Steve Kroft, Lesley Stahl, Bob Simon, Morley Safer, Byron Pitts, Scott Pelley, Andy Rooney LENGTH: 43:00 LEAD: Byron Pitts and 60 Minutes cameras spend two days on the road with a bomb-hunting unit in Afghanistan as they encounter one deadly bomb after another. Lesley Stahl meets the inspiration for the lead character in the classic film Jurassic Park. Those stories and more on 60 Minutes...
Selected by davewiner
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CBS News: 60 Minutes Podcast
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Afghanistan, Jurassic Park
16 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am -
Hackers; Andre Agassi
9 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amOn 60 Minutes, Could foreign hackers get into the computer systems that run crucial elements of the world's infrastructure, such as the power grids, water works or even a nation's military arsenal, to create havoc? They already have. Steve Kroft reports. Katie Couric interviews the tennis champion about his drug use, the depression that made him use methamphetamine and other aspects of his personal life and tennis career in his first interview about his upcoming book. Those stories and more on 60 Minutes... -
H1N1 Flu Vaccine, Yakuza
1 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmOn 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley reports on the manufacture and distribution of the H1N1 flu vaccine, and more importantly if it's safe to take. Lara Logan investigates the Yakuza, Japan's mafia, and how they may help foreigners jump the line in America for a life-saving liver transplant. Lesley Stahl looks into Hollywood Pirates...criminals who copy films and distribute them illegally before they hit theaters. Those stories and more on 60 Minutes. -
Medicare and Medicaid
25 Oct 2009 | 4:00 pmMedicare and Medicaid fraudsters are cheating U.S. taxpayers out of an estimated $90 billion a year using a billing scam that is surprisingly easy to execute. Steve Kroft investigates. More Americans suffer from epilepsy than Parkinson's, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis combined. Katie Couric reports on a disease that may not be getting the attention it deserves. Those stories and more, on 60 Minutes. -
H1N1, cancer, Drew Barrymore
20 Oct 2009 | 2:00 amScott Pelley reports on the H1N1 virus and its growing toll on children and teens. Lesley Stahl speaks with John Kanzius, a man with leukemia who invented a radio wave machine to help cure his cancer. Finally, Anderson Cooper sits down with Drew Barrymore to discuss her transformation from a troubled child star, to a successful actress, producer and director.
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Andrew Baron
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jamiew:Know Your Meme: Auto-Tune goes Internet Platinum!
18 Nov 2009 | 4:40 pmjamiew:Know Your Meme: Auto-Tune goes Internet Platinum! -
“Weird Al” Yankovic rehearsing for Know Your Meme Stay tuned...
29 Oct 2009 | 10:47 am“Weird Al” Yankovic rehearsing for Know Your Meme Stay tuned for a special guest. -
Be the (internet) sensation of any Halloween party with Know...
14 Oct 2009 | 8:51 amBe the (internet) sensation of any Halloween party with Know Your Meme’s Hallow-meme Costume Builder. Our internet scientists have crafted easy-to-follow costume recipes for your favorite memes, from Afro Ninja to Zombie McCain. -
How Twitter Could Lose The Game By Design
7 Sep 2009 | 2:35 pmDo you know how to use the twitter logo? My guess is that you are far from able to navigate the Twitter website in general, and that in particular, you can not explain the why’s and wherefore’s behind the intricate and complex functionality that exists behind the Twitter logo. Don’t feel bad. I have used Twitter daily for years and I still can’t figure out how the Twitter website works either.Even Steve Rubel, THE super-duper-duper-user of Twitter was trying to figure out the most simple aspects of who can see what and unfortunately, I didn’t know. I’ll bet you didn’t know the… -
A Timeframe for TV's Future?
30 Aug 2009 | 11:38 amPrinted today in The Guardian: “The TV industry has as little as two years to create viable digital businesses or face a version of the “iTunes moment” that saw the music business cede the online future to Apple, according to Ashley Highfield.” With regards to the various threat levels to traditional media, the TV and Film businesses are converging and it’s much more complex to transition online. More than two years will almost for sure be needed. Rocketboom has been around almost five years now and there is almost no difference in terms of non-technicalogical support. Consider the…
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The Baseline Scenario
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Government Debt Hysteria
20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amI don’t spend a lot of time trying to police the economic news media — Dean Baker and Brad DeLong are much better on that — but I found myself reading a two-week-old Newsweek column by Robert Samuelson that enraged me enough to type this out. (I read it on old-fashioned paper, but here’s the WaPo version.) The title of the WaPo version is “Could America Go Broke?” and here’s the last paragraph: “Deprived of international or domestic credit, defaulting countries in the past have suffered deep economic downturns, hyperinflation, or both. The odds… -
The AIG-Maiden Lane III Controversy
20 Nov 2009 | 7:51 amAs everyone knows by now, Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for TARP, has a new report out on the decision by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last Fall to make various AIG counterparties (primarily some very big banks with names you know) whole on the the CDS protection they had bought from AIG to cover their risk on some CDOs. The potentially juicy bit has to do with the Maiden Lane III transaction (New York Fed summary here). There are a couple of details I can’t quite reconcile (for example, the Fed balance sheet shows initial funding of $29.3 billion, but everyone says… -
CRA Bashing, Nth Generation
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amThe Community Reinvestment Act is a law originally passed in 1977 that directed federal regulatory agencies to ensure that the banks they supervised were not discriminating against particular communities in making credit available.The onset of the subprime mortgage crisis triggered a flood of sloppy, lazy attacks on the CRA claiming that since the crisis was created by excess lending to the poor, and the CRA was intended to increase lending to the poor, the CRA must have caused the crisis. These arguments suffered from a mistaken premise (subprime lending had a modest negative correlation… -
Written Testimony Submitted To The Congressional Oversight Panel
19 Nov 2009 | 6:30 amTestimony submitted to the Congressional Oversight Panel, hearing on “The overall impact of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on the health of the financial system and the general U.S. economy,” Thursday, November 19, 2009. (pdf version) Submitted by Simon Johnson, Ronald Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management; Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; and co-founder of http://BaselineScenario.com. Summary 1) In the immediate policy response to any major financial crisis – involving a generalized loss of confidence in… -
Auto Race to the Bottom
19 Nov 2009 | 6:12 amThis guest post was contributed by Raj Date, head of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy and a former McKinsey consultant, bank senior executive, and Wall Street managing director. For further information on the auto dealer exemption, see the recent study by the Cambridge Winter Center. Over the past several months, Congress has debated ways to strengthen and rationalize consumer protection in financial services. Central to that debate is the proposed creation of a new agency focused exclusively on this issue, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (the…
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bijan sabet
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"Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all."
21 Nov 2009 | 7:21 am“Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all.” - Paul Bucchheit - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/20/gmail-creator-thinks-email-will-last-forever-and-hasnt-tried-google-wave/ -
Cousins - Vampire Weekend Brand new single that came out a few...
21 Nov 2009 | 3:03 amCousins - Vampire Weekend Brand new single that came out a few days ago. Love it. -
So my daughter wants a mobile phone
20 Nov 2009 | 5:34 amThis morning, like most Fridays, I take my daughters to breakfast before school (the boy hangs at home with mom. No preschool on Fridays) My oldest is now 10. And these days she is selling me hard on why she wants a phone. This morning was no different. I’m not ready to give her one yet. And i gave her my reasons. Then she asked “dad, when did you get your first phone?” I replied, “I didn’t get one until I was 22” She laughed “hey, tell me the truth!” I say “I am. Really” She pipes back “I’m gonna ask grandma when she first bought you a phone” I then say “look,… -
Google Health
20 Nov 2009 | 3:02 amI just set up my profile on Google Health. I added my basic vitals (birthdate, weight, height) plus the date of my recent flu shot, my allergies as well as past surgeries. I shared my profile with my wife so she now has full access. A few weeks ago I had a routine physical including blood tests to check on my cholesterol. I still don’t have the results. It’s on my todo list to call my doctors office to get the data but thats a hassle. I wish there was an easy & automatic way to get that data into my profile. As I’ve said before, the family tree is missing medical history. And while… -
Age of Consent - Kevin Drew I was sitting in the lobby of the...
