Uninstalled

As with so many of my ideas, this could be utterly daft or genuinely interesting (or something in between). We’ll let the crowd decide…

Un-conferences, meetups and camps (BarCamp, DemoCamp, PodCamp, ChangeCamp, etc.) have become the pedestrian norm in geek and social media circles. The once-rebellious ideals of the un-conference set are drowning in the din of . . . → Read More: meta|camp

Recently, my number of new Twitter followers has been growing at an increasing rate. I’m not sure if this is simply a factor of the exponential growth of Twitter itself, or perhaps something to do with the fact that I’ve been talking about Twitter a lot more in email, phone conversations and at events. . . . → Read More: Analyzing my new Twitter followers

I wonder do they sink —Winter lawns piledHeavy under hills of snow?Springing back level, exhalingWhen April brings . . . → Read More: On the walk home

I’ve written about this in the past, but this morning’s short-lived global Google meltdown seems an appropriate time to repeat the thought.

For years now, I’ve been bringing up E.M. Forster’s extraordinary short story “The Machine Stops” in the context of discussions about Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson or any conversation touching on our society’s increasing dependence on, . . . → Read More: The Machine Stops (again) #googmayharm

At some point this morning, every single Google search started bringing up linkjacked results with each result flagged like this:

Seems that every single site has now been Net Nannied into oblivion – doesn’t matter what you search for, EVERYTHING is flagged with “This site may harm your computer”.

No news out of Google as at 9:56am Eastern, . . . → Read More: Has Google been hacked?

I’m back from chairing an enjoyable, lively and (I thought) really interesting panel session at tonight’s IABC professional development event, Social Media and the Modern Communicator. Many thanks to the IABC Toronto Chapter for organizing and promoting this sold-out event, and to the terrific panelists for giving generously of their time and knowledge – shout . . . → Read More: IABC Toronto Social Media and the Modern Communicator

(Already said this on Twitter earlier tonight, but I’m rather inappropriately pleased with it, so couldn’t resist the crosspost…)

It’s pretty obvious why Loblaws’ “No Name” brand cookies are not as tasty as the fancy ones. They’re sans nom.

That . . . → Read More: Geek humour

This is a tale of two disc deaths – and two happy endings.

Over the Christmas break, the 100GB hard drive on my work laptop (let’s call it Dell #1) crashed. I couldn’t boot, couldn’t get through Vista’s Startup Repair, couldn’t rebuild Vista from the original discs – it was dead, dead, dead.

Then just last Saturday, . . . → Read More: Cloud Storage & DIY Data Recovery FTW

I took a quick snap of Ruairi’s journal this morning before he packed it into his school bag. His teacher encourages the class to keep a journal in which they write about the interesting and important events in their daily life. See if you can decode Ruairi’s entry from yesterday:

His writing’s not the best yet . . . → Read More: A significant event in the life of a six year old

Just got a tiny little email message from my friends at Media Experts.

Here’s the message, in its entirety:

================================From: Happy Holidays [mailto:HappyHolidays@mediaexperts.com]Sent: December-19-08 4:28 PMSubject: A Holiday Greeting from Media Experts / Un message pour les fetes de Media Experts

Search for the true meaning of the holidays.Go to Google.ca and enter your name…

Cherchez le vrai sens du . . . → Read More: Best SEO Geek Holiday Greeting EVAH