Day: April 11, 2003

Geolocating an RSS 2.0 feed in MovableType is rediculously easy.  I’ll try to go over the steps quickly in hopes that I’ll do a more detailed job for end-user-types in the future.

1. Create an RSS 2.0 feed if you haven’t done so.  This can be done by clicking on templates from your main blog view.
• Click on the RSS 0.91 Index template.
• Copy the template body
• Go back to the template view and click create new index template
• Give it a name (RSS 2.0 Index) output file (rss2.xml or similar) and paste everything into the template body.
• Change rss version=”0.91″ to rss version=”2.0″.
• Save.
2. Add the ICBM namespace to your <rss> item like so: <rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:icbm=”http://postneo.com/icbm“>
3. Somewhere below <channel> but before <MTEntries lastn=”x”>, add the following:
• <icbm:latitude>yourLatitude</icbm:latitude>
• <icbm:longitude>yourLongitude</icbm:longitude>
4. Save.  Redbuild.  Party.  Your RSS 2.0 feed is now geolocated. at the <channel> level.

You can use GeoURL’s resources section to find out your lat/long.  You should probably also have the HTML version of your weblog listed with GeoURL.

As far as examples go, check out the geolocated RSS 2.0 feed for my movable type testblog.  I assure you that the feed validates as RSS.  Right now the testblog is running on a Linux development box, so don’t be suprised about any outages.

That’s it for now, enjoy.

Larry O’Brien:

Thinking in C# no longer available for download. As you may know, one of the aspects of this project was that draft versions of the text had been available for download. Surprisingly, I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that some of the other parties involved feel that the “last draft” (the text as it stands today) should not (in fact, must not) be available in any form. In my opinion, that’s a gratuitous disservice to the community — every word in the text is either available for free download in another text or was written by me. The text that I do have rights to (a divvying-up that will take place via lawyers, unfortunately) will be available again as soon as the rights situation is cleared up. To receive an email notification of this and other C# and .NET training products, please sign up on my mailing list.

I’ve heard rumors that some people downloaded the draft of Thinking in C# before it was pulled.  This whole thing sucks, IMHO.

I’m looking into implementation details for the ICBM RSS Module.  More to come.

I’ve been thinking about ways that you can use the ICBM RSS module.  Of course, the obvious thing to do is geolocate your RSS feed.  By adding latitude and longitude to the <channel> element, you’re saying that this RSS feed originates from or is about this specific location.  That much is a no brainer, but what else can you do?

A moblogging app that is GPS capable or location-aware could tag each post with the location.  For instance, if I’m blogging from times square about something, the lat/long for times square could be embedded in that post.  Someone like Joi Ito could associate a particular location with a picture posted from his mobile phone.  I could then visualize his RSS feed by location, superimposing his entries on a map.

I’m sure that much more can be done, but for now, it’s lunchtime.

Vnunet (among others) reports:

Earlier this week the software giant quietly announced that it had selected media player developer InterVideo to port its Windows Media technology to Linux for use in consumer electronics such as set-top boxes and personal video recorders.

Now if only Red Hat would support mp3…

Update: Slashdot has the catch:

However, WMP will not be available to normal folks…Microsoft will only allow it to be distributed via set top boxes and the like.

I liked the phrase tipping point much more before it was in common usage by the Pentagon, White House, and media.  It used to be our phrase.

Via Hack The Planet (Happy Birthday!), monotone is a trippy but interesting version control system.  There is a comparison with traditional version control systems, and it’s really different.  It’s a great idea though.  It looks like building monotone is like pulling teeth, so I’d suggest the static binary.

I posted an RFC this evening for an RSS 2.0 module that facilitates geolocating an RSS feed or a specific item in a feed.  It can be applied either to the <channel> level or the <item> level.  I personally think that using it at the <item> level would be really rewarding.  The full details are at the RFC, but here’s a quick sample of usage from within RSS 2.0:

<icbm:latitude>39.02980</icbm:latitude>
<icbm:longitude>-77.07929</icbm:longitude>

I have posted a validating example of an RSS feed using this module.  The idea is an extension of GeoURL and I remember someone saying that they’d like to attach coordinates to a post a few days or a week ago, but I can’t remember who it is.

Now you can.  Head over to the RFC for more information.  Thanks to Kenneth Hunt and that guy that mentioned something like this a few days ago.  Man my memory sucks.