Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Stepping Back from the Mac

Published
by
Jarred
on June 30, 2008
in Apple, Consumer Behavior and Reading
. 4 Comments

Last Tuesday, my otherwise trusty MacBook sputtered out for the second time in six months.  In February, I returned home to find my white plastic-encased sidekick unable to boot up.  One new hard drive later, I was back in action (Apple’s awesome Time Machine utility saved me from any data loss).  Unfortunately, I had to relive this scenario last week when my MacBook wouldn’t revive after a routine reboot.  And so it was, after a painless call to AppleCare tech support, that I shipped my MacBook off to let the wizards work their magic on my poor, sick machine.

(Don’t worry, Mac lovers, this isn’t a hate-on-Apple post.  I’d much rather have my backed-up MacBook die every six to twelve months, and be bug-free in the interim, than have a constantly bogged down PC frustrate me on a daily basis.  What’s more, AppleCare was impeccable with their service.  I called them on Wednesday, and they had a box to me for my MacBook on Thursday morning.  They received, repaired, and reshipped it on Friday, and it’s been in D.C. since Saturday.)

In the period between shipping my computer to Apple’s repair depot and this moment, I’ve enjoyed a nice weekend away from the computer.  It’s true that I cheated a little and used my roommate’s iMac to do some quick e-mail checking and such.  And although I don’t exactly count the Kindle as a computer, I did spend some significant time with it as well.  My computer vacation, though,  has made me realize just how much of my free time revolves around my laptop.

Continue reading ‘Stepping Back from the Mac’

Monday Links: June 30th, 2008

Published
by
Taylor
on June 29, 2008
in Monday Links
. 5 Comments

Before I launch into this week’s links, I have the pleasure to announce a new contributor to our site!  Eric will be joining our ranks this week with what we hope will be the first of regular contributions.  Eric spends his workday in the venture finance world, but his passions run the gamut from obscure pop culture trivia to Czech food and beer.  We’re really pleased to welcome Eric to Tropophilia, and we know you’ll enjoy his posts.  Here are your links:

A reporter covering, say, baseball doesn’t have to define a home run in every article, but a reporter covering climate almost always has to remind readers what greenhouse gases are [...]

Buzzwords like “inconvenient truth”, “green”, “clean coal”, and “tipping point” can be misapplied and abused, rendering readers cynical and numb to actual news.

It’s a good piece and worth thinking about.

  • The Democratic National Convention in Denver this August will feature an incredible blogger palace called The Big Tent, thanks to help from Google, Digg, and YouTube.  Sounds awesome [emphasis on drunken bloggers is mine]:

We’re creating a 9,000 square foot, two-story structure that will house the work space for journalists, bloggers and new media, a Digg Stage with prominent national leaders, as well as a Google Retreat with a YouTube kiosk where you can make your own YouTube videos. [...]

In the New Media Lounge, your pass will be a ticket to to enjoy all the benefits of the blogger / new media lounge, including free WiFi, work space, television-coverage, as well as free food and drinks. [...]

The Big Tent will host sponsored happy hours each day from 4 to 5, followed by live coverage of every minute of the Democratic National Convention until 9 p.m. each night. When the Convention ends each day, the Big Tent will still be going with late-night entertainment, including concerts and films.

  • Here’s a brilliant ad campaign: wrap a sample of laundry detergent in a plain white t-shirt; let the postal service stamp directly onto the shirt, and let it absorb dirt along the mail route; then, instruct the mail recipient to simply wash the shirt with the detergent to remove all the stains from the journey.  Final step [unconfirmed]: sell an enormous amount of detergent.
  • I saw WALL-E on Friday night, and I’m obsessed.  What a great movie.  It received a stunning 93% on metacritic…need I say more?  As you might expect, a movie about a solar-powered robot received a great deal of praise in the blogosphere.

Tropophilia Joins the Brazen Careerist Network

Published
by
Jarred
on June 27, 2008
in Tropophilia
. 2 Comments

It’s our pleasure to announce that Tropophilia has been invited to join the Brazen Careerist network, a “vibrant, curious and ambitious group of career-minded bloggers, passionately covering a variety of fields: personal development, entrepreneurship, public relations, technology, marketing, and politics.”  Check out my and Taylor’s profiles.

The editors over at Brazen Careerist will filter our content into the different categories on their site and, when we write something especially worthy, will sometimes feature our posts on their front page.  Plus, we get a shiny new badge for our right sidebar.  How could we resist?

