Category: Society

Apple by Joe WilcoxMay 13, 20094:56 pm

Officethemovie: The Confessional

Yesterday, a seemingly official Microsoft Twitter accounted fooled popular blogs and mainstream news sites to write that Microsoft would introduce a new Zune platform in June. But the account wasn’t from Microsoft.

Allegedly, David Z from Haklab set up the account. I e-mailed Haklab today asking:

I love guerrilla marketing, and know how to recognize it, which is why I didn’t get sucked into the vortex like other bloggers and journalists. But it’s confession time. Who are you really, and what are your objectives? Not that I’m sure I will believe you. But try me. I want to blog on the problem of Twitter and shoddy journalism. You’re the case study.

This afternoon, I got a response. David claims to have exploited a Microsoft mistake—that the Twitter feed from Microsoft’s Office 2010: The Movie Website went to an unclaimed account. So he registered the Twitter account, @officethemovie. My suspicion: There was a typo on the page, and the account should have read: @office2010movie, as it does now.

Apple by Joe WilcoxMay 13, 20094:40 pm

The Problem With Real-Time Journalism

Yesterday’s “@officethemovie” pwning is about the worst example yet of new news media gone wrong. In the quest for clicks—and the feeble ad rates they pay—bloggers and old-time journalists rushed to write about a new Zune platform coming in June. Apple is rumored to be unveiling the new iPhone the same month. Additionally, the E3 gaming expo starts June 2. I guess it all was just too tantalizing for people to check their facts. The source wasn’t Microsoft. But most blogs and news sites reported that it was.

The Arts by Joe WilcoxMar 20, 20097:48 pm

Subway Art Gallery

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo] What better disruptive improvisation than an art gallery on a subway platform?

Living by Joe WilcoxMar 19, 20093:47 am

'Simply Bigoted'

Children like to think they are less bigoted than their parents, for example. In fact, they are simply bigoted about different things: fatties, smokers and people who drive Humvees, rather than blacks or homosexuals. Lexington

Society by Joe WilcoxJan 29, 20099:07 pm

Traffic

So here I am driving down Qualcomm Way into Mission Valley, when this motorcycle cuts across my lane. He moved from the right through the middle lane to the left. The guy was lucky that […]

Society by Joe WilcoxDec 28, 20082:41 am

You Do What While Driving?

Late Christmas Eve afternoon, while driving my daughter to the skating rink, I spotted a roadsign about California’s no texting and driving law, which goes into effect Jan. 1. I just chuckled. Who the hell texts and drives? At the ice rink, I mused to two friends: “What kind of world do we live in that there has to be a law to stop people from texting and driving.”

Society by Joe WilcoxNov 29, 200812:47 pm

Text Etiquette

Last week, I heard Stephen Stills song (circa 1970), “Love the One You’re With,” while shopping at a supermarket. Some advice to heavy texters: Be with the ones you’re with. If you’re with a bunch […]

Society by Joe WilcoxNov 27, 200812:00 am

Language Old Is New Again

I may not here omite how, notwithstand all their great paines and industrie, and the great hops of a large cropp, the Lord seemed to blast, and take away the same, and to threaten further and more sore famine unto them, by a great drought which continued from the 3. weeke in May, till about the midle of July, without any raine, and with great heat (for the most parte), insomuch as the come begane to wither away, though it was set with fishe, the moysture wherof helped it much. Yet at length it begane to languish sore, and some of the drier grounds were partched like withered hay, part wherof was never recovered.

Continue reading Language Old Is New Again

Responsibility by Joe WilcoxNov 16, 20081:35 am

Change Dot Gov

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U] Over at change.gov, President-elect Obama gave his first weekly video address today (via YouTube). What could go more oddly together than the first African American president and YouTube?

Society by Joe WilcoxOct 4, 200812:00 am

I’m Googled Now

In 1995, I registered domain editors.com. I loved that domain, but, alas, sold it a few years back for a small sum. Had I understood then where blogging was going, I wouldn’t have let go the domain. Idiot.

Anyway, the replacement domain is used strictly for e-mail. It has seen a few hosts, including Yahoo. The most recent one has an invalid SSL certificate going on a year now. I finally got sick of repeated warnings about security cert and made a major shift yesterday: Google.

I signed up for Google Apps, so that I could host the domain somewhere else for e-mail. What a bargain. Fifty bucks a year, with 25GB of storage and a bunch of other Google services hanging off the domain.

News Media by Joe WilcoxJun 25, 200812:00 am

Two Blogs Don’t Make a Right

Here’s an example of blogging as bad journalism and the problem with the viral Web.

Gizmodo has a short post (Aren’t they all?) about the monumental influence of Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg. I know Walt, so I was immediately interested in the item, time-stamped 8:23 a.m. EDT today.

Society by Joe WilcoxJun 24, 200812:00 am

Google-Facebook Swim Party

I meant to blog this on Saturday. I could have gone to a pool party using Facebook and Google Maps.

That’s what the Guardian says teens in the UK are doing. Uninvited. The meetup, or “dipping,” is coordinated using Google Maps to find outdoor swimming pools and Facebook (or other social networking services like Bebo) to set place and time; typically late night.