April 29, 2006
Microsoft Gets Into eNews Business
Via Dave Winer, I learn that Microsoft is getting into the newspaper facsimile business. This is a space now occupied by folks like Zinio and Newsstand. Zinio and Newsstand have had modest success. Will Microsoft enjoy more simply because they are Microsoft? The reader being built right into Vista helps of course, but the functionality will have to be attractive and useful. I wonder if a demo is available out there...
UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis is unimpressed. I left a comment over there.
UPDATE: Jarvis's post has a number of excellent comments, and led me to a great new (for me) publishing blog, Hammorati. Make that two new blogs, as I missed the personal blog of Rex Hammock.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:12 PM
April 28, 2006
Coins
Here is the latest installment in the American Life in Poetry series.
American Life in Poetry: Column 57
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
Midwestern poet Richard Newman traces the imaginary life of coins as a connection between people. The coins--seemingly of little value--become a ceremonial and communal currency.
Coins
My change: a nickel caked with finger grime; two nicked quarters not long for this life, worth more for keeping dead eyes shut than bus fare; a dime, shining in sunshine like a new dime; grubby pennies, one stamped the year of my birth, no brighter than I from 40 years of wear.
What purses, piggy banks, and window sills have these coins known, their presidential heads pinched into what beggar's chalky palm-- they circulate like tarnished red blood cells, all of us exchanging the merest film of our lives, and the lives of those long dead.
And now my turn in the convenience store, I hand over my fist of change, still warm, to the bored, lip-pierced check-out girl, once more to be spun down cigarette machines, hurled in fountains, flipped for luck--these dirty charms chiming in the dark pockets of the world.
Reprinted from "Borrowed Towns," World Press, 2005, by permission of the author. First printed in "Crab Orchard Review," Volume 10, No. 1, 2005. Copyright (c) 2005 by Richard Newman. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:28 PM
At the Edge of Town
Here is the latest installment in the American Life in Poetry series.
American Life in Poetry: Column 56
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
When I complained about some of the tedious jobs I had as a boy, my mother would tell me, Ted, all work is honorable. In this poem, Don Welch gives us a man who's been fixing barbed wire fences all his life.
At the Edge of Town
Hard to know which is more gnarled,
the posts he hammers staples into
or the blue hummocks which run
across his hands like molehills.
Work has reduced his wrists
to bones, cut out of him
the easy flesh and brought him
down to this, the crowbar's teeth
caught just behind a barb.
Again this morning
the crowbar's neck will make
its blue slip into wood,
there will be that moment
when too much strength
will cause the wire to break.
But even at 70, he says,
he has to have it right,
and more than right.
This morning, in the pewter light,
he has the scars to prove it.
From "Gutter Flowers," Logan House, 2005. Copyright (c) 2005 by Don Welch and reprinted by permission of Logan House and the author. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:24 PM
Maine Blogger Sued
A Maine blogger is being sued for his comments about an advertising campaign for the Maine tourism bureau. As far as I can tell, the blogger, Lance Dutson, has done nothing more than exercise his constitutional right to free speech. He feels the advertising agency hired by the state is doing a shoddy job, and "pissing away" his tax dollars. I think 99% of Americans feel that way about their local, state, or federal government at times, and almost as many have said so (perhaps not in those exact words). He tell his story here, and includes the phone numbers of the right people to call. I looked at the agency's Web site. It is laughably bad--the sort of Web site that was in vogue for about a week in 1999. Maybe the agency is terribly clever and it's a parody of bad Web sites? Or maybe the agency is just not very good? I don't dare speculate any further, for fear I might be sued.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:43 AM
April 27, 2006
HarperCollins First Looks
I signed up for HarperCollins First Looks a few weeks ago, and found out today I would receive my first book soon. It's The Devil and Miss Prym, by Paulo Coelho.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:06 PM
April 21, 2006
Off to Gilbane and CM Professionals Conferences
I leave for the Gilbane San Francisco conference in the morning. Before Gilbane starts, I will be giving one of the keynotes at the CM Professionals Spring 2006 Conference.
