davidrothman.net » Personal

A Lovely Use of RSS

David Rothman — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:28:38 +0000

My brother, Andrew, a Web developer, is a very clever guy and a fan of woot.com.

Recently, he bought a digital picture frame from Woot that can be fed photos via RSS- as a gift to my parents.

The clever bit is where each of my siblings created a Flickr or Photobucket account in which to post photos of grandchildren. The feeds from each of these accounts was combined in Yahoo Pipes so that, once the frame is set up on my folks’ WiFi network, any new photos posted appear in their digital photo frame.

What a great way for a geographically dispersed family to keep grandparents updated.

My mom called to tell me how much she liked it, and I made a point of noting it was Andrew’s clever idea. All I did was mash the feed together in Yahoo Pipes.

I love technology when it is used intelligently.

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I Didn’t Have a Heart Attack

David Rothman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:28:47 +0000

I read you had a heart attack!

Yeah, I just recently read that myself.

How are you feeling?

Thanks for asking. I’m feeling very grateful that I have *not* had a heart attack.

Are you sure? I could swear that I read you had a heart attack.

I’m pretty sure. I checked.

David H. Rothman of TeleRead DID have a heart attack. I don’t know him well, but on the many occasions where a confused emailer has been routed from one of us to the other, he’s always been awfully pleasant. Best wishes to David and his family for a speedy recovery.

If you’re not ill, why haven’t you been blogging?

I have noticed a pattern: Those who have asked me this question generally do not have children. Those who have ever had a new baby at home don’t bother to ask- they correctly assume that all of my priorities have been radically shaken up. I’ll probably resume blogging when things settle down and I figure out where in my order of priorities this blog figures.

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This Blog is (over) Two Years Old

David Rothman — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:11:04 +0000

Aw. Because Simon arrived a bit early, I failed to note this blog’s second blogaversary earlier this month.

I’ll eventually get back to regular posting (perhaps when Simon is sleeping longer hours?), but I wanted briefly to thank y’all for reading. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without you.

Some facty-figurish things:

There are currently 1,024 posts (which makes an average of more than 9 posts/week for the last two years) and 2,115 comments.

Akismet has caught 148,927 spam comments. Wow. Helps me love Akismet.

Feed Subscribers (via FeedBurner):

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Introducing Simon Gabriel Rothman

David Rothman — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:39:51 +0000

Born at 5:30 AM today, weighing in at 6 lbs 3 oz. I uploaded the following embedded video quickly for distant grandparents:

Music is You Ruined Everything by Jonathan Coulton

Liz and Simon are both doing great.

I will likely not be blogging for a while and will be slower in answering email than usual. Thanks in advance for your understanding.

Tired and very happy,

-David

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Blogging Vacation Extended

David Rothman — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:01:37 +0000

Too buried to write much about it, but I suspect I’ll blog very little between now and the end of May. I decided today that rather than feeling guilty (as I have for the last couple weeks) about not blogging, I would consider this a well-deserved vacation after averaging about 1.5 posts per day for the last two years.

Hope you feel the same way and will be here when regular posting resumes.

Thanks!

-David

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Moving and/or Shaking [updated]

David Rothman — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:33:46 +0000

(The title of this post was going to be “Ambulatory and with Tremors,” but figured I’d be the only one amused by it.)

So Library Journal named me one of their 2008 Movers & Shakers.

(I’m curious: Are those named in this annual list all people who either move OR shake or people who both move AND shake? If the former, am I a mover or a shaker?)

Library Journal’s navigation makes it impossible to browse the profiles by name, so Jessamyn West sensibly made a version of the list with names.

Thank you to Melissa Rethlefsen for nominating me!

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UPDATE:
Bobbi Newman has borrowed Jessmyn’s list and added links to the blogs of 2008 Movers & Shakers. Interesting how many of them have blogs, isn’t it?

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Webcast Rehearsal, 3/4/2008

David Rothman — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:16:24 +0000

Photos from rehearsal for the Webcast:

Dale Prince really likes his iPhone. So do I, actually.

What may not be immediately obvious to those who have not met him is that Bart actually has a halo that is visible in person.

Michelle agrees with me that Dale rocks.

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A week off

David Rothman — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:26:33 +0000

Okay!

Monday through Wednesday this week I’ll be in Chicago for the MLA Webcast.

My wife is leaving on Friday for 10 days overseas (she’s taking 7 students to Madrid, Barcelona and Paris to study Picasso!).

So…when I’m not in Chicago or at work, I’ll be wanting to spend time with Liz.

I think this means I’m taking the week off from blogging, but reserve the right to change my mind.

Have a great week!

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Please Vote! (…preferably for me)

David Rothman — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:37:41 +0000

Okay. To my great surprise, it looks like I actually have a chance at winning this award (previously mentioned here and here).

At the moment, I’m trailing Berci’s ScienceRoll- but not by a great margin.

This sort of contest is really about how many people one can motivate to go vote for one’s own endeavor- so the fact that I’m closing on Berci is probably due in no small part to bloggers like Michael Stephens, Wouter Gerritsma, Blake Carver, Zagreus Ammon (blogging under a pseudonym at Physician Executive) and Steven Cohen for encouraging others to vote for my blog.

If you haven’t yet, please head over to vote for davidrothman.net?

Thank you!

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Merry RamaChanuKwanSolstiFestiMas!

David Rothman — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:02:51 +0000

It seems to me that every time I say that I’m going to take a break from (or reduce the frequency of) my blogging, I make myself a liar shortly thereafter. This time I’ll choose my words more carefully:

I have a lot to do between now and January 2nd and need to focus on those projects when I’m not working at the hospital or meeting holiday obligations.

I don’t plan to post anything between now and January 2, 2008. However, I reserve the right to amend my plans if I am moved by news of events to do so.

So there.

Thanks for reading in 2007- See you in 2008!

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