July 2008
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Preferring BlogWorld to Flogworld
I’ll be at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas in September. Gotta say that I wouldn’t be going if it didn’t coincide with another obligation in town. But since I’ll be there, I’m interested in seeing if a sharper distinction can be made between blogging and flogging. You can see the split by looking Blogworld’s own… Continue reading
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A unit of what?
A knol, Knol says, is a “unit of knowledge”. I don’t think so. But I do think Knol is already becoming a den of spam. My cursory research, at that link, suggests that the answer is yes. “Anemia“? No results. “Hair“? 12, including several (supposedly) by the top guy at the Beauty Network. “Cancer“? 38,… Continue reading
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Why newspapers shouldn’t die
Dan Gillmor: Newspapers have at least two more huge opportunities. First is to open the archives, with permalinks on every story in the database. Newspapers hold more of their communities’ histories and all other media put together, yet they hoard it behind a paywall that produces pathetic revenues and keeps people in the… Continue reading
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Quick survey question
Do any of ya’ll have an HD radio? If so, whaddaya think? If not, what are the chances you’ll ever get one? Bonus link. Continue reading
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Another click on the ratchet
I woke up with the song “Sixteen Candles” running through my mind. I didn’t get the dyslexic pun until I realized that I turn sixty-one today. Technically, I’ve got several more hours at sixty, since I’m writing this at 6:22, and I was born at about 11am (at Christ Hospital in Jersey City). In an… Continue reading
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Partial escape from just one hell
What Google Does (and needs to keep doing). It’s about domain name registration, and how Google does that right — or closer to right than anything else I’ve found. An excerpt: Did I use Google just because it’s a “trusted brand”? No. In fact, there are no “brands” that I trust. Sorry, marketers, “branding”… Continue reading
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Cool. Literally.
This shot here (and above) has found a home here as well. Continue reading
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Big Business Idea
I like the hotel we’re staying in. The wi-fi signal is strong, fast and free. The bed is firm and the sheets are fine cotton, topped by a soft comforter. The AC works well and isn’t too noisy. I have no complaints except for the lack of a good desk and chair for working on… Continue reading
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Opening the Book Cliffs
A few dozen million years ago, in the Eocene — not far back, as geology goes — a large lake covered much of what’s now western Colorado and eastern Utah. A lot of organic muck fell to the bottom, and now that muck is oil. Problem is, it’s locked in shale, and extracting it is… Continue reading
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Shootings
I’m in Mystic Seaport with family, looking at boats and learning history. It’s a great place that I remember well, even though I’m pretty sure the last time I came here was in the 5th grade, which would have been a little more than 50 years ago. Most of the antique boats currently on display… Continue reading
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John Taylor Gatto comes to Palo Alto
Mark Finnern has scheduled one of my heroes, John Taylor Gatto, for a talk at SAP’s HQ in Palo Alto, on August 21. I’ll be in Santa Barbara around that time and will do my best to make the 600-mile round trip. Believe me, it’s worth it. I’ve never heard Gatto speak, but his essays… Continue reading
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Improve your memery
Checking out Polymeme, a new brainservice of Evgeny Morozov. One purpose is to “push you to discover news from areas that you may not otherwise discover”, it says here. Continue reading
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Real A-listers, cont’d
JP Rangaswami points to This is Zimbabwe as proof that the blogosphere isn’t just “an echo-chamber, full of shallow and superficial like-minded people who couldn’t write an accurate and in-depth story about anything to save their lives”. So, I’ll see that one and raise him one Baby Kamba. Continue reading
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Absolute reform for radio
The new business of free radio. Continue reading
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P2P name dropping
Rohit Bhargava calls it “egommunication”, and defines that as a form of communication where you can share a message or piece of content with someone based on their own consistent habit of checking mentions of themselves and their content online. It’s an insightful post about how to reach the otherwise unreachable. But I think we… Continue reading
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Getting around
I shot some Puffins the other day, from an old lobster boat piloted by my cousin George, who is a local on Maine’s Muscongus Bay. We skirted just past the surf surrounding Eastern Egg Rock, from which puffins disappeared in the 1800s after settlers ate all their eggs. The birds have been re-established there with… Continue reading
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New news flow at Projo
Sheila Lennon on improvements inside the Projo (Providence Journal online) blog mill: The most interesting new feature, to me, is the MultiBlog: Whenever a new post, photo or comment publishes to any projo blog, it will simultaneously publish in realtime to Multiblog. You get an eagle’s-eye view of all today’s news there in one… Continue reading
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On the continuing end of TV as usual
Somewhere back there I said that local TV evening news would be toasted by the inevitable end of subsidies for local TV dealership advertising. Then I was just pointing at the wall. Here’s the writing that’s starting to appear. Hat tip to Terry Heaton for that one. Also for this, which points in another direction:… Continue reading
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Who new?
Digging Baby Name Guesser. Says here, “It’s a girl! Based on popular usage, it is 4.373 times more common for Doc to be a girl’s name.” Hm. I can think of Rivers, Holliday, Watson and the Dwarf. But not one girl. Yet. Check the results for Festus. Hat tip to Leonard Lin. Continue reading