firstname.blogspot.com: a challenge

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The challenge:

Find a blog with a URL of the form firstname.blogspot.com that is either (a) not taken, or (b) still active.

The rules:

I am sole arbiter of what qualifies as a firstname.

The prize:

Fame, no fortune.[1]

Here are some that are dead. It is kind of fun[2] – if you are really bored – to look at the content of these blogs. There is something melancholy about so many abandoned sites. So much tumbleweed. Lists of tumbleweed blogs would be appreciated too.

http://alan.blogspot.com http://betty.blogspot.com http://charles.blogspot.com
 http://david.blogspot.com http://eric.blogspot.com http://frances.blogspot.com http://gillian.blogspot.com http://harold.blogspot.com
 http://ian.blogspot.com http://jean.blogspot.com http://karen.blogspot.com http://lynne.blogspot.com http://megan.blogspot.com http://norma.blogspot.com http://oliver.blogspot.com http://pat.blogspot.com http://queenie.blogspot.com (maybe not a valid firstname) http://rory.blogspot.com http://stephen.blogspot.com http://tom.blogspot.com http://ulrike.blogspot.com http://valerie.blogspot.com http://william.blogspot.com http://xander.blogspot.com http://yvonne.blogspot.com http://zora.blogspot.com

[1] I have actually found a blog of this form, so you lose and I win. Still it's kind of interesting[3] how many fail the test and it does make you wonder about all those counts of the number of bloggers in the world.  http://tina.blogspot.com/

[2] … Continue reading

Mr. Amazon’s Bookshop: What is a Book?

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[This is the fourth instalment of Mr. Amazon's Bookshop. A list of all instalments is here; the previous instalment is here.]

The next day I woke early, Google's suggestion that Mr. Amazon's Bookshop was founded on an illusion still hammering in my head. I decided that this puzzle needed to be solved and, unlike so many ideas that come on the threshold of sleep, my notion from the previous evening still seemed like a filly with legs. After breakfasting on the usual kippers, tea, and toast with ginger marmalade, I dressed and rushed into the village. I ducked into Words Worth and scanned the advertisements in the Literary Review until I found what I wanted: an announcement from Gallup Press promoting a new book entitled "Strengths-Based Leadership". It sounded like the most ridiculous form of business-speaking, self-help-inspired, positive-thinking twaddle, but the announcement brandished a ribbon-like slash across one corner proclaiming "Coming Soon!" with a date about two months hence – and that's all I needed.

I rushed out of the door, strode down the street, and marched into Mr. Amazon's Bookshop. I walked straight up to his desk and stared him in the eye. "Right then … Continue reading

Google’s counter-cultural moment is over

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Apparently Wikipedia was launched eight years ago today. According to Wikipedia.

Rereading my review of Remix from the other day, I noticed that my favourite bit is at the end. I don't expect many people to get that far, so I'm going to post it again by itself. I should say that the idea of a counter-cultural moment, probably far from original, came to me from a comment on "authentic moments" made by RAD on an earlier post of mine.

So here it is again (slightly rewritten for context), because I can. So there.

—-

For many cultural and artistic movements there is a "counter-cultural moment" when a previously obscure and out-of-the-way tendency suddenly gains prominence. It may be the surrealists in the '30s, Bauhaus in the '20s, the hippy movement in the late '60s, punk in the late '70s – each had a few years in which it was both important and yet still opposed to the mainstream. But that counter-cultural moment is short, often just a handful of years, and once it is over, the movement either becomes the mainstream or fades away. Only nine years after the summer of '67 the hippies were a thing … Continue reading

Lawrence Lessig’s Remix: a rambling review

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Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy,  Lawrence Lessig, Penguin 2008.

Lawrence Lessig’s latest book is about how “a regime of copyright built for a radically different technological age”  xvi: numbers in square brackets are page numbers] is inhibiting art, culture, and individual expression in a digital world. His inspiration, as a parent of two youngsters, is the “copyright wars” and the effect they are having on a generation of children and young adults. Copyright does have an important role to play, he argues, but Criminalizing an entire generation is too high a price to pay for a copyright system created more than a generation ago” [xviii].

Surprisingly, given the author, the legal portion of the book is a relatively short final section, in which he outlines some common sense and practical suggestions for change in the regulatory environment of the USA. Instead, most of Remix is a description of what Lessig sees as the nascent and booming digital R/W culture that is under threat; of what kind of new activities are appearing and how they work economically. Lessig is mainly concerned with amateur activities like playing, hobbies, and gossip, and with how digital technology has changed them. Unfortunately, the picture he paints is less full of insight than his legal views. He paints a familiar … Continue reading

Mr. Amazon’s Bookshop: A Conversation with the Butler

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[This is the third instalment of Mr. Amazon's Bookshop. A list of all instalments is here.]

No matter how often I went back to Mr. Amazon's shop, I never
could understand its workings. I often hinted to the man behind the
desk that I would like to know, but he ignored me. I even asked him
once in a direct and semi-serious manner: "what do you have down there
behind that desk Amazon? How do you get these books? Is it mole-people,
Amazon? Do you have hoards hordes of mole-people slaving in darkness down
below, running back and forth in some gigantic basement-warehouse
bringing you the books you need?" He smiled vaguely. "Not at all sir.
No mole-people for us. We keep our books in a Cloud." And that obscure
remark was all I could get from him. Fortunately, there was someone I could always ask when I needed
information, and that was Google, the butler. So one evening in June,
as he brought me my glass of sherry and teaspoon of laudanum, I asked
him what he knew about Amazon "Amazon sir? … Continue reading

Sys-con media is an appalling and shameless outfit. Avoid it.

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Sys-con is commonly treated as a legitimate media organization. Google News indexes it, for example, and software companies quote it. My personal experience suggests it is shameless, and that reputable people and organizations should avoid it.

Here's the story. I see that others have experienced something similar.

In October I wrote a blog post about cloud computing. I received this nice email from sys-con's Jeremy Geelan ("Sr. Vice-President, Editorial and Events"):

Would you be cool with our republishing the post below in full, with your byline and bio (plus a
link back to the original URL) at

http://cloudcomputing.sys–con.com?


http://whimsley.typepad.com/whimsley/2008/10/cloudy-monopolies-ii.html



We try and do this across all our many and varied sites from time to
time by adding insightful posts by writers outside our immediate circle.
It's our way of introducing fresh new voices and technologies to our
audience…

So, let us know, yes? Thank you – meantime have a great Tuesday!
🙂

Jeremy G.

A colleague of mine has been to a couple of conferences organized by sys-con. A quick look at their website … Continue reading