Currently Browsing: Musing
Sep 18, 2009
Posted by VC on Sep 18, 2009 in Musing | 0 comments
Surely this was a name made up by a perv male grad student to take advantage of another Netflix promo code. It seems like too much of a proclamation of sexual prowess created to raise the eyebrows of mailmen or make frat brothers snicker.
Robyn Beavers. That can’t be a real name.
When the two Netflix envelopes in my mailbox greeted me from their bed of junk mail, I flashed back to that night in Vegas. I knew my laptop was on the nightstand when my eyelids creaked open the next morning, but the specifics of the night’s activities were cloudy. Last thing I remember was pointing my new H2 Zoom audio recorder at an obviously inebriated, chatty cathy doing a sobriety test on the side of ”The Strip” to test my gain settings and microphone pickup pattern. Had I been lame and ordered a Netflix account? Nah. The Manhattans weren’t that strong. Plus, a bunch of my friends have shared their Netflix password with me. Why would I pay for something I can get for free?
I excitedly considered how much trouble I would get into if I satisfied my curiosity and ripped open the envelopes like it was Christmas morning. Just to see if I had lucked out and gotten an interesting flick I’d never heard of. Thieving other people’s mail is a crime, sure. But what’s the rate of enforcement on post pilferers around here? From reading the SUPDS Community Crime alerts, I should be more worried about 125 lb Asian males with designer glasses who like knives.
No one would ever know if I had opened up the envelopes, watched the DVDs, then slipped ‘em back into the return envelope. I doubt The Beav would come knocking on my door demanding to know where her discs were. Then again, when I looked at the title of the movies through the bar code slot of the envelope, I thought maybe she might.
Galactica. Season 1: Discs 1 and 2
So not worth it.
Naturally, I facebooked the name to see if she was for real. Turns out she is. Poor thing.
Am I really the only person who would have a pre-birth brainstorm session to think about all the ways that the name I chose for my baby could be distorted during its adolescence? Seems like common sense to think about how a first name sounds with a last name. E.g. If the kid’s last name will be McCrevice, you should have the forethought not to name your child Phillip.
Now that I’m thinking of it, if I do reproduce somewhere down the line, this is definitely going to be an event for only my most inappropriate friends. I’ll need all the input I can from the types that enjoy a waltz on the douche side. I can see the event invitation now.
You’re cordially invited to “Shame That Name.” Bring your own puns. Thesaurus optional. Best two out of three gets godparent status and a guilt trip if the kid doesn’t go to college. <insert obscene event description here>
I don’t want to have to convince my sobbing tween to come out of the bathroom they’ve locked themselves into, ‘cos Freddy “I’m peaking in high school” Football Hero bragged about how he burgled the beaver last night all over his friends’ walls.
If Facebook hasn’t gone the way of the Myspace by then.
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Aug 24, 2009
Posted by VC on Aug 24, 2009 in Business, Musing, New media | 0 comments
Nine days from now, I’m starting the engine on my white Jetta and cruise controlling my car full of irreplacables to the west coast. For the these last precious sweat-drenched, jersey-dress clad Texan days, I will do everything in my power to live afk as much as possible. Do all the things I meant to do while I was here. Hug all the people I wanted to hug. Drink all the free booze that I would normally turn down in the name of linear thought and early morning basic motor functions. I’m not ruling a return drive out, but I’m not planning on coming back.
To document my adventures which were inspired by a new-to-me Hunter S. Thompson book, The Great Shark Hunt, as well as the communication department’s equipment requirements which cause me to wonder what my tuition pays for exactly, I’ve acquired some fab new video and audio gear. I’m also switching up the focus of my blog to reflect my new interests.
Looks like I wasn’t all that interested in my last topic, ‘cos I didn’t blog much about it, hmm? Nah. In actuality companies were paying me to write for them in such quantity during the day that when I came home, it was all I could do to read my freshest New Yorker or watch movies lethargically.
As an aside, Festen aka The Celebration is an especially jaw dropping flick. The bland Netflix synopsis doesn’t do it justice.
My time in the corporate jungle is short (4 days left), and the time has come to leave the comfort of my ergonomically sensitive chair and temperature controlled climates and emerge from the security badge activated electronically powered revolving door armed with a sound growth strategy, a cell phone with internet access, and an open mind.
My lunch break is over… I’ll write more soon.
