A Life Untold & Uninteresting

How a Newpaper Article Failed Me

The other day as I was browsing through the dead tree version of the newspaper (that I get delivered to my door because then I can then mulitask between real world and the online world) I came across a small blurb about a marketing company in Toronto that had released an ebook about the growing “blurriness” between different forms of communication (email, social networks, television etc).

My interest was piqued, so I browsed over to their website to purchase the book (My assumption was that I would have to pay for it, I didn’t expect a marketing agency to understand the concept of The Long Tail or Free). I’m not going to link to the site because what I found was a shocking example of incompatablity and shoddy marketing.

The only reference to the ebook is an ad at the top of the page with the paper’s title. No indication about what it is, or what you might get once you click.When you do click you’re screen is graced with a popup. That loads a flash player. That gives you an animated book.

What is wrong with this picture:

1. Closed, inaccessible system – there is no way to download this book, save your place or deep link;
2. Arcahic methods of delivery – relying on old school marketing methods in a newschool environment;
3. Insulting UI – Popups and flash players may have looked good on the whiteboard, but its not how people browse the web.

If you are going to use the internet’s method of distribution, first learn how the internet distributes information.

The only people who read that paper did so because they saw the same newspaper article I did and made a huge effort to get it. And again I realised the folly of relying on the newspaper industry to provide me with content quickly and easily.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Some Announcments

This post has been a long time coming, but I have been putting it of for a while now.

As I have eluded in the past, both on here and Twitter, about the “exciting things” taking place in London.

I am thrilled  to annouce, finally and  publicly here, that I have become involved with the London Ontario Live Arts festival – better known as LOLA. I’m very excited because I have participated as a concert goer in the LOLA festival in previous years and had a great time. Despite the stereotype that London does not have an arts community, LOLA has flourished, and shown both this city and the whole country a different part of Southwestern Ontario.

There is going to be lots of oppurtunity to explore different parts of social media and online promotion as a result of this. I’m interested to see how things develop, before, during, and after the concert. There are ongoing concert series during the year and I will be promoting those as well.

The next bit of news that I would like to share is my involvement with Penguin Canada. As part of their promotions, the book publisher has started to branch out online. I have been selected to help promote various books and authors as part of my blog and online presence.This is a great oppurtunity for me, and my readers. I am an avid reader and I love sharing my opinion.

In all of this though I promise to continue to have a transparent website. I’ll make it clear when I am promoting / working on behalf of someone else. I’m going to share my opnion honestly. If I like something I’ll recommend it. If not then I won’t lie. I think these relationships are going to benefit everyone in the end.

Popularity: 31% [?]

The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same

Over the next few days I’m going to make a few changes to the site.

I’d like to update the layout a bit – maybe get a bit more of a blog roll going.  It won’t be a list though. I think a page of different categories would be a lot nicer. Maybe I’ll take some time and “highlight” local social medians in the city of London too.

I’ve already updated the title to the blog – A Life Untold – Social Media, Twitter, Blogging and Life.  I don’t want to become exclusively about social media so that is why I appended “life”.

I’m going to keep things balanced. Especially over the next few months as I make improvements to the new house (already stripped down a room’s wallpaper – pictures soon) and I prepare to get married in June.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Moderation

I’m listening to TWiT episode 138, which incidentally is one of the best episodes in a while, and they are talking about Twitter addictions and information addictions in general. I’m surprised that its taken these people this long to realize that moderation is important. Laporte “There is an old way of thinking that you have to somehow keep up, that is really getting in your way. You can’t. Give Up. Release. Let go. However, if you bathe in the stream of information you get plenty. [] The key is not worrying about missing something.”I’ve been saying this for a while. The information is power, but only in moderation. Or else like so many others, you’ll get burned out.

Popularity: 8% [?]

London Indie Media Fair

This Saturday is the 3rd annual London Indie Media Fair from 1 to 5 pm. The event is taking place at the Central library in downtown London at 251 Dundas Street.

There is both an exhibit hall in Stevenson and Hunt and a presentation room in the Lerner’s and Tonda Rooms.

Myself, Bill Deys, and Greg Fowler will be heading down to promote blogging and podcasting, as well as our monthly geek dinners. I’d encourage anyone in the London area to come down and say hello. Hopefully there will be some other bloggers there and we can help the online community in London grow.

For more information on the event:

London Commons
Facebook

Popularity: 11% [?]

Things I’d Like To See on Twitter

There are a few changes that I would love to see Twitter implement. Keeping in mind their simple design philosophy and ease of use.

1. Better Searching – something like advanced searching options. Both for users and for past tweets.
2. Followers/Following Organization – I’d like to see who I’m following that is not following me.
3. Groups -I’d love to organize who I follow into groups and turn on or off SMS for packs of people.

These are the top 3 things that I think if Twitter implemented they would destroy any competitors.

