Beth and I just got back from the Steubenville Youth Conference in Ohio, at Franciscan University. It was a great experience with the chance to hear great talks about our faith as well as participate in the mass and adoration. The music was excellent, led by Bob Rice. The speakers included Chris Padgett and Bob Lesnefsky (also known as “Righteous B”), and other inspirational people who I unfortunately couldn’t remember the names of and couldn’t find online.

Here’s the promotional video:

Twitter seems to be the hottest thing in tech recently — if you look at TechCrunch, it averages at least 3 posts a week about Twitter. But the bigger question is, who is really using Twitter? Many of you might think that, as with most of the latest gadgets and technologies, teenagers are using Twitter, but you’re wrong, and here’s why. Matthew Robson, a 15 year old intern, over at Morgan Stanley, wrote a report on how teenagers are consuming media, and why Twitter isn’t the hot topic in high school halls.

If you look at technologies trending with teens right now, it’s Apple devices (iPhone, iPod), smart phones (Blackberry, Palm), and then social networks (Facebook and MySpace). At least that’s what I see from hanging out with 1,500 other teenagers in high school every day (I am 16 years old). But why not Twitter? Well, because Twitter is a different type of social network than Facebook. Facebook is about connecting people, and sharing information with each other. The way my friends and I see it, Facebook is a closed network. It’s a network of people and friends that you trust to be connected to, and to share information like your email address, AIM screen name, and phone number. You know who’s getting your status messages, because you either approved or added each person to your network.

I wrote a post today on TechCrunch about Twitter, and why teenagers aren’t adopting it. Got quite the response as well — 130 comments, and a Techmeme headline so far. What do you think? Leave your comments below!

VFTQ should only be downloaded from www.ViewFromTheQuad.com

Today on View From The Quad, Liz and I discuss a rather strange new form of non lethal weapon that Japanese police are carrying around, a tree stump that is drawing idiots all over the world to Limerick, monkeys running riot in Chester zoo, a pink robot (oh so very newsworthy) and we play a quick excerpt from an interview with Patrick EMclean which will be going live in the next few weeks.

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Links

http://gizmodo.com/5311467/beware-criminals-japanese-police-now-equipped-with-chintzy-inaccurate-paintball-guns - Japanese paintball guns

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0710/limerick.html - Treestump draws believes to Limerick

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5753208/Zoo-evacuated-as-chimpanzees-escape.html - Zoo evacuated as chimpanzees escape

http://gizmodo.com/5311069/bossa-nova-penbo-the-first-real-robot-for-girls-is-a-pink-waddling-penguin-with-a-baby - The first "real" robot for girls

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1784493/highlight/8163 - Liz sings the CTYI show at the LIVE SHOW afterparty. To join in the next live show, check twitter.com/cianmm for updates on when it will be on. 

You can contact Cian by emailing cian@viewfromthequad.com, and you can contact Liz by emailing liz@viewfromthequad.com .

Follow Cian on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cianmm, follow Liz at http://www.twitter.com/blondeleftie and follow Scodio Studios at http://www.twitter.com/scodio

Leave a comment on the show at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com and phone the voicemail line at 001 206 203 4610

The majority of these games are so-called “casual” games, or video games aimed at a wider and generally older audience. They tend to be puzzle-oriented, and attempt to be both simplistic and addictive (see: Bejeweled). However, it is in this same world of indie games that you’ll find the most artistic, experimental, and innovative titles on the market today.

Aquaria, an indie action/adventure game

These two types of games barely even resemble each other, so why are they both lumped under the umbrella of “indie game?” That label, as I explained above, refers to a lack of support from video game publishers. By that, I mean financial support. These games are made on the cheap.

This limitation is what leads to the two different types of games. Game developers can focus on games that are quick and inexpensive to develop but have relatively high return (casual games), or they can push boundaries and work outside the box, because they don’t have the pressure of a financial backer expecting a commercially successful product. In a way, the developers of the artsy indie games owe something to the developers of the casual games — the digital distribution that allows for modern indie games to reach such a wide audience was largely pioneered in the name of casual gaming.

