Blogs typically run on ads.

Box and rectangle ad rates suck.

To overcome bad ad rates, blogs are trying to do advertising differently.

Some of it is good.

Some of it is blatantly anti-reader.

According to the company, the native unit will allow brands to embed social updates on the Mashable homepage that look and feel like Mashable posts.

Tell me this – Do you want to go to a site, click on something that looks like a story and instead have an ad fed to you? Because that’s what Mashable just “invented.”

I don’t really remember when it started, but for quite a few years now I’ve been unable to sleep more than about five hours. It doesn’t necessarily matter how tired I am, at the five hour mark my body decides that it’s been long enough and I have to wake up. Now.

I hear people joke about insomnia, or narcolepsy or any of the other few sleep-related issues and I’m pretty certain that they can’t possibly have experienced any of them. In the realm of first-world problems, there’s really not much that screws up your day worse than being exhausted, going to bed, then waking up feeling as if you’ve not even slept.

There are a few factors that contribute to my sleep deprivation that I can adjust or fix. Here’s what I know for sure:

...

On Wednesday, I’m scheduled to speak to a Meetup group here in Nashville. The talk will focus on how you can make yourself and your message heard, in a time when we’re seeing more noise than ever before.

It’s the idea of being a big fish in a little ocean.

But funny enough, when I do these things in Nashville, I find myself to be the invisible fish. Most of the people who attend have perhaps heard my name or read something that I wrote on TNW, but there’s a near 100 percent chance that I’ve never met them.

It’s that interesting conundrum of being slightly anti-social, combined with working from home. The buzz around my office is created by my wife, our dog and four pet rats. There’s also Tully, the fish. But he’s pretty silent.

...

Over on TechCrunch, Mike Arrington wrote something that I endorse wholeheartedly. He says that Cnet staffers should be leaving in droves over the fiasco surrounding the Hopper and now another product that they’ve been instructed that they can’t review.

We can soapbox all we want about this, and those of us who do have editorial independence might somehow look down our noses at those who don’t. But the harsh reality is the people who aren’t walking out are real people, with real responsibilities that depend on having a real paycheck in order to meet them.

Would I leave TNW if I were ever instructed to do something that I felt was morally wrong? I’d like to think that I would. But I also have mouths to feed and a roof to keep over our heads. The moral high...

It started with a question from my dear friend Jana. She was asking for thoughts on Quora Blogs, the company’s newly-released feature. My answer was this:

@janatrantow Your work, someone else’s platform.

— Brad @ The Next Web (@BradMcCarty) January 23, 2013

That’s the nutshell version. I’m highly against almost every single thing out there that wants you to contribute without giving you definitive, self-managed ownership of the content that you’ve added.

But I’m also a hypocrite, because I’m writing this on Svbtle, I’m a frequent user of Twitter and I’m sure there are other reasons as well.

Interestingly, for me, it comes down to feelings that Jason Baptiste of OnSwipe managed to put into perspective quite well:

@bradmccarty...

I’m a veteran of the United States Army. I’d have chosen many of my female friends to be in combat beside me ahead of their male counterparts. Today that becomes a reality.

BREAKING: Panetta removes military ban on women in combat, opening thousands of front line positions.

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 23, 2013

But there’s a problem. As odd as it may sound, watch Demi Moore’s GI Jane for a rather parallel depiction to what I think will happen in these next few years.

The society of the United States, as progressive as some of us might like to believe that we are, will have serious issues with women on the front lines. Expect pushback and manipulation from Governors, Senators and other elected officials who are in turn being weighed upon heavily by...

There’s a lot to be said for being incredibly good at one thing. When someone fits that description, the results are stunning.

From the standpoint of being a competitor, I love it when our competition decides to attempt a thousand different verticals because I know (from experience) that they will ultimately fail.

From the standpoint of a potential user I loathe that behavior because I know (from experience) that they will ultimately fail.

It’s perfectly fine to locate that one thing at which you excel above all others and then capitalize upon it.

But the adage remains true – More does not always equal better.

What are you good at? Is that what you’re doing? If not, then stop it. You’re going to fail. You can challenge yourself to become better at something...

Anand Lal Shimpi is smarter than me. Chances are he’s smarter than you too. His site, AnandTech, is inarguably the go-to source for in-depth, highly detailed reviews of new products and technologies.

I got to meet Anand last year at CES, and we had the chance to speak again this year. We were discussing the successes and failures of Microsoft when he dropped this bomb (which is not a direct quote, but as close as I can remember):

“Now imagine this. Let’s say that the next Xbox falls in line with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 where you can write once, deploy anywhere. A game developer could create a single title, then deploy it across three different devices at once.”

Given the continued, simply amazing success of the Xbox, there’s positively no doubt in my...

I was on a panel the other day, talking to a number of large companies about tech trends for 2013. But before the panel started, the moderator was chatting with those of us seated at the table. He asked where I lived, to which I replied “just south of Nashville.”

“How did you get that job, living in Nashville?”

Which job? The writing job that I used to have, or the Business Development job that I now carry? “Both”, he replied.

My immediate answer was one of somewhat cocky confidence, because the tone of his voice though our entire interaction was condescending. “I’m exceptionally good at what I do.”

But the more I think about this interaction, the more it bothers me. You see, the person who asked me this question is a pretty big name...