To hear today's broadband-addicted geeks talk (er... type), you would think we could replace the nation's 9-1-1 emergency system with an intelligent mashup of Twitter, Instant Messaging, Blogging and RSS feeds. Some expect that in a time of crisis, if the nation's telephone systems are overloaded, that the Web would step in to save the day. But tonight, hours of sluggish Web access, which more closely resembled a Web abscess, only further highlighted to me that we have a long way to go before thinking we've got the ultimate answer.

Around 9 or so this evening, despite having full range of our wireless Internet here at home, I couldn't check e-mail, log on to the company network via VPN, or even load Web sites. Safari would tell me "4 of 15 items" had loaded, and the progress bar would stall. Doubting my wireless, I connected directly via Ethernet to our cable modem, and again, had no success. I even tried to connect to the open WiFi networks from our neighbors, and those that have acted as backups in the past weren't there to save me now.

And it turns out I wasn't the only one seeing issues. Not only was my wife's laptop not getting through, but via BlackBerry, I learned other colleagues were seeing similar slowdowns at their homes, as we all commiserated, complaining we couldn't pass over needed reports. Now nearly four hours later, I still can't log in from my home network, directly connected or otherwise, but did finally find a network which is letting me perform the basics - finally send an abbreviated update, catch up on Google Reader, check my standings on Ballhype, and synchronize all e-mail. A quick scan of Google News on e-mail and Web outages didn't find any results. It could be the issues were too localized to be news, or we have set such a low standard that nobody even finds such failures, whether from Comcast or AT&T or other providers, to be newsworthy.

The Internet has become such a lifeline for communication for work, friends, family and news that to cut it off or slow down access would have dramatic economic and social impact. It drives me completely batty when there are any delays at all. So while we may all murmur about how real-world traffic will be impacted by last night's truck explosion in the East Bay, and discuss alternatives, here in the Web world, we're not that much better prepared. This network is not redundant, and a single accident, intentional or otherwise, could leave us in the dark. I had a taste of that this evening, and that was enough.

Engadget's Ryan Block asks the question today. "Is Engadget’s daily wall-to-wall coverage too much of a good thing?" Are subscribers to the Engadget feed, who can anticipate upwards of 30 new stories a day, inundated by having too much to read, some of which might not find their fancy?

The issue is a very real one for us on the bleeding edge of information consumption. For those of us RSS wonks who have upwards of 100 or so individual feeds, finding the time to read hundreds of posts on all topics can be a demanding task. I consistently scroll through 500 or so articles on Google Reader every weekday, and about half that number on the weekend. Engadget is one of the most prolific blogs, usurping even ESPN.com's main feed.

According to my Google Reader Trends, Engadget posted 28.3 items per day over the last 30 days. Of those 848 items, I read 100% of them. Only an aggregate newsfeed I developed for work was more busy, tagging me with new items 42.7 times a day. The other mega-feeds? ESPN.com with 26.8 items, TechMeme with 22.8, Slashdot with 20.4, Eschaton with 18.5, Talking Points Memo with 15.2, Daily Kos with 14.6, and Mashable with 14.4 posts daily.

Combined, those alone tally more than 200 posts a day, good for 40% of my reading. But in terms of quality over quantity, Engadget is among the very best. I've considered unsubscribing from Slashdot, which seems to lag Digg or Engadget these days. I actually did unsubscribe from Boing Boing a few weeks ago because the signal to noise ratio was too high. I've also considered reducing my political feeds like Eschaton and Talking Points Memo, which tend to be duplicates or feature too many "New Open Thread" type posts that don't add value to the RSS reader.

As Ryan asks what the solution is, I would argue that in Engadget's case, it's not to write less through reducing the amount of posts that are accepted. Instead, it's to better let readers know that reduced sets of feeds are available on specific topics. Engadget, like ESPN.com and other busy sites, offers the ability to subscribe to channels dedicated to Gaming, HDTV, Storage or Wireless, for example. Rather than get all 30 stories a day, the focused reader would get 2 to 10. It's not about reducing options, it's about being a smarter consumer.

