Some devices change the way you interact with your data so fundamentally you wonder why you even bothered to have such data beforehand. The iPod is one such device.
Did music exist before iPods? I believe so, but my memory of music in the days before that little white wonder is vague and filled with the sounds of static, clicks, repetition, commercials, and repetition.
Before iPods there was a thing called "radio." Radio was like a giant iPod filled with somebody else's music, and while you got to wear the earphones somebody else controlled the buttons. Worst of all, they invariably had terrible (and identical) taste in music, and they insisted on yelling at you about things you should buy when they (frequently) pushed the pause button.
A typical session of "radiocasting," as I believe it was called, ran something like this:
- Yell at you to buy a car.
- Yell at you to buy a cell phone.
- Yell at you to buy movie tickets.
- Yell at you to listen to the same radio station you are currently listening to, which for some reason wasn't taken to be nearly as insulting as you'd think.
- Yell at you to buy clothes.
- Yell at you to buy food.
- Yell at you to buy more food.
- Yell at you to buy even more food, come on, force it down.
- Yell at you to quit smoking.
- Yell at you to attend a sporting even sponsored by a tobacco company.
- Yell at you to keep listening to this same radio station because it was about to play some more music.
- Yell at you to buy a computer.
- Yell at you to buy furniture.
- Yell at you to buy a camera.
- Yell at you to keep listening to this same radio station because it was about to play some more music, and this time they really meant it.
- Yell at you to stop stealing music.
- Yell at you to stop driving drunk.
- Yell at you to clean up your acne.
- Yell at you to lose weight.
- Yell at you to color your hair.
- Yell at you to feel good about yourself and stop listening to other kids who make you feel bad about your acne, your weight, and your hair.
- Play a couple of songs.
- Repeat.
I know, this probably sounds crazy to you. What a transparent way to force-feed you sales pitches and other people's opinions. What a load of self-serving nonsense. What a waste of your time.
If you're younger than your mid-forties then you probably don't remember a time when a thing like radio existed. But trust me, it did. Oh sure, once iPods existed people immediately stopped listening to radio. In fact, when the last radio station closed down in the winter of 2004 it's said that nobody even noticed for a few years. That's how little relevance radio had once we were put in charge of our own music listening, and it explains the abject terror many in the music industry displayed in face of such personal empowerment.
But how, you probably want to ask, did anyone put up with all that radio piffle in the first place? For that matter, why would anyone put up with it? I honestly don't know, but shamefully we did. Sometimes you just don't realize how truly awful something is until you get rid of it.
Which brings me to the point of this post. Take a look at your television. Think about that glowing advertisement feed-tube in terms of the schedule above, substituting "play a fraction of a show" for "play a couple of songs." Seem familiar?
So how, you might want to ask yourself, do you put up with it? And why do you put up with it?
And more to the point, what are you going to do about it?
2005 Jun 12 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "Girl Anachronism" by The Dresden Dolls
Hidden band name idea: A Load Of Self
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Two new Firefox extensions have made the web a better place for me. These latest additions to my Take Back The Web arsenal are Stumble Upon and No Script.
aside:
Yes, the names of both plug-ins are actually supposed to be written with their two words jammed together as a single word with InTerCapiTal letters. No, I will not do such a thing to the language I love. French, on the other hand, is fair game.
end of aside
One of these extensions makes the web safer and more stable, while the other one makes it more fun. Both work a treat.
No Script is similar to that olde timey favorite Flashblock, which turns Flash objects into play buttons so you can select which Flash widgets to allow and which (like the ads, ads, and more freakin' ads) to ignore. No Script gives you the same control over Javascript, enabling scripting only for sites you select (like online banking, etc.). I've wanted site-by-site enabling of scripting as a browser feature since back when Javascript was just a gleam in an AOL Script Kiddie's eye.
The other extension, Stumble Upon, brings back the fun of early web exploration. Remember back in the Middle Ages when you'd actually surf the web, happily mixing that metaphor late into the evening? Those days are back, my friend: Stumble Upon let's you rate any page with a thumb-up or -down, and based upon your profile it recommends a new site whenever you click the Stumble button in your toolbar. You can also send site suggestions directly to other Stumblers who you know. It's the best internet time waster since porn. Not that porn has been dethroned or anything.
I've been really enjoying receiving site suggestions from stumblebuddies (coined!), so if you jump on the stumblewagon (coined! I'm on fire!) send me your stumblesites (hey, they can't all be gold).
2005 Jun 13 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "Rowing Song" by Patty Griffin
Hidden band name idea: The Names
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A good quote from Toronto screenwriter Wil Zmak on the subject of independent filmmaking:
"The mediocrity of the American [film] industry is the mediocrity of the circus. With the Canadian industry it's more like the mediocrity of an amateur poetry reading."
That's from a pretty good article on ten steps to no-budget filmmaking, posted on the filmmaking.com site. I don't agree with everything in the article, but what the hell do I know?
2005 Jun 16 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "Winona" by Drop Nineteens
Hidden band name idea: The Hell
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It's probably weird to have a favorite typeface. I don't mean that in an "I really like this font" way. I mean it in an "after years of careful consideration this is the font I'd take to a desert island" way. My desert island typeface has long been Sabon: classic but not stale, detailed without being overwrought.
One of my secret dreams is to walk into a book shop and spot a novel I'd written sitting on the shelf. The secret part isn't the book shop bit nor the novel writing bit—it's the fact that I've always imagined the book would be typeset in Sabon.
That's probably weird, too. Except probably without the "probably." I am a sad, sad nerd.
