Know when to walk away

Yessir, it’s been over seven months since my last post, my last lick of activity on this blog and here I am, fresh as a daisy and ready to add my two-cents to the already bogged down world of blogs. Here here.

Although I’ll spare my diatribe about the last several months, I have recently procured a new apartment, and more importantly, a roommate of which I sleep with. Some (not everyone) would even call this person my “girlfriend” or “significant other.” Big news I know!

The transition has not been easy to say the least. Landlord problems aside, I quickly learned that the melding of two lives into one space requires compassion, respect and understanding. Understanding that I, as a man, lose half my shit because her stuff is “better.” But at least I get to keep my worn-out boxers that took years to break into it (and therefore oh so comfy).

Learn to choose your battles, gents.

In closing, I’ll link an item I hope to eat in the near future.

BACOM JAM.

The Twitter Doctrine

I’m not quite sure when, but suddenly I couldn’t view more than five websites without seeing a reference to Twitter, whether it’s someone plugging their handle or a news site discussing how to properly use it.  It’s been herald as the new Facebook, a tool in which inspires and discourages people to openly share minute details about their life and personality. We’ve read the reports about the use of Twitter in late breaking events like the Dubai hotel attacks, to the downed airplane in the Hudson River.  What caught me off guard was a mixture of an article and an event that sparked this blog post (the fact that I feel guilty about not posting in eons has nothing to do with it).

Subject A, a Globe and Mail article detailing the dangers of using Twitter at, and about work. While the story resonated the same pitfalls as Facebook, Twitter offers up to even bigger, larger paranoia-induced possibilities.

Although the two share a same generic privacy setting (wanna read my shizzle? We have to be buds first), Facebook allows for a lot more customization, allowing users to cater viewing settings to specific people or groups. Since Twitter, however, relies on a simple architect it’s privacy settings are black and white, everything or nothing – making information about yourself all too open for tech-savvy employers, like the one mentioned in the Globe article.

Ok, so I get it. Watch what you post, upload, Tweet and ReTweet at work, especially when the fate of your career could rest within those characters. But what about those who work for a company that actually promotes their Twitter handle? Well that’s a case of its own as one Bill Schulz found out, and still finding out. In the last 48 hours or so, in every corner of the Internet people are chastising Schulz for his remarks on the Canadian military on a late night, stereotypical Fox News show.

I won’t get into what he said or dwell on my opinion of him (read: I don’t know enough swear words to insult him), but Canadians are up in arms and putting him down in blog posts, street interviews and of course, Twitter.

After reading this article and ones like it, I watched the YouTube video of his performance and noticed that just as Schulz was about to unload, his Twitter handle pops up in the lower-third of the screen. Marketing genius, or piss poor timing? I’m sure you can argue that people would have found his Twitter account sooner or later, it’s really not that hard with Twitter Search, but it’s the concept that interested me the most. It’s like the network gave viewers a handout and said “here guys, go nuts.” And they did. Viciously.

At first I was in awe.

Page after page of insults I wouldn’t dare repeat, I hadn’t seen anything quite like this before. Twitter essentially acted like a fast and public bag of hate mail that spread like wildfire. Of course, it didn’t help when Schulz told people messaging him to “lighten the fuck up.”

And the thing about the Internet that sometimes people forget – shit gets real, and fast. This guy has reached a new plateau in his career. One more outtake like that and we’re talking borderline Ann Coulter-douchbaggery status.

So the lesson of the day is simple. Watch who you’re talking to, and what you’re talking about. Kinda like in real life.

Oh hello internets, how are ya?

It’s sure been awhile since my last post. I even had the nerve to stop following up on Microsoft’s billion dollar ad campaign, which, I’ll admit got better when they stopped making Jerry Seinfeld the focal point (I dig your jokes Jer, but those commercials just weren’t funny). Since the last post, I did eventually sell my soul for this.

Magical, I know.

While acquiring the Jesus phone, I’ve since landed a publishing job and witnessed a lot of momentual things, including seeing  some skinny dude getting elected as leader of the free world (whose also a BlackBerry nut and tech supporter).

