I was reading this article from Digital Music News today "Recording Industry In 2009: Albums Down 12.7 Percent, Digital Still Gaining" that reports vinyl LP sales in 2009 were up 33% to 2.5 million.
What's that? Vinyl LP sales? Really?
It got me thinking. You know what's missing in listening to music today? That tactile experience of opening an album and placing the LP carefully on the turntable, being cautious only to hold it by the outside edge. Maybe cleaning first. Maybe blowing the dust off the needle. Then after that first crackle and hiss, sitting on the sofa, having a ciggie and a cup of tea (I am English after all), and studying the liner notes. It was all such a ceremony.
We worshiped listening to music back then. It was such an effort that you had to stop and listen carefully. Today it's just too instant and easy.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sorting out my digital viewing
With all these tasty announcements from CES of my future TV viewing toys, I amuse myself by looking at the utter muddle of my own TV viewing life. Let's see I have;
* A Netflix account; they love me at Netflix. I lose so many DVDs (which I always pay for) and then forget to return said DVDs for weeks on end.
* A 58" Samsung TV in my family room with all the toys (widgets and so forth) with utterly crappy YouTube videos, hooked up to a TiVo. But most TV channels are such abysmal quality (both content and resolution) that I can't bear to watch any of it. Only a few are HD, and I can never figure out the numbers of those channels.
* Another 58" Samsung TV to watch in our playroom, where my treadmill resides, hooked up to Comcast's DVR. What is going on with that device's user experience? I feel like I'm in the DOS of the 80s. Absolutely, utterly dreadful. Beyond dreadful.
* A nice "little" 30-something inch TV in my bedroom with a Boxee experiment managed by my dearest partner. This experiment involves a MacMini, a breadboard with a mouse on it, and a keyboard, both tucked into the sock drawer underneath the TV. I haven't used this Boxee yet to do anything meaningful. Every time I try to play something back on it, I have to wait for it to load and I get bored. I'm never in the room long enough. Also, it makes strange noises in the middle of the night and wakes me up. I'm not liking this. My dearest partner feels that I'll want to watch re-ruins of Kojak on it (which he has kindly prepared for me in advance.) Er no. Weird time warp.
* An account at my local Blockbuster where I regularly owe tens of dollars in late fees.
* A mysterious method of downloading the latest BBC content, which incidentally I would willingly and gladly pay for if the BBC would let me have the iPlayer.
* An online Netflix account that my children use to watch no doubt unsuitable things on their laptops. Note to self. Change the password.
* An online Amazon Unbox account that I almost never use, because the choices are terrible and again, the user experiences worse than bad.
So. This needs cleaning up. The digital home is a dream yet to come in my house. And we're uber nerds. We buy all the latest stuff. It's just that none of it works ideally.
* A Netflix account; they love me at Netflix. I lose so many DVDs (which I always pay for) and then forget to return said DVDs for weeks on end.
* A 58" Samsung TV in my family room with all the toys (widgets and so forth) with utterly crappy YouTube videos, hooked up to a TiVo. But most TV channels are such abysmal quality (both content and resolution) that I can't bear to watch any of it. Only a few are HD, and I can never figure out the numbers of those channels.
* Another 58" Samsung TV to watch in our playroom, where my treadmill resides, hooked up to Comcast's DVR. What is going on with that device's user experience? I feel like I'm in the DOS of the 80s. Absolutely, utterly dreadful. Beyond dreadful.
* A nice "little" 30-something inch TV in my bedroom with a Boxee experiment managed by my dearest partner. This experiment involves a MacMini, a breadboard with a mouse on it, and a keyboard, both tucked into the sock drawer underneath the TV. I haven't used this Boxee yet to do anything meaningful. Every time I try to play something back on it, I have to wait for it to load and I get bored. I'm never in the room long enough. Also, it makes strange noises in the middle of the night and wakes me up. I'm not liking this. My dearest partner feels that I'll want to watch re-ruins of Kojak on it (which he has kindly prepared for me in advance.) Er no. Weird time warp.
* An account at my local Blockbuster where I regularly owe tens of dollars in late fees.
* A mysterious method of downloading the latest BBC content, which incidentally I would willingly and gladly pay for if the BBC would let me have the iPlayer.
* An online Netflix account that my children use to watch no doubt unsuitable things on their laptops. Note to self. Change the password.
* An online Amazon Unbox account that I almost never use, because the choices are terrible and again, the user experiences worse than bad.
So. This needs cleaning up. The digital home is a dream yet to come in my house. And we're uber nerds. We buy all the latest stuff. It's just that none of it works ideally.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Evony Video Game Ads
I've had cause to review Evony ads recently. Users I'm working with now find them offensive. I can see why. They range from Victoria Secret style underwear to borderline violent with obvious phallic symbols. Still. It's a free world. I just choose not to use the service.
What's interesting to me is how their ads have evolved.
Here's a terrific blog post about the subject of Evony ads: http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/07/14/evolution-of-evony-video-game-ads/.
Naturally I was curious. I visited Evony. There's simply nothing you can learn about the service without signing up! Crafty!
What's interesting to me is how their ads have evolved.
Here's a terrific blog post about the subject of Evony ads: http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/07/14/evolution-of-evony-video-game-ads/.
Naturally I was curious. I visited Evony. There's simply nothing you can learn about the service without signing up! Crafty!
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