As the New York Times put it about podcasting, “everyone is famous for 15 people” I’m sourcing Mitch Ratcliffe here because he links to the NYT article now stuck behind their registration system and because he makes an important point about every medium creating a modicum of fame. A few people break through that noise and become, in this case, Internet Famous. Another name for Internet fame might be Blogebrity. And of course, famous people wouldn’t be famous without snarky reporting to perpetuate the myth. Blogebrity offers a daily shakedown of online celebrity news in an Access Hollywood meets Defamer style. Nick Douglas of Blogebrity allowed us to turn the tables and talk about the site that perpetuates The List.

It started with Flickr… then came Mappr… then came Syncr… then came Flippr… tbn cm nthr wrd wtht vwl nr th nd f th wrd. Ngh lrdy!!! Jss Chrst, t's nt cl nymr. Th frst sg ws nq, th thrs wr jst stpd. Th nmng cnvntn s ffclly dd. Mv n, thr's nthng t s hr. Try smthng tht hsn't bn dn bfr, pls?

My “must-see-TV” experience still comes in through the Comcast cable jacked-into the side of my house, but you can’t find many of my favorites on any of Comcast’s channels (yet). One of those shows I can’t live without is Rocketboom. The sharp wit and quirky delivery of host Amanda Congdon provides an entertaining update of Internet events in 3-5 minutes every Monday thru Friday. In this segment of the Chris Pirillo Show, Andrew Baron, producer of Rocketboom, joins the conversation to talk about their success over the short history of Rocketboom, the factors that make the time right for video blogging to succeed and why he considers QuickTime the solution for distributing video.

I don't know who “CrittendenIV” is, but a few months ago, I really offended his (or her?) sensibilities when I did an audio satire of the media's sensationalized hurricane coverage. Methinks he took those words a bit too seriously, but that's to be understood. I'm a very, very, very, very serious guy - and I never, ever, ever, ever joke around about anything. Ever.
CrittendenIV is one of those people who thinks I worship Microsoft at every turn. Apparently, he's never seen my review of Outlook 2003 or Windows Millennium Edition?! Well, that said, I think CrittendenIV has turned a corner. He hates me so much, he remixed sound bytes from one of our recent episodes into a completely KICK ASS montage. Starring: my crap underwear (with an alternative MP3 download link for everyone to use). Color me impressed; the quality of his work is above average, although I'm not sure what to think about a song that features me and my underwear. Even if CrittendenIV continues to expouse hatred for all things Pirillo, I really respect his mixing chops. Pretty damn funny, dude. Is it wrong of me to want you to do more? :)

This video is not for the faint of heart. I don't recommend trying it at home, or at work (for that matter).

Nobody wants to be told that their baby is ugly, especially when it takes a village to raise that child. Xeni reported the cold, hard truth about Wikipedia, and hardcore Wikipedians probably didn’t want to hear none of that. I’d need more fingers and toes to count up how many outrageous errors I’ve found on Wikipedia, but every time I’ve gone to correct them, I’ve been told that the entry has been locked temporarily. Okay, so tell me, who other than me knows more about me? Someone thought I graduated from the University of Iowa, not the University of NORTHERN Iowa - there’s a big difference between the two (ask any Hawkeye or Panther). I’m honored to have earned a place in the wiki to end all wikis, but I wish I could have at least claimed my own name to have full editing rights over it. I know there are countless Chris Pirillos in the world, but that one happens to be me - and it happens to be partially inaccurate. I also take offense to being “terminated” from TechTV - it didn’t quite go down that way, but I don’t expect the greater part of the world to know or understand that. I hate even bringing up TechTV because discussion always devolves into something centered on Morgan Webb’s breasts.

Community is not perfect. Wikipedia is not perfect. The Web is not perfect. People are not perfect. What we enjoy is the power to influence others - what we don’t enjoy is when that power is seen as slightly imperfect. Or, unperfect as the case would be. The blogosphere has a mob mentality, and certain filters (like Memeorandum) only amplify select voices. When one person says something, another person chimes in - and then another person chimes in - and then another person chimes in - and then pretty soon you have a discussion about discussing the discussion. If I came out and “attacked” the service du jour, I’d likely be blackballed and seen as someone who just doesn’t “get it.” No, I just so happen to disagree with a lot of what I see - and I’m not always afraid to write about it. Oh yes, sometimes I *AM* afraid of coming out and stating that the “emperor has no clothes” - only because of that very same mob mentality. If I came out and said your favorite Web service was not as awesome as it portends to be, you’d likely feel it to be akin to a personal attack. Why?

We project ourselves onto the very things we like.

