Author: Steven Garrity

the death of the free web

by Steven Garrity

News.com tends to consist of little more than a collection of press releases and product announcements. However, their new feature, The Death of the Free Web is a fine collection of articles measuring the effects of the crash of dot-com-tomfoolery.

The bottom line of the articles is that we will all start to pay to web services. I agree and disagree. I agree because this is not a new idea. Jakob Nielsen has been saying for years that until there is a good scheme for micropayments (an easy way to pay for small transactions) the net will not mature. I don't normally search for Golf, it was just an example. Seriously. I used to walk by the driving range on the way to work everyday, and it looked so relaxing. So one day I decided to rent a club and hit a bucket of balls. I practically broke by ankle, I hit most of the balls backwards, and I got a blister.Also, companies like GoTo.com have been charging and gladly proclaiming it. They go so far as to list the cost to advertiser next to every search result. This is a brilliant exercise in simplicity and a straightforward business plan (although I sure as hell didn’t spend $0.53 based on my search results).

On the opposite end of the intelligence spectrum we have sites like Go.com, Snap.com, and Netscape.com which couldn’t possibly suck more. These properties deserve to crumble as they were built on false premises summed up nicely by the former CEO of Terra Lycos, “Audience was meant to drive stickiness, stickiness was meant to drive the network at large, and the network at large was meant to drive earnings.” If A then B. Duh.

On the other hand, the free web is doing nicely. Despite some hiccups in publishing schedules and hosting, as Jefferey Zeldman says, the independent content producer refuses to die. There are fantastic independent sites out there.

In a professional context, I’ve seen the web do some pretty cool stuff for real businesses. Not eyeballs or stickiness, but cash (increasing sales, reducing costs, increasing efficiency).

Regardless, the web continues to be about what it has always been about: funny pictures (like pictures of me, and of robots).

 

dialup friendly

by Steven Garrity

Old school computer columnist John C. Dvorak’s The Myth of Broadband looks at the idea that broadband doesn’t matter until most users have it. Right now, they don’t.

On the bright side, a dialup connection is much better now than it was two years ago. I don’t know if it’s hardware, software, or phone lines, but I remember not being able to listen to any useful streaming audio over a modem. Now a decent 56K dialup can sustain high-quality audio.

aov continues to be dialup friendly. Our frontpage varies in size, but is usually between 20K – 30Kb.

 

I’m looking for something with a tent and a fridge.

by Steven Garrity

Try this:

  1. Go to a Pontiac dealership.
  2. Find a dealer-man.
  3. Say, with a furrowed brow, “I’m looking for a car. It needs to be able to climb a mountain. I’m looking for something with a tent and a fridge. Got anything like that?”
  4. Enjoy elated dealer-man as he realizes he may be able to actually sell an Aztek!
  5. Take it for a test drive.
  6. Return it, stating that it won’t suffice as you need something with a parachute and toaster oven.
  7. Giggle and run away.
 

does this qualify as proportional representation?

by Steven Garrity

It’s spring clean up time in Charlottetown and that means crap on the streets. It doesn’t bother me so much, but a lot of people are understandably pissed of at how long it’s taking the city to pick up the many piles of leaves, rusty fridges, and other assorted eyesores.

In one situation, a woman’s daughter was getting married and she particularly concerned about the rubbish on her street as she would be entertaining at her house. She called her city councillor, who called the garbage people, who picked up some of it. Still, there was enough stuff let on the street to cramp the style of a good wedding party.

What’s a good city councillor to do? He, his wife, and his youngest son get a truck and clean up the street themselves in time for the wedding. There were no cameras or reporters. He didn’t even tell anyone he did it.

While I am not the son who helped him with the trash, the city Councillor is my father, Bruce Garrity. Sure, he may double-click on web links (all the time!), but this genuinely impressed me.

 

unless you already own this, you probably wont buy it on my recommendation

by Steven Garrity

all this talk about, planning for the crisis - I'm not thinking like that at allThe value of random music picks on the web is directly proportional to the number of available gigabytes on Napster. The chances that you will go buy a CD based solely on my recommendation are slim so all you can do is take my word for it. Since Napster is starting to suck, so will this post.

The Watchmen have been touring Canada for years. In 1998 they released Silent Radar and I saw them at The Barn a year later. This is a fantastic album. The Watchmen walk that fine line between critically credible and radio friendly, ala Counting Crows. If you see the Silent Radar in bargain bin at a second hand music store buy it and listen to Brighter Hell in the dark with headphones.

 

update: it’s not so much macs, but the people who use them

by Steven Garrity

update: it’s not so much macs, but the people who use them

I want a Titanium PowerBook as much as any self-respecting web designer, but this quote from a News.com story about the opening of the Apple store (QuickTime) in Washington D.C. gave me the creeps:

More than 500 zealous Mac fans lined up as early as 4 a.m. EDT for the chance to be the store’s first customer and to support Apple Computer’s retail experiment. The crowd–which earlier broke into chants of “Apple! Apple! Apple!”–roared when the stored open at 10 a.m. EDT.

These people have clearly not read Brave New World.