Jeff Jarvis is no longer an AOL member, but he might be from New Jersey

August 2, 2005 by Leave a Comment

As an aspect of my loneliness caused by a lack of meatspace geek friends, I’m always on the look-out for people with serious interests in technology and new media in New Jersey. As part of this search, I found the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers, a weekly summary of blog entries by Jersey bloggers or about Jersey, submitted for posting.

In the latest posting, Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers Eleven, there’s a link to Jeff Jarvis‘s recent entry about how he’s finally cancelling his AOL subscription after some 12 years of benig a member. While I couldn’t find anything that definitively confirms that Jeff’s in Jersey, I’m assuming he must be if the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers linked to him. Of course, I sent Jeff an email yesterday asking if he’d confirm, but I haven’t gotten back a response yet: perfectly expected, considering how busy he is and how he has no idea who I am.

I’m looking forward to finding new bloggers through the Carnival and maybe even get to become friends with a few of them. If you know of any Jersey bloggers, either point me at their sites in a comment or email me. Thanks.

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Jeff Mach helps me become “Closer to Fine”

July 28, 2005 by Leave a Comment

I’m trying to tell you something about my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
The best thing you’ve ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously, it’s only life after all
Well darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable
And lightness has a call that’s hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it, I’m crawling on your shore.

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There’s more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.

[…]

Indigo Girls, “Closer to Fine”

Last night, Jeff Mach helped me understand what these lyrics truly mean to me. If I were to sing these quoted lyrics to you, Jeff, it would express how I feel right now and what I learned last night.

Jeff, your friendship is priceless to me. Thank you for teaching me about what I wouldn’t understand. Thank you for making the lightness louder and being the shore when I need it. Thank you for being you.

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Nielsen/Netratings confirms it: AOL Search and Ask Jeeves are trending up, MSN Search is trending down

July 22, 2005 by Leave a Comment

In the beginning of this month I wrote about AOL launching the latest version of their Video Search product. In the beginning of this week, I wrote about Nielsen/Netratings showing AOL Search trending up, and MSN Search trending down. Yesterday, Reuters ran an article that echoes what I said at the beginning of the week in an article titled “AOL, AskJeeves search growth outpace leaders.” Quoting from that article:

Between the first and second quarters of this year, the number of searches made on AOL, the online division of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Ask Jeeves grew 15 percent and 16 percent respectively, according to a Nielsen/Netratings study released on Thursday.

By comparison, the number of searches on Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) grew 6 percent and 9 percent respectively over the same period. The number of searches on Microsoft’s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) MSN fell 4 percent.

The article goes on to make clear that AOL is in no way a threat to the search market leader, Google, but it does show that AOL is making real progress in moving itself forward in the Internet space. These kinds of positive reports, along with announcements from Time Warner, paying a $0.05/share quarterly dividend, may help restore investor confidence that AOL is both a company and a brand that will continue to improve over time.

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America, where are your Patriots? Will you be ready when the time comes?

July 18, 2005 by 2 Comments

Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com, wrote a hot entry in his blog about Gitmo, where I left the following comment:

Bob,

While I agree that there are organized groups of violent people, which the media has lionized with the name “terrorist,” who should be dealt with as any aggressor against the US, i.e., with places such as Gitmo, etc., how will you feel when the truth finally comes out about 9/11 being a US secret operation to allow us to go to war in the Middle East?

Things like the UK war memo are only a foreshadowing of this truth. This is not just crackpot conspiracy theory. It is the only logical explanation for how the “terrorists” were allowed to strike both the NY and DC targets concurrently. Okay, I concede that gross incompetence on our part could also be a viable explanation, but surprisingly, I don’t think honestly think we are indeed that incompetent at defending ourselves, given the gross overspending on our military as it is. We have the best toys in the world and we surely know how to use them.

On the morning of 9/11/2001, I stood in the parking lot at work with the rest of my co-workers, and I said to one of them, “Today is not the worst day. The worst day will be when America learns of the truth behind how this event was allowed to happen.”

That day is still coming.

Interestingly, an article was published by New York Newsday on September 12, 2001, titled “Heightened Security Alert Had Just Been Lifted.” Here’s the relevant quote from the article:

Daria Coard, 37, a guard at Tower One, said the security detail had been working 12-hour shifts for the past two weeks because of numerous phone threats. But on Thursday, bomb-sniffing dogs were abruptly removed.

“Today was the first day there was not the extra security,” Coard said. “We were protecting below. We had the ground covered. We didn’t figure they would do it with planes. There is no way anyone could have stopped that.”

The emphasis in the quote is mine: when that one seemingly innocuous sentence was originally published, it should have been a huge clue as to the true nature of what happened on 9/11. Crashing two jet planes and burning jet fuel alone could not have been sufficient to cause the damage to the Towers that we saw on September 11. This was a planned demolition, whether you still believe it was done by foreign terrorists, or domestic ones.

