Overheard a woman on her cellphone at the Duane Reade on Delancey Street this morning:
“I’ll text you when I email you so you’ll know that it’s urgent.”
I’m going to start texting people to let them know when I’ve emailed them about setting up a phone call. Can’t be any worse than when PR people call me to let me know that they’ve emailed me some inane press release.
I’ve been insanely busy since I got back from Europe, which is why it’s taken me a few days to get around to mentioning that I landed a small contributing role on HGTV’s new gadget show, I Want That! Tech Toys, which airs Wednesdays at 9pm EST/PST. (Trust me, I had nothing to do with the name. Or the horrible logo. Or any part of the show I don’t appear on.)
I haven’t actually even seen the show yet — I was somewhere over Greenland during the premiere — so I’m not sure how everything turned out, but you’ll have a chance to hear me talk about Samsung’s new Helix portable XM satellite radio, as well as see the inside of my apartment, which is where part of the segment was taped. I’m still having a lot of trouble getting used to the, um, rhythms and cadences of professional TV. Everything has to be condensed to just 90 seconds (or less) and you have to project yourself in a way that isn’t natural. Or least not in a way that is at all natural for me. I’ve set the DVR to record this coming week’s episode, but if anyone actually caught this past one, let me know.
There’s nothing like coming home from a two week vacation offline to discover that your cable internet connection is down. Not sure what’d I’d do without EV-DO…
P.S. – That’s Jill in front of the Church of the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg.
It’s cool that Chris Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired mag and the author of The Long Tail and all that, but he completely blew me away when he told me at last night’s Long Tail launch party that he was in not one, but two obscure early-80’s DC bands that I love: Egoslavia (a Gang of Four-inspired post-punk band) and Youth Brigade (an early Dischord hardcore band). Now I’m officially impressed.
Chamillionaire – Ridin – Every summer needs a jam.
JPod – Picked this up yesterday evening, so far it’s entertaining, but I think I should probably read a book that isn’t an endless regurgitation of pop culture references. I get enough of that online already.
Call of Duty 2 – I didn’t think I’d ever get into this one, but after growing weary of Oblivion’s solo style I wanted something that I could play with my crew. The online play is addicting, but let’s just say that I’m so bad at it that I abandoned my original screenname (“engadget”) because I didn’t want to bring any additional shame to the Engadget brand.
Brick – My fave movie of the year so far. Either you buy into the premise or you don’t, but I totally get why SoCal and film noir go hand-in-hand. The best part is Lucas Haas as an unwitting caricature of Aaron Montaigne.
Portraits of Past – I’m pretty sure the 21-year-old Peter Rojas would despise the 31-year-old Peter Rojas, but I think he’d be really happy that his future self still listens to Portraits of Past.
Babycakes – It’s so dangerous having a vegan bakery within a block of my house.
Treo 700p – It’s not that much of an upgrade from the 650 (though the EV-DO is sweet), but I bought one anyway. I feel so dirty.
I’ve been waiting 15 years for someone to come up with a clear, succinct overview of all this stuff, I just have no idea whether this guy’s explanations of dimensions five through ten are in any way accurate.
In case you didn’t spot it over at Engadget, we’re having an Engadget Reader Meetup in Amsterdam on the evening of July 20th (location and exact time to be announced shortly). Incidentally, it’ll be my first chance to hang out with Thomas Ricker, Engadget’s European correspondent — it’s funny how long you can work closely with someone before you actually meet them.
Apparently someone who reads this blog thought it’d be funny to create a new Wikipedia entry for me. I wasn’t kidding about not caring about being in Wikipedia, I think it’s totally fine that the earlier entry about me was deleted. Could someone out there propose the entry for deletion? It’s not like I’ve suddenly become more notable or anything.
UPDATE: Victory!
Fred Wilson’s talking this week about how a Wikipedia entry about him was deleted for “non-notability”. Well, Fred, join the club — I was deleted from Wikipedia too, and to be honest, I don’t mind. Sure, I was a little perplexed when I was voted out by a group of random Wikipedia users, but on the whole I don’t mind.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Wikipedia, it’s an amazing resource that I use daily, but as the site has grown it seems like it’s also become a place where the disgruntled go to air petty grievances and settle scores. Just check out the pitched battle over Xeni Jardin’s entry. It’s great that there are people who want to fact-check her entry and make sure it has a Neutral Point of View, but it’s obvious that there are a few individuals who simply don’t like Xeni and want to make sure that her Wikipedia entry is as negative as possible. After seeing what Xeni’s gone through, I don’t mind that there isn’t a place where people can talk smack about me and pass it off as authoritative and neutral.
Wikipedia’s team of volunteer editors do a generally good job of eliminating this kind of stuff and keeping the site clean of vandalism, but the trolls who want to ruin Wikipedia are highly motivated to keep on trying because of the site’s status as an authoritative reference (if the information contained within Wikipedia weren’t generally considered to be reliable and accurate then it wouldn’t be so popular). It’s this status which makes getting an attack into an entry irresistable to these people. Why flame someone on a mere message board when you can get your attack stamped with the authority of the “web’s encyclopedia”?
The editors of the site know there’s a problem and have been working to give some entries a “semi-protected” status that makes them more impervious to trollish behavior. However protecting every entry defeats the point of an open system, and so even though there are no technological limits to how much information the site can contain, there are other barriers, like how many trusted volunteers are available to patrol the site. Wikipedia’s response to this barrier has been to create an artificial limit to what can be added to the site; that limit is called “notability”. It’s their way of keeping on top of things.
What I think Fred finds frustrating is that there appear to be no standards for notability. A couple of other Fred Wilsons who seem less notable than Fred Wilson (the blogging VC) have survived scrutiny. I was deleted, but an entry on Ryan Block, Engadget’s managing editor, has so far escaped elimination. The point isn’t that Ryan or these other Fred Wilsons are or are not notable, it’s that the standards are inconsistent. Of course, any system that relies on a vote of whoever just happens to be paying attention that day is bound to be inconsistent.
At the end of the day being in Wikipedia isn’t all that important anyway. It’s a nice ego boost (not that my overinflated ego needs any encouragement), but if you’re truly notable what matters is the recognition of your peers, not an entry on some website somewhere. I can live without being in Wikipedia.
UPDATE: Apparently someone who reads this blog thought it’d be funny to create a new Wikipedia entry for me. I wasn’t kidding about not wanting to be in Wikipedia, so hopefully the editors will delete this attempt to reinstate me. It’s not like I’ve suddenly become more notable or anything.
Wow, I was totally surprised by the turnout for Saturday’s Engadget reader meetup in my hometown of Merced, CA. I figured maybe 5 people would go, but a full 30 people showed up, including some people who drove from as far away as San Luis Obispo and Cupertino to be there. Thanks to everyone who came!