But major video game producers spend millions of dollars on massive projects like Grand Theft Auto and Halo. How can a small team of developers with a tiny fraction of that budget hope to compete? The answer should be obvious, but you’d be surprised how many times I’ve heard this exact question. Quite simply: more money does not a better game make. When a company like Electronic Arts invests a large amount of funding in a game, they want a safe investment. Experimenting is risky. Doing the same thing everyone else is doing is a safe bet. No one ever got fired for making a World War 2 shooter.

This is one of my favorite quotes, from the brilliant Brian Eno:

“Hollywoodization”:  This is the process where things are evened out, rationalized, nicely lit from all sides, carefully balanced, studiously tested against all known formulae, referred to several committees, and finally made triumphantly unnoticeable.

A major game publisher throws money and people at a project, and the result is something accessible and safe. It isn’t groundbreaking, or even different in any substantial way from anything else on the shelves. But that’s all consumers expect, and it’s against the financial self-interest of the company to deviate from this line and take risks that might alienate consumers. Sure, they might end up with the next Sims (innovative, unconventional, and ridiculously financially successful), but they could just as easily end up with the next Grim Fandango (innovative, unconventional, and a financial failure).

Big publishers have their place, of course. Something like Bioshock could not have been done independently in our current game market. My hope for the long run is that indie games will increasingly become competition for big budget games, and hopefully this will put pressure on the game producers to innovate in order to stay competitive in the market.

In the short run, however, my hope is that “regular” gamers are willing to step outside their comfort zone of magic spells and machine guns and try something new.

A screenshot from the unrelentingly experimental and artistic "game" The Path

Something new, like The Path, a game that isn’t really a game. It’s more of  an interactive, digital work of art. Emotional, symbolic imagery is the weapon of choice here. The Path is sometimes classified as a “horror” game, but the horror doesn’t come from sudden surprises or gore — it comes from those moments in our lives that shake our whole foundation and force us to accept human existence for what it is. It’s a game about growing up, understanding, and changing. It’s vague enough that you can easily connect to it, but it’s specific enough that the imagery and ideas take hold of you and stay with you for days. The only instruction given to the player is to “follow the path,” and in order to play this game you must break this rule. The only objective, if you can call it that, is to lead your “little read riding hood” to her “wolf,” a deeply symbolic encounter that results in your character walking slowly, through the rain, head cast down in despair, toward grandmother’s house. In a sense, the game makes you force the character into this. After your character walks through the rain to grandmother’s house, the game takes control out of your hands completely, as you walk through an abstract, expressionistic house that is constantly shifting around you and represents your character’s fragile mental state.

I could write a lot more about The Path, but hopefully you get the idea. It’s certainly no Halo. It’s nothing like a traditional game, and many critics intensely dislike it for this reason. One of the developers asked, on his blog, if the world was ready for The Path. At the time it struck me as an arrogant thing to ask, but in retrospect he was right to ask it. I really hope the world is ready for games like The Path.

Most Popular Posts

• Let the Kids Ride! New CPSC Act Essentially Outlaws Youth Motocross
• About
• Freestyle Motocross Star Jeremy Lusk Dies, Is This a Sign That FMX Has Come Too Far?
• 8 Most Inspiring Professional Supercross Bike Setups
• Planning for 2009 (Step 1): Winter Cross-Training

(Title is in German… translates to “Come, Sweet Death”)

Originally written in Japanese by director Hideaki Anno and sung in English, this song features prominently in the movie End of Evangelion. You can find alternate translations and additional information here. This video contains the original, unedited footage from the movie where the song appears (to anyone who hasn’t seen Eva: yes, that footage is actually from the movie), however, the soundtrack version of the song has been dubbed over to remove the dialog and sound effects that play over the song in the movie.

I love this song. When I hear it, I basically stop whatever I’m doing and listen. It’s so emotionally powerful, especially when paired with the striking imagery from Anno’s brilliant movie End of Eva. Every few days (seems more like every day recently) I go back and watch this video, for whatever reason.

