September 03, 2008

The real Sarah Palin scandal

The details are just coming out.

They're embarrassing. They're lurid.

They could derail the entire Republican ticket, or just win it fans among the sports-radio set.

Evidence exists of the time when John McCain's vice-presidential pick was.... ... a TV sportscaster.

And she had 1980s hair.... in the 1980s!

Here's the clip, now on YouTube (this shorter one replace the original, four-minute-plus one that I first found, but that was apparently taken down).

What's striking about it is not just dogsled racing as the lead item, or the college hockey game she mentions between the Nanooks and the Seawolves. This is Alaska, people, and Alaska doesn't care if you think it lives up to your stereotypes.

What's striking is not the intense focus on the Big Ten college basketball championship game, far away from Alaska. That must have been the night's best available clip package.

What's most striking is then-Sarah Heath, who was a college journalism major, dropping her 'G's all over the place, which makes her sound very small-market, indeed, and speaking in an accent that sounds rather Frances McDormand-in-"Fargo." Is that the Alaska accent? Who knew?

I don't know much more about her TV career, but her level of camera comfort here is meager enough to suggest it was a good idea that she got into politics.

(Okay, it's not an actual scandal, just an interesting footnote to a very compelling election.)

in Politics  |  Permalink | Comments (12)



High Five: Guns N' Roses, Huffington Post, Mariotti and the brotherhood of the common name

Fast takes on Web news:

1
The FBI arrests a blogger for putting leaked songs from Guns N' Roses' very-long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" LP on his blog. The hard part wasn't getting the songs; it was transferring them to MP3 format from the wax cylinders they were recorded on.

2 A new Web site, HowManyofMe.com, tells you the number of people in the United States who share your name. You can feel pretty insignificant as one of 9,659 Steven Johnsons, for instance, until you discover that there are more than five times as many John Smiths.

3 In setting up its new Chicago site, rich lady Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post recruited local bloggers with the promise of paying them exactly $0 for their contributions. Huffington Post Chicago: Your home for discount opinions.

4 Showing more of the customer-service magic it's known for, Comcast will cut Internet users off at 250 gigabytes of data per month. Confidential to peeved Comcast customers: AT&T's broadband DSL service is much cheaper and still without limits.

5 Sports columnist and 1980s hair wearer Jay Mariotti abruptly quits the Sun-Times, saying the Internet is the future of journalism. His confidence in this idea is shaken, however, after he talks to the Huffington Post Chicago people about writing for them.

in High Five  |  Permalink | Comments (1)



September 02, 2008

My Google Chrome experience: Crash, fail to initialize, "whoa"!

So I downloaded Google Chrome, the new (beta!) browser from the people who brought us Google Answers and, um, some search engine. Early review: looks nice, especially if you like baby blue, but I'd like it a lot better if I were able to use it to browse the Internet. Put another way, it's the perfect browser if you don't want to blow a lot of time surfing the Web.

It seemed to install just fine, but here's how my experience trying to call up Web sites went (click on these for detail):

Chromefail .
.
.
.

.
. and then....

Chromesnap .
.
.
.
.
.....followed by...

Chromecrash .
.
.
.
.
.
...

The "whoa" is cute, Keanu, too cute. So is the "snap." If it thought I were a woman, and I finally got the thing working, it probably would have told me, "You go, girl." (Good old fashioned error-code messages are just fine, Google.) 

I suspected the problem was in the proxy settings here at work, because Firefox wouldn't work for me either until those were adjusted. But neither my tweaks, nor those of my paper's tech support team in a faraway land, were able to change anything. Commenters on the Dallas Morning News tech blog report what sounds like the same problem, and I saw it mentioned on Reddit, too.

The usual variations on uninstall / reinstall / restart didn't work. Couldn't find anything on Google's still underpopulated help pages to steer me toward connectivity, but I suspect crowd wisdom will soon supply an answer. And I'll try to load this baby on my home computer tonight, where I'll probably get it running right away and prove the problem is in the corporate network infrastructure.

Meantime, the faraway land team has referred my problem back to our local tech supporters, and I eagerly await phase two of this operation.

I'm posting this, of course, from a blogging application running in Firefox.

