Nick Carr tries out the Dvorakian troll: Here’s my theory: Having learned the finer points of trolling from that video Dave Winer shot (BitTorrent, YouTube), Nick Carr tries out the Dvorak method himself.

Quote:

“The Macintosh’s market share among the technological elite is far, far higher than its share among the unwashed…(but)…like most elites, (the technological elite) is an image-obsessed conformist clique that defines itself by material tokens - in this case, the gadgetry it wields. A Windows PC is the machine of the commoner; it has no place in the court. There are suddenly signs, however, that the Mac may be losing its exalted place on the laps of the tech monarchy - not to Windows (perish that thought), but to Linux. The main reason the elite despises Windows is because it’s so damn popular. A move away from the Mac would, in the same way, signal that the Mac has become too popular - that it no longer signifies status.”

Dvorak, eat your heart out.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, troll

Goodnight and Good Luck: The NY Times is reporting that Dan Rather is seriously considering an offer from Mark Cuban.

Quote:

“Dan Rather, whose agreement to leave CBS News after 44 years could be final as soon as this evening, said in an interview today that he was seriously considering an offer from Mark Cuban, the unbridled owner of the Dallas Mavericks, to be the host and producer of a one-hour weekly news program for HDNet, a high-definition television channel that Mr. Cuban’s company owns.”

What a relief. When I saw the headline, “Dan Rather Considering Offer From Mark Cuban,” I was fearful it was for a point guard position.

Technorati Tags: mavs

The Beverly Hillbillies (in reverse)? Jalopnik has some photos of folks at Nissan USA’s headquarters in Southern California packing up the truck for the move to Nashville.

(Thanks to Josh Hallett)

Nashville vs Atlanta — the faux competition: The mayor of Nashville just emailed me (and a few thousand others, no doubt) a link to this story in today’s USA Today that continues the meme regarding some imaginary competition going on among Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte for “big fish” status in the Southeast. (Upon reading the story, I’m assuming Florida — except for Daytona Beach — isn’t actually in the Southeast.) I’d like to once more say that being another Atlanta — or Charlotte, for that matter — is the last thing Nashville wants to be. In fact, I’d like to encourage people to ignore all this anti-Atlanta hype being generated about what a wonderful place Nashville is. Really. Ignore the anti-Atlanta hype about Nashville’s new symphony center. It’s swell, but, hey, it’s no aquarium! And pay no attention to yesterday’s anti-Atlanta unveiling of the new headquarters for Nissan USA. It may be nice, but Atlanta has Six Flags. Also, don’t forget, they had the Olympics there once.

Update: Also, please don’t interpret as anti-Atlanta that the folks who sell Whiskas and Pedigree pet foods are moving their headquarters from LA to Nashville (Dear BrandWeek: Shouldn’t the phrase ‘Goin’ Country’ be replaced with the phrase ‘Goin’ honky tonk hamlet’ — or, pehaps, ‘not moving to Atlanta’).  (via: Nashvillepost.com)

Technorati Tags: nashville

Search for a red flag: Who knows? Rija may end up be the most incredible whatever-it-is ever. I’m sure I’ll love it, I guess. And I’m guess it probably has some user-hacked, adult-content angle that will, no doubt, drive early adoption. But when I see a quote like the one below, all I can think is they have too much money and too many people and WAY too many egos to juggle.:

“The company employs 50 people, 44 of them engineers, and 14 of those Stanford PhDs. Every time we talk with Munjal, he brings up these engineering stats. It’s probably because he doesn’t want to end up like the dozens of online video sharing sites that YouTube is taking to the cleaners. Deep technology is important, he said.”

As the company has raised $10 million, I suggest they take $19 of that and download the PDF book, Getting Real, by Jason Fried and his associates at 37Signals.

Technorati Tags: web2.0

Maverick fan post: Watching last night’s game in which the Mavericks were flat and played uninspired was a new experience for me in my one-week old career as a fan of the team (and the dipping of my toe back into the NBA-watching pool). It was the first time in the finals that Dirk Nowitzki was, uh, just there — although that missed free-throw in Game 3 was a let-down. It was also the first game Mark Cuban didn’t blog before, during or after the game. Okay, Cuban. Crank it up. Every game you’ve blogged with excitement, the team has won. It’s time to get back in the groove.

Technorati Tags: mavs