VFTQ should be downloaded from www.ViewFromTheQuad.com and nowhere else, on the pain of pain.

Today on VFTQ we have a veritable smorgasbord of topics for your listening enjoyment. We talk about China limiting the use of virtual currency,a Turkish Gameshow designed to convert Atheists, an interesting anti-paparazzi device, some interesting new iPhone patents and an awesome sounding new concept car. Also on the agenda is the usual banter about nothing in particular.

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Links

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101859 - China limits use of virtual currency

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/5729452/Turkish-gameshow-attempts-to-convert-atheists.html - Turkish gameshow attempts to convert atheists

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/anti-paparazzi.php - Anti-Paparazzi Purse

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/07/02/haptic-feedback-fingerprint-identification-and-rfid-tag-readers-in-future-iphones/ - Weird iPhone Patents

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/atnmbl-concept.php - New concept car

http://bit.ly/VFTQPEDA - Personal Effects: Dark Art

You can contact Cian by emailing cian@viewfromthequad.com, and you can contact Liz by emailing liz@viewfromthequad.com .

Follow Cian on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cianmm, follow Liz at http://www.twitter.com/blondeleftie and follow Scodio Studios at http://www.twitter.com/scodio

Leave a comment on the show at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com and phone the voicemail line at 001 206 203 4610

This is just…disturbing.

Joey Chestnut chomped down a record 68 hot dogs, capturing his third straight July Fourth hot-dog eating contest at Coney Island, an annual showcase for flamboyant hot dogging contestants eager to show they really are what they eat.

–USA Today

I don’t really think we should show off our prosperity by gorging ourselves…

Those of you in Singapore might have seen an article about me in Today newspaper a couple of days ago. And as is stated in the article, I do feel like I’m in a “transitional” phase.

The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, National Service has definitely affected me, as anyone who knows me personally will know. I’m not one who does well when forced into something. I quit school because I didn’t see a point, for example. And NS is something I can’t quit. I’m slowly coming to terms with it (or trying to), but it’s tough. Being stuck in a forced job, in an extremely regimental environment, is a far cry from anything I’d want, and the adjustment is hard. And NS has left me rather jaded, to say the least. (And to those who think I’m grumbling too much, please spare me the “you can choose to be happy despite your circumstance” spiel, I’ve heard that enough).

But I’m far from giving up, and that’s actually the second reason why I haven’t been too involved in the social media scene lately. Yes, I’ve said that “the web has really opened so many doors for me”, and it’s true. But now that the doors have been open, it’s time for me to take some action and go through them, instead of just opening more doors. I love the scene, I love having the chance to be a part of the community, I love having the opportunity to meet and interact with brilliant minds such as yours. But it’s time for me to get out and do something.

I don’t want to be just another blogger, another voice in the crowd. I need to know that I have some insight or unique value I can provide. I need to prove, if not to anyone else, then to myself at least, that I am made of more than just intelligent talk. I need to prove that I am capable of producing quality action.

And I am working on that, or trying to. Trying to get a virtual internship for a marketing/branding project, trying to start up a Facebook app, etc. I’ve got a number of things I’m trying to line up, so hopefully something will work out.

In the meantime, I’ll still be on Twitter, so if you want to chat, you can look me up there. If I have your contact details, I’ll try my best to keep in touch with you. If I don’t, I’d still love to hear from you – you can add me on Facebook, or drop me an email.

This is (hopefully) not the last you’ve heard from me on here. When I’ve decided I’m capable (and proven to myself that I’m capable) of providing value, I’ll be back.

As Shakespeare put it, “If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then this parting was well made”.

Keep creating,
Derrick

I had been using the beta version previously, but had a bit of trouble updating to the final release. The main obstacle I ran into was that I use a 64-bit build of the browser, along with 64-bit plugins for flash and java. I wanted a way to update to the final release via my package manager, and it wasn’t too difficult.

