Greg Hartnett

My move to Roseville approaches rapidly. Now officially t-minus 10 days, the vast majority of the move related work lays behind us, with only a handful of issues unresolved. If I could just find a buyer for my old Explorer, I’d be groovy. I have a couple of leads on the sale, and if those fall through, I believe I’ll donate it.

With most of the hard stuff behind me, I have had the opportunity to spend some time reflecting on my pending move, and my time spent here on Long Island. While I am very excited to be moving, I find the pangs of nostalgia hitting me in the gut more and more frequently. I have spent a lot of time living on Long Island, and my family has now been here for 4 generations. It’s going to take some time to get used to not being here, and calling a new area our home.

Now that I have only a few days left at HQ, I have definitely been getting more and more nostalgic. For instance, I have been driving the same route to work for the last four years, and I took the exact route to college for almost six years. I have now been driving for almost 19 years (damn), and I have been cruising along the same roads 50% of that time.

I’ll miss how the Meadowbrook opens up after Roosevelt Field, permitting me to cruise the rest of my journey. I’ll miss that long stretch of Rt 106 - a five mile run of lightly populated road past multi-million dollar homes in Brookville and Muttontown. I’ll miss feeling like a genius when I hop off the Northern State Parkway at Post Ave when I see a glut of brake lights. I’ll even miss the frantic, side of the highway piss-stops, when that extra cup of coffee just refuses to stay put.

I will definitely miss spending time with my boys at the office. I have been truly blessed to have people to work with that I both respect and enjoy being around. Brian and I have been sharing an office for three years, and the thought of not being able to easily bounce an idea off him will take some getting used to. I’ll miss the sarcastic banter, and the sophomoric humor. I’ll miss the lunches (but not the cafeteria), the office basketball games, and the boardroom meetings. I know that things with the company won’t miss a step, but I do feel a bit sad about not being able to spend time with Brian and Jared - my coworkers and my friends. Luckily, our conference schedule will permit us to get together a handful of times every year, and I am sure that we will continue to snowboard and vacation together as well.

Even though we plan on staying in touch as much as possible with my mother and sister, I know that all of us will miss them dearly. My mother has played such an important role in both of my children’s lives, and I am sure that they will both miss her very much. Moreover, it will be difficult to know that my god-daughter Kiera will be so much bigger the next time I see her. Being so far away from my family will indeed be the most difficult part of our move.

Though I feel this growing sense of sadness, I am fully aware that it shall pass. My sadness is brought upon by my fear of the unknown, coupled with the inclination to grasp onto the things that you leave behind. I understand that all things must change - that change is the only true constant. Our move is just such a change, as are the emotions associated with the move. And both of those states will surely change in the months and years to come.

For the remainder of the time that I will call Long Island my home, I plan on carrying along as usual - spending time with friends and family for the upcoming holiday, and tying up as many loose ends as I can at work. I have a couple of special events planned before we get out of Dodge, and then the next chapter begins.

I cranked up my iPod this weekend to help with the tedium of packing. I have been exploring a bunch of different bands lately, but have neglected some of my favorites. Yesterday, I spent the entire day listening to the Beatles and the Grateful Dead - my two all time favorite bands.

While listening to some live Dead circa 1990, I caught a really good version of Throwing Stones - a Bob Weir composition examining the human condition. The lyrics are insightful and the music is vintage Dead. Check out the recently updated Official GD Site, and the home of GD Radio - 24/7 streaming Dead.

———————————————

Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face.
But afraid, we may our home to waste.

There’s a fear down here we can’t forget hasn’t got a name just yet
Always awake, always around singing ashes to ashes all fall down.

Now watch as the ball revolves and the nighttime calls
And again the hunt begins and again the bloodwind calls
By and by again, the morning sun will rise
But the darkness never goes from some men’s eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets
Stalking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat, you and me, you and me.

Click, flashblade in ghetto night. Rudies looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley roll them bones. Need that cash to feed that jones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.

Commissars and pin-striped bosses role the dice
Either way they fall guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray, selling guns instead of food today.
So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.

Heartless powers try to tell us what to think
If the spirit’s sleeping, then the flesh is ink.
History’s page, it is thusly carved in stone
The future’s here, we are it, we are on our own.
If the game is lost then we’re all the same
No one left to place or take the blame.
We will leave this place an empty stone
Or this shinning ball of blue we can call our home.

So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians are throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.

