Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Quick Hits

Worth reading on a Thursday night.

Colin Walker: If I'm not a blogger then what am I? Some good thoughts about the latest navel gazing episode on the Internet, prompted in large part by Louis Gray's latest round of posts. So much of this discussion centers on value and measurement, even when it is taking great pains not to, Whenever this kind of conversation circles back around (the distance between circles seems to be decreasing, I'm not sure if that is a sign of anything or not) I'm reminded of a quote from my grandfather:

You only get out of something what you are willing to put into it.

Robert Scoble: Early adopter angst. Robert calls it angst and says his arrogance on the subject come from his belief that early adopters are the ones who drive society. Again, I'm reminded of a quote from my grandfather:

You only get out of something what you are willing to put into it.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

AT&T is afraid the Internet is going to hit capacity by 2010. Probably because they didn't spend the enormous tax subsidies they received to build out the infrastructure.

The New York Times talks about the struggle to evade what they call an e-mail tsunami and other Internet distractions. They use H.L. Mencken as an example. I wonder how Mencken would have handled the onslaught we see today?

Dave Winer on the willing suspension of disbelief, using it as a springboard into talking about Comcast and they way they handle their procedures. He calls it "like waking up from a dream that felt real." Brecht would disagree, but I agree with Dave. Of course the problem is much larger than Comcast. Try most business transactions (can you say banks?) politics, the music industry, you name it. When the lawyers and marketeers have so much sway, what you asking the audience to willingly suspend their disbelief over doesn't matter as much as how you lead them to it.

The Gillmor Gang is back (did it ever really leave?) in all of its Beckett-like glory. Now hosted by TechCrunch. This is the best entertainment on the web if you ask me.

One village is China is responsible for 60^ of the world's paintings according to this post on BoingBoing.

If Shakespeare wrote pulp fiction.

The New York Times looks behind the propaganda campaign that features retired generals as "media analysts," and discovers (shock and awe) that some of them have conflicts of interest and the Pentagon orchestrated much of the coverage. Is anyone surprised by any of this?

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

The Presidential Follies keep getting sillier with all of this talk about elitism and calls for Obama to apologize. If he does, he loses my support. I like it when a politician speaks the truth, even if it will cost him votes, and even if he could have phrased it better. This is a non-issue that the media is using to justify their own importance. Nothing more, nothing less. Oh, and the elitists on all sides are happy to help.

Why China is the Real Master of the Universe. Ah, history.

Simplicity Sells to the older set when it comes to gadgets and high-tech. Heck Simplicity sells to every set.

Gartner analysts prove they can summarize a gazillion blog posts about Vista and claim it is collapsing in on itself. Wow. I guess when you're an analyst you can do that. Yeah, it is bloated and no where near what anyone hoped it would be. But that is such old news I'm amazed it is still getting headlines.

Reducing Back to Art. Ethan Kaplan looks at piracy and value in the era of digital insanity.

Alberto Gonzales can't get a law firm to give him a name on the letterhead. Anyone surprised?

Death by Oboe. How acoustic instruments torment their players.

Eric Rice on "How can I stop being called a 'blogger.'" Everything eventually loses its meaning.

Twitter is Like Sex. No wonder it is so messy.

There's a gapingvoid on Twitter

Looks like Alpine, Texas just lost their biggest promoter on Twitter. Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid blogged that he has deleted his Twitter account. No more gapingvoid tweets. No more Alpine, Texas updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hugh says he found Twitter too easy and his time will be better spent drawing cartoons and writing books. I'm looking forward to the book, I always love the cartoons, and I will miss the Tweets.

Wonder if this will start a trend?

Technorati Tags: Twitter,gapingvoid,Hugh MacLeod

John Adams Is Now Blogging

Love it. I guess following sort of in the footsteps of Fake Steve Jobs, John Adams has now taken up the quill (keyboard?) and started blogging. His blog title is JohnAdamsUncensored.

I am John Adams and you have entered my Blog. I decided to start blogging from the grave due to the preponderance of mistruths and inaccuracies that have spread across the people by virtue of biographical books and television series. It appears that a host of lecherous pundits and writers have jumped on the John Adams bandwagon. Even in the grave, these hangers-on are annoying and aggravating. So, good people, I have decided to enter the Blogesphere, as i believe it is called, not to correct the inaccuracies of what has been written about me, but to comment on what is happening now

Subscribed. I can't wait to follow this one (wonder if he'll start Twittering from beyond the grave?) So,I wonder who will be next. Probably some Dutch satirist as Mohammed.

Technorati Tags: JohnAdamsUncensored

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Charlton Heston passed away. No doubt he was a great and no doubt in his later years he became a political lightening rod. Remembered for Moses, El Cid, Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes, and many others, my favorite Heston role was in the relatively small supporting role of the Player King in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. Summed up so much.

The tech world is falling over itself because the Moses of tech journalism,  Walt Mossberg, says there will be a 3G iPhone in 60 days. As I recall both Jobs and the AT&T honcho have earlier both said that will happen this year. And June does make sense. With the news that iPhones are out of stock in Apple Stores, I don't know why anyone is surprised by this supposed confirmation.

