Author: John Roberts

“Our lives are frittered away by detail. Simplify. Simplify.”

Thoreau, channelled by Vin. Worth remembering, especially because ‘frittered’ is so fun to say.

I always want to listen to This American Life on NPR, but I never do. Maybe something like this is the answer? $150.00 for the basic model, via pre-ordering. Have to see if there is a service fee, too. [via E-Media Tidbits, Steve Outing]

Oooh! Oooh! I’ve been waiting for this: A portable device that does for radio what TiVo does for television. PoGo! Products has introduced the Radio YourWay (http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/337/C1666/) portable digital AM/FM radio recorder. With it, you can record radio programming (manually, or by setting a timer) for later playback — and the ability to fast-forward past commercials or obnoxious disc-jockey chatter.

Yesterday afternoon, Ben took his nap in his bed instead of his crib. First time for everything. Later that evening, he started the night in his bed… but for the second night, after about an hour, he asked to be put in his crib. We’re not going to push too hard, but interesting to watch this transition. This morning, after breakfast, he climbed into the crib on his own, just to play, while I was in the other room. I didn’t know he could do that.

Getting a company’s name right shouldn’t be that hard, but my employer, CNET Networks, seems to have some extra challenges there. The logo of CNET (one of the brands, not the company) is a lower-case c|net embedded in a bright red ball. Early on (1995 or so), CNET would write out the company name in the same manner: c|net: The Computer Network (that’s what CNET stood for, originally). Somewhere around 1998, everyone realized the external confusion putting a pipe in the name (not to mention the lower-case) was inflicting, so there was a brief change to CNet, followed in rapid order by the more useful move to CNET. However, in many cases, the damage had been done. I still see c|net linger on in several places, probably because the logo was never changed — which is a good thing, I think. Maybe in another 10 years it will be clearer to those outside the company. In a small way, the confusion is a legacy, too, of the company’s high-flyer status in the late 1990s. Many people’s first introduction to the brand probably coincided with the typographical indecision. Live and learn.

I was interested to see Tim Bray criticize a CNET News.com article: Passport to get Web services stamp. I don’t actually know the reporter, as he works in a separate bureau. In a quick read (it’s not a long article), I found that (a) the headline oversells and (b) this is a report of an announcement to come. So, it wasn’t intended to be a big article… just a ‘quick hit,’ getting no more and no less attention than it deserves. The headline does make it seem more dramatic. Anyway, I appreciate smart people critiquing my work, or that of my colleagues. Even so, I do think Tim’s comment is a bit strong: “This c|net story is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with tech journalism.” But he’s not posting anonymously, and he explains his comment. Fair enough. Everyone is entitled to his opinion.

A joke Brooke shared with me.

Larry wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass
of water on the side table. He sits up and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Larry looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotless, clean. So’s the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table: “Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping. Love you.” So he goes to the kitchen, and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Larry asks, “Son, what happened last night?”

His son says, “Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and delirious, broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door.”

Confused, Larry asks, “So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?” His son replies, “Oh, that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you said, “Lady, leave me alone, I’m married!”

I went to the library last weekend to (finally) return my three overdue books, and I was able to pick up one more, quickly. It’s Katharine Graham’s Personal History, her Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography written in 1998. Since I read Halberstam’s The Powers That Be earlier this year, I’m interested in another perspective on the rise of The Washington Post. However, what really tipped the scale was an email exchange with someone about work. Peter A., a reader, suggested that I read this book for perspective on the early days of a successful media company. I can only hope that CNET Networks doesn’t need to lose money for a couple of decades first! (Not likely.) I’ve gotten started, and I can see it will be an interesting tale, both personally and professionally.

Fun for Benjamin, fun for Brooke, fun for me, and fun for Isabel (I hope). For Ben, Aunt Isabel is another active member of his audience. What’s he going to do when he has to share the stage with the new arrival in a few months? Anyway, she’s got him down in the yard weeding.

I want to read this quick Emerging Technology post later, especially because it has a link to the conference presentations.

Since reading the O’Brian biography, I’ve been of a mind to get back to the Aubrey-Maturin series. I had stopped with the fourth one, The Mauritius Command, a few years ago, simply because I didn’t have the next one in the series, Desolation Island. I’ve rectified that mistake, and I finished it on Wednesday.

I am glad I’ve dived back in. Even the font is deliberately of the period, at least in the W.W. Norton paperbacks here in the United States. The memorable part of the book’s tone is the consistency with which the author relies on the reader’s perceptiveness. So often, the characters say things baldly, without the leading adverbs and adjectives that are so often employed. It’s up to you, the reader, in the midst of a fine tale, to correctly interpret sarcasm, dissembling, and all the other subtexts going on. It’s especially pronounced in the back and forth between the lead characters, old friend Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey. Direct and potentially offensive comments elicit only casual response, reminding you of the depth of their friendship. I suppose it would be helpful to go get the book and find a few quotes to illustrate my words… certainly more fun to read O’Brian’s words than mine… but I’m not writing a book review, and it’s not worth my time to scan the book for a prime example. Just read it.