The end of movies 07/01/2005 12:55PM by Kelly

[Daydreaming]

This rant hones in on most of the reasons why I want to open a second-run movie theater in Asbury Park.

Also, I'd love to be able to kick people out of my theater for holding full conversations with each other or on cell phones during the movie. And no yelling out comments as if you're doing MST3000!

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I heart podcasting 03/29/2005 10:22AM by Kelly

[General]

The BBC has a little piece about podcasting.

I'm not so sure that podcasting will make anyone millions, but I share the overall excitement of the potential of podcasting. I recently joined the cult of the iPod, having purchased a blue 6GB mini partly because I want to get in on the podcasting action.

On my way to work this morning, I listened to Roots Rock Radio, which features indie roots rock, rockabilly, garage rock, and alt country bands who aren't being played on mainstream radio. It's a great little show - where else can you hear a roots rock band from Spain? (That would be Sugar Mountain.)

I've also listened to Really Learn Spanish, which gives practical advice and focuses on one problem topic at a time.

Not to mention that someone podcasts old Jean Shepherd radio shows! I can't wait to start listening to them.

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Blogger blocked at border 03/18/2005 11:20AM by Kelly

[Blogging News]

A Canadian blogger on his way to NYC for a six-week contract to set up a company with blogging software was prevented from entering the U.S. because the border guard didn't believe that anyone could make money with blogs. During three hours of questioning, the border guard insisted that the blogger stop lying and tell the guard why the blogger was really going to the U.S.

The blogger never got to the U.S. and had to recommend a friend to take his place in the contract.

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DKos on open source 02/11/2005 1:02PM by Kelly

[Blogging Opinions]

Kos notes that only 55% of his readers use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to view his blog. Mozilla's Firefox has a 25% share of his readers.

That, and the quickness with which bloggers broke open the "Jeff Gannon" story, makes Kos excited about applying the open source way of pooling resources to other areas of life like journalism, politics, etc.

It kinda gets me excited, too.

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Kos on blogger ethics 01/18/2005 09:20AM by Kelly

[Blogging Opinions]

Kos nicely sums up how the blogosphere corrects itself when blogs go wrong.

Basically, if the audience doesn't like what it reads, they will strongly object to the blogger to try to get her to change her ways, or they will stop reading the blog and the blog will either die or continue but become irrelevant.

Kos also gives an explanation as to why traditional media is attacking blogs. It's the same reason why the music and movie industries are attacking file sharing programs - they're scared of this new, innovative, blow-them-out-of-the-water competition. Since traditional mammoth corporations are way too big to quickly come up with the next big thing, they throw their money at legal and marketing solutions to attack and discredit their competition.

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Crime rates 01/10/2005 09:07AM by Kelly

[Analyzing Information]

The crime rate in many major cities has either continued to drop or has remained stable despite the fact that the job market is tougher, police officers have taken on added duties for homeland security, and social services budgets have been cut, all factors thought to contribute to a rise in the crime rate.

So why is crime holding steady or dropping? It could be because policy are more effectively analyzing information.

This article in today's Christian Science Monitor says that in June 2003, Chicago's police department changed the way they fight crime:

"The police began using technology that showed crime trends as they occurred, and deployed officers to violent areas."

The department observes drug activity neighborhood by neighborhood, videotapes the activity using street-corner cameras, and swoops in for arrests.

Similarly, New York City uses a system called ComStat, which supplies precinct commanders with real-time information.

These systems are not perfect, but hopefully with an increase of information will come better ideas about how to prevent crime instead of react to it.

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Wal*Mart 01/05/2005 10:31AM by Kelly

[Analyzing Information]

Even though I continue to boycott Wal*Mart because it's exerting a downward pressure onto salaries and benefits, I'm still always impressed with how they gather and analyze information.

This article in the New York Times shows us a glimpse at how executives at Wal*Mart observed what sold and what didn't sell during the Christmas shopping season.

Managers and executives at every store shot Blackberry messages to each other every hour to determine what was moving and what should be have been discounted. Then they gathered ideas on how to keep merchandise moving from employees from all levels of the company. The executives realize that hourly employees might have ideas too, as the hourly employees are their eyes on the ground.

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The mosaic of the blogosphere 12/28/2004 11:03AM by Kelly

[Blogging News]

The NY Times already has a critique about how bloggers are providing us with first-hand accounts of the tsunami.

Some people were disappointed that there weren't as many pictures and video posted right away. Uh, hello??? They're running from a frickin' tsunami!?

Anyway, they make the point yet again that if you step back from the blogosphere and look at it from a higher level, you can get a detailed and varied account of what happened on a personal level.

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How to let the anger go? 12/21/2004 10:20AM by Kelly

[Bullies and other Bobos]

Some of my co-workers think that the U.S. military should pull out of Iraq and "let them rot."

Does "them" include the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians? Should they rot, too?

Where's the respect and compassion for other humans this Christmas season?

I guess I should just ignore my co-workers and let them rot in their own ignorance and cold lack of compassion.

Or maybe they just say these things as office banter.

Anyway, if you have co-workers that say things like "let them rot," and it makes you seethe with anger, how do you deal with it?

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Visual conversation 12/20/2004 10:19AM by Kelly

[Blogging News]

Today's feature article in Salon (watch a commercial or pay to get in) is about photoblogging sites, namely Flickr.

Flickr's a bit different from other photo blogs in that everyone's photos are mixed up together and are tagged with different categories.

The result is a collage turned conversation - pretty cool stuff and the Salon article is good reading.

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