I love the comment spam filter plug-in, Akismet. For example, in the past 24 hours, it has caught 150 attempts to add comments to random posts on the rexblog — and close to 8,000 such attempts in the past six months. It’s gotten to the point, where I batch-delete everything that Akismet catches.

However, for some reason, tonight I skimmed through the comments queued up for deleting and discovered a “false positive” (or negative, I’m not sure) that I would have been quite embarrassed to have deleted.

It’s a response from IDG Communications President Bob Carrigan to a post I made yesterday that chided an InfoWeek editor. Here’s what Bob wrote:

Rex — We made the decision to discontinue the print version of InfoWorld because it made good business sense and frankly, “because we could.” Over the last few years, InfoWorld had become a predominantly online and events business in terms of revenue mix. When the print business in that book turned south, there was no good business reason to stay in print. The decision was made easier because the team at InfoWorld has done a great job of transforming the business where the brand can thrive without print. And as you say in your post, we have many other print pubs at IDG that are doing just fine. I enjoyed Ted’s article about the environmental benefits of going online-only, but that did not play a role in our decision-making. If it’s a good by-product of the decision - as Ted said in his article - then all the better.

On the subject of doing good for the environment: You also mentioned in your post that you might buy a hybrid. I bought the Prius about nine months ago and recommend it highly. Toyota built a decent community site that might interest you: http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/minisite/hsd/index.html?s_van=GM_TN_HSD.

Finally, you mentioned in a post a few days ago that from time to time we email each other about music, specifically bluegrass music. On that “note,” I am not sure if you get the Imus in the Morning radio show in Nashville, but Alison Krauss was the musical guest today (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3226997). She sang a few tunes from her new album, A Hundred Miles or More. Gotta buy that album — she’s great.

The other day, I wrote a post titled, “Why I blog.” I’ll add another reason to the list: this is why I blog. (P.S. Just ordered the album as it’s only partially available on iTunes.)

I just channel-surfed to see how the home-state women are doing in the NCAA national championship game and landed on ESPN 2. It took me a moment to realize I was watching something, well, different. On ESPN 1 (I’m watching the HD versions of both channels), traditional coverage of the game is being aired, while on ESPN 2, as you can see from the photo below, there’s a display of five camera angles. In a sixth window — the middle screen on the bottom row — instant replays or stats are displayed.

Perhaps more interesting is the “alternative” announcing taking place on ESPN 2. Rather than play-by-play, someone who sounds remarkably like Peter Sagal is chit-chatting with a former basketball player (and who sounds unremarkably like every other former basketball player) about everything but the game. Okay, once in a while, they’ll mention something about the game. After three minutes, I know about the guitar painted on the court, the shoe companies roll-out of next season’s models and, well, they’ve convinced me: I’d rather be watching House. Maybe someone I follow on Twitter will post the game-end score. Outta here.

Later: Tuned back in for the end of the game. Pat Summit adds a seventh national championship to her legendary career. Amazing.

A long time ago, I used to kid Professor Samir Husni on this weblog — a lot. Then we became friends and I kept kidding him, just less often. I’ve always thought he should have a blog, as he’s the definitive tracker of magazine launches and also follows non-North American titles — a unique combination. As I said the other day, and am glad to reiterate, Mr. Magazine is now blogging and filling a void in, if there is such, the magazine-industry blogosphere. Those of you who follow magazine-related news will enjoy it.

The distant chorus of Kumbaya is still still echoing. Observation: In a cluetrain metaphor, I give Dell credit for figuring out how to catch the cluetrain after it had already left the station — and they now seem to be enjoying the ride.

Technorati Tags: cluetrain, dell, conversational media

• Thanks, Dave | Sixapart.com
  An appreciative post by Anil Dash of Six Apart, the Movable Type company.
  (tags: blogging)