Project is now complete
The 31 Flavors of Blog Project is now complete. All 31 Flavors are featured. We thank you for your flavor suggestions and support. It's been fun and I really hope it gives a good representation of the variety of blogs on the Web as well as feature some interesting and innovative ways that blogs are being used to communicate, entertain and educate.

If your blog was featured and you did not get a 31 Flavors of Blog T-Shirt then you're out of luck, we just ran out. Sorry.
posted by Eric J | 2:00 PM

Cable/Satellite TV vs. Broadband Internet
At home, if I had to choose between having Cable (or Satellite) TV and Broadband Internet which would I select?

I've been contemplating this question lately because frankly, I don't watch much TV at home anymore. I watch a lot at work, mainly news and sports, but at home I don't really turn on the old tube.

I think there is a shift happening inside me much like the shift that happened several years ago when I quit gaming. I can no longer play computer or console games. I love playing them but I just find them to be a waste of time. I know they are great entertainment but I'd rather be coding, studying, writing or reading. Television has slowly seemed to shift into this same realm and I'm now seriously contemplating a totally TV-free home. I still would have radio, just no TV.

We'll see what happens.
posted by Eric J | 11:17 AM

Ahead of the curve
Found that MSNBC.com is speculating about the possibility that the Iraq war will become the breakthrough Webloggers have been waiting for? It's a good read and has some great links. It's also basically the exact same thing I said almost two weeks ago: "This war may be to blogs what the Gulf War was to CNN."

Ok, maybe the idea was pretty much self-evident but it's still true. This is the year of the blogs. Everything in the blogging world is happening at once:
1. Google buys Pyra (Blogger) and gets headlines
2. War Bloggers talk about the War and get headlines
3. Large media outlets are embracing blogs more than ever

Those are just a few ways that blogs are gaining mainstream awareness. The point is that since the Web began each year has had some sort of defining technology, site or craze and this year that thing is blogs.
posted by Eric J | 8:26 AM

Blog :: Gary Hart
Gary Hart has started a blog. As far as I know this is the first blog from a major political player and possible presidential candidate. I wonder if he will be posting himself or having some staffer write the posts with his approval. I hope not. That would seem to go against the Blogging Sacraments.

Whatever the case I hope this idea catches on among other politicos. I'd love to read an Al Sharpton or John McCain blog. I wonder if Al Gore had used a blog back in 2000 then maybe the presidential elections would have turned out differently?

Lesson to be learned, whether Gary Hart embraces this or not, is that Blogging is shaking it up.
posted by Eric J | 8:27 AM

Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be From Canada?!!
This week's Song You've Never Heard is I'm Drinkin' Milk Now, by Maestro Fresh Wes. Wes hails from Toronto, Canada, that hotbed of classic rap music. This is the best cut from his only album, released during the Golden Age of Rap in 1993. The album was produced by underground hero Showbiz of the Diggin' in the Crates crew. Wes had ties to many of rap's best underground talent at the time, including Showbiz & AG, Big L, Diamond D, and Black Sheep, but unfortunately his career never took off.

Help save the legacy of Canadian rap music. Help save the Maestro from obscurity.
posted by Matt Wood | 9:16 AM

Instant Messenger Etiquette
Is there a set of acceptable norms for managing your instant messenger contact lists? No doubt everyone has culled their buddy list from time to time, removing old co-workers when you change jobs or letting go of friends with which you've lost touch. But what happens when one of those people pops up one day and wants to chat? Maybe it's someone you don't mind talking to, you just crossed them off your list because you figured you'd never hear from them again. Sure, you can chat with them all you want, but then if you want to restore them to your buddy list they get a message telling them so. Now they know at one point you had cut them out of your life. Is this considered an insult? Are people offended to find out that they've been removed from your "people-I-wouldn't-mind-striking-up-a-rambling-conversation-with" list?

UPDATE - Okay, okay, so I've been told you can do this with AIM. I was primarily wondering about Yahoo! Messenger, but the same theory applies, damnit. Talk amongst yourselves. Here's a topic: the Cold War was neither cold nor was it a war. Discuss.
posted by Matt Wood | 10:21 AM

What is BlogShares?
webraw.com is a penny stock. Actually it's "selling" for about $0.25/share according to BlogShares - Top 500. I've never heard of this site before, maybe it's new, but it reminds me of the RogueMarket.com from a few years ago. The site is now gone I believe but the premise was you "buy" stock in celebrities and as their popularity rose, so did your share price. It was great fun. BlogShares seems like it might be similarly fun.

FYI: Movable Type is selling for $ 215.13/share. Yowza!
posted by Eric J | 7:22 AM

AOL Voicemail
I'm usually dubious of anything produced by AOL, but today they announced a new voicemail service that is actually pretty cool. AOL Voicemail captures standard voicemail messages and records them in a sound file, then forwards them to your email inbox as attached files. The service costs an additional $5.95 a month.

I'm sure AOL will find some way to botch the delivery of this service, but the concept is cool. I've seen business systems that send notifications of new voicemail to email addresses, but never with the actual message attached. Now we need a service to do this that isn't tied to a specific ISP.
posted by Matt Wood | 11:52 AM

Learn Some English
A great little tutorial teaching some basic English words. Very helpful. Harakiri!

link via memepool
posted by Eric J | 11:37 AM

What am I reading?
I'm reading the cluetrain manifesto about three years after everyone else. So I'm a late adopter. Anyway, I just read a line that I simply had to share because of its profound truth:

However much we long for the Web is how much we hate our job.

Now, I'm not saying I hate my job, I don't. But go past the job aspect of the quote and see the greater truth. Our longing for the Web is rooted in a desire to avoid being managed, controlled, silenced and following the herd.
posted by Eric J | 12:52 AM

Promoting the Project
The Project is winding down. Only six more flavors to go. If you know of a blog that you think should be listed in the 31 Flavors Project then visit the page and fill out the form at the bottom. It's not too late. A thank you to those who have submitted blogs for consideration. If you haven't visited the project lately then you're missing out.
posted by Eric J | 12:26 PM

a dead bunny
a dead bunny. lots of kick-ass photography. a slightly twisted sensibility. art that would make David Carson blush.

Take the above ingredients, bake them in a compatible browser and soon you'll be munching on arthappens.com.

This is the personal and professional site of friend and neighbor (relatively speaking) Annie Wilson. You really need to check this site out. Girl's got some serious talent. My favorite (right now) is the digital bile gallery that is linked somewhere on the Previous Exhibits page as a pop-up. Just poke around long enough and you'll find it.

Anyway, check out her site and let her know how you like it. She'll be selling prints and stuff soon so get in line.
posted by Eric J | 3:04 AM

Holy Crap That's Funny
This blog is now the Third Google Search Result for "Journey to Ernie". I blasted the goofy Sesame Street segment a few months ago for being so obscenely lame and now Google has decided that webraw/blog is a good place to go for info about the show (I'm losing my faith in Google).

So now this site is getting traffic from parents hoping to pull up the Web version of their children's favorite show and they get this blog. What a surprise.

Since Google considers this blog an authority on the show I'll copy (steal) a tradition started by CubicleDweller. I'll now answer questions about "Journey to Ernie." Go for it. Ask me anything.
posted by Eric J | 1:20 PM

This is NOT a War Blog
I may be one of only a handful of people who stayed up to watch the Saddam speech at 2 a.m. CST. It was riveting. A superb display of inspirational rhetoric sure to inspire the Iraqi masses to fight to the death.

Anyway, what was really hillarious to me was the interpreters they had translating his speech. They were horrible. The translator sounded like he just woke up (which he probably did) and would really rather be back home in bed. Lots of heavy sighing, slurred words and numerous mistakes (mistakes that he corrected, how else would I know he made a mistake). Also, the entire translation was done in this extremely breathy accent that just got on my nerves.

By the time everyone else hears this the networks will probably bring in their A-list translator to "clean it up" but I really want to get my hands on a copy of the original broadcast. Good stuff. My suggestion, have some quality translators on call 24/7. They will probably be needed again and you've got the money to blow on a translator who doesn't sound hungover. Get right on that aight.
posted by Eric J | 3:16 AM

The Power of the Web
U.S. television won't show this video but of course, anyone can get it from the Web. I don't know if this is the video that all the fuss is about but I honestly don't see what's so bad about it. I did learn that the Iraqi's doing the interview don't know much about U.S. geography. One Iraqi thought a POW was from Texas City.

Link via Adam Curry.
posted by Eric J | 6:57 PM

Blog In The Family
Well here is the War Blog that has started all the corporate conversations about blogs lately. I "know" the person running this blog and he's a great guy.

I'm listing this blog partly because I found it listed in Technorati's list of Top 50 Interesting Newcomers and partly because I think it's exciting to see someone else in "the corporation" embracing the blog culture.

What is so bizarre to me is seeing a real live blog housed in the template of one of "the corporation's" premiere online news properties. This is a living, breathing blog with some character sitting in the same template as the edited, managed and sanitized news stories. It has all the blogging elements: comments, a blog roll, brief links, xml and personal styled commentary with the added benefit of a paycheck to run the whole thing. Yowza!

This is so exciting to me. I could never have imagined this existing a year ago but things are definitely changing in "the corporation" as well as other media giants. I know this isn't the first of such blogs but it becomes more real when it hits close to home (corporately speaking). Blogs are shaking things up folks so pay attention.
posted by Eric J | 2:27 PM

Death of a PC Weenie
I had a startling awareness about myself the other day and it continues to unsettle me for some reason. I realized that I'm no longer a PC guy. More precisely, I'm no longer a Windows guy.

Yes, I still have a PC at home and at work but both run Windows 98. That is a 5-year-old OS. I even have a subscription to PC World magazine (it was a gift) and when I glance through the usability tips in the back, none of them make any sense. They're all for XP.

I've asked myself, "What has caused this transformation? Why am I no longer a PC Weenie?"

The answer, of course, is that I just don't use Windows much any more. I still like Windows and think Bill Gates is fine. However, most of the work I do is on a Mac (one running OS 9 and two with OS X). It just bothers me that I'm becoming less familiar with the most popular Operating System in the world. I feel like I'm "out of the loop." I should know about XP and the wonderful bells and whistles that it contains.

Yet, I lack the will to commit to the time and effort running XP would surely involve, in the beginning. Right now my 98 SE is running just fine. So I guess I'll stick to my Macs for now and just continue to slide further and further away from the world of Windows.
posted by Eric J | 2:01 PM

I love Next Blog
My new favorite thing is an old tool of Blogger's called NextBlog. I've been hitting it a lot recently, and have literally stumbled across some really nifty sites. This one called fiveforthefamous.com is a neat idea and I hope it gets some success.

However, if you read the list of those who've participated and those who are "awaiting" a big gap in celebrity status becomes very obvious. Still you gotta admire his ambition.
posted by Eric J | 10:52 PM

Seven Blogging Etiquette Tips From Professor J.
There are no rules for blogs. However, there is a sort of blogging etiquette that the conscientious blogger should at least attempt to adhere to when possible.

Think of it like going to a dinner party with a lot of people you have never met. You want to impress people but it's nothing like a job interview. You just don't want to start belching at the top of your lungs while the host is introducing his wife. Ok, maybe you do want to start belching but you do it knowing that the host and other guests probably won't like it much. Of course there will be that one girl in the corner, giggling and swigging vodka martinis who thinks you're "mah-velous" but I think I've made my point.

1. Avoid gratuitous name dropping. Sure, tell us who was at the party you went to and that you had dinner with Dave Winer, just don't tell us every other day. We get the point, you're popular. Famous even. Now move on.
   
2. Don't delete or edit posts without letting people know that you've modified or removed the entry. A reason is nice but not necessary.
   
3. Avoid link lists that are longer than Yao Ming is tall. Seriously, a list of 500 links you never visit or even know much about is about as useful as typing the word "blog" into Google and hitting search.
   
4. Use Permalinks. You should always use permalinks. A blog without permalinks is like Elvis without his Jelly Doughnuts.
   
5. Make an attempt to spell correctly. Correct spelling is not necessary for blogs but at least read over your post once to make sure you didn't spell your own name wrong.
   
6. Spreading rumors on your blog is just as moronic as forwarding those VIRUS ALERT e-mails. No, your blog isn't the New York Times but you should at least try to check out those rumors before posting them as facts.
   
7. Never, ever use a list of Blogging Etiquette Tips as a substitute for a real blog post.

posted by Eric J | 4:14 PM

Lil help
As you may know, I work in the Web department of a local paper that happens to be owned by a larger, media-giant corporation (what paper isn't? right?). The corporation owns several newspapers, cable channels, radio stations, local television stations and some other stuff.

Until recently the word blog hadn't been mentioned much among the corporate Web folks and now, suddenly, everyone is talking about blogs.

One of our Listserv groups sent an email asking what we (the Web folks obviously) thought about using blogs on the corporate sites (ours included) and their potential. Needless to say I began to salivate at the prospect of implementing blogs on our news sites at some capacity. Yet, before I jump into this corporate discussion I want to be sure I frame my response in the best possible way to highlight all of the wonderful things blogging could offer a large news network.

Lil Help
Below, I've listed some of the questions posed in the email (edited for brevity) and I could sure use some input on how to best answer some of these questions. In fact, this post could be a testament to some of blogging's virtues all by itself.

Questions:

1. Should we attach a name, or persona, to blogs? It seems to me that part of what makes a blog churn is the personality of the blogger. Should the blogs be more of a "column" for someone with a definite perspective? Should there be diverse perspectives?

2. Regarding comments - How much moderation is the blog requiring? The question is should the comments be moderated or left open and self policed?

3. Is this just another Internet fad, or should we be taking a long hard look at blogging and how it could apply to what we do?

4. Is there some advertising potential with blogs? In other words, could the "right type" of advertiser run a blog that allows him to interact with consumers' questions and comments?

posted by Eric J | 12:34 AM

Good Grief Spammers
The phrase that pays these days is "Shock and Awe". I first heard this phrase in reference to the war strategy in Iraq to literally shock and awe those being attacked. The rest of the country learned this term when I did, a couple of days ago. The point? This phrase is pretty darn new to most of the world.

Well, today, I got some spam with the subject: Shock and Awe! These guys never miss a trick. I gotta admit, that was pretty clever, if not a little devious. Just reminded me how much I hate spam. I really hate it. I am now on the fence about whether I would even support a law banning spam. If spam was banned they'd need someone to enforce the ban.

Thus, the Spam Ban Enforcer Man.
posted by Eric J | 3:03 PM

Dennis Miller War
This blog has recently gotten a lot of hits from people searching for the Dennis Miller: War on Iraq bit linked from the webraw remaindered links list. I'm just posting the link here, in the actual blog, so those people searching for Dennis Miller War will find what they are looking for because the remaindered links cycle off as fresher ones are listed. Addition: I also don't know if Dennis Miller actually said any of this.

You're welcome.
posted by Eric J | 12:52 PM

Crazy Apple Rumors Site purchases Spymac, Mac OS Rumors and LoopRumors
Shocking the Apple rumor community today was news that the popular Crazy Apple Rumors Site had purchased Spymac, LoopRumors and Mac OS Rumors to create the largest Apple rumor network in the world.

The astonishing buyout of three top rumor sites by relative newcomer CARS is the result of an old fashioned rags-to-riches story that began yesterday when CARS was linked from Apple's Hot News page because of a "rumor" regarding Al Gore and recounts.

"Well, Apple just linked up our story and the next thing I know the site is swamped with Drudge-like traffic and I'm suddenly getting calls from VCs (venture capitalists) offering me a LOT of money," said CARS editor John Moltz in a hastily arranged press conference held early this morning.

Moltz later added that he did take the money, all of it, and then promptly made the three rumor sites "an offer they couldn't refuse."

"In these trying times even the most popular rumor sites are a bit short on cash so we offered each site more money than they'd ever seen in their lives. That money, and threats from the two goons I hired, convinced them that a buyout was beneficial for all," Moltz said.

According to Mac Net Journal (which was not bought out but wishes it had been) the new conglomerate rumor site will feature the best elements from each site with a heavy emphasis on fabricating stories for comedic effect.

Rumored names for the new site are:

Big Fat Rumor Site

Crazier Apple Rumors Site

Billy Goats Eat Anything

The New York Times
posted by Eric J | 11:53 PM

Don't Touch Me
Don't Touch Me is the newest in the now famous "Songs You've Never Heard" project.

This week's entry features SpaceGhost from the popular Cartoon Network show of the same name.

Back in '98 a friend from Chicago gave us this album to listen to on the ride home. I almost wrecked the car I was laughing so much. I was crying. I peed my pants... Ok, not really but I think I came close. The point is that I was hooked. This brand of musical goofiness had me and I loved it.

While this may not qualify as "obscure" it surprises me how many people I talk to have never even heard of SpaceGhost. Also, it gets very little radio play so that should qualify it right there.

If you've been paying attention (fat chance!) you'll notice that I keep swapping the title of this project between Songs You've Never Heard and Save an Artist From Obscurity. Well, this is a dual titled project. Stuff that in your metaphorical pipe and metaphorically smoke it.
posted by Eric J | 10:53 PM

Tournament Quickie
ESPN basically created a blog called the Daily Quickie to follow the NCAA tournament action. They've been posting commentary about the games all day, along with polls and other fun stuff. Pretty cool idea. Sort of like watching the games with a bunch of your buddies, except that you're not drinking beer and you're at the office checking the scores every 5 minutes while your boss isn't looking.
posted by Matt Wood | 1:50 PM

Don't Mess With Texas!
'The disarmament has begun'. The War has started. This may be a bit off topic for this blog but you should know that the bombing has started. Have only seen this on GoMemphis.com (shameless plug).
posted by Eric J | 9:00 PM

Just a link
Here's a link to CyberJournalist.net: Iraq Conflict Coverage Weblog. A great resource.
posted by Eric J | 1:51 PM

The Blogs of War
Every time I hear this phrase (The Blogs of War) I think of Pink Floyd's "Momentary Lapse of Reason" and the video for the song with actual dogs running around government buildings and stuff.

Saw this old (circa April 2002) article about the War Bloggers from the Online Journalism Review. It discusses the role that blogs play in war and their relevance and spends a good amount of time dropping names. Name dropping aside, the article has a great perspective that possibly will apply even more with this war with Iraq. It also has a lot of great links and only mentions Glen Reynolds 6 times.
posted by Eric J | 8:29 AM

New Flavor is Kicking Appliance Butt All Over the Globe!
While doing research for the now infamous (not just famous, but IN-famous) 31 Flavors of Blog project I stumbled across Fixitnow.com.

This site is hillarious AND informative. It is home to the Samurai School of Appliantology. That's right. Appliantology. Anyway, check it out. It's great. Be sure to listen to the Audio Blogs.
posted by Eric J | 10:12 AM

Cell Phone Spam
I got my first cellular spam today. I have a Handspring Treo PDA/cell phone with wireless internet. Someone can send me a text message at my phone number @ sprintpcs.com (no I'm not giving out the number), and this morning I had a message, entirely in Spanish, imploring me to call some 800 number. I don't speak Spanish but I can only imagine it was a phone sex line or credit scam.

Has it finally come to this? I guess it makes sense since a spammer could successfully reach every Sprint number by emailing all 3,486,784,401 possible combinations. That's a huge number, but far smaller than the possible combinations of Yahoo or Hotmail addresses with text and numbers in the address. Has this been happening on other cellular networks?
posted by Matt Wood | 8:47 AM

Comments are not down but thanks anyway Blogger
Got this email tonight asking "Are your comments down? I tried in both Safari and Camino to make a comment and couldn't."

Well, no, they weren't down. It was Blogger that was down. See, earlier today glorious Blogger (owned by Pyra who is now owned by Google) was playing holy hell with just about every feature in the system. Matt Wood could not log-in to blog without standing on one foot, humming Yankee Doodle and pounding his keyboard with a Stubby Clapp bobble head (look it up). I had trouble logging in too and then when I finally logged in my posts wouldn't show up. So after about 15 minutes of monkeying around I got it to show up. End of story right? Little server hiccup right? Wrong.

