The new TypePad comments are a lot more attractive than before.

Six Apart's paid, hosted blogging service, TypePad, is getting improved community features. The first thing most users will notice is a new blog commenting system. It has both a cleaner display of comments (with icons for the comments, WordPress-style), as well as a simpler comment entry interface. Users can also reply to particular comments and the system supports one level of threading.

The updated comments service hooks into TypePad's new profile system. Commenters with TypePad IDs get a place that collects all the comments they leave on all TypePad comment-enabled blogs, and users can add feeds from their accounts on Flickr, Twitter, Friendfeed, Digg, and about 45 other services. That makes the profile pages a lot more dynamic and interesting.

The TypePad comment system can be embedded on non-Movable Type blogs. The service can automatically install on WordPress.org, Blogger, and Tumblr sites. HTML code is provided to put the comment system on other blogs.

This new comment ecosystem is certainly an improvement over the previous version. But bloggers have other very good commenting systems to choose from. I favor Disqus, for instance. Although I do like the new TypePad system, I don't see a reason to install it on my WordPress blog ProPRTips, (and actually, I couldn't if I wanted to--users of WordPress.com-hosted blogs can't get far enough under the hood to make the switch; bloggers using WordPress.org software hosted elsewhere can, however).

The new system is certainly an improvement, and more than that it's interesting to see Six Apart continue to spin core functionality out of its paid products and offer it to the world for free. Previously, of course, the company made Movable Type open source and free. The company clearly hopes that exposure to these products will make revenue-generating products more attractive. Whatever the motivation, these are serious and full-featured products, now available for nothing, and I'm cool with that.

The new TypePad profiles collect all your commenting activities on TypePad-enabled blogs.

So, what are you waiting for? Are you going to be one of the people this year putting down your cigarette for good?  Done it before and want to share your experience?  Let us know in the comments!

Cancer.org - The official site from the American Cancer Society features a section on the Great American Smokeout with all of the reasons you should quit and how to get started.

DeterminedToQuit.com - Developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, DeterminedToQuit.com offers numerous resources to help you quit smoking.  They offer progress charts, support messages, video blogs from other quitters and much more.

QuiText.com - A subscription based service that sends you text messages over six weeks from ex-smokers to encourage you in your effort to quit smoking.  Also provides widgets for the Google homepage, your website and even desktop images to help keep you on track.

QuitForYou.org - The official site of the Great American Smokeout has toolkits, FAQs about smoking, and a lot of information about the harms of smoking.

QuitMeter.com - Enter when you quit, how many cigarettes you smoke per day or week, how much your packs cost, and see how much money you’ve saved yourself since you quit.

Qwitter - Sponsored by Tobacco Free Florida, Qwitter lets you tweet every time you smoke along with how many you had, and at the end of each day it compiles it into a chart so you can see how you are doing.  Add in the fact that it’s on Twitter and your friends can cheer you on as you try to quit.

Smokefree.gov - Smokefree.gov provides free, accurate, evidence-based information and professional assistance to help support the immediate and long-term needs of people trying to quit smoking.

Stobacco.com - Stobacco helps your friends monitor you as you attempt to quit smoking.  If they spot you smoking, they report it, and everyone can talk to you about it.  Maybe a bit big brotherish, but support is always a good thing.  Also available in multiple languages.

WhyQuit.com - WhyQuit has numerous essays, real-life stories, and guides on how to quit so that you can deal with taking that first step or preventing a relapse.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, Ljupco

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Apple has just released software update 2.3 for the Apple TV. Right now, we don't have the change log, but we'll update the post as soon as we get more information.

It is important to know that as with all other Apple TV firmware updates, running the update WILL remove any non-Apple TV software. So if you have installed the USB boxee hack you might want to wait on running the update.

Apple TV will eventually prompt you to run the automatic update, so boxee or XBMC users might want to check out the XBMC.org forums for information on disabling automatic updates.

If you are not using any additional software and would like to download this new update, you can do so by visiting Settings > General > Software Update from the main Apple TV menu. If you notice any new features, be sure to let us know in the comments.

Update: Apple has now posted a change log on their website. According to the knowledge base article, the following aspects of Apple TV have been updated:

• AirTunes Streaming from Apple TV - Music can be streamed via AirTunes to Airport Express speakers or other Apple TVs in your house.
• Third-party Remote Controls - Apple TV can now learn other remote controls and use them in addition to the Apple Remote.
• Playlists - Playlists in iTunes that contain Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, and Music Videos can now be seen on Apple TV.
• Music Volume Control - Support for volume control in Music.

