The Eagle in the Machine

Good for Wikipedia, but still outrageous

2011-10-10T00:46:00.000+02:00

A new law has recently been proposed in Italy that would require any blogger or news site to retract anything a person that this person would contest.

Nieman Journalism Lab writes:

The bill’s most contentious section is paragraph 29, which stipulates that, should any blogger publish information deemed to be defamatory — deemed to be so not by a process of judicial review, but by the subject of the alleged defamation — then the blogger will be forced to print a correction within 48 hours of publishing the offending post. Or else pay a fine of €12,000 (nearly $16,000).

The Italian Wikipedia pages had a two-day blackout, after which the proposed law was amended to not include bloggers or Wikipedia, but only news sites of a certain size.

As an obvious means of controlling hitherto uncontrolled media it's a logical next step for Berlusconi, but less positive for freedom of expression.

Read the full article at Slate.

Investing in altitude

2011-10-08T11:06:00.004+02:00

There is a tremendous new investment opportunity coming up, which is buying land above certain altitudes! With the water levels rising, world temperatures shifting, this is a great chance for speculators everywhere.

It's rather simple really: you will profit from formerly wealthy, hard-working people who will lose their homes to rising water levels. All countries with coastlines will be affected, and all those wealthy people with a view of the sea will have to look for another place to live.

Obviously, your steak and wine will not taste as well, knowing you're profiting from other people's misery, but adding spices to the food should help.

Additionally, make sure you sell your land before the riots start. What riots, you ask? Well the ones that will surely arise from millions of homeless people, and reduced landmasses. If, with the current landmasses at their disposal, people haven't been able to live in peace since the dawn of civilization, imagine what's going to happen if water suddenly covers 10% of the inhabitable land. So make sure to sell your shares of land before it's expropriated by the government or taken over by squatters.

Otherwise start scooping that water.

Auction Sniping Solved

2011-06-05T16:35:00.000+02:00

When participating in an auction, outbidding competing bidders in the last second by (some times automated) sniping is bad form. I was just reading an article about Ebay that reminded me of the problem, and it's true - I haven't used Ebay ever since I learned about it.

However, it just occurred to me that there is a remarkably simple solution to it:

Just don't announce exactly when the auction ends!

You can say that the auction will end on day xx, without specifying the time. Not knowing when to make the final bid, the potential sniper will have to commit to a purchase instead of sniping, thus making the bidding a fairer experience for everyone as others can continue participating in the auction.

You're welcome.

The presentation of identity in the age of digital reproduction

2011-05-14T14:03:00.000+02:00

When you're reading on a Kindle, no one can see it's Shakespeare. Your bookshelf no longer holds books, and your DVDs are on a hard drive.

The creation of identity is a time-consuming process. People's understanding of who you are, what you stand for and what ideas you have, is established through communication, self-presentation and interpretation. In pre-digitalized times a part of our interests were not communicated openly. Instead of spamming conversations by namedropping your favourite authors or explaining esoteric movies to a disinterested audience you would let them see it for themselves when they visited you. The home was a place where you could present your experience, your taste, your collection of something.

Today that collection has been largely replaced by online lists of favourites, by t-shirts, by status comments and blog posts. That which you find in good taste is no longer a passive collection that people can gawk at when they're visiting you. Today we spam each other, we give executive summaries of our personalities to increase our visibility, to appear more interesting, to let others know who we are.

Branded clothing, concerts, gadgets, magazines, haircuts are all part of the same noise. Cityscapes with too much advertising are noisy, obnoxious and intrusive. Peoplescapes are the same.

However, the antithesis is unfulfilling. Eliminating noise, self-promotion and personal branding creates a black hole. We assume you have a personality because you influence objects around you, but we cannot identify it. We can define you by what you don't have, but how can we find a positivist outline of your characteristics?

Are you good? Funny? Welcoming? Positive? That's great, so is everyone else, join the club! We are legion.

In our attempt to differentiate ourselves from each other, we end up focusing on attempted representations of our personality rather than our actual personalities. It's true that things haven't really changed pre- and post-digitalization, but what used to be passive and discreet is now proactive and obvious. Yet it is still largely the same mechanisms at play. Are the mechanisms superfluous, redundant and objectionable? Or do they serve a vital purpose in a fast-paced environment where our daily lives put us in contact with so many individuals that we cannot absorb them all?

Some writers use mnemonic techniques to help the reader recognise the characters they are describing, e.g. "Leon with the limp" or "Vanya with the lisp". Is this what we ought to do in real life? Should we help others remember us by flagrantly displaying something vaguely analogous to our person?

Good stuff from the web

2011-04-24T12:47:00.008+02:00

Some recent highlights:

Images of bureaucracy all over the world

Ford T factory video

Dismantling and re-assembling a jeep in less than 4 minutes on video!

BBC Human Planet: The Douche - a short documentary on this less evolved human species

Tracking Cookies

2011-03-13T14:15:00.003+01:00

Opt out or opt in to tracking cookies? IMO, an opt-in requirement will make companies coerce people to opt-in, by limiting their services so much to cookie-less users that they're useless unless you're logged in. Perhaps they will limit the access to full content unless you opt-in, or they will prevent you from getting very specific, detailed information. This way, a pricing model for many content providers will be three-tiered: what was once free (available to everyone) will be available only to the users who allow cookies to be recorded or who are logged in. Actual payment would be the third tier of the pricing model.

From a consumer perspective, the difference would be minimal, as you would have little choice but to opt in.

Opting out, on the other hand has the inherent problem of the careless user - everyone had the option to opt out of all cookies when they first started using the browser, but they quickly click "OK" and proceed to allow all cookies because it makes the browsing experience better. Next, people who are informed will know that they can opt out of the Google Analytics cookie either using the official extension, a host of unofficial extensions or the option in their Google Account.

While EU regulation has the potential to benefit, it is quite likely that it will stifle innovation and make the browsing experience worse. The savvy user might prefer full control over their browsing experience, instead of having governmental regulations imposing various sanctions. The unsavvy user, on the other hand might benefit in terms of privacy, but does that benefit really makes any difference? No one is coerced into buying anything online, and I understand the point of marketers who believe that their ads actually add value.

See full article on topic on Wired.co.uk.

Clouding issues

2010-12-05T17:34:00.003+01:00

Cloud computing or SaaS has a significant flaw: you do not control which version you are using.

Why does this matter?

Let's say that uptime and stability is important to you. You know that your current configuration works (with your OS / browser / other software). You have an important deadline tomorrow.

Let's say that the SaaS-provider decides to roll out their new tried-and-tested version today. It works on 95% of the users, but it messes with your particular browser or OS.

Result? Your deadline is impossible to achieve due to factors out of your control.

Your productivity could be seriously hampered by the fact that there is no way to control what is rolled out to users and what isn't. There is no opportunity to test the new version when you want, in the environment that is relevant for you.

I think it makes far more sense to have updates less frequently, but more carefully planned and allowing users to opt-in to updates - when they are ready for it.

How long can you sink without sinking?

2010-09-26T23:31:00.004+02:00

It's been expected for a while, and things are finally happening:

Blockbuster files for Chapter 11 protection

There was a buffer from the entrance of competitors such as Netflix and online video streaming (legal & illegal), and now it's finally happening.

So it appears common sense can be used when looking at performances of corporations.

In spite of this, some investor wants to inject more money into Blockbuster. Why would one do that? At least there is an element of prestige in investing in newspapers, even though they are often failing on the bottom line. But what would be the point of throwing money at an outdated business model? Is the brand value really that big?

Automatic aesthetics

2010-09-19T23:14:00.002+02:00

It is now possible to take good photographs without human interference: "Nadia" is a camera that determines whether the shot you are about to take is aesthetic in terms of angles, colours, contrasts, depth, etc.

Nadia from Andrew Kupresanin on Vimeo.

News cycle no more

2010-09-03T22:16:00.005+02:00

Great article from Vanity Fair, and not comforting at all. I especially like the parallels to fallen empires:

For much of the past half-century, the problems that have brought Washington to its current state have been concealed or made tolerable by other circumstances. [...] Like many changes that are revolutionary, none of Washington’s problems happened overnight. But slow and steady change over many decades—at a rate barely noticeable while it’s happening—produces change that is transformative. In this instance, it’s the kind of evolution that happens inevitably to rich and powerful states, from imperial Rome to Victorian England. The neural network of money, politics, bureaucracy, and values becomes so tautly interconnected that no individual part can be touched or fixed without affecting the whole organism, which reacts defensively.

Perhaps there is no way to resolve this? Perhaps all empires have to fall entirely, before they can have a chance at resurrection?

Also, this bit is just nuts:

A national Harris poll this spring found that 57 percent of Republicans believe that Obama is in fact a Muslim (and, for good measure, 38 percent believe he is “doing many of the things that Hitler did,” and 24 percent believe that Obama actually “may be the anti-Christ”).

Read the article here:

Washington, we have a problem

Tuna-friendly dolphin

2010-07-07T23:54:00.003+02:00

Tuna is over-fished, and yet continues to be a very popular purchase, whether in cans, in sushi or as steaks. Yet dolphins are being protected, not tuna.

Why are the dolphins so protected? The most common dolphins do not seem to require protection. Is it just the cuteness-factor they've got going for them?

Main differences
Unlike tuna, dolphins are mammals, but that shouldn't give them any special treatment. Is the flavour of dolphins inferior to that of tuna? I'm not sure, but it's highly unlikely, as most of the canned tuna I eat doesn't have much variation in flavour. Besides, tuna probably never rescued anyone on a TV-show, and they don't have much of a facial expression.

Sure, dolphins appear cute, but being intelligent means that it is probably a species with infidelity, lies and intrigues - we don't know what's going on behind those beady black eyes. The higher the intelligence, the higher the probability of deception and dishonesty. Yet dolphins got things going for them. They're even worse than pandas, as the common dolphins are not endangered species, as far as I can tell.

Besides, a high degree of intelligence tends not to stop us from consuming the flesh of any particular species.

I do hope that we will one day see canned dolphins, with a "tuna-friendly" logo on the side, offering us a delicious bite of this marine mammal, in the hope that we will thus be able to enjoy the pleasures of tuna for a long time in the future.

PS: I'm apparently not being original, someone beat me to the punch.

Stop the pigeon!

2010-07-06T02:25:00.002+02:00

Unknowing continued

2010-06-28T23:40:00.003+02:00

Not knowing anything about financial instruments (or even compound interest) seems to get people into trouble. So by informing them even slightly, just enough for them to know that they don't know much, could prevent future disasters such as the financial meltdown we have witnessed recently. Until it's forgotten about, of course.

The New Yorker writes about this in The dangers of financial illiteracy, excerpt:

Critics also argue that financial education may make people overconfident, and therefore more likely to make bad decisions. In fact, the reverse is true: the less people know, the more overconfident in their abilities they tend to be. In a German study, eighty per cent of those surveyed described themselves as confident in their answers on a questionnaire, yet only forty-two per cent got even half the questions right. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect: people who don’t know much tend not to recognize their ignorance, and so fail to seek better information.

So here's yet another reason for why the financial markets are intensely irrational.

Musical repositioning

2010-06-24T00:33:00.003+02:00

The music industry as we knew it is changing. I don't know where it's all going, but EMI is certainly re-focusing its business:

EMI also announced that it would “reposition itself as a comprehensive rights-management company serving artists and songwriters worldwide”. Rough translation: owning and exploiting the copyright to songs, rather than selling recordings of songs, is where the money’s going to be from now on.

