Category: Tech

Evening Reading: 6/26/07

I’ve noticed a trend I really don’t like.  In my feeds, many of the links to the post page for the blog entry are being redirected through Feedburner.  I suppose this is because (a) people want to track every possible statistic about their traffic, and (b) Google wants to get as far into our data as possible.  The problem is that if you, like me, want to link to the post page directly, you now have to click on the link, wait for the redirected page to load and get the URL from your browser’s address bar.  Previously, you could just right click and copy the link location.  This is a recipe for link discouragement.

AOL, who perfected the internet-like online experience, has launched a blog-like news service.

If the 6 people who watch your video cast make you nervous, EnjoyMyMedia will let you create a channel just for your mom.

The Dell XPS M1330 looks like a pretty sweet laptop.

I had 84 unread Gizmodo posts in my feed reader tonight.  I’ll ask once more- am I the only one who thinks that is way too many?  Is there one person in the world with a real job who reads all of them?  I unsubscribed.

Netvibes added some new features.  But not the ability to set the text size.  This seems like a 10 minute job that would benefit millions of users and potential users.  So why isn’t it happening?

Ethan Johnson has a good read on the credibility issue.  I like being compared to Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.  I also like the fact that he linked to me and didn’t later remove it.

I had no idea Greg Hughes is a pyrotechnician.  Very cool.  I was invited to the VIP suite of a huge fireworks show a couple of years ago.  The control room was next door, and we were allowed to watch the guys do their thing.  Watching the activity in the control room was even cooler than watching the fireworks themselves.

I’ve discovered a lot of great new blogs to read via my swivel feeds experiment, but none that I am enjoying more than Penelope Trunk.  Great stuff.  Highly recommended.

I’ve been predicting (read hoping for) a Led Zeppelin reunion for years.  Today Stereogum says I might finally be right.

Leo at Zen Habits is asking for donations.  Zen Habits is a must-read blog.  I’ve given, and I hope you will too.

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Arm Farting in the Blogosphere

Everybody’s talking about Techmeme today…again.  Scoble says he has all the inbound links and ought to be the top story about whatever the top story is at the moment.  He’s said basically the same thing before.  Here’s the problem with that: Scoble could write a post about arm farting and 30 or 40 people would immediately link to it, hoping he might link back.  Scoble has more yes men than Michael Corleone and Michael Arrington combined.

In other words, all those people linking wildly to Scoble aren’t doing so because they think he is the world’s greatest authority on arm farting.  They are simply holding out their hands eagerly and hoping Scoble will shake it (via a link) as he walks by.  Getting a link from Scoble is almost as good as getting arrested with Paris Hilton.  It’s not Scoble’s fault he’s the king of the blogosphere any more than it’s Paris Hilton’s fault she’s in jail.

All of which means that, at least at the top of the blogosphere, links are less about authority and more about popularity and power.  Power to control admission to the in-crowd.  Just like in life, some go radical and reject the system that excluded them.  Others waive expectantly, hoping they’ll get called over to play.  Most are somewhere in between.

But none of this is a sound basis for deciding what is top news and what isn’t.  There needs to be more to it.  There needs to be a balance between popularity, authority, freshness and inclusion.  Most of the target audience for Techmeme already subscribe to Scoble’s blog.  They are at Techmeme looking to see what others are saying about various topics.  And let’s not kid ourselves, a ton of Techmeme readers are bloggers who want to be included in the conversation.  To remove the opportunity for inclusion would change Techmeme in a fundamental and adverse way.      

I have no idea how Techmeme works under the hood, but it seems to do a good job of picking out appropriate stories and discussion links.  Sure, I get the point that the Register and the New York Times are not blogs.  But be that as it may, I find Techmeme to be a lot less biased than most bloggers, A-List and otherwise, when it comes to picking up interesting and relevant links.

Meanwhile, Louis Gray has a case of the new blogger’s blues: “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten to a story before ‘the big guys’ get it, only to be ignored.”  We’ve all been there brother, but stay the course and you’ll get some exposure via Techmeme.  No, you won’t get to be the main topic link very much, because A-Listers and a lot of wannabes will always link “upstream” in an effort to protect or obtain a membership card.  But you’ll get in the discussion links (where I live).  Is it perfect?  No.  Is it more productive than waiting for a link from one of the A-Listers or wannabes?  Absolutely.

