I’m always looking for good news as there seems to be so little of it these days. I found this hard-to-believe report today, demonstrating that 44% of Americans who are online contribute their thoughts to the Web. (The report can also be downloaded from this link at the wonderful Pew Internet and American Life Project site.)
This is a truly astounding statistic and its meaning is both deep and broad. Here are some other stats:
17% have posted written material on sites.
10% have posted comments to newsgroups.
21% have posted photos to websites.
13% have their own website.
2% have blogs.
49% of content creators are women.
48% are between the ages of 30 and 49.
20% of content creators are, yes, students.
If we do the math, this means that, of the approximately 120 million people online in the U.S., 2.4 million have weblogs. This is a sign that the Internet’s vitality is maintained not by corporate interests alone but my individual human beings. It’s a sign that the health of American democracy and speech may not be as dire as one might think. It’s a sign that communication technologies are just now becoming ubiquitous. It’s also a sign that there is a lot of online dating going on.
Monthly Archives: February 2004
Love
Add more thing to the list:
Adobe InDesign 2.0.2 is not working. I guess that means that I’ll need to fork over another $169.95 for the upgrade.
I’d rather just sit in the front of the computer and listen to the new Courtney Love which is very good. It’s nowhere as powerful or inspiring as her first few albums but there’s little question that this woman feels and feels messed up.
Things that broke this week
- The VCR — even after trying to clean it, it just won’t run anymore
- My cell phone — dead unless it’s hooked up to the wall
- The lights overhead in the office — tried to change them but it’s not the 100 watt bulbs
- Adobe Acrobat and Illustrator — see this nice story
- My handsfree telephone headset — battery went out twice
And it’s only Tuesday evening!
Captured on Safari
Using a combination of Web programming technologies, including Python, Applescript, Perl, PHP, and MySQL, Dan Vine has come up with the ultimately cool (and so far free) online tool that shows the benefits of browsing websites on OS X (hint: it’s a pleasure). For the next 24 hours, here’s a link to what Deckchairs on the Titanic look like.
Nadir
I’m all for competition. I’m all for a little fun. I’m all for working hard to get a message across. But the news that Nader is now going to run for President is disturbing, grotesque even. I can only wonder if Karl Rove walked over to Mr. Nader’s place, got on his hands and knees, and begged him to please, please help Bush take the Presidency just one more time.
Stuf
Being that’s it’s Saturday night, I caught up on my reading of last Sunday’s New York Times. I read with great glee the piece, written by Emily Nussbaum in the Arts & Leisure section, on Sid and Marty Krofft’s excellent late 1960s and early 1970s H.R. Pufnstuf. I loved this show above almost all the others when I was four and five and six years of age. I’ve always wondered, because these shows received so little traction and play during the years since, if I just imagined Witchie-Poo and the scary-funny play acting that was my key entertainment for many years. I also thrilled at reading about “Land of the Lost,” which I also thought was lost in my brain’s recesses.
All of this is really to say that the Arts & Leisure section of the times is finally, fairly, formally good. For years, they featured arcane theatrical reviews, puff pieces on average actors, and features on just-past artists. My sincere hope is that Ms. Nussbaum and her editors continue their mission in providing journalistic integrity and fine recollections to the fading memories of Generation Xers.
Saddam's Execution
Two nights ago, I dreamt that my wife and I were invited to witness the execution of Saddam Hussein. We were given a call by a U.S. Government official and told to come down to the Barnes and Noble at a certain address in Brooklyn.
When we went inside the store, we were directed downstairs to the basement and then to a hidden chamber where we waited on the floor for the room to fill. We sat there, on the carpeting, for a few minutes and soon there were perhaps 20 or 30 other people in the room. I didn’t know what to expect and then all of a sudden a large, white sheet was pulled away from right to left and there was Saddam Hussein standing, staring, still. He looked very pale and looked straight ahead. He was tall and his hair was short and his moustache prominent.
I was astounded by his presence. My heart was pounding at that moment and my immediate thought was what happens if he tries to escape or kill or hurt one of us in the audience. Where were the guards? Where were the justices? They couldn’t be found. Yet I knew they were there. I woke up and I wasn’t sure how he was supposed to die, but it was clear that we were there to know his non-existence.