Don’t worry, we’re not changing our direction or focus.  We’re still writing strictly for Tropophilia and its audience.  Brazen Careerist encourages us to write about our passions, and we’ll continue to do just that.  Our content will simply be syndicated beyond its current home, which is exciting news for all.

Many thanks to Brazen Careerist for choosing us to join their network, and welcome to any new readers who have found us through their site!

Old Media Attempts New Media: NY Times Reader and MSNBC Spectra

Published
by
Taylor
on June 24, 2008
in Business, Computing, News and Reading
. 0 Comments

Do two of something constitute a trend? Assuming that the two examples I’ve encountered are not the only instances of the “trend” that I’ll describe, let’s say that the answer is yes. Folks, we’re seeing a trend (that’s right, I said it) of old media giants (the NY Times and NBC News/MSNBC) attempting to capture some slice of the new media market by introducing what I’ll call “selective aggregator” software programs.

The examples I’ll write about in a moment are “selective” insofar as they focus a user’s attention EXCLUSIVELY on content produced by the respective news company. The programs are aggregators in that they function (theoretically) by responding to the information preferences and desires of users, aggregating information into a single interface. The two examples I’ve seen are NY Times Reader for Mac and MSNBC Spectra.

I read a number of blog posts a few weeks ago about the beta release of NY Times Reader for Mac (screenshot at right). It’s essentially an on- and off-line freestanding application that is intended to mimic the experience of reading an actual NY Times paper in a way that the NY Times website and RSS feeds do not. The program is a free download in beta phase, but will likely be a $14.95/month investment when it is released in full. From the Times site:

In building Times Reader for the Mac we’ve focused on providing the core set of features that have made the PC version popular. These include the easy-to-read paginated format, the ability to view the paper offline, a seven-day archive, text search, the ability to adjust the font size and access to Premium Crosswords.

Particularly in the near-term, a product like the reader application could* provide a nice entry point for more traditionally-minded readers who want their daily NY Times fix but are turned off by the (oftentimes overwhelming) NY Times homepage.  These same readers are unlikely to subscribe to feeds, so a freestanding application could hold a great deal of appeal.

As for geeks like me, it’s not a tool I would use–particularly not if I had to pay for it.  The same desire for one-stop reading that makes me VERY selective of which articles I’ll click through from the NY Times feed on Google Reader makes me loathe to open a separate application in order to access limited content.  This is in many ways a band-aid instead of a novel solution to lagging readership: the features are focused on the past, not the future.  Offline readibility is great, but if the Times offered full articles through their feed, we could view it offline in Google Reader just like most blogs.  Likewise, an advertisement-free interface is nice but (I would contend) less important to younger users who are accustomed to ignoring banner ads.

I found MSNBC Spectra through a simple one-line recommendation on DailyKos: “Woah, this is cool.” I felt the same way…for the first 20 seconds I used the application. Then I became nauseous and convinced that this is, in fact, the dumbest idea I’ve ever seen. Let me explain.

Continue reading ‘Old Media Attempts New Media: NY Times Reader and MSNBC Spectra’

Kindled

Published
by
Jarred
on June 24, 2008
in Books, Gadgets and Reading
. 5 Comments

My birthday was last week, though I unfortunately had to spend the majority of the day taking an evil standardized test.  How’s that for bad timing?  My parents were gracious and awesome enough to offer me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday, which we’ve written about some before.  Now, after about a week of fairly regular first-hand use, I’m ready to offer some more thoughts.

When I first turned it on and downloaded a free sample chapter, the thing that most struck me about the Kindle was that, man… this thing is slow.  Every button press is followed by at least a one second pause — a considerable delay in today’s high tech world.  For a device that promises to usher in the next evolution of reading, I was perplexed at first.  Where’s the gee-whiz slickness, the instant page-turns, the animation?  (Amazon’s explains the slight delays by pointing to the E-Ink display, which at its current stage of development requires a little longer to render).

Ironically enough, however, I’ve almost come to appreciate the delay.  Just as the E-Ink display mimics the ocular experience of the printed book, so do these delays mimic the time required to turn a page.  It’s a subtle reminder when you continue to the next page that it is just that — a new page.  You don’t scroll to the next screen on the Kindle; the scoll wheel is only used to access the menu and other features.  You have to take the time to hit a button and wait as the screen momentarily flashes dark, and then rekindles (ha) with the next segment of text.  That brief second gives you a chance to process the page you just read, to look out the window for a moment, to readjust the device in your hands.  Looking back at the past week, I’m not sure now that I’d want it any other way.

Continue reading ‘Kindled’