Ernie the Attorney talks about Seth Godin's book, The Dip, that "teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)." I need to read this.

A superfast Internet coming soon? Not until they can figure out how to slow it down, throttle it back, and make money from it.

The AP took a look at ISP contracts and Terms of Use and discovered that, although rarely enforced, you basically have no rights if the ISP decides to lower the boom. Anyone surprised by this? If you are, you're the reason these sorts of agreements exist.

Crunch Gear links to an amazing report on Guiyu, a town in China that is strangled by high tech waste. The pictures are stunning.

The US is starting to tout its plan to hit back against Cyber attacks. Why do I think we'll lose this one?

Lloyds of London might have to cut back premiums because of a lack of natural disasters recently. It sucks when your business model is betting on disaster sometimes.

Mate Ian Dixon has put some of his music on line. Some good stuff there, Ian.

NY Times: Blogging Can Kill You

The NY Times is examining the stress that blogging can cause in an article that preys a bit on the deaths of noted bloggers Russell Shaw and good friend Marc Orchant, and also Om Malik's heart attack. The points are reasonably well made. Being someone who swims in the pool that is blogging I can't disagree that the stress can be intense, if you let it build to that, and of course that all depends on why you do it and what your goals are. But I don't think it is any worse or, for that matter, different, than the stress of pursuing anything else you love or have a passion for. Balance isn't in the eye of the beholder in any field of human endeavor.

Original Blog Thoughts, The End Is Near, and Other Navel Gazing Curiosities

Arrogance is the ultimate in shortsightedness. It is also the ultimate in unoriginal thought. The blogging/twittering/friendfeeding/ world is navel gazing again. This time the lint that is getting pulled out is all about the lack of original thought in blogging as opposed to linking and piling on and page view hunting, and on and on and on....

First, there hasn't been much original thought in any sphere of human endeavor that involves writing in  a long, long time. And the trends and patterns are just the same. The only difference is the method of sharing the stories. Heck, I'm not sure what history will look on more kindly, oral communication and its ways of morphing an original idea, or blogging, and twittering, and etc... and its way of linking and changing a story. At least with blogging, etc... some of the time the original source gets credit.

And this whole social graph, networking thing? About as new as talking to your neighbors at the post office, or at the market, or over the mastodon kill, or over the just about anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the world is smaller because of the Intertubes but no matter the size of the pub the suds still flow the same way.

Oh, and the characters that populate this ongoing play that the Internet is just another scene in? You could pick them out of a Greek tragedy by Euripides, or a Roman comedy by Plautus. The characters remain the same, the actors just change. Shakespeare did. But that was back in the days before perpetual copyright.

The end isn't near and don't everyone break a sweat looking for original thought, even if you are unafraid it might bite you in the ass.

When you view the world from behind your nose it is tough to look behind you and see that you're looking at what others have already seen. And the bald spot on the back of your noggin is just part of the view.

Technorati Tags: Blogs,blogging

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Everybody is talking about the social networking thing this week on a number of levels. Loic Le Meur says he's looking for some centralization and back on his blog. I have to agree.

Michael Arrington weighs in on this on TechCrunch, with a focus on FriendFeed. I'm hot and cold on FriendFeed right now in and of itself.

Louis Gray on Internet Addictions. He thinks calling it an addiction is silly. I do too.

Meanwhile a judge says Facebook friends aren't real friends.

Ed Bott on What's Wrong with the Blogosphere.

Russia wants a tunnel between the Motherland and the US.

They are still caucusing in Texas?

Newsweek proclaims a "new" Super Tuesday ahead. Give me a break.

I'm not sure how I feel about all the talk about giving the US Treasury more power. On one hand we do need some system to keep the thieves and greedy buggers from crashing things down around us as they steal our money. On the other hand, there are times I just say "let her burn."

Dave Winer is talking to Pigs. They are talking back.

George Will waxes somewhat rhapsodic on baseball. He says one reason we like it is that there are 3 strikes and you're out and no lawyer can help you. Unless you dope up to play the game.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

The NY Times say the Dems are concerned about a long fight to the nomination. No kidding. With the absolutely failed Primary/Caucus process they have shown how not to nominate a candidate in ways only a Republican could love. Self castration is always going to be ugly.

Muslim leaders are turning to the legal process to try and protect against blasphemy from things like cartoons. I say once again, if what you hold so dear can't stand up to criticism and attack from those who disagree, then you should question why you hold it so dear. Unless of course, you just want to make some extortion money from the legal process.

China must have some leaders within its walled gardens that don't want the Olympics to succeed. Otherwise why would such a "controlled regime" allow the insanity that is going on in Tibet to occur 5 months before the Olympics?

Steve Gillmor on Twitter and the high wire balancing act between value and noise.

Michelle Kung's Eyewitness report on the NYC crane collapse. She lives (lived) in one of the buildings.

Twitter as a Coffee Break.

Dan Farber is revisiting Apple's iPhone strategy.

Jennifer Woodard Maderazo on The Blessing and the Curse of the iPod Touch.

Bush cancels the elections. I'm not sure given all the crap that is coming down he'd want to do that anymore.