Thursday, December 22, 2005

Steve Gillmor: "John Spenser's death at 58 cements the 'fake' White House as the real human drama and the Bush administration as the cardboard cutout." Exactly right. Now onto the key issue. I had the same thought about the futuristic library scene, but didn't dare bring it up. Now that the NYC subway strike is over, the big question of the day is if Leo is in the library scene. If he is, they can't kill off Leo.  

No problem: He's not in the scene. 

Fantasic PDF from the Times-Picayune showing the levee breaks after Katrina and where the flooding was worst. Wish I had this picture with me when I was in the city. 

Update on the blogging tools interop project. Basically there's been no uptake by the vendors. I remain interested in helping if I can.  

New Flickr set: "My uncle, Ken Kiesler, had a hippie house just west of Crescent Beach, Florida. The buildings are still there. In April 2004, I drove out there with Pat Hamilton who owns the property now. It's nice that Pat is keeping it more or less as it was when Ken and Dot lived there." 

Ernie the Attorney: "A friend who left New Orleans before Katrina and has not yet returned sent me an email and asked how things are. She seemed to want guidance on whether to return." I posted a long comment on Ernie's site. 

Five years ago today: "Peel and grate some Idaho potatoes. Add an egg, a little grated onion and perhaps a little matzoh meal (or flour if you like). Form them into pancakes and fry (in a pan of course). Serve with applesauce and sour cream, and rich coffee, perhaps a newspaper and smart people for conversation." 

Busted, explained 

How many noodles can fit on the head of an angel? We're still talking about it, believe it or not. Fred has an opinion about Web 2.0. It turns out so do I. Read on.

There's two schools on "Web 2.0."

1. Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle and their VC friends. What they're doing is slicing up Google's PE ratio, tiny slivers of it, and apportioning it to small companies they either buy stock in (that's Tim's strategy) or consult for (that's Battelle). Basically the updraft from Google's stock is so strong it can turn those tiny slivers into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. There's nothing theoretical about this, they're making the money, but they're not making a big deal about it so it's easy to overlook. You can see this reasoning in a recent Battelle post about how Google is doing a second IPO by investing $1 billion in AOL. He lays it out openly. It's a good business model as long as Google's PE ratio stays high.

2. There's the Mike Arrington version of Web 2.0, which he explained snarkily in his traitors memo, but he really believes it, and more power to him. I adore Mike, learn a ton from him, and am willing to humor him ad infinitum. That's why when I debunk #1, he gets caught in the cross-fire, but I don't resign from the workgroup. I kind of like the idea that we're appropriating the marketing slogan that makes the carpetbaggers so rich. There's a certain kind of justice to that.

There's actually a third kind of Web 2.0, it's the province of people who neither make huge piles of money catching bits of Google Wind™ in their sails, nor understand the connection between the various products that get Mike so excited. They just like to be "in" on the latest stupid tech buzzword, to go to conferences wearing natty clothing and calling people evil who dare to criticize the stuff that they're so hip to. They are friends with other snarky people who go to conferences, wear interesting clothing and call other people evil.

(Actually the latest trend is to say they're NOT evil. Heh.)