For argument’s sake, let’s say everybody in the world was raving about something called Schlippr. Are they raving about Schlippr because it’s worth raving about, or are they raving about it because everybody else is raving about it - or all the A-list bloggers are raving about it - or that the media is raving about it? And then, should a little boy step out from the crowd and point to the naked Schlippr, what would happen? Would the world turn and listen to dissenting wisdom - or would they attack it outright? Isn’t it easier to chastise a deviant than to listen to his perspective? Think back to your own experiences in grade school. Were you the one who bullied others, or the one who was bullied?

By coming out and disagreeing with popular opinion, you’re always going to be facing a digital lynch mob. Then again, if enough people say “it” and believe in “it” - that very “it” must be true. Right? And anybody who says otherwise is a heretic. Could I correct the errors (as I see them) on Wikipedia? Likely, but then will someone else’s truth supercede those corrections one day? Likely. I’m expecting my graduation certificate on the wall to transmogrify itself any day now. Should enough people believe I graduated from UI instead of UNI, then maybe I really did? If enough people believe that Schlippr is the second coming, then maybe it is? What would Jean Luc Picard say about all this?

“There are four lights!”

After talking to a few random people, I figured out the following:

• Some magazines now use articles as a weapon, unleashing swarms of critics on their rivals.
• The print-driven haters have formidable allies amplifying their tirades to a potential worldwide audience of 900 million.
• Attack magazines are but a sliver of the rapidly shrinking periodicalsphere.
• A magazine columnist can go out and make any statement about anybody, and you can't control it. That's a difficult thing.
• Even some magazine columnists see the harm they can pose.
• Yet magazines edit and censor print content all the time - to protect their own interests.

Damn. I gotta start staying away from magazines.

I never thought I'd write that kind of title, but I'm finding it to be very much true. As I noted in Lockergnome tonight, this new eMiniMalls thing is pretty freakin' spectacular for content sites. Yes, I know that Yahoo has an AdSense competitor - but this is really something different, and I'd wholeheartedly recommend that (if nothing else) you run Chitika in lieu of a AdSense PSA URL. Super simple to do, as a matter of fact:

1. Sign up for a Chitika eMiniMall.
2. Wait to get approved, then build your code through their system (easy).
3. Copy your Chitika eMiniMall code into a new file on your Web server.
4. Open the file / template wherein you keep your Google AdSense code for display.
5. Add or edit the Adsense line that begins with google_alternate_ad_url. If you don't have this line already in your code, you're missing out on alternative streams of revenue anyway. A full line might look like:
   

   google_alternate_ad_url = 'http://www.lockergnome.com/includes/adsense_psa_blog.html';

6. Add or edit the URL to be your own (unless you want to serve up my alternative URL instead of your own, which would be welcomed but not necessarily recommended).
7. Bam. Now, if AdSense doesn't serve something up - your Chitika eMiniMall will.

Of course, you could replace AdSense (or any other network) outright, too - but since most of you are happy with Google Adsense (like myself, very much so), this is an easy way can test the waters. That, and you can allegedly place Chitika eMiniMall code on the same page as AdSense - so long as that code does not have content-targeting enabled. This is seriously, seriously cool.
I've used comparison shopping engines before, and I've signed up for comparison shopping co-brands. However, none have ever matched the return I feel I'm getting from having an eMiniMall in place for a week. This is certainly going to come in handy as more folks start to use the Web to shop for holiday presents. This isn't just another banner network, either - you can perform live searches within the ad without leaving the current page! Did I just hear the Amazon affiliate program die a long-overdue death? Hallelujah. Holy spit. Where's the Tylenol? In the eMiniMall.

We’re doing another GoToMeeting live broadcast tonight, Thursday October 27, 2005.

Chris is demoing the new IconWorkshop. Andrew Michael Baron, creative genius behind the video blog RocketBoom, will be talking about what makes RocketBoom successful and how you can get started in video blogging. Nick Douglas (aka decafsilicon) from Blogebrity will be joining us via phone with his take on the blogosphere.

Remember, we are now broadcasting from 6-9PM Pacfic (GMT -8). The GoToMeeting Desktop sharing is limited to 200 people at a time, so get signed in if you’d like to see the visual demonstration accompanying the live show. Call in with questions toll free: 888-PIRILLO. From outside the US, call in from Google Talk with chris dot pirillo at gmail dot com.

To join the GoToMeeting desktop broadcast:

www.gotomeeting.com/join/471948030

Enter these codes in the spaces provided:

Call 563-843-7500 and enter Access Code:

727-159-597

If you can’t make the GoToMeeting gathering, you can still tune in to the live stream via the regular Live Stream URL.

Chris and Ponzi are back with another real life episode. Apparently Chris still hasn’t done the dishes. To make matters worse, Ponzi doesn’t rinse. And if you thought you knew everything about Chris, you haven’t heard Ponzi’s description of his taste in underwear. Before the skivvies pile too high around the unwashed plates and saucers, things get back on track with a demo of how to use BitTorrent. For the geeks keeping score at home, it is never a good idea to tell your significant other to “just let me do it.”