Morning Reading: 9/17/06

Back in Bubble 1.0, there were a lot of hugely popular message boards (the Bubble 1.0 version of interactive blogs, etc.).  There were hugely popular boards on investing, politics, sports, etc.  For a while, we thought the sky was the limit.  Until users, moderators and third parties decided to replicate the boards and there was a gradual user-base dilution.  It was probably inevitable, but it spelled the end of the mega-boards.  Now the same thing is happening to Wikipedia.  I don’t know if this will have the same effect or not, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Frank Gruber’s Tech Cocktail is scheduled for October 12 in Chicago.

The Mu Life on the role of tags in social bookmarking.

I have never signed the back of my credit cards.  The Straight Dope says I was right.

Google has formed a political action committee to reach out and touch some politicians.  I hope they focus on network neutrality, and not their plan to gather all our data and use it to push ads in our faces.

The Washington Post on the much ado about nothing that is movie downloads.

My 8 year old has discovered the computer.  It’s something parents need to prepare for in advance.

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Morning Reading: 9/15/06

Microsoft may be about to put Works online. But Microsoft has reservations because it knows what too many don’t: “On the one hand, consumers are quite reluctant to be bombarded with ads. The introduction of advertising with productivity software has to be pretty elegant. Some consumers don’t like it at all.”

There’s a new version of 2 of the 3 photo applications I use: Photoshop Elements and ACDSee.

Dwight Silverman on Zune, Microsoft’s new media player.

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Morning Reading: 9/14/06

If your computer is responding a little too fast and you want to slow it down a little, help is on the way. Symantec has announced its 2007 lineup of resource hogging applications.

Idiocy run amuck: PETA, who has done more to make normal people apathetic about animal rights than the NRA and the fur industry combined (and I am no fan of either), has bashed Steve Irwin in the days after his death. Meanwhile, someone has written a computer game called Terri Irwin’s Revenge. (via TDavid)

Gizmodo has an excellent review of the new Blackberry Pearl. I’ve used SureType a long time and it works perfectly once you get used to it.

Here are the top 10 cameras used to take photos on Flickr. Mine’s number 8, though 1 and 4 are close cousins.

Newly added to blogroll: Ed’s Tavern.

Podango is now in public beta. I don’t have time to be a station director, but I’d certainly consider adding my podcast to the music or tech slate.

X-Drive is live. If you have a (now free) AOL account, all you have to do is log in. You can configure it to allow drag and drop uploading via My Computer- just like a local hard drive.

When I was in high school, I had a buddy whose parents were really strict. So whenever we’d go to concerts (in Charlotte, a couple of hours away) and he was away from the controlling element, he would go wild– drinking, partying, etc. We called him the concert kid.

SimplyHeadlines.Com will turn your RSS feed into an email newspaper- thereby making what’s new, cool and unknown to most something old, not so cool, but understandable by your mom. It wouldn’t accept my feed, so it may be controlled by Hugh’s secret cartel.

TVSquad on the Monkees TV show.

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Morning Reading: 9/13/06

Am I the only one who is completely uninterested in anything Apple does?

The PC Spy did a test of which software slows Windows down the most.  The winner, of course, was Norton Internet Security.  I have dumped all Symantec products in favor of Windows Live OneCare.

TravelPost has a guide to wireless access at U.S. airports.

I have pointed out many times the inconsistency between a lot of the Web 2.0 names and the real business world.

Now Walmart is following the herd to the video download mirage.

Jeremiah Owyang on the future of online storage.

Hand fishing for catfish.

I would love to see MySpace go out of business as an arrogance lesson for others.

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Morning Reading: 9/11/06

5 years ago today I was speaking at a conference at the Omni Hotel in Houston.  Someone from the hotel walked up to the podium and handed me a note.  It said that I needed to come pick up my daughter, because they were evacuating the school. I excused myself and walked off stage and out into a world that was changed forever.  Doc blogged it, which I find a more compelling record than most of the news stories today.  This really demonstrates the archival beauty of blogging.

Earl Moore had some good additions to my conversational blogging post.  Note passing and cribbing are widespread problems and prime offenders of the conversational manifesto.

10 reasons to drink more water.  I gave up Snapple tea about 3 months ago for water.

I am starting to get very, very, very wary of Google.  At some point someone of importance at Google needs to come out and tell us Google isn’t trying to spy on us all the time in the name of profit and targeted ads.

Kinky Friedman, who will get my vote, has rightly backed off of his prior comments about deer hunting.  Having said that, he’s spot on when it comes to big game hunting.  The second to last fight I got into was over hunting lions and tigers and whatnot.  I won’t get invited to any more parties at that person’s house, but I made my point.

Amy Gahran has some thoughts on how movie theaters can remain relevant.  I like her ideas.  I also think movie theaters need to combine other forms of entertainment.  A theater that has a good, inexpensive restaurant next door and/or a fun bar for afterwards would likely draw more people.  I’d also like to see more smaller, neighborhood theaters, but sadly the time for those seems to have passed.  While I’m dreaming, I’d love to see some family-oriented drive-ins.

I’ve never seen any of the best movies you’ve never seen.

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Morning Reading: 9/9/06

I lost yet another power supply last night.  This time with a loud bang and a flash.  Dwight has a bad memory module.  Technology can be frustrating at times.

If the RIAA is fighting the release of the Sirius Stiletto, it’s time for a serious boycott of major label music- by customers, by musicians and by online music sellers.  At some point, the world simply has to stand up and say that enough is enough.

Seth Finkelstein on Wikipedia.

Battelle Watch is a little harsh and a little funny at the same time.

Stowe Boyd on the newest new bedouins.

Jason Fortuny and the Craigslist experiment.  This is a really interesting read.

Second Life has been hacked.  User info obtained.

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Morning Reading: 9/8/06

Eventually we’ll all get a turn at being CEO of Gateway.

Mashable reports on Faketown 2.0 (you just have to love the 2.0).  Sounds like Webkinz for grown-ups.  Come to think of it, so does Second Life.

C|Net on getting fit with Web 2.0.

Never shoot your wife’s pet chicken.

Remember back in February, I made fun of a friend of mine who wanted to buy cargo containers and turn them into housing for retirees?  Somebody beat him to it.

Mark Evans reports that Shutterfly has filed for an IPO.

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Morning Reading: 9/7/06

Marcus Vorwaller on how to have better conversations.

Wired on the other side of the blogosphere.  “Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you’re about as likely to find someone else interested in it.” 

Darren Rowse on keeping your digital camera out of harm’s way.

The Blackberry Pearl looks pretty sweet.  Wonder if it will ever come to Verizon?

Nick Carr on the Digg problem.

Richard Querin has some good thoughts about the boring blogosphere problem.

Here’s a niche product.  Web 2.0 seating charts.  I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.

Make yourself a logo.

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