Other Natural Empress

Lost in translation.

And respect to you, Mtngmail.

Google Books in Blogs

Will the Google Books code work?

Well, if it does, there'll be something embedded above. More information from Google BookSearch blog and WebWare.

Now We Are 2

This blog is now 2…and a day.

Surprisingly, there have been 22,126 “unique” visitors since I started using Google Analytics in February 2007. Thank you for dropping by. Sorry that there hasn’t been much of interest in the last year. With two bouts of illness to work and lack of funds keeping me from major trips out. But these things happen, and life goes on.

I wish you all prosperity and long life

I'm in the Spotlight

One of the nice things that has happened this week (and there haven't been many of them) has been the correspondences with the "Blessed" across at Outdoor Bloggers Summit. The result can be seen across at: http://outdoorbloggerssummit.blogspot.com/2008/09/obs-bloggers-spotlight-week-18.html

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

BurnsLink

Thanks for being out there, Jenn, and casting a mirror over my blog. I'd forgotten some of what I'd written - even though the contents come back to me as my brain regurgitates the same feelings.

Blog Authoring Systems

I've just been through a list of blog authoring systems - okay, all of the ones listed in both articles (Tuesday and Wednesday) that work with Blogger. Some I downloaded, some I looked at the sites rather than install. Oh, and I didn't bother with the ones where money was to be paid. And I'm not after online ones or Mac/Linux ones.

My unscientific approach took a couple of hours, and what did I find? Well, the closest to stopping me use Windows Live Writer was Zoundry Raven. I liked the integration with the storage system.

But. And I'll be really shallow here. It looks like something from the 1990's. Sorry, but it had to be said.

So, for me, I'll be trying that Flickr integration tool out on Windows Live Writer when I get the chance, and that's it. I'll stick with WLW for now. But if anyone wants to show me what I'm missing elsewhere. Feel free.

Comments Race: Steward's Enquiry

Having previously declared the v8 of the comments (that's the one that receives the comments newsfeed from googleData), I've been watching the occasions when v2 (which uses gets the comments fed via the Atom system). Although I haven't been keeping an official score, I have found Atom to be more up to date with the latest comments more often than googleData. It could be that being on the west coast of Scotland, I'm nearer to the USA. Silly, I know, but as good a reason as any.

So, I'm declaring an end to this frivolity and code chasing. Atom's feed system (v2) has outperformed the runner up, googleData (v8) when it comes to the long haul.

Was it all worth it? Of course not, but that's technology for you. But comments are the social side of blogging, so being able to see a list of recent comments in a sidebar is important to me - if not to Blogger. Having to wait up to 3 hours for the feed to come through was simply unacceptable. A shame that no-one at Blogger saw it like that and answered my questions when they came back from their weekend.

In the interim, people like Darren are texting me to move to WordPress, and others are suggesting that I try non-Blogger commenting systems.I guess that it showed me a chink in the Heath-Robinson affair that is Web2.0. Imagine if your word processor was made up of components from different manufacturers - a spell-checker from X, word-count from Y, clipart from Z. Each needing separate downloads and installs. We'd think the world had gone feil!

My current state of affairs here at "Blogger" is:

• text written on Microsoft's "Windows Live Writer" or on my mobile phone. Rarely on Blogger's online editor.
• graphics held at Yahoo!'s Flickr and Zooomr, with stock photos at Stock.Xchng and some on Picasa when Blogger puts them there.
• video at Google's YouTube
• analysis through Google Analytic, Maps.among.us, ClustrMaps and FrapprMap
• posts converted to mp3 via Odiogo and translation available with Yahoo! Babel Fish
• a personalised radio feed with Last.FM and a shop at CafePress
• even the template in used by the blog has been pochled from the original

Each one will make a bit of money from advertisers when services are visited. Just look at WebWare.com to see the daily growth of social software systems. With the credit crunch hitting advertisers (or so reports ITV bosses), with 3G not available in most towns in the UK, will there be an investment in the system to get the Internet into our mobile phones, and so adverts into our pockets.

