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Sunday, October 1, 2006
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 Sunday, October 1, 2006
started 10/1/2006; 5:36:10 AM - last post 10/2/2006; 5:36:07 AM
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Doc Searls - Sunday, October 1, 2006 
10/1/2006; 9:36:10 AM (reads: 4968, responses: 5)
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Filled by readers and local CJs 
| | The American Press institute issued its long-awaited report on the future of the newspaper industry this week, and guess what? The key recommendation is something I've been touting for a long time: that the path to downstream profitability for all local media is in databases of local knowledge and information. |
| | Remember that Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it easily accessible. That ought to be the core goal of any Media 2.0 business, because that's where the eyeballs and the money will be. We can either be contributors to the knowledge/information base by supplying content (the expensive end of the value chain), be the aggregator of local the local knowledge/information base, or we can do both. Let's see, hmm. Which path should we take? |
Ride on
| | Actually, a new used car. It's a metallic black 2000 Volkswagen Passat wagon with a 1.8 turbo four, 111,000 miles, an automatic and many minor but meaningful conveniences. Such as a remote locking key fob, 6 CD changer/AM-FM cassette, heated outside mirrors and stuff like that. Got it for $5k from friends who are moving to Argentina. They're an athletic mom and dad with two athletic boys, but the wear & tear is light, considering. Only the rear cupholder and the hinge on the front seat armrest/storage whatever are busted. Everything else is in great shape. In fact, it's one of the best-handling and most comfortable cars I've ever driven. A real pleasure to drive. I just wish it had a stick instead of an automatic. |
| | It's overdue for a timing belt, so I'm trying not to drive it too much until it goes in for that. Meanwhile, it's nice to have a nice car that isn't rented. |
| | As for the old Subaru, it'll play backup until it goes to good home. Which I've already chosen, though they don't know it yet. |
Day's end
| | There has been a steady rain all morning, and the heaviest rain isn't even here. Some of it is over the Los Padres National Forest and the Sespe Wilderness, which have together been host to the massive and widespread Day Fire, which will have lasted a month by the time it ends. (The Day Fire burned most of the middle part of the picture above. Draw an oval above the "ra" at the end of Santa Barbara and the "Sa" at the beginning of Santa Clarita, and you've got it.) |
| | This is good news all around, because it radically lowers the height of the fire season, which we're in right now. |
| | Today's Day Fire incident report doesn't mention the rain. Instead it says, |
| | A change in the weather pattern is good news for firefighters with higher relative humidity (ranging from 25 to 45%) and cooler daytime temperatures (highs ranging from 68 to 70 degrees in the valleys and 57 to 67 on ridges). Higher relative humidity moderates fire behavior because it makes it more difficult for smaller fuels such as grass and twigs to burn. However, fire danger remains high because larger fuels, such as logs and standing dead trees, remain very dry and take a long time to respond to moist conditions. Fire crews will watch for possible erratic, gusting winds associated with the passage of weather systems over the next several days, |
| | As of 6:00 a.m. today, the fire has burned 162,547 acres and is 87 percent contained. Containment is projected by Monday, Oct. 2 at 6:00 p.m. Suppression cost to date is $67,312,379. |
| | Reporting by the InciWeb is critically important and much appreciated. We also need more citizen involvment in emergency activities like this one. The breakdown of InciWeb this past week highlights that fact. I have some ideas about that, and I'll be sharing them in Linux Journal either late today or early tomorrow. |
On the rails
| | - Please let’s talk about people and not consumer or user.
- Taget Audience: Do I need to be hunted?
- 360 Sourround: Don't you feel trapped when people talk about 360 marketing?
- User Generated Content: Since when did I become a heroin addict?
- User Generated Content: Since when did I become a heroin addict?
- Consumer: I create, I retransmit, I edit, I share — I'm not defined by your stupid brand.
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| | Marketing is being outsourced to people. Meaning to customers, selling themselves. |
| | You sell your soul, you think you're making money. You don't, and you make more. A corollary of The Because Effect. |
| | He also talked about "porcupine APIs" and levels of API prickliness. A great metaphor and an interesting set of observations as well. |
| | The only downer is Denuo's all-Flash website. You can't link directly to anything. |
Elsewares
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Sam Abuelsamid - Re: Saturday, September 30, 2006
10/1/2006; 9:46:38 PM (reads: 900, responses: 2)
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Doc, good luck with that Passat. We've got a 2000 Passat wagon with the turbo 4 and automatic that we've had since new. My wife is the main driver on that car and we've had more trouble with that car in the 51,000 miles it's accumulated than any other car I've ever owned. Just a few months ago the bottom end of the engine had to be rebuilt because of oil sludge build-up that caused the oil pump to get plugged. The car had been properly maintained. Fortunately VW picked up 2/3 of the $1800 tab because they had previously issued and extended warranty on all applications of these engines because of sludge issues. This was just the latest in a long string of mechanical problems with the car. I know several other people with VWs all of whom have had plenty of mechanical problems. Yes when they run right, they are a nice ride, but once this one is gone I am certain I will never ever by another VW.
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Russ Nelson - Re: Saturday, September 30, 2006
10/2/2006; 2:09:19 AM (reads: 835, responses: 1)
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You weren't actually thinking of sending your son to the government school, were you?
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Doc Searls - Re: Saturday, September 30, 2006
10/2/2006; 9:36:07 AM (reads: 914, responses: 0)
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We tried and it didn't work out. He goes to a Waldorf School -- a type of which Gatto approves, fwiw.
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Doc Searls - Re: Saturday, September 30, 2006
10/3/2006; 1:37:49 AM (reads: 1014, responses: 1)
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Well, I knew it was a risk, and I have my fingers crossed.
Consumer Reports gives the Passat black marks for engine, exhaust, electical and several other variables. A couple years ago I passed on a Jetta wagon for exactly the same reasons.
On the other hand, from what I've gathered, there are a large number of Passat lemons, and a few that appear to be solid. With 111k miles and relatively little trouble, this one appears to be one of the latter.
So far.
The 5th and 7th years are the big ones for cars. That's when the large secondary parts -- radiator, fuel pump, oil pump, water pump, altrnator, major brake parts, AC compressor... need to be replaced. I'm expecting we'll go through a few of those.
On the other hand, I don't drive my car too many long distances. Sooo... maybe we'll be lucky.
Hope so.
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Sam Abuelsamid - Re: Saturday, September 30, 2006
10/3/2006; 11:03:57 AM (reads: 1078, responses: 0)
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Given the mileage on the car you've probably got one of the good ones. Like I said it's a really nice ride when it works right. Enjoy you car!
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