Christmas Atmosphere in Zagreb, Croatia

A shot I made on the Ban Jelacic Square in Zagreb, Croatia, 22.12.2006. The people prepare for Christmas, and the shops expect an invasion.

Which Website are You?

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Which Website are You?


Snopes.com

USA Legalizes Abandonware

According to PCS Intel, the U.S. Copyright Office has issued new rules, effective November 26, enabling public access to commercially unavailable software.

New rules officially permit the use and distribution of so-called Abandonware, or software that is no longer generally available to the public (in the form it was originally released). Meaning, you can now legally use MAME to emulate classic arcade games on your phone (assuming it's powerful enough... and the game is no longer available).

The above article speaks specifically about phone software, and the good news from the original text of Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works is:

Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Meaning, your use of classic science fiction games for DOS, such as Dune and Elite, from sites such as Abandonia is officially decriminalized!

Source: Science Fiction Observer, 02.12.2006.

Testing Blogger in Beta by opening a new blog: SF Observer

I started a new blog--Science Fiction Observer--as a way to test the new version of Blogger, Blogger in Beta. The new systems retains all the advantages of the old version, while the following added functionalities seem most useful at this time

• modular design elements - they can be included in the template or turned off with great ease
• dynamic catherogizing of the posts via "labels" (tags, keywords)
• redesigned user interface - it's more user friendly and "better looking"
• you can still manually change and adjust the template code

I have extremelly positive general impression. When possible, I'll migrate the existing blogs from the old to the new Blogger. This possibility is currently delayed for large blogs or in some other cases.

PS
Help promoting the new SF and related topics blog by putting links to it or particular posts from your blogs/websites. If you are a member of StumbleUpon or Digg, put a good word through those services. The former proved quite effective, garnering over a 1000 visitors during yesterday, according to SF Observer's SiteMeter.

Sources (from the Macedonian version of Razvigor)

• Тестирање на Блогер ин бета со отворање нов блог - SF Observer
• Стамбл апон: изненадувачки ефективен при промоција на блог

Who is Your Favorite Hominid?

[Originally published January 26, 2006]

Australopithecus Africanus Paranthropus Boisei Homo Georgicus Homo Heidelbergensis Homo Floresiensis

Australopithecus Robustus Homo Habilis Homo Erectus Homo Neanderthalensis Homo Sapiens

Current results

Forumisation of the Blogs from Macedonia

[Originally published January 19, 2006]

During 2005 I noticed a trend I provisionally named "forumisation of the blogs" from Macedonia, i.e. using blogs as a kind of "dispersed forum" ( Jovan). The blogger plays the role of moderator: starting a topic with his/her post, and then letting the visitors—including many other bloggers—providing comments, sometimes leading lengthy polemics.

This trend is not necessarily bad, but is different from the practice in the outside world, where majority of the bloggers, especially those most successful, use their own blogs to comment posts or articles published on other blogs or websites. Such comments usually consist of:

• Short summary/blogger's opinion
• Quote, and
• (Obligatory) link to the source.

The mutual deep linking in particular (alongside the blogroll) enabled the blogs to rise to the level of new and influential "wave of the future." Mutual links influence increasing the blogs' rank on Google, enabling them to surface among the search results. At a time there was even talk of "blog noise" as major issue Google needed to solve. Nevertheless, Google bought Blogger, the blogs won the fight for their place under the sun, and then they were noticed by the Macedonian public.

Most of the Macedonian blogs that appeared in the last year or two are introspective and serve for publishing of personal views, findings, or literary works. Most of them visibly lack deep links towards other blogs and websites.

I reckon that increase in deep linking will not only widen the horizons of the individual bloggers, but will enable raising of the Google PageRank of the whole Macedonian web – bringing more visits to these websites by new users, especially foreigners.

Announcing: Best of Razvigor ;-) in Macedonian

Coming up soon – some of the posts from the Macedonian version of Razvigor blog which made a mark or are somehow significant, published during the last year.

TOL Training: "Journalists in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus are encouraged to apply for a workshop on education issues in Prague, Czech Republic. "