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Saturday, January 29, 2005 |
 Pakistan. There was another attack on a Pakistani natural gas pipeline (the Sui Northern Gas Ltd company was again the target). This time, an 18-inch pipeline near Lahore was sabotaged. The target wasn't well chosen since an alternative pipeline was used to provide supply in the interim. Regardless, systems disruption has gone national.
4:45:20 PM 
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BBC Radio. John McCain. "This is worse (than Vietnam)." "There is no plan B (in Iraq)."
4:36:52 PM
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Reuters. Many people vowed to brave the threats, but others were afraid of being targeted at the polls or afterwards, when indelible blue ink daubed on their index fingers to prevent multiple voting could mark them for death.
3:23:36 PM
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AJ. China goes to Venezuela to lock-in oil supplies.
3:16:18 PM
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NYPress. It's The Pipelines, Stupid. "A handful of small attacks made against Saudi infrastructure will push oil well over $100 a barrel," says John Robb, an independent analyst and author of the forthcoming book Global Guerrillas. "Twenty or so a month will keep it there. We are about to see the rise of a shadow OPEC. The control of oil doesn't rest in the hands of the governments. It is in the hands of the guerrillas that can stop the flow."
12:40:50 PM
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In an earlier post, I detailed some of the elements that would go into a GRSR. It's important to remember that the decentralized cut and paste (the current legacy behavior) system would still be in place. However, if we want to prevent the big vendors (Yahoo, etc.) from using automated RSS subscription buttons as a customer acquisition vehicle, then we need a central repository. It's that simple. We can't use browser-based routing to do this. People that want automated subscriptions won't download helper apps in the vast majority of cases.
To build this system we need to start a company that is funded by any company that has a stake in the future of RSS. It must be neutral. It must not take the place of the aggregator interface (in terms of functionality). It must be simple and open.
Who is likely to fund this? Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo, Google, the NYTimes, Disney, etc.... If these companies care about RSS they should put the money forward. Let's start this by building a working group. Have a meeting (how about at the end of February) to establish goals and get down to funding. It won't cost much to get this going, and the cost will only grow in relation to the centrality of RSS to the Web. It's the right thing to do and the benefits will be enormous.
10:23:01 AM
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© Copyright 2005 John Robb.
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