Category Archives: Reading List

Reading List September 3, 2005

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  • Ballmer Throws a Chair at "F*ing Google" (John Battelle’s Search Blog) – John has an excerpt from a legal document in the case where Microsoft is suing Google over the hiring of a valued techie.  It is the testimony of someone else who left Microsoft for Google and it involves Ballmer doing a Bobby Knight with a chair and calling Google’s CEO an "f*ing p*ssy."  Nice.
  • Horror Show (Crooks and Liars) – There’s a link to a Hannity & Colmes segment from last night that is remarkable in that the reporters in New Orleans (Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith) pretty much take the government to task for the response to Katrina and don’t let the hosts spin this thing at all.

Reading List September 2, 2005

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  • Destroying FEMA (The Washington Post) – The Post looks at what the Department of Homeland Security is doing to FEMA.
  • Book Publishing and Management: Still Working Out the Kinks (The Post Money Value) – Book publishers are dinosaurs.
  • Katrina Heroes (Reveries.com) – What some people are doing to help Katrina relief cause.  Notable number: as of noon on Aug. 31 about $100 million had been raised from the private sector, and $70 million of that was raised by the Red Cross.

Reading List September 1, 2005

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  • Kids Just Get It (The Post Money Value) – While at dinner Rick Segal overheard a child say the following after hearing about benefit concerts being put together for Katrina victims: “How come they have to do music to get help, don’t people just want to help?”
  • Fred Barnes to Katrina Victims: Drop Dead (New Hounds) – Conservative pundits behaving badly.
  • Rant on the Hurricane (The Chairman’s Corner) – The Guilford County (NC) Republican Party is in deep doo-doo.  Why?  Just read a few posts from this guy’s blog for some clues.
  • Wedding Canceled (Patrick Eakes) – Anecdotal testimony from people on the ground in Louisiana.

Reading List August 31, 2005

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  • Should New Orleans Be Rebuilt? (BuzzMachine) – Jeff Jarvis asks the question I suspect many Americans are thinking and he gets dozens of remarkably un-troll-like comments.
  • Is Dell Dying? (Slate) – The headline is really, well stupid.  But the article itself takes a hard look at Dell’s real business problems for the near future.
  • Terry’s Fortune Escapes High Point (Off the Record via Ed Cone) – Randall Terry, a local millionaire in High Point, NC died last year and his largest beneficiaries are his dogs ($1,000,000 +) and his foundation.  The foundation is principally focused on funding the NC State Veterinary school and Terry’s old boarding school in Virginia, so High Point won’t get any help from a man remembered as a true scrooge by the editorial writer.
  • Cover Your Eyes, Kids (Patrick Eakes) – Patrick, winner of the most popular Greensboro blog contest (I need to ask him if he gets to wear a tiara), doesn’t like how the NC Senate passed the lottery bill.  He’s right.
  • The Angry, Hate-Filled Left (OpinionEditorials) – I read this site every once in a while to keep an eye on what the "Righties" are saying.  I disagree with a lot of what this guys says, but I agree with his main point: while we (Americans) are all guaranteed the right to free speech that doesn’t mean we should not also show restraint.  By the way his title could just as easily be "The Angry, Hate-Filled Right."
  • Downturns (A VC) – Fred Wilson senses an economic downturn coming and has some good advice on how to deal with it, at least from an investor’s perspective.
  • National Bottle Museum (bookofjoe) – My neighbor, Curt Ewing, is an avid bottle collector will love finding this if he doesn’t already know about it.
  • Logistics of New Orleans’ Kidney Transplant (Moore’s Lore) – Dana Blankenhorn is thinking about the logistics of rebuilding New Orleans.  He’s right, it’s daunting.
  • Conservatism: A House Divided (Conservative Voice via Vie de Malchance) – Pat Buchanan writes an opinion piece on the state of the Republican Party.  My favorite quote: "
    But on spending, Bush and Congress do not even meet the Clinton standard. They qualify as Great Society Conservatives."
  • Copter Parents at 2 O’Clock! (Daniel Drezner) – Colleges are finding that this generation of students has parents that are "hyper-involved" in their lives, interfering with their childrens’ non-academic, problem-solving educational experience.  Sorry to see that namby-pamby parenting extends beyond middle-school.

Reading List August 30, 2005

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  • Identifont (bookofjoe) – Joe’s found a site, called identifont, that enables you to identify a font’s name by answering a series of questions.
  • Hired Because of His Blog (Rexblog) – At least one person has been hired because of his blog which, as Rex points out, makes a nice contrast to all the "fired because of his blog" stories.
  • Multipurpose Tools (EdCone) – Ed writes about an article in the NY Times that tells of the romance-killing effect on some men of viewing their wives giving birth.  He also links to an article in Slate that provides an overview of the very negative reaction of some female bloggers to the Times article.  To say I have a strong opinion here is an understatement, and will be the subject of a separate post.
  • Customer Relationship Mismanagement – (Doc Searls Weblog) – Oh my wife will love this post about how "f’d up" the Quickbooks customer service system is…she’s been-there, done-that.
  • Fletcher Grants Amnesty to 9 Charged in Probe (Lexington Herald-Leader via The Lex Files) – Read this article for more evidence of why no American can be too cynical about our politicians.

