About this weblog

How this blog started, and why I write it

I started this weblog in March of 2002 as an experiment, trying to figure out the mechanism for posting thoughts out to a widely dispersed audience.  The whole Internet thing was a powerful force (who knew?) and so over the years my blog attracted a small following.  Over the years I’m sure that the following has morphed in all kinds of ways.  But I’m still blogging, and some folks are still reading.

I started out talking about law and technology, but my real passion is examining how massive change disrupts our social patterns.  No social pattern has more rigidity to it than the ‘legal system,’ and so I appreciate having a ring-side seat at a time when the legal system is being subjected to massive new pressures.

My sense of things, based on my limited 50 years of experience as a white male who has his own built-in patterns, is that we humans don’t like change much.  We are quick to settle into patterns, and don’t like it when our patterns are disrupted.  The older we get the less we like it.  

So if this blog has a unifying theme (and there is a strong argument that it doesn’t) that would be the theme.  

Comment policy

I don’t write this blog to make money.  I do it for my own enjoyment, and I welcome (and will approve) people’s comments and emails if they are offered with the right spirit.  I don’t expect people to agree with me.  I expect them to sometimes disagree, and am happy to hear their criticisms.  I don’t care for mindless disagreements offered by people who are generally disagreeable, but I’ll allow those comments to be posted.  What I won’t allow are mean-spirited or offensive comments that have no value as social commentary.  If your comment is not approved for this reason (and not because I simply mistakenly disapproved it, or failed to approve it) then I’m sorry.  Well, not really.  But if you want to make comments and you can’t make them here, I encourage you to get your own blog and find an audience that appreciates your message. 

Advertising & Product Reviews

Also, I do make a bit of money from this blog by advertising.  I accept sidebar ads through the BlogAds network, and also from GoogleAds. I approve the BlogAds, but no inference should be made about my approving such content, other than that I don’t find it offensive or improper.  

I also from time to time recommend books or products, and when I do I usually link to the Amazon page for that product.  I am a member of the Amazon Affiliates program, which means that if someone orders a product that I link to through the AA program then Amazon will credit me with that sale and eventually write me a check. I believe the percentage is 4% of the product price, but I believe it varies by product.  I don’t make enough money off of the Amazon program to pay much attention.  In general I make enough money from advertising from this blog and my PDF for Lawyers blog to pay for the costs of running and hosting the blogs, with a little left over to buy a few books and small gadgets.

Even if I didn’t belong to the Amazon affiliate program I would still link to Amazon, and here’s why.  The product reviews on the Amazon site are amazing.  They’re written by average folks who have used the product. Sure some of the reviews are silly, or unreasonably negative.  But the overall collection of reviews by average folks is powerful.  I have on many occasions not bought something I intended to buy because many people seemed dissatisfied; I have also been prompted to buy something that I was interested in, but disinclined to buy, because of positive reviews.  There is a skill to interpreting the reviews, but the more you do it the better you get at it.  So, I encourage you to use my blog reviews as simply the starting point.  

And if you don’t want me to get credit for something that you discover as a result of my blog, that’s fine. All you have to do is remember the product name and start a fresh search from Amazon on your own.

Thanks for reading this blog, and for helping me keep it going.  The thing that keeps me going isn’t the money from Amazon or BlogAds or Google, but the great emails I get from folks who stumble here and like what they find.  I’ve made so many great friends as a result of blogging that I’m not worried about getting reimbursed for blogging.  If I do, great.  If not, that’s fine too.

Take care, and hope you always find what you’re looking for!

Ernie