To be blunt, social software simply means more eyeballs on adverts and so more chance of the elusive purchase. In return we get all these services for free. After years of listening to commercial radio and watching commercial television, I'm more likely to buy a product based on personal recommendations, eg at a recent meeting or in a magazine review or via an online discussion, than in a plain advert that just gives me a product name and price. What I want are shops that present me with enough information to allow me to decide that I'll buy the product. I've seen too many online shops recently that have minimal information (thereby expecting the consumer to have wasted time on researching the product). Like the rest of us, retailers have access to a vast array of media hosting, so they need to get the finger out and start to use these to promote their products. Customers are tightening their belts. Will online retailers produce fresher media to try and close the sale, or will they still think of the online medium as a new form of paper? We are already seeing a return to the old "soap opera" format with the direct sponsorship of tv and online shows. Will we see the same format being applied to online services? Will the future see companies like Tesco sponsor (not merely advertise on it) the development of new social systems? Will HSBC build a rival to Paypal?

Test post from Blogger-in-Draft

Text can be added. Can I change the layout of image, so text can be formatted along the side. Yes.

Resizing image is easier, and the width space in the editor is better. I can also increase the height of the space.

Now, something that couldn't be done in the compose window in "classic" Blogger was to view an embedded YouTube video in the compose window. I had to preview it to see it running.



Now, in Blogger-in-draft the preview doesn't show the video. And it is merely a grey square in the compose view. It should play okay when I publish this meandering.

Other useful changes - well, strikethrough is now a format option. That's useful. And the links option allows links to other places on the Net. Although you can test the link, you still cannot select an option to open the link in a new window (most tabbed browsers open a new tab at that point). Some people see it as bad practice, but I'd rather people didn't get pointed away from my site. And I can't stand these wee snap-type windows that open. A waste of time unless you have the eyes of a hawk.

Of course, this is merely a draft. And I'm not looking at the changes in the rest of the system. Nor the improved HTML options. To be honest, it is the editor that is of interest to most people. That's where articles are created and the pages set out.

I think I'll continue to use Windows Live Writer as my primary authoring tool, unless I find something better. I'm just surprised that Google/Blogger hasn't picked up on this. Yet.

Winner of the Comments Race

The recent comments race has been won by "version 8", the googleData feed. In 2nd place was the Atom feed, "version 2". The more observant will have noticed that I removed other versions a few days ago.

Although some were fast to collect the data from Blogger, the relay via RSS to the user was slow. E.G. when using Yahoo!'s "Pipes", I could refresh the program after writing a comment, and the code would show it on the screen (along with the previous comments), however the delivery from Pipes, via RSS, to the blog page was slow. Checking with other bloggers via text, and via other browsers, I got the same story.

As I mentioned here recently, there was no reply from Google/Blogger to the causes of these delays, and I can only surmise that it is volume of traffic causing it. Sometimes it took 3 hours for the sidebar element to pick up notification of an updated comment. Sometimes less time.

This all started when Blogger failed to notify me of new comments, and then I noticed how long it took for updates to appear in the sidebar element. In the end, to see who had left recent comments, I resorted to watching the number of comments change below the blog post. Hardly a 21st century solution. So the search started.

And now, to end with a quote from Mr Adams:

"we have normality........ anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem"

source info - what a shame that the Guide's warning is covered over by the BBC's guff. Says it all about the respect that megacorporations have for the customer. Go on, panic, the BBC wants you to! Now, where did I leave my towel?

Yup, back to normal. My faith in Web2.0 megacorps has been shattered by this, and another recent event. But life goes on. Who cares. Earth2.0? No thanks. It'll be filled with management consultants and telephone sanitisers...oops. Play the closing tune, Satchmo.

TITLE - Blog Templates

[TITLE TITLE TITLE - Review Writing Headlines for Regular Readers, Search Engines, and Social Media - TITLE TITLE TITLE]

Tick, that's that bit done, now onto the next.

[First Line. Hook. Ask questions. Say something intriguing. Get your potential reader hooked to make her read on.]

Ah, ask a question. Maybe I can use Wikipedia's home page to get something interesting.

So, what do you think of the coup in Spain? Oh, that was 1936, sorry.

[Answer the questions. Make your statement. Think of sub headline in the newspaper article that generally says the essence of the post. This should make the reader read on to find out "how" or details on your take]

Well, thanks for asking, but I wonder how countries like Britain can sit back and allow the fascists to rise up. Hmm, this sounds like I've got a split personality.

[insert picture from flkr. More flkr stuff - A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images]

[do not forget to give credit on picture]

My photo from a wargame in 2003.