Blogger hosed my template. I keep a local backup of my blog but the template had been altered. Some of the PHP characters had been converted to ASCII characters and it was just a freaking mess. I'm really, really irritable at 2 in the morning and so this is NOT a good time to piss me off Blogger. Just so you know, it's been great, much love and all that but I will NOT be renewing my Blogger Pro subscription. I'll bite the bullet come July (if not sooner) and just convert all my blogs to Movable Type. It's just ridiculous.

You know what else is stupid? The status.blogger.com page. Worthless. Sure, it's good to check AFTER the problem has been resolved or AFTER you've known about some issue for several hours but as far as conveying useful information, Fuhgeddaboutit.

And THAT is what is so maddeningly baffling to me. The very people who should understand the incredible utility and usefulness of a blog in conveying service issues Don't Do that. Maybe because they can't reach the server to post either but really, that's no excuse. Work around it. I don't know how, just do it. If I hadn't paid any money I'd keep my mouth shut but $35 is $35.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. End of rant. Blogger, you can just kiss it.
posted by Eric J | 2:16 AM

War is coming
Anyone who thought that America's push to disarm Iraq was an elaborate bluff (I was one of them) knows now that it is not. This is no bluff. There will soon be a war in Iraq and wherever else it ends up spilling into. I don't know what this will mean for the future of our planet. Maybe nothing. Maybe Armageddon. Maybe just a great Mideast vacation spot in about 5 years.

Here in the newsroom the mood is one of enormous anticipation. Tonight's Bush speech only solidified what we already knew. Now we can better estimate when the real action will begin. We can plan our coverage of this war and decide which news packages should be released on what day. That is what is most disturbing about this war. Seems like it's being waged according to a daily planner that the entire world has access to. Including the enemy. Is that the way wars are supposed to go down?

Anyway, things will be mighty hectic (and profitable) around the newsroom in the next few days or weeks. Saw this article in WIRED today about U.S. citizens getting more of their news from overseas lately because stateside media watchdogs have been "caught napping" with regards to unbiased reporting. Let's hope the local media can pick it up in the near future and maybe blogs can begin to play an increasingly important role.

This war may be to blogs what the Gulf War was to CNN.
posted by Eric J | 9:22 PM

File sharing supports terrorism
Think about this. What if the next tactic of the government, RIAA, MPAA and other corporate interests is to mirror the current anti-drug campaign?

In the anti-drug campaign people who buy drugs are accused of supporting terrorism. The theory is that some of the money exchanged for drugs ends up in the hands of terrorists and so you are supporting terrorism. Without debating the logic of this campaign, let's imagine a similar campaign painting file swapping as support of terrorism.

Some illegal companies trade files, burn cds and sell them on the black market. Undoubtedly some of that money would end up in the hands of terrorists. Therefore, you trade mp3s, you support the network and you support terrorism.

What is really scary is that Congress just held a hearing on this very type of logic. Additionally, with new "anti-terrorism" laws being passed almost daily we may not be far away from the government viewing your download of the latest DMX tune as grounds for indefinite detainment and search and seizure.

Not trying to be alarmist here but it is something to think about. It is one reason that I fully support Tim O'Reilly's efforts to change rhetoric in the Media regarding "illegal" song swapping from piracy to copyright infringement.

Rhetorically, there is less in common between supporting terrorism and copyright infringement than supporting terrorism and piracy. The two are still worlds apart but you can see how one word is easier to transition to the next.

UPDATE: BoingBoing is now posting about this. First time I think this blog has beaten the "Big Boys" to some interesting Web tidbit. So that means I can safely say (in the tone of local television newscasts) "You heard it here first".
posted by Eric J | 3:48 PM

The NodBlog continues with AudioURL
Audio Blogs as Linking Mechanisms -
My continued exploration of audio-blogging brings me to the most sacred ground of all blogs: LINKS.
It is every blogger's God-given right to link to his or her favorite blog (as long as one of the links is Zeldman, Kottke or TampaTantrum). Well, today I examine what role audio-blogs play in linking to quality content (whatever that is).

To be clear, this is a re-hash of an earlier forray into the audio-blogging realm pioneered by AudBlog.com. I guess I'm doing a parody but if you listen to enough audio-blogs you'll soon discover not much parody is needed, they sort of become parodies of themselves. Oh, and the name NodBlog is supposed to insinuate that the audio-blog is so boring you will soon be nodding off to sleep. I never said I was a genius at naming this stuff.
posted by Eric J | 2:22 PM

What's next for Apple site design?
According to the Wayback Machine (from Internet Archive) the Apple.com Website has had three basic designs since 1996. The first design was nothing special but most sites were pretty lame back then. The second design looked much better, was simpler and obviously was the foundation for the current design.

However, the current design dates back to 2000. That makes it almost 3 years old. It's a great design but I'm curious about what's next for the Apple site? In Web time I'd say Apple is overdue for a redesign but then again, the current design is so good maybe it can't be improved upon. Or maybe the vicious Web design cycles have slowed since the dot com crash and we no longer should expect a new look on our favorite sites every year or two.


posted by Eric J | 9:15 PM

The AP writes about The Homeless Guy
Well the AP story is out about Kevin Barbieux, aka The Homeless Guy. The story is really a great read and it's the kind of thing I would like to have done if I had more time, money and skills. The reporter, Michael Luo, is pretty darn good and he deserves whatever props he gets from this story. Also, the photos from Mark Humphrey turned out really, really well. Compare his pics to my amateur snapshots and you'll see why he gets paid to take photos and I get paid to make Web sites.

I'm interested to see what happens now. I wonder if we will soon see Kevin on the Today Show or Oprah. One thing that I think is beginning to result from all this is a deeper understanding of homelessness and a growing willingness to help. Anyway, check out the story.
posted by Eric J | 8:50 PM

Well, this blog is off da hook dawg
Interesting thing happened to Joshua the other day. A guy named Shaw decided to begin a "subversive campaign to usurp the comments" on Joshua's blog. Basically he was "squatting" in a blog, in much the same way house squatters work. Being the curios type (I'm wearing a Curios George T-shirt right now) I decide to engage Shaw (aka Americanfeed) and squat in his AIM messages. Ok, it's not really the same as a squatting but it was fun nonetheless. Here is our conversation:

