Why Big Media Wants to Kill RSS, and Why We Shouldn't Let It

Another year, another attempt to kill RSS. Sigh.

That means I must once again bring truth to a cacophony of greed and hysteria, where repetitive games of not-really-farming and being not-really a gangster are valued more than anything other than Facebook, the platform where you not-really play said games.

This discussion cycle seems about as boring as I imagine Farmville to be, but we can’t ignore it. Because there are armies of media companies, developers and investors out there, with dollar signs in our eyes, who can’t wait to usher RSS off to the deadpool. For one reason and one reason only: they can’t make as much money if we read their content our way- in Google Reader or the equivalent app of our choice- as they can if they can force us to read it their way- at their site, complete with scads of browser-clogging tracking scripts and ads galore.

Let me say it another way.

Anyone- and I mean anyone- who is concerned with the end user experience should be actively promoting and supporting RSS. Unfortunately, like the very important but much maligned climate control movement, those who favor RSS as a medium for content management are on the wrong side of the ledger. They are waging war against those who have deeper pockets and much to lose.

I can understand why someone who thinks of our eyeballs only as currency would not want us to manage several hundred web site subscriptions and the related content from a single, convenient, web-based app. I can understand why big media sites want us to click wildly from page to page and site to site, all in the name of page views and ad serves. Hell, even Google, who makes mint serving ads on so many web sites, doesn’t have much incentive to promote RSS and its handler, the wonderful Google Reader.

In a recent post, Louis Gray sums up my view of online utopia:

I don’t want more places to play games. I don’t want more places that I can share photos with an increasing array of effects. I do want better filters so that the best stuff comes to me, from all networks, without my having to sift through the noise. That’s important to me, and part of what I am working to do.

That sounds a lot more like Google Reader than it does bouncing around between web sites, Twitter and Facebook. The only people who have a material interest in promoting RSS is us. The people, who want to control the manner in which we select and consume content.

Someone reading this is about to say, “but wait, what about Twitter!? Facebook! RSS is so last decade!” To them I say, put down the joint or the deposit slip (depending on which bias has possessed their senses). Twitter is, at the end of the day, nothing more that legitimized spam. It’s brilliant. But that’s what it is. Big media loves Twitter, because it allows them and their hoodwinked fence painters to relentlessly spam people with the equivalent of partial feeds, which lead the end user back- you guessed it- to the content provider’s web site. Complete with boggy scripts and ads-a-plenty.

Facebook is great. For conversing with your friends in far off places, or catching up with the freshman roommate you once hated. But in no way, shape or form is it the place to catalog, access and consume your news and other web-based content.

Again, only those with skin in the game will try to convince you otherwise.

The people can save RSS. And we should, because if we don’t, we’re the ones who will suffer. Not old or new media. Not Twitter or Facebook.

And certainly not those who see our eyeballs as currency.

Deacon Blues: It’s All in the Name

The second episode of Deacon Blues has been released.

In this action-packed episode, our hero visits the digital lair of the guardian of the karmic vibe.

Episode 1 is here.

Note: All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…..poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.

Obviously, this is satire and humor. No offense to any person, real or fictional, is intended.

Link, for feeds.

Deacon Blues: It’s a Wonderful Post

Now that Boardwalk Empire is on hiatus, Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter turned their attention to some real drama: the 2010-11 Wake Forest Demon Deacon basketball season.

Inspired by the creative writing at the DeaconSports WFU message board, Scorsese and Winter have produced Deacon Blues, a mini-series about the highs and lows of being a WFU sports fan.

As a holiday gift to all, the first episode was made available for free, on the net.

Powerful stuff, that.

Obviously, this is satire and humor. No offense to any person, real or fictional is intended.

Link, for feeds.

How to Make Chrome Even Better with Extensions

It’s no secret that I think Google Chrome is, by far, the best web browser. Ever. I could write a dissertation on how much I love it. In fact, it’s so good that I believe the forthcoming Chrome OS is going to change the way we work online.

One of the beauties of Chrome is its functional minimalism. Unlike most applications, there isn’t even a hint of bloat in Chrome. It lies at the hard corner of sleek and powerful. The Chrome experience immediately upon installation is fantastic, and just about anyone could have a great experience without installing any extensions- or add-ons- at all.

There are, however, a few extensions that I use and recommend to make it perfect.

Here, in no particular order, are the Chrome extensions I use, with a rating (1-5) of how essential they are to my online experience.

