Puppies, Flowers, Rainbows and Kittens » Culture http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com Sarcasm and vitriol wrapped in a twee bow. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:10:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Nice TEDX talk from Simon Sinek http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2011/05/17/nice-tedx-talk-from-simon-sinek/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2011/05/17/nice-tedx-talk-from-simon-sinek/#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 20:25:29 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/?p=872 I thought that this was right on.

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2011/05/17/nice-tedx-talk-from-simon-sinek/feed/ 0 Unit Circle Magazine Archive re-launched http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2010/03/17/unit-circle-magazine-archive-re-launched/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2010/03/17/unit-circle-magazine-archive-re-launched/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:52:28 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/?p=786 In 1993, I decided that I wanted to create a magazine. I don’t remember the exact reasons why. Zine culture was on the rise at the time and I was living in San Francisco, which was one of the epicenters, so it was definitely in the air. The first few issues were xeroxed and distributed around San Francisco, but were also posted at Postscript files on sgi.com’s FTP site and word was spread on the early internet newsgroups and mailing lists. The first issues were put together by myself, Jane Underwood and Derek Chung.

I moved to Seattle in 1994 and continued to put out the zine. Now, Dan Appelquist (editor of early science fiction e-zine, Quanta) had hipped me to this amazing site created by Paul Southworth, etext.org. Etext.org was all about celebrating literature on-line. In the proto-internet days of 1994, getting a website up was no mean feat, and keeping it up at no cost to the people being hosted on it was frankly amazing. Issues 3-6 were printed on paper, but were also hosted on etext.org. As one of the early culture e-zines it got some noteriety (including a write-up in the book “webworks: e-zines” by Martha Gill). Now that early HTML looks laughably primitive, but for the time I was quite proud of it. Issues 3-6 of the magazine were put together by myself, Derek Chung and Nita Daniel with some contributions by an occasional other writer as well.

After issue #6, I got very busy with Unit Circle Rekkids, and it also seemed like zines (both on-line and off-line) were just exploding. I realized that the tools were now in the hands of the artists that we’d covered and that the zine itself was no longer necessary. We left the site up so that the content was available, but it became a historic archive. I have to admit that I didn’t even check it out often any more to make sure that it was still up. The last content was added in 1996, I think, although some minor changes were made to the site afterwards based on requests from contributors.

Eventually, etext.org had run its course and the site itself stopped hosting its content. Unit Circle zine is still available from the internet archive, but I wanted to bring it back home and host it here as well so that it could live on as a time capsule. I have cleaned it up slightly (fixed up some of the links, scrubbed some of the e-mail addresses), but it is pretty much the same as it was when it was last updated.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to The Unit Circle Magazine, especially Derek, Nita and Jane, and I really want to thank Paul Southworth for creating an early home for culture on the internet. I also want to thank all the artists, authors and musicians who allowed us to showcase their work. I hope that all are successful and continuing to create. Finally, I want to thank everyone who ever read an issue, on-line or on paper.

The Unit Circle Magazine archive is now at http://www.unitcircle.com/zine/

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2010/03/17/unit-circle-magazine-archive-re-launched/feed/ 1 Creative Destruction in the Newspaper Industry http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2009/01/12/creative-destruction-in-the-newspaper-industry/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2009/01/12/creative-destruction-in-the-newspaper-industry/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:44:34 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/?p=686 I saw two things today that somehow connected in my mind. The first was an advert for scholarships for computer programmers to Northwestern’s journalism school (link):
Are you a skilled programmer or Web developer? Are you interested in applying your talents to the challenge of creating a better-informed society? Do you want to learn how to find, analyze and present socially relevant information that engages media audiences? Do you see possibilities for applying technology as a way to connect people and information on the Web or new delivery platforms?

The second item was the announcement that one of Seattle’s two major daily newspapers is up for sale and that it will probably cease as a printed paper no matter what happens:
For sale: The P-I

There are a few things to think about here. A simple one is that the printed newspaper as a product is obviously headed for oblivion. The web is far superior at news delivery, especially extended coverage of breaking news (television isn’t good at the “extended” part). Even the bad part of electronically delivered news (reading off a computer screen) has solutions on the near term horizon (e-book readers). You could say that the journalism school is ahead of the game here, looking to turn programmers into journalists who “get” the future of journalism.

I wonder why anyone would be looking to journalism as a second career at this point though. I can understand that the current upheaval in the computer industry would make a career change attractive, but what we got going in IT ain’t nothin’ compared to the outright carnage happening in journalism.

There is an open question about what is the future of journalism: is it trained journalists researching stories or is it bloggers and “citizen journalists” doing it on their own? I’ve never been one to think that interested amateurs can completely replace experienced professional writers, and I still feel that way. The big stories require real journalists, sniffing out the stories over long periods of time and really getting to the bottom of the issues. However, 95% of professional journalism isn’t that. It’s coverage of city council meetings and the daily reportage that some people care a lot about, some people care a little about and the rest of the people care very little about. Those kinds of things are perfect for the interested and excited amateurs and it is that where the blogging community has been eating away at the journalism community. Without young reporters getting their start on that daily grind kind of stuff, however, I’m not sure how folks become the in-depth-extended-research kinds of reporters.

