Sun, 18 Aug 2002 18:30:11 GMT

Newsweek: "In 1997, those with the geek gene began to hand-create what are now considered Weblogs. Around that time James Romenesko's link-dominated 'filter' site, focusing on news about the media, became an industry institution. A few other blogs, like software guru Dave Winer's Scripting News, also achieved cult status. But as of 1999, Weblogs were measured by the dozen."

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 02:47:49 GMT

It's not often that I agree with Josh Allen, hard-ass gunslinger for Microsoft, but today is one of those days.

Sun, 18 Aug 2002 17:19:22 GMT

I had an hour phone talk with Tara Grubb. She sounds great. Next step, get a website going. She's going to send me some of her writing, and a picture. She's quite a contrast to Coble. A young mom, 26 years old. Daughter of a Vietnam vet. All her brothers were in the military. She's been broke and homeless. 13,000 people in her district have lost their jobs recently. Very ambitious, but seems quite sincere in wanting to reform politics. Her only issue is the Internet. She says she got lucky with the Berman-Coble Bill. She's from High Point. Map. The big industry is furniture. President Bush visited in July.

Sun, 18 Aug 2002 21:23:14 GMT

Tara Sue makes a guest appearance in a comment thread on Ed Cone's weblog. "I plan to cause the greatest political upset in all of political history," she says.

Sun, 18 Aug 2002 18:42:46 GMT

I asked if the News & Record was the most influential local news source, and she said the Rhino Times was also quite influential. What a weird name for a newpaper.

Sun, 18 Aug 2002 17:47:44 GMT

Driving instructions from the center of San Francisco to the center of High Point.

Morning coffee notes

Sun, 18 Aug 2002 15:10:58 GMT

For those who are new to Scripting News, Morning Coffee Notes are notes I take, in the morning, while drinking coffee. That's straightforward enough. There are often thoughts on my mind before I fully wake up. Sometimes I like to share them.

Okay, today's first MCN. Tomorrow is John Robb's 40th birthday. The festivities are starting up. And by an amazing coincidence, the day after John's 40th is my mother's 70th birthday. She didn't think she'd make it this far, but we all knew better.

I've been watching more Joan Crawford movies, none as good as the ones I saw earlier, but they gave me an idea what culture was like when my mom was a baby, in the 30s. John was a baby in the 60s, now that's something I know something about. He's too young to remember when JFK was killed, but he probably does remember the first moon landing and Watergate.

Ray Ozzie reviews digital cameras. He says it's off-topic, but I don't agree, for several reasons. First, since I'm interested in Ray Ozzie, the more data I get to fill in the blanks, the more accurate the picture I develop of who's doing the talking. We're all human, and that's how human brains work. It's not enough to get data, we want to know where it comes from. Now it's also possible that a few months from now, someone who doesn't know anything about Ray or care about him will be looking for info on one of the products he talks about. They'll go to Google and do a search, and Ray's review will show up. They'll observe that the review has typos and mis-spellings, and therefore conclude that it's authentic, it comes from a real person, not a shill. They'll make a purchasing decision based on a handful of essays like Ray's. At one time we thought perhaps that special sites were needed for these kinds of reviews, but Google handles the job really well.

I got an email from Tara Grubb, the Libertarian candidate for Congress running against Howard Coble. We're going to talk later today on how to get an issues-oriented website up for her campaign against Howard Coble. First we have to find out if we can support Ms Grubb, and then I'm going to try to talk with Coble (maybe I have to go to North Carolina for that), and maybe we'll do a balls-out project to elect Ms Grubb as the first Representatitve that the Internet helped elect (to balance the help that Coble and others get from Hollywood). If we could change just one seat in Congress people would stand up and take notice. I don't know enough about North Carolina politics to have any clue if that's possible. But I do know a few bloggers who live in North Carolina, and I plan to ask them what they think.

Doc steps in betweeen Larry Lessig and myself. Thanks Doc. He gets it. We are doing stuff. I have tried several times to talk with Lessig about real ways we could work together, to help each other, but he keeps giving these speeches to relatively powerless people blaming them for not doing anything. I wonder what he thinks they're going to do. When I've ask Larry to work with me, I get a blank stare and no action. Anyway, there is cause for hope. Thanks Doc for expressing it so well.

Related to that, where are the developers these days. I'm not talking about hoardes of people who clone Unix and Unix utilities. I mean people doing real new software, new ideas, patentable stuff, who aren't taking the patents. Those are the people we should be hearing from. I also like hearing from smart respected lawyers. I'm not one of those people who think all lawyers are slime. But something is really wrong when all we hear from re technology are lawyers. That's when you get disconnects like his oft-repeated mantra that developers aren't doing anything. Well, Larry, if you don't talk to developers, how could you possibly know?

One year ago today, in a MCN-type ramble, I was exploring the blues, and hypothesizing why getting a car wash can cure them.