Shipping powders back and forth
Singing “black goes south while white comes north”
And the whole world full of petty wars
Singing “I got mine and you got yours.”
And the current fashions set the pace.
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical he rant and rage, Singing “someone got to turn the page”
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing “Just leave well enough alone”
But his pants are down, his cover’s blown.

And the politicians are throwing stones
So the kids they dance they shake their bones
Cause its all too clear we’re on our own
Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
It’s dizzying, the possibilities.
Ashes, Ashes all fall down.

Thanks to Dave for sending this my way.

The big news throughout the social networking crowd is the launch of what some are dubbing “AOL’s Digg-killer”. While I doubt that the launch of the new Netscape will spell the demise of Digg, it is indeed an impressive entry to the social arena.

I signed up for an account and have spent a couple of hours giving it a test run this afternoon. Here are 10 impressions that I have picked up from a cursory run. In an effort to show both sides, I have chosen 5 good things, and 5 things that need further work.

The Good:

1. Lots of categories. While Digg appeals to the geek crowd, Netscape promises more diversity of content with categories including Sex, Celebrities, Money, Sports, Videos, Technology, and many more.
2. Personalization. When you are signed in, the page displays the local information based upon the zip code you provide during the sign up process. Local information includes weather, and local news.
   
3. Pictures with Stories. It’s nice to see the picture to the right of each story that makes it to the front page. Used properly, a picture is worth a thousand words.
4. Usabiity. I like the simplistic colors, the navigation, and the use of the technology. Everything comes together nicely for a good overall experience. The “Related Stories” and Tag Cloud are both nice touches.
5. Anchors. Netscape’s version of an editor, the anchor serves to keep things moving along nicely, moving stories to the front page, helping with the conversation, and fostering the community. With Anchor Chat (soming soon) users will be able to “Chat live 24/7 with Netscape anchors on the day’s top stories!”

The Bad:

1. Owned by AOL. Even though the brass brought in 2.0 poster boy Jason Calacanis to run the show, the campy smell of AOL is hard to shake, and it permeates through here as well. Case in point - the cheesy avatars.
2. Limited Commenting. Current commenting does not allow for insertion of any HTML. Additionally, you can’t reply to other’s comments, making a coherent string of commenting nearly impossible.
3. Exiting to Story. It’s a bit cumbersome to get to the site that is being discussed. There is no access from the main page - you must navigate to the story’s individual page on Netscape, and then follow one of two little links. The more prominent option leads to a horrendous framed page. They definitely need to lose this.
4. Who’s Voting? There is no way to determine who is voting for any given story. you can see what stories a user has voted on by looking at the profile, but there is no way to see all the people who voted for a particular story.
5. Us and Them. Historically, most social networking sites tend to be very clique-ey, and Netscape’s offering doesn’t promise to break the mold. Already the flame wars begin, with a divisive attitude taking hold. Hopefully they will succedd here, while so many others have failed.

See what others are saying about the New Netscape:

Jeff Beckham The New Netscape - The New Journalism?
Steve Rubel First Look: Netscape’s Hybrid Journalism Site
Silicon Valley Sleuth AOL Takes a Shot at Social News
Search Engine Journal Netscape Relaunched as AOL Digg
Mashable Netscape’s Digg Clone - Good, but Needs More Ads

Approximately six months ago, I was speaking with a friend about how much information I consume on a daily basis. There is so much to digest, and with my interest in RSS and blogging, the amount has only increased exponentially over the last year. As I come across useful and interesting material from authors across the globe, my feed subscriptions grow daily and I find myself getting my news from an ever-widening circle of sources.

Back in February, I decided to start tracking the stuff I read. Part reference for future reading and part mindfulness training, I use my linkblog as a quick place to log what I read online daily. Thus far, it has worked out pretty well. Unfortunately, I don’t use it quite as much as I thought I would. I typically only throw in a handful of the highlights on a daily basis - I find that I get too distracted throughout the day to keep a truly accurate picture.

While doing it the past few months, I have learned a few things:

Another reason I like using my linkblog: I think it’s much better than merely commenting on somebody’s blog. If the author has taken the time to write something from which I have benefited, I feel that the least I can do is repay the author with the little bit of web currency that I have - a relevant link. When you comment on a blog, while you participate in the conversation, you don’t really help the author with any link building. Instead of simply commenting on the author’s blog, by using my linkblog I can have the same participation in the conversation, and show the author my appreciation for the information with a link from my linkblog. Furthermore, I am creating content on my own blog, while sharing a snippet of the content on the author’s blog. So, it works out as a win-win for each party.

