I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but there are a couple of little features I’d like to see in Thunderbird. (I’d try to do them myself if I could find any documentation on how to extend it via JavaScript.) (Aha! I just found Roachfiend’s tutorial and it looks promising.)

First, when I hover over an entry in my inbox, it’d be great if I could see the first n characters of the message in a tool tip fashion. That way, when I’m doing a multiple select (ctrl-click), I’d have more to go on than just the subject line.

Second, I’m as confused about TB’s contact list and address book as I was about Outlook’s, but I think I’d like a way to add to my address book (contact list?) any address I’ve just typed into the “to” field in a message. Outlook lets me do that and it’s handy.

And I wish every message had an URL (sorry, URI) so I could link to it in other apps like my calendar. But that I suspect would take more than a simple little extension.

Oh, is there no end to my neediness?

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Vivid reporting and photoblogging from Kevin Sites.

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I’m beginning a week of nutty travel to ulp-worthy events

This morning I’m keynoting MESDA, a Maine technology association meeting. I’m inaugurating a new presentation that touches on the themes of the book I’m trying to write about how the new principles of organization arising in the digital world undercut principles that have guided the construction of knowledge and institutions for the past 2,500 years. Ulp.

On Monday I go to DC to give the first in a speaker series sponsored by the Library of Congress. It’s going to be run live on C-SPAN, I’m told, including viewer questions. Ulp. I’m talking about the same stuff as at MESDA, although shaped differently. In fact, the title is “The Shape of Knowledge, or, Everything Is Miscellaneous.”

On Tuesday, I’m keynoting the Jupiter Inside ID conference. What I know about digital ID would fit inside an introduction to a keynote, so I’m taking a bizarre route through ordinary language philosophy to argue that when it comes to ID, we ought to let the norms of the real world be our prima facie guide. Another new presentation. Ulp.

Later on Tuesday I go back to the Library of Congress to participate in a day of discussions.

Then I go to Providence for a day of the ASIS conference of information scientists. I’m there to learn.

On Thursday I come back to DC for a day of interviewing people at the Library of Congress for my book. (Yes, if I were smart I would have done the interviews before giving the lecture.)

Ulp.

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Oy, Mena, get well soon! We want you to have the movable type of knee! (Thanks, AKMA, for the link.)

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Having returned the Sony Ericsson T627 I bought last week because it has the worst UI in history, I now have a Motorola v220. So far so good, but why can’t I record my own voice saying “Pick up the damn phone, fool!” and use that as my ring tone? Why isn’t that a standard feature of all cell phones?

Not to mention the possibility of celebrity ringtones. I’d pay Cory or Doc to speak my ring tone. Or Doc and RageBoy together. Geek heaven!

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I believe I’m echoing something Halley wrote months ago, and I see that Jarvis blogged something about this yesterday, but: I don’t believe there is any idea powerful enough to displace the Republican meme that they are saving our children from dusky-hued terrorists. The obvious alternative is to find a radically center leader whom people trust and who can draw from across the spectrum.

Oprah! Oprah! Oprah!

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As a 53-year-old suburban dad, I am, let’s say, outside of Eminem’s demographic. But his vehemently anti-Bush Mosh (lyrics here) truly shizzled my nizzle. (I’m assuming it’s good to have one’s nizzles shizzled.)

Maybe you can tell me: Are his claims of self-importance (“Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness…”, “I give sight to the blind”) as egotistical as they sound, merely evidence of the young lad’s lack of a self-esteem problem, or just part of the genre I need to accept?

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Steve Johnson, resident of NYC, recently switched his fandom from the Yankees to the Red Sox. I can’t quote from his most recent post without giving it away – it’s one sentence long – but go have a laugh.

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Canada’s equivalent of American Idol is a show that profiles individuals of great achievement in Canadian history. You then get to vote for your favorite. Currently in the lead position is Tommy Douglas, “the father of Medicare,” followed by Terry Fox who ran across Canada after losing his right leg to cancer.

Meanwhile, in America we’re trying to decide whether we’d rather watch The Swan or Who Wants to Blow Donald’s Trumpet?

O, Can-a-DA…

[Thanks, Tim Bouma, for the link.]

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I’ve subscribed to a feed of Flickr photos tagged as “Iraq,” and some are astounding. Here’s a photo of Saddam being captured, and here’s one of our soldiers’ coffins.

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