Category: Blogging

Dave Winer — Two-Level Communities

2005-03-19 / spierzchala / 4 Comments

Dave Winer hits it on the head: What’s the point of doing something or going somewhere if your experience is going to be secondary to those who are considered “special”?

A conference experience should not be substantively better because of who you are. If you arrive late, the overflow room should be just as acceptable as the front row.

I live what would be considered a privileged life. If you look on the right-side of the page, you will see that I pine for a Powerbook. Instead, I keep gas in my tank, food on my table, and be the best father I can be.

I wish that my laptop bag looked like Joi Ito’s. I wish that I clocked as many air miles as Tom Peters. I wish I lived on the beach like Dave Winer. I wish my blog got as many hits as Robert Scoble.

But when my wishes are held back not because of who I am, but because of who someone else is, I get cranky.

Marc Canter: Thompson was the original blogger

2005-02-21 / spierzchala / 0 Comments

All bloggers owe their heritage to the original Gonzo.
Marc Canter

Amen.

The subjectivity and raw opinion in HST’s work colours my writing to this day. it is difficult for me to write professional, technical documents without wanting to launch into a preternatural screed (two words I learned from the Good Doctor) on the topic I a writing on.

I was accused by a VP in my company last week of not being able to dumb myself down to deal with where our customers are in relation to where I am. HST had no patience with dumbing down, or pulling punches. He told people what they needed to know in as visceral a manner as he could.

May blogging honour the heritage of HST.

Stupid attacking domain — andrewsaluk.com

2005-02-12 / spierzchala / 6 Comments

Looks like some bozo has managed to take over a large number of machines and launch some sort of zombie attack against blogs. If you see andrewsaluk.com filling up your referrer log, block the hosts. They are likely zombies.

Just checked the domain (IP address 211.180.238.254) — it originates in South Korea. Definitely points to either a script-kiddie or a zombie on a high-speed connection.

“Where everybody knows your name…”

2005-02-03 / spierzchala / 0 Comments

Be careful what you say and who you say it about. Thomas Mahon, the hottest new blogger, was “dressed down” by one of his former “colleagues”.

Thomas then dispatches the cad with some of the sharpest words I have heard for many a year.

Bravo Thomas…too bad I dress like mountain climber after a hard week; I might mortgage the house for a fine suit by this master of the blades.

Thomas mentions in his post that Savile Row is quite small. It is. For those who have not had the pleasure of being there, it is a tiny street, a stone’s throw from Green Park, Near Berkeley Square. I know this because I accidentally stumbled over Savile Row during a jet-lag induced walk at 2AM a few years ago.

I was stunned when I realized where I was. Someday I hope to take Samantha there. She has formal training as a pattern-maker and designer, but has been sidelined due to Visa issues, two kids, and chronic carpal tunnel in both arms. She would probably be astounded to watch a true master at work, and it would be like me getting 10 minutes with Tim Berners-Lee or (rest in peace) Richard Stevens.

Moving from Typepad to b2evolution

2005-02-01 / spierzchala / 0 Comments

This morning, I decided that I had to re-locate to blog server that I ran myself. Typepad was kind enough to provide me with a 90-day free subscription, and I would been happy to use MoveableType. But when I went to install Moveable Type, the process was far more complex than I had time to dedicate.

b2evolution appeared straightforward. I installed it. Found that it had a Moveable Type (or Typepad) import feature. Exported my Typepad data, including the images.

Imported it. Blog was done.

Really, it was that simple. I was shocked. By 3PM EST, I was tweaking the layout and the template, not futzing with the content. Kudos to the b2evolution team; this is a truly amazing lightweight blog platform for someone like me, who wants something to work right out of the box.

I will keep you informed as I continue to use this product.

Blogger servers and log analyzers

2005-02-01 / spierzchala / 0 Comments

First it was Russell Beattie Getting Hacked.

Then, Jeremy Zawodny.

Now, Dave Winer weighs in on lousy log analysis software.

I wrote my own hit-tracker a while back to handle Typepad, but now that I am using B2Evolution on my own machine, I will have to hack my log analysis PHP to use their slightly different logging table.

Just goes to show that even cool software can have issues.

Looks like it was a hole in my one of my fave log analyzers, AWStats, that allowed the breaches.

Damn! 400 Blogs were attacked!

The Schwimmer Concept: Commercial Aggregation v. Non-commercial Aggregation

2005-01-16 / spierzchala / 2 Comments

Martin Schwimmer, a trademark lawyer, has ignited a controversy over “commercial” aggregation services (here and here).

It poses an interesting argument. The gut-reaction instinct is to marginalize his comments as fringe element of the blogosphere. But Russell Beattie’s comments point out that line between public and private, personal and commercial use become extremely blurred in a new medium.

Perhaps what Martin Schwimmer should do is leap from the Trademark bubble and help DEFINE how a service such as Bloglines can use his content in a way that he agrees with. The law profession is far to reactive and non-solution oriented.

Don’t quote old broken rules; be a leader and make new, effective ones. Leadership comes from bold new initiatives and the willingness to see what is, and make what should and can be.

I issue a challenge to Martin Schwimmer: lead, don’t follow.

Jeremy Wright Adds More On His Firing

2005-01-06 / spierzchala / 2 Comments

Jeremy has added more on his firing (here).

I am going to burn my bridges with more than a few potential Canadian employers by saying that this does not surprise me at all from the Canadian management mentality. In some ways, it is still stuck in the Victorian era: paternalistic and vindictive. My interviews with Canadian companies have always left me going, “I don’t want to work for them!”.

Why? Because the HR Teams at Canadian companies are designed to remove critical thinkers and free spirits. I have yet to find a Canadian company of any size where innovative thought and inventive concepts were allowed to flourish.

I would name some examples, but that would get me into even more hot water.

Corporate Canada — and Corporate America, for that matter — has to accept that people talk about companies: to friends; colleagues; and the world. Blogging just makes that more global.

As Jeremy states, companies need to understand that blogger and companies have to agree where the line is, and soon.

Hmmm…more than a few hits on this article from HSC, Jeremy’s former employer.

The Long Tail Phenomenom

2004-12-22 / spierzchala / 4 Comments

The Long Tail has been the latest phenom here in the blogosphere. Its discussion of the choice freedom released by online retailers and distributors should be no surprise to anyone who has been online for more than 2 weeks.

My experience with this Long Tail goes back to the Christmas in 1998 when I bought a copy of Christmas in Connecticut (the original, not the schlocky re-make) from Amazon. Paid duty and shipping to have it sent to Canada. Very few of my peers had ever heard of it, and the only taped copy was an old Betmax version pulled from TV years before.

The whole reason that the Internet retail channel was touted in the first place was for just the reason that Chris Anderson has “discovered” in the Long Tail: all-the-time access to everything in market niche X. So why is the blogosphere heralding this as a new discovery? It has been with us since the beginning. But when someone “invented” a term for it, it is a new idea that needs to be discussed.

It is the original idea behind the commercial Internet. It is not news.

Next story please.