Blogging advisory: Friday, I will be traveling all day. I won’t be be posting anything here until Saturday.

Thieves stealing? Or, ethically upright? Doc Searls points (depressingly) to this “news” story on a North Carolina ABC affiliate’s website:

Is Someone Stealing Your Internet Connection?

Someone could be stealing your Internet service right now - - and you would never know it. Thieves are using wireless technology to help themselves to your connection.

Now, compare that screed with a recent NPR interview regarding the same topic with the NY Times Magazine ethics columnist Randy Cohen, who said something like: “If you pay for Internet access somewhere (i.e., for your DSL connection) then you’ve made your contribution to the network. So, it’s okay to use free wi-fi you may encounter floating around. (However, don’t abuse your neighbor’s generousity by doing anything that may clog his or her bandwidth … and you’re a mooch if you don’t pay for access somewhere.)”

Switch off: He’ll probably get sued for reporting
it, but Ryan Katz of
Think Secret says
Apple has switched its mind on launching a new mega TV ad campaign
featuring a new generation of Switchers — this time focusing on
individuals who’ve switched to a Mac because they first purchased an
iPod.

Katz reports there were tensions on the set between the director, Errol
Morris (who did the initial Switch ads) and Apple corporate types. Mega
dollars were spent getting 60 switchers to LA and putting 30 in front
of the camera. But once in front of the camera, there was no Ellen
Feiss magic.

Tag: nugatory

Nugatory: I have found my new favorite word, today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day: Nugatory. It’s from the Latin word, nugatorus (to trifle):

nugatory NOO-guh-tor-ee; NYOO-, adjective:
1. Trifling; insignificant; inconsequential.
2. Having no force; inoperative; ineffectual.

I
can think of so many ways to use it. Heck, it almost sounds like slang
- You’re so nugatory! What a nug! I feel so nugatory today. Man, what a nugatory first round draft pick!

Where has this word been all my life?

Best of all, I think it will make a great Technorati tag for posts like this one.

Technorati Tags: nugatory

Back when I played hockey at Harvard: (Updated to fix broken link) Staci has some “trust but verify” thoughts regarding a USA Today reporter who trusted but didn’t verify. Not even with a couple of Google searches.

Staci thinks the lesson here is not that “mainstream media” makes the same mistakes that bloggers are accused of, but, rather, it is a cautionary tale for journalists of all stripes, the “citizen” kind, as well as the MSM ones.

Quote:

“…It would be morally and ethically nice if everyone checked out everything before they post it — and, in most cases, a quick check or a moment’s thought would be deterrent enough — it’s the journalist’s job to do it. Even so, anyone who abuses the reader/listener/user/viewer’s trust will lose it no matter what they call themselves.”

Observation: If a movie is made about the subject of the USA Today story, I suggest Vince Vaughn play the lead.

Make it stop: (From an AP story) “Adam (Pacman) Jones, the Tennessee titans’ top draft pick, responded Thursday to the men who accused him of hitting them at a nightclub by suing them on charges of conspiracy, defamation and slander.”

Observation: I’ve given up on him being a model citizen. However, after he makes a couple of interceptions or breaks away on a punt return, then, hey, all will be forgiven. Knock down a couple of Peyton Manning passes and I’ll be out there saying, “Give the guy a break. He’s depraved on account of he’s deprived.”

(rexblog flashback: first round idiot)

Oh the games podcasters play: (From Heather Green of Blogspotting) “After being squeezed out of the Top 100 list of podcasts at iTunes by traditional media shows, indie podcasters have figured out how to exploit a flaw in the technology behind the list. The top 100 list now is overwhelmed with indies–a big switch from just a week ago.”

Rather amusing.

Hard to control? Try impossible: Doc Searls points to an article in AdAge with the head and sub-head, “Marketers Wrestle with Hard-to-Control Web Content: Blogs and Chat Rooms Pose Risks Despite Coveted Demographics”

It’s unfortunate that the phrase “control the message” crept into the lexicon of marketing-speak. Somewhere along the way, marketing “pros” convinced themselves that a message can be controlled — that reporters, analysts and pundits don’t shape it; that readers, viewers and listeners are zombies with no judgement, taste, life experiences, pre-conceptions or the ability to decide for themselves whether a product or service or idea is good.

Recently I had a conversation with someone associated with a company noted for its perceived ability to “control the message.” When I brought up that topic, he scoffed. He said something (channeling Doc Searls, perhaps) to the effect: “The way to control a message is to find the message being talked about by others. All we do is join in.”

Commercial music: During the Olympics last August, I blogged how that song on the Touareg commercial (Ariel Ramirez, sung by Richard Buckner) haunted me, but I could still never figure out the plot of the commercial. I also noted the younger viewers on my couch judged the commercial song, “boring.” I didn’t buy a Touareg, but I did purchase a CD by Richard Buckner filled with equally haunting and depressing songs. For fun, I think I’m going to see him tonight at the Mercy Lounge. And no, I’m not trying to step into nightlife blogging vaccuum left by the departure of Mr. Roboto. (Speaking of which, why does Thursday NIght Fever have a padlock on it?)

Two ASAE tidbits — association blogger meetup and day-job shout-out: This is a slightly off-topic post, but I know there are a few folks who read this blog who are coming to Nashville this weekend for the big American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) convention at Opryland Hotel. A while back, Shawn Lea (who I recently noticed has made me an honorary Mississippian and whose blog, Everything and Nothing, would be on my top-ten list if I were brave enough to have one), started the ball rolling on having an association blogger meetup while several, well, association bloggers, are going to be in Nashville. If you’re attending the ASAE convention and would like to get together with some other association bloggers on Saturday night after the opening reception — in downtown Nashville away from the Opryland Hotel bubble for a few hours — please e-mail me (rexhammock (at) gmail.com) and I can send you the details. There are some folks with cars putting together transporation from the Opryland-geosphere to the meetup, and the wonderful folks at Opryland Hotel have a shuttle service to downtown, as well.

Oh, yes, the other ASAE tidbit. I want to give a big shout-out to the busy folks at my day-job, Hammock Publishing, who produced a custom magazine/guide for client Conferon Global Services and Hilton that is being distributed at the convention. It’s a guide for meeting planners and is about “room block management,” which, if you’re a meeting planner, can be a challenge. Look for it at the convention.

Oh great: Steve Baker has an example of another sub-human species that has crawled out from under a rock. Blogger-bots that generate spam blogs.

Quote:

“when you have hundreds or thousands of these spam blogs, and machines are running them, the economics are far different.”

I’m guessing they’re intended more as a means to generate Google juice for another website. If that guess is correct, the AdSense ads appearing on the page is not the primary reason for their existence.

How blogs are changing magazines: I just heard a piece on NPR’s Morning Edition (the audio will be available online at 10 a.m. EDT) regarding the launch of Domino Magazine, a “shopping magazine” about home decorating and furnishing “stuff” from the Conde Nast folks who brought you Lucky. Note the editor’s description of the magazine’s editorial approach: “Conversational and irreverant.” Note also the emphasis on “links” to websites in every story so that the reader can find the item because that’s the kind of world we live in today. Bonus reason for listening to the story: An interview with my friend, Samir Husni.