Read to the end to see a bunk bed for cats. (Yes, really!) In today’s edition: We get a thrilling affiliate offer we can’t refuse from WP Forms. Twenty Twenty-Five and the like, impermanent beauty of the passage of time, man. How to make sure your WordPress site (and your XML sitemap) doesn’t get lost […]

We’re launching a new feature on The Hub: Tickets. Now you can effortlessly communicate with your clients entirely within The Hub, with an easy-to-use instant ticketing system. Plus, it’s entirely white label so it’ll appear to clients as part of your own site. Why We Created Tickets At the moment, you’re probably using email or […]

No in-house dev team? No problem. With our newest On Demand Development Service Add-On, our expert team of WordPress developers will be on hand to help you with anything you need, from simple CSS issues to building custom functionality. Need help with expanding the capabilities of the Forminator plugin so it caters to your specific […]

In an unprecedented move some months ago, Ethiopia became effectively the first country in the world to ban the import of internal combustion engine vehicles. That ban was not some futuristic target for 2030 or 2035. It was an immediate ban on the import of ICE cars, with no exceptions. ... [continued]

The post Inchcape & BYD Partner In New Distribution Agreement For Ethiopia! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As I sit at my computer tapping out this article, the sun is shining in beautiful Brisbane, capital of Queensland, Australia. We are moving into summer and the sun is up long before I am. When I awake, the house battery is filling up and charging the car. Soon, the ... [continued]

The post Renewables Gallop Ahead Down Under — A Queensland Sample appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The US Department of Defense is pursuing next-generation geothermal energy systems that can produce zero emission electricity and green hydrogen, too.

The post US Air Force Pursues Green Hydrogen Via Geothermal Energy appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This Luckeep X2 Stormtrooper E-Bike is Awesome We’ve tested a lot of electric bikes. I like some for certain reasons, others for other reasons, and some I really don’t care for much at all. I have to say that one thing I’ve found over the years is that e-bikes seem ... [continued]

The post Exploring the Luckeep X2: A High-Performance Urban E-Bike for All Terrains appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Solar panels between the rails of train tracks is a new idea being tested in Switzerland by start-up Sun-Ways.

The post Swiss Experiment Will Place Solar Panels Between Train Tracks appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The State of Delaware has two new RSS newsfeeds featured by links right off the state's homepage. As lead of the team that developed the feeds, I'm pleased to report this as a joint effort of our office, the Government Information Center (GIC) and the Register of Regulations.

The first feed, Delaware.gov - Statewide News is a general collection of news and press releases from across state agencies.

The Current Monthly Register is the newsfeed equivalent of the The Delaware Register of Regulations, a monthly publication of all proposed regulatory changes, general notices, and final regulations from our partners in the Legislature.

The Government Information Center is the office that manages the state portal, Delaware.gov. The mission of the GIC is to develop and deliver accurate and complete governmental information online. The office works with state agencies, legislators, the public and others to improve the delivery of government services and information through Delaware.gov and other channels.

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs now provides RSS feeds for top stories from the State Department homepage, daily press briefings, press releases, and remarks by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The RSS feeds are found at:  
 
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/highlights.xml
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/briefings.xml
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/prsreleases.xml
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/sremarks.xml

You can also subscribe to email mailing lists to receive the full texts of selected U.S. Department of State documents and publications that provide key official information on U.S. foreign policy, notifications of travel warnings, and Foreign Travel Per Diem updates.

Unlike Yahoo, Google has had a long standing resistance to offering RSS feeds for Google News queries. Hacks have long abounded from Julian Bond's GNews2RSS, Ben Hammersley's Google to RSS using the Google SOAP API, and Steve Rubel's advice in "RSS Hack for Sites That Don't Offer Feeds".

In this spirit, Justin Pfister has created gnewsfeed. Filling out the form uses a script that converts a Google news query (example) into an RSS feed (example). "I welcome anyone in the world," he humbly proffers, "to use it in an effort to become a more informed public."

Poor Justin. He's looking for a job. Maybe Adam Smith, and the Google Alerts product team will hire Justin to build in the syndication that Google should have offered long ago (hint).

A crack cocaine smoking judge who allegedly presided over his court while high? An attorney disbarred for abandoning his law practice and clients in the pursuit of the unlawful use of methamphetamine? These are only some of today's tintillating stories from official Utah judiciary sources that my news aggregator served me.

