Oh, come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant!
Oh, come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him
Born the king of angels:
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.

Cassidy, my 9 year old, uses only Ask.com for her internet school research.  I asked her why, and she said that's what they use at school.  I was surprised that Google wasn't her search engine of choice.  My search engine evolution went like this:  Alta Vista (seems to be still online) to Hotbot (looks dead to me) to Google.

Amy Gahran has a good post on how and why to start blogging.  There are so many reasons people blog.  Many of them are designed, directly or indirectly, around monetary goals.  Those blogs generally bore me, because it's so easy to spot the true motive.  If you have a financial motive, you must do two things: be honest about it and give people something of value to make it worth their while to visit your blog.  If you're blogging for other reasons, bless your heart.  In that case, just pick something you care about and write passionately.  Don't be afraid to ask established bloggers for help.  It's not that hard to have an active and reasonably popular blog.  It only gets screwed up when you decide you're a blog star or make it all about money.  Basically, blogs are like email.  Lots of them are spam, lots of them are trying to give you information you don't need or want, and some of them are fun and informative.

In related news, Wired has 10 tips for new bloggers.  I agree with all but 1 and 9.  

Claus Valca on Firefox 3.0 and, perhaps, my new feed reader.  Download Squad has more.  Based on Claus' post, I am going to try NewsFox.

Needlepoint this truism by Doc Searls and put in on your wall: "today's 'social networks' look to me like yesterday's online services."  Amen: "I wonder if it pisses Yahoo off that Myspace has taken over the internet with what is, in large part, merely an updated version of Geocities- something that Yahoo had a decade ago?"

Richard Querin on the "ironically named" Facebook Funwall.  I realize that no one other than Doc and Richard agrees with me, but I just do not understand the Facebook hysteria.  Now if I owned Facebook and was the one making money off all these fence painters, then I would be hysterical.

Bookmark this link: Dwight tells you how to solve the extremely frustrating and reoccurring "my computers can't see each other" network problem.  Now if someone would just tell me how to once and for all get rid of password protected sharing in Vista...

Hear Ya has the best records of 2007, with MP3's.  Good list.

Join us in 40 minutes and help us record our next podcast live in Second Life.

Just when I thought it could never happen, Dave and Mike have enticed me back into Second Life, this time to record an episode of our Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show from Second Life.  Please accept this invitation to join us at 10:00 PM, central time (8:00 PM SL time), Wednesday, December 19.  Dave has more details.

Here's the SLURL for the location.  Come by and participate, or just watch.  It's up to you.

As I have noted before, I relinquished my Second Life account months ago, having become generally bored with the experience.  But after talking to Dave and Mike about their recent experiences in Second Life, I was beginning to wonder if I had been hasty in my decision.  When we decided to podcast from Second Life, I decided to give it another whirl.  I met up with Dave last night, and I have to say that the experience in general seems faster and smoother.  And the voice chat works really well.

My Second Life name is Times Short, and I hope to see you in world tomorrow night.

It's no secret that I'm no fan of Mike Arrington.  I've been critical of him on several occasions, generally about some online temper tantrum he is having over some slight or perceived slight.  But this latest brouhaha over his response to a blog comment is ridiculous.  Some of it is, as usual, Mike's own doing- gratuitously using the F word in a comment is unnecessary and reflects very poorly on Mike.  In some alternate universe somewhere, Mike didn't capture lightning in a bottle with TechCruch and has been forced to learn how to act like a grownup.

But that's not my point today.

I continue to be amazed over the number of people who seem to be standing around impatiently waiting for something to become outraged about.  Everyone's a dealer, just waiting to toss out a winning (or losing) card.

First, a little background.  I don't know anything about Lane Hartwell, and no one but her knows what's truly inside her head with respect to the use of her photo in the Richter Scales "Here Comes Another Bubble" video.  Having said that, it seems a bit much to wage an offensive over the use of an image in a video, or two or three.  I certainly wouldn't do that if one of my songs got sampled, but we have to assume she is genuinely concerned about her rights and not just after the mountain of publicity this issue has received.  What is without question is that people have a right, and should be expected, to question her decision and argue contrary positions.  Without going into the boring legalities of it all, the various commenters are basically arguing one of two points: what she ought to do or what constitutes fair use.  The point is that there are logical and likely heartfelt arguments on both sides of the debate.

