I'm writing on the train, but I'm not going to worry about posting wirelessly. I'll just hotsync the palm and post once I get home.

So, today's blogfodder falls into the realm of serendipity. I was thinking about a project I wanted to make, a relatively simple one, but with wide application. I'll describe it later (that is, if you're one of those like Karen who reads the blog chronologically, bottom-to-top (and for whom posts longer than one screen must mean a lot of zigzagging up, then down, then up again) but I digress.. If you read from top-to-bottom, then you already know what I'm talking about.)

At any rate, I was looking for a nice, short mnemonic domain for this service which, for lack of a domain I'll call 'clip' (at least initially it will probably live at 'clip.fury.com').

So I was domain-name hunting before work this morning and after a few hundred ideas (nearly all taken in .com, .net. and .org) I settled on either ibidibi.com (pronounced 'ibbi-dibbi' and though a cool palendrome, not quite as cool as idibidi.*, which I'm pretty sure is taken), or voxen.net.

I like voxen.net, as it sounds cool, is short, and even has a little Latin root in there to spark the imagination. It's a little like vox (speech), vixen (sex sells), and voxel (a 3D pixel). In fact, a geek prone to hypercorrection might think that voxen is the plural of voxel.

But I digress...

After deciding on voxen.net, I started thinking about how it lends itself perfectly to my voice-blogging project (that and Dinah noting that vox is voice). Briefly, the voice-blogging project would be a service using VoiceXML and Tellme's developer services to allow registered users call Tellme and record voice blog entries that will automatically post to their site. A lot has to be hammered out, including whether I can do on-the-fly mp3 compression or if I have to use aiff or wav. Then there's hosting. Should I follow Blogger's model and let those who have room and wherewithall to host their own voiceblog entries use the service for free, and either charge those who use Voxel's hosting, or have some sort of advertising model. Anyhow, that's a bit out there, and a lot of things need to be figured out before we get there.

So that, really briefly, is the current vision for voxel.net. You're in your car, stuck in traffic (which frankly is where I get most of my interesting ideas, the forebrain wanders as the backbrain takes the wheel), and you have a thought, you call tellme, login through voice commands, and share your thoughts.

Leia doesn't think she'd use it beyond playing with it a few times, because she wouldn't want to present herself in her voice. I completely understand. I have a lot more control over my tone and content when I'm in front of a keyboard (though you'd never guess it from this rambling post touching on many thoughts but mastering none). I think the idea voice-blogging is like text blogging without a backspace key or the ability to stop for even a moment. Heck, I record my answering machine greeting 10 times before I'm happy done.

Think it's useful? Have an alternate use in mind for the application? I'm all ears.

Actually, as a big 'sike' to everyone, I'm not going to try to explain 'clip' just yet. I'll have it done in a bit (unlike my other projects, when this one's up it'll be fully functional in its glorious simplicity) and you can see it and use it for yourself. Some of the best mainstream tools are born from the inventor personally wanting to salve a problem for themself. Clip falls in that category. I hope you find it useful...