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by Sheila
Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Updated
June 9
• Providence
Journal story: Journal
worker kills 2, injures 1
•
Three
Dead in R.I. Shooting Spree (AP) [New URL to replace
yesterday's already rotted link]
• Three
Dead After Shooting Rampage at Paper (Reuters)
June 8,
2002 • Last
week's weblog
It is
a sad day here at the Providence Journal.
Three
dead after shootings at Providence Journal production plant
"PROVIDENCE,
R.I. (AP) -- Three co-workers were found dead and another was injured
after a newspaper employee went on a rampage today at The Providence
Journal's production plant and in nearby Warwick..."
The production
plant on Kinsley Avenue, where the press is located, is about a mile from
the downtown newsroom, and many of us downtown don't know those involved
in the shootings.
Saturdays,
only a handful of reporters and editors work. Security guards, posted
at all exits, and Providence Police officers milling in the lobby nearly
outnumber news staffers. The most senior editors are here in their Saturday
clothes, and a platter of cold cuts and a tray of cookies have appeared
to feed a staff that will see no breaks today.
Little is
known yet. The alleged shooter had just been promoted, one reporter tells
me, dashing the "disgruntled employee" theory.
It can't
happen to us, here in this quiet place. But it has.
I'm so sorry
for the people whose lives ended here today, and for those who loved them,
whose lives have collapsed and whose pain has just begun.
Link
to this item
| Comment
June 7,
2002
Raw blog
on a day that fell apart at the end:
The human
nature behind ReplayTV: Fascinating (month-old, but new to me) study
of people watching TV from the Financial Times (U.K.):
"...the
glaring fact to emerge from all our households is that people spend
most of their time actively avoiding ads.
Indeed,
for most of our sample the ad breaks were a welcome chance to do other
things. These activities varied from going for a cigarette to making
the tea, to checking on the kids. As our single mother put it: "I
already feel guilty for watching TV rather than working or tidying up
so when the ads come on it's a three-minute guilt reducer and a chance
to get things done."
If someone
watching on their own encounters an ad break they invariably change
channel. Zappers fall into two groups: "surfers" who move
up and down the channels before returning, with remarkable accuracy,
to their programme as the ads conclude, and "switchers" who
go to a pre-designated "go-to channel" such as MTV or BBC
News. In a social group, this zapping task is exclusively a male activity."
via Jakob
Nielsen's Spotlighted Links
Link
to this item
| Comment
Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas:
The Dr. Hunter S. Thompson interview, 30 years later.
Watch
corn grow: CornCam,
SoyCam from Iowa Farmer Today. via Jorn
Barger's Robot Wisdom
Reflect
yourself: The
Mirror Project celebrates a year online. It's a simple idea: Upload
a self-portrait of yourelf in a reflective surface.
Broadband
by the bootstraps : How a group of neighbors built their own high-speed
network
Weekend
toonz: garageband.com
is back. Didn't know it left? Here's the story: Musicians
Cheer Return of Web Site
June 6,
2002
Consumers
sue:
"ReplayTV
customers represented by the EFF have filed a
lawsuit against the entertainment industry to protect their rights
to skip over commercials and record television programs for later viewing
using digital video recorders." via
Dave Winer
Link
to this item
| Comment
Thinkin',
linkin' and not yet: Doc
Searls quotes Eric Raymond (Armed
and Dangerous), in Who's
a warblogger? Blogotypology considered: "The blogotypological
distinction that makes the most sense to me is 'thinker' vs. 'linker'.
I know which of those camps I'm in. I'm a thinker, an essayist. I'd rather
write about my original thinking than reflect or index other peoples'
words."
Thinker vs.
linker, warblogger vs. tech blogger. Duality may rule but it doesn't encompass
all that this emerging form can be. (Raymond also cites diarists as a
third blogging form, but let's leave that. As a New Englander, I would
rather run down the street naked than spill my guts in print.)
In the blogger
vs. journalists debate, bloggers often claim common ground with editorial
writers, they who sit upstairs, just outside the publisher's office, reacting
to and reflecting on the news gathered and published by we reporters and
editors down here in the newsroom. Their job is to influence the debate,
but, as Kitty Graham once said, our job is to set the agenda.
Many of us
who left the "hard news" desks for Features did so because a
steady diet of disasters, politics and crime drains the soul. "They're
really all about covering the power structure," columnist
Paul Andrews wrote recently in
his blog. In Features, the reader is always on our minds -- How will
this development in music, in technology, in arts funding affect our lives?
How can we explain this to readers coming cold to it? The culture, in
the broadest sense of the word, is what we flog.
This blog
is not my official job here, it's done in the wee hours, or between interruptions
when deadline isn't looming; (I can write this now because I came in an
hour early today.) So I'm usually a linker when I have no time, a wire
editor working the Web. I'm a thinker when I have a few minutes to add
my take to the news, a "reported column." (There are the beginnings
of dozens of think pieces in little textfiles on computers here and at
home.)
