Drupal 6's Feed Aggregator works well
I really love Drupal 6’s feed aggregator. It has the ability to aggregate numerous RSS (Really Simple Sybndication) news or blog feeds, categorize them, and keep them current, all in the effort to save you the trouble of going to each news source and hunting for relevant news. All you have to do is chose a category, read the summary and click the link for the article you what you want.
A recently announced Chinese subsidy program targeting farmers has expanded it’s range of eligible items from the traditional home appliances to computers. This is an effort to spur domestic consumption. While on first reflection this seems like a good plan, note that farmers have a very low income. They have not benefited from China’s once booming economy as much as China’s urban middle class. Family members who have ventured to China’s big cities to become migrant workers are now facing grave difficulties finding employment. Many are forced to return home, causing great concern from the Chinese government. Further, conditions at the village level will not allow computer technology and knowledge to flourish. In these conditions I do not think many will be splurging on a new computer purchase.
Single signon is the ability to authenticate once and then have access to all your computer system. In the chaotic world of the internet, with so many individual sites with different owners, one tends to login multiple times a day. OpenID is a concept from the Open Source movement to simplify this process. It is still in its infancy, and there are a few issues, the single biggest one for me is that I cannot get it to work.
I‘ve now spent some time playing with Yahoo Pipes. Now I have a couple of great Pipes that aggregate and filter worldwide sources for news on China and Japan. As well I have also found a huge number of blogs about China. They are all aggregated on my website DonTai.com. To put all these worldwide sources, filtered by keyword, into one simple web page, for each a linked title and a small description, is great. It saves so much time. You read the title and the small description and you decide to delve in deeper or to pass. It is brilliant.
TThere is no question that contributing on the web in China is fraught with a level of personal risk not seen in the West. Here, no one really cares what you write, provided it is not racist and does not defame anyone.
___In China, blogs and blog service providers get shut down on a regular basis. No explanations or warnings are given. This is what happened with a large Chinese blog provider Bulldog.cn last month. A blog that has run for one year is considered to be long lived. Search for the most popular blogs in China and you’ll find many that are posted on local blogrolls no longer exist. Here today, gone tomorrow. You’ll find previously vibrant URLS shuttered, all content gone, no comments allowed, no explanation given. It’s all very subtle.
Overwhelming is an understatement when I describe available news on the Internet. Just get on Google’s news section and search for something. If it is anything remotely general, mountains of pages of links will topple out of your monitor and cascade onto your head like a pile of bricks. You then grit your teeth and dig your way out.
I continue to search for work, and Monster.ca is one of many sites I visit. Lately I have noticed that almost all of the jobs posted on Monster are from headhunters. It’s not that headhunters are bad per se, but that some of their advertised job descriptions are close to: “Wanted: Live animal. Able to stand up and breath without keeling over. Please send your resume to ima @ headhunter.com”. Would it kill the recruiter to provide a little more position-related information? Often times there are three headhunters from the same agency posting essentially the same cut and paste effort to the same job board. Do you think that possible candidates do not notice this?
In a move after surplusing 4,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada, IBM has created a program called “Project Match”, offering them jobs in various Third world countries. This program was discussed in Informationweek this Monday.
___On the positive side these workers are already surplused, so for IBM to offer them any position anywhere is positive. IBM will help in some relocation and immigration support. While the salaries will be a fraction of their North American wage, these workers can have a great international experience and live a life of luxury, with drivers, maids and gardeners at their beck and call.
I like Google, I really do. It’s my primary search engine. I like their university roots and what they’ve done. There’s no question they have shaped and nurtured the internet in a way no other search engine has done. Searches come back lickety split and Google Scholar is awesome. Their photos and news section are tops.
I can input both English and Chinese (Mandarin, 普通话, 国语) on my computer. Mostly I type English, and every so often I do Chinese. Sometimes I like to torture myself by going to Mainland China and Singapore websites to read Chinese. It’s not often but a little searing pain between the ears helps you appreciate what you have. A reasonable memory for Chinese words. And English.
I have highlighted this site because this site really stands out. By capturing the essence of the organization, working as an effective marketing tool, as well having strong usability, this is one very effective and creative website.