There’s a new FeatherCast this morning. It came out of an attempt to interview Sally, who refused to be interviewed, and turned it into interviewing me. So I rambled on for quite a bit, although it’s not particularly clear to me that anyone would have much interest in what I had to say. But David said it was worth putting up, and there it is. Hope you enjoy it.

Today I read yet another cutting-edge piece of “journalism” that claimed that, surprise, surprise, bloggers aren’t replacing “real” journalists.

Wow. I hope he didn’t stay up all night coming up with that.

So, two things that I’d like to say about this.

First of all, blogging isn’t about replacing journalism. It’s about people exercising their right to free speech, and saying whatever they want. Someone once said that the freedom of the press belongs to the man who has one. Well, now we’ve all got one, and we’re using it. Whether what we come up with is “news” or “journalism” is really unimportant. What’s important is that we’re publishing, speaking, saying things. And that we’re writing.

Throughout human history there have been thousands of writers, and a handful of them have had something to say that endured. Now there are millions of writers, and (this should come as no shock to those who understand statistics) a somewhat larger handful of them have something to say that’s enduring. The more people we encourage to write, the more good stuff will be written. But, as always, 90% of everything is crap.

Second, and more interesting to me – sure, bloggers aren’t journalists. But most journalists aren’t journalists either. The article complains that most bloggers write about the topic of “me.” Well, on one hand, journalism is telling the human story. That doesn’t mean that everyone’s story is interesting. But I think that professional journalists are afraid that we’re going to compare what they’re writing to what we’re writing, and realize that we’re just not interested in what they’re writing any more.

Today on the front page of CNN.com, in the list of “latest news”, there is “How much for a date with Jennifer Biel”, “Where are Hollywood’s curvy women”, “‘King of Queens’ star: I’ve seen Suri Cruise”, “Robotic hysterectomy is ‘cool,’ woman says”, “Pet dies after dog-training ‘exorcism'”, “SI.com: ‘Damon sucks’ bibs hit a nerve”, and, oh yeah, “Hezbollah leader apologizes for child deaths”.

With my limited time in the morning, I’m far more likely to read “Year 2038 Bug Strikes Early, Salaam, Mumbai, and Goats and Fish. Is it journalism? I don’t know. But I’m far more interested in the lives of these people than in the life of Jennifer Biel. At least they are real people who I have met, and who I actually think are interesting people.

I tend to think that this is why professional journalists keep setting up this strawman and knocking it down, and why they point to the silly teenage bloggers with their acronym-laden content-free twaddle, rather than to the Matt Drudges of the world. They’re afraid that we’ll notice that the journalists don’t have anything constructive to add to the conversation either, and that the point is to communicate, not to wear a press pass.

My bookmark file is quite elderly, having travelled from one computer to another with me for at least 10 years, and bits of it longer than that. This evening I came across a sub-sub-folder containing links to internet mapping sites. Alas, of the 4 sites, 3 of them were deceased.

PARC.Xerox was the first internet mapping site I ever encountered. Alas, this service is no more.

The Delorme CyberAtlas was, as far as I know, the very first website where you could put in two addresses and get a door-to-door map. First one I ever found, anyways. I remember it causing a bit of a stir that you could put in someone street address and get a map to their front door. Seems silly now. Alas, this site is deceased, although the company is still going strong.

Mapquest, of course, still going strong, and largely unchanged all these years later.

And, one that I found perhaps most interesting of all, Yahoo Maps at its original location, http://www.proximus.com/yahoo/. The domain name is now apparently owned by Microsoft, while Yahoo Maps itself has moved elsewhere.

And there endeth the history lesson. I found a bunch of other goodies buried in the bowels of my bookmark file, but they’ll have to wait for another time.

** Transcribed from the original manuscript **

This campsite makes me feel like an amateur detective. Alas, I’ve destroyed the crime scene.

The last people to camp here had horses – at least two, but perhaps more. There were at least three people in the party, and they had ramen noodles for their supper. After supper they drank copiously – Bud Lite for most of them, but one of them drank Smirnoff Ice.

While they sat around the campfire drinking, one whittled a short stick, which he then threw into the woods. A few of the bottles followed the stick into the woods.

Oh, and they also had corn with dinner. And barbecue flavored potato chips. And some drink in one of those little single-serving plastic bottles that the top twists off of.

They probably also had a truck of sime kind, since they left behind a lot of hay. Or perhaps it was just a one-day camping trip, and so no need to conserve the hay. Not sure about this one.

I expect Monk would know.

** Transcribed from the original manuscript **

I’m finding, as usual, that relaxing is very hard work. Fortunately, there’s stuff to do, but I keep wanting to do stuff that requires the Internet.

This morning I read “The Alchemist”, by Paulo Coelho. It has been many moons since the last time I was able to sit and read a whole book at one witting without interruptions. Maybe I’ll read another one this afternoon.

The Alchemist is about persuing your dream, and not being sidetracked by other things. Of course, that is a gross oversimilification. You should read it. It only takes a morning. 🙂

I moved the tent to a flatter spot. Perhaps I’ll sleep better tonight.

Thinking about something Sarah said, while looking at my not-so-great handwriting. “Why don’t you always do your personal best?” Doing your personal best is one of the mantras at her school. It’s a good one. Coelho made me think of this too. The secret of success is to always do your personal best. Figuring out what that means, is, I suppose, a life long quest.

Anyways, it is indeed very relaxing out here. Perhaps I’ll actually make it through the weekend. We’lll see. Next time out, I need to plan the menu a little more carefully. Time to go see what’s for lunch.

Thanks to jMCg, _Lewellyn, and various others on #apache for examples and inspiration, I now have the following in my .vimrc

” Autocomplete stuff for .php, .pl files, thanks to jMCg, _Lewellyn, et
” al on #apache.
au FileType php,pl :abbrev if if () {<CR>}<ESC>klllli
au FileType php,pl :abbrev else else {<CR>}<ESC>O
au FileType php,pl :abbrev elseif elseif {<CR>}<ESC>O
au FileType php :abbrev /** /**<CR> *<CR>*/<ESC>kA
au FileType php :abbrev switch switch ( ) {<CR><CR>case ‘foo’ :<CR>break;<CR><CR>default :<CR>break;<CR>}<ESC>kkkkkkkllllllla
au FileType php :abbrev function /**<CR> * Description<CR>*<CR>* @param<CR>* @return<CR>*/<CR><ESC>A<CR>function() {<CR>}<ESC>klllllllli

It’s nothing terribly fancy, but it expands if, else, elseif, and function to full code blocks, and, in the case of function, gives a skeleton phpdoc block all ready for useful documentation. And it will save me a lot of typing.

Note that each au starts a new line. I imagine the lines wrap rather differently in your browser window.