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Bowing out… for now

I was reading Dave Sifry’s latest state of the blogosphere report earlier, and something occurred to me.

It may be time to shut down this blog.

When I say shut down, I mean leave it online, but simply let it slide and move on to pastures new.

When I started blogging in 2002, the world was a far different place. I was the type of blogger who emailed dozens of other bloggers trying to get links, writing breaking news, motivated and excited about the power I had. And back then there were only a couple of hundred thousand blogs. It was before Technorati came along, back when everything was still quite innocent.

Part of me wants those days back, but I know they never will be. Blogging has exploded, and now there are 50 million voices publishing on every topic imaginable. And it was great to watch it happen, and great to be there from early on to see so many people put their thoughts and ideas online. It was crazy to watch the established media websites changing and morphing into a new world of dialogue with their readers. And I love that whenever something happens, there is always valuable insight and first hand reporting to be had from all over the world.

Where do I go from here?

My interest in blogging has not abated, but it has changed. I guess when you are blogging this long you become something of a self-taught expert in various technologies, be it search engine optimisation, blogging software, hosting, CSS, HTML, SQL and all the rest. And with that expertise comes a desire to use it, perhaps to evangelise the benefits of blogging to others, to teach people how to communicate well, or how to maximise their potential online. There’s a good bit to learn for new bloggers out there, and there’s alot to learn on the part of all the news organisations in Ireland, who have all failed to fully comprehend the shift that is occurring in how people digest news.

Of course the ideal situation would be to get paid to change the media dynamic in this country to make it more conversational than it currently is, mixing an interest in blogging and new media with a wish to change traditional media for the better. Both disciplines can learn from each other and it would be nice to be part of a process to make those changes.

But for now, I will be happy with tracking the development of blogging and how it may affect the media, specifically in Ireland. And I would also hope that with the increasing volume of blogs in Ireland, that the sense of community that has existed will still pervade, no matter how large the number of bloggers, or indeed their audience.

Blogging on a regular basis will cease on this address. But it does not mean I stop blogging, it will just be a change in direction.

I have a few ideas on how things can improve, and how things can change, and will be working in the background to bring these things about. Hopefully with time they will come to fruition.

I will be posting again, I’m just not sure when, or what about.

For now, it’s good night and good luck.

Update: Many thanks to Eamonn for his kind words, and even a poem!

Mac Mini entertainment

A few readers have been asking about my Mac Mini setup, so I have taken a couple of pictures to demonstrate how it stands currently. I actually love the option of picture-in-picture.

Picture in picture

There’s iTunes on (an abundance of country), with al Jazeera on as picture-in-picture via the television. You can have the TV sound on or off while in OSX, the OSX sounds play via separate speakers as you see here:

Mac Mini + Samsung

All in all, a nice setup. The wireless keyboard and mouse are outside the pics, but work well.

Now to consider PVR options…

Rumsfeld gets roasted by Clinton

Rummy needs to resign.

My goodness indeed.

When referring to the number of troops that went into Iraq, Rummy said: “I guess history will make a judgment on that”.

How long do we have to wait before history kicks in? It’s well over three years since the invasion. Can we not at least start to speculate about whether the number of troops was too low? Does Rumsfeld believe history can look back in three, ten, twenty or fifty years from now, and then make a judgment?

I don’t think so.

I think three years is plenty of time to see that the number of troops was too low. By putting things on the long finger and saying ‘history’ will decide, he is simply saying ‘ask me when I am no longer Defence Secretary’.

Strange 'twin' new worlds found

An interesting discovery:

‘Planemos’ is a great word…

The pair belongs to what some astronomers believe is a new class of planet-like objects floating through space; so-called planetary mass objects, or “planemos”, which are not bound to stars.

They appear to have been forged from a contracting gas cloud, in a similar way to stars, but are much too cool to be true stars.

And while they have similar masses to many of the giant planets discovered beyond our Solar System (the largest weighs in at 14 times the mass of Jupiter and the other is about seven times more massive), they are not thought to be true planets either.

Democracy vs Democracy?

Daniel Drezner seconds the question posed by Michael Totten at Instapundit this week.

Is Totten right to say that the current war is the first example of a democracy going to war with a democracy?

Excellent discussion over at Drezner’s blog.

Incidentally I agree with Drezner on this, given that the Lebanese forces themselves have failed to engage the IDF it seems fair to say that the democratic peace proposition has not been broken.

Abizaid relents

The exchange today at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. [via Steve]

SEN. CARL LEVIN: Do you agree, General, that — with the ambassador from Britain to Iraq that Iraq is sliding towards civil war?

GEN. ABIZAID: I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I’ve seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war.

Is there a sudden realisation in Washington that thing’s aren’t really going that well in Iraq?


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