So, what of all this conspiracy theory about there being bombs responsible for what we saw on 9/11? Just because there was reduced security by means of bomb-sniffing dogs, that doesn’t immediately mean that bombs were involved, right? Sure, except for this recent article by Greg Szymanski, titled “Second WTC Janitor Comes Forward With Eye-Witness Testimony Of ‘Bomb-Like’ Explosion in North Tower Basement, published just a few days ago on July 12, 2005. I suspect that whoever is actually behind what happened on 9/11 didn’t anticipate there actually being any survivors from the sub-basement levels of the Towers to come forth and tell their story about what actually happened on that day, but there apparently are. Here’s what I think is a particularly relevant quote:

In the 2002 taped statement, Sanchez recalls, at the same time Rodriguez and the others heard the explosion, being in a small sub-level 4 workshop with another man who he only knew by the name of Chino when, out of nowhere, the blast sounded as the two men were cutting a piece of metal.

“It sounded like a bomb and the lights went on and off,” said Sanchez in the tape recording. “We started to walk to the exit and a huge ball of fire went through the freight elevator. The hot air from the ball of fire dropped Chino to the floor and my hair got burned,” said Sanchez in the tape recording. “The room then got full of smoke and I remember saying out loud ‘I believe it was a bomb that blew up inside the building.’

The article goes on in more detail, indicating that there may also be other survivors from the basement who can further corroborate this story. Obviously, this could be the “UFO sighting phenomenon,” where people will claim to have a shared traumatic experience because they need some way to rationalize what they experienced with an explanation, but the plausibility of the explanation — that bombs were detonated in the Towers’ sub-basements — while something we don’t want to believe, is finding more and more evidence that supports it.

Over two hundred years ago, this country was formed by a group of people who were known as “Patriots.” These people fought against the rule of a government that didn’t serve its people. What it meant to be “a patriot” back then was to support the revolution in overthrowing the former government. It meant fighting against huge odds because to continue to live the way things are would be far worse than trying to overthrow the government. It was downright treasonous to be a patriot, but these people did it because that’s what they felt was the right thing to do. They risked everything because they couldn’t go on living the way they were — they were pushed past a point.

Today, the words “patriot” and “patriotic” get thrown around, but in the same breath with things like the “PATRIOT Act” and “Homeland Security” — implying loyalty and support of our current government — but when and where did the meaning change? Perhaps it really hasn’t. Perhaps there will be a new generation of patriots who will overthrow this government and install a new one whose interests, once again, lie with the people it represents. They will be fighting against huge odds, and be treated as traitors — maybe even labelled terrorists — and will risk everything for something they believe in. But, how many 9/11’s will it take before the American people are pushed past their point and become true patriots? We will see.

Filed Under: Believe it, or not 2 Comments

Robert Scoble discovers MSN Search now has another AOL Search feature

July 18, 2005 by Leave a Comment

Robert Scoble, cheerleading for his MSN Search team, discovered today that MSN Search now has another AOL Search feature, the sports stats widget. He says:

Oh, my, and are we seeing MSN beat Google for the first time at
something? I was just doing some searches on Ichirio Suzuki. Look at Google’s result. Look at Yahoo’s results. Then look at MSN’s.
MSN now includes a neat little chart. Oh, I want this for myself!
Searching for “Robert Scoble” doesn’t have a cool chart like that.

Don’t forget to look at AOL’s. AOL even puts the Snapshot widget above the Sponsored Links, while MSN doesn’t.

I realize that AOL Search is trailing even MSN Search according to Nielsen//NetRatings (via SearchEngineWatch.com), but if you look at the “Share Of Searches Trend” data over the last few months, MSN has been trending down while AOL has been trending up. If the AOL Search team can keep it up by launching best-in-class search products like AOL Video Search, there might be reason for the MSN Search guys to take a much closer look at what AOL’s doing that MSN isn’t.

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New York City foolishly restricts cell-phone use in transit tunnels

July 12, 2005 by Leave a Comment

What seems, to me, to be a thoughtless, knee-jerk response to the July 7 London bombings, according to the Associated Press wire via WCBS 880 (AOL News, CNN) …

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area transit hubs, bridges and tunnels, decided last Thursday to indefinitely sever power to transmitters that provide wireless service in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, spokesman Tony Ciavolella said Monday.

This overly reactionary safety strategy makes me think about Bruce Schneier‘s recent blog entry about talking to strangers and why the conventional wisdom of “don’t talk to strangers” is a poor strategy. In a world where the good guys far outnumber the bad guys, cellular phone use in the tunnels stand a greater chance of being used to provide advanced warnings of possible attacks rather than to cause them.

In order to better prepare and defend ourselves from terrorism, we need rational and thoughtful security strategies put into action, not last-minute, ill-prepared and panic-driven reaction. It makes you wonder what all that money for Homeland Security is really buying us …

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Japanese Sudoku, free to play on the web

July 8, 2005 by 2 Comments

I’d nearly forgotten all about this game, Sudoku, until I saw Joe Grossberg blog about one that’s freely available to play on the web at www.websudoku.com. The screenshot to the right shows the result of my lunch hour, today.

Iron Sudoku

Update: If you’re looking for another online place to play, check out Iron Sudoku, where a new puzzle is posted daily and you can chat in realtime with other people who are playing the same puzzle. It’s very nicely done, although the interface might be a little awkward at first, you do get used to it and it’s very playable.


