I love magazines. I love the look and the feel. I know that in most cases I can find the same information online, but the experience is not the same.

With that said, let me also say that I stopped reading magazines for a while. The price kept getting higher for less and less information. Instead of more content the ads were taking over.

This is a result of a cycle. Less people read the mags and revenue falls–so the mags increase the advertising which brings in less revenue from individual ads as the readership lowers–so the magazine sells more ads with less content until the end finally comes and the magazine goes under. How is that for a run-on sentence?

At times, especially now with the economy so uncertain, it seems like this is an unbreakable cycle. Blogs and news sites run stories about the troubles of the print media. People like Rupert Murdoch talk about the shift and suggest charging for online content that was once free. It is the start of a whole new cycle.

Well, I have an idea, and it involves everyone’s favorite price point, free. I put forth that the new paradigm of print is free. For free, people will accept more ads and less content. For free, more people will subscribe to magazines previously abandoned. More eyeballs means that the mags can charge a higher premium for the advertising content. A whole new cycle breaks the old.

Now, before you bolt from this blog calling me an idiot, let me give you some background on how I came up with this idea. It comes from the most frugal person I know, my better half, Effie.

Effie is the type of shopper that spends hours each week searching out deals, coupons, and offers. She sets out strategies, which she calls scenarios, and then hits the stores. It is not uncommon for her to come back from CVS pharmacy with up to $50 worth of stuff paying between pocket change to a couple of dollars out of pocket. She can hit the grocery stores and come home with $100 worth of stuff for around $25. She regularly makes Target and Wal Mart her bitch.

She does great in store, that is for sure, but on top of that, she has learned to find deals online as well. She is always getting free stuff in the mail, everything from free samples to actual product to–get ready for it, magazine subscriptions.

We get Forbes, Muscle and Fitness, O, Rachel Ray, Town and Country, Sports Illustrated, Good housekeeping, and more, all free. What I have noticed is that I don’t mind reading these mags, higher ads and lower content, when I don’t pay for them.

Now, sometimes these subscriptions are just introductory and a short run, sometimes it is a full year, but it is nice reading mags again.

This is where my thought comes from. My eyes are valuable, not just to me, but to those advertisers. If a mag goes under, so does all of that advertising real estate. I won’t even begin to say that I have the logistics of how this shift can work, but I still think it can be worked out to a winning situation.

The thing is, I don’t think anyone wants to work it out. The people on top of these industries have always looked for the money. The idea of a shift of this magnitude is scary for them. I mean, the subs we get do eventually end and the purchase forms eventually come. But think differently for a minute. How many people like to separate their reading from the internet and the computer screen? How many still prefer a book or magazine to a screen? How many people love FREE?

By offering the subscriptions for free, the sub rate would probably jump by double or triple or more. This is where the ad revenue picks up. No longer do the mags have to look to subscription purchases to make it, those extra eyes are like gold!

Some mags already do this. Most cities have local mags that are totally ad supported. Imagine that on a national scale. There are many more eyeballs on the national scale, every one an advertiser target. Of course, some changes would have to be made to the format and such, and more space would go to the ads. Maybe the mags would have to go bi-monthly, whatever. But still, FREE speaks to people.

Well, that is just my take. It works locally, it works for broadcast TV. The numbers are there for free. The numbers have eyes that can lead to greater advertising revenue. The print media world does not have to go under.

It would be a shift, but some shifts are a good thing. Still, the probability of this shift is unlikely, unfortunately,

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Print Media, Magazines, Subscriptions, new ideas, advertisers, paradigm, change, shift, periodicals, online, media

This is a mindmap for changes to the website at Certified Golf, one of my clients. I do like some computer and online mindmaps, but paper still gets the job done for me more often than not.

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Alright, you know that I hate marketing spam on Twitter.You know I think the people that think Twitter is the greatest thing since sliced bread are a bit loopy. You know I think the people that think Twitter is a community are well off their rockers.

So, what could I be griping about today?

People. That is what I am griping about today, people. And this gripe plays in to the myth of the community, conversation, or whatever else crazy kumbaya stuff people say about Twitter.

