VOIP is the future?
If you think any of this gibberish looks interesting, you should poke around and subscribe to my RSS feed to keep up with new content.
After reading another one of Evslin’s posts about ebay, skypke, and VOIP, I’m quite ready to believe that VOIP combined with EVDO (internet via. cell towers) will basically lead (quickly, I hope) to Skype-phones.
I want my next phone to be an mp3-playing, video and still taking, software-running Skype phone. I want a mobile that will connect me to skype users (either on cell phones or computers) for free (minutes…clearly they’ll charge monthly for service).
Gimme.
I need to control my irony
As I wandered into the common area to log on and post, I dropped my mouse (again), letting it hit the floor because the cord was just too long to stop it before it got there. As it did, I thought to myself it’s amazing this damn thing still works, I’ve beat it up so much.
Lo and behold, it is now broken.
A World of Difference
I’m used to a world—either at home or at school—where the internet is just sort of there. Whenever I’m at a computer, or practically wherever I take my laptop I have some sort of wired or wi-fi connectivity. While (take a minute to look for a link at lj about bad oxy internet) my connection hasn’t always been great, it’s basically always been accessible from wherever I was.
I could always blog.
Sussex is different. They have internet access, but not really. Most of the time the connection’s down, and their wireless bubble extends from the hidden router like fish extends from its tank. Needless to say, I certainly don’t get access in my room.
On the one hand, the inconvenience of the internet has made me more social in the evenings than I might otherwise be, but on the other, I’ve read four books and eaten 18 meals in the past four days out of sheer boredom. [Edit: this was yesterday] At 6:30 everyone (and I mean everyone) starts drinking, which is fine if drinking what you want to do for the evening. But it makes in incredibly difficult to “take a night off.� Because taking a night off means continuing to not do anything for the next five hours.
The inconvenient internet means that I write my posts offline, in my room. I tick away at the keyboard in Word, painfully aware that my dictionary is limited and that I’ll have to track through what I’ve written to find the appropriate links later.
It also reduces the immediacy of what I write. I feel like my posts aren’t always in connection with what’s “happening� online. Sometimes it’s a good idea to write an original post—maybe someone will respond to you, but mostly I think the blogosphere is a conversational place, and a good blog should reflect not only the writer but the fact that the writer is, in fact, part of it.
Classes at Sussex
I have to go to the Soccul (that’s the school within the university my classes are in) office and arrange my schedule a bit more. At the moment I think I have two classes that conflict slightly, and one class that I’m signed up for is actually something I’ve essentially taken before.
But on the other hand, I got an e-mail from one of my professors today:
The course itself will kick off next Wednesday with a mini-lecture by me, and a screening of Star Wars. This will take place from 2pm - 5pm in EDB 121. Make sure that you arrive on time - the earlier we start, the earlier you get to go home.
Excellent.
Coding woes
PHP confuses me.
I’m looking through other people’s code trying to simultaneously teach myself some php and hack together a third column for my already Millenium Falcon–style wordpress theme. The problem is that I keep seeing calls for functions that I can’t for the life of me find.
Take the extra space between the ad banner and the first post, for example. There aren’t any line breaks there; I call the ad code, then I call the “check for posts” code, the only problem being that I can’t seem to find the post-checking code.
I’m slowly convincing myself that all these ruitines are in fact built in to WordPress itself, and modyfing them would be compiling my own version of WP or something silly like that. I hope that’s not the case, though, because those damn spaces are annoying me.
Level 60
For the first time ever, I just maxed out a video game character.
As I’ve mentioned before, playing a game to the “end” has never been my strong point, and up until now I’ve never hit the level limit in an RPG. Not in Final Fantasy VII, not in Diablo (I or II), and not even in TIE Fighter, the greatest game of all time, did I get to General (highest rank).
I think the reason WoW has kept my attention is because it’s a social game. The MMORPG industry tends to revolve around the fact that millions of people play the games, and Blizzard has done an excellent job of making sure playing with other people is fun (they’ve been tough on cheating and the secondary markets, which is more than I can say for shit developers like Sony).
In any case, it’s time for me to start doing some PvP (haven’t been into Battlegrounds yet) and getting my trade skills up to par: fishing and cooking needs some work ;)
What do you call this?
Jason Calcanis wrote up a little thought list on where the major internet players are going, and all I can say is “that’s damn interesting.”
As I worked for the Blog Business Summit over the summer and basically got way too cozy with the blogosphere, I realized how much fun it is to work for a small, innovative business. I really don’t know what it is I’d like to do in life, but I do know that it should involve:
- Writing
- Computers / The Internet
- Inventing
By Inventing, all I really mean is “coming up with new shit, or at least being with it when the new shit turns up.”
It’s funny to me (and probably nobody else, but at least I think it’s funny instead of sad) that I created Flicker without know about any of Weblog’s blogs, and in reality the site I vaguely had in mind to make was, more or less to the T: Joystiq.
At least I know my mind is going the right direction.
So whatever all that is—that’s what I want to do!
Deep Frying
Amidst the insanely large group of freshman who arrived this weekend were scattered the few additional international students who didn’t need the three week September course. One of these girls is from Georgia, and is one of the most gorgeous people here.
“Did y’all notice how they don’t have any real fried food here? I miss having some deep-fried chicken or vegetables.”
Deep-fried vegetables, I think to myself.
“Maybe,” I suggest, “that’s why there aren’t any fat people here.” (Which is true–there are approximately zero fat people in England).
“No!” She protests, “some people just have fat genes!”
