DefinitiveInk

"Putz leaves Mets win with irritated fingernail", are we really facing a whole season of headlines like this?

"Putz: literally, a diminutive form of penis; a prick. Used, as we do in English to describe a nasty, unlikable man. A putz generally has no real power, except to make your life miserable or at least unpleasant, often in a passive-aggressive way. See also Shmuck."

As I see it either way the Mets' J.J Putz is going to get teased this year in NY. It's a Yiddish town. If he wins for the Mets then we get a lot of headlines that we chuckle over and his opponents will think he is a putz, and if he has a bad season we'll will think he is a shmuck. Is there a joke to be made about a double header?

nice new crowd-sourced appraisal feature on Brownstoner

Just noticed this new feature on Brownstoner. In time he promises to look back and see how accurate the collective guess is.

links for 2009-3-31: more on twitter and link building, doctorow on Kindle's text-to-speech feature

• Twitter: Incredibly Valuable Or Utterly Useless As A Link Building Tool?
  an opinion on searchengineland
  (tags: twitter marketing)
• Cory Doctorow: Authors have lost the plot in Amazon Kindle battle | Technology | guardian.co.uk
  I agree that it is a shame that Amazon turned off the audio at the request of the Author's Guild but I hadn't thought of Doctorow's bigger point - the fact that Amazon COULD turn off the audio on specific books is the real issue.
  (tags: business copyright)

Crayola doesn't make a color for your eyes, or a reason to learn to pattycake

I guess we first heard this song on A Prairie Home Companion. I wanted to put that right up front as I know for some readers that will be enough to skip this post. For those of you undettered by this, be aware that this tune is infectious, you won't be able to get it out of your head. If you are a man then you can look forward to trying to do this with your wife or child and being corrected often (possibly a sexist comment but I'm willing to guess that most small boys don't pattycake). If you want to play it not only will you have to learn a new long song, but a new motor skill to boot. You could also just sit back and play this video over and over, and then sing the chorus to your baby (big or small). Lyrics after the jump.

Help Jay Rosen collect data on local news in your papers

Over at MediaShift's IdeaLab on PBS, Jay Rosen is collecting information from commenters on the # of local news stories in their papers.

This link/tip in from a reader. I note this as I'd love more tips and links from readers. It is pretty thrilling to have readers in the first place, so thank you. And the fact that this comes from Simon Owens is great.

Update: the NYObserver is reporting that the NYT is going to drop the City Section and possibly its regional weeklies. So one less thing to count.

links for 2009-3-30: URL shortners and the way they change linking, more on URL shorteners, SEO mistake by the NYT

• H.P. Lowers Bar for Printing Glossy Color Magazines - NYTimes.com
  (tags: publishing)
• Hacker News | Ask HN: How are url shorteners making money?
  wondering about tinyurl and bitly and if they can make any money. very interesting thread
  (tags: ads url business)
• kenspeckle » Twitter, URL shorteners, and the transfer of meaning in the link economy
  very interesting post about bityly etc by an ex-colleague of mine.
  (tags: google seo)
• Disasters: Times Nukes Itself On Google
  (tags: newspapers seo)

links for 2009-3-26: flowcharts in google docs, schott's vocab blog, Rosen's links to all you need to know about the future of news

• Create Flowcharts & Diagrams in Google Docs
  google docs now supporting the creation of flowcharts, was thinking about upgrading my omnigraffle to v5. hmm.
  (tags: google)
• PressThink: Rosen's Flying Seminar In The Future of News
  Jay Rosen collects, and abstracts, 10 of the better recent posts about the state of journalism, newspapers, and the future.
  (tags: future newspaper journalism)
• Schott's Vocab - Schott’s Vocab Blog - NYTimes.com
  The NYT launches a new blog about language authored by Ben Schott. It's fun. Schott's career trajectory is kind of remarkable. a few years ago when he was a photographer, he made little booklets filled with arcana for his friends as Christmas presents. These led to the first miscellany books and now what looks like a mini-empire of facts.
  (tags: culture blogs language)

links for 2009-3-26: talking points memo tv, Robert Moses gmaps, origins of bromance, and twitter dicks

