microformats and Firefox Operator

Just installed a great new plugin for Firefox called Operator and I highly recommend it. It will let you view and export microformats. I'm incorporating the hcard into greatuncle.com.

Jared Diamond on Colbert

I've recently been reading Jared Diamond's books. These are the "missing" history books that I wish I had in high school. If you have ever considered picking up one of his books, I can highly recommend both Collapse and the Third Chimpanzee. Next I will be reading Gun, Germs and Steel.

For now, Collapse is one of the ten most influential books I have ever read.

Open House Crank

Open houses are a game. People walk in and they are watched because so few are serious buyers. And it must be boring for agents sitting in a house for 3 hours when you'd rather be with your family and you know the odds to getting a buyer a slim. But too many real estate agents give up too early and lose focus. Even though I'm in a T-shirt and bike shorts I have the money to buy this house! I'm getting tired of your attitude and your commission!

Renee Eats Ice Cream

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 Best and Worst Crank

1. Tim-Berners Lee started it. He said a list of links is content.
2. PowerPoint promoted the a. idea b. concept c. meme
3. Yahoo started with lists and a Google list is common as bread
4. Digg.com is just full of 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 Best and Worst content
5. HTMLers love lists and dl, ol, ul and li
6. CSSers love to distort lists into navigation or calendars or read A List Apart
7. CNet is video podcasting even to TiVo, the top 5 or 10 lists every 7 days
8. NY Times and WP love to tell you about the most read, emailed or blogged lists
9. Keith Olbermann even delivers news via the Countdown list of stories
10. Are we so 2 dimensional that a top 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 list is how we communicate 2 each other?

Headline Writers Crank

NY Times posted an article today with a headline of "Can She Turn Yahoo Into, Well, Google?" I'll ignore the question about why Yahoo would want to be Google which Susan Decker addressed previously: "We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot of share from Google"(see Clickety Clack).

Many times we forget that that person who writes the story does not write the headline. So no shame on Miguel Helft, but the headline is awful bordering on disgusting. Can we not do better in this age when most college graduates are women? Would the headline write had written "Can He Turn ...".