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• My last post suggested trying Skype. This post’s tipping you to what looks to be a not bad FREE $40 VOIP phone with which to use it (or AOL, or Vonage, or any of the others. internet phone services.)
• Check out Vyew, among the coolest of the new wave of web applications. It just works. You can sign on, invite people, and have a conference online. And it’s free. Even for the conference calling part. (Though i’ve also been using Free Conference, you can’t draw a picture, show a map, or go through a document.) Use it to chat while on a conference call…cool for that too.
• And speaking of Myspace, if you want to understand what all that’s about as well as the rest of this social media thing (and a bunch of other things in life I find as i read more and more of her stuff), please check out Dana Boyd who’s writing it and a whole lot more at Berkeley. She’s one of those folks online who are consistently brilliant as in her piece on G/localization. I end up reading her again and again, passing on her pieces, and now sharing with you. And she joins Oprah, author (and friend of mine) Ari (Female Chauvanist Pig) Levy in cheering on Pink’s new CD. it’s political, strong and yo can dance to it.. (Warning: Boyd makes new and possibly difficult things seem obvious, and has more than once made me feel unworthy of blogging, writing, or participating. Typically academics rub me wrong, insisting they know better than those involved. That’s clearly not the case here. While i may be late to loving Oprah (another day), i’ve loved watching Pink com stretch and grow (and make a new feminism her own). And she clarifies what’s likely to be rubbing you the wrong way with the current demonizing conventional wisdom about MySpace.)
  
• And a heads up on cool stuff with two sites I advise. Now Public has added a ton of features with more on the way. They boast a staggering 10,000 contributors globally. (While a bunch of the so called social media sites continue to scrape for postings and participants. It’s the tools and the community and the output that are interesting in this case. Treehugger’s expanded into TV with a bunch of different offerings and the latest spinoff, hugg.com which is hard to explain, but is definitely a trendcollission mashing up digg.com with the green movement and a DIY spin. But it works!

Filed under: MyTake, affiliated, blogging, techtotry, webnotes by Goff - 1 Comment →

• While I blogged at Yahoo’s expense in the previous post, we’re laughing with Yahoo’s new “reality show,” Hook Me Up (video link). I bow down in awe of the brilliant programming: Tech advertisers are among the biggest spenders per slot online PLUS, the reality show should bring in a more mass audience solving age-old problem of scarce tech inventory PLUS, Yahoo just happens to be launching a new tech property to take on CNET, PLUS it’s dorky enough to have a chance of getting a cult following, PLUS it’s actually informative, PLUS the first subject is hot but not threatening to other women, AND yes i’m still on the gay side, but a good huckster. (…and after a few beers)
• New Yahoo front page launched as a Beta. It’s like AIMToday (the most beautiful and info-loaded page of its type) met MySpace and mixed things up with some really dorky icons. Definitely easier to use…but truth is–if the stats are similar to an analysis i saw a few years ag–no one uses this page. The Yahoo front page has served more as a branding image representing the depth of the service and has only been used for navigation by fewer than 15-20% of users on any regular basis. Most use search, my.yahoo.com, or deeper links. Also, is everything destined to become Myspace? The just-launched Goingon Network? It’s kind of a lot like Myspace for adults. And i think that’s just where it all should be headed.
• Skype calls are free between computers, and for the rest of the year (8 months!) it’s free to call from your computer to phones in the US and Canada (usually a charge of about 2cents/minute). It’s not perfect. Lines drop sometimes, though at other times the sound is better than any regular phone. For the SlowTechies (see Slow Food movement) and who want nothing to do with being early adopters, it’s time for Skype.
• Gay Prof’s discussing misogyny among gay men in his an East Texas blog and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. What he’s talking about is rampant, inexcusable, and embarassing. He cites gay self-loathing as the reason and notes leadership by women in winning gay rights. (Not that anyone should have to lead a movement to get respect.) Not sure why he didn’t go all the way. He wouldn’t be the first to point out that homophobia is misogyny. Effeminate gestures are the core of gay mockery, but the mere mention of a “female” sex role elicits the most contempt. (I’m talking the real homophobes here, not the majority of folks who are just unfamiliar.)
  They don’t hate us because we like guys. They hate the parts of us that remind them of women. So, misogyny among gay men doesn’t come from self loathing. It is self loathing. And, a homophobic streak is a telling indicator of how he thinks of women, my sisters. I’ll be reading more Center of Gravitas, and not on my rss reader. I don’t want to miss the vintage Wonder Woman comic covers with each post.

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Are safety regulations insufficient to make guns safe? Or was the Vice President not following safety precautions?

Do guns hurt people? Or do people hurt people?

How do you stay friends with the NRA, express sufficient remorse, and not let any of it suggest the absurdity of your position on guns…which might then also highlight similarities with your policy on the environment, Iraq, talking to the press, and oh, twenty or thirty other things?

Wouldn’t want to be handling the press for the White House today. There is no question in my mind, unfortunately, that the Dems will express the same concern we have for the latest victim of this administration’s aggressive stance in the world but won’t take full advantage of yet another opportunity.

Any other questions?

Filed under: MyTake, Politics---National by Goff - No Comments →