the IT blog

After serious Segway debating due to controversial Segway reporting The Register has initiated a poll about Segways:

The Segway: glorified scooter or democracy on wheels?

Possible polling options include "electric polo pony" or "Sports Utility Vibrator". Up to you!

Uncle Grambo cracks down on the recent link policy pursued in the Gawker Empire:

"Is it just me or is anyone else noticing an increase in the number of times when one of Denton's sites references another Denton site as a "source"? methinks there's a fine line between heavy petting and heavy handed self-promotion, yo."

"It's not about the money", says la Wonkette when asked about her blogging entreprise. - yeah sure.
The most interesting thing, however, about ABCNews's article "Blogging for Dollars" is that Nick is not the one speaking on behalf of Gawker but "Gaby Darbyshire, director of business development for Gawker Media", acts as the spokesperson. That's quite interesting as Darbyshire is not even named on Gawker but once and then not as "director of business development".

Now Gizmodo has introduced a new weekly column, namely "Feature Creep". This week it started off with an analysis on eBooks. But not soon after, Cory Doctorow launched an attack on the latest Gizmodo feature column saying:

articles like this do nothing to advance the discussion. They're echoes of the dotcom snakeoil that dominated the ebook discussion five or ten years ago, and it's a disappointment to see this kind of editorial-in-defiance-of-facts on a hip net-zine like Gizmodo.

Now, on bloglines there are 150 subscribers to Gawker whereas Gothamist scores 323. Does that give any new light to recent discussions initiated by Felix whether Gawker statistics are accurate or Gawker is by now outnumberd by fellow competitors such as Gothamist?

"I want to live like common people, I want to do whatever common people do, I want to sleep with common people, I want to sleep with common people like you". Well what else could I do, I said "I'll see what I can do." I took her to a supermarket, I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere, so it started there. I said 'Pretend you've got no money', but she just laughed and said "Oh you're so funny", I said "Yeah. Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here." [...] Sing along with the common people, sing along and it might just get you through. Laugh along with the common people, laugh along even though theyre laughing at you and the stupid things that you do, because you think that poor is cool. Like a dog lying in a corner they will bite you and never warn you. Look out they'll tear your insides out. 'Cos everybody hates a tourist, especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh and the chip stains and grease will come out in the bath. You will never understand how it feels to live your life with no meaning or control and with nowhere left to go. You are amazed that they exist and they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why. Rent a flat above a shop, cut your hair and get a job. Smoke some fags and play some pool, pretend you never went to school. Still you'll never get it right 'cos when you're laid in bed at night watching roaches climb the wall, if you called your dad he could stop it all. You'll never live like common people, you'll never do what common people do, you'll never fail like common people, you'll never watch your life slide out of view, and dance and drink and screw because there's nothing else to do. (Pulp: "Common People")

designer disaffection [whatevs]
Party Crasher: Target Opening [gawker]
pics by slower.net

Gawker Media's sex-centric blog Fleshbot is considering permanently removing a hyperlink to a website selling a video in which actress Cameron Diaz is seen topless. The possible move comes after the star's attorneys sent the leading blogging outfit a cease and desist letter last week. [wired]

What's all the fuss about since it wasn't worth the hard drive space. Nevertheless it's a serious issue now that they can sue you just for linking to a site and not even the movie itself.

In his latest op-ed piece for the NY Times, Nicholas D. Kristof tells us that the best-selling novels in the US are Christian fundamentalist stories. This cultural phenomenon signifies that "Militant Christianity rises to confront Militant Islam".

These are the best-selling novels for adults in the United States, and they have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. The latest is "Glorious Appearing," which has Jesus returning to Earth to wipe all non-Christians from the planet. It's disconcerting to find ethnic cleansing celebrated as the height of piety.
If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of "Glorious Appearing" and publish it in Saudi Arabia, jubilantly describing a massacre of millions of non-Muslims by God, we would have a fit. We have quite properly linked the fundamentalist religious tracts of Islam with the intolerance they nurture, and it's time to remove the motes from our own eyes.

Yes, it's time to remove the motes from our own eyes.

Jesus and Jihad [NYT]

We proudly present selected high profile bloggerati members recently shot on location at the latest Gothamist Happy Hour and other photo occasions. Clockwise from bottom left the stunning Mlle. Lindsayism, the equally terrific Jen Gothamist, LES Steele (btw: what happened to krucoff vs steele?) and last not least we are happy to have - as a premiere - M. Stereogum on display.

Yet another contribution to our "That's why W. Is Funny" series, which we haven't cared much about lately. But since Uncle Grambo said, "my heart just pulled a Tara Lipinski and triple salchow'd like a mofo when I saw some snaps of Barbara Bush out on the campaign trail" , we thought it's time to put a new grin on display!

previous items: 1 2 3 4 (not sure if complete)





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It's still great that Nick puts out site stats for his blogs. That's what blogs are about - transparency. Yet, neither Jason McCabe Calacanis nor Jake of "-ist" fame care to do so! Here's what the latter says about this:

From : jake@bluejake.com
Sent : Wednesday, June 9, 2004 3:40 PM
To : Franz Stehrn
Subject : Re: site stats

we only give stats info to the writers and advertisers. i do that because i
think people focus too much on that stuff. but i will say that gothamist has
been averaging about 30k unique visitor sessions per weekday.

-j

Hey, that's definitely not enough!

top notch: our legitimation to continue this blog.

Jake "Scooby Doo"bkin (in his usual ego tripping way) offers us the finest moments of his highly anticipated bachelor party. What we can draw from this event is that we suppose he has enough money to make the "-ist" brands work!





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