Note to self - do not send "White Album listening party" invitation to Half Moon Bay

If you think that this mrontemp blog was based on the book Abnormal Psychology, you're sadly mistaken.

It's actually based on the album The Beatles.

This album is by a band called the Beatles. They used to be popular.

And I've talked about the album before.

What I love about this album is the jarring way in which it switches from one song to another. Take side four, which starts with a mellow little ditty about the futility of pushing Chairman Mao down people's throats. It's followed by an old style 1920s ditty ("her kind of music"). An electro rock song about truffles and ob la di ob la da follows, and is in turn followed by a very English folk song about tea and seances. An uncredited folk blues number is next, succeeded by the most avant garde song the Beatles ever recorded, which is immediately followed by Ringo's voice cracking over a lushly instrumentalized traditional standard.

This blog is like that. Or at least I hope it's like that. My entries during the first five blog entries in June talked about a fire in Universal City, California; applications of Blogger's scheduled post feature; a portable toilet; a Cracker Barrel restaurant; and a short (short short) theatrical production entitled "Webelo."

Now I'll be the first to admit that this is not the roadmap for blogging success. That's why I have other blogs that are dedicated to specific topics. If you want to find an Inland Empire blog or an NTN Buzztime blog, you can find them.

But here at mrontemp, a blog which functions as my personal blog, everything is discussed. And, when things are going really well, they kind of meld together. Note that this blog post itself has several labels, because it spans a lot of topics. When I started this blog and instituted labels, I didn't envision this, but it happened. I've talked about this previously.

[T]he one thing that I didn't realize back in February [2007] is how often my posts overlap multiple labels. Rather than categorizing each post into the most appropriate label, I have tended to apply all applicable labels to a post....[T]his has resulted in some interesting behaviors. Although I haven't measured it, I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of my "business" posts also have a "technology" label on them. This merely indicates that I'm primarily interested in technology businesses, or in the impacts of technology on business. Whether this detracts from the usefulness of the labels is up to you.

But wait, it gets better. Before I explain how it gets better, let me quote a comment from a FriendFeed thread.

Hutch: no, it's more about having separate audiences that are passionate about different things. For instance, let's say I participate in a religious blog, and a political blog, and a business blog. Those have three separate audiences. If I mix them all together I'm going to be much more careful about what I discuss than if I participate in all three separately. - Robert Scoble

Now I'll admit that I myself perform some segregation, and there are some things that I won't discuss on here that I will discuss in other places. But a religious blog, and a political blog, and a business blog don't necessarily HAVE to have three separate audiences. Various combinations of those topics can result in some interesting interactions; if you don't particularly value this blog, be sure to take a look at RedBlueChristian, which attempts to combine politics and religion into a single discussion.

I think you can predict my response to this idea of three separate blogs and three separate audiences.

"let's say I participate in a religious blog, and a political blog, and a business blog." Actually, while I have some vertical blogs that are laser focused on specific topics, my most popular blog is my personal blog, which covers religion, politics, business, and several other categories. Often there's rampant cross-pollination; just today I inserted a video of Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork" into a blog post about General Wesley Clark. Rather than segregating the audiences, I believe it's fun to bring them together and see what happens. Again, my personal opinion - segregation makes you successful, but mixing things together is pretty danged fun.

If you didn't see my post in which I inserted the "Fancy Footwork" video, it's here.

Now perhaps you'll recall a previous brouhaha about the mixing of topics; specifically, Howard Rogers' displeasure in seeing a technical information source overrun with personal "eight things" posts. Of course, in that case, Rogers was reading something that was advertised as a technical service.

So let me officially set the record straight here.

This is an announcement to the readers of mrontemp.

Some of you may have been under the impression that the mrontemp blog is solely devoted to a discussion of Tracy Simers. To that end, I would like to officially advise you that this is a blog that covers a variety of topics, including such diverse topics as Natalie Sawyer and, in a change of pace, Kiira Korpi.

So if you were looking for a blog that was completely devoted to Tracy Simers, please look elsewhere.

Thank you for your attention.

P.S. I also talk about a woman named Katrina.

There, I feel better already.

And at least I didn't base this blog on the Grey Album.

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Bright Lights, Small City - a Congressman and his Nokia 95

I thought I'd share something from my new close personal Twitter friend John Culberson. Perhaps you've heard of him.

Representative Culberson tweeted the following:

I will find out if I can Qik treasures like TRoosevelt's diary, Lincoln's pocket contents, Lee's Lost Order at Antietam etc

I replied:

@johnculberson as long as you can qik the documents without additional lighting, it should be allowed.

Culberson responded:

@oemperor Yes but the red light on my Nokia 95 is VERY bright and makes Congressmen very nervous

While I still suspect that the newer technologies will have a greater effect on the local level than on the national level, Rep. Culberson's perspective is interesting - especially if you believe that "smoke-filled rooms" and private discussions have no place in modern politics.

But then again, perhaps some level of privacy regarding Congressional discussions does serve a purpose at times. I'll mull over this and maybe write some more - but if someone has already written about this, it would be easier to steal that.

This actually may be a technology-independent question. I'm sure that Presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson faced similar issues. While a certain amount of political discourse needs to be on the record, is it sometimes beneficial to have some discussions behind closed doors? If so, can technology (tape records, video-creating telephones, etc.) actually DISRUPT the inner workings of government rather than streamlining it?

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Diverging views on General Wesley Clark

I've been writing about Wesley Clark for years, including his delegate count as of February 10, 2004, his identification as an alien-human hybrid, and, least notably, his non-existent call-in to a non-existent radio show. Sample lines from the transcript of the latter:

General Clark, do you believe that President Bush should be doing more to solve the grocery strike?

[WESLEY] He wasn't a general!

[IMA] Vote for Dean, don't vote Green!

[WESLEY] Howard Dean wasn't a general! I'm a general!

Fast forward four-plus years, to a post from Sharon Cobb, who actually watches the Sunday news programs:

[T]he credentials of [Obama's] likely presidential rival, Senator John McCain, came under sharp attack Sunday from a man considered a possible Democratic vice presidential candidate.

The retired general Wesley Clark said McCain had not "held executive responsibility" and had not commanded troops in wartime.

McCain's experience in Vietnam, where he was a prisoner of war for five years, has seemed at times almost to grant him invulnerability to criticism of his security background. But on Sunday he was assailed by a fellow military man, a highly decorated one who was once the NATO supreme commander.

Cobb entitled her post "I So Love 4 Star General Wesley Clark, Who Is Actually Qualified To Explain Why McCain Isn't Ready To Lead."

I shared Cobb's post in my Google Reader Shared Items, and the conversation shifted to FriendFeed. Some agreed with Cobb:

Me = retired army. I will take Gen. Clark's service over McCain's any day as resume material for command. I don't personally know a single vet who would not, nor a single vet who is not sick and tired of McCain's 'I was POW, so there' discussion ending statements. We have INCREDIBLE respect for your service and suffering as a POW, Sen McCain, but stop using it as a logical arguement for the Presidency. - Michael W. May via twhirl

Some were not quite sure that Clark was the guy to be casting stones:

Michael, as a vet who knows a lot of other vets, including some I served with who served under Clark in Bosnia, I haven't met a single vet who would vote for Clark for dogcatcher. - Jeff Quinton

Quinton provided a link to a 1999 David Hackworth article about Clark:

For sure, Clark is one of the smartest guys ever to wear four stars. He finished number one in his West Point class, graduated with honors from Oxford and the National War College, was a war hero in Vietnam and as a young captain was earmarked as general officer material.

