Viacom Buying Last.fm?
Say it ain’t so. If Viacom buys Last.fm, I’ll be uninstalling Last.fm from my computers. What next? Microsoft buys Pandora? As far as I know, Last.fm is independent, which is why like it.

What Was Sony Thinking?
Did Sony really use a freshly decapitated goat for their God of War game launch? What in Heck were they thinking? Did their management suddenly grow horns? Is a “we’re sorry” acceptable here. Tell me this wasn’t offline “linkbait” calculated to cause controversy. No PR is bad PR.

Journos vs Bloggers
Bloggers are not journalists. But journalists can be bloggers. Can bloggers be journalists? Who cares? I think I’d rather see a no-holds barred Cage Match between bloggers and journalists. Just no goats, please.

Statisfy.net: Maps and Stats Mashup
Want to see your website’s visitors in (near) real-time on a Google Map? Statsify offers just such a mashup. Very cool. For about six seconds. Though I think there could be potential in this app, with additional features. I mean, it’s not all that different in essence from Twittervision.

Wakoopa: An Application We Don’t Really Need?
Last.fm and others track what songs you’ve played recently. Wakoopa apparently does the same for downloaded applications. Meh. Why bother?

Fun With Digg
Since the Digg API was opened up, some very fascinating applications have been built on it – many I had planned on exploring. If you are a stats junkie that likes different “views” of data, especially for social networks, check these out.

Originally posted on May 1, 2007 @ 12:57 pm

Why Web 2.0 Sucks
When the term “web 2.0” first started appearing en masse, I hated the term because it just seemed like hype. I even said so on Tim O’Reilly’s blog. (He’s the publishing genius behind O’Reilly and the guy that came up with the term.) Since then, I’ve written dozens of articles on Web 2.0 and haven’t thought twice about how much I disliked the term. Now, I don’t think about the term and I’m caught up in all the incredible applications. Though not everyone feels that way. This Is Going To Be Big gives a critical but insightful look at their top ten reasons why Web 2.0 sucks. While it’s definitely worth a read, I’d say many of the reasons apply to the Web in general, not just Web 2.0.

What Meshly’s Really About?
Read/Write Web has a better explanation of what Meshly is really about. I might have gotten it wrong, saying it was like Twitter with Digg voting. RWW says its more for bookmarking through IM. So it’s kind of like Twitter over IM rolled up with del.icio.us and Digg. I think. Though if you’ve how many steps you have to go through just to post a bookmark, you might think twice about using it that way. Delicious takes about 1.5 steps, especially with the bookmarklet button I have on my Firefox browser. I’m not discounting the potential value of Meshly, just saying it takes too many steps to do what should take about 1-3 steps. And that’s inherent in the medium (IM), not so much Meshly’s fault.

Are Blogs Offensive?
Ars Technica writes about a ScanSafe “Global Threat” report that finds that 80% of blogs have offensive content. No kidding, big surprise. I don’t know about the 80%, but they apparently scanned seven billion page requests to come up with this waste of paper. I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry – stupid arse sniffing gits :)

Originally posted on April 26, 2007 @ 2:23 pm

Is Ghostblogging CEO Blogs Bad?
Debbie Weil, who has been dishing out great advice for corporate/CEO blogs recently moderated a panel and the consensus seems to be that ghostblogging is not bad. At least, that’s the consensus of a small group of writers surveyed. This is in response to a Dilbert cartoon about the pointy-haired boss wanting to start a blog. Tris Hussey gave his perspective on ghostblogging.

Twitter Too Popular in Australia
Apparently Twitter can’t handle it’s popularity in Australia and have suspended their SMS feature there. Rumor is that 901am’s Duncan Riley did this single-handedly :)

The End of Blogs?
I don’t know what the big fuss is. So what if the blogosphere has halted at 15 million blogs? Inorganic populations have lifecycles, too. No doubt there will be mini-spurts as more serious publishers join.

How To Blog Jason Calacanis?
Let’s not pussyfoot around here… If almost anyone else had done what Jason Calacanis just did on his blog, telling you how to get his attention online, they’d be called arrogant. But I don’t think that applies here. Calacanis is the genius who built up and sold Weblogs, Inc., turning himself into more than just a celebrity in his own mind. And that means some bloggers would like to catch his attention. It’s a fact, and he knows it and so do you (if that’s what you want). So get to it, grab his attention. Just don’t expect an interview over the phone.

Originally posted on April 30, 2007 @ 10:38 am