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The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Posts tagged ‘San Francisco’
07.07.2018
Anton Troynikov’s banner on his Twitter account.
I really enjoy Yakov Smirnoff’s old jokes about the Soviet Union, and the Russian reversal that is often associated with him. In the 21st century, I’ve used the odd one, such as, ‘In Russia, Olympics game you!’ and ‘In America, internet watch you!’. I’m sure I’ve done wittier ones, but I’ve yet to post, ‘In America, president Tweet you!’
Today on Twitter, Anton Troynikov, while not doing exactly the above, had a bunch of Tweets about how similar the USSR was to Silicon Valley today. Although he’s not pointing out opposites, it’s humour in the same spirit. In Tweeting, he outdid the few modernized Russian reversals I’ve used over the years.
Tags: 2010s, 2018, Bay Area, California, history, humour, Russia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, social media, Twitter, USA, USSR
Posted in culture, humour, interests, technology, USA | No Comments »
04.05.2018
Maurizio Pesce/Creative Commons
At the F8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook will offer a âclear historyâ option.
Considering that opting out of Facebook ad tracking does nothing, individually deleting the ad preferences that Facebook claims it would not collect only sees them repopulated, and hiding categories of ads does nothing, why would I believe Zuckerberg now?
What he probably means is a page that fools you into thinking your history has been cleared, but Facebook itself will still know, and youâll be targeted as you always were.
Here’s a parallel: your interface might say your password is secure, but Facebook knows, and the boss can still use your failed password attempts to hack your email account.
At Facebook, it appears the deceptions are always the same, just the areas they deal with differ.
Tags: 2018, California, conference, deception, email, Facebook, San Francisco, social media, technology, USA
Posted in business, internet, marketing, technology, USA | No Comments »
23.07.2014
I was consistent about the Basin Reserve flyover in my campaign. Yes, I agreed we needed improvements to the area. But no, spending millions on itâit did not matter whether it was from taxes or rates at the end of the day, because that still meant you and me, as citizensâseemed foolish if there were better-value options out there. What I said in 2013 was: itâs not one flyover, itâs actually two, if you studied the wording in the plans. And by the time you add up the totals, it was looking like $500 millionâand for what benefit? The more roads you create, the more congestion there would be.
What if we could get the traffic improved there without the blight of a flyoverâthe sort of thing some cities were removing anyway, making them as liveable as Wellingtonâand save the country hundreds of millions?
In San Francisco, when the highway around Embarcadero Drive (now just ‘The Embarcadero’) was removed (you can see it outside the dodgy hotel room in Bullitt), that area became far more lively and pleasant, where there are now parks, where property values rose, and where there are new transit routes. The 1989 Loma Preita âquake hurried the demolition along, but there’s no denying that it’s been a massive improvement for the City. Younger readers won’t believe how unpleasant that area used to be.
Admittedly, I get ideas from San Francisco, Stockholm, and other centres, but why not? If they are good ones, then we need to believe we deserve the best. And we can generate still more from Wellington and show them off. Making one city great helps not just our own citizens, but potentially introduces new best practices for many other cities.
The Richard Reid proposal for the Basin was my favoured one given the traffic benefits could be delivered at considerably less cost and would not be a blight on our city, yet it was getting frustrated at every turnâthe media (other than Scoop) had precious little coverage of it.
A Board of Inquiry was set up and I am glad to receive this word from Richard yesterday.
âOur practice is very pleased with the Board of Inquiryâs decision to decline NZTAâs Basin Bridge Project. We are equally pleased that the Board has accepted the evidence we submitted against NZTAâs project on behalf of the Mt Victoria Residents Association and ourselves. Of particular note is the Boardâs recognition of our alternative at-grade enhancement of the roundabout (BRREO) which we prepared as part of an integrated and holistic solution for the city.
âThe Board notes: âWe are satisfied the BRREO Option, particularly having regard to the adverse effects we have identified with regard to the Project, is not so suppositional that it is not worthy of consideration as an option to be evaluatedâ [para 1483]. The Board also stated that âWe found that it [BRREO] may nonetheless deliver measurable transport benefits at considerably less cost and considerably less adverse effects on the environment. We bear in mind that BRREO is still at a provisional or indicative stage and could be subject to further adjustment by further analysis.â
âGiven the Boardâs comprehensive dismissal of NZTAâs application, it makes sense that we are given the opportunity to continue to develop BRREO. We look forward to working with NZTA, the Regional and City Councils.â
Regardless of which option you favoured, I think you will agree with me that all proposals deserved a fair hearing. The Reid one did not prior to 2014, and that was mightily disappointing. I said to Mr Reid that if elected, every proposal would be judged fairly. Let every one be heard and be judged on its meritsâand I am glad the Board of Inquiry has done just that.
