Category: Media

Read More

Where are the Comments?

Websites without comments feel barren, like there are no visitors or no one is home. Reader reaction makes a site feel lively, and it generates energy—desire to participate. More importantly, comments can extend the storytelling. But as you survey my site, most posts stand solitary, creating, perhaps, impression that no one reads them. So why should you?

For numerous reasons—among them my putting priority on social networks during 2011-14—interaction is so seemingly limited. Engagement takes place, but mostly on social networks like Google+ where I have audience and where links to posts from here also appear. Readers engage where they share community, so the majority of interaction is elsewhere. I could flush out more commenting here by using Disqus, which spreads community across many thousands of sites. The choice to stick with WordPress’ system is quite deliberate. 

Read More

Nexus 6 delights the Ears

Compressed audio gives up so much, I am surprised by the fidelity Nexus 6 gives back. Shocked is better word. I ordered the smartphone from T-Mobile on January 21 and received it the following day. As I will explain in my forthcoming review—tentatively planned as an “I love you” post on BetaNews (and here), Nexus 6 is amazing. I haven’t enjoyed using a handset this much in years. The overall user experience is spectacular.

My audio expectations were modest, when first connecting my Grado Labs Rs1e headphones and streaming from Google Music. Soundstage and detail exceed streaming from iTunes to iPhone 6, or—I do not lie—listening to music stored on MacBook Pro SSD. The differences in detail are shockingly apparent. On all three devices, graphic equalizer is not enabled. 

Read More

Flickr a Day 33: ‘A Fast Car’

Perhaps you’ve heard of concept “six degrees of separation”, which during the Internet era often is applied to social media connections. But its origin is much older. Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy proposed the idea in 1929 short story “Chains”—that no two people are separated by more than five intermediaries, which works out to six degrees of separation. Sometimes, online, the connections surprise for being so seemingly far removed, yet close. That’s how I see today’s photo selection.

Searching Flickr for “Groundhog Day”—and it’s today—summoned everything but the oversized rodent. Self-titled “A Fast Car” caught my attention for perspective and panning. In scanning the Flickr profile for the photographer, Takashi Hososhima, a familiar picture greeted me. Turns out Takashi and I are previously acquainted. I must apologize for forgetting. My return to him and his photostream is roundabout. 

Read More

Cox Flex Watch Temps Me More

Anywhere from two to three times a week, Cox sends offers to join Flex Watch, which would add $19.99 to my $59.99 Internet service. The cable company guarantees the price for 12 months—no contract—and would provide HD set-top box with access to local networks and some premium, subscription channels. Last year’s offer: HBO and Starz. Last month’s adds Encore. This week, Cox sweetens by tempting with Cinemax and Flix for just $5 more.

The HD box and local channel access doesn’t tempt the slightest. Cox would have to rewire our setup to enable access from the living room, but I’m a believer in the “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach to networking. I’ve got 120Mbps Internet pumping down to the bedroom, where there is no TV, and don’t want to risk mucking up what we’ve got. But I am tempted to pay $19.99, or $24.99, for the subscription channels and stream to the tellie content in their apps—which I find offer better experience and more options. But does that cross the line? Is it still cord-cutting? 

Read More

Comic-Con Heroes: The Academic

My fourth installment of excerpts from ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth takes an interesting directional shift. So far we’ve met The Dark Knight, Medieval fighter, and twin-brother toy collectors. Would you believe there are people who study toys as a profession? Read on to see.

To recap: I attended San Diego Comic-Con 2013 with intention of profiling one-dozen among the 130,000 attendees. As SDCC 2015 approaches, I am posting 13 installments, after which the book will release into the public domain, on July 8, 2015, when my current commitment for Amazon KDP Select ends.

Read More

Flickr a Day 31: ‘Couple’

Today’s selection comes from Flickr searches for the Leica X1 and X2 digicams. Photographer Andrew Xu uses the latter, and I once owned the former. Originally from China, and living in New Zealand, the VFX artist is true to his profession, by posting photos that punch you with their terrific visual style.

I could easily fill the remaining 324 Flickrs a Day with Andrew’s images, which is comment about the challenge choosing one. I left the decision to fate, picking the pic from my initial search. Andrew’s style is so strong because, in part, he has a photographic philosophy that merges art and science. I recommend reading the full explanation on his Flickr profile page

Read More

Flickr a Day 29: ‘Tiny Houses’

Vantage point best describes the photography of Jessica P., better known as jjesskalee around the social networks. Perspective works just as well. She sets very defined viewpoints, often getting in close to subjects. Like me, she uses the Fujifilm X100T, which shoots surprisingly great Macros; the f/2 lens gives shallow depth-of-field that produces fantastic bokeh.

Jessica shot self-titled “Tiny Houses” on Dec. 31, 2014. The houses belong to board game The Settlers of Catan, which was unknown to me before seeing this pic and a companion my wife prefers. As someone who fanatically role-played Dungeons and Dragons and Empire of the Petal Throne in high school, I’m surprised to somehow have missed Catan, which Klaus Teuber developed and released to the German market 20 years ago.