Damien Mulley

Via Fred who inspired Jason to blog his thoughts. Jason Calacanis sure stirred up a hornets nest there with that statement. Jason thinks Wikipedia could take in over a hundred million a year that could be used to fund charities or the like in return for some small ads. The overall tone of the piece was resoundly “Won’t someone think of the children?”. It seemed very much like children would starve because Wikipedia won’t go commercial. Would Jason like the library of congress to have each book aisle carry advertising billboards?

You can commercialise anything and everything really and one wonders why we don’t. Why do we draw a line? Isn’t the reason that Wikipedia doesn’t take ads the same way we don’t walk around in our daily lives looking like F1 drivers with sponsor names all over ourselves? Logos shaved into our scalps and brand names tattooed on our arms? We don’t need the extra cash. Nut why don’t we think of the children we could help if we did! We don’t need to distract users from their research or reading by telling them that they might like this or that product, even if it is relevant to what I’m reading. Would encyclopedia Brittanica have ads at the top of every page in their printed encyclopedias?

The backlash though is quite strong, even for people that dislike Calcanis. Next up monetizing the Book of Kells.

Worldchanging, the really good enviro-blog has a new book out. They want people to Amazon bomb the book so that it becomes the best selling book that day on Amazon. As a result of a No. 1 listing on Amazon a lot more doors and shelves of bookstores will open for them. Funny how this publishing lark works. There’s no real cheating in this. Just a way of concentrating purchases to be over one day instead of a week or two.

If this helps get the word out then I’m all for it.

Bonus link. Kevin Kelly’s guide to selling your books on Amazon.

Anotin mentions that Fon routers are still a fiver but will be changing in price soon. Might be an idea to get one now.

This to me would be a great job to do. For a while.

Blogorrah are also hiring.

Seems they don’t need a Government in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic, which held general elections in June, still has no government but seems to be doing fine.

Ze Frank Vs Rocketboom continues. Style versus volume really. Rocketboom is current affairs where as Ze Frank is social commentary. Ze builds a community whereas Rocketboom builds capital. To me it seems like the old Apple V Microsoft debate.

Jaysus that spamming stuff never ends. Thanks for the link Sparky.

Gobshites.

and we must have a video musn’t we?
This is Kinky with the song “Twisted Sister”. It features the unmistakable David “Elsewhere” Bernal. I mentioned him before.

Sinéad talks about six word stories. More than six people make replies. The post title is my submission.

How about changing those session times on your site so I can fill in the passport details, citizenship details, date of births, US Address and all that other stuff for six people outside of what appears to be 5 bloody minutes? God bless cached forms from firefox. Tip for those suffering the same thing with AerLingus.com: Submit the first passenger details and not the rest. It’ll bitch at you to fill in the rest and then you get another five minutes. Repeat for each passenger.

Go to google.ie and search for: damien
Beating yer man Rice and yer man Dempsey.
(Yes I am that sad.)

When you Google for “Damien” on Yahoo.ie or Google it on MSN.ie* I’m not near no.1

Meanwhile Richard is talking about the Americans and Googlebombing their elections. I think we should make Fianna Fail guy Damien Blake number 1 for the search phrase “Fianna Fail”. Since he seems to be the one Fianna Failer who is actively engaging with the online community it is only right that he should rank highly in results when someone searches for Fianna Fail.

*Bubble Brothers, like Google, have issued a guide on when to use and when not to use the phrase “bubble brothers”.

Update: Blakey is on first page of results for Damien too. Competition!

Dalek jack-o-lantern.

Cute iPod case for kids. Thought it looks too much like a frisbee.

5 best movie monologues.

How unfortunate.

Joel shows how you can add those DIGG type buttons to a blogger post.

Niall’s guide to planning small conferences.

Fan made ad for the democrats. Staying the course:

Daily Show and the cursing parrot:

I’m off to New York next week for a week. I’m hoping to do a few things like see the Museum of Modern Art, go Ice Skating at the Rockefeller Centre and sample as much ethnic cuisine as possible. I was there for a whole 6 hours on a previous trip so saw nothing except very tall buildings. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Something not too touristy but still cool is what I’m after.

The Irony Mark. Oh good god.

Anti-homophobia campaign to begin in Irish Schools. About time.

Also equal rights granted to gay couples in New Jersey. Marriage by any other name is still marriage?

The court gave the State Legislature 180 days to come up with legislation guaranteeing gay people a legal mechanism to have their unions recognized in identical practical terms as those afforded to heterosexual marriages. It left for another day the question of whether the contours of and, more important, the label attached to that mechanism would satisfy the State Constitution.

Meanwhile Google thinks words and verbs are very very important. They’re telling people how they should refer to making searches online. How about feck off?

Shots of a Space Shuttle Launch from a tracker plane.

Ze Frank smacks down Rocketboom.

Iraqi TV news show that’s a mix of Ze Frank and the Daily Show. Nice to see that someone can find humour in such despair.

Collection of great TV commercials.

Pelican swallows a pigeon.

I really don’t know what to say about this: