Counter Stats

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I’m a little late to this resource, seeing as it’s been around since late July and I’ve already wittered about wanting Google to bake in some kind if public circles feature (which they inevitably will). Until then, there’s Google+ Counter – a G+ stats site with public, curated lists of folks to follow.

More meritocratic than Google’s recommended lists – it’s still not quite the one click subscription model I crave, but it’s very, very useful for finding interesting and active G Plussers. And, you can create your own lists too.

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/VbmiixjNLUH

Wacom Inkling – WANT

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I shared this on Twitter yesterday – the Wacom Inkling, coming to the UK for a very reasonable £125 in October (unusually, an almost direct translation of the dollar price).

It’s a combo ballpoint pen and line-of-sight receiver that enables you to draw on paper, then upload the drawing direct to your computer. Huh? Yeah – there’s a bit more to that pen than meets the eye… it records your movements and translates them into digital information that rebuilds your sketch. You can upload the results in vector or bitmap format – and it even does layers. Neat. It’s already on my wish list.

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/GmXta3bUddb

What do you get if cross Lou Reed with Metallica?

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What do you get if cross Lou Reed with Metallica?

It’s not a joke, it’s a genuine question. I’m desperate to know. They’ve made an album together, for serious, and it’ll be released on October 31st.

I don’t have much time for Metallica, tbh. When you’ve been weened on Killing Joke and Extreme Noise Terror, they seem a bit tame/lame/all the same.

Still, putting Lou Reed in the same room as these hacks sounds like a kick ass idea. Make them subordinate to his pretension and grunting and craggy gurning. And at least the lyrics will be interesting.

It’s going to be gothic, isn’t it? That’s happens when you cross metal with art-school. cf. Bauhaus, Specimen, Marilyn Manson. I’m not complaining.

Also, the web site looks like fun. It’s just being built and published as they gather content for it. That noise? Funny you should ask. It’s not the crashing, Pro Tools compressed squeal of rhythm guitar. It’s the sound of UX designers, screaming.

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/MFWWBqmCTge

Going Public You know what Google Plus really needs?

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Going Public

You know what Google Plus really needs? Public Circles. Like Twitter lists – but for Google Plus.

I say so because this morning I read a piece about Google Plus that made me twitch. Over at Forbes of all places. Titled “A Eulogy for Google Plus” (http://goo.gl/4a8Zr) the expectation of balance was low – but the level of misunderstanding in the piece was quite staggering.

In the author Paul Tassi’s estimation, G+ has failed because people are still using Facebook. Um… yeah? And?

Dunno about Mr. Tassi (actually, I do, because he describes in detail his failure to engage with G+), but I use Facebook and G+ in very different ways. Facebook is for friends and frivolity. For casual commenting and keeping in touch.

More than that, Facebook places you at the centre of your social universe. It’s for broadcasting first. It encourages a view of social networks as platforms for dissemination, rather than consumption, with you in the middle.

On G+, the balance is a bit different.

I use G+ to interact with people I don’t really know and follow content I’m interested in – a bit like Twitter, but with more depth. For me, it’s the Twitter of blogging. The balance is tipped in favour of consumption.

Facebook is for broadcasting first, following second.

G+ is for following first, broadcasting second.

Which brings me back to my original idea. Public Circles. If G+ had curated lists of people – like Twitter – then perhaps that difference would be more explicit to those who are trying to use G+ like Facebook, looking at a stream full of tumbleweed… It would go BOOM.

By the way, I am aware of a fast and dirty hack at www.plus-lists.com that enables you to do something like this. It’s a tool to export your circle data and convert it to V-Cards. Too many stages, too techie and too clunky. But this is the feature we need…

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/6SVF3Pf3YYX

HP TouchPad pricing announcement to come tomorrow…

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HP TouchPad pricing announcement to come tomorrow…

It’s possible the UK could be getting cut price TouchPads after all, with news that a customer service announcement is due tomorrow morning.

