Cory Doctorow on Macropayments

Posted on September 7, 2008
Filed Under digital-lifestlye | 1 Comment

In his column at Locus Magazine, Cory Doctorow has a piece on “macropayments.” It lays out a lot of his thinking in giving away his books for free, but also refutes the whole philosophical basis of micropayments at the same time. I like this bit:

Taking someone’s money is expensive. It incurs transaction and bookkeeping costs and it incurs emotional and social costs. Micropayments have historically focused on eliminating the cash overheads while ignoring the intangible costs. For a writer whose career might span decades and involve hundreds of thousands of readers, these costs cannot be ignored.

At various points in my career I’ve been involved in micropayment type startups. I’ve believed in the idea and it always made sense to me in the abstract and theoretical. When Scott McCloud wrote his defense of micropayments, I agreed and cheered along with him. However in the feet on the street sense, it’s impossible to note the relative lack of success of micropayments (remember Bitpass) versus the kinds of projects Cory lays out in his essay. It emphasizes to me the technocratic divide - geeks are always trying to solve people problems with technological solutions, and that seldom if ever works.

I’m working behind the scenes as an advisor to a new media/old media hybrid that is in a bit of a funding crunch. I’m almost wondering if the ideas Cory raises aren’t perhaps the way to go. Rather than looking to get $10 from thousands of people, what about getting $1000 from a few hundred people? When you look at the distribution of people who gave money to fund Jill Sobule’s next record, $70K of the $86k raised came from donations of $100 or more.

Maybe there is something to that, focusing on a few larger donors. In a way, that’s a shame because my leanings are to be communitarian and get lots of people involved. It may be that in terms of generating dough quickly, it is actually more effective to go big or go home.

In a slightly related topic, this is why I priced my stuff packages the way I did. I could have done it more cheaply but then I’m doing all the same work for less profit. That profit has bought most of my equipment and kept my podcast running at close to break even for four years. After a period of inactivity, I actually sold some more stuff packages recently which helps out. If you’d like to pull on that rope, you certainly may. Not only do you help the show, you get to be a styling fool with some great tunes. Win/win, citizens!

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Goodbye Hanna

Posted on September 6, 2008
Filed Under myrtlebeach | 2 Comments

In a weird twist for hurricane season, the path of Hanna became ever more direct to our town but at the same time it weakened. It hit us pretty close to square on but had less impact than some of the ordinary storms this summer. When I walked the dog this morning I didn’t even see that much debris around. Back in June we had a storm that knocked down limbs all over town, including one that punched a hole in our shed and ripped the cable out of the house. This was nowhere near even that.

Thanks for all the good wishes everyone. This one was a pretty easy ride. May all the rest of them be too.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Hanna Tracking

Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under myrtlebeach | 6 Comments

I’m not liking this so much. That line of prediction for Tropical Storm/Hurricane Hanna is getting ever close to being right over our house. Let’s see if that can move offshore a little. This will be quite an exciting end to the week, at least in the Chinese curse sense of the word.

Update: It’s still on track to hit us square on but it looks like it won’t be a hurricane when it does, so I’m not really worried anymore. However I am dropping bricks about what Ike might be doing after it.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Top Shelf Comix

Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under comics | Leave a Comment

I don’t remember seeing their booth but surely Top Shelf Comix was displaying at Dragon*Con. One of the principals lives in Marietta, so it seems ridiculous not to. It’s that time of the year when Top Shelf has their big blowout sale, and are selling a number of their graphic novels at discounts and 97 of them for $3! Wowza. They ask for a $30 minimum order, which only seems fair when you are buying stuff this cheap. I’ve got a shopping cart full of Eddie Campbell stuff myself and will fire that up later today when I’ve had a chance to ruminate on what else I want to add. Check them out, it’s all good stuff.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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A Love Poem for the Damaged

Posted on September 2, 2008
Filed Under misc | 4 Comments

A few things that happened Dragon*Con weekend have made me verklemmt and feeling very emotional lately. In that vein, here is a poem I composed with the goal of trying to have the most emotional impact per word I could achieve. Let me know what you think.

