Jason Kottke has quit his day job and is making a go of blogging full time. Needless to say, I hope that it works out financially and in terms of general fulfillment.

John Robb says that Google’s decision to add content modification features to their toolbar via Auto Links could give Microsoft the ammunition to kill them. I’m not sure I agree, but it’s an interesting thought.

Update: Ed Felten says that Google’s Auto Links don’t cross the line in terms of damaging publishers.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been following the debate about Larry Summers’ comments regarding the lack of women in the science and engineering fields with interest, mainly because it seems like every big brained person around has weighed in. The debate has encompassed gender differences, differences in how men and women are treated in the workplace, and academic freedom, and much of it has been fascinating. Of particular interest are the comments of Richard Posner, Brad DeLong, and William Saletan. My own opinion on whether there are biological differences in aptitude between men and women? I honestly have no idea, and I have no idea how you’d prove the case for either side.

One thing that comes out is that Summers did himself a great disservice by keeping the transcript under wraps for as long as he did. Rarely do people sound as bad in context as they do when they’re taken out of context. Summers should have published the transcript as soon as his comments became news.

I was planning on writing a searing post about the sleazeballs behind USANext, complete with illustrations, but honestly, everybody else has already done it and who has the energy? Now that the same people behind the Swift Boat Veterans for “Truth” are running a smear campaign on the AARP, must we continue to labor under the illusion that these people are somehow distinct from the political operation in the White House? What kind of life form must one be to devote one’s professional career to being a political hit man? Anyway, I don’t have the energy to write about this at length. If you want details, check out any other left-leaning weblog.

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), my local paper, takes on bloggings by way of the Public Editor’s column. The writer, Ted Vaden, drops this bomb toward the bottom of the column:

(There aren’t many good local sites yet, but for an example, check out OrangePolitics.org, a lefty look at Chapel Hill politics.)

That hurts. It really does. I won’t feel personally insulted, though, because I rarely bring up my locale.

Looks like plenty of torture took place right here at home as well as overseas. Can the shame go much deeper?

Jay Rosen has many interesting things to say about the New York Times acquisition of About.com. He also explains the weblog approach to search engine optimization:

And they’re finding themselves without much knowledge of how to show up in search. I’m a blogger, not a company. I couldn’t tell you if this page has the proper meta-data– or any. My search engine optimization method is to get a lot of links by writing something original and useful that people will elect to recommend at their own sites. It works (sometimes.) But only because my links don’t expire.

Anil Dash has already proven that this approach works. For what it’s worth, Anil’s entry is still the number one result in Google for nigritude ultramarine.

Rogers Cadenhead looks at the new AutoLinks feature of the Google Toolbar and rules it overly invasive.

Hunter S. Thompson died yesterday, via self inflicted gunshot wound. Sad but not surprising.

J’eanne D’Arc has three posts worth reading. They concern: actual outrages, why we should oppose them, even if we won’t win, and the degree to which Democrats are mailing it in. Most days it seems like there’s nobody in Washington with a conscience.

Update: And here’s another to prick the conscience if you need it.