I'm glad the Scobles are listening to yesterday's talk at the NPR conference. I was partly trying to influence the tech industry by traveling across the country and talking to an industry that uses technology. I'd like to discuss the tech part of this at Microsoft's Mix conference in April.  

I love Betsy. "George Washington Carver was a big-picture guy..." she wrote today. 

Google Grants provides "eligible organizations with in-kind keyword advertising using Google AdWords so you can connect directly with your target audience." 

Doc Searls: The ITFS Opportunity. 

Wired: "Alcatel-Lucent isn't the only winner in a federal jury's $1.52 billion patent infringement award against Microsoft this week. Other beneficiaries are the many rivals to the MP3 audio-compression format." 

TPM: "It's hard to imagine that there's anyone in this country not under active federal surveillance who has done more to advance the al Qaeda agenda than Dick Cheney." 

Boston Blogger Dim Sum Sunday 

If you're in Boston on Sunday, let's do a blogger's Dim Sum brunch at Chau Chow City at 83 Essex Street, Boston, 1PM.

Thanks to Jessica Baumgart of the Berkman Thursday group for organizing. It'll be great to see people from the old days!

If you're coming please add your name here, so "we can make a fairly decent guess at table size and so we can attempt to find people on site," writes J.

NPR Podcast OPML? 

I've been asking people here for maintained OPML for the NPR podcast directory, just for fun, I did a Google search and it seems they do have a directory in OPML.

It says, in the XML, that it was last updated in October 2005, but it has podcasts that didn't exist then. If it's being maintained it's a big deal.

Here's what their podcast directory looks like in my world.

According to Darren Mauro, who is responsible for the social media on npr.org, says the OPML is dynamic, and therefore is maintained. Coool!

Stop payment on credit cards 

I read somewhere (sorry no link) that there is no way to stop a payment on a credit card, like you can stop a check. I've found this to be true. And then there are all the trial services that require you to enter a credit card number that must, in the fine print of their EULA say they're allowed to bill your credit card every month even if you don't use the service. And then there are all the $19.95 payments in your monthly statement with names you've never heard of, that are too much trouble to investigate.

Did you think there's nothing you can do? Well, there is.

I tripped over this idea accidentally because one of my cards was stolen, presumably in a batch of credit card numbers stolen from some online service, so I got a new card in the mail, unsolicited, with a new number. All of a sudden the lurking quasi-legal fraudsters are popping up! We want our money, they say in their emails. Act now, give us that new number, or we'll have to close your account. To which I say, Make my day!

I expect to hear from a lot of them on or about March 1.

Conference session circa 2007 

Movie: There's a panel in front of the room, a moderator, people lined up at a mike, Doc checking his email and posting to his blog, the audience listens attentively, people in the hallway schmoozing. The questions are basically "How do we remain relevant as things change."

MP3 of yesterday's talk 

I thought the talk went very well, everyone I've talked with here is enthusiastic about melding with the bloggers. I hope as many people as possilble listen to the talk and the discussion that followed. It's available as an MP3. Or help distribute the cost, download it via BitTorrent, seeded by Amazon.

Snow in Boston 

Picture taken from my room in a Copley Place hotel.

Doctorow on iPod lockin 

Cory Doctorow: "I think that it's reasonable to assume that Apple won't always make the world's best music player. I'd like to keep my options open. But the longer you own an iPod, the more likely it is you'll buy more iTunes music, and the fewer options you'll have."

The iPod is the best of a not very good field of MP3 players. To lock into the iPod now is a mistake for everyone.

And don't miss that lockin doesn't just come from format lockin, it's also a closed box, only the manufacturer can add featues. Jobs said the reason the iPhone isn't an open platform because it's a phone, but that doesn't explain the iPod's closedness.

Doctorow is right not to believe Apple, which is a big deal for him, because he's always been a strong defender of Apple. Me, I use their products, but I don't buy the religion, and I had enough tech industry lockin for a lifetime.