You are broken
I’m broken too.
We are broken
Me and you.
Let’s get together
And buy some glue.
It seems the only
Sane thing to do.
If we don’t do it,
Really,
Who?
You fix me
I’ll fix you.
Somehow
Someway
We’ll get through.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Dragon*Con, Collapsing to the Finish Line

Posted on September 1, 2008
Filed Under conventions | Leave a Comment

It’s been quiet on this blog. Too quiet.

I’m almost done with Dragon*Con. It’s been good and worth the trip. I’m too tired to write up a real report but trust me, it’s been good. The status is not quo.

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Dragon*Con, Day 0

Posted on August 29, 2008
Filed Under conventions | Leave a Comment

It is 2 hours before Dragon*Con officially begins and I’m back in my hotel resting. This will be a fun but a long and tiring weekend. I hope that swimming laps will have created in me the endurance I need.

I’ve already ran into a number of friends and will do what I can to run in to some more. If you run across me come talk to me. I should be easy to find, I’m the stocky guy with long brown hair wearing black. [For those who have never been to this event, that's a joke, you see.]

Popularity: 15% [?]

Off To Dragon*Con

Posted on August 28, 2008
Filed Under conventions | 1 Comment

This afternoon I’ll be making the drive from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta for Dragon*Con. My deep hope is to get registered tonight so that I do not have to mess with that at all on Friday. I have a live taping of Reality Break with Mur Lafferty at 10 PM Friday night and my talk on “Why Podcasting Matters” at 8:30 PM on Sunday night. Right now it looks like Saturday will be my “me” day, the day where I take my want lists and dig through long boxes looking for elusive back issues. I have learned that even when I have a professional agenda, it is nice to carve out a little chunk of time to be a fanboy. It’s why I got involved in all this in the first place.

I have a few Reality Break interviews scheduled through the con. I might also be doing some pickup interviews, either for Reality Break or EGC podcast. I’ll have my trusty Marantz with me most of the time. It’s possible I’ll be doing some stuff for the offical Dragon*Con podcast but I’m not sure on that. I’m up for anything.

One of the things that just happened yesterday is that I volunteered to be Darusha Wehm’s proxy at the Parsec awards. If her podcast of Beautiful Red wins, I’ll accept her award and either read her statement or put her on speakerphone at the mic. The latter is of course preferred.

All in all it should be a fun time. If you are at the con, come to one of my program events or catch me in the hall or pick up some of my swag from the groaning giveaway table. It’ll be a fun time and I hope to see you there, all of you.

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Strings Video

Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under arts, technology | Leave a Comment

A while back, my friend Kelley posted her appreciation of video mashups that pay homage to creative works. Recently a fan responded by creating a video called “Mad Rush” that in part incorporates lines from Kelley’s story “Strings” to powerful effect. There’s a lot of room for creativity of this sort. Jonathan Coulton has done quite well tapping in to this pool of mojo. If you are a creator, encouraging others to build creativity is not a bad way to expand your personal brand, increase your fan’s investment in your work, and to bring things back to you in edifying ways.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The Secret of New Media Success

Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under podcasting | Leave a Comment

Evo Terra spills a closely guarded secret, that of how to be a new media success. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone. They might soak up all the new media riches that are rightfully mine!

Spoiler Alert for Said Secret:

OK, it involves working your ass off.

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Mur Lafferty Live Interview at Dragon*Con

Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under conventions, podcasting | Leave a Comment

I have an hour slot to record at Dragon*Con, which will be Friday at 10 PM. I just posted over on the Reality Break site that I’ve booked Mur Lafferty to be the guest for the live Reality Break episode. The plan is to do both a Reality Break and an EGC clambake episode in the allotted time. First priority is to get the Mur interview conducted and in the can. With whatever time remains, I plan to record EGC. If you’ll be at Dragon*Con, come and hang out with us. I’ll be taking a few questions from the floor so you too can participate. It will be a party, kids. I’ll be giving away a couple of EGC stuff packages, stickers and what have you. I’m not sure if Mur will be bringing swag, but it will be a fun geeky time at this fun geeky convention.

