More on the Twitter hosting situation

Biz Stone has posted this on the Twitter blog:

We're proud to announce our strategic alliance with a company known for reliability. A subdivision of the historic Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, NTT America is part of an organization capable of restoring power to an entire nation in the wake of devastating natural disasters.

It should be noted that Verio, mentioned in TechCrunch and in my blog post of yesterday, is also a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. Wikipedia clarifies the current relationship:

Verio continues to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT America.

At the end of 2005, the backbone and some dedicated hosting centers moved to NTT America, with the web hosting business staying with Verio.

The Last Podcast, which is also skeptical that this hosting deal is the necessary prelude to an investment deal, says the following:

Now the next part of the rumors were that this will be the lead-in for an announcement of Twitter’s acquisition by NTT or at least some form of investment by NTT. I don’t think there is a necessary link between the choice of host and any other announcement, so I am still on the fence about this rumor.

Here is for hoping that the service will become more stable thanks to this move and all the other infrastructure work the team at Twitter is putting into this. I hear there is an important football game coming up this weekend. Might be a good way of testing the system.

Great. I completely forgot about that. There's a chance that the @superbowlads thingie that I talked about earlier may not work at all, if we have a #twittout.

[3 FEBRUARY: TWITTER SURVIVED THE SUPER BOWL.]

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Wonder if the ad agencies will monitor this one

I thought I had my system down.

I'd tweet my reviews and begin them with "@twitcrit #*" which would ensure that the reviews got into both the twitcrit and the hashstar feeds.

Then Jeremiah Owyang messed up my system:

Are you a superbowl ad critic? Of course you are, everyone is. Even if you don’t watch the superbowl, those pervasive ads will end up in YouTube, Digg, and your cousins blog and your best friends Facebook profile. Tired of others choosing which one was the funniest/stupidist/biggest waste of time? Well this year, you can rate your own superbowl ads using Twitter, and see what everyone else in Twitter thinks too.

Owyang has set up the Twitter account @superbowlads and is encouraging people to follow and reply to this account, using the "commercial name/stars" format. Here are some examples:

“@superbowlads That Pepsi commercial was funny 4 stars”

“@superbowlads The Hillary Clinton advertisement was bunko 2 stars”

“@superbowlads Bud-wise-er, that was so 10 years ago, weak. 1 star”

Logic + Emotion states:

Twitter will once again display [its] uncanny ability to seize the momentum of an event and act as a conversation ecosystem. Remember, this isn't mass communication, it's niche communication. It's less important that there are millions of conversations going on about both the game and the Ads—what's important is that for thousands of people, their behavior has been altered. Instead of passively sitting in front of a TV cheering on the game or laughing at the Ads, many of us will actively be tapping away at mobile devices—texting away and connecting with people from all over the globe.

But what does this indicate about us?

[A]s you are watching the game tomorrow (or just pretending to watch). Look at the people around the room. How many of them will be fiddling with some kind of mobile device? Yeah—phone calls count too. Point is that tomorrow will most likely be an interesting case study for partial attention. One eye on the game, another on conversations in the room and for some, yet another on remote conversations.

Yes, Francine Hardaway's CPA has re-emerged.

Incidentally, here is the @superbowlads Twitter account (with 48 followers as I type this).

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My Sweet Lord?!?

As long-time readers know, I often refer to blog posts by John at True Discernment and Clifford at Red Stick Rant. While I don't necessarily agree 100% with John, I do understand his desire to highlight apostasy in various churches that call themselves Christian. Similarly, Clifford often decries things that occur in that organization that he calls The Episcopal Church(tm).

Well, I ran across an Episcopal story from John, rather than Clifford, a few minutes ago. While my reaction was slightly different, I am in complete agreement with John that the service described by the Los Angeles Times has nothing to do with Christianity.

Perhaps my reaction to the article will be better explained when you understand what I was doing before I read the article. Earlier this morning, I was at church with my wife. My wife is in the Altar Guild, and she was preparing the elements for tomorrow's Holy Communion. Coincidentally, I will be serving Holy Communion tomorrow. So this will help you understand my point (though I thoroughly agree with John's point in his blog post).

We have both read this Los Angeles Times article, which begins as follows:

Hindu nun Pravrajika Saradeshaprana, dressed in a saffron robe, blew into a conch shell three times, calling to worship Hindu and Episcopal religious leaders who joined Saturday to celebrate an Indian Rite Mass at St. John's Cathedral near downtown.

The rare joint service included chants from the Temple Bhajan Band of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and a moving rendition of "Bless the Lord, O My Soul" sung by the St. John's choir.

