Thursday, April 24, 2008

Musing: Game On!

Check out the cover story of the March issue of WIRED. You can read it online for free... which is interesting, isn't it? They just give away the intellectual property... for free! Another good example of this is in my last post, where you can click on a link and read a big NYT Sunday Times Magazine piece... for FREE!! They used to make you pay to read the opinion pages, but now they let you access all of the newspaper's content at no charge (except the daily crosswords... unfortunately for me, you still have to pay a subscription to get those).

Anyway, it's a pretty interesting article (I'm talking about the WIRED piece again). The gist is that, in any business that takes place online, the price of everything trends toward $0.00. Take the price of digital storage as a for instance. It used to be that you had to pay for an email account (like the original version of AOL). Soon, they started giving them away with the price of your internet access. Then, free email accounts popped up all over the place, like Yahoo! and GMail... free, but you still had to pay if you wanted increased email storage. Now, not only can you get unlimited email storage from both of those companies, Google even gives you a free virtual portable hard drive. (It's called GSpace. Check it out--it plugs right into your browser. Sexy!) This is all possible because the price of digital storage has declined so much that, spread over the cost of all of a website's users, it becomes negligible. So you get it for... say it with me...

FREE!... right?

Wrong. You just don't pay any money for it. Instead, you pay with your time and your attention. Google may be subtle, but it rakes in untold billions from the ad revenue it generates. Today's digital business model is structured so that you don't pay for the content and services you use, advertisers pay for it for you in order to get their ads in front of you. That's not the only way to make money, of course. There's also the business model in which you give a product away, but make users pay if they want a better or deeper version of the content. A good example of this is the sweet music player and file manager I use for my sweet music collection. It's called Media Monkey. It's awesome! I love it! So I upgraded my free download version of it to Media Monkey Pro, which cost me around $20. In this model, 99% of the people using a product get it for free, and the company who makes it is happy to give it away. Because there's that last 1%, like me, who choose to pay cash money for it, and that 1% pays for the rest. That business model has nothing to do with the Google/Yahoo! model except for one important similarity: FREEEEE!!!!

Which brings me to one of my favorite pastimes (NERD ALERT!!): video games. There's a company called WildTangent that makes a new application called Orb. Basically, using Orb, you can stream and play games on your computer for free. The tab will be picked up by advertisers who will show you their ads in unobtrusive ways during loading screens. Or you can pay money to skip the ads entirely. Here's a quote from the company's founder, Alex St. John (I read this in PC Gamer... DOUBLE NERD ALERT!):

"Every consumer PC shipping this year--including the laptops--will have superior graphics capabilities to the Wii, and most will match or exceed an Xbox 360. That'll be 36 million consumer PCs--more than all consoles sold in the United States combined--going into people's living rooms in one year, and they'll be connected to the Internet with superior media capabilities. And every one of them will have a nice, big, high-res screen."

"Welcome back, Professor. Let's play... Global Thermonuclear War."

Which means that, if you're reading this, you already have a high-powered gaming machine, and now you can get your games for free. Is this the future of gaming? I think it's the future of ALL digital entertainment. The music industry got burned when it tried to stop piracy, and it sure looks like the film industry didn't learn from their mistake--acquiring video content still, for the most part, means buying a DVD with the latest anti-piracy protections embedded into it... or going to a website like Project Free TV and downloading free versions of the same content that have been uploaded by pirates immediately after they got done bypassing the latest anti-piracy protections. In WebTangent's model, consumers get what they want at the price they want (free!), and game developers get their product out to as many consumers as possible. And of course, they don't lose their profits to piracy, because what's the point of pirating something if the producers are already giving it away?

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I wanted to save America, but someone got there first

Back when I was writing in my blog more regularly, I had this idea for a post I was going to write. The basic gist of it was going to be that through embracing environmentalism, a variety of the problems our country currently faces could be solved. While doing a little reading to compose my thoughts, I discovered a big piece that Tom Friedman of the New York Times had in the Sunday Magazine a whole year ago. Tom, obviously, made all of the points I was going to make (and more!) far more eloquently than I ever could, which really took all the wind out of my sails and I never wrote the post.

Home sweet home.

Today being Earth Day and all, this seems like an apropos time to look back on what I was going to say. If you've got the time to do a little reading, here's the link:

The Power of Green, by Thomas L. Friedman

It's not a short article, but it's dead-on. If you don't have the time, the gist of it is this: if America embraces the green movement we can go a long way toward mitigating global warming, but you don't have to be a greenie liberal to think this is a good idea. If American scientists and entrepreneurs were inspired and challenged in the way that we were during the 1960s space race, we would also solve the biggest threat to American security: our reliance on foreign oil. And a sweet little side effect would be the benefit to our economy of being the world leader in alternative energy technologies, which promises to be a massive industry in this century, thereby replacing many of the manufacturing jobs that have been shifting overseas for years, along with several other huge economic benefits.

That pretty much sucks as a synopsis. Please read the article.

