Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

The 8th Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards

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!

Political Polling, Ad Tracking, and Mike Royko

In case you haven't noticed it is poltiical polling season. If you live in a battleground state, you probably get several calls a week, in addition to the robocalls. There's also a debate swinging around the Internets about ad tracking. You know that promised land were companies collect information on you so they can serve you the ads you want to see. It's becoming a thing as we approach more of this on our smartphones and other smart devices.

Some companies let you turn this off supposedly. (Well, they do, but they don't.) Some scream bloody murder. I think one guy actually said this was like a core democratic principal or some such thing last week, although I can't find the link at the moment.

Yesterday I got a poll call. It was from the state Republican Committee. For some reason they have in their records that I am a registered Republican. I'm not a registered anything. I do vote more on the Democratic side than the Republican, but I'm not a registered party member either way. I found myself answering questions in the way that for Chicago newspaperman Mike Royko used to advise those confronted with exit pollsters. He told them to lie about how they voted. So, I made up a few things as I answered the questions.

I do the same thing with all of these social sites and shopping sites. When I have the time, I'll frequently search for things that I have zero interest in, just to watch how that affects the ads and recommendations I get. To be honest, before I started doing this, I never really saw ads that seemed to focus on my interest or the things I legitmately searched for. While I'm sure there's some science and some art involved. Mostly I think it is pure guesswork. At least before the age of this kind of data tracking, everyone knew it was guesswork. But the reality is that the databases and the algorithyms used to gain that data aren't as smart as most wish they would be.

Why? Humans don't categorize that easily. Perhaps their interests at certain points do, but in the long run, they are much more complex in their interests than the marketers would like us to believe.

So, if you've got some time, or you get a pollster calling, take Mr. Royko's advice and tell a fib or two. I mean we have to keep these folks employed in order to save the economy, right?

Rob Reid and Copyright Math

Ever wonder about those claims about billions of dollars lost to copyright infringement? Well, this video of Rob Reid's talk at the TED conference on Copyright Math will set you straight. It will also leave you laughing. Worth a watch.

 

The 7th Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards

Like everything else in my life in this insane year this post is a day late and a dollar short. The seventh anniversary of this blog was yesterday, December 3. But things in my life kept me from putting the finishing touches on the post and getting it published on the big day. On some level that's unacceptable. On others it is entirely in character this year. But then, maybe we'll see that change in the new year.

Seven years. (and a day) That's how long I've been presenting the Ink Blot Awards as my way of recognizing the anniversary of this blog. It's been a fun ride. It's been full of laughs. I'm hoping this year's awards will also provide a few chuckles to folks who stop by and give them a read. Although the history is mostly ancient and perhaps bordering on the irrelevant, I think it is important to provide some of it as context. So here goes:

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.

So much has changed in the time I started blogging that first year. It's changed with me and also that community has certainly changed. Those around me have changed as well in an eerie parallel to how things with Tablets have changed. Tablets mean different things now-a-days, although some of those who make them seem to have less penchant for success than Microsoft did.

What hasn't changed and what's consistent about Tablets is that they are still the very personal devices that they started out to be. Microsoft never recognized that. Apple did. Others tried to emulate without acknowledging the core reasons for Apple's success. And by and large they failed.

What's also changed is my attitude about politics, cultural happenings, and other things that I observe on this blog. I've also changed how I observe and remark about them. The convenience of Twitter and Google+ take something away from this blog. Sometimes I worry about that. Sometimes I don't.

I've become increasingly disenchanted with quite a few things this year. To be honest, I don't know why. I used to find it all entertaining in a "Human Comedy" sort of way. I don't find it that entertaining anymore. The ins and outs of life begin with the foibles of humans. It used to be that somewhere along the line we acknowledged that, celebrated it, and moved on, bettering ourselves in the process. While I think we still acknowledge it, and we might celebrate it, the only benefit we're deriving by moving on is to repeat the same things over and over again with an increasing frequency. I think this year's Ink Blot Awards reflect that with the number of repeats. Or they reflect my warped sense of things.

