For some reason this story scares me. Not to be a hater, but, Windows Vista, really? Windows 7 is so good. Just wait a few months!

If you haven’t been following Top Conservatives on Twitter shut down for a day last week because of internal squabbles and is now going through some kind of complicated negotiation process that I frankly don’t understand and don’t care about. I have written about TCOT (followup) before after the sites owners started using it to push candidates and push the buttons of others while using the list as leverage with elected officials. It appears that may have been a point of contention this time around as well. I don’t know, I don’t care. Frankly the squabbling is childish, counterproductive and a site could be built in about ten seconds to fill the void if it ever went down permanently, so I wouldn’t get all bent out of shape if it doesn’t survive.

With all of that said, #TCOT has played a major role in building up a very strong grassroots online right community and it should survive and should move forward without all of these childish antics. I have suggested many improvements to the site since the beginning, many of which I still believe in. I also suggested creating guidelines for how the list is leveraged and have always wanted to see it more transparent. Now might be the time to get that worked out so this kind of infighting and shutting down stunts and posturing will never happen again and we can all move forward peacefully and without sending a giant “we suck” message to the world.

I know right now many people are working on the sites future and I wish them the best. I have a few suggestions and wanted to share.

#1 End the TOP part of TCOT

I believe the site should have a list and that list should be sortable by how many followers a user has. It should also be sortable by how many people they follow and likewise how much they have tweeted. These should just be elements though, things you can do but not the destination. The entire notion of ranking “top” users doesn’t tell us much. There are many people who only use their followers as people to be sold too. There are other users who actually engage with many of their followers but you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference simply by looking at the list.

I have always been one for quality not quantity and in the early days was often annoyed by the endless begging for followers, the incessant posts about new followers, how people were moving up on the follower list, then more begging, and of course others begging to beat the beggers. It wasn’t fun and if we can end that waste I for one would be happy.

#2 Clean up the list, regularly

There are dozens of SEO salespeople, dead accounts and spammers on the list. Again quality vs. quantity. Additionally people on the list should actually tweet. There are a lot of accounts that were once active but now don’t update. Why does someone who never posts need followers? Get them off there and set some kind of limit. Don’t post for a few months, no need to be there. Never posted once? No need to be there.

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This weekend The Buffalo Bean, Buffalo Pundit & Buffalo Geek were all on the Hardline with Kevin Hardwick radio program. Unfortunetly I missed it because I was not near a computer and ironically was on my way to Buffalo but out of range while they were on (was just leaving Rochester and heading down route 31 toward Lockport). If anyone heard and would like to share what happened on the program please let me know. If audio becomes available I will link and would love to listen.

I think blogger exchanges on MSM are great ways of bridging the old with the new and I know Buffalo Bean and I LOVE getting into Twitter spats with Buffalo Pundit; he seems to at least tolerate the back-and-forths. He might secretly enjoy them, I don’t know.

Barack Obama came to town and decided that subsidizing digital television converter boxes was a top priority on his agenda. After the Senate voted unanimously to join in his plan to delay a transition that has been repeatedly delayed for years because of typical government incompetance, the House voted yesterday to keep the date certain for shutting off analog TV and not wasting everyones time with yet another delay.

13 Democrats joined 155 Republicans in striking down an extension. 22 Republicans joined 236 Dems in voting to extend the transition.

Two interesting articles you should check out concerning Obama and technology. First from John C. Dvorak who writes about his ideas on how Obama can save the computer scene.
1) New focus on R&D with emphasis on tax cuts & investment,
2) Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley:

Sarbanes-Oxley makes it nearly impossible for an American start-up to make a public offering and survive it. Designed to curb the excesses and crookedness that lurked behind the Enron scam, MCI, and other financial catastrophes that took place in the early part of the decade, this law contributed to the out-and-out financial meltdown we are now witnessing. And how did it benefit anyone?

What Sarbanes-Oxley has done is add an outrageous reporting burden, which costs an estimated 4 percent of revenue to implement. All American corporations are immediately put at a disadvantage to the tune of 4 percent off the top. And what’s the point of these new requirements? Simply to get accounting firms off the hook for cooked books or criminal activity. It has nothing to do with protecting the public, just protecting the accounting firms.

Venture capitalist Tim Draper once told me that a company has to make $300 million a year to be able to afford the overhead required to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. Less than that and public corporations just bleed to death.

The second article is from Wired: Can Obama Really Reboot the White House that looks over the hurdles that will face Obama’s pledges to bring tech to the administration.

