POYNTER -- I had the same problem with the Olympics as Eva Dominguez. "There are so many sports in the Olympic Games with so many different rules that unless you know how they work it is difficult to catch on." I made the same discovery too--interactive graphics are the way to learn what's on the television screen. Fortunately, several well-produced websites offered useful graphics about the sports and their judging standards.

ARDEMGAZ -- This just in from >Poynter:

Cathy Frye, a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, won the 2004 American Society of Newspaper Editors Award for nondeadline writing. She took first place in the category for her four-part series, "Caught in the Web." Unfortunately, the version of the story that appears on Ardemgaz.com is poorly formatted for online viewing. Conversations that were written in instant messenger or e-mail run together in a confusing manner. Words are needlessly bolded, and sentences of poetry are missing the appropriate line breaks. This lack of quality production distracts the reader from the series' powerful narrative. That said, Frye's writing is so evocative that I continued clicking on each link just to find out how and why 13-year-old Kacie Woody was stalked, raped, and murdered by a 47-year-old man she met in a Yahoo! chat room.

MOVABLE TYPE -- Movable Type 3.1 is out and will be used in Tipperary Institute.

There's another fork in the road worth investigating--Six A-Partners. Mena Trott explains. "If you're interested in making money with weblogs, making cool tools, or just making your work with weblogs easier, the Professional Network is designed for you. So, if you're interested in joining the network (it's free), be sure to visit http://sixapart.com/pronet/ for more information."

CLONMEL -- Google is offering some interesting takes on the "Internet Operating System" with its ever-expanding search technology. Microsoft's Longhorn Operating System is an internet light year away, set for release in 2006. In the meantime, Google might thrown a few mechanisms into the open that totally change the face of computing.

WEB REFERENCE -- JavaScript and databases have a mixed history, due in part to JavaScript's success. Currently, Web security provisions restrict the ability of a Web program to read (and write) local files. There are some workarounds to that challenge.

IRISH TIMES -- "My favourite site to explore at the moment is Flickr," says Danny O'Brien. He explains why--and his opinion resonates.

NICK -- I agree with Nick Bradbury. " Feed readers need to do more - much more - to help locate and navigate related information, and this is something I've thought about for quite some time." Like maintain smart watchlists.

SLASHDOT -- According to 60 of the most influential scientists in the world, including British biologist Richard Dawkins and Canadian psychologist Steven Pinker, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) is the best science fiction film. Late Mr. Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) finished 2nd, followed by George Lucas' Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

CLONMEL -- We use New Media in Late 20th Century Art in the Media Studies module of our Open Media Studies Programme. The first words from the text set the tone for the scope of the book.

One of the characteristic perceptions of twentieth-century art has been of its persistent tendency to question the long tradition of painting as the privileged medium of representation.

LESSIG -- Richard Posner explains the concept of "fair use" in more lucid terms than any textbook used in the Open Media Studies Programme. "The doctrine, which has close counterparts in patent and trademark law, permits a degree of unauthorized copying of copyrighted works .... If a teenager takes a joyride in my car and is arrested, can he defend by arguing that it was a 'fair use'? No, but the example points up an important difference between physical and intellectual property, a difference obscured by the use of words like 'theft' and 'piracy' to describe unauthorized copying.