This was a year that so many things resulted in a "FAIL" that I think we have to look for a new buzz word for failure. Politics and the circus around it started performing without a tent and nobody cared that the clowns weren't funny any more. It's not that the clowns weren't funny that is maddening. It's depressing that no one cared anymore. Major tech companies became exposed for what can only be described as abhorent stratagies. New gadgets now depend on the same fickle first weekend sales that movies do. Of course if we had better gadgets being released, we'd probably see better results. Social networking became a parody of itself and all of that sharing resulted in a few shares too many or not nearly enough, depending on your perspective. Big media continued to prove that it doesn't have a clue. Little media seems to inexplicably want to follow that path as well. Oh, and Mother Nature reached up and smacked the planet around trying to get our attention. But aside from watching the compelling video and pictures we continued to just be thankful it wasn't us feeling her wrath, and sympathetic to those who did. The 99% became the Tea Party without the tea but with lots of party, because in the end the complaints are the same. For its efforts it got criticized by the 1% for being unorganized, dirty, and partying too much by the 1% that defines itself by making money and not making anything else so it can party. I think the 1% are just jealous because they feel like they have to dress up and shower in order to play their game. There's an old saying in show biz that if you put real life on the stage no one would believe it. I think if you put this last year on the stage, not only wouldn't anyone believe it, but Groupon would have a hard time selling discount tickets to it.

Last year's many repeats were due primarily to me spending the year dealing with my mother's terminal illness and ultimate passing. This year's repeats, I think, deal more with the fact that nothing has really changed. Change used to be a constant. I don't think it is as constant presently. On some levels I find that depressing, on larger levels I find that extremely human. I also find that it focuses those who are looking at life with 20/20 vision into a clearer view that someday may pull us out of the rut we're in.

Any pretense at aspirations aside, the rules for inclusion on the list are the same. 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, Tablet PC MVP and fellow GBM contributor, 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 (or the theremin) and get ready for the Seventh Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards .

Enjoy!

Hitler Weighs in on HP's Abandoning the Touchpad

I'm glad to see old Adolph has something to say about HP's move to abandon the TouchPad and by extension webOS. Warning some of the subtitles are NSFW.

 

The Most Important Internet Predicitions for 2011

Too funny. This video sums up a lot of the predictions for 2011. Some NSFW language. But watch out for those holograms.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Twitter as Mood Ring.

Francine Hardaway asks if majority still rules in the US. Not in her local park and we all know that concept is as old as the hills just about everywhere else.

Marco Arment, the developer of Instapaper tells why he thinks no one will best Apple with a Tablet. I think he's on to it.

Some misconceptions and realities about Net Neutrality. Biggest misconception about the whole thing? That the folks who are creating the rules actually have a clue as to what is going on.

Has Google become a "tropical paradise of spammers and marketers?" Why not, everything else we've ever created follows this path.

Shock and outrage! Tea Party activists are angry at the Republicans. If they are surprised at what happened in the lame duck session, I can't wait to see the surprise on their face when they read the Constitution out loud at the opening of the new session of Congress.

The IRS says that Congress waited too late to pass the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts and consequently taxpayers who file with some itemized deductions will have to wait to file because the iRS isn't ready to process the claims.

 

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

The Wall St. Journal is on it again with an article that says that our Apps are watching us and sending info to third parties as a part of their business model. I'm guessing here that all those new subscribers the News Corp is hoping to gain when Murdoch releases his new "save journalism" App for the iPad and Tablets aren't going to have their data sold to some third party as a part of News Corp's business model they way the do currently. I'm just saying. Can we stop beating that dead horse.

Frank Rich tries to pin a label on the No Label movement. That movement started in an attempt to turn Washington away from the knife fights that currently exist. Rich is correct in that No Labels will not succeed in the end, but he shows that he's just as much a beneficiary of the current farce as everyone else who sucks on the public tit is.

