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Permanent link to archive for Friday, July 23, 2004. Friday, July 23, 2004

A picture named star.gifConventionBloggers.Com went live today. It's got the freshest posts from bloggers who will be on-site at the DNC next week, including delegates with blogs, not just the credentialed bloggers. I could definitely use some link-love for this site. It's built to take hundreds of thousands of hits a day, maybe more.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Thanks to Bryan Bell for a kickass theme design. It's a real eye-catcher. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I should have seen this coming. I'm a fan too. Now the question is, will it go to his head? (Yeah, of course it will.) Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Techweb says that open wireless networks are a security threat. If they're going to shut down all the wireless LANs in the Fleet Center area, I think they should also look into shutting down the public bathrooms. Never know what could happen in a urinal. The pipes connect all kinds of buildings underground. Do you think a terrorist could take advantage of that? Think about it. Seriously. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Heart this: 1. Spend five hours converting a big piece of code to run in a new environment. 2. When done with the first pass, say out loud, What The Hell. 3. Click on Run. 4. It doesn't blow up in your face.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Lance Knobel: "Both America and the world would be far better for having a Davos man in the White House." Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named sifry.jpgOne of the early mottos of Scripting News was "Watching them watch us." It would go to ridiculous extremes, there would be times of Watching them watch us watch them watch us. That was before we had the term Echo Chamber to sum it all up. Well, as Ronald Reagan said to Jimmy Carter, There you go again. During the convention Dave Sifry from Technorati will be on CNN, helping CNN viewers watch us. Since I'll be there at the show, I won't be able to watch them watch us. So if someone else watching at home could watch them watch us, and report about it on their blog? And then I'll watch them watch CNN watch Sifry watch us. You see why blogs are so appealing to The TV Generation? There's lots of watching going on! Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Jim Moore: "This is the first time such a move has been made by the US Congress during the actual committing of a genocide." Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Wired: "A plan by TiVo to let its users transfer recorded TV shows to other devices is running into opposition from Hollywood studios and the National Football League, which fear their copyright content could get loose on the Internet." Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named warPresident.jpgFinally a great soundbite from John Kerry, I don't recall the exact wording, but I'm sure we'll hear it 18 million times before the election. "I don't think we should be building fire houses in Baghdad and shutting them down here at home." It's perfect. In the same report on NPR, they say Bush no longer wants to be known as The War President, he now wants to be known as The Peace President. Heh. Yeah sure, try to wiggle out of that one. BTW, it's even worse than it appears. Not only is Bush spending our money to build those Iraqi fire houses, he's spending money we don't have. We're going ever-more-deeply into debt for Iraq. If the Dems could find some way to get that through to the voters, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Reagan, Ann Coulter, et al, aren't telling them that, for some reason.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

On the first day of my New Mexico trip, I took a brief visit to the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez. I had never been to Mexico. Unlike Canada, which looks like the US, this place was different. I told a friend it was like Toon Town in the Roger Rabbit movie, but then I realized that didn't quite cut it. It's actually like my spam-filled In Box. The communication is jumbled and low. If you had to live there, life would be dangerous and confusing. But since you don't, it's just very very strange. Later I found out, in a report on NPR, that they're having a serious murder problem there.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named reagan.jpgRon Reagan, the former president's son, was on Fresh Air yesterday. He raised a question that should always be asked of a candidate -- What qualifies you to hold this office? He asked that question about the now-president George Bush, and came up with no possible answer other than he kicked an alchohol addiction. Asked if four years later he'd like to change his appraisal, he said no. He's speaking at the Democratic National Convention about stem cell research. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

This morning's audio blog post.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named nothingHappeningHere.jpgConventional wisdom says that nothing ever happens at political conventions in the US. I thought about it, then realized you could say the same thing about a lot of other things that command public attention. For example, the Super Bowl, or the World Series. Or the inauguration, or even perhaps Election Day. Because people say it, does it mean it's true? Well, in some sense, nothing ever happens. Just ask a Buddhist. I mean really. We live, we die, we assume it makes a difference, but how do we know? So the conventional wisdomers are asking a very deep question. While they're examining this, I'm going to go to Boston with my digital camera, microphone, outliner and content management system, take some pictures, and share them. The idea will be to show the grainy images, the small picture, not the big one. What does this look like in person-size chunks? What would it be like to be here? Nothing more than that. I did the same thing at Davos in 2000, by the way, and still like to review the stories and pictures from time to time. Same with 24 Hours of Democracy. If nothing else, we'll be able to look back and see what blogging was like in 2004.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

On the other hand, this DNC could be a total anachronism. By 2008 everyone at the show will have a blog, just like everyone there this year will have an email account. Had you said in 1996 or 2000 that everyone would have an email account in 2004, they might not have believed you. So importing bloggers may be seen as a quaint concept, like bringing typewriter users in, in 1948, to choose a ridiculous analogy. So you use a blog, sonny? Isn't that cute! Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named surprise.jpgBTW, the story of the 2004 election is: Will the election be a tie this year as it was in 2000? All indications are that we learned nothing, are prepared to nominate two people who stand for nothing (one has purple hearts, the other stopped drinking) and surprise-surprise, we can't make our minds up. If a substantial number of Americans had a vision for this country, we would have a Roosevelt, a Truman or even an Eisenhower or Johnson to choose from. Could Kerry be that? I really don't think so. I got the idea when I saw him at Davos in Y2K, standing around schmoozing. Everything he says is so World Economic Forum. We're voting for Klaus Schwab when we vote for Kerry. Lance will correct me if I'm wrong about this. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

SEC: "The Commission will consider a staff proposal to accept voluntary supplemental filings of financial data using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)." Permanent link to this item in the archive.

     

Last update: Friday, July 23, 2004 at 10:08 PM Eastern.

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