• What's the size of your Twitter e-Penis?
  crude but very funny. sometimes the editors of buzzfeed really have my number, at least the part that is 16 years old.
  (tags: twitter humor)
• TPMTV | Talking Points Memo | Steele: Rush Goof Was Part of My Strategy
  Just noticed that TPM put their video on this sub-domain. I love their day in 100 seconds. It has some fine editing and has more of a focus on politics that the video on the Daily Show. You get to see amazing house committee snippets as well as idiocy from calbe and morning news shows. (Is there a Gary Ackerman fan club on facebook? Love his accent and demeanor.) Also they are creating quite a shrine to the genius of Michael Steele, who is now claiming that everything he does is planned.
  (tags: politics video news)
• Urban Dictionary: bromance
  A little investigation into the awful word bromance. I think it is very funny that it originated in a risque skateboard magazine that was purchased by Larry Flynt. Looks like it took six years to hit the mainstream.
  (tags: languages)
• vanshnookenraggen blog » Blog Archive » Unbuilt Robert Moses Highway Maps
  At one point we had three copies of The Power Broker in our house. Here are some brilliant maps that take google maps and draw Moses planned highways through Manhattan. Just imagine what the city would have been like if they had been built. (via Kottke.org)
  (tags: googlemaps newyork history)

links for 2009-3-24: large top nav drop-downs work, Kings, Cosmos, AdReady

• Cosmos on Hulu
  continuing my newfound love of Hulu. Kottke is reporting that Cosmos is there too.
  (tags: TV)
• NBC's 'Kings' script: bold, bizarre, fun--The Live Feed
  I'm really enjoying watching this show on Hulu and this post really captures why. From the casting to the fantastic use of NYC as the alternate universe setting - the Apthorp as a castle, the Jazz at Lincoln Center theater as the King's board room, etc. I'm kind of a sucker for classical dramas set in modern places and this is just wonderful. Hope it survives in the ratings so I can find out what vow the Princess took that is keeping her away from David.
  (tags: TV)
• AdReady | Build, run, and optimize banner ads
  (tags: business advertising startup)
• Doc Searls Weblog · After the advertising bubble bursts
  interesting - follows on the techcrunch article response I posted. moves more to a paid/tip model.
  (tags: advertising)
• Mega Drop-Down Navigation Menus Work Well (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
  really interesting that these work. they could open up so much real estate and really help drive users around a site.
  (tags: webdesign navigation nielsen)

links for 2009-3-23: Nicholas Plath's suicide, a blistering critique of a techcruch guest article about advertising

• Nicholas Hughes, Sylvia Plath’s son commits suicide - Times Online
  Such a hard legacy and sad to read this. seems that forty years today Ted Hughes' mistress, the woman he left Plath for, killed herself and her one year old daughter. So young Nicholas not only lost his mother but his step-mother figure to suicide.
  (tags: depression news poetry)
• For Your Sunday Bullshit Reading: Search Ads Are “Misdirection” Advertising
  Danny Sullivan of Searchengineland critiques an article on TechCrunch. I'll admit to not actually reading the article as the headlines of both were at the top of TechMeme and this one was just so much more compelling.
  (tags: advertising business google)

links for 2009-3-22: usury, good cover letter advice, Jonathan Weber's simple model for online journalism, independent bookstore walking tour