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May 5, 2009
Posted by VC on May 5, 2009 in Musing, New media | 2 comments
It’s hard to take tweets seriously, when ninety percent of them are crap. But more and more credible sources are using Twitter to share information. On the flip side, I am concerned that these new methods of delivering content could make it more difficult for journalists to make a decent living than it already is.
Take Breakingtweets.com: One of their goals is to use Twitter as a “journalistic platform.” Their editors, predominantly grad students, write a few lines which summarize a hot topic and then compile choice tweets to show how people in the immediate area are reacting to it. The two are then blended into single entry which reads like a succinct blog post with authority. The site has the potential to really dive into the deep end of some thick and hearty issues in a sexy way. And it seems like a lot of fun for a journalist to do. But despite their aim to increase dialogue, I don’t see a ton of comments. It might be that people haven’t heard of them yet. They’re fairly fresh on the scene.
The site’s founder Craig Kanalley hasn’t identified how to sustain the site after grad school.
“ckanal@ohmyafly working on that as we speak, talking to lots of business/marketing people. honestly, not much luck yet.”
Delivering user-generated content like tweets is mad cheap, and having editors around to filter through them is a really good idea. Aside from selling ads and providing intelligence to companies, however, I’m not sure how breakingtweets is going to bank on this. He wouldn’t tell me how large their regular audience is. I don’t see content or features unique enough to keep people coming back for more. No integration with mobile devices. I’d like to see them break a tweet at you that’s relevant to your location. A most pressing question is whether the site will create jobs or hobbies for journalists who are looking ways to pay their rent in the future. Time is expensive. And no one there is getting paid to bust a tweet.
On the larger end of perspective assemblage, Google News is now twittering their site’s headlines with links to full stories. Not the most creative way to advertise. I know reporters who do this kind of thing all the time. In fact, it gets really annoying when they hog your twitter feed with their tweets. I digress. I’m mentioning these tweets because they’re related to their news site which will soon complicate things for journalists in a job market that massively sucks. The Google intends to roll out a journalist-job-killing feature in about six months which will passively search for and deliver customized content to googlers. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman:
“Under this latest iteration of advanced search, users will be automatically served the kind of news that interests them just by calling up Google’s page. The latest algorithms apply ever more sophisticated filtering –- based on search words, user choices, purchases, a whole host of cues -– to determine what the reader is looking for without knowing they’re looking for it.”
“And on this basis, Google believes it will be able to sell premium ads against premium content.”
The news outlets from which they pull stories are not going to get a cut of the revenue action as of right now. Except for the AP of course.
Sure, they might get more clicks. But will that really translate to much of an increase in ad revenue? For the small sites that don’t normally get a ton of traffic, perhaps. I doubt that the bbc.co.uk will see a change in the number of total clicks. It’s unclear whether Google would be willing to pay a fee to all the news outlets after funneling their content. Hard to negotiate that when the news sites are putting their product out there for free.
From the breakingtweets to the Google, the trend right now is to take existing content and mash it together in a new way which exploits free data distributors like Twitter. Google uses it to advertise. Breakingtweets uses it to accurately portray varied perspective. It’s rad that these sites are focused on delivering valued content to users in a fresh way that keeps it timely. Unfortunately, it sucks that neither has adequately addressed the need for the creator of the content to eat.
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Apr 16, 2009
Posted by VC on Apr 16, 2009 in Musing | 0 comments
To narc or not to narc, that is the question.
I filed taxes for an obviously improperly documented immigrant couple, yesterday. When I called their attention to the fact that the husband’s IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number didn’t match the Social Security Number on his W-2s, the wife initially tried to play like they forgot the Social Security card at home. My face must have revealed my you-must-think-I’m-retarded thought, because the wife subsequently admitted to me that the # on the w-2s was “el numero que usa para trabajar,” not a real number. But if they guy has a real ITIN, then why use that other # to work?
The lady gave me a letter from the IRS Departamento del Tesoro Servicio de Rentas Internas, Philadelphia Campusas proof of an ITIN assignment which was dated 04/18/2005; she told me that she hadn’t received her card yet. Come on, woman. How have you not been busted yet?
I don’t intend to report these people to la migra; I think that Darwinism will take care of things for me. Why bother trying to pay taxes if you aren’t going to present at least a fake SS card with numbers that match up to the one on your W-2s ? Is the IRS scarier than ICE? When you made $4,608 in 2008, you’re not going to get a ton of cash back.
