Category / Technology

by Greg

Smart Phones, Not Smart?

Smart phones

Is it possible for smart phones to not be smart? Or is that up to us, and the way we employ them?

Recently I had the opportunity to visit a Starbucks for a “Venti Chai Latte, no water” (my typical order) on not just one occasion, but three consecutive days! The combination of our son attending a hockey camp, the convenience of a Starbucks location right on my main route home, and credit enough on a Starbucks card registered to me to cover three beverages—all created the perfect storm scenario. (To which I happily succumbed.)

Now, I realize that there is a certain ‘culture’ that surrounds Starbucks. Be it a Seattle-esque culture, or some other subset of American life (though it’s maybe so prevalent that it is no longer deserving of the ‘sub-‘ prefix?) one is generally not surprised by the clientele encountered upon entering any of these establishments. I was not aware, however, that part of this culture includes the necessity of owning—and holding/using—a so-called ‘smart phone’.

Upon entering this particular Starbucks, located in a retail-heavy area near several colleges and universities, I was struck by the fact that every person in a line comprised of about a dozen people was holding, and actively using one of these ‘smart phones’.

Every one!

There were several iPhones, along with a few other varieties. Apple’s device was the predominant choice. Every single patron was flicking their fingers along the tiny screens, transfixed, focused upon and interacting with touch sensors and light diodes—and mostly not interacting with the others around them, though there was one “regular” with whom the staff jovially conversed.

In the interest of full disclosure, I also walked into the shop, iPhone in hand, at the ready.1 🙂

Upon realizing the fullness of this cultural reality, however, I did return my phone to its designated pants pocket.

Slightly taken aback, I wondered how we’d gotten here. How have we allowed technology to so consume us? Every moment that we are not actively doing something else, we are engaging our technology. There are certainly many ways in which our technology does connect us to people, or allow us to be productive in our work or hobbies, but it almost feels as though we’re to the point where many of us are not ‘OK’ without it.

Doesn’t it?

Maybe it’s just the ‘Starbucks crowd’. But I don’t think so.

I saw a video not long ago that presents this disconnection from reality that our ‘smart’ phones have allowed us to … enjoy? It is very short, maybe even poignant.

I Forgot My Phone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8?rel=0

I’m not saying smart phones will be the end of us, but doesn’t the video above portray—a bit too accurately, too vividly—what we are becoming?

Perhaps we need to put the ‘smart’ back in our smart phones, and relegate them to their times and purposes. (And disconnect from them all the rest of the time.)

That sounds smart to me.

  1. There is an app on the phone for Starbucks that allows you to not only view a balance on a Starbucks card, but you can actually pay using the phone. With one or two taps, the screen displays a barcode that can be scanned at the store, completing your purchase! Fun. Practical. And many of the folks there were prepping their phones for this purpose. ↩
by Greg

My Indirect (and Disastrous) Encounter(s) with Endurance International Group

Endurance International Group, Inc. (EIG)This is a “for the record” kind of post. Perhaps you’ll find it as appalling interesting as I have while following all of the connected trails in my research.

A good while back now, in what was the early childhood of the “internets“, I began what is my current career of website hosting management and development. It began innocently enough as a desire to share our music online. (Did you know that there is a website that preserves previous versions of the web—like, the entire web?? Have a look at one of the earliest versions of our music site.)1

It Started Off So Well…

When I first moved into the world of web hosting, somewhere around 2004, I found a company named iPower (or iPowerweb) which offered very inexpensive packages with more features than I had seen elsewhere. What really convinced me was their reseller package, with a small team of tech support people who were available 24/7, knew me and my websites, and were very knowledgeable/helpful/professional. I was sold. This company was a relatively small “start-up” out of Phoenix who offered technical service and expertise, and excellent customer support.

(In the meantime, I found another small company who had a slightly better reseller package which allowed me to purchase a large server space and apportion it as needed, in my own packages, to clients as they needed. I signed on with them around the same time, too. Their biggest sell was the company’s owner/operator—a one-man-show—who was great at customer support. There’s a theme here!)

Meanwhile…

While I was merrily, blissfully plugging along in my burgeoning little web business, giant shark-like companies were smelling blood (or, money?) and swarming around these small-to-medium sized hosting companies, gobbling them up in large chunks.

Unbeknownst to me at this time, a company named Endurance International Group was acquiring small hosting companies left and right, and becoming this large conglomerate of very cheap web hosting solutions under various brands. You can see a rather comprehensive list (with sources) at the Wikipedia page for EIG.

But again, this was actually still unbeknownst to me.

