Best action movie:
Ironman. Because Downey Jr., is funny, dapper and uses a computer semi-realistically. The Bat couldn’t conceivably link all the cell phones the way he did in an echo patter.
Best baseline hip hop song: 4 Minutes – Madonna and Timberlake
I really wanted to do an April Fools post, something along the lines of me moving back to America and joining the Marines and/or the IRS.
However, it appears that five years ago I officially posted my first of many highly sophisticated musings.
Actually, movementarian.com started a year earlier (around June of ‘02) as an attempt to recreate The Onion… with my friends as co-authors. If you look at some of the older content from archive.org you can see that some of the of the articles were good, others sucked (mostly mine).
Several of the contributors did a really good job poking fun at some of the odd things running around in the news. For instance Andy Stedman penned a popular article that still gets hits from Google (probably because of the picture…): Man Reports “Public Goods” Problem Spontaneously Solved
Anyways, David Veksler and I took the site down around February ‘03 to relaunch it as a blog community… (kind of like the Engadget for satire and humor) all under the umbrella name of Collectrix.
That never really panned out (which is a discussion for another day) and during the last days of February and beginning of March I started looking at other target markets.
If you recall, it was during this time that the buildup for the Iraq war was also crescendoing. As I was against the invasion – and all wars – from the get go (even marched in vain at the Dallas protest) I looked at setting up community blogs for libertarian types. I attempted to purchase antiwarblogs.com but the owner wanted to hold out for higher prices (he ended up sitting on the domain to this day).
Instead David and a couple of my friends started buying up other domains to build blog networks from (visit this older link from Archive.org to see a small list).
Different times
Anyways, if you look at the first 3 or so months of archives on this blog you can tell most of my posts had to do with the nascent blog industry. It was started:
- 6 weeks after Pyra Labs (Blogger) was purchased by Google
- when LiveJournal was still independent (and still shitty)
- during the days of the RSS 1.0 vs 2.0 — Dave Winer vs Mark Pilgrim war
- before TypePad (I managed to start drama with Movable Type and Anil Dash)
- before WordPress (B2++ and Cafelog were the two living and breathing creations)
In fact, early in ‘03 I started corresponding with Donncha O’Caoimh from Ireland about adding new features to his build of B2++. He eventually joined the WordPress development team and I believe, is still very Irish.
It was also during this time that commentators like Bill O’Reilly and Andrew Orlowski (of The Register) were lashing out against individual blogs… because anyone can post whatever they wanted on them. It was the beginning of the end to the gatekeepers.
At the time I thought that the burgeoning blogosphere needed a group of defenders so I teamed up with an array of now A-list bloggers and purchased/developed a site called: ProBlogs.org (promoting blogs and rebutting player haters). You can still see some of the older posts from archive.org: 123
These included: Roland Piquepaille (a French jack-of-all-trades, who now writes for ZDNet) Richard Giles (an Australian-based Web 2.0 innovator) Michael Fagan (a Canadian uber geek that has quite the digital pedigree) Stephen Dulaney (a pioneer and popularizer of podcasting) Elwyn Jenkins (one of the first academics to seriously study this new medium… my understanding is he had to go into hiding because of the mob or something)
Anyways, I can hardly attest to being a mover or shaker in this industry. I suppose I could make up a story about being flown into a Bosnian blog conference under sniper fire and mortar attacks, but someone’s already used that one.
I decided against becoming a billionaire geek and ended up going back to grad school. Smart decision, right? And over the course of the following years, I stayed on the sidelines and continued working within the antiwar/libertarian communities.
Some stats of how much beer drinking, girl chasing time I ended up spending on this web thing:
With any luck I’ll still be around in the next 5 years. However, I think I’ll try to spend more of my time posting super sexy music videos like Call On Me or Satisfaction. That’s why you started visiting in the first place.