I haven’t been as in touch with the RNC race as I should BUT luckily the guys over at the online radio program American Resolve have been doing a great job covering it. Tonight they have Ken Blackwell & Renee Amoore on. Check out the show announcement below:

Ken Blackwell, latecomer-turned-frontrunner in the 2009 RNC chairman race, and Renee Amoore candidate for RNC co-chair will join Matt Margolis, Patrick E. Bell and Ali A. Akbar on The American Resolve, once again putting this show at the forefront of the RNC Chair race and it’s new role in new media. Ken Blackwell will be join us at 6:10 PM and Renee Amoore at 6:35 PM. You can submit questions or call in at the appropriate time. Be sure to check out our twitter: http://twitter.com/americanresolve

New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco is fighting proposed taxes on digital music at www.stoptheitax.com. Kudo’s not only to Tedisco for working to stop taxation but also embracing technology to do it.

(H/T Monroe Rising)

I wanted to allow for some time and distance before following up on my last post #TCOT Dome or a misunderstanding? The post received a little attention being linked from The American Spectator and The National Review Online. While no real response came from Michael Patrick Leahy (MPL) that I saw, his Web site TCOTReport.com linked to this site and the others who linked to my post; acknowledgment of the backlash stemming from his call for the RNC chair Mike Duncan to withdraw from the RNC leadership race that included language and was followed by actions that I and others felt gave the impression he was speaking on behalf of all of us on #TCOT.

It was suggested his actions were agreed upon ahead of time by conference call discussions. I have since confirmed, through several different sources, that the calls only included a small minority of those who appear on the #TCOT list. Of the 1500 or so members on the list at the time, only about 16 were on the line when it was agreed MPL would write his blog post.

The original intent of my post was to start a conversation and one did ensue for a short time. I have received several comments on this blog, direct messages on Twitter, and e-mails from those who shared my thoughts on the issue and those who had opposing viewpoints. Everyone who discussed the issue with me was civil and understanding of both sides. It was the kind of dialogue I really enjoy and was hoping for.

There were some other conversations between #TCOT members that were not as civil or constructive. Several members were called “trolls” and told they were acting as “sour pusses” when they expressed their concerns about MPL’s behavior. These members appear to feel alienated and some still believe their concerns are not being addressed. That is unfortunate but expected. Not every argument has a positive resolution.

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For those who haven’t been following a little back and forth taking place on the social networking site Twitter, let me bring you up to speed. A band of conservative Twitter users have been organizing around a project started by Michael Patrick Leahy called Top Conservatives on Twitter or #TCOT (On twitter # is used to signify a hashtag to organize discussions). This organizing is based around a list that counts how many Twitter followers conservatives have ranking them on the #TCOT Web site. All of us participating are encouraged to follow others on the list giving those users who participate in this project an easy way to gain readership.

Some use the site simply as a vehicle to promote their accounts, their blogs or their messages. Many participate in discussions, make friends, and recently Leahy and others began encouraging the creation of projects where #TCOT users organize into small groups and accomplish tasks. Additionally a Web site modeled after the Drudge Report follows the list and pushes news.

Yesterday something took place that was a bit jarring to several members on the list and myself. Leahy weighed in on the RNC chair race by scorning current chairman Mike Duncan and declaring he should withdraw from the race. In his blog post Leahy made frequent mention of #TCOT and its ranks. What most startled myself and some others was the following:

“I speak only for myself, but as co-founder of #TCOT I can say with complete certainty that my views represent the vast majority of the #TCOT community.”

Leahy’s actions to promote the article, putting it as a giant header on TCOTreport.com and filling the #TCOT discussion with notes of Duncan’s ineptitude followed. Leahy also appeared to suggest on Twitter that Duncan’s lack of response to his posting or appearance on #TCOT was further evidence he should withdraw. This appeared like a unilateral action by Leahy using the list as leverage to further his agenda.

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I love talk radio and I love my iPhone so I am happy to present a quick rundown on how you can combine both. Plenty of radio stations stream their content online but because of a number of iPhone limitations, like Flash support, simply going to a station’s Web site doesn’t always work.

Luckily there are several applications out there that let you stream content to the iPhone. My favorite is FlyCast which is 100% free and also available for other Smartphones.

In addition to FOX News Radio Flycast gives you access to all the heavy hitters including Rush, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and more. To help you out I put together a quick table of stations to check out and the times you can listen to various shows.

iHeartRadio (Also available on Blackberry)

Another program that I have been using is iHeartRadio. Check out the following stations

55KRC Cincinnati
5am-9am 55KRC Morning Show – Brian Thomas
9am-12pm Glenn Beck
12pm-3pm Rush Limbaugh
3pm-6pm Sean Hannity
6pm-7pm Simply Money
7pm-10pm Michael Savage
10pm-12am Mark Levin
12am-5am Coast to Coast

570 KNRS Utah
5am-9am Bob Loonsberry
9am-10am Glenn Beck (part of show)
10am-1pm Rush Limbaugh
1pm-4pm Dr. Laura
4pm-7pm Glenn Beck (Full show)
7pm-10pm Dave Ramsey
10pm-5am Coast to Coast