The blogosphere is not a level playing field and there are as many motivations for blogging as there are bloggers.  This makes the trip up blogger’s hill a steep one, but Techmeme has always struck me as a reasonably fair and informative place to start.

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Facebook: the New Internet or a Gilded Cage?

facebook_logo.jpg

Mark Evans has an interesting read on 5 Things that Could Kill Facebook.  I can narrow my list down to three, but first let’s examine his list.

1) The evolution of its business model.

Mark says Facebook has a clean and accessible look and feel.  I’ve read others say the same thing.  I think it has a clean look, but I don’t find it particularly accessible.  In fact, I think it has a very non-intuitive interface.  I’m pretty computer and online literate and I can’t figure out how to do anything on Facebook without a lot of trial and error.  And if I have these problems, how do you think the public at large will fare?  Contrary to our occasional assumptions, everyone under 30 is not an uber-geek.

I agree with Mark, however, that the more ads and features they cram into Facebook, the more chaotic and MySpace-like it will become.  And anyone who reads this blog knows I have no love for any of those butt-ugly MySpace pages.  Like the rest of the internet, Facebook is, or will become, ad-dependant- which means that there will be ads and lots of them.  There are those who believe the online ad dollar is consistent and infinite.  I believe it is cyclical and limited.  Granted, if the shake out comes and Facebook is the last network standing, good for it.  But there’s a lot of ground to cover between now and then.

2) In-box Contamination.

Mark says over time there will be so many people clamoring to be your friend that the network will become unmanageable.  Perhaps, but there are a lot of people who do pretty well keeping their network of friends small out here in the big old blogosphere, and I suspect those who want to have a small network will be able to have one.  The risk, I suppose, is that your friend list starts looking (again) more MySpace-like and friend becomes just a marketing word for link.

3) Application Noise.

Brad Feld wondered the other day what’s in it for the application developers who are creating all these great applications.  My hunch is that it’s all about the buzz at the moment.  Developers are in a gold rush for users and, once they stake their claim, they’ll let someone else figure out how to monetize it.  As the competition heats up, however, the clamor from applications looking for a spot on your Facebook page could become distracting.

4) The IPO.

I’ve written plenty about the problems money or the prospect of money cause online and off.  Once Facebook make a break for the IPO, priorities will change.  The goal of getting traffic will become secondary to the goal of making money from that traffic.  And as far as I know there’s only one primary revenue source (see item 1 above).  Facebook has the same problem the rest of the social networks have.  It has nothing to sell but eyeballs and traffic.  Both of which are connected to other people.

5) Facebook Fatigue.

For me personally, this is the most compelling of Mark’s 5 things.  I’m bored to tears with Second Life, and almost as bored with Twitter.  Facebook has broader traction that either of those applications, but I wonder what the average lifespan of an active Facebook page is?  I also wonder about the mean lifespan of Facebook pages of groups of users who sign up around the same time.  If your pals aren’t there, there’s nothing social about the network.

Now for my 3 things that could kill Facebook.

A) Its heritage as a place for school kids.  Even now, when you create and manage a Facebook account, there are a lot of remnants of its genesis as a largely college hangout.  How you know someone.  The “personal ads” vibe of the sign-up process.  The navigation in general.  In sum, it just doesn’t seem very businesslike.  It’s not as bad as MySpace, but it still seems more like my kids’ rooms than my office.

B) The blogosphere/Google combination. Open API or not, there’s still a wall around Facebook.  It’s hard to get data out of there and into the wild.  As AOL found out, what people look at initially as a safe place to hang out can begin to look like a cage over time.  I continue to believe that the blogosphere is the only network that matters, and that over time most people will elect to take control of their content and manage it via a wall-free platform.  Anything that gets between a content provider and its users is by definition bad for the content provider.  And there’s no need for a central registry of contact information- we have Google.  Just do a search.

C) LinkedIn.  Granted, LinkedIn is a little behind in the race for the social networking crown, but with news that it plans to open its API, and the more business-like atmosphere to be found there, I can envision LinkedIn becoming the preferred network for grownups.

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Evening Reading: 6/24/07

Impress your friends by solving the Rubik’s Cube.  Here’s part 2.

I’m not sure which surprises me more: that Apple passed Amazon in music sales or that Walmart and Best Buy are one and two.  I haven’t bought a CD in a bricks and mortar store in many years.  Amazon really missed its opportunity to dominate the downloadable music market.

