duncanriley.com

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  • Dave Winer gets it right on Feedburner

    Wise words from the old man of blogging:

    How to compete with FeedBurner….First, I’d either do a deal with a registrar, become a registrar, or merge or partner with one. It’s absolutely essential that the user own the domain that their feed is hosted at, so that, in case of emergency, they can switch to a different hosting service. If they don’t own the domain, it doesn’t matter how many promises the vendor makes, or how well-intentioned they are, an act of god could result in a blackout of a huge portion of the RSS network. It’s irresponsible to host a large percentage of the net’s RSS feeds at one domain. I would set it up so it’s the other way around. My hosting service won’t host your feed unless you own the domain.

    My thoughts exactly, and the very problem I have with Feedburner, I don’t like the idea of giving up control of my feed.

    Great thinking Dave.

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  • Feedpass debate rages

    feedpassLots of debate emerging over the new feed service “feedpass“, a new service that allows your feed to have essentially it’s own multi-faceted feed subscription page, mainly because they allow you to create pages for blogs you don’t own, and earn revenue off it.

    I won’t get into the whole copyright/ theft issue some are claiming, but essentially I like the idea, and I’ve dropped my buttons on the right hand side of duncanriley.com (at the time of writing at least) and put up the feedpass subscribe button. Click on it to check it out.

    Michael Arrington at TechChrunch argues that feedpass does nothing:

    In the end this just can’t compete with Feedburner, a much more robust solution for publishers. Feedburner provides stats and other tools that Feedpass doesn’t have at this time.

    But I’d argue there is a reason I’m more attracted to feedpass as opposed to Feedburner, and that because feedpass doesn’t hijack my feed. There’s no need to change my feed details to a feedpass URL to use feedpass, as there is with Feedburner. Every link on my feedpass page is my RSS feed, not one delivered by another party. Sure, Feedburner provides a whole lot more in terms of extras, but I’ve always remained weary of basically signing away control of my feed to a third party. In this regards, feedpass fills an as yet uncatered for hole in the market, and I’m willing to give them a shot….at the end of the day if I decide I don’t want to use feedpass, I drop them, no problems with URL’s for feeds or anything of the like.

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  • Give me green, lots of green…..

    Looks like Mike Arrington got into a whole pile of trouble whilst I was away after shafting his web designer. Lot of coverage here, here, here, here and here.

    Personally I don’t particularly dislike the design, the layout itself isn’t too bad, although I’m not a huge fan of some of the whitespace, fonts and sizing, but the fundamentals are there of a reasonably good layout. What I absolutely can not stand on the site is the Green. The Green just doesn’t work. It’s not even a solid green. Yuk.

  • I’m Back!

    My brush with D List Fame: Elise from Big Brother:

    big brother

    Lots of Extra probably totally uninteresting photos coming to my Flickr account shortly….once I deal with the 1281….1282….whoops they are still downloading….emails 🙂

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  • The Blogging Bomber?

    Sitting in a Internet Cafe on the Gold Coast and already I’ve got my first weird travel story.

    Last night at Perth Airport I was pulled aside and….scanned for explosives!

    It was 11:30pm so I was in a bit of a daze anyway. I walked through security, no problems, then I get pulled aside by a butch female security guard. She starts pointing at some sign and saying did I know what was going on. I thought I was going to get surveyed or something. Nup, some weird looking strip of paper was wipped over my clothes, then put into a machine. Naturally the result was negative, but I’m off to get a hair cut now because obviously I must need one if I look so scruffy as to need explosive screening! 🙂

  • Ask Duncan: Why Do You Love Big Brother?

    OK, so the whole ask Duncan thing didn’t work so we’ll (I’m still open for q’s) but Darren ask’s as good question:

    “Why do you love Big Brother so much?”

    Well Darren, the short answer:

    I live in the Country.

    The long Answer:

    I live in the Country.

    Seriously though, we don’t get Channel 10 locally where I live. I saw the first two series of Big Brother when I lived in Mandurah, about 100km North of where I am now, which could get Perth TV no probs.

    Where I am now, you’ve got to have a bloody great big antenna to get Perth TV. Our first house we bought down here did, but we were about 5km North of Bunbry, and reception was variable. Sometimes we got it, some times we didn’t. It was too hard for the 3rd series. So I gave in.