The first thing I tried was adding this repository for nightly builds of Firefox, as it seemed to be the most common solution given at the time to the question of installing the latest Firefox release:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

That ended up getting me 3.5.1pre, which is not what I wanted. I don’t want the nightly builds of Firefox — I want the stable, final release.

After a bit more digging, I found the solution. I removed the above line and added this line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/fta/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

… ran sudo apt-get update to update the package list with the information from the new repository, then sudo apt-get upgrade to check for updates on installed software. For me, this upgraded the firefox-3.5 package, which I already had installed previously to run the beta.

For those of you who didn’t have the package already, you just need to add the above repository then install “firefox-3.5″ and “firefox-3.5-gnome-support” (with sudo apt-get install firefox-3.5 firefox-3.5-gnome-support), and the package manager will take care of installing all the dependencies.

If you want to use a 32-bit version of Firefox (or, I should say, if you already are and have no reason to change), I recommend you use Ubuntuzilla to manage your Firefox installation. It will automatically download and set up the latest Firefox release, and monitor it for updates.

Now I’m enjoying the latest Firefox release! It isn’t really earth-shattering, seeing as how I’ve been using the previous versions as they’ve worked up to this one, but it’s still a damn nice browser.

EDIT: I should add that the above instructions will leave you with a program named “Shiretoko,” with Firefox 3.0 still installed along-side it. This is what you want. If you open the “About Shiretoko” page you should see “Version 3.5.” This is Firefox 3.5, just going by a different name.

New:

1. Jobs seen back on Apple campus
2. Apple Offers $30 iTunes Store Credit for Activation Delays
3. AT&T Navigator turn-by-turn GPS solution hits the App Store
4. Hospital says Steve Jobs in ‘excellent’ state following liver transplant
5. Cost to build Apple’s new iPhone 3G S estimated at $179
6. Next-Generation iMacs to See Price Cuts?
7. iPhone 3.0 Parental Controls Now Allows for Explicit Content on App Store
8. YouTube Daily Mobile Uploads Have Increased 400% Since Launch of iPhone 3GS
9. Apple TV 2.4 Update Now Available, Updated Remote App with Gestures
10. iPhone marketing head goes to VC firm; iTunes breaks records after Jackson death
11. Apple Posts Online iPhone 3GS Availability Database

Twitter:

• George
• Connor
• Bill

If you are interested in donating via PayPal use the email paypal@georgedrage.com. If your interested in Sponsoring the Show please email sales@applejuiceshow.com.

WWDC

With Apple pulling out of Macworld in the years to come WWCD is left as Apple only regular annual event. Even without Steve Jobs giving the keynote it was a riveting presentation to watch and there were many exciting announcements.

MacBook Pro’s

The new Macbook Pro line now includes a 13″, 15″ and 17″. The introduction of the new 13″ initially confused me as to where Apple are going with this, but after a bit of thought I believe Apple are moving their laptops in to the MacBook Pro label leaving the MacBook label free for something new.

As an avid photographer I have been waiting for the day that Apple would add some sort of a card reader into there laptops and finally they have. The addition of the SD card slot may seem insignificant but it is one of those little thing like the backlit keyboard that will help set Apple laptops apart from the rest.

Another feature Apple were emphasising was the improved 7 hour battery life. I have used my MBP for nearly two years now. As a heavy user of my laptop the battery is nearly dead (lasting just over 1 hour on a full charge). Apple are claiming that their battery will last 1000 recharges compared to a typical 300, if this translates into real life use then I am one step closer to an upgrade.

With all these great updates you would expect in the economic climate of today that the prices would rise but Apple lowered the prices.

Snow Leopard

As expected Apple went into some depth on the new OSX release. They focused on the refinement they had made, for example the reduction of the OS by 6GB and on a MBA that would be a significant help. There are also simple speed improvements throughout the OS due to many of the refinements. They spent some time discussing the new improved Quicktime 10 and the addition of exchange support.