Richard Querin has launched a new site for his Inkscape screencasts.  The picture quality is really good.  Inkscape looks pretty cool too.  I wish someone would make a series like this for Photoshop.  I rank using Photoshop and flying the space shuttle as equivalent on the difficulty scale.

My kids would not dig living here.  Now if it was a skittles powered house… (via Zoli)

Earl is developing a system for managing his reading list.  I don’t have them separated out, but I have a basic mental list that closely mirrors his groups.  Once my swivel feeds experiment is over, I’ll start on the process of classifying and prioritizing.

Wow, Kevin Tofel found some actual applications that work on Blackberries.  I’ve had one for years, but I have never been anything but unimpressed by the available applications.  Of course when you go to the Mobio page, there’s no way to tell what they are.  I don’t need the gas price deal.  I already do that wirelessly- with my eyes.

One of the interesting by-products of feeds and Technorati is the ability to watch posts as they are revised.  I find it curious when links sometimes disappear in subsequent edits.  Maybe you have to be careful who you’re seen hanging around with.  No more about this now.  Maybe later.

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It's About Choices and Accountability

Nobody ever won an argument by simply saying “I’m mad at you” over and over.  If someone is already being critical of your words or actions, they probably don’t care if you’re mad at them.  They’re probably mad at you too.  Jumping up and down might make you feel better, but it doesn’t get you any closer to understanding and reconciliation.

Yet here comes Mike Arrington, once again, telling us that he’s “pissed off at every single person involved” in the Federated Media/Microsoft cacophony.  I would use John Battelle‘s favorite word “conversation,” but as Mathew Ingram points out, John’s definition of conversation is a little different than most.

The fact of the matter is this:

1) Some people are claiming this is a disclosure issue.  It’s not.  It’s a credibility issue.  I can see why Mike and others would react strongly to implications that there was something truly covert going on.  Maybe it wasn’t in flashing neon lights, but neither was it hidden.  Anyone who thought that Federated Media page was anything more than a collaborative billboard wasn’t paying attention.  For some reason, Mike chooses to go straight to attack mode, rather than present his argument rationally.  I guess when you own TechCrunch, that’s your prerogative, but it’s not likely to sway many fence sitters to your side.

2) Other people, mostly those who feel like they might have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, are saying the ad campaign is a non-event.  That the whole business was dreamed up by Valleywag as a way to agitate in the name of traffic.  This mess wasn’t dreamed up by Valleywag- it was dreamed up by Microsoft and Federated Media.  In the name of making money.  While there is a distinction between the journalists and the prospectors, to claim that the prospectors have a license to shill is ludicrous on its face.  Credibility transcends all motivations, and a blogger who sells his or her services for blogomercials should realize that without it being plastered all over Techmeme.  As Jeff Jarvis puts it, if the prospectors want to type away without regard for journalistic standards, then we need to read away with that in mind.

It’s not an ethical transgression, it’s simply a bad choice.  There’s nothing evil about making a bad choice, and there’s nothing wicked about holding people accountable for bad choices.

I thought John did a reasonably good job of responding to this mess, without sounding combative or defensive.  On one hand, I can see why Mike says John threw them under the bus.  On the other hand, can you imagine the uproar if John had taken Mike’s “go pound sand” approach?  He had to walk a very fine line to minimize the lingering damage.  I don’t agree with his “conversation” spin, but all in all, he took the first important step in addressing this issue.

It will be interesting to see how this debate plays out.  There are certainly two camps.  But the journalists and the prospectors are mining for the same gold.  Gold in the form of readers who get to decide who they trust, and who they don’t.

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Is New School a Synonym for Blogomercial?

toomanyadsFred Wilson calls Nick Denton “old school” in the wake of Valleywag’s report that a number of influential bloggers wrote about Microsoft’s “people-ready” slogan as part of an ad campaign.  Fred says that, in complaining about this pay to say campaign, Nick is “stuck in the old media mindset.”  Fred is “excited to participate in an ad campaign that [isn’t] just mindless banners.”

Let’s think about this.

First, it’s important, and no coincidence, that the bloggers in question wrote these posts on a dedicated page hosted by their advertising company.  The page says “Sponsored by Microsoft” right at the top.  Sponsored is a pre-owned cars word for paid for.  Anyone who thought about it for a second would realize that these posts are little blog infomercials – blogomercials if you will.  The issue, of course, is that the same company who sponsored these blogomercials also runs ads on these folks’ blogs.

