My life on the web

Why the mainstream media is dying

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:56:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

Every once in a while you get to see a mainstream outlet cover a story right alongside a blog, so you can put them up against each other and see why one was so much better than the other. This week TechCrunch and the New York Times (photo) provided just such a lesson.The issue was a company called Zynga, which makes online games, like FarmVille, that have become incredibly popular on Facebook among people who are missing parts of their brains. On Oct. 31 TechCrunch broke a big story called "Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell" about how Zynga was making money by selling scam ads -- the kind that trick kids and other frigtards into signing up for useless subscriptions to stuff they don't want. Arrington packaged his story with a video of himself taking on Anu Shukla, CEO of one of the scam-ad distributors, at a conference. He also ran an "insider's confession" piece by a former scammer explaining how these guys operate. He followed with a story about how Zynga CEO Mark Pincus had acknowledged the problem and said Zynga would stop running those ads, and another story about how Anu Shukla had been pushed out of her company, and another story about Shukla's replacement admitting that the company had, indeed, been running scammy ads. On Friday Arrington capped it off with a coup: he dug up a video clip from earlier this year in which Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, told a laughing audience of scumbag developers about all the scumbaggy things he had done to generate revenue with his games.After all this, we woke up Saturday to find a story in the New York Times, also about Zynga (and other Facebook game companies) with the headline, "Virtual Goods Start Bringing Real Paydays." The Times put two reporters on the knob-polisher, and somehow they managed to interview Pincus, and to quote him -- and yet they included not a single word about the scammy ads. Not. A. Fucking. Word. The piece could not have been nicer if it had been written by Zynga's PR people themselves. Gist: Virtual goods, stupid idea, people play, some spend money, VCs love it, isn't this great.Ahem.So: they walked into this shit-storm and somehow, by some miracle, managed not to notice the fecal matter flying all around them. It's like covering a football game that took place in the middle of the blizzard and neglecting to mention the weather.Now, maybe they did all the reporting before Arrington's stuff broke. In which case they should have gone back and updated their info. Or maybe, just maybe, Zynga's PR people teed up a Times story as a kind of rebuttal to what Arrington was reporting. Either way, that's what ended up happening: Zynga used the Times to deflect the bad shit flying at them from Arrington. They need good press because they're hoping to cash out by going public next year. That story in the Times will be worth millions. Many millions.Meanwhile, Arrington, still digging, blasted again on Saturday night, reporting that sleazy ads had popped up again on Zynga, despite promises that they would be taken down.Um, New York Times? If you guys are still wondering why people are dropping their subscriptions and getting their news from blogs instead of you -- this is why.And to all those people who go around wringing their hands and saying what are we going to do when the "real newspapers" all die and we have to get our news from Gawker and HuffPo and TechCrunch? Friends, I think we're going to be just fine.Part of it is the form of the media itself. If you're a reporter at the Times, you get one story, and a fixed number of inches, and you're smothered by layers of editors. At TechCrunch it's one guy who can get his teeth into something and there's no limit on how many articles he can do.What really cracks me up is how often I still hear people say that bloggers are mere "aggregators" and the "real journalism" gets done at places like the Times.Because time after time, blogs are simply beating the shit out of the newspapers. They're the ones who still dare to go for the throat, while their counterparts at big newspapers just keep reaching for the shrimp cocktail.As for the newspapers: Faced with their own demise, fearful of losing even more advertising, newspapers have made the huge mistake of becoming ever more timid, more cautious, more in bed with the companies they cover. It's the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The truth is, if newspapers want to survive they should go back to doing what they started out doing -- muckraking, stirring the shit, calling bullshit.The other truth is, when these papers are dead, they will not be missed.

Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheSecretDiaryOfSteveJobs/~3/FzWGCAUikW0/why-mainstream-media-is-dying.html

RT @zoban: Sovenistan G Mdru Bulent Uygun, Niluferspor'da Brian Clough olmayi kovaliyor. The Damned United'i bu adama kim bir kopya verdiyse

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:01:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5529752084

RT @trendometre: 11:11 açılış partisi tarihi: 11.11.2009

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:48:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5519582307

Microsoft COFEE, Some of the Most Illegal Software You Can Pirate [Hacking]

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

Apparently Microsoft's COFEE software that helps law enforcement grab data from password protected or encrypted sources is leaking all over the internet. So not only can you steal the software, but break the law by using it too. Yep, it's all out there on the internet, but if you use it to grab private data from someone else's computer chances are you're in for a world of legal hurt. It's one of the few pieces of software I can think of where the subsequent use is more illegal than the act of downloading it. But I know it's not the only one. What else can you guys come up with? [CrunchGear, Pirate Merch]

Link: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/I7CkMyJW0Lo/microsoft-cofee-some-of-the-most-illegal-software-you-can-pirate

Christopher Walken performs Lady Gaga's Poker Face

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:52:00 -0800

I saw this video on youtube

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2guQYivZ6w&feature=youtube_gdata

Peugeot Lion Fights Godzilla - Peugeot - Jalopnik

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:44:00 -0800

I added to ffffound.com

via http://jalopnik.com/5396096/peugeot-lion-fights-godzilla

Link: http://ffffound.com/image/6ccced53c43ed4ac462930e7a17e73b7b8548af0?c=4226848

do you know anyone who still uses a dial-up modem?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:22:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5476170499

Fortune Interviews Eight Business Stars About Steve Jobs

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:12:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

Fortune: “Eight people who rarely speak publicly about Jobs explain what makes him one of the best business minds of our time.” Love this bit from Larry Ellison:

I remember when Steve was my neighbor in Woodside, Calif., and he had no furniture. It struck me that there wasn’t furniture good enough for Steve in the world. He’d rather have nothing if he couldn’t have perfection.

