Monday, June 07, 2004

Bob Stepno, a Thursday night regular, wrote an excellent survey of RSS tools in the current PC World. 

Had a phone talk with Steve Rubel today where I said several times that my goal is to have the users take over. Then just a few minutes later Doc Searls posted this gem. That's what users-taking-over looks like. This is the moment I've been looking forward to, when I could point to a mind bomb from a user. Adam Curry got to this bomb four years ago. That's okay, we need more converts. Let's not wait for the cable and content companies to lead us to the promised land, we'll just create our own network, like we did with weblogs, and share with the pros when they're ready. Now don't the arguments about which format is the coolest seem just a little on the silly side??  

Sub-directory of all reviews so far. 

Sarah Gilbert reviews Jyte.  

Thomas Winningham reviews Sharpreader. 

Apple Airport Express. Discuss. 

Doc Searls: "Why didn't Apple build an FM transmitter into this thing?" 

I miss the Talking Moose.  

Howard Rheingold is speaking at Berkman tomorrow. I'll be there. 

Steve Kirks reviews NetNewsWire. 

Bill Ives reviews NewsGator. 

Adam Curry reviews Nucleus. 

Keep the reviews coming.  

Nick Bradbury: "If you're a long-time FeedDemon user, especially one who has tried competing products, would you consider writing a review?" 

Doc Searls says RSS could be a big deal for public radio. 

Jeffrey Veen: "That's the Secret Service..." 

Furl helps "you save, share, and recall anything you find online." 

del.icio.us is somewhat different from, but related to, Furl. It's a group bookmark manager.  

Evan Cordes sent links to four other group bookmark managers. 

Mark Pilgrim, in 2002: "Dave, I'm sorry I was rude to you. This town is big enough for the two of us."  

John Battelle on Bill Gates on Google.  

NY Times: Contest over Blackberry Patent. 

Scott Rosenberg: "America would have been a lot better off if Ronald Reagan had never been president." 

Two packs a day 

Five years ago I said here that it was time to do something about patents, if we wait, there will be a meltdown. I don't think too many paid attention. Today patents are central to every software strategy, not because we're all going to be defensive with them, as so many say. They're a hedge by investors, in case Plan A doesn't work (selling a product to customers) perhaps Plan B might (suing to get money from companies who sell products to customers). Deaf, dumb and blind are the customers themselves, who might act in their own interest and only buy products from non-patent abusers. (And as in the Blackberry case, sometimes the abuser doesn't even market products, but sometimes they do.)

Sometimes things are so obvious, of course people see the problem coming, it must be like smoking cigarettes. You know it's killing you, but you do it anyway? I'm not saying I'm any better. In a week it'll be two years since I gave up a 31-year two-pack-a-day habit.

The first three links today are like that. Google on cruise-control, like Silicon Valley of the past. What was John Warnock's answer to TrueType? Or Apple's answer to Windows? Or Netscape's answer to MSIE? The day of reckoning is coming for Google, and they're trying the same plan that failed every SV tech juggernaut that came before. The valley has a two-pack-a-day habit too, I guess. (The answer, btw, is to insulate yourself with developers who depend on your technology.)

And the US has an addiction for bedtime stories. We, as a country loved Reagan because he told such good jokes and looked so good in a cowboy hat. Listening to the current president get lost between his tongue and his lips, again, as usual, made me yearn for The Great Communicator, who only looks great in comparison to the current leadership. Clinton was a great communicator too, and dishonest like Reagan and Bush, but as they say, when he lied no one died.