January 2007
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Month January 2007

Entries 10 Total

I Hope You Can See This, Boston, Because I’m Doing It As Hard As I Can

Jan 31, ’07 10:03 PM

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) — Electronic light boards featuring an adult-cartoon character triggered bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday, spurring authorities to close two bridges and a stretch of the Charles River before determining the devices were harmless. — CNN

In their streaming newscast, WBZ has been showing the image of the “mooninite” from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. And, boy, is it funny to hear a straightlaced, gravitas-filled newscaster utter the words “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” — Bostonist

It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still want to be a graffiti artist? — Graffiti Research Lab

Getting it is easy. Filling it up with illegal substances and sending it across the border is not. — Anonymous

Peter Berdovsky, 29, of Arlington, was arrested on one felony charge of placing a hoax device, and one charge of disorderly conduct, state Attorney General Martha Coakley said. — Associated Press

We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger. We appreciate the gravity of this situation and, like any responsible company would, ar eputting all necessary resources towards understanding the facts surrounding it as quickly as possible. As soon as we realized that an element of the campaign was being mistaken for something potentially dangerous, appropriate law enforcement officials were notified and through Federal law enforcement channels, we identified the specific locations of the advertisements in all ten cities in which they are posted. We also directed the third-party marketing firm who posted the advertisements to take them down immediately. We appreciate the commitment demonstrated by the Boston Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, as well as the Massachusetts Governor’s Office, and deeply regret the hardships experienced as a result of this incident. — Official “bumper” statement from Cartoon Network (thanks to Lucas for capping)

There wasn’t a bomb or terrorist paraphernalia category so I hope this one should suffice. — eBay Listing: “Mooninites (Ignignokt) LED Advertising Bomb”

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MacWorld QS Article Online

Jan 30, ’07 10:20 PM

For those who wanted to read the Working Mac article from January 2007′s Macworld that I helped author, it’s now available online.

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Another App To Change Your Life

Jan 29, ’07 1:37 PM

Freeverse has released Think 1.0.

Think is an app that will help you focus on whatever it is you’re trying to do by allowing you to “illuminate” any application, removing all other distractions.

Other apps have offered similar functionality, but Think does it with style and grace. I would do a tutorial, but the manual really nails what you need to know.

Cheers to Mikey – it’s a fantastic app. Congrats on the release.

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Another Happy Engagement

Jan 25, ’07 6:35 PM

Kevin and Suw

Absolute best wishes to Suw Charman and Kevin Anderson, who got engaged literally minutes ago.

The engagement announcement was done via Twitter – truly, these two are going to have a Wedding 2.0.

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IIDX + Ghostbusters = GOLD

Jan 25, ’07 4:18 PM

The post title is a pun in more ways that one.

Adrian, you are my hero for making this video.

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VJ Army Thanked In Burning Crusade Manual

Jan 23, ’07 9:50 PM

I can’t claim discovery rights for this – said credit goes to Omni from my forums – but VJ Army was thanked in the manual of the new World Of Warcraft expansion, Burning Crusade.

This doesn’t come as a huge shock to me – details as to the how and why are detailed in my needlessly gushing post on the forums.

Still, it’s well timed – VJ Army turns 3 this Friday.

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Tracing “Cain”

Jan 20, ’07 8:16 PM

Ted Leo - Blurry Hands

“We literally wrote this this morning.”

August 26th of 2005: a crowd of us gathered at the South Street Seaport watched as Ted Leo and the Pharmacists played the one song of the night no one knew. No one sung along, no one lipped the words – we just listened. And I, in a moment of lucky forethought, held my camera aloft and captured the whole thing.

The MP3 was at first labeled just “Untitled Ted Leo Song” – but soon renamed to the best guess off the set list, “The Sons Of Cain”. After getting heckled by a fellow fan, I asked Ted for his (albeit late) permission to distribute; he was kind enough to grant it.

A few months later, the song was again performed on KEXP; the considerably better audio quality led to an MP3 of that making the rounds as well.

Both of the TL/Rx shows I went to after that featured Sons Of Cain on the setlist, and it was an odd feeling to hear it played live again – not only because I had played a role in people recognizing it, but because every new performance was a little more refined than the one I had heard prior.

It’s weird (and a bit possessive) to think about, but Sons Of Cain is the first new song Ted wrote for an album since I started listening to him. There’s a strong attachment there, as each new playing gets it closer to being “done”.

Skipping to the end: Pitchfork, in conjunction with Touch & Go, have released The Sons Of Cain as a free MP3, in preparation for the release of Living With The Living on March 20th.

All four versions I’ve come across on MP3 are below. So compare, contrast, and listen as the song evolves:

As a special bonus option: I’ve mixed the four songs together, each version getting about a minute. Most of the difference in feel comes from the various recording methods, but you can still listen as the song evolves.

Download The Sons Of Cain (Four Ways Mix)

(thanks to Alan Williamson for the inspiration for this post)

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Draft Report on the 2006 Blackout

Jan 18, ’07 12:25 AM

It feels like ancient history at this point, but it’s worth realizing that it’s only been a scant six months since the blackout that downed most of Astoria and many other parts of Queens.

Jen Chung was nice enough to point out to me that the Public Service Commission filed a draft report on its investigation into the matter. While it is a draft (and therefore, not finished), there is a lot of meat contained within the 185 pages. What I have been able to read this far has been fascinating – covering technical details of the power grid, monitoring systems, and the plight of those affected.

Let’s hope the recommendations in the document take effect by the date specified (most of which are June 1, 2007) – I don’t want to go through this again in 2007.

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Social Network De-evolution

Jan 15, ’07 8:01 PM

The first social network to rise to any degree of prominence was Friendster. Friendster allows you to punch in a bunch of your interests, link to other friends, pull in your blog posts, share photos, etc.

Then came Orkut. Orkut grew quickly because of it’s exclusive “you have to be invited in” rules, but then quickly burned out as everyone went to MySpace. MySpace was – and is – ugly as sin, horribly non-functional, and generally is a contradiction of all that had gone to move the web forward since its inception. This, somehow, made it immensely popular.

Since MySpace has become the unstoppable force in the “this is all of who I am” space, recent social networks have forced you to specialize. Music users can plug in to lastfm or [iLike](http://www.ilike.com]; people looking for business connections can network on LinkedIn. Flickr can act as a glorified social network for photographers. And so on.

Meanwhile, activity-based social networks sprang up. Dodgeball broadcasts your location to your friends. Upcoming lets you plan events – Evite on steroids.

The many splinter social networks are interesting, because each one limits your scope. I can’t find my friends who aren’t into digital photography on Flickr. I’m not going to link up with people outside of NYC on Dodgeball. Each network becomes more insular, more specialized.

And so now we reach Twitter. Twitter is, as best I can tell, the exact reverse of the original sorts of social networks – your profile is meager, your interests unimportant. Twitter allows you to bomb your friends with updates about what you’re doing in 145 character or less – like Dodgeball, only without the locations. Or neighborhood detection.

I’ve been using it a bit more today after signing up last month – and while Twitterific is a nice client, I’m still trying to get the appeal. It’s certainly an interesting sort of party-line chat that doesn’t require you to be constantly signed in, but there’s something I’m not quite catching. Maybe it’s because after two years on Dodgeball, I know that most people aren’t using the chat functions.

My profiles for all the sites mentioned above: Friendster – MySpace – last.fm – iLike – LinkedIn � Flickr � Dodgeball � Upcoming � Twitter

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There Are Only Two Words

Jan 9, ’07 2:32 PM

Home run.

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