So my Twitter address gets posted in Jason's UStream chat, and all of a sudden my inbox explodes:

Names removed to protect the innocent.

Dave Winer writes that Techmeme is "officially" a cesspool, now that bloggers will write linkbait just to get on the Techmeme leaderboard. (Little-known fact: all search engines are also cesspools by the same reasoning.) Specifically, he singles out Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble for writing attention-getting linkbait pieces (much like he himself is doing):

"I'm thinking of this idiotic post by an idiot [Jason] who's known for saying idiotic things just to get attention." #

"Scoble [...] is rapidly rising. How's he doing it? By saying extreme things that people will react to. Scoble ain't no idiot. If he wants to rise on the list, he rises." #

So Jason's an idiot, Scoble "ain't no idiot," and the verdict on Dave Winer, who fell for both bloggers' linkbait, is still out.

P.S. Dave - what's up with the tinyurl links? If you need more disk space on your server to handle all of the extra bytes needed by full-length URLs, I'll take up a collection to buy you some more storage.

According to his blog, Jason's going to drop it like it's hot tomorrow at GnomeDex; could this be the introduction of his long-awaited boy band?

The long national nightmare is over: the beta of Netscape Navigator 9.0 has finally been released to the public.

Read the official announcement here.

Read a more informal introduction to the browser here.

Download it here.

Read the release notes here.

Discuss it here.

C.K. Sample III describes the last two years of working in various start-up environments inside and outside of AOL. I found this part especially interesting:

Aside: I must take a moment here to implore everyone at AOL: release the new Netscape Browser. I’ve played with early versions of it and it’s great. The best browser out there. You will reap great rewards and good faith from the Internet community if you would simply release the bugger. The people who used to be my team worked hard on that thing and they deserve to see it released. It’s Firefox, but better.

Amen.

I'm taking some time off from blogging... I'll be back on:

(Check back then... :-)

Verizon, I want fiber straight to my home too. Just put it on Jason's or CK's tab. Thanks!

Love him or hate him, controversial blog-boss Jason Calacanis knows his linkbait. Brooklyn-born Calacanis, formerly the editor of the Silicon Alley Reporter, made a "how-to linkbait me" post on his popular blog, which he writes with his trusty bulldog Toro by his side. (Jason is more recently known for being the impetus behind the relaunch of Netscape.com, which according to some traffic metrics, is now the most popular social bookmarking site on the Web. Kudos to you, Calacanis!)

Of course, I can't mention Jason's blog without linking to this great post from early 2005 where he outlines a typical conversation with a VC regarding the Weblogs, Inc. business. Classic Calacanis! This recent posts detailing what's wrong with PayPerPost is a great read too - his observations are spot-on. Deception never works as a business model. (Or as Jason says, "The fact is no one in the world--NO ONE--wants to be covertly marketed to.")

I remember back in the Silicon Alley days (or the SA days, as we liked to call it), when J-Dawg, Keepsie, and I would hang out late into the night, eating sushi and talking about the last marathon each of us had run. Oh, how we laughed! You might not be able to tell from his blog posts, but Jason is a great guy to just chill out with once you get to know him. Watch out though, because while you're just chilling out, Jason has a way of getting you revved up for the next big thing he's working on. Before you know it, it's 6AM and you've been up all night working on prototypes and proofs-of-concept.

So anyway, back to the linkbait thing. In writing a piece explaining to others how best to linkbait him, hasn't Jason in reality written the most effective linkbait of them all? Think about it - now that people know how to get Jason to link to them, the first thing they'll do is follow the instructions, which include linking to Jason many times over (like maybe to his Twitter page or one of the many Digg articles about him). Now that's smart linkbaiting. The only question is, will anyone fall for it?

I can totally see remixing this with something like the GI Joe theme song.

I wish I had a catchphrase/theme song.

(Download MP3 directly)

CK was right: this would make an awesome ringtone.