Day: January 14, 2008

Mitt Romney’s Silly Remarks in Detroit

So Mitt Romney showed up to pander to the Detroit Economic Club with a plan to save the automotive industry,

If we are going to be the world’s greatest economic power, we must invest in our future. It’s time to be bold. . . .First, I will make a five-fold increase – from $4 billion dollars to $20 billion dollars – in our national investment in energy research, fuel technology, materials science, and automotive technology.

So Mr. I-Know-How-To-Run-A-Business would throw billions of tax dollars at businesses that have become long-running failures in the marketplace. That sort of thinking certainly explains his newfound reflexive fear of illegal immigrants (positions where Romney makes a moron like McCain resemble a Mensa member.)

And even the token libertarian in the Republican race this time around turns out to be either a flaming racist. If I actually bothered to vote, I think I’d write in Timothy Leary for president. Sure Leary’s been dead for almost 12 years. I think that’s actually a positive against the current slate of Republicans.

Letting Your Online Friends Know When You’re Dead

Ran across this mini-essay on How to Share Your Obituary with Your Online Friends — you know, so they’ll stop e-mailing you insisting you finally PayPal that money you owe them. Personally, I’d prefer not dying but if that’s not possible…. Rez Plz!

Anyway, something my wife asked me the other day is what the hell she’s supposed to do with all of the data I’ve accumulated. And by that she doesn’t just mean this website, or the other 6 or 7 I run, but the 20TB worth of DVDs I’ve got neatly stored in the basement.

Now I figure she’s going to want to sit around and reminisce over the extensive screenshots I’ve got of my crawl from a lowly level 1 Rogue to a certified power-ganker, but she’s not so sure about that.  Hopefully by the time I die storage will be cheap enough that I can put it all on a server and have a script to open it up under a CC license after I die so the world can make what it will of my digital trail (or, more likely, simply ignore it).

Anyone got any plans for what happens with their data after they die?

Blogs — What Are They Good For?

If you read any sizable number of blogs, you soon realize that one of the most popular topics are endless self-referential posts about blogging itself (see, even I’m doing it!) And amongst the endless “666 Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Blog” bullshit posts, you see a lot of “It’s Not Really a Blog If…” posts.

Lorelle VanFossen, for example, informs us that a blog can’t simply be an online notebook where you post things that you find interesting. Oh noes, that would never do.

Your blog is not a resource for you. Sure, you may think that, and treat it accordingly, but a blog is not a place you can store your notes to come back to and remember how to add a Gravatar to your blog. There are bookmarking services for that.

A blog is a device through which you can create a dialog, share information, ask questions, get answers, give answers, and show the world what you know, and what you don’t know.

The right thing to say is: My blog is a resource for my readers.

First, all a blog is simply a reverse chronological series of posts — nothing more or less than an updated, web-ified version of the old Unix .plan files that used to serve much the same function.

Second, you could do a lot worse than to simply ignore the latest SEO tips and silly guidelines that have resulted in a plethora of boring, pointless blogs that nobody reads. Blaze your own trail. Use your blog to note and keep track of ideas, cool sites, helpful information, whatever.

Just throw out the cookie cutter for goodness sake.