“I have the theory that news is now driven not by editors who know anything,” the comedian and commentator Bill Maher recently observed. “I think it’s driven by people who are” slacking off at work and “surfing the Internet.” He added, “It’s like a country run by ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos.’ ”

NYTimes: Texts Without Context http://s.nyt.com/u/ag1

There are a million ways to share big files with friends and customers.

I tried one recently that really hit the mark for me drop.io. It was easy to set up, had clear privacy guidelines and has useful administrative features.  Try it out, it is a little different from dropbox since it is geared towards creating a web page where a user can download and optionally upload files. It also seems to have a pay capability which allows the user to be charged for the d/l of the files. Say if I was a band who posted items on the road for a small subscription fee, drop.io could manage the whole thing complete with comments, RSS feeds and all the usual goodies. Anyway, check it out if you need to share sometimes and sending the file in email just doesn’t cut it.

I almost forgot, you can send it files by email and add a voicemail for voice annotation. It’s just cool.

I love the way the BBC has laid out all their podcasts. The kids have enjoyed the Megamaths one in particular.

The BBC website also made me realize that Google Reader can also be used for podcasts, a fact which I had missed somehow.

So everyone and his brother has seen the Google Wave video by now I hope.

I love the ideas embedded in this app. While the UI isn’t perfect, the functionality is really nice. I am really looking forward to spending some time looking at the API and thinking about what could be built with it. 

As someone who gives demos I’m also quite struck by the way that Lars and Stephanie presented together. I’m used to presenting with another person, but it’s usually in a more structured fashion. What I like about this is that it’s a presentation woven into a demo rather than presentation followed by demo. Wonder how much time they put into this?

Looks a lot more exciting than anything I’ve seen from Redmond in a while.

It takes quite a bit to impress me when it comes to software, but yesterday I was blown away by this little plug-in for web browser called PicLens. Think of it as a browser add-on that gives you something like the i-Tunes style cover flow visual browser but for web sites like YouTube and Flickr. The stunning thing is how fast and responsive it is — assuming your net connection is reasonably fast.

This plugin only runs on Windows and Mac and only on IE, Firefox & Safari.

Try it, it rocks.

I really enjoy reading about computer history. There are a few reasons.

1. Computer History is navel gazing something I enjoy already. The books and essays make what I do for a living seem important.
2. I have a core belief that today’s computer industry is re-inventing the breakthroughs from 20-30 years ago. Reading the history helps me get the “next big thing”.
3. The characters in my industry fascinate me. Ultimately, the history of my industry is the very personal story of some very smart and sometimes very odd people.

So if you like computer history you might want to check out this essay entitled,”Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine“, by W. Daniel Hillis that appears on the Long Now web site. I have worked some some smart people iin my life, but what a treat to work with someone like Richard Feynman. The Thinking Machine alumni list is pretty amazing.

I took the plunge and upgraded a system at home to XP SP3. No problems so far. Nothing seems amiss.

This is a book that is about right now. It plays out the tension and intersection of privacy versus safety in the after math of a terrorist incident in the SF Bay Area. The book will probably seem dated pretty quick since the technology and lingo are so current, but the story is still great. This book marks a turning point in Cory Doctorows writing. This book is a real turning point for the author, Cory Doctorow. Previous works like “Eastern Standard Tribe” or “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom“, or even a novella I truly loved “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” were good reads but it wasn’t something I would try and get friends who weren’t sci-fi/cyberpunk fans to check out and read. This book changes all that – I know I’ll probably mail my copy off to my nephew to read. If you are too cheap to get the book, the txt download will be posted soon I’m sure.

Search Commands, originally uploaded by timbu.

I’ve recently switched to the newest version of office. I don’t hate it other than the fact that once again everything seems slower. One thing that I can’t stand is the fact that there are a few commands I can’t find with the new sorry excuse for a toolbar. Hope this thing from office labs helps. I’ll let you know.