But among mud soldiers, he's known as a guy who never paid his dues with the troops in the trenches and doesn't understand the nitty- gritty of war or what motivates warriors down at the bayonet level. He's like a doctor who's brilliant at theory but dangerous with a scalpel because he hasn't been there and done that long enough to learn the skills of the trade. In 33 years of service, Clark spent only seven and one- half years in command with troops from platoon to division level-- barely enough time to learn what makes a tank platoon tick. The rest of his service was as a staff weenie, an aide, a student, at the White House or at some fat cat headquarters....

The troops call his sort "Perfumed Princes," brass known for their micromanagement bias and slavish focus on "show over go" and covering their tails with fancy footwork.

Needless to say, I liked that line.

CHROMEO - Fancy Footwork


So anyways, before the Republicans all cry that perfumed princes are all idiots, and the Democrats all cry that experienced generals can provide wise guidance to the nation, let's take a look at one of the OTHER names that David Hackworth drops:

The CEO managers started taking over from the warrior leaders during the Korean War. Slowly, the Alexander Haigs and Bernard Rogers replaced the Hank Emersons and James Hollingsworths.

Alexander Haig? Mr. "I'm in charge"? Will those who talk about the wisdom of General Clark also cite the wisdom of General Haig?

The fact is, while we have had several generals who have served as President of the United States, service as a general does not necessarily qualify someone to serve as President. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the two Senators who are the leading candidates know more about how the Presidency should operate than any active or retired general - Wesley Clark, Colin Powell, take your pick.

It's not that general are unfamiliar with politics - there's a whole bunch of politics that goes on in the military - but there's a different dynamic in the White House environment vs. the military environment. When Alexander Haig served as Chief of Staff, he was able to tell people to do things. When he became Secretary of State, this became a little more difficult. Here's the story of one general who learned that the Presidency required a whole new way of thinking:

President George Washington was aware that his every action would have significant consequences for the success of the new government and he predicted that the making of appointments would be among his most difficult duties. In selecting nominees, Washington turned to his closest advisers and to members of Congress, but the president resolutely insisted that he alone would be responsible for the final selection....

On August 5, 1789, the Senate, for the first time, rejected a nomination and in so doing, established the tradition of "senatorial courtesy." Two days earlier, President Washington had submitted 102 appointments as collectors, naval officers, and surveyors to seaports. The Senate readily agreed to all but one -- Benjamin Fishbourn of Georgia. Earlier in his career Fishbourn had offended James Gunn, who in 1789 had become one of Georgia's two senators. This seemed to have been Fishbourn's only shortcoming. In rejecting him, the Senate shared the view of some of the Constitution's framers that senators were best qualified to judge the fitness of nominees from their states.

As Senators Obama and McCain well know, a President is unable to court-martial a Senator for insubordination.

Let's wrap up the Clark story. My little FriendFeed thread wasn't the only place where Clark's words were being debated. Politics USA:

Host Bob Schieffer said that Barack Obama hasn’t had these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. Clark replied that, “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.” With one swoop, Clark attacked the entire basis for the McCain presidential campaign....

I am glad that somebody finally had the guts to stand up and challenge the Republican Party and their faux patriotism. For too long Democrats have cowered at the prospect of being labeled un-American, so it was refreshing to see Wesley Clark finally step up and challenge these GOP myths. Now I am left to wonder if Clark just elevated himself on Obama’s VP short list.

Meanwhile, Donklephant entitled a post Wesley Clark, Please Remove Foot From Mouth.

But the last word belongs to Barack Obama:

Obama, citing the political divide still lingering from the Vietnam War, said that he will not question the patriotism of others and would "not stand idly by" when his own patriotism is questioned. A little bit later, in a comment that seemed to have Clark in its sights, Obama said:

"Beyond a loyalty to America’s ideals, beyond a willingness to dissent on behalf of those ideals, I also believe that patriotism must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice -– to give up something we value on behalf of a larger cause. Now for those who have fought under the flag of this nation -– for the young veterans ... I meet when I visit Walter Reed; for those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country –- no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary. Let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters of both sides. We must always profess our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform, period."

OK, I said Obama had the last word, but I'll give one more word to Michael W. May. When I stated some of the above ideas (re the difference between a general and a President) in the FriendFeed thread, May replied:

And you just made my point that McCain's service record cannot be off limits for review nor used as an all important qualifier for office. And yes, neither can Clark's. But it is McCain who uses it thus. - Michael W. May via twhirl

To be continued? Respond below or on FriendFeed.

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Mike and Maria eat, drink, shop, and live...in San Luis Obispo?

I've been reading the Franklin Avenue blog for years, so I caught Mike's most recent question for his readers:

We're driving up the coast -- at least, until Monterey -- and then booking it to San Francisco.

It's suggestion time. Hearst Castle is on the itinerary, but what else should we do on the drive up?

And Mike also asks:

Where should we eat on the Central Coast?

Mike received several suggestions, but no one suggested the Apple Farm San Luis Obispo Restaurant.

The Apple Farm Restaurant & Bakery has been a favorite spot for decades for locals as well as the traveler on a weekend getaway. Our hearty homestyle food, fresh pastries, and pies are world famous! If you enjoy the simple pleasures of a farmer's market, you will savor traditional favorites like chicken and dumplings, turkey pot pie, or biscuits and gravy. Or you can treat yourself to prime rib and fresh seafood, followed by our signature dessert, the Hot Apple Dumpling....


View Larger Map

If you have additional suggestions for Mike's trip, pass them on.

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Kim Amidon update

This is a followup to two posts that I wrote earlier this year.

If you don't recognize the name Kim Amidon, perhaps you'll recognize "Mark and Kim."

Well, if you live in Los Angeles you will.

Anyway, I found an update on Amidon's whereabouts:

Reader Jean Sebern of Yucaipa sent along the following information, which came from a former co-worker of Amidon's:

"Kim is busy writing movie scripts and she has several being considered at various movie studios. Although she has no interest in returning to radio, she is being honored at a Women in Radio ceremony."

Amidon herself spoke in the Orange County Register in April.

"I never wanted to do radio for money. I always said I just wanted to do it for fun, and the fun got harder to have, and the stress of it all. So I am happy to be away from that now. I miss the listeners and I miss all the good things we got to do. But a lot of it was hard work, frankly.

'I want to do something in cooperation with other people where I do love it and I belong in it and I am making a contribution to the community by being a part of whatever that ends of being … that is what I meant about honoring my soul.

"I always struggled with all the gossip we did, for example, because I thought we could be more than that. I thought we could have been more of a positive force in Southern California. I mean really help people

"I wish Mark well, and I always will. But it was time to want to go deeper in my life, and in my work. Look at Oprah, look how much she has evolved as a human being. Her subjects now are so very important and empowering for people and, to me, that is making a difference. That is what will drive us as a society … not all the stuff happening on the radio now, to just shock and hurt, and profess opinions that don't do anything to help us move forward in cooperation as a society at all. It is the whole state of radio that I find sad."

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Will Washington use us?

It's Friday, but Monday already came. (Heh.)

This is a followup to my Monday post Will Washington use Mr. Scoble?

Incidentally, Mr. Scoble saw the title to this post in FriendFeed and replied:

Yes.

But that's not his complete answer.

When I walked into the Speaker of the House’s press room and saw a staff member (Jesse Lee, Senior New Media Advisor for Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi) typing a blog into WordPress, I knew the world had changed....

Not that Robert cried or anything.

But has the world truly changed?

Dave Winer received an email from someone who is touted to be Mr. Web 2.0 (with apologies to Ron Paul).

When I saw the email in my inbox entitled Strategy Briefing For You I thought for a brief instant that the Obama campaign had figured out that I have a mind, that I have an education and a resume, and I might be someone worth briefing. Three paragraphs later the disappointment hits. Watch the video then give us money.

