April 30, 2006
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Somewhere along the line a belief was generated that if you want to see the artist
Hugh MacLeod
Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards
April 30, 2006
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Somewhere along the line a belief was generated that if you want to see the artist
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April 29, 2006
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I want to use my cartoons for the new Stormhoek label design, starting later this year.
The plan is not to do typical wine-related messages in the cartoons, but unrelated messages like this or this.
Think about it– you’re walking down the aisle in the wine section of the supermarket, and instead of the usual wine-related messages being broadcasted at you from the bottles, you see something more like this, or this. Edgy, random, a conversation starter etc.
Obviously, if you’re familiar with my work, you’ll understand the story. But methinks it’ll work for the “virgins”, as well.
Anybody?
[UPDATE: To see the new label designs as they’re rolled out, go here.]
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[Inspired by Technology Evangelist’s recent post.]
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[Hat Tip: Wilfred Owen 1893 – 1918]
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April 28, 2006
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PT just asked me the following quetion:
What exactly is the use of blogging if you have no idea often who it is you are talking to? In other words — are they bright? Are thay sane? Are they knowledgable about the things they purport to be? If it is simply an uncontrolled medium through which anyone can say anything then it seems to me it will become no more than a modern day Tower of Babel.
I do however accept that the technology is here — but how to make it really useful?
The short answer is; a blog gets the audience it deserves. If the people reading and leaving comments on your blog are a bunch of losers and idiots, it might have more to do with the quality of what you write, and the vigilance with which you monitor your comments, than any limitations of the media.
You’re right, the technology is there. Everything else is up to you.
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[Robert Scoble.]
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gapingvoid made it on to the Technorati 100 again.
Thanks for the links, Everybody. Rock on.
April 27, 2006
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Just got an e-mail from Rick Segal a few minutes ago:
I’m in China right now, typing this via my EVDO card on China mobile, looking at Technorati…
Looks like the rumor that China had shut down Technorati was a bit premature.
Anybody?
MediaGuardian.co.uk: “The BBC today unveiled radical plans to rebuild its website around user-generated content, including blogs and home videos, with the aim of creating a public service version of MySpace.com.”
Not sure how big a story this is. Centralized social media? Huh? I already have a blog. Why do I need them?
[Link: Rubel]
April 26, 2006
Now it seems China is blocking Technorati.
Anybody?
[UPDATE:] Looks like it was only a rumor. Good news.
Everyone wants to feel as if they are a part of something important. You, me and just about every person I’ve ever met. So let me ask you this.. what is your purpose? As a leader what do you convey to the people under you?
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The very first Stormhoek 100 Geek Dinner is about to launch, on May 1st, in San Antonio, Texas. Says Kami:
If you will be in San Antonio on May 1 and want to meet up with us, please contact me via e-mail at kami (at) yahoo (dot) com. I need a head count pretty quickly because Stormhoek needs to know how much wine to send.
We haven
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98052 is the zip code for Redmond, Washington, corporate HQ of Microsoft.
Full story here and here.

Kosso has built a gapingvoid widget. Excellent!
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April 25, 2006
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From Tom Raftery:
Robert Scoble, Microsoft
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April 24, 2006
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Chris Heathcoate, a British blogger who works for Nokia in Helsinki [I hung out with him at Reboot last year in Copenhagen], was recently in the Hotel Miyako in Tokyo, when he went into the hotel men’s room. There he stumbled across a framed gapingvoid print. Small world.
[Back story:] The manager of the hotel is an old friend of my cousin. The former bought the print off me a few years ago.
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Following my conversation with Michael and the Gillmor Gang a week or two ago, I’ve decided to build the widget.
Here’s some ideas:
1. The widget will allow anyone to have regularly-updated gapingvoid cartoons published on their website or blogs, fed through via RSS.
2. The widget will be paid for via text ads– Google, Yahoo, or whoever, with some sort of revenue split between me and the subscribers.
3. The widget will come in two versions i.e. large and small. The big one [1] will be about 400 pixels wide, the small one [2] will be about 150 pixels wide,the latter good for fitting on blog sidebars. Visitors to the blog will click on it and the full-size widget [1] would pop up etc.
4. Because of the adult nature of some (but not all) of my cartoons, there would have to be some sort of filter, designed to suit the nature of the subscirber and his/her readers. Ergo, every cartoon will be tagged either “Safe”, “Semi-filtered” or “Unfiltered”, so that the subscriber can choose what level of filter he/she wishes to have.
That’s the basic idea. Have I left anything out?
I don’t know how feasible an advertising revenue split is, technologically. But I would prefer it if there was. If anyone has a friend at Yahoo, Google, or anywhere else that deals with this stuff, please let them know I wish to start a conversation.
Thanks, as always, for all your help and goodwill. Rock on.
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April 23, 2006
Wrong Question: “What If Media 2.0 Is Less Profitable Than Media 1.0?“
Right Answer: Nobody cares.
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A client of mine needs something built.
Basically, it’s an “authority aggregator” like Memeorandum, Megite, Tailrank etc.
But instead of it being about tech or politics or whatever, it aggregates stories specifically pertaining to my client’s industry, identifies the most authoritative stories from the most authoratative sources, and then posts them online in simple, aggregated form.
So if you think you can help and could use some business, please drop me an e-mail. Thanks.
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