Shanti’s Dispatches

Charlie over at Not the London News Reiview says:

My favourite bit of the wholinkstome thing was the introduction over on the right: “Hi, I’m Shanti Braford.”

Shanti Braford…?

…

That’s like the worst (or best) porn name ever.

So, which is it, the worst, or best, porn name ever?

Om had previously reported the rumors.

Now, looks like it’s official.

Not quite as big as the Google/Blogger deal, but still pretty interesting nonetheless.

I picked up a used copy of Burn Rate for a little bubble economy nostalgia.

Not too many insights, until an interesting take on what Rolling Stone, Playboy and Wired all have in common:

Jann Wenner, with Rolling Stone, created a magazine that made its readers feel that every other reader was hipper and druggier and had a better record collection than you. Hugh Hefner created a magazine that made you feel that everyone else was having sex but you. And Louis Rossetto, in Wired, created perhaps the most exclusive (or excluding) magazine of all. Its challenge was, Do you get it? Can you get it? Can you even follow the type on this page, you linear so-and-so?

Does anyone actually read Wired anymore, other than when a well-respected blogger links to them?

I remember the glory days of Internet info-consumption. There was the holy trinity for every tech geek: Slashdot, Wired and CNet

That was all you really needed. A few refreshes throughout the day on Slashdot, and you pretty much had your tech media consumption fill for the day. Blogs changed all that. Though, if you want to get technical, Slashdot could be considered one of the original groups blogs out there.

I respect many of the writers on Wired, but as an institution, it no longer carries the same weight that it once held. The boundaries between writer/publisher/editor are crumbling. Magazines like Wired are disintermediaries. Now the disintermediaries are getting disintermediated!

Why do you need Wired when you can read its authors musings on their blogs? Let alone read the blogs of the very sources that they interview for the articles. Usually they’re just drumming up a piece on something you already read about on a blogger’s site last week, anyway! All I can say is, good luck, Wired. You’re gonna need it.