Read the whole article here: I kissed a copyright lawyer

Unknown unknown

2010-06-22T01:34:00.004+02:00

We frequently know what we don't know. Sometimes, however, we also don't know that we don't know something. Just read the first part of a brilliant article from NYT on the topic, here's an excerpt:

A “known unknown” is a known question with an unknown answer. I can ask the question: what is the melting point of beryllium? I may not know the answer, but I can look it up. I can do some research. It may even be a question which no one knows the answer to. With an “unknown unknown,” I don’t even know what questions to ask, let alone how to answer those questions.
But there is the deeper question. And I believe that Dunning and Kruger’s work speaks to this. Is an “unknown unknown” beyond anything I can imagine? Or am I confusing the “unknown unknowns” with the “unknowable unknowns?” Are we constituted in such a way that there are things we cannot know? Perhaps because we cannot even frame the questions we need to ask?

Read the article here:
The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1)

I'll include a graph a made once even though it's not on the exactly same topic:

Natural intelligence

2010-06-21T00:45:00.003+02:00

The term 'artificial intelligence' was coined in 1956, and judging from the accuracy of Moore's Law, it might only be a matter of time before it is fully accomplished. In this post, however, I intend to first talk of something else entirely, and then talk of the opposite of the above.

Something else entirely
In literature, linguistics, anthropology and sociology there is a scientific approach called structuralism. Its use and application varies across these sciences, but I'll just give a few brief example to make sure we're on the same page. One frequent characteristic of structuralism is its focus on contrast, dualism or binary opposition. If we invent a concept, its opposite idea immediately comes into existence. Think of Neanderthals, and the uncooked meat they may have eaten. To them it was not raw meat, it was only meat. As long as they did not know of meat in any other state, they could not qualify the meat in its current condition. It was only when they learned of the opposite, of 'cooked meat', that the concept of 'raw meat' came into existence. Before that it was just meat.

Now the opposite
The moment the term 'artificial intelligence' was coined, its opposition was created too. If artificial intelligence is created using highly advanced computing technology and auto-didactic software, then natural intelligence is simply highly advanced neural tissue combined with auto-didactic programming. Our brains learn how to program themselves themselves. If consciousness is based on self-reflection, and self-reflection can be achieved through mere intelligence, then we are well on our way towards disproving the ghost in the machine once and for all.

Inspired by this very interesting Special Report on the Human Genome.

PS: I wonder if it will cause a global epidemic of despair, to realise thoughts are just a by-product of advanced tissue, and when the tissue is gone, the thoughts are gone too?

Social preference

2010-06-11T00:44:00.005+02:00

Being introvert or extrovert is about preference, and most importantly, it's about what gives you energy.

It is not shyness or obnoxiousness, it's just about whether you need to be alone to relax and re-energize, or whether you need to go to a party to relax and re-energize.

I am an obvious introvert: Being with groups of people or even with a single individual exhausts me. This has nothing to do with whether I like the persons or not. The exhaustion is like superman being exposed to kryptonite: I can take it, I can deal with it, but then I'll need to regain my strength.

This old article from The Atlantic is a very good introduction to the world of introverts.

An excerpt from the article:

Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially "on," we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating.

Read it, it just might help you understand some of your friends, colleagues and relatives.

AOL, Yahoo & journalists

2010-06-10T00:59:00.004+02:00

AOL is planning to hire journalists:

AOL is planning to hire hundreds of journalists, editors and videographers in the coming year as it builds out its content-first business model. Link

It is always interesting to see Internet companies who focus on content rather than their platform. Perhaps it is easier to keep their visitors within the fence if they only link internally? It looks like they plan to be broad enough to satisfy a lot of people's needs.

Yahoo! tried this a few years ago and failed. Now they're apparently also starting to focus on content again. I wonder if both companies will fail this time too?

This puts such modern media companies in direct competition with traditional online newspapers.

Except that they will be completely different.

They will be like Dubai: a history-less entity that can develop in any given direction. And similarly to Dubai, you will not know what administrative changes may occur in the immediate future. You will not be sure about their values, their direction, or their intentions.

I wonder if online media has requirements such as formal Editors in chief? According to Wikipedia that doesn't seem to be the case.

People gladly read and watch articles and YouTube videos made by amateurs who have little or no financial incentive. I wonder how corporations will compete with "Charlie bit my finger"?

Dubious value of your mass-communication

2010-06-06T15:25:00.005+02:00

Mass-communication with no instrumental purpose (fiction, art, poetry) is weighed and found wanting.

Creators must think highly enough of themselves to feel that the world needs their thoughts. The vastitude of this presumptuousness is beyond words.

The literary establishment (the ecosystem of writers, agents, publishers, reviewers and readers) at least has some barriers to entry. To be published on paper would require people to believe in your creative work to be of value. (Blogging has only one barrier - that of readers' attention.)

To partake in literary production requires the writer to observe society/life/love/culture/etc., write about it, and then allow other people to read the outcome. The clicheed justifications for this could be anything from a creative compulsion, wilful imposition of own opinions toward others (because the writer knows better), firm belief in own abilities to exceed those of currently established writers, and probably many other motivations.

Actual social commentary for the purpose of changing society becomes an instrumental objective and does therefore not fall under the category of creative production treated in this post.

How do you actually determine when something you create is of value? What is value? What makes your inferior work more valuable than all the other inferior work that is out there? Could you contribute more value to humanity by withdrawing from creative production and instead acting in an editorial capacity instead?

Actually, this last thought is interesting:

You can probably make a more valuable contribution to the world by abstaining from adding to the digital dung pile of never-ending self-absorption.

I should stop now. Getting an overload of irony. And I will, with the following photo:

I suppose clicking "digg", "buzz" and "like" thus becomes more valuable than writing. Brrrr....

Three Jesuses in one room? Jebus almighty!

2010-06-04T00:42:00.001+02:00

It seems understandable, that Rokeach, a psychologist, gets carried away when doing an experiment about three delusional men who all claim to be Jesus Christ. He puts them in the same room to see what comes out of it:

"You oughta worship me, I'll tell you that!" one of the Christs yelled. "I will not worship you! You're a creature! You better live your own life and wake up to the facts!" another snapped back. "No two men are Jesus Christs. … I am the Good Lord!" the third interjected, barely concealing his anger.

About the purpose of the study:

Rokeach [...] did not expect a miraculous cure. Instead, he was drawing a parallel between the baseless nature of delusion and the flimsy foundations we use to construct our own identities. [...] What if everyone treats me as if my core self were fundamentally different than I believed it to be? Let's say they thought I was an undercover agent—what could I show them to prove otherwise? From my perspective, the best evidence is the strength of my conviction. My belief is my identity.

The problem with the research is that Rokeach starts manipulating the poor men and the article has an intersting conclusion:

Although we take little from it scientifically, the book remains a rare and eccentric journey into the madness of not three, but four men in an asylum. It is, in that sense, an unexpected tribute to human folly, and one that works best as a meditation on our own misplaced self-confidence. Whether scientist or psychiatric patient, we assume others are more likely to be biased or misled than we are, and we take for granted that our own beliefs are based on sound reasoning and observation.

Read it here: The Three Christs of Ypsilanti: What happens when three men who identify as Jesus are forced to live together? - By Vaughan Bell - Slate Magazine

The role of identity in the age of digital reproduction

2010-06-03T08:06:00.000+02:00

When you don't have a big collection of books, DVDs or CDs to show that you have good taste, your taste is defined by what you say.

If you care about having a peculiar, particular or normal taste in entertainment, you have to talk about it!

Imagine this dialogue between people who don't know each other very well:

Person A: Let's go to the movies.
Person B: Sure, what would you like to see?
Person A: How about Ironman 2?
Person B: Eh, it's not my kind of movie...

Person A could be an immensely tasteful moviegoer, but wanted to switch off the brain and be entertained for a little while. Yet Person B now has the impression that Person A is a philistine!

Possessing physical media with your favourite entertainment first of all means that you care about it enough to buy it, other people get a good flavour of what you like by looking at your collection, and it shows a certain degree of commitment and consistency. In other words, it becomes a shortcut to insight about a person's identity. It is an opportunity to evaluate, judge and discriminate, but also to pose, show off and reveal.

Perhaps one can conclude that identity can no longer be created in this manner. Digital collections can be copy+pasted, and are therefore unreliable. Plus, those who pirate media do so for free, so the element of investment is no longer a parameter demonstrating dedication to a particular type of art. Is name-dropping the only way to go? Or will entertainment become more mainstream as we don't know what other people have seen and therefore watch most popular movies to be in the loop at dinner table conversations?

PS: The Kindle prevents you from showing what you're reading too.

Scientific management myths

2010-06-02T23:05:00.004+02:00

This article was something I randomly came across some years ago, and found myself quite fascinated by it, as I can recognise many aspects of scholarly futility.

The article is written by Matthew Stewart, who founded a consulting firm and got paid well to tell management teams things they should already know. He writes:

The strange thing about my utter lack of education in management was that it didn’t seem to matter. As a principal and founding partner of a consulting firm that eventually grew to 600 employees, I interviewed, hired, and worked alongside hundreds of business-school graduates, and the impression I formed of the M.B.A. experience was that it involved taking two years out of your life and going deeply into debt, all for the sake of learning how to keep a straight face while using phrases like “out-of-the-box thinking,” “win-win situation,” and “core competencies.”

Keeping a straight face can be hard. Corporate jargon is used to the extent that it is past cringe-inducement and perhaps becoming an infectious brain haemorrhage.

At the same time, innovation in the science of management has created benefits for the world as we know it. The only problem is, there is so much jargon and academic filler out there, that it is difficult to discern what is jargon and hot air and what is of real value.

Read the article here, it's quite good: The Management Myth

How much stress can $1 reduce?

2010-06-02T22:56:00.004+02:00

Behold a vending machine that will reduce stress, one piece of china at a time:

Perhaps it would be even more effective if you could cause the breakage directly, rather than separate action from reaction by the time from when you insert $1 until the china falls.

Immediacy might increase satisfaction. Saw it here.

Google and publishers

2010-05-26T22:26:00.005+02:00

Very long and very interesting article about the relationship between Google and journalism from The Atlantic. Excerpts:

This April, the company’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, delivered a keynote address to the major news editors’ convention, telling them “we’re all in this together” and that he was “convinced that the survival of high-quality journalism” was “essential to the functioning of modern democracy.” Last December, he wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal announcing that Google would be going out of its way to devise systems that would direct more money toward struggling news organizations—rather than, as many in the news industry assumed, simply directing more of everyone else’s money toward itself.

Also:

“Rather, you could pick any single cause [for newspapers current situation], and that on its own would be enough to explain the problems—except it’s not on its own.” The most obvious cause is that classified advertising, traditionally 30 to 40 percent of a newspaper’s total revenue, is disappearing in a rush to online sites. “There are a lot of people in the business who think that in the not-too-distant future, the classified share of a paper’s revenue will go to zero,” Cohen said. “Stop right there. In any business, if you lose a third of your revenue, you’re going to be in serious trouble.”

Read the whole article if you have time.

Problem with 3D

2010-04-26T23:37:00.003+02:00

3D does have its moments. It's not all bad, but now I will focus on the bad parts, especially:

You cannot decide what you want to look at.

The first time I saw a 3D movie I had a terrible headache because I was trying to watch the movie as I would usually watch movies: with jazzy eyes, peeking at book covers, backgrounds, clothes, furniture, composition, hand gestures, etc. The storyline itself is often simple enough to be predicted, so these details matter to me. This was however not possible when watching a 3D movie.

In fact, you are strongly discouraged from 'going rogue' and finding your own points of interest when watching 3D movies. Instead, you have to follow the vision of the director, you have to look at what is in focus, or you will literally be punished - by hurting eyes and a headache. This is obviously a new medium and shouldn't be judged by old standards, but I see this as a problem as a very subjective experience is not an option with 3D movies.