Thanks for the tip, Jeff.

TUAWApple TV update 2.3 released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

That post has led me to roam around the Web catching up and educating myself on what has been happening in science search in the past several months. Well, first of all Karen pointed out that she was referring to the post on the subject featured on the Spineless? Blog of the British institution, Heriot-Watt University. Now, anyone who is considering setting up a library blog or indeed any blog in the information sciences might want to take a look at that one. It is handsome, interesting, informative and well-organized. Indeed, I am going to shamelessly crib from that single post for several days running.

For instance, one of the search engines listed is Scitopia.org which has been around for a while but which I have not really explored. And I noticed that it is says “Powered by DeepWeb” so I popped over to the site of that firm, Deep Web Technologies which led to this useful post Introducing Science.gov 5.0.

Ironically, when I clicked on the link there that reads, “Science.gov 5.0 is now available!” I got the error message, “Firefox can’t find the server at www.science-dot-gov.” And Internet Explorer says more or less the same thing, “Sorry, we couldn’t find http://www.science-dot-gov/index.html.” I imagine that Science.gov Product Manager Valerie Allen is working on that little glitch, as I have just left on her post a note about it.

Everybody interested in science search should read Ms. Allen’s post, as she discusses several interesting changes to Science.gov, some of which will set some teeth on edge, especially among those who remain leery of Wikipedia’s increasing presence in scholarship and consider its growing influence as a distressing sign of dumbing down, decline of standards and the fall of civilization generally. RSS is making its presence felt in Science.gov 5.0, as is the growth in the use the of online citation tools.

And boy is mastery of those a huge part of librarianship these days, as I am learning in my studies in the FastTrack MLIS program at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences–and for those of you out there in library jobs and considering getting your master’s in library science, applications for admission to the FastTrack MLIS program (Summer 2009 Term) are due by February 16, 2009: An MLIS is not a bad thing for those fascinated by search to have—many of the leading commentators on search are former librarians or still librarians or work in libraries (e.g., Gary Price, Greg Notess, Mary Ellen Bates, David Rothman (of http://davidrothman.net).

But getting back to what Ms. Allen says. She says:

“…If you’re a frequent user of Science.gov, you may have had a hand in the recent enhancements. Many of the new Science.gov 5.0 technical features are in response to past suggestions from Science.gov users. Topic “clustering” is available on the Science.gov results so you can drill down into subtopics to focus your research. Presented alongside the Science.gov results is auxiliary information from the AAAS EurekAlert! Science News and from Wikipedia. Also new with this version is the ability to download search results into your citation management software – a specific request from the library community. You will also notice a new Alerts interface which allows you to set up an ATOM or RSS feed of your Alerts.”

Finding Ms. Allen’s posting on this useful reading, I decided to check out more recent entries on the OTSI (Office of Scientific & Technical Information) blog. There has been some excitement about the new global science gateway WorldWideScience.org and this post is important reading for those who care about medicine and science: China Joins the WorldWideScience Alliance: Why This is Important.

When I was growing up in Corvallis, Oregon my family hosted many of the first graduate students allowed by the People’s Republic of China to study at Oregon State University and I taught English in China for a year in the 1990s and have always been impressed by the brilliance of Chinese scientists and the struggles they have overcome such as the simple lack of books and basic lab and computer resources. It is so heartening that at long last the efforts of scientist like these and elsewhere in the developing world will now be rendered findable and open to Western scientists and that the latter are becoming more open to citing papers from foreign institutions. Noble and important work Brian Hitson, OSTI Associate Director for Administration & Information Services! Those who suffer from devastating illnesses and those of us who love such people thank you and wish you well in your work.

I then surfed back to the Web Site of Deep Web Technologies and decided to click on some of their press releases, which led to me to this one:

I tried the tool mentioned because I was curious to see what results on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis would come up in this, the DOD’s Defense Technical Information Center’s new online research portal, given that veterans appear to have a higher incidence of ALS than the general population. I got an interesting result from the National Research Council Canada Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information and it is nice to see results from WorldWideScience.org already appearing so helpfully in results in various search engines. This portal might be of interest to veterans and their family members who wish to investigate the possibility that health problems might be connected to military service. It is certainly something those in the defense industry will employ.

Deep Web Technologies is doing some amazing things for its many clients in science and business search. Check out its site. It’s a comer. No, scratch that—it a well established leader in search technology.

These are just some of the things I have been exploring as a result of Ms. Blakeman’s edifying post.