serve as an example on how to build out other portals. Many other portals! Let us know if you want to help! -- ChrisBabson

• [gfdgd/3ac2nz 527 Pine] is available for $8-$12 square foot, 4600sq ft. Nice space, front windows and skylights. Anyone interested in looking at it in the next day or two? MarkDilley
• Good post over at the DomainTools.com weblog: Stealing domain name research. So while it is important to get the right TLD, it is also important to be careful when researching any domain name. Really folks, this is real estate type behavior. MarkDilley

20-Mar-2007

• Starting Thoughts On Messaging - Ray
• Owners of Topix.net pay a cool $1 Million for Topix.com, goes to show the importance of securing the .com name before building a significant venture. Read more here. - Ray
• From the devs: The custom tag that we use to hide email addresses from potential spammers has been slightly changed. You can now use the custom tag "email" in addition to "graphic" to replace the text of your email address with an image. User:Jacob

• Will the "graphic" one still work? Will it stop working? Why the change/addition? --Simon | talk 14:44, 20 March 2007 (PDT)

• Quick note: "hiddenemail" was decidedly too long to type out a billion times a day. It has been changed to just "email". To answer you question, Simon, the "graphic" tag will not be going away any time soon. The motivation for the change was to make the purpose of the tag a little clearer. User:Jacob

• Want to learn more about Presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich or Mitt Romney, but don't know where to start? You may want to check out YouTube's You Choose '08 as a way to view Presidential ads from each candidate.

19-Mar-2007

• Here's blog post by ChrisGoupil.com (hist).

Aboutus.org, new way to find websites?

I've seen this someone before on AboutUs? -- Simon | talk 18:10, 19 March 2007 (PDT)

• Making The case for case - Ray
• TheRegister.co.uk

Truths, half-truths and Wikipedia

"Wikipedia comes in for a fair amount of criticism these days from El Reg and other publications, but I can't help wondering if we're missing the real point regarding its status as an encyclopedia. Most of the arguments hinge on its accuracy, or lack of it. But if our criteria for an encyclopedia is a guarantee of 100 per cent accuracy, then there are no encyclopaedias now, and there never have been. So is Wikipedia an encylopedia, and, if not, can it ever be one? Reluctantly, I think the answer is a resounding 'no', and here's why."

• I see the MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning changed today! TedErnst
  • Yes! Brandon is making the changes now.