• Infinite debt: How unlimited interest rates destroyed the economy—By Thomas Geoghegan (Harper's Magazine)
  A fantastic and depressing article, "we are all waiters now.." (also I get to create a usury tag - how awesome is that?)
  (tags: usury journalism history business)
• Ask a Manager: What does a good cover letter look like?
  I'm changing the style of the cover letters I've been writing. Hoping to find one that is effective for the few appealing roles I've been seeing. This seems like good advice as earlier ones I've penned have restated my resume to much.
  (tags: coverletter jobs writing resume)
• A Simple Model for Online Journalism | New West Blog | New West Network
  Jonathan Weber of newwest pens a great case study of a working model for a local/regional online business.
  (tags: local newspapers future journalism business)
• Islands in the Stream: Our "Walking Tour of New York's Independent Bookstores," Revised and Expanded - The Millions
  nicely put together tour of the dwindling # of independent bookstores in NYC. (via <a href="www.kottke.org">Kottke.org</a>)
  (tags: travel walking local)

links for 2009-3-20: everyblock, backyard chickens, Movable Type Motion

• Can EveryBlock go everywhere? - CNN.com
  everyblock going opensource this summer.
  (tags: hyperlocal local)
• Projects - Raising Chickens In The City :: PathtoFreedom.com ::
  Yes - I'm giving some thought, just a little, to the idea of raising some chickens in our back yard.
  (tags: sustainability chickens food gardening)
• Movable Type introduces Motion - a really interesting service. The video on the page is a great primer on social media and pulling it all together.

links for 2009-3-19: Monck on Shirky's post on future of news, local ad spend trends

• Clay Shirky: wrong about newspapers
  Adrian Monck disagrees with Shirky (the post noted a few days ago) and in a belittling post lets him know it. I didn't realize that Clay didn't hyperlink in his posts. Hmm
  (tags: journalism business)
• Report: Local Businesses Spend Billions Online—Mostly On Non-Advertiser Marketing | paidContent.org
  Interesting article and report, which if I'm reading it correctly states that local businesses spend more on their sites than advertising. Therefore they are relying on search engines to put them up front. Ironic since their attention to SEO is horrible. So often they build their sites in flash with no attention to html versions. Basically every restaurant site I've ever visited has had a flash based site with a splashy entrance page so I end up going to menupages. I'm doing a small SEO project right now for a friend who has a short-term office space business. He has two sites both in flash. For one I added alt tags, descriptions etc and for the other I simply rebuilt it on squarespace. Not only has this already increased calls but it also makes it updatable at no additional cost. What do you think are the best ways to help local businesses get this right.
  (tags: local business software)
• Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Simple Controls Gallery
  (tags: webdesign reference)
(tags: aggregator)

W with balloons

links for 2009-3-18

• A/V Geeks » Our Films Online
  (tags: humor video)
• Growing Sentences with David Foster Wallace
  how to write extremely long sentences the David Foster Wallace way
  (tags: howto writing humor)
• Feedraider: like making your own personal PopUrls page: etc: a stream of geek consciousness
  (tags: aggregator)

AIG money trail - how big is the spill and when will our trust be restored.

My friend Kael has made this widget and written a good post on AIG. The widget will update as more is known. This is as Talking Points Memo writes a real make or break time for the President and his administration to look as if they are really in control and restore public trust in the markets and the bailout plan. How can an effectively bankrupt company claim to contractually owe 450 million dollars (wsj) in bonuses to its employees?

links for 2009-3-16

• Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky
  Clay Shirky in a must-read post on newspapers and change as well. "That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen." looking at the world of the 1500's after Gutenberg. Read with S. Johnson's.
  (tags: publishing future newspaper technology business)
• stevenberlinjohnson.com: Old Growth Media And The Future Of News
  the text of a speech given at SXSW on the future of the news ecosystem by Steven Johnson. "...I think that steady transformation from desert to jungle may be the single most important trend we should be looking at when we talk about the future of news. Not the future of the news industry, or the print newspaper business: the future of news itself." Much as I am ambivalent about him on a personal level, given my experience at outside.in. He is doing what he does best here. Synthesizing memes and thoughts, going meta, making them personal, and explaining them very eloquently. I like the part where he describes the fact that we think we are in a jungle when in fact it is a desert. One thing he leaves out is the effect search has on all of these voices. It is one off the lynchpins to finding out what is happening around us. kosmix.com, google, daylife as early examples.
  (tags: publishing history technology newspapers future)
• Introduction to the The Penny Black of Great Britain 1840
  A detailed guide to the different plates and identifications of the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive stamp put out in Gt. Britain in 1840. I bought one of these when I was a kid on the 6th floor of the Gimble's Department Store on 86th and Lexington avenue. I was looking into selling it.
  (tags: stamps history)
• AIG Ripoff Gets More Maddening - Boing Boing
  Dan Gillmor guest blogging on Boing-Boing. Great stuff
  (tags: politics)

