Doc observes that Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show are scheduled for the same dates. I’m surprised that Macwidgets isn’t simply part of the CES. Note to the Cupertino Krewe: rent a big tent and pitch it in the parking lot.

Dave reminds us of the geopolitical strategery behind the imperialist war in southwest Asia and points out that it will never be over until we the people end it.

David has a PodCast with AKMA posted at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

wood s lot: off the scroll, the 11/1 death notice for Clifford Geertz.

Doc Searls has been serving up some tasty material this week since his return from Scandinavia. Yesterday’s linkage to Lakoff’s book, Pinker’s review, and Lakoff’s response was especially delicious.

So there’s Doc, linking to Dean and I visit Dean and look in his blogroll and I see Annette Kramer, so I follow that link just because it doesn’t ring a bell, then I read a little, and then I feel rewarded.

(And that’s another reason I like blogrolls!)

Doc says today,

One virtue I’ve seen in the programming world is a preference not to re-invent code that’s already doing a fine job.

Doc’s old friend, I mean former long time, not “old” as in decrepit because god knows I have a few years on both those boomer boys, but here’s my point… Doc’s colleague and Cluetrain co-author Chris Locke has been spreading this message himself for quite a while now in his role with Ken Krugler’s and Steve Larsen’s company, the vertical search leader Krugle. SearchInsider says that Krugle claims,

…developers spend 20 to 25 percent of their time looking for code and technical information…. Krugle crawls source code, whether in open repositories or within source code control systems.

Question:

Since Doc is one of the media heavyweights in open source, and open source is about code (source CODE, geddit?), why has he been so silent on the functionality, the utility, the need for a tool like Krugle? I can only find one reference that Doc made to Krugle last month in IT Garage (after an admittedly quick Google search). The product has launched, and during the beta period over 35,000 people, most of them developers, some of them — like me — simple souls in reckless pursuit of knowledge and understanding, have downloaded and used it and provided feedback. Unlike your perpetual beta web-too-oh! ad hockery, this tool was professionally designed, developed and released. It had a four month beta period and now it’s ready for prime time. So what do you think of it, Doc? What do the Linux folks have to say?

Lot of Digital ID stuff in the air… David scooping Doc with his anonymity riffs, AKMA all reflective ’bout the good old days… Hamlin is making a career out of it…

I was there in 2024. I had a press pass… not a blogger, just an Isthmus correspondent looking for the people side of tech. And there were the Cluetrainiacs, all in one place. I told David Weinberger that networks were smart and it’s a good thing, and he was gracious about it. I still think that. I agree with Richard Bennett more than I’ll allow him to know. Doc was there and I had just read his OSCON presentation and he disappointed me by giving it again. I remember blogging about my disappointment, but if Doc read it, he ignored it. Elliot Noss was at dinner that night. Others at the table included Esthr and Doc. Everyone was laughing a lot! Esthr made small talk later about monetizing elevator rides. I don’t know if she was joking.

Kevin Dougherty was there. Denise Howell. Chris. AKMA. Phil Windley. Andre Durand. Eric Norlin. That meeting convinced me of the value of showing up. These people are really brilliant, they are gracious, cordial and engaged — and some of them are funny as hell.

Digital ID continues to linger out there on the fringes of standardization. Beth was at a vendor thing in King of Prussia, PA last week and she heard a couple of major geeks talking about how the net outdid brick and mortar last year at christmas time. Could be an exageration… but the fact is that cyber-sales are going vertical, while mall merchandisers continue to struggle for a profit margin and modest increase in revenue, quarter by quarter.

So what about anonymity? Knock yourself out. I can dig-it if you have ideas to share that twist you into such a conflicted space that you’re afraid of the fall-out. Or maybe you simply have a few kinks to work out. Or a schiz-twist that requires you to come on like a young guy with purple spikes when you’re actually 58, fat, bald, and a closet fan of the vocal stylings of the Moron Tab and Apple Choir. Anonymity rulz. But underneath every pseudonym there’s a real person wanting to score a bargain on eBay, and the whole Dig ID thing gets back to transactions, assertion, authentication, security. So those issues will be resolved, including a cyber-cloak of absolute privacy, when an outfit like Visa International steps up and looks the bandwidth vendors straight in the eye and says “Monetize this.” The answer, like petabyte data transport, is really simple and really massive.

Word in the blogs (thanks to Grazr’s Mike Kowalchik) is that Doc Searls is a newly minted Berkman Fellow. Congratulations Doc! You are in splendid company.

I understand that the good news is announced in this podcast. The podcast starts out with a discussion of Franks: meat slurry… editing each other’s dementia… no beer, stolen water… Jason Calacanis “Being Steve Gilmor”… somebody named Eve Stillmore calls… I’ve been listening but, ummm… I may have to go do something else now.

Anyway, Congratulations again, Doc.

Doc…

Sean…

David…

If a tree false in the foreground…

Would a dolphin culture be this hung-up on brachiation? There’s a cartoon called Frank and Earnest. In a dolphin culture would it be about Flo and Eddy? Wouldn’t the newsprint get all mushy before papa Dolphin had a chance to read it?

In Saussure’s elegant construction of sign and signifier, que signifie le mot “significant?”

Amanda and ze Frank remind me of Josh and Donna.   First they go on like that for years and years, all that tension and everything, then she gets a great job in advertising, and he still does the same old creative stuff, but in the end where do they end up?  On some beach.  Naked.

Dave Winer wishes they wouldn’t cancel the West Wing.  I think if we did the Peter Pan “do you believe in fairies” thing we could restore the show’s light.  Do you believe?  Well do ya punk, do ya believe in fairies?  Hunh? Do ya? Do ya?  And speaking of fun couples, well there’s me and Richard Bennett, slow dancing, and I blame that all on Doc; but, also in family court today, there came a final parting of the ways.  Control/Alt/Delete dudes.

And Happy 51 Dave!  They named a highway after your age.