Comments on: Comments on 18084

Post number 18084

sheauga — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 04:41:04 -0800

Five stars for BEST NEWS SOURCES SITE: FWJC - floating wreckage - jettisoned cargo. Who says design can't be simple. Looks like just another little news blog? Look again. Neat little pulldown menus conceal 26,000 links to beautifully organized lists of news and reference sources.

By: sheauga

sheauga — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 04:55:35 -0800

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 05:04:19 -0800

All hail sheauga! So is there anything interesting in the news today, darling? ;)

By: costas

costas — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 06:09:32 -0800

ouch... I feel left out. The issue with all these sites is that they aggregate news, they don't filter them --yes, I am a dataminer by trade, there's a difference. 26 or 64,000 links or not, the real issue is finding interesting news not just finding news articles--otherwise we'd all be reading CNN or BBC, not MeFi, or Obscure Store, for example. At least that's my €0.02; I was overwhelmed by links at NewsIsFree and Syndic8 (both excellent sites with a lot, lot of work behind them) to the point of giving up using them regularly. That's why I don't think plain aggregation is the answer. Now, on the other hand I am not saying that memigo is necessarily the silver bullet, but it's a first attempt to use proven tech (collaborative filtering, kinda like Amazon or TiVo recommendations) to tackle this... End of plug :-)

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 06:44:04 -0800

Wow. An amazing site. Completely overwhelming.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 06:46:08 -0800

costas: I like your site, too, but I prefer my news a bit more on the silly side. Tech news makes my eyes glaze over.

By: sheauga

sheauga — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:01:09 -0800

Agree totally that aggregation of free web resources isn't the answer, costas. Pros use paid services instead, like Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, Dialog, Infotrieve, etc. so they can cross-search high-quality materials. Naturally, with these high-end information services, custom aggregation, newsfeeds, selective dissemination of information, intranet and portal development tends to run into money fast! (Memigo does look like a neat tool. Still, I think that the essence of filtering lies in connecting with human expertise, not in technology.) My picks for today would be this story from Atlanta: The tale of a CDC nutritionist who went back home to Afghanistan and hopes to get Afghanistan's salt iodized, or China's pandas get sex ed and exercise program

By: RJ Reynolds

RJ Reynolds — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:02:37 -0800

Kwsnet is totally amazing. However... any giant list of resources falls apart in the details. Taking the art auction section for instance, Artscape was never "New York's premiere art scene website," and it especially isn't now that it doesn't exist anymore. The site descriptions overall are rather wildly inconsistent. I would never expect the editor/s to keep up with everyone one of these links, Lord no. But the fact that no one possibly could makes me question the usefulness of such accumulation. (That being said, I'm finding some fun things I didn't know about).

By: costas

costas — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:20:35 -0800

ColdChef: In the next few days I will be adding Channels to memigo, so you will get your silly news --I want them too :-) sheauga: I couldn't agree more. Memigo is not (completely) technology driven: the users rate the stories, filtering out the more interesting ones. You have to register to see the filtered view, however --you have to give something, ratings, to get something, i.e. filtered news...

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:26:53 -0800

Okay, I'm registered. Bring on the stories about stupid criminals!

By: costas

costas — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:29:27 -0800

CC: ya got to wait a little bit, as I said. Then I will be parsing ObscureStore (one of my favorites for sure). Any other sources?

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:35:19 -0800

well, obscurestore is the best, but...annanova's always good for a laugh.

By: kliuless

kliuless — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:26:02 -0800

there's also yahoo! news' oddly enough :) um, which i guess is just reuters. but really i just scan the most-emailed and most-viewed pages for the combinations of pictures and stories (to send to friends :) yahoo! oh wait, AP has strange news, too.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:35:43 -0800

SYDNEY, Australia - A man who broke his arm when he slipped on a greasy bar floor caused by a patron who wore pork chops for shoes won more than $33,600 in compensation. Now, that's MY kind of news!

By: sheauga

sheauga — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 09:11:06 -0800

RJReynolds: Two well maintained giant lists: Gary Price's News Center (updated 5/22) The Librarian's Guide to the Internet (she updates and may also add sites if you e-mail her.)

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 09:25:36 -0800

Bring on the stories about stupid criminals! ColdChef, I joined MeFi one day before you, but that doesn't necessarily make me an old hand. Still, as I understand the rules, self-linking is o.k. in the threads. If you really enjoy stupid criminals, check out my book. I 'filtered' and 'cross-searched' 10 years of police reports from my island in Maine into an easily digested 164 pages.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 09:42:08 -0800

Cool. Thanks.

By: RJ Reynolds

RJ Reynolds — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 11:44:48 -0800

Ooo I am totally hearting the Librarian's Guide to the Internet! (Though the scoring is odd but hey...) In combination with FWJC I can finally know everything! Muh ha ha!

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 12:25:31 -0800

An amazing site. Very bookmark-worthy. Thanks, sheauga.