So amid all the flutter and sway, Mike crosses paths with Shelley Powers.  Rightly or wrongly, Mike thinks Shelley (and I quote) "is a person who trolls TechCrunch about once per week accusing me of all sort of things, very often of being sexist. In my opinion she shifts her opinions regularly on issues to ensure that she supports the woman in any dispute."   I have no gripe with Shelley and I have no idea whether she's mean to Mike or not.  Though I appreciate the monumental irony in the mere asking of that question, it doesn't really matter.   Mike can think whatever he wants, including this (and again I quote):

Lane's attorney is abusing the DMCA for his/her own goals. And copyright has nothing to do with "giving credit." It has to do with being forced to license work unless it falls under fair use, which this clearly does. *** But since Lane is a woman, it really doesn't matter what she did as far as you are concerned. She's a woman, so she's right.

It seems, however, that some people (exactly how many is open to debate) have taken up torches and want to burn Mike at the stake and TechCrunch to the ground in the name of gender equality or some other noble cause.  Only that's neither equality-producing nor noble, by any definition I've ever heard.  It's just another knee-jerk reaction that will succeed only in conscripting the gender issue to some lesser purpose- publicity and traffic perhaps?  Ego-building?  The need for conflict?

This far too common rabid, demonizing, verbal vigilante reaction is the very reason I am profoundly apolitical and go out of my way to avoid political discussion.  Staunch Democrats and Republicans are so bound to their spoon-fed positions and so focused on demonizing the other party that it is impossible to have a meaningful debate on any political issue.  No wonder voter turnout is so low.  Both sides have lost credibility with the great middle.  When I read the so-called discussion surrounding Mike's statement, I don't see rational discussion.  I see name calling and conclusion jumping on both sides, along with a few opportunists along for the attention ride.

I'm all about political correctness.  But when someone - even someone as self-absorbed as Mike Arrington - can't engage in a spirited debate without getting branded a sexist (or more accurately, accused of branding someone else one), we have gone too far.  When people mine prose for flammable content at the expense of addressing the issue, we have lost our way.  If all we do is move from one verbal skirmish to another, we are not making progress.  Mike tries to paint himself as the victim here, but he's not.  Progress and the chance for understanding are the victims.  The wasted minutes of those who have to read all the inimical words to find the insightful ones are collateral damage. 

When people get offended because someone wishes them a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Blessed Ramadan, we've gone too far.  At some point, we have to leave the semantics aside and deal with the important stuff that lies beneath.  When someone takes the time to wish me happiness at a time that's important to him or her, I consider it a great honor.  It's not whether I happen to celebrate the same holiday that matters.  It's the gesture.

So if Mike thinks that someone is biased towards women, why isn't that a valid arguing point, the same way the fact that someone may be biased against women is, and should be, fair game?  All the political correctness in the world shouldn't support a position that you can have it both ways.  Rather than vilify Mike for making that point, show him where he's wrong.  Either because his premise is flawed or because it doesn't matter if it isn't.

Shelley herself, who continues to address the real issue as opposed to the manufactured one as the world around her descends into chaos, notes the fact that people rushed in to spout their opinions without taking the time to look at the underlying issue:

My name is Shelley Powers. I have a weblog, Burningbird. I've weblogged for seven years. I write regularly on issues important to women.

I am a real person, though Michael has done his best to dehumanize me. What I don't understand is why one of you didn't think to ask him who I really am. You just all gave your opinions.

Why can't we work as hard at not being offended as some people do to be offended?  Are our morals, philosophies and opinions so fragile that disagreement, even ridicule, can shake them?  Mine aren't.  And I suspect yours aren't either.  And if we really want to reach out to people and show them that we're right, we have to do two things: stop yelling at them and give them the opportunity to change our minds.

Sometimes we need to just get over it.  Anybody with me?

Dave Winer on Twitter outages: "it's not good enough when the service takes a 12-hour break while many of the humans that depend on it are awake and working."  Note to Dave:  Twitter not "a basic form of communication" for anyone who has any semblance of a normal life.  Surely, we can manage to get along for 12 hours without knowing what someone across the country had for lunch.  And if we have to know, can't we just call them (you know, on a telephone) and ask them?  Secondly, I think Dave's definition of "working" is different than mine, if the absence of Twitter adversely affects his ability to work.  Why can't we use tech to improve our lives without trying to turn it into something bigger than it is?  I know the answer to that, actually.

