January 2011
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Snow fooling around
That’s what it looks like now. And a “double” storm is due to hit tomorrow night. Continue reading
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Al Jazeera in Egypt is cable’s ‘Sputnik moment’
Cable companies: Add Al Jazeera English *now* Jeff Jarvis commands, correctly, on his blog — and also in Huffpo, under the headine We Want Our Al Jazeera English Now. For me now was a few minutes ago, when I read both items on the family iPad, which has been our main news portal since the Continue reading
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Learnings from the Browser Wars
The question on Quora goes, What lessons can be learned from the first browser war between Microsoft and Netscape? I covered that war when it broke out, more than fifteen years ago. No magazine was interested in my writing then. Blogging was several years off in the future. All we had were websites, and that Continue reading
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What station(s) does KDFC pave in the South Bay?
So now KDFC is on 90.3 and 88.9, while KUSF is off the air. (Though it does have a Live365 stream.) Radio Valencia, a pirate radiating out of the Mission district on 87.9, has expressed sympathy with KUSF’s exiled volunteers, and has provided some airtime as well. The University of San Francisco, which sold the Continue reading
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Suggestion for KUSF: go to 87.7
87.7 is a frequency that has been open on FM since TV’s digital transition in 2009, which cleared most TV signals off of channels 2-6. (Digital TV stations now identify as “virtual” channels. KRON/4, for example, actually radiates on Channel 38). The audio signal for the old Channel 6 is at approximately 87.7, and it’s Continue reading
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KDFC wounded, KUSF killed (almost)
This week the Bay Area loses two of its radio landmarks. On 102.1fm, KDFC, which has been broadcasting classical music since 1946, will be replaced by a simulcast of KUFX (“K-FOX”), a classic rock station in San Jose. And on 90.3 fm, KUSF, which has been one of the most active and community-involved free-form college Continue reading
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Geology by plane
I’ve been looking gratefully and often, over the past few years, at Louis J. Maher, Jr.’s Geology by Lightplane. The shots themselves date from 1956-1966, and he put the page up in 2001; but their subjects are the sort that don’t change much over a span of time so short as the last thirty-five years. Continue reading
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Pubs: Quit adding promo BS to copied text
So I when I copy the headline “Thousands of Web Users Delete Profiles from Rapleaf” I get more than I asked for when I copied it. This I find out when I paste it, and get the the headline, plus “Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304248704575574653801361746.html#ixzz1Ay7eL3K” The extra jive after “…html” is tracking stuff, I guess. I don’t Continue reading
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What if Flickr fails?
[21 May 2025 update… This post is suddenly getting a lot of visits. I don’t know why, but I would like to note that Flickr has failed to fail through more than fourteen years since this post went up. I’d also like to thank Flickr for doing a great job of hosting both my own Continue reading
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How about a timed phone un-silencer?
I’m sure all of us with mobile phones do the same thing. When we go into a meeting, a movie, chruch or whatever, we silence our phones. And then forget to un-silence them when we’re done. Then, after too much time has passed, we remember — or are reminded by means other than the phone, Continue reading
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How should we pronounce 2011?
Is it “twenty eleven” or “two thousand eleven”? I’m hearing more of the former, I think. By that I mean “twenty eleven” is more commonly used than was “twenty ten,” an the “thousand” thing is wearing off. Sooner or later it will have to. I doubt we’ll be saying “two thousand thirty two” when 2032 Continue reading
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News at the speed of death
Five minutes ago the AP pushed a report onto my phone that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot. So I went to the AP’s news site. Nothing there. Then to Google News. Nothing yet. Then to Twitter, where it was the second-top story. The top item there was this one, from @KRNV, passing along an Continue reading
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A good man is hard to lose
Here’s a post I put up in 2003: A pain in the friend I haven’t seen my old friend Gil Templeton since his brother David’s wedding, whenever that was. Ten years ago? Twelve? Both Gil and David worked for me—Gil as a copywriter in North Carolina and David as a PR account executive in California. Continue reading
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Stuck without Gerry Rafferty
Just learned that Gerry Rafferty has died. Chronic alcoholism, apparently. I liked his music. Good lyrics, catchy tunes.. He was big in progressive/album radio when I worked and hung out there. I suppose he’s best known for the Raphael Ravenscroft solo saxaphone choruses in the song “Baker Street” (for which Ravenscroft was paid £27 with Continue reading
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Make Your Own Zombies
Tim Hwang, (aka Broseph Stalin, aka @TimHwang) father of ROFLCon, mother of The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences (in which I hold a chair, mostly for other people), commissioner of The U.S. Bureau of Fabulous Bitches, god of The Web Ecology Project (aka @WebEcology), former Berkman Center researcher and partner in the firm Continue reading
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Geography forever
When I was walking to school in the second grade, I found myself behind a group of older kids, arguing about what subjects they hated most. The consensus was geography. At the time I didn’t know what geography was, but I became determined to find out. When I did, two things happened. First, I realized Continue reading