Archive for August, 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »No Need To Get Graphic
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 15, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Saturday, August 15th, 2009Or is there? These handy infographics of Aircrashes and dead Twitter users could save your life and your time.
Statistics Of The “Social Media Revolution” |
If you want to die on your next flight, take an Aeroflot DC-9 from the United States to Russia in August, and make sure to get a seat in First Class. At least that’s what this interesting chart suggests. Sometimes an infographic can say so much more than words, which makes the fact that I’m writing about it a little ironic (see infographic below). As I’ve pointed out before, 78.6% of all statistics mentioned in casual conversation are inaccurate. But I still find infographics and flowcharts fascinating. How else could you really wrap your mind around what a million dollars looks like ? This set of graphics, for instance, speaks volumes about how projects really evolve, and in a way that almost every guilty party involved would probably find amusing. And in spite of all the hype about Twitter (including the info in the clip at left) this set of graphics quickly puts things in perspective. The GOP/Dem debates about war and health care that I recently mentioned in this piece can also be summed up more quickly with two photos and some simple copy. What I’d really find interesting though, is if someone made an interactive graphic of how people from a broad set of demographics use their time throught the day. Oh wait. Never mind. Have any interesting infographics of your own to share? Read the rest of this entry »
Growing Up In England Must Be Creepy
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on August 14, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Friday, August 14th, 2009Which is why you should Always Keep Ahold of Nurse, For Fear of Finding Something Worse
The Girl Who Didnt Dress Bright |
The unpleasant treatment of children in Dickensian tales is almost understandable; the stories were written in times that were, well, Dickensian. But what is it about British culture that warrants morbid PSA’s with dead children, and inspires entire Pink Floyd double albums
iWish iHad a Mac Tablet
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on August 13, 2009 by admin in Technology
Thursday, August 13th, 2009Almost as much as I wish the tech news industry would stop taunting me with the idea.
This Mac Conversion Goes A Little Overboard |
I have no interest in owning an iPhone. I don’t go to meetings every day with trembling hands and utter “My name is Ian, and I’m powerless in the face of Apple“. I refuse to use iTunes, and I hate their business strategy and software. I get mildly annoyed when people tell me how I’ve made so much progress since I started using a MacBook (a machine I love, by the way). In spite of all this, I literally salivate when someone says “Mac Tablet”. I saw an Apple MessagePad back before I even used computers, and was dumbfounded when I finally started using a PC in 1999 to find that the product had been quickly abandoned. So will the world of tech industry and business news PLEASE STOP TORTURING ME? Industry sources have been saying “coming this fall” since around the time of this May 2008 rumor. Yesterday’s rumor is that they just shot an ad for the new Mac Tablet at a diner in Truckee, California. This all hot on the heels of the buzz about some mysterious “veteran analyst” actually handling the thing. To fan the flames of my lustful depravity, Mashable presented this comprehensive roundup of imagined Mac Tablets last week. My pick would have to be Tommaso Gecchelin’s flexible touchscreen notebook (pictured below), which most agree is an exceedingly unlikely Apple design. For now, alas, the only available Mac Tablet is the Axiotron ModBook, which somehow seems like one of those car kits that turns a Volkswagon into a sports car. Maybe I should’ve included the Mac Tablet in my list of Disappointing Technologies… Read the rest of this entry »
Bigipedia – You Think, Therefore We Am
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009Written by you, for you, for free, for money, for us.
Even before Time Magazine picked you as the person of the year (don’t feel so special, they picked this guy one year, and this guy twice), life and popular media were starting to take on these blurry edges. I’ve never understood your fascination with Reality TV; I mean, even a professional writer only has at most 30-some plots at their disposal, and you’re an amateur, so your storyline (like most people) really only revolves around whether you’re happy or not. Plus, you usually die. That’s why I was pleased to discover – amongst our ever-expanding world of user-generated content, the new BBC Radio program Bigipedia. Forget Wikipedia, forget Dickipedia. With Bigipedia, you don’t even have to be able to read! And since 70% of you use multiple forms of media at the same time, take note that with Bigipedia, you can still take some stupid Facebook Quiz or Twitter while you listen. On the other hand, those of you who are American may need either subtitles or a dictionary. The program – since it’s produced by people who actually speak English – manages to seem highbrow in spite of its clearly adolescent, internet-oriented humor. Welcome to Bigipedia – written by you, for you, for free, for money, for us.
So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star Part III
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 11, 2009 by admin in Music
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Why Your Band Doesn’t Need A Web Site
 We’re still not sure why you’d want to pursue this. |
Two different musicians asked me recently if a couple thousand dollars was a reasonable quote for a basic web site. I said “Absolutely” and then immediately added “but don’t do it”. Interestingly, both were asking for my expertise (I do have a little) but neither were asking me to do the work. Musicians are cheap bastards. I should know, I’m a recovering musician. So why did I tell them not to bother? Because almost everything you would want a web site to do for your band – streaming music, streaming video, user interaction, downloads, etc – is available as a free service elsewhere, with widgets that you can easily embed not only in a very simple site of your own, but in the billions of pages that are the Internet as well. Ask yourself the rather silly (but oft-overlooked) question: Do I want to spend a bunch of money building a destination site of my own and stuggling with SEO to get people to see it, or do I want my music on my site, several other massively trafficked music sites, and thousands of Facebook, Friendfeed, and other Social Networking pages? So the great thing is that whereas this wasn’t really possible even a year ago, there are a slew of sites now that make this absurdly simple. The embedded player from SoundCloud that’s featured below took about five minutes from account setup to embedding to create. For the record, it’s some soundtrackish dreck I did a few years ago for a benefit CD for Kenya-based Amara Conservation. But we’re not showcasing the music, we’re showcasing SoundCloud. They’re just one player in an emerging scene that is sort of like “YouTube” for audio. Below are some of the other key players.