I find the Google Notifier to be invaluable, since I don't get a large enough volume of mail to run a native client while at home. A number of months ago, the rate at which it checked for mail decreased significantly.
Luckily, there is a simple fix: defaults write com.google.GmailNotifier AutocheckInterval # (where # is the number of minutes between checks)
Just jotting this down so I don't lose this. Adapted from the original instructions on MacOS X Hints.
In May of 2007, my Xbox 360 suffered from what is commonly referred to as the Red Ring of Death. A series of four posts followed, in which:
Last, my launch Playstation 3 began to routinely crash after 30 minutes of use. This, as far as I can tell, is not a widespread problem - the closest parallel that Sony has is the "Yellow Light of Death".
(Strangely, my RRoD occurred while playing Crackdown, a free-world adventure game where you play as a crime fighter with superhero powers. My PS3 issues occurred while playing inFamous, a free-world adventure game where you play as a crime fighter with superhero powers. I will not be buying Prototype, largely for the safety of my hardware.)
After the frustration I had dealing with Microsoft - a combination of poor materials, shoddy business practices, and a cavalier attitude towards the customer's experience - I figured it would be worth documenting whatever hell Sony would put me through. Horror stories are easily found regarding service for launch units, include time frames of "months", due to Sony no longer manufacturing that exact type of hardware. And given the bile that was spilled regarding the 360's failures, it would only be fair to hold the PS3 up to the same light.
Before I begin this blow-by-blow, a few notes:
Here we go:
After reconfirming with multiple discs that this issue was widespread, I first went to Sony's support site. After clicking the "Service" link, I was slightly annoyed to not find a phone number. I have an innate distrust of automated repair systems, preferring humans as they are easier to vent at.
But after realizing that it was a Sunday and calling Sony would probably get me nowhere, I filled out the form. It was roughly four pages, which included giving credit card information to bill the $150 (plus tax!) charge to.
Nearly immediately, I have a confirmation email with a service request number and a confirmation of all my fields. Slightly better than the Microsoft experience, which only gave me a very generic email telling me to follow the instructions I had been given over the phone.
Thirty minutes later, another email arrives, indicating there was a form that I could print out and fill out that would need to go in the box when it arrived. Okay.
I proceed to attach my large USB drive to the PS3 and did a backup of all of my data. It took around four hours for 75GB of data. Meanwhile, Memorial Day weekend continued.
I receive a shipment confirmation from UPS that a package from SSC will be delivered to me the next day.
The casket arrives. The difference between it and my Xbox 360 casket is night and day. This is a box I am not uncomfortable putting expensive hardware into.
The form that I had been instructed to print out earlier came with the box. Obnoxiously, the area to enter the service number is one character short. My belief of writing outside the lines comes in handy this one time.
I also am asked to re-state the problem with my system, and in addition to mentioning the optical drive failure, I add "ALSO STRIPPED THE SCREWS FROM THE HARD DRIVE CARRIER - COULD YOU REPLACE?" or something similar. This is a desperate attempt to get them to not throw out my hard drive, even if the cost to replace it would be relatively small.
I de-authorize all of my PSN accounts and factory reset the machine (as instructed by Sony), pack it away, and tape the box shut. Shipping will have to wait till Monday.
I drop-ship the box from the UPS store near my office. Expected delivery to Texas is June 4th.
That night, I plug in my USB hard drive and take a look at the backup folder, and noticed that it seems a lot smaller than I would have expected.
Checking my favorite delivery tracking app, I see the package is out for delivery. Then, my gmail chimes, subject "Your system has been received by PlayStation":
Sony Computer Entertainment America,Inc. (SCEA) has received your system at our service facility. Turn around time for most products are 7 to 10 business days. Please note, turn around times may vary depending on your product, the type of service being done and any courier impacts.
UPS has not signaled that the package has been delivered, which means Sony has processed the delivery faster than the courier that delivered it. I am mildly impressed.
I am at WWDC, about to have dinner with a variety of educational IT folks at the conference from NYC. My mail badge lights up. Subject: "PlayStation Shipment".
