Following a trackback on a post here earlier today I happened upon Routine Order pondering if Robert Scoble is the right choice for covering John Edward’s 2008 Presidential campaign (emphasis mine):
So why not hire someone who can do both things, or can at least advise on the technology behind it all? Scoble is old, let’s face it - he’s got family. Passion is what pulls readers. Give me a twenty-something with fire in his guts for what he’s bloggin about, anytime.
Since when is having “fire in his guts” limited to twenty-somethings? And if merely having family makes one “too old” than I was too old 17 years ago. Scoble is only a few years older than me, so if he’s too old for following Edward’s campaign I’m probably too old to start a daily vlog. There’s this WWII vet that was in his 90s who became sort of a cult celeb on YouTube, so I seriously doubt either Scoble or I need to turn in our vlogging license.
In fairness, the mysterious Routine Order blogger wasn’t asking the same question I’m asking in this post. The idea that a geek like Scoble might not be the best choice for Edwards bid to be the next President in 2008 was his take and Scoble’s age is one strike against him. Scoble has earned his video street cred with the Channel 9 stuff and if not him then who else?
If Edwards had invited me I would have been more interested in stuff they likely aren’t letting anybody cover. I want to know what Edwards is like out of all the lights, away from the cameras and his handlers. Somebody let Edwards loose and see if he’s got the Dean scream. I’ve seen his polished act already in the video from Gnomedex and he knows how to schmooze the crowd, but most politicians have that game down. Let’s see some behind the scenes Edwards action. Somebody. Anybody.
I doubt Scoble or any of the other video bloggers, podcasters, etc are going to get much of that kind of content. That’s what the American people need to know. We need to know if this guy has a penchant for interns in blue dresses, likes to bet a little too much on the ponies, does drugs recreationally, like pron, and so on. If we get all this stuff on the table long before any elections, out in the open, we can then move to the important issues and not waste time tripping over personal choices and morality debates.
Hmmcast #32
I’m thinking about publishing the new Hmmcast episode every weekday here at 4:20pm PST / 7:20pm EST, just so folks know when to expect a new installment each day. Yes, I realize 420 has drug references, but it’s an easy time for people to remember. I would choose something like 6:66 AM or PM but neither of those are valid. If you have a better time suggestion for the daily show, please let me know below. For those who missed yesterday’s post, I wrote that my goal is to create at least one new video blog or podcast every weekday in 2007, save for holidays and vacation. Will I make it? How many of these will you catch? Two are now in the bag.
Personally I think I’ll be too old for video when my heart stops ticking, but as always am interested in your feedback as to whether age really matters in a video blog? Age matters for Dick Clark. Anybody see that New Year’s Meltdown? I heard audio this morning. Painful. Dick had his run, but that’s one case — where he can’t even do the countdown right — to call it a day.
The BBC takes viewers up the final moments of Saddam Hussein’s life on earth before being hanged. He was defiant to the end, refusing to wear a hood over his head, thus giving onlookers a chance to see his neck snapped in grim detail.
Liveblogging executions? Don’t laugh, it might actually happen someday. Whatever your personal position on capital punishment, I don’t think we’re that far off from seeing live televised executions. Must admit being a bit disappointed that Osama Bin Laden wasn’t the one wearing the noose. I thought it was him we were going after? Don’t be surprised if Bin Laden is captured near the 2008 elections. I won’t be.
Update 12/31/2006 9:40am PST: Somebody posted on Google Video a cameraphone video of the whole execution. It’s already going viral at other video sites.
Besides the two game systems launching over the weekend the other big story was a supposedly leaked internal Yahoo memo by Brad Garlinghouse and published by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required, sorry. Update: Paul Kedrosky reposts the memo that he said was being “forwarded all over the place.”).
The Journal got the memo because it’s the business paper of record (and a damn good one at that). It’s called reporting and brand credibility that has taken decades to build. If you’re a CEO–or any exec–looking to float a memo you are going to the Journal. It’s your first stop to reach the folks that control your market cap. Sorry new media, old media has clout.
