Samsung apparently put on a bizarre, community-theatre extravaganza for its Galaxy S4 introduction last night, and in doing so seems to have staked its claim as the electronics company that is everything Apple isn’t. Cult of Android‘s John Brownlee: . . . tonight, what Samsung showed off was gimmick after gimmick. Features no one will …
Monthly Archive: March 2013
Mar 13 2013
A Population Equally Brave
Jennifer Michael Hecht is one of my favorite writers, and in her review of Susan Jacoby’s new book on Robert Ingersoll, she leaves me with this haunting thought: There have been atheists and religious doubters throughout history, but the ones who remain famous after their deaths tend to have been equally famous for something else …
Mar 13 2013
A Phase of Incestuous Contraction
As a performing artist, here’s a thing I’ve definitely fretted over; doing art only for an audience of people who all do the same thing. Here’s Steve Almond at The New Republic writing from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference (AWP): But there’s a larger and more unsettling truth. . . one that …
Mar 13 2013
The Bergoglio Imbroglio: The New Pope, Tweeted
I enjoy Twitter during big public events, especially those that are incredibly silly. One such kind of event would be, say, a GOP candidates’ debate. Today, we had the announcement of the new pope, which is even sillier because at least with Republican presidential candidates, only some of them think they were anointed by God. …
Mar 13 2013
Hospitality Used to Scare Me (And a Humble Ask)
I don’t know what to do in the face of hospitality. It confuses me, frightens me. Prime example: On our honeymoon, the wife and I were stranded by our cruise ship because our plane had mechanical trouble, so we had to instead fly to where the boat would meet up with us. Luckily, her mother …
Mar 11 2013
Let Zelda Be Zelda
The damsel in distress cliche, enshrined in our video games. This is fantastic. I’ll definitely be watching more of Anita Sarkeesian’s videos.
Mar 10 2013
Self-Flagellation over Books Not Read
I was just complaining on Twitter that I feel genuine and physiologically-palpable anxiety over the idea that there are so many Important Books that I’ve never gotten to, and likely never will. (Read more about my struggles with particular aspects of the Western Canon here.) Then Bill Boulden (@Spruke) pointed me to this piece at NPR …
Mar 10 2013
Used Digital Sales Can Totally Work (I Think)
Thanks to a set of recent patent filings from Apple and Amazon, reports are saying that the two companies are both looking at ways for consumers of their digital products to resell them to other users, in a sense, setting up “used” mp3 and ebook exchanges. Many seem confused about how this would even work, …
Mar 09 2013
Before Apple Could Win the Internet, Macs Had to Stop Sucking
Michael Arrington writes that the old arguments about Apple and Microsoft are missing the obvious: that as the Web became the thing we used computers for, the OS that ran Office the best no longer really mattered: Suddenly computers weren’t entirely about Office, they were now about Office and the Internet. Mac had only a …
Mar 09 2013
Augmenting Reality All the Way Down
I sometimes think that if you could personify the current state of American society, and “film” our economic situation, it might look kind of like a Baz Luhrmann picture, with throngs of cavorting people all dressed to the nines-to-the-ninth-power, but all rotting on the inside. A glittery, sparkling, hedonistic, gala ball at which everyone secretly …
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