I was reading a blog post today about how you’ll never become a full-time writer and even though I disagree, I find myself not enjoying the idea of needing to force myself to write hours on end in order to make a paycheck. For me writing is a hobby, it is something that I enjoy as it gives me a creative outlet, but I far more enjoy writing software as a day job. As the post points out many bloggers are “corporate suits” by day and “smartass bloggers” by night. Is this really a bad thing?
Sure you may have a small portion of yourself that wishes you could ditch your corporate job, sit at home all day and write opinion pieces for an online publication, but would you really be happy? For some of you that answer is a resounding yes, but for myself, the only way that I seem myself being able to be a full-time writer is if it were to be a novelist. As a blogger you are forced to have a shtick, either it being able to come up with witty one-liners for each and every post, be a complete and utter asshole to the point where people laugh at the obsurd shit that you put out, or be able to write a complete story that flows beautifully.
I am not a person that is consistant at any of those to be even considered an adequate candidate as a professional blogger. Of course I cannot say that I have ever tried doing so, but I think if that were my job I would end up falling back on writing software because that’s what I enjoy to do. For some people blogging (and writing in general) is a dream that may eventually become more than a hobby, but for others, it is something that we enjoy in addition to our daily work grind. If it becomes more than that then we may decide to go with the flow, because really, that is all we can ever do anyway, right?
After years of waiting for Hulu.com to smarten up, it finally looks like we will be getting an embedded Xbox application capable of streaming Hulu to our televisions. With the success of the Netflix streaming applications on the Xbox, Playstation 3, Wii and now the iPad, it was only a matter of time before the big networks caved and allowed their content to be available through on demand. For a little over a year now I have completely dropped my cable television subscription and have barely batted an eye – the only television that I miss includes late night comedy and live sports.
Earlier this year Hulu has been rumored to be moving towards a paid subscription model where the cost would be $9.95 per month for access to more content. Of course, there was no direct word on if this content would be advertisement free, but you can bet your bottom dollar that you will most likely be hearing those thirty second advertisements on your paid account. Personally, I would absolutely pay $9.95 a month for Hulu if it included a streaming disc for my Playstation 3, and the development this week has brought that one step closer to reality.
For those of you that do not remember a couple of months after Netflix announced support for the Xbox 360, last November they went and sent out Playstation 3 Blu-ray streaming discs out to participating instant view subscribers. Just a couple of months ago they begun sending out Wii streaming discs as well. I believe the last piece to an amazing media center experience is Hulu streaming on the Playstation 3, which is capable of DLNA streaming from your Mac, PC or Linux machine. That, included with a hopeful Google TV integration, will make a truly cheap alternative to big cable.
I was reading Engadget.com today and I came across this tidbit about AT&T deciding to allow iPad orders before July 7th to continue to have the unlimited data plan. For those of you that read my iPad vs. AT&T blog post it highlights all of the points that AT&T seems to have forgotten when they first decided to change how they are going to handle their data plans. The facts are simple – most iPhone users consume between 200-500MB worth of data, and (from AT&T’s metrics) the 98% of all iPhone subscribers use less than 2GB of data per month. But what they did not include is the metrics from the month long usage of the iPad. Due to streaming applications such as Netflix the iPad itself is absolutely going to use more data.
The major data consumption on the Internet is audio and video, both of which applications on the iPad are designed specifically for, whether it be watching a movie streaming from Netflix, a baseball game through the MLB application or television through your Slingplayer – it is very clear that this device is going to overall trump the usage of a standard iPhone. You can bet your wallet that the widely popular service Hulu.com will be eyeing up developing an application for the iPad as well.
With all of these data heavy applications that 2GB cap is going to be quickly approached. Of course the AT&T suggestion is to use WiFi as often as you can, but why should you have to? This device was designed to run on battery for roughly ten hours, so why should I be tethered to my apartment, office or coffee shop? Most people purchased this device because they planned on reading, listening to music or watching movies on their daily commute into the office. Others may have picked it up to placate their children on long car rides. You’re telling us now, after we purchased the device, to not use it for what we purchased it for?