**redundant alert**
Before I get to what bothers me, let me say this, Twitter is a numbers game for most that are on and active. Let me also say that a lot of folks that have accounts are not active. Let me also say one more time that with the growth of third party apps, a lot of people ghost follow a large portion of folks on their list. Okay, one more time, and yes it is redundant. For most people, Twitter is a numbers game more than a conversation or a community.
**redundancy off**

Now to what is bothering me.

I get a lot of emails telling me of new followers. So much in fact, that if I were to respond to them all when they come in, I would be working Twitter all day.  I usually let these notices build up and then handle a bunch at once. Still, if you look at my Twitter account, you will notice that my numbers don’t change much. This is for two reasons.

1. I check out your account and find marketing spam or other reasons not to follow you back, and thus get unfollwed eventually.

2. You have pissed me off by making it known that I am not interesting enough to follow, you just wanted another reciprocating follower.

One is self explanatory. Two may need some explaining.

As I said above, I usually wait to go through my new follow notifications after they build up for a few days. I look through them every five or six days on average. Guess what I usually find. These nutcases have unfollowed me by the time I go through the notices. I am talking days, most definitely less than a week. I did not immediately follow them back, so they dumped me. How do I know this? After I do follow them, I get a notification saying they are now following me back. They did not follow for content, or interest, or just because they liked my mug in the avatar. (who does?) No they were fishing for follower numbers, and when I did not immediately give them another follow, they dumped me like a bad habit.

Yeah, that is community. That is definitely a conversation. That is most definitely good networking.

NOT!

I tend to unfollow these folks fast. In turn, as I am no longer stroking their ego, they unfollow back, for the second time. This is one of the reasons I often say I will put my 1700-1800 followers up against a lot of those with many thousands or more. My list may not be perfect, but it is cultivated to a certain degree. Cultivation is usually a good thing.

If you use Twitter this way, I have to ask why? Is it ego? If it is then it is false ego. Get some self esteem or get some help. Maybe get some real flesh and blood friends, seriously.

Is it to sell things? Do you honestly think that the list you build this way is a list built on authority or trust? If you are going to market, authority and trust are the two things that must be established first, no exceptions. There is a reason Kevin Kelly says you need 1000 People, or as he says, true fans. You need the right 1000, as they are way more powerful than many thousands who are just chaff.

Every day Twitter loses me a bit more. The tipping point is the day it is no longer fun. Right now, Twitter still amuses me. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Looked surreal seeing in person. I really like the design of that school.

One thing. You would think a “digital arts college” would know that slow loading, sound inclusive, flash websites are just about verboten in the design world. Right up there with IE 6. Go figure.

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I have found myself in the same argument over and over again through the years. The argument is that there is no indie movement, or alternative, or anything of the type. The second something becomes a movement, it no longer really exists, at least not as it started. I was reminded of this argument again yesterday when I was followed by two guys that were the white boy hip-hop version of the ‘Night at the Roxbury’ guys. It would have been funny if it was not so sad. They were so indie with their cred………..NOT!

Take hippies for example. They were counterculture, they were broke, they were pretty smelly, but at first they were genuine. Then the marketing guys and retail outlets latched on. If you were buying your bell bottoms at Montgomery Wards or Sears, and ordering your ‘paint your wagon’ patches from magazines, you missed the hippie movement. Sorry to say it, but you did.

Let’s look at the ‘alternative’ music scene. If you were listening to Radio Free Europe in the 80’s, you were part of the ‘college scene’ or alternative scene as it would start to be known. If you liked Husker Du, you may have been alternative. If the Replacements were in your tape deck, you still had cred. If you listened to any of these bands after seeing Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ or were turned on to REM with ‘Losing My Religion’, then no, you were not really part of the scene. Grunge? Give me a break.

I remember having this conversation with my ’sort of’ niece. I would try to get her to understand that if something was being played on top 40 radio, it was not alternative. She would say it was called alternative. At this point I would try to explain the bastardization of words, but it never got through. This was also the time when wearing those sparkly butterfly tee shirts was so popular and would show off your individuality. Proof of this was that you could buy them anywhere from Macy’s, to Wal Mart, to Hot Topic. And yes, this was another argument I could never win.