On 06/08/09 we shipped a PLAYSTATION 3 - CECHA01 and if applicable, peripheral(s) and/or accessories, to you.
There is a UPS tracking number.
I am incredulous and immediately suspicious. If they shipped it that day, would they have even fixed it? Did they just swap me another PS3? Am I going to get it back with a message that I had voided my warranty?
UPS pulls off some amazing bullshit and manages to take a package that was in Newark - a mere 8.5 miles from my apartment - and sends it to Philadelphia - 97.3 miles away. Only a 1045% increase in distance.
Katie calls to inform me the PS3 has been delivered.
I ask her to check the serial number to see if there was any chance we received our original unit back. It is.
I ask her to check the hard drive bay to see if there's a carrier around the hard drive. There is.
I ask her to power it on and tell me how much free space is showing on the drive. She reports back that there's about 210 GB.
I am speechless. Katie hangs up to watch a Blu-ray.
While I don't have day-by-day notes for how long the Xbox 360 ordeal took, but diving from my blog posts, the hardware replacement process went from May 17th to June 6th - twenty days total, with fourteen of them being business days. So the overall turnaround time was exactly the same. There's a possibility I could have driven down the turnaround time by three days had I shipped the PS3 on Friday (the 29th) instead of Monday (the 1st).
There is another difference worth noting: Sony actually repaired my console and returned it to me. (They even fixed my jury-rigged hard drive upgrade.) Microsoft provided me with a refurbished unit, which forced me to go through the DRM reset process; this added another nine days (seven business) to my hell experiences.
More importantly, there's a level of common sense that Sony's process entailed that Microsoft's had not grasped. Tracking numbers for every one of the three shipments saved me from blindly wondering where my console was. Emails confirming all of my details and notifying me when repairs were done. No painful calls with call center reps from who-knows-where. No escalation, no dropped calls. No need to call in the Better Business Bureau.
The punch-line with my PS3 repair experience is that there is no punch-line. The repairs were of reasonable speed, the communication was great, and I was back up and running with all of my games by the time I got back from SF on Saturday morning.
So kudos, Sony. You may be stuck with the same shipping times (unsurprising, given that you're both using UPS), but your process is a pleasant walk in the park by comparison.
It was odd to be back in Moscone for my fourth WWDC. I was too busy draining my laptop battery and breaking my fingers for the benefit of my colleagues during the keynote, but now that I've had a few hours to digest, here's some more nuanced thoughts.
With the 13" aluminum MacBook changing names and joining the other Pros, a significant amount of confusion will finally dissipate - I will no longer be trying to explain why there's a small gap between the top end MacBook and the low end MacBook Pro. Simplifying the product line helps, a lot.
Price cuts are always welcome, as are performance bumps.
As someone who has never lugged around multiple batteries, and as someone who always has to deal with AppleCare when a battery starts to go anyhow, I am all in favor of integrated batteries. The additional battery life is just icing.
I shed a single tear when they announced the SD card slot, as my Canon DSLR uses CompactFlash.
The biggest news here is the pricing: $29 for a single license, $49 for a family pack. There was a lot of rumbling that 10.6 would not have flown with consumers at the usual $130, since it's lacking a single compelling feature. (Exchange support might have done it for businesses.) But at $29, this will be a non-painful upgrade for most users.
While Bertrand Serlet is always willing to bash Windows during a keynote, the biggest middle finger towards Windows 7 is the price. Both 10.6 and Windows 7 can be seen as a refinement release, bordering on a major service pack. Snow Leopard ships a month in advance of Windows 7; pricing for Windows 7 hasn't been announced yet, but I have my doubts Microsoft can limbo under the $29 bar.
Second biggest news: Intel only. I am sure that many tears are being spilled over this one. It was inevitable, and when Snow Leopard ships, all PPC machines will be out of Apple's support window. Upgrade your hardware, people. (By the way, I was right.)
