No Bad Press

I think Penny Arcade pretty much sums it up right here. The link to the picture is the news post for the comic on Penny-Arcade's website.

And if you're late to the game:



then

The War of Attention

Getting software to work for you, the way you want it to.

That's really the goal of anyone who uses software or computers. And to be quite honest, when it comes down to it it's a question of what works for you. I still seem to be at this crossroads with my software solutions, not because of not having enough good choices, but having far too many.

Microsoft, Apple, and now Google all have great applications that beg for your use and attention. Microsoft, bringing functionality to the table, comes feature packed and allows you to do what you will, as long as it's all Microsoft. Same for Apple but the emphasis is not only features but user experience, at the cost of flexibility. And finally Google, where it has no real presence anywhere finds presence everywhere with it's incredibly amazing Email and Calendar services along with anything on the web one would need.

Microsoft's options are the least familiar to me, only because they don't matter much anymore to me. I hated Outlook for Email and Calendar and I have no idea what web services they offer to allow over the air syncing with calendars and contacts.

Apple, having inherited a niche following with high expectations and a panache for excellence in marrying user experience to computing do almost everything you'd want it's services to do. And swear up and down everything it can't are trivialities until they incorporate it into design. For me, I want my Email, Contacts, Calendars, and Documents to sync. When I make a change to one, I want a change to all on any device, connected or not. Apple's solution is an outstanding one called MobileMe. It does the sync of the first three, leaving my documents to the iDisk function where it acts like an open FTP server. (And not to forget web galleries for pictures)

Where it comes short is where Google steps in. Nothing tops Google Docs. Sure both iWork and even Office have amazing templates to do what you need and much more beautifully, but Google Docs, being online, is backed up - to the second - every 3 seconds. And not only to your computer but on their server. Same goes for email, photos, calendar. The downside is you have to be online (with Google Gears picking up the slack in offline mode). Also Google's RSS reader runs circles around Mail.app or Safari and works anywhere I log in. I also really hate Mail applications probably. I've always used webmail, and with Gmail being the best, there isn't really a contest there.

I can't decide. I guess that's the price I pay for wanting my cake and eat it too.

Care to blog much?

So I'm deciding to be prolific because I have decided enough is enough. There are too many places to blog, and I can't keep them up. Aside from my own personal blog at screaminginrockets.com I have myspace, facebook, and now this silly site wants some of my literary blood. Are you kidding me? Do they think that us young folks desperately need a place to voice that we've never heard of a livejournal? Its angsty teenager the holy grail of advertising?

Even someone technologically inclined as I have trouble keeping up with friends and their posts. And God forbid they are using ATOM instead of RSS because I hate to say it but not many readers know the difference. Hell, not many people know what an RSS reader is let alone how to add a feed.

So fellow demographic, when is enough enough? Whats going to be the final digital hangout for our generation? Or are people going to finally figure out how to make their own .com on the cheap?

The Cost of Keeping Sanity (on teh Internets)

To be honest, there are to many social circles.

I have Myspace, Livejournal, Blogger (rarely used), stumbleupon (seriously thought that was just a random button on the internet), uh...oh yeah Facebook (cleaner then myspace, can't do as much with it), digg (best news tracking site), and the least of which World of Warcraft forums (sorry, I play WoW). Crap, almost forgot pownce and twitter.

My attention span is divided enough as it is, I just can't keep up with it anymore. And to make matters worse, I've increased my load. I have a *new website called Stormcrow Accident that is a comic using the screenshots of World of Warcraft as my easel. I could draw the comics, but my wit would not show through as well, seeing as I am too much of a perfectionist to put slop like that up there. So I bend the rules and used Blizzard's intellectual property with a program that draws really well with comic bubbles and try to get a few laughs out of the masses. It was intended to create content by making me keep to a schedule because I have a problem with following through on projects.

Needless to say its easier to talk about the internet then make a webcomic, so I should be able to do both more often.

Why I'm Not Getting an iPhone

You didn't misread the title. I'm not purchasing an iPhone. Some people have their reasons, to me it comes down to asking myself what I'm buying and whether it's worth it. I should preface this post with this. By all accounts I should be lining up first day to buy one. Reason number one, my Cingular servitude is running up this August. I'm familiar with their network, I'm a valued customer, and probably a shoe-in for a renewal. Reason number two, I recently purchased a Macbook Pro. Mac users have been waiting eons for the ability to sync a PDA with iCal with Apple-like serendipity. If I want a good PDA that will truly be effortless in setup, another Apple product is the way to go. This is because there is not a snowballs chance in hell a Blackjack running Windows Mobile whatever is gonna sync with iCal. I haven't personally looked into it and maybe I'm wrong but this seems pretty obvious that I shouldn't keep my hopes up. Reason number three, my demographic. A 23 year old male with a decent job and very tech knowledgeable shouldn't have any qualms over getting a hip iPhone.

