I use Newsgator online and therefore have a paid FeedDemon install on my Dell laptop, as these synchronise. This means I can read stuff in FeedDemon when i’m at my desk and Newsgator when i’m not without having to read the same items twice over.

This presents an obvious choice for a Mac feedreader – NetNewsWire (Lite). This also synchronises with Newsgator and so will save me a lot of time and effort during the daily catch-up.

I feel though that as Newsgator brought in each component, they have done the bare minimum to integrate it into the brand. Neither of the application-based readers under the Newsgator umbrella do any more than synch with Newsgator. Surely it would make more sense to have them support the same features and synchronise settings (ie flagged items, watch lists) with Newsgator instead of simply synchronising subscriptions. One step further would be to bring the same look and feel to both feedreaders – if iTunes can look the same on both Windows and Mac, then FeedDemon and NetNewsWire can.

RSS is a technology that is begging to be jumped on by the uneducated masses – as shown by the inclusion of feed readers in IE7 – but Newsgator don’t seem to have spotted this potential yet.

I didn’t see any criticism along the way, and I think what is being offered is top notch. Maybe just because something hasn’t lived up to the expectations of one person doesn’t make it a failure? It’s better than most people have done…

I know a load of people are commenting (especially on Ice Age) – you guys should all be ok as most of you are repeat commenters. Thanks a lot!

But for a site with such a creative audience, many features could have been more intuitively designed. The site is screaming to be Web 2.0, and while they have obviously tried to mimic Amazon they have missed the boat on many pages. The ‘Browse > All Categories‘ page shows a nested list so narrow it’s unreadable (even on 1280×960), and the next page links on the bottom of the product pages just don’t work.

All I can think is what a great idea this could be – imagine if 9rules published printed article anthologies at, say, $12 per 100 page tome?

I’m not sure how extensible IE7 will be – they have incorporated user-customisable searches and some other things, but it’s not clear yet how user-customisable IE will be compared to FF. But how many users make any use of extensions and themes in firefox? I would argue that they have the geek browser market cornered and so the battlefield is now home users who simply want something to show webpages.

If this is true, Microsoft may have played a trump card. IE7 will be shipped with the Vista platform, and non-Vista MS machines will be updated through WindowsUpdate. By providing something which works as well as Firefox, Microsoft will prevent non-technical users from jumping ship to Firefox, which I think will struggle to get a foothold in the non-geek browser market.

Last.fm has just had a redesign, and it’s a great service. Install the audioscrobbler plugin, and it reports the tracks you play in your chosen media player (iTunes in my case) and logs it all.Where’s the fun in that? It builds up an idea of what you like listening to, and you can download their radio player, and listen to your musical choice from their servers. One better, it recommends new songs based on what is in the playlist of other users with similar taste. It’s a great way of finding new music.

The service is completely free, but for a premium of �1.50 a month (which I think is a bargain) you get priority access to their streaming services, a few extra radio modes and so on.

There’s a comprehensive commentary on Last.fm and social architecture by Stowe Boyd over on corante.com.

The article was about Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah (pictured left), which shows a series of strongly covered pools. The author suggests that the pools are runoff pools to clean water used in agriculture or mining. Feedback from locals confirms that the pools are used by the local mining industry. By running the wastewater through pools in a hot, windy valley, the evaporation (which is increased in this environment) causes metals and pollutants such as lead to drop out of solution, preventing it from entering the local water table where it can posion flaura and fauna. The minerals may also contain Potash, and so could be sold as fertiliser. You can also see these pools to the left of this photo of nearby Hurrah Pass.

Another Google Maps page showing an area of San Franciso Bay shows a similar image. Here, water used to irrigate agricultural land is passed through pools containing algae, which consume the chemicals in the water. As the chemicals are consumed by the algae, different species bloom (dependant on which chemicals are present), producing the strong colours seen. If the water were allowed to flow into the bay, the blooming algae would cause oxygen starvation in the water, destroying the native fish and plants.