Holiday adventures with the iPhone hitting Walmart and my adventures, not in color, but in Chrome.
At first I thought it was a Social Justice pamphlet to free Johnny "Socks" McNiven from his unjust incarceration for illegal turtle fighting and solicitation for the purposes of shell games. I was shocked to find that apparently men's clothing stores are so far beyond the current market crunch that they're just giving stuff away... now I don't know what I'm gonna do with my closet full of "Free Socks" protest signs. What kind of bothers me is the word NEW is nowhere to be found.
Okay, I wish I could claim this was just a wacky title to gain viewers, but alas, my motives are pure. Maybe not so much for this guy or his brother.
"But underneath her wispy auburn hair and peaches and cream complexion is an anatomically correct silicone fembot, easily modified for any number of uses."
What can I say? When winter comes in Canada, some look for comforts wherever they can find them. Domo Arigato Ms. Roboto.
I can't seem to go a month without extolling the virtues of the words and music of Gil Scott-Heron... probably just where my headspace is at right now. This video is a gem. Transports me to a place I've never been and time I'll never know. Hope you dig it.
So for the past two weeks I've been trying an experiment. And while I'm loathe to call anything I do shiny or sparkly, I suppose, in a very metaphorical way, both those words would apply. I've come to the realization that I'm slowly becoming a Google fanboy and, with this in mind, I have been exclusively using the Chrome browser for the past two weeks.
Let me lay a little browser history on you though. When I first started on the net, it was through BBS calls at all hours of the day and night. Such exchanges basically included forum posts back and forth between a small group who has been permitted access. Soon after (when the www became a reality) I moved to the Lynx browser which handled only text and was, at the time, the greatest tool I'd ever seen - I honestly didn't even know what a gopher was before Lynx. Browser reality changed forever with the onslaught of NCSA's Mosaic. Which allowed for graphical browsing for the first time and consolidated many of the existing internet protocols so almost all of them could be viewed in one web application... I can't believe that was only fifteen years ago. Mosaic gave way to Netscape and Netscape Gold, which I was a fond devotee of for at least a couple of years until one day I woke up and found myself an Internet Explorer disciple, unwavering and unflinching for many years.
Sometime last year, I finally made the Mozilla Firefox leap and was glad for having done so. IE was falling quickly falling too far behind the times. The add-ons and plug-ins opened up a new realm of browsing that seemed a natural evolution. But, like those of us that filled our early web pages with animated gifs and flashing text, I realized that, ultimately, the overbearing number of tweaks and add-ons to my Firefox experience was creating a garish experience. The browser was taking a minute to load with all of the plug-ins and the five homepage tabs. While I knew I could strip down the options within Firefox, my fanboy meter was piqued when Chrome was released a few months back.
So while I was still having fun with my two dozen Firefox add-ons, I made a conscious effort to pare down my browsing frills. I had dabbled a bit with Chrome and the speed was definitely impressive. Two weeks ago, I began an experiment that has led me to making Chrome my default browser with no desire to turn back.
The benefits are numerous: speed, integrated search/address bar, speed, more screen real estate for web pages, incognito browsing windows, and probably the most appropriate portal browser you'll be able to get for the ever-expanding Google Labs, Betas, and other Apps. Also, because it's my default browser, my computer now contains nostalgic remembrances of the electronic game Simon for every html icon.
There are drawbacks as well. When one gets used to the multi-functionality of two dozen plugins like TwitterFox, Digg, weather reports, autoposting to various microblogs, the diversity of options can be infectious. I struggled for a couple of days trying to figure out how I could survive in Chrome without having to go back to Firefox all the time... such an examination, however, yielded serendipitous results in may cases.
I immediately downloaded Tweetdeck after months of convincing myself I didn't really need it with a plugin like TwitterFox. Now Tweetdeck has a permanent home on my screen real estate. I discovered I really didn't miss Digg pop-ups every 5 minutes and that my ability to one-click post to Pownce was... well, poor Pownce - we hardly knew ye. I found the Google Application Shortcuts were a great way to always have my calendar available in an instant and that I could make almost any page into it's own browser app.
All in all, I'm quite satisfied that this Chrome conversion will have some life to it. I'll admit, there still are some bugs to be worked out in terms of some page that just don't seem to want to render smoothly every time, but those are few and far between. I'm hoping that when the onslaught of Chrome add-ons hits over the next few months, I will have the tempered resolve to not go too crazy and only pick what I need.
I don't do product reviews on lovehatethings in the traditional sense. I've maintained that short of a willingness to love or hate something, I will reserve judgment until further review. I don't do stars or thumbs ups or "out of 10s". So when I say I've put Firefox aside for the time being, I don't want to imply I hate it. I still love Firefox. I just love Chrome a little bit more... but I'm fickle - blow me away Flock!
Abuses persist as UN rights declaration turns 60 and this blogger wonders if anyone cares, if anyone is listening, if anyone can swat a few world leaders on the nose with a rolled up newspaper and say "NO!"
"In China, where the years since the declaration have seen enormous economic advances but iron-fisted one-party rule, several human rights activists were rounded up and arrested in the days leading up to the anniversary.
Police detained at least four activists after 300 intellectuals, dissidents and writers signed Charter 08, an open letter published online calling for democracy in China and timed to coincide with the celebrations.
In Zimbabwe, black-robed lawyers marched on Parliament and the Supreme Court to protest human rights abuses -- including the kidnapping of activists -- by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's beleaguered regime.
Meanwhile in Greece, young demonstrators rioted for the fifth straight day in protest at the slaying by police of a 15-year-old boy.
Other countries saw lesser violations of the spirit of the 1948 Declaration, such as in Iran, where state agents confiscated rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh's passport to prevent her from flying to Italy to receive an award."
Thanks Mike Vardy at effingthedog.com for helping me try to get out of my "podder's block" and suggesting the topic of the fall of Independent Film.
Top grossing "indie film" of 2007 - $41.6M
Quite some time back I was fascinated by a series of comics that presented a surrealistic allegory of society called Tales from the Beanworld. Now enjoying a cult status revival through Dark Horse Comics which currently has a web comic online and through the re-issuing of all previous material in 2009.
If you are familiar with Larry Marder's bizarre creation, you, like me, are probably glad it's back. If not, check out the web comic. You may be a bit lost in the mythology, but there's something refreshing about a comic that's not superhero-based. I encourage people to check it out, with a healthy suspension of reality, and get ready for a CHOW RAID!
The Chow Raid from fashionbuddha on Vimeo.
Click here for the podcast page or search Dyscultured in iTunes.
Show Notes for Episode Eleven
full dysclosure
Pownce Pwnd
MySpace verdict
Firefox past 20% in browser wars
Firefox Amazon Plugin to torrent site
Mozilla Music Player Songbird
Google Reader Changes
movies
Choice DVD Gifts
wheel of pop
Children’s Holiday Specials
websites
aviary.com - powerful online image editing
shoutfactory.com - pop culture revisited
music
The Barmitzvah Brothers - “Library Page” from the cd - Let’s Express Our Motives: An Album of Under-Appreciated Job Songs
Canadian Norman McLaren's pacifist satire during the Korean War. Music was done by painting "waves" directly onto the film stock's "soundtrack" strip. Much of his early animation was done the same way (painted frame by frame). Check him out on Youtube. He won an award in 1953 for best Short Form Documentary for this piece. The scenes with the wives and babies was originally pulled by the government which provided the grant for the film and was only reinstated in the 70s. Twisted, poignant, and mildly disturbing.