Blogumentary [chuck olsen]

The Desired State

The State of Things

Michelle Malkin Opposes Freedom of Press

That's putting it lightly. I'm almost surprised at the degree to which the far-right lunatic fringe overreacts to a free press. To them, it's a crime to report on the actions of our government toward Americans.

That should send a clear signal that something is terribly, terribly wrong with this small but influential group of extremists. When national security universally trumps a free press and an informed electorate, we're no longer living in a democracy.

Star Tribune online archives suck ass

I'm sure I've said this before, but StarTribune.com has a huge gaping flaw: Their archived articles disappear from existence after a short period of time. What's particularly screwed up is you can search their site, and the disappeared article will appear in the results:

Clicking on that Minnesota Stories article leads you to the big nasty 404 Not Found page. The same thing happens searching Google for "Namasté" - the Strib restaurant review turns up in the results but I'm led to a 404 page. This is incredibly stupid and aggravating. All this information is being flushed into a black hole. I remember complaining about this after their redesign, and I believe A Stribby friend of mine described how you could access their archives with some other method. But I don't know what that method is, and why on earth would you move it from the original location with no clue about how to find it?

IDIOTIC I say! Fix it!

UPDATE: A couple of nice people have emailed me links to the Google cache of the MN Stories article. Thank you for that, and thank goodness for Google cache. But indeed, it only underscores the point that Google is doing the Strib's job of archiving, for however long that cache lasts. The Strib still needs to fix their archive problem.

Valleywag is just a lame tabloid

...although I reluctantly agree with some of their assessment of vlogging.

What they don't get, and a lot of people don't get, is that vlogging is wide open. Some people will get rich making shows, others will get interpersonally enriched. It's a blank slate, it's all 1s and 0s. Can you really compare the value of meeting your future love or best friend over a vlog, to the monetary value of college humor vlog-show? I think we're beyond the point of generalizing vloggers as a group with any accuracy, but I'm sure we'll all do it anyway.

Where's My Head At

(And a little bit here)

Open Your Brain

MEDIA NIPPLE

AARON VALDEZ

THE PAN

I had the pleasure of meeting these cognitive dissidents whose work I worship deeply admire. Sparks in the dark at Vloggercon.

Girls on Film

Watch Lorika and I karaoke "Girls on Film"

Yes, we're just that fucking cool. See more vloggers karaoke at Vloggeraoke - if you dare.

Valleywagging the Dog

Hey look! I made Valleywag! Of course, I'm just standing in for "generic vlogger dork" but I'll take what I can get.

They said they've yet to see any decent video come out of VloggerCon. It's true, conferences pretty much suck at creating interesting video content. Still, I felt compelled to point them to my Vloggercon 2005 videos which I'm rather fond of. Their response:

Valleywag Tips to me
Aaaaagh vlogging about vlogging!

Everywhere Stories

Coming soon: Vlog Chicago, St. Louis Stories, and New England Stories.

How about Planet Stories? Yes I say, YES! I registered PlanetStories.org. Imagine an aggregator for all these great local vlogs popping up on this crazy blue sphere we call Mars Earth. I'd love to see these sites become part of a loose network and learn from each other. Like Human Wire but less curated and more connected. Maybe even like Wiki News with video, but focused more on people and happenings than what we call "news."

Any thoughts?