Sunday, December 05, 2004



When Arthur C. Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, he was alluding to the trick of hiding the complexity of the job from the audience, or the user. Nobody hides the complexity of the job better than Google does

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Baltimore Sun sues Ehrlich over don't-talk-to-journos order
If Media Dragon had to sue every parliament or business for similar prohibition we would be in court on daily basis (smile)
The Baltimore Sun is suing Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr., saying the Maryland governor violated the newspaper's First Amendment rights when he prohibited employees in the executive branch of Maryland's government from speaking with two Sun journalists. Editor Tim Franklin tells readers: We have tried hard to avoid taking this to the courts.
• Not all journalists have turned to talking about themselves Chilling effect [Journalists for Open Government ; Networks need to bring more imagination -- and more elbow grease -- to the table in order to avoid becoming even more of an electronic wire service Who gets home from work in time to watch network news? ]
• · Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign ; [It turns out that you are a very good writer with something to say, says the chatter. Leiby's reply: No, I USED to be a good writer with something to say. Then I took this insanely demeaning job and started sucking on raw pineal gland to numb the Pain of Being Human. ]
• · · George Bernard Shaw once siad that the greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished Microsoft joins the blogging world
• · · · Microsoft's new blogging tool, censors certain words you might try to include in a blog title or url. If you can't speak freely on a blog, what's the point of having one? MSN Spaces: seven dirty blogs
• · · · · Forrester envisions a day when new employees on their first day will be handed a sheet of paper with their phone number, email address — and a URL for their blog
• · · · · · The Spectator's leading article in the copy out today claims that Mr Blunkett is responsible for the latest media frenzy and intrusion into the privacy of his lover's family life Criticising the speck in someone else's eye without recognising the plank in our own must be rank hypocrisy