Flock this!

Wow. The Flock browser comes with a Blog Editor tab. This is going to be interesting.

Anyway, the Fringe festival is going swimmingly. I say swimmingly because I have a terrible cold and feel as though I am permanently immersed in potato and leek soup.

The part of the show that I have invested in emotionally, the lame bastard child of Daft Punk and Spinal Tap, those crazy sega-band rocksters Press Play, has still not performed a full show, hampered as we are by poor organisation, technical problems and conflicting schedules, as well as a supremely vague mission statement and an absence of goal-orientation and regular status reports. Perhaps an ad-hoc committee to address the difficulties of implementing a comprehensive documentation standard is in order. Or maybe we'll just fumble along as we go again.

Anyway, it's looking like being the chip-show on Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully now that the MDJam is in its' most complete incarnation so far, we'll be able to rehearse more during the holidays and get some actual band-style shows instead of art-style shows. With a soundcheck.

Anyhow, time for a stiff scotch and a vicodin cup of tea and a multivitamin.

Bedtime now.

Yours in sickness and in health, but mostly sickness,

The Poe.

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All the cool kids want flowers and clouds.

Wow, two posts in one day.

That's got to be some kind of a record.

Actually two posts in the same month is a record for me.

Okay, there is actually a reason I simply MUST post, I'm not just doing it for the sake of doing it. One of my units, Network Arts has rekindled my enthusiasm for the pretty side of the internet. While browsing Tale of Tales, an offshoot game design company, consisting of prominent net.artists Michaël Samyn and Aureia Harvey, I found one of those things that makes me decide I like computer games again.

That thing was Flower.


You play as the wind. Cool, huh? Kinda reminds me of another game that made me feel like being a nerd wasn't such a bad thing, Cloud. If people can continue to make, like, play and propagate games like this, I will go from [=\] to [^^'].



If anyone wants me I'll be playing The Endless Forest.

Google, Apple, Stalin and my mobile phone.

There is a link, go with me on this.

All will become clear, I promise.*

Ok. I'm way behind the times (that's nothing new), and I've just discovered Knol. I have a tendency to periodically abandon the Internets for a couple of weeks at a time, usually when life gets in the way. When I come back, I'm always amazed at how much it's grown up in my absence, like a distant nephew or something. It's always coming up with new things, new ways to surprise me.

So yes, I was surprised by Knol. Mainly because I don't really understand why it exists.

I mean, I understand WHY, but not WHY why. I can see it being a useful resource to those already well versed in the concept of user-generated databases and peer-review, it'd be just like Wikipedia with credibility. But why do we need it? It's just Wikipedia with credibility. And of course, a capacity for growth and integration.

So it's Wikipedia for commercial bloggers.

See this is why Google confuse me. They see an idea and they think, "Wow, that's neat. We could do that, and make it easily accessible for EVERYONE, and free!" Then they go and design someth- Woah. it's hailing outside like baby Thor throwing an ice-cold hissy-fit.

Damn. That's the downside with windows. More to see, more to distract me. As I was saying: They see something, then in a sweep of unilateral grandiosity they make it bigger, better, all-encompassing and easy to use. Then they stuff it full of AdWords. It's this whole 'left hand makes warm woolen mittens and gives them away on the street corner while the right hand completely ignoring the entire existence of the left hand, trys to tell the world no one needs that second glove, really, you should just buy this one, it's like both gloves in one.'

For example, if you have a gMail account, get someone to send you an email that contains the words "google advertising." Low and behold, the column of ads on the sidebar is gone. It's like Anil Dash says in his article "Google and Theory of Mind." They seem to think if they put their big ol' e-hands over their eyes, no one will be able to see what they're doing because they're invisible now.

Compare Google, whose mantra is "Don't be evil," to say... Apple. The last of the true Evil companies. They work in secret, lock themselves in enclosed rooms to come up with products that exist in their own little space and don't need integration, forget how annoying that is for the rest of us, unveil it in a blinding flash of glory and tell us it's the Mechanical Messiah. And it works. Opposite sides of the spectrum. Both have completely different approaches to, well everything. Google loves peer-review, word of mouth and the Blogosphere. Apple loves Steve Jobs, white things without sharp edges, expensive ad campaigns and the Cone of Silence. Yet they both are somehow at the forefront of the social stratum. Google is a verb, and iPod is the default name for ANY mp3 player. They have both managed to create the exact mindset that Communist leaders throughout history were aiming for: "Who cares if it doesn't work so good? Isn't it awesome to be a part of it? Give ol' Uncle Joe a hug."

