If you use the Ecto blogging client you might find my script LuckyLink (link below) of interest. It supports Wiki style syntax markup of text, which it will perform an operation on. Currently there is only one supported operation: Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" links.

Usage:

Simple markup:

• Enclose text to be linked in [[ ]]

  e.g: [[ Noam Chomsky ]]

  This will generate a link (to the site returned by Google's I'm Feeling Lucky) around the text Noam Chomsky.

You can specify something different to search for using the following two variations (in both cases only "display text" will be retained):

• [[ display text | search text ]]

  e.g: [[ Chomsky's book | site:amazon.com Hegemony Survival ]]

  This will use the part after the | to do the search and wrap the first part (Chomsky's book) in the link returned.

• [[ display text |+ additional search text ]]

  e.g: A few bits from [[ Chomsky's Hegemony |+ excerpts ]]

  This will use both the first part and the second part, together, for the search, but only use the first part for the linked text.

• Spaces after/before opening/closing brackets and around | and |+ are optional.
• Text can't have a | of course.

Some words of warning

• The syntax supported by the script is bound to change as I flesh it out.
• This is a 0.001 alpha script and a fairly trivial one. Use at your own risk.
• This script requires Perl and 'wget' (use DarwinPorts or search for "wget for Windows")
• In Ecto, see Scripts => What is This?, for installation help.

Cybernet has information on a new blog editor/client released by Microsoft called Live Writer. It’s free but available only for Windows, of course. You can download it here.

I fired up the old Windows box to give it a try and its seems pretty good. Not as good as ecto, but pretty decent. Worked with WordPress as the blog server (auto-detected), and I assume will work with MT, Blogger, etc.

Tired of Google reader's lack of "mark all read"? Or Bloglines' or NewsGator's poor use of real estate? Not happy with any of the RSS clients? I heartily recommend Alesti, an on-line newsfeed aggregator. Not only does it cover the important basic features, but these guys seem to actually have a clue (no insult to my talented buddies at Google, whose reader I quite like except for the missing "mark all read"). If you find an important feature missing, you can be sure that the Alesti team will not only clairvoyantly figure it out, but will have it implemented in short order.

The things I like about it:

• Web based, so you can read from any computer, anywhere.
• Fast, fast, fast
• Tags for feeds
• OPML import (but that's a standard for all readers, these days)
• Intuitive/traditional interface
• Appropriate links at every point (reduces mouse travel)

The last point is worth expanding on: If you read a decent number of feeds, one thing that might be of importance for you is to be able to scan through them at a fast clip. The UI of your reader can make a big difference here. For example, if you need to bring up a context menu (right-click) to "mark all read" that's extra work. Alesti gets a lot of this right. There is a "mark all read" right at the top of the article list. There is a "launch in new window" link next to each article title. And so on!

Its a fairly new service (I think) and its still a bit rough around the edges, but quite usable. And it shows a lot of promise.

[I say RSS but I think Alesti supports most forms of syndication]

Maopost.com has some (as you may have guessed) vintage Chinese propaganda posters. Check it out. If you really like themther eis even a Dashboard Widget to display the poster of the day on your desktop.

You can now download a Beta of the Opera browser 9. If you have never used Opera, give it a whirl. Its wicked fast, provides easy keyboard navigation, did tab-like stuff before Mozilla, and now, again beating Mozilla to it, does the latest fad: widgets! Sweet!

Download Opera Web Browser