LOLing: the Google Chrome comic remixes

Google's big marketing to-do used to promote and explain their shiny new Chrome browser came in the form of a 39 page comic book put together by Scott McCloud.

I'll talk more about Scott McCloud one day as he has written/drawn two really fantastic comic books which talk about how comics work (Understanding Comics) and how they might be reinvented (Reinventing Comics).Suffice to say, the guy has an amazing ability to explain some reasonable dense concepts in comic book form.

I enjoyed what I understood of his Google Chrome comic - it did explain a few things for me but seemed to get a little bit bogged down in developer-speak at points, which could just have easily have been simplified.

The Internetz being what they are, it hasn't taken long for some remixes of this comic to start appearing online.

These ones come from a site called Yahooray apparently - though my network appears to be blocking the site for some reason. I found them re-posted on 4chan - these are my favourites.

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Uninstalling: Google Chrome

As you might expect from one of the monoliths of the knowledge era, the launch of a new web browser from Google, Chrome, has attracted a lot of attention in the last few days.

In the space of a day it has already grabbed something like a 3% share of the browser market.

It's meant to be one of the fastest and smartest browsers around, making effective use of a lot of the open source research which has come before it. (And remaining admirably open source as well, feeding back innovation into the community).

I tried it out yesterday and did find it quite nimble at loading pages and featuring a clean & simple Google interface that we've come to know so well.

But ultimately I've decided to uninstall it and maybe come back for a look in a little while. 

I have no problem with Google - they have produced (or bought up, rebranded and released) a raft of great web based applications over the years - including Blogger of course. I'll generally go to YouTube first for videos, mainly use Gmail and Google talk for communication, track traffic to this blog with Analytics and have had some fun with Sketchup.

But Chrome, so far, doesn't really give me what I want in a browser.

It is streamlined to the point of oversimplification for me - something like a point and click disposable camera. It does what it's meant to do but I just want a whole lot more control. The menu options give you virtually nothing to fiddle around with and there are at least a dozen add-on features that I have in Firefox 3 (including Ubiquity, which I mentioned the other day) that I'd really prefer to keep using.

These include mouse gestures (browser control by right-clicking and making shapes with your mouse - faster than going to the buttons all day), Ad-block plus, foxytunes (a music player control bar in the browser),  fireftp (an ftp client), colorzilla (for identifying colours on screen), measure-it (a click and drag onscreen measuring tool) and my gmail notifier. Not to mention the array of themes that Firefox community members have produced to brighten up the browser - hard to imagine life without Pimpzilla and its gold-bling buttons and leopard skin tabs background.

Not to mention the fact that Chrome simultaneously installed something called Google Updater, which constantly runs in the background, chewing up processing power and which I haven't yet figured out how to remove.

On a more pragmatic level, you can do all of the lab testing that you like with a new piece of software but it's only when it hits the real world that a lot of the flaws in it really become apparent - particularly security problems (which have already been found apparently). It just makes sense to let the dust settle and see what else comes up in the next few weeks or months. After all, it's not like it's some exclusive club that you have to join from day one.

On a more emotional level, I think that Firefox still deserves our support. It has consistently raised the bar in browser development and, as I've already mentioned, still has a number of features that aren't found elsewhere.

And is it just me or does the Chrome logo look just a bit like a Poke ball - the thing that Pokemon creatures come out of. Gotta catch 'em all indeed.

Pondering: the telemegaphone

The telemegaphone is an unusual arts project put up by Unsworn, a "design and innovations studio" in Sweden.
They develop "products for beautiful and surprising telecommunications".

Essentially, they have installed these wind-powered 7 metre high giant high speaker/statue things in remote areas around Sweden which you can leave a message for which is then blared out around the immediate area.

Nifty idea - though I have to wonder how much these things have been griefed so far - I must confess that some of my first thoughts as to the kind of message that I would send would be generally obnoxious/offensive remarks (though obviously humorous) and the second was to send through the sound of an air raid warning siren.

