[This weblogs in the news post contains five separate news items of interest. If you are reading my weblog via RSS, access my full RSS feed to continue reading.]
The New York Times :: For the World's A B C's, He Makes 1's and 0's
By Michael Erard
...MICHAEL EVERSON, a 40-year-old typographer who lives in Dublin, considers himself blessed because he has found his life's work: to be an alphabetician to all the peoples of the world. Mr. Everson's largest project to date - a contribution to a new version of Unicode 4.0, an international standard for computerizing text - is cementing his reputation. ... He keeps a photo of a stone inscribed with ogham, an ancient Irish alphabet that looks like hash marks, in a silver frame. ... It is because of Unicode that bloggers can muse in Arabic and domain names can exist in Chinese, or that National Security Agency analysts can scour the Internet for reports on the latest threats in East African newspapers. "Because of Unicode," Mr. McGowan said, "you can plunk down a vanilla off-the-shelf computer into a cafe anywhere in the world and have any user in any language walk up to it and use it for accessing the Web."...
The Washington Dispatch :: Leading Recall Journalist Muzzled
Exclusive commentary by Garth Eisenbeis
Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub is the proprietor of an excellent weblog covering the California recall called the California Insider. On Sunday the editorial board of the Bee smacked Weintraub because he drew the ire of the Legislature's (Democrat) Latino Caucus with one of his entries from September 1st referring to recall candidate Cruz Bustamante's ties to MEChA.
The Bee had been on the cutting edge of print journalism by offering a blog to readers allowing a free-flow of ideas outside of the print arena; a real-time e-paper, if you will. It is apparent that the Bee's formerly successful experiment has been shelved to satisfy Leftist politicians and an influential special interest group in Sacramento. Bee ombudsman Tony Marcano, late of the New York Times (hint, hint), wrote, "Since these incidents came to light, The Bee has instituted some reforms. Weintraub's blog now goes to the editorial page editor or his deputy before it's posted on sacbee.com. Editors will not be allowed to write items for the Web without another editor's review."...
KRT Wire :: Professor's university blog attracts controversy
BY Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune
...Rasmusen's blog resides on the server of Indiana University, where he is a professor in the business school. His posted musings on whether homosexuals should be allowed to be teachers, pastors or other kinds of "moral exemplars" have caused a major campus uproar in the past few weeks...
O'Reilly Network :: Back to the Memex [Sep. 25, 2003]
by Ethan Cerami
...I recently got a chance to reread Vannever Bush's 1945 Atlantic Monthly article, As We May Think. If you haven't ever read it, it is well worth the read, and still quite thought provoking. You can also check out a biography of Vannever Bush at Wired magazine -- Wired calls him the "Godfather" of the Internet.
In his article, Bush describes a machine called the "Memex." Here's how he describes it:
A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
Bush then goes on to describe a machine which is remarkably like the World Wide Web, as it exists today. For example, he describes "trails" between documents (think hyperlinks), indexes of trails (think Google), and publication of trails with commentary (think Blogs)...
Tony Perkins reflects on his first 8 months running a super blog—or whatever you want to call it.
...Now that I have had a little experience dealing with these kind of digs, let me say a few things to set the record straight:
1. I have finally learned what a blog is. (Thank you Dave Winer!) It is an amateur author who posts a regular diary on his own site that is unedited, spontaneous, and generally comments on and links to other blog sites. I think the key attribute is the establishment of an individual voice that provides an alternative to traditional media.
2. While AO is built using "blogging" software, it is not a blog in a pure sense. AO is really a combination of professional editorials, reporting and interviews. The difference is that we use our blogging software set-up to encourage participation...