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amAge of Consent - Kevin Drew I was sitting in the lobby of the Standard in NYC the other day and the original New Order version of this song came on. One of my favorites.
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Brent Simmons: Inessential.com
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Notes from Mac programming class guest lecture
17 Nov 2009 | 9:44 amLast night I gave a guest lecture at Hal Mueller’s Mac programming class at the UW Extension. The idea behind the lecture was to talk about what makes a great Mac app. I took that as an excuse to talk about everything from work habits to UI to marketing. In other words, I threw in just about everything I know — which, it turns out, only takes about an hour to deliver. :) It goes chronologically — getting to 1.0, releasing 1.0 and the follow-through, on to working on 2.0. I don’t actually have time right now to write it up properly. But, at least, here are my notes: Road to 1.0 More… -
AppHistory app idea
8 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pmI’ve often wished I had a little app that just tracks the history of apps I write. On what day was Whatever.app 2.0.3 released? On what day was MyiPhoneApp 3.0 sent to the App Store for review? On what day was it approved? Etc. I don’t keep track of these things too well, but I always mean to. Seems like it might make a nice little app. There would be standard actions (initial beta, released, uploaded, appeared on App Store). Maybe add things like URLs to reviews on the web, so you could go back to them later. Maybe have a free text option too, or the ability to define events. (Don’t… -
Last day of NetNewsWire introductory pricing
31 Oct 2009 | 10:52 amIn a nutshell: the price of the for-pay, ad-free versions of NetNewsWire for Macintosh and for iPhone will go up at midnight tonight. If you were thinking of buying, please don’t miss out. (Last day to save $5 on the Mac version and save $3 on the iPhone version.) See the sale ends today post on ranchero.com for more detail. Use the money you save to buy other cool iPhone apps! A few I recommend are Pickin’ Time, Postage, and Word Spin. -
Vaccines
29 Oct 2009 | 4:46 pmAn interesting link on Daring Fireball today has me thinking about vaccines. I’m still living with the effects of the chicken pox I had in third grade. There was no vaccine then. Every kid just got it. It swept through school, and nobody tried too hard to prevent the spread, because every kid would get it, and it was better to get it when you were young. It was just a thing. We thought we were modern because it was just chicken pox — not polio or smallpox or one of those scarier diseases that had been conquered. But now there is a vaccine, and I wish like crazy there had been a vaccine… -
Code relationship between TapLynx and NetNewsWire
14 Oct 2009 | 10:22 amThe code behind TapLynx and NetNewsWire for iPhone are similar — there is plenty of overlap — but they’re not the same. Database engine TapLynx is the engine I originally wrote for NetNewsWire 2 for iPhone. But then, in a decision that’s easily second-guessable, I wrote a new engine for NetNewsWire for iPhone. The TapLynx version is mature: the one in NetNewsWire for iPhone is much less mature. TapLynx was originally an iPhone OS 2.x project: it uses SQLite (via FMDB) instead of Core Data. But when I went to write NetNewsWire 2, Core Data was newly-available on the iPhone, and I was…
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Dave Winer
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An open letter to Google
20 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pmI had an interesting but somewhat disturbing exchange with a Google guy on Twitter today. It reveals a bunch of disconnects, that I'm going to try, in this post, to address. 1. Please take these statements at face value. 2. I am just a person, I am not in competition with Google. 3. I am a Google user. My primary email account is on GMail. I just bought a Droid, and started a Droid blog to help other people get started. I like it primarily because it connects so well with Google services. 4. I am a former Google shareholder. I made a shitload of money from my Google investment. Thank you. 5. -
Where is RSS?
20 Nov 2009 | 11:33 amI watched the morning session of TechCrunch's second realtime conference, including the half hour interview with Dick Costolo, the COO of Twitter. Of course Mike Arrington asked him the "Is RSS Dead?" question, and thankfully Costolo didn't want to go there. It would be ingracious of him, of course, because he made $100 million with RSS. He said RSS had been "pushed down" the stack, and it was now a protocol like SMTP or HTTP. In a way I agree with him, but only so far. RSS was never anything more than a protocol like SMTP or HTTP. So it hasn't gone anywhere. It's still exactly where it has… -
Coolest software of the decade?
19 Nov 2009 | 12:48 pmEveryone's asking questions about the decade that's coming to a close, I'd like to ask what's the coolest software you used this decade? For me, it might be Dropbox. I keep thinking of new uses for it. For a guy with a huge number of computers (I don't even want to count them), it's not only a lifesaver but an idea factory. I've already built utilities on it. The basis: polling a folder is incredibly low-cost. You can do a lot of it without impacting the performance of your machine. That was true in 2002 when we made Radio do upstreaming. It's even more true today. Because Dropbox wires… -
The new Retweet is cool!
19 Nov 2009 | 10:35 amI sort of understand why people don't like the new retweet, but I like it very much, and probably for many of the reasons they don't like it. If you follow me on Twitter you know that a lot of my tweets are links to stories on the web. I would probably forward other people's links more if there were a way to give them credit for the link without adding all that overhead to the text. I find that once you add a bit of text to a tweet you dilute its meaning. Do it two or three times and its a confusing mess. I don't know who said what. Worse, often the meaning of messages are reversed when… -
Journalists as ski instructors
19 Nov 2009 | 10:11 amOne of the cool things about riding on a train is that you meet a lot of people. There are Europeans who are visiting the US and have the train riding habit from home. There are people who remember the golden age of trains and can tell you how this or that is a shadow of its former self. And there are people who are afraid of plane travel and prefer trains to buses. There are also people like me who had a cross-country train trip on their bucket list, and found that the fantasy was better than the reality. (Partially because this trip follows the route of I-80 and I-70, which for me is…
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The Diane Rehm Show: Friday News Roundup Podcast
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News Roundup for Friday November 20, 2009 - Hour 2
20 Nov 2009 | 2:03 pmPresident Obama returns home from his first official visit to Asia and Secretary of State Clinton attends the inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories. -
News Roundup for Friday November 20, 2009 - Hour 1
20 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pmSenate Democrats unveil their healthcare proposal and a government task force proposes controversial new guidelines on mammograms. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories. -
News Roundup - Hour 2
13 Nov 2009 | 10:05 amConcerns about corruption complicate U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. And President Obama begins his first official trip to Asia. A panel of journalists joins guest host Susan Page for analysis of the week's top international news stories. -
News Roundup for Friday November 13, 2009 - Hour 1
13 Nov 2009 | 9:54 amInvestigations continue into the Fort Hood shootings and the abortion debate threatens health care legislation. A panel of journalists on these stories and the rest of the week's top national news. -
News Roundup for Friday November 6, 2009 - Hour 2
7 Nov 2009 | 12:23 amIranian protesters clash with government forces on the thirtieth anniversary of the U-S hostage crisis, plus recap and reaction Secretary Clinton's Mideast trip.
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Doc Searls
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Catching up
21 Nov 2009 | 7:20 amI’m back in Boston after a great few days in Utah at the Kynetx Impact conference, where VRM and related stuff was brought up and discussed at length. It was an inaugural effort by Kynetx, which has what I think is a novel and profound take on the future of the Web. The only bad thing that happened on the trip was a crash on my laptop that trashed my email and some other files. One result is that much of the email sent to my Berkman address cyber.law.harvard.edu) since late Monday was lost. (Glad I back up almost constantly here at home. I do offsite as well, but lacked the… -
Swelling ground
16 Nov 2009 | 4:41 amTwo posts worth noting over at the ProjectVRM blog. The first is Intention Economy Traction, which riffs off David Gillespie’s illustrative and wise 263-slide narrative Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet). Both of us see The Intention Economy as pretty much inevitable. The second is Advertising In Reverse, which riffs off (Dilbert cartoonist) Scott Adams’ Hunter Becomes the Prey, a post in which he suggests “broadcast shopping,” by means which VRM folks have been calling by the dull name Personal RFP. In fact, I’m ready to… -
Let me re-repeat
12 Nov 2009 | 11:20 pm[Note: Jump to the bottom first, to see how this went... and may keep going.] So I called SuperShuttle to book a ride to the airport in Denver. The first thing the robot voice said was that I could also book this on the Web. So I thought, cool, I’ll do that. It’ll probably go faster, and I can copy the confirmation information directly onto my calendar. No luck there. I had to register, and the registration never went through. I’d fill out the form, click to make it go, and my browser window would say,… -
Happy Birthdays
12 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm– to Colette Searls, JP Rangaswami, Chris Locke, Neil Young. Two of whom will join me on stage at Defrag shortly. -
Colors of salt
12 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amBefore the salt in evaporating sea water turns white, it goes through stages of color that range from jade green to brick red, with variations of orange, yellow and other colors. From above the salt ponds around San Francisco Bay look like giant panes of stained glass. The shot above is from my latest set, shot on approach to SFO last week. Here’s another series.
