You just gotta give it to the guy. Genius isn’t in it. Jason Calacanis has just written not only the funniest post I’ve read in a while, but also the smartest traffic-hoovering machine in years. I’d call it the industrialization of backlink aggregation. Google watch out — Professor Moriarty is on the case.

Now, if you think I’m doing this post to get a link back from Jason, get a life! His post tickled me puce, that’s all.

Oh, and did I mention he is former Editor of Silicon Alley Reporter, “once profiled in New Yorker piece…,” former GM of Netscape, Brooklyn born, or “his trusty bulldog Toro by his side.”?

His injunction, “DO lie and say we hung out one night back in the Silicon Alley days or after a conference and that I’m actually a really cool guy once you get to know me.” is not possible since I NEVER lie. I once sang a duet with Elvis though.

He ends : If you follow these “Calacanis Link Bait” strategies I will link to you. If you just come out and beat me up I probably won’t… so, there you have it “how to get a link from Calacanis.”

I suspect this is a clever way of using his campaign against SEO, which I totally agree with in an unflashy sort of way, to practise a little of it himself.

Darren at Problogger take note, you have serious competition.

From today’s Times (London) :

Web 2.0 may be destroying civilisation. That, at least, is the view of Andrew Keen, a Silicon Valley-based British entrepreneur and author. He has written The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture (due out in June), which argues that the web is an anti-enlightenment phenomenon, a destroyer of wisdom and culture and an infantile, Rousseau-esque fantasy. “It’s the cult of the child,” he says. “The more you know, the less you know. It’s all about digital narcissism, shameless self-promotion. I find it offensive.”

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.

The panic in the blogosphere is palpable. Some rotter hacked into Wordpress 2.1.1 before the code was released, potentially allowing Al Quaeda a backdoor into our homes. Well, that’s how it sounds.

We are being urged by all manner of worthies to upgrade IMMEDIATELY to WP 2.1.2.

Now that’s all very well, but I guess the majority of users will be on hosted servers and rely on Fantastico (or its equivalent) to present upgrade options. I just checked on one of our hosted servers and the upgrade option is — you guessed it — 2.1.1, and has been for days. It’s still there as I type at 11.30 GMT Sunday morning, March 4.

Shouldn’t someone at Wordpress ping the Fantasticos and tell them, “Houston, we have a problem”? Come on Matt. I can hear Osama sharpening his sword.