But then, I can be kind of juvenile at times :)

Thanks to Shane for pointing this baby out.

Watching: Taken Out

I enjoy good trash culture - not everything in life needs to be insightful or meaningful, sometimes a bit of froth and bubble (or shlocky exploitation) is just what it takes to help the mind wind down a little.

The world we live in isn't populated by rocket scientists and brain surgeons, it's almost entirely just average people going about their business and trying to get by. It's easy to mock or feel superior to some of the people we see on tv - particularly reality tv - for being kind of simple/dumb or having priorities in life that seem shallow or materialistic or whatever but I think this is ultimately unkind and generally a sign of our own failings. Don't they say that the things we hate in others are the things we hate in ourselves?

Which is why I'm having a hard time working out how I feel about Channel Ten's new show, Taken Out.

It's a new format for dating shows (rather than a "safe/proven" recycled show from overseas so points for effort) which takes 30 women and puts them in a big semicircle around one man. (Apparently this shifts later in the series to 30 men and 1 woman). The women have a light panel behind them and a button in front which they can use to turn their light off. They use the light panel to indicate whether they are still interested in the man currently on display based on a series of drip fed information. Once they have turned the light off, it stays off for the round.

Between the decision sessions, the host randomly picks women to ask why they have chosen for or against the guy. Decision points occur as soon as the guy enters the studio, after a short biographical filmclip package, after the guy has had a chance to chat about themselves and finally after a short videoclip of the guy's best mate talking about them. From here, the remaining women come down in front of the guy and he gets to ask them one question to determine which of them he takes out on a date.

Ok, so structurally, it's something a little different - the pacing was a tiny bit slow but you could put this down to pilot jitters and it's fair to allow the host and editor/director etc time to get the feel for the show. The decision making time is around 10 seconds which seemed longer but is reasonable but the host/girls banter really needs some work - partly because the host didn't seem to have a lot to work with in terms of bright sparks amongst the women but also because he seemed unsure of how to play it. (Tip - patronising and slightly sleazy probably isn't the best approach)

All in all - and again, I'm trying to accept that it's froth tv, not the 7.30 report - pretty well everyone on the show came across as either kind of dumb, highly superficial, vapid, slutty (male and female) or famewhores. I'm not saying that this is all there is to these people, given the context they were in and the no-doubt selective editing that was going on but there were at least a few of these people who seemed to positively revel in this identity. Interestingly, the woman who seemed less like this came across as so bland and devoid of personality that I was personally hoping that the other type got the date. So it's not really a win-win situation.

I haven't been able to find much online in the way of clips yet - just a handful of Channel Ten promos using the male and female contestants from the show - you can check these out here if you like 

I'd say that the response on the Channel 10 forums about the show offers perhaps the most illuminating response to the show so far - and it's not great. There are a fair few people who are a little pissed off that repeats of repeats of Friends have been taken off air but even leaving those aside, just look at some of the topic headings.

Choice comments include:

Geez, this new program is honestly WOEFUL!

I never post on these forums, but strangely felt moved to do so in this case. What a train wreck! Never seen anything like it. A lacklustre premise for a show, with a mediocre host and lukewarm guests, all delivered at an mind-numbing pace. Truly miss-able viewing.

Do us all a favour and axe it tonight. Let's see "Friends" repeats tomorrow instead.

Sleaze discussions of sex in public places in a 7pm timeslot, women with their **** hanging out. Desperados wanting 10 minutes of fame. I guess this is where they end up when they axe Big Brother.

Looks like it is another season of the 7pm timeslot that 10 wants to lose. 

FRIENDS is the best taken out is gay take taken out of channel ten and put Friends back on and supernatural use take out all the best shows and replace them with the gayest shows

HeraScie: Wombat;
Do you really think it's a good idea to put someone on national TV and have members of the opposite sex scrutinize them over purely superficial things? Women have fought for years to not be torn apart over their appearance and now it is being done to men? (And women later, I understand).

On the other hand, it's not without support :

HeraScie....you've got issues! Leave the psycho analytical stuff within your 4 walls. You are now starting to sound drab!