Furthermore, you might not get as much benefit from watching a movie several times, as your eyes and your focus will be on the same director-imposed focus-area every time. You will not have an opportunity to look at fancy references and interesting details.

The technology is obviously hyped, and it is not worth its salt until someone invents a way to really use the medium to its fullest. Having things stick out from the screen quickly becomes boring at best, is gimmicky at worst. I have not seen my last 3D movie, but other than saving cinemas (until you can get 3D at home) and providing movie-makers with extra cash I see little benefit of 3D.

Stopped using Buzz and Twitter

2010-04-26T23:12:00.005+02:00

The short reason for withdrawing from these social networks:

I'm tired of digital diarrhea.

The longer reason:

The barrier of interaction is too low when it comes to Buzz and Twitter - it is too easy for people to write something.

Also, there is no element of filtering. Neither subjectively by the contributor nor in the medium itself. I see all postings of those that I follow, unlike Facebook, where I only see whatever was the most recent. On Twitter and Buzz I would see everything that those who I followed posted. And everything is too much, because some people post everything. Every time.

Paper has a high degree of tolerance, you can write a lot of BS and still call it writing. But at least it wasn't so easy to share with the world.

Some ideas for improvements of social networks:

A place where you have to write for x number of minutes before you can publish.
A service where you must write at least 300 words in order to post (and copy+pasting doesn't work).
If you link to something external, you have to give a decent explanation of what it is.
Limit frequency of posting.
You have to pass a test before you're allowed to post anything.

With tongue firmly in cheek, I wish the networkers adieu!

Document your development as a photographer

2010-04-26T21:08:00.005+02:00

This one goes out to the many photographers I know, and there are quite a few.

(click through for embiggened version)

Source, via kottke.org

More on profitable newspapers

2010-04-25T14:08:00.001+02:00

Slate Magazine reports how newspapers are trying to make ends meet in a variety of ways, and how things are not as bleak as they seem. Cost-cutting and efficiency optimisation seems to be making an impact.

Life imitates art

2010-04-25T13:43:00.003+02:00

Unusual perspective on art, make sure you see all the paintings, it's not what it seems like!

The artist is Alexa Meade, see her portfolio here.

Minimalist wordart

2010-04-13T23:19:00.004+02:00

Some aspects of art is being reduced as a cause of globalisation, as I've written about earlier.

The other day I realised this is probably also the case for everyday human expression, but for a slightly different reason; written human expression in digital form is increasingly accessed through search.

This potentially means that we might be reducing our language to a specific, consistent set of words so that we can easily find the information we need. I've sometimes found myself being conscious about searchability in the e-mails I write. Sometimes this means that I use several synonyms in an e-mail, but it goes the other way just as easily.

Search engines and dynamic filtering functionality helps us manage documents and messages, but it also means that we might use certain words as embedded tags so the text is searchable rather than focusing on having a well-developed and rich vocabulary.

I wonder if journalists and writers are getting similar habits?

Active passive entertainment

2010-04-08T00:35:00.004+02:00

Just as literature and films have become increasingly filled with blockbusters in our era of globalisation and social media, so too it goes for tv shows.

NYT writes about how interaction behind the scenes of the once passive medium is now taking place: Water-Cooler Effect: Internet Can Be TV’s Friend.

Blogs and social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV.

This is interesting as it goes against all expectations to the effect of the Internet on television.

Great Literature Between the Lines

2010-04-07T21:47:00.000+02:00

Be Bureaucratic and Multiply

2010-04-07T01:21:00.002+02:00

It is a truth commonly known, that every bureaucrat in want of workplace status must be in want of two underlings. A single pair of hands could never do, nay, it must be two.

This article will make you chuckle so hard, the dust might fall of your shoulders:

Parkinson's Law

This is an old article, but brilliant nevertheless. It has just come to my attention that I have not linked to it anywhere on this blog, which is a terrible omission and is hereby mended.

While I would like to provide an excerpt, there is simply no way for me to do it justice without some serious copyright infringement.

When you're done reading the above article you might also enjoy this:
P arkinson's Law of Triviality

The Simpsons on the newspaper industry

2010-04-07T01:08:00.002+02:00

I had some days off from work, and I had some Simpsons episodes to catch up on. Putting two and two together, I found a gem and I can't help sharing it:

Situation: Springfield's presidential primary election is the first in the U.S. The city is overflowing with journalists, and Jon Stewart and Dan Rather are guest starring as themselves.

A voice-over presents a handful of journalists, of which all but one are bloggers and Internet writers. After the voice-over presents the only paper-journalist from The Washington Post we hear a familiar sound:

Nelson: Ha ha, your medium is dying!
Principal Skinner: Nelson!
Nelson: But it is!
Principal Skinner: There's being right and then there's being nice.

It's funny because it's true...

Worth reading pt. 2

2010-02-25T23:35:00.001+01:00

Worth reading, about Google's algorithm evolution:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/all/1

Excerpt:

Google’s synonym system understood that a dog was similar to a puppy and that boiling water was hot. But it also concluded that a hot dog was the same as a boiling puppy. The problem was fixed in late 2002 by a breakthrough based on philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theoriesabout how words are defined by context. As Google crawled and archived billions of documents and Web pages, it analyzed what words were close to each other. “Hot dog” would be found in searches that also contained “bread” and “mustard” and “baseball games” — not poached pooches. That helped the algorithm understand what “hot dog” — and millions of other terms — meant. “Today, if you type ‘Gandhi bio,’ we know that bio means biography,” Singhal says. “And if you type ‘bio warfare,’ it means biological.

Worth reading

2010-02-25T22:05:00.005+01:00

Interesting collection of thoughts by writers who were invited to list their top ten points about writing from The Guardian, here's an excerpt:

Elmore Leonard: Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

Philip Pullman: My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.

Roddy Doyle: Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.PD James: Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

PD James: Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

Death is not inevitable

2010-02-17T00:29:00.003+01:00

Newspapers are suffering from the hand of technology - it is an industry that's terminally ill, yet somehow still manages to survive. Due to strong medication, perhaps? With this I mean philanthropy, commercialisation or power-hungry investors who don't mind bleeding money.

The interesting thing is, that newspapers have been suffering for ages, as The Economist reminds us:

Writing in the Atlantic Monthly in 1891, W.J. Stillman, a journalist and critic, decried the effects of the telegraph on his profession. “America has in fact transformed journalism from what it once was, the periodical expression of the thought of the time, the opportune record of the questions and answers of contemporary life, into an agency for collecting, condensing and assimilating the trivialities of the entire human existence,” he moaned. “The frantic haste with which we bolt everything we take, seconded by the eager wish of the journalist not to be a day behind his competitor, abolishes deliberation from judgment and sound digestion from our mental constitutions. We have no time to go below surfaces, and as a general thing no disposition.” Source: How a new communications technology disrupted America’s newspaper industry—in 1845

As they survived the telegraph, they might survive the internet, but in a different guise and shape. Can they become a trusted adviser rather than profit-hungry sales channel?

Price for globalisation in terms of art

2010-02-11T18:18:00.003+01:00

Not so long ago, The Economist wrote about how movies seem to be getting bigger and bigger lately, in spite of the increasing options and freedom of choice that we have today as film distribution has leaped forward in recent years.

Now I also just read an article about how a similar development is occurring in the book publishing industry:

As a result of rapidly accelerating globalization we are moving toward a world market for literature. There is a growing sense that for an author to be considered “great,” he or she must be an international rather than a national phenomenon.

and:

What are the consequences for literature? From the moment an author perceives his ultimate audience as international rather than national, the nature of his writing is bound to change. In particular one notes a tendency to remove obstacles to international comprehension. [...] More importantly the language is kept simple. Kazuo Ishiguro has spoken of the importance of avoiding word play and allusion to make things easy for the translator. Scandinavian writers I know tell me they avoid character names that would be difficult for an English reader.

The article concludes:

What seems doomed to disappear, or at least to risk neglect, is the kind of work that revels in the subtle nuances of its own language and literary culture, the sort of writing that can savage or celebrate the way this or that linguistic group really lives. In the global literary market there will be no place for any Barbara Pyms and Natalia Ginzburgs. Shakespeare would have eased off the puns. A new Jane Austen can forget the Nobel.

It appears that when it comes to our entertainment habits, we lemming our way into cinemas showing popular films, and we fall for the credentials of compromised credibility.

Could there be any other way? Could we be so niche-oriented and localised that we do our own thing - not having to experience the same as our far-away friends? Probably not. We have become modern nomads; apolitical beings who exist in a nationless limbo. Moving from country to country, from company to company, connecting to each other through technology or proximity or both. Living in country whatever, belonging to Nomadia, in insulated enclaves separate from the host country yet tolerated, as we contribute to the host country's GDP and spend our income frivolously.

The whole world is our marketplace, but as we are living busy lives we don't have time to experiment with the untried, the untested. So instead we look for entertainment based on recommendations, recommendations by others who are also in Nomadia, whose tastes are similarly broad, and who would like to like the same as you or I.

Content publishers know this, so they try to create something you and I would both like.

But will it blend? (yes, that is one of the lower common denominators of nomadians)

Still Lovin' Banksy

2010-02-11T00:23:00.002+01:00

Banksy's exhibition in the Bristol museum has some wonderful images, here's one of them:

See more great stuff from the exhibition here.

A dying breed

2010-02-08T00:56:00.003+01:00

Today, for the first time in years, I bought a newspaper, thinking I would give the sinking concept another chance, and to test the Irish newspaper quality. Conclusion? The Sunday Times (Irish edition) was weighed and found wanting.

Very few articles caught my eye, and it contained very little actual news. There was only little digested reflection on what had happened during the week, very little global focus, peppered with enormous ads and smelly ink.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Determination of relevancy must not rely on temporal proximity. Time should be an important factor, but so should thoughtful commentary and significance of the events. Especially significance of events.

Relevancy needs to be increased. Make smaller papers, adapt them to customer demographics, make people want to read the whole thing because it matters to them. Niche papers would have writers that are specialists in the topic they write about.

Get online. If you're online, you don't have to write filler. It's ok to write short posts, but it's not ok to write short articles. Newspapers have to think of the advertisement-to-content ratio for paper, but online they don't.

Let the dinosaurs die. Let change happen. The Times could become an umbrella organisation for a number of niche papers, rather than forcing every byer to get the same heap of paper.

Nexus One update with multitouch

2010-02-04T00:09:00.004+01:00

An official update for the Nexus One is on its way, and if you're impatient, you can follow the instructions below to install it manually.

According to the official Nexus One blog, the update contains:

Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web

Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:
Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com - access your favorite places from your phone or computer
Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history - makes it easy to search for places you've searched for before
Night mode in Google Maps Navigation - automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving
Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications

3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones

Here's what you need to do:

Download this to your computer: http://android.clients.google.com/updates/passion/signed-passion-ERE27-from-ERD79.a487b405.zip (this is directly from a Google server, so there should be no security issues).
Rename this weird filename to simply "update.zip" (not update.zip.zip - check file properties if you're not sure).
Connect your Nexus One to your computer and copy the "update.zip" file to the root of your memory card. Here's a guide on how to transfer files between PC and Nexus One.
Turn your phone off.
Press and hold the trackball while you turn your phone on again.
Yes, the screen will look funny now, use the volume buttons to go up or down, the power button to select.
Enter the recovery mode, select it by clicking on the power button.
Next, your phone is going to restart and you will see an exclamation icon and the android logo on your phone. This will not go away by itself.
To proceed, hold down the power key and then press the volume up button.
Now you can select by moving your trackball up and down.
Select 'apply sdcard:update.zip'.
Let it restart, give it some time.
Multitouch activated!

