Wasted literally over a hour this morning re-reading irritating threads that led in many ways to the nEcho project. When my blood pressure returns to normal, I may point to some of them just to remind people of how we got where we are now.
Meanwhile, I was delighted to learn that I’ve been included in the second round of beta testing for TypePad. I can’t say much, but according to the limited nondisclosure terms, “I can indicate that [I am] a beta tester and [I] can link to [my] TypePad weblog, if [I] so desire.”
But that implies, then, that I better be careful not to discuss features and/or other verboten topics in the blog, which is already pinging weblogs.com and blo.gs.
I’ve actually set up two blogs there already, to try out variations. The first is the one called Linotype that I linked to above. The other is called Plate of Shrimp and it’s either going to be about FOAF or coincidences, or both.
Linotype: First post

As a way of hammering away at TypePad’s feature set, I’ll try to build a nice list of FOAF links for the sidebar.
BTW, so far I have only the slightest quibbles about user-feedback in a few contexts. The design seems really well thought through and reflects obviously many best practices inherited from or learned as lessons from Movable Type as well as some clear adaptations of features from the better hosted services.

Dori Smith has posted some Movable Type bookmarklets that work with Safari to Backup Brain, the excellent weblog she publishes with Tom Negrino. Thanks, Dori!

Jeff Jarvis reports on a sneak preview of AOL’s upcoming weblogging entrant, saying “They’ve done a good job.”
Jeff was invited along with Meg Hourihan, Nick Denton, Anil Dash, and Clay Shirky to preview the service, called AOL Journals. Discussing the meeting from the AOL perspective, an AOL employee named Kevin writes in his blog,

AOL Journals is different. No one thinks of blogging as a new “space” to conquer. Most of the people involved in the project realize that AOL

Dave Winer claims that Evan Williams left UserLand off a list of Blogger’s competitors, calling this chilling. In the post Dave refers to, Blogger API Update, the closest thing I can find to any “list of competitors” is in list item 5:

Interoperability. This is a biggie. At least two other major blogging tool and service companies (SixApart and Live Journal) have pledged their support for this new initiative, and we’re working with them (as well as others) to define the spec up-front. This means your tools will be usable by as many people as possible, with minimal effort. And since the API/format will be vendor-neutral, no one’s needs can be more important than users and developers.

If this is what Dave was referring to, it’s hardly a complete list and it specifically mentions those companies that have pledged their support for nEcho. UserLand has not (Dave, tentatively, has), so it wouldn’t belong on this list anyway.
Maybe there was something else in the entry when Dave read it that’s been deleted since? I’ve heard of people editing their blog posts without comment.