UPDATE 9:40 p.m.: Downloaded quickly and seems to run without major problems at home -- although in this blogging application, Typepad, it seems to show only the HTML-coded version of a post, rather than giving the option of it or a plain-English version. Strange.

Second update, later on: big ole crash when I went to Hulu and tried to take a Webisode of "The Office" to full-screen. Also, per several comments below, I explicitly added the word "beta" above, which I thought was kind of a given on a Google new release, but probably ought to be spelled out, anyway.

in Browsers, Google  |  Permalink | Comments (48)



Google's new Chrome browser: Analysis in a vacuum

It's 10:36 a.m. as I write this and still no sign of Chrome, Google's surprise Web browser, being available for download, as is supposed to happen sometime today.

But it's also just 8:36 PST. So let's assume that we're just waiting for the Google folks to get off the Google bus from San Francisco down to Mountain View, eat their free breakfasts, slide into their ergonomic chairs and actually pull the trigger on the download, which is supposed to happen here. (For the time being, that link redirects you to the Google search page.)

Googlechrome In the meantime we can talk about the official Google comic book that explains it all, a really helpful gloss on how a browser works. My advice: Skip the pages about Javascript and virtual machines, because, no matter how much you risk brain health in trying to understand it, you won't get there.

But all the information about tabs and separate processes and the way Chrome plans to use memory much more efficiently is interesting, useful and promising. We've seen Google over-promise before, to be sure. But as someone who downloaded Firefox 3 with high hopes and has seen it crash more than in any previous version of Firefox, I'm ready to try an alternative.

(Also, don't forget about Opera, folks. It's well worth dancing a few dances with to see if you have any chemistry. On the Mac side, of course, there is Safari, which most people don't know can also work in Windows.)

While we're waiting, we can also talk about the name. It sounds more like it came out of a high-school shop class than the outfit that gave us the winningly whimsical "Google." Safari, of course, says hunting. Internet Explorer, with typical Microsoft literalism, says exploring the Internet. Opera says music. But what does Chrome say, beyond the color that car bumpers used to be?

We can also talk market prospects for Chrome. Google wants it because, obviously, browsers are the operating systems of the future. And ceding that control to Microsoft (Internet Explorer) or even the not-for-profit Mozilla (Firefox) isn't a smart move for a Google, which makes its money by feeding ads to people in browser windows.

But duplicating the success Firefox has had at breaking the IE monopoly won't be easy, even if you are as powerful as Google. Most people are mostly satisfied with whichever browser they use, and there's nothing in the Chrome comic that screams, "Average Web user, download me!"

Browsers are designed to be, by and large, transparent, the vehicle that gets you to your destination. Soup it up too much and you stop doing your job. Don't soup it up and nobody notices. Chrome faces a steep uphill climb.

But it'd be nice to see the thing unlocked so those of us who are curious can drive it around.

in Browsers, Google  |  Permalink | Comments (14)



August 29, 2008

On Twitter, McCain veep choice Sarah Palin already a folk hero

"Little known fact: the Northern Lights are really just the reflection from Sarah Palin's eyes."

"Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin doesn't need a gun to hunt. She has been known to throw a bullet through an adult bull elk."

"Little Known Fact: The Russians sold Alaska to America because Sarah Palin would not submit to autocracy."

The above one-liners are just a few of the gems from the instant Twitter meme developed around the storied toughness of John McCain's vice-presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Some are making fun of the tales of her essential Alaskan-ness, some are celebrating it, some are doing both.

But most of them, like the one where she gets first dibs on Alaskan wolfpack kills or where she has Bigfoot stored in her freezer, are flat-out funny.

This site, run by Republican operative/lobbyist Michael Turk, seems to be where it all began. Follow along here. Or join Twitter and take your own stab at, essentially, rewriting Paul Bunyan tales with Sarah Palin in the starring role. (Twitter, for those unfamiliar, is a microblogging application popular among tech cognoscenti.)

My (quick) tries:

Little Known Fact: In college, Sarah Palin broke Dinty Moore's heart.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin would have won Miss Alaska, but she forgot to clean off the polar-bear blood.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin wants to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but to save time, she's going to let oil companies do it for her.

in Politics  |  Permalink | Comments (163)



Also taking the bait of EW's 25 Funniest Movies list

Over at Pop Machine, Mark Caro takes issue with yet another Entertainment Weekly list, this one of the alleged 25 funniest comedies in the past 25 years.

