Tales from the “real” world

September 8, 2002 by Steven Garrity

Using a computer often gets branded with the same attributes as watching TV. It is often seen as antisocial and a waste of time. These machines rot our brains, right? Well, this past week I spent some time away from my computer, and I’ve come to a different conclusion.

First, I should clarify; I’m no monk – it was just a few days, but it was quite a change from my routine.

What I found was that my computer isn’t rotting my brain at all. Rather, I use my computer for all kinds of activities that I would generally consider quite healthy and positive.

I use my computer to write. I use my computer to read (all kinds of great stuff), I use my computer to communicate (with real people). I write for this site, I write for my intranet at work. I (attempt to) compose and record music. I communicate with people through email, through discussions on this site other others.

I also realized how much practical “real world” stuff I do online. For example, this week I constantly found myself wanting to do things like check the movie listing for the local independent cinema (aren’t I cool?), look up more detail on a news story I heard on CBC Radio (btw, CBC Radio is my new best friend), or even just taking care of some banking. Sure, I could call the cinema, and walk to the bank (which I did), but there is no offline equivalent to the ability to dig up details and background on a radio news story. Oh, and it turns out that banking online is a far more inviting and humanizing experience than actually going to the real bank.

I’ve learned this week that I use my computer (and the Internet) to do good things – things that I enjoy, at least.

A computer is just a tool (Marshall McLuhan be damned!). The computer is just as content to help you map the human genome as it is to show you hardcore midget porn. It will be interesting to see if the popular conception of what it means to “use a computer” will change. It might sound like a waste of time if I told you I spent all weekend “on the computer”, but what if I told you I was writing a novel, or composing a symphony (not that I’ve done either of these things).

This isn’t to say that I use my computer solely as a tool for enlightmentment. In fact, just last year I suffered a nasty adiction to Tony Hawk Pro Staker 2.

For more the on the “cult of Turn Off Your Computer”, read Curt Cloninger’s article, The Cult of “Turn Off Your Computer” Must Die.

Goodbye to The Barn

September 3, 2002 by Steven Garrity

The bar at our local university was called The Barn – this was due to the fact that is was – a barn. Apparently it used to actually be home to farm animals before it became a money-losing concert hall.

It was torn down today. A necessary move (it was probably getting dangerously decrepit), but it will be missed.

I can remember some great concerts there: Sloan, Thursh Hermit, Local Rabbits, The Watchmen, Treble Charger, Sum41 (before they were rock stars), The Flashing Lights, Horton’s Choice, 54-40, Stawberry, and a few others.

It was a great venue. It sounded great, and was small enough that even the smallest shows felt packed. I’ll never forget seeing Sloan play in The Barn on their One Chord to Another tour. The place was packed well beyond safety, and it was unbearably hot inside – though it was -20 outside. In the middle of the set, someone opened a door on the balcony directly above and behind the stage. The temperature difference caused billows of fog to poor in over the stage. The band was probably pissed as their guitars warped out of tune, but it looked really cool.

The Barn is no longer, but you can watch it fall (1.6 MB animated GIF).

Musical Find: Second hand Springsteen

September 2, 2002 by Steven Garrity

My musical find of the day: Dar Williams covers Highway Patrolman on Badlands: A tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. The track is produced by Jian Ghomeshi of Moxy Fruvous and includes backup vocals by Jian and Sarah Harmer.

I discovered the song while listening to an archive of CBC Radio’s DNTO (Definitely Not the Opera). I was unable to find a standalone version of the file, so to listen, you’ll have to download the whole 15.6MB MP3 file and skip to 10:45. Update: This link is dead, so I’ve attached a copy below.

It’s worth the download, and you get a bonus radio piece on Moxy Fruvous fan-dom.

An Experiment in AudioBlogging

September 1, 2002 by Steven Garrity

Listen to this post

3:29 MP3 File (1.59MB)

I did a reading in a wedding once – another story altogether – and was told after the ceremony by nice old man that I had a good radio voice. Ever since, I’ve been waiting and hoping for an excuse to tell people what I hit I was. I got tired of waiting, so there you have a rough segue.

Adam Curry of live.curry.com has been toying around with the idea of audioblogging. The concept is simple – weblogs including spoken word audio in addition to text. It would be something like bite-size chunks of talk radio, I suppose.

There are lots of potential problems with the idea of audioblogging. The biggest and most obvious problem would be that no one wants to hear me, or any other navel-gazing weblogger ranting and raving about something or other. When you read text onscreen, you can skim and skip to whatever you’re interesting it. Audio runs on the timeline of the speaker, rather than listener. This just isn’t how the web works.

