Hanging on to the Hub
December 13, 2009
Having left Boston, do I still need the Globe? I certainly value some of its content. But I no longer need to visit the paper’s main page frequently.
I’ll follow links to Globe content from various places, notably Largehearted Boy and Universal Hub. LHB, a music and lit blog, is based in the deep south (of the USA), but frequently links to Globe content. A recent link goes to an article on collecting music in the age of downloading.
UH is very much a Boston blog, curated by Adam, a former near-neighbor who I never had the pleasure of meeting in real life (although we were in the same room at least once). The most recent post at the time of this writing proclaims today Malls Suck Day at the Globe, on the basis that there are three articles comparing malls to downtowns, with the comparisons being in favor of downtowns. It’s good to see that the Globe isn’t pandering to its mall-based advertisers.
Settling in to Silver Spring
December 11, 2009
We completed the purchase of our new house last Thursday, December 3. We moved in on Monday of this week. Since then we’ve been opening boxes, hanging pictures, getting to know our way around, etc.
The kids like the new place, and already feel at home here. Here they are running toward the nearest playground. As you can see, it looks like a castle in the woods, with a color scheme very similar to that of Max’s winter coat.
Maddie is looking forward to starting at Highland Elementary School on Monday. We went there this morning to do paperwork and to visit. Max smelled and saw the pizza that was for school lunch today, and was very upset that he couldn’t have any.
We’re in the Wheaton-Glenmont area of Silver Spring, in Montgomery County Maryland. That puts us near the Red line of the DC Metro. I think that the Metro will make a welcome change from the Boston T.
Rotten? Apple Acquires Lala
December 4, 2009
Much of my listening to music, particularly new music, involves Lala these days. Paying a buck to stream an album an unlimited number of times is a good deal, particularly since I can sample (i.e. stream once) before paying anything.
So I was interested in the rumor that Lala would be acquired by Apple. Brad Stone of the NY Times reports that the rumor has come true.
One person with knowledge of the deal, but who was not authorized to discuss it, said that the negotiations originated when Lala executives concluded that their prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim…
This person said Apple would primarily be buying Lala’s engineers, including its energetic co-founder Bill Nguyen, and their experience with cloud-based music services.
Lala’s engineers have built a service that music enthusiasts say is very easy to use. Lala scans the hard drives of its users and creates an online music library that matches the user’s collection, making it painless (and free) for people to get their music in the cloud.
The reason I regard the news as rotten is that “Lala’s licenses for streaming music with the major music labels are not transferable to any acquirer.” So the streaming rights for which I’ve paid may go away. That said, they’d also go away if Lala went under, and I considered the possibility of that happening when I decided to buy the streaming rights. Jason at TechCrunch hopes that such purchases will be grandfathered, but we’ll have to wait and see.
It may well be time to look at other streaming services…
Good Luck Balloon Leaves Roslindale
December 4, 2009
I packed up the last things from the Roslindale apartment on Wednesday morning. To be more precise, they should have been the last things, but I was so tired I probably missed a few things. And a lot of things I threw out.
And one thing, I let float away. We had a helium balloon bearing the slogan Good Luck left over from a weekend potluck. I took it out onto the deck, and let it float away. It too was tired, so it didn’t spring straight up into the air. Rather, it floated across Walworth Street, rising enough to clear wires and rooftops.
May the balloon of good luck float toward you, good people of Boston.
About to Miss Boston
November 30, 2009
I’ve been in semi-denial (or at least some fraction of denial) about leaving Boston, but having just told the US Postal Service to forward mail to Silver Spring, Maryland seems to stamp the move with enough reality that denial is no longer an option. I’m missing some people and places already, and I’ll probably post about things I miss sometime in 2010.
Universal Adam pointed to a “missing Boston” post from Alex Howard, who made a similar move earlier this year. I’m already with with Alex on several of the items on his list, such as Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum.
Ink, the movie
November 27, 2009
I’ve just watched the movie Ink. I’ll embed one of the trailers. As you can see, it won’t be to everybody’s liking, but if the trailer appeals, the movie probably will too.
It was written and directed by Jamin Winans, whose short movie Spin you may have seen: it was much blogged about a year or two back. He and his wife/producer Kiowa run Double Edge Films, and sell the movie direct from that site. You can also buy it at Amazon, where Ink [Blu-ray] is only $14 right now.
There are numerous cool and/or interesting things about the movie and its web presence. Jamin and Kiowa thank the people who have BitTorrented Ink. Kiowa is doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit.
The couple have a blog. Here’s Kiowa’s fascinating post about the release strategy. She quotes an earlier post from Jamin: “the battle we all fight is against obscurity.”
This post is my small contribution to Jamin and Kiowa’s side of that battle. I’d say they’re winning it. It’s too early to tell whether this will translate into financial success. There is a button on their site for PayPal contributions. I just made one, since I don’t think they get much money from my viewing. But no, I didn’t BitTorrent it.
I watched Ink at Netflix, where it is available for streaming. I don’t think that a stream sends much money to the makers, though.
Social Media Thanks
November 26, 2009
Who or what are you thankful for in social media? asks Mashable Ben. I’m thankful for sharing, which is vital to social media in so many ways.
So much of the software is free/open source. So many of the web services are free as in freemium. So much of the content is shared via creative commons. So many people share their knowledge to help others via support forums and other channels.
Reasons to be Thankful
November 26, 2009
I’m thankful for my wife and kids. They just left to drive down to Philadelphia, to spend Thanksgiving with family there. I’m up here in Boston to finish packing our house. I miss them already.
I’m thankful for friends, such as those with whom I’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner. It was those same friends with whom Judy and I celebrated Christmas in 2002. We thought that our first child was five weeks away. But as we were turning in that Christmas night, Maddie decided that she couldn’t wait much longer to come out.
So Maddie will be six on the day after Christmas this year. Her brother, Max, is three. The four of us will be in a new house, in Silver Spring, Maryland, for this Christmas.
Before I get on with packing, I’ll call my parents. They live in England, where the day after Christmas is Boxing Day. And, of course, Thanksgiving comes on the fourth of July.
WordPress Themes, Mobile and Otherwise
November 23, 2009
The theme of a WordPress blog is like its skin, its graphical interface… So the theme is part of the blog’s identity.
Should that identity be preserved across platforms, even when some of the platforms are mobile? A recent post suggests that it typically isn’t. WordPress.com’s mobile default is a mobile theme, rather than a mobile version of the blog’s “main” theme.
For self-hosted WordPress, there are several plugins available. The most popular seem based on the rule: if mobile platform, then mobile theme.
There are some aspects of theme design that don’t translate well to mobile. For example, the theme for this blog shows a lot of white space. That doesn’t work on mobile, when there isn’t much space to spare.
On the other hand, colors do work on mobile. The WordPress.com CSS upgrade doesn’t let me tweak the color scheme of the mobile themes. I wish it did.
For self-hosted blogs, it might be good practice to have a little CSS file that specifies colors, and other aspects of themes that carry over well to mobile, and invoke that file from every theme the blog uses.
I’m sure someone has written a good, thoughtful account of aspects of theme design, and the extent to which each aspect should be similar or different between mobile and other themes. If you know of it, please leave a link in the comments.
Haiku-Ready Headline
November 23, 2009
PCWorld gets it:
Underwhelmed By Chrome OS?
That’s Kinda the Point.
Yes, the two parts of the headline are 7 and 5 syllables. Just add a first line, and… instant addition to my collection of Chrome haikus.
Chrome defines a web appliance. I believe there’s a big market for such Chromebooks if they overwhelm in terms of speed and value.
