Sips from the Firehose
A blog that seeks to filter the internet into a refreshing, easily-gulped beverage
Jun 28
Posted: under Current Affairs, Found Genius Artifacts, Online (Multi)Media, Pop Culture Quirkiness, Web/Tech.
…the makers of this YouTube hit video (it just got Fark‘d and Arrington‘d) are now your patron saints. This little NSFW gem will bring a rueful (vindictive?) smile to anyone who’s had to deal with dim-bulb non-techies who can’t articulate what’s wrong, what they want, and least of all, understand what the solutions that they [...] [...more]
…the makers of this YouTube hit video (it just got Fark‘d and Arrington‘d) are now your patron saints.
This little NSFW gem will bring a rueful (vindictive?) smile to anyone who’s had to deal with dim-bulb non-techies who can’t articulate what’s wrong, what they want, and least of all, understand what the solutions that they are demanding will actually do.
Great moment where the vid starts getting really brilliant comes about 1/3 of the way through – Salesguy: “Now I can’t get to the home page!”
Web Dude: “What the –!?? But you said the website was down? You mean you could see the home page?”
I particularly liked the little touches in this video – as Web Dude gets more and more frustrated and annoyed, he starts taking it out on the characters in Halo, shooting them repeatedly in the crotch and attaching grenades to their faces.
I’ve never done IT fulltime myself, but I’ve usually been one of the “go-to” guys in the office when IT isn’t available. Thus, I’ve spent my share of time ostentatiously rolling my eyes and sighing. I did like, however, how both sides took their shots – the sales dweebs are demanding, ignorant and try to evade responsibility for the chaos they cause. The IT dweebs are more interested in playing Halo than actually dealing with anything, and snort dismissively in that way that makes users retreat and get defensive.
Technorati Tags: sales guy vs web dude, video, youtube, website is down, viral video, Farked
Jun 28
Posted: under Uncategorized.
…the makers of this YouTube hit video (it just got Fark’d and Arrington’d) are now your patron saints. This little NSFW gem will bring a rueful (vindictive?) smile to anyone who’s had to deal with dim-bulb non-techies who can’t articulate what’s wrong, what they want, and least of all, understand what the solutions that they [...] [...more]
…the makers of this YouTube hit video (it just got Fark’d and Arrington’d) are now your patron saints.
This little NSFW gem will bring a rueful (vindictive?) smile to anyone who’s had to deal with dim-bulb non-techies who can’t articulate what’s wrong, what they want, and least of all, understand what the solutions that they are demanding will actually do.
Great moment where the vid starts getting really brilliant comes about 1/3 of the way through – Salesguy: “Now I can’t get to the home page!”
Web Dude: “What the –!?? But you said the website was down? You mean you could see the home page?”
I particularly liked the little touches in this video – as Web Dude gets more and more frustrated and annoyed, he starts taking it out on the characters in Halo, shooting them repeatedly in the crotch and attaching grenades to their faces.
I’ve never done IT fulltime myself, but I’ve usually been one of the “go-to” guys in the office when IT isn’t available. Thus, I’ve spent my share of time ostentatiously rolling my eyes and sighing. I did like, however, how both sides took their shots – the sales dweebs are demanding, ignorant and try to evade responsibility for the chaos they cause. The IT dweebs are more interested in playing Halo than actually dealing with anything, and snort dismissively in that way that makes users retreat and get defensive.
Technorati Tags: sales guy vs web dude, video, youtube, website is down, viral video, Farked
Jun 25
Posted: under journalism, New Media Strategery, newspaper crisis, Online (Multi)Media, Web/Tech.
A wildly successful industry is faced with a bold challenge from scrappy digital interlopers and reacts in all the predictable ways… Stage 1: The industry reacts with disdain – "The new digital stuff is just a fad. Look – our sales are going great. And people love us. They've always loved us. They'll be back [...] [...more]
A wildly successful industry is faced with a bold challenge from scrappy digital interlopers and reacts in all the predictable ways…
Stage 1: The industry reacts with disdain – "The new digital stuff is just a fad. Look – our sales are going great. And people love us. They've always loved us. They'll be back in droves when this digital stuff blows over. It's so cheap and shoddy – where's the fun and interest in that?"
Stage 2: The industry's P&L statements can no longer be ignored. The industry reacts by trying to co-opt the new digital technology into its existing product.
2a. The existing designers and producers react with outrage and strong resistance to changing the way that they've done business for decades.
2b. The industry half-heartedly markets the new hybrid product to its existing customers. The distributors don't really understand the appeal of the new digital technology, but they glom onto the idea that the hybrid is the "same thing only different" and try to force the digital product into their same old channels and strategies.
