The News – 09/15/05

No Longer Free

Yes, that’s right. The StratVantage News Summary is no longer free – of advertising, that is. Of course, you can still receive SNS for free, but now you’ll be seeing Google AdSense ads along with the brilliant commentary.

This reversal of a long-standing SNS policy was not an easy decision, especially considering how much I hate advertising. It was based on a need to derive some value for the amount of work I put in to each issue without charging for subscriptions. Because, as we all know, information wants to be free and, as a corollary, no one wants to pay for stuff they get from the Internet unless it’s delivered to their door by a uniformed courier of some sort.

Years ago, I did actually drop an ad into SNS, basically because I thought the ad was funny. It generated at least one comment claiming that the newsletter had been hacked.

With the advent of Google AdSense, however, advertising has become a bit more palatable. What the service does is match its ads with the content of the page you are viewing. This means the ads are likely to be pretty relevant to your interests, since you’re obviously reading the page for a reason. Plus, the ads are text and not whirling, whizzy graphics.

I must say there is one pretty draconian restriction in AdSense’s Terms and Conditions, however. I must agree not to “engage in any action or practice that reflects poorly on Google or otherwise disparages or devalues Google’s reputation or goodwill.”

I always thought Google really sucked. They are up to no good and their real motto is “Evil, 24/7.”

We’ll see how that grabs them.

But seriously, he who pays the piper calls the tune, and any site that accepts advertising faces the possibility of being influenced by the advertiser. I’ve never said anything bad about Google, and I think they’re generally a fine company, except for their Gmail Privacy Policy (specifically, “Because we keep back-up copies of data for the purposes of recovery from errors or system failure, residual copies of email may remain on our systems for some time, even after you have deleted messages from your mailbox or after the termination of your account . . . Information displayed or clicked on in your Gmail account (including UI elements, ads, links, and other information) is also recorded.”) But I reserve the right to trash them in the future, ads or no ads.

Enlightening and Frightening for Half a Decade

As SNS approaches its fifth birthday September 24^th, it’s appropriate to look back across a span of time that has seen the deflation of the dotcom bubble, the acceleration of outsourcing, and the explosion of Wi-Fi along with many other rapidly-accelerating technological trends. Over the next couple of issues, I’ll be dredging up some of the more interesting nuggets from SNS and taking a look at some of the predictions, by me and by others, and how they panned out.

Five years ago, were you thinking about wireless Internet via Wi-Fi, even across whole cities? I was. The very first SNS in 2000 mentioned it, and take a look at the analysis and predictions on this front from four years ago,

Speaking of the first SNS, here are the topics covered in the inaugural issue and the current status of each:

Alert SNS Reader Hall of Fame

But of course, I don’t do SNS alone. I am backed up by legions of Alert SNS Readers who contribute the interesting, bizarre and poignant infonuggets that serve as starting points for my rants. Below is the Alert SNS Reader Hall of Fame, along with what each has contributed.

I’d like to thank all the Alert SNS Readers for keeping me on my toes!

Want to get on this list? Send your infonuggets along and who knows? Immortality might be yours.

Support SNS

So one era ends, another begins. SNS will continue to clutter your inbox for as long as you care to subscribe. But if you’d like to tip your server, either click on the ads to the right (which you may not see if you're reading this in your email), or use the Support SNS button also on the right. Another thing you can do is forward each issue of SNS to everyone you know and encourage them to subscribe, for free.

See you next issue.

Briefly Noted

• Shameless Self-Promotion Dept.: It’s here: A wireless networking company called The WiMAX Guys. Our main business is new installs for people who want to set up wireless hotspots such as hotels, warehouses, apartment buildings, and office buildings or hotzones that cover cities. We also sell a knowledge-based Web portal called the MAX K-Base. Check out our main Website at www.TheWiMAXGuys.com.
  
  My wife created a bit of a stir when her op-ed piece was published in the Minneapolis StarTribune newspaper after the election. Her article, “Two Nations, Handcuffed Together,” has been commented on or linked to by more than 85 Websites. She’s now created a Website to capitalize on her newfound pundit status. Check it out at www.debellsworth.com.
   
  Several issues ago I debuted SNS Begware, an opportunity for you, gentle reader, to express your appreciation by tipping your server via PayPal. See the sidebar for more info. Total in the kitty so far: $91.48. Thanks Dave!
  
  
• The Raw File – SNS is dedicated to delivering the scoop on the latest and greatest. However, I collect lots of information that never makes it into the newsletter before it gets old. I’ve collected all this aging info into a page called The Raw File. This page is the raw information I gather for SNS articles. It’s not pretty, and some may be a little incoherent, but chances are there are still things in TRF that might be news to you. So therefore, use The Raw File at your own risk – it’s 45+ pages of the best stuff that didn’t make it into SNS.
  The Raw File
  
  
• No Telling How Long This Will Remain True: But if you perform the following steps, you’ll be taken to a surprising Website.
  
  1.) Go to www.google.com
  2.) Type in the single word: failure
  3.) Press the I'm feeling lucky button (instead of the Google search one)
  4.) Figure out how it was done and email me.
  
  Thanks to Alert SNS Reader Seth Freeman for the pointer.
  
  
• If You’ve Made it This Far: Well, there still has been only one entrant in our contest: Alert SNS Reader Todd Mortenson. You may recall the contest was to email me the retort to the partial music lyric buried somewhere in the previous newsletter. The prize was one stick of totally obsolete PC memory.
  
  The answer was: “And I said yes sir brother sheriff, and that's your wife on the back of my horse.”
  
  So the memory has remained unclaimed. I’ll award it to the first person who emails me the name of that song (so easy!), the partial lyric I was referring to, and who also answers the tiebreaker from last issue:
  
  Who is Hoops McCann? Twice.
  
  Good luck!