One of the reasons I read a ton of blogs is to see trends. So far tonight I've seen three bloggers linking to the trailer for the movie The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and raving about it. So, without even viewing it I'm guessing that the trailer is worth viewing. Here's what Greg Hughes says.

Now I'm listening to Geek News Central. Everyone else is watching a movie. Life Without a Paddle. Seemed good enough, but I'm a geek and would rather listen to podcasts. I have fallen behind in podcasting listening. They've really gotten better lately.

Oh, and thanks to my Etymotics I can't even hear the movie. These headphones really rock.

I don't disagree with Hugh. I'm trying to catch the Hughtrain. Metablogging is definitely out of style, as Hugh says. I'll try to only do that kind of stuff over on our book blog. Of course, does talking about this here mean a new kind of metablogging? Notmetablogging? Hmmm.

I was listening to Matthew Bischoff's podcast and he talked about a new blog for Skype users. Both things are cool.

Steve Gillmor, on his ZDNet blog: "Sergey, can you hear me?"

Google added weather to its search engine recently. I tell ya, the way it's going they are gonna end up owning the entire Internet. What's next? How about a Google ATM?

Dan Mitchell, an instructor at DeAnza Community College in Cupertino (a short distance from Apple Computer's headquarters) got a cease and desist letter. A law firm is asking him to stop using his name "Technology.org."

I know Dan and have been reading his blog for years. If anyone can help him, let him know.

Heh, uber-review put a Creative Zen Micro into a tin of Altoids. Nice case! Thanks to Jeff Sandquist for sending me that.

Hmm, Jeff does look a little like Steve Jobs now. If Jeff starts wearing turtle-neck sweaters...

There are just a whole number of interesting podcasts coming around lately. What am I listening to right now? Dave's iPaq podcast. This is really great. Dave Ciccone is a born podcaster. Congrats Dave. Yours wins a spot on my portable media player.

Update: just got to the end. Dave thanked his wife. Only a fellow blogger could appreciate what he said. Maryam keeps my life afloat so that I can do this. If it weren't for her I wouldn't be able to do half of what I do.

He also showed what a great CEO does: he calls fan sites and thanks them personally. The CEO? Michael Capellas of MCI.

Steve Sloan reports that Poynter disagreed with my negative outlook for the newspaper industry (a prof visited Poynter Institute and reported that). Last month I told students at San Jose State University's journalism program that they probably wouldn't work for newspapers. Rather they'd more likely be working for bloggers like Jason Calacanis (who owns the Engadget weblog, among dozens of others).

Of course newspapers are not disappearing anytime soon. But, the economic models that hold up newspapers are being threatened by the Internet and the industry is clearly not hiring large numbers of people. The San Jose Mercury News is definitely thinner than it used to be. Why? Classified ads have stayed stagnant at best as most people move to eBay and Craigs' List.

But, I also said that students would probably be working for newspaper brands. But not in paper. Look at the business moves the New York Times has made lately.

Anyway, if I were a student in journalism today I'd be preparing for an online world, not a paper-based one.

Do you agree or disagree?

Visited Guitar Showcase in Silicon Valley today and got my son a killer used amp. "You rock dad," he said. It's fun helping my son fulfill his dreams. While there, I saw them using a few computers. All running Windows. Guitar Showcase has been around for almost 40 years and is the most successful music store in Silicon Valley.

It's the first time I've been in there. Neat employees and great store.

Then we headed over in our rented Lincoln LS to Fry's and picked up a Webcam and a headset so he can let me video with him.

The Lincoln is the nicest rental car we've ever had (and we've had dozens). This is the first car I've been in that has seat coolers. I've been in cars with seat warmers before, but none that have cooled off my behind. Heh. The luxuries of modern living.

By the way, here's a travel tip. If you're renting a car, never accept the first choice. Ask these two questions:

1) Do you have any upgrades? If they do, you'll have some choices to make. This was such an upgrade. They offered us a Ford Taurus (which we found we didn't like on a previous trip). The upgrade cost us $20 extra a day. Since we spend seven hours in a car during the weekend, that extra $20 is well spent money.

2) Do you have any choices with less mileage. Often times they'll start out offering you a car that's been driven for 20,000 miles or more. Believe me, the newer cars are a lot nicer. Cleaner, and less likely to smell of smoke. The Lincoln only had 4,000 on it so far.

Even if you end up with the car the agency originally offered you'll know you got the best possible car.

Oh, I also took Patrick into the Campbell Tower Records. I told him "back when I was your age this store didn't have a single CD."

"What did they have then?"

"Records."

"Oh, I guess that's why they called it Tower Records."

Then I told him that when I was in High School they got their first CDs and back then only a small part of the store had CDs. Now there are more DVDs in the store than there were CDs back then. Show's how the world has changed in just 20 years.

My son has never known a world without Netscape. It makes me feel old.

Omar Shahine loves shipping software. He's one of the geeks who works on Hotmail.

It'll be interesting to watch how Omar and his buddies respond to Gmail. I have a feeling that Omar isn't gonna take being told he can't ship software sitting down.

By the way, does shipping Beta software really count as shipping?

Jeroen van den Bos: MSN Search RSS license destroys usefulness.

Totally agree. We need licenses that let developers use our feeds for a wide variety of scenarios if we expect developers to use them at all.

Remember a few weeks ago when Leo Laporte and I got together for lunch in Petaluma? Well, he put the recording and photo up.

The audio sucks, sorry about that. We were using my Tablet PC, weren't planning on recording it, were in a very noisy restaurant, and my levels weren't set right but we didn't notice that until after we stopped.

Disasters in podcasting 101. Heh.

Leo's blog is here. He also does an excellent radio show on KFI (you can listen to the stream or the podcast -- he does it live every Saturday and Sunday morning).

Better Bad News cracks me up with its video about Google's AutoLink. Heh!

Dare Obasanjo: MSN Developer Network?

Ahh, I knew there was a reason lots of smart developers like Dare have been moving over to MSN lately.

Is search and blogging at Microsoft about to become a platform?

I love reading the Venture Capital blogs. VC's are generally really interesting people tied into networks of very interesting people. A VC, for instance, just brought me two KILLER podcasts. You know, those of you who think podcasting is just hype for a fad that'll disappear just haven't listened to some of the best podcasts.