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Monthly Archives: April 2007

I coulda been a Nielsen home

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I was reading Davis Freeberg’s article on DVR stats from Nielsen, and it jogged a memory I meant to blog about last month.  A few weeks back a guy knocked on my door, informed my wife and I we had the option to become Nielsen households.  Basically, we’d get another set-top box to install, and have to push a button (or two) every 45 minutes while watching TV.  Seems easy enough, but frankly I just didn’t want to deal with the hassle right now.

Maybe if Arrested Development were still on I’d care more, but my favorite shows (Heroes, The Office) are doing smashingly well.  Further, we’re about to get back on to the Netflix bandwagon, so my “real TV” hours are diminishing rapidly anyway.

The weird part is if accepted, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.  I wonder what my guests would’ve thought?

Guess I'm not rushing out for an Xbox 360 Elite

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I’ve only had my Xbox 360 for three weeks, but I’ve wondered if the upgrade to the new unit would be worth it.  Ryan at Engadget did the xboxo y xboxo today, and it sounds like there’s not that much to be gained by bumping to the Elite.  Here’s his final thoughts on the topic:

Basically, unless you are seriously eagle-eyed, have a massive friggin screen, or for whatever reason need to use HDMI because you’re all out of component inputs, your investment in the first-gen Xbox 360 is probably safe. Do yourself a favor, just buy that 120GB drive if you need the space, the HDMI really just doesn’t justify replacing your whole console for a new $480 unit.

While the improvements seem barely marginal at present, I wonder if the next batch of games for the 360 will take advantage of the improved resolution.  The fundamental problem here is this: 1080i and 1080p video games might actually look the same unless you have a truly huge screen.  Remember, they both have the same pixel count, so the only difference is frame rate, and you aren’t going to be able to see the difference without a BIG screen.  I still think CNET’s piece from 2005 is the best-written article on the topic of 1080i vs 1080p. 

With my 32″ Olevia 720p/1080i display, I’d be surprised if there’s any real need for the “better” unit.  Besides, I can’t possibly rock any harder than I already do at GH2, so what’s the point?

Are Marketeers Spinning Viral Video Stats?

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I really like the eMarketer.com newsletter, it’s one of the few that I receive that I read every day.  It’s well formatted, has bite-sized info, presents useful and relevant stats, and gets most of what I want to see above the fold. One of today’s articles was lauding the success of viral video, but unlike typical articles from them, I felt this contains some questionable statistics.  Let’s start with a few quotes:

Next to ‘cool microsites’ and games, viral video is hot.

Video clips got generally good reviews from marketers, with about three in 10 saying they yielded great results, and just 13% admitting their results were dismal.

If you see the fine print, n=2914 “experienced viral marketers”.  At 30% we have about 1000 viral videos of which their marketeers claim “great success.”

I’m either living in a hole or I have a different definition of the adjective great.  Why do I say this?  Well, how about you count the number of “viral videos” you’ve seen that you’d attribute to companies.  Remember, if it’s in this category it cannot include a commercial that aired on TV, nor can it be a clip like “Lazy Sunday”.  I am surprised if anyone’s list exceeds their count of fingers + toes.

My hunch, and I’m up to hear a counterargument on this, is that the surveyed marketeers are answering this way because it is trendy.  Survey bias exists fairly commonly in most segments, but even more so in a field dominated by follow-the-leader activities.  And marketing folks are especially predisposed to report on the success of their activities.  This is especially interesting in light of…

But what are the chances of a video actually going viral? According to an Online Publishers Association (OPA) survey, not that high.

Now I’d prefer if this data was less than a year old, as it was in February 2006 when YouTube’s activities began spiking (again, thanks to Lazy Sunday – I sure hope Chad sent a big bagfull of money to Andy Samberg).  My hunch is there’s a lot more forwarding going on than there used to be.  Of course, there’s a lot more Portland ice storms and people getting haircuts than there are commercially-driven “great success” viral videos.

Is Technology Killing the English Language?