The Utah Administrative Office of the Courts and the Utah State Bar have been experimenting with the syndication of news and publications for quite some time. They've now published links to their first public syndicated feeds on their homepages.

Utah Courts offers an RSS feed for "Recent Court Opinions" that links to recently released and archived opinions of the Utah Supreme Court, Utah Court of Appeals, and Per Curiam decisions. If you'd rather get the same information by email, Steve Brown, Courts Webmaster, offers a notification subcription service.

http://www.utcourts.gov/rss/opinions/index.xml

The editors of the Utah Bar Journal with the assistance of Utah State Bar IT Director Lincoln Mead have imported the Journal into Movable Type. Recent past issues are also archived in PDF format.

http://www.utahbar.org/barjournal/index.rdf

This is a good trend because RSS syndicated legal information makes its delivery more timely and its content more findable and accessible.

You can search for newly published patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but if you want the latest patent applications served to you by RSS syndication and email alerts, you'll need to visit FreshPatents.com. Industry list RSS feeds filtered by USPTO class number are particularly valuable. The content is crawled and indexed by Google as well.

Browse for new patents by industry category or do a keyword search. For example, if you browse USPTO Class 715, Data processing: presentation processing of document patents you'll notice that it has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for updates. That makes it easy to find new applications such as application #20040221226 "Method and mechanism for processing queries for xml documents using an index" applied for on November 4, 2004 by inventors Wesley Lin, Yasuhiro Matsuda, and Garrett Kaminaga.

Sign-up for free email patent application monitoring service which will send you a weekly email with new applications that match the keywords you select.

This site is one of those rare examples in which even if you subscribe to the feed, you'll want to routinely visit the website. The site provides searches by keyword and provides lists of patent applications by location (state and city), agent and law firm name, city of the agent, and inventor name.

With the proliferation of RSS feeds in state and local governments, a unique opportunity is developing to expand the delivery of the critical information contained in these feeds by leveraging the most ubiquitous personal communications device in the world -– the telephone. Governments that use RSS to deliver information to citizens using RSS feeds can also leverage VoiceXML, an open standard for developing telephony applications, to expose RSS content via cellular and traditional telephones.

VoiceXML is a web technology that can turn any telephone, even a rotary phone, into an Internet device. VoiceXML is a non-proprietary, web-based markup language for creating vocal dialogues between humans and computers. VoiceXML is similar to another common markup language -- HTML, the basic language of visual web pages. Just as a web browser renders HTML documents visually, a VoiceXML interpreter renders VoiceXML documents audibly. In this respect, one can think of the VoiceXML interpreter as a telephone-based, voice browser. As with HTML documents, VoiceXML documents have web URIs and can be located on any web server. However, instead of pointing a client-side web browser at a specific URI, citizens can access a VoiceXML application by calling a toll free telephone number from any ordinary telephone - cellular or traditional, touch-tone or rotary.

It’s not hard to think of a scenario where a local government or a university could publish an RSS feed with topical news, and have a phone number for students or citizens to call for more information. Depending on how the VoiceXML is structured, the caller could have the option of being transferred directly to the number associated with the information.

The trick would be, in my opinion, finding the right place within the RSS feed to put the phone number (if the publisher wanted to provide the option of an automatic transfer). Ideally, the phone number would be contained within its own RSS element. Glancing quickly at the RSS 2.0 spec, this could be something like the guid element. So, if a publisher was using a software package to author and publish RSS feeds, they would probably need to do a little experimenting to find the right place to place the phone number.

Because RSS and VoiceXML are both XML vocabularies, there are a number of standards-based methods for converting RSS to VoiceXML and using RSS feeds from within VoiceXML applications. The first method involves the use of eXstensible Style Sheet Language Transformations (XSLT). I have created a tutorial covering this technique and some of the issues relating to it. This technique is generally agnostic to the underlying technology used; XSLT transformations are supported in technologies like JSP, PHP, Perl, .NET and others.

To see it in action there is a demo application available at (800) 289-5570. Enter the following PIN when prompted: 9991422919. This example uses the latest headlines news feed from CNET News.com (news.com.com) and the XSLT file covered in my tutorial. This is only running on a demo platform, so I can’t guarantee anything on performance. Still, it gives you a sense of how an RSS feed sounds. This technology could allow travelers only equipped with cell phones to get the latest NOAA RSS weather reports, lobbyists to dial-in for legislative floor calendars, and rescue teams to phone for the latest operational instructions.