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Face the Nation
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Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed; Fort Hood; Hall of Infamy
15 Nov 2009 | 11:00 amToday on Face The Nation: Afghanistan and the massacre at Fort Hood - Bob Schieffer has the latest with Dana Priest of The Washington Post and CBS News National Security Analyst Juan Zarate. But first, the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks will be tried just blocks from Ground Zero in New York. But should this trial even be happening? Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) of the House Intelligence Committee and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) weigh in. This and more on today's Face The Nation. -
Health Care
8 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmToday on Face the Nation, what a week: An election shakes the Democrats; a tragedy at Fort Hood; and last night: Nancy Pelosi: The bill is passed. Bob Schieffer: The House passed the health care bill. We'll get the latest on all of it as we talk with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton. Two key senators on defense issues--Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Jack Reed-- who also play key roles when the health reform bill gets to the Senate. Then we'll bring in Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, and Republican political consultant Ed… -
Afghan Run-off Election
1 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmToday on Face the Nation, one of the candidates in the Afghanistan run-off election has quit--will that delay President Obama's troop decision. Abdullah Abdullah withdrew because he feared the coming election would produce the same king of fraud as the last one--where does that put U.S. strategy now. Can the current government claim any legitimacy. We'll ask the top advisor to President Obama David Axelrod. We'll have that same question for Senator Joe Lieberman who wants more troops for Afghanistan now. We'll have plenty of questions, too, on health care. Then I'll have a Final Word on… -
Afghanistan, Health Care
25 Oct 2009 | 10:00 amToday on Face the Nation: McCain-Feingold...together again, but this time on opposite sides. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold and Republican Senator John McCain have written so much campaign finance legislation together that "McCain-Feingold" has almost become a brand name for reform. But on Afghanistan and health care reform they find themselves on opposite sides. McCain wants more troops in Afghanistan now; Feingold wants to draw down our forces there. On health care Feingold wants a government run insurance program; McCain says 'no-way'. We''ll get both sides and a fix on where these… -
Rahm Emanuel on Afghanistan
18 Oct 2009 | 1:00 pmToday on Face the Nation: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Afghanistan, Health care and the economy. Plus, John Kerry, from Afghanistan. President Obama is only weeks away from announcing whether he'll send thousands more troops to Afghanistan. Could concerns over the unstable government there delay that decision? Will he change strategy? And does the President have to step up his efforts on health care reform? We'll ask his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. We'll get reaction from Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas. AND we'll talk to Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign…
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A VC
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Protecting Business
21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 amI went down to city hall yesterday to participate in a hearing on net neutrality. I realize the NYC city council has no oversight on this issue but the lobbyists were coming out in force so I figured I might as well show up too. They were live streaming the event. My testimony is about 26 minutes into that stream. But this post is not about net neutrality. It's about an issue that came up during the questioning. A councilmember mentioned the idea that we should help infrastructure providers protect their businesses. I am all in favor of the survival instinct in the marketplace. All companies… -
The Story Of My Avatar
20 Nov 2009 | 2:39 amI saw this tweet when I got up this morning:hey @fredwilson - whats the story behind ur avatar? While longtime readers know it, I figure many of you don't. So here it goes. Starting about four years ago, Howard Lindzon started commenting actively on this blog. He was funny, he was smart, and I enjoyed our banter in the comments. One march vacation, our family made a short stop in Phoenix, where Howard used to live. He emailed me and offered my son and me two tickets to the Suns game. We took him up on that and that's how we met for the first time. It turned out Howard was hatching an idea… -
Anatomy Of A Big Day On AVC
19 Nov 2009 | 2:30 amI generally take a quick run through audience stats every morning. I saw this chart and thought "hmm, big day yesterday, why is that?" So I went to google analytics, which confirmed the big day.And then I went to the makeup of the traffic:Like most big days on AVC, it was referring traffic that caused the bump. Search and direct traffic are very consistent at about 2,500 visits per day. But referring traffic can be as little as 1,000 visits on a slow day or as much as 5,000 visits or more on a big day. Yesterday was such a day.Here's where it came from yesterday: The twitter traffic is… -
Ten Meetings Per Day
18 Nov 2009 | 3:45 amI was explaining how I go about finding deals yesterday to a friend of mine and I thought I ought to explain it to everyone.I write this blog. It's like a broadcast channel of "what is interesting to me." I market it every way I know how and I get somewhere between 70k to 100k unique readers of it every month between web, rss, and mobile.As a result, I figure entrepreneurs and others have a pretty good idea of what I want to see and what I don't. And I believe they can self select. And for the most part, they do a great job of that.Given that dynamic, I take meetings, as many as I can. I went… -
APIs In The Late Afternoon
17 Nov 2009 | 3:06 amAfter our weekly team meeting yesterday afternoon, I hopped into a cab to the far west side of manhattan to attend the Business of APIs conference. In the cab, I opened socialscope on my blackberry to check into twitter and saw this tweet from my partner Albert:Love APIs -- so excited about @foursquare's announcement http://bit.ly/1Zswju As I sat down with Quentin Hardy to talk about APIs, I wasn't sure where the conversation would go. Fortunately Quentin is a good interviewer and we had a great chat. We talked a bit about the foursquare api, and I mentioned that I am most excited about cool…
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NPR: Fresh Air Podcast
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NPR: 11-20-2009 Fresh Air
20 Nov 2009 | 6:38 pmStories: 1) Judd Apatow On The Alchemy Of 'Funny People' 2) A 'New Moon' Destined For A Quick Eclipse -
NPR: 11-19-2009 Fresh Air
19 Nov 2009 | 6:31 pmStories: 1) After Obama Visit, Assessing U.S.-China Relations 2) Judith Fox Turns A Close-Up Lens On Alzheimer's -
Celebrating The Johnny Mercer Centennial
18 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pmStory: Lyricist and composer Johnny Mercer — born Nov. 18, 1909 — wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs, including American Songbook standards like "Skylark," "That Old Black Magic" and "Come Rain or Come Shine." His Academy Awards tally includes a statue for what's possibly his most famous tune, "Moon River." Fresh Air marks the anniversary of his birth with an in-studio concert starring Rebecca Kilgore and Dave Frishberg. -
NPR: 11-17-2009 Fresh Air
17 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pmStories: 1) Sacha Baron Cohen And Larry Charles Talk 'Bruno' 2) Geoffrey Nunberg: 'The I's Don't Have It' -
NPR: 11-16-2009 Fresh Air
16 Nov 2009 | 6:34 pmStories: 1) Joshua Kosman, Predicting The Next Credit Crisis 2) Woody Harrelson, Part 2: When War Comes Home
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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Should government policy affect news? Come on, it already does
20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amI guess Jim Barnett must trust rich people a lot more than I do. Don’t get me wrong: some of my best friends, yada-yada, and I certainly wouldn’t mind if my sister married one. (If I had a sister). But why on earth does he think putting media decisions in the hands of the richest few Americans is the best way to go? I hope Jim and everybody else understands my own preference: journalism needs -
Looking toward one future for local civic journalism
18 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amIf you’re a reader of this blog, chances are you’ve already heard about the new online news organization being formed in Hawaii by Peer News. The brainchild of Pierre Omidyar and Randy Ching, this next-generation news service will bring a lot of web cred to an issue of considerable current interest: the future of local accountability journalism. I’ve spent some time with them as an advisor, and -
What if internet advertising is a foundation made of sand?
