My First Weblog Post 7/23/00

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My First Weblog Post 7/23/00

Note: This was my First Weblog Post, on 7/23/2000, at howardgr.editthispage.com.

Welcome to MY new Manila site.

I have to say thanks to Dave and the Userland crew - this was just too easy.

Welcome to the first issue of my weblog, “Stuff from Howard.” Catchy title, right? We’ll have "marketing" work on it. I’ve been inspired by and enjoying newsletters from friends and industry contacts ranging from one of the earliest, Larry Chase to DaveNet by Dave Winer (whom I had the pleasure of dining with at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference last year along with Internet Scent-sation Mark Canter - Let these guys order your Indian food, I promise you’ll enjoy it).

I also have to call out @NY, Stupid Network/S.M.A.R.T. guy David Isenberg , Cyber-Doyane (and friend of Regis Philbin) Courtney Pulitzer, and Cluetrain Rageboy Chris Locke.

These folks write interesting stuff, some of it personal, some business-related, and all get "my attention." Which means, I get over 300 emails a day, and I make sure I read the ones that come from these people. Not always the moment I get them, but often on the way to or from work when I have a moment to think.

Why are we here?

You’ve made it this far. Congrats on your curiosity.

So, I’m about to dump some thoughts, somewhat random. I expect some feedback, ranging from 'get me the hell outta here' and "Howard who?" to hopefully a note telling me you’re glad to hear from me, and you wondered where I was. Let’s see what happens.

I think it was Paine who said ‘Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one,” and I think it was in some Silicon Valley bar that I first heard about the value of the “information economy.” So, in this site, you get to read some of my thoughts and see if they have value to you. If I can earn a smile, a “hmm” of thoughtfulness, or randomly divert your attention from/to some hot stock or valuable business idea through no fault of my own, I’m doing ok.

Maybe I’ll end up with one of those ‘virtual communities.’ I hear they’re going be big some day. Next stop, big fat IPO and selling out to CMGI (with apologies to Rageboy, who has similar aspirations with his tagline).

Today's Quote: Background: I somehow ended up on the comp list for Paper magazine. It can’t be the hip-ness factor. Now that I’ve left NYC for the greener pastures of the Northern part of the Garden State, I rarely make appearances at clubs south of 23rd and west of whatever the cool street is these days. There was an issue a while ago, which I managed to get to while cleaning up (with Moby on the cover).

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” —attributed to one of David Sarnoff’s colleagues in response to his urging investment into the Radio Industry, 1920s.

What a visionary! This guy probably ended up selling apples during the depression. Anytime someone says “There’s no imaginable _____” he’s probably a narrow minded idiot. Not that this should be confused with an endorsement of all the random business models on the net right now. But, someone IMAGINED it. It’s up to you to decide if its worthy of your time and attention. I keep this in mind as we build what we're building at Sorceron.

Stay tuned!