Thanks to these pages for details:
Android support
AndroidForums

List of links that I collected during the past few months

2010-01-21T23:56:00.006+01:00

Yes, I have not been writing much at all lately. But in the last few months life has really turned around. A lot. I'm living in Dublin now, working for Google.

I've recently discovered that I'm totally uninterested in using Twitter on a day-to-day basis. I will not close my account, in case I every need to tweet about an Iranian uprising or earthquakes etc. But I just don't have time for one more point of interaction. If it's worth saying I can just say it on Facebook. And If I want the rest of the world to be able to see it I can change my privacy settings.

Anyway, here are a few links that I thought someone might enjoy:

A systematic study of power and corruption of people. By priming people for positions of power, scientists could conclude that those feeling in power cheated more frequently:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15328544

The reflective mind regarding dish rotation (geeky!): http://greg.org/archive/2010/01/08/on_rotating_the_dishes.html

Everyone already knows about this, but included it here because it's a keeper: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

A site with free documentaries you can download, including popular ones such as Super Size Me: http://freedocumentaries.org/

A beautiful map of rock music: http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2009/12/17/a-map-of-rock.aspx

Not for believers, but very funny: Jesus-Zombie-Dracula-Frankenstein

That's it for now, just wanted to get started at writing again slowly.

I told us so

2009-11-09T21:27:00.002+01:00

In one of the first posts I ever wrote on this blog, I wrote how I considered it important to include rising sea levels when you want to buy property. Little did I know, rising sea levels are already having consequences in many places. Now this article (Danish only) writes about how insurance prices and sewage costs are now increasing because of rising sea levels.

And last but not least, the swine flu is inspiring artists.

Vandalism has finally become an ism

2009-11-09T20:37:00.005+01:00

Apparently, Denmark has a nuanced view on graffiti.

According to Danish newspaper Politiken, Copenhagen is about to conserve artful graffiti and remove graffiti that is considered vandalism. Before this can happen they must first work out how to distinguish between the two. It will be interesting to follow.

Wonder what Banksy would say to this?

Weaving words with Wave

2009-11-01T23:46:00.005+01:00

Disclaimer: I'll be working for Google from tomorrow morning! :)

A little reflection after using Google Wave a little bit:

I was thinking about how conversations can be changed when communicating in Google Wave. Instead of having a dialogue with questions and answers you can use Google Wave to create 'collaborative dialogue'.

You no longer have to ask:

When did you apply for that job?
Which country do you live in?
How old are you?

Instead you can communicate with declarative sentences, with blanks to be filled in by the fellow 'waver'.

Here is an example of what I could write in Google Wave asking all those questions, but by creating a collaborative sentence together with e.g. Erik:

"Erik is _ years old, lives in _ and applied for the job on _."

Erik can fill in the blanks instead of having to write whole sentences, and voilá: you have collaboratively created a sentence together!

We are used to correspondence and chats where communication is performed by creating sequential text, so it will take a long time before we can change those habits, but this could be very, very interesting to follow in the future. Can't wait to try Google Wave when Spelly, Rosie and all the other cool functions are up and running!

Poetic tics

2009-10-27T01:51:00.006+01:00

Why is poetry today not ubiquitous? Why is poetry not selling in the millions? Why do I not come across poetry, unless I seek it out deliberately? Being reminded of Walt Whitman recently, I couldn't help thinking about it. The following, highly pretentious output is not meant for you (this is writer-oriented writing), so feel free to stop reading and move on to something more entertaining.

Big poetry changes hearts, motivates a nation, inspires. Especially in times of duress, in totalitarian regimes, when a government or ruler tries to control the populace. A few lines of poetry in such settings can be deadly - both for him who is caught in possession of such poetry, and for him who tries to suppress a nation that has been inspired by poetry.

Today we no longer need to hide our meanings in metaphors, we no longer have to write brief, taciturn ideals of freedom in poetic form. Paper is not only cheap, it's also unnecessary. Anyone can publish anything on the internet. Stores are closed, countries are boycotted, actors are turned into stars thanks to agitating writing on the interwebs. If you want to change something, you would not write poetry, you would setup a blog or create a documentary.

Poetry is no longer instrumental. When we write, we can spell out what we mean. We can talk about a revolution. Why use metaphors when you can just say what you mean? What is poetry now? An amputated branch of literature whose traditional form has little meaning for contemporary society?

Poetry often takes the form of an idea that is quickly read but long-time digested. The immediate time it requires is brief, but then it needs a moment of peace to be savoured, for its deeper meanings to be unravelled (time spent = x). Today we no longer have moments of peace. We savour on the fly, thinking to ourselves that we could think deeper about that one when we have time, and so we bookmark it. Instead, we read long articles, books, expounding this or that view, discussing opinions, providing reflection for us. The total time spent on an idea is still x, but rather than a brief idea with a long personal reflection, we read a long idea with a built-in reflection.

We are also more empowered. No one needs to only be a poet. If you want to make a change in the world you can take action that is much more impactful than writing poetry. You don't have to limit yourself to one specialty or a small sphere of influence. If you're good with words you can still join or start an NGO or make some phone calls or sign a petition. Action really does speak louder than words.

One last reflection is that maybe the complexity of our society has become so immense, that poetry cannot contain all the relativism, ideology, irony that are required in order to express a nuanced point of view today.

It's ironic that in spite of all this thinking about poetry, I still haven't read any for ages.

The fluctuation in a market economy will go up or down

2009-10-25T13:41:00.003+01:00

An interesting article in The Economist titled The three habits...of highly irritating management gurus talks about fallacies in self-help/management thinking.

There are some things that I learned from Covey's books, but there is a little too much focus and attention on management gurus who are in fact not really doing such a great job.

The article says it beautifully:

[This] points to the most irritating thing of all about management gurus: that their failures only serve to stoke demand for their services. If management could indeed be reduced to a few simple principles, then we would have no need for management thinkers. But the very fact that it defies easy solutions, leaving managers in a perpetual state of angst, means that there will always be demand for books like Mr Covey’s.

There are no guarantees. This can and will go wrong, and no company or manager will ever know exactly what the right thing to do is. Otherwise everyone would do the same, and we get the problem of a Nash equilibrium.

So there is no apparent right or wrong. I'm a relativist, so that suits me just fine. But then some people think: "If at least I pay a lot of money to some management consultancy to increase efficiency I'll be safe." To which the answer must be a resounding NO. For example, no matter how much more efficient these businesses become, they will be seriously challenged in the coming years:

video rental stores
newspapers
conventional-fuel engine manufacturers
landline telephone operators

Having the 8 habits or spending millions on some other management fad will not make any of these businesses more profitable, they need some radical change in order to survive.

Passionate Al Franken and Jon Stewart

2009-10-18T10:01:00.001+02:00

It is surprising that an amendment such as this can be opposed.

Click on the link, watch the bottom video first if you need a brief introduction to what happened, and then watch Al Franken roast an attorney representing Halliburton/KBR.

Al Franken and Jon Stewart.

How ironic if it rains on halloween...

2009-10-15T22:23:00.007+02:00

This is disturbing on so many levels:

A Baptist Church near Asheville, N.C., is hosting a "Halloween book burning" to purge the area of "Satan's" works, which include all non-King James versions of the Bible, popular books by many religious authors and even country music.

Read the whole article for details.

For a second I was going to quote the passage from Acts and criticise the book burning from a biblical perspective, but then it dawned on me that such horrendous acts do not deserve arguments in their own context. Burning books to purge information does simply not belong in the 21st century. Heard about recycling?

The article does not state that they are burning other people's property or books against the owners' will. As that information would make the story a LOT bigger we can safely assume this is not the case.

You can also watch AP's video about the book burning:

Note-taking laptop

2009-10-12T21:46:00.004+02:00

I recently wrote about the Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe. I still haven't tried the product, and the pricing seems a little steep. But I just realised how easy it would be to make something like this to work with laptops!

It simply requires:

A stand alone microphone (not the built-in one, the noise from the keyboard clicks would interfere, besides the direction is wrong - it should be pointed at the speaker).
Integrated note-taking software and sound recorder.

That's it! You will then not only have your notes on your computer rather than written by hand, the software will (just as the Livescribe pen) automatically keep track of where the speaker says what and makes sure you can replay the sound of a specific part of your notes.

Does this exist already or did I just invent something new?

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

2009-10-12T20:22:00.002+02:00

Just noticed a couple of media websites are starting to have restrictions on their digital content. While The New Yorker was free until recently, they just started to have some free previews and payments for articles. The Economist is also charging for letting you read articles older than 90 days.

Will they lose advertising money or start earning money?

E-mail aggravation

2009-10-06T14:25:00.005+02:00

Something that I regularly find annoying is how companies deal with e-mails. The way I see it, there are three main problems:

Companies do not provide an e-mail address and require you to type in your request in a form. This often also means that they ask for a lot of additional details, thus putting obstacles in the way for you to quickly communicate with them. Just today, marketer Seth Godin posted the following about e-mail addresses: "If you sell something, set up an address like "sales@xyz.com". Put this on your home page, "contact us if you're looking for more information or a price quote." Sure, you'll get a lot of spam, but deleting spam is a lot easier than finding customers."
"No reply" e-mail addresses. Yes, it is faster to get the customer to direct his e-mail through the form, past the faq, and then press send. But how much valuable information is lost this way? How much goodwill could be created by sending from a reply-able e-mail address? Why shouldn't someone be able to reply? Create a filter to direct messages yourself, instead of forcing the customer to jump through hoops for you. Only one time have I encountered the message: "Please reply to this e-mail if you have any questions about your order", and this was in an order confirmation from a cable supplier called Av-Cables.dk. I made a note of that, and told friends about it, a ordered from there again. And to achieve that took so little effort from their side.
Speed. Many companies still don't take e-mail seriously in a structured way. I have the impression that some old-school companies have large variations in the turnaround time for e-mail, and that it is largely dependent on individuals rather than a company-wide e-mail handling structure and policy. E-mail is asynchronous and therefore for many easier than calling by phone. Yet some companies only look at e-mail once a day or regularly delay e-mail turnaround.

How hard can it be?

Quotation remix

2009-10-05T16:46:00.003+02:00

A friend needed inspiration for what to print on a t-shirt, and I can't help being ironic in a meta-reflective sort of way.

Is that a pleonasm, by the way?

The smart pen is mightier than the pen

2009-10-05T12:55:00.007+02:00

A pen that records audio and links the audio to your notes as you write on your notepad? The video is a bit annoying, but the product idea is one of the most revolutionary I have seen for a long time!

It's hard to tell if it's easy to use (and flawless), but if it is, it could be a really amazing product. Anyone knows where it can be tried and tested?

Pressing matters for newspapers

2009-10-04T19:35:00.006+02:00

I just came across an interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt about newspapers, journalism and the survival of the Fourth Estate.

Eric Schmidt describes one of the reasons why big journalistic institutions are important:

Let’s assume you’re a mid-level government executive, not necessarily in the United States, and it’s a crime to leak information for purposes of discussion. Are you willing to leak to a blogger who has no track record of protecting his or her own sources, versus the New York Times, which routinely sends its people to jail over this question of a shield law.

Another point is that the numerous bloggers out there are mainly interested in national rather than local news, to keep their readership as large as possible. Thus, without the cumbersome, detailed and time-consuming local journalism, there will be a lot of city halls unchecked, a lot of important local issues overlooked. Bloggers don't have time for such detailed work, or they do it in their own time.

Read the whole interview if you're interested in the future of journalism.