webraw (1:56:03 PM): can I squat in your Instant Messages?
Auto response from americanfeed (1:56:04 PM): I am currently away from the computer.
americanfeed (1:56:12 PM): sure
webraw (1:56:18 PM): Thanks :-)
americanfeed (1:56:36 PM): just pick up after yerself after you squat...
americanfeed (1:57:15 PM): the pooper scoopers b right over there . . .
webraw (1:57:31 PM): Well I almost broke my foot last night...went to the doctor to get it X-rayed and it wasn't broken but hurts like hell and now I'm at work and have a slight fever because I have the beginnings of Strep or something and the anti-biotics haven't kicked in yet...
webraw (1:57:51 PM): I am very tidy...don't worry...I generally am obsessive about cleaning up after myself
americanfeed (1:57:57 PM): why does every blog entry on the planet always begin with "well"?
americanfeed (1:58:23 PM): that's the 1st thing I hate about 'em - it's always "Well I," this and "Well I," that
webraw (1:58:57 PM): because a well is deep and so are the subjects of blogs...at least that's my theory
americanfeed (1:59:11 PM): yea - that can be true...
webraw (1:59:20 PM): do you have a substitute for well?
americanfeed (1:59:29 PM): "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"
americanfeed (1:59:40 PM): or even: "YO HOMIES! WHAT UP WIT YUSE BAD MUTHAS TODAY!"
americanfeed (2:00:20 PM): "Word"
webraw (2:00:37 PM): I like that...however, I'm partial to working the phrase "Off the hook" into my blog posts. Beginning a blog with "that's off the hook dawg" is a great way to start I think
webraw (2:01:11 PM): at least taht's what I am liking for today
americanfeed (2:01:15 PM): hmmm - or ever "This foot hurts so bad it's off the hook"
americanfeed (2:01:20 PM): yea - yea that's not too bad
webraw (2:01:23 PM): zactly
posted by Eric J | 10:10 PM

I surrender, remaindered links can live here
I recently decided to add the ever-so-popular remaindered links to this blog. You will notice the remainders on the left side and you may also notice that the Bloglet subscription form is gone. Well, you may not have noticed since only a handful of people had subscribed.

Actually, I've only subscribed to one other site through Bloglet and I never check the email that is sent. Bloglet seems like a good idea and I'm sure people like it but I just am not big on getting blogs emailed to me. If I want to read a blog I'll check the Web or my favorite news reader. Those currently subscribed will continue getting the blog emailed each night.

The new remaindered links feature will feature links that are interesting and fun but may not warrent a lot of commentary. It's also a tiny little vote of support for whatever site happens to be linked there. Enjoy. Thanks to Jason or whomever originally came up with this idea. I'll get the archive and rss working soon I promise.
posted by Eric J | 9:35 PM

The Penguin Tales
In "My Experiment With Linux" Matt describes his experience with Red Hat Linux. It's an interesting perspective from someone who is not afraid to try a new Operating System. Is Linux a viable desktop alternative? Will Matt successfully switch from Bill to Linus? Can he use the money he saved by shunning Windows to help rescue abandoned puppies?

Tune in next week for the answers to these questions and much, much more. Actually just read the article. It satisfies the geek in all of us.
posted by Eric J | 10:23 PM

I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Fluffy sings Jessie's Girl for this week's Obscure Song.

That's right, the Rick Springfield tune gets an ever-so-slightly punkified remix. What Fluffy lacks in talent they make up for in cute/angst contradictions. They are the quintessential early 90s paradox band. Part fun, part anger and part goodness. Don't be square, check it out. I promise this song won't bite... much.
posted by Eric J | 8:28 PM

Blogger Down!
Blogger was down for several hours this morning.

There was a system failure this morning with one of the database servers. This was affecting Pro users after logging in, when trying to go to a specific blog (it also broke the recently updated list).

I had that rare early morning blog inspiration and to my chagrin Blogger was down. Now I'm at work and can't remember exactly what my post was about. I did however, think of Van Halen and their 1982 (was it that long ago?) album Diver Down. How could we forget such tunes as "Where have all the good times gone?" and "Dancing in the street." Aight, back to work.
posted by Eric J | 11:03 AM

Building a Better Passport
This may be blasphemy coming from a Mac user and Linux sympathizer, but I find myself wishing an idea like Microsoft Passport had caught on better than it did. I am so tired of juggling 800 user names and passwords for every website I visit. I want to be able to sign in once every browser session and forget about it. Sure, I can approximate this experience by only surfing Yahoo! or AOL sites, but that would suck. And I know that most browsers now offer functionality to remember passwords. But that doesn't do me much good if I don't always use the same computer. I’ve taken to using the same logins over and over again, which I know isn’t very secure. But what choice do I have? I've tried various password managers on my Palm Pilot, but those are cumbersome and about as secure as writing everything on Post-It Notes and sticking them to my monitor.

What I want is a giant janitor's keyring of all my passwords that I can access from anywhere on the Internet without any icky privacy issues or fear of corporate/government snooping. This keyring should have one industrial-strength uber-password that you have to change every day, or include some kind of badass encryption. It should be managed by a disinterested standards body like the W3C and be browser and site independent. You should be able to store whatever passwords you want and use it on any site you want. And, of course, it should be free.

Sun and the usual anti-Microsoft suspects took a stab at this with the Liberty Alliance, but so far their progress has been very slow and very site specific. In order to take advantage of their technology, you have to be logging into a site that uses it. I want a solution that I control. Is that too much to ask?

posted by Matt Wood | 4:28 PM

Googlepop!
Can anyone explain why this has not yet happened? There is no reason that I can think of why Google doesn't just develop their own Daypop or maybe even buy it out. If this is not in development I imagine it will be soon.


Daypop is just such a valuable service that seems to be a natural addition to Google's line of services, especially in the shadow of the recent Pyra acquisition. Being able to get the same info from Google that I get from Daypop is a no-brainer in my opinion.
posted by Eric J | 3:53 PM

What is a blog?
This article from CNN bears the headline "Blogging goes mainstream." It's yet another example of "big media" taking notice of blogging, partly due to the Blogger+Google deal.

One thing that struck me about this article and many similar ones is the attempt to define blogging. From the sidebar: "A blog is similar to an online journal. It is composed of short, frequently updated posts arranged chronologically."

Well, ok...sure...but not really. Over the past few months I've discovered that blogging is so much more than the definitions we have tried to attribute to the word. My worry is that with the continued "big media" coverage the word blog or blogging will be defined by those who know the least about it and not those who are actually engaged in the "phenomenon."

I admit, we bloggers are partly responsible for the definition confusion. The quote on the CNN article is lifted from Blogger.com, but we really should start thinking seriously about what a blog really is and what it is not.

To be sure, it's not easy to nail down a definition. While Blogger.com describes it as an online journal the recent Bloggies describe blogs as "a page with dated entries that has a purpose (in whole or in part) of linking to other sites. For instance, sites that are intended to be just personal journals or site news pages are not eligible. "

I don't have an answer though I lean towards a more broad definition such as an "auto-archiving publication method." I just think that if we don't begin to control what blogs are defined as then the media will do it for us and that's not a good thing. Just as Napster and P2P became defined as a "teenage craze for stealing music" I fear blogging may be painted as "an online diary for teens."
posted by Eric J | 3:11 PM

Now that's what I'm talkin' bout
Just discovered a new and useful blog via the 31 Flavors of Blog project. Matt found a Wi-Fi blog run by Glenn Fleishman. I've been wireless at home for about a year and didn't know of this blog. I guess that's the whole point of this project, uncover some of the variety of blogs and feature them in one spot. Kind of like an awards show only without the prizes and acceptance speeches.
posted by Eric J | 12:13 AM

God is in the details
UPDATE: Apparently this "cool" feature of Safari is pretty common in modern browsers though most of them just say "Web search" instead of "Google search." I had mixed success in my tests on both PC and Mac browser flavors and the only browser that didn't have some sort of Web search feature was Camino which was also the one I used as a comparison for this post.

