Musings of a professional geek
I can disagree with XKCD at all on this. Truth, pure IT truth. It either resonates for you or it doesn’t, and a part of me wishes that it didn’t as I’d have less experience with Adobe and Java updates.
I’ve done the digging and reading (previous post), and I think it is darn hard to find a better offering than Feedly to replace Google’s Reader. It has a few niggling interface drawbacks, but I have not had he service miss a step since starting, and the others that I’ve tried have all had issues on up-time, or do not offer a comparable feature-set. Feedly wins.
Current Google Reader users have till end of June, then their world ends (cue dramatic thunderclap)
What can you learn by linking geo-referencing an IP address? Lots of stuff. Like apparently the Vatican folks might have a taste for movie screeners and porn, and that they might need a good VPN tunneling service if the continue to do this.
Found via What porn do they watch in the Vatican? – Boing Boing.
It is unfair to assume that the holy brothers are doing this, just like it is unfair to assume that you are downloading illegal material just because just because your home IP address is listed in the torrent lists. What is the likelihood of this being true? How much do we really care for the habits of the Vatican anyway? Courts have ruled that it cannot be linked in Australia, and the Vatican folks deserve the same measure of doubt. I wonder if they’ll get the same three warning my ISP gives me.
I do like the idea of a Vatican rep defending the holy folk, potentially suggesting it is visitors or hackers doing this, and that puts the point of IP based behaviour firmly in the land of moot for the rest of us mundane folk. Thanks be to god.
Google Reader told me today that it is being turned off on July 1st 2013. Well fark, that is less than fantastic.
The change affects a few other Google products which are also getting shutdown (techcrunch article src). The list of also ending was a range of API type tools and some apps that I’d never heard of, and certainly not even close to the size and presence of Google’s RSS viewer. I’ll be sorry to see Google Reader go because it is essentially what I looked for in an RSS app – simple interface, no overt plugs/ads, integrated to my other info, single login, with a few techie bells and whistles. A slashdotter said, and I agree:
I realize that Google Reader probably did not make enough money, and/or drive enough traffic, to justify its continued existence. But I spend more time on Google Reader than any other website, by a considerable margin, and I’ll miss it.
I’d even pay, if they offered it as a subscription service for a nominal fee.
I’d assume that it “failed” because the revenue was not there from the ads, and a business choice was made to stop giving away bandwidth and functionality for free. This closure opens opportunities for other dev shops to pick up the ball and get some new customers – paying customers. I think it will be easier now for another product to have a small fee for an RSS viewer now that G-Reader is ending. The consumer is being taught that obvious but awful lesson of how much we can really get for free.
Alas I will move my rss feeds – using the Google TakeAway tool to export the information, then import into a replacement.
The wise and venerable nerds on SlashDot (for whom I have only respect and true awe) have made a few recommendations for a replacement: The Old Reader and NewsBlur. I also already use a handy app called Feedly to read my google rss list on my mobile, so perhaps I’ll be set there.
As an overview to these apps:
The Old Reader – As a tool it looks to function in a very similar manner to Google Reader. Same clicky-paste subscribe, similar display options, and I’m going to continue to evaluate it as time goes on.
TOR also has a nice UI trick where an item is read once you have scrolled through it, which now that I use it make good sense. Clever folks.
I am suss that a product which Google could not fund, or did not want to carry forward could be replaced by another product and does not have a cost. Interesting.
NewsBlur – is a bit more of a clicky & graphical interface, and I had display issues when trialing it, and then import issues as well. But I’m OK with that – especially as their traffic must be going off the charts as all the Google Reader folks spin and smash new services.
They do offer some good ideas in terms of following and assigning your own tags, and also allowing priority or exclusion of keywords within subscriptions. Good idea there folks, but not at all the speed that ToR or G’s Reader.
Feedly had some of the same issues as NewsBlur when I tried to muck around with the Firefox plug-in, but a few refresh-reloads later and I have a single page view of feeds. Frankly I don’t like plug-ins much, and think it is a 3rd best option. Looks good in a long big screen, and very different from the mobile view.
