The vicious abuse of programmer and technologist Kathy Sierra by a few psychos is deeply regrettable but sadly, par for the course.

Human life is a matrix of the good and the bad, the sublime and the appalling. In an open communications medium like the internet, each of these qualities will be represented. In fact, the bad and the appalling will be in evidence more than might be expected numerically as these people will be filtered out of most other channels by editorial barriers.

This is not new, of course. It has been present since the start of the online world and of blogging in particular. Freedom of speech can never eliminate the horrendous or it would not be freedom of speech.

The internet is the only really free broadcasting recourse for foul-mouthed abuse of the kind Kathy Sierra has endured for almost a month, which includes death threats.

What can be done about it?
Firstly, it shouldn’t be beyond modern police forces to track down the individuals concerned. I suspect they will be revealed as sad cases rather that dangerous urban terrorists.

Secondly, Kathy Sierra should get her life back on track. She is sure to have enormous support and sympathy at the conferences she addresses. Locking herself in her home will only give victory to the bad guys at the expense of her lifestyle and career.

There’s a big Techmeme discussion on this topic.

I’ve long been an advocate of the convergence of print and pixel formats. Each has something to learn from the other, and, despite the insistent claims, the online world will not replace print in a clean sweep any time soon.

Despite the obvious limitations of long text pieces online, there’s yet another outbreak of print-death fever going around. Tim O’Reilly has heard whispers that the San Francisco Chronicle is in “serious trouble” and is laying off journalists and staff. Dave Winer wades in with a thoughtful contribution, while Robert Scoble trumpets, “Newpapers are dead”.

The problem with that kind of headline is that this is a complex situation with many variations and possible outcomes. Certainty is not an option here.

Newspapers have been in trouble as long as they have existed. I can name a dozen national titles that went out of business in Britain in the 20th century. It happens — all the time. One failure doesn’t necessarily signal the end of an industry.

Most UK national newspapers now put their whole output openly on websites. They break news online and follow up in later print issues with in-depth analyses and commentary. They also give away DVDs and lottery cards with the print version and have a sizeable magazine-type feature-set aimed at specific demographics. Not many of their customers want to turn their computers on to access all of that when they can buy it in a convenient print bundle for around a dollar while they’re on the move.

As newspapers become more like daily magazines, with retrospective analysis of news already broken on TV and online, urban populations are still buying print products in large quantities. The evening papers, for example, are bought by returning commuters to make their homeward journey a little more bearable and to catch up on the stories of the day. Local papers are increasingly the glue that binds the inhabitants of towns and villages together.

What is actually happening is a convergence, not a replacement. Increasingly print publishers are becoming digital publishers, while maintaining their print operations. Imagine the major titles — the FT, WSJ, NYT, or Times (London) — without their immensely prestigious paper versions. They would lose considerable traction in the marketplace without them.

We forget at our peril that most people like the reassuring feel of a “real world” product in their hands. They go online for certain types of information, but relax with a book or magazine.

Breaking news is covered better on 24-hour news channels than on websites or blogs. Immediacy is the USP here. Fiction is a pain on-screen. Long, complex, nonfiction is easier to handle in book form, and some subjects are presented far better in print than they are on the internet.

What we’re seeing is a weeding out process that will result in rapidly-changing information migrating online — as it already has — while considered analysis will appear in hybrid formats for different audiences. More reflective, longer-term material and fiction will still remain predominantly the province of print formats and subsequent dramatizations.

It’s often forgotten that new technology has transformed the print world too. On-demand book printing, from disc in tiny batches, is already changing the face of book production and will continue to do so.

Can anyone tell me why a wealthy society shouldn’t support many communications formats to their mutual advantage?

Well, it’s Saturday. I’m not Fatblogging. Be grateful.

Great one-liners have a couple of features in common : they are exquisitely wrought by the writer, and they inevitably contain a touch of the bizarre.

However, if you overdo the bizarre, they can die a Glasgow Empire death. Take this one by Peter Kay, which, incredibly, was recently voted the best one-liner in television comedy history :

“Garlic bread. It’s the future. I know. I’ve tasted it.”

Now that makes you wonder if intelligent life has finally abandoned the planet.

Chandler in Friends was always a source of terrific one-liners and is sorely missed. Fresh material is increasingly hard to come by these days.

All is not lost, though. The BBC, purveyor of the worst comedies in television history, especially on BBC2, has risen to the post-Chandler challenge and produced the finest source of great one-liners in television history the current dismal climate.

The show is called Life on Mars and it’s a police series set in 1973, seen through the eyes of a 21st century cop — don’t ask, but time travel is involved.

Star of the show is DCI Hunt, played with total relish by Phillip Glenister (pictured, right). Hunt is not politically correct. His motto is, “The first one who speaks is guilty.”

So here’s the one-liner of the week, from DCI Hunt :

“He’s as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.”

Wonderful.

If all the words expended on Fatblogging were reflected in results, we’d now be debating the horrors of Size Zero bloggers.

How is it, we would complain, that these skinny wretches can be allowed to practise Fatblogging when they look like matchsticks on stilts?

Well, the answer lies in human nature. Words are rarely turned into reality. The Tao Te Ching says : “He who speaks, does not know. He who knows, does not speak.”

Wise words indeed. It’s the motto of us Thinbloggers.

This is just a preamble to tell you that my Fatblogging efforts lost two whole pounds, only for one of my knees to give out. The result has been three days of keyboard bashing with virtually no exercise. Outcome? It’s all back on again.

Prospects : I still have 7 lbs to lose in 9 days. Will I succeed?

He who knows, does not speak.

We’re getting more than a few inquiries about our forthcoming Moneyizor network magazine. Principally, they concern the shape of the content and the policies behind it. These are mainly coming from people who are considering offering their own sites to the magazine, or applying to write an in-house webtitle.

The top question is, what sites are currently scheduled for Moneyizor, and what are the main categories? So here’s a list of the sites that will be in at the launch :

1. LSE Latest – Supporting an Independent London Stock Exchange.

2. Money Finesse – Personal Finance in the USA.

3. Small Business Booster – Tips and Advice for Success. [NEW]

4. The Money Log – Enrichment Daily.

5. Superdemocracy — A New Art of Corporate Governance.

6. Entrepreneur Latest — [Under Development].

7. Innovation Latest — [Under Development].

And the list is still growing in advance of our mid-April launch.

As for the terms we offer to externally-owned sites, we’re currently looking at a 70/30 split in favour of the client. Other aspects of the deal are still under consideration.

Contact : Moneyizor(at)SyntagmaMedia(dot)com.