13 Nov 2009 | 8:13 pmI spotted a pithy, insightful notion early on while reading Ethan Zuckerman's post What if they stop clicking? , paused and sent it out as a Tweet right then. Moments later, I came across a second and Tweeted it, too. When I Tweeted a third too-good-to-pass-up nugget, I realized I should just encourage people to read the whole post. It's a cohesive, carefully sequenced contemplation and will -
Jerks, tweets and news
8 Nov 2009 | 8:15 amA TechCrunch article by Paul Carr (NSFW: After Fort Hood, another example of how ‘citizen journalists’ can’t handle the truth) stirred up a good bit of Twitter discussion for a Sunday morning. To me, the important question is not whether non-professional news reporting will be available or whether "jerks with cellphone" will run amok, but rather how we learn to handle that and incorporate it -
Enduring truths and narrative coherence
6 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pmLet us start with Plato and finish with Dave Pell, with a little Jeff Jarvis mixed in to help bind it all together. Sometime around 370 BC Plato held forth against the invention of writing, a mere crutch that would cause memory to atrophy while offering only a pale reflection of discourse in its place. The fact is that this invention will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have
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JoeTrippi.com
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Microsoft Bing censoring searches in Chinese?
21 Nov 2009 | 7:43 amIn a piece from Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times titled Boycott Microsoft Bing, Kristof observes that text and image searches in simplified Chinese characters (those used in mainland China) return sanitized results. He also says that Microsoft’s responses to the problem have been inconsistent over the last few months, ranging from a bug that will be fixed, to a result of the algorithm, back to being a bug. From Kristof’s post: If you search a term on Bing that is politically sensitive in China, in English the results are legitimate. Search “Tiananmen” and you’ll find… -
Twitter releases geolocation API, possiblities for use abound
20 Nov 2009 | 1:27 pmWith the activation of the long-awaited Geolocation API yesterday, Twitter has opened up the possibilities for developers. Now any location based dataset can be tied to a new dataset of tweets to provide information, updates, or reminders on the fly. RedWriteWeb discusses the development and provides some possible use cases: “Party Over Here” Bot: Automated Geo-Replies Want to know when you’re near a certain type of public event, great wine shops or deals at Macy’s? How about when friends, close friends or friends-of-friends are near? It’s not hard to imagine a… -
Flip Cam to make citizen video journalism even quicker
19 Nov 2009 | 10:24 amIn an exciting development for decentralized citizen journalism, the Flip video camera from Cisco will include wi-fi starting in early 2010. Wireless internet access will now enable instantaneous video sharing via the web. While many smart phones already offer the ability to record video and directly upload to YouTube or Facebook, the Flip cam will offer dedicated hardware for the task. Mashable’s Ben Parr provides more insight: The next-generation Flip MinoHD, due in the first half of 2010, includes double the memory, a larger screen, and direct Facebook uploads. Now according to… -
Webcast from the White House: State Department engages on Darfur
18 Nov 2009 | 10:10 amIn an exciting moment for public engagement last week, the State Department webcast live on their Facebook page a meeting between Special Envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, the Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council, Samantha Power, and representatives from Save Darfur and STAND, the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network. This was part of a new series from the White House called Ask U.S., a project to engage the advocacy community and answer questions on U.S. Sudan policy. The video was streamed live on the State Department Facebook… -
FCC urged to review use of digital TV airwaves
17 Nov 2009 | 3:38 pmIn a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the chief executives of the Consumer Electronics Association and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association urged the FCC to review how digital TV airwaves are being used as directed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This could lead to a reapportioning of digital airwaves to accommodate growing use of mobile broadband. The L.A. Times has more: According to the CEA-CTIA letter: “This spectrum is uniquely suited for mobile broadband applications, devices and services –it has highly favorable propagation characteristics…
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John Robb's Weblog
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The China Myth
16 Nov 2009 | 8:02 amIn truth, China is more vulnerable that the US is. Yves has some good stuff on this today. Here's more from the FT's Abrose Evans Pritchard: It is fashionable to talk of America as the supplicant. That misreads the strategic balance. Washington can bring China to its knees at any time by shutting markets. There is no symmetry here. Any move by Beijing to liquidate its holdings of US Treasuries could be neutralized – in extremis – by capital controls. Well-armed sovereign states can do whatever they want. If provoked, the US has the economic depth to retreat into near autarky (with NAFTA)… -
No interest in governing
9 Nov 2009 | 3:42 amKrugman misses the point. There's no interest in governing on both sides of the isle. -
Day Labor
9 Nov 2009 | 3:37 amLining up outside home depot. -
Taibbi: Obama is a tool
25 Oct 2009 | 11:13 amTo the point. -
KNOW YOUR ENEMIES ;->
24 Oct 2009 | 9:13 amHere's T Boone Pickens lamenting the fact that China is winning oil contracts in Iraq etc. and leaving the US in the cold. That kind of "nationalist" approach used to work. However, things have changed since the world globalized (and I'm far from alone on this view). Frankly, I see little difference between "Chinese" oil companies and "US" oil companies or super weathies like T. Boone. They both are aggressively antagonist to your and my future prosperity. So, if push came to shove and I had to decide, I think…
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Kara Swisher
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Hey, Hey, Hey, Twitter! Here's the Real "What's Happening!"
20 Nov 2009 | 2:16 amBoomTown was intrigued when Mind-Your-Own Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, penned a blog post yesterday about the microblogging service changing its prompting question. Now, above the little Twitter box, it reads, “What’s Happening?” and not the original tweet query, “What are you doing?” “The fundamentally open model of Twitter created a new kind of information network and it has long outgrown the concept of personal status updates,” wrote Stone. “Twitter helps you share and discover what’s happening now among all the things,… -
AOL Layoff Package: You Stay, You Pay
19 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pmBoomTown has learned that AOL is offering those who “volunteer” to leave the company now a departure package that ranges from three to nine months of pay, compared to one to four months for employees laid off in the first quarter of next year. It’s a depressing rock-and-a-hard-place choice. An AOL spokesperson confirmed the offer, which is part of a massive layoff of 2,500 of its 6,000-person workforce. Earlier today, AOL said it would be letting go a big chunk of its staff, a third of its payroll, in a regulatory filing. As reported by MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka: The… -
MSN Head Greg Nelson Moves to MicroHoo Integration Role (Yahoo Picks Morrissey)
19 Nov 2009 | 11:03 amGreg Nelson (pictured here), who has had the thankless job of running MSN for Microsoft, has left that position and been given the even more thankless task of running the integration of the complex search and online advertising partnership struck by the software giant and Yahoo. Microsoft (MSFT) sent out an internal email to staff about the move for the GM of MSN’s Global Media Group, which has already taken place. MSN U.S. head Scott Moore is now reporting directly to MSN Corporate VP Erik Jorgensen. So will Brett Wayn, who has been working under Nelson on international coordination… -
AOL Also Likely to Eye Sale of MapQuest–Is Microsoft a Possible Buyer?
19 Nov 2009 | 12:23 amYesterday, BoomTown wrote about AOL’s efforts–including hiring investment bankers–to sell its ICQ instant-messaging unit. But that’s probably not going to be the end of the shedding of assets at the online site. In fact, according to sources inside and outside AOL, one of the next candidates for sale could be its MapQuest online map service. Purchasers of the service that provides mapping and directions, sources said, are likely to be other mapping giants, especially Microsoft (MSFT). But it is not clear if the software giant or anyone would fork over a huge sum of… -
Yahoo Hires Amber Allman as New D.C. Director of Public Affairs
18 Nov 2009 | 9:18 pmEarlier today, BoomTown reported that Yahoo was poised to name a few new top execs at its Silicon Valley HQ. But the company has also hired a new director of public affairs in the nation’s capital. After I queried the company, Yahoo (YHOO) confirmed that it has tapped Amber Allman, a vice president at 463 Communications, for the job. She has extensive tech experience. “We are very pleased that she is coming on board,” said Nina Blackwell, senior director of global public affairs, who will be Allman’s boss. “She will be a very valuable member of the team.
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Lance Knobel
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The ecosystem dilemma
20 Nov 2009 | 8:43 amMy latest column for Reuters compares the ecosystem approaches of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating systems. My conclusion: For an ecosystem to succeed it will need the best developers. Apple’s policy of near-tyrannical control ensures certain quality and standards, but it also risks scaring off the best talent. I also wanted to include an absolutely perfect xkcd cartoon. Not sure why that didn’t pass muster, but here it is: -
Why use McKinsey — or any of the other guys?
