Finally, Blogger is compatible with other blogging systems - Updated - Updated Again

On my previous post a discussion was brought up on the motives behind Blogger canceling the ability to link back to your blog when commenting. Two theories were thrown around, my initial was it being for security reasons and the other theory was that Google was trying to sideline other blogging systems and their users :-B .

Well yesterday I started to notice that a Blogger icon would appear beside a commenter's name, if he was using a Blogger id, later in the afternoon I noticed a drop down list below the commenting section allowing you to choose were you were signing in from (Google/Blogger, AOL, Wordpress, Live Journal, TypeKey ).

I signed into a Wordpress account I have ( for backup :P ) and found that I actually can comment with either one of my identities ( Blogger/Wordpress ) by simply switching between the different choices in the drop-down list, as long as I was signed into both. This is a great feature for non-blogger readers ( Rein, Melantrys ) from either Wordpress or Typepad or any other system; as they won't have to worry about their identities being forged and they won't have to create a new blogger account to comment on blogger either B-) .

Even though I'm not a great fan of large corporations and I do have my reservations on some of Google's privacy issues, but I have to admit this is Great ! <:-P

Update :

Well blogger has made a post explaining the premise behind its move to support OpenID and how it went about doing it. It also apologizes for "prematurely" disabling commentator link back support as quoted here :

"
The "Other" URL field

Right now, the only way to add a URL to your name when commenting is to sign your comment with OpenID. We apologize for removing the URL field from the comments form prematurely two weeks ago. That was a mistake on our part that came from launching OpenID support on Blogger in draft.

Ironically, our testing of OpenID, a feature that lets you use accounts from all over the web to comment on Blogger, made it appear that we were trying to force you into getting a Google Account. We regret this appearance, since we're strong supporters of OpenID and open web standards in general.

"


Update - 21/12/2007 :

Now you can add a URL of your website our blog to your nickname ............. so everything is back to normal :P.

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Here comes another bubble

As most of you have probably noticed by now a lot of investors are on a shopping spree of the newest Web 2.0 technologies like facebook, skype which many fear is going to end with a second internet bubble similar to the dot-com bubble. The following video is highlighting this theory while at the same time making fun of people who are making the same mistakes all over again :P.


and here are the lyrics, courtesy of Podesk Videos:

"There's absolutely no bubble in technology"
Peter thiel october 31, 2007
investor, Facebook

got me a CS degree
honor roll, MIT

moved to Palo Alto
opportunity Knocked

thought i had the perfeect plan
took a job at webvan

traded in my twenties
for a worthless pile of tech stock

Suffered throught the market crash
lost a giant wad of cash

Pink slips, burger flips
would you like some fries

happy days are here again
lary page, sergey brin

time to write a business plan
so i can be like those guys!

here comes another bubble

it's a monster rally
all around the valley

first you need a buzzword
(Ajax)
then a second and a third

pick at least two industries
you'll revolutionize
(newpappers + friendship bracelets)

find yourself an engineer
feed him pizza, buy him beer
(product placement : Samel Adams)

Give him just a fraction
of a fraction of the pie

need a good domain name
must be cheap, can't be lame

something cool like
flickr, meebo, wikiyou, mahalo, bebo

"telephone" without the "t"
"digg" but with a triple "g"

make your elevator pith
("We're going to change the world!")
code it up and flip the switch
(internal server error)

here comes another bubble
(VC #1: friendship bracelets and news is a game changer.)
the VCs are backing
(VC #2: The next wave of the web will be friendship bracelets.)
baby let's get cracking

blog, blog, blog it all
blog it if it’s big or small

blog at the cineplex
(justin.tv)
blog while you're having sex

blog in the locker room
babies blogging in the womb

blog even if you’re wrong
won’t you blog about this song?
(Yet Another Stupid Web 2.0 Video)

launch party, nicely dressed
what the point? sausage fest

blue shirt, khaki pants,
looking like a line of ants

need to get a facebook page
all these guys are half my age

twenty nice, past my prime
i feel so behind the times

here comes another bubble
(Matt is broke)
in a year we swear
we'll all be billionaires

make yourself a million bucks
partly skill, mostly luck

now you can afford a down payment
on a small house

if you want a bigger one
hillsborough, atherton

better hoipe the same thing
happened to your spouse

IPO... luky you
have your cake and eat it too

Party yacht, party jet
why not buy a matching set?