In my initial test it displayed the generic information poorly and hung right, and a such I could not see how/where to get my Google Reader info into it. Fixed itself though.
Not to say that Feedly can be ignored though, as the interface on the iphone is darn good (I already use it), and they certainly have backing enough to be around in a years time.
Big call for this migration is to consider who will still be in business, as that is why I thought I’d try Google first. My mistake.
So which will win?
No bloody idea. They all have issues in performance now, and that will get better for a bit, then probably worse when all the extra users go over to them. I’d hedge that The Old reader is a good way to go first.
If you get any of them working properly, or have a passionate love or dislike for one, then let me know.
There are shows that are so damn good out there that make me want to slap on an eye patch, glue a parrot to my shoulder, and gurgle “Arrrrr” all the way through a BitTorrent client. The Game of Thrones, the Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Sherlock, and Hell of Wheels are the top shows I can immediately think of. These shows are incredibly high quality and worth paying for.
Alas they are distributed in an unfriendly manner in Australia. Some are not available, others are shown in Pay channels only, populated with ads and still broadcast at unfriendly times. The Walking Dead is shown on a pay tv service, with ads, at times which are probably appropriate for its rating but still frustrating.
Even the previews and community information sites which banter about these shows are often blocked, which leaves me feeling like a second class consumer.
Of these TV shows I’ve seen smatterings of some, and a fair proportion of others – via a range of mediums, be that purchased dvds, borrowed media, downloads, and some such. Some were even free to air (actually free) and at almost consistent times during a schedule. Sometimes I get to watch the preview teaser and that’s about it. I’m not sure that some of the shows will ever be on free-to-air TV in Australia at all, which is why Aussies get used to either streaming content, or more often using a Pay TV service or the DVDs.
There are any number of website blogs/posts talking about how it’s fair and reasonable to pirate content because it takes too long to get to Australia, or that the distribution network is unfriendly, or not high bandwidth enough. I feel that pain too.
But it struck home today after flipping through the comments on a Walking Dead page just how much rubbish those points of criticism are. The fact is that these shows are awesome and I mirror some of the attitudes of the “pirate customers” where the range of barriers frustrates me too much.
In spite of that the distributors creators are:
So I get why the Distributors are not interesting in changing, and also why the file-sharers will not stop stealing content. Two aspects of a problem, where one is clearly frustrated and also clearly illegal. The general rule for Australia is that the shows are unavailable in a timely manner after release in the USA, even when that option costs a very large amount of money.
This creates a huge divide between the two views, more of a polarity: those who pay and those who steal.
That said, there has to be a way for the distributors to get some of the money that the people in the middle would give them, if a channel which was not wasteful and expensive existed. Apple’s iTunes is one for Game of Thrones where a digital copy was allowed, and each episode was paid for separately. That is a reasonable option, is quick and current, although it still seemed too expensive to my taste.
So what would I pay? Approx $2-4 per episode. Yes I know that is cheap, and here is why.
I measure the cost of the service, entertainment, or experience against what else it can provide. A season of a show runs approx 13 episodes which gives a rather skimpy revenue stream of $26 to $52; or as I like to think of it a DVD season of a show. It could also be measured up against a good bottle of wine.
Also a single episode of a TV show is not worth a lot by itself, or out of order. That means that to create a valued product the offering would need to incorporate several shows, offering a bundle of content with flexibility. Then allow me to stream/downland that content in a timely way after the USA release and I’m happy.
Something like a AMC+HBO-Australia, where I can pick a few shows and get them all. I’d be really happy, and especially happy as I would not need to install a shitty Foxtel-like box in the house, and also can have flexibility to view it everywhere I wish. That is a product with appeal downunder. Do you think HBO or AMC would be happy to take $100 to $200+ per year from me direct into their coffers? Yes, I think they’d be keen. And I’ll happy give it to them if they can get on-board with a better global distribution model.
Happy viewing.
PS – It is ever stranger to me that the folks who locally “print” the DVD and BluRays download a master of the show, and then burn them for sale in stores. If the distribution networks are good enough to do that, then they can mock-up or use an existing distribution system to get content out to the masses via selective subscription.