Troublesome Signs

Somewhere around 2007, after a few years of great service from iPower, I noticed a sharp, nearly instantaneous decline in their service. I began to have all sorts of issues (email issues, server slowness/downtime) and on top of that, I would sometimes be on hold, waiting to chat with that stellar support team for 30-45 minutes! What?! When I was finally able to speak with one of the tech guys with whom I had built a working relationship over the three years or so, I was informed that they were making changes, and greatly reduced the size of the support team—which greatly reduced their support to their customers!

I was definitely saddened, but pressed on because I believed in this small company that had provided such great service to me and my clients for so long. What I didn’t know was that these changes were due to iPower being acquired by EIG.2

(Sadly, at roughly the same time, that other hosting company I was hosting the majority of my sites through was expieriencing their own failures—one after another! I endured this for longer than the trouble with iPower as I understood the difficulties of running your own business. That company was essentially a one-man operation, so I stuck it out as long as I could. But eventually, it was such a melt-down I had to exit that situation, too.)

The First Big Change

With the frustrating circumstances of this time period sufficiently endured, I endeavored to make another change, hoping for something similar to what I had found in 2004. I wanted a small company who had excellent customer/tech support as their primary characteristic.

I think it was somewhere around 2010 when I learned of HostGator through a web-development friend (and colleague). He vouched for their excellent service, including their customer support knowledge and availability, so I investigated and found them to be just what I was looking for. Within a short time (well, OK… about a month) I had moved over all of my large list of clients’ sites and domains to their service.

And I was pleased. Their servers were faster, tech team was available within minutes of calling, and generally very knowledgeable/helpful. I would get quick replies to any tickets submitted through their ticket system, and all around I was very much satisfied. (Even to the point of promoting them to anyone who was seeking hosting, or asked.)

And then…

Not Again!!!

Last summer there were bumps. Server down time, slower response to tickets, long hold times to get through to tech support, many “blunders” in server configuration causing trouble for my clients sites (as well as my own) … all VERY worrisome signs. They were just like what I had experienced with iPower.

I was growing frustrated again. How can this be happening? It’s only been two or three years that I’ve been with this company and the same thing is happening???

In the infamous words of Gru, “Light…bullllllb!”

Connection Established

Was it possible that these events were connected? I began digging. One clue after another led me to the company mentioned above: Endurance Group International, Inc. (EIG).3

Ah ha! I’m not crazy! thought I, somewhat relieved. Though, I was equally peeved that the companies with whom I chose to do business were “selling out” to this crazy web-hosting company eater, EIG. First iPower, now HostGator.

My experience is not unique. Another poor soul chronicled his experience with EIG, when his hosting company, WebHost4Life, was acquired by EIG. Oh, and look at their Better Business Bureau page… over 400 complaints! Ugh…

“The Blackout of 2013″—August 2, 2013

pulling-hair-out2Fast-forward to this past weekend. August 2nd, 2013. It has actually made it to the EIG Wikipedia page as part of their company’s entry! After months of trouble, I awake to find all of my sites are offline. Email, websites, everything. Here we go again! I dial up the tech support line and… busy signal! Ha! As I am discovering this, I am chatting online with my aforementioned colleague, who is equally affected by this August 2nd Blackout, since his sites are all still hosted by HostGator. We both decide right then, that morning, that we are jumping ship, NOW!.

A couple months prior, the HostGator changes had become unbearable for my biggest client and his websites that we develop/host/manage, so I spent a week investigating hosting options. I found a few that I liked, and settled on one that, again, seems to be a small company, committed to excellent service and customer support. I have had good success with them so far. (My praise for them is justifiably guarded (jaded?) by my prior experiences, as you can well imagine!)

I called up the fellow with whom I had spoken those months before and asked him very directly, “Will your company sell to Endurance International Group? I need to know, because that has happened to me twice, and causes so much trouble, wastes so much time!” His response was that the two owners of his company were actually on-site that day, and had been discussing specifically that potential scenario. He assured me that they had already rejected such an offer, and would steadfastly continue to do so.

SOLD!

Within hours I had set up the account, moved ALL of my sites over to the new Virtual Private Server (VPS) account, and began working on all that is involved with migrating hosting accounts.

This is never fun. Never.4

I emailed all my clients and told them of the emergency change. There have been a few bumps, but mostly we’ve made it through unscathed. I will be shutting down my HostGator accounts by week’s end, and ending any business relationship I have with EIG… until the next time?

Moral: BIGGER ≠ better

The moral of this not-so-short-story is that BIGGER IS NEVER BETTER!

