Interesting thread on differences between real friends and simple friends (er, acquaintances). I don't have enough real friends. I gotta work on that more this year.

The "marry me" Flash movie is so sweet. Now Maryam will bug me about why I never do stuff like this for her.

If your favorite two words are "fauk yew" then you'll probably love Gawker, a weblog about New York done by some of my favorite webloggers.

Ahh, Lawrence Lessig points out how Disney started by ripping off other works (er, being influenced). Hey, if I put a picture here that looks like Mickey Mouse, and music that sounds like a Disney tune, how many minutes do you think it'll be before a Disney lawyer pays me a visit? Oh, and don't think I haven't dealt with Disney lawyers before. I helped plan a conference in Orlando, remember? Those faukheads at Disney wouldn't even let us put a Mickey Mouse picture on our brochure, even though the conference was being held at a Disney resort. Faukheads.

Dan Shafer is furious with Verisign. I hate those guys. I hope they go down in flames and I hope that other webloggers pick up on this scummy company who controls our domain names without any oversight. Talk about monopolies!

Gretchen just IM'ed me and asked "what's up with all the 'fauk'?" Sorry, Gretchen, I posted about my New York experiences yesterday. I'm still in that New York state of mind. Heh.

The downside of Tivo: your son plays one scene from SpongeBob Square Pants over and over and over and over and over. Patrick, knock it off!

A big "fauk yew" to anyone who nominates me for the Bloggies (yes, mom, that includes you). Instead, nominate Gretchen instead. She's cuter, smarter, and sleeps with the geekiest guy I know (Chris Pirillo of TechTV and Lockergnome fame), so that must be worth something.

One of my friends, Lee Thé (he's the one on the right), is writing a science-fiction novel (he quit his job at Fawcette to write it) but, sadly, he doesn't see the worth in letting us participate. Hopefully Glenn Reynolds' post today can turn him around. See, Lee, there are important people lurking in the blogosphere. People who might 1) Buy your novel and 2) Help you get it published. Join in the fun!

Oh, a hearty "fauk yew" to all those teachers who think that kids with laptops are a scourge. Guess what? Your job is to get kids ready for the work world.

See, surfing while you're supposed to be paying attention is a new skill you need.

Anyway, where am I going with this? Maybe, just maybe, the fawking sheeet they teach in class is just not worth paying attention to. Or, maybe, just maybe, having access to all that information makes the meetings more productive. I know I'm a lot more productive now during meetings than I used to be without access.

Why is that? Well, in meetings there almost is always some discussion that doesn't really pertain to you. Why not use that time productively? And, even if the discussion is relevant to you, why shouldn't you have access to Google and all your Excel and PowerPoint files?

So, teachers, why not turn it around? Why not see 802.11 as a fact of life, both in school, in your community, and in the work world, and see if you can use it to make your (and your students') experiences better? Here's some ideas:

1) Open up an IRC chat room for all your students and invite them in for comment.

2) Publish all students and your email address on your weblog and give them assignments only via email. Hey, that's what my boss does, even during meetings.

3) Get everyone on an instant messenger. That way when they are on their computer late on a Friday night you can chide them by saying "what's up Jim, why don't you have a date?"

4) Publish all the students work. Every bit of it. Even tests. Hey, you wanna see who finds the cheaters then? Guess what, in the work world, every bit of my life is "on the record." (Yes, I know my coworkers and management are reading here).

5) Give students new kinds of tests: video tests. Get them to stand up and speak their work. Just like we need to present our work in meetings.

6) Spy on students web surfing. Instead of turning off the 802.11, why not post all the most-recently surfed sites up on a screen so other students can see who's the biggest idiot in class?

7) Give out awards for the best site found on today's topic? Extra points are always nice.

8) Walk around the class while you teach and sit next to the most prolific Web surfer. Hey, the other students will be more interested "what will Mr. Jones say when he sees Tommy surfing porn in class?" and will also be scared from behaving the same way.

9) You can always nail students after class too via email. "Hey Mike, I saw you looking at Google today. Find anything interesting? If you don't send me a 500 word essay by the end of the day about why the site that you were looking at was more interesting than my class, you'll lose 50% off the grade of your next test. Yes, of course I'd post the answer on my own weblog.

10) Why not outsurf the students? Hey, if I had a class that wasn't paying attention, I'd walk in, plug in my projector and Tablet, and start surfing the Web. After 15 minutes of not saying anything, I'm sure that some smartass would say "what you doing Mr. Scoble" to which I'd answer "well, I just see that most of you aren't interested in getting the education that you are paying for, and would rather surf the Web, so I'm just giving you what you want: good sites."

I'm sure the average instructor could come up with a few other ways to change the behaviors of students in their classrooms. Turning off the 802.11 is just so childish. It tells all the students in the room "you've won, I give up." Not to mention that if they were really smart, they'd pay the teacher in the next room to put his access point closer to the wall so they could continue to surf.

Leslie, you have more than one fan now. Keep writing and bringing us funny links like this one: "what I wanna do when I grow up" (QuickTime required). Leslie worked at Fawcette with Maryam and me. Leslie, maybe you can convince Maryam to start a weblog. Hey, when I grow up I wanna play in the mud. Speaking of which, usually I only have three people who read here but I noticed a whole new crowd coming from Instapundit. Welcome. Just take off your muddy shoes before you walk around the house, OK?