Here's what bent John out of shape:

During the service, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, issued a statement of apology to the Hindu religious community for centuries-old acts of religious discrimination by Christians, including attempts to convert them....

The bishop...said he was committed to renouncing "proselytizing" of Hindus. Bruno had been scheduled to read the statement himself, but a death of a close family friend prevented him from attending the service.

Swami Sarvadevananda, of Vedanta Society of Southern California, was among about a dozen Hindu leaders honored during the service. He called Bruno's stance "a great and courageous step" that binds the two communities.

"By declaring that there will be no more proselytizing, the bishop has opened a new door of understanding," Sarvadevananda said. "The modern religious man must expand his understanding and love of religions and their practices."

John rightly pointed out that Bruno pretty much removed Mark 16:15 out of his Bible with that statement. (This is Mark's version of the Great Commission, which is of course also found in Matthew.)

But, possibly due to what I was doing earlier today, I was more struck with what followed the apology. First, I will quote the article as originally written:

All were invited to Holy Communion, after the Episcopal celebrant elevated a tray of consecrated Indian bread, and deacons raised wine-filled chalices.

In respect to Hindu tradition, a tray of flowers was also presented. Christians and Hindus lined up for communion, but since Orthodox Hindus shun alcohol, they consumed only the bread.

Now, let me note the subsequent clarification that the Los Angeles Times offered:

An article in Sunday's California section about a joint religious service involving Hindus and Episcopalians said that all those attending the service at St. John's Cathedral in Los Angeles were invited to Holy Communion. Although attendees walked toward the Communion table, only Christians were encouraged to partake of Communion. Out of respect for Hindu beliefs, the Hindus were invited to take a flower. Also, the article described Hindus consuming bread during Communion, but some of those worshipers were Christians wearing traditional Indian dress.

Note the statement "some," which implies that some Hindus did consume bread during Communion.

Now it's my turn to quote from Scripture. First, consider the lilies - whoops, I mean whatever flowers the Hindus had - in light of I Corinthians 10:14-21:

1 Corinthians 10:14-21 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

14Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

18Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons.

So I ask, what place do flowers dedicated to pagan gods have in a supposedly Christian service of Holy Communion?

And regarding the Hindus that partook of the bread, just move on to the next chapter of I Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 11:27-30 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

This, incidentally, is why my denomination (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) practices "close communion" (a/k/a "closed communion"), and does not encourage everyone willy-nilly to come up to the altar.

And I'm "proud" to say that this story has a local angle also, as the Los Angeles Times points out:

During the service, the two faiths also blended practices during the handling of an icon of Jesus.

The Rev. Karen MacQueen, an associate priest at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pomona, who was the celebrant, carried the icon, a large painted image, during the procession. She placed it before the altar.

Then, as she and the others knelt before the icon, a second Hindu band, Adoration Chant Band, sang a hymn while the icon was anointed with sandalwood paste by the Episcopal celebrant. A flowered garland was placed on it and a lamp was lighted, a sign of Christ, the light in the darkness

Both Hindu and Christian texts were read.

In her homily, "A Vision for Inter-Religious Dialogue," MacQueen said in both Hinduism and Christianity devotees believe that "the Divine Presence" illuminates the whole world.

MacQueen, who spent two years studying Hinduism in India, said both faiths revere "great figures who embody the divine light, who teach the divine truth."

For Christians, Jesus preeminently embodies the divine light, she said. For Hindus, she said a number of figures embody the divine light and teach the divine truth.

I'm not quite sure how MacQueen's participation in this service jibes with what St. Paul's Pomona claims to believe:

Jesus is the focus of our journey. We regard him as the embodiment of the lovingkindness of God, and of God’s passion for mercy, justice, and peace. We strive to live out Jesus’ teaching, and to enter into the relationship that Jesus has with God as “Abba”, as loving Father.

MacQueen has also stated the following in regard to the service:

Ms MacQueen said on Tuesday, “The Christians were invited to receive holy communion. The Hindus were invited to receive a flower from a tray of flowers that had been placed on the altar.

“The Times reporter became confused by the large number of Indian Christians present who were dressed in traditional Indian garb, and who received communion.

“As one of the two priests giving out communion, I noticed that those I recognised as Hindus understood the invitation and received a flower.

“One has to understand how important this is for both Christians and Hindus. For Christians, we understand that holy communion is for the baptised. Hindus, especially religious leaders, do not want to be co-opted into a situation where they are expected to act as if they are Christians.”

