Saturday, February 19, 2005

A scan of Saturday's NY Times page A1 with the podcasting piece. 

Daily Show segment on blogging. Hey they like us.  

Steve Rubel: "Robert Scoble left a comment on my last post that Jeff Reynar at Google is behind the Google Toolbar's controversial new Autolink feature. Ironically, he's the same person who was behind the similar SmartTag feature that Microsoft tried to build into IE. Reynar co-authored Microsoft's Smart Tag FAQ in 2001 and his home page identifies him as a current Google program manager." 

Blogging started in the tech community, and over the years, we've followed stories, sometimes they were picked up by mainstream media, often with little or no credit to the bloggers who did the discovery and research. Then the political bloggers did the same, and got the credit for putting the pressure on the MSM that's been going on in technology reporting for so long. Today we work with our colleagues at eWeek and News.Com, ZDNet, and even some of the reporters for business publications and local newspapers. I have a feeling the story we're working on, with Google pushing the envelope on the story of Smart Tags, is going that way. Let's hope the larger press community tunes in, and let's keep this a class act on both sides. There are some interesting issues, and few clear answers. Let's show everyone what the political blogosphere may look like in a few years. 

For five hours this afternoon I was convinced that I had lost my iPod. It was very emotional. Really bummed me out. I kept going back to my car and looking in different places, amazed that it was nowhere to be found. On my return from my afternoon walk, I looked one more time, and in exasperation, I leaned on the car, put my head on the roof, and took a very deep agonized breath. I opened my eyes and couldn't believe what I saw. There was the iPod on the roof of the car! Un fucking real. I had put it on the roof as I was getting my stuff out of the car and into the hotel, and had forgotten to put it in its pocket in my napsack. That it was still there was amazing. The sucker is charging now. I really was feeling lost without it.  

NY Times article on podcasting. Ed Cone says it's on page A1.  

An instant review of the Times article from Paul Jones. "The Times knows podcasting is important, but they give it the pajama treatment." 

I was the guest on the WGBH Morning Stories podcast this week. I can't believe they played the Dean Scream. Twice. Arrrrgh! (But they did a great job, and in this one piece, the scream actually fit.) 

Scoble weighs in on browsers that modify content.  

Susan Crawford: "Can one industry force another to constrain new general purpose technologies in the name of copyright protection?" 

Question of the day: Should I take up golf? Or is golf evil? 

Bill Cheeseman says Croquet. "It's a good game to grow old with." 

John Robb suggests that Microsoft might offer a Windows patch that blocks toolbars from doing the kind of stuff Google is doing. Interesting possibility. This would be a good way for Microsoft to help ensure the integrity of our content. In case anyone from Microsoft reads this, it's something to think about, not to do (yet). 

John Robb illustrates the power of an idea from left field. In all the recent thinking I've been doing about Smart Tags-like features, it never occurred to me that Microsoft, instead of being evil, could help us in our struggle against evil. A truly contrite Microsoft could be a force for good in the world. It could even turn into strategy, as software behemoths compete to not interfere with the work of users! 

We all have a brain, but how well do we use it? Too bad we don't have an owner's manual for the human brain. What would such an owner's manual be called? The Human Brain for Dummies?