BuzzMachine

Web terrorism
: Back (again) after (another) DOS attack.

This is terrorism, plain and simple.

Not having my blog is like waking up on the wrong side of bed; it throws the day off.

But I’m back now. First dinner. Then kids’ bedtime. Then blog.

: Winds of Change has reports here and here.

Interactivity
: In a comment on my list of the relationship between weblogs and established media here, Dann says he wishes all media personalities — authors, pundits, hosts — had their email addresses on the Web. I respectfully disagree, having once had a large audience and having received too many letters to answer. And, besides, since I was always bad at sending thank-you notes to my aunts, I could be assured to be worse at it with people who didn’t know my mother.

But the spirit of the comment is exactly right: Interactivity is good for both sides, especially for media personalities, for they get to know what their audience is thinking, they get to know they have an audience.

That is why weblogs are great for such people. It is a way for them to interact with their audiences without having to write individual letters. It is a way for them to answer the same comment or question from many people at once. It is a way to enter an actual conversation. And better yet, we all get to watch. I far prefer it when people leave comments on my blog vs. sending email, for, again, I am a bad email correspondent (sorry, Uncle Richard and all the rest of you!) and I prefer to have the conversation in public.

So Bill O’Reilly, Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, Dan Rather, Paul Krugman, John Podhoretz, Stephen King, Charlie Rose, Oprah — and, yes, even Andy Rooney — you should all start weblogs to interact with your audiences. If Dave Barry can do it, so you can. And you’ll be glad you did.

Iraqi rule
: Zeyad has a pretty remarkable post on HealingIraq:

I truly hope that living under 50 years of tyranny hasn’t turned us all into potential tyrants. I worry constantly when I see some of the newly appointed Iraqi officials and controversial politico-religious figures just too eager to rule and assume power in the country. They are desperately trying to push it and speed up things for themselves. I see Saddam’s face under the masks they’re wearing. They are tyrants in disguise. I would rather have President Bremer (Allah preserve him) ruling us than any of them. I wonder if we EVER have someone qualified yet enough to be leading us.

The solution to this will be a strong constitution and strong structure with strong backing and that will take time and patience to build. We’re talking to you, U.N. and Europe: time and patience.

I moved a pixel this morning. Did you notice?
: The non-est nonstory I’ve seen in sometime is the NY Times “redesign.” The change is so minor as to be unnoticable. And I liked the old typestyle better. The rule of newspaper type design was — for a reason — that one should mix serif and sanserif type for variety; the Times now has variations on only one face and it’s more boring. Wrong direction, I’d say. Not that anyone should care. This is a nonpost on nonnews.

Move
: Chuck “Blogumentary” Olsen, our documentor, has a new home. His thus feeling link poor (see his comment here). That reminds me that my blogroll is criminally out of date. Soon. Soon.