Ms MacQueen said that she had worked very hard to get the trust of the many Hindu leaders who were guests at the service. “The trust would have been destroyed if these leaders had thought that I would invite or expect them to receive communion at a Christian mass,” she said.

Of course, this doesn't answer the question of why a joint Christian-Hindu service was even held in the first place. And I wonder how MacQueen feels about this:

Hindu extremists launched a spate of violent but meticulously planned attacks on Christians in Kanhdamal District, Orissa State, on 24 and 25 December 2007. A total of 95 churches were burnt to the ground, as well as 730 homes of Christians. In cases where a Christian ministry operated from rented premises owned by a Hindu, the attackers were careful not to damage the building, but took all the contents outside and set them on fire. The death toll is unknown at the time of writing, but taking into account all known cases of “arson, murder and assault” the violence was, in the words of the All India Christian Council, “the largest attack on the Christian community in the history of democratic India”.

Ah, she'd probably justify it because the evil Indian Christians were, heaven forbid, proselytizing. And why would Christians do that?

P.S. It should be fair to note that my own denomination has had its share of controversy over church services with non-Christians. See my previous blog post on this topic.

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This juxtaposition ain't superfluous. It's just plain bizarre.

Forget everything that I ever said in my post Danzig with Fears in Disguise about the horrors of nuclear war and how they can penetrate a young person's psyche.

Consider the lyrics of the Ultravox song as is, as a sad set of lyrics about the loss of a relationship.

Now think about the heartbreaking nature of these lyrics and juxtapose them with a smiling woman, her male dancers, and a 21st century version of Lawrence Welk bubbles.

If you can't picture this, perhaps I can help you picture it.



Novaspace does get one point for pointing to her eye at one point...as she smiles away.

I offered this comment at YouTube:

I take a perverse pleasure in this version of the song. Ignore the original video for the moment and think of the lyrics, sad about the end of a relationship. To juxtapose these lyrics with a smiling, dancing performance complete with dancers and 21st century Lawrence Welk bubbles is a thing of delight, kinda like the 2.0 version of Devo from a year or so back (with the difference, of course, that Ultravox didn't engineer this performance).

(Aside: my previous post about Dev2.0 and the involvement of some of the original Devo members in the project can be found here.)

A postscript. The title of this post refers to the blog Superfluous Juxtaposition, a Los Angeles blog which I used to read regularly but haven't lately. I just added it to my Google Reader feed.

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Speaking of gods, what about the Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl

Yes, it's that time of the year that I absolutely hate when the National Football League limits freedom of speech by forcing people who haven't paid the NFL to refrain from using the words "Super Bowl."

See my 2005 and 2004 posts on this restriction of freedom of expression.

And now the NFL is getting into the churches. While True Discernment sees the following story as a victory to keep non-Christian influences out of the sanctuary, I see it as a heavy-handed attempt by the NFL to prohibit freedom of assembly.

From the Washington Post:

For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church's fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food -- and prayer.

But this year, Immanuel's Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.

Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright....

The Super Bowl, the most secular of American holidays, has long been popular among churches. With parties, prayer and Christian DVDs replacing the occasionally racy halftime shows, churches use the event as a way to reach members, and potential new members, in a non-churchlike atmosphere....

The NFL said, however, that the copyright law on its games is long-standing and the language read at the end of each game is well known: "This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited."

The league bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size. The section of federal copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its programming exempts sports bars, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

And why is the NFL doing this? Money.

Large Super Bowl gatherings around big-screen sets outside of homes shrink TV ratings and can affect advertising revenue, McCarthy said. "We have no objection to churches and others hosting Super Bowl parties as long as they . . . show the game on a television of the type commonly used at home," he said. "It is a matter of copyright law."

And now the churches are scared into submission, even about what they say:

To avoid attracting the ire of the NFL, some churches are even giving Super Bowl parties a more generic name. Broadfording Bible Brethren Church in Hagerstown will call its annual event the "Big Game Party."

So who's on the front lines, defending churches against these archaic copyright laws? None other than the Rutherford Institute:

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville civil liberties group that focuses on religious freedom issues, is threatening to sue the NFL on behalf of an Alabama church that wants to host a big-screen Super Bowl party. He is also seeking sponsors for federal legislation to exempt churches from the ban.

"It's ridiculous," Whitehead said. "You can go into these stores now and buy 100-inch screens. The law is just outdated."

Frankly, I don't agree with exempting churches from the 55 inch ban without exempting other people. I think the whole thing is stupid. It's not my church's problem if the NFL is unable to count viewers correctly.

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Who says we don't have local gods any more?

