Author: spierzchala

Dr. Blaise Cronin (the name sounds like the nom de plume of an agent provocateur), author of a justly ridiculed and narrow-minded critique of blogging, has re-appeared just in time for the Summer Solstice. [here and here]
This man is an island. And he has lost the perspective that come from spending too much time in an ivory tower in Indiana. Pamphleteers and Gutenberg began this revolution. Apparently, in Dr. Cronin’s view, the only valid word is the word on paper.
Dr. Cronin: if that is the case, I will be happy to discuss the dismantling your library’s computer system so that you can move back to index cards in those sexy wooden shelving units which became all the rage a few years back when those systems were phased out.
Libraries are repositories of information in all its forms. For my generation, books are great, but they often slow down the process of learning as much as we can as quickly as we can, so that we can keep our jobs.
Or has the benefit of tenure made you complacent and snobbish at the same time.
PS: Thanks for visiting my blog — your personal computer at has a distinct hostname.

Lawrence Lessig and Joi Ito. Now Fred Wilson says that he is burning out, re-thinking his online musings. [here]
I guess that my personality won’t see me slow down for another few months. But I have also chosen a very different style of blogging. I am an aggregator and re-interpreter.
I don’t generate a lot of my own inspiring ideas, but I try to synthesize all the information that streams into my head daily, pulling the random threads together.
What are the Blogging styles?

• Thought Leader / Visionary
• Disruptor
• Aggregator / Synthesizer
• Advocate / Evangelist

The ones that suffer the most likelihood of burn out are the first and the last; they are the ones that give their all.
Fred, you fall into this class. Step back, take a break. You’ll still be on my feed list when you come back.

Here is David Allen’s definition.
Figure it has to be pretty definitive.

Adrian Trenholm:

Coincidentally, I took a client along to Johnnie Moore and James Cherkoff’s Open Sauce Marketing workshop and one of the things that sticks in my brain was the comment “blogging changes the blogger.”

Wow. Couldn’t have said it better.

My boss turned me on to SoftPro Books recently. A great little store full of all the geek books you could imagine.
Today I went in to buy The Art of Project Management and Mind Hacks. While I was at the till, I was chatting with one of the owners. As of next week, SoftPro Books in Waltham will be run in the same location by Quantum Books.
One of the owners is off to try and grow his start-up and the other is taking his family to Tanzania for 2 years.
SoftPro will continue to exist as an online presence for most of us, with the Denver, CO store remaining open.
Best of luck to the SoftPro Waltham Team.

Scoble on the Apple on Intel rumour. [here]
Is running Windows on Apple hardware considered heresy? And it would be interesting to see OSX and WinServer 2003 (let’s compare Apples to apples) running on the same hardware.
This could be fun.
My original post here.
And Geek News Central agrees with me:

Is this not a interesting possible development. Maybe they have determined they need a little more power under the hood and have decided to embrace some Pentium chips. Time will tell. [Emphasis mine]

Jeffrey Phillips has some great advice on getting unstuck. [here]
The last time I got seriously stuck was after September 11. Everything seemed to grind to a halt. So, in order to change gears, I started to play with Linux on my laptop. Eventually I got proficient enough to spend 3 months working exclusively on Linux.
Right now, I can feel the mud sucking my wheels deeper. I wonder what I will discover this time.

Engadget posts on it here. Gizmodo on the same here.
Apple denies this vigorously. However, given the G5 Powerbook meme running around the blogosphere (here), the serious side of this is that unless Apple discovers a new type of physics, they have maxed out their ability to squeeze power out of their chip choice. Cooling the G5 enough to put it in a Powerbook profile apparently still requires a portable tank of liquid nitrogen to accompany the user around in his mobile travels.
Apple is stuck. They have nowhere else to turn to squeeze more power into their portable computing platforms.
They have to decide: Intel or AMD.
It’s not a pipe dream anymore. It’s a necessity for Apple to remain relevant in the notebook and laptop market.

Dave Winer points out that Apple and Google have suddenly stumbled into potential PR/brand issues in the last 24 hours that could easily be resolved in a customer-focused blog. [here]
I have beaten Apple on more than a few occasions on their lack of blogging cred. [here and here and here]
Google’s blog strategy is…well, weak.
Meanwhile Sun and Microsoft are more than willing to jump into the blog pool and take a few bumps and bruises along the way.
If you can’t take the heat…you will get burned in the fire.