Monday, August 09, 2004

President Bush: "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."  

What is Meme-O-Randum? 

Question: When does blogging reach Joe Sixpack? Answer: I don't care. Alternative answer: Trent Lott. 

NPR: Recalling Nixon's Resignation. 

Can you imagine how Google felt pitching execs at various high-flying dotcoms on a new idea in Web search. "People don't think search is important," the execs would say. Today the most powerful people in publishing believe that blogs are only used by people to state their opinion about things they know nothing about. What they should be focusing on, imho, is that sources of their reporters may tire of being misquoted and sound-bitten, and will go direct, providing users with information they thirst for. That's what blogs will mean to publishing. That was certainly one of the takeaways from my breakfast with Jonathan Schwartz this morning. Why wait for the reporters to get the story right, when the means are at hand to do it yourself. 

Chris Pirillo asks why Microsoft didn't use BitTorrent to distribute SP2. 

BusinessWeek: Blogging for Business. 

I had breakfast this morning with Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president and COO. He's as refreshing in person as he was on The Gillmor Gang a few weeks back. The conversation was interesting, and the food was good, but I haven't fully digested either yet.  

The Guardian also has an article on business blogs. I guess it's in the air today.  

NY Times: "TiVo, which helped introduce the digital video recorder, or DVR, in 1999, now faces an onslaught of competition from cable system and satellite operators, which are quickly eroding TiVo's once-dominant market share." 

Phil Ringnalda reviews MSN's new blogging service. 

Accordion Guy: "Jayson Blair had credentials." 

Scoble's ramble on yesterday's conversation with Steve Gillmor. I don't see much of a dilemma. I just want to add a snippet of HTML to a page with none of the "features" turned on. No ActiveX, no scripts, just hyperlinks and maybe a simple image or two. No need to turn off branding, the marketers can load up animated gifs to their hearts' content (subject to user's power to opt-out). Scoble, if your colleagues at MS are telling you this is a hard problem, remind them that the security holes were added quickly, one could rebuild, even more quickly, without the features that opened the door to hacking. That's the attitude that will be required, imho -- building instead of fixing. BTW, don't stare at the animated GIF too long, it can drive you insane. I know from experience!  

Russell Beattie on Minibrowsers.  

Morning coffee notes 

When I wake up in the morning these days it takes me several seconds to figure out where I am, and where I'm going back to. Esp when on the west coast, and esp when in the Bay Area, where I lived for 20-plus years. Confusion reigns.

More and more all that matters is: which of my friends is nearby, and what's the weather. The Bay Area has very agreeable weather. It's foggy and chilly this morning. Last night going to dinner I wore a sweater. Perfect. This kind of weather affords you the maxium control. If you're cold, go get a Starbucks followed by some Pho. If you're a little too hot, take the sweater off and grab a Diet Coke.

But all that pales in comparison to the importance of people, little ones and big ones. I spent the afternoon and evening hanging out yesterday with Dave Jacobs and his four boys. I taught the youngest one, Dylan, how to lip fart. It worked. Important skill to have, for a boy (or a girl).

One more thing: A reminder. At 4PM we're having a convention bloggers followup at Stanford Law School.

And at 7PM, Spicy Scripting Noodles at Jing Jing in Palo Alto.