BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

December 22, 2003

HELP!!!
: Suddenly, I can't send email because, the error message says, it is listed on dnsbl.njabl.org. This is some organization that makes blacklists of either spammers or servers that aren't set up to their specifications. I look up my mail server's IP (from Hosting Matters) on their site and it's fine. I look up my Cablevision Optimum Online IP address for my home connection and it comes up and says that it's a dial-up/dynamic IP and that is blocked from sending email by this organization.
I've spent an hour on the phone with Cablevision and you can guess how well that is going.
My email was working fine this afternoon. It was working fine when I was on the road using T-mobile. It's not working now. I cannot send any email.
HELP, YOU EXPERTS OUT THERE!!! What do I do?download free halo Keygen

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Blognostication
: This season brings us another dollop of wisdom (read: half obviously obvious and half utterly out-of-thin-air-made up predictions) from Faith Popcorn. She says that, on the one hand, that fundamentalism will be mainstreamed. Oh, sure, after centuries, this will happen to be the year when the fundies take over? This, the time when fundamentalists of many stripes are also defined as terrorists. Bull. On the other hand, she says that porn will become the norm. Now that's a consistent worldview. And on online she predicts:

Persona Propaganda -- Google has created the concept of the "Public Resume" -- a new kind of pervasive, email-able DigiTruth. Now that everybody can know everything about almost anyone, an industry will soon evolve to help you manage that public persona-creating the perfect online profile, optimizing your own Google search, giving us control over our digitized public identities.
Identity Terrorism -- The most extreme from of "Persona Propaganda," in which the Internet is used as a tool to malign a reputation, either of an individual or a corporation. This new kind of terrorism is bound to be an increasing problem in the years to come.
Profiling Paranoia -- As our personal choices become part of the digital ether (iPod playlists, TiVo configurations, Amazon choices) we will become increasingly worried about how this data can be used. The upside: EGOnomical technology could match us to exciting content, information, even people. The downside: a new digital Gestapo could dictate all the content you see.

That's all true today. I started the year as the 27th Jeff; I am now the third. Smears happen now: One guy complains about Nick Denton and before Nick can answer with the transcripts that prove him wrong, the snark spreads like flu. Paranoia? Plenty of that to go around.download free halo Keygen

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Move them dawgies
: Rafat Ali has a roundup of roundups, a customer service for harried year-end media trend seekers.download free halo Keygen

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Copyright boogeymen
: Dan Gillmor huffs that the "copyright cartel" lost a round in court.
Dan: I direct you to your own copyright statement. You, too, work for the copyright cartel.
The word is as loaded as a UPS truck at Christmas.
Let's not demonize copyright and copyright holders. We are them, remember.download free halo Keygen

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Conventions as comedy
: Lost Remote says the DNC is inviting Jon Stewart and The Daily Show to "cover" the Democratic convention. Of course, Daily is a comedy show. But then, what the party is trying to do is find anything that will enliven an otherwise deadly dull event. They want audience, aka voters.
Can a Leno keynote at the Republican show be far behind? A Letterman keynote at the Democrats'? Strippers?download free halo Keygen

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Saddam on trial
: Here's another contrarian thought on Saddam's trial: We keep hearing that the Iraqi people don't have a sufficient system of justice to try him. Crap.
He will be the simplest of criminals to try. In any system of justice, in any definition of civilization, in any scale of morality, his crimes are clear and clearly wrong.
To act as if the Iraqis cannot try their tormenter is the grossest insult.download free halo Keygen

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Letters from the raid
: Jeremy Botter, a soldier in Iraq, is posting his story of the raid to get Saddam. download free halo Keygen

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You speak with forked Time
: The Mudville Gazette has a graphic representation of what it says it Time's hypocrisy in its choice of the man/person/people of the year. download free halo Keygen

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Against trying Saddam
: Juan Cole, who loves to be contrarian on all matters Iraqi, now says he thinks it could be a bad idea to try Saddam:

I believe giving Saddam Hussein a stage or platform in Iraq through a trial is a bad idea because he's going to be defiant and still has Fedayeen and a loyal base active in the country. There also is the potential that Saddam may find ways to underline U.S. complicity in the atrocities, which could make it difficult to maintain support for the occupation forces.

What an insult to the Iraqi people. First, they deserve to put their tormenter on trial. Second, they deserve to find in that trial the foundation of a new system of justice in their country. Third, no matter what their ethnic group or former loyalty, I find it difficult to believe that any group of Iraqis would now eagerly support a murderous dictator. No, Saddam must be tried. Of course, he must.download free halo Keygen

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AOL: The gigablog
: Rafat Ali brings together two stories and finds a trend in AOL giving up content creation to instead package content. It's going to be a weblog.
First, company chief Dick Parsons is quoted as saying:

"What AOL really needs is to create a new business model... I see AOL as a kind of wholesale supplier. They add content and bring it together in a way that satisfies the consumers' needs. For example weather information, traffic and sport. In most areas we will not create content but rather we will dedicate ourselves to bringing it all together in a specific place."

Then Howard Kurtz reports:

America Online is aggressively striking partnerships with major news organizations and television personalities to promote itself as a serious-but-fun purveyor of news. In the battle for eyeballs these days, it's all about dealmaking.

Well, actually, no. You don't need to make a deal. All you need to do is create a link. Oh, sure, you lose the reader for a minute -- but if you do a good job, you get them back and, best of all, you don't have to pay for all that content! Only question is: Will users continue to pay you, AOL?
AOL still doesn't grok this weblog thing. It's a model for a new future for media. And if you really follow it, you can explode content from unlimited new sources.... even your audience, AOL.
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The future
: John Battelle makes predictions for 2004, among them:

blog ecologies of like-minded folks will garner increasing cultural and social power. We've seen this happen first in the technology and media space, and recently politics has figured it out too. 2004 will see the rest of the world join in, especially in natural communities where power is projected: think professional verticals of finance, law, medicine, marketing. Folks who you never thought would ever blog will be coming online and claiming power. As a result, more blog ecologies will impose registration and/or subscription (the money kind, not the RSS kind...).

Oh, it will get much nichier than that. download free halo Keygen

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