I (like to) think Obama needs more than my money. I think Obama needs my mind and my influence and experience. My creativity. I think Obama might, from time to time, want to brief me, without asking for money. I think Obama might want to invite me to a meeting of people from Berkeley or Northern California or the tech industry, or academia, or any number of my other affiliations (Bronx Science alumni?) where people put their minds together and think about ways to co-create a new America.

I don't think that Winer was simply tooting his own horn here. In the ideal world, the Web 2.0 candidate will listen to all of us and interact with all of us. Saving democracy. Participation. "ontarioemperor liked this."

But you don't need the Web 2.0 tools to do this. Back in 1977, that noted political think tank Saturday Night Live conceived of a similar interactive government, via the telephone.

Walter Cronkite: Our next call is Peter Elkin of Westbrook, [Oregon], whom I am told is 17 years of age.

Peter (on phone): Hello? Hello?

President Jimmy Carter: Yes. Hello, Peter?

Peter (on phone): Is this the President?

President Jimmy Carter: Yes, it is.

Walter Cronkite: Do you have a question for the President?

Peter (on phone): Uh.. I, uh.. I took some acid.. I'm afraid to leave my apartment, and I can't wear any clothes.. and the ceiling is dripping, and uh.. I, uh..

Walter Cronkite: Well, thank you very much for calling, sir..

President Jimmy Carter: Just a minute, Walter, this guy's in trouble. I think I better try to talk him down. Peter?

Peter (on phone): Yeah..?

President Jimmy Carter: Peter, what did the acid look like?

Peter (on phone): They were these little orange pills.

President Jimmy Carter: Were they barrel shaped?

Peter (on phone): Uh.. yes.

President Jimmy Carter: Okay, right, you did some orange sunshine, Peter....

President Jimmy Carter: Just remember you're a living organism on this planet, and you're very safe. You've just taken a heavy drug. Relax, stay inside and listen to some music, Okay? Do you have any Allman Brothers?...

Back to Dave Winer.

It should be noted that Winer isn't a non-thinking baba booey with regards to Barack Obama. He has publicly documented his thoughts throughout the election, including both positive and negative thoughts about Obama, and has even said nice things about John McCain on occasion. Bearing this in mind, I provided a non-succinct (oops) response via Disqus.

While it is questionable whether any major party national political candidate can truly interact with people in a two-way conversation, you have a valid point in noting that Obama's (and Ron Paul's) vaunted Web 2.0 strategy is in fact a one-way street.

While you are stable enough to digest your epiphany and act accordingly, I'm sure that there will be a few people who will sink into deep depression upon discovering that Obama is not the perfect savior, but a savvy politician.

This raises the question - can all of the technologies that we play with truly have a revolutionary impact on politics? I haven't read all of Robert Scoble's material from his Washington trip, but I get the feeling that the tools are only having limited effects on the national level. A couple of tweeting Congresspeople do not a revolution make.

But perhaps there's hope on the local level. The local level is sometimes ignored because it isn't as sexy as the Beltway, but many of the things that impact our lives actually occur in city councils and county boards. Perhaps interactivity tools can REALLY bear fruit in our neighborhoods.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - we're all so focused Obama, McCain, Barr, and the like that we forget that the local governments affect our lives much more than the Federal Government does.

After all, it wasn't the Federal Government that was going to use eminent domain for the Foothill & Towne project.

For a discussion of Web 2.0 and local government, See Computerworld. And the Association of Local Government Auditors.

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Should we allow our politicians to say stupid things?

We complain when our politicians hide from the public, issuing platitudes from scripted, tightly-controlled town halls and saying things that offend no one.

But when the politicians expose themselves to the real world - or at least to the press - we complain when they go off script and say something stupid that gets some people angry. See FriendFeed (queenofspain) for a discussion of McCain's allusion to the "have you stopped beating your wife" trick question.

I'm sorry, but we're not going to have the perfect politician who never says anything stupid when speaking off-the-cuff. Or if we do, you can bet that the responses were secretly rehearsed.

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Does Merril Jessop refer to Warren Jeffs as "father" or "son"?

While reading more about Merril Jessop (see previous stories here), I ran across this story from April 14, 2005:

I'm my own Grandpa

The Success learned this week that Merrill Jessop, the man who is reportedly overseeing work at the YFZ Ranch, has very close ties to FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs. According to sources in Colorado City, Arizona, Jessop is Jeffs’ father-in-law and son-in-law. The two men reportedly married each other’s daughter in a double-ring ceremony held in Caliente, Nevada in 2002 or 2003.

But this is not the first time such a thing has happened. Remember how the Bill Wyman-Mandy Smith story ended up?

[O]n June 2, 1989, the least infamous Stone got his turn in the tabs when 52-year-old Bill Wyman married 18-year-old Mandy Smith, culminating a long, strange affair.

And it got stranger:

Wyman reportedly grew impatient with her health problems, and the 23-month marriage ended in a 45-second divorce. Smith won an $880,000 settlement; still bitter, she threatened to sue her ex-husband for having sex with her back when she was 14. Later, things grew stranger when it was reported in the spring of 1993 that Wyman's son Stephen, 31, was planning to marry Mandy's 49-year-old mother — which would have made Mandy her ex's granddaughter-in-law.

But Bill's divorce ended the "I'm my own grandpa" talk:

[Stephen] married the mother, shortly after his father's divorce. Had Bill and Mandy stayed married, Bill would have been Stephen's father and son-in-law. Stephen would have been his son, and his father-in-law. Mrs. Smith would have been Mandy's mother and daughter-in-law, and Mandy would have been Mrs. Smith's daughter and mother-in-law.

I have been unable to determine whether Stephen Wyman and Patsy Smith are still married.

But I'm thinking that Bill, who hates drugs but loves women, would be the perfect FLDS member. If he could be persuaded to live in remote areas.

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Nobody knows

Followup.

I dug a little more on the 5,000 deaths story and found this June 14 Washington Post article:

Thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. reported more than three horse deaths a day last year and 5,000 since 2003, and the vast majority were put down after suffering devastating injuries on the track, according to an Associated Press survey.

Bad enough, and certainly enough to enrage Sharon Cobb. But guess what? We don't know the full story.

Countless other deaths went unreported because of lax record keeping, the AP found in the broadest such review to date....

Arkansas, Michigan, Nebraska said their organizations don't track fatalities at all, and only one of Florida's three main thoroughbred tracks provided numbers. There were wide differences among the other states in what types of deaths are monitored and how far back the records go.

"Nobody really knows how big of a problem it is," said Rick Arthur, California's equine medical director. "They just know it's a big problem."...

[N]o one is certain how many horses are lethally injected on the nation's tracks each year. The Jockey Club, which registers all North American thoroughbreds, did not know of another comprehensive, state-by-state tally of fatalities at tracks before the AP's, said Bob Curran, a Jockey Club vice president.

More here.

[1]

[1:00 - A LOCAL (INLAND EMPIRE CALIFORNIA) PERSPECTIVE (FROM MY INLAND EMPIRE BLOG EMPOPRISE-IE).]

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I Feel For You - A Horse With No Name

Well, that really puts my bent glasses into perspective.

Sharon Cobb wrote a post very early on Thursday morning.

Her post, as originally written, read as follows:

I have a very stressful morning. I mean, really stressful. I mean, beyond any normal stress.

So tell me something good and nice, and most of all, how much you love me in the comment section!

Even in the midst of whatever was going on with her at the time, she was still able to sneak a Rufus reference into her post.

Well, the post did elicit some kind words for Sharon, which was something good. Especially after she said why she was soliciting the good wishes:

I didn't write I was having a biopsy of a lymph node to see if it's lymphoma until I knew a little more.

See the rest of her update here.

My Blind Vision post was not the first time that I had referenced Sharon Cobb. My first reference to Cobb in this blog was on March 5. This happened to be a political post regarding Hillary Clinton. Sharon and I don't necessarily agree politically, but it appears that we agree on Hillary Clinton. (And, for the record, my prediction in this post that the Democratic fight would last until convention time was wrong.)

