The unified feed theory
Late 2005 brought us the unified feed icon. As we see this distributed, used and updated through applications and Web sites that use “feeds” to syndicate “content”, hopefully we’ll see something else - namely; The unified feed spec and description.
“Feeds” come in several flavors. RSS and ATOM being on the top of the list. I believe that choice is important in life, and competition is good for “business” (or making the quality and value of the two competing things increase). So, I don’t actually mind that there are several types of feeds because all types are vying for my usage, inherently making them better. However, as a developer I’d like to see a unified feed spec so that creating services that distribute and services that parse this content will become easier. I realize that this is no small task, and I look forward to the years ahead as the pioneers in these areas strive to do exactly that.
A unified description is also going to be needed. It’s really hard to describe what feeds are in short and simple terms, and so far we only have bad examples to go by.
“A web feed is a document (often XML-based) which contains content items, often summaries of stories or weblog posts with web links to longer versions. Weblogs and news websites are common sources for web feeds, but feeds are also used to deliver structured information ranging from weather data to “top ten” lists of hit tunes. While RSS feed is by far the most common term, the generic “web feed” terminology is sometimes used by writers hoping to make the concept clear to novice users, and by advocates of other feed formats.” — Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia’s description of a “Web feed” is appalling. “…which contains content items, often summaries of stories or weblog posts with web links to longer versions.”? This is exactly what they shouldn’t be. Syndication of content isn’t exactly syndication if you’re only giving away a small piece of the content! But I’ll leave this argument for a completely different day, what I’m really concerned about is this horrible description of what a Web feed is to novices.
Would it be impossible to describe what a “feed” is, without actually describing the technologies and languages used? What I mean to say is, can we possibly avoid mentioning that a feed is generally an XML document? I have it on good authority to say that my Mother will never know what XML is, and never should need to know in order to use feeds. Reading that definition, as someone that does not know what XML is, could be very confusing.
So, starting with the unified feed icon, I believe we need to stop calling feeds RSS, or ATOM, but simply “feed”. We also need to come up with the terminology to describe what a feed actually is, without saying XML, RSS, or ATOM at all - but rather describing the ideas behind a feed and its intent.
What is a feed?
A “feed” is a way of syndicating almost any type of content (be it articles, essays, plain or rich text, images, audio, or video) in a simple and portable way. Feeds are generally used to distribute frequently updated content, such as news and notifications. An example of this would be CNNs feeds, which provide headline feeds on various topics to keep their readers up-to-date with news.
To take advantage of any feed on the Internet, you will need a “Feed reader” or a Web site service that is capable of reading these feeds. These feed readers appear very much like an email application, in essence you’re being ‘emailed’ every time one of your “subscriptions” update their content.
Many people who have many Web sites they visit regularly, use feeds to be notified of these updates rather than visiting hundreds of Web sites each day.
— end feed description —
I do not believe that I am the person to tell the non-feed-savvy World what a feed actually is, but whoever that person is could have a good start with what I wrote above. I think for feeds to become truly usable, they don’t just need a standardized visual representation, but an understandable description.
I look forward to seeing anyone improve on the above, and perhaps add it to their own sites, to help those that do not enjoy feeds as we all do.
Delicious Library at Macworld Expo
Not that we didn’t know already, but Delicious Monster is going to Macworld. Perhaps we’ll see a new version of the application debuted like I predicted? Oh, and they are giving away 50 free passes to Macworld.
The books I read in 2005
I’ve read only a few books this year, since I’ve been so busy, but I figured it’d be neat to do a short review of each one that I was able to finish.
Eragon
Also known as Inheritance Book One, by Christopher Paolini.
Paolini, though only about sixteen when he wrote this book, has a great idea of story line. What I mean by this, is that the adventures of Eragon are fairly detailed, rich with all types of emotions, and feel very real. It’s hard to nail down Paolini’s specific style of writing, since I believe that his editors did most of the legwork on this book being he was so young (he did graduate high school at fifteen).
