/dev/null/kevin

Catchy headlines are the surest way a newspaper can get people to read a story.  I use the exact method on this blog.  There should, however, still be some meat to the story/post, else you become The Boy who Blogged "Wolf."

Take this headline, for example:

Feinstein Gives Details On Secret Clinton-Obama Meeting

Wow!  Secret details!  I must read this story.

Here are the details:

Earth-shattering.

But the true irony is this line:

So in reality, Senator Diane Feinstein didn't give any details.

But that makes for a much less alluring headline.

Clinton and Obama Meet, Reporter Gets Nothing and Likes It!

Why am I the #1 Sun blog today?  Go read Jonathan's blog!  He made an attempt to be funny, complete with legalese and dolphins, or something.  You're putting me on his radar!

Move along.  Nothing to see here.  If you're looking for an April Fool's Day prank, try the Do It Yourself Rick Roll.

Be careful what you first name your blog entry.  When Roller saves your entry for the first time it creates the Permalink URL from the blog title.  This URL never changes, even if you change the blog entry's title.

I can't count the number of times I've had a spelling error, or some other issue, that's preserved for all time in the Permalink.

Take this blog, for example.  It started off with a much different concept.  You'll have to examine the Permalink to see what it was.

Now if anyone diggs or slashdots this entry (no real chance of that) that's the URL people are going to see.

Today's Scoble lament really hit home with me.  Riding the web 2.0 social networking wave is harder for a 40+ year old than a 20-something college student.

When I went to college in the 80s I could email my dad.  That was pretty much it besides other students.  Today, I've got the whole extended family using email (even grandma).  They also read my blog about my daughter, but they don't use RSS feeds.  I use the blogdrive.com service because it can be configured to send email to people when I post.  Otherwise, they'd never know to check.  Web 2.0 is about interaction but the family doesn't get that part.  They don't leave comments on the blog.  I might get an email from my mom that she liked the latest blog and pictures, but that's about it.  Twitter, Facebook, etc., are all foreign words to them.

Last night I spent part of the night explaining what Twitter was to my wife, and that I'm not having an affair with Veronica Belmont because I subscribe to her twitter feed.  She's a work in progress, my wife.  I finally got her to enable her IM client more regularly so that's helped to cut down on the one-sentence emails

I also captain a hockey team and our roster averages about 39 years old.  I use email and evite to coordinate the team.  I was looking to use some other Web 2.0 tools but after an impromptu survey I found that my team was as ignorant as my family when it came to new technology.  Besides email, the next "best" tool people used was IM, but only about 25% of the team.  Again, no one used Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku and the like.  Many of these guys work in high tech, too.

The same can be said for my college friends.  I still see many of them when I play in my band.  Email and Yahoo Groups are enough for them.  Most of my social networking friends are from Sun and the blogger community.  That's not a bad thing, but it would be nice to be able to tell an inside joke every once in a while.

So, am I just ahead of my time?  Will my family and friends catch up like they did with email?  Or am I just an old man playing with kids' toys?