Because you'll both get dirty and only the pig will enjoy it. That's the way I heard the anecdote that Ross relates on his weblog with regard to RSS. No question that the great RSS debate, like the ICANN debates, has its share of pigs. Knowing who are the pigs is half the battle, and that's not always clear when you enter a new community, especially an online community. Still, Blogware has made a decision to support RSS 0.91. Why that spec? Why not RSS 2.0?

Reading the scoop on RedPaper, a new venture backed by some impressive folks who ought to know better, brought back memories of the Internet boom: i.e., What are they thinking? Perhaps it's just me, but the idea seems DOA. People who have something interesting to say, something worth paying for, don't need a content aggregator like RedPaper to get their thoughts published. They just publish their work on the web. They blog. Good writers are their own brands, and they don't need to borrow whatever brand cache RedPaper hopes to build. I also don't know why readers would believe that the quality of RedPaper's articles would exceed whatever they could find for free on Google. The idea doesn't seem viable from either the prospective author's or reader's point of view.

Then again, I used to think the concept of "portals" was idiotic too.

Writing on fhwang.net, Francis Hwang asks Do Domain Names Matter?

We've been running a little experiment around the firm the last six months, trying out various PDAs to see which ones worked best with the firm's IT systems. I put the Zaurus through the paces, while others tried out Blackberries and Treos and Palms and Windows handhelds. After much experimenting and debating, the one we're going to adopt firm-wide is the Blackberry, principally because it syncs well with Notes. This will show up on my desk next week.

What I learned during the few months that I've been using the Zaurus though is that a PDA isn't really a tool I need. I'm a laptop guy. I have a PC at work; a PC, two Macs and a Linux Server at home; and a TiBook and Thinkpad for everywhere in between. The PDA is perfect for everywhere I might travel without my laptop, but those are places I wouldn't want to be reached anyway. A PDA that could replace my laptop, or vice-versa, is the tool I want.

Busy day here at the office. I'm going to have to force myself to shut down the blogware for a few hours so I can actually get some work done. Hard to do when there are new features to explore.

This is a test of the new posting feature that Ross describes on Random Bytes. I'm especially impressed that it adds the correct trackback link, a feature I've had some trouble with when trying to use it on my own. The Tucows folks are apparently not content to simply beat the competition, they're going to blow them away. Very cool new toys.

I'm not sure how Ross is doing the Tuneroll, but my Amazon Associates 'Make-a-Link' does a pretty fair job on the 'bookroll.' It's now in the right margin.

PV4 rocks! Kudos to the development team. The interface is terrific, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of the variables and where they all fit together. Can't wait to see what else is in store.

It's hard to know whether the $349 I spent on Applecare is the best money I've ever spent or whether the $2299 I spent on a TiBook two-and-a-half years ago is the worst money I've ever spent, but it's one or the other. My laptop is now at the Apple Repair Ranch in Texas for the fourth time, getting it's third motherboard (counting the original). I'm typing this blog post from the firm's standard-issue IBM Thinkpad. Every time the TiBook goes back into the shop I wonder why I don't just use the ThinkPad all the time.

From the 'what-were-they-thinking' department. Almost a year after the WLS decision was made by the Board and three months before it was going to be implemented by Verisign, the plaintiffs in the WLS litigation -- Dotster, eNom and GoDaddy -- filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against ICANN on July 16th. The lawyers reading this won't be surprised that the motion was denied at a hearing on July 18th. (For the non-lawyers, you can only get temporary, emergency relief when you have, well, an emergency. After waiting a year to file the complaint and with months before any real harm occurs, it's sort of hard to claim you have an emergency.) The Court also denied the plaintiffs' claim for expedited discovery. I should have copies of all the pleadings by tomorrow.

Someone has registered the 'name.com' of the woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape. The "registrant"? GoDaddy's Domains by Proxy.

New York Mayor Bloomberg says the murder by handgun of a pro-gun control City Councilman "isn't terrorism." If murder for a political purposes isn't terrorism, then what's 'terrorism'?

Great article on Slate on the limits of Google.

Interesting article from yesterday's Los Angeles Times on the use of those mobile phone-cameras in semi-public places.

The Gold's Gym chain is also devising a policy that would prohibit the use of camera phones among its members. "If I'm a guy from Iowa who came to see the gym and I'm next to Mel Gibson, sure, I'm going to be tempted to take a picture of him and send it to a friend," says Derek Barton, senior vice president of marketing for Gold's. "So far it hasn't happened, but it's definitely something we're putting in our rules and regulations."

Makes me wonder whether we need a 'blogger's code of ethics.'

Very cool new stuff from Steve Wozniak.

Okay, not right next door, but just a half-block away. My new neighbor is the Doritos' Girl.

Esther Dyson in Release 4.0: "Who owns the brand name? who takes the risk of owning the products? Does the reseller work on commission or does it actually take title to the goods or pay for the service upfront? "

These are great questions, and they're exactly the sort of questions that 'Internet lawyers' (hey, that's me) grapple with all the time in putting together licensing, contracting, and new business deals. Nice to see someone else take a sharp interest in the same sorts of things.

As the father of two girls, the news from Mattel that "Barbie sales dropped 8 percent" in the last quarter isn't any surprise. My oldest daughter walks straight past the Barbie section at the toy store. The new Disney Princess-themed products are all the rage in my house. And besides, as a parent, the fearless Mulan is a much better role model than the girl from Malibu.