Back in the time of the Old Testament, this group of people would have one god, while another group of people would have another god. Some people believe that the true revolution (or revelation) in Hebrew theology was the concept of a God who was God everywhere, even if you were in Egypt or Babylon.

Well, we have a god in California that many people worship. And it's not Ronald Reagan. It's Howard Jarvis.

Franklin Avenue takes us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when the prophet Jarvis walked among us.



The funniest part? The phrase "owner of a $60,000 home in Los Angeles."

But Jarvis worship continues via his church, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

However, there are other gods. There is a sect of people who worship Paul Gann called the People's Advocate. The Gannites explain why the churches are separate:

Q. Why don't People's Advocate and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) join forces and merge together?

A. Each organization has different issues which it addresses as well as some common ones.

The Howard Jarvis organization was founded by Howard Jarvis in Los Angeles and People's Advocate was founded by Paul Gann in Sacramento. When Jarvis and Gann decided to take on Prop 13, the property tax initiative, they formed a coalition but retained their own autonomy. Although they worked very closely together to push Prop 13 into law, they were nevertheless separate organizations working toward one goal: to reduce the property taxes of property owners. Prior to the joint venture, such a enormous undertaking by just one organization would not have been possible. After that historic effort, they never saw any reason to amalgamate the two organizations. In fact, they both believed they could better serve the taxpayers as separate entities. Since that time both Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann have died but their organizations live on as extremely effective keepers of the beleaguered tax payer.

HJTA continues to focus primarily on Prop 13. People's Advocate -- while continuing to protect Prop 13 anytime a threat is made-- works to educate our members on public policy, and also has worked on other issues as well. See Our History page.

Although People's Advocate and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association have similar aims, we believe, as did Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Gann, the two organizations can better serve the taxpayer by remaining separate so as to allow for more varied policy options. It is more important to have as many groups as possible fighting taxes and government waste so the movement will retain widespread notoriety and strike fear into the minds of public officials everywhere. With several groups studying the problems we face, more diversity and ingenuity will inevitably surface.

Rest assured, those of us with common goals unite when the cause requires it.

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Biz Stone responds to my Twitter post. So will Steve Ballmer respond to my Microsoft post?

Just in case you didn't catch it in the comments, Biz Stone responded to my post on the January 30-31 #twittout. You'll recall that my earlier post asked the following:

Does Twitter have a customer advisory board that is under non-disclosure and can provide an external evaluation of Twitter's plans, both for scalability and for monetization?

Biz responded. This is what he said:

Thanks for your comments. In fact, Twitter does have a group called "Friends of Twitter" which we run various ideas by--mostly in the form of features or changes to the way Twitter works for feedback. We also have an advisory board--all of which are Twitter users.

We spend a good deal of time reading blogs like yours, we read every email that comes into support, we read the comments on our own blog, and we engage with users directly in our forums at Get Satisfaction. We also have a developers group and a developers blog.

Twitter employees engage personally with our community at meetups (tweetups) locally and when we travel and we make time to speak with people about Twitter whenever we are invited to participate in conferences around the world.

Indeed, we spend a good deal of time listening to what other people are saying and suggesting. So far, I'd say paying attention to feedback from users has been the most important factor in our success.

I couldn't find out a lot about the "Friends of Twitter" (now THAT sounds Clintonesque, but I digress). Of course, due to the nature of the group, you probably SHOULDN'T find out a lot about them. But I found an intriguing reference to "friends of twitter" in some notes taken by Sean Bohan at an April 2007 panel discussion in which Biz Stone was on the panel. It appears that the name of the panel was "Building awesome websites and services using the power of happy users." Here's the relevant excerpt (participants are Ted Rheingold, Josh Schacter, and Biz Stone):

TR - do you have cust part of a special group to go to ?

JS - yahoo group where people sign up and they talk to them - will toss out stuff, ideas, very user facing - try to get diff viewpoints
pretty helpful
nice

active when he was runngn things alone

couple people good thermometers
some who use flickr as utility - will use as blogs - serious amateurs or hobbyist photogs
def certain people to go to
common pattern where people sign up and add a photo or two and dont come back for months
some learn to love it - where the bumps are on that path - take analytic approaches for state of users, 2x week or once every 3 months
really really hard

listening solely to the people who love it

weird or confusing - flickr terminology
ones who are willing to speak already love it

BS - do the analytics too
do a friends of twitter group - who can release a halfbaked feature on for feedback
have an non trad feedback loop

Since this is a Twitter-y post, I'll sneak in something that Dave Winer said when he was talking about Microsoft-Yahoo:

It would make more sense for Twitter to acquire Yahoo. At least then they'd get some servers that could stay up for 24 hours straight....

