A Brain Dead Thing about Technorati

I love Technorati. I play the tag game. I check my blog rankings. I know some of the folks there. I like them. They're very smart. But...

They sort everything on the blogosphere into one of these five topics:

• Entertainment
• Life
• Sports
• Business
• Tech

Just those five. Nothing on current events, news, or politics. So, under which of the five does politics show up?

If you guessed Entertainment, you are correct.

Technorati home page this morning, under What Everyone is Blogging About (Entertainment): I find:

• "Ted Kennedy: Misguided War in Iraq has..."
• "How Safe is the Capitol With BushCo at the..."
• "Howard Dean, Democrats offer a New D..."

That's Entertainment? I was expecting, maybe, the clown with his pants falling down or the dance that's a dream of romance or the scene where the villain is mean. Wasn't expecting the scene where the screamer is Dean.

Maybe they're making a profound editorial comment on the vacuousness of political discourse. Democrat or Republican? It's just casting. The script is the same and the show must go on. Maybe they're saluting the quip that "politics is show business for ugly people" (which Google tells me is Leno's or Carville's—but whoever came up with it, have your lawyers call these guys, who are trying to make a buck out of it).

MSM is talking about how the bloggers are hijacking political discourse, and the world authority on blogging doesn't have a tab for politics? Hmmm.

Guess what, Technorati? Of your top 20 blogs this morning, six are political blogs. You'll find them at numbers 5 (Huffington Post), 6 (Daily Kos), 10 (Crooks and Liars), 12 (Think Progress), 13 (Michelle Malkin), 17 (Instapundit). Of your 30 hot tags as of this writing, nine are political.

Mickeleh's Take: Maybe they're afraid of alienating righties or lefties. Or maybe its an oversight. But I'm calling them out on it. And I'd like to see an enhancement. Please give us a Current Events tab.

(tags: Technorati, Blogs, Blogging, Politics, Tag)

cross-posted on Mickeleh's Soapbox

The joke that took me six months to write

Back when I was doing standup, I jotted a premise for a joke onto an index card. There was something funny in it, but is wasn't a joke yet. I wrote this:

A scratch-and-sniff map

And I put the card away. Six month's later, I went through my joke premise cards and I was suddenly hit with the punchline:

... of New Jersey

. Why do I bring this up now? Because Gawker has a map to the smells of the New York subway

(tags: humor, subway, map, smell, travel)

Cory: Amazon Unbox "galling for its evilness"

Cory Doctorow on Boing-Boing went through the terms of service for the new Amazon movie download offering, "Unbox." He found a nest of vipers in there. His summary:

Amazon Unbox's user agreement isn't just galling for its evilness -- it's also commercially suicidal. No sane person will agree to this. Amazon Unbox user agreement is only a couple femtometers more dignified than being traded to another inmate for a couple packs of cigarettes.

Click through for the nasty details.

Mickeleh's Take: Sadly, sane people will agree. Because they're busy. Because they trust Amazon. Because they're so eager to get the candy, that they won't stop to read the warning labels. Once again Mac users dodge a bullet, because Amazon has based the service on Windows Media DRM, so we're not eligible.

Big thanks to Cory for raising a flag that will be noticed by some minority of potential customers and a hat-tip to Judeleh for her take on Mickeleh's take.

BTW... what's the user value to this download service vs. buying the DVD from Amazon or renting it from Netflix? Even without the galling evilness, I don't know why anyone would want this.

(tags: Amazon, DRM)

Apple is in Your Pocket (with a siphon)

My favorite slide from Steve's presentation yesterday:



Back in the day, Microsoft marched to the mission: "a computer on every desk" (running Microsoft software). How quaint. Today there are many more opportunites than desk tops. Apple is targeting your desks, home entertainment centers, autos, pockets, shoes, and, of course, your pockets. Especially your pockets. (So, is Microsoft, of course, but that's another topic.)