And I jokingly said, “The difference between me and Steve is that I’m willing to live with the best the world can provide. With Steve that’s not always good enough.”

Part of Fortune’s package naming Jobs “CEO of the Decade”.

★

Link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/technology/0911/gallery.steve_jobs_testimonials.fortune/index.html

Get a Firefox 3.7 feature early with Tab Progress Bar

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

Filed under: Utilities, Browsers If you're gung-ho about upcoming versions of Firefox, you can start testing some of their features via add-ons. Firefox 3.7 is slated to introduce a new look for the progress bar, relocating it to the top of each individual tab but you can enable the feature in current versions of the browser right now, with Tab Progress Bar. This neat little add-on won't cost you much disk space, weighing in at a miniscule 6kb.

A new-look progress bar sounds like frivolous decoration, but it serves a practical purpose, too. If you often load bunches of tabs at once, It's helpful to be able to see the progress of each page you're loading at a glance. With this new design, you won't even have to change tabs to know whether those huge videos are almost done loading. One minor quibble: I've found that Tab Progress Bar best used with a theme that doesn't highlight your current tab in blue, as the progress bar tends to blend in with blue tabs.

Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 will certainly have bigger and better things to offer, but Tab Progress Bar is one small slice of the future that you don't have to wait for.

[via Lifehacker]Get a Firefox 3.7 feature early with Tab Progress Bar originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Download Squad - Add-on - Mozilla Firefox - Firefox - Lifehacker

Link: http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=1565de019620d3ae8c2aa569959ec5bf

Dinamo iPhone

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:15:00 -0800

I added or faved a photo on flickr

muzo178

Webapp for Dinamo 103.8. http://www.dinamo.fm

Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muzo178/4078110510/

multi task özürlü iphone için "safari'den dinamo" özelliği çok kral olmuş (via @goodkide)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:04:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5451265040

dinamo iphone player yayında! http://bit.ly/3OXOR9 (via @dinamofm)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:38:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5450672068

OS Calculator Concepts Look Cool, Probably Won't Ever Get Made [Calculators]

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

A designer at Mintpass has come up with these snazzy looking concepts that mimic the calculators in Windows and OS X. They admit that the designs are unlikely to fly with Apple or Microsoft, but hey, points for lateral thinking! Do you think the Apple version would cost more? [Technabob]

Link: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/V17rvdr-9lQ/os-calculator-concepts-look-cool-probably-wont-ever-get-made

Cookie Monster Sang About Google 27 Years Ago [Image Cache]

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:40:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

Today's Google homepage celebrated the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, but, as this video reveals, Sesame Street's Cookie Monster celebrated Google in a song from 27 years ago. A super fun song of the you'll-giggle-your-socks-off variety, that is. Yes, it came 16 years before Google ever existed and yes, technically the song is about Cookie Monsters googly eyes, but somehow it still sorta fits as tribute to the search engine giant. I just hope that the next Google homepage doodle includes Cookie Monster instead of Big Bird, 'cause frankly that one gives me the creeps. [Official Google Blog via Techie]

Link: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/iYsKDxupCao/cookie-monster-sang-about-google-27-years-ago

Are You a Cognitive Miser?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:14:00 -0800

I shared an item on google reader

Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person? A) Yes. B) No. C) Cannot be determined. This is from this month’s Scientific American — article unfortunately costs money. It’s about “dysrationalia,” which is what happens when people with nominally high IQ’s end up thinking irrationally. A phenomenon I’m sure we’ve all encountered, especially in certain corners of the blogosphere. And the answer is the first option. But over 80 percent of people choose the third option. Here’s the solution: the puzzle doesn’t say whether Anne is married or not, but she either is or she isn’t. If Anne is married, she’s looking at George, so the answer is “yes”; if she’s unmarried, Jack is looking at her, so the answer is still “yes.” The underlying reason why smart people get the wrong answer is (according to the article) that they simply don’t take the time to go carefully through all of the possibilities, instead taking the easiest inference. The patience required to go through all the possibilities doesn’t correlate very well with intelligence.

Link: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/11/04/are-you-a-cognitive-miser/

Daniel Guiza’nın transfer hikayesi

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:29:00 -0800

I posted to footballove.com

Muhteşem!!! Thanks to Haxx!

Link: http://www.footballove.com/2009/11/04/daniel-guizanin-transfer-hikayesi/

i'm really enjoying my slingbox.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:06:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5416851762

Enteresan haberler var bugun.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:55:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5416022693

RT @googlenews: Breckenridge, Colo. overwhelmingly votes to legalize marijuana, AP reports http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:51:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5415977058

fantastic penalty kick from ronaldinho.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0800

I tweeted on twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/muzo178/statuses/5400613001