All I could do was shake my head after reading the memo and the various blog and media reactions. As a Yahoo shareholder, I’m embarassed by the company’s efforts in 2006. I was excited by what they did in 2005 and really thought they were on their way to doing some exciting things, but can’t voice my displeasure enough about what’s happened to date in 2006, beginning with the whole we don’t need to be #1 in search debacle.
At the present Yahoo seems like a very disjointed, disorganized, confused company. Sure, they have some smart people there but the disconnect between management and the workforce — at least to a complete outsider — seems to be almost incalculable. Outspoken employee insiders like Jeremy Zawodny seem to have gone quiet (last post over a week ago, maybe he’s on vacation?) regarding the substance of the memo which also calls for a reduction of the workforce and combining or eliminating competing products (Examples: MyWeb vs. Del.icio.us, Yahoo Photos vs. Flickr).
A bad case of Yahooitis has hit the Yahooligans. Let’s hope the holidays bring something other than coal in shareholder’s stockings. Draw a squiggly line at the top of paper toward the bottom and you’ll see what the performance has been like in 2006.
If you leave on your own, you can always take the high road and claim you were disgusted with the overall direction of the company. If you wait until you’re laid off, you’re going to get labeled as one of the employees who were “phoning it in, lacking the passion and commitment to be a part of the solution.” That’s one hell of a risk to take if you’re not sure if you’re staying or going.
Update 11/27/2006 7:52pm PST: Jeremy Zawodny stopped by to point out that he did post about the corrosive Peanut Butter memo on/about the same time that I posted this. You’ll see the link in comment #2 below, which sort of breaks his silence on the matter.
Remember the story back in July of the online gambling sportsbook BetOnSports CEO being detained by the US government and then fired? There has been some closure for the company, but not for the former CEO who still faces 22 counts of fraud and racketeering charges in a trial expected early next year. What deal did the feds cut BetOnSports? Basically, they pointed to the borders and said, “keep out.”
BetOnSports must also take out an advertisement in a major newspaper telling customers that Internet gambling is illegal in the United States and the company will no longer take their bets. It must post similar messages on its Web sites. The settlement isn’t likely to have a huge effect on the Internet gambling industry, said Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier College of Law and an expert on Internet gambling.
Interesting how this professor and so called expert thinks this won’t have a “huge effect on internet gambling industry” when some are saying over 50% of online gambling activity occurs with bettors in the US is beyond me. When Bush signed off on adding anti-online gambling laws to a terrorist bill, this pretty much sealed the fate of online gambling sites doing business here — at least in the current climate. Add to that the fact that in some states like this one (Washington) they’ve made it a class C felony and you end up with a bunch of political muscle thrown at something this writer chalks up to personal choice. This is supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the protected by the big, bad offshore online casinos.
I don’t think we’ve seen the last of online gambling. Watch what happens in Nevada very closely, because it’s likely to break there first. In fact, bookmark this post and come back in a few years. I think we’ll be looking at some sort of major change. I’m no fortune teller, but this attack on online gambling doesn’t make much sense when the government could regulate and tax and use that money to help our country get out of the financial hole we continue to dig. Somebody has to start thinking about paying the bill for the war on Iraq.
This also doesn’t help people like my friend from Sweden, Forser, who unfortunately lost his job working as a programmer for an online poker site. I don’t see what terrorists and online gambling have in common. Anybody care to connect the dots?
The last post on identity got me thinking about branding online. Perhaps this experience will be useful to other webmasters and online entrepreneurs. It’s been useful and profitable for our business over the years. Ooo, a trade secret. No hands, ma!
One potential downside — perhaps the only one depending on your political persuasion — of the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigning and having a man who also has the last name of Gates poised to replace him is that anybody subscribing to “Gates” by keyword will now have to resort to shoehorning in ‘Bill’ to the query. Bill Gates is resigning in a couple years and plans to spend time giving away his vast fortunes to good causes through his foundation. Perhaps this politics-technology keyword confusion will be good for the Microsoft’s chief.
This is similar to shock jock Howard Stern being confused programatically by Anna Nicole Smith’s attorney and boyfriend Howard K. Stern. Don’t forget the ‘K’ part, Howard reminds on his Sirius talk radio show, clearly a little perturbed.