Mickeleh's Take:

• iPod marches on with significantly more bang for the buck and cool features such as games and gapless playback. Missing in action: the rumored widescreen iPod. It looks like enough new for a nice Christmas bump to Apple's sagging iPod sales, but you have to wonder if the market is close to saturation. (I don't need a new iPod right now.). Oh, and the new shuffle is an adorable little tyke.
• iTunes gets hot new browsing features, including Cover Flow and now it will download cover art to you--even for music you don't buy from the iTunes store. (It's free, so I'll download it for sure).
• the store adds movies from Disney (which I'm boycotting because of ABC's airing of that deceitful schlockudrama on 9/11,) How's the value on the movies? Well, they're pricing higher than a rental, but lower than buying the DVD (but offering lower resolution, and no "DVD extras"). Maybe useful for plane trips. And, Steve, please throw some board and shareholder weight around at ABC and get them out of Bush's pocket.
  

As for the "one last thing": Steve put a new product on the vapor list, scheduled to ship next year (code-named iTV)? Brilliant. It's the missing link between media stored on your Mac or PC and your TV or home entertainment center. Wireless or wired networking built-in and all the audio-video outputs you'd want (HDMI, component, optical digial audio out, etc.). And it provides slick Front Row browsing of your content.

Mickeleh's take: iTV is not only smart about what it includes (the right output ports, slick U-I, and PC connectivity as well as Mac), but it's also smart about what it leaves out. There's no attempt to duplicate the DVR--which most people will get from their cable or satellite provider anyway (or maybe the new TiVo Series 3). The big gotcha: the home entertainment center is going high definition, but iTunes movies aren't even as sharp as current DVD and not even close to HD resolutions. Is there an HD upgrade path? (Jobs was silent about which flavors of 802.11 wireless will be supported.) I'll probably be in line for one when it ships. Of course, if you have a Media Center PC and an Xbox360--you pretty much have this capability and more (except you won't have access to Apple's Fair Play locked content. Gotta love the dueling DRM standards that Apple and Microsoft are imposing.). But this product isn't shipping until some time next year. Why did Steve show it so early?

Links for the Apple-obsessed:

If you missed the keynote, Apple is streaming it.

• Product details at Apple.
• Smart perspectives and food for thought from Scoble, Om, Kevin Marks
• Analyst round-up of iTV prospects -- and Apple's prospects in the nascent, but already crowded movie download market by Mark Ward (BBC News). He tackles the question of why Apple broke with its recent practice of keeping hardware very close to the vest until it's ready to ship. Hint: the message wasn't for the consumer--it was for the movie studios.
  
• Detailed analysis of iTV by Daniel Eran (also see his analysis of why Apple is winning at media downloads)
• First look at new iPod from Ryan Block (Engadget) (BTW: it looks like the old iPod, but there are some neat screenshots of new games)
• One last thing: hot new TV spot.
  

(tags: Steve, Steve Jobs, Apple, iPod, mp3, HDTV, Mac, )

Skip Photoshop: Now cameras can lie all by themselves

CNET reports on cameras that are designed to record enhanced images--slimming the subject, adding a tan, removing lines and blemishes. (slide show side bar included.)

Mickeleh's Take: Now that the retouching can be done in the process of recording the original digital image, "photography" as a record of reality is dead. There's definitely a market for unreality. "We can't handle the truth." But how new is the death of reality? As Paul Simon noted, there's spin even in the ol' silver halide: "Kodachrome, They give us those nice bright colors...Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah."

(tags: Digital Photography, Photography, Cameras, Reality)

How to Dress Like a Mac

Chanporty Firth has sourced the wardrobe worn by Justin Long in the "I'm a Mac" commercials.

If you'd like to dress like your favorite computer, he has the items, stores, and prices.

Mickeleh's Take: Forget dressing like a Mac. I want to wear the devil and angel suits worn by John Hodgman as "PC." Can you help me, Chanpory?



(tags: Design, Life Clever, Mac, PC, Justin Long, John Hodgman, Advertising, Apple)

Where is Steve Jobs on the Path to 9-12?

