An online notebook
BlogJetThis! Extension for FireFox 0.4
James Avery has created a FireFox extension that allows you to select text in FireFox and then blog about it using BlogJet. Great work James!
If you visit the above link, you’ll see a few comments from me, who in my usual dunderheaded way, couldn’t seem to get the extension installed right… 
And of course I used it to create this post…
US based celebrity blog thing is now up and running, as reported by Dan Gillmor:
The Huffington Post has launched, and it’s part-Drudge (though from a different perspective), part blog of blogs. It’s obviously version 1.0, which means you should give it time to settle down.
The great Harry Shearer will “Eat the Press” — this could be fun.
Overall, the site seems to be aiming at the role of op-ed page of the Net. I’m watching with great interest, and reading some of it, too.
To give more of a flavour, here’s an excerpt from the announcement email:
The Huffington Post is serving up-to-the-minute breaking news and blog posts from hundreds of the most interesting figures in politics, entertainment, business, the arts, and the media. In addition, Harry Shearer will be moderating a section on the media called “Eat the Press” — where, besides documenting and discussing the absurdities within our news cycle, he will regularly be posting raw satellite feed of our nation’s politicians and broadcasters in their most unguarded moments.
Already, John Cusack, Ellen DeGeneres, Russell Simmons, Mike Nichols, David Mamet, Michael Isikoff, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, David Corn, and Marshall Herkovitz have posted their unique takes on issues as diverse as gay marriage, the war in Iraq, and what “SpamAlot” and political leaders have in common.
The Huffington Post is also your source for breaking news. Today, the Post offers an exclusive pre-publication look at the explosive new book, “Secrets of the Kingdom,” by best-selling author Gerald Posner, which reveals the unknown story of how Saudi Arabia’s oil fields are rigged to turn into a radioactive nuclear wasteland in the event of an invasion or internal revolution.
What is a blog? The oft-cited Doc Searles shares his thoughts in a PowerPoint from the “Les Blogs” conference in Paris. Or, if you’d like the html version …Try slide 17 for the nub of things:
- Blogs are journals
- They are not “sites”
- They are not “content”
- They are not “media”
- They are not here to “deliver an experience”
- They are not an “emergent synchronization mode”
- There’s no argument about “who’s a journalist.” We all are.
Searles’ basic argument is that blogs are individual writings — speech — that turn into conversations through the linking ability of the Web. Treat them like content, he says, and we run the risk of censorship.
This is why news media and blogs struggle to find compatibility. We in this business see such things as content. That’s fine. Call them online columns, which is what most really are when we produce them.
Well, I am leaving Scrutiny after nearly a year and have a new job as a Business Analyst at another authority. Just a week to go – my first day is 16 May.
What’s it all about? Well, project management basically. A real growth area in local authorities in the UK, and one I am keen to learn about. And guess what? To help keep a handle on all the information that will be coming my way, I am going to be blogging about it. Not here, though. One of the joys of WordPress is that I can have multiple blogs running from the same MySQL database. So, I have just started Project: Blog and will be updating it starting from about now.
I guess you can expect maybe a couple of posts a week over there. It should be pretty interesting (if you are interested in project management…) Still, to help differentiate it from this one I really do need to apply a new theme to it…
8 Secrets of the New Super Blogs from Vaspers the Grate
8 Secrets of the New Super Blogs:
Blog Revelations from Otherwhere(1.) Blogs will be interesting…or die.
(2.) Blogs will be unusual, abnormal, unique…or die.
(3.) Blogs will be practical, helpful, valuable…or die.
(4.) Blogs will be creative, innovative, artistic in both literary and graphic stylings…or die.
(5.) Blogs will be authoritative, reputable, credible, reliable…or die.
(6.) Blogs will be imaginative, original, personalized, customized…or die.
(7.) Blogs will be strong, loud, brilliant, brave…or die.
(8.) Blogs will be ethical, moral, legal and legitimate, altruistic…or die.