links for 2009-3-13

• Introducing the SXSW Web Awards Finalists... | SXSW.com
  (tags: reference lists inspiration)
• Matter Network - Clean Technology, Green News and Sustainable Business News
  nice looking aggregation start page for green network. smart magazine
  (tags: technology network environmental green)
• TR10: HashCache
  Really interesting solution for bringing the Internet to places with scarce resources. Hope this becomes a reality. Amazing and simple!
  (tags: sustainability digital_divide)
• Triple Pundit - Business, Better. Since 2005.
  Interesting blog about sustainability and responsible business practices
  (tags: blogs environment sustainable innovation)
• rayogram NEWScan
  The front pages of major newspapers in a great readable scroll. (via Kottke.org)
  (tags: webdesign aggregator newspapers rss)

links for 2009-3-12

• Bad News for Newspapers - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com
  Bleak map of the state of the newspaper industry. Would have liked to have seen the crackerjack team at the NYT add some historical data and motion to it
  (tags: journalism publishing mapping visualization)
• THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA
  this blog like coverlaydown needs to be explored on a quiet afternoon. Delving into the stories behind the Folkways series (via metafilter.com)
  (tags: music blog history)
• YouTube - Gervais + Elmo = Hilarity on 'Sesame Street'
  Am bookmarking this so one day in the not so distant future, my daughter will be able to reference this groundbreaking interview between Elmo and Ricky Gervais
  (tags: humor video)
• PJNet - Blog - New York Times Maps USA Newspapers’ Financial Crisis
  (tags: journalism business)
• MetaFilter Founder Matt Haughey Q&A - Including a Few Newspaper Answers | Metaprinter
  (tags: )
• PressDisplay.com - Newspapers From Around the World
  (tags: )
• Blogs - NAA Community
  Blog from the recent Newspaper Assoc MediaXchange conference. Have some learning to do in the self-serve ad space.
  (tags: advertising newspapers)
• Are Blogs Losing Their Authority To The Statusphere?
  (tags: blogging attention influence)
• PressThink: National Explainer: A Job for Journalists on the Demand Side of News
  (tags: journalism news writing storytelling)
• The Long Tail - Wired Blogs: My Two Cents On Charging For Content
  Chris Anderson's take on the idea of charging for content. Keep some of the right stuff behind a wall for subscribers and let bloggers/bookmarkers drive people to it via special urls.
  (tags: journalism business freemium)
• The Digital Divisions Are Dead At Big Media - washingtonpost.com
  (tags: business media technology)
• Resources: Web 2.0 Social Media Products, a guide on what to use - Susan Mernit's Blog
  Excellent list of products and services that are the essential kit for using social media to promote yourself, a cause, an organization,or a company. People always want to know this and Susan sums it up really well. It isn't rocket science you just need to know where to look and how to combine things. For more specialized things, I might add scribed to the list since I've heard about some great results putting book excerpts into it. Also upcoming are great forms and data widgets from a company called blankslate but they haven't launched yet
  (tags: social_media applications web2.0 webdesign)

links for 2009-3-12

• Resources: Web 2.0 Social Media Products, a guide on what to use - Susan Mernit's Blog
  Excellent list of products and services that are the essential kit for using social media to promote yourself, a cause, an organization,or a company. People always want to know this and Susan sums it up really well. It isn't rocket science you just need to know where to look and how to combine things. For more specialized things, I might add scribed to the list since I've heard about some great results putting after book excerpts into it. Also upcoming are great forms and data widgets from a company called blankslate but they haven't launched yet
  (tags: social_media applications web2.0 webdesign)