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How r u?  U OK?

Somewhere back in the 90s one of the versions of MS Word included a built-in spellchecker that finally, actually, really worked.  While typing, any misunderstood word gets instantly highlighted, and better yet, some clear tpyos even get automatically corrected.  There was being grammar checker too, but it not working as good, unless, of course, you write a “fractured sentence” (an error description that is truly on a par with PC Load Letter).

And once God Microsoft gave us spellcheck, all became better.  Peace and prosperity ruled the land.  And we started getting lazy.  Very lazy.  Just as the spreadsheet killed the need for learning math, spellcheck apparently killed the need for learning how to spell.  Both of these are a shame in my eyes, as I enjoy both activities, and as a very slightly (ok fine) somewhat geeky kid, I really excelled at both back in my day. 

With the surge of popularity of both instant messaging and online chat rooms in the later 90s, another blow to English arose.  In IM-land you can have a quick conversation about anything, and nobody’s paying attention to a little typo hree or tehre.  You’d have to really utterly manggle (sp?) a word for your conversation partner to say anything, and that assumes they recognized the mistake.  With IM, some form of “Quickie” English began to emerge, where phrases like LOL, LMAO, IMHO, BRB, gained a lot of popularity.

Quickie English gets even better (or is that worse?) when it comes to texting.  When texting, not only aren’t you getting feedback on a mispelt word, thanks to technology like T9 you might accidentally insert the wrong word into your sentence. But don’t worry, it’s just a text, who cares, right?  A recent study shows all this Quickie English might be causing some problems to Old Fashioned Written English.

I’m a fairly traditional person, but I am also one to know languages evolve over time.  For example, the word “connection” was spelled “connexion” through the first half of the 20th century.  Read books authored in the 18th or 19th century (sorry, e-books and audio-books on your iPod are not acceptable substitutes for this exercise), you’ll find all kinds of minor variations on common words.  Should the next edition of Webster’s include definitions for R, U, and LOL?  If these “words” are here to stay, then yes, language should evolve.  It must.

Update: I really wanted to find a way to link to this post, one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long long time, but I just couldn’t find a way to fit it in context.  But it does fit, somehow.  So, call it a non-sequitur, and just accept “cheezburger” into your spell-check dictionary, ok?

The Unofficial Official Heroes Drinking Game (v2)

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UPDATED: now that we are on the home stretch of the “last 5” I’ve decided to give this a little revision. Some of the activities aren’t really relevant if you are keeping up with the series, but I’ll leave them in there for “classic” episodes.  Newly added items are in italics.

Heroes is my favorite show on TV right now (with Arrested Development reruns as a second runner-up).  I think the writing is overall very good (some cheesiness here and there), ditto on the acting (ditto), and utterly enjoy the storyline.  Everything about it is, in my opinion, fun to watch.  I also like NBC’s embracement of the Internet for the show (which is apparently poised to grow tomorrow) which includes:

Even though there are a couple already (here and here), I decided none of them really addressed all the magic of the show.  So, here’s my Official Heroes Drinking Game (which is, of course, unofficial, other than by my own standards).  Incidentally, I’ve tried to make this fairly spoiler-free for those of you who are waiting to watch the season via Netflix (which is ridiculous because of the free streaming from NBC, but, whatever).  Also, I’m using character names only, if you aren’t familiar with them all, here’s a list of all characters (warning, link may contain spoilers).

