I see that Jeff Jarvis has an idea about how to support Weblogging. I like the idea a lot, but if all 15 of you who visit here once a week or more gave me $1 a month, I'd barely have enough money to buy a pizza. But, I'll probably join his consortium. I like consorting with webloggers.

Jason Bock says he likes my weblog specifically because I don't just talk about technology. That's cool. I like Jason cause he's hard-core about .NET. Anyone who's written a CIL book must be hard core, right?

The real reason I don't write about just technology? I don't program. And, you guys who do cover the technology much better than I can. I'll just point to the good stuff.

Did someone say "Spicy Noodles?" Oh, joy! Tuesday night. Be there, or be, well, not spicy.

Is weblogging all about the traffic? This writer seems to think that traffic is all that matters. Hogwash.

I don't want the unwashed masses reading me. I want to link to smart people. If all you measure is traffic aimed at your head, then you've gone astray.

To me, it's "what can I learn by visiting you?"

Do you entertain? Teach? Inspire?

If you have only one visitor, but you teach that one person something that will change his/her life, isn't that more important than having 1000 viewers of intellectual sewage?

The National Inquirer has lots of readers. Is that what we should be aspiring to?

If it is, weblogging will be an awfully shallow activity for most of you.

I'd like to measure my weblogging success some other way.

Dave Winer's 1997 essay on struggles: "People you think aren't struggling are the ones with the biggest struggles."

Heh. Ain't that the truth. I weblog to escape my struggles. It's 1 a.m. and I'm struggling with a whole lot, believe me.

What is life's biggest struggle? Who should you love? How should you love?

Think it's easy? Try being in love with me sometime. Thanks to Sam Gentile for pointing me at this 1997 essay of Dave's.

Hey, Sam, I appreciate your writing and ranting too. Keep on doing it. There are nuts out there who like to tear you down. Just as there are nuts who think blowing themselves up, or hijacking planes and flying into buildings is a good thing to do. Don't let them win.

I've been in a funk too. I got out of it when Joseph Reagle reminded me to write for the sheer joy of writing. When I watched some surfers in Hawaii last week, it all came back. This is fun. F++k those who want to take that away from you.

Do it for the fun and if anyone tries to take the fun away from you, make them get their own weblog.

Keep teaching me things. I appreciate it.

I want to tell Thomas Friedman that I hate him, but I just can't. Too much love in my heart for the damn guy. I guess the Internet can spread love too, huh, Thomas?

Want to attend MIT for free? Now you can thanks to MIT's OpenCourseWork initiative. Thanks to Ray Hunter for the link.

Dan Gillmor had breakfast with Tim Berners-Lee last week. You know, I try to take interesting people out to eat. I look at it as a good investment in my mind. I might not learn anything ground breaking, but sometimes things we talk about percolate and turn into projects.

Some of these food gatherings have turned into lasting friendships. Sometimes employment. Sometimes interesting blogs or stories. They are never boring. Hey, one of my "meal subjects" starts food fights with my son when we go out. Those always test my parenting skills. :-)

So, who's an interesting person? I look for people who do things. That's what turns me on. From a journalist who's traveled the world to an architect who's built many Silicon Valley buildings to a software designer who developed the software I use every day.

Who would I like to take to breakfast or lunch this week? Anyone speaking at O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference (I work five minutes from the conference site and will pay for the meal). Not that I think there'll be a whole lot of technology emerging there, but I see lots of interesting people on the speaking roster.

I hear they have 500 attendees at this conference. That's awesome because it demonstrates yet again that people are willing to come to conferences (and even broad-based ones).

I note, though, that there are quite a few .NET sessions at the conference. Is O'Reilly planning to do a .NET conference in the future? I guess it'll depend on which sessions attendees go to, huh?

But, I don't see enough developer-centric content here to interest a lot of developers, so, I'm wondering what kind of attendees they'll get? Geeks like me who are just interested in hanging out with interesting technologists and industry pundits like Dave Winer, Doc Searls and Dan Gillmor? Or people who are building things with .NET and Java? I doubt many builders will show up to this, but maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, if you're in town for the conference this week, drop me a line at robertscoble@hotmail.com and let's catch a bite to eat.