Sampling Too Much News with Too Many Aggregators
This week's irony is that I'm too busy to put much time into this blog because
I'm writing an article about aggregator programs, the software that
lets you subscribe to and read the contents of blogs or news sites...
the mystery behind those orange XML links to their Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, or "Atom," or whichever new feeding-frenzy idea comes down the pike next.
I'm comparing three aggregators right now. I've loaded one up with 76
subscriptions (or "feeds," or "channels"; the terminology varies),
which are currently offering me a total of 888 headlines. Another
has 23 channels offering more than 230 headlines, but it also
just offered a word balloon saying "application unexpectedly quit," so
maybe it gave up, exhausted, before it counted them all.
Anyhow, I won't say these are the best stories from that thousand-plus
collection, but they're the ones that I'm going to go back and
read... after I go rest my eyes.
Human interface guidelines for the Internet.
Apple, of course, wrote the book on human interface guidelines by
visualizing and documenting a range of interaction scenarios in
meticulous detail. Today we have a variety of platform-specific
guidelines -- for Windows, for GNOME, for Flash MX. But we lack general
guidelines for how Internet applications should behave on all
platforms. E-mail programs don't agree on how threading, foldering, and
filtering should work. Web browsers don't agree on how drop-down search
boxes should work. RSS readers don't agree on how the orange XML icon
should work. Media players don't agree on how playlists should work.
We need HCI (human/computer interface) guidelines more than
ever. And we need them not only for Windows, OS X, GNOME, and Flash,
but for the uber-platform that subsumes them all. We need human
interface guidelines for the Internet. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]... [Jon's Radio]
Freedom of the Press? Not in U.S.-Occupied Iraq.
Floyd Abrams: The democracy lesson backfires.
Of all the messages the United States could send to the people of Iraq,
the sorriest is this: If you say things we disapprove of, we'll shut
you up. That, regrettably, is precisely the message American
administrator Paul Bremer has sent to Iraq by shutting down Al Hawza,
an anti-American newspaper that frequently criticizes U.S. conduct in
that country. According to the media liaison for the U.S.-administered
government, the "false information" in the paper "was hurting
stability." Instead of shutting down newspapers,
the U.S. should be encouraging the widest possible debate. We should be
urging people to do all kinds of media -- including weblogs -- and
spending some of that $20 billion ensuring more speech, not less.
Instead, we're acting like the tin-pot dictator we overthrew. Some
message. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
How E-Voting Threatens Democracy.
Electronic voting is supposed to streamline the process and rid us of
the hanging chad. But the technology is rife with problems, creating
the specter of botched returns and deliberate election rigging.
Although many election officials defend the system, e-voting still
can't be trusted. Nor, apparently, can many of its more ardent
boosters. By Kim Zetter. [Wired News]
Analysis shows where state money comes from.
The Center for Public Integrity analyzed contribution and expenditure
data reported to state agencies by 229 political party and caucus
committees in all 50 states. The analysis finds that "State parties
raised nearly $823 million in the 2001-2002 election cycle,... [Extra! Extra!]
Leisure Pursuits of Today's Young Man.
Young men, a highly prized slice of the American population, are
watching less TV. And technology shifts have a lot to do with it. By
John Schwartz. [New York Times: Technology]
3:36:31 PM 
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