Bad News Bears
Bell Sympatico openly admits to throttling P2P traffic at peak hours.Two show nights left. More coming eventually.
This is nice to see: Amber MacArthur's parents launched
bestofpei.com, which showcases and sells goods 100% crafted by Prince Edward Islanders. Everything from paintings to cabinets to toys and other stuff. I was impressed with the design of the site. It's well-spaced out, clean, and very intuitive. Throw it a bookmark if you think you might ever want to support some PEI artists.
Labels: net neutrality, websites
Project Blank Page
One of my friends here at school has just shared a project with me that she's starting work on. It's called Project Blank Page. Before you visit the site, the hope is that people see
this promotional video. Visit the website
here.
The idea of Project Blank Page is to combat the accusation that the young generation is "the apathetic generation". It challenges university-aged people to create a small project, (video, photographic, or otherwise) that sends a message about how you plan to better yourself and the world. All the work will be showcased at a "Project Blank Page" film festival in January.
Although this is mainly directed at U of G students, any and all students are encouraged to participate. I am officially encouraging everyone to submit something because my friend Sarah's worked hard at this and the project will flop if no one contributes. I believe a Facebook group is coming soon.
Labels: contests, projects, websites
< Refactor:my="code" >
Ok don't ask what that ugly monstrosity in the title is supposed to be. The point is, I found a promising site for sharing & discussing/evaluating your code-creations in a (small but growing) coding community. It's called
Refactor my Code. Posting this mainly for Rockwell, (although I haven't seen much discussion there about ActionScript), and also for anyone else who's interested.
Labels: programming, web design, websites
Why Facebook will Go the Way of the Dodo
This is a post I've had rolling around in my head for several weeks now, and while it may be a little behind the times I'm going to get it out of my system anyway.On May 24th of this year, the social network sensation Facebook introduced the ability to create applications for use on on the site. They range from useful things like a feed to
del.icio.us links, to pointless, fun things like gifts, plants, pets, and one of my favourites, The Honesty Box. ("What do you really think of me? Answers are completely anonymous!")
At first these things seemed like a fun way to jazz up the uniform Facebook UI and give each profile its own unique look, as well as provide a way, if you're a developer, to share your creativity with your friends. That's all fine and good, until the sheer amount of clutter starts to overwhelm the core features of the site.
I've seen quite a few complaints about "application invite/request spam". A good example, large screenshot included, is
a recent post from Paul S's blog. It clearly demonstrates how out of hand things can get when you have a lot of friends enthusiastically using and sharing their favourite applications. Personally, I don't have this problem - I guess because a lot of my closest friends are of the same mind as me, and maybe partly because I've never replied or sent requests to anyone else.
While I'm sure application spam is a legitimate concern for a lot of people,
my main beef comes from a design perspective. (Not that I have any sort of qualification, other than being a 12-year-or-so veteran of internet browsing.) To put it simply, a lot of people's Facebook profiles are ugly now.
Myspace-ugly. The reason a lot of college/university students embraced Facebook in the beginning was because it was a welcome change from the loud, obnoxious Myspace pages with background music and colour schemes that look like my sister's bedroom in the early 90's. Let's compare, shall we? Here's what profile pages looked like back in the day; ie. when I joined about 14 months ago:
By the way, I don't know this guy. The image is from Google. But it demonstrates how nice and clean things used to be. Nowadays you're more likely to see something like this:
It's not that I have some grudge against colours. This particular example isn't really too bad. (Again, from Google.) None of the apps pictured here are stupid or pointless, nor do they even look that bad. With this guy we'd be looking at a functionality issue, where the information you're looking for could easily get lost in all the other data that's there.
Here are two beliefs that I hold:
Number One: Mainstream trends are leaning more and more toward sleekness and minimalism. I'm sure we can all agree that Apple has been at the forefront of this revolution. Just look at the iPhone or the iPod Touch to witness the ultimate example of minimalist design in consumer electronics. It's what appeals to people these days. We see the same abstract themes in the design of cars and other material things. This might be a bit of a stretch for some people, but if you think about it, the same or similar elements of design are often present in everything from web browsers to electric shavers. (You may snicker at me for putting so much emphasis on fashion, but I would challenge you to provide a convincing argument that aesthetics aren't an enormous part of secular culture.)
Number Two: Convenience is a hugely important factor in our day to day lives, especially when it comes to computer usage. Well-designed websites make data access as easy as possible, with more information readily available. It's organized and uncluttered. Period.
Facebook is moving away from both these things. It has taken two steps backward in allowing users to transform its look into something reminiscent of the chaotic Myspace era, while simultaneously making it harder to access information. Which leads me to my next point: Facebook also gives users a huge amount of privacy settings, so that they can modify their page in almost any way imaginable to hide or limit certain aspects from the world, or just certain people - like parents. Maybe it's because I'm more willing to police my own content, but I can't identify with people who feel that they need to block access to their profile page from folks they don't have listed as friends. While it's possible that there are some people who only want their friends to know that they like watching The Hills, (understandable) I think the major concern is with items like contact information and Wall posts.