Thoughts on the countdown to ABC's airing of a distorted, anti-Clinton dramatization of the Countdown to 9-11:

Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder of ABC's parent company. He's also a member of the board of directors. He sold me the magnificent computer I'm using right now. And he also sells ABC and Disney product at the iTunes store. Boy do I have mixed feelings about this. I wonder if he does.

Back in 2000 near the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Democrats met to nominate Al Gore, Apple Computer honored five progressive heroes in a twelve-story billboard, as part of the "Think Different" Campaign—Cesar Chavez, Martin Luthor King, FDR, Robert F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt.

There's a beautiful shot of the billboard here on Flickr.

Today, having sold Pixar to Disney, Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder and a member of the board of the parent company of ABC.

I wonder if Mr. Jobs has anything to say about the distortions in the upcoming mini-series, "Path to 9-11."

It's worth noting that 9-11 is directly on the path to 9-12, the day Apple is planning a major product announcement. Observers expect it to include a movie download service on iTunes. Disney movies will almost certainly form the heart of the first offerings

I wonder if this mini-series will also be offered on iTunes.

(tags: Steve Jobs, iTunes, ABC, 9-11, Propaganda, Disney,)

And you think Katie got Fauxtoshopped?

These two pubs were in the supermarkets just a few weeks ago.

New in the GigaOm empire: Web Worker Daily

Newest addition to Om Malik's blog cluster: Web Worker Daily. Presented with a clean, vaguely soviet-era design, the service shows us that Om is no mere journalist. He's a revolutionary. Or a savvy marketer.

Workers of the world log on! You have nothing to lose but your cubes.

Have wi-fi. Will travel.

We don't need no steenking health plan. We buy at Whole Foods. No pesticides, no illness. If illness, then homeopathy.

BTW… can anyone here explain why our language is inverted. Why do people who work in an office say they work “out of” an office? And when they work at home say they work “out of my home”?

BTW… can anyone here explain why it’s cool to use Soviet and Bolshevik imagery in an ironic way, but not cool to use Nazi imagery?

Mickeleh's take: I think Om has found an audience, a need, and a great opportunity to fill it. I'm subscribed.

(tags:Web Worker Daily, Om, Om Malik, Web 2.0)

ZDNet: Microsoft PR exec (UK) doesn't "get" blogging

According to Tom Foremski on ZDNet, an exec from Waggener Edstrom, lead PR agency for Microsoft, says he doesn't get blogging. Tom reminds readers that former Microsoft Tech Geek Blogger Robert Scoble (now with PodTech) "created many millions of dollars in positive publicity for Microsoft, on a salary of less than $100K. I don't think WaggEd could have done a fraction of that, for 100 times the payment Mr Scoble received." Amen to that. Scoble's role in providing a human, humane view into Microsoft continues even now that he's left.

And just yesterday, Robert pondered whether he was losing his blog power since leaving Microsoft.

(tags: blogging, Scoble, Robert Scoble, Microsoft)

digg story

Trace the rise and fall of baby names

Here's a fascinating bit of information design and Java programming: The Baby Name Wizard. Watch the popularity of given names rise and fall over more than a century. Type in a given name and see when its popularity peaks. (Mickeleh isn't in the database--but Michael is.)

See Abraham make a late century comeback, Watch Ethyl and Myrtle fade, see Shaniqua arrive and vanish with great speed. Lots of info in the FAQ on the data sets and the design choices. Whether you're on the way to naming a baby, or want to see a popularity curve for your own name and those you know, this is a wizard worth seeing.






One potentially confusing design choice is that the scale of the vertical axis changes for each name in order to allow the chart to fill the vertical space. At first glance, all names seem to be equally popular at their peak. The designers use color to denote which names are more popular--below, Michael in deep blue peaks at more than 21,000 per million, whereas Willard peaks at a bit more than 1,100 per million. At its lowest point (in the 1880s at 54th), Michael outranks Willard at its peak (in the 1910s at 83rd). So be careful to pay attention to the elastic scale as you peruse different names.

