Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

Earlier generations have weathered recessions, of course; this stall we’re in has the look of something nastier. Social Security and Medicare are going to be diminished, at best. Hours worked are up even as hiring staggers along: Blood from a stone looks to be the normal order of things “going forward,” to borrow the business-speak. Economists are warning that even when the economy recuperates, full employment will be lower and growth will be slower-a sad little rhyme that adds up to something decidedly ­unpoetic. A majority of Americans say, for the first time ever, that this generation will not be better off than its parents.

—New York Magazine

Generation X is sick of your bullshit.

The first generation to do worse than its parents? Please. Been there. Generation X was told that so many times that it can’t even read those words without hearing Winona Ryder’s voice in its heads. Or maybe it’s Ethan Hawke’s. Possibly Bridget Fonda’s. Generation X is getting older, and can’t remember those movies so well anymore. In retrospect, maybe they weren’t very good to begin with.

But Generation X is tired of your sense of entitlement. Generation X also graduated during a recession. It had even shittier jobs, and actually had to pay for its own music. (At least, when music mattered most to it.) Generation X is used to being fucked over. It lost its meager savings in the dot-com bust. Then came George Bush, and 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Generation X bore the brunt of all that. And then came the housing crisis.

Generation X wasn’t surprised. Generation X kind of expected it.

Generation X is a journeyman. It didn’t invent hip hop, or punk rock, or even electronica (it’s pretty sure those dudes in Kraftwerk are boomers) but it perfected all of them, and made them its own. It didn’t invent the Web, but it largely built the damn thing. Generation X gave you Google and Twitter and blogging; Run DMC and Radiohead and Nirvana and Notorious B.I.G. Not that it gets any credit.

But that’s okay. Generation X is used to being ignored, stuffed between two much larger, much more vocal, demographics. But whatever! Generation X is self-sufficient. It was a latchkey child. Its parents were too busy fulfilling their own personal ambitions to notice any of its trophies-which were admittedly few and far between because they were only awarded for victories, not participation.

In fairness, Generation X could use a better spokesperson. Barack Obama is just a little too senior to count among its own, and it has debts older than Mark Zuckerberg. Generation X hasn’t had a real voice since Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, Tupac was murdered, Jeff Mangum went crazy, David Foster Wallace hung himself, Jeff Buckley drowned, River Phoenix overdosed, Elliott Smith stabbed himself (twice) in the heart, Axl got fat.

Generation X is beyond all that bullshit now. It quit smoking and doing coke a long time ago. It has blood pressure issues and is heavier than it would like to be. It might still take some ecstasy, if it knew where to get some. But probably not. Generation X has to be up really early tomorrow morning.

Generation X is tired.

It’s a parent now, and there’s always so damn much to do. Generation X wishes it had better health insurance and a deeper savings account. It wonders where its 30s went. It wonders if it still has time to catch up.

Right now, Generation X just wants a beer and to be left alone. It just wants to sit here quietly and think for a minute. Can you just do that, okay? It knows that you are so very special and so very numerous, but can you just leave it alone? Just for a little bit? Just long enough to sneak one last fucking cigarette? No?

Whatever. It’s cool.

Generation X is used to disappointments. Generation X knows you didn’t even read the whole thing. It doesn’t want or expect your reblogs; it picked the wrong platform.

Generation X should have posted this to LiveJournal.

Republished from Mat Honan’s tumblr.

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

This amazing stop-motion animation short was created as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins (theoryfilms.co.uk). Music by Cinematic Orchestra (cinematicorchestra.com).

The story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.

It is an absolutely fantastic presentation, worthy of seeing more than once.

He even offers a link to download the .AI file of his images.

You can find Cameron’s original post here on his Tumblr account: cameronmoll.tumblr.com.

Facebook Ticker Privacy Scare, and what you should do about it

It’s an interesting read and sheds some light on the whole situation.

On first impression, Google+ doesn’t seem to be anything all that spectacular with its Facebook-like ability to add friends, update your profile and change status updates. But after you start to dig around, you’ll discover some pretty fun elements.

With your status updates, or “stream” as it’s called, you can post comments, share links and videos, and comment on someone else’s post. Nothing new there. Until you look at the option of editing your comment. Have a typo? Realize you posted the wrong link? With Facebook you can delete the entire comment, but with Google Plus you can simply “Edit” and re-save.

Categorizing your friends into circles lets you communicate with different categories of associates, friends and family without having to send direct messages (as with Facebook, who restricts the number of people you can directly message to 30).

With Sparks you can find topics of interest, and Google Plus will locate articles, pictures and links that fall into that category for you. Kind of like your own, customized Google Search.

But to me, the biggest sparkly surprise is the hangout option, where you can set up a room and your friends can join in for a live face-to-face web chat, and the huddle where you can connect multiple text chats into a single group chat. Great for trying to solidify those evening plans with all your friends.

One issue to note is if you do get an invite, don’t sign yourself out of the account. Because the system is still in a beta mode, once you logout, you likely won’t get back in due to the volume of users signing up.

To the question of Google Plus replacing Facebook? My thoughts are it just might. The ability to contact your entire circle of people in an instant, as well as the addition of the video hangout and group chat certainly brings a concept of “social networking” into play that Facebook does not have. And many people are becoming disillusioned with Facebook’s ever changing privacy policy, in-your-face advertising and restrictions. Google Plus will certainly gain the “what’s new over here” crowd, but the question remains as to it’s staying power.

Only time will tell.

All in all it is certainly worth checking out.

~

For a mere $185,000 and a 10 year commitment, companies or groups will soon be able to submit their bid for their very own top level domain address.

After digesting the 360 page instruction guidebook, of course.

Estimates by industry analysts are already putting the number of new domains in the 1000s, mostly by companies looking to put their stamp down and by industry groups looking to open up generic suffixes like .bank or .hotel. Some popular extensions like .sport or .eco already have strong backing by groups wanting to make them a reality.

For companies with brand issues or problems with trademark infringement, buying their own domain suffix will be a fantastic way to ensure that only addresses with that extension in the URL are valid representatives or authorized re-sellers of the product.

I’m sure Hollywood is already prepping the legal team to register .movie and we all know .disney and .microsoft will be a couple of the first purchases.

ICANN has noted it will put the domains up for auction if multiple groups have legitimate claims.  The world of Apple Computer vs The Beatles’ Apple Records should prove to be an epic courtroom fiasco costing more than a domain suffix should ever be worth.

Either way it will be quite entertaining to see what bizarre and idiotic suffixes people will pay for.