How I successfully manage my feed reader with subject folders

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.

Google reader foldersReading RSS feeds is a mess. No matter how much you try, you’re not going to get through everything you really want to get through.

The past few weeks, I’ve been working out a new system for managing my input (and my output). I think it works pretty well.

One of the things that you’ll notice if you spend enough time in the blogosphere is that unofficial communities exist all over the place. They’re often somewhat self contained, and they almost always center around a certain topic, regardless of whether or not each blogger writes exclusively about that topic or not.

So for example, the videogame blogging community that I consider myself part of consists of, among several others I will undoubtedly forget: The Buttonmasher, Corvus Elrod, JaySlacks, The Brainy Gamer, The Grumpy Gamer, etc, etc.

These topic communities are great ways to organize your feed reader. I know, I know - using folders is not that original. What works is making rules for how you read them.

Read more

March 28, 2008 | Filed Under Technology |  

The videogame cycle

I think it’s interesting that whenever a new videogames medium is introduced we have to recycle the whole genesis of games all over again.

The first thing that happens whenever anything new hits the market is that someone ports Doom onto it, no matter how ridiculous the control scheme ends ups being, a platform isn’t bona fide until it can play Doom.

Doom is then followed by an obligatory string if side scrollers, mini-RPGs, and probably a text adventure game or two (why aren’t the text games first? who knows).

If you want to see this in action, just look at what’s available on your cell phone. I bet it’s what you were playing on your PC 15 years ago. This is probably because your cell phone is more or less the same thing as your computer 15 years ago except that it’s a lot smaller and it doesn’t take floppys.

March 25, 2008 | Filed Under Gaming |  

Historical Documents

I wonder at what point the US Constitution became a historical document, therefore earning the privilege of bullet-proof glass.

For how long did the US Senate huddle around the ungainly pieces of original parchment with magnifying glasses, double-checking the rules? Until 1778? 1780?

I just think it’s a funny image, a room full of bewigged gentlemen, licking their thumbs and turning the page on something that is now essentially beyond price.

March 24, 2008 | Filed Under Nonsense |  

Refocusing on my Science Fiction short story: Vespyr

I have a wall-mounted shelf above my desk where I keep a few things that are either useful or sentimental: a picture, a camera lens, the TIE FIGHTER videogame box, a few books, and random things that go between bookends.

One of those things is the first 28 pages of the script to Blade Runner.

I have a tendency to start things that I never finish. All the time. This is a particularly ridiculous example: I decided that I wanted a copy of the Blade Runner script, and, since they don’t sell it that I’m aware of, I decided to print the thing out and throw it in a binder.

I have completely failed, through sheer laziness, to print the whole script (to be fair, I’m printing it double-sided to save paper).

Looking at this reminded me today that I’m about 60% done with an awesome science fiction short story (story written; needs lots of editing), and publishing one of those is something that is very much on my 101 list.

So tonight I’m going to spend at least an hour working on my short story. I will finish this damn thing eventually.

March 24, 2008 | Filed Under Nonsense |  

Do I keep Disqus?

In the end, this decision belongs to the people who comment on my blog.

I’ve been using Disqus for several months now, and it’s worked extremely well. Daniel and Jason are both awesome people who have been extremely responsive to my gripes, suggestions, and annoyances despite the fact that they have thousands of bloggers signed up for their system.

Here’s my dilemma: I’m not sure that comments should be divorced from their posts.

Fred Wilson made a post the other day on the USV blog about their investment (congrats to both parties) in Disqus and why they think it is a good one.

Here is the key part:

This allows the comments to go anywhere and everywhere where there is an audience for them. Abstracting comments from the blog hosting platform does for comments what RSS has done for content; it allows the comments to flow freely to whatever place it should most logically be consumed.

I think the place they should most logically be consumed is with the post that began the discussion. If we back up and treat blog posts like Forum threads (the similarities are huge): would you ever remove the first post in a forum thread? Not likely.

The other, admittedly selfish reason I am considering switching back to the WordPress comment system is simple: with Disqus the comments I receive are not on my site. Yes, they appear on my site, with my posts. But the all-knowing Google will consistently steers searchers to a site that is not mine.

