Re: this, Rage against the machine 🙂
On a more serious note, simple rules: Twitter for Breaking, Goog Reader for reading, use aggregators like Techmeme and others to pick up the stuff you miss.?Ǭ† Now if only I could sort email….but shhhhh, we wont mention that dirty word today.
Good news: YouTube’s partner program is now available in Australia, Japan and Ireland. I’ve applied, no idea if I’ll qualify.
Now for the WTF: I had Nova on in the car (wife had been in the car, otherwise it would have been on ABC Local Radio) and their sad excuse for a news came on a 8am (sad as they seemingly read the headline only), and it went something like this
“If you upload videos to YouTube ads will now have to run on your videos.”
Apparently the partners program = forced advertising on YouTube. I should be so lucky…well I might be if I get approved, but we’ll wait and see.
It’s been a year since I’ve last updated this site, so it’s time for a new look. At the time of writing I’m still working on it, the blogroll is still very dead (as it was on the last template), and I’m still tweaking colors etc from the original template, but getting there. Apologies if this looks odd for you at the moment.
I’ve purchased a ticket for this years Gnomedex in Seattle, my first. Buggered if I know how I’ll get there, the airfare will work itself out in the coming months, they always do. Just a shame Virgin doesn’t start the pacific route till October, finally some competition on Qantas’ cash cow route.
The occasion coincided with this response to my earlier what to broadcast about video from Chris Pirillo. Perhaps my calling may be in surprise humour? 🙂 (language warning)
(language warning for video)
So I’ve been playing with Live streaming services and I want to do something more regular, but not 100% on what. I love what Chris Pirillo does, but the subject matter is a little tame for me. Open to suggestions, on topic, format and even streaming service of choice.
Note I recorded the video above directly to YouTube, hence the quality is shite. I picked up a $100 Mac compatible webcam on skype the other week and the quality is easily twice as good as the overly expensive with backstory iSight I bought last year, and it looks nothing like this.
This weekends A-list navel gazing exercise is a subject (ironically) that has been debated before: that the blogosphere provides little original content and that most blogs don’t provide a value add in terms of analysis.
It’s true…and it’s not true.
It’s true if you only follow techmeme and a specific number of blogs, for example the space blogs like TechCrunch and Engaget (presuming both are leaders in each space) cover. There are a growing number of blogs covering this space; gadget blogs are a dime a dozen and there’s a growing number of people covering Web 2.0 as well. That they will sound like an echo chamber at times is a given, considering that there is always only going to be X amount of news to cover. This is no different to the MSM either.
But look outside the very small selection of blogs (as an overall percentage of all blogs) that people seem to be bitchmeming about and you’ll find an amazing variety of choice and opinion, with more original thought than any one could ever consume in a life time.
It comes back to stereotypes.
I thought we’d moved passed many of them. In the early days it was that blogs were nothing more than personal dairies, written by amateurs that provided no value outside of entertainment. Things changed over time, and then we had debates about whether bloggers could be or are journalists. Given that most MSM sites now have blogs that’s a debate that is mostly dead and burried. That the blogosphere lacks original thought should be another one of those stereotypes that should pass, because it’s simply not true. It’s no more true than saying all black people commit crimes just because some of them do.
Dave Winer talks about the early days of blogging, and how we were watching them, and not watching each other, and yet he links to Techmeme and mentions it as proof of the problem.; he’s doing exactly what he’s rallying against. It’s not Techmeme’s fault: what you consume is ultimately up to you. Dave, if you have an issue with the content on Techmeme: stop reading Techmeme, go out and find some new blogs. Start from scratch with your reading list. The problem isn’t the blogosphere, the problem is your personal consumption list. Change doesn’t deliver itself, change comes to those who seek it out, who act to make the change. If you feel that what you read isn’t original or doesn’t value add, go find other sites that meet your personal needs; they’re there, there’s hundreds of millions to choose from.
We had a stunned bird on our doorstep this afternoon, I presume it had smacked the glass. Waving at it resulted in no response, so we figured it’s not in a good way. I think about it for a while, she who must be obeyed says to leave it there, and yet for some reason I kept thinking that it would be bad karma to not at least try and help it.
Welcome to Bird Watch. I figure if it isn’t moving in the morning in the box then it wouldn’t have been outside. With any luck it will fly away. Presuming iiNet doesn’t crash or other event, this stream should be good until 9am AEDT Sat (+11GMT) or 5pm PST Friday. I’ll update the post with the result. The page with chat board on Justin.tv here.
Update: bird successfully returned to the wild at 8:30am Saturday. Archive 90mins below
2Web Crew 21 is now live. And yes, I get questioned about this weeks shit storm, and no, I failed to use the c word once 🙂