Just Wishing for Something to Go Mainstream Won't Make It So

After participating in two panels and seeing others in the three-day Blog World Expo this weekend, there were a number of repeating elements. First, Twitter has recovered from its near-fatal issues and is becoming a must-use tool for more attendees, who are using it for conversation and news discovery. Second, a concern that while we may be using services for microblogging, life streaming, videocasting and news aggregation, that we are the odd ones, and that the services we like are nowhere near the mainstream. But while I continued to hear this chorus of people saying Twitter was either not in the mainstream or just entering it, or declarations that FriendFeed and blog comment engines, like Disqus were not anywhere near the mainstream, I heard very few suggestions on how these products could cross the chasm. It's as if many thought you could, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, click our heels together three times, and find all to be well.

As I mentioned on Sunday afternoon's panel around distributed comments and fragmented conversations, we could very well have been having these same debates about whether other technologies would go mainstream just 10 or 15 years ago. Would AOL ever go mainstream? What about e-mail? Instant messaging? Texting by SMS? GPS? All of these are strong examples of products that may have seemed "out there" on the edge to many at first before becoming part of our every day lives. While Friendster didn't take the world by storm, MySpace did, with Facebook quick to follow. It's possible that the ubiquitous nature we see today with e-mail could be what we see with Twitter, or other similar services, in a few years.

There seems to be a general impatience among the early adopter and fast follower crowds to take the products we all like and use and expand their use to new groups. There's a desire to convert one's friends and colleagues to have the same kind of lust for gadgetry and Web applications as we have, and to adopt them with the same fervor. But we need to understand that with the vast majority of society, change is very hard. Adoption of the unknown is very hard, and it may take multiple incidents of exposure to have something that seems daunting seem comfortable, such that it's accepted and adopted.

On Friday, in my first panel, on micromedia, I was asked what it would take to "take Twitter mainstream", and I only half-jokingly said it would take a scandal involving a well-known celebrity which would lead to the service's exposure in a saturated media environment. Would the market that reads Perez Hilton, People and US Weekly discover Twitter or other similar services if somebody like Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake were using it? What if their tweets were splashed all over E! or Access Hollywood? I bet they would sign up.

In today's panel it was said that the theoretical gap between us "early adopters" and the mainstream isn't really all that much - we just choose to participate in different places. While some of us are Twittering, others are texting. While some of us are blogging, others are Facebooking. While some of us are sharing items and talking on FriendFeed, others are using forums on topics they follow. People have been using technology to form relationships and share news or conversations for years, but the tools to do so are ever-evolving.

I'd venture to say that it's no secret that not every technology we early adopters fall in love with will succeed in the way Google and MySpace have succeeded. But with exceptions made for company viability and competition, there's really no race or timetable to get services to cross the chasm from us on the edge to those later adopters. It takes time. It takes effort, and repeat viewings. Quick demos of products that would have us salivating may simply spark curiosity in those less likely to jump in with two feet.

On Friday, we discussed the dissemination of today's news was to tell 10 who tell 100 who tell 1,000. So it is with these services. If the 1,000 of us continue to tell this same 1,000 about the same items ad infinitum, we will never see growth and adoption outside our little world. The mainstream has proven they can grasp technology like e-mail and IM, texting and Web browsing. With time and ease of use, they can get these newer products as well, but it will take more than us just talking about it to get it done. We need to be patient, and act as guides when that time comes, rather than demanding change overnight and expecting someone else to do the work.

So, By "Overnight" You Mean Something Else Entirely?

It may seem trivial, but for me, the biggest disappointment of this year's Blog World Expo is that I didn't come fully prepared. Many of the peers I'm meeting for the first time are handing out fancy custom business cards with their blog URL, Twitter account, and other services, like LinkedIn or FriendFeed. Meanwhile, I'm left handing out my business cards from the office and having to explain the blog address or that my data can all be found online. And the blame squarely falls on my trusting an "overnight" prints service to do exactly what its name implied.

Early last week, knowing the event was coming, I made custom business cards from Moo.com, but quickly saw they weren't going to make it on time. So on the 17th, I went to OvernightPrints.com, and used a template I'd built several months ago. Their site said they would start printing as soon as 20 minutes after the order, and with overnight shipping, there'd be no doubt I'd have the cards by the 19th, when the show started, and when I had my first panel.

But... no. This is what "overnight" means to OvernightPrints.com.

September 17th: I make an order and get a confirmation.
September 18th: They print the business cards. (Allegedly)
September 19th: The cards ship from their headquarters.
September 20th: The cards arrive in Las Vegas.
September 21st: It's Sunday, so UPS is taking the day off.
September 22nd: The cards are expected to arrive.

That would be five days. Meanwhile, the Blog World Expo will have come and gone, ending today, and my cards will show up to the hotel, no doubt confusing the shipping and receiving department, as I'll be back in the Bay Area. And given the OvernightPrints.com cards are of lesser quality than those of Moo.com, I'll never need them, so they should just be destroyed. But it sure is frustrating.

You could argue that I should have been better prepared, and had them ready to go earlier, which is true, but I trusted what OvernightPrints.com said in that it would be "overnight" shipped on "next day air", and they would start almost immediately. Instead, I'm left talking around my cards that having nothing to do with the blog and my online presence. Silly, I know, but really annoying. If you're needing true overnight prints, I don't think I'd ever recommend this company.

The Tech Adopter's Lament

Forget Fast, I Want Instant. And I Want It Now.

My iPhone takes too long to back up.
My computer takes too long to reboot.
My applications take too long to load.
My FTP uploads take too long to transfer.
My blog host takes too long to post.
My folders take too long to open.
My e-mail takes too long to check.
My messages take too long to send.
My feeds take too long to hit Google Reader.
My Time Capsule takes too long to back up.
My updates take too long to hit FriendFeed.
My camera takes too long for iPhoto to recognize.
My downloads take too long to complete.
My Web sites take too long to refresh.
My URLs take too long to resolve.
My documents take too long to print.
My items take too long to display.
My videos take too long to buffer.
My comments take too long to be approved.
My services take too long to sync.

Time for an upgrade?

Relax, Bloggers: Nobody Is Keeping Score, and There's No Quota.

In May of last year, noticing how some bloggers I read often had slowed their publishing, or found alternative routes to express themselves, I asked if they were suffering from what I termed "Blog fatigue." With the dog days of summer upon us (in the Northern hemisphere), I'm seeing the issue crop up again, as peers are talking about taking time off from blogging or social media, explaining holes in their publishing schedule, or openly questioning their enthusiasm. And while I understand the occasional self-assessment, I believe many are feeling pressure to hit a certain number of posts in a given time period, or are feeling challenged to keep pace with much more visible, prolific, people for whom this is much more aligned with their career.

See:

• SheGeeks: The Repetition of The Blogosphere
  
• Colin Walker: Hiatus?
  
• New Comm Biz: Blogger burnout? Give up or dig in.

The truth is that unless you're being paid specifically to blog:

• You don't need to blog every day.
  
• You don't need to post more than once a day.
  
• You shouldn't feel guilty about "gaps".
  
• You don't have to explain yourself to anyone.

Unfortunately for many of us who participate in the tech blogging space, there are many examples of blogs or individuals who can crank out more than one post a day, every single day. There are examples of people who seemingly offer strong content with every article. And there are also the uber-connected, who are seemingly ever-present in a wide variety of social networks, always seem to get to things before you do, and are "ahead" in every statistic, be it number of contacts, comments, or posts. And this doesn't even begin to take into account the professional multi-author blogs, run like an assembly line.

The fact that these individuals are both visible and measurable can bring others to feel inadequate, or challenged to "keep up" when it's actually not necessary. It makes more sense to "be yourself" than to try and match up with somebody else who has different goals and set of circumstances.

I had lunch with a friend this afternoon who said he often won't post to his blog for upwards of a week if nothing strikes his fancy. For him, there's no inner push to meet a quota, to post every day, or provide a take on the last 24 hours' happenings. And I found his counsel wise - to not forget why you started blogging in the first place. For most of us, it wasn't to compete with the professional blogs or to get a scoop to a story, or to have the most followers on the favorite social network of the month. Instead, it was to communicate and share ideas, or just to act as a log of your thoughts and activity.

In the world of business, your revenue starts over at zero every fiscal quarter. If you just had a great quarter, well, good for you and get back to work, because you need to hit quota and make your number in 90 days, or you and the company might be in trouble. But in blogging, assuming you don't have a boss paying you for each entry, there is no quota to fill. If you don't post in three days, you're not going to be fired. Instead of adding stress to your life by setting artificial standards on what you need to do, and posting for the sake of posting, or not giving it your best effort, it makes more sense to let the content drive your effort, and not the other way around.

So don't stress out. The only person keeping score is you.

Techmeme and TechCrunch's Detractors Prove It's Hard to be On Top

One downside of being in a visible leadership position is that you often have a bulls-eye on your back. Sometimes it's from your competition. Sometimes it's from people who feel what you offer isn't benefitting themselves personally, and other times, it can arguably be your biggest fans, who want to change what it is you do to serve their whim of the day. In the tech blogosphere, there is no single blog more influential and visible than TechCrunch, and there is no single aggregator or news site more influential and visible than Techmeme. That the two's fortunes are at times seen as being closely linked only helps to fuel the flames of frustration by those eager to see change, be it through finding alternative sources for news, or, instead, asking for either site to change its tone, its breadth of coverage, or its methodology.

From a third party point of view, it seems the day in and day out potshots against both Techmeme and TechCrunch have taken their toll on the most visible representatives of each site. Techmeme's Gabe Rivera is well-known for his sarcastic, evasive, answers when his site's reputation is questioned, and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is often described as short-fused and sleep deprived. Recently rumors have circulated saying Arrington wants out of the blogging business, and is looking to sell, no doubt in part due to stress of the "always on" atmosphere and ruthless competition. Of course, rumors are simply rumors... but given most PR firms have gotten to the point where reaching out to TechCrunch is part of their standard shtick, it's likely not as fun fielding all the inquiries and sticking to others' schedules as openly writing once was. And TechCrunch has burned through its share of strong writers, with talents like Marshall Kirkpatrick and Duncan Riley leaving, one on good terms, and the other, not as well, as it turned out. (See: On Arrington, My Final Word)

The two sites' major detractors tend to rail on common topics. TechCrunch can be seen as egocentric, and Arrington is perceived to have a bee-line on exclusives. Techmeme similarly has been described as elitist by those who don't get included, navel-gazing by those who think it's too insular, biased by those who feel they have been overlooked, or a single person's playground, by those who feel Gabe's claims to automation are overblown. And some industry blog veterans who regularly appear on Techmeme have even taken to saying it's not as relevant and influential as it once was, replaced by other sources of news.

The complaints around either service became so commonplace that a new word, bitchmeme, was made, loosely defined as "bitching about Techmeme", usually on the weekend, when some tech bloggers had no news to write about. The phrase since took on a life of its own, meaning any silly conflict between blogs that took place on the weekend.

TechCrunch and Techmeme get as much grumpiness tossed their direction as they do because they each own a valuable niche in the blogosphere, and are expanding their lead, rather than relinquishing it. While you could say that TechCrunch competes with ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, GigaOM or others, they have cemented themselves as the go-to site for new services entering the market, and even their opinion pieces are widely read, with almost a million unique RSS subscribers taking note. Techmeme's best competition at this point is BlogRunner, with Hacker News, Dave Winer's TechJunk, Duncan Riley's QMeme and more organic sites like RSSmeme or ReadBurner coming up in conversation. But Techmeme's original perceived competition, like TailRank and Megite, are mere shadows of what they initially promised. Meanwhile, TechCrunch is bringing on new writers, and posting more stories than ever (See: The Statbot: TechCrunch Statistics A-W), and Techmeme is going more mainstream, with news sources like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times featuring more prominently than most individual bloggers.

And with this leadership position, the sites don't have the luxury of acting without criticism any longer. Gabe almost has a part-time position made for himself just to go from blog to blog and explaining that in fact, Techmeme is not evil, and that it is relevant, explaining that TechCrunch has built a reputation as a reputable source for tech news, and therefore, is adequately represented on his site and in the leaderboard. Seemingly every day, Gabe is having to answer questions on Twitter or FriendFeed from people like Robert Scoble (or me in one example, when I wondered why a hot topic wasn't getting airtime). Meanwhile, Arrington gets called nasty names, mocked by Valleywag, and yelled at on Twitter.

But if you take a step back, TechCrunch's goal is to be a technology blog focused on Web 2.0, and it's doing that. Techmeme's stated goal is to be like the front page of the memes that are happening in the tech blogosphere at any given time, and for the large part, it does do that. While there is some uncertainty as to all the criteria that makes up being part of Techmeme, or rising up and down the page, or when something makes the site, it typically takes discussion, not only on the original site, but through links from other blogs, on Twitter, and other sharing sites.

The argument could be made that you could possibly find your technology news faster in another way. Maybe you could find it on FriendFeed, and get a broader scope of sources. Maybe you prefer the democratic approach of ReadBurner and RSSmeme. Maybe you want to go through Google Reader yourself, or rely on others' shared link blogs. But there is no question in my mind that Techmeme is relevant, as is TechCrunch, and being mentioned on either site continues to drive traffic today.

I also believe that Techmeme does a very good job at being available to those bloggers who aren't elite household names. Just tonight, we saw a blog that was born only three days ago make the site, and Yuvi Panda's work on The Statbot shows one third of all Techmeme headlines come from the "Long Tail". Techmeme is accessible to bloggers who write quality content and spur discussion. While I'm absolutely active in places like FriendFeed and Twitter, I don't believe that discussions from FriendFeed belong on Techmeme any more than do popular Twitter posts or popular YouTube videos. Techmeme has specialized in bringing us top tech blogging news, and it's doing it.

The bottom line? If you don't like Techmeme and you don't like TechCrunch, stop reading, or go out and make your own. The best way to show they're no longer relevant is to take them down yourself through competition. But today, they are both standing strong whether you like it or not. I just hope Mike Arrington and Gabe Rivera are enjoying what they do as much as when they first started, and that the daily body blows haven't gotten them so jaded that they want out, for that would be a big loss.

Social Media Experts are the New Webmasters

In the mid to late 1990s, perception had it there was no more exciting a career title than that of Webmaster. It seemed everybody wanted to be one, and some called it the "Job of the Future". As a Webmaster, your code manipulation could change the look and flow of a Web site with each publish, and make Web pages spring up overnight, complete with hyperlinks, animated GIFs and comment forms with basic JavaScript. As seemingly every company needed a Web presence, the demand for somebody who could write HTML and handle Web operations filled them with incredible power. But as years passed, the title fell by the wayside, and you're now no more likely to find somebody with Webmaster on their business card as you are to find cars that come with cassette decks standard.

In the ensuing decade or so, the Internet has become part of the landscape, not the mystery it once was. The Webmaster position similarly faded to the background, and many companies tend to have portions of IT and Marketing share the load, outsourcing the Web design function to an outside agency. Larger companies keep the Web expertise in house, but don't call their employees by the dreaded "W" word.

As the Internet has changed, so too have the buzzwords. As one friend recently noted, simply having a blog isn't the differentiator it was a few years ago. Now, just about everybody has one (or more), so making you a blogger isn't anything special unto itself. But where the new frontier lies is where I see people positioning themselves - in social media.

Social media is a loose term that largely relies on user generated content, whether it be social networking, forums, web logs, social news or bookmarking sites. Those of us who have embraced the blogging boom have no doubt leveraged these tools: Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and the like, for starters. But I'm constantly seeing people giving me invites on LinkedIn saying their title is as a social media expert or social media consultant, or running into profiles online where social media is featured prominently, and their numbers are increasing.

I'm afraid that for the most part, their efforts to rebrand as social media experts will be short-lived and futile. Saying one is an expert in utilizing social media sites is akin to brand one's self as a "Web browsing expert", an "e-mail expert", or a "telephone specialist". While some will capitalize on the technophobes and newbies who don't know the difference between MySpace and NASA, or Hotmail and Hot Pockets, I believe it makes more sense that social media is spread thinly across all aspects of activity, be it a company's marketing activities, human resources, communications, and business development. Pretty soon, with any luck, social media won't be any scarier than opening a Web browser or writing a simple blog post.

So what should these so-called social media experts do to find real work? Some of them might get lucky. Every big analyst firm should have a social media expert on hand to help train the slow adopters, at least until they get the point the analysts have to change titles again. But to me, saying you're a social media specialist or a social media expert doesn't amount to a whole lot. What else do you do? What do you do really? There's no money to be made Digging up stories, hitting the StumbleUpon button or refreshing FriendFeed or Twitter, after all. Social Media is simply part of the landscape, in the background. Social media offers tools for communications and information sharing, but it's a means to an end, not the end itself.

Like the surge in Webmasters rose and fell, similar will be the rise and fall of people who flash you a business card with the term "social media" on it. It's the 2008 version of the Aeron chair and Foosball table so common in the days of the Web 1.0 startup. If you've got social media on your card, think about what else you do. Are you a trainer or a marketer? Are you a PR person, or an IT expert? Don't lose those talents, and be sure you make social media part of the landscape, not part of the headline, as it's not the tools you use, it's how you do it and what you're looking to get accomplished.

As I Get Older, Some Online "Friending" Gets Creepier

I don't know if my transition from being childless to being a father of two has contributed to my being more aware of my age, but as I get requests to be "friends" on a variety of social networks, from Facebook to Plurk, Identi.ca, Twitter and any other social site of the month, I'm finding myself a bit uneasy when it comes to "friending" young contacts.

On top of the occasional annoyance that youth anywhere from 10 to 15 years younger than me are engaging in the same networks I am, there's just something that has me hesitating every time I get an invitation from a 14 year old or a 20 year old who wants to follow my updates or be connected.

At my old age of 31, were I to be a "real world" friend of any 20 year old girl, people should be asking questions. If I were palling around with some 14 year-old boy geek, they would be asking other questions. Yet, the occasional eyebrow-raising invite hits my e-mail box, and makes me wonder if somebody just might get the wrong idea.

What if I were to take the next step and move beyond a simple friend acceptance on Facebook or Twitter and try to find out more about this person?

For example, take Mashable's Alana Taylor, age 20, or Read Write Web's Corvida Raven, age 20. I'm friends with both on Facebook, and I've had many conversations with Corvida on Google Talk, traded e-mail, and phone calls.

Alana I've never talked to, but going to her personal blog had me feeling like I was getting a bit too much information.

Similarly, a 14-year-old Josh Jenkins asked to follow my updates on Plurk, and I reciprocated. What do I have in common with Josh? And how I do I explain any interest I would have in his updates, or those from 18 year old Ivan B, 19 year old Eric Kerr and 19 year old Jared Eberle?

Thinking about it makes my head hurt a little bit. Alana's Facebook profile says she graduated from high school in 2006, eleven years after I did, and at a point where I'd been married for three years. Josh Jenkins wasn't even born until my junior year in high school. Assuming teenage dalliances, he could be my kid, for crying out loud.

Maybe I'm overthinking it a bit. I know online "friending" and "following" is growing like gangbusters for people in social networks everywhere across age groups. And I know that to many, maybe my age of 31 seems young. But isn't there something a bit creepy about all this?

Are Blog Comments Really Conversations, or Are They Just Replies?

The issue of comment fragmentation has been rearing up every other week or so since the initial discussion flared up in early April, but of late, I've been thinking about the purpose of comments in the first place. When you make a comment on a blog, is it to respond to the blog author and say they did a good job, especially if comments are currency, effectively making a longer version of a "thumbs up or thumbs down," are you looking to further the conversation with the blogger, or are you instead using it as a reply, without anticipating a response from the author?

This morning, I posted a question, using Google Talk, to FriendFeed, saying:

“Are blog comments a "conversation" with the author, or just answering and responding to the author? Do you expect the author to respond to your comment?"

For me personally, on those posts I do where there is a lot of conversation, I'm pulled in two opposing directions - the first, to reply to comments and engage with readers, and the second, to instead not reply and avoid dominating the comment thread. With Disqus tracking my every comment on the blog, I can make myself look like a fairly noisy egoist in no time. So, it is tempting to see the comments on posts as only replies, and fight the urge to respond. Typically, I end up replying to those comments that ask new questions, or spur the conversation forward, but of course, I read every single one.

When I post to other blogs, I don't usually expect a reply from the author. The bigger the blog, the less likely the response, and for small blogs, responses are almost a guarantee.

In response to my note on FriendFeed, the answers were strongly weighted toward conversations, rather than replies.

Brian Sullivan said, "The most successful bloggers it seems to me are conversational."

J.C. Hutchins said, "I always assume that author will read my comment, but rarely respond. Always feels validating when they do, though."

Susan Beebe said, "Blog Comments = Conversations with the world; AND yes, most importantly the author. I do not expect the author to respond to me; however, I am always really glad when they do!"

Of course, if every comment on every blog gained a reply from the original author, the most popular bloggers would spend just as much time responding to comments as they would creating new content. And if you take it one step further, if those replies also generated replies, in theory, the conversation would never end.

As Steven Hodson of WinExtra wrote in Comment Fragmentation isn’t the Blogger’s Fault earlier today, "In the end though we have absolutely no control over where the conversation; if there even is one, will take place." That works both in terms of the blog author not fully controlling where comments take place, and also from the commenter, who cannot force a conversation through leaving a reply. Now that comments are being bandied about like currency, both at the blog and through a myriad of RSS readers and social aggregators, maybe it's time to think about the whole structure of blogging and commenting in the first place.

Continuous Parallel Attention: My New Reality

When you really want to concentrate, do you need a quiet room with no distractions, or does playing loud music help you focus? Can you hold a conversation while typing? Can you read blogs and write e-mail while watching TV? I do. And I must. For with all the information available these days, and my personal unwillingness to miss out on conversations or media consumption, I've done more than embrace what many call "continuous partial attention". Instead, I believe I have a goal of achieving "continuous parallel attention", whereby no single task is given primary focus, but instead, multiple tasks gain the same focus.

The common definition of continuous partial attention can be simplified to a person being focused on a single primary task but monitoring background tasks. This can be driving with the radio on, reading a book with a baby sleeping in the next room, or writing a proposal with Twitter on in the background.

Some do this well. Others don't.

Nearly 100% of the time I'm watching TV, I've got my laptop in my lap, with the TV screen's lower half ending just above the top of MacBook Pro screen. In contrast, if I try and talk to my wife when she's writing an e-mail, she probably won't hear me, and once I interrupt, she stops typing.

