Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Interesting comment here on Doc Searls's weblog from Brian Field-Elliot. He says he's coming to like my abrasive clarity more and more. I'm glad because I want people to like me, but it's not my first priority. We're all born wanting to be liked. Consider the baby born with genes disposing itself to not be liked,. What are the chances that baby lives long enough to procreate? That's why we all aim to please. Paul Andrews noted that some people say they don't like me but he doesn't understand why, because in person I'm so likeable. Well I like myself, that's a start, and so does Paul, so that's two. But I think some people just don't want to hear what other people really think. Weren't we all raised in a century where perception was more important than reality? Well, I want to change that, and sure that's going to be abrasive, can't help it. And saying I have an abrasive clarity is possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me, that's what I aspire to. Thanks! 

Wired: "The world's first all-podcast radio station will be launched on May 16 by Infinity Broadcasting, the radio division of Viacom." 

Shimon Rura wants an MIT World podcast. Me too! 

Jason Calcanis reports that there are Google ads in his RSS feed.  

Is it just me or is it kind of crass that the first way they acknowledge RSS is by putting ads in it. Six years and this is what they came up with? We used to like Google, actually we loved them, they were the good guys, the ones who made the Web better because they got the big picture. When they started to draw out of it, we said okay, they earned the right. Now, they didn't put anything into RSS before they started to take out. Negative points for Google as a don't-be-evil netizen. 

As usual, Rex Hammock reads my mind. 

In 1995, in a column in Hotwired, I wrote: "Apple have should run the JFK ad: 'Ask not what the Internet can do for you; ask what you can do for the Internet.' Here's an important point: Netscape should run that ad, too." They didn't.  

My credit card expires soon, so they sent a new one. A sticker on the front says I have to call an 800 number to activate it. No big deal, I dial the number, expecting it to be entirely automated. After entering some numbers, and a pause, I was surprised when a human came on, and asked for my name, verifying, among other things, that David is spelled D-A-V-I-D. I thought there must be some kind of problem, maybe they're doing a voice match or something, then a long pause, and the human said "we're waiting." Then after another long pause she asked if everything was spelled correctly on the card. I said it was, and asked if her computer was slow today. She responded with something that sounded computerish. Then after another pause she started trying to sell me something. I said no way. Waited some more and she started selling again. I began to wonder if this was a human at all. I asked if my card had been activated, she said she thought so. Thought so? Don't you work at the credit card company? No.  

Infinity Broadcasting has announced the creation of "KYOURADIO, the world's first podcasting radio station with content created exclusively by its listeners." 

Rex Hammock has an update on BlogNashville, coming up next week, in Nashville, of course.  

PDA users, there's a new PDA-friendly rendering of Scripting News.  

There's a new unauthorized Steve Jobs biography coming out called iCon, which has to be one of the cutest names ever. It's a double double entendre. Wow. Does it stand for icon, the cute little graphics that made the Mac so famous, or does it mean Jobs is a con artist, as in the reality distortion field which is almost as famous as the icons? Jobs must get a percentage of the book sales because he's hyping it by banning all books from the publisher in Apple stores. He makes a fantastic subject for story-telling, check out Randall Stross's bio of Jobs, The Next Big Thing, written in the early 90s, before his comeback. It's a great story of the culture of Silicon Valley. 

Note to the publisher of the new bio, I'd love to get a review copy.  

Paolo enjoyed the French blogging conference he participated in earlier this week. Lots of Americans made the trip to Paris. Hasta la vista baby. Oops. Wrong language!  

AVN Online: "If the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Catholics being redirected to your site is making you salivate, don’t fret." 

Kosso uncovers a Nokia 4GB MP3 phone. Now dat's gul. Funny thing is, mate, now that I've been tawkin so much wid me pal Kosso, I fynd meself theenkeeeng in Bweetish.  

Simon Waldman, an exec at The Guardian, calls Google the "rampant ad machine," and says "there is no way that traditional media organisations can compete at this pace." 

Yahoo has an API for their new My Web feature. I have a couple of comments and a question here.