Three Fridays In A Row…

This makes three Fridays in a row of me encountering at least one social media headline.  I think the Parenting And The Internet series should be continued regardless of what stories keep breaking out there.

The Huffington Post – Getting Divorced?  Stop Texting And Get Off Facebook

I’ve heard of “Facebook Divorces” before, as well as “internet divorces” in general, and this is just the latest chapter in that ongoing issue.  :-P  Same old issues though.  The chasm between what people think social media is and what social media actually is pretty much could be described as being a digital Grand Canyon.

Radio Locator – Long Time No See :-)

This goes way back to my college radio days, but I remember one time I was chatting with the program director about some stuff and he showed me this site on his laptop.  It’s basically a database of information about radio stations including coverage maps.  I remember him joking about how ours was wrong at the time because whoever configured our broadcast antenna messed up and rigged it so the darn thing shot about 80% of the signal straight down into the building it was on top of.  :-P

http://www.radio-locator.com/

I’ve added this to the Tech Links menu up top.  Should be a handy tool to have if you ever want to look up what should come in where and how well various stations should come in.  :-)

Note:  Coverage Maps might be a little tricky as some listings bounce straight over to the radio station’s site.  Typing the call letters and coverage map into Google can get around that though.  :-)

Chris Pirillo Gets The Picture

The video title’s a bit misleading, but it lines up with the whole social media gaffe thing I’ve been looking at lately.  :-P

http://www.lockergnome.com/social/2012/02/23/how-to-use-pinterest-without-breaking-the-law/

Paywall = Outdated Business Model?

If I had to write a headline describing wide swaths of the world of broadband-related issues these days, it would probably be “Tenacious Outdated Organizations Struggle With Reality Of Changing Times.”  The more I keep an eye on issues related to broadband and technology, the more that headline makes sense.

It’s no secret that broadband and the Internet going mainstream have changed the landscape of more than a few industries these days, and it’s also no secret that in a true kicking-against-the-bricks fashion, former leaders in said industries have been pulling every stunt in the book to try to protect their outdated business models.  Paywalls are the latest in this long-running escapade of dated industries trying to stop the march of time and technology in its tracks, and recently The Consumerist and Forbes posted an article about an embattled old school media business that has fought these changes for years – newspapers.  :-P

The Consumerist – Gannett To Put 80 Of Its Newspapers Behind Paywalls

Forbes – Gannett Building Paywalls Around All Its Papers Except USA Today

Newspapers stubbornly pulling these stunts is nothing new to me.  Many years ago, Chris Pirillo posted a video on his Lockergnome channel on YouTube where he basically messed with and eventually hung up on a telemarketer from a newspaper that was trying to sell him a half-cooked not-so-innovative service that I’ll bet isn’t even still around these days, judging by what the sales rep was talking about here.  :-P

Let’s see….  A “complete newspaper that you can flip through online.”  Sounds like a PDF to me.  Some retailers where I am scan their weekly circulars and put them online, but that’s just a quick and dirty way of getting their paper publications onto the Internet, not a primary way of getting people to find out about stuff online.  That’s what websites and RSS feeds are for, and the bigger more successful retailers around here get that simple fact.  :o)

Paywalls are nothing new.  They’re basically a dead giveaway that a business with an archaic business model is trying to fight the tides of change.  I usually run into paywalls with folks related to the TV industry since TV is probably the most in denial that traditional media shares its platform with new media these days.  I could do a whole entry on how the Internet probably scares traditional media folks so let’s not get ahead of things here.  That being said though, with radio being the only form of traditional media that I haven’t yet seen fiddle around with paywalls yet (probably because of how radio works relative to TV or newspapers) I’m thinking paywalls as a sign of an aging business model could definitely be a valid equation these days.  :-P

As for my local newspaper – they have the right idea.  The reason Gannett jumped out at me is because the local paper in my neck of the woods used to be Gannett until several years ago, and since then they’ve developed a decent-looking news website with teasers for stories only available in print and of course still sell regular newspapers for those folks around here who don’t want to poke around the Internet for everything.  I still think the TV stations do a better job of web design which gives them something to maybe shoot for in terms of appearance but at least for local news coverage there’s at least one paper around here that gets that clicks and web pages should be embraced instead of fought at the city gates.  :-)

The Greatest [Political] Show On Earth!!! :-P

Had enough of this election yet?  I’m convinced none of the major parties really have a clue what they’re doing, so between these soap opera Republican debates and President Obama singing his way into being the next Showbiz Prez (sorry buddy, Sax Willie “I Didn’t Inhale” Clinton was cooler) you might as well grab the popcorn between now and Election Day here in the US.