"Withnail and I," which sneaks in at No. 25, is an inspired choice, as are "Office Space" and "Spinal Tap" in the top 5.

But there's a lot of dreck there, too. "Old School?" "Wedding Crashers?" If a movie isn't funnier than, say, the average episode of a good sitcom ("Scrubs," "The Office"... ), then it doesn't qualify as a funny movie and certainly not as a Top 25 funny movie.

Mark's right that "Groundhog Day" and "Rushmore" belong.

Here are the other key omissions (that I can think of off the top of my head):

"Shaun of the Dead." Easily Top Ten on the list, probably Top Five, for absolutely nailing the people-as-zombies central metaphor. The follow-up, "Hot Fuzz," was better than most of "EW's" 25, too.

"Idiocracy." Also Top Ten. This neglected Mike Judge gem may seem stupid at first, but pay attention to how often afterward you find yourself thinking about it, using it as a reference point for the everyday stupidity you encounter. I'm pretty sure one of this summer's hit reality shows was actually called, "Ow, My [Testes]."

Both "Toy Stories" and "The Incredibles." Maybe not super-funny, but I'll take a very good story with a few jokes that actually pay off over no story and lots of failed humor attempts (I'm talking to you, Will Ferrell).

"Election" and "Citizen Ruth." Me like the earlier, funny movies of Alexander Payne.

"Zelig." Woody Allen's mock documentary certainly worked for me at the time (1983), and I've got to believe it would hold up better than EW's absurd choice as No. 1, "Ghostbusters."

Oh, and I have a residual, perhaps wrongheaded fondness for "Tapeheads," a music-video-biz sendup from back when John Cusack was young and full of promise. "Waffles just pancakes with little squares."




in Film  |  Permalink | Comments (2)



Ten plot points in Aaron Sorkin's Facebook movie

Aaron Sorkin has gone on Facebook to announce that he's writing a movie about the founding of Facebook. Here are ten likely plot points:

1. Sitting in his freshman-hall dorm one evening, Mark Zuckerberg and friends lament how hard it is to keep track of everybody they've been meeting.

Zuckerberg_2 2. Mark Zuckerberg loses his copy of Harvard's freshman picture book.

3. Mark Zuckerberg, sitting in an introductory anthropology classroom, hears the instructor outline research on the importance of social connectivity among primates.

4. Mark Zuckerberg's best friend jabs him in the rib cage whenever he wants to say something. "Jesus, Michael, stop poking me," Zuckerberg complains.

5. As they walk rapidly across campus, a classmate makes fun of all the busted dot-coms, but Mark Zuckerberg shrugs and says, "That's what happens when you worry about the parties more than the programming."

6. Sitting in a toilet stall, Mark Zuckerberg is mesmerized by all the information he reads on the wall.

7. Mark Zuckerberg and friends almost call their new site "CampusFaces.edu," before wisdom prevails.

8. Mark Zuckerberg comes very close to really enjoying a frat party, but the woman he thinks he's going to go home with explains, "I'm just not drunk enough to sleep with a geek."

9.  In New Haven for the Harvard-Yale game, Mark Zuckerberg and friends give out beer cozies with "Facebook.com" printed on them. By Monday their registrations have doubled.

10. As he packs his belongings, Mark Zuckerberg runs into the girl who rejected him at the party. She pales as he explains he's headed to Silicon Valley with $500,000 in funding. "Join my site," he tells her. "I'll friend you." 

(Photo: AP.)

in Film, Social networks  |  Permalink | Comments (2)



August 27, 2008

High Five: Seinfeld for Vista, Cusack for spellcheck, and LA Times for Hillary as veep

Fast takes on Web news

1. Internet users ages 10 to 14 find the Web more attractive than TV, according to a study. It's not that the Net is so enticing; it's just that by the time you hit 10, you've seen every "SpongeBob" episode an average of 23 times.