Last month, I talked about my social media consumption workflow, explaining how I started off my day, working essentially left to right to be sure I processed the information flow in the right way. This issue came up again this morning, when Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester revealed his own morning habits. In the ensuing FriendFeed discussion, I said I too try to knock out much of the activity at the beginning and end of the day, but also keep up what I call "continuous parallel attention" in between.

With continuous parallel attention, essentially multi-tasking, no single activity is getting priority over the other. I am writing e-mails at the same time I am listening to music, at the same time I am getting RSS feeds and seeing Twitter updates or seeing the FriendFeed page reload. Ask me the lyrics of the song, and I can tell you. Ask me what was said on Twitter, and I can probably tell you. Through continuous parallel attention, you're not giving one activity the short shrift due to time or priority, but instead, making sure every activity gets the right focus.

If you drive into the office, but you are thinking about the next blog post, or the next meeting, or even where to go for lunch, that's not mind wandering or being distracted. That's parallel attention. Your radio might be on and you're singing along. If a squirrel darts out in front of your car, you'll still hit the brakes. If a commercial comes on the radio, you still change the station. All in parallel. Your driving doesn't get worse. I'd argue I even drive better with loud music I know, where I'm pounding the steering wheel with every bass drum beat. I work better when I've got multiple things at once, in parallel.

The same is true for engaging with social media. Have you seen Robert Scoble's video from Media Bistro earlier this week? (See: Center Networks: Video: Robert Scoble on the "Worldwide Talk Show")

Robert doesn't linearly go one by one to consume his social media. He is running his RSS feeds, his Twitter feeds, and his video, all in parallel. The human brain is an amazing sponge, ready to take in new information, and if you practice, practice, practice, you can train it, like a muscle, to be ready for exercise. Achieving continuous parallel attention in social media means you don't have to stop one task to pick up the next. You just keep going. Yes, I saw that RSS feed. Yes, I read that e-mail. Yes, I saw your tweet and your FriendFeed post. But I also got all my work done, caught up on our TiVo shows, and picked up the groceries. It's not because I go without sleep (though I need less than most)... it's because of this parallel focus. You should try it.

Does Negativity Deliver Credibility? If So, That's Nuts.

Over the last 18 months or so, I've gained something of a reputation for being an early adopter more likely to heap praise on early versions of software with clear bugs than to drag services through the mud, calling out their every hole and flaw. I've stated that I do champion the little guy, and when I've found a service I like, there's no question you'll know, because I'll be consistent in my comments on it, highlighting new tweaks and trying to help you understand why I like what I do, and, in the converse, why I might not like other options.

But does my tendency to be positive and shun negativity make me less believable? Should I maintain a ratio of cranky posts to positive ones for variety's sake or to prove I'm not a paid shill on the take? As far as I'm concerned, no. In most cases, rather than drag down services, or dance on the graves of failed startups, I see sites' potential, and recognize the very real people behind services who are working hard to make their products as good as they can.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb jokingly commented on FriendFeed today: "You should write a really harsh review of something tho, just to maintain credibility!"

It's clear my quasi-utopian view isn't held in many corners of the blogosphere. Some revel in negative reviews or tearing people down. Others feel they have a calling to be "balanced", evening out an otherwise positive post by highlighting a service's deficiencies, or if the service happens to be amazing, to pick three random competitors for whom this new arrival will certainly mean curtains. But to be honest, even if I have more readers now than I did three, six or twelve months ago, this is still my personal blog, and should reflect how I feel. When I write up a service, I aim to deliver an accurate portrayal of the news, sites or individuals covered, but I would much rather highlight those companies and services I like than waste my time showing you the services that I didn't like. In essence, my silence in itself can be considered a negative review - and if you think about those topics I do write about, maybe there's a good reason I haven't covered every single service out there under the sun...

This isn't to say I haven't had a few negative posts here and there. I've at times been frustrated with TechCrunch (TechCrunch's Celebrating Failure Doesn't Help Anyone), ValleyWag (Valleywag Thinks My Old Posts are Breaking News) and even TechMeme (Blogrunner Likes Me, TechMeme Hates Me). I wasn't exactly overwhelming in my praise for NotchUp (NotchUp Sells You Out, but Nobody's Buying) and you likely remember my first comments on Fav.or.it. (Fav.or.it Beta Effort is Not My Favorite. Not Even Close.)

But these negative posts are are a rarity.

In fact, Mark Hopkins of Mashable said to one FriendFeed user in search for good PR that it's fairly obvious when I've found a favorite: "Talk to Louis Gray. Forget product evangelist. When he likes something, he's a one man crusade."

If you listened to this week's Elite Tech News podcast, you could probably tell that my positive viewpoints on the Web were frequently outnumbered by those who didn't favor companies, services, or individuals, who feared their content would be stolen, and that tech leaders and bloggers were too money-driven or ego-driven to be trusted. But I would rather accurately portray my intrigue and excitement around new services, even if they're not perfect. I don't think it does me a lot of good to sit down with a service I don't like or can't recommend and put 500 words into it.

You could probably also tell this from the interview Mark Evans posted this morning, Who’s Louis Gray?, which helps explain my background, and shows why I've ended up covering what I do. The tech world is moving faster than just about any market out there which I can think of. There are some amazing folks out there working ridiculous hours trying to make the next big thing. Only a few will make it. But if we tear them down too early, they might never actually reach their full potential, and I don't think it's really worth it, simply to engage in a race for page views.

Are You Having As Much Fun As I Am?

With all the talk out there about how if you blog too often, you could die, or so-called "bitchmemes" and the occasional cranky rant, you'd be perfectly acceptable in thinking the blogosphere is a dire, dark place. But, if we all could take a step back and look at what's happening through blogging, how we're helping each other find new ways to use technology, how we can hold conversations across geographic and demographic boundaries, and find commonalities with people we might never actually meet in person, it's actually a lot of fun - and I get a kick out of not just what's happened so far, but where blogging could be going.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, the posterboy for hard-working, aggressive reporting in the blogosphere, was quoted in the much passed-around New York Times article this weekend, saying, "At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen. This is not sustainable."

But while Arrington and his team may live in fear of getting scooped or somebody else finding the story, the breakneck journalism pace isn't for everyone. I doubt that many of the bloggers who are now trying to break news and report news originally thought that's what their blogs would be. After all, do you really think I have some unique dirt on the Yahoo! and Microsoft merger negotiations? Of course I don't. I also have zero insight into when Apple will come out with their 3G iPhone, or what company Google plans to acquire next. And guess what? Neither do 99% of the other bloggers talking about it.

Due to this understanding that I'm not bound to play by the old-school journalist fears, I'm really having fun doing what I'm doing. While I have had the opportunity to break the news on some promising young services, and have seen that number rapidly grow over time, I'm blogging for the sake of writing and sharing and communicating, on those things I really find interesting. If I'm keeping silly hours, it's because I choose to. If I choose to write about TiVo one day and Toluu or Technorati the next, I'll do it. And if I'm gaining weight, it's because I'm getting lazy and like eating, not because "my blog made me do it".

Finding new Web services = Fun.
Communicating with peers = Fun.
Engaging with today's blog leaders = Fun.
Becoming part of what people read every day = Fun.

So if you are blogging, and you're finding that you've strayed too far away from the core mission of your blog, and what it is you really wanted to do in the first place, and you've lost the "Fun" factor, think about what you're doing, and see if you can get back to it. I wouldn't be blogging any more if it stopped being fun, and I'm not writing about things that aren't interesting to me. We can't all go be the next TechCrunch. But we can be ourselves. Lose the stress and enjoy being a blogger for the reasons you started - whatever they were.

Air, Water, Food, RSS, Twitter, FriendFeed. Maybe Sleep.

Addictions are real. Whether it's the caffeine in your Starbucks or Diet Coke, the nicotine in your Marlboros or your recreational drug of choice, certain substances can be habit-forming. But it's becoming faddish to label those things we do every day, even multiple times a day, as addictions, rather than simply part of life's landscape. And with the Internet becoming more and more embedded into each facet of how we communicate, learn and do business, it's inevitable that the word "addiction" is being misused. You could say people are addicted to saying others are addicted.

There are some necessities in life that nobody can be without for too long - air, water, food, and sleep, for instance. Also, most would like to have something resembling shelter or companionship. But needing oxygen every minute of every day doesn't make me an addict to oxygen, does it? Thinking I need to eat at least once or twice a day doesn't make me sign up to "Eater's Anonymous". Using my car every day doesn't make me addicted to my car, and wearing pants doesn't make me a pants addict.

So why then the silliness around addictions in tech?

Over time, as I find new services and tools or gadgets, they become part of my life. I've been told I'm addicted to my BlackBerry or I'm addicted to reading RSS feeds, or addicted to FriendFeed. Others have said they're addicted to Twitter or Facebook.

But think about the difference between what happens when a true addict is separated from their drug of choice versus what happens when I'm away from what it is I find to be my best tools to learn and communicate. A drug addict can have a violent physical reaction. Vomiting. Headaches. Shakes. Fever. A nicotine addict might try to quit over and over again and never make it, even when they know they could get cancer.

While I'm certainly annoyed by outages, or curious what I'm missing when away from RSS, TechMeme or FriendFeed for a serious amount of time, I'll live, and I certainly won't get physically ill. I can go to a baseball game without a laptop. If Twitter or FriendFeed went down for days, I'd grumble, and then move on to something else. And if, God Forbid, we lost all Internet, eventually we could rediscover the Nintendo Wii, the television, the telephone or actual human contact.

There is no question that technology is part of our lives today. I often tell my wife to plan on having wireless Internet on trips just like you plan on eating on trips because the Web has become such an intertwined part of everything we do. That some services and sites have risen to the top for me doesn't mean I've acquired an addiction, but instead, a preference. Now, I'd prefer people stop calling their newfound digital lifestyle an addiction. It's silly.

See Also:
LouisGray.com: Measuring One's Technology Addictions
Deep Jive Interests: What “Techno Addiction” Really Means
YuviSense: Addicted to Twitter, and lovin it
ValleyWag: Drudge and Kos readers are addicted
ValleyWag: Now we're even more addicted to the Internet
Engadget: Compulsive e-mailing, texting could be classified as bona fide illness

In Blogging and RSS, Headlines Can be Make or Break

In mainstream print journalism, a good headline can be remembered for decades, whether for its unintentional incorrectness ("Dewey Defeats Truman" -- Chicago Daily Tribune, November 3, 1948), its unconventional approach ("BASTARDS!" -- San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 12, 2001), its editorial wit ("Headless Body In Topless Bar" -- New York Post, April 15, 1983), or its emotional angst. ("Ford to City: Drop Dead" -- New York Daily News, October 30, 1975)

With social aspects of blog consumption becoming increasingly important, as well as the meteoric rise of RSS feed readers to take in information, a good blog headline can mean your story will be read instead of others on the same topic.

A good headline can mean the difference between getting ignored and getting Dugg, and as seemingly everyone is adding new feeds by the day, the sheer overload of information virtually guarantees a high number of your readers may never get to the full body of your story, if the headline doesn't grab their interest, or even turns them away.

Today, it is well accepted that Google Reader is the most widely-utilized RSS feed reader out there. While some have said it's not capable of handling the most avid feed consumers, I've yet to see one built more robustly. Helpfully, the service also offers a full set of historical statistics.


My Google Reader data as of this evening.
On a typical weekday, my stats show I'm seeing 700 to 900 items in my Google Reader, and need to make a quick judgment call on whether I'll read the full story, click through if it's a partial feed, hit share, or move on.

Just how little time do I have to make that decision? Assume that I read every post for 1 minute apiece. This would mean I spend 12-15 hours a day just in Google Reader. Take that number down to only 10 seconds, and you're still looking at 2 hours a day. What about three measly seconds? Taking a mere three seconds per headline means I've carved out 45 minutes a day just for feed reading, assuming 900 items. On the low end, that would be 30 minutes a day for 600 items, including those you actually read, and don't just scan the headlines.

RSS feed reading at that volume only truly becomes trivial if you think you can read and determine an action for the average post in one second. One second per post could take you all the way down to a stressful speed reading demonstration of 15 minutes a day. (Don't even try and get me started on how folks like Robert Scoble, who read more than I do, manage to cope.)

Contributing factors to whether I share a post on my link blog include the newness and uniqueness of the information, the quality or brand of the source and conversely if it's a new and emerging blogger, the amount of interest I have in the topic, that I perceive my readers to have in that topic, and the quality or content of the post itself.

But also a factor? The headline. If I happen upon two stories on the same topic, of interest to me and my readers, where the source is equal, it can be the headline and first paragraph that make one item shared over another. And as it is only the headline that is displayed in my Google Reader shared items on my blog or on FriendFeed, that's sometimes all the consumers see as well.

The issue of headlines becomes especially important for sites like Digg, Reddit and the like. Reddit, in fact, shows only headlines, begging for an up or down arrow. Digg shows a headline, and a submitter's authored one paragraph description. When you see stories that have hundreds or thousands of Diggs, do you really think all of those folks clicked out to the story, read it, and returned to Digg it? I doubt it.

Outside of social news submission sites, you can also see the importance of the headline on places like TechMeme. Items in the TechMeme discussion links show only a headline, and the story's source. Often, there can be 5-20 different stories from different sources on the same topic, making the headline, or the brand of the source, be the deciding factor for which post to click.


An example TechMeme discussion from tonight.
In 1998-1999, while wrapping up my senior year at Berkeley, I worked at a Web site focused on Internet and Silicon Valley history, called Internet Valley. My boss was certain that Web site consumption would change, and that the era of long textual pieces without styling was dying, in favor of pieces highlighted by bold, italics and colors. His theory was that Web users would "skim" and no longer "read" articles.

While his design tendencies were abysmal, he was right about people changing the way they consume news in this firehose of information. Now, it's obvious that you can lose them from your headlines alone, so for as much work as you may put into your writing, and getting the data or sources right, give your headlines their due.

Yes, I'll Send a Member of My Team Immediately

It's SXSW week, and some PR folks are under the mistaken impression that I'm both going and/or a big deal. :-)

After I got an e-mail from one PR rep earlier in the week about a company looking to capitalize on social media, and I had no interest, this afternoon I got a follow-up. (With edits, naturally)

"Any interest in the (client name) social media story? They’re in Austin all weekend meeting with bloggers and media if you have anyone down there who’d like to talk with them."

Yes, of course. I'll send one of my staffers to go get this story immediately. All expenses paid. What... you're saying I don't have staff? Or I did, and they just quit? Dang. I'll have to get back to you then.

louisgray.com: A Brief History of the Site

Editor's note: I've been thinking a lot about how I first found Web services or made them part of online life. Some, I have perfect answers for, and others, not so much. I hope to talk more about some of these experiences in the coming weeks. But I thought it'd be interesting to play show and tell with just how louisgray.com got started, with all the missteps along the way.

And soon... we can talk about all the other cool services and how we got there.

1999 - 2001


I first bought the louisgray.com domain on December 30 of 1999. I didn't do much with it in the first round, building out a set of static pages that essentially acted as an "About Us" site, featuring comments on sports, tech and stocks. Amusingly, I'd patterned the look and feel of the site off one of Google's "About Us" pages, hence the coloring and clean look. I didn't expect Google to get as big as they are now, but I liked their design even back then. Of course, if I used that look/feel now, it'd have been obvious.

But I didn't give the site much attention. At one point, I even let it expire!

(See the Archive.org Backup from February 2001)

2004 - 2005

I bought louisgray.com back again in 2004, from a new registrar, but again, didn't do much. In fact, given I'd largely deleted the old files, I had to crawl through archive.org to find the old content and graphics, and rebuilt.

(See the Archive.org Backup from August 2004)

In 2005, I messed around with launching a blog with Six Apart's TypePad software, but I didn't get all that far. Eventually, I'm sure I broke it, and I abandoned the plan, but didn't give up on the idea. In fact, most of what I did with louisgray.com at this time was serve as a repository for my ANtics Oakland A's comics, featured on AthleticsNation.com.

2006


In 2006, I finally found a solution that let me blog to louisgray.com. A little fatigued by the non-tech content on my family's shared blog, in existence from 2004, I forged out on my own, very slowly, mostly offering an echo chamber that consisted of talking to myself about the A's and Silicon Valley news. I certainly wasn't breaking news, but instead, treating it as one person's commentary on the day's news.


(See Archive.org for Mach 2006 and October of 2006.)

First Half 2007 - The Scoble Effect

Writing for my seeming one-person audience was at times frustrating. But somewhere between mid-2006 and early 2007 I had this epiphany around Web 2.0 and leading bloggers. I started leaving comments on some sites, and engaging. At times, I felt like I was catching up in terms of the quality of the content, talking about the news of the day, but I wasn't getting any traction.

In January of 2007, I let my frustration spill over a bit. Robert Scoble wrote a memorable post called "Pissing off the blogosphere…, where he recapped complaining that large blogs like Engadget weren't linking his way. The first to comment on his story, I wrote, "... for what it’s worth, you are one of the A-listers who everybody who does link links to. As you know, all us Z-listers are pumping out content every day and it could be nobody notices…"

Robert, only minutes later, wrote, "Louis, just subscribed to you. I appreciate it is tough for a new blogger to get noticed. I wonder how we can solve that?"

Clearly, I got Robert thinking... as for a later post that day, he asked, "Do A-list bloggers have a responsibility to link to others?, where he offered to visit and subscribe to good tech blogs, mine included.

This made me excited, but nervous too. For if I didn't start writing about stuff that Scoble wanted, he would unsubscribe. He wouldn't share my items in his link reader, and that'd be the end of that little experiment. Luckily, I started to arc my coverage even more toward tech, and more toward those things he liked, including Google Reader and RSS.

January of 2007 was also a big move behind the scenes, as I moved off RapidWeaver, a Mac OS X software application, and onto Google's Blogger, where we remain today. It's not WordPress, but it does exactly what I need it to.

Second Half 2007

18 months into the new blogging experiment, I continued to fly under the radar for the most part, with the exception of the occasional surprise on TechMeme and rare Scoble link. But I also started to find friends with similar interests who covered similar things, people like Steven Hodson of WinExtra, Jason Kaneshiro of Webomatica, MG Siegler of ParisLemon, Kent Newsome of Newsome.org and Frederic Lardinois of The Last Podcast. This little sub-community served, in my opinion, to help push each of us further to do better and keep up the pace. Even if just a few dozen of us were trading ideas and sharing comments, it was something. In this time, I was also buoyed by seeing my subscriber base grow from less than 100 to about 200 by end of year.

Early 2008

Not much use recapping this. It's early yet. But I've talked openly about some of the momentum we've had, now that we have a better idea of what we want to talk about, and now that we have new services coming to market, wanting to be part of the discussion and engaged. I've been delighted to see services I talk about go from 5 users to 500 seemingly overnight, or to see others excited about finding new sites with my help. And while I once felt stress to remain relevant, I feel a lot more comfortable now, that we're engaged and actively part of a larger conversation. And now that we're here... you know, as Paul Harvey says... the rest of the story.

Dealing With Offline Companies Can be Such a Pain

Unless you're a brand-new visitor to louisgray.com, you might remember a post from a few weeks ago where I revealed my wife and I are expecting twins, our first children. While that announcement was sure exciting, there are a number of very real offline preparations which are going to take real physical labor and change - not the least of which being getting our home ready for two permanent visitors. But as easy as it is to plan things online, it's those offline who can throw snags into the whole operation.

With my wife having more than a decade's experience in teaching school, and the two of us having accumulated our fair share of material goods, we're going to need a place to put some of our own things and get a room in our condo ready for the kids. So, on Monday night, before my trip to Boston, I reserved a 10' by 15' unit at a local Public Storage, letting us start moving our items. I was able to register online, and gained a confirmation e-mail, saying, "This price and unit will be held for 7 days."

But during my time in Boston, Public Storage called my home phone number, which I had left on the site, on Tuesday and Wednesday to confirm we would be ready to move in by Saturday. By Thursday, the afternoon I came home, a final message was left by a woman who gruffly said as we hadn't returned her call, that we had lost our spot. Held for 7 days indeed. A short 7 days from the night of the 25th to the afternoon of the 28th!

Did I get a single e-mail asking me to confirm I would be ready to move in on Saturday? No. If I had gotten one, I definitely would have responded. And what am I supposed to do now? Sue them for breach of contract? It's not even worth it. So of course, I logged back on today and reserved a new unit at a different Public Storage somewhere else in town for about the same amount, and yes, its automated e-mail has the same "7 days" guarantee.

I recognize that I can't exactly compress my offline materials, attach them to an e-mail and send them to a new location, while that would be nice. But it's gotten to the point I expect customer service to be much better and for true online companies to be much more responsive and interactive than these offline clowns. That they wouldn't even think of sending an e-mail, after the initial confirmation made no sense. Why ask for it then?

February 29th's Leap Day Robs Us All

The idea of February 29th is a cute concept in some ways. It's quadrennial appearance has notoriety, and is a date often targeted by expectant mothers and fathers who think they can keep their children artificially young, by limiting the number of birthdays over their lifetime. But if you think about it, if you're a salaried employee, the very fact we have a February 29th this year means your employer gets this day for free. In fact, every single paycheck you get this year is less because of February 29th, and they never even asked your permission to dock your pay!

What do I mean by this? Well, in 2007, we had 365 days, in 2008, we have 366, and next year, we will have 365. Yet you're paid the same this year, if you're on salary, even though you put in the extra effort!

To make the math easy, let's pretend your salary is such that you take home exactly $73,000 a year. Under this scenario, in 2007, you would take home $200.00 even per day, but in 2008, for the same amount of work, you'd only be taking home $199.45. And those 55 cents can add up. Over the 366-day calendar, your employer has taken away a full day's pay from you. If instead you take home $109,500, that number jumps to $300 in lost pay for similar productivity! (See below chart)


Over time, a few cents a day starts to add up...
And you can see this in every single one of your paychecks. If you get paid over a 14-day pay period, at the $73,000 rate noted above, you would see only $2,792.30 coming home every two weeks, instead of the $2,800.00 you would have received in either 2007 or 2009. That's messed up, right? You think we want to be reminded 26 times this year that employers worldwide have asked us to come into the office and work for free?

I propose that from now on, all salaried employees should have the option of taking February 29th off. After all, if we aren't getting paid, why show up?