It’s not about lack of disclosure.  It’s about whether or not you want to be the blogosphere equivalent of Suzanne Somers hawking a ThighMaster.  It’s about the crossroads between cash and credibility.

All we have as bloggers is our reputation and our track record.  No ad campaign is worth risking that, regardless of whether it crosses any ethical line.  This is more about common sense than ethics.

Meanwhile, back at the crossroads, Mike Arrington tells anyone who doesn’t like the ad campaign to pound sand and gripes about losing money due to the temporary suspension of the ad campaign.  One day I’d like to see Mike actually address an issue thoughtfully instead of go into attack mode every time someone takes a contrary view.

Om Malik, on the other hand, says he will not continue running the ads.  Om says “Nothing is worth gambling the readers’ trust. Conversational marketing is a developing format, and clearly the rules are not fully defined. If the readers feel a line was crossed, I will defer to their better judgement.”  Paul Kedrosky says he’s done with them too.  Is that old school?  Only if being smart, taking the long view and caring for your personal brand is old school.

Once again, blogs are merely platforms for content.  While the rules evolve with the passage of time, just because you’re publishing online and not in print does not mean you can or should trash all the old rules and have a free for all.

Federated Media, the advertising company that ran the Microsoft campaign, had this to say:

ValleyWag today suggests that one of FM’s conversational marketing campaigns is hurting the editorial integrity of our authors. It says that Microsoft paid them to write, which is simply not true. They were invited to join a conversation with readers about Microsoft’s new theme, and they did so, but they didn’t write about it on their blogs. The only money they get from Microsoft is from ads running on their sites, for which they’re paid by the page view.

That is either one subtle distinction or splitting hairs, depending on how you look at it.  If there is a financial relationship involved, there is an issue of disclosure and credibility that must be addressed.  The fact that the payment isn’t directly tied to the posts in question doesn’t change that.

Tony Hung says that, at the end of the day, this sort of thing is no different than PayPerPost.  I don’t think it’s nearly that bad, but I do tend to agree with a commenter to Mike Arrington’s post who says:

Your name is on the ads. Your words are on the ads. You’re quoted as spouting “people ready” Microsoft propaganda crap like the cheapest B-actor reciting the advertisers’ slogan.

I don’t like it when Suzanne Somers tries to sell me a bill of goods on TV.  And I don’t like it when Suzanne Somers 2.0 does it in the blogosphere either.

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Evening Reading: 6/22/07

Dell is working on the bloatware problem by giving buyers the option to reduce the amount of pre-installed software.  Most of that stuff is thinly disguised ads or crippled versions aimed at an upsell.  The first thing I do when I buy a new computer is wipe the hard drive and do a clean OS install.  Now maybe I won’t have to do that.

Stardock TweakVista looks like another useful program.

Louis Gray tells us his 8 worst stock moves.  I was right there with him on numbers 1 and 2.  Some of my other bonehead moves: 360Networks, Exodus, not selling Enron when I was up 100%, letting Cramer talk me into buying JDSU, and going big in Nokia.  I made a fortune and almost immediately lost a fortune in the first dot.com boom and bust.  It’s relatively easy to know when to buy a stock.  The hard part is knowing when to sell one.

Blonde 2.0 on her favorite Facebook applications.  Brad Feld wonders what’s in it for the application developers.  I just wonder why Facebook’s interface is so confusing.

Chip Camden has worn a black shirt every Friday for the past 10 years.  His wife didn’t notice the pattern.  Chip says that’s because all his other weird habits obscured it.  Odd behavior is great camouflage.  I will not pick up a coin that is tails up.  I’ll flip it over first.  No one has ever noticed that.

Dan Santow on one of my grammatical pet peeves: the me, myself and I thing.  Dave Taylor on the legality of recording phone calls.  I’m not sure why I see a connection there, but I do.

I’m reading it, because it was a swivel feeds recommendation, but I’m not feeling the cats.  Having said that, there are probably a thousand secretaries at my firm who would live on that web site if they knew about it.  Media popularity is a funny thing.

Why didn’t my buddy Clayton and I have this when we were making those fake IDs back in high school?

