norayoung.ca | At the Corner of Technology and Culture
p*dcasting 101
So, according to Wired’s listening post blog, Apple has issued a cease and desist order to the folks behind the Podcast Ready and Mypodder trademark applications. Looking at the letter, it seems likely that part of the issue is the company’s ability to offer software that will let you play files on your iPod that [...]
Bees are the New Buzz
You know when you spot a word/metaphor/concept once, and then again, and then again, and before you know it, the word is everywhere? All it takes is three mentions (following the rather odd journalistic code of three-examples-is-a-trend) I reckon. Well, here’s mine for the day: hive and bee metaphors. I base this entirely on the [...]
Make Your Own Seal
Saw a fun thing at Clive Thompson’s Collision Detection blog!He links to this site to make your own official-type seal!The Ashram seal is one I whipped up for my yoga class.
Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear?
Techcrunch yesterday had a tip off to a new service called looptThe premise here is that you can use your cell phone, map function, and GPS ability so you will always know when your ‘friends’ are near and your friends can know where you are. As the text at Loopt says: Get Alerts when friends [...]
Digital Maoism Redux
My friend Alok Yadav sent the comment below after hearing Jaron Lanier being interviewed on CBC. He makes an excellent observation, I think, and one that I don’t think I’ve heard any of Jaron’s respondents make. Of course, Lanier’s had to do an awful lot of heavy lifting with just one article, an article which [...]
Going My Way?
A friend of mine has started doing some work with a new project called Trip Connect It’s meant to combine some elements of social networking with travel. I’m often pretty cynical about these things, but this is actually an idea that immediately seems useful. The key is connecting with people whose taste, as well as [...]
Digital Maoism or the Cult of the Individual?
OK, so now that Tod Maffin has linked to my blog I guess I actually have to update ye olde crispermachine more often. Funny, my cat never complained about the dated entries. I’m hosting The Sunday Edition on CBC Radio for the next few weeks. Tech watchers and budding McLuhanites might want to tune in [...]
Cathi’s Got a Brand New Bag!
Cathi Bond, my partner in crime for our futurology podcast, thesniffer, has started doing a new podcast called The Prosecast. It’s done with a bunch of HarperCollins authors under the publisher’s auspices, but it’s not suck-uppy at all. The first one is with Gautam Malkani, the young British author of Londonstani. I hope you’ll check [...]
Compulsively Social
Recently, I interviewed the journalist Clive Thompson about issues related to social networking websites. He used the evocative phrase “collecting friendds like hockey cards” to describe the casual ‘friend’-gathering that goes on at places like myspace. I thought of that today doing the podcast, when Cathi mentioned a new cell-phone content production company, Digital Chocolate, [...]
