Ross Mayfield's Weblog

New Toy

Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom

Has the widest view of any digital camera on the market, works great for close-ups and panoramas alike, a good mid-priced multipurpose tool. Has a unique "direct" histogram to tell you which parts of the image will be under or over-exposed before you shoot with little blue and red squares.

Here's a detailed DCRP Review that clinched it for me. Only drawbacks so far is the relatively large form factor and distribution of controls throughout the body that I may simply haven't gotten used to yet.

Cheesegeek Factory

Great time tonight. Posted some photos in my Events album. Some great people showed up, despite the rain and mid-holiday timing:

• Niall Kennedy
• Scott Rafer
• Peter Kaminski
• Patrick Scoble
• Alex Scoble
• Gretchen Hundling
• Courtney Patubo
• Lisa Canter
• Mark Canter
• Mimi Canter
• Andy Ruff
• Steve Sloan
• Ross Mayfield
• Mike Masnick
• Mark Finnern
• Wendy Seltzer
• Enoch Choi
• Robert Scoble
• Maryam Scoble
• Tantek

Enjoyed some really good conversations. Thanks to Niall Kennedy for passing his gizmo around to collect the list. And thanks to Scoble for making this whatchamacallit happen.

Cheesecake Tonight

Looks like we will have a full house of geeks and bloggers at tonight's dinner in Palo Alto. Many more RSVPs than I expected mid-holiday.

Good thing the Cheescake Factory's reservationless system can accommodate the burst. You can have your cake and eat it too. Just means that the more people that show up, the longer the wait until our beeper(s) tells us to get out of the Apple Store or Borders or Bar. We'll take a last headcount at 6pm and take it from there.

Uncivil Liberties

What's most troublesome about Bush signing the Patriot Act II when Sadam was captured is that it takes civil liberties away from us without allowing civil debate.

John is right, this is a very big deal. This law has been missed by the media, broadens search beyond probable cause, hides the trail of infringement and is perhaps unconstitutional.

Snoliday

Spent a few days after Christmas skiing in Lake Tahoe and stayed in a dome. Three feet of fresh powder, snow angels and cliff jumping to warm the soul.

The dangerous thing is I got a camera for Christmas, so expect long downloads when viewing this blog. Maybe my new toy means I have to give up on my personal policy to avoid posting about the kids to protect their privacy, 'cause they are so darn cute. But on the other hand, the policy is just because I can't forsee the social norms or their personal preferences.

All You Share Comes Back to You

Judith Meskill:

actionable sense...

and so i wish for you this holiday
a heightened sense of all that lights your fire
for passion is the thing that, come what may,
will help to manifest your deep desire.

so thank you for your praise of my tech prose
and in your heart please know that all you share
comes back to you and often overflows
with that for which your heart has steadfast care.

and as we find that 'sense in action' counts
with blogs and wikis in a 'socialtext'
we'll see that interest in our action mounts
as we with knowledge fill our 'social decks.'

twas lilia inspired here this prose
to actionable cohorts' - this 'sense' flows...

Behind the Beard

Christmas feels like its already come and gone at our place. I was lucky enough to marry into a different holiday tradition, as Estonians celebrate Christmas Eve. We awoke to stockings filled by Elves, called the relatives, took a nice walk, and cooked (well, I helped) a big honkin Goose.

I dress up as Santa in a hand sewn costume to ask my daughter if she has been good and deliver the presents. I might be the skinniest guy to do it, takes several pillows to fill the hand-sewn costume, but its my daughters favorite part (not just because of the big bag of plastic crap). I bumble in with a ho ho ho, try not to give away my face, give a big stuffed hug and be on my way.

She's Seven now and this year is the first where she seemed to see through it, commenting: "Santa sure sounds a lot like daddy." Sure hope this dream continues for another year or two, but she's on to it, and it may be time for a stunt double.

Tomorrow we get to start all-over. For now, the kids are sleeping on the most peaceful of nights.

The Bottom-up Net Society

Bambi Francisco blogs about the bottom-up Net society and points to Socialtext and others as an example of social software while discussing the bottom-up movement we all know so well:

Just as storylines evolve based on the interactions of the people that make up reality TV, the Internet is a channel where ideas, processes, political agendas, or Web sites are less scripted, presented and disseminated in a top-down format, but rather discovered and given merit in a real-time show of virtual hands...

"People are finding that they can self-organize," said Mark Pincus, founder of Tribe Networks, a San-Francisco based start-up focused on bringing people together to, among other things, form so called tribes around particular interests.

This is particularly useful in political campaigns, said Pincus, who calls the bubbling up of ideas on the Net, "The Revolution of the Ants."...

"The Net is ideally suited for a grassroots movement," said Pincus. "That's what our generation wants -- a voice."

Mark Pincus further elaborates on his blog how Tribe was used for political self-organization to support the Green Candidate for Mayor in SF and how he felt personally empowered:

The difference was that it was the first election i've ever voted in where i actually felt like i was making a conscious choice for something i wanted and had a voice in, rather than a depressing and pointless process of rubber stamping some big machine candidate who we all know represents the guys who paid for the TV which convinced us all that this was the only guy who could win anyway.

Mark believes the process is the platform and wants to form an eParty. While I disagree with the politics of supporting a 3rd party candidate without due cause and believe momentum makes movements (Dean), this is another great case study of emergent democracy activating the lost constituency by making politics participatory.

Blogger/Geek Dinner

Ran into Robert Scoble and his son at Palo Alto's Cheescake Factory last night (which opened this Wednesday). He was geeking out at the resturant's POS and hosting system. I had to get back to my table before I started to geek to hard, so we forked the conversation to dinner next week. Robert suggested a blogger dinner and I could help counter-balance the Microsoft thing, something I said I can help with anytime.

So: Blogger/Geek Dinner Monday the 29th at 6pm at the Cheesecake Factory on University Avenue in Palo Alto. Let Robert or me know if you are in town and can join us for a little festivity amidst the festivity.

Return of the King

Took my daughter to see the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Ubermovie, 'nuff said.

As Mike points out, people go to movies for the social experience, despite in this case the movie being available online.

What's different about the LOTR series for us is the accompanying games on the Playstation2, which we started playing before seeing II and III which is rich in cinematic clips, but doesn't spoil it. Playing the game after seeing the movies is just the kind of social fix you are after when you can't get middle earth out of your head.

PCs stink at having shared social experiences with people in the same room. That's a big part of why people still watch TV, go to Movies or play games. If there is a PC in your living room, its probably there to cue up other media.

Beginning with Playstation, gaming consoles have reached a point of immersive richness on par with video. Games modelled after movies are ideal for the storytelling genre. But its also interesting to note that because games are on par, their design goals are set to match other media. Take the sports genre, of which EA is the clear leader. Madden and other games seek to emulate the experience of controlling TV, not actually gameplay, which is great except for sports that you play in real life. Now, of course, the Playstation is for the kids ;-).