To those who think Twitter couldn't acquire Yahoo, I might have agreed until we saw NeXT "buy" Apple.

Yet Twitter has not alienated its customers. Pistachio collected some observations about what Twitter means to people. Here are a selected few responses to the fill-in-the-blank "Twitter makes me more _______":

Stowe Boyd stoweboyd @Pistachio “Twitter makes me more messy, and messiness is good.”

Adele McAlear adelemcalear @Pistachio Twitter makes me sharper, at the front of the curve, more concise, connected, informed…

Phillip Zannini phillymac @Pistachio Distracted

Tiara Shafiq divabat @pistachio “…likely to procrastinate.”

Speaking about monetization, TechCrunch uses one source to speculate:

According to one source, the move to Verio wasn’t related to issues with Joyent, but due to a yet to be disclosed investment from Japanese telco NTT, who are also the full owners of Verio. They did not provide the amount of the investment or terms, but they suggested it was finalized at the same time the Digital Garage investment was announced. Apparently it had been a done deal for months prior to that, hence the talk that Twitter had been planning a move away from Joyent for months. The Digital Garage deal was announced January 16, so presuming reasonable preparations before that, 15 days after signing to make the move is a reasonable enough time frame.

Frankly, I'm doubtful. If I had planned such a move for months, I wouldn't be praising my business partner the day before I dumped it.

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Is Microsoft the Hillary Clinton in an Obama World?

I've already referred to Stowe Boyd's line about the Microsoft-Yahoo merger. Here is the entire paragraph from which I quoted:

Personally, I think the Microsoft and Yahoo matchup is like two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive. But Yahoo will be the first to go under in this embrace.

Boyd's first commenter, Euan W. Semple, agreed:

When I heard the news my first thought was of two old stars colliding shortly before they become black holes!

Boyd's second commenter, yours truly, did not:

I'm just kind of absorbing everything at the moment, but regarding your comment and Euan's comment about Microsoft itself, my first impression is that I wouldn't necessarily classify Microsoft as a tired swimmer or an old star just yet.

Microsoft is still the company that we love to hate (sorry, Apple), primarily because they continue to recover from their mistakes and return with an adapted technological vision. They have adapted themselves several times over the years, addressing new markets, new competitors, and national governments.

Regardless of whether Microsoft acquires Yahoo and fails with its newly acquired group, acquires Yahoo and succeeds with it, or fails to acquire Yahoo, I suspect that Microsoft will continue to thrive in some form or another.

Exxon and IBM have managed to survive over the years, and I suspect that Microsoft will survive also.

However, my view seems to be in the minority.

Many other people are visualizing Microsoft as the tired old proprietary company. Boyd himself updated his blog post to link to Jeff Jarvis. This is what he said:

It’s appropriate...that Yahoo is being [sought] by what one could say is the last old technology company, Microsoft. For Microsoft still operates on a model of control: closed in an open era....

Will this be big enough to beat Google? No, because big won’t win in the end. Open will.

And Dave Winer has weighed in:

Does Yahoo + Microsoft make sense?

Nahh. It's like the dead leading the blind.

The only reason the deal makes sense is because it's the only thing either company could do that anyone might possibly care about.

And Winer links to Scott Rosenberg:

For Microsoft, this move is a final admission of the utter failure of the company’s effort to build an online business for itself over the past decade — in services, advertising or content. Winning Yahoo would surely bolster Microsoft in this area in the short term. But in the long term, these efforts at lashing together two failures in hopes of sparking a success have never prospered. For Google, the target of Redmond’s chess move, there is really no danger here.

But it turns out that I'm not the only person who is bullish on Microsoft for the long term.

Needless to say, Steve Ballmer is bullish on Microsoft:

We are on a good path with our existing search and advertising product roadmaps. To date, we have made progress in our organic online services and advertising efforts, and by joining with Yahoo!, we will take the next step toward becoming a major search destination and social platform for consumers....

Through our recent acquisitions of aQuantive and Tellme, we understand what it takes to successfully integrate new talent, assets, and infrastructure into our company. Leaders from both Microsoft and Yahoo! will work together closely on the integration process to ensure that we are thoughtful about the questions we ask and the decisions we make. As we move forward, we’ll look carefully at how to bring our assets together to create the greatest value for customers, employees, and shareholders.

And Robert Scoble had a positive take on his ex-employer:

It’s the fear that Google’s Docs and Spreadsheets might someday take marketshare away from Office that I think was driving this deal.

