• Recently Written

  • Book MEview: Epoch
  • Me @ The CBC!
  • … The Very Next Day
  • Dear Mr. Alex Rigopulos and Mr. Eran Egozy, Co-Founders of Harmonix
  • Zune = Fail
  • NFB Starts Streaming their Catalog for Free
  • Bypass the Zune 3x Play Shared Song DRM
  • My PS3/PC Ate My Wallet (a premonition post)
  • Hacking my Zune before I get it
  • Disrupted Search

• Categories

  • Music
  • Thinkers
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
  • Video Games
  • Web
  • Written Word

• Archives

  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008

• Blogroll

  • About New Media
  • Adam Schwabe
  • Dear Toronto
  • Henry Jenkins
  • Ninja Dolls
  • Photos on Flickr
  • Ryan Couldrey.com

• Admin

  • Log in
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML

• Search

Since attending Podcamp Toronto I’ve had a t witter account. I’ve amassed over 110+ followers but I’m only following about 60 back. Most of my followers aren’t spam bots, so why don’t I reciprocate?

Because we’re likely using Twitter for very different reasons. I see twitter as a way of casually mentioning what’s going on every now and then, and occasionally partaking in very brief conversation that usually doesn’t extend more than two tweets. Anything more and I either blog about it, or email/contact the person directly.

There are two issue with Twitter.

First, Twitter users on the whole will often use it as a god damn instant messenger. There’s nothing I hate more than seeing my tweet wall filled with 20 tweets from the same person within the last 15 minutes. You do NOT need to reply to every single one of your followers with a “Ya @person, that’s nifty!” followed by a “I agree @otherperson!” Once, sure, twice, fine, 15 times? Buy a phone and spend a minute with them.

Second, Twitter’s much lauded awesomeness in terms of its ability to connect the people is fraudulent from what I’ve seen. The average facebook/myspace user does not use twitter. It doesn’t have the functionality they’ve come to expect from their social networking experience. Want to share photos? You can post a link to a flickr/facebook set, sure, but that requires something other than twitter, and that something is more often than not perfectly capable of allowing their users to carry on conversations in groups or one on one. Also, and this is a biggie, Twitter is seen by PR folk as the second coming Christ, and for good reason: it’s mostly PR people who use the damn thing! More than half (I’d wager 3/4) of all the non-spam bot people who’ve followed me on twitter are all PR PR PR. This mostly makes twitter not a social-networking site, but a business/PR-networking site. You do not reach the average person and you don’t reach the tastemakers either if the only people you reach are other people like you (ie. PR PR PR).

As a result the only PR people that I follow back happen to be people I know in some way shape or form, or because they tweet interesting shit.

I’ll throw one last nugget out there: Twitter is the new Digg, in that the only thing people on Twitter talk about is mother fucking TWITTER. It’s down again? BOO HOO! Can’t think of anything tweetable? Don’t tweet “I can’t think of anything tweetable”!!! The video below comes to mind.

There’s been much ballyhoo about proposed copyright amendments details in bill C-61. I won’t go into much detail about, well, the details, as it’s all covered in great, err, DETAIL on many a site, including the ever awesome Michael Geist goes into deep detail about why it’s so insane.

Many creators don’t have much issue with their works being used by educational institutions, for research purposes, or even sharing amongst friends or non-friends (ie torrented files). so long as they see some sort of compensation (also known as a reason to keep creating), it tends to work out. If it didn’t all those local bands playing local gigs selling their discs and other merch locally wouldn’t exist. somehow, it still works.

Read more

I got a notice that my subscription to Wired was done and tat it was time for me to consider renewing it. It didn’t take long for me to decide not to, though, it’s definitely not because of the content; Wired is easily one of the most interesting magazines on the market. Its central theme is generally “Cool schtuff from everywhere,” and each page rarely fails to impress.

But why stop then? Read more

I, like most every other PS3 owner, desperately want Metal Solid 4 to come out yesterday. My issue though, and I’m sure I’m not alone, is that I’d never actually played a Metal Gear Solid game before. Having read some reviews and previews it’s evident that while familiarity with the series isn’t required, it’s extremely satisfying as every single loose end (and from what I hear there were many) gets tied up in a sparkly bow by the end of the 4th game.

With this knowledge I decided to start at the beginning of the series by playing the remake/port for the gamecube, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Read more

Yesterday saw the launch of a new online “interactive video magazine” for PS3 owners called Qore. It’s been met with polarizing yays and nays on the web, and most people are citing the same reasons for their stance on either side. At the heart of the controversy is the pricing scheme: $2.99 per episode and $24.99 for an annual subscription (13 episodes).

But is there really any reason to complain at all considering what the service both is and isn’t? Read more

The TTC has decided to open up its redesigned site as a public beta test of sorts. It’s a definite visual improvement, but what about what’s under the hood?

first things first, it’s already lying to us. Read more

A Toronto electro-dance-punk-shock-awesome duo that sounds like Fischerspooner if Fischerspooner wrote consistently good music and had mowhawks.

CLICK THIS TO HEAR LOTS OF THEIR STUFF ON CBC

Note: Woodhands do not have mowhawks. They should, though.

I have a PS3. I love my PS3. It may not have the largest library, but the few games that I do want are gnarly. I’ve even bought two downloadable-only games, being Everyday Shooter (by local boy Jon Mak) and Echochrome. Capcom, however, has yet to get any money from me for their DL games. I tried the Rocketmen demo and nearly vomited on myself. This game looks to use the same engine as the aforementioned bit of suckage, and while the trailer does make it look cool, $9.99 for 5 levels of hum-drum blahs isn’t what the doctor ordered. Even Bionic Commando: Rearmed isn’t looking too good- the levels are now too big and empty because they’re now in HD.

If anyone needs me I’ll be busy playing the Jimmy Buffet 3-track pack for Rock Band.

There’s a great article on Wired.com about Charles Babbage and Ada Byron, aka the two people who invented computer hardware and computer software, respectively. Their relationship started professionally when Byron translated one of Babbage’s articles, and he was quite impressed. The man was a much better mathematician than he was a writer. Meanwhile, Byron was increasing the size of Babbage’s articles by upwards of 300% (wordy lady) and including her own thoughts, predicting that “a computing machine could compose music, draw graphics and find application, so to speak, in business and science.”

Read more