Results tagged “crankygeeks”

The folks at Cranky Geeks have just put up a new episode of the show, though it was actually taped a while ago and was the first episode I ever participated in. We taped the episode before Google bought YouTube, and the bright-eyed speculation about YouTube's future during that simpler time looks downright quaint today.

Things were a little rough around the edges (it's slow going for most of the show), but you do get to hear me say, "I like the crappy videos". And you get to hear how J.D. Lasica picks out his favorite porn sites.

I'm on Cranky Geeks again tomorrow.

Usually I cringe a little seeing myself on these things, but I think this time around we all acquitted ourselves rather well. There's some talk about the best and worst tech stuff of 2006, and some fun skepticism about the Web 2.0 bubble. Plus John Dvorak, and who doesn't love John Dvorak?

• So maybe Gracenote (formerly CDDB) isn't evil after all? I love anything that challenges the conventional wisdom, especially when someone's gotten a bad rap. Good reporting, Eliot Van Buskirk! I'd been accepting the received wisdom about this company for years, apparently unfairly. Do we have a tech equivalent term for "urban legend"?

• There's pubic hair dye now. So you've got that going for you. One color is called "Brown Betty", which I thought was a type of baked good.

• Microsoft and Yahoo endorse Google's sitemaps format for describing your website. I love when there's this kind of informal collaboration, as in the underrated nofollow initiative, as well as my long-time favorite robots.txt.

• That Sitemaps.org site should probably have a sitemap at some point.

• S.R. Sidarth in the Washington Post: "I am macaca".

Allen's actions that day stood out because they were not representative of how I was treated while traveling around the state. Everywhere I went, though I was identifiably working on behalf of Allen's opponent, people treated me with dignity, respect and kindness. I cannot recall one event where food was served and I was not invited to join in the meal. In southwest Virginia, hospitality toward me was at a high point.

I don't mean to belabor the macaca point, and the story is much more nuanced than it seems, but I hope all the slobbering politicians, regardless of political persuasion, take away a simple lesson from this: If you fuck with Indians in America, you will lose control of both houses of Congress.

• George H.W. Bush thinks one of the causes of political incivility is bloggers. He's right.

• I'm going to be on Cranky Geeks again. Seems to me the show's gotten a lot better since their blog switched to Movable Type. And I get to talk about the Wii and Vox, two of my favorite toys! Hooray.

• In case you missed it, you should watch the "I got a brown Zune" movie at the end of my last post. It's the finest film you'll see all year, or your money back. You'll also find yourself saying to yourself, "I got a brown Zune!" over and over.

• I really liked the Jay-Z ad for HP until I'd read the Slate piece about the campaign:

Though they were just as expensive to create as the TV ads, HP opted not to buy television time for these spots. According to Roman, this was the plan from the outset. HP decided that Web ads have become radically more effective of late, and thus that it's worth it to spend money on high production values.

I feel so manipulated! Eh, fuck it. I like the ads anyway. Three dimensional stadium rendering!

Whoops, I should have mentioned this in time for you to see it live, but I was on Cranky Geeks with John Dvorak today. It's a fun little web video show (vlog? vlogcast? vlogcastumentary?) where me and John and Sebastian Rupley (PC Mag editor) and Mike Liebhold (from the Institute from the Future) were talking about a bunch of random geek topics.

Seems like the live streaming was a bit choppy, so maybe it's better to wait for the download anyway. Downloads of the video will be available tomorrow, and you can subscribe to the videocast in iTunes today. I promise it's the best dorky video show you'll watch that mentions Dvorak, dildos, and deep-fried dogs.