Blog posts

Yesterday I added basic RSS1 support to XML_Feed_Parser and began the process of preparing a PEPR proposal to have it included in PEAR. I still need to get the various pages about the module in sync, but the code and a rough to-do list are currently available on my test server. My key desire is to add in support for RSS1 modules and RSS2 namespaces so that I can begin to use it to get at richer content than the base RSS1-spec allows. I’ll probably add some mappings for some of the more common extensions and then define a way for users to interact with those that are less common. If anyone has any preferred ways of doing that, feel free to suggest them in the comments.

With a short window between trips out of town I’m trying to focus on getting a number of projects completed so that when things settle down I can start on some new things. Today I’ve been working on Services_Technorati, my PEAR module for working with the Technorati API. I’ve refactored it, reducing the code size by about 30%, added support for the new blogPostTags API call and written the documentation. I’m still waiting for CVS karma to upload the documentation, but the other changes are now available in the form of the first beta version of the package through a PEAR installer near you.

After far too long a day of travelling I’m back in the US. The Festival was great, though as tiring as ever (jetlag compensated for the more relaxed on-site schedule). I’ve spent the day catching up on feeds and email, and tinkering with the collage code. For the most part it’s been working well and new content has been picked up pretty quickly, particularly since I added in a technorati watchlist for links to www.greenbelt.org.uk. The one exception was from flickr, where often there’d be more new photos between checks than were included in the feed, meaning that we only had ~100 of the 500 posted. As a quick fix I added the individual ‘greenbelt2005’ feeds for several of the more active flickr users, but now I’ve rewritten the code to use the flickr API to check for all new photos within the last 45 minutes (we check every half an hour, so 45 minutes should make sure nothing falls through the cracks) and pulls them in that way. ...

Somehow I managed to stay awake long enough to make it to Ella Guru’s Greenbelt set last night, and enjoyed it rather a lot despite the nagging feeling that after 38 hours of wakefulness, not yet feeling tired might not be a good thing. The audience was surprisingly engaged for the time of night and their laid back vibe was perfect for the time of night. I suspect I’ve already seen more complete sets than I’ve seen during the entirety of some past festivals and it’s great to see the site thriving as we head back towards an attendance of 20,000. ...

Today Kari and I will head to Chicago, where she’ll go to the wedding of her sister Dana, while I catch a plane to Heathrow. From there my parents will be driving me to Greenbelt for my tenth experience of the festival. The green card situation means it’s been two years since I was last at Greenbelt and that’s just too long. The lineup looks great and this year will probably be my best chance of seeing things in a long time but my guess is that far more time will be spent talking with friends than attending sessions. I’ll be running a workshop on Social Documents and participatory politics either on Sunday or Monday (it’s in the programme twice and I need to work out which time would work best). ...

I’ve been doing some work focussed on the west side of Grand Rapids so have been taking the opportunity to explore a part of town I rarely make it to. Today’s destination was Sweetwaters, a small coffee shop on West Fulton, a little further west than Hungry Heart Cafe. It’s a distinctive place, with wood panelled walls, faux-antique lamps, lots of framed prints and posters, and some appropriately ugly sideboards. There’s a broad range of gourmet coffees on offer alongside the usual range of espresso drinks and a small sandwich menu. Power outlets are easy to find along the walls and there’s one in easy reach of all but three of the (ten) tables. Access is stable and fairly speedy and the atmosphere is low-key enough to make this a pretty good place to get work done. ...

Sent to NPR: Dear Sir/Madam, As a regular listener to Morning Edition I want to start by thanking you for the generally excellent news coverage you provide. In a marketplace marked by its failure to cover the significant issues of our day, NPR and Morning Edition in particular are a pleasant and important respite. This week I have listened with interest to your coverage of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. I have been glad that this immensely significant event has warranted so much attention, but I feel that too much airtime has been given to the “woes” of the settlers who are being asked to withdraw without appropriate consideration that they (or their ancestors) knew they were settling in illegally occupied land. ...

The BBC ran a story yesterday that I felt illustrated a particular shortcoming of US foreign policy: The US defence secretary has accused Cuba and Venezuela of fomenting unrest in Bolivia, which has led to the overthrow of two presidents since 2003. Rumsfeld, it would seem, would like to lump Venezuela in with Cuba as ’nation non gratis’ to the US, a move which is only likely to improve the standing of President Chavez within his country. But that was not what was so striking. ...

Greenbelt is Europe’s leading Christian Arts Festival, and an event I’ve been involved in for over a decade now. This year, we’re trying something new (to this event) by encouraging everyone who attends the festival to tag materials relating to the festival with the tag ‘greenbelt2005’, focussing primarily on flickr, del.icio.us, and of course technorati. We’ll soon be offering a simple interface to explore the contributed content through the festival’s website, but my hope is that we will be able to open up the data we collect to introduce more people to the concept of a ‘remixable’ web. It’s all very last minute, and details are still being worked out, but I’m excited by the potential to open up the concepts to a new audience. Any suggestions of ways to work that out or examples of other projects that have opened up content to a broadly non-techie audience would be much appreciated.

Media Mouse—a blog covering left-wing campaign issues as they related to Grand Rapids— takes recent developments in downtown Grand Rapids to task for their favouring of wealthy residents of the City. They fear that changes in the demographics of the downtown area may potentially lead to draconian measures such as the criminalising of homelessness, as well as the usual forced movement of poorer people which so often follows in the wake of gentrification. ...