There's a potentially interesting article in the Seattle Times about a potentially interesting class at Seattle University that includes in its coursework a potentially interesting experiment. It's an experiment in "media deprivation" for a class called "Restorative Solitude." Ninety six hours, no media. Awesome. It reminds us of Chris Pirillo's Google Fast. In the teeny bopper world in which the article is set "media" are things like cell phone, email, internet, iPod, TV, at least those are the options in their "what could you live without" poll (we voted internet). Hat tip to the Times for realizing the futility of listing "newspaper" in there, at least, but that's a pretty narrow view of what constitutes media to the teenagers or young twentyish types towards to whom this article seems to be directed. more ›

--Notable Project Runway personnel who have not yet signed a contract for the show's fourth season: Tim Gunn. more ›

Local technology super-user and former Seattlest interview subject Chris Pirillo is in the midst of a GoogleFast; that is, he's refusing to use Google for anything (save the ad programs they run on his sites) for a period of one week. No Google search, no Google maps, no Gmail, no Groups, no News, No Google Your Entire Online Life, no Google nothing. And this is a guy who uses the internet for more different activities in a day than Seattlest has since 1998. Pirillo's whole thing is that he uses the internet hard, and, increasingly, using the internet hard means using Google hard. He's trying Yahoo, MSN and his own search tool gada.be as replacements for that which cannot be replaced. more ›

The Gnomedex conference ("...the technology people aggregator") kicks off tonight and it's completely sold out so you either registered long ago or you're not making it. Tonight is just the Welcome Reception - Tomorrow the good stuff starts with Chris Pirillo (who graciously talked to Seattlest a few weeks back) and Dave Winer at 8:30 and 9am respectively. Lots of other great events are scheduled at the conference the remainder of Friday and Saturday as well. Podcast messiah Adam Curry has the final keynote Saturday. more ›

While those of us on Planet Mac are cultishly installing Tiger and proclaiming to the world that it's the greatest thing since the logic gate, our friends across the lake in Redmond toil away on the operating system with the working title "Longhorn". It seems they're just about fed up with the unwavering love, admiration and devotion the internets heap on Apple, and are interested in a slice of that pie for themselves. To that end Microsoft is introducing (or reintroducing) Team 99. more ›

We bemoan the lack of a Seattle Paddle to Work Day. more ›

Passionate technology enthusiast, reporter, consultant, personality and entrepreneur Chris Pirillo recently moved himself and his Gnomedex conference to Seattle. Seattlest checked in on him to make sure he's settling in, altough we haven't had a chance to stop by with a box of cookies yet. more ›