Take ONE drink when…

  • Niki sees her reflection wink back at her
  • Niki looks all panic-stricken (reserve yourself to no more than twice per episode)
  • Nathan talks down to Peter
  • Simone adds utterly no value to a scene
  • Hiro uses a lot of comical gestures and sound effects to complement his English
  • Claire breaks a bone (or vital organ) in a way that makes you a bit squeamish
  • Matt gets really confused about his power
  • Ando makes a comment regarding giving up or going home
  • Anyone’s eyes get all glossed over
  • Mr. Bennet takes off his glasses, wipes them (or his brow), then puts them back on
  • Mohinder makes a reference to something being impossible, stupid, crazy, etc
  • Someone’s head gets cut open
  • The Haitian guy shows up, and the episode fades to commercial within 5 seconds
  • Two Heroes’ paths cross coincidentally
  • A dead person comes back to life.  Drink again if it is revealed that that formerly dead person is actually still dead
  • Claude snarls menacingly
  • Ted gets all sweaty (take a second drink if he subsequently doesn’t even use his power)
  • NBC shows a spoiler during a commercial break of another show, and you aren’t able to grab your remote and pause/mute/change the channel in time.  Drink again if you curse the network out loud as a result.
  • Sylar fools someone and you sit there yelling at the screen “he’s the bad guy, he’s the bad guy!”
  • You get a glimpse of one of Isaac’s paintings and it shows something extra-cool (this is another ‘subjective’ ones)
  • Linderman shows signs that he’s probably a grade-A crazy

Take TWO drinks when…

  • Hiro raises his arms to the sky in an expression of joy
  • Claire runs unnecessarily
  • D.L. doesn’t use his ability, but clearly could/should
  • A Hero uses their power in a way that makes you clap, cheer, or get otherwise giddy
  • Peter figures anything important out
  • Sylar shows how much of a badass he is
  • A “good” Hero turns out to be “bad” (and vice versa)
  • Thompson makes it through an entire scene smiling
  • Someone should really just give Candice a punch, because it would really solve some problems, but yet doesn’t

  • Hana gets more than 3 minutes of screen time in an episode

Chug it when…

  • They find the sword
  • The writers use Mohinder’s dad (Dr. Suresh) to explain a key plotline
  • A character is revealed to be a Hero and it was a genuine surprise (judgment call, but I trust ya)
  • A major character gets killed
  • NBC comes up with a key catchphrase to get new viewers involved
  • Any Hero dons a spandex uniform (and you must finish all the drinks around if that uniform sports a big X in the middle)
  • Someone (not you, of course) radically underestimates Sylar
  • An actor who is/was famous on another geeky TV series (or movie) makes a guest appearance
  • Two heroes make out.  Chug it again if it turns out many episodes later they’re somehow related.
  • The writers introduce a Hero with a very average power, such as “slightly longer limbs than normal people” or “eerily aware of the exact humidity of the local region” or “can summon and control all the nearby butterflies”

Enjoy.  If I’ve missed anything, add it as a comment below!  Please enjoy Heroes responsibly (a.k.a. watch every episode, try to skip the “next week on Heroes” bit). Also, congrats to the producers, writers, crew, etc for a second season renewal already!

Two simple yet highly addictive games

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JT guitar hero 2 - playingSo I’ve had an Xbox 360 for a couple of weeks now, and it’s quite awesome, I must say.  Guitar Hero 2 is great (I’ve gotten a litte better since my first foray), both my wife and I are hooked on Viva Pinata.  But neither is anywhere near as addictive as two simple PC games I’ve recently stumbled upon (do I owe eBay some money for saying those words together?).

The first, thanks to Michael Gartenberg, is Peggle.  Peggle is a cross between Kaboom and traditional pachinko.  You have virtually no control over the action during the game, yet it’s insanely addictive.  I actually coughed up the $19.99 to get the registered version after tearing through the demo (which was fairly comprehensive, I must add).  I’ve still got a lot of the “challenges” left to go, but I’m hoping for an expansion pack or a Peggle 2 in a few months.  I’ve got another Andrew Jackson ready for PopCap Games when it does…

Second up, which I just found two days ago, is called Desktop Tower Defense.  It’s completely free, as they show completely unobtrusive ads during gameplay.  It’s from Kongregate, who claims to have 572 different games available to play, all free.  I tried a few others, some are fun, some aren’t, but DTD has me obsessed right now.  It’s easy to learn, but takes a lifetime to master.

