I’m gonna be taking a trip to The Cabin in The Woods tonight, so time is sparse, thus some linkys for you:
- In Defense of Microsoft Word – Aziz makes a nice argument in response to incessant whinging on the internets:
It’s certainly true that using Word for simple text like email or blog posts is overkill, in much the same way that using a jet engine to drive your lawnmower is overkill. What’s peculiar is that rather than using simpler tools for their simpler tasks, these people have declared that the more complex and capable tool is “obsolete” and “must die”. This attitude betrays a type of phobia towards technology that I suspect has grown more prevalent as our technology interfaces have become increasingly more “dumbed down”.
I mostly agree with Aziz. While I haven’t used Word (or a Word processor in general) in my personal life in years, I use it every day at work, and the notion that you can’t use Word to collaborate is bonkers. It may not be the best tool for that, but it’s certainly not something that needs to die. An interesting post…
- Books: Bits vs. Atoms – Those who have enjoyed my recent bloviating about ebooks will probably get a kick out of this… better organized… take on the subject (that being said, we cover a lot of the same ground).
- What Amazon’s ebook strategy means – Speaking of ebooks, Charlie Stross clearly lays out why Amazon is dominating the ebook market, how the publishers shot themselves in the foot by practically insisting that Amazon dominate the market, why it’s a bad situation to be in, and how publishers can take some steps in the right direction. Hint: get rid of DRM, you dummies! There’s a lot of lawsuits and wanking in the book and ebook industry right now, and it’s tempting to take sides with Amazon or the publishers or Apple or whoever, but the more I read about it, the more I think that everyone is to blame. So far, this hasn’t really impacted us consumers that much, but it certainly could. Here’s to hoping these folks get their heads bolted on straight in the near future.
- Neal Stephenson has a hard time talking about swordplay – Normally I find “trailers” for books to be mildly embarrassing (the trailer for Stephenson’s Anathem is a particularly bad example), but this one is pretty funny. No idea how much of it will be represented in the forthcoming paperback release of The Mongoliad, but still.
- Gabe’s PAX Post – Gabe from Penny Arcade helps run huge video game conventions that are explicitely targeted towards players (most conventions are about general technology or development, and are targeted towards journalists or developers). As one of the creators and organizers, Gabe has to deal with all sorts of crap, and he covers a few of these, including a little prank he played on a troll, and a vexing problem concerning boobies (aka the perennial Booth Babe issue). Read the whole thing, but the key graph is this:
How about all of you that hate me get together and have your own conference. I need you to decide if half naked girls are empowered or exploited because I’m doing my fucking best here and it’s apparently always wrong. I swear to God I don’t understand how I’m supposed to know if I’m promoting the patriarchy or criminalizing the female body.
As Steven notes, this is a cry for help. I wish I had answers, but fortunately, I’m not in Gabe’s position. I can just treat people equally and be happy with that.
That’s all for now. Also, go Flyers.