Posted by Dr. Brij Kothari, Founder and President, PlanetRead & BookBox, Inc.

In India, a country saddled with one-third of the world's literacy problem, there are nearly 300 million people who are illiterate and 400 million who have only a rudimentary knowledge of the alphabet. That's 700 million people who cannot read even a newspaper headline.

As I wrote in December, PlanetRead employs Same Language Subtitling (SLS) to give subconscious reading practice for 30 minutes a week to more than 200 million early-literates in India, operating via 10 TV programmes in 10 languages. We’re hoping to take this project internationally, as well as collaborate with literacy organizations in other parts of the world. That’s why we’re so excited about The Literacy Project -— the initiative announced today by Google, the Frankfurt Book Fair literacy campaign (Litcam), and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. (There's also a German version of the Google page.)

The project enables people to find everything -- from videos, books and scholarly articles about literacy to reading groups and literacy-related blogs. PlanetRead is one of the many organisations that is contributing. We’ve uploaded our subtitled videos (take a look!) and are sharing our own literacy research. And the site’s map of world literacy organisations also make it easier for us to connect with partner agencies who want to make literacy a way of life for everyone on this planet.

The idea that others around the world will be able to see what we’re doing —- and in turn, that we’ll be able to see what other people are doing and saying about literacy -— is thrilling, and at the very heart of PlanetRead’s mission to make its projects available to everyone. With each new person that we reach, we come one step closer to solving this truly global problem.

很久没有使用bloglines了，最近Google新发布了RSS Reader。我才想起BlogLines，去上面转了一圈，Google学BlogLines真实学得很到家啊。但是Google在大规模数据得存取速度上，明显高出BlogLines一筹。BlogLines后台应该还是延续数据库思维：一定要告诉你，你订阅的FEED上有873条新内容，而Google就告诉你(100+)：因为能翻10页以后的用户不超过2%。

再仔细看看：BlogLines的新功能，看来，社群化是BlogLines努力的方向之一。另外就是发现了一个claim功能：认领你自己发布的Feed。

认领流程如下：
0 输入你的blog地址：bloglines会分别生成2个key，一个ckey（用于证明你能发表内容），一个ukey（用于证明你能拥有网站）；
1 发一篇blog：里面包含feedkey：<!-- ckey="#######" -->

2 修改首页模板：包含一个：<!-- ukey="#######" -->

结果：如果bloglines在首页上同时发现了ckey+ukey，并且在feed中只发现了ckey就成功了。

© 桑葚，来自桑林志 | 从社会性软件、Web2.0到复杂适应信息系统研究中国人民大学张树人的博士论文：从社会性软件、Web2.0到复杂适应信息系统研究。via:ginger ----------------- 加...

He recalls a meeting at which an engineer asked: how long do we take from idea to execution? Several people scrawled on the whiteboard and agreed on an answer of eight months.

从站点留言中看到的这个消息。Dreamhost 在搞大优惠。按照他们时区的时间还有几个小时了。只可惜我已经有帐户在上面了，多申请一个也没有什么用途。有需要的朋友可以去立刻拿一个。更优惠的价格，更大的空间与带宽，很划算。

To celebrate nine years in the hosting biz, we're having an absolutely CRAZY one-day-only sale! TODAY! This offer is good for accounts that sign up on October 3rd, 2006 before 11:59 PM PDT only! Don't miss the boat!

Sign up for any of our hosting plans TODAY using either the one or two-year prepay option and use the promo code "9999". You'll get an INSTANT discount of $99.99 off your bill!

But that's not all!
We've also upped our plan limits like crazy! All our plans now have at least DOUBLE the amount of bandwidth and up to TEN TIMES the amount of disk space they had yesterday! You'll get to keep that extra disk space and bandwidth for as long as you keep your account active!

The Fine Print:
This offer is for new customers only - those who do not have an active account with DreamHost.
If you sign up and forget to use the "9999" promotional code, you WILL NOT receive the sale pricing. No amount of complaining will change this!
Domains and accounts may not be transferred from an existing DreamHost Web Hosting account to a "9999" hosting plan.

谢谢带来这个消息的朋友。

--EOF--

从后台日志上观察到有大量来自 114.com.cn 的搜索。最开始没有注意，还以为是 VNet 过来的--都有个 114 嘛。这两天查询突然暴增，仔细一看，还真不是一回事：

$ grep  114.com.cn access.log |awk  '{print substr($11,1,80)}' |head
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?logo=1&keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xd2\xbb\x
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?logo=1&keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xd2\xbb\x
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&
"http://so.114.com.cn/usearchp?keyword=\xd4\xbd\xd3\xfc\xb5\xda\xb6\xfe\xbc\xbe&  