Some notable linkblogs:

Jeremy Zawodny’s Linkblog
Erik’s Linkblog
Nelson Minar’s Linkblog
More Linkblogs

While we pat ourselves on our collective backs, celebrating the awesomeness of US military might in what our leaders are calling a major victory in the war on terrorism, we should take a moment to pay homage to all the others that have died during the illegal war in Iraq. But exactly who, and how many of them, should we mourn?

I was talking a couple of days ago with some friends, and we started discussing US soldiers wounded in Iraq. I wasn’t very surprised to learn that neither of them had an accurate idea on the number of casualties. The DoD is reluctant to release fully accurate data, and the media is happy to fall into line, but there are plenty of non-traditional resources out there to get some ideas. Even though it would appear that our leaders “don’t do body counts”, others are keeping track.

According to some of the data I have found, as of today, the grim numbers look something along the following:

US Deaths Confirmed by the DoD - 2480
US Deaths since “Mission Accomplished” - 2343
US Wounded According to the DoD - 17,869
Iraq Coalition Casualties - 4769
Iraqi Civilians Reported Killed - 38,254 to 42,646
Estimated Civilians Killed - more than 100,000
Women and children accounted for almost 20% of all civilian deaths
Cost of the War - $287,012,509,117 (that’s 287 billion)
Estimate Total Cost of War - over $2 trillion

While the above numbers are alarming on their own, they do not reflect the number of deaths that could have been prevented had the funds spent on the war been directed to health programs or feeding the poor. What type of strides could we have made in the advancement towards a cure for cancer or HIV had we dumped almost $300 billion there? How many children could have been fed with that money? How many schools could have been built? How many immunizations distributed? Factor in the implicit deaths that may have been averted, and the numbers grow considerably.

Even though Bill O’Reilly would have us believe that “everybody who is a loyal American should be celebrating, and not doing this other stuff” I would argue that it is at these times that we need to stand up and remind our leaders that we have not forgotten the others that have fallen. It is at times when we are feeling our most self righteous that we must stand back and put things in perspective. Dropping half a ton of explosives on a handful of bad guys doesn’t justify the carnage that we are unleashing on an undeserving people. The tens of thousands of casualties can’t be washed away, or blown to bits, with the obliteration of Zarqawi. A few dead bad guys will not wipe out the sins of the fathers.

How high does the casualty count need to climb before we decide to pull out? Perhaps that is the wrong metric to judge. Perhaps a better question is how much money do Haliburton and Bechtel need to make before we can stop the carnage? Once the US has a couple of new military bases set up, then can we pull out? Will another notch in the imperialistic belt be enough to satisfy the war lords? How about a Starbucks on every corner?

Bush and friends continue to maintain that we will continue our operations in Iraq. According to our current administration, the end is definitely not in sight. So, how high will the casualty count get? At this rate, the sky is the limit. Maybe 50,000 Americans wounded or killed in combat. Maybe 250,000 or more Iraqis. But hey, we can’t put a price on freedom, right?

And in the midst of our celebrating, let’s not forget the most recent atrocity - the slaughter at Haditha, where two dozen civilians were murdered in cold blood by a Marine unit from Camp Pendleton. Should we cry more for the 24 civilians that met such a brutal demise, or for the poor boys from the Southern California military base? Those poor boys - most of them barely old enough to legally buy alcohol, their lives forever shattered. Their souls lost in the sands of some godless desert. How will they ever be able to come back into society and not lose their minds? How will you greet them when they return? What will you say? Do you have an apology ready?

Or the wretched townspeople of Haditha, which will now live in the history books alongside My Lai, Wounded Knee, and other sites where massacres have been committed upon an innocent population. Who cries for them? Who will mourn the children who were savagely murdered? In one house, little girls - ages 14, 10, 5, 3, and 1 - all died after being shot to pieces. One girl suffered nine bullet wounds, and others were torn apart by exploding grenades. What type of apology can we give to these people? What type of justice do they desrve? Do they not deserve the same happiness and protection that you and I deserve? Are their lives any less precious than ours?

What type of apology are you prepared to give them? Start thinking, because they’ll deserve one. Each day that passes, we will owe more and more apologies. I fear more than we will ever be able to dole out.

References:

Washington Post - Enemy Body Counts Revived
Daniel Bacher - Bush’s Illegal War
Iraq Body Count
Wikipedia - Casualties of the War Since 2003
Iraq Coalition Casualties
Lancet Study (PDF)
Guardian Unlimited - Body counts
The Globalist -The Cost of War in Iraq: A Checklist
Daniel Bacher -Bush’s Illegal War
ImpeachPAC - Who Really Killed the Civilians of Haditha?
Noam Chomsky - After Pinkville
Wikipedia - List of Massacres

We have been pretty quiet on the publicity front, focusing our collective efforts on development and strategic business opportunities. While it is good to get the word out, it is equally important to make sure that things are running smoothly, and work on things to position ourselves for future growth.

