Today’s edition is [...]]]> A recent bit of feedback from a friend and fellow blogger is that my posts lack a certain graphical appeal. I therefore have decided to introduce a recurring feature to this site where I use the power of my Blackberry’s camera to bring you interesting things I encounter on my day-to-day adventures.

Today’s edition is Silly Signs:

An interesting advertisement. I saw this in my local train station. Apparently a very hip dog (hip due to the cool specs) has somehow made it to the Taj Mahal and realized he needs a passport.I, of course, would encourage all travelers to sort out passports before going to see India, but each to their own.I am not sure what is more odd. The fact he has 1 ear, a face shaped like an arrow or that he has a camera around his neck, but yet no opposable thumbs to click the button. I am not sure who decided this advertisement would work, but smoking some of that crack might be fun. I will make a note, that I have no idea what this is advertising.

On my recent trip to Germany I had a layover in Zurich, this sign was seen on the shuttle bus to my plane.Apparently in Switzerland it is not only encouraged that you smoke on a shuttle bus, but that you smoke several different types of tobacco.However the artist did forget to paint the smoke lines on the pipe, so maybe I should just carry an un-lit pipe Sherlock Holmes style. For a country that smokes more cigarettes in an hour than most countries do in a year, I guess it makes sense that you are allowed to have one last sweet taste of nicotine before the 1 hour 20 minute flight from Zurich to Heathrow.

That is all for now. I hope that this satisfies the apparent lust for imagery my readers have.

Since I stated posting blog entries I have received [...]]]> I could spend a lot of time reviewing each absurdity of this book, but alas I like to branch out more. Instead I think in my final reflection I’ll finish with why I believe Mr. Keen has this sense of reality that I do not share.

Since I stated posting blog entries I have received many comments such as “Stoss, you really think about the world in a fucked up way.” And I agree. I tend to think about things differently. I am not near arrogant enough to think my opinion is the only one, or necessarily correct. To paraphrase a quote from The Truman Show _{(highly under-rated movie)}: “We all live in the reality with which we are presented.”

About 3 months ago I went on a date with a smart, pretty, 20-something professional in the bio-medical field who lives by herself away from her family. On the surface you might think we are very similar. We are both white-collar workers, we are independent, well traveled and have the means to sustain ourselves. The topic came up as to how often we order take away. I said not that often, usually just Friday night curry or something. She gasped! “Once a week?! That is really often!”

At the time we had a quick laugh and moved on, but the above story is directly related to this book. I live in a reality where once a week takeout is not only normal, it is considered infrequent. That being said, lately I also live in a world where if I am not on 4 or 6 airplanes in a month I consider it “downtime”.

The point I am trying to make is that in Mr. Keen’s reality the Internet is the culprit for the downfall of society. I am sure he truly believes that and I wouldn’t fault him on it. In my reality the Internet is one of, if not the most important technological advances ever and has potential to propel society in directions we cannot even fathom yet.

The later part of the book has a couple themes. One is human behaviour and the other is the disadvantages to an all electronic society.

Keen blames sex addiction on the vast amount of porn on the Internet. Sex addiction? The only purpose for us to exist is for sex. Monogamy, humility, these are man-made concepts. Sex addiction is fundamental to our existence. The fact birth control, condoms, abortion were invented just helps us to not over-populate the shit out of this planet. Just think, if they diverted the attention give to the industry of preventing pregnancy to a field like cancer, how would this world be different?

Our realities did meet in a few way though. Keen talks about the information gathering on the net and the potentially disastrous effects it could have if it leaks. I agree. I find it very spooky when I log into Facebook in Germany and my ads are in German, or when I land in type in www.google.com in Switzerland and get directed to www.google.ch.

What if every search, every online purchase and every website you ever visited was somehow displayed to the world? Would you be embarrassed? Would losing the expected anonymity of the Internet be detrimental to your life?

Now the big brother view is that the Information Superhighway has CCTV cameras at every metre to watch you, track you and record your every move. The truth is that this is nothing new. Credit card companies have been data mining your information for decades to find patterns and anomalies to help them prevent credit card fraud. For the most part these measures are there to help you. It lets Google know when you search for Mustang, do you mean horse or car. It lets Amazon recommend books to you to save you searching or when you are stuck for a choice. But as I discussed earlier, all technologies have the ability to be used for nefarious purposes.

How is it different that you have a subscription to a gardening magazine and that magazine sells your address to gardening supply stores so they can send you mail, than Facebook putting up a “singles in the UK” ad on my page because I am listed as single and living in the UK?

The ironic part of all of this discussion is that at the end of bashing amateurs, saying that we can have no idea when someone isn’t a paid professional on a subject if they are telling the truth or lying, the author admits in the final pages of his book that he himself is an amateur, that this is first book and he had to rely on several others in writing it. Think about that for a bit.

