Tag: xlink

What happened to attribution friendly Xpointer?

xpointer use for attribution

I was thinking while writing the last blog post. What happened to the Xpointer standard?

XPointer (the XML Pointer language) allows hyperlinks to point to specific parts (fragments) of XML documents.

I guess in the rush to move away from XHTML in favour of HTML5, the whole idea of compound documents got shuffled into a back alley and stabbed to death by the XHTML haters. So even if browsers supported Xpointer, it simply wouldn’t parse and therefore work.

Interestingly HTML 5.0 has embed but its not the same solution as Xpointer was solving. For example here’s wordpress creating a iframe which twitter (the 3rd party) can choose to put what they link in. I think originally it was oembed but got changed

I’m already slightly over the concern that one day my blog will be full of ads, spam, malware, tracking cookies and worst. The day that happens, I’ll be removing all iframes using XSL or a wordpress plugin.

Its a crying shame because attribution is the lifeblood of the creative industry and without it, were pretty much screwed. Its seems crazy that I can’t easily traceback my steps to how I found quotes, blog posts, etc. Right now this whole thing is broken, bookmarking isn’t the solution. It needs to be at the word level. Personal annotation style?

I have to favourite things on twitter, look through my play history and search my emails to find who actually recommended something to me. Maybe this can only be solved by the quantified self and lifestreams but I think there’s unexplored ways which xpointer was leaning towards.

Storing Mindmaps by date

Tedxliverpool mindmap in google calendar

Been  looking for a way to store my mindmaps, connect them to calendar events/ meetings all with the minimum of stress. Then I happen to look through Calendar Labs and saw this…

Event attachments
By Sundaresan V and Oana F – Mar 2010

Attach a Google document, spreadsheet or presentation to your event or upload a file from your computer. Important: guests do not automatically have permission to view Google Docs attachments. You must share each attached document.

As Mindmup already stores the mindmaps on Google Drive, it should be easy enough to link them to calendar events. Therefore making it easy to find them and easily retrievable. I’m not sure if this is the case if its somebody elses calendar request but theres only one way to find out.

Well it certainly saves me building some custom solution with my own version control system (had thought about running a XMLDB or NoSQL db locally and creating Xlinks to the mindmaps. And this could be done because Mindmup is open, has a API and is using standard technologies.

Doesn’t quite solve my Evernote connection issue, plus its really a binary blob rather than a nice mindmap but alas its the best I can think. I was going to give Google Keep a try for storing notes, so maybe that might do something better with it.

Banned from the Sony network? Head to Xlink Kai

Sony is kicking Playstation3 Users off the PlayStation network if they have any kind of hacked firmware is what I heard on Technews today yesterday.

It looks like Sony’s making good on a promise to ban PS3 users who’ve hacked or elected to run unauthorized software on their consoles. Members of hacking site PS3Hax claim Sony’s already wielding its banhammer against "jailbroken" PS3s, knocking the consoles off the company’s PlayStation Network permanently.

I instantly thought… Well if I was in that position I would simply use the Xlink Kai network

XLink Kai: Evolution VII lets you connect with other console users around the world, and play online games for free. XLink Kai: Evo VII tricks your console into thinking that the other users it is connecting to over the Internet, are actually part of a Local Area Network. This is the basis of system-link gaming, where friends would gather around in the same house and play over 2 or more consoles. With XLink Kai: Evo VII, you now have the option to test your skills out with anybody in the world. As for the technical aspects of tunnelling network packets, we won’t bore you with that…

Fascinating project with some real interesting technology, ok its more hassle that simply logging on to xbox live or what ever but its free and you can people on different consoles.