Updated Blog Design and New Features

While the changes aren't too dramatic, I am pleased to introduce a cleaner, more informative look to LouisGray.com, including the introduction of a new site logo and slogan, as well as newly introduced pages - one to serve as an "About" page, and the other, an ever-growing repository of "Coverage", highlighting select links from around the blogosphere and media discussing content here.

As the new slogan suggests, LouisGray.com is "Home for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and Mac freaks." With the site's gaining newfound attention from a greater number of sources, ranging from Mashable and Read/Write Web, to ReadBurner, Twitter, AssetBar and FriendFeed, I thought it made sense to have the site speak to new visitors as well as repeat visitors.

The new pages can be found here:

LouisGray.com: About: http://louisgray.com/live/about.html
LouisGray.com: Coverage: http://louisgray.com/live/coverage.html

If you find bugs, please do let me know. If you think I missed something major, or you hate the new updates, also please let me know.

Interacting Geekily With A Set of Septuagenarians

On Saturday night, my wife and I had the opportunity to put together a birthday party for my mother-in-law, who just marked her 80th birthday. As part of that celebration, I had prepared a slideshow, using Apple's Keynote software, showing more than 90 photos from her life. Lugging the laptop and connecting to projector, I set the slideshow on loop as background for the party, as we could see her start as a baby, gradually grow older, and then, start again.

Even this relatively simple use of technology drew awe from the group, who despite seeing the majority live in Silicon Valley, from Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and the surrounding areas, were separated from the Internet generation by a good number of years. As many of them came to praise the slideshow, and asked me how I had done it... were the photos on CD?... I had to but grimace when I knew I hadn't started it until Saturday afternoon, and that the heavy lifting had in fact been done through Apple's software, and the application of an Antique-style theme, not instead, due to some wizardry on my part.

This real-life realization of the gap between how I grasp technology and gravitate toward new services, versus the slower road taken by those just a generation or further ahead, got me thinking. How aware were they of the latest in technology news, and what relevance did my cutting-edge dabblings have for them?

Taking place just a day after Microsoft's proposed take-over of Yahoo!, a pair talked to me about the possibility, and asked what I thought would happen. In that conversation, it was clear one knew what YouTube was, and they vaguely knew Google had purchased the company, but when I said it was for $1.65 billion, they were surprised to the level of detail. I didn't dare ask anybody if they used Twitter, or Facebook, or were familiar with RSS feeds. It's possible they might have TiVo, but more likely they had just moved to DVD, in addition to their VCR.

At one point, I was surprised when I mentioned storage, that one of them not only had a vague idea as to how big her hard drive was, but said that as a digital photographer, she wanted advice on the best external hard drives to get. I tried to help. But this incident was the exception. It's often hard enough to explain to people what I do for a living, or where I work, or what makes us different. It's quite another to explain how I've taken a interest in technology and extended to include blogging (which my guess is that some knew about), RSS feeds, startups, social networking and news aggregators.

The goal of getting my mother-in-law off AOL, and her ancient Dell besides, is now almost 5 years in the running. In that time, she's purchased two Mac laptops, including a MacBook Pro, yet that month-old machine is still in its box, unopened. And while we've given her wireless through Airport Express, she's not moving around the house on her laptop. Not yet. I've now been told the plan to move off Windows and to her Mac is after she gets her bedroom re-designed. Moving slowly and serially is the plan, and just maybe it'll happen this time.

But in a world when the days behind you far outnumber the days in front of you, the need to multi-task and remain cutting-edge just isn't there. While I'm more likely to share an RSS feed or e-mail you a link, I instead might get clips from this week's Mercury News. Even when the older generation is trying to keep up, they're falling further behind. And maybe that's okay. I just hope that as my decades increase, and I move from 30 to 40 to 50 and beyond, I don't also slow down and fall behind, but can remain relevant and aware of the world of tech. Otherwise, please tell my system to Shut Down.

Perpetually Rooting for the Underdog

By now, it's no secret, even to the least sports-affiliated of you, that the New York Giants beat the previously-undefeated New England Patriots to claim Super Bowl XLII. Just a week after many were arguing whether the Patriots team was among the best ever in the history of the NFL, it turned out they weren't even dominant enough to beat the Giants in the one game that would have truly made history. Now, instead, the Patriots were just on the downside of one of the bigger upsets in recent memory. And we loved it. As I watched, I loudly clapped my hands and shouted when Eli Manning made his touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left, making the win a near-certainty.

While I'm not really a huge fan of any specific NFL team, having left the stable of the 49ers faithful more than a decade ago, there was no question I was rooting for the Giants tonight, as well as against the Patriots, as much as anything. As a Bay Area fan, I've grown tired of the antics of the Boston teams, and especially their fans, who see it as their God-given right to go out and gather championships. Since 2004 (and earlier), when the Red Sox finally garnered their first World Series trophy in nearly a century, their fans have been among the most vocal and most annoying, rivaling only Yankees fans in their ridiculousness. As their own team's salaries spiral ever higher, they can't be seen as fighting against a Goliath, being a Goliath themselves. And in a rare twist, tonight, I was rooting for a New York team who hadn't been given much chance by the national media to win it all.

Over my life, I've grown accustomed to rooting for the underdog, not only in sports, but in technology, business and even politics. I don't tend to gravitate toward that which is most popular or most purchased because I see others doing it. Instead, I tend to make my own choices, market share be darned. That's why even in the face of intense competition from other vendors, I've made my choices in Apple and TiVo, and am not a big fan of Microsoft. I continue to root hard for my small-market teams, the Oakland A's and the Sacramento Kings. I continue to find flaws in the big companies' offerings and laud the efforts of small start-ups, even when their own offerings have holes. I see the potential in the little guy as they work hard to become the big guy, and hope they remain humble.

And when the little guy I have always rooting for may become the big guy on the block, their newfound power has me sometimes questioning if they've lost that innovative focus, and just what made them great in the first place. Google is slowly making that transition, adding on new focuses, when the ink isn't yet dry on the last product announcement, and they aren't always going to receive the benefit of the doubt from me the way they once did. And Apple, a one-time blip in most markets, is now owning the leadership position in digital entertainment and devices, and should be expected to do the right thing in terms of product prioritization and pricing.

Unfortunately for me, and others like me, teams and companies and technologies are often the underdog for good reason. Sometimes the competition has bigger stars, a bigger cash hoard, and more resources. Sometimes, they have a few years' head-start, or a customer base so strong that its difficult to push for conversion. So, I often find myself disappointed when I see the little guys give up, stay small, or in the world of sports, lose and go home, only to re-open my hopes the following year. But tonight, at least for 24 hours, we're happy that the big beast from Boston was thwarted, and the underdogs went home victorious. If only that always happened.

Mashable Uses A-List Power to Steal B-List Buzz

In the tech blogosphere, there's a clear delineation between those who are actively creating the news (the developers, engineers, and business people), those who are reporting the news (those blogs who follow journalism standards and do actual reporting) and those who simply follow along - either by referencing other people's work, or simply duplicating it. Mashable, billing itself as the #1 social networking news site on the Web, falls almost exclusively in that third camp.

Over the last few weeks, I've been at times shaking my head as I've seen the site's reporters deliver an absolute minimum of original reporting, underdeliver on giving credit to those finding the news first, and in one blatant example, stealing quotes from a story I had written, without giving attribution, and not making edits when notified.

Mashable is one of the big names in the blogosphere, ranking #8 overall, according to Technorati. The site has achieved this ranking through an army of reporters who deliver a high number of stories around the clock. While the stories themselves don't often gain a high number of comments, and don't usually offer new information that couldn't be found elsewhere on the Web, the sheer volume has made them a must-subscribe tech news filter for many subscribed to their RSS feed. (Myself included)

Due to Mashable's popularity, the site very often gains credit for finding a story, when in fact it was almost always found first somewhere else. And the site's design and story templates favor giving the original source of the story as little credit as possible - often tucked away, so well-meaning repeaters of Mashable's news miss it altogether. This month, I've been burned by this a number of times, as you can see:

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#1: The ReadBurner Discovery and Launch

On Monday, January 7th, I was the first to uncover ReadBurner's development, in a story, "ReadBurner, In Stealth Mode, Looking to Sort Shared Feed Items". I found the site, did as much research as I could about it, and summarized my findings. After I had traded multiple e-mails with the site's developer, Alexander Marktl, I posted a follow-on note, ReadBurner's Unplanned Big First Day Shows Real Promise.

Later that night, Mashable posted a story, "ReadBurner: Google Shared Items Memetracker", which noted my finding the story, and linked my way, but the reporter oddly acted as if they had been aware of the site's being developed, saying, "Readburner is a site that has been playing at the edges of my feeds for several weeks now. I think I vaguely remember submitting my linkblog to a developer a month or so ago.", making it look like they were part of the story. Wrong. The only person to do exactly this was Arvin Dang, back on December 17th, when he had asked for a list of Google Reader Shared items, in an attempt to consolidate them in one place. (See: TechTalk4U: Tips to help you consolidate and share your RSS)

This incident wasn't wildly egregious. But Mashable's size made other prominent sites simply list: "Source: Mashable" when they in turn wrote up ReadBurner.

SearchBlog: Readburner
VentureBeat: Readburner lets you see what is shared on Google Reader
WebWare: ReadBurner Turns Google Reader's Sharing Features Into Communal Bookmarking

None of the above sites linked back to the original story.

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#2: Robert Scoble Announces His Move to Fast Company.TV

On Monday, January 14th, I knew it had been Robert Scoble's last day at PodTech, and while I knew Michael Arrington of TechCrunch had said Scoble was moving on to Fast Company, I wanted to be sure. It'd have been a serious scoop if he was going somewhere else. So, I did what any first-year journalist would do. I called him!

In our quick call that evening, Scoble told me that he was indeed starting FastCompany.TV, that he didn't believe the move was a secret, and that the news was not under embargo, therefore, freeing me to write about it. I did that evening, in a post, "Robert Scoble to Kick Off Fast Company TV Wednesday."

As part of this post, I included the following quote from our phone call:

"The serious options were Fast Company, and us running our own thing," he said. "What brings me joy is interviewing people, hanging out with geeks and blogging. Doing my own thing would mean having to run my own business, and that's not as fun as interviewing Doug Engelbart, who invented the mouse."

The next day, Mashable wrote their own story, titled, "FastCompany Launches Online Video Network Under Scoble".

As part of their story, Mashable included my exact quote, not giving attribution in any way.

“The serious options were Fast Company, and us running our own thing,” he said. “What brings me joy is interviewing people, hanging out with geeks and blogging. Doing my own thing would mean having to run my own business, and that’s not as fun as interviewing Doug Engelbart, who invented the mouse.”

I called BS, in the comments saying, "How is it made clear that the quotes used for this story were lifted from a story I posted yesterday after actually doing "real journalism" and calling Scoble myself to get these answers?"

The author, Mark Hopkins, wrote that by posting a link to my story earlier, that he had given sufficient credit, even though the quotes were lifted. In an e-mail exchange I had with him that evening offline, I told him the appropriate thing to do would be to cite the quote came from somewhere else, by listing "he told louisgray.com" or "Louis Gray reports he said", for example. At the time, he agreed to make a change, and said, "The new version of the story has already hit the web, and the feeds tend to propagate about an hour or two out when it comes to edits, usually."

But almost a week afterwards, I don't think that's actually happened. The first, offending, unedited story is still there. (See: Mashable)

It wasn't any major outreach on my part to reach Robert that Monday. His cellphone number is widely available, and there's no reason Mashable couldn't have gotten their own quote if they wanted one. If time was an issue, giving the site credit would be the very least they could have done, and leaving it unfixed for days after promising a change is very frustrating to see.

In case Mashable wanted to learn how a professional blogger gives attribution, check Robert Scoble himself. In his announcement post, "Why we’re going to FastCompany.tv", he writes, "Louis Gray got the story first," and makes the whole line a link, in his lead paragraph. That's how you give attribution.

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#3: The Discovery and Launch of Shared Reader

On Wednesday, January 16th, not a week and a half after ReadBurner was forcefully debuted, we saw the emergence of a new Google Reader shared feeds aggregator, "Shared Reader". And, for the second time in ten days, I was the first person to find out about it and write about it, doing so early that morning in a post, "Shared Reader Latest to Take on Google Reader Shared Item Rankings", submitted only three hours after the developer had made it live.

Sure enough, it wasn't but a few hours later that Mashable followed on and took the news as their own, writing a near duplicate post, titled "SharedReader: Attack of the Google Shared Items Memetrackers.

And again, for the third time in two weeks, you would have had to be a detective to figure out that the exact same blog which found ReadBurner, which also was the first to confirm Scoble's moving to FastCompany.TV was the first to find Shared Reader. How did Mashable give credit? Not through giving louisgray.com credit for the double scoop, but instead, a throw-away line at the very end of the story that said, "[via louis gray]", with only the word "via" being a link.

If Mashable truly wanted to support the full blogosphere instead of promoting their own site, with vacuous reporting, they would have made the link prominent. They could have included the headline. They could have made the link higher, or even put two and two together to say, "Wait a minute, the same guy who found ReadBurner found Shared Reader. Boy that's interesting." But instead, they took a three letter word, made it a link, and put it after the story, where hardly anybody saw it, as my referrer logs can attest.

---

So what should we do? I'm almost afraid to announce anything new on this site, without fear that Mashable is going to rip me off again, post the news as their own again, steal quotes again, and keep pushing traffic their way instead of back to the original source. I called out Mashable back in September in "Internal Linking On Some Tech Blogs Is Out of Control", and it looks like they still haven't gotten the message.

Think I'm alone or that Mashable is the only offender? Check out ParisLemon's call to arms: Ars Technica, You're a Member of the Internet, Start Linking Like It. There is a major problem in the tech blogosphere leadership where the basic tenets of journalism, sourcing and attribution are ignored.

Mashable is a good aggregator of news from other blogs. It has some great people behind it. But if they're to be taken seriously and respected as they grow up, change is needed. At the very least, make it a rule to never steal quotes from other blogs without delivering attribution. And find a way to actually watch trends to make an educated guess on what the news means or where it's originating. Are there patterns in message or source? That's real journalism and will help the blogosphere be taken just a little more seriously.

And yes, if this means Mashable never links my way again, or copies my stories outright, I think we'll live. We've got more scoops coming in the next few months, guaranteed, and we'll find more reputable people to help follow along.

10 Ways We're Trying to Make the Web a Better Place

Recently talking with a good friend and consistent reader of this blog, he told me one of the reasons he likes reading louisgray.com is that he believes I'm not trying to follow somebody else's lead, that I'm not an echo chamber, and instead, I'm actually trying to promote things I believe in. I hope he's right. For while I might occasionally make comments on the news of the day, we're, in this political climate, the blogging candidate for change.

Here are a few examples of how we've tried to push change on the Web and make it a better place to take in new information, find new sources for news, accurately report statistics and influence, as well as ways we're trying to help popular services improve and help people find new tools:

1) The Internal Links vs. External Links Debate

We tried to squash the practice of using Internal Links when External Links would be better ways to bring visitors to the companies making the news. In the ensuing discussions, some major blogs said they would make changes, while others said I had it all wrong. Even if most did nothing, the issue was certainly made more visible.

Internal Linking On Some Tech Blogs Is Out of Control
More Comments On Inwardly Linking
Backlink Backlash Could Bring Forth Change
Link In. Link Out. Shake it All About.

2) The Elimination of Spam-Like Viral Link Tags for Statistics Manipulation

As it's well recognized Google and Technorati will give your site more perceived value based on the amount of unique links to your Web site, many have made a move to artificially inflate their numbers, incorrectly leading to high PageRanks and Technorati Authority, despite the fact Google can punish those found cheating.

Technorati Needs to Stamp Out Viral Tag Spam Now
Kent Newsome Calls My Comments "Fear and Loathing"
Is There an Antidote to the Link Tags Virus?

3) Correctly Learning What Is Original Reporting, and Who's Just Following Along

News aggregators can be both a blessing and a curse. Sites like TechMeme are outstanding for seeing the day's blog activity, but as they also drive traffic, it can encourage bad behavior, without question. We're still looking to see if TechMeme will continue tweaking its algorithm to report those who break a story first and add original reporting, rather than those who have big brand names or the most external links.

What Should Drive TechMeme's Content?
Algorithms Cause Fight Between Linking and Original Reporting
Robot-Generated Sites Show Occasional Flaws

4) Asking Web Companies to Take Downtime Seriously, and Increase Reliability

If we're really going to move all our data to the Web, we have to trust it will always be there, easily and quickly. But far too many Web 2.0 companies have shown flaky uptime, and later, mocked us with humorous error messages, thinking their downtime is a joke. Guess what? It's not.

Web 2.0 Companies Play With Error Messages
Silly YouTube - Where's The Redundancy?
LinkedIn Provides Another Silly Web 2.0 "Error" Page
Ack! Google Reader Update Wipes Out History
Scoble's Right: Technorati Isn't Scaling to Beat Google

5) Looking to Eliminate Spam, Both on E-mail and in Blogs

There's nothing more annoying than finding a good communication medium foiled by those who want to misuse it for their own ill-begotten needs. That's why I refuse to ever join Plaxo, get annoyed by Facebook application spam, and the rapid growth of spam blogs or "Splogs".

Is Technorati Going After Spam Blogs?
Technorati Confirms Attack on Splogs, Provides Update
Sending Me Spam Makes Us Friends, Right?

6) Communicating With Companies and Offering Suggestions to Improve

One of the best things I've found with the blog is being able to talk to Web companies and help build their products to be more successful through testing, and offering specific comments. In almost every case, I've gained direct feedback from the developer, and in many cases, they've updated very quickly.

10 Suggestions for FriendFeed
10 Suggestions to Improve Google Reader
10 More Suggestions for LinkedIn
Eight Reasons the Apple TV is Failing, and How It Can be Saved
Why Can't Del.icio.us Show Most Popular Bookmarks by URL?
What Is the Future Of MyBlogLog?
Use Your Blog To Talk To Companies

7) Looking at Mega-Trends for Insight Into Momentum

We don't blog and live in a vacuum. Instead, as technology and business evolve, change naturally occurs. When I see something I think is taking place which impacts us, I want to talk about it and see if you're seeing what I am. Often you see it too, and sometimes, you tell me I'm wrong, which is okay too.

The Biggest Blogs Aren't Really Blogs Any More
The Web Advertising Bubble Has Got to Pop
Did Trackbacks Die, and Who Killed Them?
Alexa Web Statistics Show Old Media Influence Nosedive
10 Predictions for 2008 In the World of Tech

8) Reinforcing the Idea that Blogging Can Be Personal, Yet Influential

I want to blog with passion about those things I cover and discover. I want to have communications with people I couldn't reach otherwise, and while I may enjoy seeing traffic spikes or external links, it's not what's driving me. I believe I should gain additional traffic if I offer good content, not because I am following the latest trend or using link schemes. So often, I talk about why I blog, and what I'm trying to do. After all, I am adamant that your blog can be your personal brand, and you should take care of it.

New Reality: Your Blog Is Your Brand
Why Do I Blog? An Introspective Look
A Big Part of Blogging is Writing to Your Readers
Blogging: Set Goals Or Let Fly?
If It's Not About Breaking News or Traffic...

9) Highlighting New Companies and Services I Enjoy

What's the fun in finding new Web tools if I can't tell you about them? You can believe that if I start begging you to try out a new service, it's because I really believe in what they stand for, and I see their potential. I have a tendency to root for the little guy and am all too eager to promote those that offer unique service differentiation. I don't always have to be first to report something, but I will be clear about why I think it's pretty darn cool.

I Have Seen the Future of Social RSS Feed Readers
Hype It Up: Ballhype Is Here to Change the Game
Friendfeed Follows Friends' Web Activity
PlugandPlay Expo Highlight: Spokeo
AideRSS Judges Feed Posts as Good, Great, Best

10) Thinking Philosophically, Out Loud, to Those Who Will Listen

If I'm not reacting to news, or letting you know about something I like, it's likely I'm thinking about where we're headed. Often, this will be impacted by work I've done over the last decade, or books I've read. Sometimes thinking out loud while writing is the best way to get my points across. After all, I can't exactly have a conference call with hundreds of people, but I can reach hundreds of people this way. Maybe my thoughts have value to a smaller subset.

I Still Get Excited About Silicon Valley
The Big Debate: Online vs. Offline, and Web Influence
Maintaining Integrity of Web Archives Is Essential
Is Timing an Important Element for Blog Posts?

While I don't expect every post I do to be absolutely high-minded, I do want to make a difference here on the Web. I want to help, from my small corner in the blogosphere, to help guide the next generation of blogging. I want to help companies understand their customers, and to help customers find great companies. I do this because I enjoy it and because it's for the betterment of our global community. If you think these are things you find useful, then be sure you are on our RSS feed, and keep following along. It's a never-ending journey.

A Big Part of Blogging is Writing to Your Readers

In November, when I sat down with Emanuel Rosen to offer some comments for the next edition of his book, "The Anatomy of Buzz", we talked a lot about blogging, what the new spheres of influence were on the Web, and what can keep a writer going, even when there's no money and no fame involved. One of the comments I made I believe caught him by surprise, when I said that over time, the very best blogs adapt and write to the readers, rather than the author.

While it's ideal to think the author's likes and dislikes will be so magnetic as to attract a wide readership, it's best to test storylines and topics. Over time, focus on those things which will best engage readers, community and conversation.

On some level, there's no question that's happened here. While I remain opinionated on politics, I don't talk about it here. And while I watch plenty of sports, I'm taking that commentary to Ballhype and Sports Blogs Nation instead of to louisgray.com. Over time, I've optimized the discussion on louisgray.com to discuss how I use and interact with technology, what new services I find interesting, and developments I think will impact people on the Web and in the real world. Living in Silicon Valley and participating in the Silicon Valley life gives me some edge at this level for technology, while it doesn't give me a leg up for politics and sports, in comparison.

So when I talked with Emanuel Rosen, that's what I told him. Over time, I learned that you, my readers, are RSS-savvy. Most of you read TechMeme, and are familiar with the A-list bloggers. Most of you hold strong opinions over what the best search engines, operating systems and social networks are, and believe strongly in innovation, openness and entertainment. Most of you have a dry sense of humor and don't mind the occasional off-topic post, so long as you know the next few will be on something you're interested in, whether it's RSS, Google or the Apple TV, the future of Web advertising, FriendFeed and Spokeo, iTunes or the iPod.