But I would
rather cover the forest and the trees: I'd like to use my access -- because
I work for a major news organization, even the White House will call me
back -- to ask those far-reaching questions on behalf of readers, and
report the answers here, with plenty of context and background links.
For this, there has never been enough time yet, but it's what I want eventually
to add to this mix.
Got a name
for that?
Link
to this item
| Comment
Mozilla
1.0 released: After
four years, this baby is finally born. "Mozilla is quick, stable,
and virtually free of the default links to manufacturers' products that
feature so prominently in commercial browsers," writes
the BBC. There's a rush on it today, so you might want to download
the free, open-source* browser from one of the alternate
sites. Here's the Start
Guide.
*"Open
source" explained by the BBC: "Mozilla is a high-profile
example of open source software. Developers
of open source software give the public access to the hundreds of thousands
of lines of instructions used to build their product. Anyone with the
right skills can change or improve the way the software works. This way
of doing things undermines the traditional way companies make money from
selling licences to use their software. But it does not stop firms making
money from installing, supporting and configuring the software, and, its
supporters argue, leads to higher quality software. Opponents like Microsoft's
Bill Gates say open source software deprives companies of intellectual
property and governments of tax revenue."
Which leads
in to the next item...:
"Did
MS Pay for Open-Source Scare?" Wired
reports, "Authors of a new report on the perils of open source software
are being very closed-mouth about their funding sources.
"Opening
the Open Source Debate," a white paper slated to be released Friday
by the Alexis de Tocqueville
Institution, indicates that open-source software is inherently less
secure than proprietary software. The report warns governments against
relying on open-source software for national security.... A Microsoft
spokesman confirmed that Microsoft provides funding to the Alexis de Tocqueville
Institution. Advance
story on the report.
Link
to this item | Comment
Greed
reaps chaos...
Implosion from all sides:
•
"Hollywood studios seeking to impose electronic controls on digital
television broadcasts suffered a setback yesterday as a coalition of
technology and consumer electronics companies supporting their efforts
crumbled in a cross-industry power struggle." -- NYT, Hollywood
Has a Setback in Controls for Digital TV (registration required.)
•
"No wonder pop fans are singing the blues. Radio sounds like a
broken record. CD prices are heading off the charts. Labels are out
of tune with the digital age. New acts fail to strike a chord with listeners."
-- USA Today, Any
way you spin it, music industry in trouble
•
"(Michael) Jackson said Wednesday he has aligned himself with the
Rev. Al Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr., who earlier in the
day announced they are forming a coalition to investigate whether artists
are being financially exploited by record labels." -- AP, Michael
Jackson Joins New Coalition
Link
to this item | Comment
Better
music news:
The
Canonical List of Weird Band Names seems to include everybody with
a garage, from A Box of Fish with Tartar Sauce to Zulu Leprechauns. Wonder
where Your Damn Neighbors came from? via Nick
Jordan
Wayne
Robins strikes again. Watching the new DVD re-release of The Band's
retirement party, "The Last Waltz," he recalls when he
and his friends were baby rock critics at the show: "As one seemingly
perfunctory star-turn followed another, we began to look at each other,
like, "What is this, 'The Gong Show.'?"
We part company
on one thing though: Wayne thinks Dylan's Forever
Young is an "execrable" song, but cool guy Joe and I
are romantics, and we think it rocks more than any other prayer.
Link
to this item
| Comment
R.I.P.
Caroline Knapp: The
Brown graduate and columnist for the Boston and Providence Phoenixes dies
at 42 of complications from lung cancer, two months after diagnosis. Here's
the Phoenix
obit. The AP
obit is shockingly crass:
"Knapp
was an Ivy League graduate and successful journalist who by all appearances
had her life in order. But underneath, she was filled with the lies
and self-loathing that come with addiction."
Did AP know
her intimately enough to state that as fact? Is somebody projecting here?
Geesh! Write your own obit now, before somebody who never met you smugly
dismisses your life.
Link
to this item | Comment
June 5,
2002
On my
route: We all discover great sites and fine weblogs through the generosity
of those who link to them. At right, my first "blogroll," an
honest but far from complete list of weblogs/sites I read regularly. I'm
grateful for the pleasure, stimulation and information each of these authors
gives freely to all of us. Here's a nod to them. The list will grow.
Link
to this item | Comment
Garden
journals, Part 1: A place to crow, display the photos of life at its
showiest, and a useful guide in previous years to what worked, or not,
and when.
Here are
a few sprouting now. More will come.