AdBlock. I will go out of my way to avoid the clutter of ads. The continuing malware problem is another reason to block as many online ads as possible. The combination of AdBlock and AdBlock Plus (see below) results in a completely ad-free experience. Essential Factor: 4.

Adblock Plus. This is the recent Chrome port of the ad blocking app I have used for years. I tried to use it alone, but found that it did not block certain message board ads, which are known to occasionally carry malware. So I went with a combination. Eventually, I’d like to settle on a single ad-blocking solution, but for now I’m choosing redundancy over screen bloat and possible malware. Essential Factor: 4.

Bit.ly. Like just about everyone else, I use Bit.ly to shorten the links I share on Twitter (Follow me) and elsewhere. I like being able to see the actual link destination as well as stats on the links I share. While helpful, this one is not terribly essential. If I had to uninstall one of my extensions, it would be this one. Essential Factor: 2.

Google Calendar Checker. I long ago moved my calendar and my contacts from Outlook to Google Apps. I like the ability to see when my next appointment is, and the ability to hover over the icon for pop-up details. Essential Factor: 3.

Google Dictionary. This is the first extension I installed and the one I would recommend first. A single click on any word on a web site will result in a pop-up definition or Wikipedia summary. This is a must-have extension. Essential Factor: 5.

Google Mail Checker. Since I use Gmail, via Google Apps, as my email app, this must-have extension notifies me of new mail. Essential Factor: 5.

Google News. This extension wasn’t made by Google, but it sure looks like it was. A simple click on the icon renders a tabbed, customized news display. Very nice. Essential Factor: 3.

Google Voice. Being pretty-much all-in with Google Apps, I use Google Voice for my voice mail and to make an increasing number of phone calls right from Chrome. This extension lets me know when I have new messages, texts, etc. Essential Factor: 3.

iReader. Much like ads, I hate all the clutter that most media sites append to their web pages, making them look like the TV screen in Idiocracy.

toomanyads

iReader will render the articles you want, in an elegant, scrollable display, complete with powerful, but unobtrusive, sharing features at the bottom. Essential Factor: 4.

NPR. I like to get my audio news updates as well as some music via NPR. This extension lets me quickly access content from the NPR site (even while browsing other sites), as well as music from great stations like UNCW. Essential Factor: 3.

PriceBlink. Since I do most of my shopping online, this extension, which tells you if there is a better online deal on the item you’re looking at, is a real money-saver. Essential Factor: 4.

RSS Subscription Extension. This Google created extension detects RSS feeds on the page you are reading and displays an RSS icon in the Omnibox, allowing you to click on it to preview the feed content and subscribe. Essential Factor: 2.

WOT. Web of Trust is a safe browsing tool, which warns you about risky sites that cheat customers, deliver malware or send spam. Essential Factor: 3.

That’s 13 extensions, which, in the interest of bloat-avoidance, is more than I would like. My plan is to treat extensions like I do stocks: only own a certain number of them. So if I find one I like, I have to decide if I like it enough to get rid of an existing one. I haven’t noticed any slow-down after installing these extensions, so I’m not sure what my magic number will be. Probably more than 10 and no higher than 15.

Another of the beauties of Chrome is the sync feature. If you install or uninstall an extension on one computer, corresponding changes will be made on the other synced computers. Just one more reason why you should be using Chrome as your default web browser.

I really dig Chrome. If you give it I try, you will too. What are you waiting for? Go get it.

Calling a TKO on Wake Forest’s 2010-11 Basketball Season

They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues
~ Steely Dan, Deacon Blues

It’s hard to be a Wake Forest basketball fan. Almost perfectly hard. You suffer through long periods of frustration, interspersed with brief moments of sheer joy. The most joyful being the Tim Duncan/Randolph Childress fueled back to back ACC Championships of the mid-nineties.

That was a long, long time ago, so let’s look back at a wonderful moment in time.

Those were good times. Many fans thought they were the beginning of a long period of WFU hardcourt dominance.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

Later, Skip Prosser led Wake to some good (but again not quite great) seasons. Skip was 126-68 during the regular season, but alas had mixed post-season success.

Skip died tragically, and his top assistant and close friend Dino Gaudio took over. Dino led WFU to a 61-31 record in 3 seasons, but the post-season collapses that pre-dated Dino continued, ultimately leading to his sacking after last season.

I was very worried when it became clear that Athletic Director Ron Wellman was bound and determined to hire his old friend Jeff Bzdelik to replace Dino. The same Jeff Bzdelik that had a 36-58 record at Colorado, and has never won an NCAA Tournament game. In fact, if anything his post season record made Wake’s look better.

