Writer’s Block
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As with many things, I think the solution to writers block is simply to put pen to paper. Or whatever the digital equivalent would be.
Every now and again I get completely burned out. I write here, I write at Flicker, I write for RawFormat, I work for Avondale Media all day, and then I like to work at my own short stories.
For the past few days I’ve been kind of dragging my feet through the internet. I sat at the keyboard for almost twenty minutes earlier today and had no inspiration whatsover. I didn’t even feel like writing.
But then I start one little post and suddently I end up with three? How strange.
I’m confusticated
Man, when I figure this one out, I’m gonna be so happy. QuickTime makes no sense.
I’m starting with a 27 megabyte video, 800×600 resolution, 12.5 fps. Makes sense.
What I want to do, is convert it to a lower-quality, smaller video file for web streaming. The problem? I can’t come up with a smaller file.
I’ve shot the quality to hell, capped the resolution at 320×240, and compressed the audio six ways from center…only to get a file that’s twice as big as the original. I’ve got no clue what’s going on - it doesn’t even make any sense.
How the hell is a higher quality video file taking up less space?
I can’t make up my mind on Global Warming…no wait, I can
I’ve seen a few posts recently (notably this one, and this one) that have had me thinking about global warming and how it’s becoming an increasingly big issue in our daily lives.
Every time I think about a debate in general, I tend to assume that there are two sides to an issue for a reason. In other words, I don’t automatically discount the arguments of my opposition. It’s a good habit to get into because I think it makes you both more aware of the flaws in your own arguments, and better able to, well, present a targeted argument.
It surprises me, then, that we are so collectively misdirected in the debate about Global Warming.
It seems like everyone wants to argue about whether or not Global Warming (or, to be more accurage, Global Climate Change) is occurring. It’s occurring. Every reputable source I can come up with says that the Earth’s Climate, by region, is changing. Probably even Michael Chrichton would agree.
In my mind the “debate” boils down to a confrontation between those who are unwilling to admit that the changes occurring in our environment are a problem, and those who are trying to point out that changes are happenening.
Of course, the vast majority on both sides are too lazy or too comfortable to actually want to do anything to accomodate, so it’s largely academic anyway.
But it can’t be for long. Whether you think it’s a natural phenomenon or something that we’ve somehow exacerbated as a species, changes are happening. What we need to start arguing about is how to go about adapting to the changes, or a lot of problems are going to crop up.
I think I agree with Fred - this solution is going to have to come from economics, not politics.
Neener Neener
I just realized that I actually beat Joystiq to one of their stories this week on Flicker:
Flicker - I bet they all play Alliance! (May 26th, 11:39am)
Joystiq - University of Washington plays the most WoW? (May 26th, 3:25pm)
Allow me to officially say: neener neener!
Now if only we could steal their traffic, too…
Things that make me irrationally mad, part 2,348 in an ongoing series
I am an annoying cyclist. This is because I follow the rules.
When you’re riding a bycicle, the rules of the road do actually apply to you.
You can get a speeding ticket for going too fast, you must ride on the righthand side of the road, and yes, you must stop at stop signs and traffic lights. I do.
But most cyclists tend to ignore traffic laws. I’m not sure if it’s out of convenience, laziness, or a superiority complex. Whatever the reason, it annoys the hell out of me.
I yell at people when I see them cycle through a red light without even slowing.
I might be the only one, but damnit it makes me irrationally mad!
The highly-desireable Plumba
I’m pretty sure it’s not what they had in mind, but spacing can make a big difference:
Lots can change in four years
I’m glad to see Microsoft is actually doing some cool things in the four years it’s had to develop Office 2007. As I understand it, the whole deal is supposed to ship by year’s end, and one of the neato features is that Word 07 will be able to publish to blogs (i.e. write your post in word, then update it without going to your web front-end.)
From Zdnet:
At the other end of the scale, Word 2007 will enable users to create, edit and publish posts to their blog. In the just-released Beta 2 edition of Office 2007 Word supports MSN Spaces, Blogger, Community Server and SharePoint Server 2007 through a simple drop-down menu.
“(The final product) will also publish to WordPress and TypePad through the drop-down,” says Joe Friend, lead program manager on Word 2007. “Word will also publish to anyone else via the MetaWeblog and Atom APIs we’re supporting, so any developer can add another blog system to this menu. We’ll work with existing blogging providers and also make a mechanism for discovering how to set up other systems” Friend told ZDNet Australia.
Waking up
I’ve pretty much been a night owl for years. I think the trend began in high school and really took off when I realized that “college” was just a code word for “expensive party.”
In general, I do a lot of staying up late and sleeping in - it’s just the way my social circle works. But over the past several years, one thing has begun to occur to me: what I hate is waking up.
I used to think that getting up early was just the worst thing ever, and I looked forward to getting up whenever I felt like it. I’ve had that opportunity now, and the unfortunate truth is that waking up is just as horrible at 2pm; the only difference is that you’re skipping a good portion of the day.
This leaves me in a tough spot. If waking up is just as painful at 2 as it is at 8:30, why should I bother sleeping in?
I feel like this is the slow logical process that kicks in around the early twenties and, by the time I’m 85, I’ll be going to bed at 5 and waking up at 6:15.
Busy, the downsides
In my mind, there are plenty of upsides to being busy in the summer - it staves off boredom, i’m (hopefully) doing interesting things, i feel productive, and i’m forced to get some sort of excercise.
Most of all, when you’re already busy doing things, it’s pretty easy to add a few more projects on the side, so I end up doing more of what I want to do anyway. Having a structure and a schedule tends to do that.
