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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Saturday, June 08, 2002
War Driving Along in my Electromobile / My Laptop Beside Me at the Wheel
After that last entry on Tuesday, I had enormously geeky fun on my first War Drive with my friends Chris and Anne. I haven't felt able to write about it until now because it was for a story in the issue of Time on newsstands Monday. I don't yet seem to be comfortable blogging about scenes that, however small a part they play, are part of a narrative that awaits publication. Anyway, War Driving is the art of going around town plucking public networks out of the air and piggybacking on their Internet connection. Carrying laptops with wireless cards, the passengers see how long they can surf the Web while the driver hunts for appropriate boulevards, the ones where all the geeks live, to cruise down. Even though there's nothing illegal about it -- according to no less a luminary than the FCC chairman -- I felt like the getaway driver in a virtual bank heist in a William Gibson novel. Like I said, enormously geeky fun.
Compounding the futuristic feeling was the fact that this was the inagural spin for my new electic hybrid car, the Prius. Not only is it the only genuine hybrid car on the American market -- using both gas and an electric motor for a better gas mileage and an easier conscience -- but I also found one in purple, and those who know me know how important that last detail is. It was a wrench letting go of my 2000 VW Bug, but it's really no good having a funky style if you're still wholly dependent on oil and despoiling the environment. So there we were, with a dashboard computer screen telling us when we were using gas and when we were using electricity, the iPod playing on a random selection of 2,000 MP3s, and two laptops surfing the web wirelessly using networks that hung in the air around town. "What," I asked my friends, "could be more 21st century than this?"
Anne answered: "Chris is building a firewall."
We all laughed. "I rest my case."
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