(Unless you’re trying to make a point, with big letters?)

Somehow we have this idea that the “mass model” is best. Giant factories, mega stores… it never leads to good. It usually leads to bad service and meltdowns like I have experienced each time this has happened!

Stay small, folks. Focus on service, support, and relationship … even in business.

Because business still involves people. Doesn’t it?

My experiences with EIG (though I didn’t realize it was them until this year) have reminded me of that.

Stay small, local (when possible), and personal.

And don’t sell out to EIG!

  1. Note: this was actually probably a third or even fourth iteration of our website! Earlier versions were hosted on the free hosting service Tripod.com. Which amazingly still exists! Archive.org used to have the 20th century version of our website! Wow! Now the earliest version is August 2000, very similar to the 2001 link above. ↩
  2. Read the article from May 2007. It calls the move a “merger”, but my experience in 2012 with a different “merger” with EIG would suggest that it was more of an acquisition. (Especially when contrasted with my initial experience with iPower, before “merging” with EIG.) ↩
  3. One more connection, in 2011, EIG was “bought” (or funded?) by Warburg Pincus and GS (Goldman Sachs) Capital Partners. There are big piles of money changing hands here. ↩
  4. I found a couple pages detailing what is involved. Besides all of these steps, (1) something inevitably does not go as planned, and (2) it just takes time. Lots of time. Up to 72 hours of time. Most of that is the DNS propagation, meaning, the change of address for your domain name. Once that filters through all the checkpoints, you’re OK, but a lot of grief happens during that time! ↩
by Greg

The Amazing World We Don’t See

A friend of ours made a movie that will be in theaters this September (A Strange Brand of Happy. Go see it!) A little while ago an image appeared on the Facebook page for that movie that I really thought was the work of Photoshop.

“That can’t be real!” I thought. But a quick Google search proved otherwise.

That got me thinking. I just love seeing this crazy stuff that exists in our world that we never see. God made entire worlds and galaxies that, without the help of ridiculously powerful technologies, are just tiny lights in our sky—if even that!

In the other direction, to the infinitesimal, there is unseen beauty, intricate detail, and even some things that will light your face with an smile of “Wow!”

I included links at the end of this post to the source of these images, and a few sites that include more.

So take a moment today and enjoy the amazing beauty of the worlds what we never see. Incredible!

Really neat microscopic images:

Found across the web…

Cross-section of Marram Grass

Happy grass!
Cross section of marram grass

Bluebottle Fly Maggot

Or… microscopic walrus?
Maggot of the Bluebottle Fly

Moth

I love the intricate detail.
moth

Bedbug

No wonder we don’t want them to bite!
bedbug

Human Flea

Um… it doesn’t look human to me??
human-flea

Nerve

Incredible. Like fiber-optics, but much more impressive.
nerve

Bone

Wonderfully made. And blueprint for future buildings?
bone-structure

Lens of the Eye

Holy cow.
lens-of-the-eye

Mosquito

Not my favorite creature, but an amazing view of it.
mosquito

The Inner Life of the Cell

(This is not by Steve Gschmeissner, but it is another fascinating animation of what goes in inside ONE cell! There are over 100 trillion in the human body!)

http://blip.tv/videos-from-stellar-wellness-inc/the-inner-life-of-the-cell-4055585

LINKS:

by Greg

Regarding Liberty

Edward Snowden - NSA WhistleblowerWe’re being monitored. At least, we’re being recorded. Straight out of the storyline in George Orwell’s novel 1984, technology has gotten to the point that anyone who wants to, and has the resources to—like, the US Federal Government—can monitor and store all electronic communications.

That really is astounding.

This past week, Edwards Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee revealed many things about the clandestine agency’s daily operations, apparently because his conscience would not allow him to remain silent regarding the obvious overreaching. (Read more.)

Reactions to his revelations vary, but one certain result of his actions is that we as a nation (and perhaps the entire globe) are considering what is just, and necessary, and maybe even ethical, in regards to security versus liberty.

That reminds me of the words of Benjamin Franklin:

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

It’s pretty amazing that we have the capacity to collect and store every email, phone conversation, video or audio chat, web browser session, and so on. And with indexing and cataloging software, as well as analytical algorithms, it’s incredibly easy to discover critical facts and piece them together to thwart nefarious plots. Truly remarkable how our technology has come.

But at what point is it too much? Do we really need to collect—and store—all of this information… especially when there is no evidence or even suspicion of wrongdoing? What about “innocent until proven guilty”? What about the right to liberty, established in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence?

