Fired for blogging

There have been many people who have been fired for blogging either at work or about their work, but none (as far as I know) in high-level media positions.

Somehow I just came across the blog of an ex-CNN producer who was abruptly fired with little warning after blogging about work.

The interesting part is that he didn’t stop blogging just because he got fired. He kept on blogging and has received a pretty big audience.

During my final conversation with Ed Litvak (the blogger’s boss at CNN) and a representative from HR, they hammered home a single line in the CNN employee handbook which states that any writing done for a “non-CNN outlet” must be run through the network’s standards and practices department. They asked if I had seen this decree. As a matter of fact I had, but only about a month previously, when I stumbled across a copy of that handbook on someone’s desk and thumbed through it. I let them know exactly what I had thought when I read the rule, namely that it was staggeringly vague and couldn’t possibly apply to something as innocuous as a blog.

He goes on in great detail on how TV news is changing, mostly for the worse. One thing we can all learn from this is to be very careful about blogging on company time or letting our frustrations out about our coworkers over the internet.

Link

The Evolving Google Search

Google is arguably the most-used search engine on the Internet, but the bare-bones design seems to need a bit of an update.

In what they’re calling “Experimental Search,” Google is testing out some different search options to make the searching experience richer. One of the experiments is different views for search results:

See results on a timeline, map, or in context of other information types. With these views, Google’s technology extracts key dates, locations, measurements, and more from select search results so you can view the information in a different dimension.

Another cool idea is keyword suggestions. It works like this: as you type in a word in the Google search bar, a list of results with the same starting letters will show up with the number of results for each term. Users of this Firefox plug-in already know how useful it is, but I think Google adding it as a function for all users will be helpful.

Check out this Google Labs Experimental Search page for more.

International “Delete your Myspace” Day!

Hopefully by now you’ve realized that myspace is really worth nothing, but you probably haven’t had the motivation to go off the deep end and delete your profile. Coming up on January 30th, it’s International Delete Your Myspace Day! Here’s a list of the reasons why one blogger hates this particular social networking site:

1. You rarely log in to Myspace except to delete spam friend requests from nude webcam girls.

2. You spend five minutes writing a wall post only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches.

3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east.

4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers. Bonus points if it happens to you while you’re at work.

5. You have to make redundant clicks to perform simple tasks because Myspace keeps taking you to advertisement pages where you have to click on “return to myspace profile” in order to continue what you’re doing.

6. You visit someone’s profile only to have your eyes bleed because of terrible page layout with non-matching designs and font colors.

7. Your experience is hindered because of intrusive banner ads that either talk to you or try to reach out and block your view of what you’re trying to look at.

8. You read yet another news account about how some child predator using Myspace has abducted a little girl or that some hoax myspace account has caused a teenager to commit suicide.

9. You’re frustrated with the fact that Myspace doesn’t allow you to post your contact info, meaning to contact someone you can only use Myspace’s glitchy Instant Messenger, message/email system, or wall commenting.

10. You’re tired of seeing Tom stare out at you from millions of friends lists and just wish he would change his fucking profile picture.

So will you ever delete your Myspace or Facebook profiles?

Link

What’s wrong with this picture?

Eee software mini-review

In previous posts, I’ve talked a bit about the Asus Eee PC’s hardware, but the software deserves some attention, too. The OS is a customized form of Linux, that comes with more than 40 pre-installed programs. The Eee can be as simple or complex as you like, with enough customization to whet the hardcore geek’s appetite. Along with the OpenOffice suite (basically a clone of Microsoft Office, complete with powerpoint, excel, and word clones), the Eee comes with a movie player, music player, photo manager, dictionary, and easy links to common sites like Wikipedia and Google. On the educational and games side of things, the laptop comes with a few games and utilities to practice languages and typing.

The only downside to the Eee is that installing applications of your own choice is difficult. I’ve heard of people doing it, but it seems a bit complicated for my taste. As for now, I’m going to use it for Internet browsing and some word processing, both things that it does well.

Eee PC mini-review

    I got my Asus Eee PC in the mail yesterday and finally got to power it up last night. Upon first impression, the Eee is extremely small. To put it in perspective, it’s about the size of a DVD case with a bit extra on both sides. The customized linux operating system is similar to any Windows OS, except that there is a home desktop with taps labeled Work, Play, Learn and others.The laptop comes pre-installed with over 40 applications, including Open Office, a basic clone of the Microsoft Office software, and Firefox for internet browsing.

With built-in wireless internet, the Eee automatically connects to an available wireless network. Surfing the internet takes a bit of getting used to, with the small screen, but most web sites translate nicely. The small keyboard takes some practice, too, but it has all of the features of a normal keyboard.

As I learn more about the laptop, I’ll post more about it, especially as it relates to differences and similarities to the Windows operating systems.

Banging on a drum: 1 to 100

Here’s an interesting and somewhat weird video of people playing a drum starting from age one to 100.

Bill On Barack: ‘He Might Win’

From CNN– Bill Clinton said Friday that Barack Obama’s campaign was very impressive, and the Democratic presidential candidate “might win.”“He’s put together a great campaign. It’s clearly not a fairy tale, it’s real,” Clinton said. “He might win.”Clinton had called into activist Al Sharpton’s radio show to try to address the controversy over his remarks just before the New Hampshire primary that seemed to say the Illinois senator’s campaign was a “fairy tale.”

On Friday, he said that reference was meant to describe news coverage of Obama’s war vote, and of his campaign, and not the viability of his presidential run.

“I was addressing a specific argument. That doesn’t have anything to do with my respect for him as a person or as a political figure,” said the former president.

But he said black voters should support his wife Hillary Clinton over Obama because “You know where her heart and where her life has been.”

Not trying to sound too political here… but what does it mean for your wife’s campaign if you tell the media that you think that her number one competitor has put together a strong campaign and could win the presidency?

Link

Open Source Revolution?

What is sometimes hailed as an open source revolution hasn’t really caught my eye up until now. With the introduction of Windows Vista, the newest operating system from Microsoft, many users have been turned off by its usability problems.

I’ve known what open source is for a while, using products like the internet browser Firefox, but I haven’t really gone all in and used an entirely different operating system than the safe Windows XP, which some people are actually reverting to, as they find that Vista is a piece of crap.

I recently bought a micro-laptop, like the one at right. It’s an Asus Eee PC and it is barely bigger than a common DVD case. It weighs just more than two pounds and has built-in wireless internet connectivity. The kicker is that it doesn’t run any windows operating system. It runs a customized version of Linux, an open source operating system. Some people might be worried about using a relatively new OS like this version of Linux, but the amount of viruses written for Linux systems, like Apple systems, is extremely small compared to the amount written for Windows systems.

Anyway, I just wanted to post on how I’m incorporating open source software into my life and that it isn’t just for geeks anymore; open source can offer a lot to everyday users. We might see a blossoming of the use of open source applications in the future, especially if Microsoft doesn’t do anything to fix the Vista mess.

Asus Eee PC on Amazon