Another great review: “This version brings back the pleasure to blog. […] Are WordPressers the only ones having all the fun these days or what?”
Commercial Gates
FCC Bluff
Call the media bluff on HD.
TextDrive Deal
Global Network
Announcing the Ping-O-Matic Global Network, a global and redundant array of servers providing Ping-O-Matic service and APIs.
Civicspace Labs
The new Civicspace Labs site is up, it’s a lot easier now to tell what in the world they actually do. Nice redesign!
Battlestar Galactica Podcasts
Battlestar Galactica is doing commentary podcasts, from the SciFi channel.
NewsForge Review
A great review of WordPress at Newsforge is up, very thorough and covers a lot of the resources at the Codex.
100k
Podz caught the counter at 100,000 yesterday, of course the party tonight is going to be a lot of fun. We might need to call it the 105k party though.
Slate memorializes the passing of jazz great Ornette Coleman with a review of his recent album Sound Grammar, covering what they call the key to understanding the legend’s “harmolodic” music. Also check out some jazz quotes from Coleman.
Funding Trends
I really enjoyed this presentation from Andreessen Horowitz on how funding has evolved, and the current tech situation vis a vis the bubble around the turn of the millennium. It’s a pretty strong case for there not being a bubble right now. Go full-screen to be able to read it well.
Seattle Meetup Location
Okay so it looks like the best place in terms of size, price, and location of those suggested is The Pike Pub & Brewery which sounds like a fun, laid-back place perfect for a meetup. Thanks to Scott and Jane for suggesting it. Still going to meet at 1 PM. It looks like there are going to be some great people attending, so it should be a lot of fun. Oh, and the tag for today is “wordpressmeetup“. 🙂
Adam Trachtenberg
Stewart Ugelow writes in that “Adam Trachtenberg, eBay’s technical evangelist and author of O’Reilly’s
“Upgrading to PHP 5”, has switched to WordPress.”
Geek Lunches Dangerous
Scoble got in trouble for the very long geek lunch/meetup last Saturday in Seattle. He also relates a funny story from the afternoon. We had about 15 people come and go during the meetup and it was a lot of fun — thanks to all who came out.
Pulse of Freedom
“The Pulse of Freedom is a site published by the protesters at Martyrs’ Square, Beirut, from a tent city.” This is an inspiring story: “A group of Web masters, graphic design artists, writers, and photographers stayed up all night for several nights in a row putting the Web site together.” They chose WordPress. “As far as I’m aware this is the first Web site of its kind anywhere in the world. The leaders of a democratic revolution are openly blogging about their experience from the center of the action.” Echoditto writes about their part in Blogging from Beirut. “I am writing this post from a tent city in the Martyrs’ Square in central Beirut, a place which is filled with the energy and excitement of a burgeoning democratic movement.” Hat tip: Mike Carvalho via email.
This article on the amazing rise of bacon was one of my favorite articles I read last year. About bacon.
SPIEGEL: One of the reasons Snowden didn’t approach the New York Times was that the paper had refused to publish the initial research about the NSA’s bulk collection in 2004. The story was only published almost a year later. Was it a mistake to have held back on that reporting?
This interview with Chief New York Times Editor Dean Baquet is remarkable both for its frank, direct questions and its frank, direct answers. I got to meet with Dean a few months ago and it really struck me how excellent he and the other editorial and product folks inside of the NYT are.
Yo’s Law: “in the 21st century tech industry, satire and reality are not merely indistinguishable but actually interchangeable.”
From Jon Evans’ This Industry Is Still Completely Ridiculous, a hilarious article with a conclusion (the ridiculous stuff is worth it) I agree with.
Seattle’s decision to throw the ball at the goal line with 20 seconds to go in last night’s Super Bowl was a costly one. But in the long run, it won’t be nearly as costly to the rest of the United States as the National Football League (NFL) itself.
Every year, the NFL rakes in around $9.5 billion in revenue. Its commissioner, Roger Goodell, meanwhile, has an annual salary of $44 million. And while those numbers might make sense for any big business, the NFL isn’t a business – not technically, at least.
According to the Public Law 89-800, it’s a 501(c)6 tax-exempt nonprofit. That’s right, a nonprofit. In other words, the NFL, one of the most lucrative organizations in all of sports, is subsidized by you and me the taxpayers.
From The Real NFL Scandal. If you’re curious, here’s a list of other notable 501(c)(6) organizations.
FiveThirtyEight says People Working From Home In A Snowstorm May Be Producing More Than You Are, on the productivity of working from home.