I am still on the edge about whether or not I will purchase a 3G iPad before July 7th. Part of me cannot justify spending this much money on a device that I do not see myself using all too often, but the other part of me, the commuter, sees all the ways that I can use this thing to keep my mind busy on the train into work. Yet still another half of me wants to develop some cool games for this beast. So the real question is, do I wait until later or purchase it now to take advantage of the unlimited 3G data offer? I think the answer is pretty obvious, how about you?
In a lame attempt to actually promote my my lifelong dream of a project I have decided to write a few blog posts on how to become a better writer. I am not going to claim that I am an authority on writing, but somes kills that I have acquired over a very long career in amateur writing. As I go along I may incorporate my thoughts on some other blog posts as I completely believe in taking advice from people who are more informed on a particular subject matter than I am.
A Google search regarding reading and writing will bring up millions of search results that explain exactly what I am about to summarize – the more that you read the better of a writer you will become. The two cannot be separated from each other. A blog post on writetodone.com gives some suggestions on how to use reading to improve your writing skills. The first is quite obvious – develop a habit of reading and make sure to stick to it. If you are like me, a public transportation commuter, pick up the daily newspaper and read through all the articles that you can on your trip. If you happen to stroll by the cheap novels go find one that interests you and make a habit of reading a few chapters each day while on your subway grind.
The more that you read the more you will want to read, but make sure to choose something that interests you. One particular suggestion that is made in the aforementioned blog post is that you should read great writers. While I absolutely agree with this statement I do not believe it is a prerequisite to building a reading habit to foster a writing desire. Because I have been a reader most of my life there is rarely a book that I won’t at least attempt to read, but I have found that most of the “classics” bore me. I am not a person that is drawn to reading romance, drama or anything in between. I often find myself picking up young adult novels because of the interesting story aspect. When you are first embarking on this journey read what you believe will keep you interested. If you happen to stroll across some great novels at the book store, give them a whirl, you can often find them for about five dollars at Barnes and Nobles.
After spending a couple of months becoming a frequency reader you’ll quickly notice that your comprehension, vocabulary and reading speed have all dramatically improved. The fact of the matter is the more words that you take in the more you are likely to recall when you are writing. Please remember that Words Are Power. If you have a few minutes watch this short YouTube video with Morgan Freeman. When you are reading keep your mind open because inspiration for writing may come from the words in front of you as well as the life you’re walking to everyday.
If you want to help me out with my writing movement, whenever you write a blog post, story or newspaper article be sure to reference the #iamwriter, #iampoet and #iamreader hash tags on Twitter. The more writers, readers and poets we can inspire the better off the world will be.
If you are a frequent rider of the PATH system between New Jersey and New York City you may have noticed big brother communicating overhead reminding you that there is no eating or drinking on the PATH. I have been commuting into New York City for three years now and I absolutely understand their point – due to the high volume of people, even if every third person was eating a sandwich the amount of trash left all over the train would be amazing. But only the other day after I had read my complimentary Metro newspaper, dropped it into a puddle of who-the-hell-knows-what, I realized that there are absolutely no trash cans inside of any of the station terminals!
This was a moment I actually had to double take. I looked around the World Trade Center terminal searching for a trash can and I was only able to find some construction worker’s trash bin which should absolutely not need to be used to throw out newspaper. So I walked out of the terminal in search of a trash can on my normal commute on the Lexington avenue line. It was not until the corner of Broadway and Vesey had I actually found a trash can! That is roughly a quarter mile away from the terminal entrance! As you can clearly see below the distance from the World Trade Center, which is not even accurately depicted due to the ongoing construction, is quite surprising. You would think that someone, anyone, might have decided to stick a trash can on one of the busiest commuter walked areas in the city.
I understand the need to enforce physiologically the fact that you do not want trash inside of the terminals. But should you absolutely remove trash cans completely, even outside of the turn stiles before you even get inside of the terminal? Some people are standing around drinking (or eating) the remnants of their breakfast/lunch/dinner before they decide to step through the gates. Although, I have to say, it seems to be working – the PATH commute is by far the less smelly of any of the lines that I have to take. Just some food for thought.