为了节省空间，没有把 URL 都打出来，所用的参数极为诡异，后面还有几个奇怪的参数，AWstats 也根本不能探测到引用的关键词是什么。

搜索了一下，这个站点叫"中国网上黄页", 是厦门的一家叫什么"中资源"的公司做的。

添加了一下这个搜索引擎的定义，暂时叫他 '114' 吧. 添加定义挺简单的，我做的修改：

$ diff search_engines.pm search_engines.pm.backup1003

192d191

< '114\.com\.cn',

366d364

< '114\.com\.cn','114',

578d575

< '114','keyword=',

754d750

< '114','114', 

观察到的效果:

来自搜索引擎

17 个不同的搜索引擎转介参观者到本站 网页数 百分比 文件数 百分比 Baidu 3231 63.3 % 3461 60.6 % Google 1602 31.4 % 1896 33.2 % SoSo 78 1.5 % 78 1.3 % Yahoo! 53 1 % 54 0.9 % 3721 29 0.5 % 29 0.5 % NetEase 27 0.5 % 27 0.4 % SoGou 23 0.4 % 23 0.4 % Google (Images) 12 0.2 % 18 0.3 % VNet 10 0.1 % 10 0.1 % 114 10 0.1 % 10 0.1 % Unknown search engines 8 0.1 % 8 0.1 % Windows Live 7 0.1 % 71 1.2 % MSN Search 4 0 % 4 0 % Iask 3 0 % 5 0 % ZhougSou 2 0 % 2 0 % Google (cache) 1 0 % 7 0.1 % Ask 1 0 % 1 0 %

感觉国内的个别搜索引擎根本不关心什么规范之类的事情，Bot 随便爬，爱咋咋地的态度。

--EOF--

Posted by Adam Sah, Software Engineer

It's crazy over here -- in the last few months, we've had thousands of gadgets submitted for the Google Personalized Homepage. If you've used it, you've seen them -- those useful little units you can add, remove, and move around on your page. We have old-school games, clocks, calendars, and horoscopes. We've got a VAT calculator. We've got a pony.

We've extended these gadgets to work on Google Desktop and Google Pages, but it occurred to us that these would be slick on other people's web pages, too.

Today we're opening up our gadget inventory for your viewing and cloning pleasure. In other words, now you can copy and paste some simple HTML to add the Google Gadgets you like to your own webpage. Check out our directory of Google Gadgets for your webpage to see all the options. And as always, if you can't find one like the one you had in mind, you can always write a gadget yourself.

自从RSS方式开始逐渐得到认识，就不断有人开始在打RSS广告的主意。Feedburner这种Feed管理服务商自然不必说了，早已将Feed广告作为自己重要的商业模式之一，不过要申请Feedburner的Feed广告，还需要一定的订阅数量等门槛。Google和Yahoo也早就在窥探着这个市场，但最近似乎没有了什么动静。倒是Text Link Ads（TLA）这家文字链广告服务商最近推出了一个方便的自助RSS广告服务：Feedvertising。 Feedvertising服务最让我感兴趣的地方倒不是我能够通过让TLA在我的Feed中加入广告而与我一起分享收益，而是Feedvertising的免费RSS广告DIY平台。用户通过安装Feedvertising提供的插件，就能够在RSS内容的最后加入一些文字作为广告。用户可以随意加入自己想要加的内容，比如用户可以用它来推广自己的其他blog、自己公司的产品和服务，甚至也可以自己来卖掉这些文字链广告，而不必依赖于TLA。 不过这个平台要真正成为一个DIY的广告平台的话，还缺了重要的一环，广告数据监测。缺乏有效的数据的话，怎么能够说服广告投放者呢？不过Feedburner说了，Feed广告应该更注重品牌广告和形象广告，这样的话，似乎还可以使用传统的CPM模式，那不妨可以拿Feedburner或Feedsky的订阅量数据作为一个接近的替代品。 随着Feed阅读越来越成为一种新的内容传输方式，在Feed中加入广告必然会成为许多人探索的方向，但这个市场的发展还很缓慢。如果国内有人也建立这样一种开放的Feed广告平台，用户可以方便而且自由地DIY和管理自己的Feed广告，再加入一些广告统计的话，或许可以催生一下这个市场。

Yan Feng posted a photo:

© 桑葚，来自桑林志 | 2006 诺贝尔物理学奖 左边的是 John C. Mather，来自 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center；George F. Smoot，来自 University of California。 获奖原因 “for their discovery of the blackbody ...

I love my iPod shuffle. I never had a USB stick before, and it makes a pretty sick one. I love iTunes. If you ask me, it’s the real reason iPods are as popular as they are. I’ve tried a bunch of jukebox software in my lives, and they universally blow elephants. Except iTunes. iTunes is really pretty [...]

Adam Sah announces Google's newest feature (also noted by Philipp Lenssen) — the ability to consume Gadgets on any website with no fuss.  Simply find a gadget in the directory and copy a small snippet of code onto a website. One feature I would personally like to see that is the ability for website users to [...]

Google just added a new entry into their robots.txt file — "Disallow: /movies?".  Going to the directory it references, you will find a no-nonsense "movie" search for your area. I can see myself using this page very often — even though I could just google or ask about "movies".  For people like myself, this separate URL [...]