The hidden gems here are the actual refinements, and browsing through the Snow Leopard site reveals some substantial nuggets. These are fixes to minor day-to-day pains for most Mac users:
10.6 is looking good, through and through.
The "Find My iPhone" functionality is very neat, but not enough to save my MobileMe account from termination this fall.
Given that all developers are now required to add a content rating to their apps (for the parental controls), I am crossing my fingers in the hopes that we'll finally stop seeing app rejections for content.
While I was hoping the OS would come out this week, the 17th is not that far off. Expect a lot of apps to update next week.
The iPhone 3GS feature list reads as a set of needed improvements. More storage, better camera, better battery, faster CPU. It's not a sexy update, but it's a functional one.
While the video recording will be good to have, I'll still be keeping my Flip minoHD on hand. VGA resolution at 30FPS is good, but not great.
Knowing a number of directionally challenged people, the digital compass and auto-reorienting maps are greatly appreciated. Knowing a number of people who go to the gym, the Nike+ integration is also greatly appreciated.
The hardware-level encryption (and the related "instant wipe") knocks out a serious concern that I've heard from assorted IT folks. Kudos to Apple for chipping away at the pile of security concerns.
I am glad to see the existing 3G drop to $99, but I'm wondering how long the 3G will continue to be sold. Is this a way to empty the channel, or is this a long-term strategy?
If anything became clear at WWDC today, it's that AT&T has become the enemy. As I write this, "AT&T" is trending above "iPhone" on Twitter.
As Scott Forstall ran through the feature list for 3.0 - reminding us of ones already announced, and unveiling a few more - the line became drawn in the sand. For the two of the most requested features - MMS messaging and tethering - Scott reminded us that "carrier support is required", and when the list of carriers was shown, AT&T was missing. MMS support was promised "later this summer"; but the same list of carriers during the tethering section led to a series of boos. Scott moved on as quick as he could, and with good reason: to announce a feature that's not available in your home country is ridiculous.
No one from Apple said anything positive about AT&T - instead, they swerved or made jokes. (Note the "if your carrier supports it" joke from Phil Schiller during the iPhone 3GS demo.) Rumors have been swirling about whether or not the AT&T exclusivity deal has been extended, or if Verizon is angling to get the phone on their network next year.
Based on today's keynote, I can't believe that Apple is looking to hang onto that exclusivity for any longer than is necessary. Next year should be very interestin
E3 has just ended, and if you've been reading any of the major gaming blogs this week, you're probably tired of seeing the same names over and over. Halo. Gran Turismo. Mario. Castlevania. Modern Warfare. Metroid. Metal Gear. Final Fantasy. Wii Sports. Project Natal.
I find that every year, I get far more excited about the titles at E3 that slip by quietly - the niche games, the ones that only get two seconds during a montage on the screen. The games that may not get a formal press release or even much of a mention.
Allow me to point you at some of the things you may have missed at this year's E3, both good and bad, across all major platforms.
Platform(s): Wii
Release Date: 2009?
Twenty years after David Crane's original NES game - a maddening, nearly impossible game that lead to much suffering during my youth - comes a re-invention of the game on the Wii. This wasn't a new announcement from E3, but it was the first time it was seen at length. It looks gorgeous, it appears to play much better than the original, and there's a "hug button". I'm sold.
Platform(s): PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Release Date: September 9th, 2009
Okay, fair enough: this title may be difficult to consider "under the radar", as it was given much attention during the Microsoft press conference. But you may not yet have seen the opening cinematic, and without any hyperbole, it is one of the most amazing game intros I have ever seen.
Of course, one would immediately wonder if the game looks like that. Not quite, but it's still quite remarkable:
While TB:RB won't really live in the current Rock Band ecosystem (DLC won't transfer with Rock Band proper) - the game delivers plenty of charm and polish, and I'm not sure the core music gamers are going to care about a disc swap.
Already I've gotten questions from friends about how this is looking - all I can say is that based on these videos, it looks amazing.
