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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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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.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
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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My TIME articles
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Daily Blah for... Sunday, April 04, 2004
You've Got Gmail
Two stories in the magazine this week. First the appetizer:
Here Comes Gmail --? and a Sales Pitch to Boot
By CHRIS TAYLOR
Monday, Apr. 12, 2004
When search giant Google announced on April 1 it was road testing a new Web-based e-mail service, a lot of tech types assumed it was an April Fool's prank: One gigabyte of storage memory per account, for free? Yahoo charges $10 a year for a tenth of that space. Yet Gmail is for real. It sorts, searches and spam-filters your e-mail. Just two catches: it won't be widely available for up to six months (test accounts are being offered only to employees' friends and families right now). Also, every message is sponsored, often based on your text. If the e-mail server spots, say, the word camera in your message, it will append tiny text ads for electronics stores. Google promises that doesn't mean anyone human will be reading your e-mail, but privacy hawks may wish the whole thing had been a joke after all.
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