The whole myth of indie culture is laughable. I have said it before, the coolest guys I have ever known, real coolness, were the folks that could care less about following trends or fashions. They really did their own thing and to hell with everything else. These were the guys I looked up to. At times I have been able to emulate them, but I am still an bit too much of a trend follower for my taste. I do care a bit too much about appearances and what others think. Just being honest about it.

But one thing I have gotten out of my system is the need to be ‘indie’ in any way. Hell, being indie can just about make you go broke. I mean, it costs a lot today to look ’so cool that you don’t care.’ Also, the indie scene is so crowded. I mean being an indie individual person type is very popular, with all those individuals wearing the same thing, attending the same functions, talking alike, and basically doing everything else the same as well.

Back in August The Art of Manliness had a great take on why indie is bunk, hell that was the title of the post, Why Being “Indie” is a Bunch of Bunk. Check it out, it is a good read. Probably more coherent than my take.

Now, back to your normal programing.

Cheers,
Eban

I won’t even say ‘enjoy’ this time. Just point and laugh.

Cheers

Crazy 80s workout

At least that is my take. Otherwise, entertaining, in that mildly disturbing way. You know, in that, “you are going to dream about this crap, and not in a necessarily good way,” kind of way.

Hmmm, enjoy?

Poodle Exercise with Humans

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

To say that I feel that my true life started at 20 years old when I married Faith and we bolted from Louisiana for Denver, and my stint in the U.S. Air Force, would be an understatement.

I still don’t like talking about the first 20. Hell, I just got written out of another family will. No kidding. I don’t have many good Louisiana memories, and it does not look like there will be many in the future.

This story I am linking to below comes as no surprise to me. In a day and age where we are arguing over same sex marriage, this buffoon, Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, wants to jump back many decades and take on interracial marriage yet again. In other words, he refuses to perform them.

Seriously, even with my warped imagination, I can’t make this crap up.

Bardwell serves Tangipahoa Parish in LA. He claims his experience tells him that interracial marriages don’t last and the children born to such couples suffer. What a crock of shit.

I have two of the loveliest and sweetest, and definitely not suffering, nieces that are born of an interracial marriage.  My niece Kellie and her husband Derrick are raising these girls wonderfully. On top of that, They are doing this while Derrick is serving this country in Afghanistan right now. So, yes, this ass monkey’s comments and prejudices really hit close to home.

Maybe he should stop in when he is in Houma and see just how horrible life can be.

Get the full story right here.

I almost need to do another RfL episode just to give Bardwell the world famous RfL Bitchslap!

Cheers,
Eban

Anyone know of a good sports talk station that streams at this time that does not have Colin Cowherd as the host?

I got only one response–which says something I have always believed about Twitter, but that is another post. The response I got is below.

adamdavs @RfL_Productions, I recommend http://su.pr/1aAKj1, where you can compare the top 10 web hosting services.

Alright, that is obviously an automated response. Someone is using the Twitter API to scour the postings for certain keywords, which upon finding such words, in this case ‘host,’ they spam with an advert of some type. Who knows if adamdavs is even a real person. If he is, he now looks very stupid.

I doubt he cares one bit. People like this are a big reason I have shifted how I use Twitter. The ‘conversation’ aspect that was so touted at the beginning is just ridiculous now, unless you are one of the anointed. Even then, it is mostly one way. Services like Tweetdeck and the other third party apps make it possible to follow thousands but ignore all but a few, which means your wonderful groundbreaking tweets are heard by practically no one.

That works to the advantage of the types above. Using auto-anything on Twitter usually makes you look stupid. So stop, please.

I am now going top block adamdevs. His bad.

So, you may be asking why the hell I would use a title like, “All Hail Sigur Ros!”

It really is simple. Even though they are not among my favorites, I do consider them talented, and I do let their songs play from time to time on Pandora. Still, the reason I wrote that title is the concept of Sigur Ros. I am in love with the concept.