Tags: Aotearoa, architecture, C40, California, congestion, design, Embarcadero, environment, health, infrastructure, liveable city, mayoralty, New Zealand, politics, Richard Reid, roading, San Francisco, Te Kaunihera o PĹneke, USA, Wellington, Wellington City Council, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in design, New Zealand, politics, Wellington | No Comments »
16.02.2014
The original link is long gone, but I sure wish the media here did its job during the 2013 mayoral election and administered the Voigt-Kampff (I know it was spelt differently in the movie) test from Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. This was from The Wave, 11 years ago, during San Francisco’s mayoral election. I believe the magazine may now be defunct. The text below is as formatted in the original, with the American spellings, capitalization after a colon, the full stop inside quotation marks even when it does not form part of the original quote, and the misspelling of the author’s name.
The political media can redress the balance this year by administering the Voigt-Kampff test to the party leaders for the General Election. I already suspect that both the PM and the Leader of the Opposition are replicants.
More Human than Human
A field guide for testing if the San Francisco mayoral candidates are human or not.
John Holden
replicant (repâ-li-kant) n.
1. A genetically engineered creature composed entirely of organic substance designed to look and act human.
2. An android.
With Willie Brown finally leaving his gold (plated), diamond-encrusted throne, there has been no shortage of hats thrown into the mayoral ring. San Francisco politics are now a microcosm of Californiaâs own, greater gubernatorial âchallenges.â Rather than confuse you with endorsements, position papers and other outmoded means of political influence, weâve decided to get to the bottom of the only question that matters: Is a particular candidate human or an insidious replicant, possessed of physical strength and computational abilities far exceeding our own, but lacking empathy and possibly even bent on our destruction as a species?
The only reliable method that we know of for sniffing out replicants is the Voight-Kampff Test, created by Phillip K. Dick in his book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and later used by Harrison Fordâs character, Deckard, in the film Blade Runner. The test uses a series of questions to evoke an emotional response which androids are incapable of having. By the candidatesâ responses to this line of questioning, we feel we can say with some certainty whether or not theyâre replicants. However, weâre stopping short of recommending that you vote for them or not. After all, though a replicant mayor may be more likely to gouge a supervisorâs eyes out with their thumbs, they have another quality that could be great in an elected official: a four year life span.
Subject 1: Angela Alioto
The Wave: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Itâs your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
Angela Alioto: Iâd accept it.
TW: Youâve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?
AA: Iâd look at it. What do you mean what would I do? As opposed to saying âhow horrible?â I would tell him how beautiful it is.
TW: Youâre watching television. Suddenly you realize thereâs a wasp crawling on your arm.
AA: Iâd knock it off. Itâs something Iâm used to doing in politics [Laughs].
TW: Youâre in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Angela, itâs crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Angela. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it canât, not without your help. But youâre not helping. Why is that, Angela?
AA: That would never happen. I wouldnât turn it over in the first place, and the thing with it being in pain is out of the question. Let me ask you, John, how does this fit in to the bigger picture when you ask me about the dying tortoise and the dead butterflies?
TW: Theyâre just questions, Angela. In answer to your query, theyâre written down for me. Itâs a test, designed to provoke an emotional response. Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.
AA: My mother? Sheâs beautiful. Sheâs an artist. Sheâs a renaissance artist.
Conclusion: Her defensiveness over her lack of empathy for the butterfly is telling, as is the comparison of a political rival to a wasp that should be knocked off. I think we can safely say that Angela Alioto is indeed a replicant, albeit one that âlovesâ the implanted memory of her mother. Keep an eye on her.
Subject 2: Susan Leal
The Wave: Itâs your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
Susan Leal: Disappointed.
TW: Youâve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?
SL: Iâd be fascinated.
TW: Youâre watching television. Suddenly you realize thereâs a wasp crawling on your arm.
SL: Iâd kill it.