Is it worth the trade? Let me know what you think.

March 21, 2008 | Filed Under Technology |  

The newspaper question: do you keep the paper?

Everyone knows that across the country newspaper circulation numbers are declining (although a cursory google search fails to turn up any hard data) as more people turn to the internet, or TV, or nothing for their daily news.

Newspapers, therefore, have to make a fundamental choice about which problem to tackle, which course to pursue:

  1. Fight to bring classic newspaper circulation numbers back up
  2. Find ways to effectively distribute and monetize their digital offerings

The sooner newspapers let go of option number one the better they will fare. The classic daily newspaper is, I think, unlikely to make a resurgence long-term, no matter how you spice it up. Beyond that, newspapers need to innovate to survive, and the internet is a far, far cheaper place to innovate.

I was thinking about this while I read Amy Webb’s post about QR codes in newspapers yesterday. Amy is absolutely dead-on: newspapers need to start using their print product to drive online interaction.

For the long version, you should go read her post. The short version is this: QR codes are mini bar-codes that can be scanned by cell phones. Insert coupons and rewards, or institute a point system based on scanning them, and people have a way to tie together web and mobile technology with reading a classic newspaper.

Sounds like a good idea to me. And you can bet the QR code people are ready to go.

March 20, 2008 | Filed Under publishing |  

Blogging your interests: diversify or consolidate?

I’m well aware that this blog is a complete jumble of ideas and topics. It’s a fairly accurate representation of what I’m like in person: an opinionated, intermittently absent collection of frequently misplaced enthusiasm.

Which raises, for me, a very interesting question: should I consolidate my blogging, or should I diversify into different blogs? Which is better?

At the moment, I do most of my community and social media oriented blogging over at Web Community Forum. Likewise, I do my blog and blogosphere related blogging at Blog Business Summit. Those are two areas that, if I did not blog there, would probably get integrated here, by default, simply because I’m interested.

What’s nice about that arrangement is that when people want to read about business blogging or about facebook, they can go to those sites. It’s not about me so much as it is about the topic. It’s cool because I get to be recognized for my knowledge and expertise in those areas.

The same thing happened when I was running Flicker Gaming. I diverted my blogging about video games to Flicker (which has since re-oriented itself back here). I think people like it when a blog’s topic can be summarized inside two sentences (this blog, clearly, fails that litmus test).

In the end, this blog’s appeal lies not in what I’m writing about, but in who is doing the writing. And at the moment, it’s a pretty small group of people who really care what good old (non-NY based former male escort) Jason Preston has to say about things.

That may change some day, but for now I think it can be safely said.

And given that, my friend Ethan and I have been talking recently about spinning our interests out into individual blogs.

For example, he and I both have a longstanding interest in writing (or just creating) works of fiction—short stories, webcomics, novels, you name it. We’re almost always working on some side project or another. And if one of us isn’t, the other almost definitely is.

Why shouldn’t we create a blog about writing (creating) fiction? We don’t have to post that frequently. Just post well.

Would it be better than posting about it here? Possibly.

I think we’re likely to give it a try. But if you’ve made it this far, I’d love to hear your input. What do you think? Is it better to blog in one place about everything, or blog about everything in different places?

March 19, 2008 | Filed Under Nonsense |  

Why it is hard to write about vidoegames (with a handy-dandy chart)

I love videogames.

I’ve been playing videogames on consoles and computers for basically as long as I can remember. I beat Zork. I coded my own text adventure games using QBASIC. I stayed up all night playing DOOM with headphones on, I beat Half-Life, Mario Bros, SSX Tricky, TIE Fighter, Halo, played the crap out of Guitar Hero (I, II, and III), Civ IV, Heroes of Might and Magic, Splinter Cell, God of War, Prince of Persia, and the list goes on…

But I find it really really hard to write about video games.