So, as you can imagine, the needle on the weirdness meter jumped into the red zone when I stumbled across someone who not only professed the love that dare not typeset its name but who shares the exact same choice for desert island typeface. This next comes from a blog post by John Gruber:
I'd rather not see my work published at all than see it published in a poorly-designed setting. […] I'm fond of several other Garamond-derived and/or -inspired faces— Garamond No. 3 and Adobe Garamand, for example— but Sabon is the font family I'd choose to take with me to a desert island.
A hundred billion bottles may be washed up on the shore, but how those messages were typeset is the big question Sting left unsung. And why did he leave it unsung? Because he wanted women to sleep with him and nobody sees the Underroos of a typeset nerd.
I hope, therefore, I'm smart enough not to post this blog entry.
2005 Jun 25 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "A Pair of Brown Eyes" by The Pogues
Hidden band name idea: The Font Family
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This weekend offered two contrasting vintage computer adventures: a failed Apple IIe road trip yesterday, and a successful classic Mac pickup today.
Yesterday I drove to London, Ontario, to pick up a pair of Apple IIe computers I'd won for pocket change on Ebay. The seller was an Ebay brokerage house called Auctionsharks.
I'd already paid for the computers, and had arranged to drive to London to pick them up at the Auctionsharks shop yesterday. Their Saturday hours are from 10AM until 4PM.
I'll be documenting the whole road trip in the Road Trips section of my blog as a companion to my first Apple IIe road trip, but the short version is this: I drove 5 hours round trip only to find a locked door. Ignoring my appointment, and not at all concerned about the length of my drive (or the value of my time, for that matter) Auctionsharks had closed up shop early because it was too warm outside.
Auctionsharkssucks.com might not be available too much longer.
Today's pickup was much more successful. I'd spotted an ad in the tor.forsale newsgroup about a bundle of free vintage Macs. The lot included a IIci, which I've been wanting to nab because I think the IIci is the best System 6 computer Apple ever made.
aside:
Some people would argue in favor of the SE/30 as the best System 6 Mac, but I think the IIci's 32-bit clean ROMs, expandability, and faster CPU and bus tip the scale. I do really want to pick up an SE/30, though, so if you know someone with a nice clean one hanging about let me know. By the way, I'm partial to the Mac LC475—AKA the Quadra 605—as my overall favorite 68K Macintosh, but it cannot run system 6. I know you care, you really do.
end of aside
I picked up this collection of late-80s beauties this morning. The experience was exactly the opposite of the Crappy Auctionsharks Ebay Crapfest of Crap. (Here, Google Google Google! Come here boy! I've got a juicy phrase for you to index!) The friendly vintage Mac giver-awayer was a fellow named Patrick, and when I showed up he'd already moved everything down by his front door and neatly boxed the cables. And this was for stuff he was giving away for free.
He also has a Commodore 64 and drive he wants to give away, so if you're a C64 fan let me know soon and I'll hook you two up.
I'm very much looking forward to sifting through them to see what I want to add to my own stable of vintage hardware and what I'll try to find another home for.
Fun times in the nerdhaus.
2005 Jun 26 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "Night Boat to Cairo" by Madness
Hidden band name idea: The Friendly Vintage
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My pal Erin took her Who Gives A Shirt business on the road and set up a booth at the Pride Day parade today. I made my way through the throngs (and thongs) to see her, and I've added a Pride Day gallery to share the fun.
Also, I forgot to mention that recording of material for my upcoming weekly podcast called The Monster Feet Variety Show is coming along nicely. I've decided to hold off launching it until the first week of July for promotional reasons, but the first show is "in the can" and I'm really happy with it.
I've also made a gallery of snapshots from the first show. As incentive to check it out, I can tell you there are photos of both Linda and Tanya in there along with my ugly mug.
2005 Jun 26 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "Smoothie King" by Bowling for Soup
Hidden band name idea: Decided
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I'm giving a talk on Digital Rights Management at a Seneca College conference called New Perspectives on Pop Culture, Science and Technology.
aside:
For those who cannot attend, here's a short version of my speech: DRM is bad. So I'm saying that, but for 20 minutes and hopefully funny. Oh, and there'll probably be some nudity, if my books on hypnotism are anything to go by.
end of aside
The conference is this Thursday, June 30, 2005, from 9:00 AM until 5:30 PM. I'm speaking at 1:15 PM. The conference is being held at Seneca@York, 70 The Pond Road, Toronto, M3J 3M6.
Google Maps seems to have a bit of trouble with that address. The Pond Road runs off Keele Street halfway between Finch and Steeles. It's easily spotted on the right side of this map of the York University campus.
I'm speaking as part of the "Freedom & Censorship" trio, in Room S2152. I'm paired with Chris Babin, who'll talk about Art, Science, Censorship and "Homeland Security," and Lynn Hanley, who'll talk about Depictions of Violence and Sexuality in Music Videos and Video Games. See, I told you there'd be nudity.
There are a bunch of other cool sounding talks, too, including my pal Kim Sparks speaking on Perception and Reality of Women and Girls Who Game. More nudity? We can only hope.
The conference is just $25, and it includes lunch. In fact, the schedule shows "Refreshments" at 10AM, a noon barbeque, "Refreshments" again at 2:45PM, and then "Refreshments" yet once more at 4:30PM. Sounds like a good deal for twenty five bucks, even if you might have to sit through a couple of talks. Think of it like one of those time-share condo pitches, and try to look interested in what we have to say as you sneak another burger into your pack.
Hope to see you heckle. I mean there, I hope to see you there.
