Into the future... testing

I'm making this post at 10:39 a.m. MST on Wednesday, December 28, 2005, but post-dating it as Thursday, December 29, 2005. I'm curious when it will actually be displayed in the blog.

-- Jack Krupansky

Not really a funny cartoon, but still relevant -- Maybe nobody goes to your Web site because it's about you

I just ran across this cartoon which really isn't that funny but seems to express a very relevant point:

 

-- Jack Krupansky

Podcasts on Learning Italian?

I just read over on Blogspotting that Heather Green is looking for podcasts for learning Italian. At first that seemed like a reasonable request, but then I had to laugh. After all, how can it make any sense to try to learn how to speak Italian like a native if: 1) you can't use your hands or see how you are supposed to use your hands, 2) you are supposed to speak slowly, 3) you are supposed to speak clearly, and 4) you're not supposed to interrupt or talk over others.

Does anybody know of any podcasts for learning sign language?

This reminds me of a joke I heard at a noon-time comedy show in New York City's Bryant Park years ago: New York is a scary place... Just the other day I saw people giving money to a street performer who was playing air guitar... that was scary enough, but the really scary thing was that they were buying his TAPES!

-- Jack Krupansky

Internet Surprises in 2006

I just read Bambi Francisco's Internet list for 2006 on MarketWatch.com and offered her my reaction:

I read your "Internet list for 2006" with great interest, but it sounds like 2006 will be a rather dull year. But, maybe that's where we really are anyway.

 

I don't have a forecast, but here are some questions:

 

1) Will any new exciting startups become media darlings? Will any new net personalities rise up and capture the limelight?

2) How many of the remaining dot-coms will finally kick the bucket? What will be the most prominent casualty?

2a) Will the short-sellers take Overstock.com's stock down into the toilet? Or will the stock become one of the year's big successes?

3) Will AOL's legacy dial-up customers continue to be considered a drag on the business or become an exciting, un-tapped opportunity?

4) Will PeoplePC thrive? Become a big success? Or shrivel up and go away?

5) Will Microsoft increase its investment in MSN or look to distance itself from the unprofitable portions? Will they hang on to their legacy dial-up users (e.g., me since July 1999 @ $19.95/mo) or finally hang up on them for good?

6) Will Google finally find a way to stumble?

6a) When will those a-holes over at S&P finally add GOOG to the S&P 500 index?!

7) Will a blog-related firm rocket up to the Tier 1 internet level, or will the blogosphere implode in a cloud of confusion, self-doubt, and acrimony?

8) Will there be any mega-deals so that one or two or three of the Tier 1 Internet players are "taken out"?

9) Will white-knight Carl Icahn manage to con[vince] Time Warner to spin-off AOL into a free-standing enterprise with no management strings attached?

10) Will high interest rates significantly slow the tech sector, or is cash simply not going to be an issue at all?

11) Will an average investor do quite well just buying the top-10 internet stocks (or some equivalent ETF) or will that be a bad choice and significant cherry picking is required?

12) Will Microsoft finally make a big dent in the Internet business in 2006 or continue to circle around the perimeter, nibbling a little now and then, and continually making loud snorting noises?

13) Will Yahoo and Microsoft finally wake up and realize that a competitive answer to Google's AdSense revenue-sharing program would be a really good move?

 

Maybe I'll close with a little prayer: "Dear God, Please let SOMETHING exciting happen in the Internet sector in 2006."

 

-- Jack Krupansky

Any comments?

-- Jack Krupansky

Unbelievable!

I can't believe it... If I post-date a blog post into the future, my blog actually shows a post for a day that has not yet come. It is Wednesday, December 28, but by blog is displaying a post for Thursday, December 29. That makes no sense.

-- Jack Krupansky

Liar! Don't believe the time on this post

Blogger and other blogging software has this "feature" that lets you post into the future. That means that the time stamp on a post is not necessarily when the blogger wrote and posted the post to the blog.

I'm just testing this feature in this post.

It is now 10:30 a.m. MST and I'm telling blogger to post it as of 10:40 a.m. MST.

-- Jack Krupansky

Yet another lie from Blogger

Even though my last post (made at 10:32 a.m.) was made after my infamous 10:40 a.m. post, Blogger displays it as being posted before the 10:40 a.m. post. This is bizarre behavior, and hardley user friendly.

-- Jack Krupansky

Another Lie... immediate posting with bogus time stamp

My last post was made at 10:30 a.m. but with a stamp of 10:40 a.m. Blogger posted it immediately.

Next, I'll try posting a day into the future.

-- Jack Krupansky

Ongoing difficulty with email posting

Lately I've been able to post to this blog via email from Microsoft Outlook Express fine, but not for some of my other blogs. In fact, recently I email posted to two blogs in the same email message and only the message to this blog got posted. Something strange is definitely going on. Oh well, this is still the same old blogosphere I knew and "loved" (and left) back in August.

-- Jack Krupansky

Technorati: Why no "MyST Topic Cloud" tag recognition for the Blogsite.com news blog??

Note to the wizards at Technorati...

I see a Technorati tag for "MyST Topic Cloud" on the Blogsite.com news blog, but it shows no links on the Technorati web page for that tag. Why not?

-- Jack Krupansky

Manual Tagging Considered Harmful

I wrote some comments on manual tagging on a post on Dave Taylor's Intuitive Life Business Blog that was entitled "Is tagging really growing in importance?".

Technorati Tag: "Manual Tagging Considered Harmful"

-- Jack Krupansky

AOL Journal - Poli Ticks - Ramblings on politics

Although I am nominally out of the blogging business, I have started a small experiment over on AOL Journals.

I read a story about a huge controversy over AOL's decision to place ads on the top of the free journals that people had created.

Personally, that seems fairly reasonable to me, given AOL's business model. Especially since an AOL Journal is *free* even for people (like me) who are not AOL subscribers.

In any case, I decided to start a small blog on AOL Journals to see how bad the ads really were. It's a blog on my political ramblings, entitled Poli Ticks. Interestingly, it is number one in Google for that name.

So far, I don't find the ads to be offensive, but simply amusing. Yes, I would like to run Google AdSense ads, but unless you have a lot of traffic, it's not a big deal.

File the whole AOL Journal ad controversy in the "Tempest in a Teapot" category.

-- Jack Krupansky