Sad thing? I still own Microsoft stock, which went down today on the news. But I think that long-term this is a good deal for Microsoft’s shareholders too. With one caveat: Microsoft and Yahoo employees need to work together to create value, not destroy it. That’s going to be pretty tough since the cultures of the two companies aren’t a total fit....

Microsoft has a world-class advertising sales team and this gives that team a ton of new inventory to sell.

Vinnie Mirchandani is also positive:

[W]ith Yahoo!, Microsoft is becoming a player at the lowest levels in the Valley. Where a lot of innovation is happening.

But Jeff Pulver made the strongest statement in favor of Microsoft:

One thing I’ve learned over the years is to "Never under estimate Microsoft...". Microsoft seems to be one of the companies that when others have written it off, it just bounces back and has always been able to re-invent itself.

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How about a Bacon Cheeseburger in zwei Dosen?

This is a followup to my previous post Cheeseburger in der Dose!

And my previous post Salt of the Earth - The Jesuit Recruiting Bacon Mashup.

You see, I suspect that I had heard about Bacon Salt (discussed in the "Salt of the Earth" post) from Dethroner, who discusses all things bacon.

Well, they have a new product (actually, a very old product) that they're discussing, which is the perfect complement to "Cheeseburger in a Can" (subject of the top post).

Before it was popped open, its insides splayed out for the world to see, this was one of the last known samples of Canned Sliced Bacon (Product of Hungary). This particular can was about twenty years old, but the bacon inside was still as fresh as a New Jersey breeze.

There is a picture of a can with the label "Celebrity Sliced Bacon." And yes, it is a product of Hungary. (Or is that Hungry?)

But canned bacon is about to return, just in time to be paired with your German cheeseburger in a can:

Watch this site [canned-bacon.com] for an announcement on the next generation of canned bacon - produced in Ohio under direct license from MREwholesalers.com, the exclusive importers of Red Feather Canned Australian Cheddar Cheese and Red Feather New Zealand Canned Creamery Butter.

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Some #msftyhoo links

No time to comment or even think, so go ahead and look at others who have commented and thought.

TechCrunch (includes Ballmer's letter)

TechCrunch (on synergy)

Irregular Enterprise (why this could work)

Irregular Enterprise (why this may not work)

Zoli (who says "MicroHoo," though I prefer "Yikecrosoft" myself)

Stowe Boyd ("two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive")

And Jeremy Zawodny.

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Religion Stove Top, 1 February 2008

Red Stick Rant linked to a story on the Archbishop of Canterbury's proposal to punish "thoughtless or cruel" words. Idiot.

Locusts and Honey reminded us that the phrase "I'll pray for you" should not be delivered in a perjorative way.

Triablogue discussed who is harmed by an abortion.

Pastor Kevin quoted N.T. Wright: "The ascended Lord is the one who disturbs the comfortable and comforts the disturbed... the result is reckless adoration."

Meanwhile, Locusts and Honey discussed the entertainment-driven church. (He's against it.)

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Spell Czech, 1 February 2008 - Competition WITHIN an Organization is the Worst Kind

My Motorola Q holster broke a few days ago, and I had to order a new one, which I ordered online.

I received the following notification yesterday:

We thought you’d like to know that we shipped your items today, and that this competes your order.

Competes instead of completes? In a canned message that is going to many people? That's odd.

Or perhaps it was intentional. If so, I fully expect to get the following notification today:

Hello, this is the Blue Team. We thought you'd like to know that WE shipped your items today via next day air. This competes your order, so when the other slowpokes on the Red Team finally get their stuff to you via ground shipment, simply refuse it.

Of course, this will spark the following notification:

We thought you'd like to know that we, the original Red Team that shipped your order, and who has been committed to your order longer than any other team, have upgraded your order in transit to be delivered by Virgin Galactic. Stand by to receive your order within minutes.

Of course, by this time team 2 will have to resort to negative campaigning:

The old Red Team has old ideas. Originally they shipped your order via ground service, the same service that is the preferred choice of deadly domestic terrorists such as "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski. The old team then flip-flopped, showing a lack of conviction. Don't accept their shipment.

Team 1 will then step in:

The Blue Team has made outrageous statements linking us with the Unabomber. That's the type of dirty campaign that Tricky Dicky Nixon would have employed. Don't bring Watergate back to your cellp hone holster.

I think that by this point, I'll change my email address.

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Twemes

While performing a mobile Google search for my favorite (and recently oft-repeated) word "twittout," I accidentally discovered it at the http://twemes.com/twemes/twittout URL.

http://twemes.com/ is a hashtag-tracking service, but I don't know yet what differentiates it from http://hashtags.org/ .