Geek Dinner: April 2007

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SNC14107 geek dinnerThese days it seems like not a single night goes by when some company is throwing a party for the tech masses to attend.  It sure makes San Francisco seem like a very lively place, I must say.  It also makes it a bit more tricky to try to get some top influencers to join you for dinner for the evening. 

By the way, those exact words could’ve been written in April of 1999 or 2000.

Anyhow, I did manage to convince 1615 of them to come to the latest Geek Dinner, and they are:

SNC14092 jamie odell nick douglasThe ’round-the-horn’ topic of the evening was about digital cameras, and the upwardly spiraling ever-increasing megapixel count.  Personally, I feel we’re reach a bit of a ‘saturation point’ wherein consumers won’t be easily persuaded to strive for higher MP cameras.  This doesn’t include professionals or prosumers, of course.  It proved an interesting topic, as quite a few different opinions came to bear:

  • Some agreed.
  • Some thought it would just keep going up and up as the technology improves. 
  • Some thought that the industry would follow the CPU industry, and focus less on the actual megapixel count and more on the features & benefits
  • Some thought a technical “leap forward” would occur, and we’d get to a whole new plateau of digital camera technology

As is becoming the norm, I had a bag of gadgets to pass around for inspection.  My favorite remains: my quik-pod.  I also had Samsung’s NV10 digital camera (which sports a very interesting interface, worthy of a look!), my trio of bluetooth headsets, my Samsung SCH-u740 phone (now in black), and the NETGEAR SPH101 Skype phone.

SNC14104No giveaways this time, but instead I gave the floor to Jim Schaff of Data Robotics to present the Drobo.  In interest of fairness and the fact that we’d drank a lot of wine, he had 2 minutes to present and the group was welcome to barrage him with questions.  Disclosure: I am now consulting for Data Robotics, but this specific activity was unrelated to the work I’m doing there – Jim just wanted (a) to come to dinner, and (b) asked if he could present the gadget.

I definitely don’t want Geek Dinner to get all commercialized or anything, but if there are other cool startups that have products they want to show off (or even giveaway), feel free to reach out.  No guarantees, and it’s going to be totally at my discretion.

We also had a short video shot at the dinner.  Next time, we may have even more…

Thanks again to all the attendees, I hope everyone had a great time!

ps – is it ironic that I picked the specific night based on the schedule of a friend who was in from out of town, and that friend didn’t show up?  I think that’s irony, but I’m not positive.

Trying "The Best" Bluetooth Headsets

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IMG_3421 JT Shure headsetWith the move to the Samsung SCH-u740 phone (still lovin that name!) I’m somewhat forced into the bluetooth headset world.  It’s sad, as I absolutely love my Shure headset – hey, I may look like a telemarketer with it on, but it’s super-comfortable, the sound quality is great, and the microphone works in a windstorm.  At under $50 (on Amazon), it’s the best bargain around for a wired headset.

The SCH-u740 (say it out loud with me… the “ess see aich you seven forty”) has an adapter that works with analog headsets, but it’s kinda janky to carry it around.  So I’m going for Bluetooth.  The good news is, I’ve got the what many call “the best” units around to try: the Jabra JX10, Plantronics Voyager 510, and Aliph Jawbone (which came in about the sexiest packaging I’ve ever seen for any gadget, ever).

I’m still in testing, but I’ve learned one thing so far: wearing an in-ear headset for more than 7 hours straight can cause a multi-day lasting earache!  I see a lot of people wearing these silly things all day long (psst, if you are in a restaurant and having dinner and wearing a bluetooth headset, you don’t look cool, you look stupid), and I don’t know how they do it.  It hurts, and no matter which one makes the cut, you can rest assured it only goes on during a call.

three bluetooth headsets (0)three bluetooth headsets (5)three bluetooth headsets (2)three bluetooth headsets (4)three bluetooth headsets (1)three bluetooth headsets (6)three bluetooth headsets (3)

Full review to come, and if you missed out, check out Ron’s report on the Jabra BT620s bluetooth stereo headset from earlier this week.