With all of those great reasons, why am I not getting out my camping gear? For starters, I seriously don't have the spare 500 dollars to justify getting something that will litter ally have to replace many electronic devices I already own. I have a 60 gig iPod for music and movies, a black Razr for phone calls, rudimentary web surfing, and texting, and a black DS Lite for gaming (and maybe web surfing, more on that later). Replacing all of these things would be great, but its not like its a heavy burden to carry them. Also, having an all in one device just means that when it gets stolen you lose all functionality.

Would I buy a cool Apple phone/PDA with no iPod built in? Sure, especially if the user input wasn't a touch screen (seriously I have big fingers, hard to pinpoint), but for right now for me, it looks like I'm going to have to experience the iPhone through someone else. Which is fine for me, because right now I don't really think I need it.

Technology Woes

I've never had a problem using technology as a means to an end to get what I need done. Web based email to check and keep up with friends and family, a modded Xbox for movie and music storage and server capability. A music player to listen to music and podcasts, keeping me sane at work. But there are a few advancements that I think we as a society could do without, and Twitter is a great example. Thankfully, only the technocrats know exactly what its for and use it often, but what it basically does is lets you give live up-to-the-minute updates about your thoughts to people who are subscribed to your twitter. You post to twitter by just sending a text message, or on their website, and it then texts everyone who has subscribed to you. But what practical application is there, really?

If my friends want to do something, they either text or call my cell. They all have cell phones. And while there is some voyeristic leanings with this service that makes it interesting, its not interesting enough to anyone what I think or feel any given minute. Myspace was useful only because it lets the luddites create a webpage and others easily find and link their webpage to yours. This is not new, just look at Geocities back in the day. In fact, the only difference between Geocities and Myspace, is that Geocities didn't have the foresight to make it easy for people to link to one another and post comments, show who is your friend, in house email system, free easy to use blog software. To their credit, they did their best to be a free website host, but imagine what if. Now, it seems, that the masses attracted to Myspace may leave it for the same reason they joined. Facebook, with their recent inclusion of people not neccessarily in college may be the 'next new thing', who knows.

All I know for a fact is my circle of friends doesn't really need to know what I'm doing at any given moment, its too impractical.

Fix that Drab Desktop

Psst.

Hey you. Yeah, I got a message for ya from your computer. Your desktop is lookin pretty stale. Lucky for you I've got some cool places for you to spuce your screen.

Desktopography.net

Not sure the purpose of this place, but in essence its some of the best desktop art one could hope to find. My only complaint is that in the end, the site design is not older comp friendly, being heavy flash. Yeah, its artistic and all but when it comes down to raw web design, there are other ways to replicate what they did with CSS with limited success. All of that aside, it has previous years and what not to download and enjoy.



Wikipedia - Featured Picture Archive

Wouldn't think of a free online encyclopedia to be a romping ground of great images but fortunately there are a listing of people who scour Wikipedia for great images and nominate them for the pic of the day. To be pic of the day, its stipulated that it has to be desktop sized, making life easy from the start.





[Adult Swim] Downloads

When filtered by background and some searching comes across all of [adult swim]'s bumps they put for their action shows. Its really cool of them cause there are some crazy ideas for backgrounds. I have the Fujiyama pic up now and since they have all sorts of file sizes and what not, its not hard to find a good fit for your computer.


Socwall.com - Social Wallpaper

While there are a ton of pics on Digg, there isn't really a wallpaper section to vote up really good images on the web. Socwall solves this, in a similar way too...and hopefuly the site gets popular only to get more quality. Completely supported by ads, it invites people to vote up or down on images, filtering the spam and rising to the top quality images. Its only downside really would be the legality of being able to post someone elses pictures on their server. Maybe they should go to linking soon? Who knows. Its still a great site and a vote in my book.

Gearing Up for the Mac Adventure

So I've been wanting to know what its like to roll wit da Apple Macintosh crew with their fancy shmancy computers and to be honest I'm not enitrely impressed with Microsoft's Vista offerings. Also to really get me to leave was the failing commitment on Microsoft's part for security and their over-the-top lockdowns on blue ray/hd-dvd, so I made the switch. Purchased through my school a 17" Macbook Pro with no enhancements and a glossy screen. Why else switch? Well, the one app other then Firefox I use on a daily basis, World of Warcraft, runs natively on Mac, I'm pretty much set. All you Office fans should be happy to know I haven't forgotten that I may need to update a word document or spreadsheet so I actively use Google's Docs and Spreadsheets. I'll also probably download NeoOffice and hopefully can't think of many other apps I use with any frequency.