13 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmJay Rosen has a plaintive tweet: I don’t get why managers hire McKinsey. Aren’t they supposed to be able to manage? What am I missing? Jay’s question comes on the heels of news that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has hired McKinsey & Company to run its slide rules over the operations of the Wall Street Journal. Magazine group Condé Nast and Time Warner have recently come under the gimlet eye of McKinsey consultants. The question on why engage the very expensive services of McKinsey, Bain, BCG or any of the other big strategy consultants is a long-running one in… -
Talking to Brad DeLong
14 Oct 2009 | 9:27 amSometimes my work on Berkeleyside intersects with my interests here at Davos Newbies. If you’re a Brad DeLong reader you’ll probably find my chat with him worth reading. It ranges from Erasmus to Tolkien to the future of higher education. -
My new Berkeley site
13 Oct 2009 | 10:31 amIf any readers of Davos Newbies were following InBerkeley, it’s no longer being updated. I’ve started a new hyperlocal site for Berkeley, Berkeleyside. It’s day one, but come have a look. -
Financial Times’ new low
10 Oct 2009 | 12:39 pmI’ve lamented the US political coverage by the Financial Times’ Edward Luce before. And the other day Felix Salmon picked up the theme. But I think today may mark a new low. Luce provides political analysis on the award of the Nobel peace prize to president Obama. He takes the church of the savvy line that the prize will reinforce the view that Obama is all talk, no action. Given that Luce has never found a conservative take on conventional wisdom that he doesn’t like, that’s unsurprising. But he plumbs the depths with his language. Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host,…
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Marc Canter
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More November blogging ‘09
18 Nov 2009 | 6:16 pmCongrats to the Open Web Foundation on launching version 1.0 of Open Web Foundation agreement. Anil Dash’s new incubator sounds awesome. Maybe he’ll be interested in our Digital City project. Here’s the video I of the speech I did in Malmo, Sweden this month. A swine flu of stupidity I’m thinking of switching to Rackspace because of posts like this. I wonder if Scoble can get me “a good deal?” The Mayor of Real-time COMCAST Cares - uh huh, I believe that alright! The Do’s of Streaming Music - Brian Zisk Pivot, -
Big Ideas…. Nov ‘09
18 Nov 2009 | 6:08 amTim O’Reilly - laments over the ‘war for the web’. Indeed we’re in an on-going battle. I just hope Tim doesn’t try and trademark “War 2.0″. Chris Messina - FactoryJoe has some insights into the death of the URL. As the NEO said - it’s all about ‘choice’. Lev Gonick - CWRU’s CIO informs us a major effort he’s been working on for six years. Gigabit networking into the community, connecting education, health, security and energy services together. This is one of teh projects I’m getting involved with here in… -
Mid-November blogging ‘09
13 Nov 2009 | 9:51 pmMeanwhile…… It’s nice to see Arrington finally name Mark Pincus….. as the slimeball du jour. But some of us have known that about Mark - for awhile. Episode #40 - a new one from theSocialWeb.tv boys…… Open Government Data Poster Flow Chart - thanks Ton! This is totally coolio! U.S. Cyworld R.I.P. - I guess we were right, the U.S. DIDN’T go for their interface! 3 Pointers and the slasher 10 most common API pitfalls Rasmus Lerdorf, the inventor of php - has finally left Yahoo. Go, Factual, Quizipedia, CodeIgniter, Love Machine, -
The Beta Block class
13 Nov 2009 | 8:09 amI’ll be teaching a new class at CWRU in January called ‘the Beta Block’ class. Its based upon a program CWRU is deploying into 104 apartments and homes on Hessler St. in Cleveland, directly adjacent to the Case campus. The program will provide free fiber optic connectivity to the residents of Hessler street and our class will make sure that there is compelling content, user interfaces and gateway to a series of free services. Here’s the class syllabus Here’s a general outline of the project. The class is being sponsored by CWRU. More details to follow. -
“How to build a Digital City” keynote - Aarhus ‘09
9 Nov 2009 | 6:08 amThe video is choppy, but the content is real. I even sing a little ‘Recitative’ to begin.
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Meet the Press
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NBC Meet the Press (audio) - 11-15-2009-074422
15 Nov 2009 | 9:30 amListen to NBC 's "Meet the Press," featuring headline-making interviews with world leaders and U.S. newsmakers every Sunday morning. This audio podcast, published each Sunday by MSNBC.com, brings you each show in its entirety. For more from "Meet the Press" visit http://mtp.msnbc.com
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Michael Gartenberg
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5 Things Missing from the Droid
8 Nov 2009 | 9:41 amLots of buzz about the Droid over the weekend as more users got their hands on a device. My first take is posted over on SlashGear and it’s mostly positive. If, however, you’re thinking of getting one, here’s a list of five things that you should know about before you buy. 1. Applications. Despite the 10,000 apps in the the marketplace there’s too much stuff still missing, especially in terms of entertainment. That means a real lack of good games, no eBook readers like Kindle or Noook, no Slingplayer etc. Even worse, Android 2.0 still has a limit of 256mb for… -
Sonos S5 well, just rocks
4 Nov 2009 | 9:14 amI’ve been a Sonos fan since they first introduced their first products years ago and it’s been fun watching them evolve the line, tapping into new trends and offering new services and values. The latest in the line is the Sonos S5, a standalone device that’s designed to be used with an iPhone as the controller (of course, it also plugs into the rest of the Sonos family and can use any Sonos controller). It’s a simple concept and I’m surprised that no one has thought of it before. First, let’s see what the S5 isn’t. It’s not a speaker dock to… -
The Two Ballmers
21 Oct 2009 | 7:25 pmI’ve spent most of the day wandering around, meeting with a lot of folks and the topic that kept coming up was Microsoft and the Windows 7 launch and how Microsoft will do tomorrow. Matt Buchanan summed it well tonight. The most interesting news this week so far in tech was a new mouse. Tomorrow Steve Ballmer will take the stage in NY. It might be the most important product introduction for Microsoft. Ever. It’s not whether Win 7 will be a success. It will. It’s whether Win 7 will be relevant. Reviews have been good so far but Win 7 is only as good as the hardware it runs… -
New Macbook shows Apple is avoiding the race to the bottom
20 Oct 2009 | 9:04 amApple’s new lineup of products today show that they’re largely ignoring the advice of analysts, journalists and other pundits and who keep suggesting Apple’s strategy must include lower priced $599-$799 laptops as well as enter the netbook market. Instead, Apple’s revamped the lonely white Macbook with core elements of the pro line including a uni-body design (Polycarbonate not metal), LED backlit display and a non removable battery with up to 7 hours of battery life and the now signature glass multi-touch trackpad. Coming less than a day after Apple revealed stellar… -
New iMac line is aspirational tech at its best.
20 Oct 2009 | 9:03 amYes, the new bumps to the Mini are interesting and expected (and the new Mini based server will be a most interesting product to watch, keep an eye on that on) It’s the new iMac line that’s worthy of attention. The latest incarnation of the new all in one desktops is nothing short of breathtaking. While the design is familiar, the new aesthetics make it look more like something from an Apple concept lab than a commercial PC. Available in just two sizes, 21 and 27 screens, it’s the 27″ model that will stand out, there’s no doubt that when many customers walk into…
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Naked Jen
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you turn me into somebody loved
17 Nov 2009 | 3:11 pmevery time i start to feel better, i just end up feeling much worse. it's like two steps forward seven steps backwards. or something like that. -
Every Day Is Ice Cream and Chocolate Cake
11 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pmShe’s peppering me with questions about The Outlaw. The previous evening I had chosen him over her, choosing Indian food and a naked Friday soak in the hot tub instead of a cultural outing to a Mark Twain play production. I know she’s more than curious about this new paramour. -
I Wish That Your Hair Was Orange
6 Nov 2009 | 10:11 amWe all know I'm a girl that's all about the words. If you can use words well, I might just follow you anywhere. -
A Magic Bus of An Entirely Different Color
5 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pmI do love with abandon, it is true. I always have. If I love you, I give you everything I've got and I never hold back. I sparkle with it, shine it on you, beam it all in your direction. -
And Sometimes You Get An Award!