The game is fixed in favour of site metrics

2009-09-19T12:57:00.006+02:00

I have previously written about Aidonline, which hijacks advertisement when a user is visiting certain websites, showing their own ads on the websites of e.g. newspapers. Aidonline is giving 80% of the profits to charity, and it created a big stir when the company was started.

Now newspapers have the word of the bailif's court (fogedretten), that taking over their ads and showing other ads instead is illegal. The verdict states it is not bona fide and established practices of the trade (dårlig markedsføringsskik) and that the online page of an article is copyrighted as a whole, which includes advertising. Fiddling with ads has therefore also become outlawed, and software such as AdBlock Plus must therefore also be illegal.

I perfectly understand the motivation of a media outlet to require ads and viewers, and have therefore removed my ad-blocking software from e.g. politiken.dk or berlingske.dk.

HOWEVER, it is a serious problem that these newspapers present highly intrusive ads. At times, the intrusion is so severe, I have had to close a page entirely. Examples of such unacceptable intrusions are:

Loud audio starting upon mouse-over. In the last few days both of the abovementioned websites have had large banners spanning the width of the entire websites, and it was almost impossible to avoid starting the audio. Once started, I could not find a way to shut if off again unless I closed the tab in my browser.
Too much commotion, too close to the text of the article. Several ads have so much animation that it becomes difficult to read the article. One's eyes are drawn to the movement on the screen, and such heavy animation is not only disrespectful to the actual content (as less concentration is used on reading), it is also stressful and distracting.
The ads are too data-heavy. Some ads require so much processing power and memory from the computer, that it slows down the entire browser, and in turn the entire computer.

Exposing readers to such advertising is disrespectful to readers and an example of extreme short-term perspectives when it comes to usability and reader loyalty. Yes, they do make more money today by having annoying ads, but what about the general dislike they instil in their users? Long-term loyalty? And are they realistic in their interpretation of the site metrics?

It might appear as if there are more visits to the site after these ads have been put up. For instance, I have refreshed the pages of these news sites more frequently (or closed down and revisited one of the sites) simply to avoid the audio that I accidentally moved over. Site metrics 1, readers 0.

It might appear that people spend more time surfing on these websites. My own time spent on them has probably increased, as I have sometimes taken the time to cover flashy ads with another window over it, so I can read an article without annoying distractions. Additionally, pages take longer to load completely, and page viewing time therefore increases. 2 - nil to the site metrics.

Viewers are tricked into increasing the page views by grossly misleading headlines. When a paper has misleading headlines it can make a reader scan an article for a few seconds, which has no consequences. But when the same thing happens online, it means that one more page has been viewed (at a cost of many more seconds because of the load time due to heavy ads) and more ad impressions have been made. Site metrics is the overall winner with 3 - nil!

Newspapers have ethical challenges and daily choices between news criteria and relevance. These issues are very important and interesting discussion points. But how do you get to discuss the important issues when you can't see the forest for all the ads?

Bought in good taste

2009-09-17T10:04:00.003+02:00

I wrote about ReCAPTCHA the other day, and now Google bought it. I wrote about micropayments a while ago, and Google has worked on it for some time now and will probably become an important player on this market.

Either Larry and Sergey are reading my blog, or I have a Google-aligned taste in ideas.

Judging from the number of G-services I use, it's obviously the latter... :)

New News

2009-09-16T11:30:00.004+02:00

I have on numerous occasions mentioned micro-payments as a solution for the newspaper industry, and Google seems to be taking some big steps in order to make this possible according to The Atlantic.

For micropayments to work they have to include the biggest and most important sources that people care to read. Yes, websites like cracked.com will probably continue to be free, but professional content that can be trusted needs more than just online advertising revenue.

Google is dealing with this on two fronts. First, there is the Newspaper Association of America that has to be convinced of the deal. With Google as the world's biggest online player it seems like they are the best choice. Sharing revenues 30/70 in favour of newspapers is a pretty sweet deal. Second, a form of presentation is required for individual articles. The content providers need to get a taste of how their content will appear online, how people will be charged for it, etc. I imagine it is for this very purpose that Google just released Google Fast Flip where articles can be browsed, read, and in the future probably also paid for.

I am very curious to see how this will develop, and if users will accept paying for what used to be free. Some of the long-term implications might mean that cost-conscious readers (e.g. students) will have more limited information at their disposal, and it might cause information asymmetry with developing countries where even paying a few cents for an article is too much.

However, the situation as it is today is unsustainable, and something has to be done for newspapers to survive.

I first read about it here.

Media > Message

2009-09-15T22:27:00.003+02:00

Completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart

2009-09-14T20:23:00.006+02:00

Websites try to make sure we are not computers, but real humans, by presenting us with the so-called 'captchas', that web-crawling robots cannot read. However, advances in OCR-technology and computing power means that machines have become better at reading captchas, and new defense-mechanisms are therefore required.

A brilliant method is the ReCAPTCHA system, which is integrated with a digitisation programme scanning old books and newspapers for libraries. When the system encounters a word it cannot scan, it would normally require an assistant to type the word manually. However, combining digitisation with a captcha system means that the difficult words it encounters are

"...used to generate a CAPTCHA by combining them with a known word, skewing the image and adding extra lines to make the words harder to read. The image is then presented as a CAPTCHA in the usual way.
If the known word is entered correctly, the unknown word is also assumed to have been typed in correctly, and access is granted. Each unknown word is presented as a CAPTCHA several times, to different users, to ensure that it has been read correctly. As a result, people solving CAPTCHA puzzles help with the digitisation of books and newspapers.
Even better, the system has proved to be far better at resisting attacks than other types of CAPTCHA. "ReCAPTCHA is virtually immune by design, since it selects words that have resisted the best text-recognition algorithms available." (Economist)

Not only is this brilliant because it is as unreadable by a machine as possible, it is also doing two things at once. 'Kill as many birds with one stone as possible' would be my motto, if I had one.

Note, that while ReCAPTCHA is a legitimate company (currently digitising The New York Times), there are also rumours of abuse of human assistance. Boingboing reports that some porn sites have required viewers to decode captchas before showing porn, in order to misuse various web-services for e.g. spamming purposes. I wonder if there is a 'Max Havelaar' type of label for the porn industry?

Update: Just remembered the relevance of this: xkcd - A Webcomic - Suspicion

Statistically likely beauty

2009-09-13T12:41:00.005+02:00

An interesting way to find artistic inspiration is e.g. this artist who paints images that he finds on Google Street View. To me it goes to show that anyone can take photographs that are tasteful and beautiful as long as you take enough photos. It's a matter of probability. Elevating Google Street View to art is quite similar to Marcel Duchamp's 'readymades' - turning everyday things into objects of art.

Perhaps photography is the perfect contemporary medium - if you set the camera on 'automatic' it has a low learning curve, and the basics of photography can be learned in an afternoon. It takes a lot of effort and technical knowledge to actually know what you are doing, but not everyone takes photography that seriously.

Similar to blogging or painting, photography can quickly become a hobby where one can find some sense of creative satisfaction. To determine the quality of the work created is a different matter altogether. The larger the quantity, the higher the probability of creating something worthwhile. To find talent, on the other hand, requires something more. Talent defies definition.

Photography becomes really interesting when imposed with a set of limitations, e.g. Brassaï who only had around twenty negatives with him when he went out, so he had to make every photograph count. Wonder what would have come out of his snapshots if he had had a digital camera?

Anyway, back to work.

Films, South Africa and refugees

2009-09-01T23:34:00.007+02:00

While enjoying watching 'District 9' I now realize there were many references that I did not catch, such as e.g. the title of the film referring to an actual area where the residents were evicted from. NPR has an article on this from a South African point of view:

District Six was a historically interracial Cape Town neighbourhood that the government deemed a slum — and from which more than 60,000 residents were forcibly removed — in the 1970s, under apartheid laws.

One of the people interviewed is daft enough to say that Wikus (the main character who ends up fighting for the aliens) "is a fitting tribute to the post-apartheid South Africa". IMO someone who clearly fights for his own interest is not a person you would want to represent your nation today.
This is also rectified at the end of the article, by an interviewee who is clear-eyed enough to spot that Wikus is not a hero. This interviewee, however, continues to criticise the film by saying that "...it shows South Africa from white eyes — the fear that the African is a cannibal who wants to eat others to assimilate their power".

Leaving this as the last bit of the article gives an overall negative impression, without making any judgement on this very critical opinion. The opinion could be wrong. The crime in District 9 is to me a product of poor living conditions and serious maltreatment. It is not representative of anything other than terrible mismanagement and abuse of power. While the concept of muti is highly objectionable, the Nigerian is not representing all of Africa. There are numerous locals in the film, both black and white, who are not trying to kill each other.

In fact, all the parties who wanted the alien mutation were doing so because of greed, thereby proving that there really is something that transcends colour and unites humans regardless of appearance. We are all on the same page when it comes to our desire to have more.

Watch the film, it's relevant, especially in the light of the refugee-debate that has been going on in Denmark recently.

That discussion has gone off the rails, by the way. I have three points to the discussion on Iraqi refugees that the government has tried to return to Iraq:

Denmark joined the war in Iraq, therefore it is also responsible for a fair number of refugees.
There is no peace in Iraq at the moment: August death toll in Iraq is the highest in more than a year
The police are just doing their job, take it easy. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at Birthe Rønn Hornbech.

Seriously, how can you send people home to a place full of flying bombs? Note that newspapers still write about bombs in Iraq even though people are tired of reading about it. A clear sign that things are still terrible.

Update 15 Sep 2009:
Read comment from The Economist about the movie. Excerpt:

...the film's main subject, Wikus van der Merwe, is a superb rendering of what was arguably apartheid's most important stock character: not the sjambok-wielding policeman but the asinine bureaucrat who enforced wicked and moronic rules without thinking too much about them.

(A sjambok is a type of whip used in S.A.)

Ooh!

2009-08-23T15:40:00.004+02:00

I saw these weird ads the other day and I had to find out what Oohgle was.

There is no other data on the website, even when looking at the source code, so I looked up the domain owner and it turned out to be Aegis Group plc that owns it, a marketing agency.

It is not a competitor to Google, it is not a search engine or even an online service. It is simply advertising for a marketing concept that combines off-line marketing with the interwebs.

It stands for 'Out Of Home Google', and has to do with outdoor or off-line advertising that one then looks up on-line. It's probably a very effective way to capture attention among the IT-savvy crowd that is so used to advertising they have learned to ignore common, easily categorised marketing. They notice when things are not as usual, they get curious and go home and Google it.

And a few geeks blog about it...

Frank political climate

2009-08-20T21:14:00.005+02:00

Was it fair for Barney Frank to snap as he did? (YouTube - Barney Frank Confronts Woman At Townhall Comparing Obama To Hitler)

He took the debate to a personal level and resorted to an argumentum ad hominem - a personal attack, without taking her question seriously.

Without having seen the whole town hall meeting, I have to be reserved in my opinion. But I am sympathetic towards him because of the following:

The current political climate is becoming extremely partisan (see videos below) and his response to this aggressive and (IMO) inappropriate question might have prevented the debate to get off track, with people shouting and getting too rowdy to have a proper discussion.

The below videos are all from The Daily Show, so yes - I am one-sided in the news I follow.

This is the context of town hall meetings all over the U.S. when Barney Frank snapped:

Shouting at town hall meetings and how it all started:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Healther Skelter

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Healthcare Protests

Weapons at political meetings:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The Gun Show - Barrel Fever

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Healthcare Protests

Shouting and democratic feet in mouths:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Reform Madness

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Healthcare Protests

Divorced opinions

2009-08-07T10:56:00.003+02:00

Earlier this week, the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende showed an example of self-contradiction that is bordering on the embarrassing.

