Felt said that if he had something for me, he could get me a message. He quizzed me about my daily routine, what came to my apartment, the mailbox, etc. The Post was delivered outside my apartment door. I did have a subscription to the New York Times. A number of people in my apartment building near Dupont Circle got the Times. The copies were left in the lobby with the apartment number. Mine was No. 617, and it was written clearly on the outside of each paper in marker pen.

Felt said if there was something important he could get to my New York Times -- how, I never knew. Page 20 would be circled, and the hands of a clock in the lower part of the page would be drawn to indicate the time of the meeting that night, probably 2 a.m., in the same Rosslyn parking garage.The relationship was a compact of trust; nothing about it was to be discussed or shared with anyone, he said.

How he could have made a daily observation of my balcony is still a mystery to me. At the time, before the era of intensive security, the back of the building was not enclosed, so anyone could have driven in the back alley to observe my balcony. In addition, my balcony and the back of the apartment complex faced onto a courtyard or back area that was shared with a number of other apartment or office buildings in the area. My balcony could have been seen from dozens of apartments or offices, as best I can tell.

A number of embassies were located in the area. The Iraqi Embassy was down the street, and I thought it possible that the FBI had surveillance or listening posts nearby. Could Felt have had the counterintelligence agents regularly report on the status of my flag and flowerpot? That seems highly unlikely, if not impossible.

Bob Woodward on his relations with Mark Felt.

How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat'

] "I work for a newspaper[;] that is where my paycheck
] comes from. But I believe that all online newspapers
] should be free, and on principle I refuse to pay for an
] online subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I have
] not read the paper copy of the New York Times regularly
] for two years. I read it only online."
]
] - Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat, Page 102

Friedman Agonistes - Will the New York Times columnist read himself?

] Maybe it won't be so bad being cut off from the
] blogosphere. I look around the Web these days and find
] that Newsweek's retracted atrocity story has sent
] everybody into cloud-cuckoo-land. Every faction up and
] down the political spectrum has used the magazine's
] blunder as a chance to open fire on its favorite targets,
] turning this into a fevered hunting season for the straw
] men.

AKA the Bird Seller's Lament.

The blogosphere is talking about newsweek's irrelevancy. I'm sure they'll take this column from Brooks as defensive main stream media blog bashing. Its not. There won't be any great controversy when people stop reading political blogs. The numbers will just quietly go down. The authors will be howling all the way...

The Lament of David Brooks

noteworthy wrote:
] "We're happy to see The New York Times acknowledging the
] importance of subscription-based revenue that we have
] long seen as a key element," said Todd Larsen of the Wall
] Street Journal.
]
] Will you subscribe? Or will you say goodbye to Tom Friedman?

Goodbye Tom Friedman. Your insights were useful while they lasted. In 6 months no one will be talking about the New York Times.

RE: NYTimes.com to Offer Subscription Service

] backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC's new developer network,
] providing content feeds for anyone to build with.
] Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC
] content. This is your BBC. We want to help you play.

Its my BBC even though I live in the states. Its NOT my PBS, my NPR, and its certainly not my CSPAN (although they don't receive public funding).

BBC Backstage

] C-SPAN zealously and actively monitors and protects its
] intellectual property, including the video it
] produces and C-SPAN registered service marks and logos.
] C-SPAN is a private, nonprofit organization.
] It does not, and never has, received any government
] funding. C-SPAN video is not in the public domain.
]
] C-SPAN does not permit the following uses:
]
] Any posting or streaming from an Internet site

The above is even if you have a license. Its your government, but its not your CSPAN.

This was Brendan Greeley's point in the podcasting discussion at BlogNashville. We need to be able to retransmit and remix the content of our government's public discourse. This means that C-SPAN is obsolete. We need a non-profit organization with recording devices in both houses of Congress collecting data and publishing it in the public domain. We need it now.

Its not your C-SPAN!

] Podscope is the first search engine that actually allows
] you to search for spoken words within any audio or video
] file. We're starting with podcasts and will be
] adding all types of multimedia in coming months.

Neat! Takes you right to the timestamp in the audio where the thing you are searching for appears.

Podscope Blog » Podscope FAQ

Hosted by Bill Butler, Scott Kozicki and Tim Moses, this show aims to discuss new and interesting technology on a weekly basis. This show is based in Nashville, TN.

Bill and Tim were founders of Telalink, which was one of Nashville's first ISPs in the early 90s. Bill now runs Butler Networks (www.butler.net) and Tim runs Monster Labs (www.monsterlabs.com)

Scott was founder of BlueStar, an early DSL provider in the southeast headquartered in Nashville. Scott is currently the CTO for American Healthways (www.americanhealthways.com)

Tech Tuesday

] Bush demands deep cuts in Social Security benefits
] World Socialist Web Site - 47 minutes ago
] By Bill Van Auken. President Bush used a rare prime-time
] nationally televised press conference Thursday to open up
] a campaign for cutting Social Security benefits and ultimately
] dismantling the country's principal old-age pension system

I just noticed an article on CNET about Google filing a patent for its news ranking technology. I figure this would be as good time as any to point out one of Google News's greatest bad-picks. Notice the top story on this page, and read the article. The World Socialist Web Site had a pretty unique take on Bush's last press conference in the East Room.

Google News to get patent in news ranking

] Podcasting will soon break out of the "pod" and onto the
] public airwaves.
]
] The world's first all-podcast radio station will be
] launched on May 16 by Infinity Broadcasting, the radio
] division of Viacom.

Read as: They are going to play Podcasts.

] In addition to the newfound reach promised by radio
] broadcast, podcasters may be free to include in their
] podcasts some music from major record labels, Infinity said.
]
] The company said it plans to cover the cost of music-licensing
] fees, which are prohibitively high for most individuals.
]
] In part because of licensing requirements, which usually cover
] only broadcast and streaming, the company has no plans to
] provide downloadable program archives.

Got programming? Infinity has transmitters..

] Hollander said Infinity does not plan to assert ownership
] claims on content submitted by podcasters, who will remain
] free to publish their podcasts on the internet -- or anywhere
] else they choose.
]
] "They can give it to us and give it to somebody else, because
] we're not taking anything away from them," Hollander said.
] "We're just helping them reach a broader audience with
] our bandwidth."

There is where the Podcasting space starts to get interesting.

Wired News: Podcasting Killed the Radio Star