Paul Buchheit further explains his thoughts on the Cloud and why he said Google Chrome will fail. Interesting reading.

MG Seigler says Yahoo killed consumer confidence in themselves and other Cloud services. Nothing is permanent in the Cloud as the name we've all attached to it so metaphorically suggests. And if Yahoo still has enough clout or leadership or respect or whatever to have that kind of effect, the Cloud is dissolving into mist anyway.

The New York Times lists The Words of the Year for 2010. It was a bad year for words.

Cliff Gerrish on copies. Read it. Don't copy it. Or do.

Steve Gillmor on The @Mentions Cloud. The future? Only if Twitter can figure it out before the users do.

Gay men and women in the military can now be asked and are free to tell. That's a good thing because at least on the surface the military no longer undercuts its culture of responsibility by forcing its members to lie. But immigrants who fight for this country can't become citizens. Our cultural homophobia probably didn't go away, but it can now at least dance with our entrenched xenophobia out in the open. And we call this a great country?

Pandora's Box and Wikileaks

The Wikileaks story continues apace and it gets weirder, more ironic, and possibly very destructive. But not in the ways that I think Julian Assange and his followers ever intended. Assange is behind bars on some crazy charges. Free speech advocates all over are decrying efforts to shut down Wikileaks. The media seems to be in a tizzy and taking hits from those who say they should be defending Wikileaks. Joe Lieberman is taking credit for having Amazon take Wikileaks off line (only to surface elsewhere) and talking like the press should be tried for espionage. And as of today, fans of Wikileaks are attacking and threatening to attack organizations like MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, etc.... that used to provide business services for Wikileaks but are cutting the organization of at the knees to protect their own skins (profits.) There's even talk that Time might make Assange Man of the Year.

It's going to make a great book some day and possibly a movie.

But in the meantime, I find it ironic that those wreaking havoc on behalf of Wikileaks are potentially threatening that which gave Wikileaks its power: the Internet. Anyone following this closely can already correctly surmise that Wikileaks' attempts to provide transparency by leaking the information it gathered will only lead to less transparency as government officials and corporations just find other ways to communicate that which they deem secret.

Likewise, the latest big move by hackers will more than likely give ammunition to those who want more regulation on the Internet, and my guess is that since commerce is being threatened, they'll have a pretty good chance at succeeding. Assange created a stir with his earlier document drops and nothing much happened of consequence. (Many argue because there wasn't any real news contained in the leaks.) But this time, I think the threat that has seemingly every government on the planet hopping mad is the threat to bring down a large bank. Politics is politics and power is power, but neither exist if there isn't any money or the financial system is in disarray.

Some might call what is going on the beginning of anarchy. Some will continue to play the core values game when it comes to big concepts like free speech and secrecy. Those debates do need to continue and are important. (Keep in mind though this bit of irony: Wikileaks has to engage in similar secretive methods as those that it is trying to expose in order to do what it does.) I'm not saying the sky is falling here, but I think this is one of those instances when the myth of Pandora's Box might apply.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Matthew Ingram has a very good post about Wikileaks: Like It Or Not, Wikileaks Is A Media Entity. Good thinking in the aftermath. Still not sure if the eruption is worth all the sturm and drang in the aftermath.

Time interviews the Wikileaker. He's as evasive as those he leaks about.

The 10 Most Obscene Cities in America is based on Google search terms. Ashburn, VA is number one. Must be the Redskins.

We can't get a budget or anything else done in Congress, but atleast they can come together to pass the CALM Act. That keeps advertisers from boosting the volume on obnoxious commercials higher than the TV shows they run on. Did we really need an act of Congress for this?

So, the Feds are tracking credit card use in real time without warrants. Anyone surprised?

The strange, unpredictable pricing of 3G data plans. The only thing strange or unpredictable about it is that we think it is strange and unpredictable. It is exactly the way the carriers want it.