This has been an extraordinarily busy few weeks for me, with visits to customers in Tampa, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. After the conferences, I will look forward to a quiet day or two back in Boston.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:18 PM
April 19, 2006
I Would Rather Be in Philadelphia
Spring has certainly come to Philadelphia. I paused to take this picture before visiting a client near Independence Mall yesterday morning.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:56 AM
April 16, 2006
LISA Forum Asia - China Focus
Starting tomorrow in Shanghai: LISA Forum Asia - China Focus, focused on China and the emerging markets of Asia. Sponsored by LISA, the Localization Industry Standards Association.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:52 PM
More Poetry Podcasts
So I remarked briefly on the poetry podcasts that Houghton Mifflin will be hosting, but of course they are not the first in the pool. I found a great poetry podcast site at the University of Chicago, which includes a favorite, C. D. Wright. Favorite line, "If I were a felon, I would be home now."
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:06 PM
April 15, 2006
XForms meets Ajax: Can they get along?
From eForms Reources: XForms meets Ajax: Can they get along?
The latest W3C release of XForms looks to complement Ajax, By Rich Seeley, News Writer, SearchWebServices.com. Appeared 21 Mar 2006.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:12 PM
April 13, 2006
Atom
Looking at my logs, I noticed I was getting a lot of 404s on index.atom. I guess the default file naming from MovableType is atom.xml, so I have redirected hits on index.atom to go to atom.xml. I hope this solves the problem. Let me know if you still have trouble with this.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 6:31 PM
Simple Fix for Plugging Firefox Memory Leaks?
SteetTech points to a potentially simple fix for plugging Firefox memory leaks Cybernet Technology News offers a quick fix that can help with Firefox's annoying memory leakage. "This fix will bump memory usage down to under 10MB every time you minimize Firefox (Windows OS, only). When minimized, it writes Firefox to the hard drive."
I have noticed this memory problem, and find myself killing and restarting Firefox a few times a day.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 3:32 PM
Using XLink?
Are you currently using XLink, especially in content management applications? If so, I would love to hear from you. Please email me.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:43 PM | Comments (3)
What We Need
Here is the latest installment in the American Life in Poetry series.
American Life in Poetry: Column 55
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
A circus is an assemblage of illusions, and here Jo McDougall, a Kansas poet, shows us a couple of performers, drab and weary in their ordinary lives, away from the lights at the center of the ring.
What We Need
It is just as well we do not see,
in the shadows behind the hasty tent
of the Allen Brothers Greatest Show,
Lola the Lion Tamer and the Great Valdini
in Nikes and jeans
sharing a tired cigarette
before she girds her wrists with glistening amulets
and snaps the tigers into rage,
before he adjusts the glimmering cummerbund
and makes from air
the white and trembling doves, the pair.
From "Dirt," Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh, 2001. Copyright (c) 2001 by Jo McDougall, whose most recent book is "Satisfied With Havoc," Autumn House Press, 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author and Autumn House Press. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:38 PM
April 11, 2006
Poets on Poetry
Information Please has a few well chosen quotes about poetry.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:22 PM
Sony Reader: Borders Yes, B&N No
The news about Sony Reader continues to be mixed. Borders will stock it, but Barnes & Noble won't.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:38 AM
April 9, 2006
A Few Changes
I added a few more categories, and am going through the process now of re-tagging some old entries. I now have separate categories for publishing, baseball, and poetry. They only go back a few months right now, but that will grow as I have more time to re-tag older entries. I also have a nascent category on RSS, as I expect to write more about that in the future.
UPDATE: Oops. I failed to mention an obvious thing. I have disabled trackback pings, and have decided to default to "no comments" on entries, though I will open up some entries to comments. I have been dealing with too much comment and trackback spam (and some other related abuse, such as referral spam), so I had to take a few corrective actions.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:35 PM
April 8, 2006
Folio 40
Folio Magazine has listed their Folio 40, "the oldest and most prestigious list honoring publishers who’ve had a significant impact on their own products and the magazine industry in general." It honors individuals, and this year included Jon Udell. Jon is always worth reading, Folio is to be commended for recognizing Jon's leadership among technology writers, and Jon offered a gracious acknowledgment. But I couldn't help but be struck by the irony that Folio, a magazine about the magazine industry, is smart enough to recognize Jon but does not have an obvious RSS feed.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:47 AM
April 6, 2006
Tangerine
Here is the latest installment in the American Life in Poetry series.