Through 2006, I was finding my footing. I posted on what I felt like, in no particular order or frequency. While I believe some of those posts were pretty good, I didn't stand for much, and as a result, I didn't get all that many readers. In 2007, I think I listened a little more and participated a little more. And I hope that as I've adapted my focus to what I believe yours is, I won't have lost the core elements of what makes this blog personal.

Also see:
Why Do I Blog? An Introspective Look
I Still Get Excited About Silicon Valley
Are You An ACTIVE Hub?

Kathy Griffin Comes to Cupertino

You might have noticed a 2-day gap in my blogging here. Oops. But that happens every once in a while when actual real-world activities get in the way. Given I post 90% of my entries here in the evening, a simple event or game or movie can make it look like I'm AWOL for a full 24 hours.

Last night's event was seeing Emmy-award winning comedienne Kathy Griffin at the Flint Center in Cupertino. Being the good, occasionally-supportive husband that I am, when my wife bought the tickets, I signed up to go. She's a bigger Kathy Griffin fan than I am, and though I tried to be open-minded and ready to be converted, that didn't change.

Noting her surroundings, Kathy Griffin started off with a few jokes/complaints about her iPhone, made by nearby Apple Computer, polled the audience on how many were Cupertino millionaires (quite a few), and regaled us with stories about her relationship with the company's co-founder Steve Wozniak.

That I liked.

But for the most part, her bit consisted of name-dropping celebrities, recapping recent Oprah episodes, mocking Marie Osmond and slamming Mormons. None of that worked for me. For the most part, while she went on and on about her run-in with Liza Manelli or being introduced to Stephen Spielberg, I made do by looking around at the intricacies of the Flint Center, wishing I was there for an Apple special event instead of discussing the proper way to fake a fainting on Dancing With the Stars (another show I avoid like the plague). I counted the exit signs, I looked around at the balcony and wondered how many RSS feeds I was missing while she prattled on about Andy Dick's indecent exposure at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville way back in 1999.

While others were laughing about a story of some B-list actor on Everybody Loves Raymond who I'd never heard of, or mocking Larry King's relationship with his kids, I was trying to hide my jaw-cracking yawns. I was tired. And when her show was complete, it was none too soon.

Clearly, Kathy Griffin has an audience. The ones who watch episodes of Access Hollywood, The View, Regis & Kelly and the red carpet shows at Hollywood's award events. The ones who want to know what's really going on with Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan. But it looks like I'm not in her demographic. If I hear Jim Gaffigan or Lewis Black or Eddie Izzard are in town, trust me, I'll be there, but I won't be seeing Kathy Griffin again.

This "Hack" Has Two Meanings

In our tech-centered Web world, a hack is usually a bad thing - bringing up images of shadowed evil-doers aiming to break into computers or networks, looking to gain access to things not theirs, or instead, a hack is sometimes seen as a quick and dirty version or update to software - and not a good one at that. But in the world of media and reporting, a hack can instead mean "one who works hard at boring tasks" or "a mediocre and disdained writer" (Source: thefreedictionary.com).

My old editor in chief from days at the Daily Cal in Berkeley, Ryan Tate, has started up a new blog called "The Hack", self-described as "a journalist with delusions of computer science." While the blog's just getting off the ground, Ryan's already posted a few stories of note, including a get rich quick scheme building off my idea of converting .PST files to GMail-compatible mailboxes, a new killer feature for RSS feeds, and 7 suggestions to improve Google Docs.

While he and I overlapped terms at the Daily Cal, from 1996 to 1998, Ryan and I tag-teamed on some of the earliest editions of the newspaper's Web site, saw the paper and its reporters (including the two of us) repeatedly recognized in state-wide competitions, and occasionally clashed politically, as two aggressive, opinionated people working closely together will do. Now that time has healed those wounds, we're both vocally rooting each other on from the sidelines, and I hope this self-proclaimed "hack" keeps his blog on course.

Check it out at http://thehack.webmasher.com/.

Reality Check: When Good Cars Go Bad

Obviously, given last night's post, I've been giving some thought to upgrading my car. But as much as I dream, I'm honestly nowhere near making that kind of jump. Today, I belatedly took my car into the shop, and found it will cost more than $2,000 to get it back to speed, and while that astronomical number had me momentarily thinking it'd be best to drive it off the face of a cliff toward an unpopulated area, I recognized a "small" financial hit now will save me money in the long run.

As noted yesterday, the car was telling me to "Service Engine Soon", was reporting "Low Coolant" and the "Brake" light tended to be on longer than usual, even when the brake was released. Combined with the oil last being changed over 4,000 miles ago, it was time to take it in.

I started the expedition by putting water in the car, solving the immediate issue. Dropping the car off at Midas, they took a look and found:

1. The Service Engine Soon light was coming on due to a bad O2 sensor.
2. The Brake light was coming on as my front brake pads were extremely low.
3. The Low Coolant light was happening all too frequently as it turns out the radiator's cracked.

Add on an old belt here, a worn-out spark plug there, and pretty soon, you're talking about a pretty serious sum of money - just enough to basically make my eTrade investment unprofitable, once you take out the government's share of profits for taxes.

Given Midas takes Sundays off, I definitely won't be seeing my junky old dirty car until at least Monday night. Hopefully, although this is certainly inconvenient, and expensive, it'll be better to put $2k into this heap of metal and grease now than putting $20k, $30k or $40k into something right away. Nothing like a spur of the moment big decision to foul things up long term, after all.

But if this keeps happening... the only thing you'll be hearing about my 1998 Mercury Tracer will be in the past tense.

Sunday Evening News and Notes (11/04/2007)

It's been a while since we had one of these, but in the spirit of Jason Calacanis, there's been a number of things over the last few days that have caught my eye, worth noting.

First of all, the very best ways to watch what I'm viewing and liking online are first, to subscribe to my shared Google Reader link blog, and second, to add me as a friend on Friendfeed.com (E-mail me if you still need an invite). Getting linked on Facebook or LinkedIn doesn't hurt either.

If you noticed the cries of horror throughout the blogosphere, the sounds were due to Feedburner and Google's Feedfetcher missing each other again. Across the board, total subscriber counts were halved. I personally saw my readership plummet from 156 to 83. But, I didn't panic, as I knew it was a simple glitch. (Comments: Zoli's Blog, ProBlogger, and Mashable)

Ever stop to think about what our tech world will look like five years from now? Chris Brogan did. Just looking backwards, Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, Firefox, GMail, Facebook... you name it... weren't even around in 2001. In 2011 or 2012, what will that list be looking back to 2007?

More on LinkedIn... they continue to innovate. Fresh off announcing they would be part of Google's OpenSocial, it looks like they are on the verge of announcing a new platform for developers. In fact, earlier this week, Spokeo picked up a new post in their RSS feed called "Announcing the LinkedIn Platform", which doesn't go anywhere. Chris Webb noticed as well and Twittered about it. Mark that as a wait and see...

On another note... my Being Mac. Being Mormon. It's Quite Similar. post was more popular than I had anticipated. My good friends at MacSurfer added it to their list of links last night, and that's sent consistent traffic my way for the past 24 hours, getting hundreds of visits. As mentioned before, however, those readers are simple drive bys and don't often comment. They didn't today either.

No Sneak Peek at Leopard for Me

It's more than Silicon Valley legend that if you find the right misguided tech shop, you can sometimes purchase items before their manufacturer wants them released. Whether its a game console, like Microsoft's XBox 360 Arcade, or an operating system, the retail shops just might not know or might not care.

On my way home this evening, I had a hunch that the Fry's superstore here in Sunnyvale would be one of those shops. Fry's is notorious for either putting an item on a shelf with no fanfare (the situation when I bought my wife a 2nd gen iPod Shuffle on the 2nd day it was available), or just flat-out not having an item at all, weeks after its debut. It's a serious hit or miss.

While I've already made up my mind that I'd like to hit up an Apple retail store tomorrow and be there for Leopard's unveiling, if I could get my hands on Leopard a day early thanks to Fry's, I would have purchased it tonight. But, no such luck. As I bee-lined my way to the Mac section of the store, they were all too prepared for geeks like me, with signs saying Leopard would be available for sale not today, but tomorrow, at 6 p.m. There wasn't even a box in sight. If there were, I would of course have played dumb and walked it up to the front register with intent to take it home.

So, I left the store empty-handed. I guess I'm not a real geek if I could get into Fry's and leave without buying anything, but today I'm willing to have that shame. Tomorrow however, is Leopard day. Meow.

No Seriously, That's My Room. Now Leave.

After today's repeated flight delays, which saw the departure time go back and forth seemingly by the half hour, the last thing I expected was more hassles once I reached ground. But I guess it's just going to be that kind of trip.

I got into Dallas around 11 p.m. local time, and as is typical, I was setting up the laptop on the "high speed" Internet before even truly unpacking. As I was talking with my wife over video iChat on my MacBook Pro, wouldn't you know it, but some random guy puts his keycard into my door, and he comes strolling in, luggage in tow. Oops. Good thing I was G-Rated.

Of course, my being there caught him by surprise. I said, "This is my room. What room number is your key for?" Of course, he had the same room number I did. Turns out the hotel computers reset at 11 each night, and the service staff has to assign rooms by hand for a little while, and we just so happened to get double booked. Luckily, he acquiesced to my squatter's rights, and set off to get his own room. And no... we didn't offer to share and split the costs.

Later, on search of something resembling a midnight snack, I duck out of my room and find a 24-hour coffee shop open across the hotel. I come back, only to find now MY key doesn't work to my room. Turns out when the mysterious gentleman was assigned my room after I was there, it was his key that was activated, and mine was blocked.

So... back to the service desk I went, where they apologized, told me of their computer woes, and I was reissued a new card. This time, upon returning, I put up the door latch and raised the deadbolt. I've got the room now, and they can't have it back until I say so.

louisgray.com Hits 1,000 Posts

January 9th of last year, I finally took the plunge, and started the louisgray.com blog - starting, appropriately enough, with a post showing my anticipation of MacWorld San Francisco, to be held the very next day. While I'd been blogging on my mother's family-oriented site for the better part of two years, I felt I'd outgrown that role, and needed to find a home where I could talk tech and sports without boring everyone. Now, I can bore a different audience altogether here.

Though there's no perfect way to "celebrate" a 1,000th post milestone, I thought I'd highlight some of the major issues and links discussed over the last two years, and provide you some ways you can interact with louisgray.com as we move on to 2,000, 5,000 and beyond.

My Top Ten Obsessions, With Some Help from ZoomClouds:

1. Apple, iPod and iTunes

What is the True Value of an Entertainment Download? (January 27, 2007)
The Apple TV Debate Is Upside Down (March 22, 2007)
How Apple Could Crush Netflix Now (April 11, 2007)

2. Blogs, Links and RSS

Not All Links Are Created Equal (July 18, 2007)
Internal Linking On Some Tech Blogs Is Out of Control (September 12, 2007)
Tech Blog Link Power: Spiky Visitors or Sticky Visitors? (October 2, 2007)

3. Google

10 Suggestions to Improve Google Reader (March 3, 2007)
Google News Search Removes Duplicates (April 30, 2007)
Google Is 95% Of My Search Traffic (July 23, 2007)

4. TiVo and Television

Dear Tivo, Please Track and Report My Data (February 28, 2007)
A Silicon Valley Adventure: Trip to TiVo (May 31, 2007)
Welcome Back, Network Television (September 27, 2007)

5. The Oakland A's and the ANtics

ANtics Giveaway to A's Players Today in Phoenix (March 12, 2006)
ANtics Episode 3.12: A Cust Above (May 13, 2007)
The 2007 A's Love Wednesdays! (August 7, 2007)

6. The Cal Bears

Cal Football Falls Apart In Arizona, Killing BCS Hopes (November 11, 2006)
Tomorrow, Stanford Goes Down Against the Cal Bears (December 1, 2006)
Cal's Huge Win Over Ducks Validates Us (September 29, 2007)

7. The Sacramento Kings

Kings Open 2006-07 Season Flat (November 1, 2006)
The NBA's Struggle With Mid-Market Franchises (November 19, 2006)
Saturday's Kings Game: One to Remember (and Forget) (January 15, 2007)

8. Nintendo Wii and Online Games

Addicting Games Sure to Reduce Productivity (July 2, 2007)
False Alarm: Wii Got Our Wii (July 26, 2007)
Wii Steals Show In Family Weekend Visit (September 9, 2007)

9. Statistics

1000+% Traffic Growth Year over Year? Summary Says So. (May 3, 2007)
Your Blog Statistics May Vary, Widely (August 13, 2007)
Alexa Web Statistics Show Old Media Influence Nosedive (October 7, 2007)

10. Technology Innovators and Startups

Is Technorati Going After Spam Blogs? (March 31, 2007)
What Is the Future Of MyBlogLog? (August 27, 2007)
PlugandPlay Expo Highlight: Spokeo (September 20, 2007)

Along with sharing my obsessions, I've had the pleasure over the last two years to have interacted and conversed with some very engaging people, from the A-list to the B-List and well beyond, from Robert Scoble, Don Dodge, Jeremiah Owyang, Mathew Ingram, Gabe Rivera and Steve Rubel to Steven Hodson, Kent Newsome, Yuvi Panda, David Sifry Jason Kaneshiro, Gal Josefsberg, and worked with great people like Tyler Bleszinksi, Nico Pemantle, Christy Hoffmann, Tom Ziller, Josh Pigford, Jason and Erin Gurney.

The above lists are by no means all inclusive, for sure, but with all the links, I've likely broken Blogger for good. If the service suffers downtime for the next few days, you'll know who to blame. Meanwhile, we'll be cooking up our next 1,000 posts.

Until then, be sure you:

Sign up to the RSS Feed
Read My Shared Link Blog
Get Linked on Facebook or LinkedIn
Subscribe by E-mail Using Feedblitz
Download the Mac OS X Widget
Add louisgray.com as a favorite in Technorati
Join MyBlogLog Community

Backlink Backlash Could Bring Forth Change

My post-midnight ramblings on the questionable practice of overly relying on internal links certainly hit a nerve in the blogosphere, drawing attention from all corners, as we saw comments from Ryan Block at Engadget and Robert Scoble of Scobleizer, while representatives of TechCrunch and Gawker Media also weighed in on whether or not they found issues with the rapidly-growing model of preferring links to their own blog as opposed to the outside world.

Some reactions:

Surflizard: Sneaky Links

"The key to reading Engadget is to know that only the last link in a post is usually relevant to the post’s subject, and every other link is usually self-referencing spam."

Kent Newsome: Evening Reading: 9/12/07

"The problem, of course, comes down to the prospect of money. Rather than double linking, I'd call it double ad-serving. I'd love to know the average duration of those internal link page views."

The Last Podcast: Internal/Double Linking is a Bad Practice

"I am glad others are picking up on this, as it is annoying the heck out of me and keeps me from enjoying some of the best blogs out there."

Ryan Block of Engadget did a great job illustrating why Engadget favors self-referential links over external links. He notes that stories that reference other sources do contain an external link at the conclusion of the story, but he disagreed with my belief that tags should lead to referenced companies instead of prior coverage. In a post he titled On backlinking (or “internal linking”), he said:

"At Engadget, our MO is to offer a compressed, editorialized edition of technology news. Sometimes we can go as long (or longer) as any big-name newspaper on an important story, but because we do (and must!) have greater respect for our readers’ intelligence and attention, generally speaking we expect them to understand the jist of what we’re talking about when we start to geek out."

Essentially, he said Engadget readers already know the URLs for companies like Apple, Google, or Microsoft's XBox, so to link their way wouldn't add much value. Fair enough. But he did say the site will reevaluate their frequency for backlinking, adding, "I’m sure we could use additional fine tuning in what and how often we backlink, which I’ll be evaluating closer starting today."

His comments mirrored those from Mark Hendrickson of TechCrunch, who wrote in a comment on this blog, "We often link to CrunchBase pages rather than company websites because we think that our company profiles often give readers better corporate overviews than they would get by going straight to company websites," adding, "We do realize that many readers find this linking behavior undesirable, so we are actively looking into ways we can refer to both corporate websites and CrunchBase pages from the main blog."

Elsewhere, Nick Denton of Gawker Media wrote that the network has recently changed how they handle internal links versus external links, writing, "We have changed the style of internal tag links. They are no longer underlined. So the emphasis is on the external links, but regular readers know they can get background on a name or a product by clicking the text."

In 24 hours, we got an excellent cross-section of some of the tech blogosphere's most influential and most respected blogs. With the exception of Mashable, all sites I referenced, or commenters referenced, provided reason and updates as to why they operate the way they do.

(UPDATE: Mashable checked in this morning, saying "We have a verbal policy that the first link should go to the site in question, so that one is human error," and "I can guarantee that we'll try to avoid the LinkedIn type screnarios. As for linking to reference material...possibly we'll find a way to offer the user a choice.")

That's why, even when I see things that raise my eyebrows, I have faith in the direction blogs are going, and how we can continue to enable conversations. It should be interesting to watch and see how after the post ran through the Scoble/TechMeme gauntlet, if we see changes.

TechCrunch's Celebrating Failure Doesn't Help Anyone

Though the argument could be made that for all of the breathlessness that follows the debut of Web companies and services, there should be an equal amount of noise on the down side when some of them fail to meet expectations, I don't quite understand the seeming excitement around seeing others struggle or even close their doors. Today, TechMeme and the blogosphere are abuzz over two prominent Web 2.0 companies, Technorati and PodTech, who saw changes at the executive level, and much of it is seemingly celebratory. And that makes no sense at all.

The news you likely already know. At Technorati, David Sifry, after previously stating there was a search for a candidate to replace him at CEO, announced he would move to a board-only role. Meanwhile, PodTech, home of well-renowned "on sabbatical" blogger Robert Scoble, promoted from within, giving the COO the CEO position.

Change happens. It's a well-known industry norm that startup companies see change as they grow. Founders often first move from CEO positions to "strategic" positions, and then later, out of the picture. But to see some talk about it, you'd think that as this change occurs, that it's an opportunity to pile on and throw dirt on those who were often the biggest risk takers of them all.

Take, for example, TechCrunch's coverage of Sifry's very transparent note on his blog, which chronicled the change, and noted the layoff of eight employees:

"Sifry’s last blog post as CEO of the company was representative of his entire tenure - vague and cold. Layoffs also occurred today but Sifry didn’t mention them until the end."

Though I don't have any specific insight here, it's most likely the small (and eight people is small) layoff was not given top billing out of respect of those who just lost their jobs. No company likes to highlight bad news, and it's not the CEO or former CEO's role to highlight the very personal loss on his or her blog. For Sifry, his blog is to be about him and his company. Let those others who have left talk about the story from their words if their story is to be told. And for TechCrunch to dump on Sifry by saying his entire tenure was "vague and cold"? Where is the backup on that? It's complete balderdash. Sifry, through his blog, and through frequent comments in the blogosphere, including here, was hardly vague, and hardly cold. TechCrunch is wrong, period.

TechCrunch's negativity feeds the beast of those who like to pile on. Comments on the site said, "for Sifry, his arrogance and constant self-crooning have half the Valley clapping hands," and "Sifry misspelled “loser” with “leader”."

It's one thing for "stuff stirrer" Web sites like Valleywag to delight in presumed failure, and quite another for Web 2.0 king maker TechCrunch to do the same. Yet the site delights in tracking what it calls the "TechCrunch Deadpool", where Web services like 37 Signals, TailRank, Backfence and others are recent entries.

It's a lot easier to criticize those who have tried and failed than it is to try and fail yourself, let alone to try and succeed. For TechCrunch, a growing media site covering companies where 4 of 5 are likely to fail eventually, to delight in others' struggles is ridiculous, and I hope that the arrogance will someday stop.

The Natural vs. The Synthetic: Bonds Taints History

In 2001, when Barry Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single season home run record, I was glued to the TV set, and likely cheered as he crushed a ball into the seats for #71. Just three years prior, I had even cut class to see Mark McGwire break the much longer lasting record held by Roger Maris, and saw him trot around the bases with a grin on his face, as he became the first major leaguer to reach the rare air of #62.

But tonight, when Barry Bonds reached #756, I wasn't watching. I won't be able to tell future generations that I saw it live, and I really don't care. After all we've learned, and all we've seen, what should have been an incredible moment has been dulled into a gnawing disappointment I wish would just go away.

Naively, I'd like to believe sports to be pure. I want to think that those players I devote significant time to, who I cheer from the stands or at home, are on a level playing field. I'd like to think they achieve their levels of success without the aid of artificial enhancements, or that they aren't swayed by outside influence, such as professional gambling. But it's just not true - and likely, it never has been, even though Bonds' alleged steroid use is so blatant and so publicized in this era of the never ending news cycle.

Growing up as an impressionable kid in the late 1980s, my baseball heroes included Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, who could now be seen as the Madame and Pierre Curie of the steroids circuit - real pioneers who achieved greatness only to wilt away from the powers' eventual radiation. Though I'd like to think McGwire achieved his success without steroids, he has to be held to the same scrutiny as Bonds does, even though McGwire doesn't have an equivalent book like the must-read "Game of Shadows", which so devastatingly chronicles Bonds' flaunting of the rules and his overwhelming boorishness. Now, I simply accept the fact that McGwire cheated. Canseco cheated. Bonds cheated. Many cheated in a never ending spiral of malfeasance, targeted at chasing the almighty dollar and personal ego.

Upon learning that Bonds had taken away Hammerin' Hank Aaron's rightful spot atop the record books tonight, I did the only right thing I could think to do. I turned off coverage of "The Synthetic" and turned on "The Natural", starring Robert Redford, which saw Roy Hobbs rely on physical strength, talent and determination to become a major baseball star, and capture the fan's hearts through on-field heroics. Even when tempted by gamblers and mistresses, he eventually does the right thing, spurning evil and gaining success as a result.

Somehow, despite decades of focused baseball consumption, I had missed seeing The Natural until tonight. I knew the story's basic plotline, which is legend. I knew the main characters. I knew what to expect. But I had never seen it in full until tonight - the most appropriate of nights to remember that even when I find myself questioning the very core of those sports I champion and believe in, that the underlying foundation is true and without error. That it takes Hollywood and a 20+ year old film to bring me back to this stage is sad. It's completely unfortunate that a guy like Barry Bonds, who I want to like and want to root for, who has incredible baseball talent, chose to sweep away his charm and cleanliness for a run at synthetic, tainted history. Robert Redford would have said no to drugs.

