Inside View

Flash notifications

KILKENNY -- In my earlier life as a command post duty officer, we occasionally had to notify a wide swath of agencies about an event. The highest level of message traffic was FLASH. Howard Rheingold inherits that idea with "Flash Mobs," and his Smart Mobs web site occasionally points to public gatherings of complete strangers, organised via blogs or mobile phones. When Flash Mobs do Dublin, they do stupid things like swarm into a shop, mill around and quickly disperse.

Weighing the options

ALTHOUGH DAVE WINER makes a valid point--don't get into bed with those who would walk on your values--I cannot imagine abandoning my use of Amazon.com just because Jeff Bezos is a patent-happy entrepreneur. Winer despises the interlacing of submarine patents by Amazon. I think they do. But Amazon also deliver books on demand better than any other service. They manage my Wish List and their infrastructure is reponsible to giving me several cool gifts.

The Typepad Medium

Bernie Goldbach in Kilkenny | Logo from Typepad  

I HAVE STARTED a new adventure by rolling out a server-side web editor for my technology writing. It's Typepad and I like it. At first glance. That's important because writers have to have a relationship with their technology.