Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour Wednesday, September 25, 2002 Interview with John Marcotte, a finalist for the 2002 Dotties web awards. Transcribed by Bill Kendrick [ ... ] ANDY: You know one guest that we permit to return to this microphone more often, perhaps, than any other, is our good friend John Marcotte. He used to be editor of California Computer News, and in the early weeks of this program I could count on him to provide topical and witty and relevant commentary on the world of technology, something I've always appreciated. Well now, rather than writing the news, my next guest John Marcotte is actually IN the news, because John, I understand that you have been nominated for a Dottie. Is this true? JOHN: This is true. Although I will point out that in fairness, being nominated isn't the honor that it might be, because you can nominate yourself, which is how most people end up getting into the Dotties. But, I have gone the step beyond that, and I've been named a finalist, which is a judged category, so they've whittled it down to 5 finalists in the "Weird and Humorous" category, it's for my personal website: BadMouth.net. ANDY: BadMouth.net. And it's weird and humorous. Did you find that yours is more weird or more humorous. JOHN: You know, that was the first thing that came to my mind when i saw that category heading, and I guess it really doesn't matter if I think it's weird or humorous, it's going to be up to the judges, but I think there's plenty of both to be found in BadMouth. I don't think they're mutually exclusive terms, to be honest. ANDY: I agree with you. Now what sort of competition are you facing in the W&H category? JOHN: Well the one that I feel is the biggest threat is Rob Cochrain's "Cockeyed.com", which is a brilliant local website. Rob's a friend of mine. ANDY: You have a long story on him on BadMouth.net, don't you? JOHN: Yes, it's kind of ironic. One of the last things that I put up on BM was a pretty extensive interview that I did with him for WireHed Magazine, a new local technology magazine. And then we both ended up in competition with each other in the W&H category, so the judges come to my site to see what I'm about, and they find a big article telling them how great Rob's site is. That's probably not the smartest thing in the world to have done, but that's the way it is right now. ANDY: Well that's the way it is, and you know, friendship is thicker than water, is that how it goes? ... Anyway, I'm sure that he'll return the favor sooner or later. Certainly, you all have at least a 40% chance of enjoying a fine party if and when one of you wins. JOHN: The TV thing you hear on every award show every: "I'm am honored just to have made it to this point." And if Rob happens to win, I've been the judge for this contest for the past 2 or 3 years, and I've voted for Rob every year in this category, and Rob has always lost, usually to a 'cam girl': Julie-Cam beat him one year, and Zippy the Dog beat him, and I never understood that, because I thought Rob's site was quite good. Now, I won't say who's I thinks is better - it's just that I still think Rob has an excellent site, and I wouldn't be disappointed if he won. ANDY: Now as a judge, is there a sort of, "I as the French judge will vote for the Russians if you vote for my French skater?" Do you have that sort of situation going on, is that a concern? JOHN: As you know, I have ABSOLUTELY no ethics at all. But to be honest, I don't know who the other judges are right now. I think there is a list on the website, but I haven't investigated - I certainly don't know those people, and I won't really meet them until the night of the Dotties. You know, I've never talked to another judge other than the evening of the event, and by that point, all the votes have been cast, so I don't think there's too much politicking going on. And if so, they're not including me, and I'm very hurt. ANDY: I'm sure. Well, obviously an investigation will be in order, but we can save that for after the accountants have handed the envelopes to the host. Now tell us a little bit about the Dotties. It takes place at the Crest Theatre, doesn't it? JOHN: It's the Crest Theatre. It's put on by a couple of local companies. And if I was a little bit smarter, I'll remember who runs the show there. But it's basically Northern California's web awards. The big nation-wide awards are the Webbies, which take place out of San Francisco. This is a little bit more localized. It's basically Sacramento; they're trying to expand it to encompass the entire Sac. valley and maybe even parts of SF, to just focus on No. Cal. websites, and what they have to offer, rather than making it a regional event, compared to the Webbies which are more of a nation-wide event. ANDY: Now at the Webbies you're only allowed to have a very short acceptance speech. Isn't that right? JOHN: That's true. The Webbies acceptance speech is 5 words or less, which sometimes creates rather brilliant moments of inspiration, and other times results in people having virtually nothing to say because they can't