DISQUS

i answered you. see comment 58. people who are trying to sell me something generally fail to have compelling content. why? because they care about what they want to sell me, not the content.

if the content is OF the product they want to sell, and it's a good product, and it's a well done presentation, then i will be interested. if they are just trying to hook me in by being cool with some unrelated crap, forget it. it means they don't have a clue.

I don't understand why you care about Valleywag so much. I've been seeing recently that much of what's posted there is melodramatic, wrong, or just "who cares" material. That's fine, my blog is almost 100% "who cares" material for most others, but I don't claim to be some influential know it all either.

Take the article on David Pogue recently... Just because Pogue did a recap of his own reviews for the year and it's "only" November, suddenly he's declared insane? First, big yawn, and second, what does the author think of people that actually do something that's noteworthy in an insane manner? People with low thresholds of drama don't do well in life.

There are some interesting posts there, but no more so than many other less renown blogs I subscribe to. I don't get it. Down with Valleywag. :)

John, I agree with some of what you say, but I'm not sure why you are so zealous in your comments to Robert. You seem to be making a hobby of mocking him. Why?

@Michiel:

"I don’t mean to be rude, but all you US guys so upset about the privacy implications should pay mind to what your government has been doing since 9/11. And you should probably start routinely encrypting ALL communications of importance with heavy-duty crypto."

Yes, you are right about that. Unfortunately there will come a time when just having encrypted data will be enough to call a person a terrorist and hold them indefinitely without charging them first. My understanding is that's already the case in Britain.

LayZ:

"You seem flip flop between condescending and clueless."

As opposed to LayZ, who seems consistent at both!! :D

Oh, yeah, one more thing John - if you can't take off your backpack without dropping it on the floor behind you constantly, YOU are the idiot, not anyone smaller than you. What if a little person goes to this event? Would you like to ban them too? Are you really so clumsy you can't take off a backpack without crushing them and do you really think this should become everyone else's problem instead of yours?

Admit it, you are the babe-oogling, beer drinking type who doesn't want kids to mess up your conference.

Re the above, why can't these supposed professionals wait until they have LEFT the conference for the evening before they start drinking and cheating on their wives? Why do we have to encourage the lack of discipline of a few idiots in nice suits?

Morons.

John Welch, you are a bonehead. You want teenagers to prove themselves, but you want them banned from everything. Uh... how are they going to prove themselves again?

You also tar all teenagers with the same feather (sorry, was hankering for a new mismatched metaphor, thanks) but don't see the point that MOST people would only bring kids if they were interested in computers to begin with. At least I certainly hope so.

Curmudgeons like you shouldn't have kids, I certainly hope you never do. You are too busy being focused on yourself, and people like that should not reproduce.

I wish in this country we could start over with the legal system. We need to ship everyone that sues at the drop of a hat out into space into a black hole.

Is requiring the kid stay with their parent all day even through the conference lectures not adequate? Are there are really parents dumb enough to take kids to these things that aren't ready to be interested in the material being presented?

Linux is a case study in why open source is all about the journey, and not getting there. After all these years, linux is still only useful for web servers, some other specialized uses, and ubergeeks who can't communicate with humans. It's not ready for prime time and it does not pass the grandma/grandpa test. Ubuntu may be a big step in the right direction, but I would far rather see my parents using macs right now than linux. No contest.

Robert, I agree with your above post and by no means am I trying to dig on you.

But this does point out an issue I'm concerned with - having our primary source of info and communications being the internet has, IMO, degraded our critical thinking skills. Digg is a perfect example. Look how many stupid comments are made by people Digging a story who clearly never read it? Or the number of people who believe whatever's posted without ever bothering to analyze it and verify it?

Blogs suffer the same problem, as I can post whatever I want, or I can read someone else's blog without truly thinking about it. The problem is that people are in such a rush to get in and get out, they scan stuff and it goes in but never truly gets processed. People's multitasking and the huge increase in ways to communicate and get information means "more activity, less results."

This can't be good for the future of mankind. It can only lead to MORE misundertandings and MORE communication problems that the world doesn't need.

Not to mention dumber people. Cough::Digg::cough

Again, how noble of you guys to institute a moratorium on saying bad things about another blog. I personally am no Dell fan, but why should they care whether or not Scoble or anyone else cheers their blog or not?

This is a serious question, not a bash or argument just for the sake of it.

Seriously, I see "early" bloggers and podcasters acting like they invented the world and it amazes me how much like the old media that attitude is. Isn't that exactly what you people were railing against with blogs and podcasts?

Don't take yourselves so seriously. 20 years from now, no one will remember most of you. Actually, the way kids are today, no one will remember ANY of you.

Is it just me, or should Dell not give a damn what you "elite" think of their blog? Give them time and let them develop their own style.

As for the "elite," I learn more useful information from the likes of Scott Guthrie, Dino Esposito, Nikhil Kothari, and similar types than I did from Scoble when he was at MS, and they don't act like arbiters of what's an acceptable blog or not either.

Get off your high horses, guys. So you have opinions on how your blog universe should be run. Woo hoo. Guess what opinions are like?

I have to be honest - the term "videoblogging" is stupid. A blog is a web log of someone's thoughts - a podcast generally is a totally different beast. Video blogging generally has a lot more in common with podcasting in nature than blogging.

"Vlog" "video blog", etc, are all stupid terms that in my opinion don't do the medium justice. It's amazing that with the possibilities in these new types of media, we couldn't come up with something better than "vlog."

"Whoa, there are more people reading blogs than are writing them! (Still true, by the way)."

And good thing too, since most blogs are useless. I do get tired of hearing how influential the "blogosphere" is and how in empowers people, while it looks to me like it's just another exclusive club - the "important" bloggers link to each other and everyone else is left out. Podcasting is slowly going this way as well.

Listen, bloggers, some of you have interesting things to say, and I do get good technical information from some blogs, but most of you take yourselves way too seriously. Just because you can get your message out to anyone who stumbles across your page, it doesn't make it more worthy of my time than any other activity I could use that time for.

Considering he does sell real estate and is a professional in the business, his stuff is probably more worthwhile than a lot of the other junk on Craig's list. Not sure I see what your problem here is.