Radio 8 the Video Star

My Name is Adam Curry, I am a broadcaster.

I started this piece with that first line for some reason.....

....and then it hit me.

Weblogging is the same game as Radio Broadcasting. ...

I just wish I could write as eloquently as Adam. He sums up perfectly the rationale of weblogging. He waxes lyrical about Radio 8. Seems to me that my brain is wired much the same as Adam's. Perhaps it's because I had an electronics construction kit as a child too ;-)

SchoolBlog News | Plans in the Pot

The link [above] is to a 20k PDF file of my first attempt at planning weblogs into the curriculum. It's a bit of a mish-mash but nevertheless useful to see how I introduced my 10 year olds to their own project weblogs...

via SiT - Business 2.0 - The Case Against Knowledge Management

Companies waste billions on knowledge management because they fail to figure out what knowledge they need, or how to manage it. In his latest book, Thomas A. Stewart explains how to answer both questions.

The article is

...is adapted from Thomas A. Stewart's "The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the 21st Century Organization," to be published in January by Currency Doubleday.

Looks like the book may be an interesting read.

The Scripting News Blogger of the Year 2001 is Joel Spolsky - http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

Looks like Dave hasn't updated his bookmarks as he's using Joel's old editthispage.com address. I'm sure that'll get fixed soon.

I'm pleased that Joel won BOTY. He always writes thought provoking articles and his site is one of my daily reads. Well deserved. Even if he has never linked to me ;-) - although I indirectly did as mentioned in my Duncan on Software piece almost 11 months ago! [which I have just updated to fix (most) of the broken links to the editthispage.com domain B-}]

Meryl K. Evans review of Radio 8.0

I'm free!!! I can now spill my guts and tell you all about radiating Radio eight-dot-oh (R8) since I'm no longer bound by NDA. It's everything RAD (RADio, rad, radiating)! Because of its addicting features on the desktop, it's making it difficult for me to get writing done. Here's what grabs me:

Also by Meryl - A Non-RadioLand Employee Tour of Radio

This piece of news removed at the request of the rest of the rest of my family. From now on I doubt that I'll be posting anything personal about family members other than myself.

So it looks like this weblog will degenerate into one that's pretty impersonal. Whilst I am sure that there are some readers who visit here primarily for the technology links, there may be one or two that tune in to see how I tick and there may even be frends and family that like to pick up on family news. I'll still express my opinions but these will from now on restricted to computing related matters.

It's a bit of a shame since I visit some weblogs as much for their personal news as their links and this helps to engender a sense of community and friendship that sets apart such weblogs from the rest of the web.

I'm currently using three different browsers on my iBook. I'm using Opera 5 to post this. NN4.08 is acting as my newsgroup reader, and IE 5.1 is the default browser that gets launched by the likes of Frontier and Eudora. Since IE 5.1 has issues with handling certificates from our local secure server, up until now I've used NN4.08 for that too. I've just tested Opera 5 and that works OK with the secure server.

Since IE 5.1 also starves Radio of CPU cycles, it's looking increasingly threatened as my default browser even though it has a couple of (usability) features that are lacking in Opera 5.

Since I still use Frontier for most of my static site rendering, I'm investigating the suitability of Radio picking up that role.

Since there's a Carbon version of Radio for Mac OS X, it's looking increasingly likely that I'll be using that version of the OS to boot into within the next few weeks. Hopefully Opera 5 for Mac OS X will be out soon too. I'll also need to take another look at the latest builds of Mozilla.

One thing for sure is that I'll still be using BBEdit, and Conversant, to organise my weblife too. Radio is going to have to hook up with these two productivity apps to make the cut. I'm hopeful. There are a lot of features in Radio that I like, but Conversant is still my first and foremost web 'app'. I'm like a kid in a candy store right now ;-)

Doc Searl's A Penguin Angle on the Ox: Day One at Macworld:

While Apple pitches radical hardware and practical software to the masses, UNIX geeks are quietly adding big value to the company's open-source, BSD-based operating system.