Even Ron Paul has added to the sheer silliness in last night’s Republican debate.  At one point in the debate he mentioned $6/gallon gas in Florida.  Ooooooh.  Scary right?  Of course!  …until one punches that into Google News Search and clicks the Search button.  ;-)

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/240208/19/Gas-prices-near-6-at-some-Florida-gas-stations

“Prices over in the Disney World area are much higher than any other place in Florida…”  Ah.  That explains quite a bit.  TOURIST TRAP!!!  Somebody in the Ron Paul campaign seems to have forgotten that phrase.  ;-)

Even funnier is that this and related stories mention Suncoast Energy – a company that already has a bad reputation for playing these kinds of games and utterly gouging people in a rather jugular fashion at its gas stations near airports.  After all, if tourists want to return rental cars in a hurry and don’t want to hunt around for another gas station, gas is worth whatever the desperate tourist trying to catch a plane will pay for it….. right?  :-P

Last I checked I believe the associated logical fallacy with this loaded scare tactic was called the unrepresentative sample?  ;-)  Then again, maybe I’m over-analyzing things here.  I often catch politicians in debates with logical fallacies or dodging questions, but I’m sure that doesn’t matter.  After all, I’m just one vote.  Why should politicians even waste time trying to convince guys like me to vote for them when they can rope in herds of people who are clueless about logic, debate, or current events and win that way?  Yeah, and we wonder why this country seems so dysfunctional at times…  :-P

Silly Plastic Kiddie Toy Headsets… :-P

Just left a snarky comment on this Newegg TV video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKb0wHapwGY

“….and when you’ve had enough of the silly plastic kiddie toys you can always try a Sennheiser.  :o)”

Hope nobody gets offended.  Actually who am I kidding?  I hope I stir up the hornet’s nest!  :o)

Joanne does a pretty good job demoing this Creative Fatality series gaming headset, but the people who were second-guessing its build quality from the video have the right idea.  I had one of these for awhile.  It’s one of many cheaply-built headsets that have lasted me a few months tops before making me realize I’m a moron if I don’t buy Sennheisers.

Up through college I burned through all kinds of $20 headsets like what you’d find at Walmart or Radio Shack or something.  It didn’t matter what the brand was.  Sony, Koss, whatever – it would break in a few months tops.  If the thing didn’t break mechanically from the cheap brittle plastic snapping (had a few earpieces either snap off or slide right off the headset that way), they would break electrically when something went intermittent like an ear or something up by the plug on the cable.

Finally, in 2004, I decided to spend a little money on headsets and get a pair of Sennheisers.  I still have those Sennheisers and they still work perfectly.  Even better, if by wild chance something does break on any of my Sennheiser headsets Sennheiser has a robust parts market to get replacement parts like replacement cords, foam pieces, etc.  After those worked really well, I went Sennheiser for headset mics and broke one from bending the microphone too much, but note – I had to actually make an effort to break something, unlike the cheap stuff that eventually breaks under normal use.  :-P

Finally, my latest set of Sennheisers are completely over-the-whole-ear headphones that block out a lot of background noise and give a very neutral sound.  I use them at my media station computer when mixing audio.  I expect those to last a long time too.

Stuff like this Creative set is little more than clever branding and not much else.  I actually had the plastic snap on one of these just like other cheap headsets, so Joanne was definitely on to something when she had a hard time adjusting the headset in this video.  :-P

Wanted: New Local News Homepage :-P

After however many years it has been, I think I’ve about had it with WFSB as my homepage in my web browser.  I’m trying NBC Connecticut for now, but I’d like to find a new good-looking news site for local Connecticut and other news.  I’ve just about had it with WFSB.com with all the sloppy journalism I’ve seen on that site.