With all of these thoughts fresh in our minds, I thought it might be a good time to revisit a draft post I started and saved shortly after finishing a book by Ron Paul titled, Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom.

I asked Jen if she would type out the last couple pages of Ron Paul’s book, because I thought it was just an excellent summary of his book, his thoughts on liberty, and the current culture of our country. (AND, because she really does love doing things like that! Anyone need a secretary?) 🙂

I’m not sure of the copyright usage permissions here, but if Mr. Paul or his people contact me and request I remove this post, I will.

Until then, please read his words, and consider what Liberty means to you. (And what you can do about that.)

Please comment below, too, if you’d like to do so. This is not a “no comment” subject, to be sure.

Also, if you have the time, click the Related Posts links at the end of this post, too. They are all worthwhile reads regarding liberty.

Excerpt from Liberty Defined by Ron Paul


Many people are deeply discouraged at the state of affairs in America. They look at goings-on in Washington and see graft, power grabs, senseless regulation and spending, and a government completely out of control, having grown far beyond the size and scope that a free people should ever permit. They are confused about ongoing wars around the world. They are puzzled by the dampening of economic opportunity. People are worried about the future.

These people are right. Some are active in politics and trying to make a change. Others are discouraged to the point of utter cynicism. There is a third path here that I highly recommend, and that is the path of winning hearts and minds through education, first of the individual, and then of others through every way possible.

We must recapture what it means to be free. By this I do not mean that we should all become policy wonks or waste our time studying the details of this or that political initiative or sector of life. I mean that we need to form a new approach to thinking about society and government, one that imagines that we can get along without such central management. We need to become more tolerant of the imperfections that come with freedom, and we need to give up the illusion that somehow putting government in charge of anything is going to improve its workings, much less bring utopia.

To embrace the idea of liberty is not a natural condition of mankind. In fact, we are disposed to tolerate far more impositions on liberty than we should. To love liberty requires an act of the intellect, I believe. It involves coming to understand how all the things we love in this world were given to us under conditions of liberty.

We need to come to see government as it is, not as we wish it to be and not as the civics books describe it. And we need to surrender our attachments to government in every aspect of life. This goes for the right and the left. We need to give up our dependencies on the state, materially and spiritually. We should not look to the state to provide for us financially or psychologically.

Let us give up our longing for welfare, our love of war, and our desire to see the government control and shape our fellow citizens. Let us understand that it is far better to live in an imperfect world than it is to live in a despotic world ruled by people who lord it over us through force and intimidation. We need a new understanding of what it means to be a great nation; it should mean, as George Washington said, that our nation is a beacon unto the world, not that we conquer the world militarily, impose our will on everyone, or even remain number one in the GDP rankings. Our sense of what it means to be great must be defined first by morality.

We must come to imagine liberty again, and believe that it can be a reality. In order to do this, we do not need songs, slogans, rallies, programs, or even a political party. All we need is access to good ideas, some degree of idealism, and the courage to embrace the liberty that so many great people of the past have embraced.

Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization. And when the tides turn and the culture again celebrates what it means to be free, our battle will be won. It could happen in our time. It might happen after we are gone from this earth. But it will happen. Our job in this generation is to prepare the way.

(Emphases mine)

by Greg

Inviting Conversation

conversations

I recently read that from the inception of the blog, one of the best metrics of this communication medium is the community they generate.

To a degree I have experienced that, too. It’s always interesting to read and offer feedback to an article I’ve read around the net, interacting with the others who have done the same. (Note: Sometimes “interesting” doesn’t quite cover the experience, does it?)

Even here at GregsHead.net, it’s always interesting to hear stories sharing similar opinions or thoughts to what I reveal here from the inner workings of my cranium, as well as to hear differing opinions or questions.

Conversation is good. Especially when there is no agenda, just honest discussion of thoughts and opinions.

To that end, I’d like to invite you to jump in. I feel the nudge to start devoting time to writing out the things I’ve only been drafting for a while. (Do you realize there are a full eight-five, sad, forlorn draft posts waiting for me to give them figurative breath?)

I do not plan to check the stats to see how many people have viewed the various (though that can be interesting, too), nor will I check back to see if the post was “Liked” on Facebook or “Tweeted” on Twitter, etc. (Though that, too, can be interesting to monitor… apparently some of my more “Like”-able content has been this and this.)

What I do hope is that you’ll join in. There is a community of folks whom I hear from regarding these various and sundry ramblings posted to the hallowed … halls? of GregsHead.net. I’d like to encourage you to take a moment or two of your day and respond to the postings, and perhaps begin a conversation with other readers that way.

