Up, Up, and Away!

My excellent new employer has paid for a weekend in Gatlinburg, TN for the Xmas party. See ya Sunday!

The Big Red Idea

Well, over the past few days I've most certainly gotten myself into the drama of Scoble and Shel's Big Idea (tm).

Here's the skinny: They want to make a blogging book. They got good ideas, they got great experience in the matter, and judging by the first draft of the publishing proposal, they're on the right track.

But hark! There are devils amongst them details me lord. There are rats in the cellar, and the Negatives are beginning to show their face.

Personally I think it's a brilliant idea and if they'd like my help, and would accept as much, I'd be proud to help any way I could. I've got my own set of priorities, and my own responsibilities, but at the same time if I can squeeze in a few kind words, a correction here and there, and perhaps even some insight into this blogging book frontier that they're slowly discovering through the thick mesh of naysayers, then all the better.

The comments in this negative post seem to cast a dark cloud of doubt over the project, something that I akin to those who are simply wary and will always see the glass as half empty. You should've talked about it privately they say. You should've never done this without thinking it through they say. You should never speak about an exciting idea without getting your bearings they insist.

You know what? Scoble and Shel aren't running for office. They're not under contractual obligations (yet?), they have no binding agreement accept the ones they create for themselves. They got excited and enthused with a very cool idea and I applaud them for it. Let them have their fun. Let them enjoy the process.

In the end its the final few words of this post that get me the most unnerved: "My point here is that all projects are not meant for blogging. One “should” be able to place something online, place restrictions on it, and everyone follow the rules but unfortunately that is not realistic."

You know what? This project is about breaking the rules and thinking differently. It's simply a learning process for those interested, reading, and involved with it, whether it be a guy making comments (ie, myself) or Scoble and Shel who ultimately have creative control. Narrow minded retorts like that make me a little angry and frankly a little sad. "You gotta do it this way!" The traditionalists shout.

Me? Like everything else about this project that is so new and fun, I say fuck it, do it how you like. The content most likely will be distributed in some form or another that may not have been planned on. But in the end having the book on one website, seeing the creative process from beginning to end, building a community around an idea, these are all great things that will show the rest of the world that it is possible to think outside of the text boxes and succeed.

Shel and Scoble have the time, talent, and drive. Now it's time to simply put one foot in front of the other and keep trying.

NOA on PSP: We're Scared

Yeah, so the guys at Nintendo put up a happy face when staring down the barrel of Hot Sexy Portable Computing. And I can't blame them, really. But in the end, Nintendo knows that they simply don't have the hardcore, the addicts, the fanboys in their court any longer.

It has been a gradual process, one that can be traced back to the Genesis. It was Sega who drew the line in the sand, and then Sony came into the picture and just pissed in the sandbox.

I akin the situation to cars: Nintendo is a sedan. Sony is a big beautiful pair of tits. You see where I'm going with this?

The console market is now Sony's playground and Nintendo is trying desperately to hold on to the only thing they have true dominance over: The handheld market.

The Gameboy was such a monster hit that Turbographix tried their hand at it while Sega too tried to compete with the Game Gear, that battery-eating beast which few could afford the juice to continue using.

The puke green background combined with the dark brown pixels were just no match for the other players. The games were simple, but fun. If you've never been caught in the spell of Tetris for hours at a time on that little screen, you simply don't know what you're missing.

Well, sure ya do. Eye strain, loss of a social life, but hey, who's counting.

The fact that Nintendo is coming out with its new handheld system first is no reason to discount the wonder and beauty that surrounds Sony's own machine. And quite simply, with the developers that are all in bed with Sony, I don't see how they could. When faced with Mario vs. Need for Speed, [Random EA Sports Game], or Tony Hawk, that's a tough decision. Metroid simply doesn't carry the weight that a Mario or Zelda game can haul, so it's hard to talk about Samus holding a candle in any of those matchups in regards to what is commonly referred to as popular nowadays.

The simple fact is that the PSP is set to explode on the scene much like the original Playstation did. It's new Sony territory but the technology is better. It might not have the same caliber of games debuting with it (this is subjective), but the sexiness survives. The screen may burn batteries quicker, but that's what charging units and AC Adapters were created for. Even the Nintendo DS and SP have finally bowed down to this level of thinking in terms of how to use and better manage battery life and maintenance.

While Nintendo are still caught in their cartridge world, something that they hold on to with a fieceness that can simply sting the average gamer, Sony embraces new technology like a fat man and chocolate cake.

And let me tell you, that is some sexy cake.

The Official Xmas List

For those who wish to know, here's the skinny on what I'd like for Christmas. This is for friends, confidants, relatives, pretty much everyone but my wife who has already spent a freakishly high amount on me. (This includes the goodness of Half Life 2 and World of Warcraft, as those were considered early presents).

