Remember This?

8 minutes

Remember this?

Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory)[1] web and social web)[2] refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and devices) for end users.

The term was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999[3] and later popularized by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty at the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 Conference in late 2004.[4][5][6] Although the term mimics the numbering of software versions, it does not denote a formal change in the nature of the World Wide Web, but merely describes a general change that occurred during this period as interactive websites proliferated and came to overshadow the older, more static websites of the original Web.[7]

I do.

Remember in the mid to late 2000’s when we had chat clients like Mercury Messenger? Ones that plugged into anything that ran on the XMPP jabber protocol? Unified ICQ, MSN, Yahoo messenger, and for a while Facebook chat too?

Remember all the cool innovative Twitter clients? I used to use an app called Twicca and it was a far more competent in 2010 than the official client we have in 2022.

In 2006 I used to use an iTunes alternative called Songbird, built on top of Firefox. It was fast, and way better than the bloated spreadsheet that iTunes became. Killed by iPod touch and iPhone. Apple’s movement away from an iPod as a dumb extended storage device with a nice music player UI makes me so sad/mad. I still have several Sony mp3 Walkmans with rock box installed laying around and they are magnificent little devices. Plus, they have decent audio drivers/pre amps in them so they sound great too.

Remember when Firefox was still good? Brave is where its at in 2022 – get the fuck off Google Chrome.

Winamp skins remain the peak of user friendly UX design.


We now live in a horrendous locked down hell world of closed silos and vertical computing platforms.

It was all going so well, then the stacks came along and generated lots of value from their interoperable ecosystems. But they closed the gates behind us and walled us all inside.

I think I’ve said this before – The social stacks like Twitter and Facebook disincentivize users leaving their platforms. This is mainly due to UX tricks, but also the business logic that used engagement and dwell time as a key metric.

For example (this isn’t a moan per say) but link to my blog did the rounds on Twitter the other week. Tweeted out by a blue check with followers in the 6 figures.

Firstly the engagement on that tweet for an account that supposedly has 100’s thousands of followers was really low. To the point where if it was shouting into the void for such low returns I wouldn’t bother. (TBH If I ever fancy a dopamine hit I’ll just post something to one of the many tumblrs I have and watch the likes and shares roll in)

Secondly looking at the engagement on the tweet vs the amount of people that actually came over here to read the post there seems almost no point in posting anything to Twitter at all. Folks just don’t leave the ‘safety’ of the hell site it seems. They’d rather boil their brains doomscrolling the world away in 240 characters, and consider ‘threads’ well written and appropriate long form content.

Anyways, I can’t remember where I was going with this … oh yeah, interoperability and ease of use….

I started ranting because I just want to print some fucking photos. I have a google photos folder with 700+ of the best photos I’ve pulled out from 2000-2010. I want to print them out and put them into an album, you know, normal stuff. I also have another 1500ish photos for 2010-2020 split across 2 albums.

Why isn’t there a simple API from Google Photos that all print shops can just hook into? Just some sort of google login. The only thing that Google Photos will let me print directly is book. I want 700 4×6 photos printed matte finish with a white border, plus 20 or so more printed in 5 x 7. It’s quite a bit of money and I can’t find / figure out any places who’s UX is good enough to just take it.

Most of the main photo printers here in the UK want me to upload the photos one by one via their own shitty user interface with a max 50mb order. I’m not doing that. I just don’t understand why this isn’t easy.

This is all very first world problems I know. I just felt like venting.


Photo 365

059/365

Permanently Moved

Things (Un)finished

With everything going on in the world it has felt selfish over the last few years to work on creative the things that I feel matter to me.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

In a history rhymes but does not repeat sort of way, the new crisis has tanked my income. I was supposed to be contributing to the Terraforming program at the Strelka institute. Obviously this has been suspended.

I was also supposed to be involved in a think/hack tank run by a VC firm bringing together experts in virtual reality, place making, story telling, games designers, and web3 folk and dev teams from companies the venture firm had invested in. Now all cancelled due to ‘economic uncertainties’.

