Everything this guy does breaks me up.
And Hodgman is everywhere right now.
He is the Bill-Gates-like PC in the hilarious Apple computer Get-a-Mac ads.
His bits on the Daily Show are classic. Here’s one where Hodgman explains Net Neutrality. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I heard good things about BookMooch.com, a community for exchanging used books, so I signed up.
I was looking for something to do with my many (still-up-to-date) Lonely Planet travel guides.
BookMooch is tech millionaire John Buckman’s baby. He is doing it for the good of the universe.
I will mail any of my used books to any Book Mooch member who wants one.
Later I will request books I want mailed to me.
More great stuff from Cory Doctorow. He is on a roll right now!
“The Wall Street Journal hosted a debate between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Dale Hoiberg, editor in chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Jimmy’s performance is virtuouso, particularly when the Britannica editor says that he doesn’t have the space to go into all the criticisms of Wikipedia that have been made in public and Jimmy counters by providing a link to the Wikipedia article on criticisms of Wikipedia!”
Mr. Hoiberg: …We want our articles to be correct before they are published. We stand behind our process, based on trained editors and fact-checkers, more than 4,000 experts, and sound writing. Our model works well. Wikipedia is very different, but nothing in their model suggests we should change what we do.
Mr. Wales: Fitting words for an epitaph…
Boing Boing: Wikipedia founder debates Britannica editor-in-chief
Bloggers are not journalists.
These posts are more like gossip than anything you find in the New York Times.
I believe US politicians make most decisions based on the influence of lobbyists. I don’t know why this is the case — nor have I researched it. I believe it anyway.
At least Canadian politicians are more accountable to the voters. Or are they?
Remember Sam Bulte, the Canadian Liberal Member of Parliament who lost her seat after her voters figured out that she was raising money from the entertainment industry and then delivering pro-entertainment-industry laws that creamed the public to line the pockets of her buddies?
… her successor, the Tory Minister Bev Oda, was also on the take, netting big bucks from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Canadian Motion Picture Distributors, Canadian Music Publishers’ Association, Entertainment Software Association, Universal Music and other anti-Internet groups who are about to get their reward when Oda tries to steamroller Canada’s version of the DMCA through Parliament.
How Hollywood’s MP in Canada financed her campaign – Cory Doctorow
I trust Doctorow’s opinion. He is one far-sighted, big-picture, intelligent guy.
But he did not do the research either. He is blogging the blog of Dr. Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.
You are reading this post — and I hope you pass it on to your friends in Canada. Or post it on your own blog.
Sooner or later it gets to Bev Oda’s office — and they decide to get much more careful about campaign contributor influence.
I think I will send her this post myself.
One example how blogging and the internet will change the world.
“Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has refused to censor the content on the Chinese version of Wikipedia, resulting in its being blocked by the Chinese government. Google, Yahoo and others have folded to demands from Beijing’s totalitarian bureaucrats, but Wikipedia has stood firm. Predictably, Beijing has come to Wikipedia to ask them for some kind of peace-treaty, because China can ill-afford to block critical information resources if it is to remain economically strong. If only Google and Yahoo’s executives were as confident in the importance of their services as Wales is of Wikipedia.”
Boing Boing: Jimmy Wales to Beijing: Wikipedia won’t censor
Good on Wikipedia!
Of course it is much easier for them to stand tall as they do not have any shareholders to riot in the streets.
Wikipedia really is the best success story of the open source movement.
Democracy Player for Internet TV – best release yet! – Cory Doctorow
Normally I watch on-line video with iTunes. But, in reality, iTunes is an audio player with video capability reluctantly tacked on as an afterthought. (That may change this week.)
After one use of the new open source, free Democracy Player, I think I will switch when possible. (Far, far more shows are available on iTunes.)
“Want to see the future of Net video? Download the open source Democracy Player” – Wired Magazine, May 2006
If you want to give it a shot, you need to download their software. It is very easy to use. No learning curve.
Democracy – Internet TV Platform – Free and Open Source
screenshot sample
And today, there’s a new sweet-spot champion, a do-everything phone that comes closer to the bull’s-eye than anything before it: the BlackBerry Pearl.
In a Sea of Cellphones, a Pearl – New York Times
I’m still searching for the ultimate phone. David Pogue almost has me convinced on the Pearl. I do need to check Mac compatibility. And so far it is only available from T-mobile in the States.
If only Apple would announce their iPhone.
Yup, it’s the biggest thing to happen to the internet over the past year.
If you were looking for a new blog topic, not a bad choice.
Steve Bryant kicked his new blog, Reel Pop, with a superb summary of online video news going back to dark ages — May 2005.
to see a larger version of the timeline:
A Brief History of Online Video – Reel Pop
Assume that everything you do and say on the internet is monitored.
Google, your ISP, or ebay, or Amazon (or someone) is making a record right now.
I might be wrong. But I definitely may be right.
How serious a problem is this lack of privacy? Personally, I am not worried.
Privacy is … the sense of vulnerability that an individual experiences. When people feel exposed or invaded, there’s a privacy issue.
That’s not me.
The benefits of having wrongdoers exposed; the crimes prevented by fear of getting caught may outweigh the problems caused by lack of privacy.
Ask me my opinion again if I am ever brought to task for a some misdeed.
Things are worse now than when Time published this 2001 cover story.
For the third time I tried to use ultra cool Flock as a browser.
No go. Again.
Flock is only in beta release, but very basic features do not seem to work on my Mac laptop.
Is there no way to switch posting to my 3 different blogs?
And if I change the default search engine from crappy Yahoo to excellent Google, it defaults back to Yahoo.
And why does the home page take so long to load?
I will give the good folks at Flock a few more months to work out the bugs.
===== original post July 22, 2006
Flock.com — The web browser for you and your friends
It’s for real. Flock is the state of the art web browser. This is the direction Internet Explorer, Firefox and the rest will be going.
Flock is perfect for someone who wants to post a blog and integrate Flickr photos. It’s perfect for me.
Yet I will not be switching. I can already do the many things Flock now automates. There is no killer feature compelling enough for me to jump ship from Safari, my current browser.
But if you are thinking of starting a blog yourself, follow the instructional video on screencastsonline.com — exactly.
technorati tags:Flock
Rick McCharles 