Amazingly, those genes seem to have developed entirely independently in those former Europeans who’ve decided to live in America.
Ps. They eat so fucking well here. You know all those food-restrictions that the EU keeps getting fined for by the WTO? Guess what? They keep people healthy here!
For the Klosterman fans
Bill Simmons’ latest “Curious Guy” edition is with Chuck Klosterman, the author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Check it if you’re interested.
That’s a damn good idea
As an ideas man I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen an innovative business spring up only to think, “That was my idea! I told Elliot about that last month! If only I had the resources to actually do it!�
It’s a completely unfair sentiment, because not only is “having a business idea� just about the most nebulous and un-patentable concept of all time, but whoever built a successful business around it probably had the idea months before I did. In fact I should probably consider it a compliment to my idea that it apparently worked.
But occasionally I’ll read about an entrepreneur who’s done something really incredibly, and all I can think is “Damn, that’s a good idea.�
When I was reading Tom Evslin’s article on the death of vertical integration at his blog Fractals of Change, I spotted one. It’s from back in the day of early ISP development: UUnet. Until the other day I didn’t even know this company (or the service they provided) even existed.
In my mind, however, UUnet is a perfect example of how a service should be successfully created. It’s a company that is essentially invisible to the average consumer, but the company was created to fill a more or less guaranteed demand. If you’re interested, I’d recommend reading Tom’s article.
Traffic post
Being the complete geek that I am, I check the traffic statistics on jason-preston.com daily, if not more. It’s an addiction, as I’m sure anyone running their own web site is prefectly well aware.
I’ve even tried somewhat halfheartedly to corrolate my traffic with what I write about. The problem is that my traffic is inevitably correlated with whether or not anyone has linked to me ;)
Podcasting (again)
Wired says: The Podcasting Goldrush Is On.
They’re probably right. Once again (like with blogging) advertisers are being slowly introduced to a new medium, and once again there are going to be a few lucky or savvy individuals who will be able to convert on the opportunity.
The largest problem with advertising on podcasts as I see it is the fact that it’s so damn easy to skip them. When I listen to podcasts, I tend to just jump through the ads (for the ones that have them). The second largest problem is that most podcasts are boring.
When the initial hype dies down slightly, and a few good minds have time to look at what the developing technology can offer, the ones with the right connections (music, mostly) will be able to pull a Calcanis or a Denton and jump in on a completely open market. The real trick will be pulling the fledgeling podosphere together in a way that can be monetized.
My guess is that sponsorship will be a key element, because that doesn’t require the user to listen to anything much. It’s an automatic read next to the podcast title.
I also think radio will be OK so long as HD services are introduced.
Freshers Week
In Britain “freshmen� are called “freshers,� and instead of having orientation like they do in America, they have Freshers (Drinking) Week. Starting on Saturday, hordes of new freshman have shown up on campus and the landscape has suddenly come alive with people and events.
Practically every night there’s a pub crawl or student discount at a club. Last night I went on a crawl in downtown Brighton for international students, which was incredibly fun. After wandering through four different pubs, about five or six of us went on to the Honeyclub, which is one of the better beachfront clubs in town.
Living here with only my laptop to play me music, I’d forgotten how much I really really like loud music on good speakers. After hearing Aha, Bon Jovi, and Guns N’ Roses one after another, I just kind of zoned out and listened to the music instead of pretending to dance. I should find some concerts while I’m here.
I also managed to get extremely lucky with my camera—when we got into the club, I didn’t want to pay the 2 pounds to check my coat, but I also didn’t want to run around with my camera, phone, keys, wallet and change bulging out of my pockets. I decided (intelligently at the time, I’m sure) to hand my camera to someone to put into their purse.
Later that night I realized that not only could I not find her again, I didn’t know her name, or even if she’d come into the club with us.
Fortunately for me, she had in fact come to the club with us, did go to Sussex Uni, and was at the international students luncheon today. I got my camera back in time to take pictures of the weird and confused looking players in the square:
Coins
I disagree with the European system of using coins for money.
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but over in Europe and Great Britain they have a variety of coins worth up to two pounds each (that’s about four dollars) and no bills below 5.
Speaking as someone who uses a wallet for my money, coins are extremely inconvenient. As a result, I’m forced to put loose change in my pocket that’s worth far more money than change should reasonably be worth. I’m more than sure I’ve managed to lose several dollars worth of change since I’ve been here just from having it fall from my pocket on a bus or in a seat somewhere.
I don’t understand why some people want US money to change over to a more coin-based system like other places. I can understand eliminating the penny…when was the last time you used one? But to create and regularly use coins worth up to two dollars would be, in my mind, against the spirit of money in the first place.
Money replaced the barter system basically because it was more convenient. And bills replaced gold or silver because it was more convenient. Replacing convenient, light, and easy to carry bills with clunky, heavy coins would be a step backwards. I hope it doesn’t happen.
The TSA and the No-Fly list
Another Wired article, Nun Terrorized by Terror Watch talks again about the TSA no-fly list.
It’s a terribly dramaticized account of how, of all people a nun has been basically tagged as a possible terrorist because her last name matches the supposed alias of some possible terrorist.
While I appreciate that the article was written to sound just so damn unfair, it does underscore what I dislike about the current TSA setup. The no-fly list is a poorly set-up, ridiculous inconvenience that can, at its worst, force someone to change their job and live with a criminal record for something as simple as their last name.
That’s blatantly unfair, and the US government needs to realize that while security measures are understandable, arbitrarily picking people (with no option for reversal) and assuming, for the sake of airline travel, that they are terrorists is unacceptable. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
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