Disqus - Friends of Sciphu

Re: Is FeedBurner Pushing the Envelope on Trust?

mndoci — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 05:21:57 -0000

I started using Feedburner recently, but am keeping a watchful eye. The service is certainy very useful, but the margin for error on their end is very small. I hadn't even noticed the ad until I just looked

Re: We are back, but not quite fully functional

mndoci — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 19:31:09 -0000

test

Re: It’s amazing how far Silicon Valley culture travels

mndoci — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 13:08:52 -0000

I am with some of the others in this thread. This is not silicon valley culture. Meetups and events around the software industry, especially the web and startups, might be very silicon valley, esp if VCs are involved, but in terms of connectivity, etc, many countries in Asia are far ahead.

Re: It’s amazing how far Silicon Valley culture travels

mndoci — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 13:49:50 -0000

If you are talking about an environment that fosters startups, you have a point, but there is a big difference between the availability of money (and subsequently an imported talent pool) and culture. Using search as a means to access information is hardly a silicon valley monopoly. Also, as someone pointed out, the South Koreans and the Japanese are light years ahead of the US in mobile phone usage and bandwidth.

If someone in Wales comes up with the next great search engine and someone in San Jose uses that search engine, would we say, look at the spread of Welsh culture? I doubt it.

Re: It’s amazing how far Silicon Valley culture travels

mndoci — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:34:25 -0000

I sure hope not. Considering that I spend more time on google than anywhere else. You bring up an excellent point in Baidu. From what I hear it's a great search engine, but it was developed for a local audience. It wasn't developed for you and me, and there's nothing wrong with that, since there are a billion people who understand chinese.

Google and other web technologies are incredibly democratizing, and they have had a huge impact on the worlds, and if you had presented it that way, I don't think there would have been the flurry of replies that you got. Using the web is not silicon valley culture. I doubt Google was developed just to satisfy the thirst for search of people in the bay area. The consumer is worldwide. The culture is the environment, the VCs, the talent pool. At least that's how I interpret culture.

Re: Peer Review: Nature takes the lead

mndoci — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:23:47 -0000

John

I don't disagree with you. I think Hari, who has commented earlier on this post, will completely agree with you. In companies, ELNs are become common place and mandatory. A general open ELN framework would be a great idea. Wiki-style formats are my personal favorite.

Re: The role of a University?

mndoci — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:19:53 -0000

Interesting one. In a journalism department, I don't see why not. All journalists should have some knowledge of the tools of the trade, and being theoretically minded myself, a course on the social/business impact of modern communication would be an ideal one to go through.

Personally, I feel that there is too little emphasis on knowledge, and for knowledge to be appreciated and aggregated, a fundamental understanding of the underlying concepts is essential. That understanding drives curiosity and helps people gain more from that knowledge. As LayZ says, university education should make people think, about scientific problems, social problems, historical questions, take your pick. I would pick science and mathematics 100 times out of 100, but that's me.

Re: Software tools – A question to the blogosphere

mndoci — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:37:40 -0000

Thanks :)
It's not the host as such, but rather the software tools. I can't make up my mind which direction to go and I don't have the bandwidth to experiment, esp with some of the plans I have up my sleeve

I like Eclipse, but there are so many good platforms out there (Flex, etc) for rich content. I guess I am trying to make a one time decision and stick to it.

Re: Software tools – A question to the blogosphere

mndoci — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:31:11 -0000

Gary. thank you for the feedback

I don't disagree with you at all. All my programming has always been done either in emacs (historically my editor of choice) or Crimson Editor, depending on the OS that I am on. Even when I had access to Dreamweaver, I essentially used it as a glorified FTP client and vanilla text editor, since I always prefer writing in HTML. If my goals were to stick to html/css/php, I am quite happy with my current workflow. From what you suggest, the text editor approach might be the best one for rich media, etc as well.

One reason I thought of trying Eclipse was that, since its free, it won't be money thrown away of I go back to that trusty text editor.