And have a happy Earth Day!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Opinion: Pick your horse

A few weeks back in the Tribune, television critic Maureen Ryan did an American Idol article in which she gave her opinion of each contestant and their chances of winning. As usual, Ms. Ryan was dead wrong about pretty much everything. In general, I'd rate her opinions at about the same level as I'd rate "weather predictor" Tom Skilling's: ground level and getting lower. In fact, I'd put her second on my list of "People the Chicago Tribune Should Fire Today," right behind technology "writer" Eric Gwynn.

Anyway, I'll take a crack at rating the six remaining contestants myself. I wish I had written this post a week earlier, before Kristy got eliminated, so that I could use the nickname I've given her, Kristy Lee Cock (so named for her mannish lunges). But there, I've managed to work it in anyway. Without further ado, here's what George thinks about the top 6:

Syesha Mercado Syesha's an odd bird-- she actually has a really pleasant voice at times, and she has a little bit of power when she needs it. But her pitch can be all over the place during some performances and no matter how hard she tries, she still ends up mostly forgettable.
Can she win? No way, Jose. Syesha ain't got the skillz. But she is the last "minority" (read: black) contestant, so don't be surprised if she hangs around another couple weeks.

David Archuleta Oh, David. Why does the Idol viewing world love you so? It causes me physical pain to admit this, but... yes, David Archuleta does have a nice voice. However, any talent he might have is completely overshadowed by his nausea-inducing personality. His "aw shucks" routine was irritating from the get-go, and soon grew to be unbearable. Now, the only way I can make it though his performances is by doing my impression of him for Marissa--it seems to release the pressure valve a little so I don't start throwing my shoes at the tv. (My favorite impression material is from his post-performance conversation with Ryan after singing "Another Day in Paradise": "Well, I just thought it was really meaningful because, you know, a lot of people don't have homes..."
Can he win?
Sadly, yes. As much as I hate him, that's how much your average teenage girl seems to love him. And if he does... I might leave the country to protect my ears from the horror of his 10-emotional-ballads-in-a-row debut album.

Brooke White Say what you will about Brooke White, you'll never sway my devotion to her! I don't care that you think she's boring! I don't care how many cracks you make about her troubles picking good songs, not to mention making it through a performance with her shoes still on! I don't care that she appears to be somewhat manic depressive! I love her anyway!
Can she win? Sadly, no. In an interesting paradox, although Brooke just doesn't have the pipes to survive once the bigger voices start blowing the roof off the place, she can probably sell more albums as a solo artist than any of the other contestants. There's a market out there for her singer-songwritery vibe, and it's the kind of market that really doesn't care who wins American Idol. Which means that she doesn't really have to win.

Carly Smithson Carly was the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing when the finals began, and for a good reason: she's the best singer in a singing competition. But she's proven to have two serious issues: one, she can't pick a song to save her life. You'd think that a great singer would be able to find a song every week that showcases her voice properly. You'd be wrong. Two, just because she has vocal power, doesn't mean she needs to try to prove it every week. I half-expect one of her internal organs to come flying out of her mouth in the middle of one of her performances. She's as hard-working as Michael Bolton, and she's got the scrunched-up, angry-face to prove it. And by the way, they're not doing her any favors by showing us shots of her husband in the audience so often. This guy looks like he'd be at home biting the head off a chicken in a travelling carnival. Seriously.
Can she win? If she gets out of her own way, Carly can still win. Maybe as the coaching gets better week to week, she'll start getting better advice on how to present her talent better. But I doubt it. I think Carly's going down in the next couple weeks. It's a shame, really.

Jason Castro In the interest of full disclosure, I have to reveal that Jason is Marissa's favorite. She, like many female Idol viewers, thinks he's quite dreamy. So if I say anything too bad about Jason, I'm likely to cause repercussions at home that just wouldn't be worth the trouble. I can say, honestly, that Jason has a pleasant voice, and a light, laid-back style that's refreshing to hear between the power performances. But he's got to have just the right song for it to work, and that just doesn't happen very often.
Can he win? Nope. I'd say that, behind David Archuleta, Jason Castro has the biggest number of screaming-meemie teenage fans, and they're a powerful voting block. But unless he pulls out another perfect song every week (like he did with Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" and whoever's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") he's going to get dropped. Who knows though... maybe there's a market out there for him.