Reading List August 29, 2005

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  • The Betting Site for Big Thinkers (Freakonomics) – A couple of surprises here: one that a noted economist enjoys gambling and two that there are some very nerdy gambling opportunities at places like LongBets.com.
  • Dell Calling (BuzzMachine) – Jeff Jarvis finally got a call from a Dell PR person and she just continued spouting the company line.  Jeff’s given up on them.
  • Eye to Eye: A Talk With the CBS Blogger (BuzzMachine) – Jarvis meets with the new official CBS blogger and finds him nice enough that he offers some friendly words of advice.
  • You ARE a Marketer. Deal with It (Creating Passionate Users via BuzzMachine) – Hugh MacLeod explains why we’re all marketers, whether we like it or not.
  • Ups and Downs (Hogg’s Blog) – Jinni Hoggard has been fighting cancer for a long time and the experience has been a roller coaster for her entire family.  Her husband, David, has been writing about it on his blog and yesterday he wrote a post about the roller coaster ride they had in just one week.  It’s a must read.

Reading List August 26, 2005

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  • How Blogs Pertain to You (iMedia Connecton via Micro Persuasion) – Had to mention this one since I’m quoted in it.  The article asks how small fry (i.e. me) get treated by companies when we complain, versus how blog heavyweights (Jeff Jarvis) get treated by companies  when they complain.  Good stuff!
  • As Blogging Grows Companies Eye Legal Pitfalls (Yahoo! News) – Corporate types wonder what their liabilities are when it comes to blogging.
  • Blog Tools Tackle Content Management (InfoWorld via Yahoo! News) – Blog tools are essentially stripped down content management systems, and some people are beginning to use them that way.
  • simplehuman Uses Typepad to Build Press Room (via MicroPersuasion) – A company called simplehuman used Typepad (same service I use for this blog) to build a press room.  My lesson learned: I need to either improve my templates myself or get a real designer to do it.

Reading List August 25, 2005

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  • Link Selling: A Case Study (John Battelle’s Searchblog) – Should websites accept advertisers who aren’t interested in clicks, just in taking advantage of the website’s PageRank?
  • Google Gets Better. What’s Up With That? (New York Times) – A review of Google’s latest product releases, Google Desktop and Google Talk.
  • Thoughts on 9/11 (Patrick Eakes) – Patrick thinks that the National Geographic Channel’s "Inside 9/11" is well done, and I agree wholeheartedly.
  • User-Generated Market Intelligence (Business 2.0) – A new service called Jigsaw will aggregate the estimates of salespeople on the revenue and number of employees of private companies.  Using the "Wisdom of Crowds" theory this just might work.
  • Hatin’ (Half-life and times via Blog on the Run) –  A tech dude has some ideas about what to do with malware creators and none of them are pretty.
  • Touched (Chewie World Order) – Chewie links to the website of someone who seems to specialize in re-touching photos.  You can visit that site here.  Just click on any of the pictures and then run your mouse over the larger picture that appears and wonder at the powers of Photoshop.  Note, though, that even these people look great even in the before pictures, but a little augmentation takes them up a notch so to speak.
  • Location, Location, Location (A VC) – Why venture capitalists like to invest in companies that are close to home.
  • PR Pros as Eyes and Ears for Customer Service (Micro Persuasion) – Public relations and customer service are beginning to morph.

Reading List August 24, 2005

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Reading List August 22, 2005

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  • The Best Way to Save Gas (Moore’s Lore) – If localized web services got better we’d all save money.
  • Dating the Next Recession (Moore’s Lore) – Dana Blankenhorn thinks the next recession will begin October 17, 2005 when the new bankruptcy law goes into effect.  He makes an interesting and compelling argument.
  • Writer’s Perspective on Amazon’s Pay-to-Download Short Stories (Boing Boing) – Amazon has a new service that allows you download short stories one at a time (I-Stories?), and at least one writer thinks it’s a good thing.
  • Online Bettors Find a New Love: Real Estate (New York Times) – Online exchanges are correctly predicting many new developments (election results, American Idol winners, the capture of Saddam Hussein, etc.) and now they are telling us that real estate "bubbles" in the cities that it is tracking are NOT ready to burst.
  • The Vagina…It Writes Letters (Pandagon via Blog on the Run) – This is a hilarious play on the Vagina Monologues, which I’ve never read but am assuming weren’t that funny.  Kind of reminds me of that ‘detachable penis’ song.
  • "Peak Oil:" Welcome to the Media’s New Version of Shark Attacks (Freakonomics) – Steven Levitt pokes holes in a NYT magazine article that predicts calamitous results from the rising imbalance of oil production and consumption.
  • What Do the Kansas City Royals and My iPod Have in Common? (Freakonomics) – On randomness or the lack thereof.
  • Anatomy of a New York Times Article (Blog Maverick) – Times really are different for reporters.  Mark Cuban publishes the email chain for an interview he did with a New York Times reporter and then links to the resulting article.  Let’s just say he didn’t like the results, and he’s making the process transparent for everyone to make their own judgement.  Why do I think the reporter might not come out on top?
  • Steal this Book (Reveries) – Warren Adler, author of "War of the Roses", thinks the printed book has had a great 500-year run, but it’s about to be replaced by "screen" books.
  • Foxification of Local News (BuzzMachine) – Roger Ailes is going to do to local news what he did to national news at Fox.