Blog.gizmos
I see a lot of blogs with a lot of gizmos on them. Do we want this sort of thing? Photo albums, and... and... what else? Would there be a way to browse our blog by posts with the most comments? Can we put up polls? Would a poll of what, four or five people even be significant? Do we really need to be trackbacked, or are we content with obscurity? And do we really need to be like everyone else, anyway? We don't need gizmos just for the sake of having them. But we do have a lot of control, here. What do you think/suggest?
Anyway, on the topic of gizmos, I spent a few moments this afternoon geeking out. Here's a list of a few COOL sites about gadgets. Like, did you know that Toyota aims to sell service robots by 2010?
I spent a few minutes on GIZMODO, and it's my favourite site because no only do they have lots of cool gadgets, but I also like the descriptions as well, which can be really hilarious. Check out both the iGuy for iPod post and the The Mac Sound one and you'll see what I mean... the mind reels. Funny.
Anyway, don't miss seeing the "Tankless Underwater Breathing Apparatus". A Skype enabled phone?? The Asus P505 has been Sighted in the wild. Will the Skin Alcohol Sensor eliminate drunk driving? But... do we really need Media-Sensitive Glasses that automatically (the most important word in gizmotry, if you ask me) darken based on whether you're driving or watching TV? Would a Transparent Mellotron be cool? And speaking of music, check it out: Frog Ringtone Remix Outsells Coldplay.
Other cool gizmo-related sites include Ubergizmo, ohgizmo, Lord Percy, GeekBlue, Topix, engadget, NECHBI, HighTechStyle, Gizmo News, LIVE DIGITALLY,
I4U, and GIZMOS FOR GEEKS, but most of them have a lot of cross-posts and duplicated stuff.
posted by CatsFive @ Wednesday, June 01, 2005
17 Comments:
Hm; trackback could be kind of cool -- I always like seeing where things propogate to (and which spammers consider us worthy enough), but that sort of goes back to my statistics stuff -- just seeing how things interact on each other and whatnot. I'd kind of like it if Blogger'd email me when comments were added (especially to my posts, but either way), but that's pretty minor. With polls, though, I got kind of excited when I could do them on my LiveJournal, but I think I've done... one? Maybe two? Max? In a year? So, not so sure on that one.
That said, if there's any cool gizmos, I'd be down with that, as long as it didn't get too much -- but then, I like toys.
Also, oh my god, I want that Mellotron. I've always wanted a Mellotron, but now, I specifically want _that_ one. It's the joys of a Mellotron combined with the supreme awesomeness of seeing how stuff works! I would marry that mellotron! (I'm sorry, Nord, but I've got a new love now. And her name is INVISIBLE MELLOTRON.
On the subject of web-gozmos- I say if we find that we have a problem that's not being addressed, then we go look for a gizmo to solve that problem, instead of the other way around. Just my 2 pennies. :)
Well, sure, if you want to do it the sane way....
Actually, Blogger emails ME when new comments are posted, and I've never figured out a way to have it notify all four of us, which would be the ideal. It seems it'll only accept one email address in the "notify" thing... if we had some sort of alias that would go to all of us, that would work.
And in a related vein... one thing I think WOULD add a lot around here is just a way to notify ANY visitor to the site, which posts have new comments since their last visit.
Metafilter has this, sorta, but though it doesn't actually work.
Hm, what if we rigged up, say, a yahoo group, gave the address Blogger sends from posting access, and we all joined said mailing list? (or, I suppose, some other mailing list service would work too...)
LiveJournal does that kinda (or, it can, you've got to turn it on -- it'll email you if anyone replies to any comment you left, even if it's in another journal), but not in general. So you have to keep comment-counts in mind. (It also, unfortunately, past a certain point, collapses long threads, which is good for keeping pages short, but a pain in the ass if you actually, you know, want to _read_ comments, and I don't think there's a way to turn that off, because if there is, that'd be the first thing I'd do upon finding that out.)
But yeah -- stuff like that would be pretty cool, I think.