build yourself a rocket ship
blast off on an ego trip

can this really be the end?
back to work you go again

here comes another bubble
(im in ur serverz making thingz better!!, Twitter has problems!!)
and when we are gone
(You looked better on Myspace)
this will still go on

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Old and New Libyan License Plates

I've just stumbled across this website ( via TheB-Sides ) which shows license plates from around the world and from different periods of rule. So I checked for Libyan plates and managed to find the set I've posted below that include plates from the Italian occupation era :-O.

The only plates I've seen are the ones from the 1997 to 2001 set. I think they are lacking the yellow plates for the pick up trucks and some other plates from the 90's, but its a good collection nonetheless ;). You'll also notice how different numerical systems were used during different eras :-B.

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Cheney's Heart

Cheney's Doctors Detect Signs of Heart

By Andy Borowitz

In a stunning development that has confounded medical experts around the world, doctors examining Vice President Dick Cheney said today that they have detected signs of a heart.

The vice president was rushed to the hospital over the weekend after complaining of chest pains, but no one in Mr. Cheney's inner circle suspected that a human heart was the cause.

"We had been operating under the assumption that he didn't have one," said chief of staff David Addington, who said that Mr. Cheney also has not had a soul since 1995, when it was purchased by the Halliburton Corporation.

At George Washington University Hospital, doctors struggled to contain their excitement about what appeared to be the medical anomaly of the century: the sudden appearance of a human heart in a 66-year-old man.

"It is too early to say conclusively," said Dr. Carol Foyler, head of the team of doctors who examined the vice president. "But so far the beating and pumping sounds we are hearing in the vice president's chest cavity are very much consisten with his having a heart."

Dr. Foyler stressed that if the sounds emanating from Mr. Cheney's chest are those of a human heart, "This will contradict everything we thought we knew about Dick Cheney."

At the White House, spokesperson Dana Perino said that the sudden appearance of a heart in Dick Cheney's chest had motivated President Bush to schedule an MRI of his head.

Elsewhere, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) said that writing his memoirs would be "challenging," adding, "I can't even remember what I did last night."

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The New Alliance between Russia and India

Russia and India recently held a summit that ended with a number of strategic agreements, luckily for us an India hacker managed to infiltrate the communications system at the conference and provided us with a copy of parts of a discussion between two diplomats from both countries after the signing of the agreements.


source

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XBox package for only £33.24

It seems that someone at Tesco made a mistake while he was tagging an XBox package they were offering online, so instead of pricing it at £332.40 the zero was omitted and it became £33.24 ( or at least thats the rumor :P).



Unfortunately for me I wasn't one of the lucky few who managed to place an order before the mistake was rectified, but according to the discussions going on on this blog it seems that even those who managed to place an order before the price was corrected weren't lucky enough for the order to go through. From what they say Tesco emailed the lucky unlucky purchasers to apologize for the mistake and inform them that their orders were canceled :(.

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You've got to love this guy

In reply to a question from a reporter on the situation in Iraq President Bush Junior said ( you can see video of question here as well ):

If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you’d be saying: God, I love freedom, because that’s what’s happened.

Man, its times like these that I just wish I was Iraqi ! ( pun intended ) ............ I wonder if Rice can pull a few strings with her old friend Maliki and maybe get Bush an Iraqi citizenship so he can enjoy its freedom and prosperity .................

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A Mouse Trap in The House

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
What food might this contain? The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning :
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, " Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me."
" I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the sheep and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The sheep sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is
nothing I can do about it but pray."
"Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my
nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the
farmer's mousetrap.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a
mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did
not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.


The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital , and
she returned home with a fever.


Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took
his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with
her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the sheep.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.


So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to
provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.


We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
Remember,,,,

Each of us is a vital thread in another person’s tapestry;

Our lives are woven together for a reason.

One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a friend



P.S. I go this from a mailing list so I don't know its source.

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