I’ve been following 16GB TouchPad pricing in the UK since HP announced they were scrapping the tablet. So far, the lowest price is £280.72 delivered from N-Genius, via Amazon. Amazon’s own price is £307.99 (before PP – I use Prime). That’s a drop of £40 from yesterday. I know because I’ve had one sitting in my Amazon basket since Friday…

In the States, it’s gone bat plop mental. $99 at BestBuy, Walmart and other outlets, with most online stores already claiming to have sold out.Staples beats ‘em all stupid, with a price of $49 (using a $50 rebate coupon).

When I tweeted about this, I was helpfully spammed a link to www.bundlebox.com – a service that offers none-Americans a US PO Box address. Add two to two – you could use it to order a TouchPad from the Americas, for under seventy quid plus PP.

Me? I’m not too keen on using these PO box services as you’re not covered by UK selling regs when you buy through them – and good luck negotiating US State regulations if your box arrives with a big dent in it – or with a couple of bricks inside.

I expressed this concern over the Twitters too – and was joyously challenged to try ‘em out by @BundleBox.#wetakegreatprideincustomerservice they helpfully hash tagged. Er… nope, I replied in tweet form, for the reasons expressed above. I need legally binding guarantees, not fey promises of customer service.

In reply to that, I discovered two things:

1.@bundlebox on Twitter is probably a hive rather than an individual because they didn’t reply in context. Instead they back-pedalled a bit, admitting that:

2. They are struggling to fulfil demand for TouchPads internationally. Most online sites are sold out, and some BundleBox users who bought from Best Buy have had their orders cancelled. Source: http://goo.gl/tCTdv

Harumph. So – even if I did “try ‘em out”, chances are, still no cheapo TouchPad.

But, hark, the Twitter vine yields one last juicy grape. Via follower @benhunt22 I’ve discovered that HP in the UK may still have a surprise of the price dropping kind in store. His Tweet claims:

“News is they will let us know by 9 AM to 10 AM tomorrow morning. Source: HP customer services”.

And so, we wait…

UPDATE:

Another Twitter user @heathrown(Scott Barkla) had the same message from HP UK customer services over the phone today. He tweeted:

“No UK liquidation deals on the HP Touchpad before tomorrow morning between 9am and 10am. Source HPUK customer service today.”

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/hbx56QuyFzt

David Mitchell dissects Pottermore in his Observer column today.

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David Mitchell dissects Pottermore in his Observer column today. It discusses how the invitation only, JK Rowling endorsed site, restricted to a million users, reveals notes and inspiration behind the Harry Potter books. Rowling offers up 5000 words on the correct wood to use in making a wand. She reveals why she named specific characters. She publishes potion recipes and spell meanings.

JK Rowling has clearly never heard of the death of the author, or the structuralist notion that meaning is negotiated at the moment of consumption. She also doesn’t seem to quite get the idea that fandom isn’t so much a cult of disciples, hanging onto every broadcast word and notion, but a participatory culture.

Fans don’t want to be told everything. The debate about the details is what bonds them together.

This is not the first time that Rowling has shown she simply does not get that. When she sued the Harry Potter Lexicon web site over its intention to publish a book adaptation, she did so claiming ownership over its content. But the Lexicon was in the tradition of many fan works in popular culture, a pseudo-scholarly analysis of the Potter canon. It put her in good company, alongside Tolkien and CS Lewis, Trek and Star Wars. It talked about events in the book, extracted character analyses from them, gathered spells and divined geography. It didn’t simply reproduce the content of the Potter novels – it offered an interpretation.

Rowling’s “my way or the highway” attitude is at odds with contemporary literary practice, but it challenges the authority of far more powerful phenomena than that.

The crowd.

While fans once enjoyed the fruits of popular culture in relative isolation – with the convention or club the most sophisticated participatory mechanism to hand – they’re now so networked and connected that any cultural artifact can become the focus of a bona fide sub-culture. Millions-strong and scattered across the world, but sharing the same virtual space, the same tropes and mores and rituals.