Popularity: 21% [?]

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Spare Me From Lists

Posted on August 24, 2008
Filed Under misc | Leave a Comment

I read Large Hearted Boy and generally I like it and find it useful. I do notice how often it is that the links featured are to some kind of list, usually a few every time. I have grown so weary of that construction that I follow maybe one link in 200. I just don’t care about the 10 worst hair days in rock history or the 17 weirdest license plates. Today I saw a link to the endgame of such nonsense, this book of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Wow. I just can’t imagine granting anyone the authority to tell me such a thing. I’d assume the main reason people buy that book is out of morbid curiosity to see how many of their favorite songs are in there. “Did ‘Tropical Hot Dog Night’ make it in there? How about ‘Hyperstation’ and/or ‘The Sprawl’?” Yawn. I’ll get to that real soon, right after I’ve done everything else, ever.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Free Amazon MP3s

Posted on August 22, 2008
Filed Under music | Leave a Comment

A while back, I made my first ever purchase from the Amazon DRM Free MP3 store, Brian Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets. I liked the experience and thought it was pretty cool. Now via Ruby comes this link to a bunch of free MP3s. I just spent a bunch of time going through all 67 pages (?!?!) of those and downloading a crazy amount of music from Ian Gillan, Mott the Hoople and others. This should keep everyone busy this weekend!


Popularity: 24% [?]

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Dragon*Con Schedule

Posted on August 22, 2008
Filed Under conventions, podcasting | 2 Comments

I’ll be at Dragon*Con next weekend. I’m doing a live taping of this podcast and/or an epsiode of Reality Break on Friday from 10-11 PM. On Sunday at 8:30 PM I’ll be giving a talk on the podcasting track entitled “Why Podcasting Matters.” Earlier today I described it as “a mashup of both my NME talks, Geoghegan’s “Death of Podcasting” and a little bit of Subgenius tent devival.” If you’ll be at Dragon*Con, come to one or both of my presentations, please! There will be giveaways at the live taping, so I’m willing to bribe you.

Popularity: 27% [?]

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Advice to Liberals

Posted on August 21, 2008
Filed Under politics | 1 Comment

My friend Dan Conover has some advice to liberals in this political season, which mostly can be summed up in the title: “Chill!” I particularly like this bit from the end:

Too many liberals have forgotten how to be winners. Step No. 1 is, when you take the lead, act like you’ve been there before.

Popularity: 26% [?]

EGC Clambake for August 19, 2008 - “Fourth Anniversary, Big Whoop”

Posted on August 19, 2008
Filed Under audio | 2 Comments

Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for August 19, 2008. I play a song from Rocket City Riot and then try and fail to read some user mail; I play a song by the Harvey Girls; I discuss this being the fourth anniversary of this podcast, why I started doing this show and why I continue and how I feel about the state of our medium; I mention New Media Expo and Michael Geoghegan and the “death of podcasting”; I play a song by Glass Eye and then groove my way on into the night.

This turns out to have been an unusually foul-mouthed episode. I guess it happens when you wind the monkey up. That’s why I disclaim this up front, kids.

You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Links mentioned in this episode:

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [44:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 32% [?]

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Microblogs Need GUIDs

Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under programming | 2 Comments

I’m listening to the 8/2/2008 episode of the Gillmor Gang where Steve is talking with Dustin Sailings of Twitterspy. As they are talking about Twitter and Identi.ca and such, a realization hit me. Because I know nothing about how any of these microblogs are implemented this might be naive and redundant but let me throw it out there.

Microblogs absolutely need GUIDs. Particularly if we are talking about federating together identi.ca powered services that exchange messages, it is highly important that we be able to uniquely identify them. Since every microblog post originated somewhere, I believe this GUID should almost always be the URL of the individual message on the originating service.

