A Lack of Security

As fellow Kickstarter users know, an email was sent out this morning notifying us of a security breach. They may well be "incredibly sorry that this happened", but it did, and they recommend "that you change the password of your Kickstarter account, and other accounts where you use this password" - how very convenient. For those of us not blessed with eidetic memories, keeping track of passwords is a pain, and even the most computer-savvy among us use the same password across multiple sites for the sake of ease as a password manager is no good if you don't have the relevant device with you.

But, my main point is, "upon learning this, we immediately closed the security breach and began strengthening security measures throughout the Kickstarter system" does not seem logical to me. It's not just Kickstarter though, it's Adobe, Ubisoft, Sony, Target,... the list is endless. It's the same spiel every time - "we were attacked, your password and/or payment details were copied, change your stuff. We're sorry. We've fixed it now". Here's a thought - patch the system before it gets exploited? You know, hire somebody to try and infiltrate it and then fix it, rather than idly sit on your ass with an insecure system and count down the days until you're a large enough target to be attacked and profusely apologize to your userbase.

Yes, ultimate unbreachable security is merely blue-sky thinking, but if these exploits have happened, they were patchable. For the sake of not looking like amateurs, please big companies, I implore you, fix it before the inevitable happens. Think of all the class action suits you could be avoiding (see here for example).

My issue with Netflix Originals

As the internet is well aware, Season 2 of House of Cards was released today. As with the past season, it was released all at once. While this is a modern, unconventional rock-the-boat strategy, I dislike it, and don't think it's wise.

With conventional broadcast TV, episodes are released one by one, week after week, in a scheduled timeslot, unless they're preempted by happenings. Either way, the day after airing, people discuss the episode, and most importantly, memory and current activity of a show can last up to half a year. With something like House of Cards, you could watch all thirteen episodes one by one at a self-chosen time and pace yourself, but with all the content already available, why wait? Especially when others will have just "binge watched" (a term I dislike because it's the sort of term old media would come up with to try and sound relevant) it all in a day. Now their minds are loaded with spoilers that, if they are a decent human, they won't share. Once you've caught up and are ready to discuss it, it's no longer fresh in their mind. What's more, House of Cards isn't likely to cross their mind until a few weeks before Season 3 is released, when the hype and 'news' starts surging.

When a broadcast TV show is off the air for a while, even just a  mid-season break, it doesn't exactly aid the popularity of the show - more casual viewers will forget about it when it returns. When a show is 'on' for one day a year and then the wait commences again, memories will forget.

Other than the broken social 'watercooler' aspect of House of Cards, where a typical conversation is merely:

"Do you watch House of Cards?"

"Yes. It's awesome, right?"

"Totally"

"Good talk"

missing any intricacies or plot details for fear of spoiling it, as far as I can see, this strategy does work for Netflix, as it's a subscription based service that people tend to visit on a whim when they've got nothing else to do, and dipping in and out at your own pace  works a lot better when you aren't then waiting for the next episode to become available. However, I hope that traditional media companies don't try this model, as it will not work.

The internet is ruining me.

For these last few weeks, I have had nothing to do, resulting in my sleeping pattern, well, matching my media habits more than the day/night cycle. In an effort that will probably turn out to be in vain, I just stayed up all night so that hopefully I'll be tired enough this evening to sleep at a reasonable hour and get everything back in sync. After all, when the clock strikes 04:00, you can tell there isn't much point in attempting sleep. After finishing a film, I set about my tasks for the day, the first of which was to sort out my iTunes library on my desktop PC so that I actually had my various podcast subscriptions accessible somewhere other than my iPod. While waiting for the 80GB iTunes library to transfer to another disk, I pulled a book off the shelf.

My bookshelf is, sadly, rather a decorative feature, a memorial to a bygone era and an everlasting glimmer of potential hope. That said, the 'optical media' shelf directly below it, holding several DVD boxsets and my physical Xbox 360 gaming collection, is almost as untouched. The difference between the two (or three) mediums though is that I can still absorb visual media. Well, I've become rather disenchanted with gaming at the moment, but I'm assuming that'll pass, although I'm sure my wallet will wish otherwise.