Platform(s): PS3
Release Date: TBD
Much like Rhythm Heaven, Demon's Souls is the triumph of gaming good over laziness. After being released in Asia with a full English version, this hardcore dungeon crawler became notorious in the circles I travel for brutal difficulty, innovative online play, and unbelievably low inventory levels. The game was hard to come by, which made tearing through it something of a true accomplishment.
Bizarrely, Sony passed on the opportunity to release this in the US, but Atlus jumped at the chance, and are releasing this game of games in the US in the coming months.
If you've been lamenting the lack of a good RPG this generation, this is your game. You will die plenty, losing hours of work at a time. You will crawl slowly through the dark, praying that nothing jumps out at you. You will tremble as other players invade your game, in an attempt to steal your body.
And you will love it. I promise.
Platform(s): PS3
Release Date: 2010
In 1992, my best friend's mom confirmed he was getting Super Mario Kart for Christmas. Shortly after learning this, we resolved to find the game during our next sleepover - and about 5 minutes into the search, I had discovered it stashed in a closet. For the next month, every sleepover would involve waiting until parents were asleep, carefully removing the game from the closet, playing it all night, and then returning it to its resting place before dawn.
While no kart game since has reclaimed my attention quite the way Super Mario Kart did, casual racers has been an itch I've been pleased to scratch time and time again. And so the surprise announcement of ModNation Racers spoke to the 12 year old me, the one who still wants to stay up all night whipping around a track with my friends.
But it also spoke to the 28 year old me, the one who's interested in social gaming. Like LittleBig Planet before it, ModNation Racers is focused on the "play, create, share" ethos - and Sony's demo of the game makes it clear that they nailed the creating.
Plenty still needs to be proven here - the karts need to handle well, the racing must be fun, the game needs enough depth to be worth playing, the online needs a lot of nuance. But with at least another 6 months of development in front of it, I have a lot of hope for this one.
Platform(s): DS
Release Date: TBD
The original Picross DS was an underrated gem, bringing an endless amount of puzzle depth to the DS. Katie and I own three copies of it - two of the Japanese version, and one of the US. It was that good.
Rittai Picross was released in Japan earlier this year and proved to be just as addictive as the first title, even as it upped the difficulty by moving into the third dimension. And while it wasn't shown, Nintendo listed "Picross 3D" on their upcoming release list. I am keeping hope alive for this one to reach our shores.
Platform(s): PSP
Release Date: TBD
My love of PixelJunk may not be unfamiliar to people who have been reading my blog; it's fair to say I'll buy practically anything Dylan Cuthbert decides to release.
PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe may seem like a quick cash-in - the original PixelJunk Monsters remains one of the best Tower Defense games available on the PS3, and the game mechanic hasn't changed much. But with three islands (including the original PJM release island, the PJM:Encore island, and a brand new one for the game) and online co-op play ready to travel on the PSP, this is an easy double dip to be in favor of.
Platform(s): Wii
Release Date: TBD
Shortly after the announcement went up, Konami's official description for the game ended as follows:
With easy and intuitive controls, pop'n music takes full advantage of the Nunchuk™ and Wii Remote™ as you move up, down, left and right to original and licensed music.
That text has since been replaced with:
Pop'n Music will bring a smile to kids as they move their controllers and their hips to the Pop'n music!
This is not the first time Konami has bastardized a Bemani franchise in the name of trying to achieve crossover success in the US. Hell, it's not even the first time Pop'n Music has been bastardized for this purpose.
I have nothing against making kid friendly rhythm games. And the final result may be less terrible than these screens are leading me to believe. But for a game that doesn't play like Pop'n, look like Pop'n, or be even remotely targeted at the same audience as Pop'n, would it kill them to call it something other than Pop'n Music?
Platform(s): iPhone
Release Date: Any Day Now
As if I needed more justification for the iPhone as a gaming platform, Firemint (makers of the ingenious Flight Control) has submitted Real Racing to Apple this week. It's enough to make you say "Gran Tursi-who?"
