Thursday, January 05, 2006

Movie of Dan Bricklin demoing WikiCalc. 

My new friend Tim Post uses Expession Engine, and has an OPML directory that he would like to include in his weblog.  

Here's where we are at the eat-meet-geek-greet in Cambridge today.  

As soon as we get the current glitches out of the NewsRiver aggregator, I'm going to add a simple podcatcher that runs in the background and downloads podcasts (actually all kinds of enclosures) in the middle of the night while you're not using the computer and while the load on the net is light. You won't know the podcasts are there until they're fully downloaded, so there will be no click-wait. You can direct the podcatcher to save the podcasts to your iPod or any other brand of portable media device.  

David Berlind is coming tonight, as is Dan Bricklin, with a new version of WikiCalc that's now an Ajax app. And we thought the west coast had the market cornered on low-rent hyper-eat-outs. Can't wait till Mike Arrington sees the Flickr pics.  

A brief movie about ring kissing at geek-eats. 

Didn't I tell you Google was going after iTunes?  

A movie of Cambridge Central Square. 

ZDNet is looking for a few good bloggers. 

Paul Stamatiou: "Now, I will discuss how you can share any file by creating and seeding a torrent." 

Questions from the author of newsRiver.root. 

I just installed Gizmo Project, which is a Skype-like VOIP tool for Mac, Windows & Linux that can record a conversation to a WAV file. It seems to work just fine. Now I can do podcasts with other people who have the software.  

I had dinner last night with Lisa Williams, chronicler of OPML, original Berkman Thursdayite, and BloggerConner. Lots of good ideas exchanged about where to go with the OPML Editor and the community.  

Bela, who is also a Cambridgeside member of the Land O'PML, writes: "Bloglines Notifier informed me that I had 427 items to go through, I just didn't feel up for it." 

Both Lisa and Bela will be at the geek-eat tonight at the Galleria. 

Blogging delivered 

Suggestions about geek-eats 

Adam Green says he wants to set up regular blogger meetups in the Boston area. I think it's a good idea.

How to: Ask a few friends to have dinner with you at a restaurant you like and then write about it, in advance, on your blog. "I'm having dinner with Phil and Sally on Tuesday at the Border's Cafe in Harvard Sq at 7PM. If you're in the area, please come by." Make it informal and positive.

After the dinner, write it up on your blog, with some pictures and share some of the ideas that came up at the dinner with your readers. Get them involved in the discussion even if they weren't there. Try to get this thought to pop into their head: "Geeez, I wish I had gone to that dinner!"

Then, do it again a few weeks later, and follow the same routine. And again a few weeks after that. The regular pattern is important.

And no ring-kissing!