• Zanthan
Gardens weblog, Austin
•
Garden
8 blog, Chicago
• Dirt
Link
to this item | Comment
June 4,
2002
A 'wise
man' wows: Cory
Doctorow is blogging live from Reboot (a conference taking place in
Copenhagen, Denmark, this year), where "Howard
Rheingold, of Whole Earth, WELL, Electric Minds, Mindstorms, Virtual
Reality and other kinds of fame, is talking now... giving the morning
keynote:"
Rheingold:
"The computer industry did not create the personal computer; it
was created by people in their 20s who wanted a tool of their own...
they built the Internet without a central control, to enable innovation....
Now we're at a time when the public good created by these people over
the past 20 years are being turned into private property. Hollywood,
the recording industry, the electronics manufacturers, the cable companies
-- they want us to become consumers again."
More: "Jobs
and Woz started Apple: Jobs wanted to build a business, Woz wanted to
build tools, and then along came Bill Gates, and his famous
letter, which argued against openness, against a public good, against
a commons.
Vintage
Rheingold
"A million small computers, linked by ordinary telephone lines,
can suddenly wield formidable computing power that is extremely
hard to control in a rigidly hierarchical, centralized manner."
-- Howard Rheingold,
Virtual Communities, 1992
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"This
commons, embedded in the Internet in the end-to-end principal is now
under attack. Governments and corporations keep trying to push the Internet
from the edges to the center. Tim
Berners-Lee had an idea that embodied end-to-end, the ability for
anyone to link to anything. Not just so scientists could share research,
but so that anyone could create and share resources. Hey presto, the
Web!" More...
Link
to this item | Comment
SONICblue
Can Keep Customer Info Private: "Internet convergence player,
SONICblue claimed victory Monday in its battle with the entertainment
industry affecting anyone who bought one of its ReplayTV 4000 units. MSNBC
version.
"The
Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said District Court Judge Florence-Marie
Cooper Friday overturned a Los Angeles Magistrate's April 26 ruling that
demanded SONICblue monitor its customers' viewing habits." / MSNBC
version.
Link
to this item | Comment
How
would we answer the phone if ET called us? The man charged with
the task of thinking about an intergalactic conversation is Dr Douglas
Vakoch who has the grand title of "Interstellar Message Group Leader".
Background:
Declaration
of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial
Intelligence
Link
to this item | Comment
(European
versions of ) Dion's
CD can crash PCs: From BBC, "Buyers of Celine Dion's new
album are being warned not to play the CD on their computer as it might
force it to crash. European versions of her CD, A New Day Has Come,
carry warnings that it should not be played on PCs as it is embedded with
copy protection technology. It is used to prevent songs being uploading
onto the internet. The CD, which entered the UK and US album charts at
number one last weekend, is the first copy-protected release by music
giant Sony." Related: Celine
Dion Killed My iMac!
Link
to this item | Comment
Send
films: The Convergence Film/Video/Animation Festival has extended
its entry deadline until June 15th.
The festival takes place in Providence, R.I., September 12-15 at the Cable
Car Cinema. The festival celebrates the artistic vision of short, independently
produced films. Submission format is VHS. Due to projection booth limitations
only 35mm and Beta are screened. 16mm works are screened on Beta. For
a complete application visit www.caparts.org
Link
to this item | Comment
Geek Meet
tomorrow: Rhode
Island .NET UG,
"Create Windows Applications with .NET"; June 5, 5-8 pm, Roger
Williams University, Portsmouth, R.I.
The
life of kitty. via Absolute
Piffle
Link
to this item | Comment
June 3,
2002
Sarah
Brown and JK Rowling: why we want you to help single parents:
The Glasgow Sunday Herald (U.K.) reports, "Sarah Brown, wife of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer and a successful public relations consultant,
and JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, have collaborated
to compile Magic, a collection of short stories by some of Britain's
best authors, to raise £1 million for the National Council for One-Parent
Families."
Rowling attempts
to debunk media attempts to romanticize her leap from welfare mother to
mega-author:
"Leaving
my ex-husband meant leaving my job and returning to Britain with two
suitcases of possessions. I knew perfectly well that I was walking into
poverty, but I believed that it would be only a matter of months before
I was back on my feet.
"Poverty
is a lot like childbirth -- you know it's going to hurt before it happens,
but you'll never know how much until you've experienced it. Some newspaper
articles have come close to romanticising the time I spent on income
support because the well-worn cliche of the writer starving in the garret
is so much more picturesque than the bitter reality of living in poverty
with a child.'
"I
had a talent I could exercise without financial outlay. Anyone thinking
of using me as an example of how single parents can break out of the
poverty trap might as well point at Oprah Winfrey and declare that there
is no more racism in America."
Magic,
which contains stories by writers including Christopher Brookmyre, Sue
Townsend, Fay Weldon and Ben Okri, is published by Bloomsbury and goes
on sale on June 13 in Scotland.
