Here we go. It's Ink Blot Awards time. A time for fun, and time for some introspection, a time for passing time, and a time for looking back. I've been blogging both here and at GottaBeMobile.com for over eight years now. I began this little annual tradition on the first annivesary of this blog as a way of celebrating a community that no longer exists today. That community was a group of geeks devoted to the early Tablet PCs. Things have changed quite a bit since, but here's what I wrote on that first anniversary as some context.
I created The Life On The Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards as a celebration. Yes, it's a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of this blog. But it is more than that. It is a celebration of a community that I have come to know and admire. The Tableteers that make up the Tablet PC Community are an amazing collection of individuals who know and work with the Tablet PC platform. They are fiercely protective of it, insatiably curious about advancing it, very intelligent, often wickedly funny, at one time very forgiving and patient, and in the same breath, scathingly critical when the need arises. They are also exceedingly willing to evangelize the platform to anyone who will listen, and in my humble opinion, have helped keep the spotlight on The Tablet PC in ways that may, in the long run, prove to be responsible for keeping the platform thriving.
Like I said, many things have changed since then. The Ink Blot Awards continue to evolve, without or without any hint of intelligent design. Those early Tablet PCs might as well be made of stone given how the technology has advanced. The media that covers Tablets (and other things as well) proves over and over again that the exciting technology we have at our current disposal doesn't mean that the stone age thinking of how we cover things goes away with new technology.
What hasn't changed and what's consistent about Tablets and mobile tech is that they offer a very personal experience. Apple gets this. Microsoft and others are trying to, but they insist on making devices while Apple creates experiences.
My attitude about politics, cultural happenings, and other things are also changing. I've also changed how I observe and remark about them. The convenience of Twitter, App.net, Google+ and Facebook take something away from this blog. I used to worry about that. I don't any longer.
I used to find most of what revolves around us as we make our way through this crazy life as entertaining in a "Human Comedy" sort of way. That has stopped, largely. What used to entertain more frequently just fills me with disdain. I guess that's mostly because those that pull the levers seem to view us all with disdain and they are becoming more transparent about it. I suppose I'm losing my tolerance, but perhaps that's because these days you can't talk about things in a nuanced manner. Whether the subject be politics or the latest gadget, you're either with us or against us, whoever the us is. Why remain tolerant with intolerance? Hating is the in thing these days, though for whatever reason I can't quite figure out. The ins and outs of life begin with the foibles of humans. We can create beauty and magic. We can also screw up just about anything we touch given half a chance. It used to be we acknowledged that, celebrated it, and moved on, bettering ourselves in the process. We might still do some of that, but far too often I increasingly feel like we're playing a sucker's game. Granted the game is being rigged by other suckers who just don't realize that's what they are. Rats in a maze can only repeat their paths so often before they pass out and die or get too fat from finding the reward. I often wonder why we get so many chances to make the same mistakes over and over. Maybe we're just too small to see the maze.
All pretense aside, the rules for inclusion on this little list are the same as they have always been. Award winners are subject to my own whims and fancies. Some are best in class, some are just frivilous, some deserve the small heaping of scorn these awards might cast their way. Human nature, no matter the field of endeavor, is ripe with that which needs celebrating, and that which needs derision cast its way. Good friend and Tableteer, Mark “Sumocat” Sumimoto, christened these awards with the nickname of ‘The Blotties’ in year one, and that sorta stuck. So we'll let it keep sticking. And finally, if you don't like the list, go make your own.
So, as always, hit the jump, cue the dancing girls, beat out a tattoo on the drums, sound the trumpets and get ready for the Eighth Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards .
Enjoy!
Blogging and the Web
- Best We Can Give Our Products Away Because for Some Reason People Still Click on Ads: Google
- Best There's No Excuse for Privacy Anymore: Facebook
- Best Recommendation Engine that Still Recommends Products You've Already Bought: Amazon
- Best New Intenet Thing That Has Lots of Folks Excited and Lots of Folks Yawning: Google Plus
- Best Proof that Wall St Will Always Be a Suckers Game: Facebook IPO
- Best New Navel Gazing Internet Service: Klout
- Best Yeah, We're Back to Blogging for TechCrunch: MG Siegler and Michael Arrington
- Best Example That Humans Can Screw Up Anything: Twitter
- Best We Know What we Got, We Know You Like It, We Just Can't Make Products That You Like, So we're Going to Kill those Products that Help You Enjoy What We Got: Twitter
- Best You Might Have Helped Build It, But We Don't Want You Any Longer: Twitter
- Best Theatre Resource on Twitter: Howard Sherman
- Best Theatre and Arts Blogger I Follow: Robert Falls
- Best River of News: Dave Winer
- Best Proof That We Don't Need 140 Characters to Communicate Stuff: Jim Dalrymple
- Best We Own The World, We Just Let You Play In It. For a Price: Media Companies
- Best Humans Can Screw Up Anything If Given Half a Chance: Photo Slide Shows on Blogs
- Best We Don't Need Facts. Rumors Will Do Nicely Thank You: Tech and Polticial Bloggers
- Best Start at Crossing the Creepy Line: Google Now
- Best Email Service That Knows When You Need It Desperately So It Will Slow Down So You Can't Use It: Gmail
- Best We Want to Be Like Outlook.Wait That's a Bad Thing: Gmail.
