Bill Maher's blog

Hey, I didn't know Bill Maher has a blog.

Readers weigh in on participatory journalism

The reader forum boards are humming over at OJR in response to my series on participatory journalism.

The articles are here, here and here, and the forums can be found here, here and here. The folks at indymedia have posted a couple of entries.

Blogcritics turns 1

Eric Olsen sends word that Blogcritics has reached its first birthday. The numbers: 1.5 million page views, 19,838 referrers, 13,817 comments, 7162 entries, 311 writers, awards and recommendations aplenty.

Arianna and the Teutonic Plague

I don't know if Arianna Huffington has a chance for the California governorship, but I just contributed to her campaign.

Meantime, I've fallen in love with Jon Stewart and the Daily Show on Comedy Central over the lean-TV summer months. Gotta love the screen graphic on Arnold's entry into the race on last night's show: Teutonic Plague.

Scripting for ActiveWords

Buzz is back on the blogging horse through TypePad, and has written a script for ActiveWords that lets him create a new blog entry in a couple of seconds. Swift. I've raved about ActiveWords several times before. Check it out.

Should Kobe's accuser be named?

The name of the young woman who alleges that NBA star Kobe Bryant raped her at a Colorado resort has been revealed by tabloid newspapers and a radio DJ; a photograph and other personal information can now be found on numerous web sites. However, the vast majority of mainstream news organizations have withheld the name of Bryant's accuser.

What should the rules be? PBS's NewsHour takes a look tonight.

Consumer photo blogging

Doc points to: Smart Moblogging: Raped at the Pump, a consumer photo blog of outrageous gas prices. It comes via TextAmerica.

I gotta get me one of these babies one of these days.

Flash mobs go global

This from Martha Stone today in E-Media Tidbits (alas, they still lack permalinks):

Combine the interactive nature of the Internet and e-mail, and the instant communication capability of the mobile phone, and you have the ability to create a mob fervor. Here in Berlin, and around the world in major cities, seemingly "conventional" adults are organizing "flash mobs" -- often for a lack of purpose -- via mobile phones, e-mail lists, and websites like cheesebikini.com and flashmob.info. They might agree to meet in front of a washing machine display, eat a banana and leave, according to the International Herald Tribune earlier this week.

On Saturday, a flash mob gathered in front of the highly fortified American Embassy in Berlin, protesting Iraqi policies, wearing silly hats, waving flags, popping champagne, and toasting "here's to Natasha" before vanishing, according to the IHT. I missed that one. I was busy in another, more conventional mob scene at Berlin's airport. One of the first reported flash mobs was reported at Macy's in New York, where people spontaneously gathered in the rug department looking for a "love rug" for their suburban commune.

Here's that story in the IHT she mentioned.

Soapbox: 'Bill Gates is not going to send me money'

Check out this very well done animated cartoon about the crazy stuff some clueless people believe in the e-mail world.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Thanks to my sister Kathy for passing this along.

Piracy warning over digitized fine art

New Scientist: A scheme to digitise famous paintings that was unveiled last week by the National Gallery in London, UK, may be placing the collection at risk of digital piracy. Now music and movie makers are warning the world of fine arts to act quickly if it wants to prevent the same kind of high-tech piracy that is crippling their industries.

Making the web pay for writers

Guardian UK: Blogger Ben Hammersley reports on the writers and artists who are earning money through the internet with micropayments.

Digital CD decks challenge vinyl

BBC News: The success of a digital system that allows CDs to be scratched and mixed in the same way as 12-inch records could mean the death end of DJs using vinyl, a top DJ and record producer says.

101 Uses for Apple IChat

Wired News: People are finding many versatile uses for Apple's iChat AV software, like sharing video across town or finding dates. Thing is, they're not using it much for video conferencing yet, the task for which it was built.

Marc Zeedar has found a novel use for Apple Computer's new iChat video-conferencing software -- broadcasting pay-per-view soccer games to his brother across town.

Zeedar, a designer, programmer and writer from Santa Cruz, California, discovered he can use his camcorder to connect his TiVo digital video recorder to his Mac.

The camcorder has analog video-in jacks, which let it import video from just about any source, including a VCR or a TiVo. It also has a FireWire port, which makes it compatible with iChat AV.

When it is hooked to his Mac, Zeedar can use the camcorder as a webcam for video conferencing. But when his TiVo is plugged into the camera, Zeedar can broadcast pay-per-view soccer games to others.

"It's very cool," said Zeedar. "He can watch my soccer channels from his home. Or anywhere, really." ...

California Insider

I've added Sacramento Bee columnist and blogger Daniel Weintraub to the politics blogroll over there at the right. He's one of the only bloggers plugged into the political scene in California.