I've kept this list under the $25 bar, with most falling below $20. These are in no particular order. It's not like Watchmen are slumming at the bottom of the list, this is simply the order in which I found most of the links.

- Raising the Bar - A book on the making of Half Life 2
- Masters of Doom - How the world was Doomed
- John Stewart's America - Hilarious and Cool...History?!
- The Briar King - Good Fantasy, according to most
- Watchmen - I would love to read this as I've tried many times and just never gotten the chance.

Of course, if you'd like you can simply email me a gift certificate and tell what you're buying.

Otherwise, fuck it. Happy holidays everybody! I trust that my buds, friends, and linkees will provide their own lists. Gift giving is fun and rewarding.

Podcasting Isn't Radio

...so stop acting as if you can make it so.

You know, I love a good marketing blog. It's no secret that I'm fascinated with various facets of selling and corporate America. I believe you need to know your enemy. And by en large, most monsterous corporate America entities enjoy preying on the consumer more than actually helping them. There's a thin line between "helping" them, and I'm not going to debate that.

What really angers me is how Steve Rubel suddenly has the brilliant plan to infect, yes infect advertising, spot-promotion, and product-pushing bullshit that has inundated virtually every facet of our on and offline existences into podcasting. Something that is so new, fresh, and pure, that to put a single ad into a popular show such as IT Conversations is like blood in the water. The sharks will be circling soon after, and then corporate entities will begin to sponsor, give money to, and thereby affect the content and direction of these shows.

Now this isn't to say that Steve doesn't have some very cool topics, posts, or insight. I felt it important to say that. But...

Clearchannel doesn't exactly have a good reputation, and they got it by owning as many radio stations as possible and then firing anyone who thought for themselves. By this act you find that the masses don't notice it as much and simply conform to what is out there. Podcasting is in such infancy that it doesn't have the bullshit that comes along with most mass-appeal broadcasting systems, but am I the only one who expects MTV to begin podcasting (brought to you by Motorola) their interviews (in association with Sony Entertainment) and now with live performances (courtesy of Virgin Mobile)?

Man, I just can't wait for this garbage to infect yet another interesting outlet of creativity.

That seems to be the real question. Just as any form of art can be watered down, censored, and awash with mediocrity, one of the most awful new words in our vocabulary can be called Podvertising, and I akin it to a rusty razor and your virgin wrist.

Does this mean that the amazing IT Conversations and Adam Curry must do this solely for their own well being? Must they get no compensation for their time? Of course not! But what it doesn't mean is that you must use podcasting as yet another advertising market. It seems those in advertising see everything as a medium, everything is an outlet, anything that can be looked at, heard, or felt is just another viable surface to place a promotion, and why not? They've been cultured this way. Our culture has been (god help the pun) cultured to this extent.

These marketing execs know not what they do, as it is all they know. But in my feeble attempts in hoping to save podcasting, I see the wave of advertising coming to throw mud on what is now clean, pristine, pure, and exciting.

I can just hear the screams of the few now. This message was brought to you by Joe Bob's Soapbox Company.

Can't Stop Till You Get Alerts

I'd like to take a moment and apologize to Mr. Jackson for the post title. But I digress.

I signed up for LiveMessage, another MondoWowzaLookAtWhatThisCanDo service that you can use to keep track of blogs you enjoy. Like mine? By all means, I've got a little link over there on the right hand column (near the bottom) that you can use to sign up, then you'll be alerted to the cool new shizzle just as soon as I hit Publish Post.

I'm not sure if a blog can warrant the space and time it takes to get this service going, but hey, if you're reading this, who knows the possibilities.

The World Wide and Connected

Wow, things have certainly accelerated here in what I generally think of my connected self. Sure I've been around the net for almost ten years (oh man is that a scary thought), but to actually see people who I envy and appreciate commenting and things I complain about being addressed...well, it's a lot more than I expected.

Of course I'm not quite as nieve as to think that my own little bitching brought on the MSN Spaces peeps to publicly note that they will not sell your children to the highest bidder, but it is very serendipidous.

On the geek side of things I'm going to install the official release of Thunderbird and see what it can offer me. I've got quite a little dilemma here at work, and any tips are appreciated:

Here at work we have a calendar program that is outdated. It's my job to remedy this. Matter of fact we only use it because it has a very cool feature that is unmatched virtually anywhere else:

It is OSX friendly (the solution must run on OSX). It has client binaries/offline capabilities. And you can modify the calendar offline and then synchronize the changes with the server. This last part is the most important, as we have a lot of people coming in/out of the office and need to sychronize up with the latest and greatest, along with adding their own appointments to the calendar at large.