TW: Youâre in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Susan, itâs crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Susan. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it canât, not without your help. But youâre not helping. Why is that, Susan?
SL: I donât know, I mustâve lost my mind.
TW: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.
SL: Honest. Supportive. Liberal. Interesting.
Conclusion: The dissociation Susan expressed in response to the tortoise question confirms what we already knew: Susan Leal is a replicant. However, by evaluating her response to the wasp question (word for word as Rachel â totally a replicant â answered it in Blade Runner), we can tell that sheâs at least a Nexus 7. If you vote for Susan, you will be electing a replicant, but one of the most highly advanced models available.
Subject 3: Matt Gonzalez
The Wave: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Itâs your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
Matt Gonzalez: Iâm sorry, what kind of wallet?
TW: Calfskin.
MG: Calfskin, I donât even know what that is.
TW: Do you know what a cow is, Matt?
MG: Yeah.
TW: Baby cow.
MG: Um, I have no idea how I would react.
TW: Youâve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?
MG: These are great questions. Iâm not sure if theyâre ideal for 9:00. We were up pretty late at the office. I can only associate to things that Iâve seen or done in my own lifeâŚ.
TW: Youâre watching television. Suddenly you realize thereâs a wasp crawling on your arm.
MG: I guess I would probably just knock it off.
TW: Youâre in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Matt, itâs crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Matt. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it canât, not without your help. But youâre not helping. Why is that, Matt?
MG: Well I donât think I would have knocked it over in the first place and I donât get any amusement out of making tortoises suffer, so I donât think that would be me. You must have confused me for one of my opponents.
TW: Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.
MG: Just a positive person, no negative energy at all. Next time could we do this later in the day?
Conclusion: Androids do not dream of electric sheep because they donât sleep, unlike Matt Gonzalez who was up late âworkingâ at the office. His obvious grogginess leads us to the conclusion that he is indeed a human, but one with an ill-formed sleep schedule. Were he a replicant he would have already gouged out six eyeballs, broken in to the genetic design lab and made a trip to the juice bar by this time of the day.
Subject 4: Tom Ammiano
The Wave: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Itâs your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
Tom Ammiano: Iâd look for money.
TW: Youâve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?
TA: Iâd think this was Blade Runner. Thatâs my reaction.
TW: Youâre watching television. Suddenly you realize thereâs a wasp crawling on your arm.
TA: Call 911.
TW: Youâre in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Tom, itâs crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Tom. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it canât, not without your help. But youâre not helping. Why is that, Tom?
TA: Thatâs interesting. I donât know. Iâm a republican?
TW: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.
TA: Tenderness. Yelling.
Conclusion: The self-awareness required to recognize that youâre being administered a Voight-Kampff Test automatically eliminates the possibility of you being a replicant. Good work, Tom! Youâre human! Now watch your back.
Subject 5: Tony Ribera
The Wave: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Itâs your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
Tony Ribera: Good. Iâd be happy.
TW: Youâve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?
TR: Iâd ask him to explain it to me.
TW: Youâre watching television. Suddenly you realize thereâs a wasp crawling on your arm.
TR: Slap it.
TW: Youâre in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Tony, itâs crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Tony. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it canât, not without your help. But youâre not helping. Why is that, Tony?
TR: Well, I think I would help. I like tortoises. As a former athlete Iâve always been very slow, and I feel I can relate to them.
TW: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.
TR: Happy. Cheerful. Optimistic. Pretty. Fun.
Conclusion: Inconclusive. While generally empathetic, there is a homey quality to Tonyâs answers that are almost too good to be true. As if they were⌠programmed. Fifty-fifty heâs a skin job.
Subject 6: Gavin Newsom
The Wave: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Itâs your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
Gavin Newsom: I donât have anything to put in it. I would thank them and move on.
TW: Youâve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?
GN: I would tell him to⌠You know what? I wouldnât know how to respond. Howâs that for an answer? Is this a psychological test? Iâm worriedâŚ
TW: Theyâre just questions, Gavin. In answer to your query, theyâre written down for me. Itâs a test, designed to provoke an emotional response.
GN: Oh, I got you.
TW: Shall we continue?
GN: Sure.
TW: Youâre watching television. Suddenly you realize thereâs a wasp crawling on your arm. How would you react?