Naturally, I’m processing the file which the IRS rejected for having “typos” in it today. Typos in the sense that the social security number doesn’t match the name on the card. No typos exist, brah. Just poppycock and sugarplum dreams of golden highways. I wonder if by blogging this, I admit to being an accessory to some sort of crime for which I do not have a name.
At this point, I’m uncertain how to proceed. The only good reasons for narcing would be to prevent future penalties against me for not divulging this info to the government entity that hasn’t been bright enough to catch a pair who has lived in the US for at least five years. And to get this file off my stack.
I’m certainly not going to narc out of some patriotic falderah. Perhaps they’ve been slipping through the I don’t really cares for all these years.
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Mar 16, 2009
Posted by VC on Mar 16, 2009 in Musing | 0 comments
Recently my gorgeous boyfriend forwarded one of Clay Shirky’s blog posts to me called Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable which discussed reasons why the newspaper was going to die soon. I was interested to see that the issues my professors presented to my classes during my undergraduate coursework at UT are blogworthy and what non journalists are saying about them. One of the revolutionary approaches to the industry briefly mentioned by the article that is being used successfully by independent online start up journalism venues is crowd sourcing. It deserves further investigation and discussion.
The collaborative effort of researching data between non professional and professional journalists poses challenges to the credibility of a story written on a platform, the internet, which is already regarded skeptically by many who are used to the more established form of news publication, the newspaper. It is much easier on an overworked journalist’s psyche to ask audiences for help researching of than to drown in the investigative process. Government documents are not reputed to be the shortest or most fascinating reads. Furthermore, it is the in the best interest of a properly researched article to have as much time dedicated to it as possible; but the fact remains that there are only 24 hours in a day to accomplish goals. When a journalist is on a tight deadline to produce something articulate and well researched, the public is very commonly done a disservice by mainstream media. So, logically the traditionally underpaid professional journalist should ask for assistance. But from whom?
Any random volunteer who subscribes to an RSS feed? How credible is a citizen journalist? Much fresh perspective can be gleaned from a person who will not realize a financial loss after writing information that is potentially damaging to advertising revenue but in the public interest to publish. However, to what standards will they adhere? For what reasons should a non journalist follow the SPJ Code of Ethics or read the Elements of Journalism? Would a citizen journalist even know they exist?
I’m not going to pretend like I know for sure how the American public feels about consuming news researched by their neighbors. However, I do know that the public is not married to the traditional format of journalism. Sites like Current.com exemplify that they are open to consuming stories prepared by storytellers from all walks of life. Awards have been given to sites for crowd sourced articles. The citizen who researches could very well be someone who wanted to be a journalist and has all the training to do so, but decided that their career should be something that pays all the bills.
One of the major things that is left unresolved is how to fund journalism that people consume for free. Sites like nytimes.com have tried to make their sites pay sites and failed. How much value can you place on something for which you do not pay? As far as getting money from ads, I have never intentionally clicked on a news outlet’s ads. Ad dollars for web sites that get millions of hits like the Daily Kos are barely enough to pay for one guy’s bills and pay a few people. Grants and donations successfully fund magazines with top notch articles like Spiegel. But Americans like free stuff. I’m not sure that they would be willing to pay for it. And then who is paying for it? Does the source of the money put the publication’s bias into question? This is the spot in the conversation when people shake their heads and say, I don’t know.
Shirky describes the public’s perception of the printing press revolution which transferred the power of literacy and information access to the masses as questioned. “Was this an educational boon or the work of the devil?” Shirky writes, articulating the trust issues that people have not only with themselves but with the unorthodox sources who utilize new technology to publish and distribute to the masses. Historically people have been and are uncertain whom they could trust now that they had and have many contradictory versions of stories. User generated content may or may not be trustworthy.
Heaven forbid people start thinking for themselves. My position is that it is wonderful that people are now forced to consider more than one source of information in an unfamiliar way and decide for themselves what is true, however uncomfortable it may make them.
I have talked with friends, classmates, and mentors of mine without really finding duplicable solutions for a self sustaining, truly independent journalism venue which publishes high quality journalism minus the infotainment to pull in additional revenue. Examples of small community sites do exist. But it escapes me how to make those work on a large scale.
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