They also have to capitalize on the number of internet users who love to update their Facebook status but who aren’t on Twitter.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Talking to Apple Store Employees

Yesterday I was in Toronto so I decided to pop into the Apple Store in the Yorkdale Mall. The store is a bit smaller then other Apple stores I’ve been in, but it does have the usual large numbers of people just milling around the tables with merchandise on them.

While I was there I decided to talk to some of the employees about the iPhone. Specifically I asked them “What reason have you been given for the delay of an iPhone launch in Canada?” Not suprisingly they refused to answer my question. I made the mistake of asking a group of them so none of them really wanted to say anything. They claimed that they have been given no reason, and that in fact they never know anything ahead of time, citing Time Machine and Leopard as examples.

I’m not satisfied with this answer though. The iPhone is in a different category. I’m sure they get hundreds of inquiries every day about the iPhone. Management must have given them some reason why its not out here yet. There are only 4 Apple stores in Canada. How hard would it be to let the employees of these stores know what was going on?

One last observation on the employees at Apple Stores. They are a snotty, arrogant bunch. They are the same teenage retail workers at any other mall store but because they work for Apple they think that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It doesn’t really matter though. Like I wrote on Monday, the reason for the delay is copyright issues. Until that is sorted out Canadian’s can continue going down to the States for iPhones.

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Businessmen who have been in web hosting for some time, are quite aware of terms like pay per click and technical jargon like web hosting search tool. However the laymen are only bothered with terms like domain names they are looking for and the dedicated servers they will be able to get.

Popularity: 24% [?]

iPhone is Released in Canada

Yep, its true! There is a device available to Canadian’s called the iPhone. But its not made by Apple.

I’ve already written several times about the price of data plans in Canada. While this is truly a big stumbling block for the release of the iPhone here there is an even bigger one. Copyright.

A Voice Over IP (VOIP) company, Comwave, owns the Canadian rights to the name iPhone. The term iPhone is used for a service that they say “is quite liberating and frees you from the Phone Company”. If you check out their site you can see all the services related to the ‘iPhone’.

They have just released the iPhone mobile edition too. It looks like they have no plans to settle  with Apple on the use of the name.

Their site is absolutely atrocious. It is full of spelling mistakes and bad grammar. I don’t understand how any company is willing to allow themselves to look this bad on the the internet. I’m glad that they don’t seem to have a large subscriber base. That means that average Canadians will not be associating a high quality product with a crappy VOIP service.

So Canadians have an iPhone. It looks like a peace of junk and offered by a brutal company. But now at least we have a physical object and another company besides cell phone companies to direct our anger at.

Popularity: 10% [?]

New Data Plans from Rogers

As a commenter on a previous post has pointed out, new data plans from Rogers have been leaked out. The prices I’ve seen have been as follows:

$15 – 20MB ~ Tier 1
$30 – 20MB to 60MB ~ Tier 2
$50 – 60MB to 500MB ~ Tier 3
$65 – 500MB to 1GB ~ Tier 4
$75 – 1GB to 2GB ~ Tier 5
$85 – 2GB to 3GB ~ Tier 6
$100 – 3GB to 5GB ~ Tier 7
$0.03 per additional MB
*Note: Everyone starts off at the $15 plan and based on usage, you move up the tiers

The price is per month and you move up the tiers the more internet you use. I see a huge problem in these that causes me to doubt the authenticity of them. Look at the price per additional MB compared to the pricing structure of the tiers. If you are in tier 1 but one month use 50 mb of data you should pay $20 + 30($0.03)  = $20.90. But if Rogers wants to automatically bump you up to the next teir you will be forced to pay $30 per month.

Also, why have a overage price if you’re just going to bump everyone up the next tier if they go over? Finally look at the price per mb of each tier

 $0.75 / MB ~ Tier 1
$0.50 / MB ~ Tier 2
$0.10 / MB ~ Tier 3
$0.065 / MB ~ Tier 4
$0.0375 / MB  ~ Tier 5
$0.028 / MB  ~ Tier 6
$0.02 / MB  ~ Tier 7

The only time an overage charge makes sense for Rogers is for customers in tiers 6 and 7.

I’ve looked around and I can’t find any indication that this was a typo and it is supposed to be $0.30 per extra MB or even $3.00. Site like iphoneworld.ca and Electronista and even engadget mobile all have the same information. With math that just doesn’t add up.

It looks very suspicious to me.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Admiration of Spark

I know that its late in the day and I haven’t posted anything other then pictures of my lunch. I wanted to just mention how impressed I am by the CBC program Spark.

I’ve always been a fan of Nora Young, dating back to when she used to host DNTO on Saturday afternoons. I’ve always felt that she was “in touch” with technology. Well that view has been cemented further with her more recent show Spark.

Unlike many CBC shows that pay lip-service to emerging technologies, Spark is not bluffing. The show makes use of wikis and blogs (that actually read like a real person wrote it) for contribution. They make the full interview available online. But what impresses me the most is that all the music is podsafe and licensed under Creative Commons.

From the show notes: “This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects”

I love to see CBC  shows REALLY getting technology

Popularity: 2% [?]