Noise Between Stations

May 2003

  • Metadata Glossary

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    1 min read

    In an attempt to summarize the relationship among various metadata-related terms and how they relate to building Internet systems I created a metadata glossary. Addressed, for example, are metadata, taxonomies, indexing, CMS, Semantic Web, and XML. I then ordered and tied the terms together with a bit of narrative to explain the relationships among the…

  • Jury Duty

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    2 min read

    I’m serving on jury duty now, as many Americans do in our system of judgement-by-peers. I can’t discuss the actual case, but wanted to record some pedestrian notes: No one is quite as bright as on Law and Order, which is not surprising as the writing there is fast, dense, and excellent. Incidentally, if you…

  • Hudson Valley Adventure

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    2 min read

    Had a great weekend in the Hudson Valley. For miles and miles both sides of the river offer gorgeous views. We rented a car and drove first to the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, now owned by the U.S. Park Service after the Vanderbilts failed to find a buyer for it in the late 30’s.…

  • New RSS Feed

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    1 min read

    Here’s my new RSS feed. It’s a bit of a hack, generating a Movable Type RSS file and using a server side include to pull in the Tinderbox entries, but it works (or at least it validates :).

  • Sadlee

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    1 min read

    Tomorrow, sadly, Mike Lee ends his stay in New York to return to Baltimore. Mike’s a talented, smart, thoughtful person we’ve been lucky to have around for the past few months, talking IA, admiring his gorgeous photography, and stirring up Sidekick lust. Mike, don’t forget to visit!

  • New Email Address

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    1 min read

    If you’re a regular, please note I’m migrating to a new address: victor at victorlombardi dot com. Please don’t post it on websites and such (unless you encode it as I have here), I’d like to keep the spam to a minimum. And yes, there’s a shameless ego-page at that domain.

  • New RSS Feed Coming Soon

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    1 min read

    ‘Sadness sweeps through the land as NBS’s RSS feed goes silent. The dark gloom and numbness that has enveloped my soul is only slightly touched by the drizzle of rain that soaks my clothes and sends shivers down my back,‘ writes James, and I’m sure you’re all suffering a similar fate. Any day now I’ll…

  • & vs. AND

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    1 min read

    Does anyone know of guidelines for using ampersands vs. the word and when constructing terms in a taxonomy, like Fruits and Vegetables vs. Fruits & Vegetables?

  • Craft and Engineering

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    1 min read

    Peterme et al on Craft and Engineering in user experience design. Engineering must refer to usability engineering, with accompanying research. While I’ve been a proponent of the craft approach, I don’t see why there couldn’t be systematic methods inserted where appropriate. I think it’s premature to debunk, or even debate, design engineering as we don’t…

  • Competitive Criteria

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    1 min read

    How much business might I have lost so far? How much do I stand to lose in the next year? How much could I gain by doing what Java Jim is doing? What could I lose by not doing it (my whole business??) How much can I invest in my website? What would happen if…

  • Catalyst of Consumer Lust

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    2 min read

    The phone rings, she shakes her head free of coffee lust and jogs to the phone, rubbing her slightly oily fingers on her apron. "Hello, Sweet as Love. This is Catherine""Hi, Catherine, it’s Tim, from Angelina’s." Angelina’s had been a huge boost to her business a year ago when Tim, a manager there, suggested Sweet…

  • Bend It

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    1 min read

    Bend It Like Beckham…fucking brilliant.

  • Taxonomies Requiring LIS Knowledge

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    1 min read

    I’m doing a lot of heavy taxonomy lifting these days. Because it involves working with existing systems, what I find more useful than LIS knowledge is IS knowledge, being able to talk to DBAs and read database tables, talking to the people who have to implement this stuff. In this case I’m reverse engineering and…

  • Sneakernet in New Form Factor

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    1 min read

    I didn’t completely get the utility of those new little USB pen drives until I saw them in action as the new sneakernet. In a world where removable disks are more rare but everyone has USB, they are the new floppy disk for exchanging files quickly, no networking needed.

  • Indisposed

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    1 min read

    Excuse my lack of blogging/email/other, I’m away on business and frantically trying to keep up with everything. More contact and blogging will ensue in a week or two.