So, does this revelation diminish my excitement about Safari? Well, yes it does. Also, now that I think about it I've known about the other right click search features for quite some time but never used them which is probably why I forgot about them. And I'll probably only rarely use the Safari feature too.

Anyway, I feel kind of foolish for not researching this a bit better but what can I say? I was caught up "in the moment" of discovering a "new" feature on a wicked-cool browser. That is the nature of blogging. Get excited and post away without thinking much.
-------------------

They say God is in the details. If this is true then Safari is edging close to deity status. I continue to discover things about this browser that simply amaze me and that is a good thing. Tonight I discovered that if you select some text on a page and right click (Control + Click) you can view source OR search Google. How cool is that?

Yes, Safari gets some things wrong, especially with some CSS and a few other minor things but as a whole the browser kicks serious booty. I can't remember the last time a browser consistently wowed me. I don't think a browser has EVER consistently wowed me like Safari has been the last couple of months.

The thing is, Apple has made a wonderful browser that will only continue to get better.
posted by Eric J | 11:25 PM

Talking With The Homeless Guy
The wait is finally over. The long awaited interview with Kevin Barieux (aka The Homeless Guy) is finally done.

Talking With The Homeless Guy
In January I traveled to Nashville to meet with Kevin Barbieux. He is author of "The Homeless Guy," a Weblog that has received international attention. His site details his years of being homeless and shares his struggles and successes. I spent a few hours with Kevin discussing homelessness, his job, the Web site and just getting to know the man behind the blog.

UPDATE: There is now a print version of this article available. It is linked from the bottom and left of the article. Thanks to Morgan for the suggestion.
posted by Eric J | 2:59 PM

Pop goes the weasel
It is so great to surf the Web without pop-up ads. At home I use Camino (formerly Chimera) and Safari which both have a built in pop-up suppression feature. Sites that I once avoided due to pop-ups are no longer a problem. The only problem arises when I'm at work and want to view a site I frequently visit at home and get surprised by this obscene pop-up window (the content isn't obscene, just the fact that some window is opening up without asking).

Our site at work has recently incorporated pop-up ads (technically "pop-unders" but it's all the same to me) and while they bring in some serious money I still hate them. I predict that eventually pop-ups will disappear because of the suppression feature built in to some browsers and people's general dislike for those type ads. This would happen much faster if it weren't for the success of X10 (the wireless webcam people).

So now there are new advertising methods being used and we (at the office) are considering some of these options. The IAB is recommending much bigger and more intrusive ads. Often the ads obscure content or compete with the content. The old 120x90 ads are basically gone and in their place are huge, content-obsuring interactive Flash ads. The problem is that many of these ad types will probably achieve a level of success similar to X10's pop-up campaign.

Why is this a problem?
Because they won't work in the long run. The reason they won't work is the Web is not television and the Web is not a magazine or newspaper. Doc Searls and David Weinberger list this as the first mistake made on the Web in World of Ends and they are right.

What this means is that the traditional thinking about Web advertising, that bigger, flashier, noisier, etc. is better, will meet with continued failure over the long run. While the methods for delivering ads on television and print have not changed much in 50 years the Web has already seen several cycles of advertising methods come and go. The reason is that we've learned to ignore the ads because the Web is all about content and going out to actively seek information. We get annoyed when that process is impeded by a pop-up or content obscuring ad.

The argument is that we will learn to accept this just like we accept television commercials interrupting our favorite shows (let's not talk about TiVo for this conversation). My argument is that it's not the same. Would we watch a television show that displayed a large banner over the program until we clicked the remote or shouted some response? Would we read a magazine that pasted ads on top of articles and required us to peel the ad off before we could read it?

Maybe we would but the point is that we don't and advertising is doing fine (more or less) in print and television without being overly intrusive. And, I don't think it would do better if they did start obscuring the content and requiring reader or viewer action. The reason is something called diminishing returns. There is a happy balance reached where most people will continue consuming the content because the ads aren't annoying enough to make it a hassle.

Yet Web advertising is perilously close to tipping this balance. We may soon (I already do) begin to avoid sites because of their intrusive and content obscuring advertising. Where I work we've debated this very topic many times. We do not want to dilute the value of our content with poor ad planning yet we also want to make money. We are searching for that ever elusive balance.

What to do?
This is why I think alternative ways of advertising may be the answer. Text ads and Google style targeted AdWords may work much better than traditional ads. Also, for advertisers to develop supplemental content on their own may work to enhance some content.

I don't really know what will work so I don't claim to have the answers but I believe that allowing the current trend to continue will permanently damage the value of the Web. Ad blocking software is extremely popular. With the Web people will be able to simply filter out all the ads.

What then? Sites like the one I work for exist due to advertisers. Do we switch to fee-based services? We're discussing this option at work too. I don't want the Web to end up with a million subscriptions but if advertisers don't learn to think like the Web instead of thinking like television and print then I fear that we are headed in that direction.
posted by Eric J | 10:19 AM

My Lazy Web
Drove back from Nashville today and as usual I spent most of the time thinking about the Web. I'm convinced that the next "BIG" application or technology is going to be to move the Web (or at least the essential parts) to audio.

I'm not talking about screen readers or audio blogging but a way to make an extremely visual interface less visual and more audible. The application would be less an audio version of the Web and more of a fully customized, interactive, content-on-demand type of radio.

The need is due to the inherent visual nature of the Web. To interact with the Web you must SEE it (or have it read to you). The Web is basically useless while driving a car, mowing the lawn, washing dishes or participating in any number of activities because visual interaction is required. Yet all of these type activities are performed almost perfectly while listening to the radio. This method of gathering information (the audible method) is much more passive than Web surfing.

Yet navigating the traditional Web audibly is also cumbersome. I've seen some screen readers in action and while they are fast they are still just representing a visual medium via audio. What I want to see is specific content broadcast on demand.

Example: I'm mowing my lawn and want to hear the latest stock report. I simply shout (over the lawn mower noise) "Stock Reports" and suddenly the latest CNBC business news is broadcast from my Walkman. Next I yell, "Movies" and I get a "show" about movie reviews. If I don't like it I say "get me another show" and I receive a completely different "program" about movies.

In my example the talking is minimal and I'm not necessarily getting ULTRA-SPECIFIC information but I'm getting general content based on my selection. I could get really specific if I want to but for now general info is fine. Think of it as going to a good Web page and reading that entire page. Maybe even have a way to say "in-depth" when a good subject comes up and go more in-depth on that subject.