But I only tangentially referred to Cobb's writings on Eight Belles. In this post, I linked to a Sharon Cobb post. However, I didn't quote from it. Here's part of what she said:

I've decided horse racing is cruel and should either be banned, or better laws in place to protect horses from fatal injuries.

I grew up in El Paso, Texas, and as a teenager, I frequently went to horse and dog races in Juarez, Mexico and at Sunland Park. I always thought these animals were taken care of better than other horses and dogs. I was wrong.

Be sure to check the comments, which take pro and con views regarding PETA's suggestions for the horse racing industry.

But I haven't even discussed (though I've referenced) Cobb's latest discussion (on Monday) about horse racing:

A recent Associated Press survey found that thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. reported more than three horse deaths a day last year and 5,000 since 2003, and the vast majority were put down after suffering devastating injuries on the track....

This has to stop.

More here.

[1] [2]

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Remember the Time

Followup.

Eye appointment scheduled for Friday at 2:50 pm Pacific.

P.S. The Gloved One disables embedding, so you have to go here to see the referenced video. This was from back in the days when stars wanted to be associated with Jackson. And remember what Murphy was saying about Jackson a few years previous (comment 26)?

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Blind Vision

While Loren Feldman and Dave Winer are engaged in a concerted effort to increase the revenues of Network Solutions, GoDaddy, et al, I am trivializing microblogging by taking the "What are you doing?" question to new lows.

Last night, I walked into my living room, sat on the couch...and realized that I had just sat on my glasses, bending them out of shape and popping the left lens out of the frame.

So, naturally, I tweeted (and thus friendfed) about it. If you missed this earth-shattering news because of some inconsequential stuff about some Mugabe guy, let me repeat it for you:

just sat on my glasses. left lens popped out. need eye appt anyway.

The good news? Well, for one, my employer covers me under Vision Service Plan, so my long-deferred eye appointment and glasses replacement will only cost me a copay.

And, in more good news, I was able to pop the left lens back in (though it's kind of precarious) and return my glasses to a somewhat normal angle. I'm still a little scared to wear them, since I'm afraid that the left lens may slip out again, but I can at least wear them while driving.

Off-topic P.S. I like Sharon Cobb, and I'm a registered Republican. And apparently she likes to quote from song lyrics as much as I do. I liked Duncan Riley's comment here.

P.P.S. I last played "Blind Vision" on May 27. Now you know.

[9:30 UPDATE.]

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George Carlin dies, and the world goes to the place he didn't believe in

So much for freedom of speech. Someone has been accused of making racially insensitive remarks, which has triggered outrage and government action.

And no, I'm not talking about Don Imus.

I'm talking about Shaquille O'Neal.

Apparently at some point when he was dissing Kobe Bryant, he said something else. Damn I'm Cute spares our sensitive souls by saying that Shaq used "the n-word." azstarnet says less...and more:

Shaquille O'Neal is losing his special deputy's badge...because of language he used in a rap performance that mocks former teammate Kobe Bryant....

And who's taking the badge away?

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the Phoenix Suns center's use of a racially derogatory word and other offensive terms left him no choice. Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy in 2006 and promoted him to colonel of his largely ceremonial posse later that year.

"I want his two badges back," Arpaio told The Associated Press Tuesday. "Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they're fired. I don't condone this type of racial conduct."

Now I'll grant that O'Neal isn't accused of breaking any law, and one could be removed from a ceremonial position for PR purposes. But, at the same time, one would think that a sheriff would be interesting in defending the Constitution, including its First Amendment.

But that's not the only stupid public safety decision of late. Bill Handel of KFI was discussing a Los Angeles Fire Department policy. From the Los Angeles Times:

[There is] a new controversy in the Los Angeles City Fire Department -- one that is rekindling smoldering tensions by making tattooed firefighters the butt of jokes.

At issue is a policy the department announced this spring, requiring firefighters with tattoos to cover their body art whenever they are on duty.

For many that's an easy order to follow; their uniform sleeves reach to their elbow creases.

But for hundreds of firefighters like [Carlos] Caceres, that means wearing long-sleeved shirts, turtlenecks, long pants, even gloves, around the clock. It's not just when the fire bell rings, but inside the fire station when they train, eat, exercise and sleep.

It's a "grooming issue," said Capt. Armando Hogan, spokesman for Chief Douglas Barry. "We need to make sure we're professional-looking. We've got an image to uphold."

The image that you have to uphold is whether your people are able to put out fires or not.

On the Handel show, he quoted from a retired Marine who, in a display of patriotism, had an American flag tattooed on his body. The fireman is vexed that he has to cover up an American flag.

Let's just hope that Shaq doesn't tattoo a word on himself that rhymes with "trigger." David Stern would be howling mad.

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The lyrical intricacies of Roger Miller and John Lennon

Several years ago, I had an opportunity to appear in the Children's Theatre Experience production of "Big River." One of the things that I gained from that opportunity (other than some knowledge about cigars) was an appreciation of the music of the late Roger Miller, who had the ability to write songs that were simultaneously extremely silly and deadly serious. When you listen to "You Ought to Be Here With Me," for example, you don't know whether to laugh, cry, or both.

I was musing on this while listening to Side 3 of "The Beatles" (a/k/a the White Album) in the car this morning and thinking about John Lennon. Sure, he had his moments, such as the time he took the Communist Manifesto and repackaged it as a sing-along. But I'm not sure if he ever exceeded what he did with "Yer Blues," which (to my count) works on four levels.

• First off, you can look at it as a straight "Beatles Do The Blues" workout. The Beatles were able to mimic a number of popular sounds of the day, including Motown and country, so why not do the blues?


• On second thought, perhaps it's just a wild parody of a blues song. Take your average "I feel real bad" Mississippi blue song, then take the lyrics to extreme "Dead Man's Curve" levels. Yes I'm lonely. Wanna die?!?


• Then again, perhaps the model for this song isn't "Dead Man's Curve," but "I'm a Loser." When that earlier Beatles song was released, the idea of Johnny Moptop being a loser was ridiculous to the public, but life at the toppermost of the poppermost ain't all it's cracked up to be. And with all of the friction going on in his life at the time, perhaps Lennon really did want to die.


• But a fourth interpretation is possible. After the singer says he wants to die, he then notes that if he isn't dead already, "Girl you know the reason why." In other words, this whole thing is a love song to Yoko.

Now I'm not knocking musicians who don't work on multiple levels, many of whom write very effective songs. In fact, Lennon himself wrote some pretty direct songs that couldn't be misinterpreted. But it's interesting to delve into the music of people like Miller and Lennon and find the intricacies within.

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How to stream all of your last.fm "recently played tracks" in FriendFeed

These instructions are being written primarily for the administrators of the lastfmfeeds FriendFeed room, but they can also be used by any individual who wants to add ALL of his/her recently played last.fm tracks to an individual FriendFeed page.

While FriendFeed's standard last.fm capability allows you to share the list of tracks you have loved, FriendFeed's ability to incorporate RSS feeds greatly increases FriendFeed's capabilities. Basically, any RSS feed, no matter how silly, can be added to FriendFeed. (Whether this will irritate your FriendFeed subscribers is another matter entirely, which is why I pulled my recently played tracks out of my own page and into a room.)

last.fm is, for our intents and purposes, a front-end to Audioscrobbler, the service that actually compiles the list of everything you play in last.fm. One of the available feeds via Audioscrobbler is the feed

http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/user/LASTFMNAMEGOESHERE/recenttracks.rss

where LASTFMNAMEGOESHERE is, of course, replaced with your last.fm name (in my case, ontarioemperor).