Apple are billing this update as a no thrills update with a software speed bump, because of this again they came out with some radical pricing to entice existing uses to buy it. At $29 could anyone say no to updating?

iPhone 3.0

Before WWDC Apple held an event to talk about the 3.0 update. Some of the highlights were cut and paste, tethering and in app purchasing. Cut, copy and paste were finally announced and from playing around with it well implemented. Tethering has been a hot topic of discussion with a few free work around’s already been put out.

With the ability now to create turn by turn GPS apps, the in app purchasing is being used as a subscription method. Spotlight is another feature that in my experience has been very useful. The average person has page after page of apps on there iPhone and with spotlight it makes it easier to launch all those apps.

A feature that has been neglected is the ability for apps to now interact with add on hardware. This would be great in a word processing app where you could add a keyboard, but there is much more you could do, a barcode scanner for delicious library, or even if you want to buy something off amazon you could find it in a real store and scan the barcode then purchase it from amazon while standing in the store.

A feature that was only announced at WWDC was Find My Phone, it uses the MobileMe service to track down your iPhone and place its location on a map. We have already seen how it can save people from loosing there phones and might make MobileMe a worthwhile purchase.

iPhone 3GS

The climax of WWDC culminated in the announcement of the next version of the iPhone. The new phone offers an improved camera with 3 megapixels, auto focus and video. The new phone is reportedly much faster and has a built in compass which dramatically improves the GPS experience. There is no alteration to the case design which in my opinion was a mistake, the matt backing which we saw in many of the leaked photos would have been a good choice for the new 3GS model.

Palm Pre

Just before the announcement of the iPhone 3GS Palm released the Palm Pre. From what I can gather from reviews of the Palm Pre, physically the device is nicely designed but where it really excels is in the Web OS it uses. Its use of gestures makes it easy to navigate around the phone and the UI is very good. Palm are also taking a very active ad campaign against the iPhone as users come to an end of their two year contracts. The Palm Pre is by far the iPhone’s best competitor but personally I think the iPhone still offers more.

There are a few free programs that do this:

• Daemon Tools — Famous, does the job. It’s adware though (arguably… it lets you disable the adware toolbar during installation, but that makes it untrustworthy in my book), and a bit shady overall. It’s up to you whether you want to use it or not, but I try to avoid it. Daemon Tools can circumvent pretty much every copy protection scheme out there, and it’s well known as one of the best virtual CD emulators around.
• Alcohol 52% Free Edition — This program is similar to the above, both in terms of features and in terms of adware. It’s a free release of a formerly commercial product, and it works well.
• MagicDisk — Adware free, and less shady than Daemon Tools, this is usually my choice. I don’t need the copy protection circumvention (I’m not using this to play copied video games, so that feature is of little use to me), but to my knowledge MagicDisk doesn’t attempt to circumvent or bypass video game copy protection. If that’s a deal-breaker for you, go with Daemon Tools.

Most Popular Posts

• Let the Kids Ride! New CPSC Act Essentially Outlaws Youth Motocross
• About
• Freestyle Motocross Star Jeremy Lusk Dies, Is This a Sign That FMX Has Come Too Far?
• 8 Most Inspiring Professional Supercross Bike Setups
• Planning for 2009 (Step 1): Winter Cross-Training

This is Alan Turing, one of the most brilliant men of the last century and the father of computer science. He was greatly influential in the fields of logic and mathematics, and he worked on codebreaking for the British government during World War II, devising several techniques for breaking German codes.

He was born on June 23, 1912, 97 years ago. On June 7, 1954, he killed himself by ingesting cyanide — an act he was driven to do after being arrested, prosecuted, and forced to take experimental and dangerous hormone treatments by the British government. His crime? Homosexual acts were illegal under British law at the time.

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Well, the obvious problem with this is that piracy isn’t stealing. Under the law, piracy is “copyright infringement” — stealing implies depriving another of a possession or property, and piracy does not take anything away from the owners of the copyright, other than an abstract loss of potential profit. In other words, when a DVD is copied, the original DVD remains intact.