David Cook Not only is David Cook an outstanding singer, he's got two other things going for him. One, he's the right kind of singer at the right time. The typical schlock R&B style that Idol tends to promote is wearing very thin seven seasons into the show. Although there's always been the "rocker" contestant, they've never had much of a shot. Now, post-Daughtry, there's a much better chance that a contestant who owns a pair of testicles can actually win. Secondly, David is not just a good singer, he's a good musician. His performances are fun to watch because he's so adept at taking a tired old song and turning it into something new. (Lionel Richie? Are you kidding me?) It also helps that that "something new" is always something alternative rock.
Can he win? He's got the pipes, he's got the musicianship, he's got the fan base... he can absolutely win it. But should he? Remember that Daughtry got bounced in the final four, put out a solo album and is now one of the best selling rock acts around. What would have happened if he'd have actually won? Would he still have the credibility to be a mainstream rock artist and not a teenie bopper phenomenon? Look at Kelly Clarkson's rough ride trying to be taken seriously as a musical artist and not just a talent show-winning singer. What will be interesting to speculate about is whether David Cook can sell more albums as an American Idol winner or as a loser.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

How I became Comcast's #1 customer

Although no living, breathing people actually read my blog, it does not go unnoticed by the tireless automated bots trolling through the internet. As proof, I offer my recent experience with Comcast, in which I went from an average, angry customer to priority numero uno.

In the previous post, I laid out the troubles I'd been having with Comcast while I waited for a service appointment. My anger deepened later that afternoon, when I continued to have all the same problems, even after the repairman spent about 30 minutes in my place cleaning out and tightening all the connections and pulling out my ceiling speaker to change a splitter. Soon after I called to schedule another appointment for the following day, I noticed that someone had commented on the blog post. (Go ahead and read it now. I'll wait). Amazingly, that comment was actually left by a Comcast employee, and not someone trying to get my email address in order to send me even more solicitations for penis enlargement. "Mark C." called me that very evening even though I hadn't given him my phone number... that's when I started to think the guy might actually be for real.

From that moment on, I was receiving phone calls at a rate of at least two per day from Comcast employees, following up on my situation. I had calls from Mark, who's in customer care out on the east coast, John, who is a regional VP for the Chicagoland area, and Felicia, who's been keeping me posted on all the progress. They've all given me their direct extensions. Two days after my blog post, they had a line crew in our alley replacing the drop from the pole to our building. This appears to have completely solved the problems with my reception. In fact, we had a condo board meeting yesterday, where I learned that all the Comcast users in my building were having similar issues, and this has probably solved the problem for everyone. Not only that, but during that first phone call from Mark C., he also managed to speed up my internet connection. ("While I've got you on the phone...") Amazing.

I've changed my tune on Comcast. Throw "The Hammer" in jail.

So as I promised Mark C., here for public consumption is the blog post in which I eat crow. Comcast does NOT suck. Their customer care employees are extremely friendly, and can fix the shit out of a problem when they put their mind to it. [I've been holding off on writing this post for a couple of days, just to make sure there's been a real improvement. But so far so good, and I'm guardedly optimistic that all my cable television worries have been solved. But I'll still be hanging on to all the direct extension phone numbers they gave me.]

The moral of the story, as I see it, is that I ought to be writing in my blog WAY more often, and complaining my ass off about EVERYTHING. You never know who's listening.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Musing: Comcast Sux

I've been away from my blog for so long! I went out of town a couple weeks back, which caused me to get completely out of touch with all of my online activities, and when I got back I just... never really got back into them. Does this ever happen to you? It's funny how you get so in the habit of looking at the same websites, writing on the same blogs and boards and reading the same solicitations for penis enlargement that it all just becomes part of one big daily routine. Then when something breaks the routine, it's actually pretty refreshing to just get away from it all. So aside from checking in on my Scrabulous games, I've been offline for most of the last couple weeks. But then something happens to jump start the routine again. For me, that something was Comcast.

The entire time I've had my Comcast DVR set-top box, it's been malfunctioning. It started by freezing up pretty much every time it had to receive new information, which was about every 15 minutes. I'd hit the buttons on the remote, and it would just sit there for several seconds--sometimes as long as a minute--before spewing all my commands out at once. Then, it started jacking up my recordings. If I tried to record something--ANYthing--on HBO HD, it would come out unplayable. The sound dropped out of a lot of recordings and you could occasionally get it back by rewinding. Sometimes this would happen over and over again. Most recently, it'd begun to get really pissy for a few hours at a time. It would digitize the picture ("tile" in Comcast lingo) every few seconds and the sound would drop out.

A screenshot of George's inner life.

This was pretty much the last straw--finally enough to make me forsake all my recordings and series recording setups and take it in for a new one. [This is a pretty craptacular experience in and of itself. See my Yelp! review for the details about my inner thoughts during this episode, which include musings about hand grenades.] Here follows the only good news of this entire, ongoing Comcast ordeal: they have a new model of set-top box, and it's prettier. Unfortunately, the only problem it solves is the whole freeze-up situation. I'm still getting the pissy "tiling" issue. So I call in a service appointment and miss work this morning. The guy is late. So I miss work this afternoon. The results: to make a long story short, I have another appointment scheduled for tomorrow. Luckily, Marissa will be around to meet the guy this time--I do still have a job.

But the lighter side of this whole experience is that I found myself sitting on the couch for several hours with nothing to do. (Life pretty much sucks when you're at home with nothing to do and just turning on the TV is enough to make your blood pressure skyrocket.) So I managed to compose a whopping NINE (9) Yelp! reviews and began missing writing in my blog.