Okay, I’ve finally had enough — after an unexpected and completely dibilitating hard drive crash (aren’t they all?) this weekend, I have, like all victims overcoming tragedy, decided to pickup the pieces and move on. I am therefore officially making it my goal for 2009 to shift more than two-thirds of my digital existence to the greener pastures of “The Cloud”.
IT fanboys may scoff at how quickly I shake off my longheld ties to physical disks and pricey programs, which they will claim to be “more secure”… to which I say:
Anyone willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. — Benjamin Franklin
Freedom, in this case, is our inalienable right to have our information (and media) at any time, in any place, and displayed on any acceptable device with complete integrity and usefulness; to own this information despite that we do not physically possess it; and to decide one day, on a whim just as impetuous as this one, to move our lives and information from one cloud to another.
“We the people” need a Thomas Payne for the Information Age.
Super Spanish Mario Inquisition and 60 other great ancient video games, courtesy of Gizmodo. Part of me has always longed for some B.C. battle action — the Bible has more M-rated action than the entire Resident Evil series… and, unlike WWII, it’s surprisingly untapped. Bring on the FPS Daniel in the Lion’s Den! [via agentmlovestacos]
Map the Fallen - in honor of Memorial Day and the more than 5700 soldiers who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. MapTheFallen.org (Google Earth v5+ required)
Every year we lie to you and every year you come back for more. You don’t need an upfront. You need therapy. We completely lie to you, and then you pass those lies onto your clients.
Jimmy Kimmel to an audience of media buyers at ABC’s upfront [via]
The Food Chain: some people protest humans should only eat plants… and with each word lost upon these meat-loving ears, the zombies gain another step in the food chain. If you care anything about the future of the earth, maybe it’d be wiser to focus on eating Zombies instead! (via meltinyourmouth)
I don’t have 27 agendas. I’m not the sustainability guy, or the developing world guy. My contribution is to teach as many people as I can to use both sides of their brain, so that for every problem, every decision in their lives, they consider creative as well as analytical solutions.
azspot: Instead of sending messages asking for money or marketing Viagra, the electricity used sending the e-mails could have powered 2.4 million homes for a year or driven a car around the planet 1.6 times, according to the report.
If you want a real bonus outrage, consider this: the operation getting the biggest taxpayer subsidy of all — the federal government — pays bonuses to its employees too. This year it plans to hand out about $1.6 billion of bonuses, despite running more than $1 trillion in the red.
Brainstorming sessions often have mixed results; but you have to at least appreciate the process of communal stream of conciousness… especially when the people in the room are named Spielberg, Lucas and Kasdan.
In a 125-page transcript from one such brainstorm in 1978, the three filmmakers throw it all at the wall in a way every bit as entertaining as the end result: a little film called “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
Lucas — What can he chase them with? What if he jumps on a camel?
Spielberg — I love it. It’s a great idea. There’s never been a camel chase before.
Kasdan — Is this camel going to chase a car? Spielberg — You know how fast a camel can run? Not only that, he can jump over vegetable carts and things. It could be a funny chase that ends in tragedy. You’re laughing your head off and suddenly, “My God, she’s dead.”
Lucas— We’ve added another million dollars. Spielberg — Not really. How much trouble can a camel be?
Apparently, Web 3.0 is shaping up to consist of young people regurgitating old Web 1.0 ideas but using Web 2.0 technologies.
At least this helps to explain why there hasn’t been much to get excited about lately, and why I can lose an entire week listening to people talk in circles about last year’s news… like a former high school quarterback recounting a touchdown pass he threw 12 years ago. Thus:
Give a your audience content, and they’ll be engaged for today. Give your audience the tools to create their own content and they’ll be engaged for a lifetime (or at least until the next big thing).
The History of the Internet… as told by Microsoft. Though they struggle to find meaning in the new web, our friendly overlords at Microsoft at least provide a bit of “Best Week Ever” style humor in this retelling of the Internet uprising.