Yes, that will slow down the DVD sales, but the pirates were never those customers, and the DVDs charge a heck of a lot for material which is just pointless to me as a viewer (packaging, freight, dvd extras, branding, etc).
Holy insane dedication batman! 100 people, 4 months. Stunning Full image gallery.
Incredible. These folks win at Game of Throne Minecraft. You might need to understand what Minecraft is to appreciate the effort, or be a GoT fan to not think it is a little extreme use of time – I’m both. Impressed. Thanks to Ant for the link.
Pizzainacup on Reddit – It took me and about 100 other builders a little over 4 months to build the whole thing. We estimate theres around 3000 unique buildings, all hand made and all fully decorated on the interior.
The insanity level might be moderate, until I found out that they rendered the interior spaces as well.
And because insanity needs a project, they’re also doing all of Westeros.
Refs:
No, Instagram can’t sell your photos: what the new terms of service really mean | The Verge.
The Verge has reasonable summary of the Intragram hype around the potential change of license, and the furor that it created within their community and in the wider communities who are concerned. The article is a reasonable and human readable presentation of what is going on in terms of Instagram, and will serve to act as a reminder to users of other services such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Google+ and all the other social aspects of online life. Heck Redit and 4Chan probably also have the capacity to sell posts and material too. Why shouldn’t they? What security did the users pay for? And what is the contractual financial penalty for a breech. Fundamentally not much.
When did everyone brutally decouple their brains and un-think enough, to the point where they though SHARING STUFF ON THE INTERNET WAS SAFE? Seriously.
These companies seek profit, and that means that if you are not the vendor or the customer, then you are the product. If you share material online using these tools then you better get used to it. You = Product.
Instagram has clarified the position so that they are not selling material as much as using it in segway type adds, but really its the same thing (and that might have changed since this writing this, due to community backlash). To me the idea that the company can do anything with my material makes me and my material a commodity.
Users need to moderate what they share online so that anytime a company decides to share/sell/market or even miss-use your material you are not sharing something you thought was private or unique. We should consider posting material to social sites to be the same as posting them on a billboard on the highway. The person chose to post it, and cannot control what happens after that.
Honestly I can’t believe the uproar because I though this was obvious from the start. Content aggregators have been trawling the internet for years already grabbing material, and unless you are very tricky and tech savvy, or very litigious, their aggregation methods will be successful.
What can users do? Well remove and delete things that you don’t want to share. Perhaps delete your account if you feel that strongly, but to be honest the damage might already be done for some material. Be smarter and make a choice from this point forward for each phrase, image, or file you share online.
This is hopefully a blinding flash that scares people into considering what they post before they post. Perhaps the breadth of the impact is enough to drive home the point about keeping your stuff private?
I really hope so. Remember… you are the product.
I had a bit of trouble syncing my Google calendars (yes there are a few) with the iphone, and now that its working I thought it better to share the knowledge.
The problem I had was that my Google Calendar contained three separate sub-calendars, and two of them would sync, but the third would not. This mean that I could see all my data when I viewed the calendar on whatever browser, but opening the calendar on the setup iPhone was missing one.
The (TLDR) solution is to tell Google which devices it syncs from are meant to show which calendars. You do this by going to the two URLs and authorising the calendars individually.
To make the process even more odd, but logical behind the scenes the second URL is for syncing of mobile devices, and you need to authorise each sub-calendar on each device which may connect to it. This was the key step I was missing – i.e. I had setup sync for the browser, but not in the specific device and then for the sub-calendar.
Once I did that it worked fine. For a more verbose explanation and some side-detail continue reading below.
Viola!
Gmail is a better email provides than most of the other free webmail options around, but folks still have issues. Yesterday I was trying to find a specific purpose and I realised that I’d never used any of the advanced search options.
e.g: from:andrew has:attachment – will find all emails from Andrew where there was an attachment.
Now that I know what they are I’ll be using them all the time. They make Gmail great. Some highlights are:
Better still you can setup filters using these rules too, so that frequent searches are easy to redo.
This is a rant about late trains in Melbourne, it’s more therapy for me than informational. Read more of this post
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