• Who’s Afraid of Google Cover Stories? | BusinessWeek Tech Beat Blog
  Rob Hof of BusinessWeek asks, Hmm, haven’t I seen that Economist cover-story and headline before? Answer - It was on a story he wrote for the magazine.
  (tags: magazines)
• Twitter in the Funnies | BusinessWeek Tech Beat Blog
  I’m in the Rob Hof echo-chamber tonight. He wonders if Twitter is mainstream enough to get a pop-culture reference in a comic strip. My view: Kids don’t use Twitter — or read Sally Forth.
  (tags: twitter)

Google Earth, as it has since the first time I saw it, still gets my vote for the Best Program Ever. The new version is stunning. Really. Find where you are on the globe, then clilck a button and it converts to a view of the night sky above you. (Oops, I may miss that EVDO afterall, but fortunately, my wifi covers the backyard.) Not quite so significant, but really cool, the new version has a hidden feature, not publicized by Google: An F16 flight simulator, as described by a student in South Africa. It was discovered by someone who — and hats off to you people who do such things — held down the keys, Ctrl+Alt+A (or, if you’re running OS X it’s Command+Option+A). I’m sure, if you’ve grown up playing videogames or coding software, or whatever, you may think to click Ctrl+Alt+A when you’re trying out software, but I’m always impressed when I hear about the games developers play and the users who ask themselves, “I wonder what will happen if I do this…?”

Technorati Tags: google earth

Staci Kramer at PaidContent.org says the Apple-NBC Universal iTunes Store pricing negotiations are beginning to sound like a Jane Curtain-Dan Akroyd skit. However, to me, it sounds more like NBC Universal’s side in the negotiations are being handled by Jack Donaghy, GE VP of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming.

If you don’t use Twitter, skip this post. It will be even more gibberish than the gibberish found in typical posts. Other reasons to skip it: If you’re tired of hearing about Facebook, or are already tired of the buzzword, “lifestream,” even if you’ve never heard it before.

Twitter suggestion: I’m not a user of Jaiku.com, because, frankly, I’m far past the burn-out point on playing social-networking gypsy. However, I notice the service has a tab called “channels.” I’m a big fan of Twitter and one thing I like about it is the simplicity and ease-of-use, so I hesitate to suggest they start chasing features. However, as I was watching a football game last night, I thought it would be nice to have a means to join a “channel” or “group” of those posting “tweets” on the same subject. I can think of a 3rd-party API hack (see “update” below) that would come close, but it would be nice if there was a feature on Twitter that would allow that. Anyway, since they seem to be on a feature-adding binge, I thought I’d throw this one in.

Lifestream/Facebook App discovery/decision: Recently, I blogged about setting up a “lifestream,” an automated-page that catches all of the RSS feeds of things I blog, bookmark, or share online in other ways. That way, the disparate streams of information I add different places meet up in, what I call, the River of Rex (just before they flow into the Gulf of Rexico). That I now have such an aggregated (ego-grated) feed, I decided to import that feed into Facebook notes and do away with all those Facebook apps that do the same: the applications that merely import del.icio.us, twitter, flickr, etc. In doing do, I decided that nearly all the Apps I’ve added to Facebook are just there, as in, there’s no there there, so I deleted almost all of them. Except Dogface. Now that’s a mission-critical app.

General observation about how some people react to Twitter: I enjoy reading the comments whenever Techcrunch posts something about Twitter, because for some reason, Twitter really riles certain individuals in the geekosphere. For example, here’s a comment from the afore-linked Techcrunch article today: “Twitter is useless and annoying regardless of all the hype around it.” I love that, because it sounds just like some print-centric editor reacting to the Internet, starting about ten years ago. That it’s coming from the type of geeky-readers who hangout at Techcrunch is delightfully ironic. I agree, if you just “observe” Twitter for a few days, you will quickly write it off as useless and annoying. However, the site’s users are, through “playing” with it, innovating some creative, meaningful uses. I’ve blogged before about Twitter’s potential in emergency situations and how, for example, the LA Fire Department uses it. I have no idea where Twitter’s users will take it, but I have no doubt that it is far from “useless.”

Come to think of it, despite the fact I find most Facebook apps useless and annoying regardless of all of the hype around them, I have no doubt that some very useful things will come from all the hype-fueled developments.

Update: Thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick for pointing to such a third-party work-around. I look forward to trying it out.

• Will Facebook soon allow me to export my network? | The Unofficial Facebook Blog
  As LinkedIn and Plaxo already let me export my list of contacts, is Facebook heading that way soon? The addition of some code in their API “sandbox” suggests they may be adding it soon.
  (tags: facebook socialnetworks)

I like those little favicons (appicons?) they’ve added to Facebook to provide a better interface for accessing features (however, on Facebook, they call features “applications” so that independent application developers will create them for free). Recently, I’ve been removing apps quicker than adding them, however.

Observation: The NYTimes.com has started to include posts from their staff blogs on their “Home Page” RSS feed (unfortunately, they are not full-post feeds, but summaries). So, I was able to learn from the NYT’s U.S. Open blog that the Times of London is hosting a Rafael Nadal blog (interesting sidenote: it’s running on TypePad.com) on which he is providing some very frank and personal insights into his emotional state regarding the death of a Spanish soccer star and his physical condition.