I will continue to publish my thoughts here, whether you are able to chime in, or not. Do you also know that this August will be the 10th anniversary of this blog. Nearly three quarters of a million words published (plus three books published from the writings first published here) … and several interactions along the way, too.

Let’s make it more.

I’m glad you’re here. I hope to hear from you more soon.

🙂

by Greg

The Case of the Missing iPhone

iPhone 3GsThe phone rang Sunday afternoon. As soon as it did, I remembered that I had left the handset somewhere other than where it was supposed to be. After a brief search, I located it and saw the call was from my parents home, so I clicked the TALK button.

“Hello!” I said with sing-songy happiness.

“Do you know where your phone is?” asked the voice of my mother.

Taken aback, wondering how in the world she knew that I didn’t answer earlier because I couldn’t find the phone, I stumbled through saying, “Well, yeah… I had just left it… but… yes. I found it.”

“Oh really?” said she, knowingly.

At this point, I’m very confused. I had been watching a very intense Buffalo Sabres game, very much engrossed in that tight contest. Now my Mom is somehow slightly clairvoyant and even challenging my response?

“What do you mean?” I finally managed.

“I just got a call from a man named Wade… from your iPhone.” She let that hang for a minute, expecting a surprised response from me. She got it.

“Uh… what??” That was about it. 🙂

She explained that she had just received a call—from our iPhone—from a stranger named Wade, who explained to her that he had “found” this iPhone, and decided to scroll through the recent call list and try to ascertain to whom the phone belonged, and how to get it to them. She was wary of this very odd set of circumstances, and so got his name (which she later reported was an equally odd name) and said she would call me at home, which she then did.

The rest of the story follows…

Early Sunday morning, Jen informed me that she’d like to let me have a nice, quiet, non-work day at home, so she would take all six kids out for some shopping errands (including a stop at their favorite thrift store) while I stayed home and wrote or read until watching the Sabres game in peace, not needing to tend to many children’s needs every couple minutes. That was so nice and thoughtful! I knew it was really not something she enjoys doing, too, so it was clearly a gift she wanted to give to me. And so, I accepted.

They enjoyed a lunch together at Cici’s Pizza (ever been there? it’s fun!) and then found and purchased the hockey and skating equipment they were hoping to acquire, and then ended their excursion at the aforementioned favorite thrift store.

It was here that the adventure began.

Cam was tired by this point, and so was somewhat cantankerous. Biggest brother, Ian, offered to take him out to the van whilst the other shopped. He asked Mom if he could take the iPhone out with him, so he could listen to the Sabres game out there. Mom approved, and handed him the phone.

Here’s where the details get fuzzy. Ian does not recall where he put the phone down, nor for what reason he might have. Perhaps it even just slipped out of his pocket? Regardless, he somehow made it out to the van sans iPhone; and thus entered Wade into our family’s life.

At some point shortly after the misplacement of the iPhone, Wade and his girlfriend and her daughter, shopping at this very same favorite thrift store, came across this iPhone. (He did not tell me where it was discovered: floor, shelf, etc.) He decided to have a look at the recent calls list, rather than just hand it over to the store employees. (He and the two others with him were reticent to trust the employees, thinking they might decide to abscond with such a nice lost-and-found discovery.)

He told me later that while perusing the recent calls he saw ‘Grammy & Grandpa’ and figured, “Well they should know how to get this phone to its owner, if anyone does!”

He was right! (But it did freak out the Grammy a little bit…)

So he calls Mom, gives her the information, and she calls me. I called him back on his cell phone and assured him that the best option would be to just give it to the store employees, and Jen would get back there eventually, even if she didn’t know the phone was missing until they returned home.

Two important pieces here: one, I couldn’t contact Jen, since she didn’t have the phone, and two, we live about 35-40 minutes from this store. Ouch.

I need to back up once more. I’m not sure of the timing, but either before or after he called Grammy & Grandpa, Wade did alert the store employees that he was “looking for” Greg Campbell. So, at some point while they were shopping, Jen and kids heard a page for “Greg Campbell”. Jen told me later that she responded, but the store employees only told her that someone was “looking for” me, and nothing more. Nothing about the phone, and I don’t think they connected her with this man, Wade, either! Too funny…

So, after asking Wade to leave it with the store, I decided to use the Find My Phone feature to lock the phone remotely, mostly just because I could. It turned out to be very unnecessary, as probably less than ten minutes later, Jen was calling me from our iPhone.

That was the last interesting piece of the story as, Jen later recalled, “When I got the phone back, it said on the screen, ‘This phone has been lost.’ How did it know that?!” Ha! She realized it was something I had done, but it was a funny moment for them all, thinking that the iPhone was a very smart smart phone!

