Barry Parr brings together a few useful threads to say that site registration is a marketing error. I think he’s right in the long run, in that advertising against demographics rather than context seems both difficult to do (meaning, execute on) and less effective for the marketer. But I think he’s wrong in the short…

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Tim Bray is, as he speculates, forever to be known as the XML guy. (There are worse things to be known for, and he is known.) Whatever kudos accumulate from well-formed markup, I’m finding that I’m more appreciative of his regular essays and posts in ongoing (his blog). His clarity on topics as important —…

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We just got back from seeing Guster at the Warfield. This is the third or fourth time we’ve seen them, and each time, it’s in a bigger venue. Good sign for them. We had seats in the balcony, and I was pleased to have a seat, honestly. Fun performance, as always, but not really music…

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I occasionally join some friends as a substitute player in a floor hockey league. The fast twitch muscles are not really up to snuff anymore (if they ever were). I like to start, and keep moving at a reasonable clip. Stopping and starting and stopping and starting and so on… not exactly what a 3…

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Bloomberg.com was redesigned recently. Someone on the online-news mailing list threw it out there today, asking for comment. I took a five minute look around, and was surprised to see such clean, colorful design. US markets were closed, of course, so maybe I’m not seeing the site at its busiest, but I expected more data…

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It was ironic, but I threw that line out just now, and my wife has promised to wake me up and make me sing the Bobby McFerrin song with her if the lyrics are running through her head in the middle of the night. Too bad she’s pregnant, or I’d suggest a drink to help…

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How disappointing that my mother-in-law didn’t continue her tradition of trying to bamboozle my wife. I didn’t try, either — the only ‘surprises’ I thought of were not funny, just scary. And that’s not clever… anyone can think of disasters. Which is why the annual effort by TidBits is so appreciated. I hope they have…

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The VPN at work is down. I rarely connect from home, since I can get my email in mobile fashion (thank you, RIM), but the people I work with need to get to the servers to make changes, and tonight, that connection just crapped out. Pointed reminder that despite thinking the network is Shirky’s permanet,…

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I finished my mental candy last night, so it’s time to get some intellectual fiber again. I’ll see how a biography of Patrick O’Brian turns out. Author is Dean King, which means nothing to me now. I haven’t read all of the Aubrey and Maturin novels, but I’ve read enough to know they are masterpieces.…

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I received a notice that my current primary care physician (PCP… what a lovely acronym given the context) is moving to a new city, and therefore I’ll have to choose another doctor within my HMO. I’ve only seen my doctor three times in four years, so I don’t have a deep attachment here, but I…

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