So, whether I'm an administrator for the lastfmfeeds room, or whether I'm just adding a feed to my own site, I would do the following to add ontarioemperor's recently played tracks to FriendFeed.

1. Go to the "Services" area.


2. Click on "Edit/Add."


3. You will see a list of all of the types of services that you can add. Click on "Blog."


4. When asked for the Blog URL, type in the appropriate Audioscrobbler feed name (in this case, "http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/user/ontarioemperor/recenttracks.rss"; substitute your own last.fm name for "ontarioemperor" to add your feed). Don't paste your last.fm page name; it won't work.


5. Click the "Import Blog" button.


6. Refresh your page, and you should see some recently played tracks on your page.

That's all there is to it. Enjoy.

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The phone is ringing, and Hillary Clinton answers...

That's so raven.

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Answer to the question about Solomon Poss

I just heard a Joan Baez live version of "Silver Dagger," which reminded me that I received an answer to my question about Solomon Poss, famous for a mention on the Vanguard/Sugar Hill promotional CD "Solomon Poss Presents Vanguard Records vs. Sugar Hill Records."

Because both [DELETED BY REQUEST] and I are MySpace members, I chose to contact him through MySpace. I didn't ask for permission to directly quote from his reply, so I won't, but basically he told me the following:

• Vanguard Records was started by Seymour and Maynard Solomon.


• Sugar Hill Records was started by Barry Poss.

Now you know.

Here's an excerpt from Seymour Solomon's 2002 obituary:

The hallmark of Vanguard was to take chances. It did so from its earliest days by breaking with the music industry's blacklist of performers who had been singled out during the McCarthy era. The Solomons signed up the Weavers and Paul Robeson, who had been widely shunned.

Vanguard also became the home of blues and jazz legends like Mississippi John Hurt, Big Mama Thornton, Buddy Guy and Charlie Musselwhite. Beginning in 1959 Vanguard recorded the Newport Folk Festival and later the Newport Jazz Festival. Beginning in the 1960's, Vanguard recorded Peter Schickele, who introduced the works of his fictional P.D.Q. Bach.

I should have recognized Vanguard from my PDQ Bach CD, but I didn't. Shame on me. Now I understand how (non-Professor) Peter Schickele hooked up with Joan Baez in the first place.

For Barry Poss, let's go to the Sugar Hill website:

In the late sixties, Barry Poss came to the United States from Canada with a fellowship and a student visa to obtain a doctorate’s degree of sociology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Coming within one chapter of completing his dissertation, Poss answered a classified ad for a graphic artist placed by a small Virginia-based record label, County Records. Though Poss didn’t know anything about graphic design, he applied for the job anyway, admitting his lack of experience in design but professing his love for the music. County hired him, and Poss gave up teaching to follow his main passion, music, at a record label he admired. Within the first few years Poss was immersed in the record business, learning everything from reissuing old 78s to producing traditional musicians to selling records at retail stores.

Three years later, in 1978, Barry Poss launched Sugar Hill Records (named after a song Poss heard in Western North Carolina). Poss wanted a strong label identity with a “signature sound,” that stood for great artists and quality production, similar to what Sam Phillips had done with Sun Records. While traveling around rural areas in the South with his banjo, engrossing himself in traditional music, Poss became intrigued by the music of the children and grandchildren of the mountain musicians he visited. Those younger generations of musicians were a combination of the old and the new—influenced as much by old-time and bluegrass music as they were rock, country and other newer forms of music. This interesting combination of, and tension between, roots and contemporary music gave further impetus for Poss to start Sugar Hill Records. Ricky Skaggs was the perfect personification of this tension and became the first artist Poss targeted to help launch the new record label.

One more thing about [DELETED BY REQUEST]. I didn't explicitly discuss his current personal project, The Music's Over. On a particular date (say, June 22), he will discuss a musical figure who happened to die on that date - say, Pere Ubu guitarist Peter Laughner or Judy Garland. Recommended.

[1 JULY 2008: HONORED REQUEST TO DELETE SELECTED INFORMATION FROM MRONTEMP.]

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Wow...update on the lastfmfeeds FriendFeed room

A few hours ago, I set up the lastfmfeeds room in FriendFeed as a repository for the last.fm "recently played tracks" feeds from myself, and hopefully others.

So far there are three of us sharing our feeds (I'm waiting for permission to add a fourth feed), and the results are already astounding - especially since the three of us have different scrobbling styles. While I usually just let my playlist play things at random, Michael and Joanmarie tend to play several tracks from the same artist.

If you'd like to read and comment on the tracks we're playing, please join the lastfmfeeds room. And if you'd like me to add your feed, please leave your lastfm user name in the room and I'll add the feed. (As mentioned previously, I only add feeds upon request.)

P.S. I have initially been sharing the news of this room with people who are already streaming all their "recently played tracks" into FriendFeed. While many FriendFeed/last.fm users are only using the built-in capability to share your "loved" tracks, it is also possible to stream all of your tracks into your FriendFeed account, or into the lastfmfeeds room, or anywhere you like. You just need to get the appropriate feed. For example, if you go to my "ontarioemperor" last.fm profile and look below the list of recently played tracks, you will see a picklist of "feeds." The first feed, RSS, links to the URL http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/user/ontarioemperor/recenttracks.rss. (You can consider last.fm as the front end to audioscrobbler.com.) Just paste that URL into FriendFeed as a "blog," and you can irritate your friends too (unless, of course, you share the URL in the lastfmfeeds room instead).

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Solution for FriendFeeders who don't want to view my recently played last.fm tracks

FriendFeed supports input of various feeds, including a feed of the last.fm items that you have "loved" in last.fm. While I initially incorporated those into my FriendFeed account, it became rather time-consuming to go and click a song every time that I loved it.

So, because FriendFeed allows you to incorporate any RSS feed into your page, I grabbed the Audioscrobbler feed for my recently played tracks and set it up as a "blog" feed.

The benefit of this was that I didn't have to do anything to have songs show up in last.fm - they'd just appear there as I played them.

The drawback was that everyone would have to read them - and if they didn't want to read all of my recently played tracks, they'd have to hide ALL my my blog posts, including posts from this wonderful mrontemp blog. You see, FriendFeed doesn't allow you to selectively hide some user blogs and not hide other blogs from the same user.

As early as April 2, Andy C was noting the problem:

OK so I can 'Hide Ontario Emperor's Blog entries' but OE has 3 blogs and I am interested in 2 but not his musical tastes. What to do ?

As it turns out, Andy later changed his mind and liked to read the names of the songs that I was hearing. But that didn't remove the basic problem. Benjamin Golub:

Not trying to be rude; but is there a way for me to just hide entries on this blog? I don't want to hide all of your blog entries; just your recently played tracks.

See my May 29 blog post and my FriendFeed request regarding selective blog hiding. But while waiting for that to happen, another solution was necessary.

So, after some thought, I decided that I would create a room and stick my "recently played tracks" feed in that room. That way, people who weren't interested in this wouldn't be bothered, and those who did want to comment could join the room and comment away.

So I went ahead and created http://friendfeed.com/rooms/lastfmfeeds - and immediately thought of another potential problem.

Part of my plan was to start the feed in the room, then stop the feed on my main page. But what of the existing comments? I vaguely half remembered some Scoble rant about someone who deleted his/her FriendFeed account, but also deleted all of the comments. If I deleted 2 1/2 months of "ontarioemperor's Recently Played Tracks" from my main page, how would people feel who had commented on all of those songs?

It turned out my fears were groundless. Mark Trapp posted this comment:

Can't you just delete the feed, and not check "Also delete imported entries?" So, at least from this point on, it'll go into the new room, but all the old stuff stays in your main feed?

Mark was right. I did this late this afternoon, so now all of my recently played tracks should be appearing in my lastfmfeeds room, and my lastfmfeeds room only.