“These troubled economic times” hasn’t left a sector untouched, and none more interesting and tumultuous than what’s going on in the world of tech and Web 2.0 (and how will we know when it’s time for 2.5 or 3.0 anyway?). Layoffs (omg Goggle), Steve Job’s temporarily departure and this badass “Photoshop” graffiti.

I could go on, but then it would kind of sound like a “Year in Review” type of posting, and I’d rather stray off that beaten path.

Unfortunately, I have not been writing as much as I would like to but I do intend to change that. Perhaps blogging will help with that transition.

Lastly – I want this shirt so badly! But the site’s admin informed me they’re having trouble accepting Canadian credit cards.

That’s it, that’s all.

ADS!

In late August it was announced that Microsoft would spend $300 million on revamping their advertising to help debunk the Vista paradox. After years of ignoring Apple’s “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ads, many of which can be considered attack ads, Microsoft is finally maning up and retaliating against its long time nemisis.

Here’s the first commercial.

If you’re as confused as I am, Microsoft is f’ed. It really doesn’t make any sense at all, and I didn’t get the Conquistadors reference (Spanish conquerors, whaa?).

Maybe the need to get the guys who put together his last video at CES 2008.

Why won’t it just die

I remember a time where I would cut out Sunday comic strips and glue them together in a binder full of paper, just so that I could keep copies of them. I mainly stuck to Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot, my favourites at the time. Never did I consider keeping comics like For Better or Worse because I didn’t find their parental and family-oriented stories funny.

BUT, apparently we’ll all get another crack at it because the women who created and writes for it has decided to revamp the dying comic. {link}

The headline is completely misleading as she’s not actually say goodbye to anything. Maybe she’s saying goodbye and we’re saying hello… hello, hello.

Either way, I’m still not interested and see this whole scheme as a lost cause.

Quicky

Scientists have successfully implemented brain cells from mice into a robot, giving it a sense of direction and its surroundings.

That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for… impending robot domination.

And I, for one, welcome our new overlords. I’d like to remind them as a trusted blogging personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground oil mines.

Additional updates!

Clue(less)

When I was explaining the Crossfire reference to my editor, the same fellow intern brought this to our attention.

Why Hasbro, why? Not everything that is good and wholesome in the world has to be “updated” and spun into a bad/typical MTV sitcom.

I think it’s up to the interns and web producers to get involved in some good old fashion investigative journalism and test out which version plays better.

i(can’t afford the)Phone

I neglected to update my status on the iPhone hunt in my previous post. As it turns out, Telus charges a lot to cancel a 2-year contract and thus I simply can’t afford to not only pay for the iPhone/monthly fees, but as well as playing off Telus charges. I’ll get my hands one soon enough and hopefully by then the some of the problems will be resolved.

/end

Crossfire… you’ll get caught up in the… Crossfire

I’ve been slacking a lot recently on this blog, not that I regularly maintained any sort of consistent update. But I do have a few reasons (read: excuses) as to why I haven’t been posting. Don’t fret. This isn’t a typical Livejournal blog, so I’ll keep the personal stuff down to a minimum.

For one thing, I’m in the mists of completing my internship at a city magazine at the end of the month. That in itself has been fairly pressing and stressful, as I don’t have any immediate career/job plans afterwards (read: Hire me!)

To escape the madness and looming life changing decisions I must face in the next few weeks, I’ll be flying back to Toronto for a week to celebrate several friend’s birthdays as well as my own. I am hoping that some kind of euphoric and creative flash will hit me and present a solution to my uncertain career. Whether or not substance abuse is in the mix will validate its legitimacy.

Because I am dedicated and awesome, I’ll post a list of gadgets/amusing things I discovered recently.

This is brilliant. It’s awesome how Internet memes can evolve and take on a whole new meaning.

Nerf’in

Remember the glory days when you could run around the neighbourhood shooting your friends with water guns or nerf guns AND scare the crap out of your neighbours? Wow, I’m not a gun nut or anything but these mods look like their something found in Call of Duty 4 or Resistance. Yeesh.

