WEB INFINITY

I am going to punch the next person who dares to use the term "Web 2.0" in my presence.

This summer I think I've heard that term more times than I can count. And you know what? It didn't mean anything the first time, and every time an editor mentioned it after that the meaning got more and more garbled. Eight weeks of spin about an idea so silly I couldn't believe it got greenlit in the first place. I couldn't discuss it for a long time, and it killed me to have to keep my mouth shut about such a potentially colossal mistake.

Thankfully, the cat is finally out of the goddamn bag.

BusinessWeek has decided to throw its hat into the "Web 2.0" scene. To them, this means creating what basically amounts to an aggregator with a LinkedIn tie-in. They spent millions of dollars on this, dollars that would be so much better spent on expanding their online team and better meshing the print and online divisions. Instead, they're going to have writers, editors, and regular ol' businessmen waste their time coming up with these topics, moderating them, updating them daily.

Why?! Why would anyone want to spend that amount of time doing something when, arguably, they could look over their RSS feed and then go about doing the million other things a CEO does. Who gives a shit what everyone else is reading? If you really care, you can go see the "most read" on the site (except for BW's, because for some reason we make the "Most read" box a fucking Easter egg on a DVD) or go to Digg. (Side note: I have never used Digg. Is it really that useful? Do that many people use it? This is coming from a "young person," mind you.) Why would you want your competitor to know what you're reading? You'll disable that capability, and so will your competitor, so we're back to square one, which is...an RSS feed. With a LinkedIn tie-in.

Guys. This is not "Web 2.0." There is no such thing as "Web 2.0." Technology evolves, and the way people use it also changes. There's no need to make up a pointless word for a process that's been going on since the dawn of fucking time. Facebook and MySpace were lightning in a bottle. You cannot duplicate them. I don't know if they'll ever go away, but whatever this bullshit hybrid thing you're trying to sell is, it's not new.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe every goddamn CEO and his mother wants to use this thing, and Terry McGraw will sit in his office on the 49th floor laughing and throwing piles of money in the air because the ad revenue will be coming in by the truckload.

I could also be right, too.

Harry Potter and the Stupidly Delayed Movie

Oh, come on.

Warner Bros., you greedy, greedy bastards. You saw how well The Dark Knight did in July, and now you want another piece of that. Nevermind that Goblet of Fire did pretty damn well in the same late-November spot and that it would have killed any other movie it went up against. Other studios had even moved their films away from that week.

And my poor future employers even put the Chosen One himself on their cover last week.

(I started writing this last Thursday, but got incredibly distracted and then Blogger crashed and everything just went all to hell.)

Holympics

Of course I have to do an obligatory Olympics post.

So, I was a swimmer. For 10 years. My best events were the 200 fly, 500/400 free, 800 free, and the mile. These are brutal, brutal events. Watching Michael Phelps fling himself through the water at 20 mph is easy. Having done it God-knows-how-many-times, I understand his pain.

All those glowing, sickening profiles don't get to the real heart of Phelps. Nor do any of the pieces about the other swimmers. (Wait, are there any pieces about the others? I mean, I love Phelps and all, but I feel for the others.) Swimming isn't just about winning. Thrashing that annoying flyer from Lake Highland is great, but that's not the only reason we get up at 4 a.m. three days a week (if not more). That's not the only reason we push through those two-hour practices that threaten to break our will.

We do it to beat ourselves. To beat the clock. Even if you haven't won 9 gold medals, that's the real goal. So for people to be annoyed with Phelps' reaction after the 200 fly is ridiculous. He didn't do what he really wanted to do. He was disappointed. I would have felt the same way--and I have.

Peaches are vastly inferior to nectarines...?

I was trying to come up with a clever play on peaches and how much Georgia sucks and ended up with that. Oh well.

So, the preseason polls are up (college football, for you heathens out there), and ESPN has Georgia sitting pretty at number 1. I've already confessed that I'm not the most knowledgable person when it comes to college football (though I am trying), but I will eat my own fingernail clippings if Georgia keeps that spot longer than three weeks (I think South Carolina can topple them, but that's just based on a hunch and my undying hatred of Georgia). We'll see if we end up with another Gator-Buckeye showdown in January.