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2007

  • 1 min read

[GEEKY] New FireFox add-in for del.icio.us close but not yet

I was glad to see that the FireFox add-in for del.icio.us was revised to combine the features of the 'old one' with the features of the 'new one'. That's good. Unfortunately it looks to me like the new and improved plug-in is still a bit buggy, sending FireFox into a tailspin - window activation weirdnesses, apparent loops hogging the CPU. I look forward to the next rev, because the concept is right on.

  • 1 min read

Slim down your wallet with Just One Club Card

This looks kind of neat - check out this post from Lifehacker:

Web site Just One Club Card lets you condense up to 8 different discount club cards onto one front-and-back card, meaning your back-breaking wallet is about to go on a big diet.

Just enter the barcode numbers and choose the store for each card you want to get rid of and Just One Club Card will convert them to a printable, one- card format. Fold, laminate, and enjoy.

(from: Slim down your wallet with Just One Club Card)

  • 1 min read

What would happen if Venezuela invaded Curaçao

Yeah a weird thought. So when I came across an analysis called The Dutch Defend Their World Empire, I was fascinated, in a sick sort of way.

"[snip…]The Dutch problem can best be described with the words, "not enough". Not enough forces to successfully repel an invasion of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire; not enough naval power to carry out operations to retake the islands; their fighters do not have enough range; and not enough logistical support to support an operation.[snip…] (from The Dutch Defend Their Empire)

Also, from the comments:

"[snip…]The United States would love nothing more than to see Chavez booted from power, whether that means he takes a long exile in Spain or ends up against a wall wearing a blindfold. That said, you can guarantee that the United States would suddenly be the Netherlands' biggest ally in getting its islands back.[snip…]" (from comments to The Dutch Defend their Empire)

  • 1 min read

[GEEKY] Alternative to Yahoo Pipes? Looks really interesting…

Check out this post from Lifehacker:

"Want to play with RSS feeds? Try xFruits, where, according to tech enthusiast Steve Rubel, you can "teach your feeds all kinds of new tricks."

He's not kidding around, either: you can create a PDF file from an RSS feed, send an OPML to your mobile, aggregate, and lots more. I played with it a little bit and was suitably impressed by all the options; it looks like they're even adding the option to create RSS feeds for your desktop files soon. â_" Wendy BoswellxFruits [via MicroPersuasion]" (from: Mash up RSS feeds with xFruits)

I haven't looked at this yet, but it is quite intriguing.

Oh… Why haven't I looked yet? Well ever since xFruits was mentioned on LifeHacker, it has been unable to be reached. The server is probably getting overwhelmed by loving interest like mine.

I say "server" singular? I am just assuming that we are talking about a single server. But even if that's not the case, the fact that the service is unavailable right now says something about how hard it is to build a scalable web service, especially if you are giving it away for free. It is why it's nice to see Yahoo, Google and Amazon publishing services.

  • 1 min read

FeedBurner’s View of the Feed Market

If you are a blogger then you probably keep an eye out on the 'circulation' of your blog. It's a black art full of subjetivity and highly detailed technical tidbits that have to be understood and then interpretted before you really know what the data means. Still if you are interested, check out this post from FeedBurner Weblog (Burning Questions):

"[snip…]While it's always encouraging to see feed subscription numbers go up (Google's recent inclusion of subscription data for Google Reader and Google Homepage increased the number of feed subscriptions FeedBurner can report to publishers by 53% alone), these subscription numbers in a vacuum only tell part of the story. Equally important is the extent to which people are reading feeds and interacting with them. In today's post we'll take a look at one aspect of the feed aggregator market - the web-based aggregators - and draw some conclusions about how audiences are consuming content in new and different ways. [snip…]"

(from : FeedBurner's View of the Feed Market)