New TAB Post: Original Mac Rumors Site Goes Dark

Years ago, the art of forecasting Apple and Macintosh rumors was left to a small number of oddly obsessed people, myself included. Now, with mainstream media, including New York Times, BusinessWeek and Wall Street Journal in on the act, it's hard to remember that dedicated rumor sites like Mac OS Rumors were leading the way almost a full decade ago in near blog-like fashion, reporting the latest whispers from Cupertino.

But now, it looks like Mac OS Rumors has gone dark, after the site's quality eroded, and as of two weeks ago, the site doesn't even come up, replaced with a reminder from Network Solutions for the site to pay its bill. If it were up to me, I'd move on and let it be.

That's the background behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled Original Mac Rumors Site Goes Dark. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

For Facebook, I Can Already See the Epilogue

Five years from now, Facebook will not be a household brand. Like GeoCities and TheGlobe.com before it, today's hot Web communities are tomorrow's graveyards, as a fickle Web audience will continue to move from one destination to the next, leaving behind ignored friend requests and a a river of bad HTML in their wake.

Even if you throw out the 1990s community sites mentioned above, it's easy to see how once exciting social networking destination sites give way to the next. From Friendster, to MySpace, to Facebook, hordes of teens, wannabe teens or those preying on teens have made the move, until, as Yogi Berra once said, "Nobody goes there any more because it's too crowded."

In 2006, it seemed nothing could beat MySpace. Now, as Facebook has opened up their doors to developers with custom APIs and let in the unwashed masses, instead of just for college or high school students, it seems that it's all anyone can talk about these days. But while that's fun and interesting, the truth is that it's still a closed, gated network, which runs contrary to the full purpose of the open Internet - one of transparency, exchange of ideas, communication and ease of access.

I don't have a Facebook login, don't have access, and don't want it. Why, when there is so much content and real-time collaboration and conversation going on outside of the walls of Facebook, would I take the extra effort to share in conversations and faux digital friendships to a more limited audience? It just doesn't make sense.

Today's Facebook is tomorrow's Friendster, or in five years, GeoCities. Teens are the most fickle of them all, and I'm not exactly sure they're going to be ecstatic that their moms and dads can now jump in and participate. That's just not cool. And once the 'rents start hanging out in your place, it's time to move on. I promise that's what will happen next. Slowly, but inevitably.

So, while John Battelle writes "Why Facebook, Why Now?" and Robert Scoble picks apart Facebook application issues, recognize that it's a lot of talk for today about something that has a very limited future.

Time for a BlogRoll Revamp

A couple weeks ago, when Kent Newsome and I had a public disagreement over his gaming Technorati, Kent had some observations on my blog, which he saw as typical pandering to A-Listers. Just like I hadn't polled his intentions for engaging in viral link tagging, he didn't poll me on the origins of the BlogRoll I've run with for the better part of a year. He thinks I was off with my comments, and I know he was off on his, but it's got me thinking it's time for some changes.

Somewhere in late 2005 / early 2006 timeframe, I somehow stumbled on the wonders of Technorati and the A-list. It seemed like everywhere I turned, there were more and more blogs focused on Web 2.0 and capturing the live conversations that have redefined media, news dissemination and how we communicate. Robert Scoble's blog led to TechCrunch, which led to Om Malik, Steve Rubel and so on... Within a few days, I'd stumbled on everything from ValleyWag to TechMeme, and rediscovered both Dave Winer and Guy Kawasaki. I felt as if I'd opened up a vault of information previously hidden and it was all I could do to leave the laptop to function offline, rather than take in this new world like a sponge, 24/7.

As the blog is a personal blog, first and foremost, I linked to those I found most interesting, but in retrospect, it's a lot like how in Web 1.0, so many homepages would have links to Yahoo!, ESPN and CNN, as if the casual Web surfer wouldn't know how to get there. Now, as all these A-Listers are as commonly visited as the old media kingpins, my links there are just as useless and redundant. The same goes for the Politics links as well, especially as I've moved away from Politics here for the most part. Though Kent saw the A-List links as pandering, that wasn't the original intent, but now, it's easy to see how that could be implied.

As a result, thanks to Kent's promptings and my own consideration, I'm getting rid of the A-List blogs that don't belong, and in their place, I aim to add those blogs which most closely mirror my interests and those I consider my closest peers - not necessarily in size or popularity, per se, but in consistency, focus and approach. And of course, I'm willing to listen to any feedback you have on what I'm still lacking.

Therefore, some big names are going to get cut. Sorry, guys.

Business & Technology BlogRoll Items to Be Deleted: Dave Winer, Guy Kawasaki, Henry Blodget, Jason Calacanis, John Battelle, Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Redeye VC, Steve Rubel, Valleywag and VentureBeat.

Politics BlogRoll Items to Be Deleted: America Blog, Daily Kos, Electoral-Vote.com, Eschaton, Talking Points Memo and This Modern World.

But not every one is getting the axe.

Business & Technology BlogRoll Items to Be Retained: Don Dodge, Mini-Microsoft, Robert Scoble and Tony Chung

And what you've been waiting for, of course...

Business & Technology BlogRoll Items to Be Added: Newsome.org, ParisLemon, Webomatica, and WinExtra

I have also opted to replace the Politics section with a more generic "Resources" box that includes sites like Mashable, Read/Write Web, TechMeme, and Robert Scoble's shared link blog. Though I was at first skeptical that Robert's surfing would be fun to watch, his shared link blog has introduced me to many a blogger who has a story to tell.

On the Web, nothing is in stone, so even this revamp may not be long-lasting. I will continue to add and cut, as I see fit, but I'm glad this change has been made. Comments always welcome.

Is There an Antidote to the Link Tags Virus?

After Thursday's comments on how a few misguided individuals have tried to finagle better Google PageRank showings and higher Technorati Authority through the promotion of viral link tag spam, there has been some discussion in the blogosphere on the practice, and whether it's as bad a move as I made it out to be. One of the biggest outstanding questions is if there is indeed a loophole in how popular search engines rate authority and influence, is the onus on the individual not to exploit it, or instead on the technology provider to make a change?

While Kent Newsome, a great blogger with strong observations on a near daily basis (See: From Creation to Abandonment: the 5 Stages of Blogging for a great example) seemed to take the brunt of my comments, the issue is more than one individual, as there are many people trying to scream loud enough to be heard in a blogosphere that may favor the strong over the weak. While Chip Camden amusingly said that Kent was playing "Robin Hood" to my "Sheriff of Technorati", I've seen others who considered getting in on the viral links scheme reconsider the practice when they realized it could have some long-lasting, impactful, negative results. Kent's Robin Hood may have been trying to rob the rich to feed the poor, but at least in that storied tale, Robin Hood distributes the loot to others, something Kent can't do while his own Technorati Authority skyrockets.

Earl Moore, who also participated in the viral links scheme, writes:

"If it’s a fraud, then it’s one I’ve participated in as well... I’ll admit for myself that I don’t feel one hundred percent positive about “Viral Tag” links. Going with my gut, I wouldn’t post another one and am even considering pulling the post I have (yes, after the horse has already left the barn)."

Another poster, on a blog called Planet Apex, who just this Friday had opted to join in on the viral tags exchange, quickly realized the error of his ways, writing:

"I have decided to pull out of the Viral-Tags link exchange scheme. I did not realise the risks involve when I joined it. I now understand that instead of increasing your PageRank it can actually decrease it or even get you banned on Google."

Google's power on referring traffic cannot be understated. As much fun as it is to gain the occasional reciprocal links from fellow bloggers, upstream, sidestream or downstream, Google drives anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of all traffic for most sites, making it true that It’s Google’s Way or The Highway, as Garry Conn wrote this week, when he said, "I have made a major mistake. And I don’t want you to do the same thing."

Basically, Google's guidelines specifically prohibit statistical cheating like viral link tags. Google's Webmaster Guidelines state:

"Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

So, it's not so much as Kent says when he wrote on Warner Crocker's site that "The blogosphere is like Deadwood and (Louis) is trying to paint it as Miletus." This isn't the Wild West, even though it's certainly no utopia either. There are guidelines written up by some powerful technology companies that have direct impact on how our content is indexed, searched and presented, and as bloggers who work under this scenario, we should have an eye on what are good links versus bad links, good practices and bad.

Some last notes on viral links and search engine optimization come in the comments of an excellent "Search Engine Optimization Do’s and Don’ts" post at Thought Sparks. I'll let them speak for themselves:

"Plain and simple, honesty and integrity always pays. Short-cuts will not have lasting value and many of these folks will someday soon have a rude awakening. They will also frustrate themselves with the volume of time they’ve spent on futility... And even if you are successful, does one achieve that end at the cost of personal integrity?"

It may be one thing to exchange links. It's quite another to exchange integrity for scheming. Rather than making this a personal issue between those who have sinned and those who have not, we should just eliminate the practice and ask Technorati and Google to clean up the mess.

What Should Drive TechMeme's Content?

Robert Scoble ruffled a few feathers today, when he issued his latest missive against TechMeme's direction, as he sees the blog headlines site moving away from its roots and more toward general news coverage, like Google News. Robert says the site should give higher credence to those sites which are generating discussion, arguing in summary that he with the most links wins. But with TechMeme's proprietary algorithm being somewhat of a mystery, it's interesting to consider what I would see as the ideal blog news aggregation site, and how it would change what TechMeme is today.

For the large part, TechMeme automatically senses what are the hot blog conversations of the day. The more noise, the higher on the page, with those blogs with the highest readership and external links receiving the "lead" and referring or related sites being shoehorned in their shadow. Today's biggest discussions? The continued coverage of Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, and the latest developments on Apple's iPhone. Today's news was that the devices have reached the mainland.

To be sure, both stories have tongues wagging. But Robert, looking inwardly, noted that one media site's coverage of Plaxo's new platform was rated more highly than his own dedicated coverage. Looking at referrals from Technorati, he can't figure why The Register would trump The Scobleizer. And he's got a point. If TechMeme's tracking discussions, The Register would be a related item, not the lead.

But I have other issues. It seems to me that if TechMeme wants to treat A-list bloggers equally with others generating news, then those who provide original coverage, or break the news, should be given higher credence. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten to a story before "the big guys" get it, only to be ignored. For example, last night, around 2, I posted that I thought Google Reader was down. A TechCrunch reporter, Duncan Riley, and I traded e-mail, we both visited and commented on a discussion board on the outage, and later, he wrote a story. That TechCrunch got the lead can make sense, as the site has tremendous credibility, and many external links, but not only was my note not the lead, but it didn't even get noted by TechMeme, who instead opted to carry follow-on notes from The Download Squad.

Total Technorati external links to The Download Squad? Eight. Total Technorati external links to my story? Eight. So all things being equal, I'd argue that the site which got the story first chronologically, with original reporting, should be given equal or greater value. But if, due to some mysterious rule, I'm being kicked to the curb for a lack of pre-existing popularity, that seems to conflict with what I would hope is the goal of TechMeme, to deliver the a real-time summary of what's happening now in the blogosphere, and to raise the profile of those bloggers who might not necessarily be household names. Otherwise, TechMeme isn't offering much real value.

Robert jokingly called himself an "arrogant bbbbaahhhhhsssssttttttaaaarrrrrdddddd" for calling for change, and wondering why his efforts didn't make it, and I might come off as a whiner as well, but with extra effort should come extra reward. Duncan Riley and I put in an equivalent amount of effort to find out the truth, analyze the situation and write it up. But as far as TechMeme is concerned, I'm a cipher. I can take the abuse, but I think the blogosphere as a whole would be better served to highlight original reporting from the corners of the Web that are driving value.

Top Eight Worst Stock Moves I Ever Made

While the NASDAQ and DOW averages have done alright for themselves in 2007, my eTrade account isn't keeping up. In fact, with almost six full months through the year, I took a look at the online brokerage and it looks like I'm not too far from where I started. This got me thinking about how I had sold my Apple stock way too early this year, and that in turn reminded me of all the missteps I've made financially over the last decade or so. I thought I'd share some of the lowlights. Why only eight and not the typical ten? Let's just say that in this case, eight is enough.

1. My Not Investing in the Google IPO.

Long story short - I had the option to participate in the Dutch auction of Google stock as the company prepared to go public. In fact, I had put in a bid for 100 shares, but seeing the price debut at $85 - $90 made me think there was only one direction for the stock to go... down. Boy was I ever wrong. A quick search in my GMail reminds me of that blunder, with messages like "We are sending this notice to everyone who obtained a bidder ID, regardless of whether you have been allocated shares of Google's Class A common stock in the offering." The $9,000 or so I could have put in at the end of 2004 would be worth more than $51,000 today.

2. Getting Fleeced by WorldCom's Lies

It wasn't just the employees of Enron, Adelphia, WorldCom and others who were hit by the financial scandals that rocked thsoe firms. Years ago, as the shine started to come off the Internet bubble, we were looking for value stocks that looked like they were a cheap buy with possible near-guaranteed returns. As one friend began to hype Worldcom's amazingly low price/earnings ratio, I bought in to the hype. In May of 2002, I started accumulating Worldcom (WCOM) with 525 shares at $2.25, and dove in headfirst with 1,160 more shares a month and a half later at $1.38, as the stock dove downward. Then the scandal hit, and we were left holding the bag. By July, my 1,685 shares of Worldcom were sold away at 20 cents apiece, getting me a loss of nearly $2,500. That money loomed much larger for me five years ago, but still sticks in my craw.

3. Getting Ownage from Vonage

In June of 2006, after publicly questioning my own sanity, I opted to play the Vonage IPO. Still hurting from my missed opportunity at the Google IPO (see above), I jumped into this longshot, which was a dead duck from day one. In a week's time, I saw my 600 shares drop from a value of nearly $10,000 to just under $7,000, costing me almost $3,000. (I already chastised myself publicly here)

4. Rack 'Em Up, Stack Up the Losses

See a trend? I think I can outsmart the market by buying low and selling high. The trick is that everybody else keeps selling, and usually what goes down, must go down some more. Earlier this year, I fell for that trap again. In the first half of this year, I bought into 500 shares of Rackable at 21.15. By the end of April, I was out entirely at 12.72 a share, and it's even lower now. My total loss? More than $4,200 by the end of April. That's worse than taxes for a mid-April surprise.

5. Burst My Bubble

In January of 2006, I thought I could buy low and sell high again by riding the hype around a small stock with shaky but potentially profitable ambitions. I purchased 6000 shares of Burst (BRST) around $2 and sold for $1.60. I thought the company might actually make some cash off its suing Apple for patent infringements, but the stock had already jumped and I lost my shirt to the tune of about $2,500 in the space of 2 days. I'd rather I lost that money playing slots in Vegas somewhere.

6. Sun Rise, Sun Set

While the total value lost here wasn't tremendous, around $1,000, it sure is embarrassing for my setting a record in bad timing. From July to September of 2002, I was accumulating Sun Microsystems stock at low, low prices, first at $4.75, and later at $3.65. But the stock was in freefall after nobody wanted "the dot in dotcom". I gave up on the stock on October 4 of 2002, selling all 655 shares at $2.50 apiece. Not only is the stock more than twice as high now, nearly five years later, but $2.50 was just about as low as it ever went. (Reference: Google Finance)

7. An Apple a Day Keeps Debt Away

At the end of April, following delays in Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system, and concerns around iPod sell-throughs, I thought the best thing was to get out of Apple altogether. Very publicly, I sold my 200 shares of Apple stock at $94 apiece, making about $1,600 on the deal. But if you take a look at Apple stock now, just two months later, you'll see the stock is around $124 a share. Quick math says I left $6,000 on the table. (This wasn't my first wrong guess on AAPL)

8. A Half Hour Will Cost You a Grand

On September 28, 2005, Incyte Corporation had taken a big one-day dive, from the $7 range to just under $5. Looking for the inevitable bounce, I put in for 1,500 shares, with a stop loss that would prevent me from getting too fleeced. I literally took a shower, and came back to find my sale executed at $4.25 a share. All told, I had lost $1,000+ from 6:49 a.m. to 7:12 a.m. and I hadn't even had breakfast. That's a horrible way to start the day. The stock now trades around $6.38 a share.

So that's about $20,000 in real losses and $60,000 in unrealized gains. They say you're not supposed to have buyer's remorse or seller's remorse, but I just can't help it. What are some of the worst stock trades you've ever made?

Everybody Praises The Nintendo Wii

When the first Nintendo craze broke out, I was in elementary school, and it seemed that every kid I knew had an NES console. But we didn't. My family didn't exactly see the benefits of adding yet more reasons for us to sit in front of the television for hours on end, wearing our thumbs raw to kill the imaginary "bad guys" in the video game, rescuing the princess, or finding the hidden warp zone that would take us to the next level.

One morning, my mother, who taught one of my classes at school, asked my classmates why they thought she should buy us a Nintendo. The classmates were helpful, saying it helped hand-eye coordination, strategy, and could serve as an incentive to get chores done around the house or homework. Besides, it was fun. Eventually, she caved, letting us get a Nintendo, the caveat being that we couldn't have any games that showed actual violence against people. That meant no first-person shooters, no Mortal Kombat, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, and the like. But we were fine with the standard Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, and Metroid fare, battling against my brothers for gaming superiority.

Nearly two decades later, Nintendo's Wii is again the flagship gaming console, surprisingly thumping the much-hyped Playstation 3 and Microsoft's XBox 360. Despite not having the best graphics, and an undeniably weird controller, the Wii's quirks have drawn new people to the platform who wouldn't be there otherwise. I'm now growing used to grown men discussing the benefits of the Wii Sports game pack, and how they're actually getting real exercise from the included Tennis, Baseball and Boxing games. Instead of the more macho war simulations or Grand Theft Auto episodes, I hear people laugh about how their kids can handily thump them in tennis with a flick of the wrist, and strategize how to best project the Wii in their home, yet retain accurate hand-eye coordination.

Though I'm now in my 30s, and haven't had a game console since the first Sony Playstation while in college, the unqualified praise from multiple friends is almost enough to having me consider bringing in yet another entertainment-focused time waster into my home. I know I'd be all over the baseball game, trying to swat home runs and dive to make every outfield catch. I know I'd be finding yet another excuse to not got work done around the house or finish business tasks on deadline. And I know, that this time around, it would be my wife trying to talk me out of getting one, instead of my mother years ago.

Should I plunk down a little bit of cash, and add the Wii on top of the TiVo, Apple TV and start becoming an unknown international sports star in my own mind? Can I stay professional yet geek out on this gaming? It'd be great to learn your take or if you've picked a console to keep you entertained.

Why Do I Blog? An Introspective Look

This afternoon, speaking with a colleague, I was asked "Why do you blog?" It wasn't a challenge, per se, but one of curiosity. I found it easier to deliver the story of why I started than why I blog in the first place, so it probably makes sense to outline why I feel it's important for me to blog. While this issue is a common meme around the blogosphere, I've not yet taken it up.

First, it's easy to disqualify reasons why I blog.

1) I don't blog in hopes to make money, show ads or supplement my income.
2) I don't blog with specific goals in mind for number of visitors or comments.
3) I don't blog to increase my personal brand to draw attention to myself or seek employment.

But there are some main reasons why I do blog.

1) I blog to make my voice heard, join real-time conversations and enable change.
2) I blog to share my experiences and opinions for today and tomorrow.
3) I blog to share my personal passion for sports, technology, politics and media.

Contributions to how I started this blog include:

1) Having the louisgray.com domain name for almost a decade.
2) Finding that my interests outgrew my family's narrowly-focused blog and that I needed a new audience more likely to appreciate my comments and join the conversation.
3) Enjoying the technical wrangling necessary to wholly own the blog platform experience.

I blog because the world is rapidly changing right in front of us, and I want to chronicle what I am seeing and how it affects me. I blog because I believe the traditional barriers between location and time zones are being torn asunder by real-time communication and information sharing, and that my true peers who share my interests and enthusiasm are easier to reach by keyboard than by telephone. I blog because I enjoy writing, and it's good practice for any job, present and future.

I blog because I have found blogs to be the very best way to enable change and exchange ideas. The very best way to reach a software vendor or Web service provider is not to use the telephone or to e-mail support. It is to blog. If you mention them by name, or their product, they will find you. If you complain loudly enough, they will hear you. If you proclaim a product, service or activity to be the best on Earth, you can help others learn why and lead by example.

I started this blog in early 2006 because I finally had found a way to implement a blog, using the louisgray.com domain, without having to get outside of my geek comfort zone. I had started and stopped blogs in 2004 and 2005, but shut them down as I could never reach the medium and presentation I was looking for. But since starting louisgray.com and posting consistently in a big way, I have made my voice heard, for more than 800 posts, at a rate of nearly 2 per day, sometimes more, and occasionally less. I haven't seen millions of visitors or thousands of comments, but I have established a comfort zone with those I know visit often and share their opinions. I see companies open dialogue where there was none before, and I have made friends and acquaintances who I may never meet, but would love to.

I don't have ads on this site. I'm not morally opposed to ads on blogs, but I don't want them on this site. Anybody can be bought for the right price, of course, but I don't think they make sense here, and I don't like the way they would make the site look, either in appearance or in the way the site is interpreted. I don't write my posts to get them on Digg or talked about by A-List bloggers. If that does happen, it's a treat, but not the target. I don't do keyword or search engine optimization, and I don't use viral marketing methods to artificially increase my Technorati rankings.

I blog because I am an enthusiastic fan of Apple, of TiVo, of the Oakland A's and Sacramento Kings, the iPod and iTunes, a student of the evolving Web, with new approaches to software, communication, finance, business and media. I blog because I am a sponge in Silicon Valley, eager to use the latest services and learn from those who have had more experience. I blog because I want to partake in the conversations for change and for driving what is next.

I blog because I want to learn from you and talk with you. The floor is yours. Let me know. Why do you blog, and what should I do differently, in your mind?

Expanding the Conversation, One Link at a Time

Trying to gain the attention of the biggest, so-called "A-List" bloggers, is like raising your hand in a coliseum full of loud-mouthed spectators. Those on the field you're trying to impress either don't see you, don't want to see you, are distracted, or are well-trained to tune you out, even if you think you have something that could help.

The good news is in the blogosphere, some of the best conversations are best held down here on Planet Earth, not in the stratosphere. And once in a blue moon, if one of us comes up with an idea, it takes hold. So I thought I would note a few reactions to some of my words over the last month or so.