GN: I would quietly sit and wait for the wasp to move to the next victim.
TW: Youâre in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Gavin, itâs crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Gavin. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it canât, not without your help. But youâre not helping. Why is that, Gavin?
GN: [Immediately] Not a chance. I would never flip the tortoise over in the first place.
TW: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.
GN: Ethics. Commitment. Sacrifice.
Conclusion: Almost too close to call. Almost. Newsom displays a defensiveness when his empathy is questioned. Heâs aware that heâs being probed for emotional responses, and even expresses concern about this. However, this concern is alleviated a little too easily by our crafty V-K interviewer. Newsom is definitely a replicant. Probably a Nexus 5.
Tags: 2003, California, film, humour, literature, mayoralty, politics, San Francisco, USA
Posted in culture, humour, media, politics, USA | 2 Comments »
26.04.2013
In an interview today, the subject of regional reform and amalgamation came up. There’s quite a good site already seeking feedback on the process, and I’ve taken part in a 2012 forum on the subject as well.
In 2010, the mood in Wellington, based on those I met in the campaign, seemed to be set against amalgamation. There were some suspicions, and I have to say I was among them: I could not understand how a Herald headline could proclaim it was going ahead when the article beneath simply stated that the Royal Commission had recommended the “super-city” as one of its options.
But, as John Shewan told me before his retirement from Price Waterhouse Coopers, Auckland has found some real savings through amalgamation, wearing an apolitical accountant’s hat in his analysis.
In the 2012 forum, the opposition to merger seemed weaker. There were many who were concerned at the loss of representationâwe had been taught that flat management structures are more efficient, and this seemed to go against that instinct. However, some felt that amalgamation made senseâbut of those, the Wairarapa seemed to be another world, and that maybe we should let them do their own thing.
I have been wondering about the opposition to the Wairarapa being part of a larger Wellington. I know people there, and they don’t think much of grabbing train ride south to head into town. It’s less of an obstacle to come here than to, say, Napier, which is where some of the people at the 2012 forum felt it had a closer kinship to. In the times I’ve been north of the Rimutaka divide and talked to locals, I can’t say they feel that.
The concern among those in Wellington might be driven by geography. That’s not an easy road to drive. I’ve seen Shaker Run. And does that mentally stop us from embracing the Wairarapa as readily as we should? Sure, we love those Martinborough wines, but isn’t it such a trek?
Yet when you look on a map, Lake Ferry, which you can only get to via the Wairarapa, is far closer to us than anywhere else. Good luck telling a foreign visitorâor even an investorâthat that’s not part of our region. And when I think of Martinborough and Wellington, I can’t help but draw a parallel with Napa and Sonoma, and San Francisco. It just seems a natural fit when it comes to marketing a region, and that if we’re saying that Wellington loves diversity, then is it so hard to accept a rural component right next door to us?
But here’s why my thinking is really leaning toward inclusiveness: New Zealandâs industry is still largely primary products-based. People like me can talk all we like about growing our technological and creative sectors, and that is still something to aim for. We still need to do it. However, it wonât happen overnight. Right now, and even for the next generation, weâd be mugs to discount the Wairarapaâs rural base because that’s an important part of our economy. We also need to consider the land out there, too, and help make use of it effectively at a macroeconomic level. If people want reform, and if that includes merging councils, then I think we’d be poorer without the Wairarapa as part of Wellington.
Our GDP, as it is, isn’t great: in fact, The Dominion Post revealed earlier this week that Wellington city’s GDP is flat. I did predict this in 2010 and said that we needed to nurture businesses properly.
Is it, then, a change of mindset that we need? We can already see how the Bay Area in California is marketed: there are bridges to take those from the City northward to Napa and Sonoma. We have a less than ideal road and a rail link, both of which are being improved. With more Wellingtonians focusing on the workâlife balance and enjoying everything from Toast to the air shows, those old “them and us” attitudes seem to be waning anyway. Maybe it’ll just take a different type of marketing to feel closer to our Wairarapa cousins?
At the end of the day, it should be up to the people to decide. However, if we are to do so, then we must have all the facts. Right now, I’m not alone with these thoughts: this website outlines even more reasons the Wairarapa should stay with Wellington. And the Palmer report noted last year, ‘We believe Wairarapa to be an important part of the Wellington region and that its future prosperity would be adversely affected were it cut off from the region.’ I’d be happy to host a discussionâeither here, on my Facebook group where your thoughts are welcome in refining my mayoral campaign manifesto on this website, or, if schedules allow, offline.