So, if you want to see the songs that I'm listening to, go ahead and subscribe to lastfmfeeds.

And...

...note I called the room lastfmfeeds, not oelastfmfeeds. And note that the title of the room reads

"Recently played tracks" for various last.fm users.

Yep...not just my feed. Feeds from anyone who wants to participate. I figure this could be a place for music lovers to share their likes, and comment on the likes of others.

If you would like your "recently played tracks" to show up in the room, then leave a comment in the room with your last.fm user name, and I'll go ahead and add the RSS feed associated with your room.

I've decided to do this as opt-in only, rather than just grabbing feeds on my own. Why? Because of Benjamin Golub's RSSmeme experience. So it's probably best to check before I grab someone's feed for FriendFeed commenting fun.

Hope to hear from you.

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About the American Bible Society

True Discernment linked to a Ministry Watch report on the American Bible Society, which states in part that the American Bible Society has an Efficiency Rating of 1 star out of 5, which ranks it 10 of 10 within the Publishing sector.

In addition, Ministry Watch issued this release. While the main part of the release addressed gambling/pornography investment allegations against ABS' (now former) CEO, Ministry Watch had other concerns.

ABS does not subscribe to a statement of faith in an effort to avoid doctrinal disputes and operate in an ecumenical manner. Unfortunately, the lack of a doctrinal stand can cause as many problems as it seeks to avoid. It seems particularly dangerous for a publisher of the Word of God to not have a doctrinal statement which guides their actions.

Others may quibble with me, but this particular issue doesn't concern me, as long as ABS' practices are doctrinally consistent with mainstream Christianity. Last I checked they weren't distributing the New World Translation or anything.

ABS is not a member of the ECFA, a peer accountability group for Christian ministries. Given ABS’s present and past governance problems, significant remedial action in this area seems advisable. The ECFA’s strong standards would certainly assist ABS in achieving greater donor confidence. Unfortunately, it may be ABS’s desire to avoid adhering to a specific statement of faith, another ECFA requirement, which keeps it from joining the ECFA. As one of the largest Christian ministries in the world, MinistryWatch.com believes ABS should pursue ECFA membership as a testimony to Christians and non-Christians alike that it takes its stewardship of its ministry seriously.

This one does concern me. While allegations have been made that the ECFA is not fully vetting the organizations, at least it is making an effort to do so. And it's significant to note that of the six ministries (Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Randy and Paula White) contacted by the Senate Finance Committee regarding questionable finance practices, a grand total of 0 is an ECFA member.

Donors should be aware that ABS maintains huge cash and investment reserves. Essentially, the ministry controls an endowment that is by far the largest in the Christian ministry world. Earnings from this $693 million in cash and securities are utilized to fund the ministry’s operations. But many donors may be disappointed by the ministry’s strategy to not utilize these substantial resources as quickly as possible to achieve its stated mission of putting the Bible in the hands of everyone on earth. By spending rather than investing this huge sum of savings, ABS could actually run its operation at its 2007 level for at least seven years without the need for any donations at all.

This is another concern. Note that similar allegations have been made against the Trinity Broadcasting Network; I discussed these back in 2004. And, by the way, the Trinity Broadcasting Network does not appear on ECFA's membership list (although the Christian Broadcasting Network does).

And, after detailing the low fundraising efficiency I mentioned earlier, Ministry Watch states the following:

Donors should be aware that a large percentage (38%) of ABS’s program expenses are direct grants to other organizations. In this sense, the ministry acts more like a foundation than a ministry that invests in its own programs. Given the high fundraising costs ABS incurs, donors would be advised that their donations may achieve more if they directly funded the same organizations that ABS funds.

Then again, the ABS is making a positive impact:

God’s Word has found a new home-on Amazon Kindle. As of today the Contemporary English Version of the Bible (CEV), a modern-day translation of the American Bible Society, can be instantly accessed through the Amazon device without the use of a computer. A high resolution screen provides an excellent display of the text and the CEV Bible is searchable. The simplicity of the Kindle device is a plus for those looking to get specific books of the Bible or the entire Bible itself. This makes the Bible into a highly portable library....

The entire American Bible Society’s Contemporary English Version will be available on Amazon Kindle for $3.99 (digital list price).

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Will Washington use Mr. Scoble?

The Washington portion of Mr. Scoble's trip starts Tuesday.

TUESDAY:

Most of these interviews will be 15 minutes and we’ll be literally running from one interview to the next. I am not sure which ones I’ll be able to Qik, but we’ll try to Qik at least some of them:

We have the morning mostly free to get acclimated and get our press passes and all that.
Noon. Senator Tom Coburn. (R-OK)
1:30 p.m. Rep. George Miller (D-CA)
2:30 p.m. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Speaker of the House.
3 p.m. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH)
4:30 p.m. Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)
Private dinner to thank Andy Feinberg and his team for planning this schedule, then a night-time photowalk of the Washington Mall.

WEDNESDAY:

11 a.m. Kyle McSlarrow, President of National Cable and Telecommunications Association.
Noon Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL)
1 p.m. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)
2 p.m. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (D)
4:30 Erik Stallman (Tech Counsel to Rep. Zoe Lofgren)
6 p.m. Party with Gary Vaynerchuk and Jim Long (about 200 already signed up).

THURSDAY:

Still being planned out. Possible tour of White House. Also will probably play tourist and see the Newseum and other museums. Jim Long, NBC Camera person at the White house, and famous Twitterer, is working on something, but hasn’t been firmed up yet.

Well, I went to Washington a year ago, and I went to the Capitol Building. The reason that I went was to show the city to our Swiss exchange student. Why is Mr. Scoble going? Shel Israel explains:

Most of these video interviews will only be 15 minutes in length and I am relatively certain that most of the people he interviews for FastCompany.TV will give him little more than self-serving soundbites, from elected officials trying to show they "get it" and leaving some questions as to whether they do or do not.

That is not the important part. What's important, is that officials who serve at the will of the people have great instincts to go to where the people are....

I think Robert is opening the door in a way that will not allow the door to close again.

The thing about social media is that the people get to talk back. And talk back they will. Just as a few enterprises have learned that customers who talk back are good for them, politicians are about to learn that voters who talk back in the long term are good for them as well.

But when it happens, there's a little shift, a shift of power from the people inside the Beltway to the people they serve outside of it. We gain access. We gain a new way of talking, shouting, pleading, harassing and persuading the people who are elected or paid to serve us.

I think this is a good thing and I than Robert for breaking ground on our behalf.

But I suspect that the politicians will use "social media" in the same way that they've used "town halls" in the past. If you think about it, a real town hall is one in which everybody yells at each other and Jim goes on and on about how Patsy keeps parking her pickup truck in front of Jim's house. Now look at the town halls that have been practiced during the Clinton-Bush years - sanitized events in which the participants are pre-selected, the questions pre-screened, and everyone is happy. ("Boxers or briefs," anyone?)

Social media? Meet the new technology, same as the old technology. A lot has been made (by Huffington Post and Mother Jones) about the assertion that John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer, but his main opponent certainly knows how to...um..."use" social media. Sure, Barack Obama has a presence on various social networks, but I haven't seen any evidence that it's more than a one-way blast machine - not something in which Barack engages with people.

Take a look at these two FriendFeed accounts - I am on the left, Barack on the right.



Let's look at the main portions of the profiles. Both of us include several different services, and both of us subscribe to various people. But compare my "Discussions" area to Barack's "Discussions" area. In Barack's case, there isn't any. Barack and his political staff have chosen not to engage in FriendFeed - they never comment on anything, they never like anything. They just blast their stuff out to the world.

