To the funny friend who shall remain nameless: I just received an e-mail from a blogger friend who wanted to know, since I blog a lot about magazines and Apple products, why I wasn’t pointing to this item about an Apple product appearing on the cover a well-known magazine. I said it was because my editor won’t let me.

Katie Couric is vlogging: Forget that TV gig. Katie Couric has a new blog called Couric & Co. at the easy to remember web address: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/couricandco/main500803.shtml. Actually, one of the “& Co.” folks, Greg Kandra, made all the posts on the blog today, but it has lots of video clips of Katie, including a daily video post called First Look.

Because it’s probably been 25 years since I’ve watched a network “evening news” (they come on at 5:30 in Nashville — who’s watching TV at that time?), I’ll not be posting any reviews of her anchor debut. However, here’s my review of her first “vlogging”: I found it refreshing that the production values and premise of the “First Look” vlog segments are like this: Have someone grab a digital video camera and follow Katie around while she talks about tonight’s news with the producers. No edits — just whatever she says seems to get posted. Also, this seems like a one-take production with no rehearsal. (At least, that’s what it seems after seeing they left several seconds of her doing something with her sweater that would never make it onto the evening news.) Katie walks around “the fish bowl” and talks over the shoulders of the producers. They are hard at work at their flat screen monitors, never looking at the camera — just at Katie or their monitors. The executive editorial staff of the show are all dressed in clothes straight from the set of Good night and Good luck (except no one is smoking). Loosen up the ties, guys. Katie is informal, chatty and joking it up with the gang. However, at times, she seems a little nervous — a bit like Amanda Congdon used to appear.

After watching her vlog post, it’s clear she’s not nearly as funny as ZeFrank, however I’ve decided I like Katie and if I’m ever home at 5:30 when the news comes on here in Nashville — which I never am — I’ll be sure to tune in. But I doubt I’ll TiVo it.

As for the Couric & Co. blog where the videos are being posted: It has all the permalinks, comments, RSS feeds and “add to delicious” badges you’d expect. It has hundreds of comments but I read only a few because they all sounded like, “I love you, Katie…” Except for an easy-to-remember URL, Katie has all the blog bases covered. She & Co. are going to have a seat at the table when any of those blogger types stir up stuff; not like that other guy who used to be the anchor. In the most recent post on her blog, Greg Kandra introduces a new feature of the day called “Word of the Day” and about today’s word, “gravitas,” he writes this: “After hearing that word a few times too often this summer, usually describing something people thought she lacked, Katie said, in exasperation: “I’m convinced gravitas is Latin for testicles.” All of the comments on the post ignore the quote and focus, rather, on how great Katie was on tonight’s news.

Technorati Tags: cbs news, katie couric, vlogging

Where’s the outrage? Doc Searls points to an article in today’s LA Times about the possibility of (don’t read this, Laura) the Las Manitas Avenue Cafe in Austin having to close to make way for a giant hotel project (with three — not one, not two, but three — Marriott hotels). I’ve spent a total of five days in Austin and I believe I’ve eaten at the restaurant six times — I had breakfast there three days in a row in March — and would have kept the record going if I hadn’t returned home. I once described Las Manitas to some people in Nashville this way: Imagine if the Pancake Pantry was also a great Tex-Mex restaurant. By the way, the reference to Laura regards a recollection of a lunch we had there a couple of years ago that she blogged on Fixin’ Supper (before her blog moved to its current address, Fixinsupper.com). This year, Summer Huggins and I had lunch there a few tables away from Ann Richards. One thing for sure: thanks to Summer and her husband, Cole, my visits to Austin are always jammed packed with great dining memories.

Technorati Tags: austin

Where are the lawyers 2.0? Or, “the parody defense”: There are some giggles about whether there is actually a conference (or is it a parody website?) taking place next month in Tyson’s Corner called, “The New New Internet Web 2.0 Conference.” I assume (like Dave) there really is a conference planned, but I suggest its organizers keep the “parody” rumors alive. Why?

A few days ago, Tim O’Reilly wrote on his weblog:

“I’m also pleased to report that CMP has agreed to narrow the scope of enforcement of the Web 2.0 trademark registration. It will only seek to protect the Web 2.0 trademark if another other Web 2.0-related event has a name that is confusingly similar to the names of the actual events co-produced by CMP and O’Reilly, such as our events “The Web 2.0 Conference” and “The Web 2.0 Expo.” This is consistent with my original understanding about why the trademark filing was made. I must confess that I’ve always thought that the point was simply to protect the event names, as evidenced by the fact that we have always put the trademark notice at the end of the conference names on the website that O’Reilly produces, “The Web 2.0 Conference.”

As the Tyson’s Corner conference is calling itself The New New Internet Web 2.0 Conference*, this appears to be the type of infringement Tim describes. As the conference is prominently displaying the logos of such companies and institutions as Microsoft, Google, TechCrunch, Jobster and the Harvard Business School, I believe there is clearly the opportunity for CMP and O’Reilly to display “harm” and to claim damages.

Admittedly, I am not a lawyer and I only play one on this blog. However, from my legal Lazy Boy, here’s my advice to the Tyson’s Corner folks: Claim you are using the phrase “Web 2.0″ as commentary and parody of the O’Reilly/CMP conferences — and call in Rageboy as an expert witness. You could use one of my favorite legal cases, Suntrust vs. Houghton Mifflin to defend your usage of the trademarked term, Web 2.0®.

*From the source code of the Tyson’s Corner conference website:

<title>The New New Internet - Web 2.0 Conference</title>

meta name=”keywords” content=”Web 2.0, the new new internet, web 2.0 conference, Business web 2.0, 2.0 business conference, Web 2.0 IPV6, Business 2.0, conferences”
meta name=”description” content=”Our intent for The New New Internet Web 2.0 Conference is to bring you absolutely the best speakers and presentors on the topic of Web 2.0 and how it applies to the enterprise.”

