Our hosting provider, DreamHost, just took a giant step and hired a new CEO, Simon Anderson. We have a long relationship with DreamHost and it's always a pleasure to hear from them—I love their hysterical newsletters and snarky blog posts, but they have just outdone themselves in their press release announcing the new CEO.

Simon impressed the DreamHost employees during an all-hands meeting in which he exhibited feats of superhuman strength, a preternatural ability to sweat cologne, and a DreamHost tattoo which he'd obtained just five hours before the meeting (and weeks before receiving any offer of employment).

The thing I love most about DreamHost (other than their outstanding hosting services, that is) is that they never take themselves seriously, no matter how successful they get. They have been a great partner and it's fantastic to see their continuing growth. I think this press release does a great job of showcasing the DreamHost I know and love. Check it out:

DreamHost names Simon Anderson to Serve as New CEO

More than you might think. In this short but sweet presentation at TED, Eli Pariser reveals that the major search engines, content aggregators and portals are filtering what you see on an unprecedented level.

Pariser argues very effectively that we're passing the torch from human editors to computer algorithms that end up providing not what we should see, but what we want to see.

On the surface, this may seem like the ideal environment. This is the brand new semantic web that learns from us. What's wrong with having our experience of the Internet centered around our wants and desires?

The dark side of this that we may be overlooking is that instead of creating a more semantically-organized Internet that draws us together through common interests, we are allowing these search algorithms to create a Web centered on isolation. Instead of creating connections, we create little pockets of space in which we operate, blind to what is really going on. Our filter determines our world, instead of vice versa.

Good ideas come from the collision between smaller hunches, so that they form something bigger than themselves... [they] created a space where ideas could mingle and swap, and create new forms. ~ Steven Johnson

Check out this awesome video after the cut.

This short video from NPR is a very funny anecdote about people power, and a very wise decision that NPR made to move with that people power instead of against it.

You see, an enthusiastic fan by the name of Geoff Campbell noticed that NPR didn't have a Facebook page. He sent a note asking if they minded if he secured one for them. When NPR sent back a form letter thanking him for his submission, he took that to mean that they were okay with it, and launched a great Facebook page for NPR that soon gathered more enthusiastic fans.

Well, it finally came to NPR's attention that someone had set up a Facebook page for NPR without explicit permission, and of course the Worried Lawyers started asking what they should do. Their first inclination was to send a cease and desist letter and get the law involved.

Fortunately, Reasonable Andy Carvin, NPR's chief strategist for social media, had a better idea.

Seth hits the nail on the head once again:

If you define "best customer" as the customer who pays you the most, then I guess it's not surprising that the reflex instinct is to charge them more. After all, they're happy to pay.
      But what if you define "best customer" as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals, and who sticks with you through thick and thin? That customer, I think, is worth far more than what she might pay you in any one transaction. In fact, if you think of that customer as your best marketer instead, it might change everything.
~ Seth Godin, How should you treat your best customers?

Building best marketers. That's what PerpetualMotion is all about. If you can build solid relationships with your customers through trust-enabling website practices, you'll reap the benefits of your best customers becoming your best marketers.

The new version of Firefox is now available, and I recommend that all of my clients upgrade to it as soon as possible.  It's faster, more secure, and supports more open standards than ever.  Webmonkey has all the details:

There isn’t much new to look at on the surface, but we’d strongly recommend you upgrade to Firefox 3.6, based on the work that’s been done to improve the browser’s speed and support for the latest web technologies. Thursday’s release brings significant performance boosts and a number of new features like support for custom skins, full-screen support for native web video and much-improved font support for developers looking to use new fonts on their sites.  >> More