You don’t mess with the crowd. It has a collective consciousness, but it’s made of memes and reactive emotion. It doesn’t feel for others or accept guilt. It is always right.

Rowling pokes the cage at her peril.

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/PsUpbTZ4Y1k

A sequel too far

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You must have noticed the trend for belated sequels that’s ripping through Hollywood. Toy Story 3, 11 years after Toy Story 2. American Reunion, 8 years after American Wedding (also known as American Pie 3 – lord knows we needed another one of those). Then there was Tron Legacy – a staggering 26 years after Disney’s charming first foray into computer animation. And lots of back lit cell animation, it should be said.

I’m not complaining at all. Not really. A movie is a movie. Some sequels are better than their source. Godfather II. Empire Strikes Back. Wrath of Khan. And Toy Story 3 is widely acclaimed as a worthy entry in the canon.

If a sequel fails, it fails largely because the film just isn’t very good – not because it’s a sequel. Take Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It had all the right parts, but it also had lots of wrong ones (ropey CGI, UFO nonsense, Shia LaBeouf). It was just a few ballsy meetings away from being a decent romp. You know, the kind of meeting that ends with Steven Spielberg kneeling on George Lucas’s throat.

I’ll give any sequel a chance . I’ll judge it by its merits on the day, sitting in my premier seat, balancing a bucket of popcorn on my lap.

Except for Blade Runner. Keep your filthy hands off Blade Runner, you filthy, corporate, Beemer driving, coke snorting dogs.

For those not up to speed, the story is that the rights to Blade Runner – or rather the bits that Ridley Scott and his crew created for the 1982 film – were recently bought up by a production company, Alcon. The intention was to make a movie set in the Blade Runner world.”Why worry?” geeks smugly commented, “It’ll never happen”. Now, Ridley Scott, fresh off Alien none-prequel Prometheus, is said to be involved. Oh-oh, the same geeks are saying now. Oh dear.

It’s Han Solo shooting first, all over again.

I really want to have an open mind. I want to believe that Scott can go back to the same world and make a movie that fittingly continues the Blade Runner legacy.

But I don’t believe he can. I don’t believe anyone can make another Blade Runner with the same visual impact, the same narrative innovation or the same goddamn cultural importance as the original. And if the sequel can’t do that – why bother?

You can make another film. A different film, with a different premise and setting that is every bit as game changing.

But if you go back to the world of Blade Runner you, by definition, end up making a movie about science fiction film after Blade Runner. You end up remaking every urban, dystopian thriller that came after it, from Brazil to Minority Report.

Such was Blade Runner’s influence on film, fiction and fashion that there’s barely a cranny of post Blade Runner popular culture that hasn’t, in some way, been touched by it.

And now that look and that take on urban society, is a cliche. The multicultural mish-mash, the Moebius designed fashions, the neon and nighttime and rain and decay. As much as little green men, flying saucers and big ass ray guns, they are now ingrained tropes of science fiction film.

It’s possible that Scott has something more clever in mind. Like Prometheus, the sequel to Alien that isn’t a sequel.

But, if that’s the case, why not simply make another Philip K Dick novel? One of the good ones still to be put into cinema production… Now Wait for Last Year or The Man in the High Castle? And why not interpret them for now – for a time almost 30 years after Blade Runner – and invent the future all over again?

I will wait. I promise that I will wait and see. And I will see it. How could I not?

But if it’s as horrible as the very idea seems, I am reserving the right early on to say “I told you so”.

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/Ee3TxWZ7dBE

I Got Games!

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I Got Games!

Yay! The little games icon just appeared on my G+ page. Let’s see what’s there… Bejeweled, meh. Angry Birds, been there, done that. Not many more here. A dozen or so. Paltry.

Hang on? Zombie Lane? I like Left 4 Dead and The Walking Dead and Shaun of the Dead and The Dead by James Joyce – so I might like that!

Let’s have a go. Uh-oh. What’s this?

G+: Zombie Lane needs your permission in order to start playing.