A less obvious difference between copyright infringement and stealing is the amount of trouble you’ll be in for committing each of them, respectively. This woman was fined 2.4 million dollars for downloading 24 songs, or about two albums worth of music. What do you think would have happened if she had just been caught attempting to steal two albums from a record store? Her punishment would have been much less harsh, at the very least.

This seems very counter-intuitive. Stealing obviously and directly harms another person, by depriving them of property. Piracy does no such thing. As a trend, perhaps, piracy is harmful to copyright holders (I contend that it is not nearly as harmful as it is made out to be in this respect, but for sake of argument I’ll concede this point here), but it’s absurd to claim that, on an individual level, copying a CD deserves orders of magnitude more punishment than stealing a CD.

There’s still room for disagreement here — I’m only pointing out that the rhetoric on the side of the copyright holders is hollow and misleading. There’s a legitimate case to be made on their side, but they aren’t making it — to me, that says something important. I’m not here to play the part of the anarchist, calling for the abolition of copyright. There are two extremes on this issue, and I don’t belong to either one. I do, however, think that piracy can be acceptable. Or, said in a more pessimistic way: piracy is unstoppable. Whether it’s morally defensible or not, it isn’t going away, and calling pirates “thieves” won’t change a damn thing. Actually, it might change one thing — it’ll drive those on our side to be more and more extreme in their opposition to copyright. When I bought an e-book and found that the DRM would prevent me from reading it on my device, I pirated it — and, importantly, I felt doing so was morally justified. The more draconian the DRM, the more people will pirate. The more media companies pull Youtube videos and send take-down letters, the more people will pirate. We’re watching corporations actively participating in their own demise.

In the words of Lawrence Lessig: they criminalize our culture. I’m sure everyone reading this article can think of some funny, original, creative Youtube video that was removed because it contained some copyrighted material. Is it any surprise that we fight back?

I can’t really say I believe downloading an album is “fine,” morally, but I do it anyway. I still buy albums I like (as I do with games, movies, etc), but that comes out of a need to give back to the artists. I never buy media just to have it, because simply having the CD means nothing to me; I could have just downloaded it. The only thing the propaganda and rhetoric does is make me feel less and less guilty about piracy.

Most Popular Posts

• Let the Kids Ride! New CPSC Act Essentially Outlaws Youth Motocross
• About
• Freestyle Motocross Star Jeremy Lusk Dies, Is This a Sign That FMX Has Come Too Far?
• 8 Most Inspiring Professional Supercross Bike Setups
• Planning for 2009 (Step 1): Winter Cross-Training

Most Popular Posts

• Let the Kids Ride! New CPSC Act Essentially Outlaws Youth Motocross
• About
• Freestyle Motocross Star Jeremy Lusk Dies, Is This a Sign That FMX Has Come Too Far?
• 8 Most Inspiring Professional Supercross Bike Setups
• Planning for 2009 (Step 1): Winter Cross-Training

I’ve had a lot of amazing opportunities in my life so far, and I thank many people for where I’ve come today — my family, my friends, and especially Robert Scoble — but there are some opportunities too good to say no to.

Starting Monday (tomorrow), I’ll be joining TechCrunch working on events, conferences and business development with Asad Akbar (Events Director) and Heather Harde (CEO). I’ve been friends with TechCrunch for some time now, and have been working from their new Palo Alto office time to time on my projects (Qik and Teens in Tech), and have been looking into other routes to follow in my life.

I’m excited to be joining TechCrunch considering first and foremost, I was a blogger, and that environment is what I love. I’ll be joining an amazing group of individuals whose writing is all over the internet. I’m sure a lot of you are probably thinking – what’s going to happen with Qik? Don’t worry, I’m not leaving Qik. Both Qik and TechCrunch are part time jobs, and I’ll be able to work both.

I just want to thank Michael Arrington and Heather Harde for this amazing opportunity at TechCrunch, and for all the people involved. Look out TechCrunch — here comes Daniel!