Which is why my new mobile phone**, when it eventually comes around, will be a clunky LG monster with Bluetooth and a spare battery. Because if I got an iPhone, I'd have to re-engineer my life a little too much for my liking.
*I have a tendency to break promises that I make a while sitting at a keyboard. Just ask ^nP0. Sure, I'll help out with your ladder match. I promise not to screw it up...**See? I told you I'd put 'em all together.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I know. I'm on a google-run blog. What can I say? I'm a communist. I love free stuff that works most of the time. Who cares about my privacy?

Now I dont' normally do this but...

This has got to stop!

Corey Worthington has gone too far.

This 'man' is a menace to everything. Aside from photoshopping away his acne, he has released a terrible song and should feel terrible. It is so terrible in fact that I am not even going to link to it, as it will only perpetrate the madness. More ranting after the jump.


Now I must admit to being guilty on occasion of using the word 'fresh' in a context different from its' intended usage, particularly with reference to certain aspects of certain musical compositions. I am however, very discerning of said usage, bestowing the title upon only the most worthy tracks. I would consider myself a connoisseur of the word 'fresh' whereupon it applies to music and I must hereby lodge my protest at this irresponsible, near criminal misuse of this particular plaudit.

Novel? Yes. Fresh? Most definitely not.

I need mySpace, just a little space.

In which I dust off the typing hands and attempt my to integrate!

I recently discovered to my great surprise that I am technophobic.

I'm not a Luddite by any means, nor am I particularly technologically illiterate. I possess some meagre knowledge of computing, bolstered when necessary by search-engines and forums and I can even find my way around IRC without accidentally burning too many bridges. But for some reason, mention anything relating to user-generated content and I have a panic attack, cancel my facebook account and change my eMail address, then spend the next three days periodically checking my bank balance to make sure nobody's stolen my identity.


So what is it about web2.0/networking sites that scares the crap out of me? I mean, I chuckle at the news stories of people being stalked on mySpace, dismiss the attempts of sites like Yahoo! to make their sites more secure by adding phishing filters and sign-in seals as naive, yet I am still loathe to use my real name when filling out forms on line, as if it will actually afford me some sort of protection.

I think it boils down to the same mistrust of humanity that prevents me from putting my telephone number and billing address on business cards and handing them out to strangers outside Flinders Street Station. People are creepy, no matter where they are. They are creepy on trains, in parks, at the football(all denominations, some more than others) and in the comfort of their own home, so why should they not be creepy on the internet?

In many ways the internet makes it easier for people to be creepy, what with the optional anonymity etcetera, which I suppose is the basis for my misgivings about web2.0 technology. Give people the opportunity to delve into other people's lives and they'll take it. Let them do it behind a fake name and even the most well-mannered person can easily become a demented voyeur.

Personally, I suspect that my fears are baseless, just paranoia and mistrust, but that doesn't stop the nagging feeling that runs around my subconscious in cleats every time someone I barely know asks if I have a mySpace. I mean, all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Man finds long-lost sibling thanks to Facebook. Adopted daughter reunited with favourite puppy on Youtube. Even a friend of mine was contacted by a cousin she hadn't seen in years and had pretty much consigned to the depths of Fell-out-of-contact-Land. So it really does do good things. But also, I've had other friends the targets of ridiculous, childish bullying, smear-campaigns, rumourmongering and other such skulduggery.

I suppose you take the good with the bad, but the whole thing just smacks a little too much of the Cult of Self-Worship for me. In some cases it just seems like it's religious war in miniature, acted out with crossposting and spam, instead of flaming pitchforks. If someone disrespects your God, you start your armies marching. If someone posts bad press about you on their mySpace, you get your friends and bomb their comments section.

I think that's probably the main reason I keep a few layers of whimsy between me and the masses. You can't call it self worship if you can't find your self.