The Missing Vista Editions

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While the numbers to-date are showing Vista’s uptake is going well, I can’t help but feel the launch isn’t up to the expectations of Redmond.  I’ve seen influential folks like Chris Pirillo leave the OS while Mark Evans muses on the “beginning of the end” of the Windows OS.  Personally, I’m utterly stunned by the missteps that surround Vista so far (and I’m not talking about a PR firm giving laptops to bloggers, this doesn’t even scratch the surface to me).

First and foremost, I think the company should not have approached the OS from a “upgrade from XP” perspective.  Almost every complaint and headache report I’ve read about or witnessed has to do with the upgrade path.  I think life coulda-woulda-shoulda been a lot better for MSFT had they simply made the OS a pre-install only.  The only exception I’d consider is large corporations whose IT staffs have complete lockdowns on the office computers.

Fundmentally I think the biggest flaw with Vista is the suite of confusing editions.  Home. Home Premium. Home Ultra. Home with Tartar Control.  Home with Techron.  As a general rule, the more FUD, the less buying (you can ask the high definition DVD marketplace for a reference on that one).  But rather than just complain about, I’ve got my own set of Vista Editions that I think make a lot more sense in today’s world.

Vista for Laptop
Simply put, the Laptop Edition has lots and lots of power management services, and they are all extremely accessible.  Airplane/Endurance mode, Presentation mode, Email/Web mode, Productivity mode, etc.  Each mode is predefined for different goals, and all are tweakable for power users.  I’d also like to see a “rapid charge” mode that helps me out when I need to juice up just before a flight.  Further, all these services are completely removed from desktops.

Vista for Gaming
During Bill Gates’ keynote at CES this year it was mentioned that there are 200 million PC gamers around the world.  Well, how about a Gaming Edition, in which the user can easily turn off EVERYTHING not needed for the game they want to play.  You’d basically get two options: networked or not, and all the other services are automatically shut down while you play.  And better yet, they all come back automatically when you are done.

Vista Small Business Edition
Designed specifically for companies with NO IT administrator.  No need for Domain/Workgroup management.  Assumption of POP3-only email services, probably no Exchange or other Windows servers.  Easy integration for shared hosting for both calendaring and file transfer.  Simple file sharing, simple security, etc.  Also should be optimized for telecommuters, with easy VPN integration.

Vista Corporate
This is the opposite of the SMB Edition above.  Assume an IT administrator is in place, and wishes to totally lock down individual applications, services, etc.  Lots of configurable settings that are easily deployed across vast number of PCs. 

Vista for Home
Unlike the current approach to Home, which is basically just dumbed down Business, this version puts an emphasis on personal use computing.  Easy media sharing, playback, recording, etc.  Tight integration with devices, especially printers, MP3 players, and digital cameras.  Really strong security features, but with a wee bit more intelligence than the current setup.

Vista Servers
Okay, I’m not really much of an enterprise computing guy, but I know the world needs servers, and I know MSFT makes em, so make a whole category dedicated to the space.

That’s my list of what I consider the missing Vista editions.  By the way, most of the functionality I’ve described above already exists in Vista today, this is really a case of cleaning up the product line mess.  I’m sure my list isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly easier to choose from than Home, Home Premium, and Ultimate.

Differentiating The Two NETGEAR Skypephones

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IMG_4009 sph101 sph200dI live in the San Francisco Bay Area.  If there was a country called “Hightechistan” this is it’s capital.  There is so much technology innovation surrounding you here it’s effectively impossible to stay ahead of everything going on.   While it’s true that much of the innovation is Web-based or infrastructure services (such as the demos at the Web 2.0 Expo being held this week, which you won’t see me blog about any more than this due to them not giving me a press pass.  Although I may blog about exactly that once more, we’ll see) there’s also new gadgets and gizmos coming out fairly frequently.

