Category: Burningbird

Essential Blogging book

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 27, 2002

Weblog postings about the Essential Blogging book I’ve been discovering.

Denise noted:

Help them make the book rock (it already does), and read Rael Dornfest’s open invitation to submit your stories and tips for possible inclusion in the”Blogging Voices” chapter, still in progress.

And Ed had some good points about comparative material, including:

where are the charts comparing advantages/disadvantages of each system? the first radio chapter attemtped to show pros/cons of having your site hosted by rcs or on your own…but only for that system! an entire chapter comparing the relative merits of each system against the others is almost a necessity, no?

I hope you all are passing these on in comments at the review site as Nat may not be aware of the postings in your weblogs, though I am trying to pass them on as I find them.

Writing

Literature through the ages

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 27, 2002

This also from *Jonathon: Norwegian Book ClubsTop 100 books of all time

I was pleased and frankly astonished to realize how many of the books on this list I’ve read. I don’t consider myself one of the more literate members of my virtual weblogging neighborhood. I read constantly, but I don’t seem to read the same books as most of my neighbors.

However, it would seem that I do have similar reading habits as the Book Club. I wonder, does this make me more literate? Or them less?

* I almost posted a third link to Mr. Delacour’s weblog today, to the Cuckoo story. However, my supply of Tim Tams is running low and if he wants triple linking, he’ll have to pay up.

Weblogging Writing

More voices on moral clarity

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 27, 2002

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Two new voices raised on the issue of Moral Clarity:

Kath writes:

My friend claims that my demanding of my rights violates his right to what he values most – his safety. I claim that living life is a risk. You could get hit by bus while crossing the street. You could slip on rug and break your neck. You could get on the same plane as a terrorist no matter what safety precautions are put in place, short of requiring everyone to travel naked, with no luggage and no in-flight amenities that might be turned into weapons.

I agree with Kath on the issue of not compromising our freedoms in order to claim a spurious sense of safety. As we have seen recently, you can get killed just crossing a bridge. In life there are no guarantees.

And Jonathon writes:

Moral Clarity, now playing at a multiplex near you. There’s the risk of confusing the audience by casting Saudis and Pakistanis as both Arnie’s allies and his enemies. But a top-class writer like Bill Bennett should be able to paper over any holes in the storyline.

Viewpoints based on expediency and morality based on oil. Too sadly true. Hypocrisy, moral clarity, and oil. But before we willy nilly slam governments, when was the last time you topped off your tank?

Writing

Dave Winer’s ‘help’ with book

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 25, 2002

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Wow. Generosity itself. Dave wants to try and “salvage” O’Reilly’s weblogging book, by putting together his own mailing list rather than let O’Reilly go through the usual editing process.

According to the intro page at the list, Dave writes:

I was hoping this book would start like the WebMonkey survey of blogging software and go deeper into the relative merits of each of the products. I think ultimately it’s going to be difficult to get this book into shape in time, probably would have been a better idea to have just a couple of authors who really understood all the products (Radio, Blogger and Movable Type) and give them more time to really get it right. The products all took years to develop. A quick treatment like this is bound to miss the spot. This book really does miss the point, at least as far as our software is concerned. Perhaps this new mail list can do something heroic and rescue the chapters. Not sure what to recommend to O’Reilly at this time.

I’m sure that Tim O’Reilly, who knows very little about the publication business and books and writing and that sort of thing will be extremely grateful for Dave’s support.

I hesitate, though, at chopping the Blogger chapters down to, “Don’t use it. Use Userland Radio, instead” next to a graphic of a coffee mug.

Writing

Morality

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 25, 2002

Yes, I said I was taking a few days off from the weblog, and I am. However, I have these words banging at the top of mouth screaming “Let me out! Let me out!”, pulling at my tongue, digging into the roots of my teeth. I know I will get no peace until I let the little bastards out.

William Bennett wrote an article, Moral Clarity isn’t Simplistic.

I’m not going to argue about this article eloquently – I leave that to AKMA. And I’m not going to argue about it beautifully – I leave that to Steve.

What I am going to say is that those who use moral arguments as axes to chop the world into finer and finer bits, cutting away all who disagree with them, will soon find themselves surrounded only by like minds and like voices. And I wish them joy of it.