On Friday I said some of the biggest blogs have transcended the blogosphere, and should now be considered "new media". WinExtra agreed, asking, When Does a Blog Stop Being a Blog?. WinExtra says, "I have to agree with Louis that there is a point when successful commercialization of a brand raises you above the roots from whence you began." Kent Newsome, at Newsome.org, agrees, during one of his Evening Reading notes, where he says about big blogs, "The good ones are the new old media. The bad ones are pro sports: all about the money and the bling."

My earlier comments this week about feeling like I needed to read all my RSS feeds by midnight was noted by Piers Jones on Feed Need, who said, in a post on Getting Rid of RSS Guilt, "I can get the same thing when those unread items stack up and you feel a compelling need to try and clear them all and get to the important stuff..."

Speaking of guilt in the blog space, my notes in May about leading bloggers getting blog fatigue continues to have people thinking. On June 5th, a site called TrueGrit, in a post called Suffering Blog Fatigue also said they find times where the task of blogging just isn't fun any more. One commenter asks, why not just post less frequently when it's more important? Other previous comments on Fatigue included BizTips and Robert Scoble. Since Robert's note, his frequency has picked up quite a bit.

To join in the conversation, feel free to leave comments here, or add links to what you find interesting. Links connect us all.

The Biggest Blogs Aren't Really Blogs Any More

Though my stance is likely a controversial one, I don't believe that the most successful blogs out there are really blogs in the true sense of the word as they were originally intended. Instead, the uber-blogs, like TechCrunch, GigaOM, Engadget, Mashable, Read/WriteWeb and others, have morphed into a new phase of their lives, mimicking old world media.

While millions of people continue to create popular and less popular Web logs chronicling their thoughts, lives and activities, TechCrunch and the rest have instead turned into product announcement and release launching pads, typically lacking a personal touch or insight. They have evolved from their own mouthpieces to instead, mouthpieces for others.

Gone is the personal touch and feeling that is so embedded in the blogosphere, replaced by an air of elitism and selective news aggregation mixed with startups gleeful over a successful data point of public relations.

It's been proven that popular blogs can retain the very personal one-to-one conversational style. Great examples of this include Robert Scoble's Scobleizer, Dave Winer's Scripting.com, Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion and Jason Calacanis. But especially over the last 12 months, you can see a divergence, as the blog powerhouses are much less about the comments and conversation, and more about them acting like media. Meanwhile, old media, primarily those covering technology, are adding interactive tools made famous through blogging, like comments, and the ubiquitous "Digg This" icons on every story. The convergence of old media and new media is happening before our eyes.

This change isn't necessarily all bad, but I strongly believe the time to refer to these new media sites as "blogs" is gone. TechCrunch, in my opinion, is no more of a blog than is Computerworld, InfoWorld or eWeek, these days. Even InfoWorld has gone solely online, ditching their print magazine equivalent. The site's historical roots are truely embedded in the blog world, but you could say the site has grown up - now with a full network of sites, and even a trade show for startups looking to use the platform as their springboard to fame.

Will all blogs that find success move away from their humble origins? Likely not. But even as we enjoy the scoops, product introductions, reviews and obituaries from TechCrunch, GigaOM and others, we should make a conscious attempt to recognize in this new world of media and the "24 second news cycle", that the landscape is rapidly changing and definitions need constant tweaking.

Read Your RSS Feeds By Midnight, or Google Will Mark You Tardy

The pace at which I absorb my 180+ RSS feeds is remarkably stable. On weekdays, we see approximately 550 or so items, and on weekends, about half that number, as the blogosphere cools off, allowing families to enjoy one another a bit more than the dim lighting of laptop LCD screens for a change. And just as reliably, my Google Reader Trends marks off my every view. But last night, despite my best efforts, I just didn't get to the last two hundred or so feed items before the witching hour of midnight, and it's thrown my one-day stats into disarray.

Tuesday's baseball game featuring the A's and Red Sox, well documented here already, plus the drive home, plus post-game blogging, saw me scampering to get all my RSS feed reading in before the clock rolled over from P.M. Tuesday night to A.M. Wednesday morning. I knew that if I didn't do "my homework", Google would, correctly, say I read Tuesday's feeds Wednesday, even if, more accurately, I read them late Tuesday night, just after midnight.

You can only hit "J" so many times in a five-minute period. I tried, and I didn't make it.


Note the spike at the right side, about 1 1/2 days' worth of feeds...

So, instead of a uniform Wednesday, my Google Reader trends, at least for the next thirty days, will have a dip from Tuesday, to 342, and a spike on Wednesday, up to 762 items. And while it really shouldn't matter, I feel like I've let the Google team down. It's not as if they didn't accurately retrieve and present me my feeds on time. It's 100 percent my fault. I was late, and will have to face these consequences boldly, taking full responsibility.

Google, is there some way I can do some make up work to have this black mark erased from my record? I'm embarrassed, and I don't feel that it adequately represents my efforts.

Google User Experience Study Promises No Electrodes

They say that Google strives to "Do no evil", but as the company comes under increasing scrutiny for having a monopolist's share in the global search market, and others are growing more distrusting over the company's motives, in light of the Feedburner acquisition that expanded Google's ability to track user behavior, it's no surprise they have to remind people now and again they're not Big Brother.

Users of Google's Blogger service, the service powering this Web site, are invited to undergo a user experience study testing new features. Applicants may even get paid, upwards of $100, the company promises.

But clicking through to learn more about the opportunity led me to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page detailing what would be expected. While it's no surprise that you could "try out a prototype" and give feedback, the third question could be seen as a surprise, reading: "Does it involve having electrodes attached to my body?"

The answer? "No. Sorry."

Apparently, not only does this question come up a lot, but applicants appear to have been disappointed by the lack of electrodes. An odd group, to be sure.

Also of interest, the FAQ dictates that you would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). While that's no surprise in the trade secret protecting Valley, for Google to expect bloggers who use their Blogger service to be the shy, quiet types is unlikely. It would be like telling a 15 year-old girl a juicy secret, sending her to a slumber party and expecting your confidence to be iron-clad. Not a safe bet, unless you were eavesdropping, and she were wired to electrodes...

Fatigue: It's Worse Than I Thought

Yesterday morning's question as to whether leading bloggers were losing their gusto hit a mark, especially concerning blog pioneer and Naked Conversations author Robert Scoble, who responded by saying he felt he was being pulled in too many different directions. (See: Am I getting "blog fatigue?")

While Jason Calacanis and Bonnie Wren remained dormant, Scoble explained to his readers the many tasks which are pulling him away. There's no question he's busy, but some readers didn't get it - openly questioning how much work it really is to maintain one of the world's preeminent blogs.

One wrote: "I’m sorry Robert but I just don’t get it. Tired of what? Commenting on stuff? Transcribing an opinion from your brain to a digital screen? Is that really that hard? Maybe there’s some element to commentary blogging that I’m missing, but it’s not like you’re having to create new material every week." and another piled on, saying, "How do you get fatigued from writing 2-3 tiny 3 paragraph articles per day with absolutely no fact checking or editorial review what so ever?"

Ouch. And I thought it was a friendly audience.

But amid the din, it seems many others are similarly working on fumes. Paul from BizTips adds his thoughts in a post titled "Fatigue", saying, "I wouldn’t say I have quite the same challenges in the same proportions as Scoble does but I do know how he feels. The last few weeks and months have been a bit nutty." Meanwhile, Mac Beach, who authored an excellent comment on this site, adds his own thoughts, saying that toiling away without much reward is eventually going to grow tiresome for anyone - that we shouldn't expect to blog in our PJs and pull down six-figure incomes for that alone. (See: Silicon Valley Blog: Are Leading Bloggers Getting Blog Fatigue?)

As for me, I feel a bit guilty that I got Robert on the defensive. He posts more often than I do, on more things. He rarely misses days. He attends more networking parties. He reads more feeds than I do, yet my observation made him feel even that wasn't enough. We all get tired due to demands on our time, whether they be blog-related, work related, hobby related, family related, church... you name it. What we need to do is come to some level of acceptance with ourselves as to what it is we will produce and whether we are meeting expectations, regardless of what demands we get from others. That way, the fatigue will feel worth it, or be lessened.

Are Leading Bloggers Getting Blog Fatigue?

It's no secret that keeping a blog frequently updated and interesting is no easy task. For as many blogs are started each day, it's believed half as many are abandoned, according to Technorati. Of late, I've seen signs of fatigue from a number of high-profile bloggers who are taking blog vacations, begging for guest bloggers to take their normal place, or in some cases, the bloggers are choosing to keep us updated in other ways - preferring Twitter or other venues.

Three quick examples: Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble and Bonnie Wren.

Jason first wrote earlier this week that he was to take a month off from blogging, and that he would provide updates on his Twitter page. A follow-on note said he was going to in fact take two full months off, to return in mid-July.

While not moving away from blogging altogether, Robert Scoble has seen recent signs of fatigue as well. When the blogosphere reacted in horror to death threats to Kathy Sierra in late March, Scoble shut his blog down for the better part of the week in solidarity. Since the hiatus, Scoble's gotten back to blogging, but made noise about how he thinks his time is better served linking to other good writers, more than himself. He says, "I’m really having a lot more fun reading other people’s blogs lately than writing my own."

While he may enjoy his own surfing of blogs and calling out favorites, that's not what made us read him in the first place - instead his own observations on the industry, specifically, Microsoft, were why he became a must read RSS feed and authority. His link blog is great, but if too much emphasis is put here, he'll be in the category of Matt Drudge, who relies on links to others instead of original reporting.

Outside of the tech sphere, it's also clear real life can also get in the way of great blogging. Bonnie Wren, a fantastic writer who loves her kids and her bulldog, similarly claimed fatigue by the end of April, saying "I’m having a hard time taking care of all my obligations lately and need to take a break for a bit."

In the meantime, Bonnie has posted old material to fill the dead air.

As more and more people start blogs, and set a pace, whether that be 3 posts a week, or 3 posts a day, we should be thinking about the endgame. There's no question that some day we'll be done. Blogs will change to something else. I don't think it's Twitter, but it's something. At some point, blogs will close down from their current format. People, even the geekiest of us, at times will have lives and will choose to live in the real world instead of the virtual world. But I find it especially interesting that those leading the curve on blogging are themselves finding trouble or frustration in keeping it going. I hope the fatigue doesn't gain further momentum.

Still Seeking Web Robustness After Prolonged Outage

To hear today's broadband-addicted geeks talk (er... type), you would think we could replace the nation's 9-1-1 emergency system with an intelligent mashup of Twitter, Instant Messaging, Blogging and RSS feeds. Some expect that in a time of crisis, if the nation's telephone systems are overloaded, that the Web would step in to save the day. But tonight, hours of sluggish Web access, which more closely resembled a Web abscess, only further highlighted to me that we have a long way to go before thinking we've got the ultimate answer.

Around 9 or so this evening, despite having full range of our wireless Internet here at home, I couldn't check e-mail, log on to the company network via VPN, or even load Web sites. Safari would tell me "4 of 15 items" had loaded, and the progress bar would stall. Doubting my wireless, I connected directly via Ethernet to our cable modem, and again, had no success. I even tried to connect to the open WiFi networks from our neighbors, and those that have acted as backups in the past weren't there to save me now.

And it turns out I wasn't the only one seeing issues. Not only was my wife's laptop not getting through, but via BlackBerry, I learned other colleagues were seeing similar slowdowns at their homes, as we all commiserated, complaining we couldn't pass over needed reports. Now nearly four hours later, I still can't log in from my home network, directly connected or otherwise, but did finally find a network which is letting me perform the basics - finally send an abbreviated update, catch up on Google Reader, check my standings on Ballhype, and synchronize all e-mail. A quick scan of Google News on e-mail and Web outages didn't find any results. It could be the issues were too localized to be news, or we have set such a low standard that nobody even finds such failures, whether from Comcast or AT&T or other providers, to be newsworthy.

The Internet has become such a lifeline for communication for work, friends, family and news that to cut it off or slow down access would have dramatic economic and social impact. It drives me completely batty when there are any delays at all. So while we may all murmur about how real-world traffic will be impacted by last night's truck explosion in the East Bay, and discuss alternatives, here in the Web world, we're not that much better prepared. This network is not redundant, and a single accident, intentional or otherwise, could leave us in the dark. I had a taste of that this evening, and that was enough.

Today, Turning 30, I Get to Start Feeling Old

First things first. Today I turn 30. If you're reading this on RSS, click through and make a comment to wish me a happy birthday! (Pathetic, I know.)

After years of thinking I was the younger one at church, at work, or in some social settings, I've come to realize that it's no longer true. The baseball players I watch on TV rarely have birthdates before mine. Many of the elite Web pioneers are around my age, making me realize that I could be lagging in my career trends, and not exactly leading the pack.

But that's just part of my being ultra-competitive, and having highest expectations. Now, my next milestones start to look less like being a kid or a young adult, and more like numbers that represent different stages of life. 35. 40. 50.

While taking up space in the 25-29 age bracket, I got married, changed titles at the company three times, all without changing jobs, moved twice, and racked up almost 200,000 frequent flier miles. Just some things that come to mind. From 30-34, what will change? Will we move and get a new house? Will the family be expanded? What will business look like compared to how it is now? I don't have a crystal ball. But the stake is in the ground.

That's what 30 means to me. It's a signpost, marking one era of my life is now behind me, and we have to keep pushing forward, so when I do reach 35, 40, 50... I'll be pleased with what I accomplished.

Blogosphere Kicks Off April Fools Early

The very best April Fools jokes have just enough truth in them for somebody to secretly want them to be true, and to be delivered in such a way that the person being pranked isn't 100 percent sure the joke's on them.

On the Web, Google has made this a black art of sorts, between their "launch" of Google Romance and Google Mars, interspersed with their very real launch of GMail in 2004 that had everybody confused as to whether anybody in their right mind would offer a full gigabyte of e-mail for free. We all know how that turned out. It was real. Those of us (including me) who were sure it was a prank were fooled.

This year, it looks like the blogosphere couldn't keep quiet long enough for the calendars to officially flip to April 1 in the United States. TechCrunch kicked off the festivities by "announcing" they had acquired Phil Kaplan's F***edCompany.com, effectively bringing their coverage of the startup space full circle - from their launch to their eventual death. Many people, including Dave Winer of Scripting.com, were fooled. This was no doubt due in part to ValleyWag's earlier coverage that the famed dotcom deadpool site was up for sale.

That one was good. Very good. Mathew Ingram thought so as well.

Now, Robert Scoble is back from his self-imposed blog exile, saying that Apple is set to release yet another i-Device, called iReader, in collaboration with Cingular, Amazon and Google. I guess if you make up a rumor, you might as well go whole-hog and drop a bunch of company names in there. I'm surprised Nintendo didn't make the cut. He went the tried and true Apple rumor route, citing an unnamed Apple executive dumb enough to use it in public. It might have been too soon for Robert to return to the blogosphere, but hopefully his scoop won't rank among the best by the conclusion of tomorrow.

Last year's April 1 pranks were pretty good. My favorites were Slashdot.org's changing their look and feel from industrial green to My Little Pony pink and China offering to buy Google. (See last year's summary here)

We look forward to more silliness in this most silly of holidays.

A More Healthy Way to Stay Addicted?

An interesting New York Times article from this morning focuses on how soft drink leaders Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola are adapting their major diet soda brands to promote, of all things, health. Both companies have planned to adapt their flagship diet cola lines with a full set of vitamins, to break away from the "liquid candy" image, which many have used to link soda drinking to obesity.

The piece says specifically that Coca Cola will debut a brand extension called Diet Coke Plus, "which will contain niacin, vitamins B6 and B12, magnesium and zinc."

I made the switch from Pepsi Cola to Coke in my teens, and switched again from Coke to Diet Coke when in college. Now I probably down a six pack, conservatively, every single day. Unless the taste is completely indistinguishable from what I already drink, I don't have a huge incentive to switch again, and am quite dubious that the new Diet Coke Plus is going to strengthen my bones, fill me with physical energy and make me more attractive to the opposite sex. Instead, it's a lot like those old saturday morning commercials during cartoons where you would see Lucky Charms or Cookie Crisp, alongside toast, orange juice and a piece of fruit, saying it was "all part of a nutritious breakfast" and contained "9 vitamins and minerals", none of which broke the 20% RDA barrier.

What marketers sometimes fail to remember is that not all of their customers are stupid. We don't drink Diet Coke because it's healthy. We drink it because it has caffiene, tastes good, and stops from being thirsty. Maybe in that order. Sure, I can't even drink regular soda now without feelings of nausea, but I didn't switch to lose weight and reduce dental costs. And I won't switch to start looking like Popeye off a sprinkling of vitamins. Beyond this, brand extensions sometimes are not the answer. Read any book from Al Ries and Jack Trout, and they can teach you how to avoid the pitfalls of brand extensions. You simply can't take something unhealthy and relabel it as healthy. Nobody will believe you and it won't sell.

AP Self-Censors Against Paris Hilton for a Week

There's no question that Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan get way too much ink in comparison to their combined limited talents. Hardly a week goes by when they don't find themselves on the cover of the magazines at the supermarket checkout stand, or turn up with mugshots in the Smoking Gun. It turns out the Associated Press tried a move to ignore Hilton for an entire week, and see if the world would spin off its axis. Turns out we'll live, yet from a journalistic perspective, I think it's a big mistake and sets bad precedent.

As a student of journalism, I felt the editors of a newspaper, magazine or wire service had a duty to relay news to the public, without bias or an agenda. The opinion pages and columnists would do one thing, and the news writers would do another. The editorial board would not tell the reporters what was on or off limits, and wouldn't take self-imposed vacations for any amount of time.

The question of whether anything Hilton or the other girls do qualifies as "news" is a different issue, but in a piece that hit CNN, an AP editor wrote, "Editors just wanted to see what would happen if we didn't cover this media phenomenon, this creature of the Internet gossip age, for a full week. After that, we'd take it day by day. Would anyone care?", and I think the move was wrong. It's a slippery slope between making a rule that the AP would not cover Paris Hilton one week, and then deciding later they were tired of covering Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama the next.

While I laud the concept of ignoring Paris Hilton, and others like Engadget's Ryan Block do as well, I don't like the idea of the media deciding what news the public deserves to get. The New York Times famously covered "All the News Fit to Print", not "All the News We Decided to Cover" or "All the News Minus a Few Things". Additionally, in a world where topically-focused news magazines, shows and blogs are there to pick up the slack, it's not as if the AP's supposed boycott had any kind of impact. Journalistic integrity suffered without benefiting the public.

Suits Me Just Fine

It's been a full year since I bought my last suit - and that suit, while it still fits fine, has seen its fair share of church services, business meetings, weddings and funerals. It's still great, and looks good, but even my wife is tired of it. Even more concerning, on the eve of another business trip to the East Coast, I would run the risk of seeing the same people I saw last year wearing the same outfit. So, this evening, we fixed that situation in a big way.

After leaving the office and ensuring our 17-year-old beagle was fed, I made a beeline for the nearby Men's Wearhouse, with the intent of getting one or two new suits - depending on cost and quality.

For me, clothes shopping tends to be pretty easy - pick the size and style, make sure the price and brand aren't bad, and go. Today, we had some good news. Measurements showed I was the same as last year - somewhat of a surprise given my current all-time high peak weight. But that made the decision process that much more simple. Though I had intended to only get a potential pair of suits, I ended up leaving the store with three suits, two new pairs of shoes and three belts. There was a little sticker shock at the end, but we should be set for the year, and as always, the Men's Wearhouse service was exemplary.

Now, we just have to hope all is ready by the time the plane leaves Monday.

First Impression: "Friendly Neighborhood Geek"

The headline looks somewhat foreboding - something you'd hear townspeople say after that quiet guy who never said anything finally snapped. "You know, on first impression, he was a friendly neighborhood geek. We had no idea he was building an atomic destablizer in his basement..."

Yet today I learned that the new "Entrepreneurial City" blog characterized us as just this, potentially a "friendly neighborhood geek" with generous punctuation. In the site's analysis of top Silicon Valley blogs, a cursory glance at the louisgray.com fare called it "a classic blog that’s not trying to be anything else".

Somehow, I think that's a compliment. Rather than pretending I'm breaking news on the blog or releasing new software code every few minutes, our blog aims to bring to light those things I find interesting, with the occasional mix of satire, sarcasm and off-beat observations. If I can keep myself entertained in the process, that's a bonus.

So, Enterpreneurial City, thanks for the note. We hope not to let you down.

Three People I Admire Who I'd Like to Meet

While in Chico this last weekend, my friends and I somehow stumbled into one of those mundane rounds of "Truth or Dare", which ends up being 100% truths, since nobody will accept a dare. Most of these end up being hour-long confessionals of past trysts and unlikely conquests, but one question was asked that stuck with me.

If I could meet any three people in the world who I admire, who would they be?

While I could try to put myself on a lofty, intellectual pedestal, and mention religious leaders, that's not where my mind led. Instead, I came up with three solid names: Stephen King, Steve Jobs and Bill Clinton. Each of these three has defined a legacy, and carved out a place for themselves in history. Each of them, I admire, and for vastly different reasons. Each of them probably has amazing stories to tell, ones I would love to listen to.

Stephen King

I often say that Stephen King is like a modern-day Picasso, but for novels. He has absolutely no peers when it comes to the frequency of books he publishes, their quality, and success. He has redefined the horror genre, to be sure, and while some find his books dark or chilling, he is a fantastic writer who loves his craft. His book "On Writing", which taught the process of novel creation, should be a must-read for any aspiring writer. And those of us who have littered our bookshelves with his stories, from Carrie and Christine to It, The Dark Half, The Stand, Insomnia, and countless others, know that he has a tremendous sense of humor. He is very funny, and has a dry, cutting wit. That he is now on the downside of his career, and that we as a people nearly lost him when he was struck by a car a few years ago, is in itself a horror. I wish we could see him continue to churn out new novels year after year after year. When he finally puts away his pen, I'll truly be at a loss.

Steve Jobs

I actually have met Steve Jobs, if only for a brief moment, in a Palo Alto Apple Store. I've even paid good money to see him speak at MacWorld San Francisco. But with that said, I still find him incredibly intriguing. Though he's not the engineer behind the code that makes the Mac or the iPod unique, he puts his own personal touch on everything Apple. He redefines real marketing, and gives a clinic on how to deliver successful presentations. I literally watch the way he uses slides and keeps an audience's attention to learn tips during my own time in public speaking. Steve Jobs, despite having the spotlight on him for the better part of two decades, somehow manages to not just move technology forward one evolution at a time, but he tries to change the world. He comes across not just as an aggressive, rich, business man, but one who wants to accomplish something notable, and help us do the same.

