New to the site? Welcome!
You might be interested to know that there's two different kind of posts on this blog: "Thought of the Day" and "Normal". The "Thought of the Day" category is a once-a-day random tidbit, usually a funny video or picture, and the "Normal" is just what you'd expect from a blog like this:
Unicorn-Butterfly Soup.
--Kyle
p.s. the subscription options to the left (psst! <---- that way) reflect the same content options
Quote from a Book
This is from “After the Gold Rush” by Steve McConnell:
Project managers both love and fear “hero programmers” because these programmers are smart, temperamental, and sometimes a little self-righteous…
Never have I heard something that described me so perfectly, and it was written 10 years ago…
Self Acknowledgement
So, yeah, I’m famous. Not quite as much as Corey’s glasses (try CollegeHumor if you don’t know what I’m talking about), but hopefully one day I can attain that status.
Anyways, I had a small interview with The Examiner (a paper that has a few local editions in places like Baltimore, San Francisco, San Jose, etc.), Baltimore Edition, about the business and mySHOUToutLOUD. Since it was my first interview, and writeup in a paper, I’m pretty excited about it.
Give Us a Read, Precious.
Problems In Paradise
[This is my first substantial post in a long time, so just as a warning: it's going to be long, full of things no-one will like, and probably very very angry. It's like I have a stockpile of feelings.]
Paradise? Am I talking about Heaven, The Afterlife, The Halls of Valhalla? No. I’m talking about the blogosphere of tech-news reporting.
The Golden Age of Grotesque
Even as little as a year ago, the portion of the blogging world that discussed/”reported” news on the tech world was very diverse and original. You could go to any number of the most popular blogs and find long opinion / editorial pieces, and little gems of news that wouldn’t be on the others. In a word: they were the opposite of mainstream media (”MSM”).
This was a good time.
The Dope Show
But then, something happened. Blogs like TechCrunch, GigaOm, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Gizmodo, etc. began to cover the same things: the most popular internet applications and their progress (Facebook, Google, etc.) and then alot of shiny AJAX bullshit that shouldn’t even exist. And not just individually, but they would rehash the same subjects over and over again (on the same blog), even when it was seen the same amount of times on their friends/competitors.
The Tech Blogosphere
mOBSCENE
The last few months this is what the world of tech blogging looks like:
- “Google Killers”
- “Digg Killers”
- Microsoft Sucks
- “Twitter Killers”
- VC Investments
- [stupid things that serve no purpose but get funding anyways]
And repeat. It’s like you put a newspaper in the washing machine every night, and read it in the morning. The same news, just jumbled around a little bit.
(S)aint[s]
There are a few diamonds in the rough at the moment, the few originals that do what they feel like, even if it’s not politically correct or even always based on hard facts. Which makes it interesting.
- Valleywag
- Uncov
- Scoble
Valleywag is like a tabloid for Silicon Valley, without all the aliens and pregnancies. Uncov is probably my favorite thing ever, because he/they bash all of the things about “Web 2.0″ and the industry that I absolutely hate (read: stupid crap), and he has a basis in reality that most bloggers don’t: real knowledge, coming from an engineering background. Scoble (”Scobleizer”) is not always interesting, but when he is… man he is. Oh, and people love to hate him, and I like to see the backlash from even just simple statements.
Oh yeah, MSM!
Cake and Sodomy
What sparked this? Aside from being tired of reading the same things on 140,000 different blogs about the same stupid things that don’t matter (or do, but have been rehashed to death), it’s simple: these blogs will only cover your startup/application/company/whatever if you meet at least one of three requirements.
- You’re Famous
- You Have VC/Angel Investors
- You’ve Created a Mashup
I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed this, and yet I haven’t seen anyone else gripe about it. Hello, people? Yeah the Internet called, it wants to give your soul back, you spineless tool.
Mechanical Animals
The reason I bring this up is that I’ve recently launched my first web service/application, mySHOUToutLOUD. We spent some money on Facebook advertising, which turned out to be pretty worthless, but I also thought I might get some coverage from the blogs that (you would think) care, so I sent this email:
We thought you’d be interested to hear about the v1.0 Launch of our service, mySHOUToutLOUD, as of January 1st, 2008. As a new consumer complaints vehicle, we hope to have success in letting individual consumers have a voice in the public eye, in order to help their problems / concerns be resolved with any product or company.
We have attached the press release for this (PDF), but you can view other details at the press site: http://press.myshoutoutloud.com
Hopefully you find this informative, and give our new service a try.
Here’s to a brighter future for the consumer public!
–
The mySHOUToutLOUD Team“real consumer complaints, for real people”
The press release that was attached can be found here. What happened? Nothing. No reply emails. No signups from the people who check this stuff out.
I got a great reply email from a few people over at Wired and San Jose Mercury News. Does that feel good? Knowing that MSM is more professional and has more basic courtesy than all of you couch slobs that make money from doing nothing?
Oh, Hello! I didn’t see you there, Michael Arrington!
User Friendly
So, in closing, here’s my suggestion to you wannabe-journalists who cover only what Arrington thinks is interesting:
Get your thumbs out of your asses, lose some weight, and find your spine. You wonder why MSM doesn’t see you as a threat, and even CSE didn’t give you “credentials” (albeit diminished) until this year? Probably because of things like this.
—-
P.S. Mahalo sucks.
P.S.S. All song titles courtesy of Marilyn Manson.
Programmers/Coders ?= Rockstars
[I know it's been awhile since I wrote anything here, I've been busy. And it's Thanksgiving, so what better way to celebrate than a post?]
An article over at CenterNetworks made mention of something that gets alot of attention: programmers as rockstars.
Normal People
For the uninitiated, many see programmers merely as “hackers” through movies like Swordfish, The Matrix, and others like it. Think about the image portrayed… the standard uniform is long (or “short ‘n messy”) hair, black clothing, leather, a heavy night life, and an ego.
My…name…is…NEO!
Real Programmers
In real life, is this true? I’d argue that there are two kinds of programmers: nerdy-WoW-playing-geekoid-trekkies, and the programmer rockstar. I’d also argue that the non-rockstar types are usually the lesser programmers, who aren’t as talented, and probably came upon the occupation as a fallback because of their social life, more than a natural calling.
The Rockstars
Those of us who are rockstar programmers, myself included, usually have huge egos… but not without good cause. Able to knock out complicated working programs/functions in a very short amount of time, we find ourselves feeling akin to God, or other deities, because of our natural ability. We typically can visualize entire program structures and functionality inside our heads, which makes it very easy to “realize” it (like an artist!) on the computer.
Yeah, not what I’m talking about at all.
Why?
Why are we so awesome (some would call that “cocky”)? I really have no idea, but I know that it’s never taken for granted. Every time I sit down to code for hours, I get what’s called a “code high”. Basically, it’s an adrenaline rush fueled by caffeine and a sense of abstract accomplishment that few others would understand. For many of us the joy of programming is not actually coding, but the efforts before and after: visualizing the entire thing, and then enjoying the aftermath of complete and total bug destruction (it’s like a giant puzzle… except you need a certain IQ level).
But we are.
Be Nice
So the next time you see “that guy” in your office, or at Starbucks, that is obviously dressed in the rockstar programmer uniform, and carries himself a slight air of superiority [but you're pretty sure he's not a "real" rockstar]… walk up to him (or, in the 2% chance it’s a woman, ‘her’), bow to them, and say “thank you for making my world much better, oh mighty Promaterus, God of Programming”.
They’ll appreciate it.