What Google Sees
I always wondered what the world looks like from a spider’s point of view. Here’s Stargeek’s very cool Search Engine Crawler Simulation tool and the results from this page as of yesterday:
Deckchairs on the Titanic February 16, 2004 Egg A few weeks ago, Salon.com publicly released, in serial form, Dave Eggers new book-in-composition The Unforbidden Is Compulsory, Or, Optimism. I’m not as big a fan of Eggers as I once was, but I appreciate the fact that an online magazine is finding a new appropriateness of serialization for distributing new fiction. It’s a great and inexpensive approach to releasing new material and perhaps it will fuel online subscriptions at Salon and elsewhere. Serialization, as I learned with the late Professor Roger Henkel in college, was a new way for publications in the 19th century to realize earned income gradually while at the same time introducing new writers’ work — or new work by writers. It contains a built-in PR machine and the feedback gained while a writer is serially publishing is often critical to the eventual narrative and economic success of the book. Is it worth subscribing to Salon? I think yes. .: posted by Andrew at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) February 15, 2004 Cannon After much research (e.g. talking with friends and scouring websites), I purchased a little Canon PowerShot Elph, and the thing is a wonder to behold — others. Its small size, its ability to take very vivid, beautiful photos of even unextraordinary events is fine. It’s a wonder because it so easily captures life, the passing glimpses of active faces and bodies, in digital video. With a push of one top-mounted button, the default memory card records about 1.5 vainglorious minutes of moving sights and synchronized sounds. To me, it’s as if the Lumiere brothers had come to visit, with their great-great grandchildren in tow. Here’s a gratuitous link to the Canon Camera Museum. .: posted by Andrew at 10:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) February 13, 2004 Not worth reading unless, that is you’re a blogger: Why your Movable Type blog must die. I have to say I agree with one part of this unfair but uniquely passionate rant: that Google is becoming overwhelming influenced by weblogs and their often incorrect and misplaced thoughts, ideas, recommendations, and suggestions, including this one. Thanks, V! .: posted by Andrew at 04:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) February 12, 2004 Car Chase I was at the laundromat just now and had the opportunity to watch a live car chase on television. A guy in an SUV (what else?) was driving very scarily around trucks, into cars, into pedestrians (apparently) and across median strips. The driver then flew down small streets in small neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey as a few bright white cop cars followed in tow. My heart pounded while I watched the inanity because I feared for a poor inadvertant kid crossing the street to get a misplaced soccer ball. In truth, I worried that I would be the inadvertant witness to a live death on television. The whole thing came to a slightly riotous end as one policecar smashed into the tail of the SUV as it slowed and forced the driver into a driveway, whereupon the driver ran and was overrun by a swarm of police. The helicopter that filmed this escapade focused on the maelstrom from above. (I looked for a link but there are no stories posted yet — the chase ended at 5:07 p.m.) Time to go for a walk. .: posted by Andrew at 05:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) February 11, 2004 Dizzy For so many years, folks complained that it was the Walt Disney Company that unselectively was homogenizing the cultural space of the world. It turns out that Disney is a shrinking violet and that the new corporate love is going to be Comcast. If they purchase Disney, that means that the one company would have a market capitalization of about $125 billion. Wouldn’t that be cool? Back in 1980 or so, Comcast started rolling out cable television in our neighborhood in suburban Philadelphia. I loved watching Triumph and Billy Squier stroke their instruments every hour on the half hour on MTV. Little did anyone know that Comcast, the pipsqueak delivery boy of Buggles videos, would come to outlive and outlove big, heartless Disney. .: posted by Andrew at 05:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) February 2004. Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 SEARCH SEAS. What fell overboard? 10 RECENT WRITINGS. Egg Cannon Not worth reading Car Chase Dizzy Swords into Shares A Watch Crappo Intentionality eGone RECORDS REGULARLY ROTATING. B. Gibbons: Out of Season Stereolab: Margerine Eclipse Grandaddy: Sumday ARE ARCHIVES. February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 WHYS AND WHEREFORES. Why Deckchairs? About Andrew Boardman Contact RIGHT REGULAR READING. MANOVERBOARD Gothamist Bluejake kottke.org Oblivio Zeldman Gapers Block Coudal Partners Heather Champ The Morning News Loobylu Mena EmptyBottle Charles Hartman Technorati GeoUrl NYC Bloggers Deckchairs on the Titanic: A MANOVERBOARD monologue on art, technology, history, etc. XHTML 1.0 | CSS 2 | RSS | XML A text ad for Movable Type 2.64. © 2001-2004, MANOVERBOARD, L.L.C. All Rights Reserved.
Egg
A few weeks ago, Salon.com publicly released, in serial form, Dave Eggers new book-in-composition <a title="Salon.com Books | The Unforbidden Is Compulsory
Or, Optimism” href=”http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/01/26/eggers_intro/index.html”>The Unforbidden Is Compulsory, Or, Optimism. I’m not as big a fan of Eggers as I once was, but I appreciate the fact that an online magazine is finding a new appropriateness of serialization for distributing new fiction. It’s a great and inexpensive approach to releasing new material and perhaps it will fuel online subscriptions at Salon and elsewhere.
Serialization, as I learned with the late Professor Roger Henkel in college, was a new way for publications in the 19th century to realize earned income gradually while at the same time introducing new writers’ work — or new work by writers. It contains a built-in PR machine and the feedback gained while a writer is serially publishing is often critical to the eventual narrative and economic success of the book. Is it worth subscribing to Salon? I think yes.
Cannon
After much research (e.g. talking with friends and scouring websites), I purchased a little Canon PowerShot Elph, and the thing is a wonder to behold — others. Its small size, its ability to take very vivid, beautiful photos of even unextraordinary events is fine. It’s a wonder because it so easily captures life, the passing glimpses of active faces and bodies, in digital video. With a push of one top-mounted button, the default memory card records about 1.5 vainglorious minutes of moving sights and synchronized sounds. To me, it’s as if the Lumiere brothers had come to visit, with their great-great grandchildren in tow.
Here’s a gratuitous link to the Canon Camera Museum.