Stage 3: The old guard loyalist customers are turned off by the hybrid product that doesn't function as well as the "pure" version, and inundates the industry with complaints and threats.
3a. The newer customers, who don't have that much loyalty, and who use both regular and digital products, try the new hybrid and find that the experience isn't really all that satisfying. It doesn't do the old thing well, and it doesn't do the new thing well. So they split their time between the new digital and old analog, trending gradually towards the new.
3b. The newest customers, who have been using digital, look at the hybrid and sneer. They don't bother using something that is so obviously lame and half-hearted.
Stage 4: The industry is relegated to a curiosity, maintained only in small niches, and used by nostalgic aficionados.
The story of newspapers? Or of pinball machines? I know, I know – the analogy breaks down at a million kajillion places along the way, but there are some interesting points of reference.
Full disclosure: I was a pinball nerd back in the day. After every big mid-term test, I'd go to the student union, and take out my frustrations and anxieties by banging around Pinbot, Black Knight, Eight Ball, Centaur and others. Sure, there were other video games there, and every once in a while, I'd goof off with one of them to pass the time. But there was something therapeutic about the way that you could actually get physical and bang on a pinball machine to get results – either to get the damn shiny sphere to go down the right ramp, or to get a revenge "Tilt" when the damn thing kept draining on you…
I remember the machines that started appearing that tried to include video games into the back panel. You'd make a shot, and then a short cut scene would come up and you'd have to take your hands off the flippers and yank on the controls for a bit.
The game sucked. The pinball game was shoddy and ugly and didn't really play well. The video game was light-years behind the competition that was specifically designed to be a video game. Worse, it cost far more than either one, and the damn thing was always either out of order, or the arcade owners had its guts all over the floor and were wrenching on it.
In later years, the pinball industry was relegated to producing super-expensive movie tie-in games for Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Addams Family, etc. etc. Meanwhile, the video game industry migrated from the arcades to the game consoles in every living room. The technology kept improving from the simple move-and-shoot games like Asteroids and Space Invaders to the current MMPORPGs like World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Guild Wars and all the first-person shooters like Halo 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, and whatever iteration of Doom/Quake we're now up to…
Not only have video games far outstripped the wildest dreams of the old arcade makers (who could have ever predicted one-day sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars), but the industry has also spun off all kinds of related industries: cheat codes, bulletin boards, wikipedias, blogs, fansites, contests for best fan art, etc.
The lessons for newspapers here are not clear-cut. But I'd like to believe that it is possible for a whole new thriving economic ecosystem to arise when a new technology invades an existing content space. I've spent the last couple of years staring into the crystal ball, trying to discern hints of what the future info-media-news landscape is going to look like … all of which may be as futile and doomed to error as it would have been for a Bally or Williams pinball game designer back in 1983 to have predicted that someday, a teenager in a basement could play a 3-D immersive game with other kids from all over the world, and then run his own business connected to said game…
Jun 25
Posted: under Uncategorized.
A wildly successful industry is faced with a bold challenge from scrappy digital interlopers and reacts in all the predictable ways… Stage 1: The industry reacts with disdain – “The new digital stuff is just a fad. Look – our sales are going great. And people love us. They’ve always loved us. They’ll be back [...] [...more]
A wildly successful industry is faced with a bold challenge from scrappy digital interlopers and reacts in all the predictable ways…
Stage 1: The industry reacts with disdain – “The new digital stuff is just a fad. Look – our sales are going great. And people love us. They’ve always loved us. They’ll be back in droves when this digital stuff blows over. It’s so cheap and shoddy – where’s the fun and interest in that?”
Stage 2: The industry’s P&L statements can no longer be ignored. The industry reacts by trying to co-opt the new digital technology into its existing product.
2a. The existing designers and producers react with outrage and strong resistance to changing the way that they’ve done business for decades.
2b. The industry half-heartedly markets the new hybrid product to its existing customers. The distributors don’t really understand the appeal of the new digital technology, but they glom onto the idea that the hybrid is the “same thing only different” and try to force the digital product into their same old channels and strategies.
Stage 3: The old guard loyalist customers are turned off by the hybrid product that doesn’t function as well as the “pure” version, and inundates the industry with complaints and threats.
3a. The newer customers, who don’t have that much loyalty, and who use both regular and digital products, try the new hybrid and find that the experience isn’t really all that satisfying. It doesn’t do the old thing well, and it doesn’t do the new thing well. So they split their time between the new digital and old analog, trending gradually towards the new.