Mr. Keen clearly sees the Internet as something vastly different than any previous technology. I do not. I see it as an advancement, sort of like VHS->DVD->Blue Ray.  If Keen took the time to think about this in the grand scheme of our society and not in the individual case studies (The Internet poker player who robs a bank to pay off his debt, or the German teenagers who faked a political message on YouTube etc) he would see we are no worse off at all. We have just transitioned to a new form of culture, economy and values, not destroyed them at all.

Bottom line: I am glad I read this book. I hated it page after page, but sometimes it takes something that you hate for you to reflect on why you like something.

Lately a phenomenon has taken off like many of the fads of the 80s we all love so much. Starting with the BBS systems in the late 70s and through the 90s we have had this intrinsic need to network with people at any distance via computer. With the web becoming more accessible, network [...]]]> Preface:

Lately a phenomenon has taken off like many of the fads of the 80s we all love so much. Starting with the BBS systems in the late 70s and through the 90s we have had this intrinsic need to network with people at any distance via computer. With the web becoming more accessible, network speeds getting faster and the advent of many advanced web technologies we have seen phases like Classmates.com, Bebo, MySpace, Facebook and we are now looking at Twitter and the even weirder Omegle where you can (advantageously?) talk to a total stranger.

An ongoing trend throughout this advancement has been the Blog. Starting as Usenet threads and advancing to Weblogs and containing everything from political updates to fart counters, there has never been an outlet for expression that has been utilized by so many people. Useful or not, they are a social medium that won’t soon disappear.

Now, I am the very first to admit that many of these are time wasters and marketing gimmicks. I am also the first to admit that many people live too much of their lives collecting MySpace friends and looking up old highschool classmates that they would never speak to in any other capacity. And finally I will admit that there are heinous and illegal uses for each of these technologies. BUT, and let me be very clear on this, that doesn’t mean that they do not have a place in the social paradigm that any individual wishes to maintain.

And this brings me to my Easter weekend trip to a bookstore to find something to enjoy on my upcoming slew of flights. In my search for Malcolm Gladwell’s new Outliers, I found a fluorescent orange cover with the caption “how blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today’s user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values“. What a strong statement that is. Not only grouping together the 60+ million blogs as 1 entity, but comparing them to the pre-teen obsession that is MySpace and the completely different medium that YouTube boasts. Immediately Andrew Keen had grabbed my interest, as I am sure he intended to, and I decided that “the cult of the amateur” was a book I needed to read.

Now, I like to think I have an open mind. I enjoy a debate, and am always willing to try and understand why people have a certain point of view, regardless if I agree with it. And in fact Mr. Keen even reminds his readers to keep an open mind as he has been described in various media as everything from “The Anti-Christ of Silicon Valley”  to “The Martin Luther King of the Internet counterreformation”.  Intrigued yet?

You will notice I have labeled this post as ‘part 1′, I have done so for the following reason: Never in my adult life have I ever put down a non-fiction book before reading it through. I am currently on page 45, half way through the 2nd chapter and have already considered doing so. This man takes generalizations and blatantly false information and is trying to sell them as the demise of society. Since I do not want to break my streak, I vow to read this book and write about any interesting subjects I can find, positive or negative I will try and form an objective opinion to post here. Today it is mostly negative…

The Forward to Chapter 1:

Mr. Keen continually refers to all blogists as monkeys and relates blog entries/writers to “T. H. Huxley’s infinite monkey theorem”. (The theory that “If you give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters they will eventually write a ‘Great American novel’”) Aside from the fact that it has been proven that Huxley did not come up with this phrase at all, blogists are in no way random and their intent is not to come up with the ‘Great American Novel’. Blogging is a medium to project thoughts, express opinions, dabble with poetry/art, offload stress, among many other things, but not on that list is any intent to write a piece of work that will be recognized by a publisher, let alone compete with Shakespeare or Fitzgerald.

He then goes on a rant about Wikipedia and how with no editors, no reporters and no expertise in reporting necessary to join: (I am quoting this as it is so preposterous)

It’s the blind leading the blind – infinite monkeys providing infinite information for infinite readers, perpetuating the cycle of misinformation and ignorance.

What?! Firstly, it is not the intent of Wikipedia to educate. Wikipedia is very clear that it is edited by anyone and no credentials are necessary. If people are misusing Wikipedia for education instead of entertainment that isn’t the fault of Wikipedia or a cause of social breakdown. In fact it is the exact opposite! Social breakdown is causing people to mistake entertainment for news. This has nothing to do with Wikipedia! Our education system has taught laziness and hasn’t updated to the new age we are in. Education has to change to support the media available. Like in my Economics class using the Internet to gather real time statistical data about the world stock markets to learn real world examples of market trends as opposed to using Wikipedia to find vague averages, or Google to find Forbes’ lists.

