Happy Valentine’s Day! As you can see, today’s selection is all about love. They say love is mysterious—so is the photographer, Benurs, who joined Flickr in October 2009 but hasn’t posted to his stream in […]
Author: Joe Wilcox
Comic-Con Heroes: The Writer
Among the 12 profiles that are the core of my book Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, the one that follows offers the most interesting content for science fiction fans. The convention isn’t just about superheroes. Sci-fi is part of the core culture dating back to the very start during the 1970s, and it’s even stronger in the 2010s. Because what was niche more than 40 years ago is mainstream, and more, today.
This profile also introduces some valuable historical insight—if 10 years can be considered old, and measured by Internet time it most certainly is. Fans’response to a new sci-fi television show, and their torrenting it, kicked the pebbles eventually unleashing an avalanche of legitimately-available streamed TV programming. So-called video pirates of 2005 are indirectly responsible for there being Hulu, Netflix streaming, and Google’s purchase of newbie service YouTube.
Flickr a Day 44: Lucky Lightning
Do you feel lucky? Happy Friday the 13th! It’s the first of three in 2015, and another follows in March. Except leap years, next month mirrors February for 28 days—hence the lucky double appearance of […]
Flickr a Day 43: ‘Where Am I?’
Sociologist Gianni Dominic captures life with great intimacy. Is that a professional trait applied to photography? Because to properly study societies and cultures, you need to examine everything from different viewpoints. His photos get in […]
Today’s Brutal Bias Assault Against Android Wear is Shameful
Oh my. Canalys reports half-year 2014 Android Wear smartwatch shipments of 720,000 units, and the Apple-loving free press categorizes the number failure. Meanwhile, the analyst firm boasts that “All eyes are now on Apple, which will reveal further details about the Apple Watch prior to its release in April”. Not mine. Are yours?
Over at Wall Street Journal, Rolfe Winkler begins his hatchet piece with: “It’s been a slow start for Google’s smartwatches”. The search and information giant doesn’t sell any of the devices, developing the underlying platform. Nitpicking aside, he ridiculously writes: “Apple sold roughly 114 million iPhones over the same period. That means Apple sold almost as many iPhones each day as makers of Android smartwaches sold over the six months”. Oh yeah? That comparison matters how?
Flickr a Day 42: ‘Mobilgas’
I discovered photographer Wes Peck while searching for art to illustrate post “Where are the Comments?” His primary focus: Objects. But behind each photo is a learning exercise, as he reveals in contextual captions. His Flickr stream is rich with learning-teaching lessons that extend beyond the story each image tells to the one behind.
Today’s selection is no exception and presents back-to-back snow photos (see Day 41 for the other). Forgive the indulgence. This is February, and I grew up in Northern Maine—where the white precipitation is visible six months (or more) a year.
There’s Something You Should Know About Google
In 2004, at JupiterResearch’s defunct Microsoft Monitor blog, I took a contrary view about Google, by asserting that it is not a search company. “Search is a means to an end, and information is that end. Google monetizes the information through search and contextual advertising”. That Google is all about information should be obvious enough now, although perhaps not to many people outside the company 11 years ago.
In a post four days ago, but only seen by poor pitiful me this morning, Washington Post reporter Brian Fung rightly explains why Google will “win” with its push into telecommunications. He writes: “What made Google one of the world’s five biggest companies? Data…If Google forges into the wireless space, the search giant wouldn’t just be another alternative to Verizon and AT&T. It would control a vertical slice of this universe in a way that no other company does”. Yep. The information giant’s interest in wired and wireless information share the same destination.
Flickr a Day 41: ‘Snow in Rome’
The camera you have with you is better than none, and sometimes it’s better than most. When first selecting today’s pic, discovered by searching for “snow”, I missed an important detail: iPhone 4. Hell, yeah. Show me a dSLR that delivers this good—of course, in competent hands. Composition is splendid. The eye’s delight.
Among the official “Most Popular Cameras in the Flickr Community” ranking, smartphones take the top-five spots—three going to Apple mobiles. I remember when iPhone 4, which the company released in June 2010, topped them all. That distinction now belongs to the 5s.
Dank Deep Eyes the Darkness
Some days creativity is like the California drought. I sit down to write, and no rain falls. But wanting to post something, I reach into my personal, secret archive of treasures, which for 2015 opens publicly. Sporadically, over the past six weeks, I posted lyrics to three songs: “Disco Queen“, “Empire State“, and “Surrealistic Pillow“—all written in the late 1970s. Today’s contribution is quite a bit newer but still not recent: March 27, 2004, finished at 12:30 a.m. ET. Others lyrics will follow over the months ahead.
This verse stands without melody and, honestly, lacks reading rhythm that would make a good song. Like most of my lyrics, the subject is a young woman—no one I know, and from none inspired. The only inspiration here is the dusty basement office where I worked, where unwelcome late-night pests came out of hiding.
Flickr a Day 40: ‘Eye Contact’
Nearly three fortnights into this series, time is come for a reminder: I am posting one Creative Commons-licensed Flickr photo a day for all 2014. Forty days in, the process proves to be more challenging […]
Flickr a Day 39: ‘Christian’s Workshop’
Intimacy best descibes the photographs of Giandomenico Jardella. He close-crops on face or hands, capturing nuances that define the moment’s humanity. Self-titled “Christian’s Workshop” is among a series of images shot on March 14, 2014. […]
Comic-Con Heroes: The Nerd Culturist
Comic-Con’s contractual commitment to San Diego expires in 2016, and the event already entertains offers to move to another city. While conducting interviews during SDDC 2013 for Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, I asked numerous attendees about relocation. Among them: Tauri Miller, whose profile appears in the ebook.
For whatever it’s worth, I favor keeping the Con in San Diego. While the convention center limits the number of participants to about 130,000 over four days, the city already is a tourist destination with all the right amenities, which include hotels and the Gaslamp Quarter. Getting in out and around (including the airport) is much easier than Los Angeles, by contrast.