This book reminded me a lot of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, simply because the story takes place in a very “middle-earth” type of time period and geographic locations. There are elves, dragons, and dwarves - which also lends to the similarities.
I’m looking forward to reading book two which just came out late 2005, called Eldest.
Call of the Wild
Written by Jack London.
I’ve read this book a few times in my life, the first being when I was very young. When Eliza and I went to the Strawberry Festival in New York last year we stopped at a few garage sales, I was able to pick up a very early edition (not first) for only $1.
I’ve always loved this story, and the way that London tells it. The pace of the book is amazing, and - if you are a decent reader - the action of the book really flows very, very fast. Somehow reading this book again, in such an old hardcover version, makes it all the more enjoyable.
Sorry I don’t have a cover for this book, but I can’t find it anywhere online (the exact cover I have). I’ll have to take a few photos of this someday to get it online.
The Merchant of Venice
Written by William Shakespeare, edited by Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar.
I mention the editors because this isn’t an ordinary copy of The Merchant of Venice. This edition comes from The Folger Library, which includes detailed descriptions of everything within the screen play. This book contains double as many pages as the screenplay does, because the left-hand page always describes, in modern English, what is going on within the right-hand page. This really added to the experience of reading Shakespeare for me.
Being a screenplay made me read it like subtitles in a movie, very fun to read for sure. I actually ended up not finishing the very end of the book, since the movie was released on DVD at almost the same time - and I ended up watching that.
Napoleon
Written by Stanley Kubrick.
I was able to get a PDF version of Stanley Kubrick’s “best movie he never made”, Napoleon. Kubrick began writing this film very early on in his career. He poured countless amounts of money into research, counsel, and resources to make sure the screenplay was accurate. I know I am not alone when I say that I wish that he was able to make this movie.
Napoleon was one of those reads that you just can’t “put down” once you start. I finished it as fast as my eyes would allow, and I’m thinking of reading it again.
The way Napoleon was captured is really awesome. You can feel his tension, you can feel his pain, you can feel his glare when he is looking at someone in the story - and overall you can feel his patriotism and desire to succeed.
Those were the books I had the time to read this year, as I said, not as many as I would have liked to have read. I’ve just started a new book the other day, also a screenplay: Pygmalion by Benard Shaw. I’m only through Act II and this book is already becoming one of my favorites. I’ll probably write a review about this book specifically, but Shaw was very wrapped up in Phonetics as were his peers, which is why he wrote this book. To give a public view of the importance of Phonetics. This struggle reminds me very much of programming languages getting exposure online simply due to it being exposed by the proper people, not because its a superior language. Very interesting to compare.
Throw into this list every edition of MacWorld magazine, and you have a pretty good idea of what I read this year.
Matthew Good - Lullaby for the New World Order
Song: Lullaby for the New World Order
Artist: Matthew Good
Album: Avalanche
Why This Song? This is a very special Song of the Week because it is a first time I have selected a song by a fellow 9rules member. Who would have ever thought that Matthew Good, one of my favorite artists, would become a member of the 9rules Network? Certainly not me.
I was merely a fan of his music prior to him joining the Network, and now I can say I have much more of a respect for someone who is refreshingly ambitious. Not only is Matthew musically gifted and has created some of the most thought-provoking and powerful music I have ever heard, but he also is very knowledgeable in web technologies and uses these to further his efforts as an activist.
I heard “Lullaby for the New World Order” a while back, but I never realized how true he held to his words. (’How can you take your heart out of this? / How do you stop once you’ve started / Somebody gave you choice and all you do is abuse it / If God, he gave you a voice then use it’).
There are many artists that say one thing, but then in their life you never see any evidence of that. In all fairness, most artists could genuinely stand up for what they believe and we would never see it. This is no fault of their own, and frankly, I would never expect any of them to give such a personal snapshot into their lives because if they choose to live a private life they have every right to do so. And to be totally honest, I wouldn’t have realized that Matthew was so dedicated to what he believes had he not become a member of this network.
