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"... As to whether modules are a good idea for someone who doesn't like modules... obviously no. For someone like you, you're pretty better off with a blog or a custom site."
--Seth Godin in Squidoo Says My Lens Needs Improving
I'm shutting down my Squidoo operations.
That doesn't mean I'm deleting all my lenses and going away mad. It's just that Squidoo isn't meeting my current -- much less my future -- needs as a web platform, and I need to move on.
I'll be "finishing" whatever is half-baked, adding internal links, refining tags, maybe even adding some new content, but ultimately the goal is to get things into "complete" snapshot order and quit wasting my time on a platform run by cut-throat marketers for cut-throat marketers.
Squidoo has some pretty good features. It "pings" some of the standard RSS indices like a blog and that reduces the latency between the time you write something and the time it is actually seen by an audience. That's something I will need to replicate.
Squidoo also allows you to embed RSS content in an XHTML document, which is the reason I've stuck with it as long as I have. Of course, Bitty Browser will accomplish much the same effect, as will XSLT with a bit more hacking."
None of this is easy, so why bother? I've written quite a bit about Squidoo's faults and shortcomings to no avail, and I won't belabor those points here, but it all comes down to a lack of control over one's own content.
You can't build an application that is an improvement over Amazon.com's reasonably competent search function in a nest of spammers.
I'm going to need to fill in some blanks in my own programming skills to get "The Next Whole Ed Catalog" off the ground, so I might as well make my notes and impressions about the relevent books public. Might even sell a couple ...
My 3rd edition copy is pretty beat up, and I got along without the 4th, so it's time.
Amazon Price: $31.49 (as of 07/19/2008)
Up to date information on Amazon Web Services is available online, so who needs a book? Maybe nobody, but I want to look for some new ideas while things are still in the planning stages rather than retrofit them into an existing implementation.
This book's material on building advanced amazon searches is excellent ...for Amazon "newbies." Otherwise, it's a little obvious. It's also Microsoft-oriented (Visual everything, but little or no Perl)
Amazon Price: $26.99 (as of 07/19/2008)
Seems pretty good. Assumes beginning XML and intermediate PHP.
Amazon Price: $13.50 (as of 07/19/2008)
What's involved in overall interactive site design without much of the implementation "nuts and bolts." Assumes knowledge of PHP. You can probably do better.
Amazon Price: $32.99 (as of 07/19/2008)
Remote shopping carts, etc. Not the direction I'm heading, but interesting ... maybe.
Amazon Price: $26.39 (as of 07/19/2008)
If you can stomach Java ("write once, run screaming") and JSP, this may be the one for you. At least its not ASP or .NET
Amazon Price: $35.99 (as of 07/19/2008)
This one's high on my list. Integrating XHTML, CSS, & Javascript
Amazon Price: $31.49 (as of 07/19/2008)
Intended as a walk-through for setting up your own server (which involves a lot of pitfalls, bandwith being the deal-breaker) Nonetheless, here's a detailed treatment of what's involved even if you are using a hosted server.
Amazon Price: $23.09 (as of 07/19/2008)
XHTML is a subset of XML, CSS is the forerunner of XSL & XSLT. Those are the interesting technologies. This book shows how to present them in "Web 1.0"
Amazon Price: $26.39 (as of 07/19/2008)
Be sure you're talking XSLT 2.0
Gotta start somewhere
Amazon Price: $26.39 (as of 07/19/2008)
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Subscribe to The Whole Ed Cata-Blog
I've never quite been sure what distinguishes a blog from a regular webpage. Timeliness seems to have something to do with it, but that doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule.
Anyway, here are some of the things I've been working on lately...
Fetching RSS feed... please stand by