I honestly don’t think that the future of journalism is going to come from the programmers (even those with masters degrees in journalism). I think it is going to come from the thousands of laid-off reporters being released into the world. I hope that many will start to explore the possibilities and I expect at least one will end up changing what journalism is as we know it.

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2009/01/12/creative-destruction-in-the-newspaper-industry/feed/ 0 And I was starting to feel good about us as a nation again… http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/11/29/and-i-was-starting-to-feel-good-about-us-as-a-nation-again/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/11/29/and-i-was-starting-to-feel-good-about-us-as-a-nation-again/#comments Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:14:17 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/?p=676 Wal-Mart worker dies in rush; two killed at toy store – CNN.com
a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/11/29/and-i-was-starting-to-feel-good-about-us-as-a-nation-again/feed/ 0 NBC stop lying to me http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/08/12/nbc-stop-lying-to-me/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/08/12/nbc-stop-lying-to-me/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:27:45 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/08/12/nbc-stop-lying-to-me/ Dear NBC,

I just watched the final on the CBC, don’t show me video of the team getting off the bus and say that they just arrived and competition should get started in about an hour.

Morons.

Yer pal,

Kevin

[update 11:21PM PST]
NBC is now claiming to be broadcasting something “live” that the New York Times has already reported the outcome of and the CBC actually did broadcast live a few hours ago. I can understand tape delay for the west coast, but three hours ago was prime time on the west coast. You could have shown it then. And don’t freaking call it live when it isn’t.

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/08/12/nbc-stop-lying-to-me/feed/ 0 Great Clay Shirky speech http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/04/27/great-clay-shirky-speech/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/04/27/great-clay-shirky-speech/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:19:54 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/04/27/great-clay-shirky-speech/ I just read this really excellent talk that Clay Shirky gave at Web 2.0 about how we are (and should) switch from a content consuming society into a production society (content or otherwise). At its simplest, it is a call to spend less time watching TV, but it is quite elegant. A short read, highly recommended: http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html

[via @jeffjarvis]

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/04/27/great-clay-shirky-speech/feed/ 0 tired of automated phone support? http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/01/07/tired-of-automated-phone-support/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/01/07/tired-of-automated-phone-support/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:25:43 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/01/07/tired-of-automated-phone-support/ gethuman 500 database from Paul English

This is a great site, explaining how to talk to a person when calling various companies

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2008/01/07/tired-of-automated-phone-support/feed/ 0 Hey business traveller! http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/11/21/hey-business-traveller/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/11/21/hey-business-traveller/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:21:39 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/11/21/hey-business-traveller/ The next time you spend the entire flight standing in the fucking aisle next to me having an impromptu business meeting with three of your colleagues spread over multiple rows, surrounded by other folk, I’m going to record your entire conversation and then transcribe it so that your competitors can get every piece of information. I mean I now know your entire strategy of getting Boeing to buy your crappy parts. Real genius move talking about that loudly on a flight between Seattle and Chicago. No chance some salesmen from some other parts company might be on that flight.

This also goes for you people who have loud personal conversations on their cellphones next to me when I am stuck waiting for people to deplane so I can get away from you.

What does this say about us as Americans? That we are so egotistic and self-centered that we either don’t notice the other people around us or that we just don’t care because the other people around us are just ants? I used to ask politely for people to not shout their personal details or business plans into my ears, but mostly I would get a impolite response amounting to a “I don’t care if I’m annoying you, that is your problem, not mine.”

Well, from now on: I won’t get mad, I’ll get even.

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/11/21/hey-business-traveller/feed/ 0 My Dearest Wired http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/08/12/my-dearest-wired/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/08/12/my-dearest-wired/#comments Sun, 12 Aug 2007 16:59:24 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/08/12/my-dearest-wired/ We’ve been together a long time. Back since issue #1. Back then, we were both crazy kids, I was just a year or two out of college, starting my career in technology and you were the inside-outsider watching the whole thing happen and feeding me juicy bits of info. I thought it could last forever, but things change. As the industry you documented outgrew you, you started to seem a bit anachronistic. You couldn’t keep up. The juicy news you purveyed was old hat by the time your issues arrived. Then you shacked up with Conde Nast, and all of the sudden you were filled with more advertisements than the websites you covered. I started to check out of our relationship, I couldn’t help myself. I went from devouring you each time you showed up at my door to skimming you and reading only things that seemed interesting. Over time that was less and less. Now, there is a stack of unread copies of you sitting on my nightstand.

Your siren song, your low-priced subscription renewal beckons, but this time it is really over. I’d like to say that it’s me, not you, but really, it’s you. You’re running with a different crowd now, a crowd more concerned with lifestyle then technology. I hardly know you anymore. I’ve got to move on.

]]> http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/08/12/my-dearest-wired/feed/ 0 had my first http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/07/21/had-my-first/ http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/07/21/had-my-first/#comments Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:31:56 +0000 kevin http://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2007/07/21/had-my-first/ new Harry Potter book sighting in the wild this morning. At 8am. Being carried (prominently) by an unpleasant-looking 40-something woman. Without children. Coming out of Macrena.

Her bookmark was a good 200+ pages in.

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