Another problem is that weblogs post are often based on links to other sites. Links just don’t work in audio. If there was way to link from an audio file, I suppose you’d have to say “click now” instead of “click here”. Regardless, inline links also tend to change the way you write in ways that don’t translate to the web. I tried reading a few recent Acts of Volition posts aloud – and much of the text is written with the understanding that you’ll be following the given links and doesn’t make sense without them. Incidentally, they’re riddled with embarrassing typos.

It wouldn’t make sense to offer an entire weblog in both text and audio formats. Something written for one medium may not work well in the other, and something written with both medium in mind might not work well in either. This post, for example, is much longer than it would have been if I hadn’t planned on reading it aloud.

So, if you aren’t going to make audio versions of all posts available, what do you do with audioblogging? Well, you could, as Adam Curry is doing, only make audio versions of posts you think would translate well to spoken word – but I’m not sure there’s any value in repurposing of content like that. It does, however, lead to any idea I’ve had floating around in my head for the past couple of years: Acts of Volition Radio.

I’ve never really nailed down exactly what aov-radio would be, if were ever to exist. What I’ve had in mind, roughly, would be an occasional radio-style program, as a compliment to the text-based weblog, including talk and music, available for permanently streaming or download on the site. I’m not sure if I would ever get around something like this, but it might be a fun experiment.

I have the means to produce audio – recording software and a good microphone is all it really takes, so this post is an experiment. Does audioblogging make any sense? Let me know.

Realtime Media Link: CBC’s IDEAS

August 30, 2002 by Steven Garrity

If you catch this in time (before 10PM Atlantic time, Friday night) – tune into CBC Radio One (RealAudio). The program IDEAS is running an interesting feature on a Toronto composer who interviewed his grandfather about his life, and set the recordings to music.

Don’t worry if you missed it. When it becomes available, I’ll post a link to the archived version of the program.

Geek Fiction

August 30, 2002 by Steven Garrity

Intersting geek-short-fiction from Cory Doctorow of the BoingBoing.net weblog at Salon: 0wnz0red.

If you know what a “JavaOne gimme jacket” is, then print it off and read it in bed tonight. The super-clever geek-isms of the language reminded me of our own Rob, but without his tasteful restraint.

Favourite quote:

…your body just isn’t that complicated — it’s just hubris that makes us so certain that our meat-sacks are transcendently complex.

Mail Order Canada

August 28, 2002 by rob

Canadian Favourites (bonus points for correct spelling of ‘favourites’). Now anybody can get the Canadian experience of eating bulk Kraft Dinner, Swiss Chalet gravy, and all you need to brew your own Double-Double.

I’ve noticed a lot of Canada-envy in our discussions between the accents and the root-beer. But now, you can all live like kings. Cheers.

Two years of Acts of Volition

August 25, 2002 by Steven Garrity

On this day, August 25th, in the year 2000, this website was born.

Two years later there have been 538 posts, 2800 reader replies, one DVD petition, hundreds of typos, and countless hilarious and offensive search engine refers. That’s a lot of volition.

I’m still enjoying the site as much today as I was one year ago, and two years ago.

Edward Tufte’s Graphic of the Day

August 25, 2002 by Steven Garrity

From Edward Tufte’s Graphic of the Day, the brilliant Princeton University Acceptance Letter.

Does anyone know how to pronounce Tufte’s last name? I’ve been calling him “tuft”, but I’ve recentely been told that it’s actualy “tuftee” (with the emphasis the second sylable pronounced as a long ‘e’). If so, I’ll add this to the long list of names I’ve long been mispronouncing (appologies to Derek Powazek, Dave Winer, Jason Kottke, and Matt Haughey). Such is the danger of a text-based medium.

Excuse me Microsoft, the people have a beef.

August 19, 2002 by Steven Garrity

Well-known figures of web development are calling out to Microsoft. The complaint is that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on Windows doesn’t let users resize fonts if they are specified in pixels with stylesheets. The optional Font Size selection toolbar element in Internet Explorer I’m not going to go into the details of the feature here, but it is an important accessibility issue, and they are right.

However, I’m more interested to see how, and if, Microsoft will reply to these demands.

Although many have asked for this before, the well-known Jakob Nielsen has drawn further attention to the issue with his Alertbox column; Let Users Control Font Size (he gets right to the point – you’ve gotta give him that). Jeffrey Zeldman rings in too, pointing out that designers are doing the best they can, and reiterating the demand to Microsoft. Scripting.com’s Dave Winer, JoelonSoftware.com’s Joel Spolsky, and many others join in as well.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft is willing and able to respond to a demand like this. I’m not expecting them to ship a fix tomorrow morning, but it would be smart for them to at least acknowledge that they hear these demands. Is it even possible for a corporation of such girth to form a timely and human response to an issue like this?