Everyday, a handful of hot topics appear in blogspace, prompting bloggers to discuss the topic in parallel.  Yet, such topics are hard to categorize and posts related to the hot-topics propagate relatively slowly across blogspace.  One possible way to facilitate wider audience and speedier propagation of hot topic-related posts is to distribute Dynamic Categories via RSS.  Blog tools like Radio can then list the category along with Static Categories.  While I am not sure if this scheme will work, I do know that Static Categories supported by current crop of blog tools fails to meet my needs and often get stranded like my Favorites graveyard.

So much for popularity of checkboxes and radio buttons in web forms.

Aldisert disagreed that companies such as Amazon and eBay would be vulnerable if the lower-court decision is upheld. "Their questions weren't just 'What do you think?'" he said of the Matchmaker.com queries. "The closer thing to Metrosplash is if eBay were to ask, 'What do you think of this book?' and then to give choices saying, 'This book sucks. It's the worst book I've every read in my life.' Once you start framing answers for people, and not just asking questions, that's where I think you cross the line." [CNET News.com]

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I have an email here that suggests a large differential between mainstream press coverage of a "critical" security hole in Macromedia's Flash player…
[The Doc Searls Weblog]

In blogspace, hot topics come up daily and many bloggers simultaneously post on the topic, but I find it pretty difficult to find all the posts nor organize the discussion thread weaving across blogspace as discussion progresses.  Services like Daypop and Blogdex doesn't really help.

 

Location-based applications are new and exciting, but without a GPS device or an address, its difficult to figure out the location.  Getting location from IP address is not reliable.  For example, one IP-to-Address service reports that I am located in New Jersey although I am sitting at home located in the middle of SF peninsula.  Within cellular networks, location can be found by triangulation but current cellular network throughput is a severe constraint for many location-based applications.

So I have been thinking that WiFi can be used to get approximate location (within ~300 feet).  I know that there are new WiFi gears coming out that will extend the range to 1.2 miles, but it doesn't hurt to muse in case it leads to something interesting.  With such a service, a WiFi station can provide the location information to the user as well as the party at the other end.  One immediate application is stolen laptop retrieval.  What else?  Food for more thought.

[As I was writing this post, I searched google for information on destructive range of bombs because I was curious about how big a bomb is needed to ensure kill within 300 feet.  I hope my curiosity doesn't put me on Home Security Department's radar. <g>]

As a creative person with a big mouth, I often myself being a Pied Piper.  Its easy enough.  Start with a new (as in New & Improved) captivating viral idea and add liberal amount of charisma (I have been accused of being charismatic when I am mad enough to light up the fire in my eyes).  So one morning you wake up and realize that you got a horde of lemmings on your tail.  Now what?  You can't quit because you are the leader.  You can't stop because a movement requires you to move, preferrably forward.

I think this is what is happening with Joi Ito's Emergent Democracy.  More you talk to people and share your thoughts, more entangled you get.  If you are an intellect trained to see all sides of an issue, its a torture like an unbeliever forced to be the head priest.  Like Tim Oren, I found Joi's thoughts naive.  Allow me to skip the details for now to avoid being an Anti-Pied Piper, a position just as worse as Pied Piper.

Duh.  Basic idea of what I described has not only been done, there is even a name: wardriving.  I remember reading about a guy who did that in NY sometime back, but didn't connect the dots.  Duh Again.  I also found several sites where WiFi maps can be found.  Here is a national one and here is site where more detailed maps can be found although its SF area map shows WiFi points offshore.  Are these warboats or errors?

While GPS-based solution is done, I have not yet located one that uses addresses entered by WiFi station operators.  I did find an address to GPS coordinate mapping servce.  Wow!  This means all I need is a bit of software and lots of publicity to get WiFi Worldmap project off the ground.  Cool!

Dave's request for ideas for blogging across America gave me an idea on how a WiFi World Map can be built and updated.  Someone else must have thought of this idea.  Its just too simple and obvious.

All you need is a WiFi receiver, possibly optional GPS receiver, and a bit of software that sends GPS coordinates to WiFi World Map servers once in a while, effectively saying "Hey, I can connect by WiFI from here."  All that remains is a bit of server code that draws the dots on a world map.  If an area gets too hot, servers can tell reporting WiFi receiver to slow things down in the returned message.

GPS device will not be needed if approximate location can be provided by WiFi stations using some readily available information (like address) entered by the WiFi station operators.  Is there an address to geo-coordinate conversion web service?  A funny hack version could use graphical results of an address to map service (like Yahoo Maps) and figure out the location.  Just start with an address of which you know the GPS location of and then count the pixels to the target location on the returned image.  Heh.  Cool hack of hacks.

Of course, there must be a tangible benefit for people to install and run WiFi World Map client on their machine.  One obvious benefit is nearby WiFi station locator service (1.5 miles south west) as well as a warning service (20 miles from next nearest WiFi station).  I would find such service useful.

If no one else is doing this already and enough people and companies are willing to donate some time, funds, or equipment, I think we can make this happen rather quickly.

Red Herring was one of my regular reads.  Reading Red Herring was like what reading newspaper sports section must be like for sports fans — I avoid the sports section like the plague.  Now Red Herring is closing its doors.  I will miss it.  Farewell.

So long and thanks for all the Red Herrings.