Deja vu from the Dept of Redundancy Dept

A while back, the readers of these screeds were getting multiple notifications of new posts from ChangeDetection.com. I did the only decent thing: after finding that this was not a common complaint, but nevertheless other sites had noticed this, I yanked CD off the site. As a solution, I suggested using the Atom syndication feed that is built into Blogger at the bottom of each post.

May I now offer if not a solution, a reasonable workaround. Try it if you find the RSS type feed too annoying.

I've set up a page on my website that points to this blog. Yes, using ChangeDetection. So you can sign up to monitor THAT page by dropping in your email address. (You can go to Changedetection and kill any previous pages that might have been monitored).

So here's what happens:
1) I write a blog entry and run a QBasic script that updates the date and time on that page on that site. What it actually does is change a local copy of the page and then FTPs it to the website.
2) ChangeDetection's monitor checks that page and finds only the time and date to have been changed. No fancy formatting, CSS or comments that could make it think there have been multiple changes.
3) You get the email notification of the change to THAT page, and click on the link to Cud-Chewing. It's just that easy.

If this fails, I will abandon the hope of simple notification. See, when The Coffee Bean Goddess blogs, she writes a nice little summary of her new post. The service she's chosen then notifies everyone. Much more user-friendly than Cud-Chewing.

Now, I would do that too, if I had any idea what I was talking about. But ChangeDetection, if it works, is ideal for people in a hurry. It doesn't summarize or repeat the comments; it just tells you that I mouthed off again, and gives you a link. You can run it pasteurize and see if it's working.

From the Department of Redundancy Department

If you give it your email address, ChangeDetection.com sends you an email whenever there's a recognizable change in the text of the webpage you're currently reading. The only thing is, it seems to have sent out two or three notices for the same page in the last 48 hours. In the several years I've been using it to watch for page changes on many other web sites, that has only happened about three times.

In my view, this is the Sorcerer's Apprentice Phenomenon. You remember the Disney's movie Fantasia where Mickey Mouse was apprenticed to the master sorcerer? When the master left instructions that Mickey was to mop and sweep the shop while the master was on an errand, Mickey decided to try out his nascent magic on a broom that lay quietly in a corner. Commanding the broom to grab a bucket and fill it at the cistern and then start mopping the floor, Mickey sat back and napped as the broom did as it was commanded. Suddenly awakened, Mickey felt panic as the broom kept on drawing water and sloshing it on the floor until the place was awash. And panic became horror when Mickey tried to stop the broom, first by reciting every magic word he knew and then by splitting the broom with an axe. The broom was now cloned, and two brooms continued the actions of the first.

Of course, when the master returned, a single word was enough to reverse the situation. But Mickey was hung out to dry. His career path to wizardry was cut short.

Automation is like that. If there is a law that applies to the process of allowing a computer to take over something, it is probably that of Unintended Consequences. One example that's more common than you might think is the Utilities System computer that sends you a bill for an account balance of $0.00, and unless you damned well send it a check (cheque) for that amount, you'll be dunned and sent to a collection agency. I tell you this: any company that puts me in that situation won't get nothing from me.

So I have to assume that if you sign up to be notified of changes to this blog, Mickey Mouse's broom will take over at some point, and you'll have so many notifications that you'll ignore them or put them in your spam filter. This would certainly be an unintended consequence. Or the other thing you can do is regard the problem as a blip. I've found once or twice that I've mistakenly signed up for a service more than once. I tend to do that with things that are free... since, as we all know, they are the best things in life.