It really is a shame too.  WFSB as a TV channel is a well-respected news team in this state.  I first started watching right after moving here for the first time as a little kid back during the Gayle King/Janet Peckinpaugh/Hilton Kaderli days.  Even the theme music from the WFSB newscasts has been offered by Gari Communications (a company that does news music packages and other media services) in their catalog that’s how iconic the tune has become over the past few decades.  WFSB.com as a website though is fast becoming one of the sloppiest news sites I’ve ever seen.

Among some of the issues I’ve seen with their stories are:

• Loaded Headlines: Headlines that don’t line up with the story and seem to only be there to get you to click to read the story and of course boost the site’s traffic.  The thing is, some people don’t click and may get the wrong idea of a story from that publicity tactic.  The latest was the Facebook Bomb Scare in Manchester.  The facts reported in both ‘FSB’s story and the Manchester Patch article I posted pointed to the situation being more of a bomb scare but the ‘FSB headline at the time specifically said, “Bomb Threat” which is a significant difference.  It might even be enough to invite a lawsuit similar to not saying “allegedly” when talking about people that get arrested for stuff.  In some cases I’ve seen WFSB.com change the headlines after the fact, but whenever things are posted on the Internet, there’s always that first rush of people then the traffic drops off afterwards, so headlines should cater to that crowd instead of whoever stops by after the initial rush of traffic.  There’ve been times when I’ve shared their stories on Facebook with the loaded headline then they change it afterwards, but my Facebook link didn’t change.  ;-)
• Lack Of Proofreading:  You’d think professional journalists would at least run a spell check or two when posting new articles, but surprisingly I’ve seen a few stories lately that would give an English teacher something to do.  The most recent blunder was a story that was out of “Norw, Connecticut.”  Hmmmm…..  Norw?  Never heard of Norw.  Do you think maybe they meant NORWICH?  :-D
• Incomplete Information In Stories: The latest story and last straw will be linked after this bulletpoint, but I’m talking about stories where details that should’ve been included with the story are noticeably omitted, which readers will notice either when they get these details elsewhere or notice that a story overall is rather vague.  Let’s segue out of this bulleted list with the latest example of this mess…

WFSB – Gas Prices Continue To Rise

As of this typing, the story says that “some officials” say that rising gas prices could go way up, “experts” say we could be well over $4/gallon by late April, and one “expert” thinks we’ll be around $5.50/gallon by Memorial Day.  Just one question though…

WHO?!!!!!

WHO are these officials?  WHO are these “experts”?  WHO is this “expert” with the doom and gloom prognostication?!  Believe me.  I want to know who these “experts” are, because expert could mean just about anything these days.  Some companies conducting astroturf campaigns (fake corporate bought-and-paid-for “grassroots campaigns”) sometimes hire “experts” to “conduct research” for them that just happens at the end of the day to line up with what the company wanted anyways.  Seriously.  Who are these people?  I want to look them up on Google.  I want to see what credentials they have, what background they have, and what they do for a living.

You know, one of the biggest mantras in academia is “cite your sources.”  Not only is this a way to avoid plagiarism, but when one’s sources can be checked, you can see just how credible the sources are and see whether something’s baloney or not even if someone writes a formal academic paper on it, but that’s just a silly formality isn’t it?  After all, the average news article is written with a 6th grade reading level in mind.  What are those folks reading the news going to want to do in terms of research to check a story’s sources?  :-P

I’ve encountered activist groups pushing for more transparency in journalism and to make journalism line up more with academia in terms of how news is reported, and I’m starting to see their point.  It’s especially ironic if the journalists writing these vague stories like this went to college for a journalism degree since if their school wasn’t some “Mickey Mouse BlahBlah School” they should be familiar with the importance of citing sources, or at least naming names so the readers have a way to check some credibility here.  :-P

I’ll start with NBC Connecticut for now, but if something else comes up that’s better, I’ll make the switch.

The Oil War Dog And Pony Show – The Next Chapter

Ready to see more ridiculously expensive gas?  Europe has done a little something that I consider far too commonplace in politics today and landed themselves in some hot water over the recent situation in Iran.