This would not be a "broadcast" but more like reading a Web page...just the content of the Web page, in a broadcast style. So, initially it would be similar to a screen reader but would be much less cumbersome.

I think of it like radio on demand but there are no "shows" being broadcast but specific types of content being read or synthesized.

XM and Sirius look like the first tiny baby step in this direction. Satellite radio will eventually move to radio on demand in the traditional sense. You want to hear Beastie Boys you say or type in Beasties and suddenly their entire discology is streamed into your car.

I hope that soon I will be able to learn or listen to any type of information I want anywhere at any time doing almost anything.
posted by Eric J | 9:15 PM

A good, old fashioned AOL rant

I don't use AOL. I use RoadRunner which is owned by AOL TimeWarner but it's not AOL. My only exposure to AOL is the ads that run constantly on cable television. I've even stopped getting those AOL cds in the mail so much that I was surprised to see one bundled with my morning paper.

While these usually go straight into either the trash or my son's toy box (he loves trashing these cds) the sticker touting a $9.95 monthly fee caught my eye. I don't know what AOL is charging now but I know it's not $9.95. I also have seen quite a few commercials for NetZero boasting that their price of $9.95 was much lower than AOL's (yes, NetZero used to be free and I guess Zero doesn't mean what it used to mean).

So now I'm holding in my hand an AOL cd claiming an equally low price. Then I noticed the smaller print that says, "Install Software For Details." Say WHAT?!? I've never in all my life seen an offer that required you to INSTALL the freaking software to figure out the "catch" or exactly what the offer was.

Does it cost $9.95 if I only use it at night? Or if I'm Irish? Or donated blood last month? AOL continues to meet my extremely low expectations. I don't think even Microsoft has done anything like this (I could be wrong, Bill is a devious fellow). But really, are we at the point where we require people to install and use some bloated, spyware infested software before they can find out if they want to install and use the software? This makes no sense.

AOL: "Hey buddy, I can paint your house for $100. Cheap!"

CUSTOMER: "Hmmm....well what color?"

AOL: "Well, don't worry bout the color, I'll paint it some color and if you don't like the color we can always try to change it back"

And while on the subject of AOL let's deal with this stupid 1045 hours for 45 days crap. 1045 hours is 43.54167 days. To put it even clearer, 45 days is 1080 hours. Why do this? Why not just give us the extra 35 hours and say unlimited access for 45 days? I'm no marketing genius but really, I think someone at AOL marketing is just obsessed with big numbers.

And finally, what's up with those AOL cd guys? You know the ones that had that site, No More AOL cds.com and they wanted you to send in your AOL cds so they could get a million and drive them to AOL headquarters and dump them on the lawn. Did anyone ever really buy into this nonsense? Guess not. I first heard about this months ago and they had like 100,000 cds, which was impressive. Now, by their count, they have 150,201. At this pace they will get their million cds by the time AOL gets spun off from TimeWarner.

And am I the only one who is thinking that AOL would not be too keen on having a million cds dumped on their front lawn. I know I wouldn't, sense of humor be damned. If I saw a guy backing up a dump truck to my corporate headquarters with a million cds I'd call the cops. It just would not happen.

Ok, I'm done with my AOL rant. At least I didn't get any literature from the RIAA because RIAA and AOL in the same day may have signaled the start of the apocalypse.
posted by Eric J | 11:31 PM

Origins of the name
Not that anyone ever asked or really cares but I thought now might be a good time to take a moment and recount the origins of this site's name: webraw.

WARNING: This is interesting only to me so...well...don't complain if it generates a yawn or two.

I work at a newspaper. Part of my duties are to take edited stories and convert them for Web consumption. This process was much more involved in the early days before we implemented a Content Management System. Back in the day we sent each file through a scripting program that deposited the Web-ready result in a folder called -- WEB_RAW. That's right, the story is almost over. These were the raw html files and we pulled them out and added templates and links and polished the html and all that fun stuff.

When the files were ready we moved them to WEB_LOC which stood for LOCAL, as in on our local hard drive. Then there was another folder called WEB_SVR which stood for SERVER. Weren't we the clever folder namers?

Anyway, WebRaw seemed like a neat name and WebLoc seemed too goofy and WebSvr did too so I said, "what the heck" and registered that domain. Now here we are almost 3 years later.

How did your blog get its name?
posted by Eric J | 10:38 PM

Save scaterd-few
Songs You've Never Heard Project. A "sloppy, unique, inspired and utterly exhilarating" album. This song really rocks. It has the energy and flavor or early Jane's Addiction with a raw energy that is genuinely refreshing.

This song comes with a 100% moneyback guarantee.
posted by Eric J | 10:38 PM

New Flavors to Sample
FYI: The 31 Flavors of Blog project is going strong. We've got some new and interesting blogs featured and many more on the way.

What's that? You haven't seen the flavors? What are you waiting for? Medical studies have shown that this project cures insomnia, restless leg syndrome, slap cheek disease and much, much more. Besides, it's low in fat, high in iron and oh so tasty. Uh...wait a second. What was I talking about? Hmmmm. Ok, maybe I got a bit carried away with the shameless promotion bit but it's easy to do on days like today.
posted by Eric J | 10:57 AM

And the beast shall be made legion
And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble.
from The Book of Mozilla, 3:31
(Red Letter Edition)

Type "about:mozilla" into the address bar of a Mozilla browser (sans quotes). Tested on Chimera, Mozilla Mac, Mozilla PC.

Discovered thanks to Jason Kottke
posted by Eric J | 10:28 PM

Norton's Anti-Virus for Humans
I have strep throat. While this is not a virus it still sucks like one. What I want is a medicine that I can take every month that will prevent all infections. Each month a new version of the pill would be released containing new immunizations to new viruses and bacteria. I obviously know next to nothing about medicine but just consider this an informal request to the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industries. Please get right on this.

Think of all the money they'd make if every human on the planet had to plop down some cash each month to keep their immunizations up to date. Maybe Symantec should get into the pill-making business. Would I take a pill called Norton's Anti-Virus? You bet I would.
posted by Eric J | 6:25 PM

Google Me Elmo
Am I the only person in the world who refuses to use the word "google" as a verb?
posted by Matt Wood | 10:44 AM

Having fun with 404
My belief is your 404 page should always be informative, not overly wordy and provide a way for whoever is reading it to get back to your site. However, there is also something to be said about having a little fun. This 404 page has a lot of fun and I like it.

Link via Alternate.org
posted by Eric J | 5:25 PM

Counterpoint - What Kind of Blogducer are You?
Since Eric is making up words, I can't be outdone. My word of the day is "blogducer" - someone who creates and produces blogs. Yes, I know the word "blogger" already exists for this purpose, but that's not any fun. After surfing the web to find all the wonderful flavors of blogs, I realized that just like there are many types of people who read blogs, there are also many types of people who produce blogs. A sampling...