...oh, I give up on the rest of the template. Heck, if blogging is that much of a chore, go over to something less taxing on the grey cells, like forums or Twittering.

Source of template - Alik Levin across at the informative "Daily Blog Tips". Some good ideas to follow up and ponder. link

Comments v8

I've snuck in a Version 8 as the same problems of updates that was affecting earlier ones affected v7, which was supposed to be a feed that amalgamated the Atom, RSS and Google Data feeds into one.

As v7 uses an RSS feed from Yahoo!, there may be some delays being introduced.

I'm using a notepad text file to keep track on these meanderings:

8.24 posted Ctrl+F5 comment
8.43 no update 3 browsers
0859: v2 updated on IE, safari, ff ... hmm, v7 empty (IE + Safari)
0921: safari - v2 & v5 updated
      firefox - v2 & v5 updated
      IE - v2 & v5 updated

If v7 is truly working with 3 feeds, then surely it would have updated when v2 (atom) updated.

--hmm, does Pipex (my isp) cache feeds?

0938: safari - v2 & v5 updated
      firefox - v2 & v5 updated
      IE - v2 & v5 updated
-- Spoke to Darren, and he's seeing what I am. So, not being affected by caching.

The last thing I can try (before following Darren's suggestion) is to merely use the Google Data feed. Not quite the last thing, as I re-jigged the feed order in Yahoo!Pipes v7, in case that makes a difference (which it should not).

No update on Blogger Help Group.

To recap, the sidebar widgets are not picking up the comments that are being left behind by readers (the social networking side of blogging). For a couple of days last week, Blogger failed to send me the email notification to tell me that I have a new comment. So, between the two failures in the service, I missed replying to new comments.

So the long road starts. Sadly, it appeared at the weekend when Google's staffers were off resting (suggested a nominated "blog*star"). Monitoring the delay in feeds suggested a 30 minute to 3 hour delay in updates to the system that supplies the feeds (either Atom or RSS). Like trying to find the quickest road between home and destination, I tried different routes to get the data. I tried amalgamating the two feeds into one, like a smart SatNav, using the quickest route at that time of day.

I eventually found that "home" was not where I thought it was, and that the feeds were being supplied by a single source (Google Data). Bolting that in to the "satnav", it should have provided me with faster data than the other 2 feeds. But it did not.

So, version 8 is simply a direct feed from Google Data. It should be faster than the other feeds. It is better to scratch this itch than the itch on my leg that the Piriteze is easing whilst I rest it to get ready for the oscar-bravo-foxtrot weekend in the danger zone.

Oh, and Google Reader tells me that v7 was updated at 1053hrs today. I posted the comment at 0824. not quite 3 hours late, but sodding close. That's Yahoo!'s "pipe" program picking up 3 of Blogger's feeds and transferring it via RSS to Google reader. But when I run the script on the Yahoo!Pipes page, it all works fine.

Like I noted yesterday "So long as it all works, I think that may be it for comments, and I'll get rid of the earlier feeds. Of course, that's a big assumption."

Comments v7

So, if sometimes Atom is faster, and sometimes RSS. Why not merge them and delete the duplicates? Back to Yahoo!Pipes for a looksee. Thanks to Tim for the deletion of duplicates.

Because of truncations, I had to put the author's name back at the beginning, this time with a separator.

If Atom and RSS feeds come from Google Data, can I shortcut them and go straight to source?

Retrieving comments:

You can retrieve the comments for a particular post by sending a GET to this post's comments feed URL:
GET http://www.blogger.com/feeds/blogID/postID/comments/default
Or you can get the comments from all posts by using the blog's comments feed URL:
GET http://www.blogger.com/feeds/blogID/comments/default

I extrapolated my feed details into the 2nd line, and added that to the united Atom and RSS feeds in Yahoo!Pipes.

So, the Comments v7 feed is now coming in from three sources. As Atom and RSS feeds are come from the Google Data API, I reckon they are superfluous to the feed widget, but who knows in this mish-mash of Internet services. So long as it all works, I think that may be it for comments, and I'll get rid of the earlier feeds. Of course, that's a big assumption.

Feeder Frenzy

Merged screenshot of the different times of comment feed arriving (and, yes, I did refresh the screen first).

The time of this snap was 23:07. I switched over to the Safari browser so that I can have a non-logged in view.

