DEMOletter

…the parade is back and this time the start-ups are beating the drum of free software and services. These so-called Web 2.0 businesses give away sometimes outstanding functionality now in hopes of finding a business model somewhere down the line. In the meantime, most of these companies are tapping advertising networks and hoping to build a revenue stream (trickle?) from click traffic. (Feels a whole lot like monetizing eyeballs, doesn’t it?)

I don’t like businesses that are dependent on other businesses for their customer revenue. Effectively, these businesses are held hostage to the revenue-sharing and engineering of Google and other ad networks. It may be an easy way to get some cash through the door early on, but it isn’t sufficient to building a valuable growth business.

First of all, let me say: Chris Shipley is cool. Now let’s consider the fact that savvy users can (and do) easily install a greasemonkey script to strip out all ads from a site. Or, similarly, install an ad blocker plugin to their browser. There goes the business model of the majority of the Web 2.0 companies out there. Currently, scraping ads away isn’t mainstream, but as this business model becomes pervasive (again) and people really do see the benefit from an app that is being provided ‘free’ of charge then this will undoubtedly grow in usage. Especially if these are apps they ‘live’ in, which is now more true than ever before.

When I was at Etech06 back in March this is what struck me more than the really cool apps I saw. The majority of these apps/companies simply had no business model. My response to those who asked me how the event was: “lots of really really cool technologies with absolutely no business model.”

Anyway, as a rebut to the article, which quite frankly I agree with, there is the potential that with the new level of interactivity evidenced among this new breed of web apps by which users are involved in content creation, that this can be mined for market trends/patterns/interests with a new level of granularity not previously accessible from the passive days of the Internet.

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox

232 users looked at thousands of Web pages. We found that users’ main reading behavior was fairly consistent across many different sites and tasks. This dominant reading pattern looks somewhat like an F and has the following three components:

• Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar.
• Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.
• Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F’s stem.

It’s funny, in the last couple weeks I have been thinking about how I’ve been programmed to scan the top, down the left, and then across to the right. Specifically, I’ve recently become cognizant of the fact that I completely skip the section just below the top most section, usually this means I completely miss the second paragraph. Some one should put this to practice by providing complete nonsense in the second paragraph. I suppose, this is the second paragraph. I’ll bet I can provide: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam in neque vel nisi pharetra sodales. Donec dignissim gravida tellus. Etiam at nunc, and no one would notice.

Pre-War information was clearly distorted, hyped and fabricated. Here are just a few points that plainly illustrate this:

Point: 10 days after 9/11 the President’s Daily Security Briefing stated there was: “few credible links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Later CIA reports said the same thing. Yet, for three years after receiving the initial President’s Daily Security Briefing the administration officials continued to say that there were important connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda to the point where nearly half the country believed it.

Point: Mohammed Atta never met in Prague with Iraq officials — he was in fact in Virginia Beach at the time. In fact, the CIA and FBI told the Bush administration most certainly did not take place. Yet, Dick Cheney frequently claimed this as a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda for years after being debriefed to the contrary.

Point: Iraq never sought fissile material in Africa, or as far as we know anywhere else during the Bush Administration. Yet, Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush administration, including G.W., continued to proclaim the truth of this for more than a year after Ambassador Joseph Wilson proved this to be untrue. Oddly enough, it was the Vice-President’s office who asked this to be validated and had sent Ambassador Wilson to Africa and received for validation: “absolutely untrue, provably so.” However, in speeches throughout the country the administration continued to claim it to be true. They even included this outright lie in the State of the Union Address.

Point: The administration continued to assert the Iraqis had mobile factories that could make biological weapons long after they knew this not to be the case. The Iraqi defector codenamed: ‘Curveball’ was discredited and this was known by the Whitehouse, as is corroborated in writing.

Point: The Whitehouse continued to claim Iraq had provided Al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training even after they knew this to be untrue. The Defense Intillegence Agency informed the Whitehouse that the source of that information was almost certainly lying.

Need I go on? Dishonest and reprehensible indeed Dick.

Financial Times

The virus responsible for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50m people worldwide, has been reconstructed by genetic engineering in a high-security US laboratory.

Preliminary studies show that it is an avian flu virus that mutated to spread quickly between people just as many experts fear will happen soon with the current H5N1 strain of bird flu in Asia. Details of the project are published today in the journals Science and Nature. The US National Institutes of Health approved the research, despite its apparent risk, because it will help scientists find new treatments for the most dangerous types of flu.