O'Reilly Network: Introduction to CVS

O'Reilly Network: At MacWorld, Jobs Shows iPhoto & New iMac

O'Reilly Network: Java Programming on the Mac

Macworld week is a good time to seek out connections between Java and Macintosh. Over at O'Reilly Net's Mac DevCenter, Daniel Steinberg's column presents examples for Java developers looking for cross-platform solutions as well as those who want to write Mac OS X-specific applications in Java.

O'Reilly Network: Developers' Reaction to the New iMac

In the thirty-odd something hours since the unveiling of the new iMac, I've talked to lots of my developer friends about it. The reaction of those that already have Macs is mostly positive. There are a few that don't like or are simply neutral on the design, but they seem to be in the minority. What's more interesting is the reaction of those that don't already have a Mac.

O'Reilly Network: Mac Speculation and Fantasy

What would I run off and design next if I could direct Apple's R&D team and wanted another to make another accessory for the Digital Hub? Easy. I'd turn my home theater setup (as humble as it is compared to that of some of my friends) into one big audio-video output device for any Airport enabled Mac.

ZDNet |UK| - News - Story - .Net vote rigging illustrates importance of Web services

In December, Java was more popular than .Net for building Web services, according to a ZDNet UK poll, but weeks later the position had dramatically reversed; investigation revealed just what lengths Microsoft will go to to promote its products

Yesterday, Opera released The fastest browser for Mac [their words]. I'm going to give it a try... The Mac OS X version is still in beta.

Dave drops a mindbombshell:

"...started updating the real Radio UserLand home page yesterday. One thing that's now revealed is the price. $39.95. That's less than a lot of people thought it would be. We want to sell quite a few of these puppies. BTW, looks like there's a good chance we'll ship tomorrow."

At that price it's a non-brainer. I was involved in the last few days of the beta testing and I can confidently predict that Userland are going to ship Radio like shit off a shovel. Radio has huge potential as a 'knowledge router'. I'll be forking out my $39.95 at the end of the 30 day trial period. That's praise indeed from a canny Scot who's careful with his money ;-). I'm really looking forward to hooking up Radio with Conversant.

Incidentally, this posting brought to you by means of an Opera 5 for Mac bookmarklet. More about that later.

So many cool things to play with but ... must ... mark ... more ... student ... assignments...

Gerry's funeral on Monday morning was the first Roman Catholic church service I had ever intended. Those of us not versed in the subtleties and protocols of the mass paid our respects with quiet contemplation. I estimate that there were between 250 and 300 people attending the funeral. Obviously, the respect and affection we held for Gerry at work extended to those that knew him from his church and community.

It was a sad occasion made tragically sadder by the news that the baby son of one of our other colleagues at work had died from meningitis on Christmas Eve. I cannot even begin to imagine the sense of loss both families must be feeling now. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Then to top it all was the news this evening that the Browns' baby dies in hospital. I always used to think that Gordon Brown lacked warmth but I remember thinking that his obvious delight in the birth of his baby girl - Jennifer Jane - last week showed him to have a genuinely caring and human side - and a wonderful broad smile - and the British public warmed to him as a result. It's a tragic that the complications that set in as a result of the seven weeks premature birth lead ultimately to Jennifer's death.

It's at times like this that I realise how lucky I am and how much I take for granted the health of my family and how much I love them.

On SiT David comments on BlackBoard and Blogs

Adam Curry (among other things, supporter of schoolblogs.com) and Greg Ritter (a Blackboard employee, but not posting in an official capacity) are engaged in an exchange about Blackboard and weblogs....

I've written a lot about Blackboard, not all of it complimentary....

via Scripting News - Wired's Vaporware 2001 awards.

One of my ex-students - Larry - stopped by today. Hi Larry, thanks for signing up!

Larry works for Criterion Software. When I checked out their website I was struck by the similarity between the image on their home page and some of the images on http://duncan.smeed.org/comicrelief ;-)

via Scobleizer Weblog and Windows XP News - the wonderfully weird humanclock.com. And there's a bonus link to a really pointless site (which is part of The Pointless Pages Webring!!!). Perhaps I should register DJ with that webring ;-)