(tags: Names, Babies, Baby Names, Information Design, Design)

Paris surges past our Long Tail Video

Less than a month ago, I posted on YouTube, the Long Tail video that I did with Peter Hirshberg and Bob Kalsey. It's nearly up to 340,000 viewings. Which I'm pretty happy about. On the other hand a certain hotel heiress has a video that just went up yesterday and it has already surged past Long Tail. And hers is black and white.

Maybe it's just the extra publicity kick from Steve Rubel's mention of it when he covered the debut of the new branded channel service from YouTube



(Tags: Paris Hilton, YouTube, Advertising, Steve Rubel, Rubel)

CBS News to Simulcast Couric on Web and TV

According to TV Week, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will simulcast on the Web as it airs on TV and then following the live broadcast, it will remain available online as an on demand program.

It's Katie bar the door now as networks rush headlong to use IP delivery in hopes of meeting up with the audience who's abandoning TV for the PC.

Last time I watched the Network News, the preponderance of commercials for denture adhesive, pills for incontinence, etc. was a tipoff that their ratings with the young audience demos have fallen and they can't get up. Come to the Internet. It's where the young people hang.

Mickeleh's Take: Just because the kids are on PCs, doesn't necessarily mean that they're gonna click on the network news. Expect Katie and producers to do their best to liven up the joint with format and presentation changes. Maybe CBS needs to hire Amanda Congdon as a co-anchor.

(Ironically, Amanda today is giving the lie to my rant about young demos by highlighting a clip from YouTube featuring what may be the world's oldest vlogger.)


(tags: CBS, Katie Couric, broadband, TV,YouTube,Amanda Congdon,
Amanda)

Brouhaha about blogging (Nick vs. Mike)

Yesterday I linked to a Nick Carr essay, The Great Unread. I didn't comment because I thought the post stood on its own and I didn't want to dilute or distort a reader's experience of it with too much characterization. If you haven't read The Great Unread yet, it's the homework for what follows. (But nobody is forcing you to do the homework.). Nick’s post was beautifully written and held my attention.

Turns out that Nick hit a nerve. Mike Arrington jumped on it and asked if Nick was really Robin Hood or just an A**hole for implying that the whole game is about soliciting links from more popular bloggers, and concluding that Nick's championing of the little guys was just a well-crafted plea for links back to Nick.

And that kicked off a food fight. about the essence of blogging and the nature of the blogosphere. Is it high school? Feudalism? Self-expression? or Conversation. (More homework: read the comments to both Nick's and Mike's posts.)

Who’s zoomin’ whom here? Is this a real controversy or some elaborately staged pro-wrestling contest? Is this a real battle for the soul of the blogosphere or a cry for attention? Scott Karp gets to the heart of why (some) people blog, Blogging Is the New Novel/Screenplay Writing. Scott also reminds us that rejection has been the fate of the vast majority of all people who write for fame and money long before blogging reared its Hydra heads. (and tails.)

Why do so many bloggers have to graduate from the Monty Python Argument Clinic before posting?

Just remember that, anatomically speaking, the asshole is still way ahead of the long tail. If that's where Nick sits, he's doin' pretty well. There are plenty of much lonelier slots out toward the end of the tail.

That Mike responded with such vehemence–and that so many are blogging about this–suggests that Nick must have hit a nerve. Just sayin’.

The best tech marketers wrap their wares inside a messianic change-the-world ideology. It’s always some variant freedom, fulfilment, self-expression–the very top of the Maslow pyramid.

Bloggers are no different. The official ideology of blogging is all Woodstock Nation, Global Village, new media vs. old, Let every voice be heard. Yeah, yeah.

But bloggers are people, too. They're also ruled by other classic motivators. Lusts for power, affiliation, admiration—are lurking in there too.

The blogosphere, by virtue of its exponential growth can’t help but be a pyramid scheme. It has to be harder for the late-comers. (Unless, of course, their hearts are pure. And then, like Sir Galahad, Tom Hanks, and Indiana Jones, they'll find the Grail.)