Bill Clinton

This one might be a tad more controversial, but as time goes by, and we see the stark contrast between his presidency and that following it, what he was able to both accomplish and prevent is remarkable. Bill Clinton, like Steve Jobs, knows how to command attention from an audience, and has the highest level of speaking skills. When he speaks on an issue, he knows it inside and out, and would debate it with a fierce passion. While his personal foibles have been well-documented, much of that comes from a burning intensity to be liked and to be friendly with others. I am sure that if I were to meet Bill Clinton, that he would be able to convince me just why I needed to support one cause over another, on just why his plan for an issue is the best one available, and he could give me example after example on why the other side was wrong and mis-informed. Clinton looks like a guy who would be happy talking shop, playing Hearts, or throwing a Frisbee. He looks a lot like a regular guy who just happened to be ambitious enough to be president. Now, his wife just may have that chance to make history as well. Watching him stay to the side of the spotlight will be very interesting.

I'm sure if I wrote this up in a few weeks' time, other names would rise to the top. Conan O'Brien would be fun to meet. Billy Beane, I've met, but briefly. Bill Gates (out of curiousity). If you had to pick three people, who would they be, and why?

In Chico for Friends' 30th Birthday Bash

It's hard to believe I'm rapidly approaching the age of 30. It wasn't that long ago that being 30 represented the onset of being a mature adult leaning more toward middle age than being a kid. Now that we're only two months away, the date being April 8th to be precise, from changing my first digit from a 2 to a 3, we're changing our tune. 30 isn't that old. While turning 30 may be too old to start off a career in major league baseball, and while I won't set any records for young entrepreneurialship, there's plenty more to do, and I think we've done alright so far.

That said, I get to see my two best friends from high school reach 30 tomorrow, in what will be a dry run for me. My friends, who I've been close to for half our lives, since bonding together in 9th grade geekiness, are twins who are just 7 minutes apart. They turned 1 together, 10 together, 20 together, and now, 30. Today, my wife and I drove up 200+ miles or so through Northern California, to Chico, where we had gone to high school, and where their family and many friends still live. While the three of us have gone on to our own jobs and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles area, some feel much more comfortable in the smaller, slower, Chico - and could be here forever.

Living in fast-paced Silicon Valley might make me look down on the small town routine, but in an odd twist, the hotel we're staying at actually has free highest-speed wireless access (a must for me), meaning I have better Web speeds here, for free, than I did for $14.95 a night in New York last week. Odd how that is. We'll take it and won't complain. In minutes, though, we'll shut the lid on the laptop and join the real world, one of hugs and handshakes and hellos, with pizza and diet Coke galore. That'll be worth today's drive, as you can't replace a lifetime friendship with anonymous hits on a blog.

Nail Clippers

Know how there is always something you forget on a trip that just annoys the heck out of you until the problem is solved? Whether it's toothpaste, socks or shaving cream, it always seems like there's just one thing that prevents me from having the perfect trip experience. This week, it was nail clippers. Yet, the uniqueness of New York bailed me out.

At events, the way you present yourself is critical - so making sure I didn't have long, dirty or jagged nails when shaking hands and greeting people was actually a pretty big deal. On Monday, it was already bugging the heck out of me, as my subconscious reminded me something was wrong with the world. But on Tuesday, the answer came in a very New York way.

Walking back from breakfast, I stopped at one of the sidewalk vendors who offers a plethora of quick-fix goods, from phone cards to gum and soda. After plunking down $2 or so to get some gum and a roll of Certs, I looked up to see nail clippers hanging from the ceiling. Perfection. For a single buck, I had the answer, and New York had come through again.

I love this city. Yet on Thursday, I head back to the West Coast, leaving the land of instant fulfillment and 27-degree weather behind. But boy, my nails do look good.

Spotty Internet Access the Scourge of Trips

The on-again, off-again status of wireless Internet this week, coming on the heels of Thanksgiving's near Web outage at San Simeon, has marred what would otherwise be a great holiday experience. For the second consecutive trip, my wife and I were misled by hotel owners that we would be provided consistent high-speed wireless Internet access, only to find the reality to be much different - a constant struggle to gain speeds similar to that of dialup modems from yesteryear, if anything at all.

As I've said many times here, high-speed Internet access in today's world is as essential as any other metric. If you expect lodging to have TV or phone access, Internet is just as necessary - whether you are visiting for work or for pleasure. And when I'm asked to pay anything from $6.95 to $14.95 a day for the potential of access, only to see a complete lack of success, it doubles down on my frustration.

Some might say the goal of a trip is to "get away", and by my being unconnected, this helps. But it doesn't. The Internet is more than a way to get real-time sports scores and trade e-mail. It's also the most convenient way to get weather updates, to order event tickets, and check flight status. Everything is made easier with Web access. I'm frankly tired of the bait and switch. Either get me a place that has reliable access, or I'll put myself in charge of the reservations and make that a requirement. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I won't get fooled again.

Listening to ''Walking In My Shoes (Random Carpet Mix)'', by Depeche Mode (Play Count: 9)

A 3.7 Earthquake? Call Me When You Hit 5.0.

One of the side benefits of living in the San Francisco Bay Area is the occasional rumble - a typically gentle bumping and shaking that reminds you the ground below isn't exactly made of reinforced steel and concrete. Though the region has escaped drama for nearly 20 years, ever since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, we still have shakes every now and again from the 3 to 5 range that have us jumping on USGS online to see just how high we tickled the Richter scale.

Tonight, we felt one. Here in Sunnyvale, on the 4th floor of our condo, we noticed the shaking, and figured it wasn't anyone on the roof or running in the hallway. Instead, it was the Hayward fault, in the East Bay, doing what it does best - slipping. Not much, mind you, but enough to make us aware of it. The quake, if you can call it that, registered at 3.7, and didn't cause any damage.

Though we don't get warning of quakes, I'd trade that uncertainty for the yearly battles with tornadoes and hurricanes other regions face. And, honestly, we actually like them. They're fun. They're different. But we're not impressed by anything in the 3's. Let's get this place and shake it up a bit.

(Previous: Earthquake Shakes Things Up)

Site Traffic Jumps: The Digg Effect

Last night, I wrote my first story for The Apple Blog, focused on Kavasoft's iTunes Catalog. The story has been promoted on Digg, and reached the front page around midnight. Since then, a significant amount of traffic has come through to peruse my iTunes Music Library, created by iTunes Catalog.

You can see this below or via SiteMeter.

The Ultimate Invention: The Time-Stopper

Seeing the movie "Click" yesterday reminded me of the childhood fantasy of the "time stopper", a theoretical device that could, as its name implies, stop time, for any reason, yet retain the flexibility needed to act on situations as the holder of said time stopper preferred. In my mind, the time stopper could be used for putting the world on snooze while catching extra sleep, while finishing uncompleted homework, or for snaking the cookies on the counter, and nobody finding out it was you who had done it. In fact, the time stopper I had mentally developed as a youth would have been much better utilized than Adam Sandler's foray into fourth dimension manipulation in the film.

In "Click", Sandler, frustrated by a litany of remotes dedicated to a single task, goes "Beyond" in a nearby Bed Bath and Beyond, looking for a universal remote, and finds a doozy, thanks to the inventiveness of Christopher Walken. The remote enables him to fast-forward through boring dinners, spousal fights, and to pause time, as in the often-shown preview where he manipulated the annoying neighbor's son into getting hit in the face by a thrown baseball, from his own son. But while many of the movie's central frustrations were around completing work-related tasks at the expense of family obligations, Sandler acted like a complete novice with this amazing tool.

In two instances in the film, Sandler shows he is able to manipulate others or surroundings while the remote has paused the rest of the world. The first, with his son tossing a ball at the neighbor kid, and the second, when he pauses time to slap his ungrateful boss silly. When unpaused, the boss has a massive headache, resulting from Sandler's assault. Yet, he doesn't use those tools when it comes time to work on his architecture plans, instead, sleepwalking through his family life, and hoping his "autopilot" self did a good job. While his drone does, why not simply pause time, take the attention and effort needed on the documents, and then unpause, with work done, to enjoy the family? When tired, why not pause time and take a nap? When he gains weight, why not pause time, go exercise and drop the extra poundage? He certainly didn't use his universal remote to the best of its ability.

As children, we were much more inventive, and likely better prepared for the advent of the time stopper than was Sandler. While we didn't ask for the fast forward and rewind buttons common on most remotes, all we really needed was the ability to stop time - though I admit a great deal of the activities we had imagined during paused time were either immoral or illegal.

With a time stopper, you could shoplift at will and never be caught on camera, you could sleep as long as you needed, or procrastinate as long as possible before writing papers and doing assignments in "no time". You could manipulate (or assault) others without concern of retribution. The concept that you would be rushed would go away. Demands of work vs. home would be greatly diminished, and if you were aching for a promotion at the office, you could accomplish more than anybody else, in less time. You would be the dream employee.

So where Adam Sandler struggled as a father and eventually lost his wife thanks to his universal remote, he deserved to - not so much because he was a bad guy, but because he didn't properly use this amazing gift available.

Are the Beagle and the Roomba Conspiring?

When talking heads traditionally yammer about artificial intelligence, the common themes center around finding ways for robots to feel emotion, or to out-maneuver the latest chess grandmaster, not to complete relatively simple tasks, like vacuuming. But ever since getting our Roomba last Sunday, we're seeing the little guy act independently, not just doing those direct missions that we had instructed, but acting out on its own.

Today, after leaving the house for a few hours, we returned home to see the gate to the kitchen (to keep our beagle out, of course) knocked over, the throw rugs wrinkled, and familiar spiral-like tracks in the carpet, showing that the Roomba had gone out on its own, answering the call of duty to clean. But the Roomba was nonchalantly sitting in its cradle, charging, and wouldn't talk. I checked the auto-scheduler to see if the Roomba had been given a mission, but there was nothing on its docket that said to give it a run today.

So what could possibly have happened? Did we imagine that those spiral markings were not there before we had left? Did the Roomba look around, realizing nobody was home, and went out for a spin?

Best as we can guess, the dog was likely searching for food, or trying to step on the Roomba as a stool to gain access to the table or kitchen counter, always trying to get an extra inch for the occasional morsel. In her quest for crumbs, she likely stepped on the Roomba's power button and set it on Clean, launching it ahead to defeat dirt. I wish I had been there to see the beagle jump with alarm as the Roomba whirred up and set off to get her, and again, to see the dog's reaction when the Roomba later slammed into the gate and knocked it askew.

While we may never know what actually took place this afternoon, we know this: you can't trust the beagle and the Roomba home alone. Those two, while they won't talk, are up to little good.

Listening to ''Totally Fascinated'', by M.I.K.E. presents Fascinated (Play Count: 1)

Free Oreo Cookies or an Ethical Dilemma?

This evening, my wife came home from Safeway after a quick stop, and upon unpacking the groceries, she was surprised to find a carton of chocolate-covered mint Oreo cookies. But she didn't remember paying for them, and our guess is that they probably were purchased by the shopper who had been ahead of her in line, but somehow put in her bag by one of the store clerks. Looking at the receipt confirms she wasn't charged.

So - the question is, should we return the box to the store? Do the cookies belong to us? Did she inadvertently shoplift without knowing? Should I feel guilty that I already ate one?

Yummy!

Listening to ''The Darkest Star'', by Depeche Mode (Play Count: 13)

Today's World Relies on Transparency

Robert Scoble, famed ex-Microsoftee and pro blogger, has long mandated that one of the best things you can do to deliver a human element on your blog is to make yourself easily contactable - whether through e-mail, or even better, by posting your cell phone number, so readers can contact you any time.

Today, that literally "rang" true for me, as the father of one of the A's players called me, asking for printed copies of The ANtics comics. We talked quite a bit this morning, and again this evening, about their content, and he will soon be receiving a booklet of the last two years' comics, to share with his son.

Our calls today were a big highlight for me. I'm not easily star-struck, but I greatly enjoyed talking with this easy-going, sharp man who loves his son and loves baseball. Had I avoided the transparency, and not posted my cell phone on the blog, we never would have talked.

Rather than hide from personal directories and expect anonymity, I strongly believe we should identify with who we are and what we say on the Web. Use real e-mails that identify with your name. Use URLs that include your name. And post your cell phone number. It makes you real.

(Previously: "Privacy on the Web Is Gone")

So... About that No Pornography Clause...

As blogs go, this one is hardly controversial. Our adulation for sports and general geekery doesn't ruffle too many feathers, and the most eyebrow-raising we'll get might be in response to a rant against our current political situations. But don't let that fool you - there are people on the Web who have found louisgray.com when looking for a lot more than the latest insight into Apple or Google or how the Oakland A's are planning their off-season.

For instance, around noon today, I was startled to find a visitor from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia had stumbled upon the site in a quest for "live sex webcam sites saudi arabia". (See here for that site visit) I don't generally associate the religiously strict country to be one that panders to live, streaming, fornication, but it appears there is a market after all.

So why louisgray.com for live sex webcam sites from Saudi Arabia? My thoughts exactly. Well, if you do a search on Alta Vista (and when was the last time anybody used that instead of Google?), louisgray.com is the 7th highest response. (See here)

It turns out that Alta Vista still relies too heavily on words in the page, rather than their logical strings. On that page, from May 2006, I managed to mention the word "sex" twice - once in a song title from iTunes, and once in a joke, the term "Saudi Arabia" once in a note on Jeb Bush, the term "Webcam" in relation to an Apple store opening where a geek proposed to his fiancee, and the words "live" and "site" appear several times.

Did the words "live sex" or "sex webcam" show up paired anywhere? No. That would have given you a better search result... and those search engines that use better rules don't inaccurately say that my site is the place to get your porn fix. In fact, searching for the same string, "live sex webcam sites saudi arabia", doesn't put louisgray.com in the top ten pages (100 results) in Google at all. There just might be something to this need for accuracy in search results.

Listening to ''Assorted Progression Volume 4'', by Nyman (Play Count: 2)

Morning Notes: October 24, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

This morning, Apple quietly upgraded their new MacBook Pro laptops, claiming the machines are up to forty percent faster than the previous version. While in previous years, the mere mention of a potential product release would have had the Macosphere abuzz, this is taken in stride. My PowerBook G4 is doing great at home, and I haven't pushed for an upgrade at the office yet...

As expected, the greater amount of buzz around Apple is instead around their digital devices. Wired has a great, in depth look at the iPod's birth and how it was initially perceived, including a first-person look at how Bill Gates took in the device the day after its debut. Forbes also chimes in on "Why Apple Won". Meanwhile, MacNN is looking forward to how the much-anticipated iPhone and iTV are going to further accelerate Mac growth.

But Apple's resurgence isn't the only concern Microsoft has to face right now. As applications become more Web browser-centric, led by Web 2.0 pioneers and Google, the Redmond monolith is losing its grip on the consumer. On Malik, contributing to Business 2.0, despite going independent, says that while you've heard this story before, it's really happening.

Speaking of online apps, the one making the most buzz this morning, is of course, Google. Google released a new custom search engine through Google Coop, where webmasters can host Google search engine code on their own sites, and drive search results internally, without buying expensive custom hosted software. We're definitely going to give it a look here and at the office, to see if it can save us a few grand a year.

An Everyday Loyal Customer or Borderline Autistic?

Near our offices, you have a handful of available lunch spots in walking distance, and wider variety the further you drive. One of those reliable stops is Carl's Jr. Nothing fancy, but the fast food joint offers enough variety to make it interesting, and it's worth stopping ever couple weeks or so. Given that the Cal Bears football team has a "buy one, get one free" offer on every game ticket, we're finding our trips to Carl's Jr. are coming with a fair regularity - following Saturday football.

But while we have been to the restaurant a fair number of times in the five-plus years at the company, and I can recognize some of the staffers by face, there are clearly others who have made Carl's Jr. an every day experience. One gentleman, quite heavy by any standards, can be counted on to have his lunch there every single day we show up. His routine, without fail, is to get his lunch at Carl's Jr, and then retreat to a corner table with his back to the front entrance. While in previous years, he tended to bring reading material from home, he's been reading the newspaper every time I've seen him in 2006.

His being at the restaurant is as much of interest as any of the menu items. Our first glance upon entering the restaurant is over our shoulder to see if he's there, in his regular spot. Today, arriving a bit earlier than usual, we were surprised to not see him there. Instead, two men (not regulars that I know of) were eating their own meals, likely not knowing the spot "belonged" to someone else. Yet, halfway through our meal, my colleague pointed out that the regular was back, and I looked back to see him wedging behind the table - in the one directly adjacent next to his usual spot, even though there were many more convenient open tables in the restaurant. That he even had to make the adjustment over from one table to that next to it seemed to pain him, as he looked uncomfortable in his new surroundings.

While having a routine is not uncommon, we've all heard about those with Tourette's Syndrome or Asperger's Syndrome who have to have things a certain way, often to the point of exactness, before they are comfortable. As I've never sat with Carl's Jr.'s favorite patron, I've never learned what makes him the way he is. I've never seen anybody sit with him, and I've never studied what he orders, to see if he eats the same meal every day. It wouldn't surprise me if he did, even as his weight has ballooned, even in the time I've seen him.

Other than the obsession with Carl's Jr., and the preoccupation with sitting in the same seat, day after day, there's nothing overly odd about this man. His clothes are tidy, his demeanor quiet, and his hygiene is clean. As far as I know, this could be his only vice, or his only escape from whatever other pressures move him to and fro. But he certainly makes me wonder. All I know is that the next time we go back to Carl's Jr., I'm sure he'll be there, furthering the mystery.

Listening to ''Trilogy'', by ATB (Play Count: 36)

Never Assume Rationality

The minor to medium changes continue to take place on this blog, as I work to make it more navigable, search engine friendly, etc, or to better represent what people can find when they do drop by. Most clearly, the site now has a title identifying it as a "Silicon Valley Blog" with a focus on technology, sports and politics. Many blogs are successful through niching themselves in a segment that is underserved, while others largely cater to friends and immediate family. This one, so far, is in between. It's not heavily marketed, but people should know what they have found.

Another addition is a slogan (for now) that says to "Never Assume Rationality". It derives from a conversation I had with a coworker nearly five years ago, where the two of us were debating internal strategy and how we could pitch a concept to those at higher management levels. When I questioned how it possibly could be turned down, and wondered aloud as to one individual's reaction, I was told that my big mistake was in "assuming rationality." If I came in with the fundamental expectation that those around us were rational, I could be blindsided. Instead, the new approach was to make the case and withstand all potential objections, be they rational or not.

We don't live in a Mr. Spock world of black and white, logical or illogical. Much of what we do requires the input and/or approval of others who may have widely different viewpoints, goals or expectations, and though we may both be trying to act rationally, our own actions can seem way off the mark to others.

Additionally, on a more fun note, it's not entirely rational to devote so much energy and value to non-essential things such as sports, or technological gadgets. One's "fandom" for the Oakland A's, for Apple Computer, or for one political party over the other can sometimes border on the irrational. And here, at least, that's okay. As a blogger, I'm not a journalist. I don't need to be impartial, and I don't need to be rational. So don't assume I will be all of the time.

Listening to ''Cherry Pie'', by Underworld (Play Count: 4)

Enough With the Echo Chamber, Already

One of the most-common themes you will see in the blogging world is the story of the echo chamber, where it's believed a blogger truly has an audience of one: themselves, or that an echo chamber exists - where they continue to post despite a lack of interaction, and even where there are occasional comments, they are from a small group who keeps to themselves. As a result, the blog, like a black hole, collapses onto itself, signifying nothing.

While some would argue a blog's success should not be counted in number of page views, or visitors or comment count, those blogs considered the most successful very often have a vibrant of community of people sharing ideas, and bouncing their commentary off experts. Otherwise, you may as well just be posting your diary online for everybody to read, and quite honestly, very few people really care what you had for breakfast.

Louisgray.com was started as a natural metamorphosis from a static Web site to one updated more frequently, to share experiences, and offer a new take on news, sports and technology. It has no budget, and I have a real full-time job, so it's not as if I expected to retire on Google AdSense revenue any time soon (I haven't even looked into the possibility). But while I've continued to post, with more than 500 entries since the beginning of the year, the lack of comments at time seemed surprising. I felt the topics we were discussing were of interest and timely, and the ANtics never failed to get responses elsewhere. So why the silence here? Was it truly because this blog signifies nothing?

Turns out the answer is likely somewhere between the two. While making a follow-on comment to last night's post on how my iPod was trying to commit suicide, I noted the comment didn't immediately appear on the front page. It turns out, of all things, that every single comment that has been posted to louisgray.com since the end of March has been pending moderation, and I hadn't gone through and approved them. Oops. To make a long story short, I went into Haloscan and approved them all last night, meaning the "Comments RSS" link isn't empty, and if you had anything to share, we're finally listening.

And - one last thing... yes, I hate it when stuff like that happens. Makes me feel like a tech newbie.

Morning Notes: October 4, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

It's been an extremely busy start to the week, so I apologize for the light posting thus far. We've had a surprising confluence of events taking time away from the blog.

With that said, it's always a good idea to start with the top of the alphabet, with the A's. In the team's first playoff game against the Minnesota Twins, Frank Thomas hit two home runs and Barry Zito pitched masterfully in a 3-2 victory at the Metrodome yesterday, giving the team a 1-0 lead in the series, which continues today. The Twins were said to have needed a win in yesterday's game to win the series, and they didn't get there. Now the A's have picked up home field advantage. Of course, Athletics Nation was completely nutty for the day game, with nearly a thread an inning, and 3,000 comments. We were in meetings all morning and didn't see a single inning live, thanks to the ridiculous schedule.

Interestingly, the world of blogging has added a new wrinkle, as Zito himself has a blog he's keeping up in the post-season. After yesterday's victory, he sat down and wrote how he was feeling - both in preparation for the game, and as it progressed. Unlike many in sports, Zito has always come across as more on the analytical side, as you can see. (An Awesome Day In Minnesota)

Working down the alphabet, to Apple (and Microsoft), after the dust has settled, critics and potential customers alike are finding themselves wholly underwhelmed with Microsoft's release of Zune, their iPod-copycat music player. Wired writes that "Zune Won't Kill the IPod", while in an amusing slant, Roughly Drafted illustrates 10 reasons that Zune isn't the iPod challenger some would have you think it was. One reason? It's just not cool. I mean, brown? We don't have to work for UPS, so why would brown all of a sudden be hip? It's like HP and Dell trying to convince us beige is in this year.

