Now wonder the rest of the world thinks Japan is crazy. Here’s a video of an old game show featuring lizards and girls with pork chop hats. (pointer and further commentary on BoingBoing)
Category: Current Events
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Mie & Dav’s Wedding
So the knot was tied – or bunched together and presented for all to see. My sister Mie and her beau Dav celebrated their commitment to each other with an un-formal formality in a bar in San Francisco. There was a cake with Burning Man iconography, a band in the form of a warbling Japanese cowboy (Toshio Hirano), a bartender serving mean mojitos and even handmade corsages provided by Mie’s friend Rachel.
Papa Kennedy There were a few speeches including a great one by my father in a 16th century powdered wig (pictured) which opened with, “so this is San Francisco!” and ended with “marriage is what you make it.” I read a passage from Thoreau – “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” and Rachel read a touching note from someone who couldn’t be there.
There was some dancing and I’m sure the party went on late into the evening but our little doggies were wiped out and fell asleep as soon as we buckled them in for the ride home.
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Blogs by Mail
I was listening to the This Week in Tech (TWiT) podcast this morning and Dvorak called the whole Web 2.0 conference “groupthink.” Yes, the hype meter was turned up higher than last year and at $2,800 a pop, the conference weeded out the starving developer types and favored the MBA & Biz Dev folks which many view as not in tune with the central message. Was AOL’s purchase of Weblogs Inc. an attempt to purchase some Web 2.0 juice? It looks like we’re headed back to the echo chamber debate (it seems like this debate comes up every year, right after all the October conferences) so and I’m looking forward to a visit with my relatives in Tennessee for a reality check.
I’m always on the lookout for ways to bring what’s going on in my online world to the wider world of my offline friends. Qoop is a cool service that will print & bind your blog (beta) or Flickr stream. Last year I gave each of my inlaws one of those beautiful, hardcover bound iPhoto books. Another cool idea is a subscription service that turns each of your blog posts into a “meatspace” letter which gets sent to your internet-challenged grandparents.
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Web 2.0 Acid Test
On the eve of the second annual Web 2.0 conference, Tim O’Reilly posts a longish analysis that tries to get to the bottom of this slippery label, “Web 2.0.” Ever more important because more and more marketing departments are slapping this label onto their products because it’s hip and bleeding edge, O’Reilly’s piece is seminal because of his position of authority.
In recognition of this enhanced definition, I’ve gone in and renamed my 2 year old “Web as a Platform” category “Web 2.0”
You really should read through to the end but the list of qualities (you don’t need all) that make up a real Web 2.0 company are worth pulling up below:
- Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
- Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
- Trusting users as co-developers
- Harnessing collective intelligence
- Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
- Software above the level of a single device
- Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models
Words to live by in this new age.
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Tim O’Reilly Web 2.0 Meme Map
For those who want it in pictures, Tim O’Reilly’s posted a map of all the memes that make up Web 2.0. Alex Barnett goes one step further and annotates it with links.
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Microsoft, Google & Cross Dressing
Whew! Take a week off and all hell breaks loose.
First the rumored Google Secure WiFi service looks to be a reality. Danny Sullivan does the rundown of motives but still wonders why Google would go to such extremes to maintain an infrastructure so far outside of their core expertise when they already have so much information coming in from the millions of installed Google Toolbars out in the wild phoning home. Like the Web Accelerator before it, as an infrastructure improvement coming from a services company, it seems oddly out of place.
Next, Microsoft announces a major reorg that puts the main Windows architect, Jim Allchin, out to pasture following the release of Vista and marries the Windows group with their more nimble MSN brethren. This is the strongest signal yet that MSFT is taking the "software as a hosted service" mantra seriously and is looking to better enable it’s client software to play nicely with internet standards.
Google, the services company is shipping software.
Microsoft, the software company is enabling software as a service.We live in interesting times.
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Video Games Live with Full Orchestra
Advertised in the entertainment section of my paper as, “A groundbreaking live event celebrating the music of video games,” comes Video Games Live, a full orchestra performance of the music of Halo, Zelda, Warcraft and others. Partially backed by Clear Channel, the performance will feature, “music from the world’s most popular video games performed by top
orchestras and choirs across North America, combined with explosive
video segments from each of the games, lasers and lights to create an
exceptional, immersive entertainment experience” says the press release.In small print the advert says that there will also be a, “medley of classic arcade games from Pong to Donkey Kong.” I think that’s when the folks file out to get drinks and go to the bathroom.
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SF Fisherman Survive 8 Hours in Icy Waters
The SF Chronicle Bay Area section is always good for a personal interest storty or two. Yesterday’s paper had an amazing tale of two rough cut fishermen who survived the capsizing of their fishing boat a couple miles out beyond the Golden Gate. They clung to their overturned boat through the night in freezing water as wave after wave soaked them in the freezing water. Despite the dire circumstances, they kept their sense of humor:
“But we hung in there. After our first few swamps we got a routine down: We’d duck, and the wave would go over us rather than swamping us over. And we were trying to encourage each other: ‘The city’s getting bigger.’ ‘No, it isn’t, you’re just blowing smoke up my ass.’
They finally got close enough to make the swim to shore and staggered through traffic until they finally got the attention of someone that lent them their cellphone so they could call 911.
When he reached the emergency dispatcher, “They said, ‘We’ve been looking for you.’ I said, ‘You have? We’ve been looking for you too.’
They love their work and are looking forward to saving up the $15k they need to buy another boat and get back out there.
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The Ultimate Disclaimer
I read & review quite quite a few legal agreements in this job. If you do too, then you’d appreciate The Standard Catchall Universal Disclaimer Notice. The fine print includes such nuggets as:
ADVISORY: There is an extremely small but nonzero chance that, through a process known as “tunneling,” this product may
spontaneously disappear from its present location and reappear at any random place in the universe, including your neighbor’s domicile. The manufacturer will not be responsible for any damages or inconveniences that may result.This should cover you for just about anything.