Re: IT and research – A clash of cultures

mndoci — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:29:33 -0000

You know that I share those sentiments. As for RDBMS, that's what virtualization is for :-)

Re: Things I noticed #15

mndoci — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 14:15:12 -0000

I completely agree. I am increasingly optimistic that by the turn of the decade, a significant portion of the community will be adopting such methods.

Re: Jeff Sandquist scores one for Microsoft

mndoci — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 13:54:14 -0000

This is a great hire. Jeff deserves a promotion just for pulling this off.

Re: Worldchanging

mndoci — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 09:24:54 -0000

Thanks for the recommendation. Since it isn't the thinnest book in the world, I will probably buy it when I know I have a weekend available with no distractions, but looks like I might just give it a shot

Re: Biology, search and Udell

mndoci — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:36:43 -0000

Jean-Claude

I participated in a discussion on long tail phenomena recently and it became very clear to me that Google Co-op has so much potential in bringing useful information to people. I am surprised more people have not adopted it. Not too many people seem to know about it.

Re: Those pesky ads

mndoci — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:52:08 -0000

Derrick

I appreciate your comments. ... and if that ever happens, hit me on the head with a BIG stick

Re: The scientific conversation - Culture wars

mndoci — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:05:50 -0000

That is a response I have heard often. It will change. Proprietary APIs and keeping things close to the vest were part of the tech culture and see what's happened there.

To some extent the fault lies in the grant and patent systems. At the very least they provide a mental barrier. Hopefully, in time there will be enough momentum to overcome those barriers. You are right, it won't take many.

Re: PLoS One – The implications

mndoci — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:24:55 -0000

I agree. It's not about how many, but who and how long. I do think that Nature's implementation left something to be desired (that said, it was a worthwhile experiment).

Re: Things I noticed #17

mndoci — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 01:59:55 -0000

Krish

Thanks. I did not know that. I guess that's quite the feather in the Google cap.

Re: An open scientific future

mndoci — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:56:35 -0000

Bill,

I have heard of BioForge, although never really taken a good look at it. The other site (and I am going to update my post to add that) that I think I like is OpenWetware. I do like that BioForge looks at the whole patent issue.

What I think the field is lacking is some leadership. You and I can scream ourselves hoarse, but I do think that some "influentials" will have to make this their calling for sustained success. I do think that biologists are facing such a huge data issue, that they will have to face this issue head on.

Re: Digg-ing science

mndoci — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 10:35:25 -0000

I've been participating in some discussions with a group recently and the recurring theme there is that it is who how many, but who and for how long that really matters. Makes a lot of sense to me. At my end, referrals from other blogs, google and technorati are definitely way ahead of any resource.

The question, or so I think, is "who is your audience?". I think that sort of dictates everything. Assuming we have identified an audience, do we have the tools for the intended audience to find our blogs and whatever else we might have?

Re: Digg-ing science

mndoci — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:14:56 -0000

Metrics and analytics are critical if you want to be a successful blogger. I use multiple options these days (I've yet to try sitemeter though).

I don't understand blogs that don't allow commenting. It defeats the purpose of a blog in the first place. I have not quite been as proactive about contacting authors but that's a great idea. At least, they get to have a voice indirectly and maybe, over time, participate as well.

Re: A new model for CASP

mndoci — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:08:02 -0000

Pawel

I remember LiveBench. I think I even used it a couple of times.

What carrots would drive CASP participants? They still get bragging rights if they deserve it.

Re: A new model for CASP

mndoci — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:42:59 -0000

LorriM

Thank you. Looking forward to getting the official notice and participating in the community

Re: 9 rules

mndoci — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 09:42:04 -0000

Thanks a ton. The re-design was a long time coming. Might make more changes, but at least I don't wake up every morning and go "I really need to change the design"

Re: 9 rules

mndoci — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:47:11 -0000

Rick

This was the second time for me too, so I am sure you will get in next time, especially since you have one of the better designed blogs out there.

Thanks for reading!!!