It is funny how much my opinion of Matthew has changed since I have been reading his blog and watching his videos. Before, I never knew how much work he put into trying to deliver something with substance. His lyrics always conveyed that message but until recently I had never seen many of his videos. However, with the commentary on his “In a Coma” DVD, it just shows how much drive and dedication he has to what he believes in. He speaks his mind and tries to deliver messages in all the work he has done, whether it be for writing a song, editing a video, or writing an article about human rights. Agree or disagree, you have to respect someone with a passion for what they believe.
Oh yeah, I have a song to talk about, too. “Lullaby for the New World Order” not only delivers a message to proudly say what you believe, but has a great sound to it too. I have always thought Matthew’s best pieces were his soaring and powerful vocals. Lullaby features one of the most rousing choruses in all his work and for me personally rivals “Strange Days”, which is probably one of my all-time favorite songs.
If you are a fan of emotional music with a message be sure to check out all of Matthew’s albums, you really can’t go wrong. You can’t say this about many artists, but if you want to read what he has to say, see pictures of his dogs, or read King Kong reviews (even if they differ from what I think) check out matthewgood.org. I highly recommend it, and I’m not alone in the recommendation.
Welcome to the network, Matthew. It’s inspiring and refreshing to see one of your favorite artists show so much more than just being able to sing a song.
Hard drive capacities will increase greatly in 2006
The Internet has seen a shift over the last few years and it wasn’t very subtle. “Rich content” was a term that was used in the 1990s to describe Web sites that had audio, video or was built with Flash. Even back then though, the limits on what could be done were very confining.
Today’s Internet is entirely different. Legal music downloads by the millions, podcasting, and video blogging have all become syndicated content. Meaning, not only is rich content being created more than ever before, but its being distributed like email messages. Huge amounts of data are being transferred over the Internets at blazing speeds, which will cause your hard drive to beg for mercy.
We’ve seen the size of standard hard drive installations increase across the board. Every manufacturer has increased the amount of hard disk space you get by default, without an optional upgrade. The optional upgrade offers even more storage space, but even that is proving not to be enough to keep up with your “click happiness”.
Large disk arrays are available for hundreds, not thousands of dollars. External firewire and USB drives with enormous capacity can be bought at just about any computer electronics store. These hard drives will eventually, and I think sooner rather than later, find their way into your computer manufacturer’s default configuration.
It won’t be long until we see what Apple has in store for 2006, and as much as I’d like to start to see them offer 1Gb of RAM in their computers by default, I’d like to see them offer larger disk capacities. My Brother got an iMac G5 right before they moved to the latest revision, but even he has 250Gb pre-installed. That might seem like a massive amount of space to fill, but as digital cameras, bit-rates for audio files, and the quality of distributed video increases, that will seem but a spec of dust soon.
An entire season of LOST downloaded from the iTunes Music Store takes up about 8Gb worth of space on your drive. How many TV show seasons can you download at that rate? I couldn’t fit all too many on my system, that’s for sure.
Computer manufacturers will have to keep up with demand. But you’re probably saying “duh! Colin, we already figured this out”. Well, maybe you have, but I think you will start to be very surprised at the amount of space that Apple will end up putting into their systems soon. They will probably start off making these changes inside of their configurable options on their store. But soon you will start to see sizes that we would have never dreamed of during the rich content days in the 90s.
Wayblur retrodesigns
If I may coin a new term, bringing back an old design could be called Retrodesigning - Zach Hale has done just that.
Related sites
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The Format - Give It Up
Leah Andreone - Break Your Fall
Coheed and Cambria - The Velorium Camper II: Backend Of Forever
Song of the week
Sara Bareilles - Between the Lines
Sara Bareilles' "Between the Lines" is the Song of the Week for April 20 to 26.
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