Here’s a list of web applications for students.  The ones in my law school classes seem to just surf the net all the time.  One of my favorite tricks is to run up the steps without warning, just to watch all the laptops get slammed shut.

How do you feel about intro-tagging your web post titles?  Robert Andrews, one of my swivel feeds, begins many of his post titles with the tag “Blogging4Business.”  Over time, I have found that I tend to skip over those.  I wonder if that’s just me?  Maybe there are others who always read those and skip the others.

Umm, what do you think they talk about when they are face to face, church and public service opportunities?  Say it with me:  IM, like blogging, is a platform for content.  It does not create the content.  I agree with Will when he says “The worst that can be said of instant messaging is that it is enabling anti-social behavior. But it does that the same way that a phone does and a car does. By the time the kid is online trolling for cocaine, you’re no longer in prevention mode, you’re in damage control mode. Their unmonitored access to IM is the least of your problems.”

Dreamcrowd looks very cool to me.  I am fascinated by dreams, both mine and those of others close to me.  I have dreamed twice that I was a member of the Grateful Dead.  I also dream from time to time that I have mad hops on the court and can dunk a basketball like Dr. J.  I also have occasional, but recurring, nightmares in which some sort of creature is trying to break into the house where I grew up.  Once, a long time ago, I dreamed I was on death row (I don’t know why), and got escorted to the electric chair by my Administrative Law professor (whom I barely knew, even back in law school).  I am definitely the target demographic for this web site.

Mashable let me down today, so no Bebo update.  In the meantime, just remember: “Zingfu just hooked up with Bebo to offer Zingfu within Bebo Widgets.”

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Evening Reading: 6/21/07

Copyblogger has some good advice for writing better blog posts: The 10 Second Rule.  Romance Tracker has 10 reasons why blogging is like dating.

Cassidy will be happy to read this, as will my (older) sister.

I have a feeling this is going to take the blogosphere by storm.  Who needs a lightsaber when you can have a tricorder?  Or even better, an iPhone.

Vispa seems like a pretty good application for tweaking Vista.

Jeff Balke posts 5 albums that changed his life.  I like to read musicians writing about music they like to listen to.  The record that changed me the most was Europe 72.  I had never before heard the band that would become my favorite, and from the moment I heard that record my entire musical direction changed.  Another one is Otis Spann’s Biggest Thing Since Colossus.  It made me a huge fan of Otis, the blues in general and piano blues in particular, in one listen.

Fred Wilson took a break from not participating in my swivel feeds experiment and raving madly about Marc Andreessen to write something I completely agree with: Yahoo should not buy MySpace.  GigaOm handicaps who should buy Yahoo.

I was afraid that I wouldn’t get to do a Bebo update today (here’s the first and second), but Mashable once again came to my rescue with this delicious nugget: “Widget marketplace Widgetbox, together with Sugar Publishing, has launched Widgetbox Showcase for Bebo, a collection of interactive gossip widgets. The showcase includes a number of widgets pulling content from various gossip related sites, for example PopSugar, FabSugar and Perez Hilton.”  I actually understand what that sentence means, which is a first for my Bebo updates.  I have no idea what Bebo is, but I cover it daily- which makes me just like 80% of the other social networking exuberants.

TDavid, having licked TV, is now eradicating credit cards.  If you need a reason to get rid of TV, here it is.  If this story is true, it is a summation of everything wrong with our culture.

Dave wants us to link to him.  Tell you what Dave, give me some swivel feeds recommendations and I’ll link to you every day for a month.  Think of it like a virtual autograph.

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Swivel Feeds, Group 6

This is an update on my swivel feeds experiment, in which I ask bloggers I read to help me rebuild my reading list by adding 5 of their favorite blogs to the list.  I’ve had a generally positive response so far, and my new reading list is coming together nicely, with a diverse and interesting mix of bloggers.  When the list is complete, I will share it and upload an OPML file for those who are interested.

Here’s how it works.  Every few days I ask a group of 8 of my favorite bloggers to each recommend 5 blogs to add to the list.  I’ll post the recommended blogs in a subsequent update, and add them to my swivel feeds list.  Each update has a list of the recent blog recommendations, followed by the next 8 bloggers who I am asking to add blogs to the list.

Here are the swivel feeds recommendations so far from the fifth group, plus any stragglers from prior groups.  Note that, when possible, I designate blogs by the name of the blogger, because I like to know who I’m talking to.

