You can see why satirists are having such a hard time. Reality is even funnier.
The attention economy
Says it all, really.
Spring 2011
Spotted in my College’s garden this afternoon.
From ridiculous to essential: the history of Twitter
My Observer piece about Twitter.
“When a true genius appears in the world”, wrote Jonathan Swift, “you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him”. Thus it was in July 2006 when Twitter appeared. It was a “microblogging” service that allowed one to broadcast one’s thoughts to the world, on one condition: that they should be expressible in not more than 140 characters.
I thought it was a work of genius the first moment I laid eyes on it.
But most normal people, and not a few of my friends, thought otherwise…
Copyright madness and Rooney’s goal
Last night I was so entranced by Wayne Rooney’s astonishing goal against Manchester City that I embedded a YouTube video clip of it (from a Dutch TV broadcast, judging by the commentary) in a blog post. Clearly, the goal had become a meme, spreading across the Web like that famous clip of Susan Boyle, the singer from nowhere who entranced TV viewers.
You can guess what’s happened to the Rooney clip, can’t you? (Check the post if you’re in any doubt.)
Understanding Steve
This morning’s Observer column.
Watching Jobs in action, I've always had the feeling that there's something eerily familiar about him. But it wasn't until I read a new book, The Master Switch, by Columbia law professor Tim Wu, that the penny dropped. The book chronicles the history of the major communications industries of the 20th century and finds that pivotal moments in their evolution came when an entrepreneur arrived to offer consumers higher quality, production values and/or greater ease of use than were being delivered by the incumbents…
In a nutshell
Today’s Financial Times finally gets round to an obituary of Daniel Bell and quotes his description of himself as “a socialist in economics, a liberal in politics and a conservative in culture”. Reading it, I was struck by the realisation that it’s probably also a good description of me. Sigh.
That goal!
I’m not a football enthusiast, but really Rooney’s goal is astonishing.
Waiting for Fuji
Every photographer I know seems to be waiting for the Fuji x100 to be launched (it’s due in March, apparently). Not sure why people are so excited about it, but here are some guesses: the viewfinder technology is interesting — combining Leica-type brightline optical viewfinder with a superimposable digital read-out; and Fuji make pretty good lenses. It has a prime non-interchangeable 23mm lens which, when corrected for the sensor size, works out at 35mm effective focal length. And it will cost $1,000 in the US — which, needless to say, UK dealers will translate as £1,000.
Now comes the surprising bit. yesterday Fuji released a gallery of sample images taken with the new camera. And, guess what? They’re utterly banal.
iCapitalism
Well, well. Nasty ol’ Steve Jobs rejected this iPhone App. Here’s what the FAQs say.
How do I play?
Click on the Play tab. Then click Increase Your Level. You will be presented with a list of level upgrades you can purchase with real money.
So there’s really no skill involved?
None at all! The person who pays us the most wins. The rest are displayed on a leaderboard in descending order.
Does my money get me anything besides a higher spot on the leaderboard?
When you increase your level you can enter a custom message. All other players can see this when you’re on leaderboard. The top payer player becomes the “Head Honcho,” and their (inevitably more important) message will be the first thing everyone sees when they boot the app.