However, there have been a couple of media appearances over the last month. This past Friday evening, I had an interview on eMarketing Talk Show with Cindy, Todd, and Brooke. We spoke about blogging, the current state of the blogosphere, marketing, and what the future holds in store. I had a good time, but felt that I babbled a bit too much here and there. I got caught up in the discussion, and lost my train of thought once or twice. Blogging may be my favorite industry related topic of discussion, and in an effort to shed as much light as I can, I tend to get a little long-winded. If you have some time to kill, you can check out the interview here.

Additionally, Brian continues to shine on television, with a guest spot on ABC. A couple of weeks ago, Brian was invited in as a guest for the Sunday morning news program. The spot was on Memorial Day travel, and once again Brian was able to talk about some good holiday destinations. I think he appeared more comfortable than his previous appearance, and I would imagine that he will be even more polished in the months to come. He did Hotel Hotline proud. Check out the video at YouTube.

Yahoo launched it’s video offering yesterday, Yahoo Video. Seems to be a similar offering to Google Video, with like features. From a quick perusal, they seem to have integrated their community a bit more, with a focus on reviews, and sharing.

I took a trial run by uploading the video of JR’s hockey fight, and had to switch computers to do so. Like most web applications, Safari compatible versions seem to roll out a few weeks after the IE and FF crowds get to play. The upload was quick enough, and unlike Google, I didn’t have to download any software to get it done. I simply logged in using my Yahoo account, and created a quick user profile. Users can add their channels, and stay up to date with other’s channels easily.

As a user, I am impressed. As a publisher, I am excited to see an additional player in the space. As a Yahoo fan, I am happy to see them take this chance, and am pleased with the product. I will be trying their embedding feature on this blog in the days to come. You can see more videos here.

Find out more:

Yahoo! Search blog
Yahoo! Video Revamped
YouTube vs. Yahoo
Usability - They Can do Better

I have decided to remove the rel=”nofollow” tags from the comments section of my blog. Having them in place does nothing to discourage spammers, and they only seem to punish the people who actually do participate in the conversation. If I have a user that reads my blog on a daily basis, and the user takes the time to participate in the conversation, why shouldn’t s/he be awarded with a link? I know that people have other things they could be doing with their time. I am fully aware that participating in the commenting on this blog is not a high priority on anybody’s list. So, if somebody spares a few moments to contribute, I view it as a professional courtesy to give them some love in return.

Wordpress blogs insert the rel=”nofollow” tag into all comments by default. Luckily, there are a handful of plugins available, and in a matter of minutes, I was able to get rid of the nofollow tags. The plugin I chose, the Dofollow plugin, simply replaces the “nofollow” tag with a tag reading “external” - which I assume is garbage, and ignored by the engines.

For more information on nofollow, and whether it is for you, see:

WP Codex - Nofollow
Wikimedia - Nofollow
The yesfollow Project
Nofollow No Good?
Support for Nofollow Crumbling?

With my move to CA just 40 days away, I have been trying to get stuff done at a more hurried pace. Unfortunately, I still need to sell my Ford Explorer and arrange for transportation of my Caddy, and Lily’s Sequoia. I had hoped to use uShip for the shipping, but I didn’t get the response I had expected from them, so I think I’ll have to look elsewhere.

We have made some headway on packing, and should be ready to begin loading our POD when it arrives in a couple of weeks. The most ominous task I face is sorting through all the stuff we have been storing in the garage - old clothes (which I donated this weekend), furniture, outdoor equipment, toys, etc… If I can pour through that this weekend, I’ll feel a lot better.

Between getting ready and keeping up with work, I have made an attempt at doing some things that I won’t be able to do in just six weeks - spending time with family and friends, and doing things that won’t be possible once I am three thousand miles away. Some of the highlights:

Teaching Téa to ride a bike in the same location that I learned, almost 30 years ago
Taking JR to a game at Shea
Going out to dinner with old friends that I haven’t seen in years
Watching JR play soccer with his friends (ok, this I’ll still be able to do in CA)
Going to the Yankees/Mets game with my sister and brother in law - I met Giuliani
Memorial Day on Long Island with my family

There are still a handful of things that I’d like to do before getting out of Dodge, but this was a good step. The clock is ticking and there is much to do. I can’t wait to be settled at the new house.