Link
to this item | Comment
"The
Eminem Show" (Act One, Scene One): One-time longtime rock
writer Wayne Robins (Editor & Publisher) writes in his off-the-clock
blog of White America, "This rap's not about rhymes or crimes:
It's a State of the Youth Culture Union address, and like those humorous
slice-of-life Budweiser commercials, it's True."
Also: "(Eminem)
plays the hand he's been dealt expertly, especially the race card, knowing,
like Sun Records' Sam Phillips in the segregated south of the 1950s, shrewdly
anticipating the miracle that would be Elvis Presley, that if there existed
a white man who could authentically perform black music, the payoff could
be incalculable."
Link
to this item | Comment
Ticketmaster's
Stranglehold over Music & Politics: Dave
Marsh reports that "Ticketmaster now charges "convenience"
fees up to 60 percent on concert tickets... Fans cannot turn to alternative
ticket providers. Ticketmaster drove them all out of business." Now
Ticketmaster has told venues that, for fan clubs, "artists can hold
back no more than eight per cent of their tickets, and they can only sell
them to fan clubs of which Ticketmaster approves."
Arena rock
needs to give way to little festivals and funky venues again. I saw Jimi
Hendrix once in a hockey rink, the ice covered with plywood and folding
chairs and the lights turned way down low.
Link
to this item | Comment
The Age
Test: ("Do you remember... Party lines? Blackjack chewing gum?
Metal ice trays with a lever?" and 22 more) Each has vanished, and
we know about when, so if they weren't part of your scene, we know how
old you are. Beverly Sykes at Funny
The World is older than dirt, she says. Not only does she remember
all of them, she annotated her answers below the test. I admire that --
I saw that thoughtstream open, childhood memories of the candy store,
sensitive finger skin stuck to snowcapped metal... but I didn't go there.
She
does, you can... via Judy
Watt
Link
to this item | Comment
Beechwood
4-5789 and other antique phone numbers: Once upon a time, telephone
numbers began with two letters, followed by 5 numbers. But the two letters
began a word, often the name of the neighborhood. (This is one of the
benchmark questions on the Age
Test.)
Some of my
newsroom neighbors and I have been sporadically remembering the Rhode
Island exchanges, and asking others who might know. A librarian from the
newspaper's we-don't-call-it-the-morgue-anymore dug up a 1955 city directory,
and its advertisements yielded a few more. The Marvelettes sang their
phone number song in 1962; by 1964, Wilson Pickett was singing the unrelated
song 634-5789,
which suggests a sea change. (No, it doesn't translate on the dial, but
maybe he didn't want to start the toon with a "T" sound.)
The
Telephone EXchange Name Project is attempting to make a datebase of
these wordy exchanges, and it wants your memories. Only two are in the
Rhode Island section -- BRoad, in Providence, and LYric, for Westerly.
But we have
compiled 17, and if you're over a certain age and lived in the Rhode Island
back then, you know others. Please let
us know about them.
Our 17 Rhode
Island exchanges so far:
CEntredale, CHerry, BRoad, DExter, EAst Prov., ELmhurst, GAspee, GEneva,
HOpkins, JAckson, LOgan, LYric, MAnning, PAwtucket, PLantations, REgent,
STuart, TEmple, TUrner, UNIon, VAlley, WIlliams. Send more!
Link
to this item | Comment
Related
trivia: In 1943,
5,755 people were using Hilda Whitcher's Social Security number, thanks
to Woolworth's. And, on a more modern note, the most commonly offered
zip code in a southern newspaper's trial of user registration was Beverly
Hills' 90210.
Link
to this item | Comment
Geek party:
R.I.
Computer Museum Inc. holds its 2002 Spring Open House and Picnic on
Sunday from 1-5 pm Shady Lea Road Shady Lea Mill North Kingstown, R.I.
"The museum will provide hot dogs, hamburgers, rolls, soda, coffee
and snacks. If you have a favorite dish and/or beverage, please bring
it. We will have a grill available, set up behind the mill overlooking
the water. The Museum itself is on the 2nd floor on the Eastern side of
the building." Directions.
Link
to this item | Comment
Ye
Olde Phart moved the day I pointed to the blog. The alleged geezer
is at http://radio.weblogs.com/0108540/
Right
brain candy: Public
Lettering: A Walk in Central London.
Link
to this item | Comment
Life-sized
grandma sold at auction: Who
Would Buy That? (auction oddities from all over the web) serves up
a RARE CROSLEY RADIO LIFESIZE GRANNY DISPLAY made of papier-mache. "The
Old Lady" sits in an upholstered armchair and a catalog touts
"Papier mache figures put human interest into your holiday windows."
In 1929 she retailed for $14, but she went for $2,000 on eBay now that
she's so much older.
Link
to this item | Comment
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Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com
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