3b. The newest customers, who have been using digital, look at the hybrid and sneer. They don’t bother using something that is so obviously lame and half-hearted.
Stage 4: The industry is relegated to a curiosity, maintained only in small niches, and used by nostalgic aficionados.
The story of newspapers? Or of pinball machines? I know, I know – the analogy breaks down at a million kajillion places along the way, but there are some interesting points of reference.
Full disclosure: I was a pinball nerd back in the day. After every big mid-term test, I’d go to the student union, and take out my frustrations and anxieties by banging around Pinbot, Black Knight, Eight Ball, Centaur and others. Sure, there were other video games there, and every once in a while, I’d goof off with one of them to pass the time. But there was something therapeutic about the way that you could actually get physical and bang on a pinball machine to get results – either to get the damn shiny sphere to go down the right ramp, or to get a revenge “Tilt” when the damn thing kept draining on you…
I remember the machines that started appearing that tried to include video games into the back panel. You’d make a shot, and then a short cut scene would come up and you’d have to take your hands off the flippers and yank on the controls for a bit.
The game sucked. The pinball game was shoddy and ugly and didn’t really play well. The video game was light-years behind the competition that was specifically designed to be a video game. Worse, it cost far more than either one, and the damn thing was always either out of order, or the arcade owners had its guts all over the floor and were wrenching on it.
In later years, the pinball industry was relegated to producing super-expensive movie tie-in games for Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Addams Family, etc. etc. Meanwhile, the video game industry migrated from the arcades to the game consoles in every living room. The technology kept improving from the simple move-and-shoot games like Asteroids and Space Invaders to the current MMPORPGs like World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Guild Wars and all the first-person shooters like Halo 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, and whatever iteration of Doom/Quake we’re now up to…
Not only have video games far outstripped the wildest dreams of the old arcade makers (who could have ever predicted one-day sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars), but the industry has also spun off all kinds of related industries: cheat codes, bulletin boards, wikipedias, blogs, fansites, contests for best fan art, etc.
The lessons for newspapers here are not clear-cut. But I’d like to believe that it is possible for a whole new thriving economic ecosystem to arise when a new technology invades an existing content space. I’ve spent the last couple of years staring into the crystal ball, trying to discern hints of what the future info-media-news landscape is going to look like … all of which may be as futile and doomed to error as it would have been for a Bally or Williams pinball game designer back in 1983 to have predicted that someday, a teenager in a basement could play a 3-D immersive game with other kids from all over the world, and then run his own business connected to said game…
Jun 19
Posted: under Current Affairs, Found Genius Artifacts, New Media Strategery, Online (Multi)Media, Politix, Weblogs.
Yet another quick hit – just checked to see how many more answers I’m getting from the LinkedIn question I posted earlier this week, and noticed that the Obama campaign today posted a question on what the best ideas are to “keep America competitive in the years ahead.” What ideas do you have to keep [...] [...more]
Yet another quick hit – just checked to see how many more answers I’m getting from the LinkedIn question I posted earlier this week, and noticed that the Obama campaign today posted a question on what the best ideas are to “keep America competitive in the years ahead.”
What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?
In a recent speech, I proposed a new competiveness agenda centered
around education and energy, innovation and infrastructure, fair trade
and reform.
You can watch it, and read the full-text, here: http://my.barackobama.com/competitiveness
What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?
Smart. Very smart. These people “get it.” They are using Web 2.0 in a very inclusive, forward-thinking way; the mere fact that they’re posing such a question in a professional forum means that they are reaching out to business professionals in an unprecedented way.
Again, I’m going to have to get back to this in a later post, but it’s tying into what I call the “Help Line Mollification Effect.” You know – how you dial customer support, mashing the buttons on your phone with excessive force, blood pressure up around nuclear reactor containment sphere levels … and you yowl at the poor schlub on the other end … until he helps you out and gently leads you through the answer … and by the end of the call, after the problem is resolved, you feel like a total ass, and want to send him something from his Amazon wishlist. Or is that just me?
Look folks, a lot of the anger simmering under the surface of our society is because everyone feels that no one is listening. The fact that Obama & his people are actually reaching out to people – well, hell. That’s disarming. It breaks down the resistance – that whole “Obama is a dangerous socialist who’s going to destroy the country with his hippie/commie ways” meme that’s been festering on the internets. It kinda says, “Hey, if you’ve got a great idea on how to fix things, let’s hear it.”
Who knows? Maybe the answer is that all of us are indeed smarter than any of us, and that out of this question will arise some fantastic new strategy that will restore the U.S. to greatness.
Or a buncha Digg kids will all get together, rig the question-answering, and we’ll wind up with an army of giant killer robots that all look like Lara Croft.
