Is This The Feminist Spring?

Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”

Where can I buy me some of that social media? Oh, wait...

Dear Followers

I had no idea until today that there were five of you. It's kinda nice to know you're out there. Guess I should be more prolific. But I'm curious. What happens once you become a follower? Do they tell you when there's a new post? Cuz that would be cool. Otherwise, I'm thinkin' what good is it except for my vanity. Do you think I should ask my FB friends to be followers? Or would they then get spammed with every post? I mean there was a time when I did 20 a day, now I'm thinkin' 20 a month would be a lot. FB sort of became my new Contrarienne, shortened version, but only because I play a lot of Lexulous and Scrabble.
Any feedback?

TPM Attacked

Apparently by the dweebs of Anonymous, whose reputation is to only do it for the laughs. It is speculated they were pissed when TPM published the mug shots of the 14 colleagues (co-conspirators, fellow nerds?) who were arrested earlier this year regarding other computer attacks, maybe even the credit card companies who dropped the donor arrangements with Wikileaks. Anonymous like Wikileaks.

Atwood's Not Worried

So I'm not going to worry either. She knows more than I do, a lot more.
Shall we make her an honorary contrarienne? Let's.

What do you make of the need to perform one's life on Twitter and Facebook?
Margaret Atwood: It is just an extension of the diary. There is a wonderful book called The Assassin's Cloak which takes diary entries from all centuries and arranges them according to day of the year. So you can turn to January 1, and there will be an entry from Lord Byron, and there will be one from somebody during World War II, and there will be one from Brian Eno. And then on January 2, there will be somebody else.
People used to perform their lives this way to themselves in their diaries and through letters to other people. So, for me, anything that happens in social media is an extension of stuff we were already doing in some other way. It's all human communication. The form that most closely resembles the "tweet" is the telegram of old—which also was limited, because you paid by the letter. So they were also short communications very rapidly sent.
All of these things, the postal service, et cetera, they're all improvements or modernizations of things that already existed earlier in some other form. Even African tribal drums, for instance, could send very complex messages over great distances. They were very rapid, they were very well-worked out, and communications could go like wildfire using that medium of communication.
All of this stuff is what we do now, but it's not different in nature from what we have always done, which is communicate with one another, send messages to one another, and perform our lives. We've been doing that for a long time.

Kittehs Ownz Intertoobz

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7uBZRE5mXpc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

UPDATE: The embed is screwed up so here's the link. It's worth it.

February's Over, Time To Pull Up My Palin Pants

After the nationally recognized Palin-free month, the LA Times gives me reason to be grateful for good journalism again.
And one of Andrew Sullivan's readers comes through with some enriching info.
So also grateful for the internet.
All of which gets me to thinking about the NYT's new paywall, which goes into effect for people like me on March 28. Already there's a Twitter account to help us circumvent it.
I wouldn't have known about the LA Times piece without Sullivan who, among other things, is what is known as an aggregator. He and his staff find stuff, then pass it along.
Which means the LAT got a whole lot of new eyeballs on that one story at least.
So, how do they monetize it? I don't think the paywall is the answer. I think, just as advertisers pay for hits, so should readers.
It's an idea that's been kicked around, don't know the ins and outs of it, although the technology is probably there.
But I'll admit it, I'd pay a couple bucks a month for what I read now, which they would automatically deduct. But not $15 a month for the NYT.
Some will, though. But probably not enough. Felix Salmon, a much-quoted financial analyst was headlined somewhere recently claiming he's done the math, and it ain't gonna work.
Maybe he's wrong and the NYT is right. Or maybe, as I suspect, the "passive-aggressive white males" in charge got hold of an idea, liked it a lot, and couldn't let go of it even when they knew it was a loser. Or maybe, more likely, they have a power structure designed to help them suppress any information that runs counter to their egos. Egoes? Can't remember.
This is how I believe the world operates.
I don't like it, but I must accept it.
Or go crazy.