I called Wade back and thanked him for his help in getting the phone back to us. And relayed some of the details of the very interesting day to him as well, which made him chuckle.

All in all, we were reunited with our iPhone, and I believe Ian might now think twice before asking to be responsible for that device. 🙂

by Greg

It’s Raining Diamonds!

It Rains Diamonds on Neptune?One topic of study currently in the Campbell home is astronomy. Mom and most of the children are part of a home schoolers co-op that go through science curriculum together, and this year’s topic for the middle kids is the science of space.

(My favorite! Our kids had a leg up on everyone else as we have always watched space-related documentaries, and we subscribe to several NASA video podcast feeds as well. Yes, we are that awesome!)

This past week, one of the girls said something to me about learning that it rained diamonds on Neptune. My first response was a smile and a chuckle, and a silly, “Noooooo, it does not!” Little girls who are four, six, and eight can have a different way of hearing and passing along information, right? But she insisted that it was true, and her older siblings and Mom confirmed it.

What???

I had to look this one up, so I did.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

If experiments at the University of California, Berkeley, are any indication, future explorers of our solar system may well find diamonds hailing down through the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus.
These planets contain a high proportion of methane, which UC Berkeley researchers have now shown can turn into diamond at the high temperatures and pressures found inside these planets.

“Once these diamonds form, they fall like raindrops or hailstones toward the center of the planet,” said Laura Robin Benedetti, a graduate student in physics at UC Berkeley.

Whoa! Neat! Are you kidding me?!

Space is just incredibly amazing. Our planet alone is amazing… then that God would create such diversity across the billions of light years of space. Holy moly.

BUT, as cool as that theory from last century is … (and I suppose it’s still possible, as most of what we know about those planets still falls under the “theory” category)

“Some scientists have claimed that diamonds may form inside both Uranus and Neptune, but I do not believe that is true since the methane is confined to the surface where the pressures are much less,” says Monash University astrophysicist Dr. Andrew Prentice. “I think that is wishful thinking. In any event, the ‘falling diamonds’ would hardly have any influence whatever on the internal heat budget of Neptune or Uranus.”

So says Mike Bessell, a professor at the Australian National University’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, via this article.

Party pooper.

I thought a theory from 1999 might be a tad outdated. Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.

And I’m still holding out a little hope that this is actually happening!

There are a lot of wild theories out there! I read recently that we think that the best way to divert “Killer Asteroids” from smashing into our planet might be to spray paint them.

Hmmm…

I think the diamond rain is cooler.

For further reading:

by Greg

Direct-To-Consumer Content: The Future?

Online-Money-ExchangeI’m never one to do something “because that’s the way we’ve always done it”. My wife accuses me often of nearly the opposite: doing something differently simply for the sake of being different!

She may be right, but it’s not out of spite or any sort of malice. I do enjoy variety, that’s for sure.

And in most areas of life I generally do not hold to any sort of “this is how you do it” mentality.

With that preface, it’s easy to understand how I might be able to adapt to newer technologies (if they seem to hold greater merit) such as the TV shows discussion in last Friday’s post. (Be sure to read the comments there, too.) I lean heavily toward the newer, different thinking in that realm.

Early Adopter

AppleA long time ago I proffered an idea to Apple, that they could revolutionize the media industry by doing something with TV and movies similar to what they did with music. (Really. It was about the time the iTunes store came into existence. Before they offered video through the store, though. It was March of 2005.) I knew I was onto something when a few days later I received a response in serious “legalese” letting me know that Apple was grateful for my feedback, but could not accept unsolicited product ideas at this time.

Uh huh…

Well, it turns out Apple was thinking the same thing I was: Who needs cable companies? Deliver the content directly to the consumer.

They have obviously been running with this idea for a long time now, offering TV shows and movies for purchase and/or rent, as well as now books, games, etc. (Yet, they still call it iTunes… hmmm…)

But Apple is not the main subject of this discussion. The content is.

I Know From Experience…

Come As You Are - basicI am a content creator. We have music, I have books… content. Since I began I leaned heavily toward self-publishing all of this content and offering it directly to the consumer. I have not seriously (or really even casually) pursued a relationship with any distributor or other larger entity at the risk of losing control over the content. The intellectual property world however has for a very long time used these “middle men” to get the content from its creator to its consumer. (Enter advertisers and marketers, agents, publishers, producers, etc.)

