Author: Kent

Reader, writer, arithmeticer. Proprietor of Newsome.Org, a tech, music and life blog.

Morning Reading: 10/2/06

Here’s a primer on sushi etiquette.

CB radio insult escalates into a shooting. (via Obscure)

12 ways to make your mark in the blogosphere.

TV Squad has a summary of where to find network TV shows online.  Handy for when your TIVO forgets to record a season pass- which has happened to me recently.

I have been thinking and talking a lot about the Monty Hall Paradox.  I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Mark Cuban has more thoughts on YouTube.  Yes, the internet is a cockroach farm, but YouTube was not the first video sharing site- and it has a ton of mindshare that will be hard to displace.  Think eBay.

And finally, Harrah’s might be worth as much as YouTube (irony intended).

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Video Photos

The thing I like best about watching Scoble‘s new videocast is the way his fancy new video camera lets him take video shots that are so incredible they look like photos.

During the 3rd installment of his Thomas Hawk series, Scoble took a video shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, at night.  I was only half way paying attention at that point, and when I looked at the feed, I saw what I assumed was one of Thomas’s photos of the bridge- until I noticed that one flashing light.

Very cool.

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The Finkelstein Paradox

Seth is a buddy of mine, but even he will have to admit this is funny.

Seth argues logically and genuinely that he shouldn’t be in Wikipedia.  The Guardian and many bloggers pick up the story.

As a result, Seth becomes even more famous, thereby damaging his argument that he isn’t notable enough to be included.

Rogers wonderfully dubs this the Finkelstein Paradox.

It’s Sunday morning, so let me quote some applicable scripture:

Brian: I’m not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand? Honestly!
Girl: Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.
Brian: What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!
Followers: He is! He is the Messiah!

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YouTube Haters or Bubble Watchers?

Fred Wilson calls for everyone to stop hating YouTube.

I’m certainly not a YouTube hater- it won my Web 2.0 Wars series.  And I agree with Fred that the neatest stuff on YouTube is not the “pirated” stuff that maybe shouldn’t be there.  It’s the user-created stuff.

But, but, but…

I think the absurd valuations that all of these bubble blowers are trying to associate with YouTube depends in large part on its ability to serve a lot of “pirated” content.

And…

I think we have to make a distinction between people who dislike YouTube in and of itself and people, like me, who only dislike the wildly overinflated valuations that the circus barkers yell at us from inside the greater-fool tent.

YouTube would be a great site, community and service if it didn’t have one clip of pirated content.

But it does.  The ironic thing is that most of the content producers weren’t really complaining.

Until some dumbass started squawking about how many billions of dollars YouTube is worth.

Why not just sit back and let YouTube try to come up with some revenue streams and then ask them how much money they make?

The answer, of course, is impatience, greed and the complete lack of scale.

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Moore and More on Linking

Earl Moore has a list of reasons why some people don’t link.  I can add some additional reasons why I think a couple of bloggers I used to read don’t link:

links

(a) I was picked on in high school and this is my revenge on the world;

(b) if I link to you, people will realize that you are right and I am wrong, and I like to feel right;

(c) for the first time in my life, I am at the top of the food chain in something and I like the feeling of ignoring people who wouldn’t give me the time of day in the real world; and

(d) I’m pretending that my new media blog is an old media newspaper, and old media newspapers don’t link to new media blogs.

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Morning Reading: 9/30/06

Claus is having his own set of problems with Firefox.  Fortunately, my crash problem seems to have magically fixed itself- perhaps via an extension update.

Did the latest Colorado gunman use MySpace to research his victims?  According to John Dvorak, a CNN story intially reported a rumor that he did.

TechRepublic has 10 ways to become a better blogger.

Here’s how to use your webcam as a motion detecting security device.

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Morning Reading: 9/29/06

Only a Fool Would Buy That: Everyone’s favorite billionare, Mark Cuban, on YouTube.

I Know You Are, But What Am I: HP’s Patricia Dunn at a congressional hearing.

Why don’t we all just agree that MySpace is worth more than everything else on earth combined, so we can stop writing about it?

Randy Morin is exactly right.  Those who, by intent or by laziness, don’t link are damaging the utility of the blogosphere- both as a conversational medium and as an information resource.

Rogers and Seth on Seth’s Wikipedia imprisonment.

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Great Music Film – Festival Express

festivalexpress

I watched one of, and perhaps the, best music films I have ever seen tonight.

Festival Express.  It’s available at Amazon, and via Netflix.

In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying some of the world’s greatest rock bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Ian & Sylvia and others traveled, partied and played great music together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts.

It was all filmed.

The concert footage is great- the first number by The Band is worth the rental all by itself.  But the best parts are the impromptu jam sessions that occurred on the train between concerts.

I love this film, and recommend it highly to any fan of great music.

Morning Reading: 9/28/06

Henry Blodget says that MySpace could be worth $15 billion (yes, that’s a b) in a few years.  He bases his argument on the current value of Yahoo.  He also says it could be worth less than Newscorp paid for it ($600 million).  While I’m not sure Henry did much other than set out the vast range of possibilities, he ended with a sentence I very much agree with: “One big search deal–and an obsession with music-related content–will not a $15 billion company make.”

In related news, Forevergeek debunks the myth of 100 million users.

Zingu: fun with photos.

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