Now, my current solution is to use iCalendar, the spec that Apple has pioneered and is used in such things as Mozilla Sunbird and can be viewed with the very pretty phpiCalendar (which is down right now...but wasn't yesterday). Now that's all fine and good, but I need to have a client that can sychronize up with the server, along with keeping a local copy for when peeps are offline.

So you see my dillemma. I've looked at Microsoft Exchange, the monster that it is, but I'd rather not go there unless I must. I would really love iCalendar as a suitable replacement, as it would let me use webDAV plus get a nice Linux box up and running. However, the offline part is what is messing with me, and without using iSync it seems as though iCalendar has no hope. While iSync could be a possibility, the world would be a much happier place, at least my world would be, if I didn't have to. Plus, what would the WinXP machines do? They don't have to be supported, but it sure would be nice to have both sides supported.

Man this is strange, the first time I've had to struggle to get WinXP caught up to something Apple does so well.

Hmm. Something to think about. Suggestions are so very welcome at this point.

PSP, OMG

Oh my good lord, you must visit this site now and virtually dowse yourself in PSP goodness.

There is an invisible line which all geeks recognize. It is the line of coolness, the uber-sweet leetness (sans-leetspeak) that, when crossed, brings something beastly and dare I say gangly in its hold on you.

It is the call of neat shit. It is the call of something that you must have to make your geek life complete. The PSP is one of those things.

Videos! Screenshots! Packaging! Yes, even the goddamn packaging is exciting. It makes it all the more real. How many geeks in the audience out there have stopped to smell the cardboard, the manual, the damn bubble wrap of a new game/piece of equipment?

Rest assured, you are not alone. My outcast friends, you are not alone.

Blogging The Bloggee

So it appears that Scoble and Shel Israel (who both have their own excellent blogs), want to do an entire transparent book about blogs, entitled The Red Couch (which could be the Worst Title Ever) in an MSN Spaces blog.

And what's really freaky is that based on the restrictions you put on yourself when using MSN. What are they? Well...

MSN Spaces forces new users to grant Microsoft permission to "use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat" their blog postings.

In other words, you won't find me a mile near that place (though ironically I'm linking it extensively here). Who wants to be conformed to a profanity-deficient environment and risk MSN stealing your writings for a book, a novel, a play, and making cash off of it? I can see a talented blogger, and yes there is such a thing, getting their work stolen and lucky to get credit at all.

Of course, the lead designer just can't wait to get his mother, brother, and entire family throwing down their opinions for everyone to read. If there's one true thing involving blogging, opinions are given out like peppermint candy at a christmas parade. Sometimes you'll get more than you expected, other times the ones you get are broken or simply lost in the crowd.

However, at the end of the day, I think that MSN Spaces is the AOL of blogging tools (don't get me started on the fact that blogging has quickly become a buzzword for The Older Generation and you'll begin to see some of the most meaningless text ever thrown down from keyboard to monitor coming to an MSN Spaces site near you), and will produce a mass amount of bullshit to link to your friends and family. It won't be long before you'll have to put up with goofy names, censored titles and comments, and general drivel that you'll wish you didn't waste your time to read.

For every WWDN, there are a hundred LiveJournals full of angst-ridden and self-hating teenagers looking for an outlet for their frustration. MSN Spaces is just the geriatric version.

Popularity Contest

Wow, so my good bud Garth over at Dark Horizons did me the pleasure of linking my recent review of Blade Trinity. Much props to him, and needless to say my readership went up about 1000% here over the past three days or so.

I'd love to post more interesting stuff over the weekend, but this is a very Monday - Friday blog, just by the nature of my job (I scour the net to improve my workplace along with amuse myself), and the fact that most weekends are me running around with fam and doing stuff that doesn't give me time to surf the web for interesting and/or informative shit.

However, I did get a bit more into Vs. System over the week and weekend, picking up the DC Starter and realizing that I'm very, very glad I got the Marvel starter pack first: The DC one is awful (basically one deck is much, much better than the other). I've also done a good bit of reading over at metagame, and am very interested in furthering my knowledge and play experience with the game as it stands right now.

I'm also looking into CCG Workshop as a possibility for launching game design ideas, as I've mentioned before, and we'll see how far I go with it. I believe that something like this could be beneficial, as you can actually print the cards out to play with, which is quite different than this solution, which would basically consist of you scrawling on the cards, shuffling, and dealing. With a new game design/ccg idea, this could take, well -forever-. So the more I type on this subject it seems like a printable solution is the best one, particularly when in the concept stage, but as I would have a hard time getting beta testers, CCG Workshop seems like a pretty good idea.

Stuff to think about, I suppose. Anyway, expect more good stuff tomorrow.