Month: January 2007

Most New TV Shows Require Too Much Effort!

Post ImageI don’t watch a lot of television, save for hockey, news, and Smallville. I guess I am “an Internet child” and that’s definitely where most of my time is spent. I think there’s more to it than that, however. Almost all of the new TV shows being produced require a lot of effort from the viewer. More effort than I am willing to put in.

Take 24, for example. People are crazy about this show. I mean seriously off the reservation, like this guy:

If Jack Bauer has to catch a shark with his bare hands and speed-dry the fin so he can make a soup to restore the President’s sexual potency, I’ll be watching. If Jack Bauer is caught in the path of a fiercely-lit green energy beam made of fuckton particles in a suspended gobbledygook matrix and inadvertently is wearing a shark’s tooth necklace and become half-human, half tiger shark – I’ll be watching.

I’ve never seen an entire episode of 24, so I don’t know what the fuss is all about. I just don’t get it. And therein lies the problem. There’s no way I am going to start watching 24 now – it’s too far along. I’d be an outsider, a poser almost. I would have to go back to the very beginning and watch every episode just to catch up. And that’s just too much work.

And existing fans of the show? They can’t miss an episode, no sir. They have to record it for later if they absolutely cannot be sitting down when the new episode airs. Heaven forbid they miss one. They’d be behind, lost. Can’t have that – so they put in the effort.

There’s some old shows that are guilty, like 24, but it’s the new ones that are the worst. Just look at some of the newest shows – most pretty much require that you started watching from the beginning to really understand what’s going on. Heroes? Yup. Prison Break? Yup. Friday Night Lights? Yup. Studio 60? Yup. Ugly Betty? Yup. Jericho? Yup.

I am not sure if this trend is good or bad for television. On the one hand, networks might be limiting a show’s audience by setting the barrier of entry so high. On the other hand, these kinds of shows probably sell a lot better on DVD.

Either way, I kinda miss the old shows. The shows that didn’t require a lot of effort, nor an introduction. You could just start watching any episode and you just got it. There are notable exceptions in the current most popular shows, like CSI or Law & Order or American Idol, but for the most part, I think the new shows require too much effort.

In a way, I look forward to the day these shows are cancelled so I can just get all the DVDs.

Why nofollow at Wikipedia is a good thing

Post ImageYou may have heard that Wikipedia recently decided that all outbound links would be coded with the “nofollow” tag, meaning that search engines do not give the links any weight in their algorithms. The idea is that it will make it much less desirable for spammers to add their links to the thousands of pages at Wikipedia. Sounds good right? Well so far, the reaction has been pretty negative:

Although the no-follow move is certainly understandable from a spam-fighting perspective, it turns Wikipedia into something of a black hole on the Net. It sucks up vast quantities of link energy but never releases any.

Lots of bloggers are worried that the new scheme does not properly recognize the original sources of information. A blog or other site will still be cited on the Wikipedia page, but that citation no longer carries any weight with the search engines.

I think that argument is fairly weak. If you are really deserving of some major “link energy” then you’ll get it, because chances are, Wikipedia won’t be the only site linking to you. So worries about not getting “credit” in the form of Google-juice are pretty unfounded, I think.

I suppose it comes down to the “perfect world” scenario. In a perfect world, there would be no spam, and everyone would benefit maximally from linking to one another. Thing is, we don’t live in a perfect world – thus we have to attempt to reduce the imperfections. This policy is an attempt to do that with spam.

I see the nofollow policy as serving the greater good. Is an individual’s link juice more important than everyone’s access to a reliable, spam-free Wikipedia? The answer is no, and that’s why I think the nofollow policy is good.

NHL schedule change failed by one vote

Post ImageTurns out the proposed NHL schedule change failed today, receiving 19 of 30 votes (a two-thirds majority would have been required for it to pass). Edmonton Oilers chairman Cal Nicols wasn’t happy with the decision:

“The politics seem to always enter into it,” Nichols said after the meeting. “I think we should be more concerned about the future of the game than specific interests or it’s going to cost me a few more thousand dollars to travel a few extra miles. This shouldn’t be about that. It’s about the game.”

According to the TSN article, Montreal is believed to have been the only Canadian team to vote against the change.

I think the board of governors made a mistake today. Hopefully they change their minds for the 2008-09 season.