Undeniable evidence that Pirates Are Cool:

As a correlary, this also can be attributed to a decline in grog consumption.
And as we all know, grog contains one or more of the following:

• kerosene
• propylene glycol
• sulphuric acid
• artificial sweeteners
• red dye no2
• rum
• acetone
• battery acid
• scumm
• axle grease
• and/or pepperoni

“This American Life” has an episode covering several stories from people who endured the post-Katrina hardships. This is a must hear episode that tells ground zero eye witness stories that are, simply put, shocking.

Some highlights:

Why didn’t people just walk away from the Superdome and Convention Center? Well, as it turns out the authorities wouldn’t let them leave the city.

Why didn’t people evacuate? This is a question I have heard often. Did you know that more than 20% of the population of New Orleans is below the poverty line? Did you know by the mayor’s estimate at least 80% of the popluation evacuated. So, in most cases, those who stayed behind had no place to go and no money to get them there. Another interesting tidbit: the storm came aground half a day earlier than expected. Many people didn’t even hear about the storm until the day before. Lot’s of folks didn’t want to get stuck on the highway and hit by Katrina.

Why did people at the Superdome and Convention Center keep lining up for buses that they were told were coming, but those who were drilling them to line up in the hot sun every four hours knew buses weren’t coming? In case you haven’t been to New Orleans in the summer time, let me tell you, the heat will kill you; especially if you are old, sick, or an infant.

Why were white people allowed to walk out of the city, but black folks weren’t?

Why were the authorities aiming weapons at American citizens, firing shots when people were attempting to leave the city, and threatening to shoot people who were seeking dry ground?

Why were private citizens’ chartered buses, which were purchased with their own money to get themselves out of the city, comandeered by the military?

Looters?! In almost all the cases in which looting took place these people were survivors grabbing supplies for distribution among the old, sick, and children.

Why couldn’t FEMA get through to people who were dying? Too many roadblocks? The media could make it through in Consumer SUVs!

Most importantly, it is interesting to note that although many in the federal government and idiots like Limbaugh have tried to place blame on the state and local governments, reponsibility for support and recovery was the federal governments responsibility before Katrina even hit ground as was determined by the federal declaration of a state of emergency, which soundly placed responsibility with FEMA.

USAToday:

“The more one learns about him,” Republican commentator William Kristol said on Fox News Sunday, “one is surprised that he’s in that job in the first place.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, however, said FEMA had a disaster plan in place, but Louisiana leaders did not implement it. “Brown is getting a bad rap,” he said.

Bush called him “Brownie” and said he was doing “a heck of a job.”

My question: “a heck of a job” doing what? Killing poor darkies? Good job Brownie!

My point: This administration, yes federal, is guilty of criminal negligence and has allowed countless to die and tens of thousands to suffer needlessly. Michael Brown, although guilty, should not be the only head to roll.

DirectNIC

This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested.

This is a great blog from a fellow holed up in an ISP in New Orleans. Apparently the ISP never went off-line, and they even got City Hall and some other fairly key places access to internet.

On the topic of New Orleans I want to strongly encourage everyone to donate to the Red Cross or Salvation Army immediately. Tara and I both are deeply saddened by Katrina. Moreover, we are both outraged by the lack of organization and response. We were married in New Orleans and up until recently would try to visit annually. It is a historic gem. Additionally, Tara has many friends in Hattiesburg, MS and the word out of there is the same: No FEMA, No help. Makes you wonder what we have been paying taxes for. Meanwhile, the White House only points the finger in others’ direction. The events of the last week have been outrageous and inexcusable.

MPR

A bill establishing an official poet laureate in Minnesota met a tragic fate.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty penned the fatal verse when he vetoed the bill. The Republican governor took the action Friday but didn’t announce it until Tuesday.

“Even though we have a state ‘folklorist,’ I also have concern this will lead to calls for other similar positions,” Pawlenty wrote in letter accompanying the veto. “We could also see requests for a state mime, interpretive dancer or potter.”

Pawlenty is so cultured. Comparing poetry to street mimes. That is awesome! Yes, poetry really serves no purpose other to fill the coffers of pan-handlers. Who needs poetry? Blah! Poetry is lame. What has poetry ever accomplished anyway? It’s not like poetry has ever had any meaningful impact on society. Like in affecting public policy, or opinion. If anything, I would say mimes have contributed more to society.

Popular Science

What makes a city cutting-edge? And which American metropolis can rightly claim the title of top tech city? More than a year ago, a crack team of editors and researchers here at Popular Science launched an exhaustive effort to find out. We input reams of data from dozens of private and government sources, tabulated our results, and came up with … Minneapolis.