Jonathan Coulton Spells Jonathan Coulton

I can’t believe I haven’t raved about Jonathan Coulton here yet. He’s been on heavy rotation since I stumbled across Ikea nearly a year ago. The honesty and bizarre humor of his song writing is matched with some of the catchiest guitar riffs. Everytime I hear Skullcrusher Mountain I envision Skeletor serenading an increasingly uncomfortable …

Print Publication Says Podcasting Is a Horseless Carriage

I like to thank Steve at Micro Persuasion for pointing out MacWorld’s sensational “Is the Clock ticking on podcasting” rant. As usual, the Jennifer Berger only listened to radio ported to podcasting (KCRW, Inside Mac Radio). These are good listens, but they are not where podcasting’s future lives. They are not even an example of …

Exchanging Petroleum’s Problems for Ethanol’s

I’m all for a regional-specific energy solution. Petroleum makes sense in places – like Texas – where petroleum exists. Less so in Nebraska where it’s easier to grow crops than dig for oil. Despite being more renewable than petroleum, ethanol has it’s own problems. It’s a little cheaper per gallon than gasoline (bigger subsidies?), but …

Uncovering Secrets, Uncovering Ourselves

Today’s Star Tribune has an article on the dangerous and frequently illegal act of urban exploring (also look for Melody Gilbert‘s documentary on the subject Into the Darkness). Outside of trespassing and putting yourself in harm’s way, authorities don’t like it because regular people are gaining knowledge of their city’s infrastructure. On a related note, …

First Crack 62. Online Communities 1.0 with Chuck Hermes

Back in the 90s Chuck Hermes and Michael Koppelman (from the lolife podcast) built the Bitstream Underground BBS. This is Chuck’s presentation on the history of Bitstream Underground from MIMA’s Online Communities Salon held on September 14, 2005. Listen to Online Communities v1.o with Chuck Hermes [16 min]

Reflections on Bush’s New Orleans Speech

I do agree with Bush the one of the few organizations capable of handling a logistical nightmare of a natural disaster the size of Katrina is the Army. The other one is Wal-Mart. Next time don’t turn them away. Three notes to President Bush; Good job on not giggling during your speech. I’m sure it …

How to Blog for Higher Search Engine Ranking

Blogging, aside from being one of the easiest ways to publish online, is also one of the easiest ways to increase search engine rankings. Search engine spiders like Google’s GoogleBot expect websites to change and be updated frequently. Blogs are (or should be), so the spiders come by more frequently. Once the spiders are at …