And, obviously, before the internet and other such powerful, personal technologies, such “middle men” were needed. The “little guy” could not get his content, no matter how fantastic it might be, to the waiting masses. Technology advances making the production of the high-level content much cheaper, as well as new and previously not thought of technologies for distribution of that content. (Not to mention ways to consume the content: “smart” TVs, portable computers, tablets, even phones.)

All of that is to say that I believe we are already capable of a direct-to-consumer model for music and video entertainment, but the industry does not want to change. And, for obvious reasons: the middle man—networks, cable/satellite companies—is no longer needed, and they currently hold the vast majority of the power.

What About Live Events: News, Sports

This even applies to live video events. News programs, live sports—they all can use currently available technology to bring their content directly to the consumer, too. I really, really want to have a “Virtual Season Ticket” option for the Buffalo Sabres. The NHL offers a service called GameCenter through their website that streams (live) any game you’d like, except your local team! Who wants that??

The cable companies and the network who pay for the rights to carry the game do.

So we have come again to the main issue: money. Currently, more money can be had from the networks and cable/satellite companies offering very large contracts to sports leagues (and individual teams?) because they in turn can sell advertising during these sports programs and make tons of money themselves.

All at a greater cost (if not money, at least convenience?) to us, the consumer. Because Network X bought the rights to my team’s games, I have to subscribe to Cable Company A or Satellite Provider B to watch the show because (even though the team and/or league has the technology to stream the games to me, both live and on-demand) the only place I can get that channel is via that cable or satellite company.

Yuck!

So What Is Holding This Back?

Admittedly, one reason this is not happening—other than the Almighty Dollar–is that the technology is still a bit lacking on the consumer end. We have been sans cable for quite a while because we have a Mac mini connected to our living room TV (along with several other portals to view content in “normal” ways) which obviously allows us to more easily enjoy TV and movies via Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, and others.

The next steps to tip the scales toward Direct-To-Consumer content distribution are:

  1. Superior data transfer infrastructure. I’m thinking some form of ubiquitous wireless data … like 4G, only way better—and cheaper!
  2. A “grandma-friendly” device that is affordable, and as easy as turning on your TV and “flipping the channels”. We’re close, I think… but still don’t quite have this one down.
  3. A break with “traditional” thinking. The consumer needs to shift from the radio station or TV channel mentality of having preselected content brought to you at a certain time, all at the whim and fancy of some other entity. The new reality could be you watch and/or listen to what you want, when you want to listen to it
  4. Advertising will also necessarily need to adapt. With so much more control available to the consumer, sitting through commercials is a thing of the past. If the old model holds, commercials will have to become vastly more interesting, making the consumer want to watch them, or else an entirely new way of advertising will need to emerge. I’d guess the latter will be the most likely route.

Are We Ready?

So are we ready for this yet? I AM! But is everyone? Probably not. The technology is available now to make it happen, and lots of content creators are moving that direction (or at least exploring that option). Once the “right” device comes around—like the iPod in 2001, or the iPhone in 2005—and the data transfer technology is even more accessible (and faster, better, cheaper) … well, I do believe this is the future of content distribution.

Of course, ten years from now, if we’re all still around, this post might be fun to read and say, “Ha! Boy was he wrong!!”

But I was right in 2005…

Related Reading:

by Greg

How Do You Watch TV?

old-tvAre you a current TV show watcher? Do you watch one or more new and/or current television shows as they air new episodes weekly? I don’t qualify as (anywhere close to) an avid current TV Watcher, but I do enjoy a few currently running shows.

One characteristic of many current shows (at least, the ones I watch?) is that they have a continuous and developing plot line. If you do enjoy watching newer shows every week (following that unfolding story) well, unfortunately you often are left hanging.

For example, I just learned that a show I started watching towards the end of its first season was not renewed for more episodes following its second season. They probably thought they would be renewed because there was really no resolution whatsoever to the various plot lines.

This happened to me a few years ago when I began watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles, a now-defunct TV series based on the Terminator movies. It was canceled after its second season, leaving every plot line dangling helplessly in the unpredictable winds of ratings…

I also learned this week that another show I had been watching this past year was not renewed beyond its first season. Their story was somewhat resolved as they were notified of the non-renewal with enough time to rewrite the last few episodes to be more of a series finale. Whew!

So what’s the deal here? Is the most frustrating part that the show doesn’t run very long? Or is it just frustrating that they leave you (permanently) hanging when a show is canceled before it’s story is “finished”?

OR, is it possibly the most frustrating that the networks who carry these shows only use live TV as their metric for which shows are “successful” and which are not?

Yep. It’s that!