While I am at it, can we please stop with the posts proclaiming that something is dead just to get more traffic.  It would be a tragedy to let Google destroy Wikipedia, all in the name of collecting more of our data and tossing more ads in our face.  Everyone without skin in the game should rally together to make sure that doesn't happen.  TDavid has some thoughts on it.

Mashable reports that EMI will cut funding to the RIAA.  That's a good start.

Steve Spaulding has his list of the best videos of 2007.  Here's mine.  I've heard a lot of music, and this is the best cover I have heard.  Ever.  You have to watch the whole thing to get to the smoking guitar work.  Someone's going to point out that is was shot in 2006, but it was uploaded in 2007.

I was off the grid, but for those who missed it, Edgeio has ironically jumped into the deal pool.  There is zero money in embedding classified ads in social networks, for crying out loud.  eBay is more reliable, more efficient and simply easier.  If Yahoo and Amazon can't put a dent in eBay, isn't it folly to think a few bloggers will?  Even the anti-establishment types (among others) have Craigslist.

My kids and I watched and enjoyed every episode of Kid Nation.  TVSquad has the scoop on the season finale.

Frank Paynter found a hilarious and accurate video about Bubble 2.0 and blogging.

Now that I have finished my Swivel Feeds experiment (look for the OPML file shortly), I can get back to reading (or not) and writing (or not) blogs that genuinely interest me.  The main thing I learned from my Swivel Feeds experience is that:

(a) there are a lot of good writers out there who don't show up on Techmeme;

(b) there are a lot a bad writers out there, some of whom don't show up on Techmeme; and

(c) I really like Techmeme.

In other words, I find too many blogs saying slightly different versions of the same thing.  Which means that, for me, the goodness or badness of a blog comes down to the interestingness of the blogger.  Not so much the network, formal or not, surrounding such writer.  And I still find most of the "social" networks to be nothing but billboards for whatever the user is selling- be it a personal brand or a page full of AdSense.  I also question how many "networkers" are really looking for friends as opposed to leads of one sort or another.

I also know that I cannot keep up with hundreds of feeds.

So where does that lead me?

First, it led me to delete about 140 blogs from my personal reading list.  Not because I find no value in 139 of those blogs (I admit that I find no value in the cats), but because if I see hundreds of unread blogs in my reader, I get either discouraged or pissed off (depending on my karma level) and close the application.  I don't want 500 people to talk at me at a party (I say "at me" intentionally, because like most cocktail party banter, the blogosphere is largely un-conversational).  And I don't want 500 people to talk at me when I fire up my computer.  All of this makes me very grateful to Dave and Mike for letting me co-host the podcast so I can keep some virtual connection to the void which binds while we wait for the lions, tigers and bears to show themselves.  Yes, I finished all the Hyperion books, and I see entire religions, past, present and future, in those words.  If I win the lottery before I forget about them, I'll probably devote all my time to talking about those books and the lessons therein.

Here's the latest podcast.

Bloglines is still slow and unreliable.  I tried hard (for the third time) to use Google Reader, but I can't.  I hate Google Reader. In fact, I could write 1000 pages on how much I dislike the interface.  So for now the shitty application I know is better than the shitty one I don't.

Last but not least,  I also have to figure out what to blog about.  My current thinking is to just go feral and start typing whatever pops into my head.  One way or another, that will solve any readership issues.  In that regard, why it is so freaking hard for Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine to lock the gate when he leaves?  A wide open gate is much worse than no fence at all.  Now, I get to venture out in the wet and cold to round up animals and kids, none of whom will willingly walk back through the gate.  Gene, if by some miracle you read this, tell your guys to get off the tractor and lock the damn gate when they leave.

I am enjoying Pownce.  I like the music sharing feature.

It doesn't yet feel like Christmas to me.  We're getting our tree tomorrow, so hopefully that will help.

Here's the best song I heard for the first time in 2007.  Go buy the record, it's really good.  You can download it DRM-free via Amazon.

I've got to stop now and go deal with that damn gate.