The real downside I’ve noticed is that between Flicker, my “real job”, and getting things done around home, I’ve had surprisingly little time to sit down and surf the web the way I have for a few months.
I haven’t kept up reading all my favorite blogs, and a certainly haven’t had time to really write much for my own. Hopefully my schedule will settle out sometime soon and I’ll have more time for my hobbies again.
I never had a huge trampoline
As I’m sitting here getting shit done for the day, it’s drizzling outside and I’ve got the screen door open so I can hear the rain.
I can also hear the kids next door as they jump around on the trampoline set up in the middle of their front yard - you know, the kind with the net around in to make sure they don’t accidentally fall off the edges and split their skull open?
Here’s the thing though - doesn’t having a net around the trampoline just teach kids not to worry about falling (or jumping) off edges? I can just imagine a seven year old accidentally falling off a cliff because he’s used to having a net around.
Probably not ever going to happen, but, it’s just a funny thought.
DRM free? No way.
I hope eMusic does well. I really do.
There’s an article up on ars technica explaining that they sell DRM-free mp3s because they play on any device, which is what I’m so perplexed about with everyone else. Sure, eMusic is selling mostly indie music at the moment, but they’re the second largest online music store. That kind of money won’t be ignored forever.
All these other companies are trying to lock consumers into certain devices and basically cheat them out of good money, and as consumers continue to realize that there are better, legal ways to go about buying music, they will.
I’m a Mac Ads
I’ve been so busy recently between Flicker, getting back into the swing of my (real) job for the summer, and catching up with people that time for posting in general has been pretty hard to come by. Hopefully I’ll start to settle into a routine soon and get back to posting regularly, but in the meantime I’m going to grab the opportunity to talk about some ads.
These “I’m a Mac” ads have been around for a few weeks now, and if you haven’t heard of them, you can watch them all at the apple web site here.
Since I tend to use PCs for most of what I do (and many of my friends don’t), these ads have been pointed out to me several times since they came out - so I thought I’d go ahead and post my thoughts on them.
On the whole, the ads are cute enough, funny enough, and made very professionally. They’re kind of disarming and kind of alienating at the same time, but above all, they’re advertisements.
There are six different shorts that compare Macs and PCs on a number of issues. The ads are titled Viruses, Restarting, Better, iLife, Network, and WSJ. You can kind of tell from the titles, but they all deal with specific features or aspects of a computer, and most of them boil down to the Mac guy going “did you know I can do this?” and the PC guy going “I can’t do that.”
This is misleading. I think the best example of this is the “iLife” ad, which basically runs down the whole iLife set and asks the PC “what do you come with?”
And, strictly speaking, a lot of PCs don’t come with comprable applications. Sure, there are plenty of programs that do everything iLife does that are easy to get hold of, and a good portion of them are probably free to download on the web — but they’re not pre-loaded.
So what the mac really does is skip the part where you go find them.* To go with a traditionally horrible analogy - a Mac is more like a hotel room that comes with certain furniture and appliances “pre-loaded,” where a PC is more like an apartment that you must furnish yourself. (So long as you don’t take that analogy past its surface, I think it works).
Next they have the type of ad where it compares the “reliablility” of computers. This is trickier, but still misleading in my mind. (Take the viruses short, where the PC has viruses and the Mac quotes a statistic about there being comparatively fewer viruses for Macs).
There are of course differences between Macs and PCs with regards to security and viruses - mostly to do with the way access is given to critical system files, etc. But I’ve found over the past 10 years or so that most virus problems come from careless use. Macs are little bit more idiot-proof because they don’t let you have the same kind of access to base configuration files.
Also, there are technically fewer viruses out there for Macs to catch, but there are also technically fewer Macs for viruses to infect.
In the end, one of the things I find myself asking is “what is their target audience?” I generally credit the Apple marketing crew with being one of the most savvy groups in the world, and so it puzzles me that these ads seem aimed at people who already use Macs.
I’m guessing this because they’re all vaguely insulting to people who use PCs. It’s something about the way the PC and Mac are embodied - the “nerd” and the “cool kid” seem to say “you use a PC? You are this nerdy, unsociable idiot, and this guy here? He’s much cooler than you.”
But it doesn’t come off like you want to be the Mac guy. You just think he has a superiority complex.
On the other hand, someone who really loves Macs will probably go “yeah! that’s right! we are better like that!”
So who knows what they were trying to do. Anyways, those are my thoughts.
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* incidentally, I’m curious about how Apple works with monopoly issues - it seems to me like embedding so much of their own software into the OS and their computers puts them in a very monopolistic position. It’s basically what Microsoft got in trouble for with Internet Explorer. Is it because they only have a small part of the personal computing market that they’re allowed to monopolize that share? I know nothing about this kind of law, but I’m curious to know.
Poor cat
Don’t get me wrong…I love cats…but this is one hilarious commercial:
The geek dance
One of the funny things about being a geek like myself is that you spend most of your life going around trying to convince people you’re more or less normal–yes, yes, I understand how to have a conversation, yeah, I can order coffee, what’s that? No I wasn’t talking about Babylon 5, where did you get that idea?
But then you meet someone else who’s a little bit geeky, and it suddenly becomes a contest to see who’s geekier. It’d be funnier if it didn’t feel so pathetic ;)
Guild tabard: Low Class Guild
I’m a huge fan of very casual guild gaming in World of Warcraft - which unfortunately prevents me from running endgame, since neither I nor any of my guildmates have the commitment to really make a point of getting through any big instances.
But it does mean that we get to do cool shit like call ourselves the “Low Class Guild” and design awesome guild tabards:
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