The other method for using RSS from within VoiceXML applications is to leverage the new data tag, an addition to the VoiceXML specification that is part of the developing VoiceXML 2.1 standard. Some excellent examples of this technique can be found on the VoiceXML Forum website at http://www.voicexmlreview.org/apr2004/columns/apr2004_speak_listen.html.

VoiceXML also allows for the playback of recorded audio. If one had an audio file that they want to include in a feed, a VoiceXML application could actually invoke the audio file and play it to the caller. There is a VoiceXML service at (800) 555-TELL that plays audio files. Give it a call and try listening to the “News Center” option.

One caveat -- most VoiceXML platforms only support certain audio formats, but the more common ones (WAV, MP3) are usually supported. VoiceXML also supports recording the audio of a call, so if one wanted to let callers post comments the application could record their audio and save it for later playback. There is actually a project called “Phone Blogger” that takes this approach (see www.wombatnation.com/phoneblogger).

By using these techniques, governments that make information available to citizens through RSS feeds can dramatically expand the accessibility of these feeds by making them available to anyone with a telephone.

Mark J. Headd
Voice Technologies for Government
www.voiceingov.org
mheadd@voiceingov.org





[Editor's note: Commenting is turned off because of spamming. Mark is interested in hearing from readers who are interested in how that can use VoiceXML to augment what they are doing with RSS. Please email the author with your comments and we'll invite him to write a follow-up here at RSS in Government addressing your ideas and suggestions.]

The Wisconsin Historical Society reports to Jenny Levine that they now offer three new RSS feeds. Web Development Coordinator James Ellis says that his is the first government agency in Wisconsin to use this technology.

Two new U.S. Supreme Court opinion feeds now join RSS feeds that have been available from the West Virginia Supreme Court and other courts.

Halloween is still more than a month away, but it’s never too early to start getting ready for the spooky season. If you’re in the mood for some new DIY projects, Aurelie Erikson’s Instagram page is a great source of inspiration, and she’ll help you get ready for the spookiest holiday of the year. Erikson […]

If you want to build mobile applications with use of extensive HTML5 then DHTMLX Touch is a JavaScript library mobile framework that can help you achieve this. So next time when you plan to develop a HTML based mobile web app then do not forget to consider this free open source DHTMLX Touch JavaScript framework …

DHTMLX Touch – Best Mobile Framework for all Touch Screen Devices Read More »

Are you one of those people who have a list of must-read books but never actually gotten around to reading them? And the list becomes longer and longer over time? Then here’s a clever solution for you book enthusiasts who feel they just don’t have enough time to finish a novel, let alone start one. …

2 FREE Tools to Read Your Way in Doses via eMail Read More »

Six-hundred-twenty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days. The core Windows apps Notepad and Paint are getting more AI features. Some of them are reserved for Copilot+ PCs, others are available for all Windows 11 devices. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is… [Continue Reading]

Practical Cyber Intelligence provides a thorough and practical introduction to the different tactics, techniques, and procedures that exist in the field of cyber investigation and cyber forensics to collect, preserve, and analyze digital evidence, enabling readers to understand the digital landscape and analyze legacy devices, current models, and models that may be created in the future. Readers will learn how to determine what evidence exists and how to find it on a device, as well as what story it tells about the activities on the device. Over 100 images and tables are included to aid in reader comprehension, and case studies… [Continue Reading]

Online scams aren't anything new, but thanks to artificial intelligence they're becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. We've also seen a rise in disinformation and deepfakes many of them made possible, or at least more plausible, by AI. This means that venturing onto the internet is increasingly like negotiating a digital minefield. With FAIK, risk management specialist at KnowBe4 Perry Carpenter sets out to dissect what makes these threats work and the motivations behind them as well as offering some strategies to protect yourself. This is no dry technical guide though, it's all presented in a very readable style,… [Continue Reading]

Fully updated to reflect modern developments in the field, the Fifth Edition of An Introduction to Optimization fills the need for an accessible, yet rigorous, introduction to optimization theory and methods, featuring innovative coverage and a straightforward approach. The book begins with a review of basic definitions and notations while also providing the related fundamental background of linear algebra, geometry, and calculus. With this foundation, the authors explore the essential topics of unconstrained optimization problems, linear programming problems, and nonlinear constrained optimization. In addition, the book includes an introduction to artificial neural networks, convex optimization, multi-objective optimization, and applications of optimization in… [Continue Reading]

