This:
Top 10 Innovative Web 2.0 Applications of 2005
led me to this:
which let me to this:
Term Extraction Documentation for Yahoo! Search Web Services
Now to just figure out some cool things to do with it.
Clay Shirky has a great piece about ontologies, categorization, and how they don’t really make sense for most of the Web today: Ontology is Overrated
Paul Graham’s new essay tries to make some sense of everyone’s favorite buzzword: Web 2.0
Happy Thanksgiving!
Video of Dan Osman speed-soloing up Bear’s Reach at Lover’s Leap (near South Lake Tahoe, CA). Need I say don’t try this at home? http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/1220/
(I’ve done this route, but it took me more like 2 hours–not 4 minutes and 25 seconds.)
I’m not sure when this video was shot, but I think it was not long before his death on November 23, 1998. He was always a huge risk-taker, and one of his hobbies was taking very long falls on climbing ropes. He died attempting a 925-foot fall on rigging that he had left up in Yosemite in the rain and snow for over a month. Pretty stupid.
Here’s a good article about Dan: http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/Terminal-Velocity.html
I'm posting this entry from within Flock, a new browser based on Mozilla, the codebase which underlies Firefox. You might think the world needs a new browser like it needs a hole in the head, and I more or less agree with you, but Flock has some really cool features:
All in all, very impressive. I hope that some of these features (especially the social bookmarking integration) make their way over to Firefox, but I'll be keeping an eye on Flock's progress.
Apple just released a new video-capable iPod, as was expected. You can also download music videos from the iTunes Music Store, at $1.99 a shot. That's cool. Yawn.
But wait...what's really interesting is that you can also download episodes from some TV shows, like Lost or Desperate Housewives--also for $1.99. This is the start of a major paradigm shift. I'm not a huge TV watcher, but there are a few good shows out there that we've gotten hooked on (Lost, Smallville, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica). Not having cable and Tivo, though, I can't always catch my shows. I've always said I'd be happy to pay a small fee ($1.99 is about right) to be able to download an episode legally (it's not hard to find and download them "illegally" online). Now I can do that. Go Apple. The networks certainly weren't going to get their shit together to do it themselves.
It's still got a long way to go. Only a few shows are apparently available. Actually, I don't know exactly what's available because the only links to videos on their "Music" store home page are for "Music Videos" and a big "Lost" graphic. Is it so hard to just have a separate video section in your store? I'm guessing that Apple tried to push this out the door quickly, before properly redesigning their store interface to support the videos. Or maybe not. It's not that hard to do. Regardless, I'm sure they'll sort it out soon enough.
They're going to have to rename the Music Store, though. Media Store? Actually, my guess is that once they pad out their offerings a bit, they'll have a separate Video Store.
An Apple Video Store will be huge for everyone involved. The networks will be able to squeeze new money out of shows that have long since been written off. You'll be able to relive your youth by downloading some Miami Vice episodes or "owning" your own copy (as much as Apple's DRM lets you own) of the classic "Master of my Domain" Seinfeld episode, not to mention getting access to all kinds of old shows that will never make it to DVD. And of course Apple get its cut.
Go Apple.