- Best Chronicler of What's Going on in Journalism and What's Not Going On In Journalism: Jay Rosen
- Best Reason for Google+ to Exist: Discovering Amazing Photographers and Photos
- Best I'm a Blogger Auditioning for Running Man: Kevin Tofel
- Best Internet Service I Discovered This Year: IFTTT (If This Than That)
- Best Google Plus Advocate Who Almost Makes Me Believe: Mike Elgan
- Best First Blogger I Followed and Still Follow: James Kendrick
- Best Podcast Folks Who Inform and Make Me Laugh: Tie- Paul Thurrott and Andy Ihnatko
- Best Podcast Folks Who Don't Inform Enough or Don't Make Me Laugh But Think They Do: Tie- Ed Bott and Sarah Lane
- Best I'm Not Sure How He He Manages to Control the Staff Writers: Josh Smith
- Best Busiest Man on the Internet: Xavier Lanier
- Best I'll Try Any Gadget You Throw At Me: Kevin Purcell
- Best I'll Hang On To My iPhone 3GS Until They Pry It Out of My Cold Dead Hands (or Until I Get an iPhone 5): Adam Mills
- Best Blogger I'd Like to Have a Beer With: MIchael Gartenberg
- Best Podcast That I'm Glad Still Continues: The Gillmor Gang
- Best YouTube Videogrpaher: Mickeleh's Take
- Best You Only Thought You Had Our Release Schedules Figured Out: Apple and the 4th Gen iPad
- Best What's in a Name: The new iPad
- Best Actual Year of the Tablet: 2012
- Best We Proved We Haven't Changed Our Marketing Stripes: Microsoft
- Best New Tablet: Nexus 7
- Best Mobile Tablet: iPad mini
- Best iPad: iPad mini
- Best Our Slip Is Showing More Than We'd LIke: Apple
- Best We Haven't Figured Out the Internet Yet: Apple
- Best Product Kill: Ping
- Best Apple Rumor: Apple Is Making a New (fill in the blank with whatever it released yesterday)
- Best We'd Love to Build Better Tablets But Our Legal Department Keeps Rejecting Anything That Actually Looks Like a Tablet: Samsung
- Best Shit, They Want to Buy Our Hardware Now We Have to Do Customer Fulfillment and Customer Service: Google
- Best and Most Dramatic Tech Exits: Tie-Steven Sinofsky and Scott Forstall
- Best We've All Got Eyes On What You're Going To Do: Marissa Mayer and Eddie Cue
- Best Thing about Windows RT: Frank Garcia is Back Blogging Again
- Best Schizoid Product Release: Windows RT and Surface RT
- Best Multi-Platform App For Storing Stuff: Evernote
- Best Multi-Platform App for Reading Stufff: Tie- Pocket and Instapaper
- Best App I Use The Most: Flipboard
- Best Apple Product Refresh This Year: iPod Touch
- Best Sure Hope We Didn't Spend Too Much Money on Tha Secrecy Thing This Year: Apple
- Best We Think We Might Be On To This Design Thing But We'll Need an Algorhtym to Figure It Out: Google
- Best I Don't Know How He Keeps Track of Which Smartphone He's Using: Matt Miller
- Best Stupid Patent War: Samsung and Apple
- Best Tablet To Use as a Skateboard: Microsoft Surface
- Best You Want Thin, We'll Give You Thin: Apple
- Best This Ultrabook Thing Isn't Catching On So Let's Just Call Them Computers: Intel
- Best Thank God Netbooks are Dead and We Can Get Prices Up to $1000 again: Microsoft and Intel
- Best Numbers Really Don't Mean Anything: iOS and Android statistics
- Best Siri: Google Voice Search
- Best I Can't Believe I Make Money Doing This: Tech Anaylsts
- Best You Want an Update to your Android OS? HaHaHaHaHaHa: Telcos and Android Handset Makers
- Best Oops, How Did That Happen?: Apple Maps
- Best Jony Ive Design Flaw Ever: Easily Scratchable iPhone 5 Case
- Best Thieves in the Business: Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and other US Internet Providers
- Best Tech Advancement That Helps Eye Doctors Gain Business: Retina Displays
- Best Future Tech Advancement That Will Probably Drive Eye Doctors Crazy: Google Glass
Cultural, Political and Everything Else
- Best Percentage That Will Be Remembered 100% in the Future: 47%
- Best Trumped Up Excuse for a Political Fight: The Fiscal Cliff
- Best Example That Civilization Has Declined Beyond the Point of No Return: Honey Boo Boo
- Best Reads: Ike's Bluff and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- Best Movie: Lincoln
- Best Film Performance: Daniel Day-Lewis
- Best Emperor With No Clothes: Karl Rove