Read: TSN

Cowgirls Espresso

Post ImageCall me shallow, but yeah, I’d buy coffee from Cowgirls Espresso. I mean, who wouldn’t want to buy coffee from their hot baristas? There’s a ton of coffee shops out there, so you need to be different if you’re going to succeed. That’s what the Cowgirls Espresso chain is going for:

Hot is not the half of it. To stand apart from the hordes of drive-through espresso stands that clutter the Northwest’s roadsides, commuter coffee stops such as Tukwila’s Cowgirls Espresso are adding bodacious baristas, flirty service and ever more-revealing outfits to the menu.

They aren’t the only ones either – the trend is dubbed “sexpresso”.

I doubt we’ll see any of these coffee shops in the colder climates of Canada any time soon, but it’s an interesting bit of marketing nonetheless.

Read: Seattle Times

NHL likely to revert to pre-lockout sked

Post ImageThe NHL schedule is a hot topic here in the west, and according to TSN it is likely that the league will revert to the pre-lockout format in which all 30 teams play each other at least once per season. This means that teams like the Oilers would be guaranteed to have at least one game with the NHL’s hottest stars like Ovechkin and Crosby who can draw big numbers to games.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has not taken a stand on the issue so far and has basically allowed teams to make their cases, but one source said it might be time for the league to step in. The feeling is that if there is an appetite for change, Bettman will facilitate it.

Apparently New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello favors the current schedule and is leading the charge for eastern teams who would prefer not to change. The league’s board of governors meets tomorrow to discuss the schedule and the Penguins situation, among other things.

Read: TSN

Why do you blog?

Post ImageDarren Barefoot is presenting a session called “Why We Blog” at Northern Voice next month, and as part of his preparations he has launched a short online survey. There’s only sixteen questions and it’s pretty quick to fill out, so if you’re a blogger, why not help him out? I just completed the survey so I can affirm that it is quick and painless. Oh, and there’s prizes too:

One randomly-selected person who completes the survey will win an iPod Shuffle.

Another randomly-selected survey completer will win two Lonely Planet books–Micronations and Experimental Travel.

I obviously want to promote the survey, so I’m also giving away one CAN $50 gift certificate to a randomly-selected person who blogs about it. Just link to http://www.whydoyoublog.com and you’re qualified to win.

So if you are a blogger or have been a blogger in the past, fill out the survey here.

Read: Why Do You Blog?

Am I the only one who cannot open a box of KD?

You might think that is a funny question to ask, but I am serious. On the side of every box of Kraft Dinner, there is a little tab with a message that reads:

Press in tear back top/Enfoncer et tirer vers le haut

Problem is, it never works. I can never get the tab to push in. I have even tried using a knife to cut the edges of the tab in order to push it in, and it still doesn’t work properly. As a result I always end up fighting with the top of the box.

  

What’s the point of having the message if it doesn’t work?

Notes for 1/21/2007

Here are my weekly notes:

The Downtown Rink Saga Continues

Post ImageThis is the story that just won’t go away! While perusing the headlines tonight I came across this article at CBC.ca that says Oilers President Patrick LaForge is looking for an upgrade. An upgraded hockey rink, that is. For a few seconds I considered looking for the previous articles to see what has changed, then I realized that Andy Grabia probably beat me to it. And indeed he did:

It’s no longer an anonymous plan, but one the Oilers and the Mayor both support. There is now a timeline, where before there was none. Cost has gone from $0 to $250 million to $300 or $400 million, to maybe even $1 billion if it includes hotels and such. Rexall has gone from functional to run down.

All that and more, as Andy explains, in the two short months since the original editorial ran in the Edmonton Journal. Andy’s lengthly post also includes some interesting discussion, so check it out.

I’m generally in favor of anything that could have a positive impact on Edmonton’s downtown, so I like the idea of a new complex that would include a state of the art hockey rink. Of course, I also like the idea of a high speed train to Calgary and an East-West addition to the LRT, but thus far those projects have been seen as too expensive to attempt. And that’s what it will come down to with the new rink. Who pays, and how much?

Read: Battle of Alberta

MTV buys RateMyProfessors.com

Post ImageIf you’re a college or university student you have probably heard about RateMyProfessors.com. The site has been around since 1999 and now boasts almost 7 million ratings from over 6000 schools, making it pretty valuable to MTV:

RateMyProfessors will become a part of MTV Network’s mvtU.com, an online channel of job listings, philanthropy projects, campus news, music and videos for college students, as well as a campus television production company.

Unfortunately the article doesn’t mention how much the site was purchased for.

This deal could be a very good thing, so long as MTV doesn’t screw it up. The UI could be tweaked to make it a little more interesting, but I hope they don’t start changing the way it works.

Read: CNET News.com