Wednesday, April 20, 2005

I was hermetically sealed in Atlanta, not so in Seattle. I have a room on Lake Washington with a view of the mountains, it's a sunny warm day here (still, although it's 10:15PM in the east). Time for dinner! 

Lisa Williams: "Hey, TV Guide: it’s not a podcast unless it has RSS." 

I watched Kill Bill on the flight out, and realized it's not only a great movie, it's a great chick movie, and a super-violent one at that. Count the number of men who kill women (zero) vs the number of men killed by women (at least 100). Anyway, Quentin Taratino is a genius. I love his movies.  

Google: "My Search History lets you easily view and manage your search history from any computer." 

UserLand: "This is a public beta site for reviewing and discussing features and documentation to be released with Manila 9.5." 

Search Engine Watch: "Google has rolled out a seriously cool search history feature that automatically keeps track of all of your web searches and every page that you view from search results." 

Fortune says Bill Gates is riled and he's making a Google killer. Yeah Fortune always says stuff like that, but it's never been true. Bill Gates does get riled, or simulates getting riled, but what really happens is the other guys get scared and blink and then he wins by default. But that was when Gates was young and feisty and more convincing. And when he had Ben Slivka who wore shorts and ate red meat, not the people working on the search engine at MSN these days. Give me a break. Those guys freak out if you raise your voice. All Google has to do is say Boo and they'll spend a year getting over it. 

I can't believe Bill Gates is being considered by the Discovery Channel as the "greatest American." A long time ago he took over other people's ideas (this was before software patents), and then once he cleared the field of all competition, went on permanent vacation. Just shows how much we're about perceptions, if he wins the award what they really mean is he's the greatest impersonation of a great American.  

There's a Cleveland podcaster's meetup tonight.  

Noon Pacific: Arrived safely in Seattle.  

Wired: "If the newly elected pope wants his own website, he'll have to talk to Rogers Cadenhead first." Makes sense. 

Okay I'm really getting the hang of the Archos PMA430, but there's one thing I can't figure out. It only plays MPEG4 format videos. Where do you get those? I don't have any. I have a cross-country plane flight later today, and a good net connection now. Where do I go? 

We've had some kind of problem with changes.xml on weblogs.com. I've posted a note here, and will keep it updated as I find out more. Update: The change I made appears to have worked.  

It's 51 degrees in Redmond 

A must-read piece about Microsoft by Dare Obasanjo.

Mini-Microsoft: "[There was] a reason for talented folks leaving in droves during the Internet boom: money. As folks left for start-ups, Microsofties would give them a cheery goodbye and (if they were good) say (once they were out of earshot), 'They'll be back.'"

The weather in Redmond: 51 degrees and clear. I arrive mid-day.

From the We-All-Can-Be-Popes Department 

Since we believe any one of eight million people who have weblogs could break the biggest story of our generation, what could be wrong with each of us leading our own major religion? Exactly. So in that spirit, in espirito doityourselfus, I proclaim myself Pope Dave Winer I. At your service!

And by the power vested in me I hearby acknowledge your holiness, your eminence, your Popeness. It works for everyone, male or female, rich or poor, African, American, Asian, Australian and European. You want to be The Pope? You got it baby!

7/8/98: "The BusinessWeek article referred to me as President Winer."

Via Lance Knobel: "They've elected Larry Summers as Pope."