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Author: cgerrish

Unemployed philosopher

Pavarotti Remembered

Published September 21, 2007 by cgerrish

There was time when he was one of the greatest. A great voice and a great presence. In his later years, he was given to strange duets with pop stars. Some worked out better than others. Some time will have to pass before he’s properly remembered. The recent past puts a strange spin on his career. For those who don’t really know his accomplishments, they only remember their puzzlement at the opera singer trying his hand at popular music.

One of my favorite pop songs, although my preference is for the version by Chris Whitley on Perfect Day. What strange collaboration, in some ways it’s very New York: Pavarotti and Lou Reed.

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Philosophy Bites

Published September 19, 2007 by cgerrish

Plato

I’m a big fan of podcasting. More often than not, when I’ve got earbuds jammed in my ears, I’m listening to IT Conversations, or watching Rocketboom. But it’s Philosophy Bites that’s my current favorite.

It’s a podcast about philosophy, just two guys talking to a working philosopher about topics in the field. Some recent shows featured: Sartre’s Existentialism, Moral Relativism and Utilitarianism. They do a great job of keeping it interesting and bringing it alive. Give it a listen.

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NY Times Rejoins the Conversation

Published September 18, 2007 by cgerrish

NY Times

I stopped linking to the NY Times, or even sending their links in email when they put up their wall. The pay-to-view section of the Times was a very poor idea. Today they announced they’ll stop charging. Jeff Jarvis called it a cyncial ploy from the beginning, content wants to free. But that’s not entirely true, online news content wants to be part of the conversation, but it can easily sit in a corner and talk to itself. The Times Select content consisted of the archive and Op-Ed writers, the Times probably learned no one cared enough about reading or linking to Maureen Dowd and Paul Krug. The conversation is quite lively without them. If the Times wants to be part of the debate around the next presidential election, the wall had to come down.

The Internet is making an evolution of democracy and free speech possible. The NY Times can participate in the conversation and stick advertising on the click flow, or they can sit on the sidelines. Welcome back.

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A Platform for Broadcast Internet

Published September 17, 2007 by cgerrish

Old_Televison

Marc Andreessen writes about the three kinds of internet platform. It’s great to see this conversation in the open, it’s a fundamental change to where applications live.To me the interesting thing about ideas like Web OS and applications that live on the network is the assumption of the network. Today the network isn’t everywhere in any broad sense. There are hotspots, some folks have EVDO, but the network doesn’t follow you around. Of course, depending on who wins the new wireless spectrum auction, this could change radically. Broadcast television goes away possibly to be replaced by broadcast internet with a whole new set of applications.

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