Technorati Tags: parody, web2.0

Second Life virtual state delegates up for grab: Forget Iowa. Now potential presidential candidates are heading to Second Life to campaign. I think campaigning on Second Life is right up there with doing an interview with Steven Colbert. High risk, questionable reward and lots of accolades from people who rarely vote. Don’t get me wrong. I think appearing on Second Life is very appropriate for politicians. Many I observe live permanently in make-believe worlds.

Update: rexblog’s peephole into the world of Second Life, Eric Rice, has posted a screen shot from the “event.”

Technorati Tags: second life

What makes the media check their brains at the door when the story is about dead celebrities and psychos? What Jeff Jarvis said: “Anyone who has spent more than six months reporting, editing, or watching the news could have guessed that John Mark Karr was just a sicko who was looking for attention.”

I will see Jeff’s quote and raise him one: The only experience anyone needed to discern the guy was a mental case is a modicum of walking-around common sense.

Earlier this evening, I was in a drugstore and saw the sick People magazine cover that seemed to yell out the editors knew the guy was crazy, but they still were committed to a belief in the magic formula of selling magazines that was articulated by their legendary founding editor, Richard Stolley (someone I’m sure Jeff may have spent some time with a few years ago): “Young is better than old. Pretty is better than ugly. Rich is better than poor. TV is better than music. Music is better than movies. Movies are better than sports. Anything is better than politics. (and, he later added) Nothing is better than the celebrity dead.”

Pathetically ironic is the sad fact that the only reason JonBenet is a celebrity is because for years before she was brutally murdered, her mother dressed her up to look like a celebrity on a magazine cover.

Travelling fool: I bookmarked this “states visited” doo-dad a few weeks ago, but just got around to clicking over to it. On the left are all the states I’ve ever visited. (I’m now looking for excuses to go to Alaska, Hawaii, North & South Dakota.) On the right are states I’ve visited during the past 18 months — It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been to 24 states in the past year and a half.

Freakonomics fisking of AP story on music and teen sex: Anyone who saw the AP story headline “Sexual lyrics prompt teens to have sex” and who has read the book Freakonomics knew it wouldn’t take long for one of the authors to point out the obvious conclusion there’s a correlation between reporters not taking statistics in college and misinterpretation of survey data. (There’s a difference between “correlation” and “causal” in research. However that doesn’t stop reporters and their editors from using words like “prompt” when the data does not necessarily prove such.)

A really amazing feature on Podbop: Let’s say you’re traveling to a new city or hanging out in your hometown and you want to use your iPod to listen to legally* downloaded tunes from bands and artists who will be performing soon in that town. As I’ve blogged before, using Podbop (podbop.org), you can load up your iPod by subscribing to the podcast feed of that city. What’s even more amazing is this: When you are listening to a song, the screen of your iPod displays the name of the artist and tune and the date and venue of their local performance. Here’s another cool thing. Taylor McKnight, creator of Podbop (and friend) used his Flickr account to explain the feature.

*Podbop combines (mashes-up) event information with a database of links to “legit” MP3s shared by artists, typically for promotional purposes.

Technorati Tags: ipod, podbop, podbop.org

500 answers: What does Web 2.0 mean? 37signals, in a survey of Basecamp users, asked the question, “Have you ever heard the term ‘Web 2.0′?” Those who answered “yes” were asked to say what they think it means. Here are 500 of the replies.

(via: Signal vs. Noise)

Technorati Tags: web2.0

Geeky discovery: (Apologies to those who think the following seems like I discovered the obvious.) With a few hours in an airport and on a plane last evening, I wasted some time continuing my Treo 700p discovery tour. While the phone’s 1.3 MP camera is far superior to my previous Treo’s camera, it’s still not my camera of choice — no flash or zoom, for instance. I typically have my Cannon PowerShot SD-600 with me (geez, I feel like this post is filled with product placements) and use it for photos and quick videos. While messing around with the phone, I noticed that it uses the same size memory card as my camera and wondered what would happen if I put the card from my camera into the slot on my phone? In one of those rare moments of gadget bliss, I discovered that my phone’s camera software read the photo and video files from my camera and that I could use Sprint’s (gee, my third brand mention in one post) photo mail to post a photo from my camera’s memory card to my Flickr (four) account. Having mobile broadband enabled me to upload this 1.5 MB photo in less than a minute.

Bonus link: Johnnie Tech shows how to transfer MP3 files from your computer to a memory card to listen to with a Treo and about mid-way through the video asks, “Who is Robert Scoble?” (Gotta love it.)

Technorati Tags: johnnie+tech, robert scoble, treo700p

Fun-ding news: I was beginning to think a funding round of $230,000 is lowering the bar on what is news until I saw this headline on an item on Techmeme.

Technorati Tags: humor, web2.0

This website has compiled almost 63,000 Jeopardy questions and answers: What is J-Archive?

This is one of those things I look at and marvel at the narrowly-focused passions people have — and how they can find unique ways to express such passions online. You’ll either think this is one of the strangest (as in, why’d they do that?) things you’ve ever seen, or, you’ll think it’s what Ken Jennings says on the front page of the site: “The highest pinnacle of the Internet and, frankly, of Western civilization.”

(via: the other Rex, fimoculous.com)

Technorati Tags: jeopardy

Rocketboom lesson: There are more than one way to tie ones shoes.

Zune: (From Reuters) “Microsoft (confirmed) Friday it plans to release a new music and entertainment player and accompanying software under the ‘Zune’ brand this year.” I wonder if it will be anything like the sketch below:

Technorati Tags: ipod, zune