Or maybe they don't. In the process of researching this post, I ran across this May 20, 2008 gem from ReadWriteWeb:

The "Obama" account on FriendFeed is following some of the biggest tech movers and shakers -- including our own Marshall Kirkpatrick, but according to Micah Sifry at TechPresident, who is also being followed, that's not actually Obama. "Someone is 'squatting' on the Obama name on Friendfeed, apparently--though they don't appear to be using it in a malicious way," says Sifry via a source in the Obama campaign.

Also see Micah L. Sifry's post and updates.

So, in essence, Barack Obama didn't think to claim his own name on FriendFeed.

Wonder what Matt Craven has to say about that.

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Tsvangirai withdraws, runoff continues, Mugabe trimuphant

And others are deploring up a storm. If all goes well, the UN Security Council may also deplore. In contrast to the evil oil-soaked fascist cowboys who run our country, the rest of the world has launched the Age of Deploremacy. Well, except Mbeki, for whom deploremacy is too radical.
http://www.cbc.ca/mobile/story/national/2008/06/23/zimbabwe-election

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Mickey habla español

Disney's California Adventure.

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Mist

Outside Soarin' Over California, in Disney's California Adventure.

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Why spammer "Brian Walters" is an idiot

This email was received at my Ontario Emperor email account.

Yes, the account at which my surname is "Emperor."

Heh.

-----Original Message-----
From: "brian walters" <brian@mail.com>
To: brian_walters03@hotmail.com
Sent: 6/22/2008 9:42 AM
Subject: second notice!!

THIS IS FOR YOUR ATTENTION.

We wish to notify you again that you were listed as a beneficiary to the total sum of £10,600,000.00GBP (Ten Million Six Hundred Thousand British Pounds) in the codicil and last testament of the deceased. (Name now withheld since this is my second letter to you).

We contacted you because you bear the surname identity and therefore can present you as the beneficiary to the inheritance. We reckoned that you could receive these funds as you are qualified by your name identity.

All the legal papers will be processed in your acceptance.

We therefore request that you kindly forward to us your letter of acceptance; your current telephone and fax numbers and a forwarding address to enable us file necessary documents at our high court probate division for the release of this sum of money.

Please contact me via my private email so that we can get this done immediately.

sincerely yours

Brian Walters
infinite solicitors & co.

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The One Hundred Dollar Solution (Obama contributors)

People such as Rich Marotta (KLAC/KFI) and Dave Winer (Scripting News) donate to Barack Obama in small chunks - say, $100 at a time.

If Obama had lost the Democratic nomination, this would have been seen as his greatest failure. As it is, Obama is seen as a genius.

But what if the Obama donors give too fast, and end up hitting campaign donation limits?

Again, depends on who wins the general. If Obama wins, we will see a new kind of "campaign finance reform" - namely, increasing individual contribution limits.

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The phone is ringing, and Sir Laurence Olivier answers...

After running a marathon, you need donuts and barbells.

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I wouldn't develop there even if you paid me

Sorry about the title, but I couldn't resist it when I heard that Jesse Stay had been interviewed by Justin R. Young of TalkingHeadTV regarding his June 19 article "Developers Bailing on Twitter". (You may recall my take on the article.)

If you go here you can see several video excerpts from the interview. Here's one of them:



Stay noted that more people access Twitter via its API (and via services such as Twitterrific and Twhirl) than access Twitter directly - so if the developers are adversely affected, it affects ten times more people than if something happens to Twitter's own GUI. He also related an example that he had previously shared on Disqus (note: if you want Jesse to talk about or use your service, get him a shirt):

Imagine, for instance, if Bear who wrote Twhirl were to develop a Plurk client in the near future. What if afterwards Bear decided to stop supporting Twitter because of the headaches and money it was costing Seesmic to stay up with the changes Twitter is putting in place without even notifying developers ahead of time. Users en masse would flock to Plurk because it would now be the best option to them through the same means they used to use Twitter.

However, there's still one question. Before I started talking about the development of applications (Twiddict, twitabit) designed to mitigate Twitter downtime, I wondered whether there was sufficient evidence of developer frustration:

I'm not quite sure that Stay effectively made his point that developers are abandoning Twitter. He only cited a few cases, and even if people say that they're going to do something, that doeesn't mean that they'll necessarily do it.

Stay provided an answer in a comment to Silicon Alley Insider:

The maintainer of an entire Twitter library jumped ship. Net::Twitter, the Perl Twitter library's author and original maintainer jumped ship and handed over development to another developer. There are many Twitter-based applications using that library right now. True, it's not dead, but moves like this are still unsettling and show the developer frustration that's out there.

Silicon Alley Insider subsequently published a comment from Twitter's Biz Stone:

We had 106 requests for new source parameters in the last 7 days up from 95 the previous 7 days. That's over 200 new twitter applications in two weeks.

Unfortunately, Stone has no way of measuring when a particular developer is no longer using the API. Perhaps a decrease in traffic in the Twitter Development Talk Google Group might be indicative. Or perhaps this is indicative of something:

About this group
Members 2081
Activity Low - 126 recent authors

Perhaps more pertinent information is revealed in the group's archive of monthly activity.



As you can see, the peak for group activity has (so far) occurred in May 2008, with 665 items. It doesn't appear that June will reach that peak of activity.

Perhaps this statistic should be revisited in September or October, after all of the vacations end. In October 2008, will the group have 1,000+ messages, or will May 2008 be the high point?

P.S. "The Big Country" is not available on last.fm. Dang WB.

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3wrds - when a 140 character microblog is too danged long to create or consume

I had an idea on the way in to work, you can say that Louis Gray gave birth to this idea.

Earlier this morning, I was reading FriendFeed and discovered that Gray and his wife were at the hospital, waiting for their twins to be born. Yet while waiting (or between contractions, or whatever), Louis was still consuming online media.

If the technology had existed in 1991, I would have had plenty of time to consume online media when my daughter was born. This is because my wife asked me to leave the room for a few hours during the later stages of labor. Presumably Louis is a more helpful husband than I am, however, and it occurred to me that he really woudn't have the time to consume all of this online media as the delivery time drew closer.

While driving to work, it occurred to me - why not have a service in which items, rather than being full blogs or 140 character microblogs, were limited to just four words? This would allow time-pressed people to read, or perhaps share, information very quickly.

I was listening to the radio, so I took something from the news and composed my first nanotweet in my head:

McClellan testifies before House

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it is easy.

Too easy.

So I cut it down to three words. I guess I could go down to one word, but three words allow the option of a subject/verb/object format, which should be capable of conveying major thoughts.

I've prototyped this on FriendFeed, for two reasons:

1. FriendFeed rooms allow a very easy way to prototype things and get feedback.


2. Unlike Dave Winer, Benjamin Golub, and others, I have few coding skills. (The last time that I coded professionally, I used HyperTalk. I'm still surprised that BASIC no longer requires line numbers.) If I did have coding skills, I'd code something based on characters rather than words - 14 characters sounds good.

So I encourage all of you to join the 3wrds FriendFeed room at http://friendfeed.com/rooms/3wrds and...share some stuff.

P.S. Yes, I'll allow cheating. Links can be included. I'll probably link to this post, but only include a three word title such as "blog announcement written."

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The phone is ringing, and Wesley Clark answers...

General Mills manufactures cereal for serialists.

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Raspberry berets, in and of themselves, do not violate the corporate dress code

I was searching through some old e-mails for vendor information and ran across an email trail from February 2000.

In this series of emails, we were trying to work with our UK division to obtain the coding services of an engineer named Nigel.

Halfway through the thread, I changed the title of the email so that it read "Making plans for Nigel." Yes.

You can groan now.

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Why Jesse Stay is right, even though he's wrong

Remember when Robert Scoble was supposedly accused of ruining Twitter and all things good and decent in America? Well, when Scoble went to Twitter to kiss and make up, he brought Jesse Stay with him. (No, not THAT Jesse Stay.)

