#18 Done, I think

I've actually found this program quite helpful, as my luddism has kept my investigation into new web tools at check for a while. Well, that and my lack of a decent net connection for the bulk of the last few years. Anywho, the added convenience I alluded to in the last post has helped reshape how easily I get around my daily/weekly web endeavours. And, as this has happened, I've noticed how much more up to speed so many of my friends, family, lovers, colleagues, etc, etc are than I am. My aversion to dissolving into the net - probably something to do with a fear of SHODAN - will probably still keep me back a few steps, but time management's a big issue in my life, so I'm not too worried about this impulse. In terms of the way I approach my profession, it's definitely intriguing and enlightening. I'm presently trying to imagine a juncture where web 2.0 technology and aspects of our zine collection can happily collide without dismissing the beautifully anarchic and tactile nature of zines (not e-zines, though... they have their place in that realm already and need no assistance in staying there).

Time will tell.

Goddamn I'm annoyed about that stupid widget clock.

#17 Gettin' there

Okay, after looking at a bunch of literature and seeing where and how so many of these new tools work, I think I've narrowed all this down (ah-huh... yeah, I'm not sure what I'm typing here... ah-huh): convenience and communication. Open dialogue is a big one - feeling like you can have input wherever you receive information. And where do you want to receive that information? At home. Or, ya know, wherever (honestly, I just missed gen x... only just). Things are just getting more and more convenient, or perceivably so, so our job is to make sure that the relevance and quality of information is still there, whilst still giving them the opportunity to have a say in how the information is flagged and described. Is that too simplified?

#16 Pod people

Ended up search Podcast.net and, via a link to a (sadly) dead podcast by local gothy Scot Dave Callan, I found a recommendation to this one. I remember listening to abysmal streams many, many years ago when I was out of range of most Melbourne public radio transmitters - not much Black Metal on JJJ... well, not enough for 17-year-old me - and trying to convince myself that 8kbps Realplayer files were decent. Foolish, foolish me.

Though at the moment, this... this is much more like it. Not sure why I don't patronise podcasts much already. The sound quality is there, and the speed is there, and the variety and competition (hence, content quality and frequency) is increasing. And they cater for a style of knowledge absorption that is often unavailable in libraries, at least in the level at which a wide enough range of topics can be selected from.

And there's Dan Savage, who is awesome.

#15 Ewe chewed

Three-fold post, this. You Tube is pretty impressive, despite reaching the Napster problem(ish) of getting so popular that all the lovely pirated material is all too easily found by the creators (greedy critters... think they deserve rights... humph) and promptly removed. Oh, and despite killing all our bandwidth. Yeah. Though, if you're an independent, unsigned band like Schadenfreude, it's awesome, even after you debut on Rage late one night. Heck, Rage must be feeling pretty damn neglected at the moment.

Sciencehack is obviously still in the formative stages - a search for Black Noise only yielded one result - but the interface, though primitive, is at least a bit cleaner, lacking all the peripheral glut that YT tends to love so much.

I guess it's understandable that anybody who's no longer in school would find Teacher Tube a little annoying and limiting. It's obviously pretty tightly regulated, though at least there are ninjas. Yeah.

NOTE: And now, for everyone who wondered what it would be like if Michael Jackson grew up in Bollywood...

#14 Widget tool

The idea of Widgets, I think... yes, I mentioned them earlier in this blog, and, yes, after checking out this winner of the widget category in SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards, I will have to concur that they are indeed added fuel to the "why can't I just surgically attach myself to my computer chair?" line of thought. It's. Just. So. Damn. Convenient. Damn...

I didn't go to the point of developing my own widget - something that keeps an eye out for early/rare Morgion and Joyless releases on Amazon and eBay at the same time - but I altered a couple of their readymades (should've added my signature beneath 'em... hmmm) and added them to the top of my blog. Just weather and time... y'know, just in case I can't be asked moving my field of vision to the clock in the ever so far away lower right hand corner of my screen, and, y'know, open the curtains and crane my stiffening neck a harsh 105 degrees to see what the weather looks like "outside".

The ease in which you can syndicate said widgets is pretty awesome, though, as I alluded to earlier, they will become the death of alot of things. Like, I guess, your desktop. Doubt I'll be porting them there anytime soon. I dunno, I just happen to like my completely non-existent wallpaper (at home). It keeps me sane. Too many years of staring at album covers I happened to like, and mash up desktops made by obsesssive music fans - it's just nice not to have too much to absorb when I switch my PC on.

NOTE: I have since removed the time function when I realised that it hasn't recognised Daylight savings yet. Silly.