Dear readers,
Squawker recognizes that this blog is overdue for a fresh post.
Squawker apologizes.
Squawker will be taking the weekend to mull fresh material. He'll be back Sunday afternoon with gobs of good stuff and a renewed commitment to keeping the blog fresh and spicy.
Until then -- here's wishing you an enjoyable weekend.
Squawker
Squawker's taking a brief respite from blogging for the next couple days or so.
Meanwhile, if you're particularly bloggy, hit up this survey. It'll help what appears to be a worthwhile research project.
Peace.
University students, including Penn Staters, delight in RateMyProfessors.com. Collegians can post reviews of their profs there, straight from the hip.
Penn Staters at the University Park campus alone have panned, celebrated and rolled their eyes at hundreds of faculty members.
But now, as InsideHigherEd.com reported Monday, professors have their own outlet.
It's the Rate Your Students blog, and it's fast making the rounds in cyberspace.
I guess I'm lucky that my C-earning rump is out of the Ivory Tower.
I'm taking a winter break for the next week or so. Will return when I'm rested, rejuvenated and chapped.
Keep it real.
Update on Sunday: Now seeking a guest blogger to keep the blog active until my official return. Will advise ...
Squawker's taking the weekend off. Will return Monday morning with material to thrill, entertain, educate and fulfill your life.
More than a year has elapsed since I started this blogging thing.
To be honest, never did I expect it would fly this long.
It was summer '04 when this blog first emerged as an arm of the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, then deeply immersed in covering the presidential race. Blogs were a big buzz -- not just for Knight Ridder (the CDT's corporate parent), but everywhere. Wonkette came into her own. Bloggers scored media passes to the party conventions in Boston and New York.
The old-school reporter in me was more than a little taken aback. It all felt like a big experiment. It was cool to be part of it, yeah. But I figured it would soon vaporize and wash away after the presidential election, another trend tried and dismissed.
Returning to the CDT last fall, I was sure that I -- and the rest of the blogging world -- would fail to maintain the election-season momentum. The blog world seemed too fragmented, too uneven, too wildly inaccurate and too bizarre to survive for the duration.
My doubts were ill-placed.
The Washington Post this week has published two stories attesting to the continued power of the blog. A front-page Post story today profiles the "cyber-catharsis" enjoyed by uber-personal bloggers, and an earlier one looks at blogs' growing popularity among federal legislators.
Plus, Yahoo! News has begun pairing its conventional news offerings with blog links, the AP reported yesterday.
So, here's something to chew on:
Are blogs here to stay or still a fad? What will be their role in evolution of the Internet? How have they affected your reading habits?
And should we be scared?
Let's get Squawker's Comments section fired up.
State College blogger Aaron Wall is in hot water.
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports this week, an Internet company is taking him to court over some comments left by readers in his blog.
The court case against Wall could help clarify still-unresolved issues concerning free speech in blogs, the PPG report suggests.
Wall's blog -- unlike this one -- isn't backed up by some elephant-sized corporation, so he's left to defend himself.
I don't envy him that.
As Adelphia forges ahead with its plan to transfer Centre County cable operations to Comcast, Squawker issues a friendly reminder:
A colleague at The Philadelphia Inquirer, reporter Tony Gnoffo, keeps track of Comcast in his own blog, On Comcast.
It's a good way to get the pulse of the Philly-based cable giant. Gnoffo covers Comcast for The Inquirer.
Enter the new CentreSquawker.
After more than a year on the Google-owned Blogger system, Squawker has migrated to Typepad. It's a slicker, more expensive blogging system now favored by the mothership, Knight Ridder, which owns the Centre Daily Times.
Moving up to Typepad is like trading an '88 Ford for a '99 Mercury.
Unlike Blogger, Typepad lets our Web gurus track with uber precision just how much you're reading Squawker, where you're reading it from, and when you're reading it.
Hey, we watch things, including you. It's what we do.
Plus, this format should make it easier for blogaholics to post comments.
And since your commentary is a lot more interesting than mine, that makes for a very happy Squawker. (Squawker, who accidentally deleted much of his Blogger-based blogging, also delights in the realization that Typepad blogs are tougher to shut down.)
We're still working out some minor points in this new system, such as the e-mail link and the blogroll and whatnot. Those'll be worked out soon. So change your bookmarks, get comfortable and enjoy our new curves.
CentreSquawker is a blog produced and managed by Centre Daily Times reporter Adam Smeltz as part of CentreDaily.com.
