Listics

Surfage yields wonderful things…

Jorn Barger’s original definition of a ‘weblog’ reads as follows:

"A
weblog is a webpage where a weblogger ‘logs’ all the other webpages she
finds interesting. The format is normally to add the newest entry at
the top of the page, so that repeat visitors can catch up by simply
reading down the page…"

The
weblog format simmered for a few years, growing in popularity but
escaping widespread notice until the arrival of a weblogging service
called Blogger. Consisting of little more than a title field and a text
field, Blogger was simple enough for everyone to use, free, and
popular. Thus empowered, the format grew to the point where there are
some four million blogs published today.

If
the format is what defines a blog, the author is what defines blogging.
The thing about personal publishing is that it is irreducibly personal.
What makes blogging work is not only its simplicity but also its almost
complete lack of restraint on the authors. Bloggers are variously
wildly opinionated or incisive and informed, long and rambling or short
to the point of beyond terse, left wing, right wing, anarchist,
corporate, or even collective. Blogs are, if nothing else, the voices
of the authors; any order beyond that is coincidence.

Completely ignoring the utility and the open-ended nature of Wikipedia, a former Britannica editor attempted to criticize it at Tech Central Station yesterday.  Robert McHenry calls Wikipedia "The Faith Based Encyclopedia."

The
user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some
matter of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public
restroom. It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great
care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a
false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has
used the facilities before him.

What does this tell us about Robert McHenry?

In the methodology of knowledge-seeking most of us enjoy a shift somewhere between the ages of nine and thirteen.  If we ever saw an encyclopedia as a primary source, we learned soon enough that the genre contains mere pointers.  No matter how well edited for factual content, any encyclopedia before the Wikipedia project was severely limited by its bound and printed format, and by the perspectives of the largely white-male (and probably anal compulsive) editorial staff self-elected to compile it.

The Encyclopedia Britannica is first of all a product.  Out here on the fringes of Jesus Land, most households will eventually have the opportunity to discuss buying an encyclopedia with a traveling salesman.  The 32 volume set is a deal at only US$995.   And it gaw-rahn-tees that my children will be an equal footing with Muffy and Fenrick when they’re competing to matriculate at a decent university… equal I suppose except for the imponderables of the legacy admissions.  But don’t get me started on the class war stuff this morning.

McHenry argues that people use an encyclopedia to find factually correct answers to questions.  I think people older than thirteen rely on a book behind the bar for factually correct answers (or on the bartender’s encyclopedic knowledge of the subject being debated).   They use an encyclopedia to drive a stake in the ground for further study of a topic.

Wikipedia works for this, as does Britannica, but you can’t make any money selling Wikipedia door-to-door, so I see where McHenry is coming from.

Shout out today to Matt and Ben… fifty years combined experience as twins.  I’m really proud of you guys… going your own ways, living right and living strong, never afraid to share your feelings, always ready to vault the next obstacle.  Congratulations.  I love you and I hope you get cake.

When I was…
… a San Francisco Bay Area resident (1971 - 1990), the Bay Conservation and Development Commission represented an ideal of regional politics, a chartered body working to restore and preserve the environment while protecting property rights and economic development.

Andrew Tanenbaum had a hand in that.

When I was…
… enrolled for graduate coursework at MIT (1985), Professor Gallagher’s text was Computer Networks (Prentice Hall, 1981). I’ve dragged the 1st edition of that text with me everywhere and I always keep it nearby. Spooky, I turned around and found it on my bookshelf just now, within easy reach.

Andrew Tanenbaum wrote the book. (Now in its 4th edition. Time to re-order).

When I was…
… looking for good projections on the Presidential election, I found that Bruce at The River had linked to the Electoral Vote Predictor. This site was a labor of love by someone stylizing himself as The Votemaster. Yesterday I found out.

Andrew Tanenbaum is the Votemaster.

Small web.

When the ex-Governor of Wisconsin, anthrax fightin’, flu shot peddlin’, Mr. Health and Welfare (ne’mind Edumecation) himself - Tommy Thompson - called me today I didn’t pick up. I didn’t pick up for the greens or the naderistas or the Dumbocrats, or any of the other Repemmicans either. I didn’t pick up for my neighbor who would have urged me to vote, or for my co-religionist who would have urged me to drive the driverless on Tuesday. I didn’t pick up for the State Senator, the US Senator, the US Congressperson… is that politically correct enough? Congressperson? For gay representatives who are out of th ecloset is it okay to say Congressdyke? How about Congressfag? This is one of those deeper issues I’ll leave to the Gay Lesbian Bi Transgendered and Queer concerns community to sort out. I didn’t pick up for the Presidential candidates or for the County Clerk or for the District Attorney.

Thanks to Pen-Elayne for giving this behavior a label… “Nobody’s monkey Day!”

Bruce points at this article by one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

Kerry came into October as a five-point underdog with almost no chance of winning three out of three rigged confrontations with a treacherous little freak like George Bush. But the debates are over now, and the victor was clearly John Kerry every time. He steamrollered Bush and left him for roadkill.

Professor Wangari Maathai, Deputy Environment and Natural Resources Minister in Kenya, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. Prof. Maathai is the first African woman to receive the prize, the twelfth woman to be so honored.

[Statistical aside… five continents, two sexes, an even distribution would find fifty women honored - ten from each continent over the last hundred years, but I digress…]

Prof. Maathai is also the first environmental advocate to earn the award. She is leader of the Green Belt Movement, an international environmental protection effort in Africa credited with planting 30 million trees in a tremendous reforestation effort. Wangari Maathai has worked hard for thirty years to reverse the effects of deforestation in central Africa.

Bob Morris traces the paths of the recent hurricanes through Florida and definitively proves that God is out to get Bush and those who support him.