Platform(s): DS
Release Date: TBD
It would be hard to call Scribblenauts anything other than ambitious. Working off the concept that anything you write will appear in the game, skepticism surrounded the original game announcement - but as the E3 hands-on have shown, it may in fact deliver. To quote Nintendo World Report:
This DS game is one of the most creative games on the show floor, but it's terribly misnamed. You don't scribble anything. There is no drawing of any kind. Rather, you type words to make objects appear, then use those objects to solve puzzles. What's impressive is exactly how many words and objects the game recognizes and spawns sprites for. We typed in "dinosaur" and a generalized theropod appeared. We typed "zombie" and a zombie appeared, and it immediately began consuming the human character, who then turned into a zombie. We typed "God" and Zeus was born. We typed "Death" and the Grim Reaper popped up and immediately began fighting God, who eventually died.
5th Cell's clearly having a blast putting in objects as inside jokes. Be sure to type in "keyboard cat" when the game ships later this year.
Release this game, keyboard cat.
Platform(s): Xbox Live Arcade
Release Date: Q3 2009
As someone who repeatedly tore through Symphony Of The Night and Super Metroid, I have been saddened by the apparent death of the 2D adventure genre. But this year, Epic have saved me from having to go another year without a new Metroidvania game. Shadow Complex, a massive 2D based action/adventure title features a huge map and lots of secret things to find. It's the first title in this genre to appear on a current-gen digital download service. Cannot wait.
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release Date: August 2009
As another sign that direct download services are nearing complete global saturation, Microsoft is preparing to offer catalog titles for download. As an added bonus, they also seem to be dropping the Microsoft Points currency (commonly referred to as "space bucks") for these purchases.
This can only be seen as a good thing. I am glad Microsoft has finally gotten over the idea of constraining file sizes so that 360 Arcade owners don't feel left behind.
For all the things they get right - mass market appeal, price points, easy to understand interfaces - Nintendo occasionally gets things terribly wrong. Among their transgressions against the gaming world: failing to localize (translating + releasing in the US) great games that have appeared in Japan.
But sometimes, the good games make it through. Earlier this year, Nintendo of America came to their senses and released Rhythm Heaven. A localization of Rhythm Tengoku Gold, Rhythm Heaven is a collection of over 50 rhythm-based mini-games for the Nintendo DS. A typical game will see you rocking out with a ghost band, filling robots, playing ping pong, picking turnips, and joining a monkey dance party.
It's extremely weird, but also extremely fun. Even Beyoncé likes it.
Today, I discovered that by not actually looking at the official Rhythm Heaven site, I missed something fantastic: a free iTunes visualizer, using artwork from the game.
Installers are available for OS X, Vista, and XP. (In case these links break, you can find the downloads through the official site on the left hand side.)
A quick install and iTunes restart later, and even an average song can be made amazing through the addition of trippy visuals from the game.
The visualizer isn't perfect - I'm not really feeling a lot of "sync" with the music I tried it with, and sometimes the artwork clips oddly - but watching the assembled mass of ghost drummers, duck drill sargents, and lab assistants rocking out to anything you throw at it is a thing of beauty.
Download this, before Nintendo shuts down the site and we've lost the archive for this glorious piece of software forever.
(Many thanks to Offworld for tipping me off. If they're not on your feed reader, they should be.)
WNBC has gotten rid of Chopper 4, its news helicopter, as well as its helicopter reporter Dan Rice. The Daily News reports, "Ch. 4, the first station in the market to have a dedicated helicopter for its coverage, is now sharing footage, a chopper and staff with Ch. 5. It's part of a cost-cutting move by both stations in a market where every station has been battered by declining advertising revenues." The sharing scheme will save each station $500,000 annually and the News says channels 2 (WCBS) and 11 (WPIX) may share a chopper as well. Rice said he found out about being fired back in March, after winning an Emmy for his coverage of last year's Upper East Side crane collapse; he Tweeted yesterday, "Today is Chopper 4's last day. Thanks to all of the viewers who have tuned in over the last 10 years. I will miss you the most!"
