metacritic

"Metacritic compiles reviews from respected critics and publications for film, video/dvd, music and games. Our unique Metascores show the critical consensus at a glance by taking a weighted average of critic grades."

Interesting.

The best of both worlds?

Upon reading some of the comments abouut the new Blogger WYSIWYG editor, I'm prompted to point out one of its unique (and coolest) features, which I didn't mention yesterday, but which Chris talked about: It takes HTML.

That is, if you type <b>bold</b> into your post, instead of using the keyboard shortcut or toolbar button, it will not be escaped, as would be the case with other editors. The word bold will be bold. (That means, to actually write out escaped code, as I did in that first sentence, you need to escape it yourself. But that's a much rarer occurence (at least for most people). And you'd have to do that with a non-wysiwyger anyway. Ooh, nice. I think I'm going to shorten "WYSIWYG editor" to "wysiwyger" from now on.)

Also, as I mentioned yesterday, it will remember whatever mode you were in last (WYSIWYG mode or HTML mode), so it defaults to whatever you prefer (and by "will," I mean "will soon." That was part of the design, but a bug is keeping that from exactly happening right now...:).

Additionally, the formatting is done with CSS, not <FONT> tags and such, as is the case with IE's edit mode.

These things are part of what I was referring to when I said, "we did some unique things that we think will make it more useful/less-annoying than the out-of-the-box solutions." And I think they go along way to reducing the concerns of those who pride themselves on typing HTML and are annoyed when they see WYSIWYG. (Not that there have been nearly as many of those as people who are joyous that they don't have to.)

Lastly -- yes, there have been several other problems! Chris is slaving away at the moment pushing fixes. (Thanks for your patience. This is a complicated one.)

That's my sales pitch of the day. Thank you and good night.

Also: Some questions addressed in the previous posts' comments.

Now in Blogger: WYSIWYG

We just launched a spankin' new Blogger post editor, with rich-text, what-you-see-is-what-you-get formatting. Screenshot:

A lot of web-apps have this feature. But we did some unique things that we think will make it more useful/less-annoying than the out-of-the-box solutions (thanks to the ninja-master scriptiness of Mr. Massless).

I think it'll take some getting-used to (if you don't like it, just switch to the "Edit HTML" tab, and Blogger will remember that for you -- oops, looking at that.) But it's going to be so worth it, just to make lists:

• Orange juice
• Taco shells
• Tuna
• Candles...

...for your date tonight.

Also, for copy-and-paste: When you paste in text from the web, links are maintained, but other HTML (like table cells!) is removed.

Fun.

Note for FireFox on the Mac users: Go into Preferences / Web Features and allow pop-ups for blogger.com. There seems to be a bug that blocks them now when you hit upload file or spellcheck (even though it shouldn't, because the user requested the pop-up).

Techdirt: How To Sell The Same Startup Twice

In 1999 the entrepreneurs behind a photo hosting company named Webshots sold their company to Excite@Home for $82.5 million. Not bad. Even better, though, was that a few years later, after Excite@Home went bankrupt, the founders bought Webshots back at an $80 million discount, paying just $2.4 million. That was pretty smart of them... because now, two years later, they've flipped the company again, this time to CNET, for $70 million, $60 million of which is in cold hard cash (they've obviously learned the value). You have to wonder if this agreement has a buy back option as well. While most news stories focusing on the deal are comparing it to Google's similar Picasa purchase yesterday, this bit of yo-yo startup reselling is a much more interesting story.

That's very cool (says me greedy entrepreneurial heart ;).

DotComGuy changes name...back

I guess this whole dot-com thing may not work out, after all:

The man who legally changed his name to DotComGuy changed it back Tuesday - to Mitch Maddox. In 2000, Maddox spent one year at home and living off purchases made on the Internet. Video footage of his life was streamed on the Internet 24 hours a day and attracted worldwide media attention.

He hasn't given up all hopes, though. The name and trademark are on eBay, hoping for an opening bid of $100,000.

The Emerging Technologies conference... oh wait, wrong one

MIT is putt on an ETCON. I thought it was O'Reilly when it landed in my inbox.

Bartendar, I'll have a blog, please

I search on Google Groups for early uses of the term "blog" reveals the following:

You should be aware that Blog was originally devised by British fans in the 1950s. There were two versions. A Liverpool fan named Peter Hamilton came up with the recipe for Blog Mark I, which consisted of "a brandy and egg flip base, to which was added black currant puree, Alka Seltzer, and Beechan's Powder. It effervesced." A second, simplified version (Blog Mark II) was produced by hotel barmen at the first Kettering Eastercon (1955) and consisted of "a half-pint of cider and a measure of rum." Anybody know what `egg flip' and `Beecham's Powder' are? (Quoted material taken from p.168 of A WEALTH OF FABLE, by Harry Warner, Jr.)

I'm amazed I never came across that before. Another reference to the drink variety:

At worldcon, there is a group called Minniapolis in '73 which holds 'bid parties' for their now defunct bid. There, they serve a drink called blog. A lovely pink, punch-like concoction whose exact components remain something of a mystery. However, it is quite strong. (And yummy!) I had one and was inspired to the following filk. (I should mention I had been to a Ren and Stimpy party just before going to Miniapolis in 73.)

(Scene shift to a fan in propeller beany on a blank background)
Voice: Hey fan, want a drink?
Fan: Sure
Voice: How about some romulan ale
Fan: Uh uh
Voice: A pan-galactic gargle blaster!
Fan: NO!
Voice: Then what?
Fan: (pause) Blog!

You'll roll down stairs, fall off your chair, and hump your neighbors dog
It goes with a snack, you'll lie on your back, it's blog, blog, BLOG!

It's blog, it's blog
It's pink, it's yummy, it's punch
It's blog, it's blog
It'll make you lose your lunch

You're gonna love your blog
Come on and get your blog
Everyone loves their blog

Blog--get blammoed!

Enjoy!
Harold