figure out how to parse their ideas down to be contained within 5 simple words. ANDY: So the haiku readers and writers, they do very well. JOHN: They do very well. That's the one point in time when they're in demand. ANDY: Plus, you can expect that the winners will have memorized their speech. Right? If they've written it, they've probably committed it to memory. JOHN: That's true. I can't imagine a situation where someone would fail to memorize a 5 word speech. ANDY: I can't either. Now answer me this John: What are some, outside of the one's we've already mentioned, especially BadMouth.net, what are some of the sites that you've really enjoyed as a judge. Are you allowed to speak on that? JOHN: I'm not positive it'd be appropriate to comment, since the voting period is still open. But I will say, if you want to take a look at some of the finer websites you have in Northern California, you can visit the Dotties' website, which is www.thedotties.com, or it's available at www.sacramentowebawards.com, and they have a list of all the finalists that you can check out, and see what is out there. All the sites that have made it to this point we can say are pretty good, so it's not like you'll find too many turkeys in there. And it's really interesting to see how many great sites have been produced that are probably geographically right around the corner from you, and you might have had no idea that they were even there. ANDY: Absolutely. Well, if you'll hold on John, I've got a PSA to play - it'll be that that'll be familiar to you. And then when you come back, I'd like to give you a chance to plug one or two things, and also remind us the URL for your site. We'll be right back with Dottie nominated webmaster John Marcotte. [ LUGOD PSA ] ANDY: Now John, you're hip to the LUGOD scene, aren't you? JOHN: Oh, Bill Kendrick, who is one of the founders of LUGOD, and I are personal friends. LUGOD is a wonderful, wonderful organization out there in Davis. If you want to know more about computers, LUGOD is a great way to get involved in the real nitty-gritty of the computer scene there in Davis. ANDY: I agree with you. I think they've got an event this coming Tuesday. Bill sent me an email about ways of running Windows applications on your Linux box. Do you know anything about this? JOHN: Well there is a program called WINE, which is a Windows emulator for Linux. You can actually run many, many, many Windows applications on the Linux operating system using programs like WINE. There are other modifications to the Linux O.S. People have taken the Open Source, free Linux O.S. and made their own modifications. There's an O.S. called Lindows, which is half Linux, half Windows, that they're putting on some very inexpensive computers - they've even made it into the commercial realm, so that you can go down and buy them. If you buy a really, really inexpensive computer, one of the ways they probably saved money was by not buying Windows, which might add several hundred dollars to the cost of the computer, and instead including something like Lindows, which is free. ANDY: Wow. Well, we'll have to keep that in mind. And we can always go to LUGOD.org to find out more about that. Alright, so John Marcotte, what else do you have left to plug before we let you go. JOHN: Well, I wanted to mention from the Dotties, since I thought it was important and we should know this - that the founding sponsors of the Dotties were Gilred Associates, which is a CPA firm, and the University of Phoenix, which is a college that has many extension classes for working professionals. And as far as what I have to plug, I would LOVE it if people would come to my site, BadMouth.net, and vote for me in the People's Choice Award. I have a link up on my site that'll take you to the People's Choice Award for the Dotties. Traditionally, this PCA has been won by 'cam girls.' These are young women that basically promise to show various parts of their anatomy if people do things for them. So they've managed [...] for the past two years to rally together a large group of young men to go vote for them in the PCA award, locking out what I think are better sites. ANDY: Have they no shame!? JOHN: No, not evidently. We have several of the bigger 'cam girl' sites here in Sacramento. "Jennie Cam," which is possibly the most famous, and one of the first 'cam girl' sites that was every created... Jennie moved to Sacramento a couple years ago, and she's been based out of here ever since. ANDY: I'll have to get her on my show... unless you think that would be an unethical decision in itself. JOHN: I'm not necessarily dismissing the entire notion of 'cam girl' sites, but I do think that there's more in the sea other than 'cam girl' sites. So, whether you vote for me, or someone else on that list, if you would go to the Dotties site and vote in the People Choice category for anyone BUT a 'cam girl,' I think it would be a refreshing change of pace. ANDY: Oh I think so, too. So BadMouth.net is right where you should go to find out more about how we can vote for your site. Excellent. [ discussion of BizNerds ]