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Plaxo and AOL/AIM now better integrated

July 6, 2005 by Leave a Comment

Plaxo announces integration with AOL/AIM today. (via Mark Jen)

From the press release:

[…] The net result for all will be a universal and up-to-date address book that can be used at home, at work, and on the road, and which provides the accurate contact and presence information necessary for all digital communications. […]

…

Pricing and Availability

Both AOL and Plaxo will make the integrated features available at no additional charge to their subscribers and registered users. A public beta of the joint technology will be available from America Online, Inc. later this year.

Ooh! Does this really mean that AOL members can now get Plaxo for free? Or, does this mean “if you’re an AOL member AND a Plaxo subscriber, you get this new feature at no additional charge” — which is still nice, but not nearly as cool as a cross-sell partnership between AOL and Plaxo.

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AOL launches new Video Search, still can’t find any real porn

July 1, 2005 by Leave a Comment

AOL launched its latest version of AOL Video Search this past Wednesday (via InformationWeek). It has certainly come a long way in the last two years, since it’s original launch in November 2003, but, no surprise — since it’s AOL — you still can’t find any real porn with it (as opposed to, say, Yahoo! Video Search where you can find some porn) To be fair, you can’t find any real porn using Google Video Search, either, and Microsoft’s MSN doesn’t even seem to have a video search, yet.

Certainly, this strategy appeals to a mostly family-friendly subscription audience, but it’s tough to admit that it is also the limiting factor that will keep AOL from becoming a top contender in the online search space. It’s tough to admit that the reason why they’re only one-third the audience of Yahoo is because that other two-thirds of Yahoo’s audience are mature adults, not children. AOL is still clinging to an outmoded strategy that undesirably constrains the potential audience it can capture. Google knows this, so they offer SafeSearch to filter out adult content from search results. If AOL wants to really grow its web audience, it’s going to need to consider a similar strategy, or resign itself to remaining less popular than services that do offer value to mature audiences.

Interestingly, AOL Search for “new aol video search” didn’t make finding this announcement easy — matter of fact, what it displayed at the top of the page before the search results were two video links to the recent news about three children in New Jersey that went missing and then were found dead in the trunk of a car — yikes. Compare this to Google’s search for “new aol video search” which had a link to the launch announcement (the InformationWeek link I provided earlier) at the top of the page, before the regular search results. See the following screenshots (click either image to see the full-sized version):

AOL Search: new aol video search AOL Search
Google: new aol video search
Google

All this aside, AOL’s Video Search product is still a very high quality offering, and stands a good chance of being #1 in the audio/video search vertical. This is good news for AOL and could be a winning strategy. We’ll see.

One more thought: it’s rumored that various audio/video search products are using or will use voice recognition software on the assets to build more relevant search results. I can’t wait to see a search product that lets me search podcasts and videoblogs using search terms and return me audio/video where those words were spoken, or where the dialog is relevant to my search terms. Killer app. potential.

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Bloglines + IMAP + Thunderbird = offline reader. Killer app.

June 30, 2005 by 4 Comments

Inspired tonight by my desire to have a decent offline RSS aggregator, but wholly enamored by the Bloglines service, I sent them the following message via their “Contact Us” page:

It would be incredible if Bloglines would implement this feature:

Bloglines runs some IMAP/SSL servers. I can then add an account to my Thunderbird mail client for Bloglines, using my Bloglines username/password as auth credentials. What would be in my IMAP mailbox? All the entries from all my Bloglines feeds for my account, each entry as a separate email message. I can then instruct Thunderbird to use Offline Folders to download all the messages to my local machine. When I read a “message,” and mark it as read, Bloglines IMAP knows to mark the entry as read — this way, if I also use the Bloglines web interface, it knows which entries I’ve already read.

This way I can read Bloglines via web interface, or take it offline using Thunderbird.

Killer app. for Bloglines. Please implement. Need help implementing? I’ll hack on the code — lets work something out. I use Bloglines daily, but being able to go mobile/offline would be killer. Maybe I’ll hack on my own IMAP server that scrapes Bloglines HTML in the background as proof-of-concept, anyway.

Thanks for building such an amazing, and currently still free, service. You guys are awesome.

Stay tuned. I think this idea is sufficiently good that I’ll likely implement it in the next week or two, unless the Bloglines folks beat me to it. Anyone else interested in something like this?

Update: Apparently the Blogstreet.com guys had this same idea back in mid-2003, but it doesn’t seem to be working any more. It is still listed on their site called the Info Aggregator but on June 30, 2005, the DNS for rss.blogstreet.com doesn’t resolve for me. If they really did shut this feature down, I suspect it was a victim of “right idea, wrong time” and I think now might be the right time.

Update: First, I forgot to credit the previous update — John Sequeira sent me an email telling me about Blogstreet’s Info Aggregator service. When I emailed him back saying the DNS was busted, he discovered that they’d sent out an email announcing that the service would be shut down on December 19, 2004. Good to know. Thanks, John!

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