Thursday, August 05, 2004

I had a lovely lunch today with Julie and Ted Leung and their three fantastic daughters. Great conversation, food, and weather. Thanks! 

New Bryan Bell theme for Manila users.  

Engadget asks what's the best laptop for travel. 

Pictures from Bainbridge Island ferry ride (and one of Scoble). 

John Battelle: Google IPO delayed.  

CBS MarketWatch: Google IPO remains uncertain. 

Today's travel, to Bainbridge Island, will take me through the western terminus of I-90. Just last week I was at the eastern end, in Boston.  

Jessamyn's photo album of the DNC. 

I've heard so many people say that blogging coverage at the DNC sucked, but they usually don't say which blogs they were reading. I wonder if that includes Scripting News, because I think when we hit our stride, the coverage here was excellent. I say "we" because most of the items I pointed to were collaborations or created by others. There was magic in the air at times. For example, here's a brief audio with Rebecca Blood who stopped by the blogger's booth. Now if you know the history, you know that she and I have been at odds at times, not always in a nice way. We had never met face-to-face until Wednesday last week. She's cool, it turns out. We had a great time. She's got a huge heart and a very sweet disposition, made all the nicer because she brought that out in me. Do you doubt there was magic present that night? Listen. It's there. When I play the recording in iTunes, it automatically goes into Red Rubber Ball, which is the perfect song to play at that exact moment. More magic. 

Hanging out with Jeff Sandquist and Robert Scoble in Building 18 at Microsoft yesterday, I dug out my laptop, and recorded this very informal and somewhat kooky discussion. I thought I was using my conference room mike, but I had it plugged into the speaker jack. Serves me right for sitting on an airplane all day cramped into a New Mexico-size seat that was about 1/3 too small for my Texas-size body. 

At the next convention 

Chris Casey of the Democratic News Service asked, on the Convention Bloggers mail list, what we would do differently for 2008. Here's what I say.

In retrospect, it would have been incredible to have a BloggerCon at the DemCon. Off the floor. A room packed with big Democratic icons, the candidates, the operators, the money, the press.

A discussion leader. Let's get to the heart of things. Let's explain to the folks at home how this really works.

We've shown you what the convention looks like to a hayseed in the big city. Now what does it look like from the insider perspective.

And by the way, it's cool that you're all so excited about blogs. Really cool. But what about your friends at the RIAA. They're not our friends. Not because we're pirates, but because we love the First Amendment, like Democrats do. The two positions are not compatible. You can't love blogs and love Hollywood at the same time.

But this iteration was great. Next time let's give the people what only they have. Power. Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Shall not perish from the earth.