[unsung blogs] talent largely undiscovered

Disclaimer: the following post makes no reference to this blog in any shape or form. The author is not referring to himself at any stage of the proceedings in any category below nor is he fishing. He'd vastly prefer the issue itself to be addressed.

You know that Blogpower was originally designed to promote and support new blogs and the assumption was - blogs of quality. Speaking of quality in a blog, one might just as well speak of defining love. What on earth does it mean?

The blogs which survive seem to have an angle, a manner of writing which is fresh and the output is fairly constant. The blog is fun to visit and we want to return to see what he or she's posted next. We feel we "know" the author. Despite his many detractors, Iain Dale deserves his place at the top for his constant output and consistency. The angle and the scoop are his thing.

Some blogs, as everyone knows, are whatever the current jargon is for non-blogs, i.e. offshoot blogs from a previous project or special, slick sites with poor navigation and transparency which disguise an already established pundit who wishes to try a new project out on a new readership.

Having said all that, it's always been a source of wonder to me how one or two major blogs, which will remain unnamed, are lauded and repeatedly visited, when all they are is news commentary, with the occasional original angle, on the Telegraph, Guardian or Washington Post. They read the papers as we read the papers and then rattle something off on the story of the day, as we also do.

A news story breaks, they comment in their blog with fairly constant typos and that's it. Few graphics, no originality and yet they get upwards of two thousand readers a day. It has to be that they are so prolific or else they're seen as good guys by a section of the sphere. Or else they have kudos in some other sphere, e.g. the MSM or in IT. Who knows?

Don't get me wrong here - there are some fabulous exponents of the art. Some simply rise above the rest, such as Mr. Eugenides, bloggers who really do have the talent to not only see the more ridiculous aspects of the news but can write them up as well.

Then there are the blogs where the personality of the blogger seems to be the thing because the actual output is nothing more than what he did last week or else tits and bums. These guys get mega-readerships and good luck to them.

The blogs which concern me most are those with either true talent or something that little bit different about them and they don't receive their due. Not only that but they're too modest to shamelessly promote themselves. One of these is Ruthie Zaftig and another is The Broadsheet Rag. A more established blogger with a steady readership is Longrider who should be up in the mega-class. Now I don't know what their stats are but I'm willing to bet that the stats are infinitely inferior to the quality of the blog.

It amazes me that they don't enjoy greater kudos in the sphere. I know they have loyal readerships but that's not what I'm referring to. I mean a mass readership. Perhaps TBR could be a bit more transparent - the "About" says almost nothing and it's nice to know at least something of the author. [I do know one or two things but not openly.]

In the end, there are just too many blogs and trying to seek out the good ones is a largely hit or miss affair. If only there was some way for true talent to naturally gravitate to the top - some sort of mechanism to enable that. This "mechanism" is something very much running through the mind at this point in time.

[new mac] vulnerable or not

It's hard to know whom to believe. First I read this report on MacOS vulnerability, claiming that he:

...used vulnerability statistics from an impartial third party vendor Secunia and I broke them down by Windows XP flaws, Vista flaws, and Mac OS X flaws...

Then there was a rebuttal, going into everything from the antecedents of George Ou and ZD net to the nature of Secunia data in the first place. As author Daniel Dilger concluded:

I should point out that I’m not attempting to suggest that Apple has no flaws, cannot possibly deliver problematic software, or can’t improve in its efforts.

There are fairly well documented problems with Safari, Bluetooth, Apple Mail and even the Finder system. Many have read of the hacker who took over a Mini in 30 minutes. So yes, Mac users should not be complacent.

But it would be lovely to see a bit of impartial reporting from someone not in either camp. Meanwhile, the Mac continues as a lovely system to work with and as I become more Mac literate, new vistas open up. One of my favouites is using both hands to execute commands and then voice commands to switch applications.

If I want to play a playlist, I just say "Music" and when it opens, name a playlist and then say "Play". Quite nice if I'm in the middle of typing this.

[broon] executed in tibet

As Broony's double landed at Beijing International Airport, to be greeted by Wen Jiabao and President Hu doubles and driven the 25.35 km to Tiananmen Square for a good laugh at democracy, the real perpetrators were being Virginned to Lhasar Gonggar and from there by cablecar to the remote mountaintop Temple of Djwal Kuhl.

Grand Master Wu, of the Tian Di Hui ordered Broony to be placed in the centre of the square in white robes and the ancient and honourable servants of Sun Yee On, Wo Shing Wo, 14K knelt menacingly in rows, awaiting the ordeal.

A robed Red Pole read out the charge:

In an article on the Number 10 website, you wrote: "I believe that with the right help we will have a situation by 2025 where the number of English speakers in China exceeds the number of speakers of English as a first language in all of the rest of the world."

Gasps went round the assembled multitude. Had Broony actually uttered such inanities, when all supreme, enlightened, occult ancients present this day were well aware of the coming hegemony of the new Sun Zi Dynasty and its brother dynasty the Round Table of Europe, which had given Broony his start.

The executioner stepped quickly up behind Broony and at a signal from Wu, the war sword severed his head, which rolled onto the flagstones. All present gave the three finger left handed salute and honour had been satisifed.

[lit quiz] name the authors

1. Dien Tynblo [children's stories]
2. Arlehcs Skidnec [please sir, may I have more]
3. Kranf Raridsch [Greyfriars]
4. Cahrird Smarda [Hazel and Blackberry]
5. Xirbeta Toterp [Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail]
6. G. H. Lewsl [Martians]
7. Draydur Klinpig [if only I could think of it]
8. Milwail Aesperkhase [a complete unknown]
9. Nai Glinfem [not really Welsh, as Broccoli well knows]
10. Egroeg Lewlor [clocks were striking thirteen]



No peeking, now:

Blyton, Dickens, Richards, Adams, Potter, Wells, Kipling, the Bard, Fleming, Orwell

[quick one] wonders never cease

Just google the word "nourishing". It might only last a few minutes and I may have dropped back again by now but still, it was good while it lasted.

[russia] vain expectations

This is the first time I've directly run a guest post from one of my Russian friends and it appears unedited below. By Dmitri Panov, the intellectual advocate [my words, not his]:

Western countries' nervous reaction to the last Russian elections is a part of the great problem of their misunderstanding of Russia. Western people are extremely stubborn in their expectations of democracy in Russia, but their hopes are always in vain.

I suppose that the reason of those expectations is a little bit funny: similarity in appearance of Russian and European people. This fact has been confusing many people for many years and even centuries – both in Russia and abroad.

But the truth is that: similarity in appearance doesn’t indicate an internal similarity. And internal difference between Russian people and Western people is not less than – for example- between Western people and Chinese or Middle Eastern peoples.

If anybody wants to check this fact he has to look at the essential events of the Russian modern history, such as, for example, lower classes revolution of 1917, atheism and existence for 90 years without real upper class . So what reasons do we have to assume that this convoluted way will lead Russia to the Western type of democracy?

The best thing for Western people is to understand finally that Russians are absolutely different and Russia has been going through the centuries by its own special way, with all pluses and minuses – like all countries in the world. Eventually the real aim of every society is justice and fairness.

And democracy per se is only one of the ways to achieve them and – according to Plato - far from being the best.

January, 2007

Go for it, readers. :)