Category: Blog

December 24, 2008

Farmar Hurt

Not good news for the Lakers yesterday; Jordan Farmar will be out until possibly the middle of February with knee surgery. Good news though is that Phil Jackson says the Lakers will be looking into getting another point guard with speed to back up Derek Fisher.

This is just not a good injury for the team to get at a time when they’re already showing signs of maybe not being the team that started out the season on a tear. Here’s hoping they pull it together even without Farmar and maintain their position and record.

Link (via ESPN).

December 24, 2008

Ebooks?

Gregory Cowles has a post today over on the New York Times website about how 2008 might be remembered as the year that ebooks finally caught on. He references the popularity (or is it a really low supply?) of products like Amazon’s Kindle as part of the reason behind his thinking this. He concludes by writing of a shift to ereaders:

I think I would have a hard time adapting to that — I live too much in my head already, and enjoy the solid physicality of ink on paper — but then, I’m the kind of guy who would have complained about the end of parchment or chiseled stone too. There’s no stopping the future. “When you get right down to it,” a publisher told me, “the story you’re delivering is always more important than the delivery system you use.”

I’m with Cowles here; no matter how tech-savvy I am and no matter how many wonderful uses I find for technology in my life I will never be able to pick up an electronic copy of a book with the same kind of enthusiasm and feelings as a traditional print copy. I look at apps like Classics for the iPhone and iPod Touch and think that if something this well-designed still can’t make reading books on a display a suitable replacement then I’m not sure anything really will.

Also, I think I disagree with the publisher quoted above. I think that an intriguing story becomes inherently less interesting to me if the medium of presentation is one that I cannot accomodate. I just relate it to whenever I try to edit a friend’s college paper on my computer. No matter how good the paper is it simply does not hold my attention and I don’t read it as thoroughly as I do when I print out a copy. Just my two cents.

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the tip on the article.

December 24, 2008

New Photos Up

I just uploaded some new photography as well as some that I dug up from my collection. Head over to my Flickr page to see them in a larger size. The new ones are somewhat of an experiment that I did with a sunset and tree branches. The older ones come from a trip to China in 2007. Enjoy!

December 23, 2008

Back at WordPress.com

So I’ve moved this blog back to its original place at WordPress.com. I’ve found that the exposure that is inherent through this (i.e. getting traffic from WordPress’ own tag listings, etc.) is greater than anything I’m willing to do on my own. Since this is really a small project for me I’m not willing to spend the time drawing traffic to my site through commenting on other blogs, etc. With that in mind I’ve moved it back here but the rest of my personal site will remain the same. In addition, my portfolio will remain hosted through my other site. Anyway, enjoy the future posts here.

December 23, 2008

Regarding the RIAA

Recently the RIAA announced that it would stop prosecuting individual file-sharers; rather, what they plan on doing is entering into agreements with ISPs and will send that ISP an email when they discover that someone is downloading content illegally. For the consumer this is a slight improvement, but ultimately is not enough in my mind.

While this could theoretically remove the legal ramifications that illegal downloads now have (provided that you are actually caught) in an internet world dominated by Verizon and Comcast this is not a large enough step. Basic economics would say that those who want to download music for free would simply move to an ISP that is not in an agreement with the RIAA; however, the availability of this is what matters. With the combination of corporate behemoths, like the two aforementioned companies, dominating in terms of providing internet to many people for relatively good prices and the economic downturn the ability for some to pay an independent ISP (like I do) $50+ a month for service might dwindle. Consequently they would be more inclined to get internet for a cheaper price regardless of the restrictions because limited internet access (to many) is better than no internet access.

Also of concern to me is what happens when the RIAA identifies your IP as partaking in illegal downloads. Granted, they claim that notifying the ISP does not entail any required action on behalf of the ISP, but I have a hunch the expectation would be that the ISP would eventually cancel your account. What then happens to your ability to get internet? Will some type of blacklist be drawn up of those customers who have had internet service terminated because of file-sharing? Much of this would be worst case, conspiratorial scenario, but it is possible and its consequences frankly scare me. If an ISP is put under pressure by the RIAA to not allow file-sharing then what would be there motivation for taking on new customers who were booted by Verizon, Comcast, or any other ISP for illegal downloads?

Don’t get me wrong, this is certainly a step in the right direction, but I’m still waiting for the day that the RIAA and the music labels recognize the fact that they can create new forms of revenue that are outside of CD sales. Profit off artists in a different way and allow their music to spread to a greater fan base that would then be more willing to go see a concert, buy memorabilia, or support the artist in some other way. Just a thought.

December 23, 2008

Richard Dawkins and “psychics”

Last week Boing Boing published an article that has video links to a 6-part interview between Richard Dawkins and Derren Brown, a magician and illusionist who has become increasingly known for his “mind-reading abilities.” The interview is interesting in that Brown gives a pretty clear explanation of what code reading is and how psychics are able to appear as though they know the most intimate of details about you when they are really just reading you’re expressions and reactions.

Here’s the link to the Boing Boing article and here’s a direct YouTube link.

December 22, 2008

Another Trey Ratcliff link

A little while ago I posted a great photo from Trey Ratcliff (Stuck in Customs on Flickr). Today I came across a great tutorial of his on Abduzeedo (an interesting design inspiration site by the way). The tutorial is a little glimpse into the workflow that Trey undergoes in his creation of his photography. To me it’s fascinating to see these glimpses into how designers and photographers work and the process they go through. If you’re interested in getting familiar with HDR imagery and photography it’s worth a read.

Here’s the link.

December 21, 2008

Writing site is now up

I’ve finished the layout and design for my writing page of my website. As opposed to this blog the content there is longer, and more academic in nature. Much of it concerns culture, media, and politics. If that sounds interesting then head here.

December 21, 2008

DeLillo’s “Underworld”

I’m in the process of reading Don DeLillo’s book Underworld. The book, like everything he writes is fascinating and really breaks up the linear process of most fiction story-telling. Outside of all that though I find the simple way in which he makes obscure and foul things seem artful and well-written almost magical.

For instance, in this book he is discussing the way in which one of the characters, Marvin to be exact, experienced worsening bowel movements during his honeymoon through Eastern Europe. DeLillo writes:

The smell that surrounded him was infused with what, with geopolitics, and he waved a towel for five minutes and propped open the window, it kept closing, with a rolled-up copy of Pravda, he was still looking for baseball scores, and then he went and stood in their room and watched Eleanor sleep–she came from a gentle rural place and could easily perish from his reek.

Any author who is able to tie the geopolitics of the Cold War and Eastern Europe into a baseball fan’s worsening bowel movements while traveling through the country is a master in my mind. I don’t know why he does it this way or how it appears (to me at least) to be so well done, but it is and I love it.

December 21, 2008

Technorati

I just added this blog to Technorati, so this post introduces that (and gets that pesky little bit of code that they require onto the front page). Enjoy.

Technorati Profile