Punderings

/ iPhone login woes /
/ seven eight nine are not fine /
/ genius bar today /

• What’s the old saying – “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel”? What does that mean when our online interface to information buys a paper mill?
• At least in Cambridge, we’ll be free from city surveillance cameras soon, as the city council voted to ban them.
• CNet finally does an in-dept piece on the real dangers of our President carrying a Blackberry. I never figured the information security would be an issue – it was more the location security.
• Get ready tonight to party like it’s 1234567890! Simple little countdown timer here along with many other places I’m sure.
• Sweet! Or not sweet, in the case of contaminated peanuts. But the CDC has a fancy little widget for searching for recalled brands (below, if you run Flash etc.).

Danny Angus wins today’s Word Award for properly using one of the longest (and one of my childhood favorite) words in the English language. Or the American language, for that matter.

Want to move to a trendy Manhattan loft, cheap? Visit the DreamHost Blog and tell them Shane Curcuru sent you!

Have a spare $11,000,000 and love big furry white dogs? (Read the alt text.) Don’t forget to tell them Shane Curcuru sent you, even though I’m really a cat person myself.

How to make money on the internet

1. Have a blog that gets some hits. You can’t get anywhere to start with unless you have at least some audience.
2. Write amusingly. Funny blog posts – for varying definitions of funny – get more traffic.
3. Include plenty of links on semi-relevant subjects. If it’s funny enough, and seems relevant enough, people will click through over time.
4. Walk the fine line of being amusing and shilling. Too obvious a hard sell and you’ll lose quality readers. Too soft, and people will think you’re being ironic and aren’t seriously selling anything.
5. Oh, and have something to sell.

Seriously: if you are looking for a new web host, check out DreamHost. They’re good for both the budget conscious as well as the geeky looking for roots. Plus, you could be the first person to click through and get me my first referral bonus for anything, anywhere!

Yes, I like Dreamhost; I don’t bother linking to sites I don’t actually like. No, I haven’t had any problems with Dreamhost (meaning I can’t comment on their conflict resolution). No, I haven’t done more than host blogs at DreamHost yet (meaning I can’t comment on their nuclear technology skills).

What non- entertainment or high technology personage could amass over 7,000 followers in less than 15 hours on Twitter?

No, not him, or her, or any of them.

It’s the Dalai Lama on Twitter! Excuse me, I apologise – he is more properly referred to as His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Good luck to him!

HT2TimBray.

With apologies in advance for pondering crass materialisim on a subject like this, but: how much do you think Twitter’s valuation increases when such a prominent and non-technology figure signs up to use Twitter on an active basis?