Category Archive » Books and Reading

Some weekend reading.
[ August 14, 2003 | Permalink | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBack | TB URL ]

Cool URIs don't change

What makes a cool URI?
A cool URI is one which does not change.
What sorts of URI change?
URIs don't change: people change them.

Dispute exposes bitter power struggle behind Web logs

Winer's opponents are seeking a new format that would clarify RSS ambiguities, consolidate its multiple versions, expand its capabilities, and fall under the auspices of a traditional standards organization. Calls to revise RSS itself fell on deaf ears when Winer decided to freeze its technological core, preventing substantial changes to the heart of the format.

Next Jordan Could Be a Gamer

The video-game industry has outpaced Hollywood (PDF) in terms of revenues over the last few years, yet gaming has remained part of the pop culture gutter. However, big money and media exposure is helping change that. Top tournaments now offer as much as $200,000 in purses and draw thousands of international players.

Karma Vertigo: or Considering The Excessive Responsibilities Placed On Us By The Dawn Of The Information Infrastructure

I've been observing the progress of debate on the "information highway" and somehow a great many people who know better are pretending that it is just another grand venture like the interstates or the space program, when it is actually something of much greater consequence for two simple reasons: it will change everything and it is irreversible.

[I've forgotten where I originally saw each of these articles linked from.]


My family is psychotic.
[ March 25, 2003 | Permalink | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBack | TB URL ]

The Guardian offers up the first chapter in Douglas Coupland's novel All Families are Psychotic. One of the reviews at Amazon sums it up best...

Coupland's style is straightforward and self-aware. Like in his other books (for some reason, Microserfs comes to mind immediately), he's very capable of quickly drawing in the reader with a complex cast of characters who are faulted, funny, and fully human.

I certainly found that to be the case in Microserfs (which I read three or four times several years ago) and I appreciate the self aware style. Blogging is a lot like that where the writing is expected to be read, and the relationship between author and reader is casual.

[via interconnected]