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February 10, 2006
Site Updates, etc.
Since I like creating work for myself, and because yinshuisiyuan put a bug in my ear recently, I'm going to redesign the 'Aqoul Aggregator.
A quick review for new readers: http://syn.aqoul.com was an "experimental" subdomain for aggregating bits of news and bloggery from a variety of XML feeds on the web. Originally built for my personal use (still is, even though other people seem to read it), I soon realized that bloggers routinely screw up their XML output files and often disappear without warning. This is why the RSS feed generated by the Aggregator - the "feed of feeds" first requested by Dr Doug - is still broken. These annoying little bugs made the whole exercise somewhat tedious, so I left things alone for a while.
However, I did come up with some rather cunning plans last night around 4am:
First, I plan to do away with the "blog" format (slim 2-column) and try a more newsy layout that collects conventional media headlines, press releases and blog feeds all on one page.
Second, since I am a benevolent dictator, this round of development will include consultations. I may still ignore the input, but the effort is there (take note, Karen Hughes).
So, are there any publications or blogs that authors or visitors consider "essential" MENA reading? Feel free to shamelessly self-promote.
Posted by eerie at February 10, 2006 01:03 PM
Filed Under: Site News
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Comments
i'm glad at least one of my suggestions has been heard around here!
are you going to go for the "google news" look?
and why on earth were you awake at 4am? i hope there was a conference call involved!
Posted by: drdougfir at February 10, 2006 04:09 PM
I put a bug in your ear? I hope it wasn't that confucianism post, that went really, really wierd on blogger too - I tried to update it and it kept going 'null' on me. I'm yearning after movable type - maybe i might make a move at some point...
Posted by: waterboy at February 10, 2006 09:57 PM
Move? Well, perhaps there is real estate.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at February 11, 2006 12:50 AM
This was a stupid idea. Am slowly being driven mad by a single bug.
Posted by: eerie at February 11, 2006 12:56 AM
dear e,
here my ideas for things for the aggregator:
HEADLINES:
IPS Inter Press Service - Middle East
http://www.ipsnews.net/rss/middle.xml
IHT - Africa & Middle East
http://www.iht.com/rss/africa.xml
Ha'aretz – News
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/enewsRss.jhtml
FT.com / World / Middle East & Africa
http://news.ft.com/rss/world/mideastafrica
Yahoo! News: Iraq
http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/iraq
Yahoo! News: Mideast Conflict
http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/mideast
MENA Blogs:
Juan Cole – Informed Comment
http://www.juancole.com/rss.xml
Josh Landis – Syria Comment
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/atom.xml
Saudi Jeans (KSA)
http://saudijeans.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mahmood’s Den (Bahrain)
http://www.mahmood.tv/images/buttons/rss.gif
ciao,
--raf*
Posted by: raf* at February 15, 2006 07:49 AM
IPS - ok
IHT - ok
Haaretz - tried, bad feed
FT Mideast - already there
Yahoo! - ok
Juan - already there
Josh - already there
Saudi Jeans - ok
Mahmood - already there
Right now it's doing something a bit odd in that it refuses to publish things from yesterday. Bug fixes starting to irritate me as I would like to write in English now and then.
Posted by: eerie at February 15, 2006 08:55 AM
dear e,
ok. didn't see those ... did you set it so it only shows the last 5 mena blogs? i'd set it at ... 15 or 20, or even 25. otherwise, if it's renewed every hour ... we'll miss most posts.
ciao,
--raf*
Posted by: raf* at February 15, 2006 10:40 AM
It's supposed to show 25 blog entries, but refuses to do so if some of the 25 were published yesterday. There are 30+ blogs in the "seed" file, perhaps that is causing problems. Odd little bug, will have to fix it tonight.
As for the media feeds, they refresh at different times so in the morning you see Asharq, late morning FT shows up, etc.
Posted by: eerie at February 15, 2006 10:48 AM
dear e,
is there any way that clicks on links open up in a new window? or that wordpress learns how to show "weird" letters, like e with accent and the like ...
just ... in case you don't know what to do over the weekend.
--raf*
Posted by: raf* at February 16, 2006 07:07 AM