I have been using WordPress for many years now. I firmly believe that there is no better software available, free or paid, for rolling your own blog. The guys over at Automattic are an amazing bunch of people for giving away free software that might otherwise cost thousands of dollars. But with all of that said I feel that there is a big gap that the blogging community must hurdle in order to become, well, more conjoined. When I am bored I tend to click around the Internet, read some blog posts, and occasionally comment on the ones that I feel are worthy. I have found that there is some great great commenting software out there that allows tracking of comments from site to site, but the same can’t be said for blogging.
Now, I may have missed the memo, but what blogging really needs is a centralized hub where I can easily search, comment and publicize the authors that I think are making strides in the vast online writing community that is the blogosphere. Up until this point I have had to keep a list of bookmarks for the blogs that I want to frequent, but why is that? Just as I am able to log on to Digg.com and given stories that I would like to read, I should be handled blog articles that are automatically aggregated utilizing the XML-RPC ping protocol that WordPress has seemingly kept infamous. I believe that the WordPress.com community is a step in the right direction when it comes to a blog community, but I do not want to be limited to having to open a blog on their host in order to be listed there. Part of the reason I love WordPress (the software) is that I like the freedom I am given when I am able to run my own host.
Well, those are just some thoughts of mine. I am sure that someone, somewhere, has been thinking the same thing that I have and is probably already hard at work on the next big thing when it comes to blogging communities. I just have not found anything that comes close to my vision of what the ideal would be. Someone surprise me.
I can be somewhat of am impulse buyer. This afternoon, after I was reading more and more into how AT&T is pulling a bait and switch, I placed a few phone calls to the Apple retail stores in and around New York City. I have been interested in purchasing a device ever since I got a few minutes to play with the SDK, but what nearly set me over the edge was the fact that AT&T has decided to discontinue the unlimited 3G plan that Apple was still (up until this afternoon) toting as one of the major selling points of the device. What I found interesting is that all of the stores made a point to tell me that all models of the 3G iPad were currently unavailable, but all except the lauded Fifth Avenue store had WiFi models for sale.
What I find the most interesting is how AT&T are parading this change as being beneficial to their customers without providing any statistics on data usage for the iPad. In the press release they specifically stated that most users consume less than 2GB of bandwidth, which so happens to be the ceiling of their data plans, but the will offer more bandwidth at a $10 per gigabyte rate after that. I will agree with the AT&T findings – my bandwidth usage ever since I have owned an iPhone (since the original) has never gone above 2GB – but I have a had time believing that a streaming Netflix program won’t regularly break that 2GB ceiling.
But a part of my questions if AT&T’s motives, which absolutely are not int the best interest of the consumer, are being put in place to potentially curb a growing VOIP market with the release of Skype for 3G on the iPhone. If AT&T are able to make it more expensive to place VOIP phone calls then people are not going to do it, right? In fact, what I find completely insane is that these devices that have been heralded as the most connected, interactive and innovative consumer electronics, ever, are being hogtied by the only capable wireless 3G provider. We do not have a choice even if we wanted to. These devices, even unlocked, will not work with a similar 3G card inside due to the frequencies being different between T-Mobile and AT&T.
So this unlimited data plan that was absolutely sold as being the primary reason to purchase the 3G model of the iPad has, less than a month after release, completely evaporated. Should those of us that have purchased an iPad be up in arms? What about when AT&T decides to change your contract when you use that neat little clause that lets you turn off your wireless 3G service when you aren’t using it – the next time that you sign up are they going to let you pay $30 for unlimited coverage? Boy, am I glad that Apple has decided to make the iPad unavailable until June 7th, or else I may be asking those questions myself right about now.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to tether your laptop to your iPhone to use some of that 2GB of bandwidth that you have purchased from AT&T you are going to have to pay an additional fee that will not give you a higher cap. Anyone that is interested in voicing their opinion directly to the man himself the Consumerist blog has posted the contact details of AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, so have at it boys.