Sometimes, gadget makers seem to build model after model, leaving consumers in a bit of a lurch to determine which one is right for them. In the past two years, NETGEAR’s introduced two different Skypephones, the original (but first) not-so-memorably named SPH101 and this year’s similarly named followup SPH200D model.  With my fun role as their “guest blogger” I have had the chance to use both for the past couple of weeks.  In an interesting twist, there actually is a reason to have two different models on the market at the same time, as they serve two different purposes!  In a nutshell:

  • IMG_4005 sph101 no emergency!If you want a Skype Phone that you can use at home or carry around with you and use WiFi networks, you want the SPH101.
  • If you want a Skype Phone to use only when at home, and would enjoy the convenience of using only a single handset for both Skype and regular phone services, you want the SPH200D.

Over on the NETGEAR blog (nope, still no RSS), I put up a post that explains the difference between the two models.  If you are in the market for a Skype phone and want to know about their units, take a read.

At home, both my wife and I are using the units.  She has the DECT phone (which doubles as a home phone as well), and I’m using the Skype-only SPH101 handset.  I haven’t really put them through the paces yet, but some quick thoughts and observations:

IMG_3430 sph200d componentsPros: easy to use, setup/configuration worked well right out of the box, the handsets feel nice and are lightweight, bright LCD screens, lots of advanced options for geeks like me, sound quality generally good enough

Cons: poor-to-bad battery life, sound quality occasionally dips into unacceptable range

More photos on Flickr. SPH101 on Amazon. SPH200D on Amazon.

Jabra BT620s review: My life in blue

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For most of us, Jeremy’s recent post about the wires in his apartment made us think of a drawer, closet or box somewhere that looks similar (unless you’re Dave Mathews, the other one. I hear his apartment looks like Snakes on a Plane, but with wires … and I guess no plane. So basically, just a lot of wires in an apartment.  But you can see how I got there, right?).  My wife is a lot less tolerant of snakes wires than Jeremy’s, so I’ve been having fun with a couple of Bluetooth products from Jabra.

IMG_3931 A125s and BT620sThe first product I’m trying is the BT620s (with A125s adapter) which enable you to use a wireless headset with your iPod.  This means no stylish white-headphones to show off that you stand out from the crowd by having an iPod (which is so 2004 anyway).

In my opinion, the main benefit of having a wireless headset is it frees you from being tethered to the device. Instead, throw your iPod in your backpack or put it in a drawer at your desk. You can still control all the important functions with your headset (volume, skip track, pause, etc.).  If you have a bluetooth phone it even lets you pick up a phone call with the same headset (there’s a mini-microphone on one of the earpieces).  I’ve been working in a cube-farm for ages and am used to plugging headphones into my computer. In a “Darwin Awards” kind of way, once a year, I pull away from the desk and have the earbuds ripped out of my ears.  Going wireless means I can do some Office Space spins in my cube with full freedom. Ah, simple pleasures.

IMG_3919 A125s lit upI’d love to say that configuring the units was simple, but I can’t.  Jabra optimized towards minimalism in terms of buttons and action-feedback on the unit so much so that you have to actually consult the manual just to get started (I really did. I had to!). For example, they define pushing a button in three ways:

  1. Push and release.
  2. Push for a couple seconds, then release.
  3. Push and hold.

Each one of these causes the blue LED to blink at different rates although it isn’t exactly clear which speed of blinking lights applies to which state. Combine that with multiple buttons combinations and it gets even more confusing. For example, the unit has a blue-blinking LED around each earpiece when the unit is “paired” with the transmitter. When you’re wearing the headset you look like something out of “pimp my ride” and generally get stared at in public (more than normal, I mean).  Natch, I wanted to turn this off which meant “Push #3 on left and right center-ear button simultaneously”. Not exactly intuitive considering the many combinations of options of Jabra-Push-Types (see above) and the fact that there are two buttons on the headset and 1 on the A125s iPod unit.
 
