Monthly Archives: June 2009

Beyond celebrity obsession

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Doc Searls

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. — Eleanor Roosevelt Somebody I wish to discuss an idea here. It’s an idea about celebrity, and it follows an event that has become a black hole in … Continue reading →

Posted in Future, Ideas, Life, News | Tagged , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

Life in Cox tech support hell

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Doc Searls

Major props to Cox for cranking up my speeds to 18Mb/s downstream and 4Mb/s upstream. That totally rocks. I’m getting that speed now. Here’s what Cox’s local diagnostic tool says: TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.4.12 click START to begin Connected … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Business, Gear, infrastructure, problems | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Living Ends

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Doc Searls

This twitter post, from @KNX1070 four minutes ago, says Michael Jackson is dead. Google News‘ latest, from Fox, says he’s being rushed to the hospital. Here’s the latest Google search, as of 3:42pm Pacific: A snapshot in time, already changed. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, infrastructure, Life, Live Web | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Tech hell, cont’d

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Doc Searls

The idea was to take some down time in Santa Barbara and get work done in my own nice office, with my nice comfortable chair, surrounded by space and time, with soft sea breezes blowing through. Instead it’s been tech … Continue reading →

Posted in Call center hell, infrastructure, Places, problems, VRM | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

This latency is caused by ____ ?

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Doc Searls

Starting a few days ago, nothing outside my house on the Net has been closer than about 300 miliseconds. Even UCSB.edu, which I can see from here, is usually no more than 30 ms away on a ping test. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in infrastructure, problems | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments

Punching out of connectivity hell

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Doc Searls

For reasons I don’t have time to trouble-shoot, there is too much latency between my house and Cox, my Internet provider here in Santa Barbara. On top of that, re-setting my SMTP (outbound email) to smtp.west.cox.net, which has always worked … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, infrastructure, problems, Travel | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Hotel jumps to light speed

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Doc Searls

Hard to tell from the looks of these, but they’re columns in front of the Park Plaza Hotel in London. The rest of my London shots from last week are here.

Posted in Art, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments

Apple control freakiness

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Doc Searls

Apple has the best taste in the world. It also has the tightest sphincter. This isn’t much of a problem as long as they keep it in their pants, for example by scaring employees away from saying anything about anything … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Blogging, Business, Future, infrastructure, News, problems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Cluetrain Chugs Again

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Doc Searls

I think this may be the first time I’m listed first on anything alphabetical. The S in my surname usually puts me near the back of the aphabetical bus; but with Weinberger and Zittrain’s help, I’m listed first. Cool. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Berkman, Events, Fun | 9 Comments

Dwarf Star Alliance

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Doc Searls

I fly United Airlines with a frequency sufficient to earn me 1K status. That stands for more than 100,000 miles per year. I’ve had that status for at least the last three years, and was an Premier Exeutive (next status … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments