Feed Funk

“Earlier this month, I started using Mint to track my feed subscribers (specifically the Bird Feeder pepper). Previously, I was using FeedBurner. I came to the realization it didn’t make sense to use an outside service when I could track subscribers on my own.” — Cameron makes a smart call.

Smart enough, in fact, to replicate here. It’s a great feature —even if requiring a little core file hacking in TXP — from a truly great stats system.

Feeds should be redirecting seamlessly at this point, but it never hurts to drop by The Lab to keep up with the Jonses (and the migrated RSS/ Atom feed).

Art Nouveau

“The goal is to allow purchased video content to play seamlessly on any device or screen that the buyer owns and to allow access to a “virtual library” of purchased content accessible from anywhere on the ‘Net.” — Mitch Singer, CTO of Sony Pictures, via ars.

Wait, what? I thought you told us DRM would allow all this and more. It would keep us safe and enable all manner of online content. The industry is only now just starting to think about online content distribution?

Mark the date in your calendars, this is the date the industry admits it was a) entirely wrong about DRM, and b) is seeing writing on the wall (perhaps truly for the first time) for physical distribution.

Silent Cruise

Silent Cruise, by Fish — from the Manga series Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I happened upon this surprising find — all nine minutes and fifty one seconds of it — during my morning commute.

A haunting yet beautiful blend of vocals, electronica and orchestral movements.

The Itch

“I want you to know that I’m back. I’m here. And I’m thinking very much about how 43 Folders can become a focused resource for people who do work that they love and make things that matter to them” — Merlin on keeping it real.

It’s why I keep visiting 43 Folders. If I continue to read your content, it is because you write with passion, honesty and for no other reason than it’s an itch you just have to scratch. When it is just that important to you, it becomes important to me.

Skin Deep

“Ranging from that ‘freshly kicked’ red to the ‘deeply uncomfortable’ purple, and the ‘finally healing’ yellow. The wonderful color changes of this oh so familiar injury are related to the breakdown of the hemoglobin in the escaped red blood cells.” — a lighthearted tour de force of bruising from Colourlovers.

Ye Olde

“Simply put, IE6 shouldn’t get any hate. Nor should it receive any love, either.” — Dan Rubin presents a most sensible rebuttal.

It is not standards-compliant and the demands placed on making things fit within it — something I intend to simply cease doing in future — often vastly exceed original effort on a standards compliant equivalent. IE6 isn’t evil, just past its use-by date.

Eight Up

“Lastly, we come to comments. I’m getting rid of them. It’s not that I don’t care what you have to say, it’s that I want you to care about what I have to say (and dealing with comment spam sucks).” — Dave Kellam on blog comments.

I’ve read Dave’s blog on and off for some time now and he has always struck me as someone I want to listen to. The latest design iteration and no-nonsense layout really makes visiting for that ‘fix’ all the sweeter.

A-ten-hut!

“I’ve started to become a lot pickier about where my attention goes as I observe what it means to my work when it drifts. But, I still have a long way to go. Long way.” — Merlin Mann.

A reminder of the importance of having something to chaperone one’s brain in order to protect from time-sapping temptation. Where is Terry Tate when you need him?

Eight Faces

“After a few months (or years) of pseudo-inactivity on the weblog, it needs a jump start. I started taking myself too seriously a few years ago, it hampered my ability to post and have fun with the site. Basically, I need to make this space personal again.” — Dave Kellam on keeping it real after eight years.

Silver Surfer

“Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.” — Google developers’ on why we need a new web browser.

Webkit is a smart choice. Given gmail has evolutionised the way we view email, it may be premature to describe Chrome as just an application runtime (ala prism – even if it uses that concept in part) just yet. But it does face stiff competition from Mozilla, whom continue to increase browser share.