IMG_3883 BT620s on ear - lit upI’ve used the Jabra BT620s headset on planes, trains (Bart) and automobiles buses with great success. The only challenge I’ve found, besides the “Pimp Your Head” glares on the 41 Union, is that when you turn your head the bluetooth cuts out. This is true not only when I put the ipod in my backpack, but even if I have it in my pocket on the right-hand-side (as it says in the manual. See, I told you I read it.).  You’re probably asking, “who needs to turn their head.” I know. I live a crazy life. To be clear on this point: it only happens when my iPod is in my pocket, not if it’s on my desk, and the sound does come right back about a half second later if I turn straight again.

Overall I’m very happy with the headset. It frees me from untangling my iPod earphones and I can throw my iPod in my bag and control everything I need without missing a call.  It’s not exactly the ideal setup for me personally to use long-term, but I know that my issues don’t necessarily reflect everyone elses.

IMG_3934 BT620s chargingThe only major downside to the vision of wireless is: you don’t really get rid of wires, you just transfer them. Now I have a charger for my adaptor that plugs into my iPod and a charger for the headset.  In essence, I’ve reduced the wires I carry around with me, but haven’t solved the wire problem in my apartment. In fact, it made it worse.

Oh, and when writing this, Jeremy asked me to also summarize who is the target market for the BT620s. Here’s my bulleted list:

  • Those few people that have iPods

As an aside, my prediction is that the next gen of iPods to come out (around the time of iPhone) will have Bluetooth embedded.

Amazon links for BT620s and A125s.

Thoughts on Blogging Frequency

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Scoble posts per dayRobert Scoble is a prolific writer, he averages about 7ish posts per day.  Some are short, less than a paragraph, some are over a pagelong.  I applaud him for being able to do it, it’s clearly some kind of mania gift (j/k Robert!).

Engadget, which is written by a team of writers, posts twenty to forty times daily.

I, on the other hand, average about a post or less per day.  I’ve gone multiple days in a row without blogging.  As a result, I’m sure I don’t get nearly the traffic all the top/”a-list” blogs get.  I’m pretty okay with it too, as I have a different philosophy on the content.

Personally, I can’t keep up with the top blogs.  I miss a lot of what they write, because I don’t really have the time to read it all.  I instead have to scan through titles, picking and choosing what’s interesting.  But when it comes to the “b-list” bloggers I read, I never miss a post.  Further, I tend to read and even get involved in the conversations I see on these blogs, who typically feature one to three new stories per day.

But I’m still a less frequent blogger than most of them.  And again, I’m okay with that.  There are some who think of the blogosphere as a giant conversation – I don’t personally agree.  I think it’s a lot more like a bunch of people shouting simultaneously, hoping to get the most attention.  For example, as I write this post, the “topic of the hour” at Techmeme is Google buying DoubleClick.  At this point, there are 25 distinct posts on it, and that’s just per Techmeme’s logic.  But most of the contribution to this “conversation” is the same theme rehashed.  Is there really much value left for me to add to this topic?  Not so much.

I’ve taken to the realize the following 4 keys to how I blog

  1. I try to avoid topics that are being covered to death.  Why?  Because I assume, dear reader, that you seek out your news from more than just me.  If not, well, I’m flattered, but a little concerned.
  2. I try to cover topics where I have particular domain expertise.  I’ve spent 10 years dealing with digital media, convergence, digital home, consumer electronics, etc products.  I spent the bulk of the past two years running extremely successful viral marketing and blogosphere/community engagement programs.  When those topics come up, I chime in (again, assuming I’m not the 500th poster).
  3. I intentionally leave a story I like above the fold. Last week I wrote a post about why I gave up on mobile email.  I liked it a lot.  I felt that people who are visiting my site for the first time should read it, and didn’t have anything really pertinent to replace it with.
  4. I write long posts.  While talking to Om Malik two weeks ago, he advised me to shorten my writing.  He’s absolutely correct, I should.  But I’m not good enough to do it yet.  So essays are just my style for now.  I’ll try to get better about this, but I guess I have a lot (in my mind) to babble about.

So, maybe I’ll never make it to the “a-list”, but I’m okay with that.  I enjoy the blog as it is, and if you’ve made it to this sentence, well, I guess you do too.