Tags: 2013, Aotearoa, Bay Area, California, culture, destination marketing, economy, GDP, infrastructure, John Shewan, macroeconomics, marketing, mayoralty, Napa, New Zealand, politics, Price Waterhouse Coopers, San Francisco, Sonoma, USA, Wairarapa, WCC, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in branding, business, culture, leadership, media, New Zealand, politics, Wellington | 1 Comment »
22.11.2010
A phpBB forum for former users of Vox (I am one) started in September 2010. I posted there today, going through my history with the service. The below is a repost, which I thought would be of interest to readers of this blog (some of whom have come from Vox). Itâs a small summary of my last seven years of blogging, geared to former Vox users.
For those who donât know me, Iâm Jack, and one of the Vox beta testers from 2006. I ran a number of groups on Vox: fashion, fashion magazines, fashion professionals, cars, Chinese (on which I was promoted to admin), RetroVox (which I was also promoted to), TV and New ZealandâAotearoa.
I first began blogging in 2003 at the Beyond Branding Blog, but was initially dismissive toward blogs in general. Some of those early experiences were clouded by some amateurish blogs out thereâthe sort that pretended to be authoritative but were anything but. Of course, these now form the majority of blogs today (!) but we have come to position them in our minds more accurately as personal journals. Back in, say, 2001, I remember some early bloggers pretending to be legit news sources and people believing that they were.
In 2005, only two of the original authors of Beyond Branding remained at the blog, so my friend Johnnie Moore, who was a regular, but had moved on to his own space (http://johnniemoore.com), wanted to shut it down. By the end of the year, I decided I would take Johnâs lead and blog at http://jackyan.com/blog. I already had the domain, had some experience with Blogger, and gave Johnnie the all-clear once I told my last remaining author that I intended to move.
In 2006, my blog opened. I called it âThe Persuaderâ, after two sources: the old Persuaders TV show, and the book on advertising, The Hidden Persuaders. Itâs quite quaint thinking back to those reasons, but more on that another time. The blog was picked up very early by some high-powered sources like Der Spiegel, but other than those initial highs, I settled back into a more personal blogging style.
That same year, Vox started, and I had a beta-testing invitation. Initially, I did not know how to divide the use of the two spaces, but by 2007, again I had settled: Vox would be my personal musings (especially my relationshipsâthose were set to private, which I liked) and Blogger would have my more business-oriented ones. The split worked quite well.
Some Australians like Ninja and Snowy will remember that in August 2009, they were locked out of Vox. They were eventually allowed back in, but Six Apart never gave them a reason for the lock-out. By October, I experienced an identical bug, but Vox denied anything was wrong. It would take anywhere from a few hours to a few days before the compose window would come up. The usual blame occurred: it must be you, it must be your computer, it must be your use of your computer, it must be your ISP, etc. I travelled up and down the country and it was the same. Eventually, tired of all of this, I gave the ever-helpful and wonderful Daisy my password, and asked her to pass it on to Six Apart techs. They, too, could not get a compose window inside Six Apart HQ.
Above A graphic I have pasted in a few places out of frustration in December 2009: red denotes the days I was blocked from composing on Vox, and the reason more personal posts have reappeared here this year. Pink represents the days when the compose window took a few hours to load.
Not that it was ever fixed. I put up with it for two months, because I probably had some mild form of OC and liked needling things till they are sorted. And probably because two yearsâ blogging habits were hard to break. (Imagine if I were a smoker!) By the end of 2009, I had decided I would return to blogging at âThe Persuaderâ exclusively, and Vox could be left as is.
A temporary second account at lucire.vox.com came to little. I hated not blogging under my own name.
I still took responsibility for my eight groups. I would come in and delete sploggers (I had decided by this time that reporting them to Six Apart would be pointless) and moderate comments. Eventually I shut off my blogs to comments, since all they attracted was comment spam. It was clear to me, especially with the most popular group topics being Indian escort agencies (and had been for years) that few folks gave a damn inside Six Apart, but I felt I had a duty to my group members to at least keep their blogging worlds as clean as possible. I would visit monthly (roughly), despite having a very busy political campaign.