On the same day, two articles were released with the following titles:

Divorces can be deadly (Skilsmisser kan være dødelige)

http://www.fri.dk/skilsmisser-kan-vaere-doedelige%20Aug.%205%202009

and

The divorce is not always a disaster (Skilsmissen er ikke altid en katastrofe)

http://www.fri.dk/kaerlighed/skilsmissen-er-ikke-altid-en-katastrofe Aug. 5 2009

To make matters worse, the articles were printed in the same section (”Fri”). I understand that such contradictions happen when a paper is published on a tight schedule with a daily deadline, but to me it is just another nail in the coffin for daily newspapers. Why even bother reading the articles when the newspaper and its editors cannot agree on a coherent message?

Candy Wars, Holes

2009-08-01T11:15:00.002+02:00

Dry, dusty and hilarious humour

2009-07-31T09:39:00.002+02:00

Such subtlety, such sobriety! Stil, scintillating scientific sense.

The Economist writes about the scientific basis for increased employment in the public sector, it is scary because it seems true.

A snippet from the article:

The fact is that the number of the officials and the quantity of the work to be done are not related to each other at all. The rise in the total of those employed is governed by Parkinson's Law, and would be much the same whether the volume of the work were to increase, diminish or even disappear. The importance of Parkinson's Law lies in the fact that it is a law of growth based upon an analysis of the factors by which that growth is controlled.

Read the rest of this amazing article from 1955 here

Update:
I just found some more details. The article above is written by: C. Northcote Parkinson.

Parkinson also wrote "Law of Triviality" which is often explained using an example of a bicycle shed:

Parkinson shows how you can go into the board of directors and get approval for building a multi-million or even billion dollar atomic power plant, but if you want to build a bike shed you will be tangled up in endless discussions.
Parkinson explains that this is because an atomic plant is so vast, so expensive and so complicated that people cannot grasp it, and rather than try, they fall back on the assumption that somebody else checked all the details before it got this far. Richard P. Feynmann gives a couple of interesting, and very much to the point, examples relating to Los Alamos in his books.
A bike shed on the other hand. Anyone can build one of those over a weekend, and still have time to watch the game on TV. So no matter how well prepared, no matter how reasonable you are with your proposal, somebody will seize the chance to show that he is doing his job, that he is paying attention, that he is here. Source: Poul-Henning Kamp

Quoted quotations

2009-07-30T08:33:00.004+02:00

;-P

Assorted links

2009-07-22T10:06:00.004+02:00

I've been moving to a new apartment, and a lot of stuff has been put on hold recently, my blogging included. Especially as I was Internet-less for over two weeks!

So to kick-start things again I'm posting a few highlights, with many more to come.

Newspaper business models and the role of charity:

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14072274

It's sad that we find this funny. With a little effort, usability could be improved immensely.

From: http://xkcd.com/612/

A quote by Banksy:

From: http://23.media.tumblr.com/HA6EiTMtQpmedv3ajsqNAfqLo1_500.png

Have a fantastic summer!

Weekly magazines and The Economist

2009-06-23T13:38:00.000+02:00

I was surprised to learn that The Economist is actually a very popular magazine with a healthy profit:

Virtually alone among magazines, The Economist saw its advertising revenues increase last year by double digits—a remarkable 25 percent, according to the Publisher’s Information Bureau. Newsweek’s and Time’s dropped 27 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Read this article if you're into journalism from The Atlantic: The Newsweekly’s Last Stand

The basic premise is: yes, news are pervasive, and we no longer rely on newspapers for them, but we do need a voice that we trust that can tell us what the bigger picture is, that can suggest solutions, history and depth.

(Don't bother with the video if you read the article, it's pretty much the same)

Disney princesses

2009-06-21T01:14:00.003+02:00

A hilarious take on Disney characters for those of us who always felt that "happily ever after" didn't quite cut it:

From JPG, via kottke.org.

Banksy back in Bristol

2009-06-21T01:02:00.005+02:00

Banksy has just had a major exhibition in the Bristol Museum, and it's obviously not your standard-type museum expo:

He filled three stories of the building with his art in 36 hours under tight security, as only a few museum staff were aware of the shows' imminent arrival.
His work is hidden among the museum's usual exhibits and is split into different rooms, including installations, paintings and sculptures. Source: CNN

See also TIME Magazine for photos.

Video also available:

Micropayments for newspapers

2009-06-19T10:18:00.001+02:00

We consume more news than ever before in the history of mankind, yet the newspaper industry is doing worse and worse. I have on previous occasions mentioned micropayments as an
option, but one might wonder why it has not been widely implemented yet. Surely newspapers are interested in being paid for their quality content?

Currently, newspapers can be bought online individually, e.g. Politiken for DKK 20-25. However, I do not consider this a micropayment (it costs the same as the paper version), and quite frankly, I dislike being forced to buy a whole paper because I want to read one single article (Note: I do not know which proportion of a newspaper is online, and how much is print-only).

That which newspapers excel at, is in-depth analysis by people with a lot of background knowledge in the field in question (this might be somewhat naïve, but there you go). If those articles were available for purchase at a microscopic price (e.g. 2-3 kr) people might be encouraged to take out their credit card and pay for the articles.

Quality is worth paying for, but as music listeners have punished the music industry for forcing consumers to buy whole albums when only a few songs were good, so are newspaper readers not willing to pay for premium content when they are forced to buy (and pay for) much more than they need. An important distinction is between newspapers and magazines, as I suppose the latter will have an easier time demanding payment. But why does an online subscription for e.g. The Economist cost exactly the same as the print subscription? (At least that's what it looks like on this page - when clicking on the link titled "Or buy a Web subscription for full access online". In fact, it looks like it's impossible to gain access to premium web content without having a print subscription! Luckily, The Economist provides most of its content for free. Thanks a bunch!)

I wonder if making a distinction between premium content and free content will act as a disturbing reminder to newspapers of their crap-to-gold ratio?

Storage dilemma

2009-06-17T16:20:00.006+02:00

An article in The Economist talks about a new way of storing data that has long-term potential:

"[...] a team of researchers led by Alex Zettl of the University of California, Berkeley, describe a method that will, they reckon, let people store information electronically for a billion years."

Using nano-technology for data storage is interesting and has great potential, but the article forgets one important thing: Fancy technology is far from enough to store data even just 3-400 years. Hamlet was written around year 1600, and its storage is far from 100% lossless:

Polonius: Marry, well bethought!
'Tis told me he hath very oft of late
Given private time to you, and you yourself
Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
If it be so- as so 'tis put on me,
And that in way of caution- I must tell you
You do not understand yourself so clearly
As it behooves my daughter and your honour.
What is between you? Give me up the truth.
Source: Gutenberg

We may have kept every word, stored every character, yet merely 400 years later find ourselves challenged when trying to understand the meaning of this text word for word.

To make things even more difficult, digital storage is not only dependent on long-term durability and comprehensibility, but also on the hardware that accesses it. I don't have a way of reading e.g. my old 1.44" disks anymore.

So long-term storage requires:

storage technology with high durability
backwards compatible hardware
some kind of continous semantic updating

The problem with the article is that it only focuses on the first of these parameters. For the sake of hardware compatibility I think that every decade or so the data needs to be transferred to newer equipment. However, this makes the durability of one billion years of storage completely redundant.
Still, the biggest challenge in my view is the semantic updating, because the following words will be a challenge to understand just a few centuries in the future:

landline
iceberg
panda
newspaper

After reading the replies to my comment on the Economist, I realised that what is important in the article is not so much the ability to store something for a billion years, but that a highly reliable data storage method is in development. Even if it's only data stored for a few decades, it is still a marked improvement from optical or magnetic storage media.

And now a digression:
A new conundrum is appearing: The immense quantity of data stored over e.g. a millenia or two, plus an increased ability to produce text (through technology and high literacy levels) will lead to enormous amounts of data. In fact, even now we have that problem, both online and offline, e.g. Blackwell's print-book-while-you-wait and the Google Books Library Project. One example of how to handle large amounts of data is the chronological approach, where immediacy is the main criterion for relevance, as found in e.g. Twitter and Facebook.

Expats

2009-06-12T19:02:00.000+02:00

When I was in Dubai recently I heard an interesting non-scientific theory:

There are apparently 3 kinds of expats in Dubai:

Those who are running away from something
Those who are in it for the money
Those who are interested in an international experience in a different cultural and geographical setting.

I am currently very interested in living abroad, and I think my reason is No. 3. There is nothing that I consciously seek to run away from, and wealth is not a strong motivational factor.

Over the last many years, I've had a chance to meet many expats here in Denmark and abroad, and surprisingly many of them are not curious about the country they are in or the culture around them. Luckily, in the last few years especially, I've managed to spend time with category 3 expats.

An additional benefit is that expats are more creative! The Economist writes that expats are e.g. better at solving problems and thinking outside of the box. Yay!

Blog update and holiday videos

2009-06-10T15:22:00.005+02:00

As some of the posts here on the blog are original material produced or co-produced by your truly, I realised there was no easy way to find it. Thus, my opinionated ranting will remain with the current tags, but my original work (or work that I have contributed towards) will now have the additional tag "I made this".

And here are a couple of videos that are part rip offs, part original. I contributed to planning, performing and post-production, but Nic and his Canon and his Mac should have most of the credit.

Charity hijacking

2009-06-08T22:59:00.001+02:00

A new type of benign adware has appeared, which has stirred a lot of controversy in Denmark. It is created by the fundraising company AidOnline, and it functions similarly to malware, hijacking the advertisements shown on websites. 80% of the profit achieved through this advertising program goes to one out of 12 non-profit organisations chosen by the user, while the other 20% goes to cover administrative expenses.

AidOnline takes away valuable profits from a suffering media industry, with a revenue method that is parasitical rather than contributing something of value.

This interruption of newspapers' advertising will reduce their profits even further, putting the whole newspaper industry at risk. The concept of ad-supported content will thus become impossible, perhaps leaving only automated news aggregators as profitable players in the news industry, but with no news to be aggregated, even aggregators will wither.

It is ironic, that in this age of philanthropy, one of the main guardians of democracy, liberty and social justice, the newspaper, is itself in dire need of charity. Should newspapers become non-profit organisations to whom donations are tax-deductible?

Ad-supported services are important. It has proven to be the most significant source of revenue for numerous online services.

The small snippets of news that free newspapers provide are too superficial to be truly informative, and serious articles with depth and careful analysis are important yet often missing in the realm of free news. Serious news is a serious part of a democratic society. And yet serious newspapers are doing poorly.

After some heavy debate in the media, things started changing back to normal: All charities (e.g. Kræftens Bekæmpelse and Danish Red Cross) have ceased their participation in the AidOnline programme. I suppose that the partnership and goodwill they have with the media is too important for the charities to lose it all for some uncertain, risky income.

This makes sense in a number of ways:

Charities will lose the discounted or free advertising newspapers can provide if they join the aidonline.com programme.
Newspapers might be less willing to prioritise charities in their news.
Professional online media might disappear if enough people click on the hijacked ads, as there is nothing left to profit from. Only public broadcasting organisations and companies that start requiring micro-payments can survive without online advertising. Furthermore, in such a scenario, there will be no ads to hijack and therefore no advertising money for the charities.

This whole issue has made me rethink my use of adblockers.

For now, I will disable it, as I don't want to be guilty of the demise of newspapers. As long as they're not too intrusive, I don't mind the ads.

I have commented on the blog of Lisbeth Knudsen, who is the editor-in-chief of Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. It's in Danish, but I basically state that I disagree with ad-hijacking.

Ad-hijacking takes away valuable profits from a suffering media industry, and AidOnline's revenue method is parasitical rather than contributing something of value.

