• Yes, its a few days late, but a few last thoughts about Netscape is moving its ’social’ component to Propeller.com, namely that I “dig” the new name (sorry, I couldn’t help myself), I think its a good idea that its getting its own domain name, and now, its time for it to actually sink or swim on its own merits.  It doesn’t get any extra advantage of type-in traffic thanks to the ancient netscape.com name that continues to exist to the dozens of people that still use the netscape browser, and links to from the aol.com home page (that a few more people use).   And after the move is competed and people have gotten used to the new coat of paint, where will it finally rank amongst the reddits, del.icio.us’s, and Digg’s of the world?  I think it will largely depend on how Propeller innovates itself and markets itself amongst early adopters, as it continues to shed its heritage as YADC (yet-another-digg-clone). (0) # // 9.13.07 @ 0:17
  • Well, it looks like the Microsoft Zune, Microsoft’s DRM’d iPod never-be, has dropped its price as part of its planned product cycle.  If you wanted to try it out, I suppose now is as good a time as any.  Being a Microsoft booster I would love to try it out, despite its many criticisms.  I was reminded of its existence here in Seattle (as we’re on a family trip), because it has not, nor has ever been released in Canada.  Even if I wanted to try and buy it in Canada, I am, as my old high school friend was wont to say, shit out of luck.  On a quick Google search, it looks like the last time it was mentioned anywhere was before Christmas when the scuttlebutt was that it might be released “early” in the year.  Well, early left a long time ago and still no Zune.  I’m sure there are a lot of legitimate reasons why it hasn’t yet come to Canada, or perhaps anywhere *but* the States, but I think it also says a lot about Microsoft’s confidence in this product. (3) # // 9.5.07 @ 15:54
  • Well, after a generally upbeat August — in terms of frequency of postings — you may have noticed an absence over the past few days.  The reason can be explained in two words: Harry Potter.  I picked up the Deathly Hallows some time ago and got around to reading it over the past few days.  I’ve found that the Harry Potter series had lost a bit of steam over the past few books (I thought it peaked at around book 4), but I have to say that Book 7 is really the best out of them all.  Its tighter, its more action packed (the movie’s going to be awesome), adds some some new and interesting mythology to the series, and it really tries to tie up every loose end — and involve every character mentioned — during the entire series.  There was some incredible hype leading up to the sale of this book.  While its not perfect by any means, (some of the explanations near the end are a bit muddled) I’d have to say that the hype is really warranted and then some.  And now?  Back to blogging. ;) (2) # // 8.21.07 @ 19:12
  • For those of you who use Wordpress for their blogs (and, with the greatest respect to Anil Dash, I suspect that its most of you), you may have noticed that Wordpress now has shirts for sale internationally.  I like the color red, which is fortunate, because it turns out you can only get these Wordpress logo emblazoned shirts in red.  What I don’t really like, however, is the shipping costs.  I live in Canada, so to get those T-shirts shipped to Canada (from a Chicago area shipping station) actually *more than doubles* the cost of the T-shirt.  The actual shirt costs $17.  Shipping cost?  $17.50.  The funny thing is that if you live in, say, Timbuktu, the cost of shipping *there* (in fact, *anywhere* in the world) from the UK is only 4.50 pounds. which is about half the cost of the T-shirt (9.50 pounds).  I’d love a T-shirt, but there is no way I’m paying more than the actual cost of the T-shirt in shipping costs.  And does it really make sense that it costs more to ship to Timbuktu than Toronto? (4) # // 8.15.07 @ 22:34
  • Apparently there are people in Japan who actually *live* in Net Cafe’s — they are clean, they are cheap, they serve food, *and* you can buy clean underwear (the non-school girl kind) if you so choose it.  Although such places were apparently built to have fun, kill time, and / or allow salarymen to hang out when they’ve missed the train, there is a distinct population of individuals who have actually chosen to live in them.  I read an article about this same phenomenon in the NYTimes or International Herald Tribune a few months ago but I can’t find the link.  The interesting thing now is that the Japanese Government is going to try and hammer out a study to try and figure out just how many of these net cafe “refugees” there actually are; the rationale is that people who live there might be a canary-in-the-mine kind of alarm bell for a society that values equality.  That is to say, some / most / all of the guys who live there aren’t living there for just fun, if you know what I mean. (2) # // 8.15.07 @ 19:07
  • Valeria Maltoni interviewed me recently at Conversation Agent about my experiences at the BlogHerald as ‘new media’ editor. If such things strike your fancy, go ahead and check it out. If however, you would like to read a good blog about how connections, branding, public relations and marketing all mix and interelate, just check out her blog, which is pretty darn fantastic on its own. ;) [disclosure/shameless plug: Valeria also writes a biweekly column at the BlogHerald as well, where she talks about how all of *that* influences blogging] (0) # // 8.12.07 @ 21:33