Ballookey

A subscription to the paper edition of Time magazine is $20 for 56 issues or .35/issue.

It’s $5.00 per issue on the iPad.

A subscription to GQ, on paper, sent through post office and delivered to your door is either $1.00/issue, or .83 each depending on whether you buy a one-year or two-year subscription.

It’s $2.99 per issue on the iPad.

Old media can’t fuck off fast enough, as far as I’m concerned.

I want magazines on my iPad. I want Scientific American, Discover, National Geographic, Computer Arts, Inked, Make etc… so that I can always have all the latest issues with me, the back issues I found handy, and hot links in all the articles so I can tap to read more relevant info in Safari. There are some art magazines where I still want the paper issue, but there are a lot more that I would subscribe to if I didn’t have to decide whether or not to keep the issue when I finished reading it.

I won’t pay MORE than it costs to buy the paper version however. It should be less, but if you say you’re going to include zoomable photos and occasional video, then the same price as a paper subscription is fair.

Idiots.

Rose-colored California Poppies, originally uploaded by ballookey.

I see these flowers every day when I take out the trash, and every day they’re a nice little treat. I’m glad I planted them.

I just came across the photography of Daniela Edburg and LOVE it. The knitted props and stuffed satin intestines really make her work extra special.

This affects NEARLY nobody, but I’ve changed the settings of this blog to automatically close comments after 14 days. I’ve been getting a metric ton of spam comments. Obviously I just mark them all as spam and no one sees them, but it’s gone super nova the past couple of days, so I figured closing comments on old posts was the way to go.

Just to make this trip worth your while, here’s a photo I took on the iPhone with Kaleidovid app:

It’s a totally frivolous app, but it is yet one more thing that helps me to see things in an unexpected way. Several times now, I’ve made a kaleidoscope image with it and seen some little bit, a detail, or coloring that I want to use elsewhere.

I consider it an inspiration generator. You can see more images I made with it at my Flickr photostream. (that’s a link to a keyword search, so hopefully it works)

The Way the Future Blogs, an online memoir by science fiction writer Frederik Pohl » Blog Archive » Isaac, Part 4, and some other guys.

This blog entry by Frederik Pohl is really poignant for me because the event he recalls is just months after my birth, and to hear about his great optimism for the large companies of the time and their benefit to society is a bit of a shock. (I don’t want to quote large sections here, but rather you should go read it if you’re so inclined.)

Reading his thoughts, it certainly seemed to be well-placed optimism. So where did things go so wrong? Because in my lifetime those companies have certainly gone 180 and I think we’re far worse off for it. Pohl’s recollection of how they used to be seems like an ideal template for how they should be.

Whatever that means. Anyway, like everyone else, I’m playing with it and loving it. I only wish there were a way to print high res images with it.

Updated to add: Really! Check it out! It’s like drawing with spiderwebs and angora fur, and other fun stuff.

The ads in most sponsored RSS feeds are indeed cheap and lousy. The ads in DF’s RSS feed are neither. They’re priced at a premium, and have attracted (if I do say so myself) premium sponsors.

from Attention Is The Real Resource at Daring Fireball.

Thank you. The thing is most ads look like crap advertising for crap products at best, and may actually be harmful scams at worst (not uncommon). WHY would I click on an ad like that? The issue shouldn’t be whether people visit your site or view it in a reader. The issue is that more companies need to serve quality advertising (not annoying animated shit) that shows me things I’d be vaguely interested in. I read the app.itize.us feed for quality iPhone apps. Why? Because things like these apps aren’t advertised in ads!

Can we make this vegan?

Check Out The Secret McMenu Item That’s Sweeping SF, The Mc10:35 – The Consumerist.

Why A Salad Costs More Than A Big Mac – The Consumerist.

My Brother’s Bar on Gowalla.

Dude. I just happened to have the Gowalla website open because it’s recently had a redesign, and what do I see scroll by, but someone checking in to My Brother’s Bar in Denver. What a great spot. I had my first legal drink there  17 years ago – A gold margarita. Oh how many have followed.