The younger Jesse Stay wrote the following recently:

I’ve been following various development mailing lists lately, and I’m seeing a trend of developers starting to bail on Twitter. This is a scary thought, because when the developers bail, so will the users. It all started with a conversation on the Twitter Developers’ mailing list with the subject, “Shame” by a developer named, “nath“, in which he said,

“Well, twitters always down or unusable due to the speed; the api’s keep breaking and are down just as often; the groups now packed full of spam which is littering my inbox.

“It’s a real shame to see such a great app crumble and die like this :(”

Be sure to read the rest of the post, in which it was noted that (a) the spam was the fault of Google, not Twitter, (b) Alex Payne noted that Twitter had "been pretty solid over the last few days"; and (c) that was not exactly a ringing endorsement.

After citing a few more examples of people leaving Twitter development, Stay concluded:

I’m very worried for Twitter. As more developers jump ship and work on other platforms such as Plurk and FriendFeed (which really isn’t a direct competitor to Twitter), this great tool is going to be left in the dust with no new development and large networks of people moving elsewhere. Twitter’s largest traffic comes from the API itself, and as that traffic dies down, so will Twitter.

I'm not quite sure that Stay effectively made his point that developers are abandoning Twitter. He only cited a few cases, and even if people say that they're going to do something, that doeesn't mean that they'll necessarily do it.

However, the primary evidence that Jesse Stay was wrong in his assertion of Twitter developer departures is that all sorts of new applications are being developed for Twitter.

Unfortunately for Twitter, these aren't the types of applications that they'll want to brag about. Take this announcement from Louis Gray:

Many Twitter users have a love/hate relationship with the service. They love what it does, helping people communicate in real time, from the Web or their mobile phones, but they hate that it hasn't scaled to meet demand. In its place, a new crop of services is rising to work around the downtime. The latest, debuting today, is called twitAbit, which leverages store and forward capabilities to ensure that Twitter fail doesn't ensure your own fail.

But it turns out that twitAbit has competition. Madhur Kapoor:

If you are a Twitter addict and get pissed of when Twitter is down (which happens quite frequently), then Twiddict is just for you. It is a service which allows you to post Tweets to it when Twitter is down. And when Twitter comes back up, it will post the Tweets to your Twitter account.

So we have twitabit, Twiddict, and probably some others that I missed. Looks like there's a lot of Twitter development going on.

One can classify third-party add-ons into three categories:

• Add-ons to product A that product A's developers probably shouldn't be getting involved in developing.


• Add-ons to product A that product A's developer probably should have offered, but didn't.


• Add-ons to product A that never should have been developed in the first place, because they shouldn't have been needed.

Twiddict and twitabit probably belong in the third category.

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Who is Solomon Poss?

I have spent the morning listening to two songs, "Silver Dagger" and "Silver Dagger." If you read my previous post, you realize that I'm talking about the Joan Baez and Dolly Parton versions of the song, both of which are included in the compilation "Solomon Poss Presents Vanguard Records vs. Sugar Hill Records."

And I am slowly going crazy.

Not because of the music, which is excellent in both cases, but because of the album title.

Who is Solomon Poss?

Is Poss some old early 20th century bluesman from the Mississippi delta?

Is Poss some late 1940s record industry underlining [OOPS, I MEANT "UNDERLING"] who made coffee for the Vanguard brass?

Is Poss some late 1970s man from the hollers who migrated to Durham and tried to push a song called "Grasser's Delight" on a fledgling record label?

Or is Poss some anonymous trumpet player in Lawrence Welk's old band?

Well, I thought I'd search Google to find the answer to this question - and discovered, to my dismay, that I (by virtue of my earlier post) am now one of the world's experts on Solomon Poss.

And I don't even know who or what Solomon Poss is.

However, I have located a possible source of information. The Welk Music Group compilation was produced by [DELETED BY REQUEST], who at the time was...[WELL, LET'S JUST SAY THAT HE DID STUFF....]

...But perhaps he'd welcome an off-the-wall inquiry out of the...um...blue.

[23 JUNE - [DELETED BY REQUEST] ANSWERED MY QUESTION.]

[1 JULY 2008: HONORED REQUEST TO DELETE SELECTED INFORMATION FROM MRONTEMP.]

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Christmas in June, continued

Continuing the series on my Christmas presents...my Christmas 2006 presents.

Yesterday morning, I listened to Brian Eno's "Another Day on Earth" during my morning commute. I still haven't listened to all of the tracks yet; I got waylaid when I heard track 9, and I haven't gotten beyond that track since.

This morning, rather than continuing with Eno (or listening to "Just Another Day" in another endless loop), I moved on to the second audio CD, the Solomon Poss presents Vanguard Records vs. Sugar Hill Records sampler. It's billed as "a world title bout over twelve rounds," in which Vanguard and Sugar Hill artists compete for your affection. However, like Quisp/Quake and Count Chocula/FrankenBerry, this is a fake fight - both record labels were (and still are) part of the Welk Music Group.

The assembler of the sampler did something interesting however, in having the same song appear twice on the CD - once by a Sugar Hill artist, and once by a Vanguard artist.

The song? "Silver Dagger." According to Wikipedia, this song exists in printed form as early as 1907, and may date to the nineteenth century or even earlier.

The Sugar Hill artist (track 2)? Dolly Parton. Her version of the song was taken from her 1999 album "The Grass is Blue" (Sugar Hill 3900).

The Vanguard artist (track 6)? Joan Baez. Her version of the song was taken from her 1960 album "Joan Baez" (Vanguard 79594), and is probably the best-known version of the song.

Nice touch to include both recordings on the sampler.

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Just another day in Ontario

The BIG Ontario...the one up Canada way. The explanation:

Brian Eno's lamenting tale anchors the seasonal time lapse of wooded area located on the north shore of the Thames River in Komoka Provincial Park, west of London, Ontario, Canada.



Needless to say, this is a followup to this post and this tweet.

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Following up on my non sequitur - Bob Mothersbaugh, guitar hero

Followup.

While we often think of Devo as a synth band, their guitar element was always strong, even after the Energy Dome period. And for Devo's guitar presence, we need to thank Bob Mothersbaugh. Here's what Drowned in Sound said:

Lot's of folks (present company excluded) underestimate D E V O and dismiss them as a "novelty band"....So naturally most folks (P.C.E) tend not to even know who Bob 1 is.

He is Bob Mothersbaugh, lead guitar of DEVO and just one facet of this incredible band. Granted, DEVO slipped into a pretty shameless disco phase in the eighties and then kind of petered out (new music wise) but their rock oeuvre is pretty flawless.

I differ on the last part - Total Devo is one of my favorite Devo albums - but I have to agree about Mothersbaugh's work. If you disagree, check out the middle part of this video.



Incidentally, "Beautiful World" is one of the best videos ever made. If you've never seen it, please watch it. All the way to the end.

Incidentally, while I was reading about the song on Songfacts, I discovered something interesting:

Mark Mothersbaugh: "Jerry and I both tried to sing like Stan from Wall Of Voodoo ("Mexican Radio") when we were doing the song. I don't know why, but we could imagine Stan singing that song, so we were both trying to fake his accent and Jerry did a great job so he ended up singing on the record."

Funny, but even though I'm a Stan Ridgway fan, I never noticed that.

On to the video:

[Jerry] Casale: "That's a song that was written with the video in mind. The video idea preceded the song. We start off with silly imagery taken from archival film libraries of just stupid stuff - Americana pop culture stuff from the past and silly imagery of silly people, then slowly start warping it over darker and darker things - Ku Klux Klan race riots, war, suffering, atomic bomb, starvation. It transforms from one thing to another."

And the attitude of the song is similar to that of Talking Heads' "Big Country," which I just referenced in another context.

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