Twitter from the Cradle in today’s New York Times, editorializing mine:
“A host of new sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil’Grams and Kidmondo, now offer parents a chance to forgo the e-mail blasts of, say, their newborn’s first trip home [yes! no more “I’ve shared photos at the Gallery”] and instead invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby [what?] in their lives.”
I have the same problem with this as I do with sites like Dogster. It’s not about the baby–it’s about the parents. It’s not like my friends and relatives are going to set up Totspot accounts; they’re going to create ersatz online identities for their kids (those who have kids) and role-play. And that’s where it loses me.
I could, for example, make a Totspot page for Nate, or create a linkroll on his site to Stella and Mack and Olivia, et al. But what does it mean when Nate doesn’t even know the dog’s name yet, much less his “friends”? Or that he hasn’t even met Stella in person?
I love my son’s baby blog. It is already a great keepsake and chronicle of his early life. As for the social network, I’ll let him forge that for himself.
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"Warner Music Group raised eyebrows last month when it yanked a promising downloadable single and album from new U.K. chanteuse Estelle off iTunes in a bid to … boost sales." That's great, until consumers look for free downloads elsewhere online, and bypass the sale channel entirely
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And Obama has sketchy church ties?
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My favorite find of the day: "hey, free dummy" was once in the New Yorker
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Thought-provoking post from a working mom with a special-needs infant of her own (with 100+ comments that are impassioned and largely worth reading)
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Priceless. Mat, were you behind this too?
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I love that a real estate blog whose stock in trade is "new construction 33% windowed!" posts has half a dozen classifieds listings for $5 million-plus apartments
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"Perhaps the most misguided, dispassionate and lackluster professional sports logo produced in recent time." Kind of what you'd expect from an owner who is redefining buying a pro sports team as his toy
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heh
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Sarah Palin is a classic American hypocrite. Have five kids: good family values! Pro-life: good Christian values! Go back to work without nurturing your Down syndrome-afflicted newborn: solid work ethic! Who cares if these principles don't jive as a set? (via Jason Levine on Twitter)
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Meanwhile, Mr. Straight Talk Express seems constrained and frustrated. Is this how his presidency might go?
I am not a particularly political person; politics to me is often slow, dirty, frustrating and interlaced with lies. Personal agendas too often get in the way of wise governing, leading to missed opportunities all too often.
Yet I cannot understate the inspiration and hope that comes from Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. I recently noted the power of presentation skills, and Obama’s oratory is nothing short of gifted. This is a man unlike anything the United States has experienced at the executive level in decades: invigorating, compelling, astounding.
That a mixed-race man with a black wife and family can rise to a party nomination for President of the United States amazes me. That the nominee can be so rich with his communication skills, eloquent, smart and embracing, gives me hope for the future.
I remain suspect whether America as a whole is ready to embrace such a sweeping level of change. Obama represents everything Washington is not, from his race to his generation. I’d be disappointed but not surprised if the nation showed its aversion to change and elected John McCain as a safe choice. And mind you, I do believe that McCain is also a decent presidential candidate: not someone with whom I agree, but a man of integrity, maturity, perspective and wit, who would represent a vast improvement over the sad state of affairs of the past few years.
But this country has an amazing opportunity this fall to elect a true leader, a man who inspires people to participate, who turns the heads of the indifferent, who already holds the attention and respect of foreign leaders, who has the appeal to fill football stadiums with people who wish to hear him speak. I hope Obama gets the chance to fulfill his potential. The nation and the world will be a better place for believing in him.
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"Out of almost 2,100 diversified retail U.S. stock mutual funds that are open to new investors, just 17 have positive returns for both the past 12 months and year-to-date." Whoa. (via The Big Picture)
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Matt's feeling crotchety, but it's a productive, high-signal:ratio crotchety (nice discussion at hand)
Mysteriously and miraculously, del.icio.us began publishing my saved links to my blog again, after several months of unexplained hiatus. Huzzah! Here’s the exciting rundown of my linkbloggin’ activity so far this week.
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Merlin Mann on FriendFeed's "fake follow" button. Interesting, but I like this post for this line: "FriendFeed, which has quickly become the platform of choice for the web’s least interesting narcissists"
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All well and good, but I find it rather insane that MLB is launching this untested on a Thursday in the middle of the stretch drive to the postseason
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Good luck. Any poker players in the office?
Long Beach Island, NJ, has some of the corniest and punniest business names still in existence on the eastern seaboard. Among those I spotted this weekend:
House of the Rising Bun
Sunsations
Sunglass Menagerie
Chicken or the Egg
Big Dipper Ice Cream
Pottery Barge
Just Beachy
Just Bead It
Barry’s Do Me a Flavor
Say Cheese
Also spotted more than once: the phrase “own make candy,” which my lovely wife of five years deciphered as “we do it ourselves,” but which linguistically we’re still trying to comprehend. And then there’s the “coin op laundry/ravioli to take out” sign….
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"# State-of-the-art round-the-clock medical care is free, but you have to pay for parking." The rest of this post is equally true