For example, I make a tweet on Twitter. FriendFeed picks that up and aggregates that in my feed. That FriendFeed message should have a GUID that is the original Twitter URL. If I have a ping.fm or TwitterFeed or any other reposting type service running, they should all pass in the GUID as they do the push from Twitter to other services. If I post originally to Identi.ca and it pushes to Twitter, just reverse that notion. Then in cases like where your blog automatically posts messages to Twitter, the GUID should be the permalink of your blog post. This would enable easy deduplication. For example, now FriendFeed could see that the Twitter notification of the blog post is something it has already seen from the blog itself. It can only show a single occurrence, not the avalanche of duplicate messages we now see.

The same basic principle would hold with Flickr entries that get posted to Twitter or similar services. Use the Flickr page as the GUID so that it is easy to tell that the notification from Twitter, Plurk and FriendFeed are all the same thing so whatever interface you are using should show it only once. I think the benefits of this fall out very quickly. This seems like it would be simple to add in if it doesn’t already exist, simple to add to every bit of message flow and simple to use at all the user interface ends. If the idea is that in the future these services will be distributed and federated, this sort of thing should happen sooner rather than later.

Popularity: 33% [?]

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Creating a Comic Strip

Posted on August 15, 2008
Filed Under comics | Leave a Comment

Via The Comics Reporter I ran across this video showing how Dave Kellett creates the comic strip Sheldon. I’m not a comics creator, can’t really draw but I’m always fascinated with the creation process and particularly the mechanics of it. I found this completely fascinating. I remember the first time I saw original comic book art with all these mystical glyphs on the margins I was intrigued and shocked. “Oh my god, there’s white out all over it!” I thought to myself. It wasn’t this work of perfection that fell from the sky, but something that multiple hands toiled and crafted and maybe even had to back up and do again. If you have any interest in cartooning or the creative process, check out the video.

For a while there I used to listen to Dave and company’s Blank Label Comics Podcast, which seems to be about two years defunct. However, looking up links for this post I ran across Webcomics Weekly, to which I have subscribed. I’ll check out some episodes and see how I like it.

Popularity: 31% [?]

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NBC Olympics Coverage is Unbelievably Bad

Posted on August 12, 2008
Filed Under sports, tv | 4 Comments

[Whoops, I forgot to press publish on this last night. The specifics change but the basics are always the same.]

It’s 10 PM and the NBC coverage of the Olympics just went something like 30 minutes without showing any actual competitions. We got people talking in the studio, mind-numbing preproduced bits about the Great Wall of China and lots of assorted nonsense that had nothing to do with the actual competitions taking place.

I think you could do a lot better by just having a few channels on digital cable that just aired uncut, live footage of competitions with no commentators at all. Instead, we get coverage that is time-shifted, edited to where we see only the USA and the bits that affect the outcome of the finals, lots of schmaltzy bullshit set pieces. I hate the way NBC covers this event, and they screw it up the same way every two years.

Update: I turned in tonight to find Mary Carillo doing a piece on food in China. For Dobb’s sake, you have got to be kidding me! They truncate the coverage but they have time for this? I think I am just about done even bothering with this. NBC coverage is so execrable as to make the Olympics more pain than they are worth to watch. I’ll check the medal count via the web every now and, but screw NBC. For reals, hoss.

Popularity: 37% [?]

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Black Gate Fantasy Magazine

Posted on August 11, 2008
Filed Under sciencefiction | 2 Comments

I’ve heard of Black Gate fantasy magazine but I’d never actually seen a print copy on a newstand or ever read it. They’ve recently decided to make it available not just in print but also in a high quality digital version as well. In order to promote this, they have made issue #12 available for free download. I’ve downloaded it and checked it out and it looks quite nice, although I haven’t sat down and read any of the stories yet. They also have a two page Knights of the Dinner Table comic, so that’s really cool for those into gaming or this comic.

If you are at all interested, download this and try it out for free. If it’s something you like, help a brother out and subscribe or buy some back issues. Support the genre, support those few small press print magazines still making a go of it, support people willing to let you download the magazine without suing your nuts off.

PS - the free download is for a limited time so don’t fart around. If you want to get it, time to hop on it.

Popularity: 36% [?]

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