You Can All G -- to H --

There was a story this week from San Francisco about a visiting minivan family who had a run-in with Critical Mass, which is a monthly gathering of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of SF cycling activists who basically take over whatever road they happen to be riding on, running red lights and stop signs en masse, etc. (Link via Obscurestore.)

I'm not going to opine about the actual incident, since it involves the usual opposing "their fault/no, their fault" viewpoints -- the cyclist side says the minivan tried to run a biker down and take off, and the minivan side says it started with accidental contact followed by a biker rampage.

I do note the following, though, in a quote from the article -- I didn't realize the San Francisco Chronicle's style guide for profanity in quotes involves partially obscuring some of the naughty bits with a space and a double dash (--) [oddly masked bad words ahead]:

"I f -- hate Critical Mass,'' said Mishka Generic, 33, a bike messenger who lives in Oakland. "They give everybody who rides a bike a bad name. It's not that all of them are bad, it's just that when you put that number of people together, you get some -- holes."

It amuses me that the language is abundantly clear, despite the fact that they just use the double dash to remove part of the swearing, instead of the tried and true "[expletive deleted]", or masking it with the first letter, followed by dashes or stars (where "darn you to heck" would be "d*** you to h***").

Also, the quotee's last name is Generic, which I suspect was not her birth name.

Other than that, I agree with her sentiment, in that when you put any number of people together (in any type of gathering, including online), you're bound to get some, er, b -- a -- to spoil the bunch.

(For a more positive story from Obscurestore, check out the boss who gave his star employee a '65 Mustang, though if you want to keep it positive, don't go through the rest of the items on the main page.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: san francisco chronicle, critical mass, obscurestore, masked profanity

Announcing AOL Version 10.0?

Somehow, I don't think we would be announcing a new version of AOL on the menu board at Wegmans:

Our local Wegmans, pandering to the AOL worker clientele.

This is from lunch today at the Market Cafe (that is to say, food court) at the Wegmans supermarket across the street from AOL HQ in loverly Dulles, VA.

(It's been up for a while -- I finally remembered to bring my camera.)

By referencing the Beltway (495, though it's about 15 miles from here) and AOL, they're injecting a little local naming flavor into the offerings.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: wegmans, aol, lunch, photo

Need a Reason to Blog? Ask This Taxi Driver

Keith, a cab driver with a great reason for blogging.

Last week, I spent a few days in Boulder, Colorado for a conference on blogging and social media. (I need to blog my notes -- here were my initial impressions.)

It was very informative and enlightening, so I hope the conference folks don't take this as a criticism, but one of the most instructive things from my trip came from my cab driver as I was leaving: another reason why regular folks can benefit from having a blog.

After the conference, I got into a cab idling outside the hotel for a short hop into Boulder before I headed to Denver. I got to talking to the driver (his name being Keith), and when I mentioned that I was coming from a blogging conference, he said that he had a blog.

Now, just like everyone else, cabbies are people with stories to tell (though some of theirs may be more colorful than those of your average blogger), so why wouldn't they blog? There's a whole genre of taxicab bloggers -- I wrote about an NYC taxi blogger last year, and I check in from time to time on a local DC cabbie, Diary of a Mad DC Cabbie [language warning].

Do they do it to become famous? Probably not, though the NYC hack's blog led to a book deal (it's due out this summer.)

However, cabbie Keith has a more pragmatic reason for blogging: When you do a Web search on the term "boulder taxi", his blog is on the first page of search results. In fact, right now, it's the #1 result on Yahoo!, and it's the #2 listing on Google -- which also enhances AOL Search:

He didn't even have to give me the URL -- "Just search on boulder taxi." He was right.

Being on the first page of results for relevant search terms is kind of a big deal, since most folks don't like to click past the first few pages of results.

In fact, there's a whole industry set up around "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization) , which is all about how to make your Web pages show up better in search results, so you get more visitors. (It's kind of the Web equivalent of naming your dog-stretching company "AAAAA Dog Stretchers," so it shows up first in the phone listings.)

