Wed, August 29

Non-Item: Leno a Prissy Bitch—12:24 PM

This is less than nothing, but the home page is looking desolate lately and the big columns I've got in the hopper are weeks away from publishing. So, why not laugh at Jay Leno's bruised and pointless ego?

A report says Leno returned from vacation to find a new desk waiting for him on his set. (This is the stort of sprucing-up that talk shows do from time to time; Dave's has been remodeled a few times.) Leno apparently made a quip that compared the desk's replacement to his own ouster (forthcoming in 2009) to make room for Conan O'Brien at The Tonight Show.

But can Leno honestly assert he's "worked perfectly well for 15 years"? He's not Carson, for God's sake. Carson was, to borrow a phrase from Letterman's excellent memorial the week after his passing, "a public utility." He could've run The Tonight Show through 2025 and remained as current and entertaining as we needed. But Leno falls far short of that, and it makes sense to promote Conan into the 11:30 time slot before its viewership ossifies into a demographic so ancient it can never recover.

Maybe the ratings have been decent, and maybe some people's taste runs to Leno's lame version of comedy. But if Leno can honestly, with a straight face, assert that the show has been perfectly good during his stewardship, then he's a lot dumber than even I have given him credit for.

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Tue, August 28

What Would the Baha Men Do?

This Michael Vick thing is, of course, horrible. However, in the grand scheme of things, is it worthy of such extensive hand-wringing? (Read more.)

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Mon, August 20

New Shows Coming!

You may have noticed an ad or two for the new fall shows. (If you've been watching NBC, the "lower-thirds" are taking up two or three thirds right now.) Here's the complete listing. (Read more.)

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Thu, August 16

Nielsens!—9:42 AM

In yesterday's mail, I received a postcard addressed to "TV Household" and I had almost thrown it out (assuming yet another pitch from Comcast or whoever) when the return address caught my eye: Nielsen TV Ratings.

Well this year's Annual TiVo Gauntlet of New Fall Programming just got more interesting!

It doesn't sound like I'm becoming a Nielsen family, but they do want me to participate in a "ratings study" which is apparently "important." I doubt we'll be able to get through it in "approximately 5 minutes," though. I've got a few things to talk about with them. I may not be able to singlehandedly resurrect Veronica Mars, but at least I can help them get their head right about a few things. I wonder if it would be appropriate for me to explain to them that the entire Nielsen system is outdated, pointless, and it's ruining television.

Hm, maybe I should ask them for a job? We'll change the system from the inside!

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Thu, August 9

I am such a girl—4:13 PM

I just got e-mail from John Gruber! This is like the blog nerd version of getting to go backstage and say hi to the band. I'm almost disgusted by how much this made my day, except I'm in this new phase of celebrating my dipshit idiosyncrasies, so I say, "Go blog nerd! Celebrate all you want, and don't forget to change your underpants after!"

Gruber is the writer of Daring Fireball, a blog about computers and interface design (usually Mac-related). I read it more often than Kung Fu Monkey, but I link to it less often, because I know my audience – people for whom this stuff falls somewhere between, "Huh?" and "Who gives a shit?" But it's a very excellent blog, and often very funny if you follow that kind of thing.

Anyway, he wrote in response to a brief message I sent him in praise of his newly adjusted RSS feed. I wrote Kottke about the same issue a few months ago – it's rare for me to bother the few mega-bloggers I read, so I hold my tongue until I can add value. (I have the same policy with real-life celebrities.) Of course, I'm on record as generally anti-RSS – so it's sort of ironic that I care about this.

I told John:

The "link" field on the Linked List items in the newly-free feed is now populated with the actual URL, meaning I can open them from NetNewsWire [RSS reader] with just a right-arrow click and continue my reading. This is a beautiful thing. Thanks as always for caring about the details.

It really is a beautiful thing. (Kottke made the opposite change in January, and was non-responsive to my pleas for a do-over. I finally had to create a Yahoo! Pipe to take care of it – you're welcome, Internet!)

The response, which actually made my heart leap:

You're quite welcome. Thanks for noticing, and glad you enjoy the change.

1) You're welcome. (Polite!) 2) You're a smart guy. (You noticed!) 3) I care about you. (Enjoy!) That's a lot of affirmation, packed quite efficiently in a short message. What a man!

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