It is morally wrong to hijack ads, even though a large part of the income goes to charity. Besides, AidOnline is a for-profit organisation! Removing ads is not fair to the content producers, and by maintaining the status quo between charities and newspapers it is better for all parties. Without newspapers, who will report on the issues charities deal with and get people's attention?

Future perspectives
The Kindle has not yet been introduced to Denmark. Why aren't newspapers the frontrunners for introducing it to Denmark? They should be creating strategic partnerships with telecom providers, joining forces with publishers and making sure that Danish books and newspapers are represented on digital media. Whoever gets to be the first mover here will have an enormous advantage. The Kindle or a similar device would be an opportunity for micropayments in a controlled environment that Danish newspapers cannot afford to neglect.

Assorted fun stuff

2009-05-27T23:32:00.002+02:00

Here are a few fun things in order to reward you for reading this:

Some of these are cartoons, some are scientific papers and others are weird photos. All of them are funny, in varying degrees.

I really like this one - it's like steampunk meets Banksy meets John Oliver:
Make Haste | AmazingSuperPowers: Webcomic at the Speed of Light
(think I'll make a t-shirt out of that one)

This one is a bit bleak but a reminder of what life is / what to avoid / what to aim for:
Abstruse Goose » Life Path Integral

Long live determinism:
Disproving free will

Random:
Observing clouds

Yes, there's a maximum height, but shouldn't that mean there's a minimum as well?
Science on high heels

Business innovation by DJ Dangermouse

2009-05-19T15:43:00.006+02:00

Many do not know who DJ Dangermouse is, so here's a quick update of what he is most famous for:

[He] created The Grey Album, mixing a cappella versions of Jay Z's The Black Album over beats crafted from samples of The Beatles' White Album. The remix album, originally created just for his friends, spread over the Internet and became very popular with both the general audience and critics, with Rolling Stone calling it "the ultimate remix record" and Entertainment Weekly ranking it the best record of the year. Source

"The Grey Album", which Danger Mouse released in limited quantities to a few internet outlets, created a massive amount of controversy when EMI, copyright holder of The Beatles, ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution. Source

And now to get to the point:

1: DJ Dangermouse just made another new album titled "The Dark Night of the Soul".

2: "Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to include music on the CD without fear of legal entanglement."

3: DJ Dangermouse not only releases the album on the internet but this time he publishes a "limited edition art book [that] contains 100+ pages of original photographs by celebrated film director David Lynch" and "he has included a blank CD-R as an artifact to use however you see fit." Source. Not only is this a provocation to record companies who need to figure out a way to deal with legal rights without stifling creativity, it is also an innovative approach to creating a new business model.

This way of doing business is quite similar to the two-tier business model based on gratis, that Chris Anderson elaborates on:

"Freemium [...] coined by venture capitalist Fred Wilson, is the basis of the subscription model of media and is one of the most common Web business models. It can take a range of forms: varying tiers of content, from free to expensive, or a premium "pro" version of some site or software with more features than the free version (think Flickr and the $25-a-year Flickr Pro)."

Until recently the music industry has tried to cash in by selling t-shirts, posters, concert tickets, etc. to offset some of their losses from the dramatic drop in record sales, while also selling music on CDs, LPs and online. Breaking away from that business model, DJ Dangermouse is offering the music for free (getting lots of street-cred along the way), and places the album in the realm of art by introducing the element of scarcity (5000 hand numbered copies) to the creation. Thus it seems as if the work of art in the age of digital reproduction might find a new way.

Considering the popularity of digital music, it has been surprising to see how fast the booklet that comes along with CDs has been forgotten. It had some value to fans, but perhaps not enough to really be worth the trouble of having a hardcopy of a music album. On the other hand, "The Dark Night of the Soul" has turned this upside down by taking advantage of the marginal cost of digital music distribution (zero) and made the album booklet (a 100+ pages art book in this case) the object of interest.

My favourite song (so far) from the album:
Little Girl - Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse ft. Julian Casablancas

Assorted fun videos

2009-05-17T23:18:00.005+02:00

Hilarious take on Obama vs. Beyoncé:

A classic from Monty Python - The Argument Clinic:

Something I'm tempted to say every time I'm in a Starbucks:

via videosift.com

Here's another one, you have to click to view it:
A meal to die for

Texts for budding entrepreneurs

2009-05-16T18:19:00.005+02:00

I was asked by Disa Skvisa to suggest some texts regarding entrepreneurship, so as they might be useful to others as well I included them here too.

These are randomly chosen entrepreneurial texts, most of whom are non-academical, with little theory and often based on anecdotal evidence. Some of them can be motivating or inspiring when it comes to starting your own business, some of them seem to be sound advice and some of them might overwhelm with information.

Proceed with caution! :)

http://www.changethis.com/8.BootstrappersBible

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_art_of_boot.html

http://www.entrepreneur.com/

http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html

http://www.businessballs.com/

http://personalmba.com/manifesto/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/01/10-business-lessons-from-a-snarky-entrepreneur/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/10-stupid-mistakes-made-by-the-newly-self-employed/

It's been a while since I've read (or skimmed) these, hope they're still relevant.

Conservative perception of Colbert

2009-05-14T10:27:00.000+02:00

It is no secret that I enjoy political humour, but this academic paper (The Irony of Satire - Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report) came as a surprise.

From its abstract (my emphasis):

Using datafrom an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-levelpolitical ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert'spolitical ideology. Additionally, there was no significant differencebetween the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservativeswere more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to bejoking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals weremore likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not seriouswhen offering political statements.

Via Huffington Post

For those who don't know who Stephen Colbert is, here's a taste:
Colbert vs. President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner

Yes! But also no, for various reasons.

2009-05-13T09:59:00.002+02:00

An article in Slate Magazine about the overuse of exclamation points offers plenty of solid commentary regarding modern communication:

For centuries, that which was written had to deserve to be written. Today's technology, however, allows us to transmit doodles of thought [...] we know what we're saying doesn't deserve to be written at all.

And

Like 24-hour cable newscasters, we compensate for the unworthiness of our meanings by being emphatic! (A good rule of thumb: The more insignificant the message, the more exclamations it will require.) It's a Freudian reaction formation: I really mean it! I loved the conference! OMG did I LOVE it!!!!!!

I enjoy using exclamation points and smiley faces (moderately) but mainly for the sake of keeping a light-hearted tone in otherwise drab e-mail conversations. Meaning and reason should not be divorced from the message. Luckily, most of the people I know have something to say when writing or speaking. It's been a long time since I've last heard the unrestrained voices of people who have nothing to say but say it very loudly, without a hint of irony or a touch of self-awareness. Without substance, reason or rational argument. And I don't miss it at all.

Obama's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

2009-05-12T10:19:00.002+02:00

Posting this in case anyone has missed it, worth watching:

Link

Democratic afterparty in the U.S.

2009-05-12T09:11:00.006+02:00

The Democrats in the U.S. have a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the President is a Democrat and everything seems to be jolly. The Republicans are doing worse and worse (and deservedly mocked), as can be seen in this excerpt from Time Magazine:

[Republicans] lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter. Polls suggest that only one-fourth of the electorate considers itself Republican, that independents are trending Democratic and that as few as five states have solid Republican pluralities. And the electorate is getting less white, less rural, less Christian — in short, less demographically Republican. (Link)

Some people rejoice, some are terrified of a socialist dictatorship, and the article states that hubris is likely: that the Democratic party will overstep its mandate and govern too carelessly as there is no opposition to speak of.

However, there are consequences of the Democratic party becoming the norm. The Democratic party could break up, caused by the insurgence of new (perhaps formerly Republican) members, by its growth and by its broad range of values. It might divide into a party of moderate centrists and radical leftists by simply getting too big for its own good.

How would the U.S. look with a system of three large parties? Could it make sense if each government had to be a coalition, forcing them to cooperate with politicians who agree less with each other?

Unless the Republican party completely breaks down or is taken over by Rush Limbaugh, the breakup of the Democratic party will most likely never happen, though. What might occur is something similar to Republican neoconservatism, a movement in a specific direction within the party, under the same party colours and with the same fundamental beliefs.

Aesthetic experiences online

2009-04-26T14:21:00.003+02:00

This photo-in-photo-in-photo mosaic is very cool, just keep clicking:
National Geographic - Infinite Photograph

This website is really taking flash to a whole new level, it makes surfing a pleasure:
http://www.bio-bak.nl/

This video is a mashup of Pink Floyd, parkour, environmental sustainability and some modern dance beats, enjoy:
Eric Prydz vs. Pink Floyd - Proper Education

OC presentation video

2009-04-21T14:05:00.007+02:00

I've been busy preparing for and attending an AIESEC conference, which is why there haven't been much blog activity recently. Here's the crazy amazing video we prepared to present the members of the Organising Committee (OC):

The movie is written, directed, edited, etc. by Nicolai (Nic).
Starring: Daniel, Fernando, Florence, Gabby, Gorjan, Jennifer, Joyce, Judith, Julia, Mikey, Nic, Ulrika and Vess.

There are a few more videos and speeches and such that will appear soon, so you've got something to look forward to!

Update: This is now the latest version of the video.

Austen as a living dead

2009-04-09T14:26:00.002+02:00

A very funny premise for a remake of a classic!

Haven't you always felt like something was missing in Jane Austen's masterpiece? Now it's here: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". The basics of the book:

the Bennet family lives in a rural English village, where their primary concerns are a) marrying off their five daughters, and b) defending themselves against wave after wave of the remorseless, relentless walking dead.

Might not be worth reading the whole thing, but the idea itself is damn funny!

The full review is in Time Magazine.

See also this sketch about Pride and Prejudice.

Meat you in New York

2009-04-08T14:11:00.001+02:00

Meat does not grow in supermarket refrigerators.

I once shared an apartment with a person who refused to eat meat that was still attached to bones.

I wonder if many people feel like that?

Watch a video of Banksy's installation art in New York for a delightful perspective on such matters:

This is not unconventional for the sake of unconventionality, this is provocative for the sake of reminding us about areas in life that we otherwise take for granted.

Banksy's work is thoroughly enjoyable (the website might be down, though).

Unradical conventionalism

2009-04-07T14:02:00.000+02:00

You might be radical now, but as you become more influential, your radicalism is likely to become conventional. Tyler Cowen has an interesting post about the road to conventionality.

Some of his points are:

2. As people become more influential, they are less interested in offending their new status quo-oriented friends.
3. As people become more influential, their opinion of the status quo rises, because they see it rewarding them and thus meritorious.

In a best case scenario, what was once an odd and radical idea could end up becoming the norm. You will then be conventional not because you have adapted to society, but because society has adapted to you:

5. Oddballs who are influential arrive first at where the status quo is later headed, and eventually they end up looking conventional.

You could seek out new unconventional areas to continue to be radical, but what's the point of being radical for the sake of radicalism?

It should not be a desire for unconventionalism that drives you, but rather a desire for something else, which might happen to be unconventional. Otherwise you just want change for the sake of change, not change for the sake of something better.

Existential Stress

2009-04-06T13:21:00.004+02:00

The concept of existential stress has to do with a desire to live more than one full life at the same time.

Basically, it's the career person who wants to be a really good parent, as well as an amazingly productive artistic soul, but also has time for friends, and yet manages to spend time alone reading, writing diaries and reflecting.

The desire can be boiled down to wanting to have 24*5=120 hours per 24 hours of real time. This means that crazily ambitious people need to achieve 5 minutes of professional work, parenting, creativity, friendship, coffee with friends and reflection every time one minute passes.

A great way to develop existential stress is by comparing yourself to highly successful people in all of the above areas, and then expecting your own achievements to be equally successful, or better yet - superior.