I see the onus to be on the reader to better maintain their consumption of news than it is on the newsmaker to reduce their output. In the world of massive information, we as consumers should get ever more adept about how we get our news, and how we share it. So Ryan, don't worry about us being forced to read too much. Let us make the hard decisions, and you keep focused on bringing the news.

As Oakland A's partial season ticket holders, my wife Kristine and I have seen more than our fair share of excellent baseball games - from Marco Scutaro's walkoff 3-run home run against the Yankees a few weeks ago to Huston Street striking out the Giants' Barry Bonds to close out the 9th inning last season, and many more nail biters. Today's game was quite different, in that for once, the A's posted a significant early lead, and held on to it to collect the win. We even managed to get to the game early enough to collect a pair of bobbleheads featuring A's gold glove third baseman, Eric Chavez.

The A's early 2007 season can be characterized as being short on offense, by both teams. The A's haven't scored much, and their starting pitchers have been lights out. Today, only of those things was true. Ace Danny Haren, leading the league in ERA, went 7 1/3 innings, and saw his team pound out six runs in the first, at one point leading the Devil Rays by a 12-2 margin, on the back of three run home runs by rookie Travis Buck in the 1st inning, and later, the aforementioned Chavez, who managed to sneak a long poke fair after two close calls that ended up being long strikes. While the bullpen stretched out the final score to a 12-5 victory, the 26,000+ of us in attendance could relax, enjoy the 80 degree Spring weather and enjoy a comfortable A's win, which at times seems a rarity.

The art of obtaining an A's bobblehead isn't much of a secret. Take the game's starting time (today it was 1:05 p.m.), subtract two to three hours, and make sure you get there on time. For us, we toddled in at 11:00 a.m., and found the line to get into the Coliseum stretched from the BART bridge down to the parking lot, and in a serpentine fashion, the line snaked up and back three times. A humble usher held a sign that said "End of Line" to let you know you really did have to go the end, and couldn't line jump to aid your chances. Though wary we would miss out, as we have before, we dutifully trudged to and fro until we were presented with the much-desired collectables. The Eric Chavez figurines now join other bobbleheads on our roster, including Haren, Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher. One of our new bobbleheads will be placed on the cubicle wall of my colleague, with whom I share a collection.

Our devoted fandom was hardly out of order in today's crowd. Others had shown up hours before we had, placing down blankets, eating Krispy Kreme donuts or playing cards to pass the time before the lines opened. It may not have been the latest Star Wars premiere or video game console release, but the demand was certainly there. We were lucky to both get our bobbleheads and see a great game in great weather to boot. The only downside was coming in record proximity to grabbing a foul ball in the first inning that made its way to a 7 year-old two seats to my right. It's not really worth retelling, but I'll just say that I hope for my next opportunity, I'll be more prepared.

LinkedIn is slowly but surely working to implement some of the more low-hanging fruit features I suggested the professional networking site adopt this last March (See: 10 More Suggestions for LinkedIn). After quickly knocking out a resume to PDF feature (#5 on the list), the company has now taken on the most public but integral feature (#10 on the list) by starting a corporate blog.

In late March, Steve Ganz, head Web developer at LinkedIn, in a comment on this site, said the debut of the company's corporate blog was "imminent", and now that day has come. The company evangelist, Mario Sundar, joined LinkedIn just last month, but is ready to start promoting all things LinkedIn. His first post says, "If you’re looking for a singular information source on LinkedIn with regular updates on upcoming product features, tips-and-tricks, and events or if you’d just like to hear about all the fun stuff associated with working at LinkedIn, you have reached the right place."

Congratulations to LinkedIn for offering a very-useful service and for continued growth. We appreciate the efforts and look forward to more progress. Don't forget, if you like louisgray.com, let's get LinkedIn!

(Additional coverage: Mashable)