Tuesday, November 15, 2005

My new OPML Community Server installation. "It could be the beginning of something pretty cool." 

I've linked Amyloo's community car roll into my directory box in the right margin, and have written my own outline, for inclusion in the directory. 

Right after posting about the new community server, the power went out. I had to go to Starbuck's to get online, and of course there's a problem with the release, not impossible to work around, but I can't get the fix out because it's on the desktop computer, and it doesn't come to Starbuck's with me, so there's still a reason to have a nice laptop. Anyway, there's always someone interesting at Starbuck's, today it's David Bunnell, founder of many PC industry magazines including PC Mag and MacWorld. Great to see him, he lives in Berkeley too, we're going to have lunch. 

Pic: David Bunnell at Starbuck's in Berkeley. 

David is CEO & Editor of LongLifeClub. 

I also recorded a new Morning Coffee Notes just before the power went out. You can hear the kickass windstorm we were having. Here's the liner notes. "A podcast to commemorate the second OPML Community Server which came online. And don't forget that people have to use the wacky DRM scheme you come up with. Real people, just like you or your mom, or the guy down the street." 

I just updated to Firefox 1.5RC2. First, they ignored my font preferences, just when most sites had started being readable thanks to the preference that Martin turned me on to yesterday. Instead of sans serif font, everything is displayed in a small serif font. Looking in the Preferences, everything has been moved around. Reading the help docs is impossible while using the program. So you have to try to memorize the instructions and then close the help window.  

Cori Schlegel notes that only four of the companies presenting at Under The Radar have RSS feeds. 

Brian Jepson (via RSS): "Can you figure out what any of these companies do?" 

Stephen Baker of BusinessWeek asks if he should post the first draft of an article that's being rewritten. I say yes, of course.  

Lisa Williams wrote an essay about the experience of creating a local newsblog on Pressthink. 

TechCrunch reviews Yahoo Shoposhpere. 

Instead of kvetching back at Mitch Ratcliffe this weekend we should have all sent him a link and asked him to write his next missive to the tune of Turkey in the Straw. Next time!  

Oh Bush 

Just heard excerpts from Bush's Alaska speech. Okay man, even if we grant you that the Democrats are spineless bastards who didn't have the guts to challenge you over the war in Iraq, you still lied and lots of people died and are still dying, and Iraq is a much worse mess today that it was then. There's no way out of that one.

Oh Bush, part II 

BTW, see the sign on your desk. You're the President of the United States. Stop whining so much and get the job done. I thought you were supposed to be some kind of leader.

Leadership vs Power 

An essay on NPR yesterday, I'll look it up later, makes the distinction between power and leadership. We have lots of powerful people, but we need leaders.

At lunch yesterday with Ethan Diamond, a developer at Yahoo, who has personal qualities that make him a leader, I said that Yahoo has the opportunity to be a leader. I believe that, more than Microsoft, more than Google, both of which are powerful, both of whom, tragically -- are not leaders.

Churchill and Roosevelt were leaders. Giuliani was a leader. New Orleans needs a leader, and doesn't have one. If it's going to come back, it will get one. Same for Silicon Valley.

Sometimes I think leadership and power are almost inverses, or at least different dimensions. Leadership is a voluntary thing, power is forceful. Churchill wasn't loved, but he guided Britain through the war. As soon as the war was over, he was gone.

I find I don't love Giuliani, but I do love NYC, and I appreciate what he did for the city. I guess I like that he put on a Yankees hat, knowing that it would piss off half the city, saying this isn't politics as usual, I'm not going for the middle, not in times of challenge. Wearing a partisan hat, but yet loving the whole city marks leadership.

I find my thoughts going back to New Orleans over and over. Cokie Roberts went home, and found a city with no blacks. She did see a few children, and that gave her some hope, but mostly its a city without children too. They say the swamps of Louisiana are dying. They will have a Mardi Gras this year, and a Jazzfest. But the schools haven't opened, and won't for a long time. Who will cook the food, play the jazz, dance in the funeral. Who will love New Orleans? Who will lead us?