Why are you reading?
If you are a hardcore blog reader like I am, and like BlogBridge fans are, it's worth giving a little thought to what this article is saying:
"I read this and thrashed and spluttered like Yosemite Sam for a while before I admitted it: he’s right. It is a self-created problem, and I need to understand what makes me feel the need to consume the equivalent of a Carnegie library every day, instead of just finding a more efficient way to choke it down." (from 43 Folders)
Read the whole article: it challenges assumptions about why we read (and write) our blogs so diligently.
Originally posted on Dec 18, 2007. Reprinted courtesy of ReRuns plug-in.
Wikileaks: Some good further links
Continuing the post from the other day about Wikileaks, I found some excellent further links that might interest you:
Behind the scenes @ Wikileaks
There's a lot of buzz right now about the leaked documents related to the war in Afghanistan. I am not clear myself whether they teach us anything new - they may or may not. Also I have not seen any reports claiming that they were fake or not authentic.
However in view of the very recent flap about our credulity of anything we see online (see Sherrod, Shirley) I am interested that I have not yet seen any deep exposé or reporting about the reliability of Wikileaks, whatever or whoever that is. This thought came to be because, by coincidence, a few weeks ago I was following a pretty interesting thread/flame making all kinds of suspicious allegations about the invisible face/leader of Wikileaks (Julian Assange), for example:
"… What we have here is a high profile ex-hacker trawling for $600K operating expenses. Anyone with a few bucks can buy into Assange's snake oil, including fronts for any government agency anywhere. From that moment on audited accounts don't seem to be available…." (from Cryptome.org)
Also see this link for a whole bunch of other references.
Now I don't know who Cryptome is or who posts there. That can all be fabricated too. So don't listen to me.
I am just raising the question, why is everyone so quick to assume that the documents on Wikileaks are real? It seems totally possible that there's a mix of real and forged documents.
Let's see some in depth hard reporting on that organization.
How the world changes (Was: Is the world ready for a replacement to Outlook?)
Now that I've been blogging for a while, it's fun and instructive sometimes to see some of the older stuff that I wrote to see how fast our tech world changes and how I myself change…Everyone loves to beat up on Microsoft's Outlook. Including me! See Outlook Haters Anyone? and Outlook 2003 Rant.
It is true that Outlook is a bit of an abomination. It's large, slow, and as of the latest release, the user interface has gotten that much worse.
Even Microsoft execs agree according to Rafe Needleman (see link above): "I confront Microsoft execs about these and other Outlook crimes whenever I get a chance. The result is usually a rolling of eyes ; the Microsofties know they have a problem child on their hands, but due in part to internal politics, it's a very hard product to fix. "
Still it is also true that everyone on the planet practically uses Outlook. I don't know the numbers but I bet it accounts for over 70% of the email clients out there. Is there any point to trying to unseat it?
I am spending a few days with the Java faithful at JavaOne, getting a dose of how the other half lives. The faithful hate everything Microsoft (which I do not - I like Microsoft, sometimes begrugingly, sometimes bitterly, but I like them.) They use Eudora, Mozilla and a few other apps.
But you know what Outlook has that none of those have? And this is the reason why I continue to use Outlook? It has great integration between your contact list, email, and calendar. Having a single master list of contacts used across the board is really important. (The other thing that Outlook has, which right now is not a benefit to me, but is super important is group calendaring and meeting scheduling.)
So why is there no other email application out there (is there?) which does this integration? No major one anyway?
Enter **Mitch Kapor 's Chandler project **(I shudder to call it "Mitch Kapor's" because there are lots of other people involved, but that's what everyone calls it.) They are trying to build just such a grand integration, inspired at some level by that long ago, seminal application, Agenda.
I wonder if the deeper Microsoft digs itself with Outlook , the more of a chance Chandler and others will have?
Originally posted on Jun 28, 2004. Reprinted courtesy of ReRuns plug-in.
Strictly Platonic
An interesting article in the New York Times Magazine today about 'Strictly Platonic Relationships', according to Craigs' List denizens:
'And while they stress their lofty indifferences, the members of the Strictly Platonic crowd are equally passionate about their desire: conversation, conversation, conversation. Live, e-mail, phone, text, chat — platonic people, it seems, want people to talk to.'
[GEEKY] Something wrong with this picture?
