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June 5, 2005
I have this morning failed to install a new motherboard (an Asus P4P800-E) on my machine. The little internal LED is on indicating that power is getting to it somewhere somehow, but nothing else comes on. Yes, I’ve checked that the internal power connectors are connected.
Tomorrow I will bring it to the friendly local computer store where they they have the decency not to laugh at me until I’ve left.
June 4, 2005
The conference to which my tiny, content-free post referred was a get-together of Big Co marketing communication VPs. I was on a panel on blogging with Rebecca Blood, Alan Nelson of CommandPost (who chaired it), and John Hinderaker of Powerline. This panel was the first time in the group’s history that they’ve allowed any proceedings to be on the record.
The discussion went well. Rebecca explained what blogs are and aren’t. John gave examples — e.g., Rathergate — of how blogs have beat the mainstream media at their own game. I tried to preempt some of the obvious marketers’ misunderstandings by saying that it’s a mistake to think that only the high-traffic blogs count, that blogs are conversations, and that trying to manipulate weblog conversations is a very bad idea.
I’m not doing the session justice, of course, but it seemed to go well. And it was great to be on a panel with those folks. [Technorati tags: RebeccaBlood Powerline]
I don’t know what sort of schmuck leaves his computer behind when he heads for the airport but — oh, yeah, now I remember: It’s a schmuck exactly like me. But Mara, the woman driving Rebecca, Alan and me to the airport, stuck with me for 15 minutes, tracking down my computer and then arranging for a competitive car service to bring it to me on their next next trip out.
Thank you, Mara, of Dolphin Transportation in Naples, Florida. She saved my veggie bacon and was incredibly sweet about it. She wouldn’t even let me tip her. If you need a car service in Naples, you can reach Dolphin at (239) 530 0100.
The K stands for blogs.
The M stands for tags.
Put ’em together and you get “KM.” [Technorati tag: km]
I’m at a conference where an example of blogging is in order. This is it.
The Financial Times reports that India is going to start pixellating cigarettes in movies to avoid glamorizing them. Alternatively, they may run health warnings on screen whenever a cigarette appears.
Doesn’t the Indian government know that in American movies smoking is a sure sign that you’re a bad guy/gal whose comeuppance will come long before lung cancer can take hold?
The regrettable exception are action heroes who substitute not shaving and smoking for acting talent.
June 3, 2005
I’ve turned off trackbacks on this site because I’m getting about 100 a day, of which a tiny percentage aren’t spam.
Too bad. Trackbacks address a real need.
RB blogs about a very very strange guy. Holy mother of Rodan!
And, by the way, when you heard that someone had been appointed Chief Blogging Officer, did you ever ever think that this is the sort of stuff he’d be writing about? [Technorati tag: RageBoy]
June 2, 2005
Dave Rogers pushes back on Doc’s statement on the Chris Lydon show he, Dave Winer and I appeared on that the Net isn’t a medium and is unmediated. “Doc’s weblog is as heavily mediated as network television, it’s just that there’s only one box in the org chart and his name is in it,” Dave writes, part of a long post I can’t summarize adequately. I think it’s helpful, though to drop the word “mediation” and its variants for purposes of this discussion. With that word out of the way, it does seem to me there’s a real difference between mass media that are owned by a handful of people and this other thang. Is the Net “unmediated”? Nah. It’s differently mediated, but that difference is substantial.
(Personal note: Yes, Dave, I am big on the importance of voice. But I’m wary of “authenticity.” Voice can be — always is — artful to one degree or another.)
Some links: Here is Dave’s objection to my assertion that the Web is more world than medium. Here’s Doc’s link to Dave’s post on mediation. And here is Mike Sanders‘ set of assertions disgreeing with Doc and me. [Technorati tags: RadioOpenSource media authenticity cluetrain]
I wrote the above quickly because I was (and am) in Penn Station waiting for a train, but I want to object to Dave’s use of sales terminology, especially in order to analyze Doc. Sure, we can say that all social interactions are about buying and selling…we can say it, but it obscures more than it clarifies. Doc is no more “selling” himself than is anyone who cares about what others think of her. But that’s not “selling.” It’s being human in a shared world.
In fact, Dave’s use of selling terminology I believe draws him into some real confusion: “… authenticity is the difference between speaking the truth and trying to sell it. You can’t sell the truth because, unlike the web and another unhelpful assertion from Doc and Dave, nobody owns it. What people sell is their authority, and so they mediate their messages to make their own authority as pleasing and palatable as possible.” But when we “speak the truth” we generally don’t issue flat assertions; we argue for it. If we’re going to use sales terminology to talk about conversation and truth, isn’t that “trying to sell it” in some sense? Then Dave denies that you can try to sell the truth. Instead you can only sell your own authority. Say what? I’m really confused by this, and I suspect it’s because “selling” – of truth or of authority – isn’t a helpful metaphor here.
Sen. James Sensenbrenner (Rep., Wisc.) has introduced H.R. 1528, a bill that would mandate a ten-year minimum sentence if you smoke pot within 500 feet of a child. And that’s just the beginning of its badness. If you see someone using drugs anywhere near a child, you must tell the cops within 24 hours or go to jail for 2-10 years…unless you’re the parent of the child so wickedly exposed to someone smoking a joint, in which case you’re sent away for 3-20.
Yeah, forcing people to become informants. That’s what’s made this country great.
The bill has been referred “to the Subcommittee on Health, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Chairman.” I hope that means that it’s died of shame.
With her new Aggregator 2.0, Jeneane is able to ignore up to 1,500 blog posts an hour…
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