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Now I really feel informed

Unbeknownst to me when I was writing my Twitter post, there was some information that was coming out regarding Twitter's internal plans. TechCrunch links to a statement:

Twitter has been officially off Joyent since 10PM last night. This may come as a surprise to some after yesterday’s posts...regarding the two companies working together. Those of us at Joyent appreciate the opportunity we had to work with the talented folks at Twitter. It is a great service. We wish Twitter every continued success.

TechCrunch has subsequently noted that Twitter appears to be hosted by Verio. But all that I've seen so far from Twitter is an email that was sent to TechCrunch by Biz Stone:

We’re still very much engaged in our efforts to bring solid reliability to Twitter. Achieving our goals is a sustained effort, not an overnight fix. Performance is our most important measure of success and we appreciate both the patience and frustration folks are sharing with us.

With regard to discussing technical specifics about last night’s efforts, we’ll be more keen to do that once we have a chance to come up for air and cover it with some perspective.

Nothing new on the official Twitter blog.

But you can monitor the Twitterverse if you want to. (You can leave your friends behind. 'Cause your friends don't tweet and if they don't tweet, well they're...probably sane.)

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Danzig with Fears in Disguise

We are shaped by things that happen to us in our formative years.

Those who grew up in the 1950s were shaped by air raid drills and getting underneath desks.

Those who grew up in the 1960s were shaped by the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Then things took a decade off, and people like me who grew up in the 1970s were shaped by Tony Orlando knocking three times, the Dolphins beating the Redskins, and other peaceful activities during the decade of detente.

But then we get to the 1980s.

Regular (or irregular) blog readers might have noticed a previous reference to the Ultravox song "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes." The song is on my last.fm playlist, but I had not seen the video until today.



What's more instructive, however, are some of the comments that were recorded on the YouTube page. Here's a sampling:

SpenTK421 (1 week ago)

Wow, havnt seen that since 1984, still remember it though. It scared me back then-I was 12. Nuclear war seemed a real possibility back then.

metalleeca (5 days ago)

I was 12 dude and I remember the threat of nuclear war gave me nightmares, this tune summed that all up pretty good, well done Midge Ure!!!

So how were those who grew up in the early 1980s shaped by this? Remember that the same people who watched Midge Ure's video may have also watched this television show:

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Whatever happened to the fourth Brady brother?

The Greg Brady Project reveals the truth about why little Tom Brady was kicked off the show. (Hint: Marcia Marcia Marcia.)



Although I have to admit that the slo-mo version (see my previous blog) is...um...shorter.

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Politics Stove Top, 31 January 2008

If you're wondering who would make a good Vice President, whether or not John McCain is a conservative, all about the Schwarzenegger/Guiliani/McCain troika, how True Discernment feels about Mike Huckabee raising money in church sanctuaries, how Extreme Mortman feels about John McCain's "banana" line (note that Mortman obviously didn't hear John & Ken during the 2003-2004 southern California grocery workers' strike), or who Al Gore will support, follow the links.

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More Twitter and General Stuff in a Technology Stove Top, 31 January 2008

Looks like a missed a couple of things in my earlier Twitter post More on the January 30-31 #twittout.

For example, I neglected the post in which Biz Stone bragged how wonderful Joyent is. Some people may doubt this.

And I also neglected to blog about Chris Brogan's question about whether Yahoo should buy Twitter.

And, just within the last few minutes, Dennis Howlett wrote Why Twitter's Failing.

And Zoli blogged about onlineprimary.us' claim that an online primary would be much better than those stupid voting machines. Zoli then demonstrated how easy it was to cast multiple votes at onlineprimary.us. (Incidentally, I voted twice, taking care to put Duncan Hunter in first place each time, and was informed that both votes had a "credibility" rating of 100%. I'll keep on voting for Hunter this afternoon and see how long I can get away with it.)

Doug Meacham talked about a customer service hall of shame, which includes a lot of tech-related firms with very little competition.

Another one from Zoli: a business sign proclaiming We remove Vista - We install XP.

Finally, Mack Collier talks about something I don't have to worry about: Does the size of a blog's community affect its conversation?.

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Another perspective on the January 30-31 #twittout

Ah, but the heck with Twitter.

The most important thing is that, Twitter or no Twitter, I need to have one of my early morning tweets preserved, even though it didn't make Club140. I realize that people read me for my "Donna Douglas nude" (sorry, it's not what you think) and "Cheeseburger in der Dose" (sorry, it IS what you think, at least if you speak German) posts, but frankly, this is the stuff that excites me.

off to work, singing chorus to ultrashocks song "danskin with beers in my thighs"

Heck, John Lennon made a second career out of that kind of junk. Sample:

In the jumble...the mighty jumble....Whide Hunter sleeps tonight.