This is from my OSX Activity Monitor.app. See how it shows that one process is using 659.9% of the CPU? Well I think I have two cores in this computer, but do I have 7??? I don't think so…
Invasion
This didn 't really happen
I am sitting on the lawn at the University, talking to a couple of friends. We hear a weird buzzing sound up in the air, and looking up we see an aircraft, flying very low. It looks kind of like an A-30 Warthog, but much much smaller. I guess it might be a radio controlled craft or maybe an UAV from the military. But strangely, it is able to fly very low, and very slow and even hover. It seems to be circling us, and actually watching us. It comes close to the ground but about 100 yards form us, and appears to study us. Soon another craft appears, equally small but this one is a helicopter. And it too, seems to be studying us.
For some reason this doesn't freak us out too much. We just watch with amusement at the spectacle unfolding in front of us. But wait, one of the crafts now is actually landing and guy (I think it's a guy) dressed all in black exits the craft, followed by two more people in similar outfits. They look somewhat threatening but they are not armed, as far as I can tell. They walk up to us and one of them talks to one of my friends and demands his phone number, which he gives and that's that.
One of the other guys comes to me, and also asks me my phone number. Now I have no idea who these guys are, they wear no patches or badges, but of course I assume this is someone from the government, maybe DHS or CIA or FBI, who knows. I have nothing to hide but I don't really appreciate being forced to give my phone number. So I stall but eventually give it. They seem to have a picture of me and are looking at some papers.
One of them asks me, "Did you write something about 'finding the best route from gertenzang to rabb?". I am not sure whether, if these guys are indeed from the government, I am required to respond. Is it a felony to lie to a federal officer? Still, I am not sure what to do. So I say, "Yes I wrote that." They say, "What does it mean?". I say, "It's poetry." They don't buy this and get agitated. "So, what's this gerstenzang and this rabb thing? Is it a code? It's a code isn't it?" I resent this totally. I think but in the end say, "No no, they are just names on buildings on this campus, that's all."
They look annoyed and aggravated, but talk amongst themselves, and finally go back into their crafts, and fly off.
I am shocked and dismayed by this incident. I don't really know what happened.
I ask myself whether I should blog about this, or whether it's safer to just forget about it.
From Mashable: The beat goes on
Check out 10 Tools for Distributed Developer Teams(from Mashable!:
"Every developer and every manager will have his or her preferred tools for working with a distributed team. We’ve rounded up 10 that came to us highly recommended, and we hope you’ll let us know what you think of them — good experiences and bad — in the comments. And be sure to enlighten us if we skipped your favorite resource, too." (from:10 Tools for Distributed Developer Teams)
A bunch of intersting products still trying to crack the collaboration/groupware/sharing nut. It's hard.By the way, my current favorite tool marginally in this category is PivotalTracker, which was not mentioned. It's an agile/scrum tool, very lightweight, and free for basic use. If you are working in an agile team it's really worth a look!
Why is iPod Shuffle’s ‘voice over’ feature not available on the iPhone?
Just wonderin' -- the iPod Shuffle has a really cool feature where a synthesized voice will announce the name of a song over the earphones upon request. Super useful feature on any iPod, right? Then how come is it not available on the far more powerful and expensive iPhone? Is there a technical reason or a marketing reason or some other mysterious reason?
[POLITICS] McChrystal self-sabotage
You can't have missed the whole General Stanley McChrystal affair, where a decorated general who has spent his career in special operations and has been running the war in Afganistan in a moment of spectacular bad judgement let's a young Rolling Stone magazine reporter witness McChrystal and his team bad-mouthing their civilian leadership, which ends up in the magazine under the headline "The Runaway General"
Now from what I understand about special operations, these guys work behind enemy lines, operate in small super secretive groups, need to mingle in with the population, are always on the lookout for double agents, informants and other attempts by the enemy to infiltrate and kill them. It is beyond belief that McChrystal found himself 'accidentally' spilling what was obvious very bad beans. That he didn't realize that (whether or not there was a misunderstanding regarding ground rules) talking trash about the President and the Vice President in front of an outsider would cause irreparable damage.
It couldn't have been a slip of the tongue.
I am surprised that no one has considered the possibility that it wasn't accidental. Either some deep psychological self-sabotage, or an orchestrated way to create a distraction, or a tactical maneuver to kick General Patraeus downstairs, or some other scheme. I just have a hard time swallowing that McChrystal and his team didn't know exactly what they were doing.