- Best Let's Not Talk About Anything Substantive and Hope They Won't Notice: Tie- Microsoft and The Romney Campaign
- Best Example of Thinking You Can Fool Folks and Failing: The Olympics
- Best You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time But In The End You
Become a Joke: Tie-Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Microsoft, AT&T, Donald Trump,
The JooJoo, Fox News, NBC and The Olympics
- Best: Let's Make Rape and Vaginal Probes Something We Talk About In Polite Society at Dinner Parties: Republican Party
- Best I Coulda Been a Contender, Oh, Wait I Was: Mitt Romney
- Best WTF Is That About: Gangnam Style
- Best Proof That the Apple Can Fall Far From the Tree: Luke Russert
- Best Holy Cow Someone Can Make a Good Superhero Movie: The Avengers
- Best Example of Why Intelligent Design Is Not a Vaild Theory: Republican Party
- Best Example of Why Evolution Doesn't Work: US Politicians
- Best We Don't Really Work We Just Pretend To: US Congress
- Best Waste of Taxpayers Money: US Congress
- Best Sesquicentennial Flashback: Today's Seccession Petitions
- Best Reality TV That Confused Us All About the Nature of Reality: Republican debates
- Best I Can't Control My Emotions or My Caucus But I Still Have This Big Gavel and My Orange Tan: John Boehner
- Best Unicorn Enclaves: North Korea and Cupertino
- Best We Love Free Speech and Protests Anywhere But Here: The USA and Occupy Wall Street
- Best Evidence That We Don't Teach Math Well: Republican Pollsters and Political Operatives
- Best Bull Conner: The Pepper Spray Cop
- Best I May Not Be Cuter, But Please Tell Me I Was Better Than Sarah Palin: Paul Ryan
- Best Example of What We All Hope We Don't Turn Into When We're Older: Clint Eastwood and his Chair
Local Ink Blots
- Best Attempt and Trying to Hype Local News and Tech: John Mangino
- Best Use of Google Plus Hangouts Locally: Dan McDermott
- Best How's That Pay Wall Working Out For Ya: The Winchester Star
- Best Local Paper Still Trying To Make It in Print and Digitally and I Hope They Succeed: The Northern Va Daily
Repeats From Previous Years That Are Still The Best This Year
- Still the Best Kept Software Secret that Microsoft Doesn’t Want Anyone To Know About: OneNote
- Still the Best Arrogance: Apple
- Still the Best I Wish I Twittered That for Comic Tweets That Sum It All Up Nicely Award: Rex Hammond
- Still the Best Podcast Host: Leo LaPorte
- Still the Best Proof That "Anyone Can Be Replaced” May Not Be Such a Good Maxim Award: David Gregory
- Still the Best Proof That Not Everyone Gets Better With Experience: David Gregory
- Still the Best The We Think Too Much Alike Award: Francine Hardaway
- Still the Best Crossover Geek Who Does Print and Blogging: Dwight Silverman
- Still the Best Twitter List I Follow: The Circle of Mickeleh
- Still the Best Read on the Web: Jeff Jarvis
- Still the Craziest Read on the Web: Mike Cane
- Still the Best Game Ever Played on Mankind in the Modern Age: You Have a Right to Privacy
- Still the Best Worst Political Collapse Since Zachary Taylor Died: The Obama Administration
- Still the Best Blogger With a Sense of Justice, a Sense of Fairness, and Common Sense: Karoli
Ink Blots Retired in 2011
- Still the Best Weekly Feature on a Blog for This Week In Mobile Tech Manor: James Kendrick
Ink Blots Retired in 2007
- Best Tablet PC Software Site: Tablet PC Post
- Most Consistent and Most Creative Ink Blogger: Mark Sumocat Sumimoto
- Best All Father of Tablet PCs: James Kendrick (What's an All Father anyway?)
- Best Annual Wish List For Santa That Makes All Geeks Think About Committing Crimes To Purchase All The Cool Gadgets: Linda Epstein of TabletPC2.com
- Most Obnoxious Tableteer Laugh : Tie-Robert Scoble and myself. (The only reason it is a tie is Scoble's laugh is heard more than mine.)
- Best and Most Frequent Use Of The Word "Cool" in a Tablet PC Blog Post or Podcast: James Kendrick
- Best First Family Of Tablet PCs: The Heiny's
- Best Tablet PC Batman Fan: Marc Orchant
No Awards were Retired in 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2012
Previous Ink Blot Awards
