Jason Clarke

In light of Thomas Hawk’s recent post about The Webby Awards, I’m starting up a new web awards ceremony myself. As I stated in a comment on Thomas’ site, the rules of The JGC Awards are thus:

For $120 (about half the cost of a Webby), I will happily confer upon any one of you the “Best Website of All” Award, and include a nifty logo you can place on your homepage.

At half the cost of buying a Webby award, The JGCs have about the same amount of credibility, but much less press.

Yesterday, many voices in the blogosphere reported that Dave Winer’s new service Share Your OPML has launched. It’s a great first step towards tracking attention in the blogosphere, and I hope it leads more innovation in this space.

The service is pretty straightforward. You simply export a list of RSS feeds from your RSS reader, then upload that file to your account on the Share Your OPML site. The service then tracks which users are subscribing to which feeds. Much more data can be gleaned from that- for starters, the service is ranking most prolific subscribers, most subscribed feeds, and so on. In the future, I’d love to see a powerful recommending engine based on a variety of metrics. I don’t imagine it would be too hard for them to implement, and I’m sure Dave and whoever else may be working on this have already thought of many great ideas.

Interesting side note: as far as I can tell, the user account system and pages are all being powered by Wordpress. If that’s the case it’s a big win in the fight for Wordpress to position itself as a more fully-featured content management application.

As important as I think attention is (as I predicted in January), I’m not quite ready to jump into the already growing community at Share Your OPML. For starters, I think it’s a complete no-go to have to manually upload my data file. That’s fine for the first time- but it’s not fair to expect me as a user to continue to manually upload files, especially as often as my RSS reading list changes. Part of this problem is with existing reader services such as Bloglines, which don’t provide easy, secure access to user OPML files.

Another big issue I see with Share Your OPML at this early stage is filtering. The site allows me to upload a file, but I’m not given the option of marking particular feeds private or public. Ideally, there’d be some kind of standardized “public/private” tag that could be read by all RSS and OPML readers, but until that happens, I simply don’t have the time to manually filter an XML file to remove the feeds I don’t want to make public.

Because it aims to inject transparency (and community) into the attention-less world of RSS, the success of Share Your OPML will depend heavily on something very simple: how many users actually use it. Unless they can make it more usable for a wider audience, I’m afraid its most tremendous values may not emerge.

Law of Ongoing Trends: Whenever you think a trend is about to expire, it’s safe to assume it will continue on for up to half of its total life to date.

Expressed mathmatically: Total life of trend = assumed life + half

As I wrote yesterday, Maine ‘Pay-per-Gate’ blogger Lance Dutson has been relieved of a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought against him, thanks in part to his attorneys, Maine State Rep Stephen Bowen, and the public relations and legal work of the MBA (disclosure: I’m on the board of the MBA).

So at least nationally, this sad, sordid saga is over. But as this story began locally, I believe it’s still active locally. Warren Kremer Paino may have buckled under the pressure of the blogosphere, national media, and a lone brave state rep coming to bear on them, but I believe you can also make the argument that by dropping the suit, they win in a different way.

After all, with this decisive victory in Lance’s favor, national attention will turn away and onto other matters of importance. I haven’t heard anything different from our silent state government, so I can only assume that WKP will be back at work Monday spending our tax dollars to sue our residents.

The full story goes beyond WKP, as well. The fact remains that some of the most bizarre and inept behavior committed against Lance was never even raised on the national scale. And unfortunately, while Warren Kremer Paino has learned it cannot intimidiate a Maine resident while acting on behalf of our government, the sad reality remains that Dann Lewis, Maine Tourism director, still has his job. And Nancy Marshall, head of the PR firm representing the state agency, is still retained as official flack. Both have yet to be held fully accountable for their actions to date.

I trust that Lance will continue to follow these issues, and if he does (and I know he will), it will nearly impossible not to uncover further and greater incompetence. Now that he knows he has the full weight of a million other bloggers, plenty of legal help, and at least one state rep behind him, I hope that Lance’s efforts to hold those in power accountable is helped by more of his own fellow Mainers.

We owe it to Lance to support him, as he has come a long way to make it here. But we also owe it to him to help in any other way we can. There is still much left to be done.

Over the weekend, I picked up our new custom-built home PC system from my brother’s house. That, along with Apple’s new TV spots, got me thinking about the endless debate of PC/MSFT vs Apple. While I feel it’s one of those mobius strips of personal belief- like abortion or Red Sox vs. Yankees, its a debate neither side can hope to “win”- I still think that popping up every once in a while to make a point is good exercise.

