Lest you think I’m the only one having problems:

JesseStay: the 10.4.11 update killed my Mac too. 😦

windley (he’s the former CTO for the state of Utah): “the 10.4.11 update killed my Mac too. :-(“ Hey, Phil, can’t you pick a different line than Jesse? Heheh.

ordinal: Killed my Powerbook too. I had to erase & install.

Dave Winer wrote me a nice compliment today.

“The other day at lunch I was telling the Uncov guys that despite what they may think, Scoble really is brilliant, read this piece, I feel completely vindicated (though sometimes I read his stuff and shake my head in disbelief at how he could be so wrong).”

Oh, that brings up something I’ve been thinking about for a while:

If you aren’t willing to look like an idiot in public (or, even, prove that you ARE one) you won’t be a really great blogger.

Lately I’ve found that I’ve started worrying about LOOKING like an idiot to all of you and it’s stilted my writing. I started worrying about getting a better “rank” (whatever the heck THAT means). And all the hubris-filled-bullpucky that goes along with this stuff.

If you asked me whether I wanted to be invited to an Apple or Google press conference I’d drool on the floor and say “yes, yes, yes.” Now that I’ve been? I really can’t understand why I thought that at one point. It was a major flaw in my thinking.

But I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately. Who are the guys who I’d rather hang out with?

People who prove they are human.

Human beings make mistakes.

Human beings aren’t always smart. Even the smartest ones. Remember Douglas Engelbart, the guy who invented the mouse and many of the concepts you’re using today to read my blog? He got kicked out of the research industry in the 1970s cause he was weird. He wasn’t afraid of telling you what he thought the world would one day look like.

Anyway, back to being human. The best baseball players only hit the ball 33% of the time. And that’s the BEST ones.

So, excuse me if I sound like an idiot a lot of the time. Just hit “J” on your Google Reader and move along to a smarter post.

And if you’re expecting me to be smart here you’ll be sorely disappointed. I’d recommend reading my link blog instead. Why? That’s where I put all the smart stuff.

In the meantime, if you worry about looking like an idiot you’ll never take risks and you’ll never explore yourself. More idiocy ahead! 🙂

TechCrunch is reporting on Google’s moves to protect organic relevancy in its search results. Good for Google.

I’ve gotten attacked by PayPerPosters who don’t understand the difference between sponsorship and paid editorial and Google gaming.

Personally, as long as bloggers disclose ON THE POST that they are getting paid I don’t have a problem with these schemes. Back when I was saying PayPerPost was bad they weren’t requiring disclosure ON THE POST itself. If they do now then I’m OK with it.

Most of my reading now is in a RSS reader. So if the disclosure isn’t PER POST, as in “this post is sponsored by…” then I can’t know, as a reader, that that post is paid for by an advertiser. That’s evil, in my book.

On the other hand I’d rather Google be a bit more granular than just penalizing the entire blog. They should just penalize the posts that are paid for. But it’s hard to do that.

Bloggers beware. If you just write great content and put the ads around the content like everyone else does you won’t be messing with Google and Google won’t mess with you.

UPDATE: Kevin Burton, who runs the site TailRank which tracks millions of blogs, points out that PayPerPost never forced disclosure by its members. That’s why this company has no moral high ground to claim. Go Google Go.