That was the other reason that I was happy to leave personal blogging as part of my past. In September 2009, I announced my candidacy to run for Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand, and probably the last thing I needed was an extra distraction. In some ways, I welcomed the technical problems I had. But this also meant that in September 2010, when Vox was shut, I took the easiest option possible for my old Vox blog entries: export them to Typepad. Last six weeks of the campaign, I wanted as few hassles in my technological world as possible.
With Blogger being even bigger assholes than Six Apart could ever be (see this story for details), I moved my blogging over to a self-hosted Wordpress platform. That took 14 hours to customize and it still looks funny on Chrome, but I was quite happy starting 2010 with everything changed: no more Vox, no more Blogger (which led to a subsequent de-Googling of everything) and a new platform at jackyan.com/blog (that looked vastly identical to the previous one).
In some ways, not blogging about my private life was a good thing. Not venting meant I had to deal with my issues, but the important thing was that campaigning became part of my life in 2010. Itâs hard putting the genie back in the bottle. For venting, there were always Twitter and Facebookâthings that were not mainstream in 2006. They are now, and ideal for the pithy off-the-cuff comments. With all that was going on, the shorter medium of Twitter suited me well âŚ
Despite having left Vox earlier than many of you, Iâm glad this forum exists. The greatest sadness of leaving Vox in December 2009 was breaking so many of the connections I made there. While many have become friends in other placesâLinda-Joy, Pete J. and Paikea come to mindâitâs good to have somewhere that I can still talk to a few of the folks who discovered this forum. Itâs good to see Snowy registered here. I hope Xmangerm and a few others will pop by, too; I always liked what Xmangerm had to say.
Tags: 2000s, Beyond Branding, blogging, blogosphere, bugs, California, culture, Facebook, Google, history, internet, Jack Yan, San Francisco, Six Apart, technology, Twitter, USA, Vox, Wordpress
Posted in culture, internet, New Zealand, publishing, USA | 8 Comments »
11.10.2010
Ever since I began blogging a bit more regularly here (upping it to my usual frequency?) Twitter friends have been telling me that they cannot read these entries because there is a malware warning.
What they have in common: they are all using Chrome.
I wanted to try Chrome out again (I had it installed on my old desktop machine) but Iâm turned off again. Itâs part of the Google empire, and going on it would mean reversing my reasonably successful de-Googling of my life that I started earlier this year.
Chrome is accusing me of having malware on this site, which is total cobblers. It is a bit like Google accusing Vincent Wright of having a splog last yearâthat matter that I had to fight Google on his behalf over for six months.
I have used Blogrolling to host the blogroll on this site since 2006. It appears, if I read the Chrome complaint properly, that someone else had used Blogrolling (probably one of many millions of users) and put in a couple of malware links. Maybe they had put in legit links that have since become malware sites. Whatever the case, Chrome appears now to accuse anyone who even uses Blogrolling of hosting malware.
Itâs maybe a good thing that Chrome is being vigilant: extra vigilance is better than being lax. But to me, itâs a reminder of how Google has been cavalier with false accusationsâVincent was by no means aloneâwhich tarnishes its brand.
I have to report things Google is doing right, out of fairness. In August I wrote a letter to the company to point out that there were things in my Google account that should not be there. There were services where I no longer agreed with its terms and conditions, and would the chaps kindly take them out of my account?
They havenât complied fully, but a few things have been fixed. Adsense now shows â0 productsâ (it incorrectly showed two at the time of the letter), although ideally I would prefer not to have an Adsense entry at all. The Blogger count of the number of blogs I have was on four for many months when it was, in fact, zero. It now shows â1 totalâ: still wrong, but closer to zero than four was. (Again, I had requested complete removal of my Blogger account.) Last week, Docs showed I had one document, but that has now corrected itself to zero again. (The correct number was, and is, zero.)
And, the most major of all, I no longer have Social Search: Google had been insisting that I had over 800 connections, which was impossible considering I deleted my profile. (The number of connections grew from the 700s after deletion.) Having connections suggested that Google retained a record of all the links I once had in my Google profile, regardless of the fact that it was using private information that it no longer had permission to use. After all, it got me a Buzz follower despite my unchecking a box that implied that that would not happenâand that wasnât the only time I got signed up to Buzz without my permission (or a myriad of other Google services, including Google Talk and Google Notebook).