Mr. Keen also claims that every post on Craigslist for free is taking away paid jobs at newspapers and that every Wikipedia reader is taking away money from Brittania… Again, setting aside that I am sure most local papers won’t post a request for a hot MMF ass orgy, and Encyclopedia Brittania contains no episode guide list for Futurama, I guess my small and simple point is that the audiences aren’t the same! I am sure the Venn Diagram looks like the MasterCard logo, but the overlap is not significant enough to impact large organizations like New York Times or Grolier! The decline in the circulation of newspapers and the sale of encyclopedias is attributed to the fact that people don’t read the morning newspaper, and don’t want a bookshelf of facts from A-Z that has the weight of a locomotive! Say what you will about the fact that people work 20 hours a day, check their Blackberries non-stop and require up-to-the-second news sent via txt msg, it is where we are. Adapt to it! Utilize the technology that is here to stay, don’t complain that it is stealing from you. Yes, video killed the radio star, and DVD bitch slapped VHS, no one at Sony yelled about technology changing, they made a different product! And comedians, musicians, newsmakers are more popular and wealthy then they were!

So, did you make it through that? I apologize for the long entry.  I am sorry that I am destroying our economy, culture and values, but as long as I continue to read this book I will do my best to keep that destruction down to the minimum… oh and yes, I get the irony that I am reviewing a book whose thesis is anti-blog in a blog…

If we think about it all things started from an idea, from the computer, to the spoon, to the wheel. All [...]]]> Where do ideas come from? Earlier tonight I was trying to think of a topic to write about and even started two articles (now saved in my draft folder). The ideas never fully formed.

If we think about it all things started from an idea, from the computer, to the spoon, to the wheel. All things we use on a day-to-day basis come from some initial idea. Some evolve in a positive manner; remember the first microwaves that weighed 100 lbs and had the capacity for 2 raw eggs? Some evolve in the wrong direction; Beta giving way to VHS comes to mind.

But not until I stopped thinking did the idea for this article arrive, perhaps that is the key: Ideas come when your mind isn’t working!

Perhaps Edison, who holds over 1000 patents in the US alone, never actually thought? His mind just came up with an idea while he was zoned out on his porch and he was skilled enough to recognize it and execute on it. Maybe this is why ideas come so rapidly when you are stoned? (not that I would know anything about that)

I think what separates “great” visionaries from others is not the idea itself, but the ability to execute the idea into a product that can perform the task it is meant to and do it in a way that is effective for the audience it is intended for. This could be some sort of consumer market, but in the case of this blog, the audience is you. My job as an “author” is to take an idea and write something that entertains and/or captures your minds for the brief few paragraphs I type.

But if that is the case, how does one measure the success of the execution? My blog certainly won’t get the millions of hits as something like slashdot.org or engadget.com. It could be argued that financial gain is a measure of success, but some of the greatest ideas in history haven’t resulted in the earning of much money at all, at least not for 1 or a concentrated group of people.

I choose to take my ideas and write them into a blog, others take their ideas and build an object to sell, and others take their ideas to the stage as stand up comedians. Each of these methods of execution are just as valid and satisfying to the idea holder and to their intended audience(s).

So execute your ideas how you want, and forget about the measurement of success, take a chance, write our thoughts, speak your mind, build that automated-booger-flicker or gold-plated laptop you’ve been dreaming about. The ride is more important than the destination!

So, did I execute? Probably not, it is 1 in the morning…

Hello Everyone! The page has changed significantly and hopefully I now can maintain this more. I have moved over my favourite posts from my old blog and will be perfecting the scheme of this webpage as  I discover new and wonderful things about WordPress.

Stoss

I find that after spending 9 or 10 hours at work on one of these things, I would rather watch tv and eat, then type more into a screen. Sort of like a stripper who is getting ready for [...]]]> I have been gone for so long from this blog, my thoughts are now all scattered.

I find that after spending 9 or 10 hours at work on one of these things, I would rather watch tv and eat, then type more into a screen. Sort of like a stripper who is getting ready for bed thinking “Ah fuck, more work…”.

Why do VCR’s and DVD players have a Fast Forward setting that is so fast no human could possibly stop at the place they wanted? This is the exact opposite of the whole “Volume button that goes to 11″ thing. I think Sony needs to watch Spinal Tap to clue in.

Speaking of knobs, the heaters in my apartment are like baseboard heating at home, except that if you have the setting below 5, it doesn’t actually turn on. The English have a knack for creating the most complicated products imaginable. For instance: The toilet seats in the bathrooms (as opposed to the ones in our kitchen) are physically attached to the bowl. Not like at home where anyone with a screwdriver could swap it for the fancy seat that sings the national anthem while you crap.

I have to admit, I do love how elevators talk to you in England. Its always nice that after you enter the elevator it says “Please select your floor”. I was always confused about what to do while standing in an elevator before the kind computerized British voice cleared it all up for me. Once you press the button of course, the elevator assures you that you are in fact “Going Up” or “Going Down”. I’d like to hack the system and reverse the two sound bits so I could confuse the hell out of idiots.

I, as maybe many of you, recently have noticed that bots have found my site and decided to post viagra, prozac, cialis and other wonderful ads to my comments. I would like to thank them. I have never had such a hard, long penis, and been so calm while buying the cheapesr car insurance the web has to offer.