Blog's the word at MSNBC.com. The news site will introduce a new Web logs section by the end of August, a move that will allow more editorial control over the opinionated ramblings of its former online chat boards. [CNET News.com]
categories: salonika memewatch metablog
8:32:13 PM 
say what []
They wheedle you but I've learned how to shut them up. The magic words are "Do you have a "Do Not Call" list?" Suddenly the caller clams up and says "Yes." I say, "Please put me on it." They agree and we hang up.
Here's the rub. After a while they start calling me again. Are they breaking a law? Is my name being marketed to them anew?
Also, it bothers me that my charitable instincts lead me into the craw of this phone spammer. My new policy is that I do no giving whatsoever over the phone. Send me the information on paper and I'll read it at my leisure thank you very much.
What really bothers me is that they call themselves a publishing company!
categories: x-pollen
4:31:47 PM say what []
Meanwhile, the earliest Usenet cite I could find by its very nature testifies to the existence of the word, as it in French and addresses the issues involved in translating neologism.
Here's the original French (anyone want to supply a human translation?):
Le mercredi 24 octobre, j'écrivais:
>Bonjour,
>
> je cherche à traduire ou adapter le terme "weblog"?>vous avez une idée ?
>Merci de vos réponses.
En fait, je connaissais déjà vos réponses (même si j'avais oublié le sens premier de web log en tant que log du serveur apache signalé par Harlan Messinger.)
Il y a aussi comme traduction "webillard" qui est plus proche de la "tribune libre informatisée"
Le terme "weblog" en anglais est un fourre-tout dont la définition exacte varie du très large: site personnel mis à jour tous les jours (LOG) tendance "journal" en passant par la définition technique: publication "régulière" facile sur le web (facile parce qu'on n'a pas à se préoccuper des outils: un navigateur web suffit) à la définition "étymologique" journal compte-rendu de mes promenades sur le web, avec les sites que j'ai trouvé. (WEB LOG), tendance "Revue de butinage" Il a été contracté en blog et décliné en Blogger, "to blog" et sert de base à un certain nombre de néologismes "to blogroll".
Ma question de traduction est donc: quand un terme anglais a un sens large et pas évident pour qui n'est pas observateur proche:
+ c'est "mieux" de l'adopter tel quel (weblog)?
+ de le franciser mécaniquement (blogue)?
+ d'en trouver une adaptation et de lui coller du sens (joueb)?
+ ou de prendre un mot existant (??) et de lui rajouter un sens? sachant que la finalité c'est d'introduire/de rallier autour du concept le public francophone et les inciter à écrire en français?--
jm
And here's a machine translation, courtest of Babelfish:
Search Result 1 From: JM (giem@I..COLLECT..SPAMfree.fr)
Subject: Re: translation of weblog
Newsgroup: fr.lettres.langue.anglaise
View: Complete Thread (14 articles) | Original Format
Date: 2001-10-29 00:22:12 PSTWednesday October 24, I wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I seek to translate or adapt the weblog " term "?
>
> you have an idea?
>Thank you for your answers.
In fact, I knew already your answers (even if I had forgotten the direction first Web log as a log of the waiter apache announced by Harlan Messinger.) There is also as webillard "translation" which is closer to "the computerized opinion column"
The weblog "term" in English is a hold-all whose exact definition varies the very broad one: personal site updated tous.les.jours (LOG) tendency "newspaper"while passing by the technical standard: easy "regular" publication on the Web (easy because one does not have to be concerned with tools: a navigator Web is enough) with the etymological "definition" newspaper report to my walks on the Web, with the sites which I have trouvé.(WEB LOG), Revue "tendency of butinage " It was contracted in blog and was declined in "blogger", "to blog" and is used as a basis for a certain number of neologisms "to blogroll".
My question of translation is thus: when an English term has a direction broad and not obvious for which is not observant close:
+ is " better " to adopt it just as it is (weblog)?
+ to francize it mechanically (blogist)?
+ to find an adaptation and to stick direction (joueb) of it to him?
+ or to take an existing word (??) and to add a direction to him? knowing what is the finality it introduire/de to rejoin around the concept the French-speaking public and to encourage them to write in French?--
jm
funny machine mistakes: categories: metablog 4:00:27 PM
waiter for server
newspaper for journal (understandable)
tous.de.jours for every.day
say what []
Blogrolling.com offers a free Javascript-based blogroll service (the only "price" is a linkback to blogrolling.com) that includes a "BlogrollThis!" bookmarklet and instructions on how to make a "Blogroll Me!" link. A commenter on an earlier post here pointed out that the links thus inserted into your page are not fully indexable (indexible? indecible?), so caveat emptor.
