Monday, March 21, 2005

Upcoming travel: NYC 3/25 through 4/1 & 4/5-6. 

TidBITS isn't a blog, it's an email newsletter, a website, and an RSS feed. It's been published for well over a decade. And with all the blogs and Mac fan sites it's possible that some Mac users don't know about it. Regulars include Adam Engst, Matt Neuburg and Glenn Fleishman. It's not flashy, but it sure is smart. Their report on podcasting was definitive.  

What Rex said. Podcasting is both an art and a hype balloon. Emphatically, it is not at this time a business. I believe in the art, passionately, and I hate hype balloons, always have, nothing new. I'm agnostic about the business, and any competent reporter should be too. I think the CBS guy is trying to provoke an open battle over things that aren't in contention. I'm glad not to be in the business that Adam Curry and Ron Bloom are in. Maybe it'll turn out that they can do great things for the art and make money, but until they do, I'm from Missouri.  

Re Terry Shiavo, the woman whose brain is dead, Congress and the President should not have gotten involved. They made a mistake. 

Tina Brown: "Bloggers are the new Stasi," or the East German secret police during the Cold War. They actually ran this piece in the Washington Post. The reporters have had a free ride all our lives, the only ones watching them were other reporters. Accountability, of which today's reporters have just the tiniest portion of, will improve journalism and politics, and will shake out the lazy ones, the ones who think that visibility is equivalent to totalitarianism. Thanks to Rogers for the link.  

Sylvia liked yesterday's column. "Bursting the bubble before it expands again." Yup, doing what we can to keep the world safe for innovation.  

Ourmedia: "We'll host your media forever for free."  

On the podcasters list, Alex Nesbitt posted a link to an OPML directory that organizes podcasts by genre. Of course, I wanted to see if my new directory browser could handle his outline. It worked.  

Wired: "More than a year after 'social networking' became the leading buzzword in internet startup circles, companies in the sector haven't gained the traction early enthusiasts predicted." 

Amazon patent for "Plogging" 

In June 2004, Ryan Naraine wrote in InternetNews: "[Amazon] has launched a beta of Plogs, or personalized blogs, to shuttle links of recommended products and relevant shopping information to users."

At the same time, of course, they had filed a patent application for the feature. Thanks to TheoDP for the heads-up and pointers.