There’s a lot going on here: While not new — newspapers and magazines often get athletes to “keep a diary,” and I believe I’ve blogged before about athletes blogging major competitions — Nadal (or whoever he’s dictating this stuff to) is cranking out a steady stream of legitimate (in the tennis world, huge) news that reporters would love to be breaking. Since it’s being hosted by a newspaper, perhaps it is the newspaper that’s breaking these stories. It’s also somewhat unique — and making me a fan of NYTimes.com blogs — to see newspaper reporters cross-linking to other newspapers. Another thing: It’s interesting to note the Times of London has recognized that it is a better thing for them to utilize a hosted, blogging software application for this than to use the paper’s content management system or even an enterprise-version of MovableType running on the Times’ servers. (I’ve noted this before when other newspapers have done so, most notably when the New Orleans Times Picayune depended on such a strategy in the days after Katrina.) And, very nuanced, the integration of blog-posts into the NYTimes.com’s “Home Page” feed is an effective way for them to get those linkable posts in front of bloggers like me, who never actually visit the NYT.com website unless coaxed via an RSS feed.

While I look at hundreds of magazines a week, it’s rarely at the newsstand. My magazine-wonk-friend, Samir Hunsi — Mr. Magazine — does. He checks out magazines in grocery stores, Wal-mart and — I feel certain — one of the best independent book stores in America, Square Books, in Oxford, Miss. (It’s worth a trip.) Because he does, Professor Husni is always posting side-by-side images of magazines he sees that are testing different cover treatments. If you start looking at covers in this way, you discover some amazing things magazine marketers test. Whenever I see one of these posts, it makes me feel better knowing that our staff debates about where something appears on the cover are probably being replicated in hundreds of offices everyday.

• MapForUS.org
  This is so funny, it almost makes it bearable to watch the heavily YouTubed trainwreck of an answer Miss Teen SC gave.
  (tags: humor)

I started blogging about Katrina two years ago, yesterday. A year ago, I looked back at a year of Katrina posts. This post was going to be longer, but I trashed it. It drifted into too much cynicism. I’ll just leave it at this: When the big one hits, let’s help each other. Don’t expect much from the bureaucrats and politicians.

Observation #1: The page about Hulu.com on Mahalo.com will be the Mahalo-hulu page. In other words, are Hawaiian-ish “wiki”-sounding words on their way to replacing dropped-vowel spelling as the new trend in branding web-services?

Observation #2: If Newscorp/Universal didn’t purchase Hula.com, they’ve just added a zero or two to the value of that domain name.

Observation #3: Is it a trend story that people hang stupid names on Internet startups? Stupid names for web-stuff is old skool.

Later: TechCrunch discovers some translations for “hulu,” including “butt” in Indonesian and “cease and desist” in Swahili.

Despite my contemplative look at the debasement of the word and concept of friend, the reality is this: I’m still going to use the word. I’m still going to describe as friends the people who I make connections with in a wide variety of ways. I’ll continue to say “business-friend” or “blogging-friend” or “Nashville-friend” or “Twitter-friend,” but the word friend is firmly entrenched in my vocabulary. When I don’t use such adjectives, it’s a clue that I may consider that person more than a hyphenated friend. If I don’t hyphenate you and you feel that’s stepping over the bounds, sorry. If you want to call me a friend, please do, I need all the friends I can get. However, if I don’t know you, I may not friend you on Facebook. However, my definition of know is fairly broad. If your remind me how I know you, it helps. Also, if you’re a Nashville or media/tech-blogger or you’re someone I know through an industry-connection, then, in a Facebookian way, I’m pretty sure we’re friendable.

And while I’m at it, let me publicly give-up on another debased, unfortunate word: content. I don’t generate content, I write words or take photographs or shoot video. However, as certain powers-that-be (translation: people who write checks) seem hellbent on jamming all forms of human expression into one jar called “content,” then, hey, whatever. I’ve been writing some copy for the soon-to-be-relaunched Hammock.com website and it has the word content all over it. We’ve even thrown-in a few “user-generated-content” phrases to clarify what I mean when I say that people engage in conversations and personal expression.

Just think of me as your user-generated-content-friend.

Bonus: Back in February, I blogged about friendstitution, the practice of “renting” MySpace friends lists.

• The history of American declinism | realclearpolitics.com
  As they have for 300 years, a lot of people — liberal and conservative — believe America is declining. (via Rich Karlgaard)
  (tags: history)
• How to Eat (and Read) Close to Home | New York Times
  Article about Edible Communities. Quote - Tailoring a single prototype to multiple cities or regions is a popular publishing format, adopted by magazines focused on weddings, society and restaurant menus.
  (tags: magazines)

(Later: Actually, there are only 9 as I mis-numbered when first posted.)

Over the years, I’ve watched these things, and I think I’ve broken the code on the news flow of political scandals. It doesn’t matter what the politician does — accept bribes, shoplifts or, well, just fill in the blank:

1. Politician _______s.
2. Rumors circulate that politician ________s.
3. Politician denies rumors.
4. Politician caught _____ing.
5. Politician says, “I did not _____, it was a misunderstanding.”
6. Politician blames media and bloggers.
7. Past partners, victims or witnesses show up to prove politician _______s all the time.
8. Politician admits he’s __________ed.
9. Politician apologizes to his family and to those who trusted him, blames it on alcohol and enters rehab.

• NowPlayingNashville.com
  Great new non-profit, community-supported site that pulls together listings of all upcoming sports, arts and entertainment events.
  (tags: nashville)
• Corporate blogs: Don’t call them that! | Stephen Baker
  If you’re sitting in a corporate job now, chances are you’ll soon be filling out a profile of some sort and contributing some knowledge or insights–if you’re not doing it already — but it probably won’t be called a blog.
  (tags: blogging)
• Cutting off the hand that feeds you | Mr. Magazine
  Samir Husni thinks its nuts to package a magazine on the newsstand in a way that encourages people to never again purchase that magazine at the newsstand. I responded in a comment to his post
  (tags: magazines newsstand)