Check out Google News for “Gates” pictured above. Now see the query for “Bill Gates”/ Adjust your RSS feeds by keyword now, if you haven’t already.
Better to focus on one keyword when branding?
This raises a question about using full names for queries versus multiple names as part of an overall brand and identity? I’ve tried to limit this potential query quagmire by using one name. This is also why I try to refer to this website as Hmm, even though I don’t own hmm.com (wish I did) or MakeYouGoHmm instead of “make you go hmm.”
The answer to Apple’s pod obsession
On the last Webtalk Radio show we got into a discussion about the whole Apple wanting to own the ‘pod’ name dispute. My suggestion for those with podcasts to brand their podcast to their site name like we do here with Hmmcast. I suggested Rob and Dana called their show Webtalkcast or WebtalkRadiocast. ‘pod’ reminds me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers more than Apple and that’s a less than pleasant image.
How have the search engines treated Hmmcast?
Speaking of our currently bi-monthly podcast Hmmcast — expect #28 next Friday on schedule — I put some thought into the name of the podcast long before Apple started complaining. I made sure the domain for the name we would call it was available and registered Hmmcast.com (which leads to the Hmmcast page). Another important step in the road to making something easier to be found on the web.
Google: Hmmcast #1 result leads to Hmmcast category page which lists all Hmmcasts
Yahoo: Hmmcast #1 result leads to Feedburner RSS feed for the Hmmcast. That’s ok, I’ll still take that one.
Live: Hmmcast #1 result leads to Hmmcast #13 recap page here. Not sure why that page ranks so high over the category page, but the fact that it leads to a Hmmcast page is promising.
Ask: Hmmcast #1 result leads to the Hmmcast #15 recap page here.
A query for a unique word like Hmmcast should reach our category page or the Hmmcast RSS feed. Fortunately the major engines all led to something related.
Now you see why we didn’t call this Make You Go Hmm Podcast.
The shorter the better
When choosing a name or brand try to keep it short, memorable and whenever possible spelled correctly. Easy to remember Flickr, but how many people have tried to visit flicker.com which is not owned by Yahoo (and is one of those keyword laced domain landing pages)? Also double words like “for/4″ or “you/u” in a domain can be a type-in landmine as I’ve learned, so we bought the variation “u” domain and pointed to this site early on. I have trouble spelling sometimes and I know I’m not alone in this challenge, so make it easy — much easier than the domain abomination but conversely compelling service del.icio.us — for prospective and return visitors.
A few business things to hopefully make you think this morning, especially if you are starting a new project. What’s in a name? Everything, if you want to be found.
After listening to the CNN coverage of election 2006 I’m grateful I haven’t played drinking games for a long time. You know the games where every time you hear something you must take a drink. The most overused, abused phrase of election 2006: “voters are sending a message.”
Thank goodness voters are because this country has had much better days politically.
Last night before going to sleep, I learned that the House have switched to the Democrats and that the Senate race was scary close in a few states. USA TODAY this morning still has it locked at 49 seats each with the close states including Virginia (Jim Webb [D] vs. George Allen [R]) and Montana (Jon Tester [D] vs. Conrad Burns [R]).
The Democrats need both these seats to take a majority, a split would result in the tie being broken by the Vice President and thus remain GOP control. The good news for Dems is both counts favor them so far, but who knows what will happen after the recounts.
My concern over the next two years
If for some strange reason a greater Democratic presence in congress leads to similar inaction we’ve seen the last two years — perhaps due to Bush vetoing more bills — that could play into the Republicans hands in election 2008. I home the Dems don’t waste the opportunity before them. I’m counting on them to do something. It might help if they start a precedent of working five days a week like most the rest of the real world.
Update 10:32am PST: The rafters are shaking. President Bush announced that Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down (thanks darkmoon). For those with Sirius satellite radio, you can listen to the President speaking on Fox News now on Channel 131.
Pictures down far at the end of our street, the water is starting to move in somewhat aggressively and sandbagging has begun. This is a new, unsold house with the backyard almost gone:
A few streets worth of houses have been evacuated in one of the nearby developments.
