You know it's going mainstream when there's a conference. I see that a self-described 'first ever business event for blogs', Weblog Business Strategies, will be held next month in Boston, and features Dave Winer, Tony Perkins and David Weinberger, amongst others. The online bumf describes weblogs as "a platform that the business world is taking seriously", but I think that seriously overstates the case at the moment. I talk to business people all the time; if I mention the word 'weblog', they still look blank.

Even if they read, or more likely, read about, Salam Pax and Instapundit, the vast majority don't yet make much of a connect between what Rageboy does, and selling their own widgets. Yeah, I know, the conference is designed to bridge the gap, but it won't work well if speakers go in assuming they have a business audience full of people 'taking blogs seriously'. Baby steps. They're going to need explained what a bleedin' blog is, or might be, in the first place, so that they know they're worth taking seriously.

Personally, I find weblogs to be a beautifully simple concept that, paradoxically, is extremely hard to explain to others (I think mainly because there are no rules and they take so many forms, just like the people that write them). You really need to let people see them for themselves.

10:11:15 PM  #   your two cents []

Age is relative. In my family, literally! About 50 of us gathered to see my Aunt Betty (in her early 70s) marry her fiance, Dr John Phillips (in his early 80s) in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Saturday (here's a picture of the happy couple). On my mom's side of the family, a lot of us seem to stick around well into our 90s -- thus the mother of the bride, my 95 year old grandmother (who still lives on her own), was there to see her daughter get hitched. (She also jumped out of her chair and started dancing when my cousin Michael banged out Johnny B Goode on an old piano in the house. "And on only one wine!" as she said after).

We also have the nice genetic inheritence of generally looking younger than we are -- and we certainly act a lot younger. The unkind could say we are incredibly silly and immature [hee!], but I think we're a heck of a lot of fun:

Those are all my aunts showing some leg at the reception, with my mom in the pink suit in the very middle, the bride in lavender, and my grandmother waving an ankle on the right (from l-r, the girls are Mary Ann, Judy, Betty, Ellen, Julie, Dorothy, Agatha). The older I get, the more I appreciate having a big extended family and these kinds of get-togethers, where it seems we never stop laughing. A very nice time had by all, even though we were on 'tornado watch' much of the weekend! And Aer Lingus popped me up to business class for the Chicago-Dublin return flight, a very kind treat.

6:15:47 PM  #   your two cents []

Dorothy Parker. "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." [Quotes of the Day]
5:06:53 PM  #   your two cents []

Lucas Returning to Digital Animation [Slashdot]. And amazingly, the Slashdotians didn't realise this the first time around: Microsoft's iLoo Project A Hoax [Slashdot]
4:35:45 PM  #   your two cents []

Once Derided for Dinosaur, I.B.M. Shows a T-Rex Bite. I.B.M. is introducing a new line of mainframe computers, and the company's code-name for the big machines, T-Rex, is intended as a bit of swaggering humor. [New York Times: Technology]
4:33:53 PM  #   your two cents []

I was accused recently of not offering properly highbrow humour on the blog, so much so that perhaps I was ready to start offering up fart jokes. I say, bring on the farts! Do you think this qualifies?: Using Termite Flatulence Against Them. Terry Clark, whose family runs a pest-control empire in Stockton, Calif., believes he has a better way to find termites: monitoring the methane they expel. [New York Times: Technology]
4:32:54 PM  #   your two cents []

John Naughton: "Paul Graham's 'A Plan for Spam'. Fascinating essay outlining a probabilistic approach based on analysing the content of spam messages, rather than concentrating on the headers." [Memex 1.1]
4:28:39 PM  #   your two cents []

Pixar Executives Not Quite Ready to Forsake Others for Disney Alone. As the latest Pixar-Disney collaboration is about to hit the nation's movie screens, Pixar finds itself in an enviable position. [New York Times: Technology]
4:27:38 PM  #   your two cents []

A Matrix in every medium. Anime, video games, movies: The synergistic storytelling frenzy of the Wachowski brothers is like nothing we've seen before. [Salon.com]
4:26:37 PM  #   your two cents []

In honour of my new, absolutely wonderful, 82-year-old Uncle John, acquired last Saturday!! (more to follow when I properly wake up from my early flight from Chicago...):  Like Fine Wine, Personality Improves with Age [Scientific American]
4:14:34 PM  #   your two cents []

Simon Cameron. "An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." [Quotes of the Day]
4:11:42 PM  #   your two cents []

'All the news that's fit to print'. Oliver Burkeman on the journalist who duped the world's top paper. [Guardian Unlimited]
4:09:59 PM  #   your two cents []