Others shared my reaction. It was, at least by objective measures, a strange hire.

But I was willing to take a wait and see approach.

I’ve waited, and what I have seen so far is nothing short of a complete train wreck. Wake has gone from a team that was a contender in the ACC and ranked no. 1 in the country to having to scramble to nip a previously winless UNC-G team. At home.

Sadly, that UNC-G win was a high point of the early season, compared to home losses to:

Stetson (Atlantic Sun). Currently 3-7 with losses to Bethune Cookman, Palm Beach Atlantic (whoever that is) and Jacksonville.

Winthrop (Big South). Currently 5-6, with losses to Hampton, Belmont and Liberty.

UNC-W (Colonial Athletic Conference). Currently 5-5, with a loss to N.C. A&T.

And then, tonight, a home loss to the 5-6 Big South juggernaut, Presbyterian (whose losses, in the interest of fairness, are better than many who have beaten Wake this season).

It would have been unreasonable to expect Wake to be really good this year. But it would be selling Wake short to believe that this is OK. It’s not, and if you really believe Wake can be good, if you’re really a fan, you should not suffer quietly. I want to make it absolutely clear to anyone who will listen that I- and many other fans- expect more than this. It’s OK to have a bad year. It’s never OK to have this bad a year.

Those whose psychological makeup won’t allow them to face reality argue that Wake Forest has a young team and does not have a true point guard. True enough, and that will be a great oft-used excuse when Wake gets beat by 40 or 50 once the ACC games begin next month. But to say that Wake’s roster, with highly regarded recruits, point guard or not, should be a cellar dweller in the Big South Conference is absurd and indefensible on its face.

Jeff Bzdelik is in all likelihood a really good guy, and I mean no personal disrespect to him. But no one forced him to take the Wake Forest job, and he is highly paid for his troubles (I have long been fascinated by the coach-as-a-proxy-for-the-program transference that leads some to defend a guy they’d never heard of a year ago like he’s the Pope, Gandhi, Santa Claus and their favorite uncle all rolled into one). At the end of the day, there are two possibilities. One, all of Wake’s recruits were greatly overrated, not only by the prior coaching staffs, but also by most of the national recruiting services. Two, Bzdelik is not, as it turns out, the second coming of John Wooden. Occam’s razor precludes me from believing the former.

The thing is that I am a Wake Forest fan. Not a fan of whoever happens to be the coach at the moment. It would be cool to be excited about both. At the moment it’s really hard to be excited about either.

And if Bzdelik and crew can’t manage a victory over Presbyterian at home, how’s it going to go when Wake plays Duke? Call me Chicken Little, but I’m thinking not too good.

Those who try to keep their eyes closed and their chins up have provided a mountain of anecdotal evidence in support of the proposition that Bzdelik is a great game coach. That’s it- he’s an Xs and Os wizard who will coach up his players to compete with the Dukes and the UNCs.

First, he has to coach them up to compete with the VCUs and Xaviers.

As I have said to other Wake fans: Bzdelik may be a great coach, but nothing I have seen so far proves it. He better be a great recruiter, for all of our sake. Crazy thing is that few have tried to argue that he will be. Many have hung their hats on the great game coach peg.

Yes, yes a million few times yes, it’s early. Time will tell, but no one who is being even remotely honest can say that this season so far is anything more than a complete disaster- point guard or not.

Equally as frustrating as Wake’s dismal pre-conference record is the fact that the Deacons look fundamentally unsound and unprepared, and are unbearably boring to watch.

I completely realize that if Bzdelik turns Wake around, this year (fat chance) or another, this post will be constantly tossed in my face as proof that I am a “bad fan,” whatever in the hell that is. If that happens, I’ll be happy to admit that Wake is good again. I’ll even admit that I could have kept my mouth shut and suffered through a dismal season or two so I could claim to be a loyal fan when WFU wins a few games. What I’ll really be is happy, because I’ll once again be able to look forward to watching games.

I won’t even go into the ancillary marketing and branding effects that flow out of a successful sports program. I just want Wake to have a good team so it will be fun to watch the games.

Here’s the thing. Maybe when you’re in college you have some implied duty to support the team, keep a positive attitude no matter what and attend the games. But when you’re middle aged, with a job, family and a million other things competing for your time, you have absolutely no obligation to sit in front of the TV game after game watching your team get dismantled by lesser competition. You just don’t.

And I’m not. I’m calling a TKO on this season.

Maybe next year will be better, more fun. It can’t possibly be any worse.