So I have no work and nothing in the pipeline. If anyone would like to work with me on anything please do get in touch. Or even hire me part time in a more permanent senior role, i’m increasing open to the idea.

  • Went out for drinks with a friend who makes AR/XR experiences. We got hammered and argued at great leanth about our interpretations of fantasy-as-metaphor in Don Quixote.
    • The scene and Sancho’s actions in the castle/boarding house where Quixote gets beaten up in the stable was the focus of our discussion.
  • More spreadsheeting for Novara media.
  • Progress on some of the things I need to get done.
  • Unsuccessful attempts to get guests for a pilot episode of an audio project I’m working on.

Mainly this week has been existential crisis about professional life and income.

Dipping the Stacks

This GIANT turbine can power your house for two days with one spin! – YouTube

We travelled to the port of Rotterdam to climb the Giant GE Haliade-X wind turbine and find out just how much power the world’s largest turbines make.

CULTURAL FRACKING / “INDIE SLEAZE” | Velcro City Tourist Board

There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of such aesthetics being curated all over the place right at this very moment; it’s only when the attentional pick-up passes over one particular string, vibrating away in the seething quantum void of culture, that the sound gets heard, and the sympathetic resonances start up.

Inside Bangladesh village YouTube cooking channel AroundMeBD – Rest of World

The channel now employs around 50 workers, including 17 women, who feature in the videos and run the show.

Virtual Production Bulletin: The LED Screen and Iterative Futures

I’ve got a whole bunch of Imagineers who work for me who are hired to do one thing and then they’re doing something different. 

This 200-Foot-Long Railway to Nowhere Is Actually a Brilliant Shipping Loophole

When ASG’s cargo is unloaded from the ship, it’s then packed on a truck, which is then driven onto a flatcar on the track. A small shunter locomotive moves the car up and down the track; having completed its mandatory rail journey in Canada, the truck then drives off the train and down the road a couple miles to the U.S. border where it can now legally cross. You can see a video of it in action below, and yes, it looks as ridiculous as it sounds.

Reading

I worked my way though the the 2nd and 3rd books in Scott Westerfeld’s YA series Imposters. Set in the same world as the Uglies Tetralogy release back in the mid 00’s. I enjoyed every single second of it. I read the first book in the series during one of the lockdowns, a delight to be back in this world.

I mentioned it on the podcast. But the other night I read internet pal J David Osborne’s personal essay / short book You Pray for Dry Weather at the Sight of the Sun. I left the following review on Goodreads.

An electrifying personal essay from JDO. Whatever writing experiment he was conducting in the text with tone, vibe, and form, I hope the results were to his satisfaction. I can’t wait for more. I’ve found this essay personally, very inspiring,

Check it out. It’s wonderful. Really inspired me.

I’ve started re-reading The Soul of a New Machine because reasons.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Orla Gartland – Woman On The Internet

Hot damn love this album. Garland’s lyrics are like laser beams. Sharp and cutting 2020’s cultural imagery, communicated over indie pop / rock.

Orla Gartland – More Like You (live at Middle Farm Studios)

The ‘feels’ of the album are authenticity, influencer culture, self doubt, growing up. There are songs about figures like makeup youtubers, Insagram self help gurus. Each character makes up an aspect or a face of the albums title a ‘Woman On The Internet’.

If your feeling pretty Doomy this week listen to this whole album.

God I’m so fucking glad I’m not lost at sea in my 20’s in the 2020’s

Remember Kids:

Marina Abramović the artist is present but make it hot ones meme

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2 responses to “Remember This?”

  1. […] have many bees in my bonnet at all times. As I finished up today’s script I realised that it rhymes with […]

  2. […] After I wrote that episode, JDO wrote about Kenning Novels, and what kennings do to the idea of a linear narrative – its worth checking out. Incidently, I wonder how much of this kenning thinking went in to his most recent book You Pray for Dry Weather at the Sight of the Sun. […]

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