I took a few minutes out to go vote mostly Dem, one independent and one Republican (no other choice). I was listening on the radio and heard this might be one of the best turn-outs in awhile.
Still raining, though not as hard as yesterday. I thought the worst of it was supposed to be over this morning, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Apparently there are no levels Ann Coulter won’t stoop to in her quest to get attention for herself and I’m just feeding her trolling ways with this post, guilty as charged. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly she actually defends Republican Mark Foley who quickly resigned after being caught communicating with underage pages in an inappropriate sexual manner. Coulter calls Foley a “nice guy” and wrongly frames the discussion as a witch hunt for a gay guy. WTF?! I’m not aware of liberals being concerned about gay people, so long as they aren’t trying to have sex with people under age.
And speaking of sex, I don’t think if Ann Coulter looked like a troll she’d get as much attention as she does. She might be the best looking troll Republican out there. I bet I can guess what Coulter is going to be for Halloween — she’s already wearing her costume. Take of the mask, Ann, please!
Rush Limbaugh decided to criticize Michael J. Fox in his ad below for acting over the effects of Parkinson’s:
“I stated when I saw the ad, I was commenting to you about it, that he was either off the medication or he was acting. He is an actor, after all.” — Rush Limbaugh
Politics aside, I can’t stand that blowhard Rush Limbaugh. I’ve tried listening to his radio show a few times and his voice just rubs me wrong. He sounds like the loud, obnoxious guy at the event you wish would shut his hole. Unfortunately this smack across the face of Michael J. Fox probably won’t negatively impact Limbaugh’s popularity. Limbaugh is a self-admitted pill addict and that didn’t hurt his popularity, so why expect any different here? Limbaugh kind of reminds me of Biff from the movie trilogy Fox is best known for Back To The Future.
Fox wants stem cell research approved because it would help find a cure faster for diseases like he has and is emphasized in the video below that Limbaugh was criticizing.
Does it make any difference if Fox intentionally went off his meds for additional impact in this video? Not to me. He still is living with a disease that he needs medication to control. Having to pop pills to keep the shaking down for the rest of your life is a sobering thought. Can stem cell research help find a cure that wouldn’t require Fox and others afflicted to take medication for the rest of their lives? It can’t hurt.
President Bush weighed in on stem cell research in 2001 only allowing research on a small 60 existing stem cell embryos:
I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your President I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world. And while we’re all hopeful about the potential of this research, no one can be certain that the science will live up to the hope it has generated.
Eight years ago, scientists believed fetal tissue research offered great hope for cures and treatments — yet, the progress to date has not lived up to its initial expectations. Embryonic stem cell research offers both great promise and great peril. So I have decided we must proceed with great care.
CNN delves into the stem cell issue and response following the Bush administration decision. I understand the ethical cloning concerns, but I can think of a lot worse things to spend tax money on than stem cell research (hint: Iraq).
It’s too easy piling on Limbaugh’s idiotic comments here as others are already doing, so where do you weigh in on the more important issue of stem cell research? Ironically perhaps Limbaugh will fuel renewed interest and positive, productive discussion and debate on this topic.
Legalized chronic would go along good with aliens, gambling and legal prositution according to some Nevada lawmakers.
If it passes November 7, Nevada will be the first state to allow adults to possess up to an ounce of pot that they could buy at government-regulated marijuana shops.
The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which has pushed medical marijuana and decriminalization laws around the country, thinks Nevada — with its embrace of certain vices and its streak of Western independence — is a perfect venue.
If I lived in Nevada I’d vote for taxing and legalizing marijuana. I’m not a stoner and haven’t smoked any weed in a long time, but I don’t have a problem with people getting high as long at they don’t get high and do something that puts other people at risk like driving stoned.
Seems weird to write this but these days with meth and other creepy drugs being popularized, pot seems tame by comparison. Alaska already has a law which allows possession of one ounce of marijuana. Would you vote to legalize possession of one ounce of marijuana if it was on the ballot in your state?
Besides the two game systems launching over the weekend the other big story was a supposedly leaked internal Yahoo memo by Brad Garlinghouse and published by the 