The lesson seems to be: if you want Google to be more careful with how it uses your private information, write a letter. And I mean the sort that takes ink, paper, stamps, a jet plane and carbon emissions. Things are still not done to my satisfaction, but they are gradually improving.
 Google will find the newer stuff, but not always the most relevant stuffâa search for an old Elle Macpherson story is a case in point.
There is one thing Google does not seem to do very well any more: search.
Thatâs an exaggeration, but I have been really surprised at things that it has failed to find of late. For example: stuff on this blog. It is not to do with age: Google finds the older entries from this blog without any problems (despite the Blogrolling issue noted above). Those older entries were compiled using Google-owned Blogger, when it still offered FTP publishing. The entries, like this one, which have been put together with Wordpress, cannot be found readily (if at all). Could it be because so many of my Wordpress entries here have been anti-Google? Duck Duck Go and Bing do not seem to discriminate between Blogger- and Wordpress-compiled content on this site.
And just plain stuff at Lucire doesnât get found very easily. A 2000 story we did on the 10th anniversary of Elle Macpherson Intimates is a good example. The other search engines find it: itâs the only online story on the subject. Google does not: it kicks up some really irrelevant links where Elle Macpherson Intimates and 10th anniversary are mentioned, but as unrelated concepts. Duck Duck Go has it as its second entry, as does Bing.
This is not about how highly Google has placed the story nor is it about where Google has put Lucire. (A Lucire entry is found by Google, on the second page, which has a link to our 2000 article, but the article itself is non-existent on Google, despite inward links.)
There was another few recently. One was when I tried to locate a Typepad post about Vox locking me out. Granted, my Typepad blog is pretty new (started when Six Apart closed Vox), but Duck Duck Go had no problems locating the entry. I forget the exact queries, otherwise I would link them now for you to check. Whatever the case, Google failed to find the links.
Even if it were not for my problems with Google, I would have shifted to Duck Duck Go on the frustration that I could not find things on the ânet that I know for sure exist. I still use bothâthere are still queries which Google handles better than Duck Duck Goâbut I can no longer consider Google a complete research tool.
There is some good news out there in Tech-land USA (read the Bay Area). Six Apart seemed to care a lot more about Typepad than Vox. After the first import of my Vox data to Typepad failed, its boffins came in and helped out, and got the site up and running. I am pleasantly surprised that many of these entries still contain the images I uploaded to them. The only loss has been the videos, but they warned us about that and gave us the option to shift them to Flickr. I opted not to, so I canât blame anyone but myself.
Tags: blogging, California, Duck Duck Go, Elle Macpherson, ethics, fashion, Google, internet, Jack Yan, law, Lucire, privacy, publishing, San Francisco, search engines, Six Apart, software, supermodel, USA
Posted in branding, business, internet, publishing, technology, USA | 12 Comments »
01.09.2010
 When I go on about free wifi, itâs not just some vague election promise. Someone mentioned that I should have put the reason behind the message on my first billboard, but the reasons are too plentiful.
Itâs not just about giving businesses and tourists the access they expect in a modern society. Itâs also about signalling that Wellington is open for business, especially the type that can grow this economy with Kiwi entrepreneurship at its core. And itâs a great tool for transparency.
Brad Gallen shared this link, and while these werenât the apps I had in mind originally, they show that in a creative world, people will come up with great ideas if you give them the infrastructure.
While the Open311 API has come from San Francisco, under Mayor Gavin NewsomâJenâs husbandâthereâs no reason we couldnât have come up with it here. But now that it has been developed, we should use it. There are five apps that Mashable has identifiedâand these are the sorts of things I can envisage popping up in Wellington if I am elected mayor.
Wellingtonians can elect someone who will give little more than lip service to transparency and technology, or someone who will use both to create and grow the city we deserve.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Simon Young shared this link with me: a story on the live Taupo City Council stream. Yet another thing we should have done ages ago. Now, like Dunedin and free wifi, we find ourselves catching up and being reactive. When we should be rearranging the letters and being creative.
Tags: 2010, Aotearoa, California, Gavin Newsom, Jack Yan, mayoralty, New Zealand, open government, open source, politics, San Francisco, Taupo, transparency, USA, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in business, internet, leadership, New Zealand, politics, technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »
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