Gnomdex6 Live

Gnomedex6 (July 29th - July 1st) - I'm not at the conference but I'm listening to the live stream. Props to Chris for streaming the conference live - video included through the keynote. Chris' blog is is updating with conference content as it progresses.

Guy Kawasaki Interviews Kathleen Gasperini of Label Networks

Interesting perspectives on why young people (they don't like the "teens" label) like MySpace and Facebook in Guy Kawasaki's recent interview with Kathleen Gasperini of Label Networks - a research firm that helps brands like Apple and Pepsi keep up with the younger crowd. The interview pointed me towards the popular and expressive  MySpace Movie - funny stuff.

about:blank

Steve Makofsky blogs about what he thinks is the best Home Page - The Furrygoat Experience: The Best Home Page.

___________________________________

After checking out all the the big players (Google, Live.com, Start.com, Yahoo.com and MSN.com), I've finally decided on what the best home page is:

about:blank

Yup. A blank page. Loads fast, never 404's and there's no ads. Perfection.

___________________________________

Instructions: type "about:blank" (without the quotes) into the location bar in IE or FireFox and set it to your Home Page. Visit Tools > Options... in FireFox or Tools > Internet Options... in IE to change your Home Page setting.

My Lenovo 3000 N100 - Flop or hot?

So I ordered a Lenovo 3000 N100 laptop from NewEgg- it arrived yesterday and it's leaving tomorrow for a trip to the Lenovo hospital for screwed up laptops. Why? I can't get the display the work properly - the text is garbled beyond recognition - has been from the moment I started it up.

I was on the phone last night at 11:30 PM with Lenovo support in GA trying to troubleshoot the problem but that was a dead-end. We checked BIOS versions, driver versions etc. but they ended up putting a box in the mail for me so I'll be packing my new laptop up tomorrow for what will hopefully be a quick visit to the Lenovo hospital. I will say that Lenovo's support services have been good so far. The website is easy to use, the pre-installed software is useful, and drivers and updates are easy to access. It was fairly easy to get a support technician on the phone, she was here in the U.S. and fairly competent although I think we got to the "send it back" solution a little too quickly - it was late so I'm willing to look past this - 24 hours real-person support is pretty cool.

I'll update this repost when the 3000 N100 returns from the hospital. I bought this laptop because it was well reviewed and Chris Pirillo had nice things to say about Lenovo. 

Update: I should have updated this a while ago. My Lenovo promptly returned from the Lenovo Hospital for Screwed-up Laptops and perfect working order - it took 3 to 4 business days for the to complete the work and have it back in my hands. Painless. Big fan of Lenovo and loving the machine. Still has my recommendation. Beautiful screen. 

Joi Ito talks about his obession with WOW

Cool Land Cruiser Gear at FourLow.com

Bumped into some cool Land Cruiser gear at FOURLOW - pint glasses, camp chair, and a cool t-shirt. An off topic post but I'm a Land Cruiser dude so occassional posts like this are part of the deal.

I commend Microsft for ...

I commend the Microsoft leadership for allowing their employees to publicly criticize their business practices.  Philip Su, a Microsoft developer on the tablet team, does an excellent job in this wildly popular post. The World As Best As I Remember It : Broken Windows Theory. On the other hand, it sounds like the leadership in Redmond doesn’t have control over much these days. I think Bill’s plan is to leave on a high note – you know, like Seinfeld.

Time with BillG

Joel on Software reflects on his time with BillG - good read. I hope Bill gets to read this - it should make him feel pretty good.

Google Goo

Google Is Killing the Economics of Content by Scott Karp, interesting on its own, turned me on to a great post by Seth Jayson (The Motley Fool) titled How Google is Killing the Internet that's a must read for anybody interested in splogs, link farms, and scraper sites. Is Google killing the Internet?

Comment I left on Scott's site >> go, join the conversation 

Adobe's Side of the PDF/XPS Dispute by Mike Chambers

Mike Chambers, a senior product manager for Adobe, blogs about Adobe's side of the Adobe vs. Microsoft PDF/XPS dispute. Ryan Stewart over at ZD NET dubs Mike's blog post "Adobe's side of the story" - I'm guessing that pissed a few Adobe PR / Legal types off. Mike's post is interesting because it provides a candid perspective of the way Adobe employees probably feel about the dispute. The comments (public perspective) associated with Mike's post are even better - I just skimmed them but I'd have to say they're mostly in Microsoft's favor and a lot of them criticize Adobe for producing crappy PDF software. I think this whole thing is producing a net negative PR return for Adobe.

IMO - Microsoft should include PDF support in Office 2007 and Adobe should support the effort - it's good for their brand because the PDF standard is typically associated with it. They're going to have a hard time protecting this association with legal tools - the best way to protect it is by building great PDF software.

Prediction: Scoble Launches Vlogging Craze

Scoble is going to launch vlogging (and podtech.com) into orbit. I spent some time with my surfboard tonight - surfing the vlog waves - there's a lot of crap out there but there's also some really good stuff flying around. Pioneers like Amanda Congdon (Rocketboom) are doing pretty good for themselves already - we're talking about 85K a week in advertising revenue and 300,000 visitors a day. I'm looking forward to watching this space as it develops.

