DISQUS

I find the categories invaluable, and really represent the consistent categorization for most of my blog. I use tags for non-obvious synonyms and keywords that describe the specific post I've just written.

Originally, Wordpress only had categories. Here is a blog post that changed their mind:
http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2006/02/11/...

Here is the blog post where Wordpress explains their thinking:
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/tags-an...

This URL works:
http://origin.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_9620844

Adam

Agree with other commenters. Mixing Twitter & Blog into one feed doesn't work well. Content expectations & frequency are very different.

John, I have never been more proud to know you. This isn't just a FSJ mention, it's a full attack piece. You can't buy that. :)

- Adam

Ha! For some reason, while I was reading this, I was just thinking how much you always loved to the Duo, and how close this form factor is to a modern Duo. Give us a MacBook Air dock, and I think the circle would be complete.

Adam

I cannot believe you beat me to this book review. I read this on the plane from Boston last weekend. I will now have to play second-to-market with my blog review. :)

Adam

I don't know, John, I think the lack of the bridge between the current unprotected content (books) and the device is a problem. Very little of the music on iPods comes from the iTunes store.

Rip, Mix, Burn.

Now, if when I buy a physical book from Amazon, they ALSO included the electronic copy, that could really jump start the Kindle. In fact, if they could find a way for me to even send in old books to "recycle", ie, give away to libraries, etc, and give me the electronic copy as an incentive, that would be interesting.

I think depending on paid content for this device is going to doom it to extremely slow adoption - witness the AppleTV, which lacking a path for existing content (DVD, HD-DVD, BD) to get onto the device, really throttled it's path.

We'll see - I can't believe you want one. :) I've been waiting a long time for an eInk display, though.

I'll pay with yours.

Adam

I'm curious about this quote in particular:

"in other words, not letting them share fairly in the proceeds from the distribution of their work"

I'm having a hard time rationalizing the difference in compensation for writers of media content and software engineers. Do you think writers would be more fairly paid with salary & stock options, or do you think software engineers should be entitled to residuals on the ongoing sales/profits from the code they write?

Both are situations where creative experts create copyrighted material that is signed over to the corporation based on employment.

I'm having trouble rationalizing the two of them.
Adam

I can't believe you got an iPhone so quickly! I think I underestimated your appetite for risk with your most important device (cell phone). :)

I think I'm going to wait a bit for iPhone 1.1 or 1.2. I was late to the Blackberry Pearl, but very happy with it now.

Can you read email purely in the widescreen mode to solve the display issue? Would love to see a demo :)

Adam

Akismet is great. If you add the option to moderate comments only from people you haven't approved before, it makes moderation light and ensures comment quality.

The only trick I've seen get past Akismet is the auto-generated comments that say "Nice post", and really are just linkes to auto-generated spamlogs.

I'm obviously biased, but it's amazing how this can really take hold. Carolyn basically checks eBay Express first for almost everything.

Adam

Have you considered johnlilly.com?

- Adam

Eric seems to have a pretty good solution going with his photos. Not sure how difficult it was to set up, but he regularly posts pictures, and then links to a site where you can order them developed.

- Adam

Battlestar Galactica is definitely Melrose Place, but with robots. But it's not on Fox. Interesting.

I think the Apple TV thing works brilliantly if you follow the same path with music - you rip CDs for the iPod, you rip DVDs for the Apple TV.

My guess is that DVD ripping becomes much more widespread, or through the P2P networks, benefiting from someone else who did the ripping.

Harder path, since the legal issues around ripping your own DVDs is grey enough that Apple hasn't built the functionality into iTunes...

No kidding. I just got back. I can't believe no iLife '07! I had expected all new features for my favorite suite...

John, I think you should have Kathy play, "I'm feeling lucky" with your birthday, and just agree now to buy whatever Steve announces tomorrow. It's fate! :)

My favorite part about Michael Crichton books was his complete and utter inability to end a story. Going back to the early days of Andromeda Strain, the ending is always, "And then the problem just went away". Virus? No problem, it mutates to be safe. Crazy diamond-guarding gorillas? No problem, volcano erupts. It confused me for a long time that Jurassic Park actually had a teaser ending, and then I read that actually the editor had added it. Of course, Crichton just wanted the island napalmed so that the dinosaur problem would be solved.

I stopped reading as soon as the chapter length officially became 1 page, and it started reading like a very bad screenplay.

BTW Here is the link for this book on Half.com:
http://product.half.ebay.com/Dragon-Rising_W0QQprZ52330326QQtgZinfo

:)

Come on, John. Time to order your books on eBay Express. I've moved my DVD purchases over there lately, and I'm amazed at how quickly I'm getting the packages delivered.

If you want used books, I'm surprised you haven't been using Half.com. Try them both, and I'd appreciate the feedback.

Hi John,

So I've been using Wordpress for a while now - pretty good, great performance and data. I don't think it gives you quite the photo & video integration ease of use you might be looking for. Personally, I've been getting mileage just using iPhoto & iWeb to publish content, and then using the URLs on Wordpress. Makes life very easy.

Favorite cuckoo conspiracy theory of the week (heard on talk radio):

Clintons & Bushes are in it together. They arranged the 2000 loss for Gore, the agreement is to have W get it from 2000-2008, Hilary gets it from 2009-2016, and Jeb gets it at 2016.

I'm telling you, you can't make this stuff up... :) (Or maybe you can)

In the end, it seems like YouTube didn't have any problems (capacity, monetization, legal) that Google Video didn't have. And it sounds like the personality fit with the founders made this a solid fit people-wise. Moritz has a hand here too, right?

I've heard this compared to eBay/PayPal, but remember, PayPal was a choice that millions of eBay members made first, before the acquisition. It would have been more comparable if MySpace had bought YouTube, since YouTube is so popular with MySpace users. Then again, they lose their ability to do media-neutral deals.

This is definitely a new watermark. The crescendo for Web 2.0 deals is growing... seems like the inevitable irrational exuberance is here.

- Adam

Studio 60 is great! I watch it every week. Then again, everything I like gets cancelled usually.

I hope you are watching Battlestar Gallactica. It's too cool. I'm not sold on Heroes yet. Still really like Earl & Office. Still haven't made time to watch Grey's Anatomy. Always watching Biggest Loser... :)

I vote for Pluto & Xena in, Charon and Ceres out. Just the way that I roll, man...