Friday, September 19, 2003
Some changes to www.robreed.net
www.robreed.net is now officially titled 'GoGoHappySunshine Radio" The address is still www.robreed.net. In fact, www.robreed.net now redirects to this weblog. For the first time in a long time.
11:45:21 AM
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Depressing Quote of the Day
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without it."
Tennessee Williams
10:50:45 AM
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Save, Even Grow .Mac, Apple I Have the Answer!
Appleinsider is reporting, and it's probably fairly obvious who spends any amount of time online at Apple/Macintosh oriented sites, that Apple is making a very big push to get new subscribers and to convince existing subscribers to re-up.
I have the answer. Take down that crippled dog of a limited HomePage service and allow users to host weblogs at .Mac. You would have an instant hit on your hands.
Radio is charging $40.00 for 40MB of storage for a year. By comparison you could easily justify paying $100.00 for Apple's 100MB of storage + all of the extras that come with .Mac membership (free software, iSync, much better online support etc etc).
Apple is already allowing subscribers to purchase additional storage so they can, right now, satisfy everyone.
iDisk is a perfect partner for a solution like Blosxom. Post to your weblog by creating a text file in your preferred editor and drop it into a folder hierarchy on your iDisk for an instant category based weblog. Use @mac.com email addresses to post to your weblog via email.
100MB is a more reasonable limit for a weblog and would allow for at least limited posting of pictures. Am I the only who gets it that 40MB or even 400MB is not enough space to keep a record of a lifetime's worth of experience?
Weblogs are still very young and it's amazing to see IT continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. The build up of infrastructure that happened immediately prior to the tech "bubble" bursting was the rare exception to the rule in IT and it is turning out to be the best thing that ever happened to the Internet/IT in general. The people responsible weren't stupid, they're martyrs and we are all benefiting from their sacrifices. Hopefully these people will be remembered as the heros they are. And then here come the weblog hosts, knocking the legs out from under their own innovations, typical of IT.
Dave Winer one of the Top 25 most innovative? Maybe a few years ago but not today. involved in petty squabbles over RSS and sitting at Harvard lording over goofy little Weblogging conferences. Hey stupids, I thought we were building a community online? So why exclude everyone who can't sit in a room with you in Cambridge? Weblogging like this makes bloggers look like second hand citizens. And what exactly does Harvard Law have to do wih weblogging, honestly? What's the connection? You're too big for your britches and Harvard Law is too... there's one I suppose.
Innovators are innovative when they innovate, not when there innovations are popularized. I think someone innovated "milking it" a long time ago. And feeding Harvard's ego and then sitting back and reaping the rewards of your association with the institution... that self fulfilling cycle has been done before too... done to death. Do you honestly believe that you are being innovative this year? I can't see how. Let's see you gave up smoking but only after you almost died from it, not too bright. Then you drove across the country writing about your experiences, like a lazy Henry David Thoreau with an engine strapped to your ass and now you're taking up space at Harvard doing nothing.
So Dave, you can't tolerate Amazon.com because they profit from other people's hard work and build walls around other people's innovation. Have you seen those walls around Harvard... pretty impressive. Amazon has a way to go, but then again Harvard had a big big head start. You are aware that Harvard drastically underpays support staff, goes through IT staff like tiolet paper because it's such a lousy environment, and in general shits all over the local economy to it's own best interest. There can't possibly be a more self-serving, inward looking instituion. Harvard is the very definition of success without innovation. Tell me Dave, where was Harvard while you and others were hard at work on all of the foundations for weblogging, syndication and the rest of it? Where was the innovation? Where was the investment, the support? It was sitting inside of those walls just like you are now. You can buy a lot of stuff at Amazon.com but you have to go to Harvard to buy Dave Winer. Like I said, Harvard had a big head start. You don't have a problem with any of this stuff right? Of course you don't because it isn't a threat to your wallet or your inflated opinion of yourself. Amazon and their business practices are so you lash out at Amazon. Makes sense but it's hardly innovative.
My candidate for 'Most Innovative'. The first person/group to recognize that storage and bandwidth are cheap and weblog hosts should offer unlimited storage a commitment sufficient enough to ensure that hosting is always available on those terms. Don't tell me that's not possible. The rich get richer and always will. Money committed to an effort like this will always be there.
What do you think Apple. Want to be the first recipient of the RobReed Award for Innovation. The prize includes a T-shirt and a plastic bottle opener (a prize chosen because it represents more genuine innovation than any recepient is ever likely to achieve).
I even have a marketing slogan I'm willing to give away.
"Unlimited hosting for a lifetime of unlimited experiences."
10:49:10 AM
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