Adam Gaffin
David Cohen
Eric Olson
Howard Lindzon
Jing Chen
Josh Kopelman
Kevin Burton
Nashville Is Talking
Paddy Johnson
Penelope Trunk
Rex Hammock
Rory Blyth
Scott Adams
ThoughtWorks Blogs
Tom Moody
Trevin Chow

I have subscribed to all of the recommended blogs, and all but two of them are new to me.

These blogs join the following prior recommendations and participants in the fourth edition of my new reading list.

A Cons. Experience
Alan Levine
Amyloo
Anne Zelinka
Assaf Arkin
Ballastexistenz
Beth Kanter
BldgBlog
Blogging Pro
Blonde 2.0
Bob Meets World
Bonnie Staring
Brad Feld
Brad Kellett
C.C. Chapman
Chip Camden
Chris Brogan
Christine Thurow
Christopher Carfi
Claus Valca
Corey Clayton
D’Arcy Norman
Daily Cup of Tech
Dan Santow
Dave Rogers
Dave Taylor
Dave Wallace
David Rothman
Deborah Schultz
Dennis the Peasant
Doug Karr
Dwight Silverman
Earl Moore
Ed Bott
Engtech Lite
Ethan Johnson
f8d
Father Bob
Fear Not the Gods
Frank Paynter
Fraser Kelton
GAS Tech. News
Greg Hughes
Haydn Shaughnessy
Heise Security
Hilary Talbot
Hugo Ortega
ICH Cheezburger
Ian Forrester
IT|Redux		 J.A. Konrath
J.P. Rangaswami
Jackson Miller
Jennifer Slegg
Jessica Hagy
jkOnTheRun
Joe Wikert
John Tropea
John T. Unger
John Walkenbach
Jon Udell
Justine Ezarik
Les Orchard
Lisa Stone
Long Zheng
Lost and Gone Forever
Madame Levy
Marek Uliasz
Mike Miller
Nancy White
Natalie Goes to Japan
New Scientist
Nick Hodge
Nick O’Neill
Opacity
Paul Colligan
Paul Greenberg
Paul Lester
Paul Stamatiou
Phydeaux3
Quasi Fictional
Read/Write Web
Reg Braithwaite
ReveNews
The River
Robert
A
ndrews
Robert Hruzek
Robert Nagle
SBWLTN
Scott Hanselman
The Struggling Writer
Tom Matrullo
Tresblue
Tricks of the Trade
UNEASYsilence
Valleywag
War on Folly
Will Truman
Wonderland or Not
Wondermark
Zen Habits

From Group 5 I haven’t heard from Guy Kawasaki, Henry Blodget, Hugh MacLeod, Ian Delaney, Ilker Yoldas or Jake Ludington.  From Group 4 I haven’t heard from Donna Bogatin, Eric Scalf, Frank Gruber or Fred Wilson.  I’m a little discouraged by the lack of response from those groups, but we’ll soldier on.  My general policy is to assume non-participation after 2 weeks.

From Group 3, Dave Winer (surprise of surprises) and Doc Searls did not respond.  Both have been dropped from the swivel feeds list, but both get a “sponsor’s exemption” and will remain on my personal reading list.

Now for the next 8 bloggers, who I am asking to add 5 blogs to the list:

Jay Neely: Jay is a relatively new read for me, but he is spot on when it comes to social networking issues and other tech topics.

JD Lasica: JD writes about citizens’ media and related topics.  I’ve read his blog for quite a while.

Jeff Balke: Jeff is a web developer, musician, photographer and blogger from Houston.

Jeff Pulver: Jeff writes about VOIP and a wide range of other topics.  He’s a very well known blogger.

Jeneane Sessum: Jeneane is one of my long time reads.  She turns a phrase like a great songwriter.  Hopefully, she’ll use her cool new laptop to give me some blog recommendations.

Jeremiah Owyang: Jeremiah writes about Podcasting, video blogging and citizen journalism.  Another long time read.

Jeremy Zawodny: Jeremy writes about blogging, flying and all sorts of tech-related topics.

Jimmy Huen: A new read, Jimmy writes about his experiences as the founder of an internet start-up here in Houston.

That’s the sixth group of bloggers I’m asking to help rebuild my reading list.  If you’re willing, please recommend 5 of your favorite blogs to add to the list.  Use the comments, your blog or email, whichever you prefer.