Now, search engines tend to like blogs, because they have lots of inbound and outbound links, and they update frequently. (Spammers figured this out, too, which is why you see a lot of spam blogs created just to point to other Web pages to try to boost their search rankings. It's a constant battle.)

Anyway, Keith figured out a way to make his blog work for him, to help bring in business. And he says it's working for him.

Now, this is not to say that if you start a blog, you'll suddenly start pulling in tons and tons of visitors from search engines. There's a lot of voodoo involved with SEO stuff, including who you link to, who links to you, what you write about, how often you update, how often you've been blogging, how your page is built, etc.

However, one thing blogging can help with is to provide a human face and personality to what you're doing. For example, in addition to all the other stuff about contact numbers and availability, I would probably get the sense that the Boulder Taxicab guy isn't the kind of person who might, say, try to rip me off or drive me to a vacant lot and beat me to death with a tire iron.

(Not to say that there aren't some potential pitfalls, too. If you start blogging polarizing opinions about stuff unrelated to your work -- say, politics, religion, or your penchant for tormenting fuzzy animals -- you might turn off potential customers.)

So, I hope this doesn't come across as a big advertisement for Keith's cab, since I'm not getting any kickbacks. There are many reasons to blog, and this is just another one. I had a pleasant (though short) trip, and I think I left a decent tip. Which is only fair, since I got a blog entry out of it.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: social media, icwsm, icwsm2007, boulder taxi, reasons for blogging, blogging, seo

I'm Feeling Very Vulnerable Right Now

Hi folks --  I read today that Google CEO Eric Schmidt makes $1 in annual salary, but has a personal security detail that runs $532,755 a year. (You can see the full SEC filing if you like that sort of thing.)

Between that and learning that CNN Center in Atlanta has armed security guards, I'm feeling slightly unprotected right now.

(Also, I learned that if someone says, "Get out my way, pimpin'," you'd best get out of their way, since they're probably packing.)

That is all. -- Joe

Tags: eric schmidt, personal security, get out of my way pimpin'

Sierra & Wolf: A Follow-Up, Not a Bounty-Hunting Duo

Hi folks -- here are two followups from previous items I've mentioned. (Well, I never got around to blogging about the Wolf story, but it was in my slushpile of links, so it sort of counts):

* Video blogger Josh Wolf was freed after spending 226 days in jail for contempt of court. He had refused to turn over his unaired video footage of a violent 2005 G-8 Summit protest, claiming journalistic protections given under the First Amendment.

In a compromise deal, he agreed to post the unaired footage (also giving a copy to prosecutors), and answering two questions under oath (both answers being "No.")

In return, he won't be required to testify in front of a grand jury.

So, everyone gets to declare victory (for now), and he gets to go home after spending nearly 8 months in the pen.

* In another image of detente, bloggers Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke issued a coordinated (not joint) statement about the recent death threat dust-up I mentioned.

It's a pretty reasoned joint response -- death threats are bad, some people are mean to other people on the Web, some people are especially mean to women on the Web, and let's everyone calm down a little bit before the politicians try to get involved again.

I do still think it was an event that received a disproportionate amount of attention, simply because of the players and interested parties, but that doesn't make the underlying issues any less valid.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: josh wolf, kathy sierra, chris locke, followup

Cover Songs (or, Quit Looking at My Humps)

Hi folks -- since everyone in the entire blog world
is apparently featuring, linking, or otherwise talking about this, here
it is in quick fashion: Canadian singer Alanis Morissette (vanguard
of the mid-90s chick/grrl-rock revolution) did a down-tempo
piano cover of the Black
Eyed Peas song 'My
Humps', complete with parody video -- it can now be found on
YouTube:

Viral,
much?

(Link via too many sites to mention, though I did find the video of the original song and the link to the cover video in the AOL
Video Blog.)


The video is very obviously a parody; the song is less obviously so,
since it's done in something close to her stereotypical
style. On its own, I don't think it's a
particularly good song (nor is it meant to be).