I have to admit I've tried to stay above the fray and ignore much of the scandals in Washington of late. It seems if you give the GOP enough rope, they'll hang themselves, and they are well on their way. With Mark Foley's indiscretions being well-discussed, Electoral-Vote.com says that the Senate races show a near dead-heat for both parties, and a virtual tie in the House as well. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that in a jaw-dropping move, the Republican-led budget tucked away $20 million for a big celebration of our successes in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, to be held in Washington DC. Mission accomplished, anyone?

Routine Maintenance Never Fits My Schedule

You know how it seems that regardless of the situation, or the market or the product, there is always a car analogy waiting in the wings to annoy you? Why is it that every example is expected to be made more easy to understand because you can relate it to a brand of car, how well they are kept up, or horsepower and engines? It seems like the English language ran out of nouns and adjectives to adequately describe most incidents, but we've all managed to imbibe Kelly's Blue Book and your automobile owner's manual.

Recently, I mentioned how my lack of routine maintenance on my teeth turned into a litany of dental visits, to the tune of four in four days (some kind of record, to be sure). While at the dentist, I was given the standard lectures on how to take better care of myself, and the old, reliable analogies were thrown out there. "You know, fillings/gums/etc. are like your car. If you don't rotate the tires/change the oil/etc. every few thousand miles, you will have problems."

Well, thank you very much, Dr. Einstein, D.D.S. But you don't realize who you're talking to.

Instead of a maniacal auto-obsessed gearhead who changes the oil in his driveway and can analyze every ping with a simple pop of the hood, you're talking to somebody who very recently managed not to get the oil changed in his 1998 Mercury Tracer for more than 6,700 miles, more than double what is advised. In fact, as I had the oil changed on New Year's Eve in 2005, I went a full nine months between Jiffy Lube visits, before somewhat reluctantly taking care of it yesterday.

So, when somebody says I should have the same level of "routine maintenance" for me or anything else, they're in trouble. I'm sure part of the issue resides with my ego telling me the rules don't apply.

Want me to pay that bill within 30 days? Why? Because it's convenient for you? Well, send me another notice, and I'll think about it. Want me to see the dentist every six months? Why, because some bureaucrat decided that was the new rule? Want me to update my driver's license to show where I really live instead of somewhere I used to? What's the point? Heck, even my bank checks still say I live in Belmont, and I haven't been there since 2002. What do I care - the money still comes out of the account...

So long as the lights stay on, the water keeps running, and my belongings don't get repossessed, it really doesn't bug me if you get paid within 10 days or 90 days. I have a primary care physician, but I bet you he doesn't know me, and I certainly haven't seen him this year. And if my car starts to slow down for whatever reason, I'll keep driving it until it simply stops. Then I'll get a new one. But don't tell me I should have rotated the tires and gotten the air pressure to 32 pounds per square inch. Those rules are for other people.

Listening to ''Better Off Alone'', by Alice Deejay (Play Count: 5)

Evening Notes: September 27, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

Fresh off of their division-title clinching win, the A's put up a laugher of a lineup, so that their supposedly hung-over stars can rest up for the playoffs ahead. Yet somehow, early on, they are maintaining a 3-1 lead over the same Mariners, despite the B-squad acting as fill-ins.

We're also playing the role of B-squad fill-ins at Athletics Nation, running the threads tonight. In other self-centered blogosphere news, we noted on Sactown Royalty that free agent Bonzi Wells could be days away from heading out of town. All signs are pointing to Houston, Texas as his next stop.

Another day, another Apple rumor. Or is that the denial of one? New York Times columnist David Pogue says not to expect the long-rumored iPhone any time soon. As he says, "I think cellphones are as ripe for a radical rethink as the online music store was when Apple set up iTunes. But let’s not go all wiggy every time someone passes around an iPhone rumor on the Web."

In other tech news, HP's recently-departed chairwoman Patricia Dunn is now arguing that she was unaware of the pretexting and other aggressive investigative methods used at the company to root out leaks. Given all the hubbub around the company and her role, she comes off as believable as the tobacco and oil executives. I hear Enron and Worldcom are hiring...

Meanwhile, Om Malik speculates that with Rupert Murdoch's tremendous purchase of MySpace, the next logical step is to migrate the power of the blogosphere to traditional media. As papers like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and others are trying to find a place for themselves in a Web-connected world, he argues a shakeup is needed, and Murdoch just may be the guy to kick it off.

Listening to ''Are You Ready'', by Ferry Corsten (Play Count: 6)

Afternoon Notes: September 22, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

As HP's pretexting scandal continues to grow with new news every single day, the company's chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, gave her immediate resignation today, amid rumors that CEO Mark Hurd was aware of or even endorsed the aggressive policies the company engaged in to root out leakers.

Even had HP been acting within the law, you simply can't win the war of public relations when you're doing unsavory activities that target the very reporters who are there to cover you. It's a recipe for disaster. As a colleague said, they now have their "pound of flesh" in Dunn, and she may not be the last to fall. Hurd has now acknowledged he was aware of the inquiries.

Following an annual internal company meeting at Microsoft, the anonymous blogger, Mini-Microsoft, says that the software being used to power Zune is still "under construction", and that CEO Steve Ballmer stubbornly refuses to back down when the company is losing a market share battle, and will not fold. More on Mini's always-interesting blog.

Closer to home, TiVo is rumored to be working with Amazon to bring the company's Unbox service to its DVR customers. As Unbox has gotten horrible reviews since its unveiling, it's unlikely that we would be interested, but its good to see two innovative companies trying to find new ways to entertain customers by combining forces.

Discussion: (GMSV: http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/09/well_this_ought.html and MacRumors: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=236399)

And we simply couldn't have a single day without more Apple rumors, right?

AppleInsider says that the company is timing their entry into the cell phone market, rather than forcing their hand. Meanwhile, the New York Times' David Pogue turns back the clock a decade to "When Apple Hit Bottom".

Listening to ''Dance 4 Life (12" Mix)'', by Tiësto feat. Maxi Jazz (Play Count: 4)

Radio Show Callers Should Get to the Point

Often, while in the car to and from work, or when driving home from A's games or Cal football, we have our radio dialed in to local sports talk stations, hoping to gain some insight on the just-concluded game, or hear how other fans are speculating the team will do in the next contest. Yet, annoyingly, it seems that very few of them understand how to act on the air once they get there. Quite invariably, the vast majority of callers, seemingly almost all men, would rather appear "cool" than get the point, preferring to make small talk with the hosts, who themselves sound quite fatigued by the practice.

For example, on your typical radio call-in show, the host will "go to the phones" to "Bill in Alameda". Bill, upon being introduced, will say, "So, how's it going?" or "Hey guys, what's up?" and the host, who has already been talking for the better part of an hour or more on exactly just "what is up" has to quickly go, "Hey Bill, how's it going?", to which he responds, "I'm good. Now, I wanted to talk about the (fill in team name or player or situation here)."

It's not as if the caller really has no idea "what's up" or "how it's going" with the sportscasters. After all, even in the odd chance they weren't listening to the show to begin with, they probably had to listen on the phone when they were on hold, and have some idea. So for all of us listening for some tidbit of info or helpful discussion, we have to wade through the forged pleasantries - and start the routine again with the next brain-dead caller. It's almost enough to put in a CD or flip to the FM dial rather than listen. Just thought I'd mention it.

Listening to ''Know You Can (Rick Pier Vs Dav'', by Whatever Girl (Play Count: 7)

Evening Notes: September 15, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

We're on the verge of kicking off a sports-filled weekend, with the Oakland A's back in town to take on the World Champion White Sox, and the Cal Bears also home to take on Division I-AA quasi-power Portland State. Being good season ticket holders, I'm going to aim to be at all three games this evening and tomorrow, but there is certainly some overlap on Saturday that could make things dicey, especially if the A's haven't blown out the Sox by the early innings...

On the technology side of things, It still seems to be all about Apple all the time. Apple's iTV announcement and enhancements to the iTunes Store to include videos continues to make waves. Interestingly, one of the quieter announcements was that Apple's moved to reduce the 30 gigabyte iPod to a pricepoint of $249. This apparently has hurt Microsoft's big rollout of Zune this week. While unveiling the music players, Microsoft did not announce a price at all - which some are saying is a direct result of Apple's price cut. Fun to have the Redmond giant on the wrong side of volume discounts. In addition, TechCrunch reports Amazon is the next giant expected to deliver feature film downloads, which explains their frustration with studios that have sided with iTunes.

And even though Apple just held a big media event, everybody seems to be yearning for the next big thing from Cupertino. ThinkSecret now says the long-awaited Apple iPhone will hit in the first quarter of 2007, and a contributor to GigaOM claims that Apple will enable consumers to run Windows Vista in a virtual desktop as part of the company's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard rollout. Also in the same vein, Storage Mojo is very intrigued on Apple's future plans to help consumers store and backup their downloaded feature films, which could take gigabytes apiece.

Stepping away from Apple for a second, it's said that the pretexting scandal at HP is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. The company's chairman, Patricia Dunn, has been summoned before Congress, where she will no doubt be harangued by politicos who love to see themselves on C-Span making non-enforceable threats, shaking heads and wagging fingers. Or maybe I'm just cynical?

Listening to ''Until You Love Me'', by 4 Strings (Play Count: 11)

Is That a Prius Lane?

Each of the last two days, I had the "pleasure" of driving between Sunnyvale and Burlingame and spending way too much time on Highway 101 on the San Francisco Peninsula - a trip that according to Google Maps and Yahoo! should take only 30-plus minutes but in actuality ranges between an hour or an hour and a half. Spending so much time in a car over the last two days - there and back, there and back, made me think a lot about the quality of life, and whether I'd be best off just sitting on my rear and telecommuting everywhere.

But another thing struck me - to my left, in the carpool/commuter lane, I wasn't passed by a series of partnered businesspeople looking to save gas and time, or a family's minivan, but instead by Toyota Prius after Toyota Prius, with the occasional Honda Civic Hybrid thrown in for variety. As these high gas mileage hybrid cars have the option to drive in the carpool lane, I was continually mocked for continuing to drive my boring old 118,000+ mile 1998 Mercury Tracer, which gets a cool 25 or so miles a gallon itself. As I sat, admiring the dirt on my windshield and debated whether my back speakers were blown out or just falling apart, on my left, I would see Prius, Prius, Civic, Van, Prius, Van, Prius, Civic, Prius. And I'm jealous.

The only question is, if I were to plunk down $25,000 that I don't have on a car I don't yet need, how long would it take to make up the money on saved gas and saved time? It's time to break out the calculators - or I'll never know.

Listening to ''That's Right'', by Blank & Jones (Play Count: 5)

Late Night Notes for September 11, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

Unfortunately for me, I'll be away from the computer for most of tomorrow (but of course latched to corporate e-mail like I should be via Blackberry). This means that while every other techno-geek, media reporter, and computer nerd is finding out all they can about Steve Jobs' plan to extend world domination to online video downloads and quite possibly much more, I won't be participating. Sad story, huh?

Well, don't let that ruin your fun. While Mac rumor prognostication used to be carried on by a select, and unwashed, few, it's now a role everyone else is eager to take on. Now even the mainstream bloggers, including TechCrunch and GigaOm are on the Apple rumor bandwagon.

The current expectations for the special event on the 12th include iTunes 7.0 (with movie downloads), updated iPods and iPod Nanos, and what some are calling a "TubePort", which will enable wireless transmission of videos from your computer to the TV. MacRumors weighs in by saying "Movies will be available as either a smaller iPod-format (which will cost $9.99 per movie), or as a larger, streamed movie to be streamed to your TV via TubePort. This cost $14.99 per movie. To purchase an iPod-formatted movie and a streamed version of the same movie, it will cost you $19.99."

As always, I'm more inclined to say it's not something I'll jump to, but we'll see. I usually tend to get fairly suckered in after watching all the glitzy demos.

On a completely other note, you haven't lived until you've consumed the original "Numa, Numa" featuring Gary Brolsma, an overweight teenager from New Jersey who rocketed to Internet fame when his lip-synching and chair-dancing to a little-known Romanian group went viral. After years of hiding out in relative obscurity, he's back with a vengeance, ready to capitalize on his fame, with the "New Numa". The official site is at http://www.newnuma.com, of course, or you can watch on YouTube. I guess if you can't beat them, join them...

If you're still not ready to dance around to some goofy kid, a much more serious video that helped us revisit a darker time from five years ago was unveiled today - as a woman living a few blocks from the World Trade Center for the first time introduced her documentarian chronicling of that day without analysis or soundtrack - just raw video, emotion and genuine fear. You can try and watch it on their site or download the full thing. It's 134 Megabytes and runs for more than 20 minutes. Humbling.

Revver.com: September 11: What We Saw

Listening to ''Live at Aria Montreal (11-06)'', by DJ Tiesto (Play Count: 4)

Scandals Raising Ire On All Sides

It'd be hard to completely ignore a few of the biggest scandals out there right now.

The first deals with HP's chairman of the board hiring private investigators to use less than ethical methods to spy on reporters and gain access to their phone records in an attempt to ferret out leaks. This Bush-like breach of privacy is the first of its kind in Silicon Valley and has got the worlds of technology and media alike on edge. Some publications are calling for the director's head on a platter, and reporters are more than justified in their exasperation over this breach of confidence.

The second is on a planned "documentary" by ABC on the events around 9/11, and their cause. The show inaccurately portrays the Clinton administration in a light that directly contradicts the 9/11 commission's report, and even as its airing nears, it's said that edits are continuing to be made to bring the piece further in line with accuracy - although disclaimers have been added to say it is not intended to be fully factual, but more in line with a historical drama. Unfortunately, it's been shown that we have a lot more people in the country who are plenty comfortable with watching TV, but not focused enough to read a congressional report, and they'll remember the one they saw when holding the remote and sitting in a recliner. Lawyers for former President Clinton have gone so far as to recommend ABC cancel it altogether.

On that note, with the 9/11 anniversary coming up soon, the Washington Post has said we were on the heels of capturing Bin Laden at the end of 2001, but the trail went cold, and military strength was subsequently redirected toward efforts in Iraq rather than on capturing the initiators of the terror strikes. Oddly, this falls completely in line with what Senator Kerry argued over with Bush during the 2004 debates, and was so roundly denied. Not that anybody can align the administration with the side of truth these days...

Listening to ''Underwater Love'', by Smoke City (Play Count: 8)

Asypta: Acela - Amtrak Speeds Ahead

Not just companies get the honor of joining the Asypta fold. Sometimes, the most ordinary-looking and most ordinary-sounding firms will debut products or subsidiaries that follow the Asypta guidelines, as Amtrak did in 1999 when they debuted their new line of high-speed trains, dubbed nothing else but... "Acela". Though clearly derived from the root word "Accel", Amtrak followed the mantra many companies do during the process of naming, throwing an "A" at the end for good measure. And try as they might, Amtrak made an attempt to explain just what "Acela" stood for anyway.

From the March 9, 1999 announcement:

"Acela is more than just a name for Amtrak's new high speed trains, Acela is a brand representing a whole new way of doing business," according to Amtrak President George D. Warrington. "A combination of acceleration and excellence, Acela means high speed and high quality - we are changing the journey for every customer on every train with faster trip times, comfortable amenities and highly personalized service."

In an era of commuter jets, carpool lanes, and telecommuting, it's no wonder that Amtrak had to do something to juice passenger statistics on trains - more-commonly associated with the 19th century than the 20th or today. While other countries have lapped the US in their ability to roll out highest-speed transportation, including "bullet trains", Amtrak and its new Acela line has seen very limited success. As Wikipedia states, "Technical difficulties have led to a joke about Acela standing for "Amtrak Customers Extremely Late Again" trains."

Now there's a fantastic acronym we can get behind.

It's always interesting to see when a company does such a poor job of naming itself and identifying the name with the brand that consumers go out of their way to apply their own definitions. Acela clearly falls in that category.

For going through the process of announcing a new name that fully meets the Asypta criteria, and introducing confusion into the marketplace, Acela is the second entry to the hall of fame!

Overall Asypta-Meter Score: 10.0

Listening to ''Miami Sunset 2005'', by DJ Irish (Play Count: 1)

Asypta: Altria is a Smoking Gun

The Asypta model is somewhat flexible. If you look at Altria, you have a slight variation - extending to A consonant, vowel, A, but the phonetics of the word are the same, as the "ria" sounds like "riya", which maintains the Asypta rule verbatim.

With that said, Philip Morris' choice to rebrand as Altria in January 2003 is a classic example of selecting a name without any meaning and plugging into what I term the Asypta name generator. As widely reported, the company, which owns a wide variety of cigarette brands, ranging from Marlboro to Benson & Hedges and Virginia Slims, was looking to divorce itself from its life-long relationship with tobacco, and instead, highlight a healthier, more anomalous self.

From the press release on January 27, 2003, the company opted to change its name to Altria Group, Inc. As they said in the release, "The Altria name and logo powerfully express these enduring qualities: its drive toward excellence, its companies' focus on building brands, its passion for success, its openness to innovation, its commitment to its communities and societies, and its focus on its people."

And just how do they do that? If you look at the Altria logo, It's a 5 by 5 pixelated square made of many colors. A 25-grid square, symbolizing nothing. The word Altria doesn't demonstrate quality or excellence or success or innovation, unless you believe it does. Just like when the tobacco companies had you believe that "Nicotine is not addictive", this too has to be taken at face value, when there is in fact, no value.

More about Altria can be found on the company's "Who We Are" page, where they say "By changing its name, Altria Group has clarified its identity as what it is: a parent company to both tobacco and food companies that manage some of the world’s most successful brands." Gotcha.

For fitting the criteria set out in the rules of Asypta, and further befuddling corporate identity, we give Altria a near-perfect score. They just miss the hall of fame, due to a lacking consonant before the second A. Sorry, guys.

Overall Asypta-Meter Score: 9.5

Listening to ''Silent Words - Chiller Twists'', by Jan Johnston (Play Count: 25)

Avaya Receives 10 on Asypta-Meter

Avaya is a classic example of a company built out of the "Asypta" school of naming. A, consonant, vowel, consonant, A. Avaya was spun off from Lucent at the end of 2000, and during the era of dot-com frenzy, the company didn't define exactly what it did very well.

From the company's spin-off press release in June of 2000, Lucent's president and CEO, Don Peterson said, ""We chose a name that would set us apart and capture what we're doing with the company - focusing on communications solutions for business customers. Avaya sounds open and fluid-reflecting a company that's open-minded and that provides seamless, effortless interconnections among people and businesses."

Source: Lucent

But what does that mean? Open, Fluid? Open-Minded? Sounds like some nice words to explain "Don't Know Exactly".

The Daily Telegraph, in a piece from December of 2005, ties into that very issue - company names that don't really stand for squat. They partially blamed Landor Associates, a San Francisco design group, for the name, and many others like it.

"If you ever wondered where those bizarre unpronounceable company names come from, look to the Landor crew. Avolar, Midea, Avaya, Spherion, Onity, Lucent. And Lucent's rival, Agilient. You know, like Lucent - but agile! Nice. Soon lots of big branding companies were picking up briefs and now our world is littered with Arrivas, Aptivas, Achievas and Avandas."

Source: Igor International

For fitting the stern criteria set out in the rules of Asypta, Avaya scores a 10.0 and is the first inductee to the Asypta hall of fame!

Evening Notes: August 24, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

It's odd how even in what could be considered a small wave of bad publicity, some companies wait out the storm and somehow come out unscathed. After yesterday's $100 million lawsuit settlement with Creative Technologies, Apple followed on today with news that they - like Dell - have issued a recall for more than 1 million laptop batteries which may catch fire. It's highly possible the PowerBook I've got is in the listed serial numbers eligible for replacement... but even with both of those announcements, Apple stock didn't take any kind of hit. In fact, Apple (AAPL) rose less than one percent on the day, even with the news. For what it's worth, my most-recent investment in Apple is doing fairly well, up 24 percent. I had sold some of my holdings for a loss, because I could use it to drag down my total income at tax time by the end of the year.

Of interest to those who follow Apple closely, as I do, an unlikely foe has beaten them to the punch for an online movie store - AOL. The would-be owners of Time Warner (oops!) announced today that for  a mere $10 to $20, customers could download full-length films, with no option to rent. Sounds steep.

Earlier this month, I mentioned how Topix.net's newly-introduced one year news archive search tool could bring huge benefits to companies and PR agencies. Apparently, my feelings are not just mine alone. Steve Rubel, who works for Edelman PR, said Topix "doesn't get the attention it probably deserves", and delves further into the site, to help track companies or individuals and use advanced search features.

The A's have an off day this evening, which means activity on Athletics Nation should be significantly lower than normal - as I, as well as many others, are probably taking the day off as well. For a good fix on AL West baseball, you can check out the LA Angels site at Halos Heaven or the much funnier Seattle Mariners blog at Lookout Landing. Also, be sure to catch Blez' input on why ESPN has lost all relevance for him and many west coast sports fans. The worldwide sports leader is a mockery of its old self these days.

Listening to ''Forever Today'', by DJ Tiesto (Play Count: 14)

Morning Notes: August 18, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series...

In politics, some of the biggest news surrounded the court's call for an immediate halt to the illegal NSA-sponsored domestic wiretapping that Bush and his right-wing cronies have been saying is an integral part of our security against terrorists at home or abroad. Interestingly, in the judge's summation, she wrote, "There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent power" must derive from that Constitution." Her comment on hereditary kings sounded particularly apt when one looks at this administration, and that of the 1988-elected George Bush Sr., a man who towers over his son in intellect and scruples, Iran-Contra aside.

Vanity Fair's James Wolcott piles on in a piece called "Turd on the Run", where he asks, "Is Bush an idiot? Is water wet?"

In technology, gadgets reign supreme. The Web is abuzz over the first leaked photos on Gizmodo of Microsoft's wannabe-iPod killer, Zune. The pictures don't show the device on, or even its true color, in an effort to mask the leaker. But that didn't stop a wealth of discussion on iLounge, Engadget, Slashdot and CrunchGear.

In other news, this morning, a judge ordered that