Anyway, to my point - the book I pulled off the shelf was The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, the sort of non-fiction book that ought to appeal to me. The subtitle of the book is "How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember", and only a couple of pages in to chapter one I feel a certain resonance. The thoughts themselves aren't shocking revelations to me, but they are a moment of clarity. I used to read all the time. Well, I still read nowadays, perhaps more than ever, but I used to read paper all the time. Considered, edited, and published words were the expectation and that was exactly what my eyes received. Since "I cannot tell a lie", The Shallows is the first physical book I have picked up to read in quite some time. However, let's focus on the first part of that sentence, the quotation. To be absolute certain that it was in fact George Washington who people claim originally said that, what did I do? Googled it. What would I have done in the days before my access to the internet? Perhaps gone to a library and trawled through book after book in the hope of ever finding it, or just not bothered to spruce up my words - not that the quote was completely necessary. But this is the point - I relied on the internet to give me the answer. Not only that, but I expected it instantly, and received it instantly. The difference between Carr and me is that I grew up with the internet rather than evolved into it. Not that evolving into it hasn't in Carr's eyes left him unscathed - it still has an effect, but I'm even more concerned about my generation, who barely know of any alternative. At a glance, you wouldn't think it's an issue as the internet certainly doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon (SOPA etc. aside), however, it's creating an overreliance. I expect to have the answer to life, the universe and everything at my fingertips in a snap. But what happens when I am without technology? Putting it extremely, I'm at a complete loss and have no idea how to accomplish anything. Seriously. I've often said that I don't have a good memory, which isn't strictly true, as I am extremely good at remembering where I was when I heard something and what people have told me, but when it comes to facts, figures, quotes,... general public information - I can barely remember anything, because I don't 'need' to. Why do I remember the former type of information? Presumably some competitive part of my mind saying "this is how you can sometimes one-up people when they forget" - evidently it doesn't think remembering information to pass exams is as important.

So far I've clumsily explained why the information side of the internet has ruined me, so now on to the related part of that to do with traditional media. I cannot focus on books. I don't know why, well, I do, it's because of technology, but I wish that wasn't the case. I'm good at skimming online news articles, or even reading them in full, but when it comes to paperback books, my mind lacks the focus it once had. The slightly odd part is, I managed to read three debatably trashy novels on my iPod with iBooks and maintained focus, but I'm unsure as to whether my concentration held because it was consumed on a digital device, or just because of the unchallenging subject nature of said novels. I do keep trying to ease myself back in to reading, but so far it just hasn't clicked back in to place yet.

Now if you'll excuse me Mr Carr, I've got an internet to waste my time on.

Why can't other 'western' countries be treated equal to the USA?

To me, sitting here in damp old England, it seems like we get the short end of the stick. I'm not ignorant - I know there are hundreds of other countries in the world that don't even get the level of treatment we get, but for a country that has such a bond with the USA, I'd expect us to be treated with some respect.

For example, let's pick an American TV show at random. Psych. As far as I am aware, it used to be on 5*, but I can't find any trace of it anymore. Let's say today is February 15th 2008, and the season 2 finale of Psych just aired. When will the whole season be on DVD in America? July 11th of the same year. How about us in the UK? June 7th. 2010. Ok, let's move to the present. A few days ago, season 8 episode 3 of Psych aired in the US. When will us 'lucky' folk in the UK get to watch it? Probably next year at the earliest, as only the first episode of season 7 is available on the UK iTunes store at the moment, which of course, has been on DVD in America since October 8th 2013, but still isn't available here yet.

My, how I whine about such a trivial thing. Once that sarcasm has washed over you, let me remind you how self-entitled Americans seem to feel when it comes to watching our television, namely Sherlock and Downton Abbey. I'm sure you've seen, or at least heard, of all the news articles about Americans whining about how Downton Abbey got spoiled for them because people in the UK tweeted about it when it happened. Excuse us for tweeting about our own shows in our own country - I suppose we don't deserve to because Twitter is an American service? How about Sherlock then? I suppose waiting less than two weeks to get the same episodes we do is just simply far too long?

I like the USA - as the favicon for this blog probably suggests. But one thing that really grates on me is the self-entitled view they have about the comparatively little media the UK produces, when their media corporations treat us a hundred times worse than ours do them.

