Friday, March 22, 2002

[Scripting News] News.Com: "Citigroup has agreed to use Microsoft's Web services technology, including password protection, online authentication and messaging services. The endorsement is significant for Microsoft, which has been struggling to define a business plan for its .Net My Services product."  11:53:12 AM

[John Robb's Radio Weblog] BBC  Drunk driving less dangerous than driving while on the phone. 11:41:40 AM

[The Motley Fool] 20 Tax Tips. Before you fill out your 1040, make sure you pay no more than your fair share to Uncle Sam. 11:27:51 AM

[diveintomark] Ping to your pong to my ping. Dave Lehman: Blogware. "[Mark] posted five reasons why he chose MT over GreyMatter, and four reasons why he didn't choose Radio. I found this interesting, because I recently had to make a similar choice, but did just the opposite." Responses: Radio's offline mode (now that it works) is a big boon to those without an always-on internet connection. All desktop applications should work like this. However, for me, the number of times I want to write something but am stuck without internet access is minimal compared to the number of times I want to write something but am stuck at a new internet-enabled computer. In other words, the hassle of writing in Notepad/BBEdit/Emacs and manually uploading later is less than the hassle of reinstalling a desktop application everywhere I go. I'm on the road 20 weeks a year; if you're not, your priorities will be different. It's difficult to compare hosting plans because Radio's gives you so little: 20 MB of space (last time I checked), no server-side scripts, no associated email, no domain name (not even a subdomain). The only directly comparable plan is BlogSpot for Blogger blogs, which has no space limit, gives you your own subdomain (searchable by Google Free Web Search or other 3rd-party services), and is free (with ads) or $12/year (without ads). Step up to a real hosting provider like Cornerhost and you can get direct FTP access and POP email, for only $50/year. Plus the ability to register your own domain name (for nothing above the cost of the domain registration fee). Those who care about news aggregation, especially existing Radio users who only stick with Radio for the news aggregation and don't care about the blogging stuff, owe it to themselves to try AmphetaDesk. It's Free Software (GPL) and runs under Windows and classic Mac OS. 11:27:15 AM