But has there ever been a pyramid built with more chutes and ladders? So many ways to find an audience--if it's an audience you seek. This is as fluid as it gets in human interaction. which makes it easier for newcomers.

For whatever reason, many bloggers find loneliness, frustration, and disappointment. Rather than dismiss them as unworthy, Nick gave them an eloquent voice. So, I paid him with the coin of the realm and linked to him.

Mike asked whether Nick is an a**hole. For that I posted a comment to his site, but offer no link. He doesn’t need one.

From each according to his abilities. To each according to his needs.

Mickeleh's Take: It's all good. Blog if you will for whatever reasons move you and whatever reward you seek. If the reward is slow coming, take courage from Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. (Firesign Theatre).

(Tags: Nick Carr, blog, blogger, blogging, Mike Arrington)

Fake Steve Still Funny (if not funnier)

I've been neglecting to check the Fake Steve blog for a while. A big thanks to Nick Carr for mentioning it this morning. And, on the subject of Nick, his post yesterday, pokes through the some of mythos of the blogosphere in a very moving, honest, and helpful bit of prose. (Don't let "prose" scare you off. Click it.). The conversation in the comments is a congenial expansion. Lately I'm viewing everything throug the lens of the Long Tail (don't parse that too closely, please.) I'm avoiding saying much about it, not only because I'm inarticulate and without merit, but also because I think Nick has said it well.

(Tags: Nick Carr, blog, blogger, blogging, Fake Steve)

Om is covering the Comcast story

Om Malik has picked up on AdAge "Comcast wants to be Yahoo" story. And he's taking the modern web party line I predicted yesterday.

How old fashioned! Still, I wonder the wisdom of this move, especially since the company is fighting the triple play battle with politically more savvy phone companies. Shouldn’t that be the focus? I think this is yet another example of “google envy.”
...
With the exception of Yahoo, the portal plays made by all comers have been cash guzzlers. Google for all its reach, or Microsoft for all its might and AOL - all are still a distant second compared to Yahoo, the one true portal.

Mickeleh's Take: Om is right. Comcast will never topple Yahoo! But they don't have to. Take the long tail view of things. There's money to be made farther down the tail. Comcast may also be betting on the end of net neutrality to give them a performance advantage or a new revenue stream. The cable pipe is still the place where TV networks want to be and that gives Comcast huge leverage for content deals.

(Tags: Comcast, broadband, portal, advertising, Om, GigaOM)

AdAge: Comcast's ambitious online goals

The video to the home game continues to get more interesting and more complex.

We've seen the first moves of the program owners are using iTunes, Google video, and their own sitesto route around the walled gardens of the multi-channel providers (e.g. Comcast, DirecTV, Verizon).

We've seen News Corp announce plans to use MySpace as an on demand video store.

Now comes word of broad initiative by Comcast to route around these burgeoning Web aggregators and maximize online video viewing through its own online video walled garden. AdAge has the scoop. Comcast has a lot of pieces already in place

• Audience: they are the country's largest broadband internet provider--and 70% of their customers use the Comcast online portal.
• Content: based on their cable video carriage deals, they have both relationships and leverage to bring high-valued content to the Web
• Infrastructure: By acquiring The Platform earlier this year they have technology for aggregating, managing, and distributing video content in multiple formats
  

Mickeleh's Take: The Web 2.0 gang will be tempted to dismiss Comcast the way they continually misunderestimated AOL back in the twentieth century. I wouldn't. But I would get busy to do everything we can to preserve net neutrality.

(Tags: Comcast, broadband, portal, advertising)

Verizon's multi-room DVR stirs the pot, but has some big gotchas

Verizon is jumping into the multi-room DVR category in a big way. Their Home Media DVR has much to recommend it, but also has some significant gotchas.

