The latest Saturday Afternoon Chatter on Techmeme is about where conversations take place after we post on our blogs. The former editor of the Blog Herald Tony Hung thinks aggregation services have crossed the line. I tend to disagree. It’s like Restaurants having policies that you are only allowed to talk about the restaurant in the restaurant using approved feedback forms.

I have nothing else to say. Just thought I’d add this little bit of snobbery.

This installment of The Wonderful World of Science Blogging will take a look at some interesting diversions that scientists like to indulge (because they can). First, there’s news from the Zombie wars based on some very timely analysis of the nature of zombies.

In case you are among the few humans who haven’t yet become aware of the threat, I was originally alerted to the Zombie Crisis when I enrolled in a course on quantum consciousness at the University of Arizona some years ago. Philosopher David Chalmers was one of the instructors, and he is inordinately fond of zombies. He has published many papers on the subject, and has compiled a collection of Zombies on the Web that any true zombie-phyle will love. Hollywood zombies, Haitian zombies, philosophical zombies, the zombie within, functional zombies… You name it, Chalmers has links to it in his collection. read more

I hear a tiny little bell ringing in the back of my head, and it’s not the usual crazy voices that do this. No, I think it’s some kind of reminder that I’ve heard about the Intel Centrino Duo Blogger Challenge before, but apparently haven’t taken any real note of it.

The challenge appeared in the feed reader this morning, via A-lister Robert Scoble, who is one of the mystery bloggers that has been hired for the challenge. And by hired I mean given a laptop, that Robert doesn’t intend to keep, probably fearing Payperpost-like reactions from his readers.

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SXSW is a big thing I realize. Media magnet. Mecca for all things, emm, whatever. But in case you were looking for a reason to not attend this event, let me give you reason #1 (of course the only one that matters).

Dan Rather is keynoting.

Yes, you heard it right. The posterchild for being dooced by blogs is now touting how, and I quote, “emerging technology is shaping the news”.

Well, if anyone can be a posterchild for such a topic, Dan Rather is it. The only reason the Web 2.0 crowd is embracing this goon is because of Mark Cuban’s dollars. He had no credibility when he left CBS, what makes an HDNet deal give him any more credibility now?

Hat tip: Mark Jaiquith

While I have great appreciation for the “kickass bloggers” bloggers statement on Jeremy Wright’s business cards, I think mine are simply cooler:

No matter what Aaron might have to say about it…

I have it from an unnamed senior Blogmedia senior vice-president that the Blog Herald is itching to instigate a blog war. I can’t go into details at the moment, but for some reason he decided that it would be appropriate to respond to b5media’s Jeremy Wright and his “kickass” business card with one of his own.

Apparently this unnamed senior vice president of Blogmedia doesn’t realize that what starts with Scoble stays with Scoble.

I’m sure this is just a rumor as Blogmedia must know the odds of actually winning a war on such terms as business cards. Isn’t that right, Matt?

So you’ve got your brand new 2.0 company name and logo and the manifest that make you look sassy? Why not pimp your online presence with some sweet comics, courtesy of Bubblr - that’s not expected is it? Don’t draw yourself – steal stuff from Flickr, very 2.0 mate.

Do we never tire of these things? I guess not.

The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator and the Web 2.0 Company Creator.

Appropriate homage to the Web Economy Bullshit Generator is given, of course.

Hat/Tip: Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion.

Several months, after a lengthy mailing list discussion about Chameleon, a so-called CMS that ironically was built on WordPress. I say ironically because nowhere on their website or spec sheet does Flip mention this fact. The software was being sold by FlipCorp for a lofty $6,800 USD, I wrote an entry about it spouting about GPL licensing especially as it pertains to plugins.

Now as I’ve said multiple places, I have no complaints about forked open source project. I don’t even have a problem with forked WordPress-based projects. However, give some credit where credit is due, especially since most of the workforce that built a rock-solid product is volunteer labor. Flip is simply stealing it without attribution, thanks or acknowledgement. Of course, none of the above is required by GPL which perhaps highlights a weakness in the license.

I bring this up again today because Martin Diessner is wearing out his Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V keystrokes by finally catching up with the news that (whisper) people are talking about him and is pasting identical responses all over the net.
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The Onion has a few brief thoughts on the YearlyKos convention of liberal bloggers that occurred last week in Vegas.