Saturday, August 21, 2004

NY Times: "Negative ads also pay dividends beyond what campaigns actually spend on them by getting more attention in the news media. The debate about the Swift boat ad, which accused Mr. Kerry of lying to get his war medals, has played out for weeks on talk radio and cable news, meaning it was played over and over at no cost to the group running it." 

BOP: "New York is unfriendly territory for Bush Republicans." 

Heads-up to DNC bloggers. 

Wired: "The International Olympic Committee is barring competitors, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from writing firsthand accounts for news and other websites." 

Thanks to a recommendation from Adam Curry, in one of his audio blog posts, I've become a subscriber to audible.com. The first book I'm reading is Timeline by Michael Crichton, also a Curry recommendation. Also downloaded a new Gillmor Gang.  

I had a piece here about friendship and blogging, but pulled it for more thought. I kept thinking of exceptions. Oy. 

Don Park on the Google IPO 

Don asks what's the big deal. His point of view is interesting.

It's very true that Google has failed to keep up with the "search engine optimization" tricks that cause links to porn sites to show up on our Referers pages and blog post comments. As we've said here several times, and thought many more, Google is the place where this practice should be stopped. It's because of Google that our sites are littered with links to these offensive sites that have nothing to do with ours. If they're smart enough to come up with tricks like Google News and Local Google, why can't their search engine recognize comment and referer spam and not use it in determining page rank? Of course they can. Why don't they? I'd love to hear an explanation. Better yet, I'd love to see them fix it. It's a bug in Google's software.

Maybe secretly Google really doesn't like blogs. Maybe it's not so secret. They still haven't deigned to support the standard format for syndication, as every other tech company and major publisher has. Why Google has a stake in breaking the standard is another puzzle. How does this relate to Don't Be Evil. We've asked this question a few times, only to be met with the usual Google stone wall.

This is not a public company but they have public stock now. And while they think they're real special, like Don Park, I'm not so sure they are. I made $800 on my Google stock yesterday, that paid for my hotel and gas and then some. But I'm paying for their deafness in other, imho more important ways. This is a company that desperately needs competition, and I hope they rise to it, instead of folding, as the previous Silicon Valley wunderkind (with the same backers) did.

Midnight Why Am I Up? Notes 

Every night on this trip I wake up at approx 2AM. I have no idea why. I get up for a couple of hours, do some writing, or programming, then go back to sleep. I can't recall this happening before. Maybe it's because I'm drinking more coffee than usual? Not sure. Anyway, I'm up, and writing.

I heard a report on NPR yesterday as I was leaving Harrisonburg about the seige in Najaf in Iraq, and how it's a lot more serious than most reports indicate. They interviewed a Washington Post reporter who was embedded with the US troops there. Defying Sean Hannity and his flock who think I should turn my mind off (no I'm not a liberal), this makes sense.

The Imam Ali shrine at Najaf is one of the most meaningful places in Islam. We don't have anything remotely like it in the US, because our culture is so young. This place is like Yankee Stadium to a Yankees fan, or Disneyland to a Disney fanatic. And this doesn't begin to explain the value to Muslims. It's like one of the historic Jewish or Christian places in Israel.

In science fiction, even very bad science fiction, they teach you how to take what you know about one set of circumstances and apply it to another. To see why this is such a mess, all you have to do is apply the sci fi mindset. How would you feel if there was an Islamic army driving down every main street in every town in America? I wouldn't like it, and I bet you wouldn't either.