American Life in Poetry: Column 54
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
Poet Ruth L. Schwartz writes of the glimpse of possibility, of something sweeter than we already have that comes to us, grows in us. The unrealizable part of it causes bitterness; the other opens outward, the cycle complete. This is both a poem about a tangerine and about more than that.
Tangerine
It was a flower once, it was one of a billion flowers whose perfume broke through closed car windows, forced a blessing on their drivers.
Then what stayed behind grew swollen, as we do; grew juice instead of tears, and small hard sour seeds, each one bitter, as we are, and filled with possibility.
Now a hole opens up in its skin, where it was torn from the branch; ripeness can't stop itself, breathes out; we can't stop it either. We breathe in.
From "Dear Good Naked Morning," (c) 2005 by Ruth L. Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of the author and Autumn House Press. First printed in "Crab Orchard Review," Vol. 8, No. 2. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 4:41 PM
Poetry Podcasts
Yes, there are. (Apparently the web site is not up yet; I will try to follow up on this.) And, yes, the title is alliteration, though a poor example it be.
UPDATE: The site seems to be up now and lists upcoming podcasts from Ron Slate, Natasha Trethewey, Michael Collier, David Tucker, and, a favorite of mine, Galway Kinnell.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 2:05 PM
April 4, 2006
Publishers Weekly: Borders to Sell Sony eBook Reader
According to Publishers Weekly, Sony has signed a deal with Borders for that retailer to sell the Sony Reader at 200 stores when the e-book device comes out this summer. This sounds like a good retail channel for the reader itself, but the article also says the content will all be sold through Sony Connect, which is not a very strong portal.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 4:21 PM
What's in a Name?
I have mentioned before the suprising number of Red Sox players, past and present, who have first or last names that are also the names of Massachusetts cities and towns. So this year the Sox added Mike Lowell (hometown of Jack Kerouac) and Josh Beckett (an acceptable (in my book) spelling variant of Becket, MA, home of Jacob's Pillow). And we already had Tim Wakefield, of course. Too early to say of course, but some of the Red Sox minor league players include Matthew Hancock and Roger Lincoln.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:00 AM | Comments (3)
April 3, 2006
OPML File of My Feeds
I have been playing around with OPML a bit. So I spent some time organizing my personal feeds tonights and created an OPML file of them
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:57 PM
CM Professionals Spring 2006 Summit
Seth Gottlieb has a roundup of the speaker list from the CM Professionals Spring 2006 Summit. I will be delivering one of the keynote presentations on actionable content.
UPDATE: You can read the press release here.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:43 PM
Pennant Fever Grips Hub
Sox win their home opener, 7-2.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 5:28 PM
Safari Books Online Announces Executive Hires
I don't know how Safari Books Online is doing specifically, but they did just announce some executive hires.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:44 PM
Red Sox Opening Day
And hope springs eternal. There is no lack of stuff out there on opening day, but this caught my eye.
And I have offered this quote in the past, but it is so good I will take the trouble and repeat it here.
"I see great things in baseball. It's our game -- the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair those losses, and be a blessing to us."
--Walt Whitman
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:26 AM
April 2, 2006
Do Not Pass Go...
Apparently, a life of crime can lead you to XML!
Posted by Bill Trippe at 5:23 PM
April 1, 2006
Really Simple, Really Useful
I have been doing some research recently into the overlap between content management and translation technology. This necessarily brought me to the SDL-Trados site. Poking around the site, I discovered an RSS feed for their news releases. Simple thing, indeed, but I can't tell you how useful this is for someone like me. I get a couple of dozen emails a day with press releases from various vendors. They are lost in the flood. About half of them seem to end up in one of my spam filters. I make a point of rescuing them when I remember, but I don't always remember. Really, RSS is perfect for this sort of thing, and I suggest software vendors do it as soon as they possibly can.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:30 PM