But it doesn't just stop at media. No, it extends to other goods too. Ignoring the absurd and all-too popular currency 'conversion' where US companies simply change the $ sign to a £. For example, the Roku, which is $99 on their site, and £99 on Amazon UK. For a more concrete example, the Apple TV costs $99, or £99. In case any Americans are wondering how much a £ is, much like the obnoxious jokes about comparing our units of measurement to bananas, $99 is £59.98. meaning that we pay 50% more simply for living in the wrong country.

Extending along the hardware strand, is the absurd delay in technology swimming across the Atlantic. Yesterday, I said that unless HTC announces something really special, I'm seriously tempted by the Moto X. Today, I looked online and discovered that the Moto X wasn't actually available in the UK until the 1st February. To add insult to injury, how many design combinations can you have in the US with MotoMaker? Over 500. What design options do we get? 1.5. For a phone half a year old that never had very high specifications to begin with, it's looking less and less appealing to me.

What really bugs me is, what do they get out of it by screwing us over? It's not like we could have signed up to an AT&T contract over here, so what do they really stand to lose? I really hoped that the sorts of days such as the original iPhone being only available in the US to begin with were behind us given that it's now seven years further on and the world is a more connected place since. It's pathetic, embarrassing, and they;re missing out on sales. Clearly I must be wrong though, as they're the business experts.

(excuse me for the incoherence - I wanted more to just air my views on this unfortunately consistently relevant matter)

My favorite media of 2013

A few new games and TV shows have struck me as outstanding, so I decided to list my favorite in each category, sometimes with honorable mentions. Note, this is a list of things that have been released this year and consumed by me, rather than just consumed by me but released any time.

Favorite game:

Gunpoint - What, not GTA V? No, because as far as I'm concerned, that game did not meet expectations. Gunpoint however, did. It's all kinds of wonderful - character dialogue that makes me laugh, hilarious moments such as setting a circuit that inadvertently smacks my character down, plenty of witty achievements unlocking for doing standard things without even looking for them, a charming soundtrack, and a development story that could inspire anyone.

Favorite film:

This was quite tricky, scrolling back through my Trakt history of films I've watched this year constantly thinking "there really wasn't anything new that stood out". Honorable mentions go to Pain & Gain, 2 Guns, Side Effects, Gangster Squad, and Now You See Me, but my favorite is The Place Beyond the Pines. it wasn't the film I was expecting it to be, and it was a fascinating emotional ride.

Favorite TV show:

The Bridge (the FX version), Ray Donovan, and Trophy Wife. But, I must pick one. I think I'm going to have to go with Ray Donovan, as as great as all three are, it is just that tiny bit better, though I must admit I haven't quite caught up on The Bridge yet. If you're looking for any other great shows that have been running a while and are returning in January, check out Justified and Archer on FX - if you have enough free time in the, there's just enough time to catch up.

Favorite album:

I'm not a huge music fan, and that's not to say that I don't listen to a lot of music, because I do, but I'm never seen frequenting Pitchfork or NME. I'm torn between Foxygen's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic and Fitz and The Tantrum's More Than Just A Dream, but based on how many tracks I've rated 5 stars in iTunes, the winning artist has to be Foxygen. Links to the album are in the description of this video. If that track doesn't pique your interest, listen to the first four tracks on the album.

Favorite book:

It pains me to admit that I don't read nearly as much as I used to. Therefore my book of the year must be Dan Brown's Inferno. I know people the world over hate his style of writing, but they're quite simply enjoyable and relatively lengthy books.

Favorite new piece of technology:

I don't buy terribly much, so going on what I've actually bought it'd have to be the 2013 13" MacBook Air (i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage) - until I upgraded parts of my desktop machine, this powerful slice of portable computing was the only machine I used for the vast majority of all computing tasks. In terms of what I'd most like to get, is the Fitbit Force, but that isn't released yet in the UK, so perhaps it can sneak into this spot on next year's list.

Favorite new piece of software:

Software comes in many shapes and sizes, but my pick of the year has to be Media Browser 3. Without it, I'd be constantly manually checking in on Trakt and losing my files all over the place. With it, consuming media has never been easier. After using Media Browser Classic for a rather long time, I eventually decided to jump towards the rather more server-centric MB3 and have certainly not regretted it. if this doesn't get you excited, nothing will.

Favorite Tumblr:

"I don't always use Tumblr, but when I do it's just to while away a few minutes with amusing images" My favorite new Tumblr is this, which has a combination of already shocking property photos but with the addition of drôle captions.