Comments v 3 & 4 are based on RSS feeds. Latest post received was from Dawn (the last comment posted).

Comments v 2 & 3 are based on Atom feeds. Latest post received was from WD (posted at 21:47).

Earlier today the Atom feeds seemed to be faster to update.

No reply from Blogger staffers at their forum. I did notice a post that asked "Does Blogger Tech Support staff ever look at this forum?" (source). I looked back through forum posts to find that I may be better asking them for information directly. So, I went through the Blogger Help, and ended on this page:

The best way to get help is to post your question to the Blogger Help Group. There, you can find answers, ask questions, and share expertise with other Blogger users. There are some Blogger employees who jump in as well. You'll see a blue "G" badge next to their names. Report your issue here.

Clicking on the link took me back to the Official Blogger Help Group from whence I started. So I looked through some posts and found how few had been answered by staffers. Actual, real staffers, and not the "stars" that help so many people. And then I looked at how many final posts read about getting help from staffers by email. If you find these words negative, just go and have a look at the work these people are doing. As to the "stars", I don't know if they get paid, or sent some gift socks.

Still, it is a new day tomorrow. I'll try some Piriteze to see if it works better on the leg than the Benadryl tab. It is distracting me from doing some painting, but not enough to get me to do the housework.

In the meantime, some music, it was used in the compelling documentary series "Teachers".

Commentator Top 40

With all this nonsense about comments, I went looking again as I try camomile ointment on my leg. Hmm, I noticed in the store that the allergy pills that someone suggested I try didn't have their ingredients on the box. Anyway, listening to today's TWiT podcast after catching some live last night. But back to comments.

I find a post at the unofficial GoogleSystems blog. The poster had played with pipes. So, I modified Ionut C's "top commentators" pipe, resisting the temptation to add it to the cluttered sidebar. So, pop-pickers, here's the top 40 posters (omitting Anonymous posters):

• 1. AktoMan (904)
• 2. Story Quine (118)
• 3. John Hee (110)
• 4. Simon (67)
• 5. Michael G Clark (59)
• 6. BG! (58)
• 7. WD (49)
• 8. Big Kev (44)
• 9. George Griffin (38)
• 10. Jerry (29)
• 11. Abcol@Altens (28)
• 12. Andy Howell (28)
• 13. Chris Townsend (22)
• 14. paulmartin42 (18)
• 15. PhilW (18)
• 16. sally in norfolk (18)
• 17. Chris Cowell (18)
• 18. Alan Sloman (16)
• 19. Weird Darren (13)
• 20. The Solitary Walker (12)
• 21. Dawn (12)
• 22. Martin Rye (12)
• 23. Martin (11)
• 24. mp (11)
• 25. Frank (10)
• 26. Baz (9)
• 27. Lighthiker (9)
• 28. Robin (7)
• 29. Londonbackpacker (7)
• 30. ptc (7)
• 31. ptc* (6)
• 32. Phreerunner (6)
• 33. Mac E (6)
• 34. Kristine (6)
• 35. George (6)
• 36. Paddy Dillon (6)
• 37. Sarah (5)
• 38. chasrle (5)
• 39. Geoff (5)
• 40. Frank and Sue (4)

Thanks, Ionut, and thanks for folk for dropping by. Ionut makes a note that:

the list is not generated instantaneously since Yahoo Pipe must fetch and process at most 10 GData feeds

I wonder if that's a clue as to delays in the RSS comments feed.

Comments v5

Like being overcharged for an O'Brien's sandwich (just don't ask for chicken and bacon together as the doubled the price of the sarnie yesterday), there's some things I just can't forget. So I did some more searching for solutions to the comments problems. This time I wanted to increase the number of comments summarised in the sidebar from 5 to 10. Blogger doesn't allow this. The new Blogger-in-Draft feeds have added tabs or sliders. Then I found David Havelin's work with Yahoo!Pipes. Bish, bash, bosh, I ended up with an RSS feed that showed a summary of the last 10 comments posted on my blog.

Annoyingly, when adding in the feed to the Blogger widget, it still has a max of 5 posts, overwriting the 10 set in the Pipes feed. I couldn't get rid of the brackets around the author's name. Why do computers make life sooo difficult for people? Oh, yes, life is the important stuff that doesn't involve computers.