On the plus side: the main room gets a two-tuner high-definition DVR with the ability to stream SD recorded content to two additional rooms simultaneously. The other rooms use a standard IPTV set top box. In addition, PC-based music and photos can be streamed to any of the TVs on the system. Verizon will use the advanced capabilities of this system as a competitive advantage to tempt cable customers over to its IPTV offerings. As Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff says, "For the first time, this means that Verizon can compete with cable on features, not just on price." It's not, however, a sustainable advantage. Motorola, who supplies this technology to Verizon is eager to arm the cable industry with identical capabilities.

On the gotcha side: The main unit is HDTV-capable. The client units are not. This means that anything that's recorded on the DVR in high definition can't be streamed out to the other rooms. If you don't have HDTV yet, no problem. But if you do, the system is not as useful as you'd hope. Once people invest in an HDTV display, they vastly prefer HD content over SD.
The Verizon system will force customers to compromise. Do I record the SD version, so I can share it, or the HD version so I can enjoy my delicious new display? The other big gotcha for customers is that the client units don't let you pause, replay, or rewind live TV. DVR users love that function. Will they be happy not to get it at all TVs in what is billed as a multi-room DVR?

We are inevitably marching forward toward a home and portable media vision that was first presented to us in Star Trek TNG. Big screens, hand-helds, desk-tops, (and, of course, the totally immersive holodeck). But we're marching slowly. And nobody has yet delivered an uncompromised whole-home entertainment system.

Mickeleh's Take: Too many gotchas and compromises for a hit product, but it's going to open the category a little wider. Any success will prompt cable and satellite providers to match the Verizon product. TiVo's uphill battle against embedded DVRs gets steeper. There's still room for somebody to get this right. Apple? Moxi?

Disclaimer: I used to work for Digeo, who makes the Moxi multi-room DVR. Moxi has the ability to down-convert HD content so that it can be viewed in another room on an SD set. It also has full trick-mode on live TV in both sets.


(Tags: Verizon, Fios, DVR, Home Media DVR, multi-room DVR, multiroom DVR, IPTV, Cable TV, home networking, Moxi)

Fox TV to sell on demand content on MySpace

The world of TV and movies over the internet just got a lot bigger. And Rupert Murdoch's abilities to monetize the enormous traffic on MySpace (over 100 million registered users) just got a lot clearer.

According to the Financial Times, MySpace (and other sites) are going to sell movies and TV shows on demand from Fox. The deal for customers is reminiscent of what Apple worked out for music and video on the iTunes store: Download to own, transferrable to portable devices, priced at $19.99 for a movie, $1.99 for a TV show.

Mickeleh's take:

1. In general: This is part of an accelerating trend by corporations who control the rights to programs that people want to watch to route around the limits -- and negotiating clout-- of cable TV and satellite distribution. (see Shelly Palmer's Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV for the best 50,000 foot overview)
2. Specifically: Don't be surprised that News Corp (parent of Fox, MySpace, and DirecTV) is by-passing DirecTV in this. The lack of a robust VOD capability is a big competitive disadvantage for satellite vs. cable. Here's one way to route around that. Combine these deals with DirecTV's active bidding for wireless spectrum, and a coherent and powerful strategy begins to emerge.
3. As the big guys develop increasing presence in internet distribution, it's going to force video podcasts, vlogs, and user-generated content farther and farther down the long tail. (good thing there's plenty of room down there.)
   

Marshall Kirkpatric covers the Fox announcement today on TechCrunch.

(Tags: News Corp, MySpace, VOD, on demand Cable TV, TechCrunch, DirecTV)

Shelly Palmer's take on Sony Mylo

Shelly Palmer of the Emmy Advanced Media Committee posts on Sony's nifty omni-media hand-held, Mylo. The grandiose name is short for My Life Online. (as in, "we are what we watch-browse-text-etc.) It's wi-fi based, so its value depends in part on the spread of the wi-fi cloud. He asks whether Mylo will be seen as the Newton or the Palm Pilot of the new era.

Here's the Sony press release. Slated for September launch at $350.

Mickeleh's take: Bye-bye Zune.

Best first peek comes from Gizmodo in this video posted to YouTube"

Gizmodo demo of Sony Mylo



(Tags: Mylo, Zune, Gizmodo)