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More on the January 30-31 #twittout

Perhaps you've seen my earlier post that detailed how last night's scheduled Twitter outage went into some unscheduled territory, which ended up influencing the way that I do things.

I thought I'd collect some other perspectives on what happened last night...and this morning.

Let's start with Dave Winer:

Over the last 24 hours Twitter has been down as much as it's been up. As always this gives us a reason to think about what the world would be like without Twitter and then those of us who are engineers or would-be engineers, start thinking about ways to fix the problem, whatever it is....

I'd like to really understand what's going on behind the scenes at Twitter, Inc. They say they're confident the new infrastructure will hold up better, I'd like to understand why. Can we have a meeting, with a few people from the tech community who actively use Twitter and a few people from the company, to be briefed on what's going on....

PS: I was going to post a link to this on Twitter, but arrrrgh!

I'll give Twitter two voices in this matter. Let's start with Ev, on the official Twitter blog:

I just left the office, at 6am, with most of our engineering and technical operations team. That's only a handful of people, but we were all there all night.

You may have noticed we had an outage last night/stretching into this morning. This was a planned maintenance project, not a surprise happening for us. But we did go far beyond our planned time window, which sucks. What sucks more is the series of outages (planned and not) we've had lately. We know this makes Twitter frustrating to use, and we want you to know, we hear (and share) your frustration and are working really, really hard to fix it.

The good news is we finished a major infrastructure project tonight, which we've been working on for months and that we think is going to help a lot. I'm sure there will be some glitches in the coming weeks, but we've laid some important foundation that's going to help us build toward the future.

Thank you for your support and patience.

Update (8:30a PT): We're still experiencing patches of slowness service-wide. Some of our systems are not cleanly restarting. We're watching closely, bringing things back up manually, and fixing our automation tools accordingly!

Now let's turn to Biz Stone in his personal blog, in response to Dave Winer's post:

Twitter service is sometimes interrupted because we're working on it. We're concentrating our efforts on creating a reliable, global communication utility that can be depended on 99.99% of the time. Our team made a significant achievement last night but but it's important to note that our goal will not be achieved in just one night.

Reliability will be achieved by sustained effort and strategic decisions like hiring Lee and building out our technical team which is currently just four brilliant programmers and two awesome operations folks. The all-nighter Twitter pulled last night was part of a major project to get us closer to our goal.

We'll be able to share more of the specifics of our latest infrastructure project when we've successfully completed it and can write about it with some perspective.

We don't get into deep, technical specifics on our main blog mostly because I'm the one who usually updates it and I'm not really that deep or technical. For more technical discussions we hope people will visit our developers group and developer blog.

Which raises the question - is Dave Winer's request reasonable?

I'll give you the somewhat anonymized example from the bowels of MegaCorp (my otherwise unidentified employer). Several years ago, MegaCorp did not perform well on a certain external test, and our existing customers were naturally concerned and wondering if they would need to find a new vendor. At a previously scheduled meeting with our customers, we put one of our research and development guys on the stage (i.e. a "shirt" instead of a "suit") who acknowledged that we did not perform well, and assured the users that we would take steps to perform better in the future. However, we did not give specifics about what we planned to do, and I think it's fair to say that we didn't do this for two reasons: (1) we didn't want our competitors to know our plans, and (2) since this was a research exercise, we couldn't precisely say what we WERE going to do. The story has a happy ending, because we did do some stuff and are now kicking butt. (Rah rah.)

Perhaps Twitter has similar reasons for not opening the kimono, worried about stuff leaking to its competitors, and worried about the reaction if they were to tell their entire customer base "We have an idea, but we don't know whether it will work as we envision it. We may have to change." While a certain segment of Twitter users would understand this, some may react negatively - "What? You don't know if something is gonna work? Why don't you talk to my friend in the garage who wrote a Visual Basic program that manages our entire ham radio network!"

But there's another part to the MegaCorp story that I haven't discussed yet. While we do not provide a ton of confidential information to our entire user base, we do have a small group of users under non-disclosure who are privy to confidential information, including future release plans and internal technical accomplishments.

Does Twitter have a customer advisory board that is under non-disclosure and can provide an external evaluation of Twitter's plans, both for scalability and for monetization?

This is especially critical (or, you could say, obvious) if Twitter has such a small staff. In that case, outside perspective is necessary; don't think that you can do it all yourself.

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