Can it?

Lunar Eclipse & B-Movie Goodness

It was way too cloudy last night for us to see much of the lunar eclipse. We could catch only glimpses once in a while as the heavy clouds passed overhead.

Fortunately, William Castleman, a professor at the University of Florida and photographer, put together an amazing time lapse video so we can see what we missed.

When I see or read about lunar eclipses, I am reminded of one of my favorite B-horror movies, Messiah of Evil.

It’s a creepy film about a blood red moon, vampire-zombies and, sort of, the Donner Party. It was made by the same people who later made Howard the Duck and who wrote the screenplay for American Graffiti. That, friends, is range.

I bought a VHS of Messiah of Evil on eBay back in the day, but I never got it converted to digital format. That’s not a problem, as the film can be seen, in its entirety, on YouTube.

GoodSongs: Sharon Van Etten

Now that Mojo Nixon has made XM-12 completely unlistenable, I’ve been spending more time on some other XM stations while I wait for the glorious day that Pandora comes to my truck’s audio system. Doing so has led me to some great music discoveries.

My latest is Sharon Van Etten. The song that first blew me away is Save Yourself, from her new record Epic (Purchase @ Amazon). Whatever my musical genome is, this song fits it perfectly. It’s like a delightful combination of vintage Lucinda, Hockey Skates and Mazzy Star, with a beautiful alt. country arrangement.

Four of the other six songs on Epic are equally as strong. A Crime is not as country-ish, but it has a strong acoustic guitar track behind some good lyrics. Very Kathleen Edwards (which is high praise in these parts). Don’t Do It is probably my favorite song on the record. It has that perfectly wistful Gulf Shores vibe. I’d love to hear some duets between Sharon and Bonnie Prince Billy. One Day is also excellent and would be right at home on a good Ryan Adams record. Love More is a fine end (hampered only by a distracting accordianish track) to a short, but very good, record.

I just read that Sharon played here in Houston last month. Sorry I missed that. I’ll be there next time.

Good stuff. Highly recommended.

Artist Notice: I am a musician and songwriter. I do these posts to draw attention to great music in the hopes that our readers will buy these records and allow these artists to continue making great music. If you don’t want us to feature your music, let us know and we’ll take the song file down immediately. On the other hand, if you are an artist who does the sort of music we feature, let us know. We’re always looking for new artists to feature.

Chill About Delicious Already

I really don’t get all the outrage about Yahoo shuttering or maybe, in a show of how to be swayed by the sound of nerds crying, selling bookmarking site Delicious. Anyone who is surprised by this development hasn’t been paying much attention- or using much Delicious.

Delicious was marginally robust back in 2005 when Yahoo bought it. If it has improved in any meaningful way in the 5 years since, I certainly can’t tell. Evolving technology is a fast moving process. Let anything sit dormant for half a decade and it’s already dead. Taking it offline is just the funeral.

I also don’t buy the argument that bazillions of people still heavily rely on Delicious. I tried to use it as my primary bookmarking app, but the fact that I had to manually make every bookmark private was a buzz and deal killer for me. So while I’m sure a lot of people have accounts, I question how active they are. I still have a Delicious account. I also still have an AOL account. I use them about the same amount- almost never.

Not only is Delicious dated, both in look and in features, but there are a million better alternatives to store and share bookmarks. I use the built-in synching in Chrome for most bookmarks and Google Reader for the few I want to share.

So, yes, Yahoo is a mess. If you want to skip the crying over spilled links and really understand why, here’s the place to start (as an aside, I consider that post validation of my myth of the endless advertising dollar sermon that I gave for years until I grew bored with the whole internet non-business plan fiasco).

Would I care if Yahoo disappeared tomorrow? Maybe a little. Competition is good, and so to the extent I still believe (only a little) that Yahoo is competition for Google, I want it to stick around. I also think My Yahoo is the best personal news portal option- much better than iGoogle. But I would only morn the loss for an hour or so.

Yahoo Pipes is the most impressive Yahoo technology, but no one, probably not even Yahoo, remembers that it isn’t already in the Deadpool.

Flickr is the only Yahoo service I rely on heavily. Google should seize this opportunity to put another nail in Yahoo’s coffin by fixing Picasa. I doubt it will, though, because Google is busy on a lot of other stuff (hopefully including sending me a Cr48).

At the end of the post, I hope Yahoo can make it, but if it doesn’t, all that means for most of us is a couple of hours moving our photos somewhere else.

But no matter what, the loss of Delicious is not a blow to the internet. Not even a small one.

