A TEXT POST

I bought popularity

So this week I bought twitter followers. Yes, of course it feels a little icky. But it’s also fascinating.

But I did it for a number of reasons.

  1. I was wondering how the process worked. (For example, it was fascinating to find a website that was a marketplace for five dollar transactions, where people were selling an incredible collection of strange services.)
  2. I have recently become obsessed/divorced from/obsessed again with klout. I really want to know how 15k followers changes things.
  3. I don’t understand who these followers I’m buying are, or where they come from. Are they real, are they robots, are they all from one country? Why do they sign up to follow me, what makes it worth there while?
  4. What do I have to do to get twitter to ban me? Will this be enough to aggravate them?
  5. I want to see if there’s any difference between how real people treat me on twitter when they think i am twitter popular.
  6. I want to see if there is a single moment of real engagement or communication with any of those 15k followers.
  7. Will it work to drive downloads to an iOS game, or my blog?
A TEXT POST

Tweeting from Everest

This is so weird.

It’s weird that technology has developed to the point where this is possible.

It’s weird that this is what we choose to do with that technology.

I’m not complaining…

…just saying…

…it’s weird.

http://instagr.am/p/LCVb6hIVSX/

Found by @kentgoldman

A QUOTE

Those three steps — the query, the results, and the destination page — have long been locked in a lather-rinse-repeat loop, with users navigating back to a results page when the destination page is lacking, or refining their queries when the results page seems off.

A TEXT POST

Bus Rider Dumb

I believe the average bus rider on their way to work in the morning, has one goal.

To get a seat.

You are less likely to spill your coffee. You are more likely to finish the chapter or the level, depending on your diversion that day.

If you get a seat, you can have a nice morning commute, to get into work mode.

Maybe, this doesn’t reflect everybody’s perspective, but it certainly does mine.

I REALLY want to sit.

Which is to say that if there is anything I can do to get a seat, I’m likely to do that thing. 

And I thought other people were the same.

But this morning was another comical display, of bus rider dumb.

The front 80% of the bus was packed. The back 20% (elevated up two stairs) had obvious standing room. I politely, plowed through the dense cluster of static nodes.

I got to the back. Not only did I have WAY more room than anybody up front, I found a bloody seat, waiting for me to sit down and play Cordy.

The point of this rant?

I believe people are like me. I believe they really want a seat. I believe they would do five push ups, spin in a circle 10 times, sing happy birthday, be polite to a foreign call center worker, or generally inconvenience themselves a great deal in order to sit, BUT THEY WONT WALK TO THE BACK OF THE CROWDED BUS.

I believe people give up what they want because they would be forced to talk to strangers. And by talk I mean, look them in the eye, smile, and say excuse me.

That worries me.

A TEXT POST

Cordy: Review (iOS)

Platformers have come a long way since the iPhone launched. They’ve gone from nostalgic and “interesting” to actually fun. Mostly all the was required was nailing the control scheme.

But they still struggle in the signal to noise turmoil that is the app market. It’s very difficult to stand out, and very difficult to create real fans. The moment I get frustrated, lost or bored in your game I am knee deep in your competitors product in less than 10 seconds. It’s hard to create real FANS for your games.

So I’m glad to say I’ve found a game I can be a fan of, Cordy. It’s a fairly simple 2D platformer (done in 3D.) It’s simple to play, easy to control and beautiful to look at. Recommend you taking a glance, you can get the first couple of levels for free. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cordy/id447870643?mt=8

I knew that I was a “fan” when after not playing it for weeks I went to download it again, because I had that strange sensation old school gamers will know, of missing a game, of longing to play it.

A PHOTO

discosttu:

Tilt Shift Photography

Reblogged from Admire & Inspire
A TEXT POST

Tetris NES Box Art

,

Note:

  1. The relentless building block video puzzle.
  2. From Russia with Fun!
  3. Obviously the Gold Seal of Quality, front and back.
  4. The Soviet Game Sensation.
  5. First three paragraphs describe how you will feel, playing.
  6. Last paragraph is a feature “breakdown.”
A TEXT POST

The Atlantic

http://www.digiday.com/publishers/the-atlantics-digital-transformation/

A great (to me even inspiring) article about Atlantic. But this part worried me. “Branded content” in a content site seems directly contradictory to high quality independent journalism.

“Quartz is turning its back on standard display ads. Instead, according to Smith, Quartz will be “innovating and experimenting quite widely in the area of branded content.”


A PHOTO

Dead simple sharing to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr from anywhere. I just signed up for 9AM.me!

A VIDEO

silfarione:

Amazing photos of a family in the 1970’s that lived with a lion by Michael Rougier. (LIFE Archive)

Reblogged from The Animal Blog
A TEXT POST

Holy Farmville

Even hit games often contribute the majority of their revenue to the company after they peak. Farmville was still Zynga’s top game by revenue last quarter even though it’s several years old. It made up 29 percent of the company’s online game revenue, followed by Cityville which had a 17 percent share, according to an SEC filing today.

May 9 (http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/was-zyngas-deal-to-buy-omgpop-that-disastrous-heres-some-perspective/?grcc=33333Z98ZtrendingZ0)

A PHOTO

whhhhhhhhhhhoa.