Or in other words: in direct contrast to the lyrics from these band members:
Apparently I really enjoy making lists, plus it helps me procrastinate a little more before I respond to some lengthy emails (NASA has some “griefing” fanboys mad at my latest piece).
Some news junkies subscribe to dozens of periodicals and buy copious amounts of books in order to stay on top of their industry each year.
Because I am poor and because it exists, I use an RSS reader to fulfill most of the habitual need to stay ahead of the curve. I made the switch from Bloglines to Google Reader this past fall and look forward to the healthy competition in the future. Below is a list of sites I tend to frequent and heartily recommend (the actual list is 100 or so):
Techdirt: despite my disagreements with Mike on someissues, I think Techdirt offers some of the best commentary on the technology news industry bar none. Mike & Co. also have a useful information analysis service called: Corporate Intelligence. Not that he would hire me, but this is certainly an endeavor I would like to be part of. It is the long-tail of tech micro-news (think: a lower-cost Forrester Research or Gartner subscription, but with more frequent updates similar to that of Bloomberg wire reports).
DealBreaker: if you don’t have time to read TheWall Street Journal, or get annoyed by Cramer yelling all the time, yet you need to stay on top of the interesting stories in world finance, this site is for you. As I told founder John Carney, DB is much more interesting and informative than any finance class I took in college… and has a spunky refreshing attitude that makes me look good at cocktail parties. Plus, if a 20×20 grainy jpg is any indication, Muffie is kinda cute. The sometimes Austrian-bent also doesn’t hurt either.
ArsTechnica: I’ve been reading these guys daily for about 8 years now. ArsTechnica is one of the largest sources for original computer news and reviews. Plus, they have two excellent supplements: Journals.ars and Nobel Intent, both of which discuss the latest reports found in numerous scientific journals.
Organizations and Markets: If you have spent much time working for The Man or consider yourself an entrepreneur of any stripe, then you have at some point thought about how firms should be organized: flat, horizontal, vertical, Terry Tate-ish, ad nauseam. I find the academic debate surrounding these issues interesting, though at times, completely Ivory Towerish. However, Peter Klein and his Denmarkian friend make the discourse interesting and germane. Plus I have a soft-spot for their Austrian-esque approach to Bureaucracy.
DamnInteresting: What’s not to like about a site that frequently posts informative, typically historical, articles? Not only is it well-written prose, but they actually cite sources and allow readers to publicly critique and comment on a piece… proto-Open Peer Review?
CoyoteBlog: While one of the few non-tech-centric feeds on my Reader, Warren Meyer posts some interesting cultural brain droppings he finds around the intarweb. If you like him, you will probably find Overlawyered of interest too.
The GMU Four: I have mentioned that I think academic institutions should consider using blogs as a cheap means to advertise departments, recruit passionate students, and keep the public informed of current events (especially research). Over the past several years, numerous economics professors at George Mason University have maintained frequently updated blogs on topics ranging from economics, culture, statism, technology, and just about everything else (even sports). They also happen to be somewhat libertarian-leaning and Austrian-friendly:
Cafe Hayek (I’ve met Boudreaux, good guy, plus having the legal background adds more flavor)
Marginal Revolution (a friend in the PhD program says Cowen is as eclectic and informed as his blog posts)
Crash Landing (I interviewed Gene Callahan here and I use to harass Murphy on a listserve)
Not Even Wrong (he wrote a critique of String Theory which I discussed here)
Note: despite the fact that I think most of their users are complete morons (RTFA), I still read Digg and Slashdot everyday. And the emo-marxists at BoingBoing can be interesting too.
If I didn’t mention you or your blog, I might start if you happen to be a hot chick or want to fund an empty scholarship. Or both.
I just tested it out, and while you can now incorporate your blog into your profile, you can’t do the opposite — there is no output RSS feed for the world to consume your thoughts.
So while the FB devs are busy creating a cleaner, more niche MySpace, the very nature of their operating model (a Walled Garden) prevents this new tool – and its musings – from becoming part of the larger blogosphere corpus.