Maybe it is because I play guitar. Maybe it is because I like classical music so much. Maybe it is a lot of things. But when I listen to music, the lyrics just do not mean a whole lot to me. I seldom pay attention. I just like the flow. Sigur Ros manages to turn the voice into another instrument. It adds to the overall feel and spirit of the tune. They came up with their own language called Vonlenska, translated as Hopelandic. This is a bit from Wikipedia.

Vonlenska is a term used to describe the unintelligible lyrics sung by the band, in particular by Jón Þór Birgisson. It is also commonly known by the English translation of its name, Hopelandic. It takes its name from “Von”, a song on Sigur Rós’s debut album Von where it was first used.

Vonlenska is a non-literal language, without fixed syntax, and differs from constructed languages that can be used for communication; it lacks grammar, word meaning, and even distinct words. Instead, it consists of emotive syllables and phonemes; in effect, Vonlenska uses the melodic and rhythmic elements of singing without the conceptual content of language. In this way, it is similar to the use of scat singing in vocal jazz. The band’s website describes it as “a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music”.^[21] Most of the syllable strings sung by Jón Þór Birgisson are repeated many times throughout each song, and in the case of ( ), throughout the whole album.

I love that!

All too often songs are from up and coming stars that have not lived a lot. I am not interested in their take on the world. Often artists have an agenda, I have no interest in that. Love songs? Give me a break.

Yes, some songs do have great lyrics, but even then I can take them are leave them. Songs for stage and musicals are the exception.

Making the voice another part of a song without me having to think about anything is just a grand idea. I don’t want to know what upsets Chester Bennington–which is obviously a lot, anymore than I care what is bothering Eddie Vedder. Britney, my head hurts just anticipating what may come out of her mouth.

Even when I catch myself thinking of songs, songs that I actually know the lyrics, I still come up with my own internal elevator music version in my head. (my in-head EM is kickass, seriously)

I do wish I liked Sigur Ros more. What I am really wishing is that more bands would follow their lead and produce some “voice as instruments” songs.

The music is where all the emotion is for me.

 Still, I will always listen to Bowie, or Reznor, or Pink Floyd, and many others, lyrics and all. Old school punk is also great. Lots of raw anger. Raw I can take. Most others, meh.

Give me gibberish any day. Seriously.

(And yeah, I understand this is a weird stance from someone who loves music so much, but life is sometimes strange)

If you are wondering, the now corrected mistake was I wrote ‘Hotal’ instead of ‘Hotel’ in the title of my last post.

I would say it has been ‘one of those days,’ but in reality, everything else has been going well.

Everyone out there have a great weekend!

This is something that should worry most people. With the availability of high tech surveillance and personal recording devices and the fact that these devices are getting smaller and easier to conceal, privacy is under attack now more than ever.

When in public, there is not much that can be done. In your own home, you can take precautions. But what about when in hotels and such? Did you know that you can purchase a peephole reverse lens? It is available.

I am no expert, but in this case, a simple James Bond type fix could have saved Erin Andrews a lot of embarrassment. It is an easy fix as well. All you need is a piece of cloth, construction paper, or even a page torn from a hotel magazine, and a piece of tape.

While it is cool to get a hotel room and play James Bond by checking the bathroom, looking for bugs, and making sure miscreants are not hiding under the bed or in closets, then ordering green figs and yogurt–not that I do this, of course,this fix may actually protect you. Simply tape  a cover over the peephole. You can easily lift the cover if you need to use the peephole yourself, but you are protected from pervs that would violate your privacy.

Now, if the pervs want to make holes in the wall like Norman Bates, there is not much that can be done. But the key is to do what you can.

For the record, some online experts have promoted the view that this video was actually done with a hole in the door or wall. (By experts, I mean people that can’t be bothered to look up the truth or research methods used and just sprout whatever the hell they think.) This was done through a modified peephole and likely recorded with a cell phone camera.

I am installing Ubuntu on my trusty HP,Listening to Pandora on my very old Toshiba which runs GOS, and Effy is watching Eastenders on the Main system. Yep, busy little space.
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Posted via email from ebancrawford’s Fluff Stuff in a Stream

Just stepped out of the office. Not many computer guys step out of the cave and are surrounded by golf. Now, back to coding.
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Posted via email from ebancrawford’s Fluff Stuff in a Stream