39 years ago today

History News Network has the Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving.

The dogs all get prettier at cursing time.  Scott Adams has some thoughts.

TDavid looks at captchas and their effect on the number of comments.  My sense is that captchas on my blog reduced spam by around 80% and comments by around 20%.  I’ll take that trade.

I liked Kill Point.  And like every other show I like, it got canceled.  Meanwhile, somebody somewhere is about to launch Dancing with 70’s Era Let’s Make a Deal Contestants.

If you’ve been sitting around wondering who owns the Yellow Pages business in Russia, Blognation has your answer.  To anyone who says Yellow Pages, I simply say Google.  I don’t think I’ve opened a Yellow Pages book in years.  I’ve never been to an online edition.

Will Truman on pet fanatics (among other things).  Here’s my thing with pets.  You have to hit the sweet spot.  I absolutely do not trust people who have no pets.  On the other hand, I am absolutely terrified of people who are obsessed with their pets.

I have many Pownce invitations.  If anyone wants one, leave a comment.

The (formerly) Walled Street Journal is going to stop charging for its online content.  The WSJ has enough mindshare in the financial and business news arena that the advertising model will probably work.  Having said that, I don’t see why the same sort of analysis shouldn’t apply to the print version- at least to the extent required to permit a significant reduction in the print subscription cost.  Jeff Jarvis has some interesting thoughts.

Looking to get a head start on your holiday shopping?  Here are the 25 most baffling toys from around the world.

Mashable asks the perfectly rhetorical question.  Isn’t that sort of like asking which one of the Victoria’s Secret models is the prettiest?

Dwight has the scoop on the new Zunes.  PC Magazine says they’re more fun than iPods.  Maybe, but nobody cares.

In the interest of being fair, Bloglines is much faster today.

Sandy, which happens to also be the name of my secretary, is your personal email assistant.  It looks promising.

I just love it when the app de jour starts to redefine the future of the world.  The same world that is populated with people, 97% of whom have never heard of said app de jour.  Personally, I think the future will be modeled on the iPhone.  Or maybe on a Kit Kat.

Amy Gahran rediscovers Twitter.  I run hot and cold on Twitter, but one thing I do not like is when people use it largely or solely merely to point to their blog posts.  I find that spam-like.

Cool New Blog Alert: Jeff Balke is now doing a blog for the Houston Chronicle about the music industry, from a musician’s perspective.

Mike Arrington seems to be once again in mid–tantrum, this time punishing us all by canceling all his speaking engagements.  Let’s take a brief reality check.  I speak at 10-20 real-world conferences a year.  I was introduced recently as the “best ethics speaker in America” (I don’t think I’m even close, but nonetheless that’s what the moderator said).  In other words, I have a lot of conference experience- both the getting booked part, the saying no thanks part and the showing up part.  Never once has there been any confusion between me and a conference organizer as to whether I was or was not going to speak.  On one hand, I don’t think conference organizers can rightfully assume that someone has agreed to speak based on some email “maybes.”  On the other hand I find the “I don’t read my email” excuse to be ludicrous on its face.

Bloglines is really slow lately.  Lots and lots of URL freeze with lifetimes spent “waiting for http://www.bloglines.com…”  I guess I am going to have to capitulate to the inevitability of Google Reader.

I’m further into Endymion now.  I was premature in my criticism.  It’s very good.

The most unintentionally hilarious post title of all time.

Ars Technica (I always want to scream Battlestar Galactica over and over every time I see that) has the top Windows 7 feature requests.  I didn’t see “dump UAC” on the list.  Too bad.

Mario Sundar has clips from the fake Steve Jobs deal.  Guy thinks he was awesome and offers outsiders joke support on the inside jokes.

A Calorie Counter has comparisons of nutrition facts for fast food restaurants.  Scary.

Some funny quotes from our President.  My favorite: “For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings.  And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It’s just unacceptable. And we’re going to do something about it.”

Someone please invite Dave Winer to Davos, whatever the heck that is, so he can stop fishing for an invitation and continue being fame-averse in peace.

I’m back home briefly after business trips to Boston, San Diego, Dallas and Austin (twice).  October was a crazy month, with little time for blogging or blog reading.

Here are a few things that caught my attention during my travels.

San Diego is a beautiful town.  I was there just before the fire became an issue.  I’m certain I couldn’t afford to live out there, but it is pretty.  I had dinner at Osetra.  It was OK, but not as good as its reputation.  The hostess told me she was the highest paid hostess in San Diego.  So there you go.  I spoke at a conference at the W Hotel.  That place is about 3 notches too hip for me.

I read somewhere that Google is trying to get some phone company to agree to put Google bloatware on its phones.  I don’t want that crap on my phones any more than I want it on my computer.  Note to Google:  it’s pretty easy for people to install stuff they decide they want.  You don’t really have to force it on them.  Or do you?

Congrats to Mike and family!  I am sorry I was off the grid for the big event.

I think Deadstring Brothers is one of the best bands working today.  Hear Ya has the scoop on their new record, and an MP3 to sample.

Some asshole spammed my comments repeatedly while I was off the grid.  You know who I hate more than asshole spammers?  The stupid  f***kers who buy enough stuff from spammers to keep the system from self-imploding.  Spam has already made email worthless.  Are blog comments next?

Steve Rubel says in one post pretty much everything I believe, and have been writing for a long time, about Web 2.0.  It’s been very obvious for a very long time that almost everything related to the internet is about money.  Which is why so much of it bores me to tears.  Dwight has a great take on it.

Sympathies to Karl Martino.  I still grieve for my mom, and it’s been over 9 years.  It gets easier, but it’s never going to be OK.

Raina got an iPhone.  It is beyond cool.  If it could pull my corporate email, I’d pay to get out of my Verizon contract and buy one this second.

I’m finally getting around to reading the last two Hyperion books.  The first one is one of my all-time favorite books.  The second one is just as good.  So far Endymion is not doing it for me, but it’s early.

I saw Knocked Up.  Hilarious movie.  Highly recommended.