Um… OK

clicks “Continue”

G+: Zombie Lane is requesting permission to:
* View basic information about your account
* View a list of people from your circles, ordered based on your interactions with them across Google

I DO NOT THINK SO. YOU CAN STICK THAT FARMVILLE PALAVER UP YOUR CHUTE.

clicks “No Thanks”
Launches Steam, loads Limbo

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/hLWLmTk1Bdz

10 REAL tips for your room at university

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The Daily Telegraph is carrying a piece today titled 10 tips for your room at university. All of them risible.

Unfortunately, many students have to live in a real world of bargain basement budgets and communal chaos. So, here are my 10 real tips for your room at university. And I’d welcome any more you can offer in the comments below.

10. Pack as little as you can. After those first few months of partying and fresher madness it’s likely you’ll want to move on. This will, in all likelihood, be the first of many moves over the next few years, so prepare to be peripatetic. So, no furniture (student halls are furnished as are most private digs), no nick nacks or ornaments and sod the frou frou curtains.

9. Take an emergency box with you on the day you move in. An ordinary packing box that you put a small kettle, tea and coffee, powdered milk, biscuits, tea towels, toilet paper, a small first aid kit and a bit of money for a takeaway in to.  Make sure it’s easy to find.

8. Don’t bother taking posters – unless you have any particularly treasured prints. There will be a poster sale during fresher’s week. Your room will need them.

7. There will probably be a small kitchen and a microwave in your halls – shared with your floor or section. Buy a good wok and some wooden spoons.  A wok? Yes – a wok.  It’s the all purpose cooking pot. You will need other stuff, eventually, but most of that stuff can wait until you move out of halls. Forget all that crap about getting an authentic one. Everything you cook will taste of curry. Instead, get a good quality none-stick wok and don’t use metal things to stir your food.

6. Argos sell a mini 6 litre fridge for 31.99. Buy one. Keep it in your room. Put your milk and leftovers in it – or they will be scarfed by drunken students.

5. Charity shops aren’t just for musty old clothes. You can pick up cheap, decent crockery and cooking utensils from second hand shops. Cheap enough that you can leave it behind when you move on too – and you’re giving to charity. Bonus – try the Heart Foundation for old TVs and DVD players at disposable prices. Re-donate them when you move.

4. Get used to sleeping with ear plugs. Life in halls is noisy.

3. Get contents insurance for your expensive, portable items; your laptop, MP3 player and smartphone. Endsleigh do deals for students.

2. Don’t leave house-hunting too late. Start looking a couple of months before you’re due to move out of halls so you can get a feel for the market in your area.

1. When you’re ready to move on from halls, pick your house-mates carefully. Sharing with friends is fun, but it’s important that your lifestyle matches – or you won’t be friends for very long.

 

Design Job at Huff Post.

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Design Job at Huff Post. Fee: $0

The AOL owned Huffington Post is at it again. It’s not enough that it pays bloggers nothing – while raking in crazy ad revenue. All writers get is the kudos of working on the web’s cutting edge. Well, 2008′s cutting edge. Now The Huffington Post wants designers to work for free too.

Today it put out a call to Photoshop warriors to rustle up a new icon for Huffington’s politics section. The winner will see their work used on the site, with a lovely credit.

And that’s all.

The terms are even worse than Huff Po’s bloggers get – because at least they have some guarantee of publication. The majority of the poor saps entering this “contest” won’t even get that. Their efforts will simply be discarded, like so much virtual landfill.

I tweeted a link to www.antispec.com earlier, a site that campaigns against unpaid work in the creative industries.

One reply suggested that the Huff Po were sorta, kinda on to something. That contests like this are a great way to engage and interact with your audience. Now, I’m all for user generated content and involving readership in a conversation. I really am. But all you need to do is read the comments in the contest announcement to see that this is not the kind of engagement that reaps the right rewards or that builds positive branding.

http://goo.gl/VNgiV

Article source: https://plus.google.com/100320175239277283592/posts/DUvtVZTDfYn