Richard Giles Blog

Gary Turner has the best summary of blogging that I’ve seen any where, and expresses what I’ve been trying to say is the main reason for people plugging the concept of blogs and business. To promote their own fame.

So, now for the BIG news. In approximately 6 months I will be a first time dad. My wife is 12 weeks pregnant today, and we now enter the second trimester.

For all the details you can look at Baby’s First Blog, including photos and a poll for the baby’s gender.

For all those that have already given me their congratulations, thanks. I’m a very happy man.

I have been spending a bit of time over at Joi Ito’s IRC channel on freenode (#joiito). I’d long since given up on IRC and didn’t see much of a reason to do it until Joi suggested that I do.

Ten years ago, when only a few people knew about DALnet, I found it a great way to get to know other like-minded net heads. I’d stay up late (I could because I was at Uni at the time) and chatted with friends from the rest of the globe. I gave it up when I started work and late nights weren’t feasible anymore.

A few years ago I tried it again, and found that DALnet had grown to a swarm of pr0n hawkers and spotty faced teenagers that enjoyed a flame war more than a quiet chat. I was kicked within minutes for saying that I liked a movie. Not much to be kicked for really. So I wrote IRC off.

In my case my blog is a form of social networking, I’m a Blogalite at heart. It helps me reach like-minded people through the internet. It’s like an IRC channel but in slow motion, giving me time to collect my thoughts and publish them thoughtfully. What I have found from Joi’s channel is that it helps extend my social network at a rapid pace. I now look at the two tools as complementary.

The Parlor, link thanks to Jeannie.

It’s my birthday today. I want to thank Dave Hyatt for the Safari 1.0 release (except that it totally breaks the forms in the Movable Type tool, has anyone else noticed that).

What do you mean he released it for WWDC and not my birthday?

Note : The above error must have been an anomaly. Since gra pointed out he is not having problems I closed Safari down and relaunched with no issue.

My beautiful wife Kilee bought me a DVD movie for my birthday. What made it even more special is that it was her first foray into buying something off the internet. eBay even.

I unwrapped it and all looked well. A Japanese import of Catch Me If You Can (DiCaprio and Hanks), which is fine, sometimes imports have much better features than Aussie counterparts. Infact the reason she bought it was because she’d heard me say that extra features make a DVD.

I didn’t have a proper look until I got home from dinner with my mum.

I have to admit, the fact that there was an FBI warning on a Japanese import threw me a little, but I was too intent on having a quick look. It was the spelling of Bouns (Bonus) that made me laugh. The funniest bit was seeing Minority Report subtitles.

No joke, I haven’t edited these screen captures at all. You can click the above image for a closer look, or for a little more of a laugh here are a couple more. Precrime and The Man.

Thanks to Jim O’Connell for pointing out VideoLAN as a DVD player that allows screen captures on OS X.

Let’s just say that the little man selling his warez on eBay is going to get a rude email from my wife tomorrow.

I’m off to dinner for my birthday at my Mum’s. Bread pudding for desert. Are you jealous.
I hope to thank all those people that have given me wonderful birthday wishes today (like Tony) a little later, but if I don’t catch you all. Thanks heaps.

From the #joiito channel at freenode.

Blogalite: 1. One who blogs about all the exciting people at parties 2. One who starts a blog to get invited to parties Etym. from blog + socialite 3. One who flits through the comments of other people’s blogs but rarely gets round to blogging themselves. (Kevin Marks)

Or Jeanniecool’s definition.

[jeanniecool] Marks’ start w/ a twist:
[jeanniecool] Playing in an IRC late at night
[jeanniecool] we coined a new term ‘blogalite’
[jeanniecool] t means those who blog
[jeanniecool] in hopes of a snog
[jeanniecool] Or just a chat via satellite

All because Jeanniecool tried to match the word blog and bud lite.

A blog is to journalism what reality TV is to sitcoms (or other entertainment on the box). The difference in both cases, and the reason why many have found the new forms so compelling, is that real life personalities are involved. People crave the personal touch. Why hear from a news source that feeds us bland facts when we can have similar information from someone that adds feelings and character to the thoughts.

The obvious argument would be that blogs are often biased, but the ease by which we can search for alternative points of view on the Internet means this is a minor disadvantage. Within minutes I can find several points of view for any particular breaking news.

Cory Doctorow’s Notes from Tim O’Reilly’s talk at Reboot 2003 make an interesting read. The most interesting being his Shirky quote that I hadn’t seen (from an O’Reilly published book by the looks, Peer-to-Peer - Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies.

I can’t see this replacing all business models, but it sure is an interesting emerging one that could lead to some fascinating products and services. I think that we’ve only scratched the surface of peer to peer, and I’m sure that a teenage playing with code in his spare time is going to come up with the next big thing. After all it hasn’t happened for a few years, it’s about due.

The most interesting part is users populating the database. Just check out Technorati lists, Daypop News and Bloxdex. Bugger the Late Night News, I’ve got my news feeds.

Jason Jordan is starting up a web site that allows users to vote on local businesses. The intention is a massive collection of opinions that enable users to make more educated choices on what company to use, or not. It’s a fabulous idea.

If you’re interested in having a look, follow the link to the right.