I say, if it's something you'd be worried about
somebody knowing, then don't post it at all. If your friend needs your new address, that's what private messages are for. Back in April, the cover story from
Wired magazine talked about how transparency is the best policy for business and social interaction these days, and increasingly so in the coming years. I won't spend time going into that, but in a nut shell, just think of it in terms of: "Nothing To Hide = Trust". Make sense? I think so. It's a better idea to not publicly share things in the first place
and be prepared to put forward the tiny bit of effort required to moderate content, rather than bluntly hide information and make people wonder.
So, in the end, what we're seeing is Facebook making 3 major mistakes. Still, its popularity is on the rise even now, and I'm sure its success isn't near its end yet. I'm just saying we've seen the beginning of the end. I think Google's on the same page as me, considering that
some information's recently leaked about a few web apps they'll be putting out that will challenge Facebook head-on.
Anyhoo. Time will tell. Right now time's telling me it's time to pack up and
book it to Zoology.
Labels: Apple, applications, facebook, Google, social networking, style, usability, web design, websites
A Few Things
Rockwell's website is up and running. The main Flash intro page is
here, and the blog is
here.
Apple announced the
iPod Touch today. The video iPod will now be called the Classic, and the Nano has received a
complete design overhaul. I can't figure out whether I think this is a good change or not. Apple also reduced the price of the iPhone by a third, much to the chagrin of early buyers.
I was in Chapters today looking around for a recipe book, since I'll be preparing a lot more of my own food this year. I wasn't having much luck, but as I was browsing through the stacks I was listening to the latest CommandN podcast on my iPod and Will Pate recommended
Chow.com for exactly the kind of information I was looking for.
Speaking of podcasts, the ones I'm currently subscribed to are:
Amber MacArthur's
CommandN and
WebnationLeo Laporte's This Week in Tech (
TWiT),
The Tech Guy, and
MacBreak WeeklyAttack of the Show's
The Daily FeedMorgan Webb's
WebbAlertRemember when I wrote about
Mahalo, the human-powered search engine slash encyclopedia? Well, I'm now a
part-time employee with the Panasonic result page reserved for myself. If the results pages I write for them, (which are more HTML-oriented than anything else) get enough hits, I'll start getting royalty checks in the mail. Awesome.
Highly-regarded blogger Paul Stamatiou published
an excellent article about a month ago that's meant to be a
realistic back to school guide for college/university students. It was in direct response to all the articles put out by folks like
Wired who seem to feel that our schools are paying us for enrolling. Yeah, right. After reading Paul's guide I feel like I'm doing pretty well, but I learned a few really handy things such as the ultra-cheap price of an HP laser printer available on
Newegg.com. If you're a student, read it. If you're not a student, read it anyway.
Yes, I am moved into my new place in Guelph, and no, I won't be posting about it until later. I plan on posting photos and such once everything is in place. Aiming for next week sometime. That's it for now.
Labels: Apple, aside, blogs, iPhone, iPod, mahalo, online resources, podcasts, Tech, websites
Blog Infidelity
Tonight I stumbled across
Squarespace, a fabulously snazzy blog and website publisher. It's a lot like Blogger, except it makes Blogger seem about a million years old. There is a lot more customization available, flashier templates, and the ability to remove any trace of Squarespace themselves from the domain name, therefore making you look better. The only downside is the monthly (or yearly) fee you pay for hosting, but the prices do seem reasonable.
I'm not planning on abandoning this blog any time soon, although at some point in the future, maybe once I'm finished my undergrad and looking for work, I'd be interested in having a website that features a blog section with research or other writing, plus a resume/portfolio section for self-promotion. (Much along the lines of Geoffrey Rockwell's site or that of
Heidi Hysell.)
Not much else to report tonight. I have the day off work again tomorrow, and then I go in Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Labels: blogs, web design, websites
Technorati Luv
As of tonight I'm officially listed with
Technorati - a site that's basically a search engine for blogs. (I suppose it's also a social networking thing since you have profiles and stuff.) I've known about it for ages, but I never took the time to look into it carefully until now. As silly as it may sound, I think signing up with them was the most fun I've ever had registering for something online. Maybe it's because I'm just a huge Web 2.0 fan boy. (But seriously...the part where you type out a 250-character blog descriptions actually has a little character count going as you type it. How cool is that?) Plus they give you some nifty little widgets to stick in a template, and, well, fresh additions to my blog's template make my heart beat faster because I'm really cool like that.
I've been doing more thinking lately about making this blog accessible to wider audiences and so forth, but just tonight I've seriously re-considered my previous notion that it would never happen unless I made it much less personal, since my own personal life is pretty ordinary. But, just from some of the browsing around I've been doing tonight, (won't go into the details) I've seen that there are plenty of folks who enjoy reading frivolity as much as I enjoy writing it. Thus, I've done some self-promotion in blogging circles so we'll just see what happens.
Random: My work shift tomorrow got changed from afternoon to evening. In other words?
RIP Weekend.Labels: blog, blogs, websites
