DISQUS

Two free PDF tools for you: primopdf to create PDF, pdftk (or pdftk builder) to manipulate PDF.

Cheers- Sid
pdftk guy

Hold down the SHIFT key when you launch Reader or Acrobat and it will skip loading the plug-ins. If you want it to never load a plug-in, just move the plug-in files from the plug_ins directory to Optional (or some other, inert location). You can learn about the plug-ins and their filenames by selecting Help > About Adobe Plug-Ins.... (These are Windows-specific tips that can be adapted to Mac.)

For command-line PDF manipulation, try my free (gpl) pdftk: http://www.pdftk.com. I'm planning a new release this week. Java and C# fans should check out iText: http://www.lowagie.com/iText/

Oh, and please buy my book, PDF Hacks. ;-)

Cheers- Sid

I'm with Joseph. Who can organize a Sacto meetup? I created a webnote wiki where we can collaborate.

cgraham149-

As I recall, Robert likes BBQ -- that's good Summer fare, too. Midtown Sac might appeal to his Seattle roots. Lots of nice little places to eat and lots of color.

Robert- Please file Foundd.com next to TagJag in your folder of 5,500 things. Here's the pitch:

Foundd is a search engine front end that gives you fast access to a number of sites: Google, MSN, Technorati, Amazon, del.icio.us, Rollyo, etc. You tell it what you use, and it wires them in.

It also has a place where you can drag-and-drop interesting pages and links. These become part of your search results.

I wish I had time to conference. I /do/ have a killer Westfalia camper that I want to geek-out for code-on-the-road trips. Maybe I'll see you soon. Cheers- Sid

Robert- you /are/ on a roll -- especially enjoying your posts these days.
Readers might be interested in an experiment of mine. It is an online service where bloggers (or anybody with a website) could barter eyeballs: I send you 20 eyeballs, you send me 20 eyeballs. It's really just a controlled way to trade links. If the eyeballs stop showing up, then the ads stop displaying until the eyeball flow balances out again.
The idea was to allow bloggers to advertise online and build readership by dealing directly w/ other bloggers. And the eyeball currency keeps dollars in your pocket.
BTW, it's not for SEO -- my robots.txt blocks 'em.
LinkLike: http://linklike.com
Cheers- Sid

BTW, I'm assuming your title is subtlely humorous, as "king of all trolls" is, of course, trollish. Anyhow, troll kings live on usenet.

I'm a Carr fan, but his piece on Wikipedia sheds much more heat than light.

FWIW, not all online gadgets are built for $$$. I have created a succession of little services much the same way a blogger writes articles. I call it the implementation conversation:

"We all, I think, want some portion of fame and fortune. Regardless of these rewards, we are all hooked on the thrill of hatching new ideas and sharing them with friends."

More favorite drinks to recommend. Pinot Grigio is a delightful, dry white wine that doesn't linger. Old Australian Stout is a marvelous brew you can find at Trader Joe's. It doesn't beat the flavor of Guinness on tap, but Old Australian has unusual powers of its own.

Turn up the positive, turn down the negative -- I dig it. On workdays I try to stick to tea ("Earl Grey. Hot") -- coffee can send me into orbit.

I've been too busy to read blogs -- lucky me! Idle hands are the devil's tools, and all that.

Some ideas for the gatekeeper problem.

Recruit an assistant (or five) to screen submissions. Use voluteers, kind of like a guest blogging system. Post the results on a seperate site -- same way Pete Cashmore created Weblist to take the pressure off Mashable.

Send candidate products to all of your volunteers to review. If any of them find it interesting, allow any/all of them to post their thoughts (but without collaboration). One topic -- mutliple viewpoints.

Trackbacks and comments on each product post would flesh it out. Each product post would become like a URL for that conversation.

FWIW- Sid

I am also sensitive to the bottom line. Last year I hatched a related commenting service called GoJot.com. I still love it, but I was never able to figure out how it could make money. My takeaway: mission statement first, then code! (-: It was fun, so I really have no regrets.

Glad to see you have comment RSS on your blog. I think co.mment.com is on the right track. In a year, we'll have a dozen good comment RSS aggregators to choose from and all platforms will offer comment RSS.

Robert-

Has bookmarklet support changed in IE7? IE6 restricts them to 508 characters in length, silently trimming excess before processing. It would be nice if IE7 loosened up on this.

This coComments user runs into bookmarklet trouble using coComments on IE7:
http://et.cairene.net/2006/02/07/cocomment/

Without knowing more, it sounds like the bookmarklet gets trimmed by IE7.

Thanks for your insights.

"Please, hosting companies, more partnerships with CoComments!"

Rather: please, more built-in RSS feeds for comments!

Laurent: thanks for the reply! Perhaps you could use /both/ active (user bookmarklet) and passive (comment RSS) approaches? A third idea: scraping comments from popular sites w/o comment RSS. As if you don't have enough on your plate already ;-)

RE RSS: why not build a comment tracker service that slurps comment RSS? The bookmarklet device is a serious hurdle, esp. to Joe User on IE.

I have also dabbled with this idea (see GoJot.com). I wonder, though. Why not simply scrape blog comment feeds for content? Then you could dispense with bookmarklets. This page has comment RSS, for example.

I think The Personal Bee also falls into this category. It is intelligent and customizable:

http://personalbee.com