David's Daily Diversions

Today I reached the pinnacle

Today I reached the pinnacle of my two-year stint with the Open Directory Project, popularly known as DMOZ. I was promoted to Meta Editor, the highest level of privileges. This came as quite a surprise. Meta editors are in essence the management committee of the Directory, responsible for the overall direction of the Project.

For those of you who do not know, the Open Directory is the largest free-source directory of the Internet. Originally developed independently, it was bought by Netscape, which is now owned by AOL/Time-Warner. It is edited entirely by volunteers and is completely non-commercial. You cannot pay to get a listing. Many commercial directories and search engines, including the all-important Google, use it as a primary source of data.

If you have a bit of free time and you would like to make a tangible impact on the usability of the Internet, consider applying to become an editor.

Today my dad reached his 71st birthday. As a present, we sent him the Stephen Ambrose book, Band of Brothers. We knew he would enjoy it, because we got him the DVDs of the series and he watches them over and over. On the telephone we told him about his other present, but more on that at a later date.

Now a bit of a follow up on yesterdays Meandering… I mentioned that I didn’t understand the idiom of the French insult “Rosbeefs [Roast beefs] go home.” This morning, Mrs Holford explained that the French call the English “Roast beefs” because the English call the French “Frog legs,” usually shortened to “Frogs”. In reply to an insult about eating frog legs, the best the French can do is suggest that there is something unnatural about eating roast beef? The French eat lots of roast beef themselves! All of this time, I’ve thought the French were called Frogs because they are slimey and jump at the first sign of danger.