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FROM THE SOUNDS of his frustration when trying to configure all sorts of wireless nodes around the Curry Manor, Adam Curry may need better lifting from Ruckus. I think regular readers should listen [2.9 MB MP3 file] and ring Adam with ideas.
Audio: podcasting.ie/snippets/curry_needs_ruckus.mp3 snipped from DSC 579.
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INTEL PR has ramped up several press releases on the way Intel plans to extend wifi coverage. They could have asked some of the commentators here for the press fodder because little in the Intel item is new to anyone in the realm of community wifi. Broadband Reports says that Intel researchers report how they can send WiFi signals up to 100 kilometers using standard equipment, compared to the few hundred feet they can normally travel. Their system uses directional antennas and special software to do the trick, and it's intended to be used in developing nations to provide remote areas with internet access.
Cisco already has wireless antenna kits that beam eight miles along line of sight. At Tipperary Institute, we have used Cisco hubs that can boost and turn the signal up to antenna located 19 miles away. I have set up a wireless environment that turns at right angles on street corners. We used no Intel kit in those configurations.
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SOME NEW ENERGY has sparked several Irish Times journalists to start blogging. There's Jim Carroll today and Conor Pope on Monday. Carroll has 33 links in his blogroll, some to award-winning Irish bloggers.
Jim Carroll -- "On the record"
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IF YOU DABBLE in technology, you probably have an opinion about Twitter (Disclosure: I'm twitter.com/topgold) and if you listen to Irish daytime radio, you probably don't like to associate yourself with anything that earns gushes from talk show hosts like Ray D'Arcy. But you don't have to like Twitter to appreciate the first evidence of keyboard squatting. That's when someone claims the syntax for a set of computer operations. We're toying with an SMS gateway operation now in Tipperary Institute, hoping to address extensions to the Twitter API. Our mucking around should allow applications to receive private messages from users. More specifically, our hope is to foster an Irish playground with an Irish phone text number that posts messages, lists friends' texts, query for public items and extend services into socially acceptable activities like shagtag. With the current Irish structure of premium text numbers, this kind of service could make money from the moment it is launched.
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BECAUSE MY IPOD has to carry work files along with sound files, I occasionally confuse its file structure when I undock it from my PC. This can result in losing access to sound tracks on the iPod. And when that happens, I have nothing for my earbuds when walking the dog, hanging at FL 350 or traveling on public transport. Then there's the sinking feeling when you leave your iPod behind somewhere. The only way to retain your sanity when you have hours of worthwhile material is to back up your iPod. If your iPod use is diverse, you will have much more on your iPod than stuff from iTunes. You won't be able to depend upon iTunes for backup. Actually, I don't recommend using iTunes as your back-up process because that ties you to hard drive meltdown scenarios. I can strongly recommend Anapod Explorer for the PC crowd.
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MAGIC BULLET is probably the most awesome tool that an indie video editor could possibly have in a production arsenal. It deartefacts superbly. It adds a look to your video that you cannot get any other way. You can tweak foreever with Look Suite. It supports Final Cut Pro, Avid, Premiere Pro, Vegas & Motion. It costs $400. It takes forever to render.
Red Giant Software -- Magic Bullet
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KATHY SIERRA, a personal inspiration to me with her articulate presentation and clever graphics, now lives in fear of her life because of death threats she has received when blogging. These are no simple threats. Threats against her include images of a noose around her head and some very graphic, intimidating and sexual terms. The police are taking the death threats seriously. Kathy has cancelled speaking appearances is an emotional wreck. Her distress has affected other A-List bloggers. When Kathy downshifts, my teaching and learning suffers a continent away. And her distress is real, unlike the hyperbolic reaction some upper crust Irish bloggers vent when they think the world is picking on them.
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I NOMINATE DAVE DAVIS for the award of "Best Conference Report of the Year". Dave filed his report after Search Marketing World 2007 in Dublin last week. His subtle blending of presentations, hallway conversation, throwaway remarks and astute editorialising made the event better than it might have been. He touched on the venue (we like it better at night), the swag (search porn on the USB key?), the names of nice people, passing reference to the dumb people--all with the right amount of diplomacy. He affirmed a trend with Jury Doyle's that would bother me if I ran that group. I already have a problem with their coffee hygiene and think they need to reorient their audience awareness by listening to peers in the electronic space. Many of those peers attended the Dublin event but after seeing their presentations several times, I still wonder if Jury's listens to anything reverberating back from careful listeners.
How long before "Best Event Report" becomes a category during the Irish Blog Awards? It could replace one of the podcast categories and draw greater interest from voters.
Dave Davis -- "Search Marketing World 2007: My View"
Previously: Suw Charman Wins Award for Best Conference Report.
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SCRIBD GIVES YOU another slice of the Zeitgeist by linking to the most popular documents on its social service. In a quick glance, you can see the most-viewed and most-tagged items shared on Scribd. If you don't want to read the Irish Sunday papers about another misfiring national team, you might entertain yourself with the Top 10 items on Scribd. Its cross-section of topics is better than a tabloid and required reading for radio talk show researchers.
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FEEDBURNER STATS offer another absolute way of tracking top-ranked sites. Here are the top 10 English language blog sites, according to the number of Feedburner subscriptions each have. This list is not from Feedburner, so it's actually tech-biased. There cooking and lifestyle blogs that would land in the top 10 on another listing.
1. BoingBoing 385,000 readers.
2. TechCrunch 339,000 readers.
3. 43Folders 97,235 readers.
4. Mashable 88932 readers.
5. DumbLittleMan 71,053. Who would've known?
6. 37signals 61,071 readers.
7. John Battelle’s Searchblog 58,135 readers.
8. CrunchGear 57,213 readers.
9. Read/Write Web 55,295 readers.
10. Coding Horror 47,818 readers.
This is not a totally accurate list because when you capture blogs, you miss many mainstream websites. Also, many blogs use something besides Feedburner to track readership subscriptions. But it's a wonderful way of comparing apples to apples.
I wonder how many people would listen to any of those sites if they offered daily podcasts. I wonder how elegantly they could distill their content to tweets?
Stan Shroeder -- "Top 40 Sites According to Feedburner Stats"
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