    Then she who must be obeyed decided we should build a house. So we moved into a rental property whilst the new house was being built. It had NO antenna at all. Getting local TV involved a balancing act with Rabits Ears. So I didn’t see any of series 4 or 5. WIN does show it late at night, but I’m not one to be up at 11:30pm to watch it.

    So we come to today. I’m in the new house. Another 5km North again, and we’ve got “community” TV, ie, cabled TV to all houses on the estate so no one has to have a TV antenna (indeed, they aren’t allowed). It’s a huge mast, maybe 15-20m high (just a street away) and now I can get (most of the time) Perth TV. And hence I can watch Big Brother. I’ve not watched it for years, so I’m totally hooked. If I’d watched it every year I’d probably be sick of it, but I haven’t. And I quite like this year’s crew. Hence, I’m going on Holidays, and I’m going to a Big Brother Eviction. Yep, it’s wacky, but why not. You only live once, and I’m hoping Camilla is evicted only so I can ask her “why don’t you think you are dirty when you love to do a spit roast” 🙂

  • Now I know American law makers are Crazy: bill to ban Blogs, Social Networking sites for under 18’s

    They say only in America. And only in America could law makers, elected representatives, put forward legislation that would punish and ban those under 18 from joining Social Networking sites and blogging, whilst totally ignoring the very people they are concerned about: online predators. I suppose in a society that allows every man and his dog to have a gun, that punishing the innocent whilst ignoring the guilty (or socially deviant in this case) makes sense.

    From News.com:

    MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are facing a new threat: a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category’s most ardent users.

    “When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned,” Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview.

    Fitzpatrick and fellow Republicans, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, on Wednesday endorsed new legislation (click here for PDF) that would cordon off access to commercial Web sites that let users create public “Web pages or profiles” and also offer a discussion board, chat room, or e-mail service.

    That’s a broad category that covers far more than social-networking sites such as Friendster and Google’s Orkut.com. It would also sweep in a wide range of interactive Web sites and services, including Blogger.com, AOL and Yahoo’s instant-messaging features, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which permits in-game chat.

    That’s right. Punish the 16 and 17 year olds who are using these services, but the few sick people who might be a threat….well who give’s a rat you know what about them, because it’s all the kiddies fault. I’ve got to ask, do these people also think that a rape victim is responsible for their rape because they wore a short skirt? Funny really, here in Australia Muslim preachers recently said that exact thing. So the US Government, fighting their crusade against the Muslim World, is now basically trying to implement the same fanatical laws you do find in radical Muslim Countries.

    Nuts really.

  • Will Reciprocal links get you banned from Google

    This from a Media Post Email:

    As Shari Thurow points out, AdSense creates A LOT of so-called search engine spam, which refers to the myriad link farms and other bogus sites appearing in natural listings that make their money off a combination of AdSense and high natural search placement. Link farming is the process of exchanging links with other Web sites in order to boost your natural ranking. Google considers this a form of spam, and bans sites that have deployed the tactic.

    (I added the bold for emphasis).

    I’m guessing that they’ve taken this too far in defining it, but it’s scary none the less. Swapping a link or two with a like minded site isn’t just about gaming Google, it’s essentially free advertising for your sites and helps with traffic as well.

  • Bugs Bunny in “Adware Rampage”

    bugs bunnyReports Online Media Daily:

    CONTROVERSIAL ADWARE COMPANY 180SOLUTIONS AT the end of last month quietly began offering streams of two shows distributed by Warner Bros. Online. The shows–the soap opera “Deception” and the animated show “Medical Island”–were created specifically for the Web.

    Both programs are available online exclusively on 180solutions’ consumer site, Zango.com. Visitors to the site can only view the shows if they agree to download the company’s ad-serving software, which serves up to six pop-up ads daily, based on Web-surfing behavior.

    First Sony and a Root Kit. Now Warner Bros and Popup ads. What next? Microsoft and Spyware???

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  • ADSDAQ for blogging?

    The 360 reports on a proposal to form essentially a commodities style market for advertising in the United States:

    A consortium of some of the biggest advertisers in the United States has plans to move the ad industry out the era of the cattle exchange and into the internet age. They’re looking for someone to build an ADSDAQ – an online exchange similar to the NASDAQ where advertisers and media owners can trade.

    Interesting idea. I wonder if blogs could play a role?