A new report finds that 75 percent of the 100 most visited websites in the US and Europe are not compliant with current privacy regulations. The study from privacy solution provider Privado.ai shows despite stricter privacy enforcement in Europe a surprising 74 percent of top websites do not honor opt-in consent as required by Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Although top websites in the US have a similar non-compliance rate of 76 percent for not honoring opt-out consent as required by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), Privado finds the median volume of compliance risks to be three times… [Continue Reading]

Achieving digital accessibility and optimizing your platform for screen readers, can be a strategic decision with multifaceted benefits. Not only does it reflect empathy and inclusivity for visually impaired users, but it also potentially expands your audience and the reach …

The National Association of Legislative Information Technology (NALIT) will be sharing "Web Tips, Tricks and Techniques" for building Legislative RSS feeds at their 2004 Professional Development Seminar in beautiful Burlington, Vermont, September 8-11, 2004. Panelists include key IT players from Virginia, Nevada, and Utah. Several states are now using RSS to provide users with notices of new Web content or to distribute newsletters. At least two states are now generating legislative feeds directly from databases. This article previews some of what they'll be showing from the states of Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island.

With the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic situation, the shopping trends around the world have changed. We have become dependent on e-commerce sites to fulfill our desires to shop and receive essentials. The year 2020 was dominated by interesting trends from the world of e-commerce. If you are planning a venture in the e-commerce domain or already […]

The post The 6 Latest E-commerce Trends That Need Your Attention appeared first on The Design Inspiration.

A cluttered kitchen is an eyesore, and often becomes a source of stress. Even if you are...

Are you looking for an online editor that offers free templates for commercial use? If so, you...

A couple of weeks ago, Google announced the new features for travel search ads through integration with travel feeds. These may now be out in the wild, as we are seeing pricing and other rich markup showing up for hotel ads in Google Search.

Lluc B. Penycate posted some examples and screenshots on X of these out in the wild. He wrote, "I think we are seeing the new Google Hotel Ads format announced last week(s) which integrates rooms, prices and availability."

Here are those screenshots:

Google wrote a couple of weeks ago, "all hotel advertisers can now showcase feed data, such as hotels, prices, dates, ratings and images, in this ad format" and then shared some mock examples of those ads. But these look like them in real life.

Forum discussion at X.

This EMF Radiation Blocking Hoodie from Bon Charge looks like it’s just the ticket for these warm winter nights. And when we say warm, you know we’re not just referring to the temperature, right? According to some very sensible people, over exposure to high levels of electromagnetic radiation can be a very not good thing. Now before we all head off and find a deep bunker somewhere, it’s not just the levels, but also the type of radiation that matters....

The post EMF Radiation Blocking Hoodie Keeps You Safe. Maybe. appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

EMO: Sensational Deepfake Tech From China Shows Just How Insane Things Are Right Now in the world of deepfake and A.I.

The post EMO: Sensational Deepfake Tech From China Shows Just How Insane Things Are Right Now appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

This week Jared Bauman sits down with Jake Cain, a long-time blogger with a portfolio of sites, a former Niche Pursuits employee, and an attendee at Google’s recent Creator Summit. In this interview, Jake shares his experience at the event,…

The post Jake Cain Was Inside Google’s “Secret” Meeting with 20 HCU Crushed Bloggers. Here’s What Happened appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This week Spencer and Jared break down the latest news affecting SEOs and small publishers, they share their side hustle progress, and they talk about some weird niche sites…

The post This 8 Letter Tweet Just Changed Search Forever appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

Shareablee, la herramienta líder en medición de audiencias en redes sociales y digitales habilita 26 nuevas métricas de medición enfocadas en la plataforma de TikTok para Latinoamérica

Fr. Stephen speaks about "redeeming the time" through the constant remembrance of the name of God.

The use of allegory within the Scriptures and the hymns of the Church provides this meditation on how, in Christ, nothing is wasted.

Many efforts are made to convince modern Christians that they live "in between" Christ's first coming and His second - and that this "in between" period is somehow different and requires new understandings of the gospel. Fr. Stephen refutes this false understanding and describes where it is we now live.

When the Church's hymns describe us as "rational sheep," what does it mean? Fr. Stephen offers this meditation on language and humanity. Language is part of our deepest nature - and it is a reflection of God.