As I said, what’s set me off this time are two factors. I’ll get to the cost/quality factor later on, but first I want to talk briefly about Apple’s new TV spots running all over prime time and cable. The commercials are typical Apple- smug, sarcastic, and delusional. They’re a far cry from the “Switch” campaign, which should a demographically-diverse range of “real” people, talking naturally about how switching to Apple did meaningful things for them- such as make their lives a tiny bit easier.

Today, Apple has traded that image- one of inclusion and friendliness- for that of a 20-something hipster with an all-powerful attitude towards a laughably stereotypical nerd that is supposed to represent a personified PC (and PC user).

The sad part here is Apple’s shocking hubris. As recent as five years ago, they were taking a friendly tact towards earning customers. Now that they’ve had admittedly gigantic success with a music player (it’s a single product line, mind you), they’ve gone into full-on jerk mode, effectively saying that the only people they need are the affluent young urban and suburbanites who sing the praises of the iPod and by proxy related products. This is a classic example of a company putting on huge blinders and believing that the magic dust they’ve been splashed with is anything but the latest in a long line of popularity-driven trends, which, as many other companies know, can be as quick to leave a product as they are to arrive.

I could be wrong, but I see Apple painting themselves into a giant corner here. They’re betting their entire future on a small subset of the population whose tastes are so notoriously fickle that they can destroy a product in weeks without a single afterthought?

So that’s hubris and blindness, now what about the actual product specs? Those happen to be exactly what irks me most about Macs. See, if they were more extensible, more powerful, and more accessible products, I could easily forgive some of their arrogance and defend their longer-term prospects. However, if you take a real look at technical specs, you find that Apple loses to any number of intelligently-built PC systems on all counts: performance, selection, customizability, and of course, price.

Recently, our home desktop system died and we began looking for a new system. My first stop was to check out Apple’s site since my search began just days after they announced support for Windows XP on their machines. I figured I’d give them a chance, hardware-wise, and see how they compared to my history of building my own custom PC systems.

I found just one system that was not outrageously overpriced, and since I’m not into the habit of paying through the nose for something just because it happens to be hip this year, I narrowed it down to a single potential Mac system: the 1.66GHZ MacMini model, retailing on the Apple site for $799.

Curious to compare Apple’s “Power has never been this economical” system with a custom-built PC for around the same price, I turned to my brother, a systems administrator, long-time custom PC expert, and VP of a networking consulting firm to see what he could deliver me for $800, or the same price as the MacMini.

Before I tell you which system I chose, I’ll let this handy comparison chart fill you in on the details of the Apple MacMini vs. the custom-built system my brother designed for me:

	Apple MacMini 1.66GHZ	My own self-built PC system	Winner
Processor	1.66GHZ Intel dual-core	AMD Athlon 64-bit 2.1GHZ	PC! - 50% faster, 64-bit power
Memory	512MB DDR at 667mhz	1GB Ultra DDR RAM at 400mhz	PC! - Double the RAM!
Hard drive	80GB Serial ATA 7400RPM	74GB at 10,000RPM	PC! - You can’t beat 10k!
Optical drive	Dual-layer DVDR/RW/CD/R/RW at 8x speed	Plextor dual-layer DVDR/RW CD/R/RW at 16x speed	PC! - Twice as fast, plus the reliability of Plextor
Video card	Intel GMA950 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory	nVidia GeForce 6200 256MB HDTV/DVI/PCI video	PC! - 4 times the RAM
Case	Apple MacMini case	Antec Lanboy aluminum case; dual fans (one oversize), hidden-door front	Your call - But I’ll take my case. It’s expandable, for one.
Ports	4 USB, FireWire, 10/100 GB Ethernet	9 USB, 9-in-1 card reader, 3 FireWire, 10/100 GB	PC! - double the USB, triple the FireWire, same ethernet
TOTAL PRICE	$799	$680	PC! - It’s $119 less!!

Additional notes: These specs don’t even consider that my system also includes three additional hard drives- a 100GB, 80GB, and 40GB- that I was easily able to swap out from my old PC and place into my new PC. I also took my ATI TV Wonder VE TV tuner and easily popped it into my new case. Likewise, if I want to upgrade to 2GB of RAM in the future, it will literally be a snap.