And all the rest of you, Friends?? You honestly give a toot about Friends, the show thats been around since 1957!?

So what if it's on. Calm down about how appalling it is and just see it for what it really is. Just mindless entertainment with a bunch of female and male contestants having a laugh, having fun. Everyone gets a shot at saying something cheeky, something rude, something flirty, something cute. It doesnt have to be this mind altering experience. Its just a dating show for gods sake....and clearly not dated. The format is completely different from "Perfect Match". And you might actually find one of the contestants funny in the eps to come. Now wouldnt that be a treat. Some laughter in your life.......sounds like you all need it.

But seriously, I'll ask again...Friends?? Can you get over it already. How completely freaky can you Friends fans be out there?? Thats whats scary.

As a contestant and experiencing this first hand I assure you that things will get better when you get the first panel of guys on....

Will you all just shut up and give the show a chance....

(Incidentally, that last comment is repeated by the same guy  four or five times in different posts)

All of this said and done, there is a compelling car crash quality to this show that will probably bring me back a few more times - I'd suggest taking a look at least once for giggles.

Playing: songs on the radio

You know the drill - 4 to 6pm Mondays, 2XXfm (98.3) in Canberra

Who Is He And What Is He To You    Bill Withers    4:20
Starlight    The Wailin' Jennys    4:36
Winterlong    Pixies    3:11
(Straight Down To The) Bitter End    Yo La Tengo    3:59
I Won't Be Your Dog    Paul Kelly    5:10
Dancing With Myself    Nouvelle Vague    3:09
Girl and the Sea    Presets    4:46
Mutha'uckas    Flight Of The Conchords    2:27
Yadnus (Still Going to the Roadhouse mix)    !!!    5:45
Arm in Arm (Shy Child Mix)    The Boggs    3:13
On My Way    Cocoon    2:47
Black Ice    The Devastations    5:37
100 Days, 100 Nights    Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings    3:46
The Poontango    Mojo Nixon    2:37
Unguarded Moment    The Church    3:36
Bring That Beat Back (Back To The Breakbeats Mixx)    Public Enemy    5:17
Ghostbusters come inside [SMC]    Chemical Brothers vs The Ghostbusters    4:32
Im still Fresh    Elton John Featuring the Fresh prince    3:23
Master And Slave    Beasts Of Bourbon    4:51
Royal Gregory    Holy Fuck    3:52
Air batucada    Thievery Corporation    4:46
Modern Guilt    Beck    3:15

Thinking about: MMORPGs and why fantasy bores me

(Photo from programwitch)

To this point, I've steered clear of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), even though I like gaming, I like the idea of playing collaboratively and these kinds of games (notably World of Warcraft) are immensely popular.

So why? Largely I think because they are almost all heavily centred in the Fantasy genre and this generally does very little for me. I enjoyed the whole golden era of fantasy/warrior movies in the early to mid 80s (Conan, BeastMaster, etc) but it just doesn't do much for me now.

(There is also the dork factor, which I have referred to previously in my Lightning Bolt post) 

Perhaps this is because when I play games, I enjoy doing things that I'm not normally able to do - but which it is conceivable that I might. This is why GTA IV appeals so much I guess - it's a very contemporary city and makes use of a lot of the things about modern life that I think are kind of cool - modern music, cars, the internez and blowing things up. You might have some primitive explosives in WoW but I just don't really care.

I don't think it's an imagination thing either - I'm currently playing Psychonauts (more on this later) which is one of the more out-there games I've every played conceptually (and one of the most awesome).

I've heard some good things about City of Heroes, which is a superhero themed MMORPG, but not enough to excite me and this seems to be about the limit of what's currently going.

There have also been murmurings of a modern day spy themed MMORPG for a while, which will be console based but I'm a little unsure now, watching this video which (while rather cool) does seem more like a shmup (shoot-em-up) than anything. (I do like the console angle as my PC only has a wireless connection to the network and I'm sure this is slower than direct cabling)