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August 22, 2006
Stop Crying Web...
I don't know why this is, but why is it that everyone always overestimates how quickly the internet is redefining the rules of the game?
It's frustrating to me too - Mr. Early Adopter - but the truth is:
We don't all have blogs.
Most people don't read blogs.
I doubt anyone within 100 yards of here knows who Jason Kottke is.
"Uh, Derek, where can I look up what a wikipedia is?"
Very few know what an RSS feed is let alone use an RSS reader for their information foraging (although their boss may have sent them to a lunch-hour training where they learned what it looks like). Until web browsers make this thing painfully simple, the grapes of RSS are going to be too high for most people.
On the whole, we still reads print magazines and newspapers far more than we read online magazines and newspapers.
I'm not sure there are any truly bona fide internet celebs in the public consciousness.
I can't download a movie from Hollywood studio like a I can a song from iTunes.
Short of porn, most video is broadcast via cable companies and satellite providers.
There's very limited us of IM apps in the workplace.
Hardly anyone over 30 sends more a few text messages per month.
Most of the ad budgets go to TV and print.
Let's face it, the pace is slow. There's no big stick out there beating us over the head to change other than our own desire to do so and the habits of the more younger, more technically savvy redefining the face of the average buying consumer. And that takes years to make a difference...
It'll be 60-odd year until the seniors of the time grew up with the internet their whole life. That's a long time away ...
In the meantime, the new order of things slowly settles in. The quicker ones among us will be identify oportunities and build businesses around intellectual property they'll likely sell to an established player rather than take to market themselves. A few of us ad-type will do something interesting and maybe get in an article somwhere but the rules overall will change slowly for our trade.
Fact is, for every year that goes by, we only get one year older (I know, I'm brilliant...) so it's going to take time for the wallets of a new generation to take over from the baby boomer economic powerhouse.
Till then, pine away you yearning futurists... pine away...
Posted by Derek Leverington at 6:57 PM
August 9, 2006
Rockstar: Supernova - Boo for Accessibility on Mac OS X
Thanks Microsoft.
I am completely shut out of voting on rockstar.msn.com because the voting screen seems to be made completely unaccessible in both Safari and Firefox for Mac. All I can get access to is a voter info page. When I do try to access what I'm guessing is the actual voting page (rockstar.msn.com/vote) - I get into an odd server-side redirect loop that goes in circles and the page keeps reloading endlessly.
How fantastically irritating...
Well, it's certainly not enough to sway me to go back and use Windows again but it sure makes me resent Microsoft though.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 1:24 AM
August 6, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro - Initial Impressions
I bought a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop about 3 months ago.
Other than doubling as a hot plate I could fry an egg on, I love it. The main music app I use - Pro Tools M - is all good to go. Microsoft Office still drags on it as does Dreamweaver, but it's not too bad. Don't even talked to me about Adobe CS. I don't know what the hold up is with Adobe on getting their stuff written for the new Intel chipset. Ridiculous. Everything else runs nice though.
I'm loving the whole .Mac thing. Has me feeling a lot better about not losing important data.
Only, I noticed that the fan make some weird noises sometime. Not a huge deal except that I do some recording right beside the laptop and if I was doing a vocal recording in the control room it would be a drag as the noise would leak into the mic.
Other than that, I'm loving it.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 3:23 PM
August 5, 2006
Apple Airport Express
Everyone should have an Apple Airport Express.
No reason not to really. They work with PCs and Mac alike. They are an elegant solution to serving up some wi-fi, handling printing duties and getting music from your laptop wirelessly to your stereo. And it all integrates wonderfully with iTunes.
And they are so small, that they work as a great mobile wi-fi solution. I took one fairly recently on a trip with me where a group of us were meeting in a hotel and I was able to set up a mobile network for anyone in the meeting who wanted internet access.
I have two in my house - one upstairs and one downstairs - partially to connect to the two main stereo setups and partially to make sure that the wireless coverage is sufficient. Frankly, they aren't the cheapest solution if you have to buy more than one. But considering the prevlance of laptops, they are almost a must-have piece of gear to get your laptop hooked up to some music and print capabilities - especially since using a wire to do so is very inconvenient.
So, if you don't have one. Go and get one. Best $159 CAD you'll spend for a computer peripheral.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 3:13 PM