That’s because the collective realm of video game blogging, journalism, and forum contributions can be broken down using this chart. Guess which part I’m interested in:

Game Chart

Not to mention the fact that as soon as you mention “videogames,” most people over 40 roll their eyes yell at you to get off their lawn, damn kids and their noise.

ps. most of the people reading this post are in that .00005% category.

March 19, 2008 | Filed Under Gaming |  

Seattle, the “science-fictiony town,” and myself, are sorry to see Arthur C Clarke go

hellodaveI just learned that Arthur C. Clarke died today.

As a fan of science fiction, the amount of his work that I’ve read is woefully lacking (I do, of course, know everything about 2001 - in fact, I actually referenced it in a post I wrote today for InFlightHQ before I learned he had died. Odd).

That link up above is to The Big Blog, which has an interesting story about Clarke’s last correspondence to the Seattle Sci-Fi Museum.

I didn’t know we had a Sci-Fi Museum until about a month ago. But we do, and they’ve apparently set up a memorial page for him, where he is captioned: “English Writer.”

Regardless, I’m sad to see him go. He’s been a staple of the Sci-Fi world for so long that his absence will definitely be felt.

March 18, 2008 | Filed Under Nonsense |  

Why OpenID will never work

I currently use Disqus as the comment system on this blog, and they made a blog post today about their beta 2 updates. One of the ones that caught my eye was that they’re supporting OpenID and “making the registration process easier.”

This is a good thing since I know someone who managed to make their PASSWORD their USERNAME. Hmmm…that level of confusion doesn’t encourage users to sign up.

But here’s the thing about OpenID: the concept, as far as I understand it, is so very essential. And the implementation is total crap. It will never work, and here’s why:

  1. Go to www.OpendID.com. There’s nothing there. If you’re serious you buy the domain.
  2. If you google it and find out it’s OpenID.net, it’s still freaking hard to “get one.”

If OpenID really means business, they need to buy OpenID.com and set up a Google-esque home page where the user has a CLEAR “call-to-action.”

In other words, I want to go to OpenID and be prompted:

—————-
“do you have a login with any of the following sites?” [dropdown box]

Login below:

If not, create your OpenID here:

[box]

[password box]
—————–

Currently, it’s just too byzantine.

March 18, 2008 | Filed Under Technology |  

Jason Preston is the top search term on Google?

I knew you all loved me, but, aww, shucks. Making Jason Preston the top Google search term? It’s too much.

I can only assume this is because my New-York based semi-famous namesake has done something worth talking about (the Google Search does not yet turn up any obvious answers, although the trends report suggests some sort of tiff with Marc Jacobs).

For any of you landing here looking for gossip, sorry to disappoint.

As long as you’re here, why not poke around and read some of the posts. I write about videogames, technology, and other nonsense. I recommend the featured posts in the sidebar as a starting point.

If you like what you see, I’d love it if you signed up for my RSS feed.

In the meantime, I will bask in my (temporary) glory:

goog top search

March 17, 2008 | Filed Under Nonsense |  

TV companies realize ‘casual gaming’ is a big market

Last friday I went to Seattle Lunch 2.0, hosted by Parker Services and featuring a short speech from Big Fish Games.

I mention this because Big Fish Games is one of the big success stories in casual gaming. They make over $51 million in revenue.

That’s pretty big money for something that people tend to toss aside.

It looks like the big media companies are starting to notice that the market for casual games is extremely compatible with television. The New York Times has an article today about how Nickelodeon is planning to launch hundreds of casual games to tie in with their kids shows.

I have always thought that the term “casual games” is a bit of a misnomer. It should really be something more like “lightweight games” or maybe “pausable games.”

What’s really interesting to me though is how critical Nickelodeon sees their gaming outreach to be in terms of their overall business:

“What video is to TV, games are to the Web,” Steve Youngwood, the executive vice president for digital media at Nickelodeon, said in an interview. “For us to be relevant to our audience, that is where we need to put our investment.”

I think he might be right.

March 17, 2008 | Filed Under Gaming |  

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-15

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March 15, 2008 | Filed Under Tweets |  

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-14

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March 14, 2008 | Filed Under Tweets |  

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-13

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March 13, 2008 | Filed Under Tweets |  

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