Jun 19
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Quick hit videos delivered to mobile platforms might actually be *more* effective, despite the tiny screen size. Or perhaps because of it – but rather obliquely. Here’s the article from Mobile Insider, quoting Rhythm Media CEO Ujjal Kohli. Unlike Web video pre-rolls, mobile video is not in a multitasking environment where someone does a quick [...] [...more]
Quick hit videos delivered to mobile platforms might actually be *more* effective, despite the tiny screen size. Or perhaps because of it – but rather obliquely. Here’s the article from Mobile Insider, quoting Rhythm Media CEO Ujjal Kohli.
Unlike Web video pre-rolls, mobile video is not in a multitasking environment where someone does a quick email check in response to a video ad. He has a point, I think. Counter-intuitively, the smallest screen may require the highest level of involvement. I liken this to the hi-res principle I also see on small screens. The LG phone I use for Verizon VCast Mobile TV, my 5G iPod and the iPhone all share a common technical strength — high pixel counts that make even TV programming involving on a tiny screen.
I am surprised that mobile video on a 2-inch screen can be so involving when it is visually sharp, fluid, with good sound. In other words, tiny video with the attributes of larger experiences overcome some of the size differential. Like the guy who gets you to listen more carefully by using softer tones, the mobile screen makes you work a little harder by getting in close, but it focuses attention.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had cynics sneer that “nobody’s going to watch a movie/read a novel/browse a photo gallery on a itty-bitty 2-inch screen.” Usually followed by a long screed about how Old Media is superior and has nothing to worry about, because mobile is just too small and frustrating to pay attention to for long periods of time.
Well, folks, have you checked out how teenagers (and the rest of us) increasingly take in our media these multi-tasking days? TV on, flipping through stations in search of one without commercials in the background, phone in one ear and laptop on the, uh, lap. Not exactly an environment conducive to focusing on one channel of input, eh?
I’ve had my iPhone for almost nine months now. While I’m not choosing this over the 50-inch plasma to watch The Wire on – I did download the premiere episode of Season 5 to my phone, and watched it on various plane flights, and in hotel rooms. And when I did, I plugged in the headphones, and the rest of the world went away. I watched the hour-long episode in stages, returning to it when I wanted to check out of the rest of the world for a while, and stopping when the plane landed, room service arrived, or someone started semaphoring wildly at the corner of my vision.
I think that if the video is compelling enough, the user will clear out attention space to partake of it, and even to reply/interact by posting comments or a video response through Seesmic. Check out Rhythm’s portfolio of case studies here.
I’d like to return to this topic after I’ve cleared my attention-space decks this week, since it is counter-intuitive (at least on the surface), yet makes sense the more that you think about it.
Jun 19
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Yet another quick hit – just checked to see how many more answers I’m getting from the LinkedIn question I posted earlier this week, and noticed that the Obama campaign today posted a question on what the best ideas are to “keep America competitive in the years ahead.” What ideas do you have to keep [...] [...more]
Yet another quick hit – just checked to see how many more answers I’m getting from the LinkedIn question I posted earlier this week, and noticed that the Obama campaign today posted a question on what the best ideas are to “keep America competitive in the years ahead.”
What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?
In a recent speech, I proposed a new competiveness agenda centered
around education and energy, innovation and infrastructure, fair trade
and reform.
You can watch it, and read the full-text, here: http://my.barackobama.com/competitiveness
What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?
Smart. Very smart. These people “get it.” They are using Web 2.0 in a very inclusive, forward-thinking way; the mere fact that they’re posing such a question in a professional forum means that they are reaching out to business professionals in an unprecedented way.
Again, I’m going to have to get back to this in a later post, but it’s tying into what I call the “Help Line Mollification Effect.” You know – how you dial customer support, mashing the buttons on your phone with excessive force, blood pressure up around nuclear reactor containment sphere levels … and you yowl at the poor schlub on the other end … until he helps you out and gently leads you through the answer … and by the end of the call, after the problem is resolved, you feel like a total ass, and want to send him something from his Amazon wishlist. Or is that just me?
Look folks, a lot of the anger simmering under the surface of our society is because everyone feels that no one is listening. The fact that Obama & his people are actually reaching out to people – well, hell. That’s disarming. It breaks down the resistance – that whole “Obama is a dangerous socialist who’s going to destroy the country with his hippie/commie ways” meme that’s been festering on the internets. It kinda says, “Hey, if you’ve got a great idea on how to fix things, let’s hear it.”
Who knows? Maybe the answer is that all of us are indeed smarter than any of us, and that out of this question will arise some fantastic new strategy that will restore the U.S. to greatness.