(And I still like the Trackback thing, in a wholly "Oh, this so doesn't matter for _anything_" way..8)
Aha... I bet I can make that work! It's too late to tackle it tonight, but I will work on it this weekend.
(NOTE: I know JACK about programming, but my cut-n-paste skills are the shiznit. :D )
Hee, yeah -- I'm pretty much the same thing; From around 1995-1998 or so, I was _awesome_ at HTML, but then everything went a little more complex, with the stylesheets and whatnot, and I never learned how to do that kind of stuff, even though folks tell me that it's pretty easy to learn, I just haven't at all, heh. But yeah -- copy/pasting is great for learning things and, you know, also just getting things to work..8)
So, Lee-- YOU are the one hogging the blog's email notification thing! I guess they didn't have multiple-user blogs in mind when they created Blogger. I love this site, though-- it's very fast and intuitive and I like the design. I personally don't give a care whether anyone else is reading it, though.
I think it's the coolest thing in the world to have access to a "corporate" site where they give you full reign over the HTML itself. How does Blogger make money, I wonder?
So, good ideas on blog improvements. Let's definitely hook up the Yahoo groups thing-- that's a great idea. I'm on a couple of those and the emailing thing works. I know we have the archives, etc., but I was also thinking of a "greatest hits" tab on the left or right where we could put up some of the more "popular" or esoteric or entertaining posts. If we nominate posts other than our own, we might actually build something on that.
Rev, yeah, I hear you. I'm a GOD at HTML, and in fact once pulled down six figures at the New York advertising agencies doing just that. But now it's no longer about design, it's more about the XSL and XML schemas... boooorrring. I'm glad I got out when I did (though, sales isn't exactly the light of my life).
I do find it interesting how blogs are slowly teaching EVERYONE HTML.
Speaking of design, by the way, my buddy Colin here where I live announced last night at the pub that Pampers.com is getting a refresh. I once worked on that site! Kinda funny.
I was also thinking of a "greatest hits" tab
Hmmm... you know, I think I know how to make that work, as well.
OK, this weekend I promise I'll work on these three improvements: The "read more" link, the "greatest hits" link (we need a Pythonesque name for it! :D ) and a Yahoo-group-based mailing notification.
I'm also throwing my support behind the greatest-hits thing, even though it doesn't look like it needs it..8) I'll see if I can think of any suggestions. I've got my Flying Circus script books a few feet away from me, so...8)
....(though I think "Mrs. Niggerbaiter's Revue" is probably right out)
Quite. File that under "Nigger Milk." Unacceptable. :D
(For those of you reading this centuries later, um, most of us on this blog believe that the only way to deal with racial epithets is to vernacularise them).
And for anyone reading this blog top-down, PLEASE note that it refers to an earlier post!
:D
Hhahaah, yes. That's actually always been one of the few things in Python that's kind of shocked me a little bit, although it's understandable, since the UK didn't have quite the same history with the word as we do. But it's still sort of surprising when that name shows up in the scripts and on the show!
I used to have that. One of my favourite Python skits has a one-liner in it about tricycle races: "In Nova Scotia today, Mr Roy Bent of North Walsham in Norfolk became the first man to cross the Atlantic on a tricycle. His tricycle, specially adapted for the crossing, was ninety feet long, with a protective steel hull, three funnels, seventeen first-class cabins and a radar scanner." LOL
Hm, Best Of Type Suggestions:
"Different Types of Trees"
"Light Entertainment War"
"Her Majesty, The Queen Is Watching Tonight" (since that does lead into one of my favorite sketches, with the Undertaker/Cannibal sketch)
"Live From The Cardiff Rooms, Libya" (actually from OST, the episode)
"Episode Arthur, Part 7: Teeth" (the first thing after the It's man in OST)
"An Illustrated History Of False Teeth" (also OST)
I think I vote for the last one, actually. But that's what I thought of, just flipping through my script books.
Or maybe run it through the "Hovercraft is full of eels" translator and see what we get...
I like ALL of those names... :D
Is CW still reading? Maybe we need a vote here. Heh heh!
This should be easy to add, BTW... we'll just update it manually when we feel like we have a post that should stay on the front page.
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