Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Blue Evan

Even Norlin digs Ev's redesign, which features the man's own head in vivid blue.

Connecting the dots

Got pointed to this. Speaks for itself.

On another matter, here's more interesting reading.

When I'm gone you'll know where

Phase five: Loud popping. Meta-blogging gets too self-referential and people start to disappear up their own butts with loud popping sounds

And we go head first, too.

Enough

Mike thinks there's a war going on, between bloggers and non-bloggers. Or something like that. Mike is, I am sure, an Enneagram Type 9, like me: a peacemaker. Which is why I find it strange when I'm characterized as a maker of war.

But metaphors are powerful, and we all use fighting metaphors all the time to describe much less violent activities. Yesterday I used one when I said a piece about blogging was "about as even-handed as a sucker-punch." It turned out to be the kind of highly quotable line we call a cheap shot.

Looking back, I regret it, because it suggested an intent on the part of the author, Farhad Monjoo, that was clearly not there. In fact his piece was even-handed, and I should have seen and respected that.

What bothered me was that the piece launched with a mention of David Weinberger's NPR commentary about how blogs are transforming journalism. To me, and to many other bloggers, that's the main story. But that's not the story Farhad wanted to tell, and that's his business. In terms of the story he wanted to tell, he was being even-handed. Credit where due. The punches were all mine.

So, enough. Peace.

Speaking of which, when I looked up "Enneagram Type 9 unifier" on Google, the top result (of just two) was PT Types Temperment Test. Take it and you'll be told not only what type you are (I'm an Idealist — big surprise), but what Weblogs express the same temperment.

It's all an interesting distraction, but I gotta work. Carry on.

Because more isn't enough

Jacob Shwirtz over at FuzzyBlogic deconstructs blogging about blogging about blogging about blogs.

Been there, won't do that

Cringely says Apple should do OS X for Intel.

Basically he's inviting Apple to compete head-to-head with Microsoft for the operating systems market. The problems: 1) That's never been Apple's business; 2) It would take a sex change for Apple to do it; 3) It would risk killing Apple's positive relationship with Microsoft; and 4) It's not in the company's plans, which are succeeding too well to change.

Apple is a hardware company. Specifically, a consumer electronics hardware company with a nice business selling to niche professionals. The company's plan is to expand on that. They're executing that plan rather well. Sales are rocketing up. Margins are huge, compared to the PC hardware business.

The secret to OS X's success is that, like Linux, it commodifies the base level of the OS, where Microsoft is weakest because Windows is opaque and secretive and costly. At the same level, Linux and Darwin (the BSD level of OS X) are transparent, disclosing and free. They also run all kinds of extant Unix software and development tools, and dovetail very well with existing Linux systems. Techies at big companies like that.

So, as a strategy, Darwin is a killer OS. As a Unix, it helps grease Mac hardware into a lot of Unix niches where Microsoft is trying to make inroads (leveraging Linux' successes as well), at the same time as it protects the consumer-level Apple corporate relationship with Microsoft. Very subversive and smart.