Or a buncha Digg kids will all get together, rig the question-answering, and we’ll wind up with an army of giant killer robots that all look like Lara Croft.
Jun 19
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Quick hit videos delivered to mobile platforms might actually be *more* effective, despite the tiny screen size. Or perhaps because of it – but rather obliquely. Here’s the article from Mobile Insider, quoting Rhythm Media CEO Ujjal Kohli. Unlike Web video pre-rolls, mobile video is not in a multitasking environment where someone does a quick [...] [...more]
Quick hit videos delivered to mobile platforms might actually be *more* effective, despite the tiny screen size. Or perhaps because of it – but rather obliquely. Here’s the article from Mobile Insider, quoting Rhythm Media CEO Ujjal Kohli.
Unlike Web video pre-rolls, mobile video is not in a multitasking environment where someone does a quick email check in response to a video ad. He has a point, I think. Counter-intuitively, the smallest screen may require the highest level of involvement. I liken this to the hi-res principle I also see on small screens. The LG phone I use for Verizon VCast Mobile TV, my 5G iPod and the iPhone all share a common technical strength — high pixel counts that make even TV programming involving on a tiny screen.
I am surprised that mobile video on a 2-inch screen can be so involving when it is visually sharp, fluid, with good sound. In other words, tiny video with the attributes of larger experiences overcome some of the size differential. Like the guy who gets you to listen more carefully by using softer tones, the mobile screen makes you work a little harder by getting in close, but it focuses attention.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had cynics sneer that “nobody’s going to watch a movie/read a novel/browse a photo gallery on a itty-bitty 2-inch screen.” Usually followed by a long screed about how Old Media is superior and has nothing to worry about, because mobile is just too small and frustrating to pay attention to for long periods of time.
Well, folks, have you checked out how teenagers (and the rest of us) increasingly take in our media these multi-tasking days? TV on, flipping through stations in search of one without commercials in the background, phone in one ear and laptop on the, uh, lap. Not exactly an environment conducive to focusing on one channel of input, eh?
I’ve had my iPhone for almost nine months now. While I’m not choosing this over the 50-inch plasma to watch The Wire on – I did download the premiere episode of Season 5 to my phone, and watched it on various plane flights, and in hotel rooms. And when I did, I plugged in the headphones, and the rest of the world went away. I watched the hour-long episode in stages, returning to it when I wanted to check out of the rest of the world for a while, and stopping when the plane landed, room service arrived, or someone started semaphoring wildly at the corner of my vision.
I think that if the video is compelling enough, the user will clear out attention space to partake of it, and even to reply/interact by posting comments or a video response through Seesmic. Check out Rhythm’s portfolio of case studies here.
I’d like to return to this topic after I’ve cleared my attention-space decks this week, since it is counter-intuitive (at least on the surface), yet makes sense the more that you think about it.
Jun 19
Posted: under Uncategorized.
…and no, I’m not talking about the types of things that make George Clooney scream and run out of the room. That’s a totally different subject, and besides, there’s a Federal Judge in downtown L.A. that’s in hot water over stuff like that. I found this one through the insidious urgings of Jemima Kiss, that [...] [...more]
…and no, I’m not talking about the types of things that make George Clooney scream and run out of the room. That’s a totally different subject, and besides, there’s a Federal Judge in downtown L.A. that’s in hot water over stuff like that.
I found this one through the insidious urgings of Jemima Kiss, that little Digital Judas Goat. She said it made her love the internet. Me? Well, I just felt sorry for the tall fella in the wookie costume having to cavort with a Jawa to “Footloose.” I mean, already the poor guy has gotta be sweating under all that syntho-fur; now you want him to do the chest-bump and high kicks?
Jun 19
Posted: under Uncategorized.
…and no, I’m not talking about the types of things that make George Clooney scream and run out of the room. That’s a totally different subject, and besides, there’s a Federal Judge in downtown L.A. that’s in hot water over stuff like that. I found this one through the insidious urgings of Jemima Kiss, that [...] [...more]
…and no, I’m not talking about the types of things that make George Clooney scream and run out of the room. That’s a totally different subject, and besides, there’s a Federal Judge in downtown L.A. that’s in hot water over stuff like that.
I found this one through the insidious urgings of Jemima Kiss, that little Digital Judas Goat. She said it made her love the internet. Me? Well, I just felt sorry for the tall fella in the wookie costume having to cavort with a Jawa to “Footloose.” I mean, already the poor guy has gotta be sweating under all that syntho-fur; now you want him to do the chest-bump and high kicks?