CBS News – Oil At 9-Month High After Iran Cuts Supply

Iran has cut off oil exports to Britain and France.  Next up are some more European countries if they go through with their next round of threats, but Iran’s not just randomly cutting off its own source of import/export revenue here.  Europe made the first move in enacting sanctions against Iran to discourage them from continuing to develop nuclear weapons.  The US has gotten involved to some extent as well, but it was the EU that landed in the news for the political posturing a few weeks back.

I refer to this as a dog and pony show because it’s become far too common in politics today that governments that need to distract people from the ongoing issues of the economy will create headlines for themselves to distract their people, and I think this whole Iran thing is definitely the latest page in that book.  Here we have Europe playing political games when nobody has any money, and surprise surprise guess which country on The Old Continent is one of the ones heavily-dependent on Iranian oil imports that’s been landing in the news lately?  GREECE!!!

Sydney Morning Herald – Greek Dependence On Iranian Oil Proves Latest Headache For EU

So, here’s the country whose shaky economy has got some people worried sick about the world slipping into another recession by the end of 2013 and in the name of playing politics they get hung out to dry oil-wise in the name of…. what exactly?  Preventing Iran from building nukes?  It’s not like there aren’t already nuclear-armed anti-West regimes out there to worry about.  Look at North Korea for example.  We’re technically still at war with them because the Korean War ended in a cease fire rather than a peace treaty, they have no shortage of anti-American propaganda, and they’re interested in developing an ICBM that could hit the US, and we’re worried about the mere possibility of a nuclear Iran?

Can’t say Europe’s alone in this diversion politics while folks on the street continue to have empty pockets.  The Obama Administration has engaged in more than a few social experiments while nobody has any money in the past few years, and even the State Of Connecticut has done some shenanigans themselves on a more local level.  That seems to be the name of the game in American politics today, just keep enough uninformed people nodding their heads enough to keep getting re-elected, no matter what the result.

Who knows what the future holds?  I predict World War 3 sometime in my lifetime, and probably over oil.  =(

Check It Out. A Window…. For Windows! :-P

Ars Technica posted an article about Microsoft’s latest decision to change Windows’ logo to…. well…  a window.  :-D

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/02/a-flag-no-more-microsoft-unveils-new-windows-logo.ars

Not a moment too soon I say.  Ars mentions the irony that the logo for “Windows” was more like a flag than a window.  I say that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Google Image Search some Windows logos and you might agree with me that Microsoft’s taste in Windows logos has been questionable at times:

• Windows 3.1 was pretty decent.  Win31 basically started the whole flag window thing and that “flag” became an iconic symbol of the Microsoft OS for decades to come, HOWEVER!!!!!!!  :-)
• Windows 95/98/2000/ME pointed the logo slightly downward which I think was completely stupid on their part.  :-P  The “flag window thingie” looks like a plane out of a World War 2 movie or something that’s been shot down that’s falling to the ground with a big trail of smoke behind it.  With how Win9x was so infamous for crashing all over the place under normal use I’m surprised I haven’t heard more people joking about how the logo looked like someone had hit the Windows logo with an anti-aircraft gun.  :-P
• Windows XP, Vista, and 7 fixed the whole shot-down plane look and actually made the Windows logo look more like glass.  However, a wavy piece of stained glass looks more like an art piece than a window.  Even Vista and 7′s round thing they added in didn’t help the Windows logo look much more like a window.

Might as well have one last hurrah when Windows 8 launches as PCs of course are sharing the stage these days with other computer-like devices, so the classic Windows desktop will also be sharing the stage with other interfaces and ways of interacting with computers as well, though I don’t share the doom and gloom apocalyptic views of “Post-PC People.”  More on that later, probably in the form of a RadioStyle video on YouTube.  ;-)

HAPPY MONDAY!!!  :-)

…And Facebook Insurance Fraud Too… :-P

Should’ve known better than to check The Consumerist after the last entry….  :-D

The Consumerist – Florida Police Bust Garages For Illegal Tows, Insurance Fraud After Owners Seen Flashing Cash On Facebook