Comments v3 and v4

Blogger gives very limited control over feeds. I found that my default feed was using Atom, and so switched the code in Comments v3 to RSS. Everything else was the same as before.

http://aktoman.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss

instead of

http://aktoman.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

The maximum number of comments is set to 5 (the largest). So far, Atom feed (Comment v2) has picked up one of the latest comments, whilst the RSS feed looked more promising at the start, but has failed to receive the new comment from Paul.

This came up as I was trying FeedBurner, and it detected the two feeds (Atom and RSS) for the main articles, so I just transposed their code. Their burn of the RSS feed show the latest comment as:

I think the space makes Comments v3 look so much m...  - paulmartin42

But the gadget's showing the RSS feed in the sidebar hasn't picked that up at all, though it does show in the Atom fed gadget. So, sticking with the plan, I'll add in version 4 of the comment feed, which will be the FeedBurner feed based on the RSS comment feed.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/AktoManComments

Both RSS (v3) and FeedBurner (v4) are now showing the same comments as Atom (v2).

Obviously I won't be keeping all 3 and will be monitoring the feeds for accuracy.

If this is giving you a headache, just don't say so to HR!

Query re Comments Feed

After some investigations this morning (yup, sad git with an itchier leg after yesterday's trip), I posted the following to the Blogger Help Group forum.

Hi folks,

Anyone else been having trouble with Comments these last few days? Maybe it is just me.

The sidebar comments gadget doesn't show all comments. I've tracked this down to the RSS feed for comments. So, changed the "Blog Comment Feed" from Full to Short as that seems to be the only control I have over it.

I then changed to the Blogger-in-Draft site feed gadget, punched in the RSS feed, and got same comments as before, so I'm sure it is the RSS feed that is "quirky", and not the widget/gadget.
http://aktoman.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

There are other comment systems available (eg Disqus), but I'd rather have Blogger working properly for me.

I did find last year's notification from Blogger, at:
http://knownissues.blogspot.com/2007/02/comment-feeds-are-not-updating.html
But that was then. It hints at the number of comments being a problem. Any clues, folks?

The email notification for new comments seemed to have died, but I changed forwarding address away from Yahoo, and that worked. So I changed it back to yahoo, and that worked too. Must have been one of these temporary glitches.

Duncan
http://aktoman.blogspot.com

The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the comment feed in the sidebar is now at "version 2". Coming in from Blogger-in-Draft, this feed gives me the same options as the original comments feed, and the same results. So I reckon that it is the RSS feed that is the problem. Hence posting to the forum.

At least I'm giving Alan something to read in the evening.

Comments - Disqus (take 4)

Okay, so I'm a pushover for someone who has a product to push. It shows spirit. So, I took Daniel's comment to heart and here we have a proper try out of Disqus' comment system. I've updated the template, switched off Blogger's comments for new posts (so there'll be no change in posts before this one), and I'll check out the gadgets for keeping track of comments in the sidebar.

I'll stay quiet, and check back later. Share and enjoy.

>>On to v4. I've posted a message on the support thread before hitting the hay.

Comments

There's been a few glitches with comments here over the past few days. It happens at intervals on Blogger. I don't get a notification email, and the comments gadget in the sidebar (which I moved up the page) fails to update.

I had a look at "Blogger in draft" to see if there were any new useful gadgets. I tried a couple, one didn't work, and the other posted the whole comment. After failing to find the original gadget to see if it had been updated, I looked away from Google.

I found disqus.com, but there is the issue of folks having to register to leave comments (example). Scoble wrote about it a couple of months back (link). There's a comparison at Mashable.com (and, yes, I noticed the Firefly crew getting a mention. Jayne even has his Mum's hat on).

After some reading, I found myself on IntenseDebate.com watching a friendly video. I have now installed it, active on all new articles. It might not last long.

Readership Survey

As it is raining outside, and the iPhone saga has come to a bitter end, I thought I'd post my readership stats for the year to date.

Personal stats for this year:

• Hikes: 5
• Bennachies: 1 (440m ascent/descent, approx 4km round trip)
• Kilometres hiked: 93km
• Munros bagged: 1 (Carn a' Mhaim, 460m ascent)
• Nights in Akto: 5

It has been a quiet year so far, with weekend weather, illness, bereavement, work. So I was surprised when the total treks came to 93km/57 miles. Head down and just walk. It's not rocket science.