Long story short, stay tuned on my road to switching when the stupid thing finally makes it in. §

Do No Evil

When Google was created (or popularized) they diverged from company mantra with a simple line in their creed: Do no evil. Now many of Google's critics point out certain instances where this has either been looked over or simply ignored, the biggest instance that sticks out in my mind is when Google negotiated with the Chinese Communist Government in helping censor the web from its Chinese citizens. While that in itself is terrible, what was the alternative? Pull out of a 6 billion person market to let Yahoo and MSN stay to take over Google's remaining market share to companies with even less scruples to an extent to let the Chinese government open email accounts of its patrons? (Hello Yahoo mail, feel guilty about helping China imprison a citizen yet?)

If you get angry about that, then here are some examples of companies who do evil and don't care:

RIAA/MPAA/Copyright Royalty Board

Normally putting this three-headed dragon's name in print causes me to go into convulsions, but soon something as simple as internet radio could go by the wayside and needs to be mentioned. Now I'm not going to go into the usual diatribe as to saying something as inflammatory as the RIAA, MPAA and the like were doing what they did to protect the artists they whore out represent, but now another business model they couldn't monetize to death could be legislated away. The Copyright Royalty Board, under pressure from the RIAA greatly increased the cost to play licensed music over the internet to an extent well beyond what could be feasible by internet radio stations, large and small alike, could sustain. (read more here) Surprisingly, a few contenders have come to fight the evil. Remember, these are the same people who tried to browbeat Steve Jobs into selling music for something more then $0.99 for more popular songs. (to which his reply was "LOL") So don't expect this to be the last media companies and the legislators they have in their pockets will continue to do YOU disservice.

Verizon

Apparently Verizon thought they were God's gift to teh interwebs because not only did they complain loudly enough to prevent Pennsylvania's free Wi-fi program to its knees (yeah I know Verizon, you couldn't stand a couple million poor people get free internet access but would rather them pay through the nose) but are now going after a company to protect its arcane technology. Now granted, if Vonage was a boxer, he would look bloodier then Rocky fighting Apollo but the premise is extremely interesting. Basically, using existing Internet technologies, bridges the gap between the Internet and the Telephone in a way that would make a tel-co sick to their stomach. Want an easy phone service where you have crystal-clear cheap phone calls and take your number wherever you go? Yeah, your phone line isn't doing that. What got me upset wasn't that Verizon is suing Vonage to protect their patent but that Verizon was suing Vonage to prevent that technology in the market and keeping their existing business model viable. Whether or not Verizon had the patent first is a moot point. The U.S. patent system is comparable to an injured bird that can't fly and flapping on the ground so any patent holding company could find patents they held and claim technology that was theirs just for the big payoff someday (Blackberry anyone?). If IF Verizon was to incorporate what Vonage has done completely into their broken land line and long distance model, then that's less evil enough for me to stomach. Maybe its a little too much to ask for companies to think how to make their products better for their consumers without thinking of ways to overcharge them in the process. GG Verizon, your inscrutable business practices might make you savvy in making money, but as a company, I'd rather spend my hard earn cash on someone who is a little less of a dick. Here's to one less customer.

Sony (and Sony BMI)

Anyone remember the spyware program known as Gator that infested your computer with adware and slowed it to a screeching halt, all the while calling it a "service"? In comes Sony Music. They hire a team of coders to do something similar to your computer so you can't do what the RIAA wishes could never be done: rip CDs. Long story short, removing the software did nothing short of damage your computer's CD drive and render it nonoperational.

Now I'm not saying avoid these companies or that my choices are any better. I'm sure Cingular/AT&T have done equally worse and that Verizon/Sony/RIAA are just rightfully protecting their interests, but that doesn't mean you have to actively participate with them. While none of us will ever have the money to be truly heard by any lawmaker, don't sit there like a stub and actively be unaware. Try within your power to do no evil. §

Free Things You Should Know About

Ah the internet...
If there was any cool thing about the internet that wasn't being used enough it is podcasting (and videocasting). Imagine this. You are starting at your TV looking for things to watch. If you don't have TiVo (or your favorite digital TV recorder) you're stuck watching whatever comes by. Those of us blessed by having a TiVo-thingy know that you can watch your favorite shows anytime you want to, as long as it recorded it. What could be better then that? You can skip the commericals in recorded shows, rewind, save it forever. I'll tell you whats better. But first, some history.

Before there was any mention of I's or Pod's there was Red vs. Blue (RvB). RvB was a gamers kind of show, a Spy vs. Spy using the Halo universe as its stage and (mostly) without fail, would post a new webisode up for free, on the internet, with their own money for bandwidth. With iTunes leading the charge, there are venues where you could download these shows automatically for free. Let me tell you a day in the life for me.

I wake up, walk downstairs and immediately open iTunes. It starts downloading everything thats been updating for that day of things I listen to or watch on my video iPod. Podcasts, which are like blocks of audio shows that download like what I just described, and also whole shows on video. Most of whats from the old TechTv guys are now producing some of the best on the web. Dl.tv, Diggnation, Ctrl+Alt+Chicken, Meet the Press, etc are all shows that are available for free on download. And if you can make your way from the computer to TV, will be better then TiVo will ever be. §