3 Nov 2009 | 7:15 amSometimes, you just get an award for your blog for no particular reason at all. I'm all about coming in first. My sisters will tell you that since I'm the oldest of the three children in our family, since I'm...
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FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right
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I Read Through 160,000,000 Bytes of Hacked Files And All I Got Was This Lousy E-Mail
20 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pmIt's the global warming scandal of the century, says Michelle Malkin!The exposure of the warmist conspiracy, says Andrew Bolt!The final nail in the coffin of anthropogenic global warming, bleats James Delingpole!A stunning tour de force -- four stars, says Leonard Maltin!OK, so that last quote is made up. But the others aren't. What is it these conservatives are so excited about?Apparently, the networks of University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit were hacked into last night. Approximately 160 megabytes of files, containing hundreds or thousands of e-mails and documents were leaked as… -
It's [Still] The Economy, Dumbass
20 Nov 2009 | 3:45 amAll right -- this is my favorite graph in quite some time. Let's show the picture first and ask questions later.What we have is a comparison of Barack Obama's approval ratings on the economy to his approval ratings overall. It includes all polls in the Pollster.com database that asked about both approval of Obama on the economy and his overall job performance -- a total of 109 polls dating back to the start of his term. I've then drawn in some LOESS curves to illustrate the trend.The two lines track each other uncannily well. From the very start of Obama's term, there's been about a 5-6 point… -
Dems Lucky There Aren't More Lincolns
19 Nov 2009 | 6:37 pmHow can Democrats expect to get 60 votes for their health care bill in the Senate when it barely garnered a majority in the House? It's a good question that has a number of good answers. For instance: the Senate's bill is more moderate than the House's. And the 60-vote threshold applies only to procedural matters and not to final passage, meaning that Democrats could hedge their bets by voting for cloture but against the bill itself.But perhaps the most fundamental difference is this one: only a third of the Senate is up for re-election each cycle. Not only that, but the Democratic senators… -
Senate Handicapping One Year Out
19 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pmThe 2010 Senate contests, I submit, will tell us more than either the House or gubernatorial results next year about the relative status of the two parties and their competitiveness. Why?For one, historically the president's party loses an average of about 16 House seats in his first midterm cycle, but there's really not much of a Senate correction. (The average is less than one seat.) Obviously, the Democrats could still over- or underperform the 16-seat benchmark. But the House results, if the GOP overperforms, are not likely to dethrone Nancy Pelosi. Second, gubernatorial results are… -
American Politics and International Soccer: Who's the Ref?
19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amThe rhetorical link between sports and politics in the U.S. has been widely documented, with sports providing a treasure trove of analogies, quotes and other trinkets for politicians. At the same time, pundits have long enjoyed the usage of sport as a foil for political commentary. In many ways, it makes intuitive sense, with both fields defined by highly adversarial relationships, impassioned periods of training and execution, large quantities of public exposure and critique, and intense love-hate relations with the media.Therefore, that we could draw political parallels from last evening's…
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Om Malik
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AmEx to Buy Revolution Money for $300 Million
18 Nov 2009 | 6:55 amAmerican Express, the company well known for overpriced charge cards, is buying Ted Leonsis and Steve Case’s Revolution Money for $300 million. Leonsis shared this information on his blog. Amex wants to use Revolution Money to build a next-generation offering. Revolution Money has some kind of a next-generation payments technology that brings together offline and online worlds; it’s part of the Revolution group of companies floated by Steve Case. No one I know has either seen it or actually uses it. If there is one company that is going to do offline-online payments, that will be… -
How Much Money Did Joyent Really Raise?
17 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pmIntel today said it’s invested an undisclosed amount in Joyent, the 6-year-old Sausalito, Calif.-based startup that started out as a web hosting company but eventually evolved into a cloud service provider. Neither Intel nor Joyent disclosed the amount of money invested, but Intel’s investment in the company is a strategic bet for the chipmaker, as it faces a smaller end user base for its silicon thanks to enterprises turning to computing delivered as a service to help limit the number of servers they buy. First the deal specifics. Intel Capital has invested $8.5 million into the… -
Norwest Closes $1.2 Billion Venture Fund
17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmNorwest Venture Partners (NVP), one of the most respected funds in Silicon Valley, says that it’s closed NVP XI, a $1.2 billion fund that will invest in diverse sectors and geographies. NVP, which recently recorded a major hit with the $405 million sale of video conferencing equipment maker LifeSize, is one of the few venture funds to close a mega-fund. Khosla Ventures ($1 billion) and Greylock Partners ($575 million) are two other partnerships that have been able to raise mega-funds. At the same time, there have been numerous reports of many partnerships struggling to whip up interest… -
Why imeem Really Sold Out
17 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pmThis morning news broke that MySpace, the second-largest social network that’s currently reinventing itself as a music destination, was buying imeem, a free online music service that has been remixed (and remade) more times that ’90s dance anthem “Keep on Moving.” TechCrunch, which reported on the news, didn’t reveal what the deal terms were. I have been dialing sources for information, and have found an interesting backstory behind this sale. First, it was essentially a fire sale. Imeem, which in the past has been threatened into submission by large music… -
Motorola to Sell 600,000 Droids in 2009
17 Nov 2009 | 8:24 amMotorola and Verizon, thanks to their $100 million marketing efforts, are going to sell some 600,000 Droids during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Mark McKechnie of Broadpoint AmTech, a boutique research firm. He had initially expected about 200,000 device sales following the launch, but he has upped his forecast: Motorola should sell another 200,000 Droids by Black Friday and 150,000-200,000 during the remainder of the holiday season. This would bring the total to some 600,000 Droids for 2009. We recently reported the findings of a study from Flurry that indicated Motorola might…
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On the Media
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Online and Isolated? (On The Media: Friday, 20 November 2009)
20 Nov 2009 | 3:19 pmSocial scientists have long suspected that the internet contributes to our growing isolation. But Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, set out to test that assumption. He says they found that Americans aren't as isolated as we thought and that being active on the internet might actually help prevent social isolation. -
Waiting for Info (On The Media: Friday, 20 November 2009)
20 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pmIn 1989, The National Security Archive requested documents from the CIA regarding the Iran-Contra affair. This year, the CIA released them. President Barack Obama promised a new era of transparency and adherence to the Freedom of Information Act, but has he followed through? Yvette Chin, FOIA coordinator for the NSA, tells the story behind the long, long wait for information. -
Count Down (On The Media: Friday, 20 November 2009)
20 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pmWhen Republican Senator David Vitter introduced an amendment that would require the U.S. Census Bureau to ask residents whether or not they are citizens, the Senate voted it down along party lines. As former Washington Post reporter D’Vera Cohn told us, controversy has often followed the count. -
Obama In China (On The Media: Friday, 20 November 2009)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pmThe President returned from his first trip to China on Thursday. The Atlantic’s James Fallows talks about the trip, and the mostly negative U.S. press coverage it received. -
Letters (On The Media: Friday, 20 November 2009)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pmBrooke and Bob read a few of your comments.
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NYT: Paul Krugman
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The Big Squander
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmBy not extracting concessions from bankers during the rescue of A.I.G., policy makers undermined their own credibility and put the broader economy at risk. -
World Out of Balance
15 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmThe problem of international trade imbalances is about to get substantially worse unless China changes its weak-currency policy. -
Free to Lose
12 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmWith long-term unemployment at its highest levels since the 1930s and on the rise, the U.S. should consider policies that address job growth directly. -
Paranoia Strikes Deep
8 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIf the G.O.P. essentially shrinks down to a rump party across America, the country could become ungovernable in the midst of a continuing economic disaster. -
Obama Faces His Anzio
5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmPresident Obama chose a cautious approach rather than bold action on the economy, and the decision may haunt Democrats for years to come.