I can't recall having one of my most loved stand-up routines become obsolete in front of my very eyes.
In the spirit of the day, a collection of videos about open-mindedness, lincoln logs in sock drawers, atheists, and poppycock.
"12 years too late," I think to myself as I wait at the intersection of Church and Vesey, fake brass horns and breakbeats burning on my headphones.
"This song shouldn't have any meaning in 2009," my inner monologue went on as I waited for the third Lexington express train at Fulton Street as a choir sings portions of "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" over swelling strings.
But as I came up out of the underground by my office, and the same track still playing, my lips could not keep still when the refrain came around once more:
Fuck the millenium - we want it now.
Be ready to ride the big dipper of the mixed metaphor. Be ready to dip your hands in the lucky bag of life, gather the storm clouds of fantasy and anoint your own genius.
I have been thinking a lot lately about Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty.
"Lately" may be a half-lie. I have been torturing my friends and family with this interest for the last few years, much to their lack of understanding and my inability to explain. But it's intensified recently, capturing my spare thoughts and infecting my playlists, progressively driving me towards writing. Writing this post may allow me to put most of this to bed.
It could be perceived that there is no more appropriate day to finish this post - writing about the two most renown jackasses of the early 90's on Internet Jackass day. Like many things in life, this was not intentional. This has been a long time coming.
Now, we all know that pop music is not going to save the world but it does, undeniably, create a filing system for the memory banks. In years to come people will stagger home down lonely streets singing your song to the strains of regurgitated vindaloo, all memory of who was behind the song lost.
The twelve year old version of me went out of his way to nag his parents to buy what was the coolest album he knew of: MTV's Party To Go Volume 2. Practically a early 90's middle school dance in a box, I already knew and loved nearly every track - the Boyz 2 Men, the ABC, the PM Dawn. It was heaven for someone who had shit taste in music, but at that age I am able to forgive myself.
But the last track was unusual in both genre and content, foreign in every sense to my not-quite teenage world. It was the first house song I ever heard and loved. It is the only song off that album I still love without any sense of irony seventeen years later. And it was the first time I ever heard anything from The KLF.
What was one track in my music collection has since bloomed into ninety-three. I have spent much time and energy digging into the rich written and visual history that was left in the wake of every incarnation of Bill & Jimmy that there has ever been.
Seventeen years since I simultaneously found The KLF as they retired. Fifteen since they burned a million quid. Fourteen since The Magnificent. Twelve years since Fuck The Millenium.
The KLF has endured with me for reasons that only became obvious recently -- something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I realize. The goal of this post is to simply answer why. (Most of the quotes that follow are from Bill's memoir 45, of which I have strangely purchased two copies.)
Every morning I stop at the service station and pick one of those club compilation cassettes: Ministry of Sound Vol. III, Ibiza Classics, you know the ones. I shove it on the cassette player and drive. I hope to hear something that inspires me, makes me feel good, makes me think something's going on out there in disco land. But it all sounds limp, crap, shit and lame. No ideas, no risks, just a bit of shallow packaging and an ad campaign. And they all come on like they are on some sort of a mission, like this well-past-its-sell-by-date handbag techno has got some sort of moral high ground going for it.
Arguments I've had about The KLF almost always boil down to their music, and I am forced to defend my choice to enjoy something that quite clearly was written as a joke.
Yes, yes. Doctorin' The Tardis was an obvious piss-take.
But I don't admire their music for the joke; I admire it for the risk. Getting their first album removed from sale by sampling too much Abba. Making a pop novelty album intentionally, without shame. Writing a set of #1 dance tracks filled with lyrics about the Illuminatus Trilogy. Getting Tammy Wynette to join them, even for one song. Filling an album with sheep sounds and country guitars, and somehow turning it into the seminal ambient house album.
Such actions require a serious disregard for one's professional livelihood.
(I also admire the music because nearly twenty years later, it's still better than most mass-market trance.)
