While in Chico this last weekend, my friends and I somehow stumbled into one of those mundane rounds of "Truth or Dare", which ends up being 100% truths, since nobody will accept a dare. Most of these end up being hour-long confessionals of past trysts and unlikely conquests, but one question was asked that stuck with me.

If I could meet any three people in the world who I admire, who would they be?

While I could try to put myself on a lofty, intellectual pedestal, and mention religious leaders, that's not where my mind led. Instead, I came up with three solid names: Stephen King, Steve Jobs and Bill Clinton. Each of these three has defined a legacy, and carved out a place for themselves in history. Each of them, I admire, and for vastly different reasons. Each of them probably has amazing stories to tell, ones I would love to listen to.

Stephen King

I often say that Stephen King is like a modern-day Picasso, but for novels. He has absolutely no peers when it comes to the frequency of books he publishes, their quality, and success. He has redefined the horror genre, to be sure, and while some find his books dark or chilling, he is a fantastic writer who loves his craft. His book "On Writing", which taught the process of novel creation, should be a must-read for any aspiring writer. And those of us who have littered our bookshelves with his stories, from Carrie and Christine to It, The Dark Half, The Stand, Insomnia, and countless others, know that he has a tremendous sense of humor. He is very funny, and has a dry, cutting wit. That he is now on the downside of his career, and that we as a people nearly lost him when he was struck by a car a few years ago, is in itself a horror. I wish we could see him continue to churn out new novels year after year after year. When he finally puts away his pen, I'll truly be at a loss.

Steve Jobs

I actually have met Steve Jobs, if only for a brief moment, in a Palo Alto Apple Store. I've even paid good money to see him speak at MacWorld San Francisco. But with that said, I still find him incredibly intriguing. Though he's not the engineer behind the code that makes the Mac or the iPod unique, he puts his own personal touch on everything Apple. He redefines real marketing, and gives a clinic on how to deliver successful presentations. I literally watch the way he uses slides and keeps an audience's attention to learn tips during my own time in public speaking. Steve Jobs, despite having the spotlight on him for the better part of two decades, somehow manages to not just move technology forward one evolution at a time, but he tries to change the world. He comes across not just as an aggressive, rich, business man, but one who wants to accomplish something notable, and help us do the same.

Bill Clinton

This one might be a tad more controversial, but as time goes by, and we see the stark contrast between his presidency and that following it, what he was able to both accomplish and prevent is remarkable. Bill Clinton, like Steve Jobs, knows how to command attention from an audience, and has the highest level of speaking skills. When he speaks on an issue, he knows it inside and out, and would debate it with a fierce passion. While his personal foibles have been well-documented, much of that comes from a burning intensity to be liked and to be friendly with others. I am sure that if I were to meet Bill Clinton, that he would be able to convince me just why I needed to support one cause over another, on just why his plan for an issue is the best one available, and he could give me example after example on why the other side was wrong and mis-informed. Clinton looks like a guy who would be happy talking shop, playing Hearts, or throwing a Frisbee. He looks a lot like a regular guy who just happened to be ambitious enough to be president. Now, his wife just may have that chance to make history as well. Watching him stay to the side of the spotlight will be very interesting.

I'm sure if I wrote this up in a few weeks' time, other names would rise to the top. Conan O'Brien would be fun to meet. Billy Beane, I've met, but briefly. Bill Gates (out of curiousity). If you had to pick three people, who would they be, and why?

Are the Apple vs. Microsoft wars in full swing now, again? Has Vista's introduction given Microsoft the momentum back, when Apple's Leopard hasn't shown up yet? Does it really even matter? If you read the conversations of the last few days on the blogosphere, you'd find that for many, choosing one brand over the other in an unholy deathmatch is a choice of finality.

On with the links...

VentureFiles: Is the “Cult of Apple” really a cult?
Mark Cuban/Blog Maverick: The FanBoy Culture
Applepeels: Another perspective on Apple as a cult
Daring Fireball: Lies, Damned Lies, and Bill Gates

And in other news, a year away from votes that count, Hillary and McCain look like the early front-runners for the 2008 ballot. Yet, there's a lot more time, and not every candidate (Gore?) is in the race.

MyDD: ARG Polls New Hampshire

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It's hard to believe I'm rapidly approaching the age of 30. It wasn't that long ago that being 30 represented the onset of being a mature adult leaning more toward middle age than being a kid. Now that we're only two months away, the date being April 8th to be precise, from changing my first digit from a 2 to a 3, we're changing our tune. 30 isn't that old. While turning 30 may be too old to start off a career in major league baseball, and while I won't set any records for young entrepreneurialship, there's plenty more to do, and I think we've done alright so far.

That said, I get to see my two best friends from high school reach 30 tomorrow, in what will be a dry run for me. My friends, who I've been close to for half our lives, since bonding together in 9th grade geekiness, are twins who are just 7 minutes apart. They turned 1 together, 10 together, 20 together, and now, 30. Today, my wife and I drove up 200+ miles or so through Northern California, to Chico, where we had gone to high school, and where their family and many friends still live. While the three of us have gone on to our own jobs and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles area, some feel much more comfortable in the smaller, slower, Chico - and could be here forever.

Living in fast-paced Silicon Valley might make me look down on the small town routine, but in an odd twist, the hotel we're staying at actually has free highest-speed wireless access (a must for me), meaning I have better Web speeds here, for free, than I did for $14.95 a night in New York last week. Odd how that is. We'll take it and won't complain. In minutes, though, we'll shut the lid on the laptop and join the real world, one of hugs and handshakes and hellos, with pizza and diet Coke galore. That'll be worth today's drive, as you can't replace a lifetime friendship with anonymous hits on a blog.

Slashdot used to be the ultimate site for all news geek-related. If you got your news article or blog post on the front page of Slashdot, it was hallowed ground, promising tremendous traffic. One of the Internet's new media pioneers, the site relies on users to submit articles, and for these articles to be selected by one of a handful of editors for addition to Slashdot's front page. Yet, for the latest tech news, Digg not only has a wider range of articles, but front-page news hits that community much more quickly. By the time the news hits Slashdot, it's almost guaranteed I've already read it.

Today, it was announced that Viacom asked YouTube to remove more than 100,000 videos, ostensibly for copyright infringement. By early morning, Digg user "tommytrc" posted a Reuters story announcing the demand.

Less than an hour after his submission, the story had received enough Diggs to be considered popular, making the front page. As of 9:30 pacific time, it had received 897 diggs, and 134 comments.



Yet, it wasn't until 7:30 p.m. pacific time that it reached the front page of Slashdot, more than 10 hours later.



The second most recent important story on Slashdot at the same time, covers a growing lawsuit against Nvidia by Vista users who feel misled by the graphics card manufacturer. It reached the site shortly after 5 p.m. Pacific tonight.



Yet, on Digg, the same frustrations toward Nvidia had erupted nearly two days ago, in a piece submitted by "sadonomic" called "Nvidia - Peeing on the Vista Community?", which garnered 570 diggs, and more than 200 comments.



If Slashdot is to regain its lead in tech news against newcomers like Digg, which rely more on community participation and voting than editor moderation, it will have to make massive changes. Unlike traditional journalism, Slashdot's editors don't author original stories, or add much of an editorial bias, so their role as gatekeepers is highly limited. If the site's editors aren't there to add value, but instead, just to add time, users, like me, are going to move to Digg and leave Slashdot behind.