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Phil Jones
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17 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm
17 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pmTim O'Reilly :It could be that everyone will figure out how to play nicely with each other, and we'll see a continuation of the interoperable web model we've enjoyed for the past two decades. But I'm betting that things are going to get ugly. We're heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it's more than that, it's a war against the web as an interoperable platform. Instead, we're facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill. Update : don't… -
3 Nov 2009 | 1:32 am
3 Nov 2009 | 1:32 amGood overview of smart-phone market in light of latest Droid phone.Pundits seem to agree : motorola + android == win. Bad news for RIM, Palm and Nokia. -
27 Sep 2009 | 3:08 pm
27 Sep 2009 | 3:08 pmSimon Wardley : Following such a strategy, then it could be Game, Set and Match to MSFT for the next twenty years and the open source movement will find itself crushed by this juggernaut. -
24 Sep 2009 | 6:12 am
24 Sep 2009 | 6:12 amBlindingly obvious truth that needs to be spelled out :Steve Jobs is very clever. If Apple had implemented Flash on the iPhone, it would have quickly become the cross-platform standard, and Adobe would have owned the whole mobile-app. market. Possibly we'd have been talking about an Adobe App. Store. -
24 Sep 2009 | 1:25 am
24 Sep 2009 | 1:25 amMicrosoft's nihilist "scorched-minds" advertising campaign continues. Remember, the whole reason for these adverts is to make you believe that the universe is an absurd place where Manichean structures (such as Apple==cool/PC==uncool) don't obtain.
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Phil Windley
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Kynetx Impact and New Features
19 Nov 2009 | 8:57 pmOne of the great things about an event like the Kynetx Impact conference that we're holding this week is that they are great focusing tools for a company. This has been true of our thinking, but especially our technology. There were three big features we've been thinking about and working on for a while, but we wanted to have them done for Impact and that made them happen. The first, I've already mention on this blog: FLWR in KRL, the ability to create foreach loops within a rule. This is a pretty big feature for KRL. The second feature is creating browser extensions with the push of a… -
Come to Kynetx Impact This Week
16 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pmIf you're a regular reader of my blog, then you know that we're having a developers conference for Kynetx on this week on November 18-19 in Provo called Kynetx Impact. There's an awesome agenda with some great speakers including Doc Searls, Kim Cameron, and Paul Trevethick. There will also be great food, great people, and a chance to see first hand what we're doing at Kynetx. You can sign up online. Over 110 people are signed up already and we're expecting a standing room only crowd. I'd like for you to come to Impact. Use Windley25 to get 25% discount on the admission fee. I'd love for you… -
We Need More Than a Selector
11 Nov 2009 | 8:36 amIf you glance at Johannes Ernst's latest blog post, Why We Really Don't Need an "Identity Selector", you might think he's speaking out against identity clients, but in reality, he's speaking out against identity "selectors." That is, the idea that the most important, useful feature of such a client is "selecting" an identity. He says: The correct product is not a "selector". It also must be: An identity "de-selector", with which the user can become anonymous again (or perhaps even remove all the information from the site which was conveyed during the "identity selection" phase). The… -
KNS Build 351: FLWR Comes to KRL
9 Nov 2009 | 11:36 amOne of the big features missing from KRL as a rule language is a foreach statement that allows looping. Build 351 of KNS (released today) fixes that problem. The thing that kept holding me back was confusion on my part about the best way to add it and how it should work. The problem was that I wanted, thought KRL needed, more than just looping. I wanted full-blown FLWOR statements (foreach, let, where, order by, result). I realized one day on a bike ride that the entire rule ought to be a FLWOR statement and that meant that the foreach needed to happen before the rule body executed. The rule… -
Spamming Like a Pro: The Value of Social Data
4 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pmImage via Wikipedia This article at TechCrunch: How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insider's Confession is written by Dennis Yu, a reformed ad spammer on Facebook. In it, he says: When the Facebook platform first launched, developers used Google AdSense, which was paying 10-15 cent eCPMs, meaning that developers were earning 10 to 15 cents for every 1,000 ads they shown. But soon, ad networks, such as the one I operated, stepped in to show that by using social data and some clever ad copy, we could raise this to well over $6--that's 60 times better than AdSense. AdSense was getting a 0.1%…
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Rex Hammock
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Wikis can be maps, too
17 Nov 2009 | 11:29 amLongtime readers of this blog (and the two of you know who you are) are aware that I love maps. I’m on record as saying the greatest software ever is what is now Google Earth. In presentations about social media, I always emphasize that the way in which people “express themselves” on the internet is often not in blog posts or tweets or sharing-photos or video. For some people, expressing themselves is more about making lists, or bookmarking websites, or helping out on wiki mapping project. A wiki mapping project? (In this case, I’m using the term “wiki” to… -
Wikipedia is running its first banner ad
13 Nov 2009 | 8:25 amI had a minor jolt seeing a big banner ad across the top of Wikipedia this morning. However, the “ad” (actually a few are rotating) is a link to a message from Jimmy Wales encouraging users to donate to the WikiMedia Foundation. Part of the pitch: Wikipedia will stay ad-free forever. Sidenote: If you’re a registered user of Wikipedia, check out the new “Beta” look of the site. I’m assuming it will launch around the first of the year. It’s a part of the “Wikipedia Usability Project. Sidenote 2: We recently moved to what is the Wikipedia… -
If ‘advertising’ is your middle name, your surveys will always suggest the solution is …
12 Nov 2009 | 11:31 amI have a theory that goes something like this: If the name of your organization is Interactive Advertising Bureau, any study of the needs of internet marketers is going to suggest that “advertising” is the solution. According to my theory, such a study will focus on how media companies should involve getting a salesforce of “category experts” and interactive marketing gurus who can help develop more “engaging options and formats.” So, having this theory, I’m not in the least bit surprised that a new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and… -
Always grateful
11 Nov 2009 | 7:22 amOne of the magazines Hammock has the honor to publish is Semper Fi, the national magazine of The Marine Corps League, a congressionally-charted national auxiliary organization founded in 1923 that promotes and preserves the spirit and traditions of all Marines who serve in, or who have ever served in, the U.S Marine Corps. Today it is veterans day in the U.S. I think of the hundreds of Marines (once a Marine, always a Marine — there are no “former Marines”) we have featured on the pages of Semper Fi when I thank veterans — Marines, and all veterans of the U.S. military… -
Google, I salute you (for free airport wifi)
10 Nov 2009 | 4:30 amLong-time readers of this blog know that I’m a fan of airports that provide free wifi to travelers. I think wifi should be like air conditioning or rest rooms — part of the convenience infrastructure, not a profit center. Airports can profit from the service in a number of ways: Letting travelers know about the airport shops and restaurants within a few hundred yards of them, for example. Secondly, free wifi allows passengers to go online to self-manage travel changes should bad weather or other factors arise. Well, I’m getting my wish: At least between today and January 15.
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Robert Scoble
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Why Google Chrome OS has already won
20 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmToday InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy says that Google’s Chrome OS will fail. What he is missing is he’s looking at the wrong field. Google is playing a different game. Google Chrome OS is NOT about killing Microsoft or Apple. What is it about? Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers. See, what happens if the world goes to Microsoft’s Silverlight, the way that Seesmic did this week? Google is locked out of such a world. Google is in a war over developers with Microsoft. Google wants developers to build for the open web. Microsoft wants developers to… -
Twitter to turn on advertising “you will love” (here’s how: SuperTweet)
20 Nov 2009 | 10:22 amTwitter’s COO, Dick Costolo, today, at the TechCrunch Real Time Crunchup (live video of the conference is live now on building43, there will be lots of news all day long from this event), told the audience that Twitter is, indeed, going to turn on an advertising model. This is a huge shift in what Twitter is saying publicly. But advertising isn’t something many people love. So, how will Twitter make advertising you love? By building a SuperTweet! How can they do that? Well, yesterday, I talked with Likaholix co-founder Bindu Reddy about just that. You can watch our video we… -
In search of the perfect Facebook and Twitter client
17 Nov 2009 | 11:57 pmI use Twitter and Facebook a lot. Probably more than 99.9999% of people in the world. I am in search of the perfect client that will help me use Facebook and, particularly, Twitter (which I use a lot more than Facebook because that is the best place to network with other technology professionals). I am still looking. The perfect client does not exist. First, I use my iPhone (and now my Droid) for Twitter a LOT. My wife, @maryamie, uses Facebook on her iPhone all the time. So, I must have the best possible iPhone client. This week? That’s Tweetie 2.0 for an app and Dabr for a Web page… -
Ray Ozzie is wrong about smartphone apps
17 Nov 2009 | 1:59 pmMicrosoft exec Ray Ozzie, at a lunchtime session with bloggers at its PDC conference told the bloggers that apps won’t be a differentiating factor on smart phones. He is wrong. Totally wrong. Why is Mike Arrington so passionate about his Droid (we argued about it for 39 minutes on the Gillmor Gang last week and then we went to the beach together on Sunday and argued about it some more in private). I’ve talked about this before. Most of what we argue about is apps. Droid is better than iPhone because Droid has Google Voice, Arrington says. iPhone is better than Droid, I say,… -
What is Twitter for? Pimping your blog!