Blog stats since January 1st this year:

• Visits: 19,042
• Unique Visitors: 9,026
• Page views: 31,087
• Average time on site: 1 min 45 seconds (Baku in Azerbaijan wins a virtual prize for longest average time on site, 12 mins).

Thanks for dropping by. Please hold.

Back to Reality

In the last 4 weeks I have been mainly keeping my left leg elevated and following the doctor's orders. She's been a great doc, and my leg is merely itchy now, and breathing a lot better. Enough for me to get back to work yesterday (with the obligatory "welcome back" interview with HR), and thank my workmates for picking up 4 weeks of classes. Strange how much work changes in that time of absence, even when keeping in touch via emails.

So, I've a pile of things that I haven't tested yet.

The TNF Hedgehog GTX XCR trail shoes, bought on 12 hours before I phoned NHSDirect (no link implied). I refuse to wear them on my short walks that I have to take in the last week after my meds changed.

The Blackfly#3 that I bought from Tinny in the USA  - kindly resent when the original never arrived.

The doc was concerned that I couldn't look after myself - I did point out some of my recent hikes, and how much food I had in the flat. But I've still to try some FreezerBag recipes, as I'll need to find storage space in my kitchen for all the ingredients currently living in a box on the floor.

The Aquagear Survivor water filtration system needs another trip out before I write up my report. I have a Nalgene bottle carrier to strap it onto my belt, so I can access it when walking. It should allow me to carry less water in Camelbak, as I like to drink without stopping. It is important to keep hydrated, otherwise strange things happens to the body's systems.

Mike collected the Akto's inner from Tiso's. Good repair job, good price. Oh, and I measured the cord length again, and it is the recommended 165cm.

Dawn's had another clear-out, and I've a pack-full of excess gear to collect on my way down to Dartmoor later in the month. I'll need a dust-off before then, especially to make sure that my leg is up to a weekend of exploration.

In week 2, I was able to elevate my leg and use my computer at the same time (footstool with 4 cushions on it did the trick). I caught up with some tech podcasts, mainly from the TWiT stable. I lodged my interest in the new iPhone with O2, and was really enthused watching Steve Jobs' keynote speech, but was less enthused the more I listened to podcasts like MacBreak Weekly and Today in iPhone. I gave up on Trail magazine and will not be renewing my subscription, but have been reading the BPL.com forums - I haven't bought a membership there, merely the magazine subscription.

Watched a pile of dvds, highlights "Doctor Who: The Beginning" (first 13 episodes from 1963), and "The Day the Earth Stood Still", lowlight "King Arthur" (not as bad as Braveheart, but sodding close. Great kit, good sets, poor - really poor - story). Finally bought a copy of "Scottish Hill Tracks" and can see why people on the TGOc like it, and why it was useful for Gayle and Mick in route-planning their country-long trek. Also realised that I didn't have Paddy Dillon's "The National Trails", so rectified that as well as buying "Walking on Dartmoor" by John Earle.

As it is impossible to paint while keeping leg elevated and major dosage of anti-biotics setting the daily routine, I've been unable to paint figures. I have, however, been planning my trench system, and would love something as detailed as this, but doubt I can achieve that level of realism. I treated my research to a blast of the "Charley's War" reprints - I forgot how realistic they were. Pat Mills answers his critics with research.

The Palmolive bottle still hasn't been eaten by the meths/water mix, so that's another piece of kit for the dust-off test.

As to the blog, I've added some 'non-ads' to the sidebar. Unpaid, unsponsored, unasked, just highlighting some companies that do a good job. The only other change I made was to change the type of "map-amung -us" to show where about current readers are.

Think I might get the iPhone 3g as I think Web2.0 has reached it's limit for me. It becomes just noise rather than information. Despite being laid up for this time, I've still got piles of podcasts and blogs to read, as well as programmes to clear from my recorder. As people require log-ins before comments can be left, or become protective about the purity of comments (see podcast about responsibility), as there are more media-podcasts being set up in direct challenge to the dire terrestrial broadcasting schedules, will we see an end to the lowly ramblings on forums, newsgroups, blogs? Is the term "friend" being demeaned by its use in social networking? Is the brain being rewired by the reliance on the Net (or is that, shudder, the "cloud").

TGO just dropped through letterbox, time to get a move on.