"Neat search script for the Radio aggregator, made the post above work, even though the Times article it points to is more than a week old. Read the comment at the head of the script to learn how it works. For geeks only." [Scripting News]

Wait a minute - is this the long-dreamed for search engine for my aggregator???? How do I implement this? Can I let my readers search my aggregator archive, too? Help!

26,000-Hit Wonder Keeps It Hopping

"On a rainy Monday night at 7, when most of the East Village bars in Manhattan are empty, a steady crowd is rolling into Hi Fi. Drinks are two for one until 8, but that is only one of the reasons many patrons choose the otherwise nondescript watering hole out of the many on Avenue A. They are there for EL DJ, an MP3 jukebox with 26,000 songs to choose from.

Mike Stuto, the 36-year-old owner of Hi Fi and the co-creator of EL DJ, says it has the biggest selection of any jukebox in the world. "The reason it's a great idea is because it's a simple idea," he said....

The idea of identifying such songs was one of many originating with customers. From the response, Mr. Roven and Mr. Stuto concluded that there were two marketable products in EL DJ: a software program to equip home computers with similar capabilities, and a commercial version of the jukebox for bars, complete with computer hardware and kiosk.

They started a company and enlisted a code writer, and the three have spent seven months fine-tuning both versions. The home rendition will be available for purchase at ELDJ.com in the next month or so for about $20, they say, and the full-size jukeboxes, yet to be priced, will be made on a custom basis." [New York Times: Technology]

Sign me up for the home version (I'd buy the bar one if I could afford it)! Rhapsody is great, but it's still got huge gaps you could drive a truck through, and with well more than 1,000 CDs at home, ELDJ is the kind of interface I need to handle them. The screenshots look pretty good, and I especially like the idea of the "full screen jukebox mode for parties." That would make it easier for the kids to use the music collection, too.

"My Yahoo now has the ability to incorporate RSS Feeds. Its really easy to implement. Just click here to add the module (you may need to login first)

There are a few options available such as the amount of content displayed, and the display of headlines of older entries, etc. Here's what it looks like." [Library Stuff]

This is what My Yahoo should have been all along. They're learning that people don't want to be confined to content of the Yahoo's choosing. Instead, we want to be able to customize their content with our other favorites. Kudos to Yahoo for recognizing that we want to venture beyond their "walled gardens." Let's hope Sprint and the other cell carriers are taking copious notes.

Digital Imaging: The Camera Phone's Dirty Little Secret

"The camera phone has a dirty little secret: Most of the time, users can't exchange pictures the way that they do on TV commercials.

Despite the fact that 10 million camera phones are expected to ship by the end of this year, the communiqués featured on TV are actually only possible between people who use the same carrier.

And even then, the process doesn't quite work as advertised. Quite a few keypad clicks are required to see the photo sent. 'The thing that people want, where you send a picture and it pops up on someone else's screen, doesn't exist yet,' says IDC analyst Keith Waryas....

One would expect that carriers would be racing towards interoperability to boost sales, but so far there has mostly been foot-dragging. 'Carriers look at applications like this as a means of getting and keeping customers. They want customer to feel like they'll lose something if they switch providers.' says Waryas. The Enderle Group's Rob Enderle adds that carriers see establishing standards as enabling the competition.

This hesitation comes despite the fact that the wireless phone industry just witnessed a remarkable demonstration of the power of interoperability to drive data usage. For years the short-messaging services (SMS) that cell-phone providers introduced in the late 90s suffered from the same inability to work across carriers.

'We initiated SMS interoperability last fall on a Thursday without any public announcement,' says a Verizon spokesman, "By Friday the number of text messages traveling on our network had tripled," he says. A formal announcement was made the following week. For the industry as a whole, the number of SMS messages sent in 2002 doubled over 2001 according to IDC." [Forbes]

Does ALA's Law Firm Have a Conflict of Interest?

"The American Library Association (ALA) is investigating whether its relationship with law firm Jenner & Block is a conflict of interest, as the firm has represented the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its recent efforts to gather the names of those suspected of illegal file-sharing. In a letter to ALA executive director Keith Fiels, Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA's Washington Office, said that the office has grown "very uncomfortable" with Jenner & Block's legal activities on behalf of the RIAA. ALA is seeking a letter from the firm setting forth how it would handle any potential conflict." [Library Journal - Breaking News]

This is very unsettling news, considering how the RIAA's tactics and legislative buying power are affecting privacy, civil rights, and fair use laws. I really hope ALA makes the right decision here and drops Jenner & Block.