Why Chrome OS Will Change the Way You Compute

Sadly, I haven’t received my Cr48 yet, even though (are you listening Google? Email me and make me happy) I am a devout lover of Chrome and have moved most of my computing life into the cloud. But there is no doubt that Chrome is about to change the personal computing landscape.

Paul Thurrott explains why it is a huge threat to Microsoft in the latest installment of his excellent Google Chrome Vs. the World series. If there were a Pulitzer for blog writing, this series should win it. Probably the best tech read of the year, in part because a guy who likes Microsoft is trying to save Microsoft from itself.

Yes, Chrome is going to hurt Microsoft, and yes it will further extend Google’s empire. And it will be very good for consumers. Shoot, if I ever get a Cr48, it will immediately become my primary mobile computing device.

But I think Chrome will also help Apple, by being the final element in a lot of peoples’ decision to leave Windows forever, if not for Chrome, then for OS X with Chrome, in browser form or otherwise, installed. Sound crazy? Then consider this.

Just about everyone has capitulated to the iPhone. Yes, some geeks like Android, and there is no denying that it is a good option. But it just doesn’t have the penetration into the non-nerd set that the iPhone does. I know one person in the real world (e.g., people I regularly see face to face) who has an Android phone. I know one person in the real world who doesn’t have an iPhone. It’s the same guy. NOTE: Yes, I am excluding the sad masses who are chained to Blackberries because their companies have not realized that Blackberries are on the Palm road to obscurity.

Apple is soundly winning the handset war, at least for now. The new battle is for the everyday computing device. You know, what netbooks (ugh!) were supposed to be, but were not. Make no mistake, this battle will be fought in the browser.

And as I have told anyone who will listen, Chrome is by far the best browser. It’s not even close.

There are only four things I have to do regularly that I can’t do right now in a browser.

1. Edit photos with Photoshop. I can’t do that (yet) in Chrome, but I can on a Mac. Imagine if you will a MacBook, with the Chrome browser (if not somehow the OS in a Parallels-like configuration) installed. I could do just about everything in Chrome, and drop into OS X when I need to work with Photoshop. Nice.

2. Edit videos in a sane, easy Format. I am on record as to my dislike of the Mac video import and editing process. I certainly can’t (yet) edit videos the way I want to in a browser. For people like me who do a lot of video, this is a big issue. For most people not so much. Plus, at some point someone will come up with a workable cloud-based video editing solution. All of this doesn’t scream for a MacBook+Chrome device, but neither is it a strong enough chain to bind many folks to Windows. Yes, I know that many people believe Macs are infinitely better for video. I disagree, but all of those who feel that way are certainly not likely to choose a Windows-based computer over a Mac.

3. Manage iTunes. I’m also on record about the train-wreck, Apple-hampering mess that is iTunes. I hate it, but I have to use it for my iPhone and iPad. Once again, a MacBook+Chrome device would let me drop into OS X when needed. Certainly no reason to stay with Windows.

4. Write Blog Posts with Live Writer. How bizarre is it that Live Writer is the biggest thing tying me to Windows? I can’t overstate my love for Live Writer. But like Romeo and Juliet, it is a love that won’t last. There are too many forces aligned against a desktop based editing app and pointing to the cloud. The standard WordPress editor is not horrible (unlike the iPad app, which is). At some point I will have to say farewell to Live Writer. Unless, oh please, it finds a home in the cloud. Then I could use it in a browser.

Taking all of this into account, it seems to me that there are three paths to travel.

A. Chrome OS on a Cr48 or its successors. I sure would like to try this, Google. . . .

B. A MacBook+Chrome device. But for the video thing, I’d probably be there now. At a minimum, I expect Chrome in some form to become my primary day to day computing platform.

C. The status quo, via Windows. I’m not going to sell my Windows-based computers, but I am beginning to wonder if I’ll replace them when they grow old or die. Even now, the large majority of my computing is being done via the Chrome browser.

All paths involve Chrome in one form or another. One path definitely benefits Apple. Unless something unexpected happens, Windows may end up on the path less traveled.

As a less desirable metaphor.

Pummelvision Rocks the Newsomes

And their friends.

Want to make a really cool video in about 10 seconds (of your time)?

Go to Pummelvision, point the app to your photos, and give it access. A few minutes or hours later (depending on the number of photos involved, you get something like this. . .

My Pummelvision from Kent Newsome on Vimeo.

It will even upload it automatically to Vimeo or YouTube.

That is pretty darn cool.