Of course, swaps, transfers, and upgrades likes these are the dirty little secrets of Apple’s vaunted hardware. Besides the impossibility of adding anything to the MacMini, you’d also have to contend with the sheer lack of selection of hardware and get hit again with exorbitant prices anytime you tried to upgrade existing parts. Combine that with Apple’s frustrating and long-standing habit of releasing new products while your current system still feels fresh, and they get you again. And again.

As you have probably guessed, I chose the custom-built PC system and pocketed the extra hundred bucks. I even used part of my leftover cash to pick-up a low-cost HP printer to replace my 10-year old DeskJet 742. Add that to the list, and I’ve still got $50 to spend on something besides a computer. Sorry, Apple, I guarantee you that whatever it is, it won’t be shiny and grey with a little silver apple etched on it.

Congratulations to Lance Dutson, who is free from the legal black cloud imposed on him by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising. The agency dropped their lawsuit Friday, though they made no public comment on the matter. Cowards, to the end.

In his latest post on the now seven-month-long Pay-Per-Gate saga, Lance thanked his own legal council, along with Media Bloggers Association and our (disclosure: I am a board member) legal and public relations support. He also mentioned the work of Maine state rep Stephen Bowen, who just yesterday publicized a letter he wrote to Maine’s governor’s office asking that Warren Kremer Paino advertising’s state contract be investigated.

More on this soon…

In his ongoing ethical and now legal battle with inept state government officials and contractors, Lance Dutson has finally received meaningful public help from a State of Maine government official, some five months after his original reporting.

Today, Maine Representative Stephen Bowen (R - Rockport) announced he has asked Maine’s economic commissioner to suspend the contract of Warren Kremer Paino pending the resolution of the ad agencies lawsuit against Lance.

If you’re just joining this story, catch up here on Lance’s site.

Here’s Representative Bowen’s letter to the state economic commissioner, which does a nice job of summarizing this case. Here’s the biggest takeaway from his letter for me, a fellow resident and taxpayer in Maine:

“Working for the state means being answerable to the people,” said Rep. Bowen, who has been involved in the ongoing feud between Dutson and the state’s tourism officials since early this year. At the time, Dutson’s online criticisms of the tourism program brought on retaliatory emails to his business clients from one the state’s other tourism contractors, Nancy Marshall Communications. “Lance has the right to criticize state officials and contractors, and what has happened to him is outrageous and totally unacceptable,” said Rep. Bowen.

This is a commendable action by Representative Bowen, Lance’s state rep, and the only person on Maine’s payroll who has lifted as much as finger in Lance’s advocacy since the onset of this now national scandal.

As I’ve stated previously, when the dust settles here the real story will not be the clueless old-world ad agency that bungled themselves into a corner- those are a dime a dozen nowadays. Rather, it will be the abysmally poor behavior of the folks paid by and entrusted with our tax dollars. May they lose their jobs and be forced to find jobs in and meet the demands of the private sector, where intelligence, adaptation, and accountability all mean something.

I recently switched over to Yahoo! Mail. I’m enjoying the service, but since Sunday, I’ve noticed they’ve implemented an occasional feature I’m not too happy about so far.

About half the time, after I’ve clicked the Send button on an email message, I’m taken to a CAPTCHA page that I have to pass before Yahoo! will send my email out.

Here’s a screenshot of the Yahoo! Mail CAPTCHA screen taken from earlier today:

Their explanation is as follows:

This step helps prevent spammers from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will be delivered.

As they’re a large service- basically a public utility- I understand and appreciate Yahoo!’s desire to cut down on spam, both for itself and for its users. But I wish there were a less invasive way to acomplish such a worthy goal.

Furthermore, there’s one part of their explanation I don’t understand. The preventing spam part- I get that. But what do they mean when they claim that:

This step…helps to ensure that your email will be delivered.

Huh?! Are they saying that, for some unknown and unexplained reason, my mail might not be delivered unless I complete the CAPTCHA step? If this is marketing’s idea of adding a second justification for the CAPTCHA, it’s certainly not a good one- they’re essentially suggesting that their service couldn’t ensure your mail would be delivered before they implemented this step.

Overall, I’m happy to see a large email provider addressing outgoing spam in an apparently meaningful way. But I also hope that Yahoo! plans to evolve this service, either by tuning it to appear less for honest customers, or by making it invisible alltogether. Particularly for those customers paying $20 for the privledge of using Yahoo!