There are other third-party blogroll services, and Radio can be easily extended to incorporate an outliner-based blogroll. Until I've done more research, I can't yet recommend one particular method over another, except that it makes little sense to handcode a blogroll.
Deciding how to manage a blogroll for this site, my instincts were as usual at war between perfectionism (and standards-based, measure-once-cut-twice, forward-thinking design) and expediency (the writer's impatience to get the words out there without getting bogged down in process, production, and presentation), so I set up a blogroll with blogrolling.com, to get the hang of the process. The web interface is well designed and easy to use. So far so good. Come to think of it, though, it would be nice to be able to sort the blogroll list on the Edit page. I'll have to try the recommended Radio type of blogroll next to compare. Already I want to sort my current blogroll into a few categories.
As for the word blogroll, I always figured it was related to the literary practice of "logrolling," or writing blurbs for each other's books. Spy magazine in the '80s (and '90s? I stopped reading it) used to publish a little table called something like "Logrolling in our time," and list pairs of authors' blurbs for each other side by side.
I can't find any evidence for my quaint folk etymology, though, so I imagine the word may have a more pedestrian origin (a roll, or list, of blogs; as in "calling the roll"). As always in this climate, punning abounds. One of Doc Searls's blogrolls is called "blogrolodex."
At one point I thought that blogrolls were pretentious and showy. Applications such as Blogdex and Daypop demonstrated how wrong I was to think this. This interweaving of preferences and endorsements defines a great deal of the context of the web, striving asymptotically for meaning.
categories: metablog
3:37:59 PM say what []
new at bodega: brown bananas, rageboy flowcharts, and iTunes. [xian]
[Ugh, I hate the way LiveJournal renders my URLs in its RSS feed. It defaults to a hit on their database with their look-and-feel instead of the direct day link I manually substituted above that gets my fonts and colors, and it's going to get too tiresome to retype each time.]
categories: x-pollen
1:34:39 PM say what []
Finding what looks like a PyRad .jsp URL in my referer log, I assume I've used one of my 8000 impressions. It's too late to welcome that ad follower but welcome! to thet next. Trying to catch my add on the blogger page, I found this one instead. I love the title and the current top article about GRACE (a robot programmed for politeness attending a conference).
The ad copy that grabbed my attention was "Be a geek like me."
categories: metablog
1:19:46 PM say what []
blogistan
salon blogistan
blogistan salon
livejournal templates
templates livejournal
php mysql how to bloggers
where to find lj livejournal templates
Anyway, I've started referring to Google as "the Goog," which is intended affectionately, the way journalists like to call the BBC "the Beeb."
categories: salonika memewatch metablog
1:15:59 PM say what []
Even if you prefer to work directly with code, an editor such as BB Edit or HomeSite (or TextEdit or Notepad, for that matter) is infinitely preferable to working within the constraints of a text box on a web form. (You can't directly search for text in such a form, for example).
If you like working with a wysiwyg editor smart enough to be able to ignore the custom tags (what Radio calls macros), such as Dreamweaver, GoLive, or even FrontPage by now, gopod help us. In dreamweaver, I was able to rearrange the table columns on the home page to put the menu down the right side, mostly by dragging table cells around. Soon, I'll try switching all the formatting to CSS.
I'll probably write up a little tutorial for my book site, since I didn't discuss this use of Dreamweaver in the first edition. I could show how to tweak an existing template and how to turn an existing site design into blog templates. I'll be sure to post here when the tutorial is up.
BTW, I could use the help of a "real" designer (I'm a writer, Jim! not a graphic designer) to get this site beyond inoffensive.
categories: metablog
12:10:43 PM say what []
Blunt Force Trauma cites this Seattle Times article on corporate blogging.
10:29:05 AM say what []
Rick Klau links to thedownsideofknowledgemanagement.com, regarding the hurdles involved in using blogs for KM (or "knowledge sharing"), adding:
In any event, I like the recognition that there's more to KM than just software - that unless someone is committed, responsible and incented to make the thing work, it will be hard to succeed.
BTW, I keep fiddling with the title of this category. It's gone from KnowledgeMgmt (ugly), to KnowAge (lame), to KnowHow (not as lame).
10:20:30 AM say what []
