Don't Worry About the Silence

My flight doesn't leave until 4:30 but I'm being kicked out of my hotel room. Don't expect any posts until late tonight. If I get really bored (why in a cool place like Nashville?) I might pop into a Starbucks to check up on news and weblogs. Until then...

The Way Back Machine: Dave Winer Edition

Last year, Dave Winer took a lot of heat for abruptly shutting down Weblogs.com. Here are my no-holds barred posts on that event:

• "Weblogs.com R.I.P."
  
  
• "Ragging on Winer"
  
  
• "Winer Speaks Again"
  
  
• "Good News"
  

Dave Winer Reaction

Cox & Forkum with a cartoon (what else?).

Les Jones describing Winer's passive aggression and this quote:

At one point Winer was talking and a guy named Stan Brown was laughing at him. Dave got on his high horse and was hurt and acted like he was going to demand Brown stay after class. What a jerk. I hope video will be available, or some people who weren't there won't believe how bad Winer really was.

Now I remember why I quit reading Winer's blog. There were endless posts about RSS and how it was going in the wrong direction, and endless disclaimers about how we wrote about it for the sake of RSS and not the sake of his ego. Eventually I decided it was all about his ego.

Kevin Howarth organized a set of "shared values" he got out of the discussion. While I embrace all of them it seems many weren't demonstrated at yesterday's conference.

Then there's Winer himself.

We all eagerly await the video. The Political Teen has the goods. [via Glenn Reynolds]

UPDATE: Someone wanted to let bathroom users know how they feel about Dave.

Sparks Fly

I missed Dave Winer's session. Sounds like I missed some drama that wasn't "respective."

"BlogNashville: A Respective Disagreement Session with (by) Dave Winer"

Google Inconsistency

A participant brought up the story of how Google denied an anti-Nancy Pelosi ad but accepted an anti-Tom DeLay ad. The post is a bit confusing, but it brings up some serious allegations about how neutral a player Google is.

"Google says NO to Conservative Ads!"

Big BlogNashville Coverage

The AP has an pretty good story on BlogNashville. Yahoo had it on its front page which should have garnered oodles of attention. The Political Teen has the picture.

"Bloggers' Conference Emphasizes Reporting"

UPDATE: Not all coverage is good. Here's what a Nashville TV station's weblogger thought:

If the attendees at BlogNashville are any indication, bloggers are very white, very male and very bad at dressing themselves.

Faith-Based Weblogging Session

Lunch is over and I'm in the faith-based weblogging session. One participant is Matthew Paul Turner. He didn't want to hawk books at the session. He won't, but I will. Check out The Coffeehouse Gospel.

Lunch Time

The milblogging session has been quite good. The perspective these people bring is amazing.

Lunch will be soon. I need food.

BlogNashville IRC

The chatroom is up with more channels soon to come. Details at BlogNashville.

BlogNashville Pre-Party

After the panel discussion at Belmont University, webloggers invaded Wolfy's Den. Here are some pictures:

Mr. Roboto showed off his killer dance moves.

Like he'll do at all the BlogNashville events, Bob Cox made sure everyone was having a good time.

Mark Tapscott provided some good conversation.

Tall Paul tried to entertain us, but his stage was tucked away in the back away from the booze.

Here are two oddities before I call it a night:

1. One of the bartenders went to college in Watertown, WI, not that far from me. Small world.
   
   
   
2. Trey Jackson is the Bob Dole of the blogosphere. He likes to refer to himself in the third person. "Trey Jackson can't be at BlogNashville by 8:15." With the start of the conference quickly creeping up I too feel his pain.
   

Safe and Sound

I arrived safely in Nashville. My flights were almost uneventful, which is a good thing. There was one hickup in Memphis where we had to change planes due to mechanical issues. But that only put me ten minutes late. Heck, I was just glad my luggage also made the plane change.

Leaving Milwaukee I left a rainy, miserable day. Right now, some strong storms are hitting the area. Here in Nashville, the temperature is warm, and sunshine is pouring through my window.

I have two tech notes: 1) This Courtyard hotel's wifi is indeed secured. My notebook computer promptly crashed when the D-Link card detected it. With the new Netgear card I picked up a few days ago all is fine.

2) I forgot to bring my charger for my iPod. I don't know if I'll use it that much before I leave Monday, but if any BlogNashville iPodders would be so kind, I'd like to borrow it for a few hours charge on Saturday.

Me Outta Here

When next you hear from me I should be in Tennessee. If you're going to BlogNashville I hope to see you there.

I'm reminded that today is V-E Day. Sixty years ago Allied forces won WWII. Knowing that along with the current Islamist War puts the whole Marquette Gold story into perspective.

Excited about BlogNashville

I really need to grab a few z's before heading to the airport, but like everytime I travel by plane I get excited and insomnia kicks in. The BlogNashville conference itself should be interesting, but I can't wait to check out some of Music City's nightlife and getting into good conversations with people I've only know through their weblogs.

BlogNashville Mobcast

Speak, Nashville, Speak is a mobcast covering BlogNashville. If you're getting ready to go to Nashville or plan on following the discussions this weekend you can call in and have your comments turned into a podcast. Neat idea.

Notebook Tech Question

My notebook is a Dell Inspiron 1000 and my wifi card is a D-Link DWL-G650. They both are nice to each other and work fine from either my home network or at places that have wifi but do not secure it. When my setup encounters a secured wifi network I get a blue screen of death as soon as the card detects it. In preparation for BlogNashville I want to ask my tech readers what the problem could be. I suspect it might be a problem with the bios. I've never updated a computer's bios so I'm a little gun shy. If all else fails, I'll just pick up a cheap, non-D-Link wifi card before I leave Friday.

Volunteering at BlogNashville

I'm having an awful time with TypeKey on the BlogNashville site. So I will announce here that I am planning on being at the Military Blogging, Faith-Based Blogging, and Protecting Bloggers sessions and can help with monitor the IRC chat rooms.

"Volunteers Needed! Recording & Streaming Sessions and IRC Chat"

Should I Rent?

I'm about 75% of the way to convincing myself to go to BlogNashville. The accomodation part seems in order (thanks, Bob Cox). Unfortunately, I think I missed the boat last week on some good airline deals, but no mere mortal can really understand airline ticket pricing. My question is should I rent a car? Transportation to the conference will be provided (again thanks, Bob), and I think the hotel's within walking distance of some Nashville sites--assuming I have any time. What do you think?