I Wish I Had A Cat

to scan.

The Old Is Dying

and the new cannot be born. In this interrugnum there arises a great diversity of morbid symptoms."

 Jon Taplin, long may he live and prosper even though he's deserted one of my favorite bogs for a better job that precludes sudden-opinion syndrome, (Oh, look, I coined a new word!) shows up at TPM today with something to say.
It's the word morbid that bothers me.

20 Years Ago Today

 The Web was born. This MeFite composed a little something to commemorate it:

And there were in the same country physicists abiding in the field, keeping watch over their particles by night.
And, lo, Tim came upon them, and the glory of the Nerd shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And Tim said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of Geneva a Server, which hosts The World Wide Web.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the text wrapped in angle brackets, hosted on a NeXT computer.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of hosts with hamsters dancing, and saying,

Glory to the Web

in bold, and on the 'net peace, and good will toward men.

THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

Laptopistan

A fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

A quick glance around shows I have brought my laptop, a month-old MacBook Pro, to its nesting ground. Diversity here means the odd white MacBook or old black PowerBook scattered amid the silver MacBook Pros. Throughout the week I will see only a handful of PCs, each looking sadly out of place, like they have arrived at a black-tie affair in a corduroy blazer.

No phones allowed, for one thing. Harsh.

Worth A Second Mention

FrontSection is just the sort of thing I need at this time of night. Better than coffee and cigarettes.

In our imagination it is still 2003 and the idea of an aggregator of smart stuff with a concise, vaguely cynical tone is thus a novel idea.

Unfortunately, it's the weekend and I plumbed it all last night after MetaFilter failed to brighten the dark hours. Oh, well.

Tvxtg! Fast!

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said we now create 5 exabytes of data every two days, an amount equal to all the information created from the dawn of civilization through 2003.








UPDATE: Anonymous wants to know what the connection is. Franklin (who Tara later "kills" — her success is questionable and fans apparently want him back) is just contributing his bit to the bytes, so to speak.

I'm On A Horse Guy

 Old Spice's ad people have turned their iconic, viral, self-mocking humor into a social media phenom.
 Last week they started making video Twitter responses, hundreds of them, starring the guy himself, Isiah Mustafa, who not only is a cool black buy with a Muslim name, but apparently has a new NBC contract for something even more lucrative.
Anyhoo, I was waiting for someone to pick through the mess and pull the best.
Here they are.

New Media Dept.

Worry. Not worry. You decide. Me, losing the intertubes would be like cutting off both arms.
I just love this line, so I'm linking to the whole piece even though it's not as witty overall.

Yes, every time we learn a fact or skill the wiring of the brain changes; it’s not as if the information is stored in the pancreas.

Maybe I just like the word pancreas. It's a silly word.

Should I Go

on a mind fast?

'Attention Seeking Whores'

is another term for survival impulse.
Here's a charming little video from 80ish Peter Oakley about his YouTube experience.
Would it be quite so charming without the British accent? Probably not, but I don't find Tony Hayward the least bit charming.


This all comes from Sullivan this morning, who includes a number of thought provoking links entitled "How Have You Deployed Your Cognitive Surplus?"
Indeed.

NSFW Dept.: Semi-Productive Procrastination

Don't say I never gave ya nothin'.
Here's 30 nothins.

Google Tricks

The NYT offers 10 things to make your search life easier.

UnGooglable Man

Taplin had this today, so I figure it's safe to reproduce.
I'm wrong? Sue me. The line's over there.

Jaw-Dropping Technology, And Yet...

From the Kitsap Sun newspaper, March 9, 2010:

OLALLA — A fire that destroyed a barn on the 12400 block of Olalla Valley Road also left Comcast cable and Internet customers across the Kitsap Peninsula without service Tuesday evening.
The fire burned through Comcast's fiber optic lines and threatened nearby power lines...