14 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pmAt the Blog World Expo a few weeks ago someone asked what Twitter is for and I answered “pimping your blog.” Hey, it works for TechCrunch and Mashable, why not you? Or me. So, I’ve finally figured out that I was clueless because I didn’t have a Twitter account for my blog. When people say they are unfollowing me because I’m too noisy these feeds are the antidote. scobleblog is for following ONLY my blog. I won’t put anything else on that feed. scoblemedia is for following ONLY when either I post video or am on someone else’s video or audio shows.
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Seth Godin
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Benefit of the doubt
21 Nov 2009 | 2:11 amIt's almost impossible to communicate something clearly and succinctly to everyone, all the time.So misunderstandings occur.We misunderstand a comment or a gesture or a policy or a contract.And then what happens?Well, if we're engaged with someone we like or trust, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We either assume that what they actually meant was the thing we expected from someone like them, or we ask about it.If we're engaged with a stranger or someone we don't trust, we assume the worst.The challenge, then, is to earn the benefit of the doubt. How many of your customers, prospects,… -
The amateur scientist (that's us)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 amMany people buy a car (probably their single biggest discretionary purchase) based on slamming a door, kicking a tire and judging the handshake of a salesperson.We choose a surgeon based on the carpeting in his office and a politician by his hair cut.During the first week of swine flu vaccines in New York, most parents (more than half!) chose to keep their kids out of the program.Interviewed parents said things like, "I'm not sure it's safe," and "I wanted to see if it affected other kids..."No mention of longitudinal studies or long-term side effects. No science at all, really, just rumors… -
Embracing lifetime value
19 Nov 2009 | 2:46 amIf you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it's easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a… -
Some books for November
18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmRandom thoughts from all over for those of us hungry for new ways to think. This month's list is here. The previous list was blogged in September. -
The reason they want you to fit in...
18 Nov 2009 | 2:03 amis that once you do, then they can ignore you.
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Micro Persuasion
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The Apple "Tablet" and Chrome OS are Meaningless - the Phone is the Future of Computing
19 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pmIf you're paying any attention to the techosphere today there are two stories dominating the headlines. Both involve non-shipping products. First, Google showed off the first demo of its Chrome OS. Download Squad does a nice job breaking it down.... "So what exactly is Chrome OS? It's an operating system based on a web browser called... Google Chrome. The idea is that you won't have to (or be able to) install a single application directly on your PC. Rather, all of your apps will be run from the web and all of your data will be stored in the cloud." Second, a mythical unicorn called the Apple… -
Ten Common Phrases That Could Soon Be History
17 Nov 2009 | 6:43 pmEarlier this week Oxford University Press declared "unfriend" its word of the year. This got me thinking... now that we are entering an era of media reforestation what common phrases could soon be history? Here's 10 that I came up with. You may disagree but I believe all of these have faded or will be gone soon. (All images are from Flickr via Creative Commons and are credited.) Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Google Fast Flip Nearing Launch?
15 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pmGoogle Fast Flip appears to be nearing a full integration into Google News. I wasn't able to replicate this in other browsers so right now this appears to just be a cookie test. Stories from Google Fast Flip started appearing at the bottom of my page - even when I logged out of my account. In addition, Google News searches now show links to Fast Flip results at the bottom of the page. This is visible to all users. Update 11/16/2009 - Chris from Google News notes in a comment below that this is indeed a test. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Reviews Stripped from Google Search Options
15 Nov 2009 | 3:13 amI make heavy use of Google Search options in refining my queries. I was surprised this morning to see that the "reviews" option is now gone. This was one of the more handy features. Anyone have any insight here? Search Options before (image via Search Engine Land). Note under that "Reviews" is the last link under "All Results." And now today... Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The Next Big Trend? It's All About Curation
13 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pmFact: Information sources are exploding. More information will be created in 2009 than all prior years. Fact: Attention is finite. We're becoming media agnostic, but when we're interested in something we dig down into our interests. This is why I and others like Robert Scoble are really excited about digital curation. Facebook and Twitter lists are one level of curation. However, there are others. Posterous and Tumblr are fantastic platforms for soliciting contributions from groups of people around a shared interest. And they're platforms that will enable all of us to curate together. Here…
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Sylvia Paull
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Blast from the Past: Weather Underground at Green Fest
16 Nov 2009 | 8:07 amGreen Festival in San Francisco, an annual event celebrating all that is green (from at least twenty different kinds of organically grown chocolate to recycled cashmere sweaters and bathroom appliances) reminded me of a Moroccan street fair in southern France in which I suddenly was surrounded by swarms of people and realized there was no way out. It's organized by Global Exchange and Green America and abounds with hundreds of vendors touting publications like Ode and Mother Jones to Cliff Bars, Strauss dairy products, and electric folding bicycles. Raines Cohen, cofounder of the… -
More Responsible Journalism
4 Nov 2009 | 9:19 pmScott Rosenberg, cofounder of Salon.com, a former theater and movie critic, and author ("Say Everything" and "Dreaming in Code"), says his writing lately has been about mistakes. In software jargon, mistakes are called bugs, and that's why Rosenberg's latest venture, Mediabugs.org, modeled after the way open source developers solicit testers to report bugs in their programs, offers a way for readers to report bugs they find in media and give reporters a chance to respond.Rosenberg received a grant from the Knight Foundation Challenge, which dispenses $5 million… -
Google uber Alles
28 Oct 2009 | 8:05 pmToday's (Oct. 28) lecture at UC Berkeley's iSchool by Hal Varian, former iSchool dean and now chief economist of Google (as if they are a nation unto themselves), seemed like a variant of Gary Vaynerchuck's paean to the powers of the Internet. Instead of focusing on the Web's promise of economic success and personal expression, Varian argued the Internet is the mothership of creativity in the 21st century.Varian -- who oversees new ways of increasing ad revenues through Google search -- attributes the "huge innovation on the Web in the last fifteen years" to what he… -
Digital Dale Carnegie: Gary Vaynerchuk
27 Oct 2009 | 3:28 pmAs part of the Berkeley Arts & Letters series, and promoted by the Berkeley Cybersalon, an irregularly occurring event I've hosted for more than a decade, Gary Vaynerchuk, Belarussian-born, New Jersey-raised entrepreneur and author of NY Times #2 bestseller "Crush It," spoke at the Hillside Club in Berkeley October 25. The audience drew a modest fan following from Modesto as well as non-tech locals who want to know how to use social media tools to make money, enjoy work, and share their passions with the world.Vaynerchuk speaks in sound bites. He was made for social media… -
NY Times Seems Clueless, Still
21 Oct 2009 | 8:53 pmCurious about the NY Times mindset, I went to hear Greg Winter, editor of the foreign desk covering Africa, Latin America, and the United Nations, speak at the UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism series tonight on the Future of Journalism in American Society. Winter is also a 2000 graduate of the J School and friends with the new dean, Neil Henry, who was a former professor.Winter was trained as a 20th century journalist to research a story thoroughly, fact-check every bit of information, and work on a single story-per-day deadline. The Internet, he says, "has fundamentally…
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This Week with George Stephanopoulos
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This Week (11.15.09)
15 Nov 2009 | 9:35 amHillary Clinton on civilian aid in Afghanistan, governor rumors and a coffee date with Sarah Palin. -
This Week (11.08.09)
8 Nov 2009 | 7:58 amAn exclusive interview with the Chief of Staff of the Army. -
This Week (11.01.09)
2 Nov 2009 | 3:21 amAn exclusive interview with WH Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett. -
This Week (10.25.09)
25 Oct 2009 | 7:40 amA "This Week" exclusive interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. -
This Week (10.18.09)
18 Oct 2009 | 7:42 amDavid Axelrod on the White House take on the economy, Afghanistan and Fox News.
