What I'm reading....

I regularly forward some articles I read to a former boss of mine. He asked where I get this stuff...and then wanted me to forward everything. So instead I guess I'll try --- once again --- to start posting some of the things I'm reading. We'll see.

1) "The newspaper industry has a devastating history of letting the future of media slip from its grasp." (Via Romenesko).
2) "In the coming year, expect a lot of papers to eliminate money-losing Monday, Tuesday and Saturday editions, dump their classified advertising sections and combine forces with rivals or outsource overseas." According to this post, all options are on the table. Too bad newspaper executives didn't a sense of urgency a few years ago.
3) What is it you do here again?

So I'm finally settled ....

Well, we've found a place here in downtown Dallas, which means I can walk to work. This is a much-needed development for the expanded waistline, which has existed since college.

We still don't have Internet access at home, which means my attempt to start up blogging again is difficult. No, it's not that I haven't ordered Internet service...for I have. From AT&T, which supposedly installed it on Saturday, but I haven't been able to get it working yet.

And no --- it's not user idiocy this time around. I've had to call India twice, and both times the representative said there are "line problems" and a tech would come out to fix it. After the first call, I got a call to say everything is working. I got home and that wasn't true. I've called a second time, got the same excuse, but haven't received an update.

And no, I didn't want DSL. But it was the only service available in my building.

Caspio and frameworks...

Mr. Hartnett up in trendy, swanky Palm Beach Co. gets the nod for finding this interview with David Milliron of Caspio.

Now I'm not as anti-Caspio as a lot of some people, who are way smarter than me. We've seen the blowups between Milliron and various bloggers.

In fact, for full disclosure, I pushed for my current employer to get involved with Caspio when I started back in October.

I think Caspio is absolutely, positively great for allowing reporters to put up searchable tools. Especially if a reporter has pieced together a small database on their own and needs a way to get it out there. But I don't think it's the ultimate solution, either.

But Milliron's quote here really gets me:

"Publishers are looking for tools that do not require huge upfront costs. More and more publishers are outsourcing the creation and maintenance of their database applications. A relative low entry point with a high return on investment is the mantra for today’s online database publishing world."

With all due respect, that's because newspaper owners are dumb. And their schemes, cheap ways and monopolistic haughtiness is what got our industry into the situation we face today.

We need research and development. We need investment in new ways of providing content. And that's not a one-size-fits-all application like Caspio.

Again, I think it serves its role well. But in the end, we need imaginative, new research and development that keeps readers reading our papers and Web sites. Please, no more schemes.