Scoble - IMO

Scoble, the uber blogger, is leaving Microsoft for Silicon Valley start-up podtech.com. News of Scoble's decision to leave Microsoft rocked the blogosphere over the weekend and it will continue to monopolize the conversation through the week. In fact, the jolt and the resulting traffic was significant enough to knock podtech.com off-line for a while. IMO, Microsoft should have done a lot more (there's a price) to keep him around. Seriously, Scoble is Microsoft in the blogosphere and I can't see how they're going to fill the void - Channel9 was just a small part of what he did for them. Big mistake Microsoft - you can't afford to loose guys like Robert. Best wishes Robert!

Related: Scoble is Leaving Microsoft - Chris Pirillo (good "buzz" outline/link list

The Omen - how do you let your kid star in something like this?

The Omen, a supernatural thriller staring the antichrist himself, opened 06/06/06. This is the remake of the 1976 original starring Gregory Peck. I haven't seen the movie yet but watching the trailer recently, it occurred to me, what kind of parent lets their seven year old star in a film like The Omen? How does this not mess with the kid's head?

NOTE: If your child is born 06/06/06   / bushisanticrhist.com

Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, a seven year old 1st grader from New York was selected by director John Moore for his ability to "look evil." Jim Fitzpatrick, Seamus' father, also has this ability and has put it to use in a few scary flicks of his own 1, 2, 3. Jim has a starring role in the upcoming  The Belly of the Beast Satan flick. Can you imagine the conversations Jim and Seamus must have? "Dad, I just can't get the demon voice right. How do I make it sound really evil."

I'm sure Jim is very proud of his son and I'm sure they have a lot to talk about but is a role like this really in Seamus' best interests? Maybe the family has good sense of humor about it, maybe Seamus is super smart and this kind of thing just roles off him, but as the parent of a four year old I can't see this not messing with the kid's head. Getting "into character" at seven years old and back out probably isn't as easy as it sounds. Go kill your "pretend" parents Seamus and look evil doing it! Take 1, Take 2, Take 3 - can't be easy to just put behind you at seven. I'll end this post with a quote from Seamus' grandmother Margaret Davey (80).

'I know there are parts where I'll keep my eyes closed,'' Davey says. ''He kills his mother and his father, but at least he doesn't kill his grandmother.'' [source]

Microsoft Monitor - Google My Spreadsheet

Joe Wilcox (Microsoft Monitor) posted an excellent write-up on Google's spreadsheet and how it might impact Microsoft. I like the way Joe thinks about Google, more specifically, the way they compete (or don't) and the method to their madness. Microsoft Monitor: Google My Spreadsheet

Everbody is talking aboug Google's spreadsheet.
Scoble, TechCrunch, GigaOM, David Card (Jupiter)

Personally, I think Google Spreadsheet and the other on-line spreadsheets are weak - I don't fit the use case. On the other hand, I'm excited to see the 1.0 generation emerging - imagine what it will be like when we get to the 2.0 and 3.0 generations. Better, less expensive, and more accessible software is coming our way.

Comments Enabled

The palmit.com commenting system is back up - I pulled it down because I was getting burried in comment SPAM. Please try not to hit the server all at once ; )

Actually, I re-enabled the system over the weekend. I've been watching the comment SPAM traffic for the last 24 hours to see if my work made a difference. I think it did.

What did I do to reduce the SPAM volume? I spent some time further customizing and configuring the already powerful SPAM blocking features included with MovableType 3.2. Additionally, I installed Brad Choate's free MT-DSBL plugin. MT-DSBL uses real-time DNS lookups to determine if the commenter's IP address is listed as an open proxy. I configured it to automatically "junk" any comments coming from an open proxy and this seems to be helping. I also spent some time reviewing my collection of junk for popular keywords - which I added to my keywords filter.

For the moment, my comment SPAM volume has been reduced to a manageable level. 

Got Schwag - May ValleySchwag Bag Arrives!

I approached the green mailbox trying not to get my hopes up. Would it arrive?

It did. It's here! Oh boy, what did they send me?

The May schwag bag from ValleySchwag arrived today. I grabbed it, I couldn't wait to open it so I started tearing the white Tyvek U.S. Postal Service mail bag to pieces as I walked back down the driveway. I felt like a kid, opening the cereal box for the free prize inside. What did I get, what did I get? Hey Mom, look what I got in the mail!

My May schwag bag included: a RubyRedLabs shirt, assorted stickers (great for laptops), pins, and a cool MovableType tool for my keychain. [flickr - more schwag bags]

ValleySchwag shipped to about 1,500 subscribers this month - I think I'll stay on their list for at least another month. The shirt is cool and I love the tool but it's more about giving them some credit for a novel idea and their implementation. Well done ValleySchwag! 

Comments Disabled (Again)

Got Schwag - ValleySchwag

I signed up for the ValleySchwag [blog] service the day I heard about it - May 5th. $14.95 a month (shipping included) for a cool shirt + goodies is a great deal. I'm still patiently waiting for my 1st schwag bag to arrive - great press in May and a novel idea sent their membership numbers into orbit fast. What's ValleySchwag?

...filled with the Web's best schwag. These are limited edition collectibles you won't find in any store. We lasso only the best shirts, stickers, hats, pens, and various logo'd merch--the stuff we treasure. Order

Can't wait to see what's in my schwag bag. Sign-up for yours!