Dave Mancuso dot Com

Do you even believe this? Al Gore has been elected to the Apple Board of Directors. Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story! Did April 1 sneak up on me?

Will he reinvent the Internet again?

I’ve been reading the accounts of some people who have been in direct contact with Iraqi atrocities. This link is one of the most informative. When I read things like these, our actions seem clear. I hope our troops make this thing happen quickly and without loss.

John Robb, yet again. John’s essay on the Bush Doctrine is the most reasoned, balanced article I’ve yet read. A gripping must-read.

I sure hope he’s wrong.

You know what happens when you forget you have a pot of boiling water on the stove steaming broccoli? I do. When the water runs dry the broccoli begins to drip into the bottom of the pan, burning and causing a strong, very unpleasant cabbage-like smell. Then your wife teases you. Then, when the burns scrub out fairly easily, you remind your wife that as hard as you tried, you couldn’t match “The Great Molten Fused Pot of 2002” that she created last year. So there.

Um, hypothetically, of course.

You can find them here.Now I feel compelled to post mine (soon, but not tonight). Mine would contrast greatly with Brad’s, since he is apparently unaware of the genius of musicians like Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, The Alan Parsons Project, and others that people of his generation don’t seem to have the–ahem–maturity to appreciate.

Let the flames begin!

It’s hard to name some top ten lists (music, films, etc.), but my top short story is a clear choice. The best short story I’ve ever read is Flowers for Algernon. If you’re ever able to read it, don’t read the extended novel (really novella) version–it’s not as good. The short story version is twenty-six or so pages long, and won the Hugo Award for best short story in 1959. When the Hugo was presented by Isaac Asimov, Isaac cried out “How did he do this? How did he write such a story?” and raised his face to meet the eyes of the giant who created such words. Then he lowered his gaze to see normal-sized Daniel Keyes, who said “When you find out, can you let me know? I want to do it again.”

The movie Charly with Cliff Robertson was made (as I recall) essentially from the short story and isn’t bad at all (Robertson is excellent, but the cinematography makes it very clear at times that this is a ’60s movie). The play was made from the novel version–it’s sometimes popular in high school productions (my own high school performed it during my junior year).

I’ve set up an account at Blogger to test Brad’s Frequency application. Frequency works fine, but Blogger won’t post to my blog. It’s driving me crazy. I hope they fix it. Soon.

I can’t seem to get my wife to get blogging. Or get any enthusiasm together for it, anyway. Maybe I’m just not articulating it well enough.

There are two problems with web sites. One is appearance and the other is content. Your website can look great, but be years out of date. Your website can be up to date all the time, but look terrible. Some poor saps have both problems–old sites that look awful.

Enter blogs. Weblogs are a technology that makes it easy for you to update your website as often as you’d like. You could make weblog posts constantly, and some people do. Moreover, most blogging tools come with decent looking templates that make your weblog look decent enough to read easily. Better yet, most weblog tools are inexpensive, or even free (see Blogger).

Now for the meat of the matter. Most people use weblogs as journals and diaries, but move on to commentary on issues, or even outright journalistic reporting. Blogs can be good, blogs can be bad, but blogs are often at least as authentic as professional publications like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Think about it. Major publications are actually in competition with–and potentially in danger from–single-person publishing weblogs.

I’ve been on the scene several times during news events. In none of these situations–not one–has the media reported things accurately. During September 11th, however, I got more accurate and timely information from Internet weblogs than from the networks. Trent Lott’s downfall in part resulted from his story rolling around on weblogs for two and a half weeks before the major news media finally caught on to the wave and publicized it. Just as the RIAA is petrified that the Internet has removed the middle man in the music business, companies like AOL are slowly realizing that the middle man has been removed from the publishing industry.

Weblogs aren’t yet a threat to mainstream media, and it remains to be seen how the new age of publishing will shake out. The fact is clear, however, that weblogs deserve a good look, and some serious consideration. If you’d like to get started, weblogs of all sizes and shapes (and quality–let’s be frank) can be found in several places. Try Daypop or Weblogs.com (click on the little globe icons to visit weblog.com sites) to see some cool, popular sites to try.

Saint Patrick’s Day is an extra cool holiday for me. I met my wife fifteen years ago today up at Penn State. Who would have know we’d have traveled so far together and have such an awesome life and two great kids?

I would have a green beer to celebrate, but that Saint Patty’s Day fifteen years ago cured me of that disgusting swill. Perhaps I’ll write down that story someday–it’s somewhat interesting. I met Denise and then lost my grandmother on the same night. Then Denise lost her grandfather two weeks later. We didn’t actually go out on our first date until a month later. Now fifteen years have flown by. I can never do anything simply.

Kevin Sites is a blog from a reporter in Iraq covering the country and the seemingly imminent war. Today’s post is from northern Iraq and talks about Saddam’s extermination of 5,000 Kurds because he suspected people in the city were supporting Iranians in an Iraqi conflict.

The site inculdes audioblogs too–try this out at the site if you’ve never tried “audblogs” before. I don’t think they’re all that hot, but they’re all the rage right now among bloggers. I’m more of a reader than a listener, so I’m just not impressed–I have NPR for audio, and they do a great job for me.