Monday, May 02, 2005

See you at 6PM at Grand Central Station! 

Search Engine Watch has a clue about some kind of feed reader from Google. 

Thanks everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the grrrreat birthday wishes. Tonight's geek dinner was so warm, so friendly, there were 60 geeks there all singing happy birthday. I haven't had such a nice birthday since the big 3-0. I especially appreciate the kind words from Dan Bricklin and Wes Felter. So many great messages. It's been a great thoroughly exhausting day, and one to remember, forever. Thank you so much!! 

On this day in 1997, Proof that You Exist. 

Much appreciated hat-tip from Matt Mullenweg.  

I just checked in at the Grand Hyatt in NY, and this is the first hotel I've been to that has T-Mobile wireless. I was able to use my ordinary account, just sign on, and go. I'd prefer free Internet, but if they have to make it for-pay this is the way to go.  

Very active discussion on the Podcasters mail list.  

Wow all the birthday links are pushing Scripting News toward the top of Blogdex. That's cool! 

Acid Planet is a podcasting community in Madison. 

DisneyLand turns 50 too, and has a podcast to celebrate.  

Highest praise: "When they scroll the credits of my life, Dave's is going to be one of the first names on the list." Wow. 

A birthday breakfast podcast at a noisy restaurant with my parents. We talk about idea processors, Macs, eBay, buying and selling online. 

10:30AM Eastern: Arrived safely in NYC. 

New header graphic. Sedona, Arizona. 

Thanks for all the great birthday wishes. To John Palfrey, actually your link counts as much as any other link in the Technorati list. They're not weighted (at least that's the way it looks). There are some other parables out there, some highly opinionated ones, in fact, but rather than point to them, I'll let you go digging for them. It seems that turning 50 (me? 50? no way) inspires parables. As Tim Bray pointed out there sure are lot of us old fuckers out there. Yeah I can sign up for the AARP now sonny, so listen up. It doesn't seem right that old people can do cool stuff, so I'll just stay young at heart. Hehe. Stop laughing.  

A parable from the West Wing 

President Bartlet is the president we all wish we could have but can't. He's a rich chocolate cake with ice cream and hot fudge topped with whipped cream and nuts and a cherry. A cookie on the side.

He sees a Republican consultant on a political show clean the clock of bright Sam Seaborn, one of the leading minds of his generation, and insists that Leo McGarry, the grizzled chief of staff with the big heart, hire her. Leo protests that he'll change his mind in the morning, but the President assures him he won't.

The Republican consultant gets the job, and becomes less snotty but not much. She's assigned to work on a case with her former nemesis Sam Seaborn, the bright guy who helps a hooker because he's got a big dumb streak in him (but we love him even more because of it). She's given the task of summarizing a memo that Sam wrote about helping small business people, but in doing so, changes Sam's opinion to something very Republican. At first Sam is pissed, but then he stops and says "Wait a minute she's right." So he presents her idea to Leo McGarry, at the end of a long day with the lights turned down low, he's sipping a cup of coffee, with a stack of work waiting for him, but he has time for Sam and his Republican consultant assistant.

"I thought we were going the other way," Leo says to Sam, lowering his eyeglasses so we can tell he's surprised, but thoughtful,. "Yes, we were but this spunky and sassy Republican consultant you hired convinced me to go the other way." Leo puts down his coffee, pauses for a moment, says Okay and signs the memo and moves it to his out box. Sam and his young consultant friend are whisked out of the room so Leo can resume dealing with other important affairs at the end of a long but satisfying day at the White House.

As they're walking away, the consultant is shrill. "But but you weren't supposed to do what I told you to do!" she shouts. You can tell she's panicked because she didn't think anything would come of her having a contrary opinion and being so sassy about it. Sam says "But you were right," and walks off stage.

She's left standing in the middle of the White House offices, with people whirring by purposefully, all doing important things that change our lives, because they work in the best place in the world and can do powerful things.

The point of this story, I feel like the Republican consultant. You guys weren't supposed to do what I told you to do! I was just having an opinion.

Adam's new gig 

NY Times: "Adam Curry will produce and be host of a four-hour program every weekday starting May 13 on Sirius Satellite Radio."

I guess we all do what we know how to do. He always wanted to compete with Howard Stern, now he gets to.

He's got a good lineup with Dawn & Drew, and the other podshow gods and goddesses. Hope they all got a good deal.