I never watch live TV. EVER. We have kids! We have a schedule! Who can sit down in the evenings and watch a TV show? (And who wants to do that without being able to forward through the commercials?) I think Jen and I have watched a combined three episodes of live TV in the past… maybe six or seven years?

I watch any current TV shows via Hulu or iTunes (if I really like it). Don’t you? Do you watch regular TV at the regular, scheduled time? We don’t even have cable here… just Netflix, Amazon Prime, and then free Hulu (and other internet content). (And of course, can purchase or rent things via iTunes, Amazon, et al.)

Really… when will these guys change their paradigm? Their thinking is very outdated. Live TV should be one of the factors in determining audience, but the main or only one? That article said one of the shows canceled from last fall had a huge DVR audience. How can they cancel a show because its viewers watch it later, on their own schedule?

Craziness.

And that doesn’t even factor in the online services like Hulu and Amazon/iTunes. I’d assume plenty of people watch current shows via Hulu, despite the fact that the content providers try desperately to make you not want to. Some shows are available on Hulu a mere eight days after they air initially on TV, some are thirty days delayed. (Some are only one day delayed. That’s nice.) Also, some shows are only available in standard definition, while others are available in HD, but only on certain devices. (And not on a computer… which is how we watch TV in our house!)

Ugh… It really does make me angry sometimes, the short-sightedness of these people. The greed and lust for power, control. Yuck.

(These people of course being the Time Warners, NBC Universal, Paramount… and so on. I’d rather not give them more time here.)

The ridiculous way that content is still delivered is mind boggling to me. You have to pay an outrageous monthly fee to receive hundreds of channels—that you mostly do not want—in order to watch a few shows you’d like to see every week… and then those get canceled because you use your DVR to watch them on your schedule?? What in the world?

And what of iTunes and Amazon, where you can pay $20-$40 or so to subscribe to a season’s worth of shows (downloaded and/or available very soon after their air date… which, is also an archaic practice…) Do those count towards the content providers’ ratings system? When someone is willing to pay money to watch a show… it should count double. Or triple!

Eventually everyone will catch up. Everything is always about money. Always. So, once someone discovers a way to satisfy the consumer’s desire for direct access to content and a way to maximize the monitization of that content, then we’ll have the new paradigm.

For now, it’s frustration for we who have moved on to a new model while we wait for the old school content providers to “catch up” (or, give in)… or… there is a reason that piracy is a problem. (And it’s not because people just want free stuff! It’s equally or more because of these ridiculous ways of thinking by the “old school” content providers.)

I’ll stick with Hulu and Netflix (old TV shows are still awesome!) and the occasional iTunes or Amazon purchase.

That is, until I come up with a way to bring the whole system down myself! Who says I can’t be the one to invent the next breakthrough technology? 🙂

by Greg

Twitter RSS

TwitterQuick techie update here, since it’s on my mind…

Are you a Twitter user? I am not. Well, not really. I never really had any need for it, though I would and do often recommend it to my web clients. It’s a great way to keep in touch with clients, send out short updates, links, multimedia, etc to people who follow you or your product.

But as an individual, it just seemed… well, not for me.

However… I do follow people via Twitter. Folks who share newsy updates, sports-related tidbits, etc. I finally broke down and set up a “Buffalo Bills” account for myself to follow (and yes, even interact with) the Buffalo sports world. That’s been interesting. (Even have gotten to interact with Bills Hall of Famer, Thurman Thomas, which is neat…) But still not really for me.

The way I prefer to follow regularly published updates (to any service) is via RSS. Using Mail.app in Mac OS X, I simply add the RSS feed and I get any RSS item to my inbox with all my other email. (Links to the full web content included with the RSS item.)

BUT, Twitter changed all that when they dropped support for RSS feeds with the release of their new API last month. (September 5th, I believe.)

I wondered why I was seeing the dreaded triangle with the exclamation point icon in my inbox. After a small amount of research today, I ascertained that my method of obtaining updates is (at least slightly) antiquated.

Yes. I am old-fashioned.

(Wait… can you be “old-fashioned” if you use RSS? Hmm…)

Well, after a bit more research, I learned there is still a “backdoor” way to get a timeline via RSS! (Yes!)

It’s quite simple. Use the URL below, and just replace the Xs with the username of the person whose timeline you wish to receive as an RSS feed. It’s that easy!

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=XXXX

We’ll see how much longer that backdoor option remains open. But it works for now.

Thanks to SEO-Alien.com for the info.

UPDATE: Jun 12, 2013

(From the dev.twitter.com homepage:) Having trouble with your app? API v1 is retired and no longer functional. | Read more →