Nothing and Some More

The zen of blosxom plugin

I've been thinking - it happens - about Google and Blogger.
Here is the raw draft: there are four families of engines: Blogger, Userland, MT and the home-made ones. Blogger does usually attract the less html-oriented people: they just want to write. Also Blogger is the only one of these tools that is _only_ a web application (OK, there is the Blogger API that ruins that a bit).
Let's say Google wants people to use correct HTML (yeah I'm thinking using the right tag for the right meaning: e.g. using H1 instead of Bold for a title) so the published output can be used to the maximum by their search engine. One way to do that is evangelization: long, costly and not that effective: people _are_ lazy. The other way is to provide a simple tool that works everywhere, that can be upgraded easily and that is simple enough so everyone can use it, and that has the hip factor. Blogger ? Once the code generated by this tool improves, the other tools will follow. The only tricky part is to justify the better ranking in Google by the quality of the code and not by the fact that Google owns Blogger...
Also think about what is the Blogger console: one identified person uses it. That person can be profiled using their blog. And therefore a really effective textad can be served only for their eyes. On the Blogger console.
The Google bar is popular. Will it be more popular with a Blog this sticker on it ?
The last bit about having a web application with identified user is that A-B testing can be done really effectively.

About the West Wing

In hindsight, with seven prime-time hours devoted to Michael Jackson this week as well as something called "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People," the real surprise might be that such an uncompromising series found a vast audience, even for a while.

24, season 2, has just started in the UK. In the US, it's midseason already. So far, I think Season 2 is better than Season 1. And I'm really impressed by their usage of fiction to reflect on current events - in a less verbose way than in the West Wing.

One of the reasons why the audiences like (these stories) is because, in those types of situations, you are going to have a definite resolution. You will see, even in the most complex scenarios, a resolution in terms of knowing who the good guys are, who the bad guys are and who perpetuated this, said J. Gregory Payne, professor of political communication and director of the Center for Ethics in Political and Health Communication at Emerson College.
In real life, we find there are various stages of gray, and often times, it's not good or bad, it's a much more complex cabernet. Some of us look to this mixing of history with some type of fiction... as a means of understanding a world that is becoming more and more complex, Payne said.

Blethers.com: an online journal, made by an hispanophile Scottish living in Paris.

Blethers is a Scots word that, when used as an exclamation, means something like "I don't believe a word you're saying". As a verb, it means "to chat" - usually about everything and nothing.

La Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris édite Cosmopolis - Cosmo pour faire court - le magazine des étudiants étrangers en Ile-de-France. Pas de version web par contre. Dommage pour vous, parce que sa lecture est très instructive.

Poésie de petites annonces (celle là vient de Fusac)

Japonais, 37ans, pas moche, divorcé, cherche copine francphone ou anglophone pour échange des langues

PingPong: J'ai rien dit. En plus je ne sais pas ce que retoquer veut dire.
Sinon t'as oublié avec un fil RSS et des permaliens, donc des archives, dans ta description technique. Parce que sans cela, pas plus les citations que l'agrégation ne marchent. Et c'est dommage de passer à côté de l'agrégation et des liens (Cat4 pour la vie, Cat III aussi mais c'est sans rapport). Tant que j'y suis, à causer des blogdors, z'avez remarqué que les icones des sites des jurés sont pas clickables? (et le PingPong continue: définition(s) adéquate(s))

Calendars with babes in it. I liked the Greepeace one

Samedi soir sur la terre, paroles et Musique: Francis Cabrel 1994

Cette histoire est déjà finie
On en ferait autant
Si c'était à refaire
On est tout simplement, simplement
Un samedi soir sur la terre