Tag: Usenet

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Scobelology

Back when Al Gore took the initiative in creating the Internet, this dude named James Parry figured out an interesting promotional trick. He built a homegrown Usenet search utility and tirelessly trolled it for the mentions of his own nickname, “Kibo“. When he found some, he would join the conversation. This feat of persistence gained him thousands of fans and even a homegrown religion, Kibology. I don’t think anyone has figured out a finer way to waste time, especially considering that commercial application of search technology in the past tended to mint millionaires and billionaires.

I have a special folder in my Bloglines accounts that holds a set of very popular, but surprisingly unreadable blogs. Remembering Kibo today, I think I understood why Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble has so many readers. He’s the Kibo of bloggers! Look (and this is just one page):
Joey is 10x the guy I am
Rick Segal debates my impact
Alfredo asks what Wired’s top 40 list says to me
And this is just the first page! The quick pitter-patter of Scoble’s posts is filled with references to other people’s posts about him! Can Scoblelology be far behind? So far no hits.

Still, this does not explain why people read Joi Ito’s blog. It could be more properly described as “Where in the World is Joi Ito”. It’s all “Off to Japan“, “Off to SF“, “Off to Japan“, “Off to Australia“. I get it, he’s a world traveler.

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Nitrogen Breathing Nuclear Hobos From Beneath Gotham

One of the things I like to think about when walking around Manhattan is what’s going on underneath the streets of big cities. There are amazing things happening there. Take for instance this amazing story that dredged up in the foul innards of Usenet. Unfortunately I only found one good book on the subject – Underneath New York.

So I still had to sift through the mind numbing chatter of Usenet to find out what is the deal with those liquid nitrogen tanks that are very common in the streets of Manhattan.

Apparently they use nitrogen to prevent underground fires and explosions. But who knows, there could be a race of nitrogen breathing creatures living there. Or it could be that city workers are making icecream down there.

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Journal News

I will be eliminating , my Russian journal. I will repost some of the stuff from there in .
In addition to badly floundering community, I just created . I’ll put my subway rants there. While there will be few subscribers, I will be crossposting in my own journal.

Unfortunately, there is no “plugging” mechanism in livejournal. I would love to get more readers, but there is no easy way to promote my journal and communities. I think I’ve seen a post about a feature like that in someone’s blog, but I can’t find the link. I need a good url manager. In any way, plugs are appreciated here, at Deadprogrammer Inc.

Also, here’s a beef I have with you, readers. Every time I ask for some interesting blog recommendations you are silent. What’s up with that? Don’t you know any good journals?

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Michael and Friends

The number of ljusers who added me to their friends list has reached 100. There are probably some more people who read me through “friends of friends” newsfeeds and non-lj aggregators (I think I saw a poll answer from and somewhere). And I bet there are some inactive ljusers who still have me added. Nevertheless, it’s a nice round number. Woohooo!

I think the number of friends would be much larger for me if I automatically added those, who added me. That is probably true in real life as well. I should know – I am down to only two close friends who keep in touch with me right now. One of them is my dentist ( a childhood friend). In fact, I am typing this on my laptop while in his waiting room. The rest don’t call me unless I call them, lost contact with me altogether or got married to people I can’t stand and became too much like them. None of my real life friends (except my wife) read my journal.

In any case, now that there are more people reading me, I am going to try to use them as information resource. I could do that on Usenet but posting to Usenet is a pain in the ass for a variety of reasons. Google answers costs money (although I think about trying that). So I in addition to wildly informative and awesome WML (What Michael Learned) type posts I am adding a mildly annoying WMW (What Michael Wants (to know)) category. Stay tuned.