Oh, but I want one. Well, two so I can dual wield the assault rifles.

Cleaver clover

I read this article in the past issue of Wired magazine and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. The story is about how Starbucks (or as my lovely fellow intern describes them as, one of the Three Evils (Wal-mart and McDonald’s being the other two) bought the rights to use and distribute the Jesus of coffee makers — The Clover. I’m not so much a coffee aficionado, but I do enjoy a good cup of joe and it’s increasingly difficult to get away from Starbucks, especially in Calgary and Toronto.

But with this piece of hardware behind the counter (provided that the staff know what the heck they’re doing) I won’t mind so much. It’s a smart move on their part considering their loss.

Gotham Knight

If you haven’t seen this yet, go. Go now and pick up the DVD, download it, get it from a friend and lie about never borrowing it. It that good. With a method mirroring Animatrix, the straight to DVD vid is composed of six entirely different Batman stories in very different styles of animation. Wanna see Bruce Wayne as an anime character? Well this is the video for you, good sir.

Maybe that’s the inner batman-lover in me, but the kicker is that every batman in each segment is voiced by Kevin Conroy, the original voice of Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990’s. His Batman voice is smooth. There’s no awkward transition or throat damaging tones at all, making it actually more belieable and less… dramatic.

Well that’s my update. I’ll try to find time next week during my stay in the T-Dot (that’s what we call it. It’s an urban thing, get used to it).

Title of the blog: I saw a Chrysler Crossfire on my way to lunch and was immediately reminded of this commercial.

Cu-cuil. Alright.

Well since every writer and blogger in North America is writing about it, I might as well jump in and compile a few thoughts on this timely topic.

How Cuil isn’t so hot.

A few former Google employees decide to challenge the king and create a search engine of their own. Days leading up to its launch, the marketing guys at Cuil (pronounced “cool” if you can believe it) go full throttle, plugging their stories to every major media outlet. The $33 million investment state that they’ve indexed, or in order words, complied into their servers, more webpages than Google.

So here’s where they fail.

First, the order of the results are based on the amount of the site’s content, not the traffic. It’s great in theory, but the results so far have been extremely random. One blogger claims that the site didn’t index sites created in late May 2007 to June 2007, creating a gap in results.

Next, the images that populate next to each finding are so random and often have nothing to do with the results (I wonder how many times I can type the word results in this post).

Lastly, the name. As pointed out by commenters over at TechCrunch, there’s a reason why “cuil” doesn’t yield any results. Apparently, they’ve changed their name from Cuill to Cuil recently, after they’ve indexed their own pages. If you try searching Cuill, you’ll see the pages and the old URL’s.

You can say their initial launch, which ended with an almost instant server crash, could be foreshadowing their future but I remain hopeful they’ll straighten things out. The interface is interesting and I like the idea of competition amoung companies (ahem), but if you’re going to blow smoke, you better make sure there’s a fire. Because when you’re dealing with the Interwebs,  startups can fly or flop in a day.

Also, the title of this post is a reference to an awesome internet video.

O Rly

As I was about to head out the door for work this morning, I turned on Citytv to check out the weather (I’m a jacket-loving guy and will wear one given any chance) only to discover something out of place. At the bottom of the screen, below the weather updates, there is a news ticker. I rarely pay much attention to these briefs, but one definitely stuck out.

“Facebook gets a new layout design and added features.”

I was instantly intrigued by something like a simple Facebook update (an update that I have yet to notice)  added to their news ticket. Facebook has indeed taken a life of its own, and does this ticker line mean that old school media outlets are finally realising the potency of web apps and social networking? Maybe.

Or maybe it was just a slow news day.

I’m betting on the latter, but I’m hoping for the first.

This reminds me a heck of a lot like this story in which a distinguishable iPhone image (with a tweak or two) was used to represent a mobile device . The incorporation of new technology and innovation into colloquial and traditional methods.

Wowzers.