So I’m beginning to mess around with the jQuery javascript library. It has taken me a while, but I finally have free time. This thing can do everything. I have a feeling my blog is going to become a lot prettier. I have a little test on the site right now that you can see - its just a simple stylesheet switcher. It is incredible how easy it was to implement. If you want to play with it, look at the bottom part of the sidebar for the ‘Style’ menu, and you can toggle between the default, and a zenburn-like design I’ve been playing with. It is mostly just a proof of concept for me, and I don’t intend to leave it there forever. I think eventually I’ll have it set up to change automatically depending on the time of day (really white webpages are brutal in a dark room).

There is a certain kind of technology gaining popularity on the web. Most of it has been around for a little while now (a year or so), and is just gaining popularity and traction now. The idea behind this technology is that you’ll define something in one place, and it will follow you around the web, ideally making your life simpler.

First, and probably most prevalent, are Gravatars. The idea is that you set an avatar on the gravatar website, and any website you post to that is gravatar-enabled will automatically display your avatar based on your email address. So this way, on any website you post, your avatar will be there with you, and you won’t need to upload it to each site you post on.

Next are social commenting systems. I’ve just started looking into these recently, and I’m not really sure about them yet. The idea is similar to Gravatars, but takes it a step further and lets you post on any social commenting [Disqus or IntenseDebate] enabled comment system with a single user id. So you don’t need to sign up on new sites, and your comment history is associated with you. There are some other little features, but that is the main idea, and what is important to this post.

Lastly there is OpenID, which looks to do what the social comment systems are doing, but with everything (sort of). The idea behind OpenID is that you can sign into any OpenID enabled site with a single user, and access whatever it is that site is offering (this extends beyond comments). Oddly enough, both of the main social commenting systems support OpenID.

The way OpenID works is fairly simple - when you go to log in to a website that supports OpenID, you enter a URL specific to you. You’re then bounced over to whoever is authenticating you (likely whoever owns that URL) and log in. Then, you bounce back to the original site you were on, all logged in (and optionally some other information filled in for you).

I like OpenID more than either of the above systems, but not just because it has the potential to encompass both of them. OpenID is actually open. The other two systems are on centralized servers that are out of your control. Anyone can make an OpenID authentication server. Tonight I set up my own OpenID server just to test it, and it works. There are tools out there that make setting up a server trivial (I’m serious, you can and should do this). All of my information is completely under my control, and I am able to log into thousands of websites across the internet.

I don’t really have a conclusion, but the idea behind these services is interesting and worth paying attention to, and OpenID is pretty awesome.

Recently I’ve been missing the show more than usual, so I went out looking for a new vlog to latch on to. And I didn’t find any. Most of the things that come up when I’m looking for vlogs are just internet videos. Meaning shows that could be anywhere, but happen to be on the internet. Some examples are Rocketboom, Ask a Ninja, and Robert Krampf’s Experiment of the Week. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, just not what I’m looking for.

So I went to askme, figuring someone had already asked something along those lines, but they hadn’t, so I did. Two responses. I got 80 when I was looking for Boring Books. Does no one watch vlogs anymore, or are there just no vlogs to watch?

It is worth noting that the suggestions that I got were good. ill doctrine is a vlog that seems to be about hiphop, but from what I’ve watched seems to be often about other things. And Brigitte Dale’s vlog is about as close as I think I’ll get to the show.

the show was the first vlog I ever followed, and I loved it. But I remember reading that it would take him hours each day to compose those few minute episodes. I’d imagine that’s why there aren’t more people vlogging. Someday I’ll give vlogging a shot, but that’s a long way from now. I need to have something worth doing first.

Myth has its roots in poor access to information. There are loads of myths from ancient times, though as time goes on, the myths get fewer and fewer. In fact, there is a inverse correlation between the amount of recorded information and the amount of myths circulating. Looking at the history of the United States, there were many myths and folktales in the colonies, and as time went on and newspapers grew and people began to write, they became fewer. In the West, there was a strong frontier myth until the West became Urbanized.

But today, we’re looking at an unprecedented amount of information. The internet has made it so that anyone can contribute to the available pool of information, and anyone else can easily access it. What will happen to myth? We know more about celebrity and events than we ever have before in history. As hard as the National Enquirer tries, its not easy to make credible things up.

Myth’s best chance seems to be the purposeful dissemination of bad information, but the internet has already dealt with that. I’ve seen many many cases of “Breaking News” that over the course of a day is quickly revealed as fake. When everyone who reads a story can easily check its validity, it is near impossible to pass any wooden nickels. The future won’t have any cowboys, or Paul Bunyan, or Johnny Appleseed.

I think what I’m getting at is the death of private life. We volunteer so much information that private life no longer exists. I’m certainly guilty of this. But there is loads of talk of that elsewhere, so I’ll stick to myth. It seems that someone would have to go out of their way to create any myth. Artists who don’t give interviews are good examples here. I think I’ll miss myth.

Despite having half a dozen emails connected to my gmail account, I don’t get much spam. So I check my spam folder pretty regularly, to make sure nothing got incorrectly flagged. Last week, I started getting spam with really funny subject titles. Each lead to a website with a fake youtube video and tried to get the user to install a backdoor in their own system. But the spam was amusing.

UN Threatens Sanctions If Obama Not Elected In November

Obama Makes Appeal for Bitter White Midwesterners: “Let ‘em Drive Drunk!”

msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Grinch Turns Attention to Gas Tax Holiday

I saved these hoping I would get more, but since then it has been all garden variety spam.