You can embody only what is good from people who spent their whole lives focusing on one area, and absorb the best from a multitude of people so that you, a renaissance person, can fulfil your potential.

Keep dreaming.

Review of Bin Ladens' "Management by Hiding in Caves"

2009-04-02T01:16:00.026+02:00

5/5 burkas

One of the most recent publications from Fundamentalist Press Inc. is a soon-to-be bestseller full of management tips for the modern professional who wants to make a difference.

The author of "Management by Hiding in Caves", Osama Bin Laden, includes some of the best management ideas that has resulted from his professional career in the last two decades.

Among the unexpected revelations of the book is the explanation for why bombs in trash cans (bins) are not an option for Bin Laden's organisation, as the potential pun would make it unbearable.

Some quotes from the book:

You must reward your high achievers, while aligning their rewards with the overall organisational goals. I do this using a STIP (Short Term Incentive Programme), making sure rewards are coordinated with the individual freedom fighting efforts of individuals. Musicals on DVD are a very popular reward, with Mamma Mia in extremely high demand.

We value innovation and creativity very highly, which is why we are one of the preferred employers in the Afghan mountains. For us, creativity means 'thinking out of the cave', and it is something I do my utmost to encourage. Everyone in my workforce uses 20% of his or her working week on a target of their own choice.

The sections of the book are divided into five areas of management that the author considers crucial for his executive work.

The section on strategic planning shows his use of a Balanced Scorecard. The main Key Performance Indicator is the weekly quantity of media attention, which has made him seriously consider appearing on television talent shows. At office parties, one of the most popular events is the recurring karaoke-performance of "Hallelujah" by Bin Laden himself. He admits to being a big Leonard Cohen fan.

The section on project management describes Bin Laden's slightly modified usage of Gantt-charts. Project cost calculations are based on the number of employees lost per project, as they are the main expense. However, he considers himself to be lucky to be in a business where high employee turnover is not a problem but a solution.

The HRM chapter includes anecdotes to illustrate the complexities of managing a fundamentalist workforce, the high point being how Bin Laden defeated an attempt at unionising. No one has ever tried to increase the number of virgins in paradise since. He concludes: "72 virgins should be enough for anyone".

Lean management has proven very valuable in Bin Laden's organisation. He takes Lean very seriously and has cut down on food expenses for his executive bombers. The official explanation is that food in paradise will taste much better if they build up an appetite for it.

Value-based management is a key word for the last chapter in the book, in which Bin Laden describes how he teaches that self-sacrifice is crucial, and lets impatient employees have the privilege of meeting their virgins sooner rather than later.

The book is comparable to some of the best management and leadership literature out there, and highly relevant for anyone in the corporate sector.

Apocalyptic housing prices

2009-03-31T17:59:00.005+02:00

Earlier this month I wrote about apocalyptic religions and how their values and actions run counter to other parts of society.

I would like to follow up on that post by referring to an article from the NYT:
Houses of God: Did Evangelicals Curb the Housing Bubble? (from MR)

There is apparently a correlation between evangelical house prices and whether the world is falling to pieces or not:

Many evangelicals [...] believe that the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus Christ will be marked by great calamity. Putting these two views together, Mr. Crowe proposes that evangelicals are more likely to spend money when times are bad for nonbelievers. If you’re with Mr. Crowe, then it’s not a great leap to think that evangelicals interpret bad-news events as good news.

I find it ironical that this benefits society by balancing some of the enormous fluctuations on the financial markets. For many people, a forthcoming rapture is a part of their daily lives. They think short term when they buy cars, houses and invest in education.

How many thousands of years will it take for the apocalypse to disprove itself?

If you ruin your personal finances at least you're only imposing suffering upon yourself. What I am afraid of is that such a worldview will impact your surroundings. Why should you care about the environment if you have this point of view? And what will become of your innocent indoctrinated children?

Legacy over troubled water

2009-03-30T18:49:00.003+02:00

Legacy can seem a desirable thing to leave behind, after you've been in a position for a while. You can change things around to show that you've been there, rename things, redefine your position. You can leave a mark, set your footprint, plant a flag, scratch your name in the furniture, but there is risk attached to such change.

By insisting on leaving a legacy you run the risk of enforcing unnecessary change. Change is not a bad thing, but it is not necessarily a good thing either. Especially if the purpose of change is change.

Of course you will leave a legacy, that is unavoidable. Working anywhere for just a couple of months will leave a sense of you behind. You will be remembered even if you don't make changes. Let people remember you as a person, not just as the one who changed this or that. You don't have to change things around. Solidifying systems, creating stability, that is also legacy. That will enable those who come after you to benefit from those who came before you.

How will your successors benefit from your predecessors if you revolutionise your function? How will stability be achieved when everything is turned upside down after a few tries? Stop reinventing the wheel. Hold your horses.

Maybe you can leave a legacy in the details. You can continue the processes or structure that came before you. Become a bridge between the past the present and the future. Make clear guidelines for exactly how to do your role successfully based on your experience. Instead of turning the big picture around you can actually paint a smaller picture inside the framework that was given to you. Develop the platform you were given and make it better. Don't let your personal, team or organisational ego create counterproductivity.

Let stability be your impact, and continuity be your legacy.

Disclaimer: This was an unprovoked thought that is not intended for anyone specifically. No individuals were thought of in the making of this post.

Are you looking for a date?

2009-03-29T22:15:00.001+02:00

Hilarious! They even got the mother from BBC's Pride and Prejudice series to appear in the sketch!

(Although it's probably only funny if you're familiar with the story, ideally the BBC series)

Here's Omid's website: http://www.omidnoagenda.com/

Free will fundamentalism

2009-03-29T18:14:00.002+02:00

Reuters published an article on March 26th titled "U.N. body adopts resolution on religious defamation", and its first paragraph says:

A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries.

The article continues:

Western governments and a broad alliance of activist groups have voiced dismay about the religious defamation text, which adds to recent efforts to broaden the concept of human rights to protect communities of believers rather than individuals.

Pakistan, speaking for the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said a "delicate balance" had to be struck between freedom of expression and respect for religions.

Imagine the uproar on the Internets... Nincompoops in unison shouting bigotry, obscenities and spitting stupidities in everyone's general direction. The strong reaction is understandable as it appears to be an attack on the freedom of expression, but it is an overreaction.

No one bothered to find the source material, to see if this is as bad as it seems. In spite of the article being so obviously manipulative. So here's my retort:

The Reuters article is grossly misleading.

The "U.N. body" that the article refers to (U.N. Human Rights Council) is a tiny council consisting of a fraction of the total number of U.N. members. Its resolution is non-binding, and it has nothing to do with the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.

Furthermore, the resolution in question is directed towards "acts of psychological and physical violence and assaults, and incitement thereto". While it makes perfect sense to advertise atheism on London's buses, it is objectionable for an organisation or individuals to hit non-atheists in the head.

The resolution will most likely be misinterpreted and taken out of context in some places, but in itself, it is not as repulsive as the Reuters article makes it seem.

Quote from the resolution:

On combating defamation of religions, the Council strongly deplored all acts of psychological and physical violence and assaults, and incitement thereto, against persons on the basis of their religion or belief, and such acts directed against their businesses, properties, cultural centres and places of worship, as well as targeting of holy sites, religious symbols and venerated personalities of all religions. The Council noted with deep concern the intensification of the overall campaign of defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general, including the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 September 2001. Source: U.N. Human Rights Council

Imagine if a misrepresentation such as this article from Reuters caused 'free will fundamentalists' to burn U.N. buildings or houses of worship?

I compete, therefore I am (human)?

2009-03-28T17:33:00.011+01:00

Just read an extraordinary article in The Economist: Darwinian answers to social questions | Why we are, as we are

It provides highly plausible answers to:

Male and female income difference
People's pursuit of wealth
Racial discrimination
Murder and infanticide

Best of all, the ideas in the article are not based on social constructivism! They are actual, finite answers! I am not even going to attempt to summarise the article, read it when you have time.

In this light, some questions come to mind:

Knowing what we know (especially considering the above article), is it then at all possible to avoid the competition for relative wealth?
Will abandoning the competition for relative wealth inevitably result in competition in some other area such as intellectual status, religious status or some other type of self-promotion?

Sharing what you make/produce/write could be seen as doing just this, i.e. competing for attention and social status. For this competition to be avoided, one would have to make films, write books, start companies or write blogs secretly and anonymously. This blog is not anonymous, and what does that say about me?

On the other hand, wearing flashy clothes is not anonymous either. We are social beings, and all our interactions communicate on several levels. Is it sufficient to conclude that competition is an existential condition?

I'm reluctant to compete, to chase others' approval or compliments. I find it easier to accept compliments directed to me that could have been done by others (e.g. clothing, behaviour and even skills), than compliments about qualities which cannot be reproduced by others (e.g. intelligence, humour). Is it because the voice of my inner closet socialist prevents me from enjoying competitions? But if competition is an existential condition, then how to accept competition that is forced upon you?

The answer must be (half-jokingly only, unfortunately) that I am a passive-aggressive competitor - watch the video below. Again it looks like comedy has the answer to life's questions! :)

Important Things with Demetri Martin	Wed 10:30pm / 9:30c
Games - Passive Aggressive Race
comedycentral.com

Modern economic problems

2009-03-27T18:10:00.006+01:00

This is just...brilliant. Make sure you watch all three parts!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

This episode is taking the discussion of economics to a new, much lower level.

And perhaps a more important level.

Instead of discussing blame, or whether banks should leverage only 20 instead of 45 times, this South Park episode shows some of the ridiculousness of the financial system and of consumers.

In my opinion, government regulations should prevent people from over-borrowing, banks from over-leveraging, and media for over-inflating stock market bubbles.

Spend money, but do it wisely.

Accountability and Newspapers

2009-03-27T00:26:00.018+01:00

First, a humorous image:

(image from Time Magazine)
However, this is not only a joke. We saw it with the Jim Cramer/CNBC discussion and we see it during most of Jon's non-entertainer interviews. Tough questions, deep reflection, softened by a few jokes, but still probing.

Why does Jon seem like a critical journalist compared to 'real' news networks? Jon has a very good explanation for it in the following interview on Larry King (I set the video to start at 5:06 on purpose):

It's very likely true that it's easier to ask the tough questions if you're not an insider in the media industry. And if you're writing articles and interviewing people it's pretty hard not to be an industry insider. It's a popular area with plenty of experienced professionals, graduates in abundance and wannabes that will even work for free, and the number of employment opportunities is constantly falling.

The media industry is suffering from the game-theoretical perspective that it pays off to be nice to other people because you might encounter them again in the future. This is very useful in small societies and communities, including among journalists. Not playing nice can have dire consequences for more than just the individual reporter. When the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende published an article that linked A.P. Moller to the sales of weapons to Germany during WWII, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller sold all his shares of the paper, exposing it to financial turmoil. (Link in Danish only)

Unfortunately, playing nice makes for bad reporting. The tough questions are not asked, the critical stance is replaced with friendly camaraderie and shoulder-patting. And it might only get worse. With newspapers constantly laying off employees (NYT for example) it will become increasingly difficult for journalists to ask tough questions. There are jobs at stake, interviewees to maintain relationships with and a financial crisis to boot. That's why the outsiders are so important, or insiders who have nothing to lose, or insiders who bravely maintain their integrity in spite of what they have to lose.

Tour of Chernobyl

2009-03-24T11:37:00.001+01:00

Heartbreaking images of Chernobyl as it stands today:
http://www.grcade.com/viewtopic.php?t=2217

I'm quite confident about the safety of modern nuclear plants, and would rather use nuclear than coal-powered electricity. I do hope, however, that scientists will find a way to reduce the amount of radioactive waste produced.