My closing thoughts: it will probably help increase time logged into the system, as users will be busy writing and reading the notebook entries of their friends. Thus, in the end, their advertisers will benefit in the long-run (more page impressions, more eyeballs and more clicks). Smart business move.
Business 2.0 has a really good write-up of all the blog-enterprises that are now funded through advertisements.
The main reason for their success: these blog cater to specific niches, thus the ads can be targeted to specific demographics much more effectively. It is the Long Tail of advertising, what Chris Anderson calls “nichification.”
I am not an investor, nor should the following be taken as investment advice. Well, maybe.
Earlier this year, Mark Cuban hatched a new idea: investigate publically traded companies and then short the stock if he didn’t like what he found. It is aptly called Sharesleuth.
Today, the first company he shorted was unveiled, it was Xethanol Corporation. Never heard of them? Then check out this hugely ginormous report.
I recommend reading the report if only to illustrate what you probably should never do: shaft colleagues and investors, it will catch up with you.
His website is Okdork.com and topics he typically discusses surround those of entrepreneurship, shoe tying and finger painting. Funny, witty and a all-around geek.
Anyways, if you goto his site and look to the right you will see he has a poll currently running. If you would be so kind to vote for Movementarian, this is what I will do for you.
You each get a shot of winning these prizes if I win, all you have to do is be the first one to claim one of them by posting a comment at the bottom of this post.
And it doesn’t do any good to not vote, because if I don’t win, you can’t get the prize (so make this viral and tell your friends as well).
His prizes include:
A 3 month link on a highly visible part of my website
I will write 5 articles that you want. You can post them on your site or do whatever you want with them.
I will do a write up on you or your business on my site.
I will let you write 1 post that will go on my site.
You will get an early copy of my Facebook book and my Easy Guide to VC eBook.
I will send you an eCard that says thank you.
1 hour of consulting on your design/functionality, marketing or product development.
If I ever see you in person and you want one, you get a hugï?Š
A signed autographed 8 x 10 of myself. Hahaha. I have these but I doubt you want one and hopefully realize this one is a joke.
All you have to do is vote and then leave a comment in my blog about which prize you want.
There is one catch… I just ate a bunch of crusty oatmeal and I need something to laugh about.
Therefore, your comment must be funny or witty in order to be considered valid. Linking to funny and witty things – including YouTube videos I haven’t mentioned previously – counts.
Summary: I am not keeping any of the prizes. You all get them. First one to make funny, is first to get “the money.”
Remember earlier this year, when the Department of Justice demanded that search engines turn over logs of over 1 million URLs?
Remember how Google resisted and countersued?
Remember how the Judge ruled that the DoJ could only have 50,000 nerfed results?
Well, someone at AOL haphazardly released the search results of over 650,000 quasi-anonymized people into the public domain a couple days ago.
Oops.
Markus Frind explains why this is not a good thing for Google, the same company that recently paid AOL $1 billion for exclusive rights at powering search across all of AOL’s properties.
Update: the New York Times actually managed to track down one of the users and interviewed her.
So some starry-eyed ad agency got the idea of trying to capitalize off of the potential buzz-making machine that YouTube has turned into it.
Agency.comuploaded a video of why they should become Subway Inc. agency-of-record.
However, not everything is an instant viral hit just because it goes through some seemingly calculated process.
To put it bluntly, their video stinks.
A much deserved satire was created soon thereafter by Coudal Partners. It does the job nicely too — although I wish they had used the word “synergize” at some point.
In no particular order, the best essays of last year:
I really wanted to do an April Fools post, something along the lines of me moving back to America and joining the Marines and/or the IRS.
These included:
Apparently I really enjoy making lists, plus it helps me procrastinate a little more before I respond to some lengthy emails (NASA has some “
Do you know someone who is fighting, has survived, or died from pirate attacks?