Rich Brooks on Fast Company asks What’s the Best Blog Platform?. That’s an easy one to answer. There’s still some disagreement over “What’s the best CMS?” but we’re trying to make that one easy to answer, too.
Scoble Interview
The interview I did with Robert Scoble at Big Omaha is now up. Here’s the embed:
Solar Eclipse
Nighttime pictures of the Bay Bridge and a few attempted shots of the full solar lunar eclipse on the winter solstice.
About.me and Wakemate
Today has been a very exciting day. First off, About.me has been acquired by Aol, as good friend Tony Conrad writes about on his blog. A great deal on both sides, I think Aol got a steal and a great team here. Second, one of Audrey’s earliest investments Wakemate has finally shipped their first version, which I’ve been using the past two nights and has been great. (I’m averaging 60 so far.) Reserve your Wakemate here.
40% of the tasks in Mechanical Turk are getting people to spam. Amazon should take a hard stance against these, as soon as possible.
City Equations
The first data set they analyzed was on the economic productivity of American cities, and it quickly became clear that their working hypothesis — like elephants, cities become more efficient as they get bigger — was profoundly incomplete. According to the data, whenever a city doubles in size, every measure of economic activity, from construction spending to the amount of bank deposits, increases by approximately 15 percent per capita.
A Physicist Turns the City Into an Equation on NYTimes.com. A fascinating article about some constants between cities, and a bit at the end about how laws are different for corporations.
New Akismet
I’ve been really enjoying the new features in Akismet:
The always-excellent Big Picture blog sums up 2010 in photos, definitely take a few minutes this Friday and check out part one, part two, and part three.
State of the Blogosphere
But blogging perseveres–as it should. It is a place where context, thoughtfulness and continuity are rewarded with inbound links, ReTweets, bookmarks, comments and Likes. Blogs are the digital library of our intellect, experience, and vision.
Brian Solis on The State of the Blogosphere 2010.
Monet and Bulgari Exhibits
Visiting the Exposition Monet 2010 and the Bulgari exhibit in Paris, followed by some frog legs. If you enjoy jewelry definitely check this album out.
LeWeb 2010 Talk
The talk Toni and I did with Alexia Tsotsis at LeWeb this year is now online, at the end we talk a bit about what’s next for Automattic in the WP world:
Also chatted with Hermione Way of The Next Web about the biggest tech story of the year.
Rodin, Versailles, Louvre
Visited the Musée Rodin, Versailles which had the Takashi Murakami exhibit, and finally the Louvre.
Random Paris
Reading, hot dog, Hermes windows, Restaurant Oscar, funny sweater.
Paris Walk and Dinner
Walking around Paris, then dinner with Tony and friends at Chez Savy.
Basquiat exhibit, Snow in Paris
Went to Basquiat exhibit, wandering around Paris in the snow, lunch with Elliot, Social Media Club, Le Web pre-party, some tripe.
Hotel Costes, Guy Savoy, George V
Drinks at Hotel Costes, a fantastic Le Web dinner at Guy Savoy’s restaurant including some peaks behind the scenes and a tour of the kitchen, and closing out the night with some cognac at George V. A lovely night.
Skiing in Deer Valley
I went skiing for the first time in Deer Valley. Includes a video of the one time Barry fell, but not the 15 times I fell.
Big Web Show Interview
The other day I was interviewed by Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin for the Big Web Show, which you can now view here. Also good to watch if you’d like an update on my beard adventure. 🙂