The Complainer: The Complainer blogs to let off steam. He likes to rant and rave about things that make him mad, especially because he knows he can't change them. He knows the blog is an exercise in futility, and it makes him even more mad. I say "he" because most Complainers are men. They blog about politics, sports, and work. I am a Complainer.

The Link Whore: The Link Whore produces a simple blog, mostly about news or friends, but the posts are not the main function of his site. The Link Whore creates a blog specifically to link to hundreds of other sites, in an effort to seem popular or generate traffic. The Link Whore proudly displays hit counters and the 485 webrings to which he belongs. The Link Whore really likes linking graphics. The Link Whore also belongs to the Status Freak class of blogsumers.

The Designer: The Designer is a web guru who blogs because he can. His site talks about his current design, how much he worked on it, and what his new design will be like. The Designer's site is very light on content, unless it's a link to A List Apart or Glish.

The Social Butterfly: The Social Butterfly blogs for a group of friends and no one else. The Social Butterfly's site is very specific to a certain city, school, or place of employment. At first glance, the Social Buttefly's site looks like a lot of fun, but the longer you stay the more you feel like an outsider. You don't get the Social Butterfly's inside jokes. You don't know the Social Butterfly's friends. Why don't you just leave the Social Butterfly alone? The Social Butterfly creates a lot of Lurkers.

The Activist: The Activist has a cause. She blogs to protest war, discrimination, and inequality. She blogs to raise awareness about diseases and social ills. The Activist doesn't have much time on her hands, what with so much agitating to do, so the Activist blog usually doesn't last very long.

The Navel Gazer: The Navel Gazer likes to write about himself. The Navel Gazer is usually a depressed teenage boy who seems unaware that other people are reading his blog. Also known as the Emo Blogger. Sample text: "I got home from school today, and my stupid stepdad was already home and hogging the TV. I hate that guy." Or, "Jenny talked to me today, but I was so nervous I didn't even ask for her number. I know her IM screen name, but I'm always afraid to chat with her. I'm such a wuss. I wonder if she knows I like her."

Of course, there are many other types of blogducers out there, and many of them find a nice combination of styles to make a unique voice. The true beauty of the blog world is its divesity. Where do you fit in?
posted by Matt Wood | 4:30 PM

What Kind of Blogsumer are You?
Blogsumer? Yes, I just made up a word but making up words is an American tradition. Just ask Fred Durst. Hey, even the word "blog" is made up I guess.

Ok, so a blogsumer is someone who reads, comments and otherwise consumes blogs. While most people are blogsumers not all blogsumers are the same. Not all blogsumers are even bloggers. Anyway, I've noticed (in myself and others) some very different ways that people consume blogs.

OCBR (Obsessive, Compulsive Blog Reader): Known to check a variety of blogs several times in one day and sometimes several times in one hour. Favorite blogs are those that have MANY updates throughout the day.

Window Shoppers: Like window shopping the readers merely glimpse a few blogs without ever really committing.

Drive-by Commenters: People that live for comments. Often they don't even read an entire blog post before they are commenting about...well...anything really. Also known as Serial Commenters and Comment Junkies.

Lurkers: These are the "voyeurs." Folks that have a few blogs that they really like and just read them without ever interacting or commenting.

Loyalists: Readers who primarily read only the blogs of people they actually know. Tend to be fiercely loyal and hesitant to try a new blog.

Link Addicts: A link addict isn't really interested in what a particular blogger has to say but is more interested in the content linked from the blog.

Wanderers: The wanderers are those folks that use tools like Wander-Lust, Recommended Reading and Weblogs.com to find new and interesting blogs. They generally just surf around, uncovering "hidden gems" on the Web.

Status Freaks: Religiously checking blog rankings on Daypop, Blogdex, Technorati, Popdex, etc. Blog stats are extremely important to these people. They are easily impressed by high traffic numbers.

So what kind of Blogsumer are you? I think I'm a little bit of all of them but trend towards the OCBR. This is one reason Scripting.com is one of my favorite blogs. Dave Winer is amazingly prolific.
posted by Eric J | 2:22 PM

What's cooking?
The project continues with a site about recipes...and more. We won't list every new "flavor" here but will continue to mention it in this blog from time to time. Be sure to check it out and link to it from your blog.
posted by Eric J | 9:40 AM

Oh boy...that is funny stuff
Spotted this video of a child involved in a dancing accident at everybody's favorite site next-to-last-song. I don't know if this video has already made the rounds or not but I love this kind of stuff. And yes, the kid is fine. He's just developed an odd craving for shoe leather.
posted by Eric J | 12:00 AM

31 Flavors Continues with Flavor Number 2
Today's featured "flavor" is the prison blog.

The blog is part of a larger site called Postcards From Prison, where you can send email postcards featuring images of prison life. The site's producers say the site "is intended to raise awareness of the uses society makes of imprisonment and punishment by using a mixture of images drawn from reality, the mass media, and fictional portrayals of prison and other forms of punishment."
posted by Eric J | 3:25 PM

31 Flavors of Blog - The Project Begins
The 31 Flavors of Blog Project features a variety of blogs each day of the month of March.

31 Flavors of Blog examines thirty-one distinctly different blogs and displays the diverse and innovative ways blogs are being used to communicate, educate and entertain. Each "flavor" provides a sampling of the incredible variety of blogs on the Web.

Think of this project as a trip to the ice cream parlor where you sample new and exciting (and sometimes disappointing) flavors all loaded onto that tiny pink plastic spoon. And after you're done sampling you can sit back and reflect on how blogs are shaping the Web or simply wipe that bit of fudge from the corner of your mouth and sample some more flavors.

Today's flavor is "Where is Raed?"
posted by Eric J | 11:40 PM

Look at all this traffic
I'm occasionally asked how much traffic this site receives on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and, I usually reply with some vague answer like "better than expected" or "traffic is pretty good this week." Depending on the situation I may quote actual numbers but only on rare occasions when I deem it necessary to disclose such specifics.

I've also been asked why this site doesn't have a page-counter or publicly available stats analysis page and while I'm not against such devices, they just aren't my style. Not only that but I think having a page-counter detracts from the site because frankly, who cares if the site gets 20 or 20,000 unique visitors today, the only visitor that really matters is YOU. If you like what you are reading or hearing or interacting with then who cares if you're the only visitor the site has had in a month? Or who cares if you're one of several thousand in the last hour? You're here for the content, not the stats.

What inspired this particular blog is a post from Zeldman where he says:

"When you brag about your site’s traffic, you make people with fewer visitors feel inferior and those with greater traffic chuckle at your misguided assumption of self-importance."

As usual, someone smarter than me has been able to voice my feelings much more eloquently and effectively than I could and for that I say thank you Mr. Zeldman.
posted by Eric J | 2:21 PM