However, one thing the
slow, solo-piano delivery does is show how painfully
stupid the original lyrics are. They're terrible, and they
hardly rhyme, but they're attached to an annoyingly catchy hook, it has
a good beat and you can dance to it. (Guess that's all it takes to win a Grammy Award these days.)


(See more overanalysis about the song in the Metafilter
discussion thread, especially where user solistrato
suggests something that could be used as their motto: "HI I'M ON
METAFILTER AND I COULD OVERTHINK A PLATE OF BEANS.")


This is another example of artists crossing genres to do covers, which
ranges from the ironically self-aware (say, Ben Folds doing gangsta
rap), to earnest (Johnny Cash singing Soundgarden), to weird (Pat Boone
covering Metallica).


Why the appeal? At they're core, it's about people doing things you
wouldn't expect them to do (say, presidential adviser and conspiracy theorist favorite Karl
Rove rapping and... dancing?).


Some covers are funny (The Austin Lounge Lizards singing a bluegrass
version of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'); some of are them are
good (The Donnas covering Judas Priest's 'Living After Midnight'); some
of them are both (The Gourds doing Snoop Dogg's 'Gin & Juice'); and
some of them are neither (too many to mention).


(Incidentally, as I was writing this entry, I did some searching around
and found The Covers
Project, which is a Web site that catalogs cover songs. Not
sure if it's still current. My friend Pat likes making mix CDs of
cover songs -- I'll have to send him the link.)


Got a favorite cover song of your own that works (or doesn't work, but
in spectacular fashion)? Leave a comment and tell us. Better yet, if
you do a cover of your own, upload a video
and share it.


Thanks -- Joe

Tags: cover songs, black eyed peas, metafilter, covers project

I Didn't Want a Raise, But Maybe I'll Keep It

So, our group's big office move happened over the weekend, and we're here in our new digs (one building over).

The first thing I noticed is that I now have a raised desk:

Yes, I'm in a highchair now.

It's for ergonomic reasons, since you can stand and type as well as sit.

At first, I didn't want to keep the raised setup, but after trying it out for a little bit, I think I'll give it a shot. It's relatively easy to change (if you have a cordless drill driver on you).

This probably means I'll need an LCD monitor, since the big tube monitor is sitting waaaay too close to my face right now. LCDs are usually brighter than CRT screens, though, so if and when I get one, I'll have to make sure it's calibrated correctly, lest photos that look okay to me are too dark for everyone else.

That settled, I can now start the herculean task of unpacking my boxes:

Only eight boxes this time.

However, my boxes are not quite as neat as those of my cow-orker, Erin:

Since I've had many friends and meetings in this building, it's not completely new to me. However, it's only after you move into a space that you start to find out its quirks. For example, I'm right by the ping-pong table:

This could get really annoying.

CC2 being a new building, it was designed for computer slaves knowledge workers, so it's got stuff that you wouldn't find in our old building, CC1 (which is a retrofitted airplane hangar).

Stuff like underfloor air and cable runs, with access ports that feel like gopher holes:

Macro shot of a floor vent.

Of course, that doesn't prevent things like really beige hallways:

We're already hard at work de-beiging it.

Also, here is what a corner office looks like at AOL:

That's not an executive, that's a plant.

The view out the window is the intersection of Prentice and Broderick Drives.

Incidentally, looking at the aerial photo view in MapQuest, I notice that the local post office processing facility has something on the roof:

I hope it's a forever-rate stamp -- it would be a hassle to repaint.

Anyway, we'll be busy unpacking things and getting settled (good things so far: full-size, working kitchen with hot water and no structural steel I-beam in the middle of it -- bad things: glare from the windows), so today looks like it's mostly going to be an "administrative overhead" day (especially since the white noise generators aren't on right now, and you can hear everything). So I'll be sticking close to the cube.

Which is kind of a pity, since it might hit 80 today and it looks really nice out.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol, aol move day, cc2, photos