I sit and wonder where the boundaries are being pushed in music today. The "digital revolution" has certainly tipped the balance of power away from the labels and back towards the artists, but to what end? (Have you seen the iTunes Top 100 lately?) I'm sure there are artists out there doing this, but how many can claim they've both been reckless and successful?
It's a bit hypocritical to sit here and wish for things that I wasn't paying attention to when they were happening -- my view of the KLF activities is all through the benefit of hindsight. But I am in love with the idea of a musician taking all the money they earned and burning it to keep warm.
The argument continues: aren't I perceiving risk when there probably wasn't any? They knew what they were doing. This was all planned!
I'm not so sure.
After the success of Doctorin' The Tardis, there was a plan to make a film. A road movie with no dialog, no script - just a soundtrack. A film crew was assembled, and shooting began in the Sierra Nevada.
It was quickly apparent that the film was rubbish, but the soundtrack was tweaked, completed. and released. That album - The White Room - would have three hits reach the Top 5 in the UK.
Bill writes:
So why am I telling you all this, other than to brag about what a wonderful, rich and varied life we lead? Because I want to emphasize how, when you push your boat ... take that step into the ... and just say Yes, things happen. You may have no control over them. Let them be, let them spiral out there.
Unintended success on the pop charts may not be the most compelling demonstration of what can happen when you stop trying to control everything in your life, but it resonates. Great things are possible when you are willing to let them spiral out there.
With risk comes a chance of failure. Bill & Jimmy's activities were not always a success, or perhaps even mostly a success. They were rarely in control, and the wheels frequently fell off the cart. And yet, this was never a problem.
Writing about the 2K Fuck The Millenium show -- after quoting page after page of negative press, Bill concludes:
And then I did understand. Everything was OK...We had not only blown it, we had destroyed whatever remnants of credibility, bankability, and myth we had left. We had been exposed for what we had become. It wasn't just the money that got burnt; it was also the bridge that we could have trotted over any time we felt like it for a fiscal graze in the green pastures of success. With my finger no longer on the Zeitgeist, I could pick up this pencil, downgrade my horizon and get on with the rest of my life without being weighed down by that sack of credibility, myth expectations.
It is one thing to embrace risk. It is another to take your hands off the wheel. It is a third to be able to embrace your failure as much as you would your success.
Now I am racing to finish this post. It has been sitting in my draft box for longer than I care to admit, and there are a mere twenty minutes until midnight. I am determined to find the point to all of this.
The point, of course, is right in front of me; for once my wandering style of writing has found the destination. I've been thinking about Bill & Jimmy because they have lived much of their lives the way that I want to, perhaps the way we all want to. To embrace risk, to push boundaries, to be okay with not being in control, to accept our own failures.
Bordering on religion or a self-help book? Perhaps. But as far as life mantras go, one could do far worse than to embrace K-ism.
Bill, explaining The Manual:
Don't be afraid. If you want to do something, just go ahead and do it, but be prepared to take the blame, to feel the fall. Don't sit around waiting to be asked, to be given permission. Just get out there and do it.
Bill is currently off redefining his relationship with music. Jimmy is challenging the art world.
I have some catching up to do.
How deep does the irony have to go before we all drown? Time for tea. We've had enough. Just show us where the door is. The White Room is calling.
Wasn't expecting this: after a two year absence due to my shifting job duties, I am finally returning to WWDC this year.
Hope to see many of you there.
Bruce Prevo, the Apple Account Executive I've worked with for most of my time at WCMC, passed away this weekend after a difficult battle with cancer.
It goes without saying that Apple is a huge company, with a extremely large number of moving parts. Trying to get support in the time of a crisis or to fight for a discount can feel like pulling teeth, as it can with all large companies. Bruce eased this tremendously - always being willing to do his best with the corporate office on our behalf.
He will be missed.
Dan Dickinson is a 29 year old living in Jersey City, New Jersey. He works in the strange intersection of collaborative technologies, education, and medicine. His passions include finding unexpected paths and connections, music/rhythm video games, and backchannels. This has been his primary (vivid) weblog since February of 2000, seeing infrequent but overzealous updates. [more]