Lloyddobler 2. Guest blogging on the new Huffington Post Chicago site, Evanston native John Cusack misspells the names of Chris "Chellios" and Michael "Jordon," among other egregious errors (captured here before being corrected) that prompt one site to call Cusack's the "Worst Celebrity Blog Post Ever." But the actor mustered a rousing Chicago sports comeback: When he sang during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field over the weekend, he knew exactly how many strikes till you're out.

(At left, Lloyd Dobler plays some Peater Gabrielle.)

3. Microsoft hires Jerry Seinfeld to help push its much-maligned Vista product. It makes sense: Underperforming operating system robbed of incentive for excellence by years of monopoly dominance hires infrequently performing comedian robbed of incentive for humor by years of sitcom dominance.

4. The Los Angeles Times Web site mistakenly publishes, briefly, a story outlining Barack Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton as his running mate. Welcome to the Tribune family, L.A. Times! Your "Dewey defeats Truman" T-shirt is on its way.

5. Web users embrace the availability of thousands of hours of Olympics footage on NBC's Web site, but if you want to see the Opening Ceremony again, you have to buy an NBC DVD. Or just wait till Blue Man Group develops some real ambition.

in High Five  |  Permalink | Comments (2)



Life, meet hands: Biking Western Avenue

As part of Tempo's Western Avenue series, I volunteered to negotiate it on two wheels. This ran Aug. 20.

You can think of less bicycle-friendly places than Western Avenue.

A thicket of blackberry bushes, for example.

Or the Dan Ryan Expressway, as opposed to the Dan Ryan Woods, a forest preserve that is, in fact, on Western.

But a bike ride 24 miles up the city's longest street will convince you that some stunts are safer left in the imagination, that trying to create a bike lane between parked cars and two buzzing lanes of traffic is not comfortably done by merely crossing your fingers, pedaling hard and hoping for the best.

Such a ride will convince you that Mayor Richard Daley's efforts to make Chicago bike-friendly have a long way to go and that Western, for all its ability to represent the many faces of Chicago, doesn't do so well in showcasing the city's ability to function in the post-fossil fuel era.

Stevebike2_2 On the other hand, even if it does involve 135 minutes of trepidation, it's tough to beat getting paid to spend a day riding your bike, especially when you finish with nothing worse than a powerful thirst and a gentle burn in your quadriceps.

I set out on a summer weekday morning that was, on the one hand, heading toward 90 degrees but, on the other hand, clear and dry. The route was due north, city border to city border, 119th Street to Howard Avenue. One rider, one water bottle, one well-traveled 1994-model Bianchi hybrid bicycle.

The goal was to get a closer, slower look at this quintessential city street, yes, but also just to see what would happen.

Here's what happened:

A husky ran onto the road. A Buick jammed on its brakes to avoid it. An old man walking yelled, "Get ahold of your dog!"

Two fire trucks whizzed by, heading south, sirens blaring. Further north, it was one cop car. A dry-cleaning truck almost backed into me. And a pickup and I tried to get to the same place at the same time. We both saw each other, both stopped.

In a highway underpass, something—and I really don't want to know what, at this point—dripped on me.

Continue reading "Life, meet hands: Biking Western Avenue"
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EveryBlock's Adrian Holovaty can't find "individuality or entrepreneurship" in the news business

Just back from vacation and catching up on some cross-posting of print pieces. This profile was the Sunday magazine cover story on August 17, 2008.

In its day-to-day workings, EveryBlock.com, Adrian Holovaty's Web 2.0 startup, is about as far from colorful as a business can get. And Holovaty, one of the nation's hottest computer programmers, isn't afraid to tell you so.

Adrian "It's generally just a bunch of guys typing into their computers," says Holovaty, with typical diffidence. "Oh, we recently got a small Nerf basketball hoop for our office, so I guess that constitutes action."

The action, though, around EveryBlock.com is hot and heavy. A means of painting a portrait of your own neighborhood by delving into the site's constantly updated databases-crimes, housing inspections, news stories and many more-it's got big media companies vying to partner up and the tech community heralding its achievement.

Yet when it began in January, the site staged none of those extravagant Internet launch parties designed to herald its arrival and, one suspects, to let computer geeks impress preternaturally buff singles with all the money their industry attracts.

"There's the dot-com, Silicon Valley, blow-all-your-money-on-booze style," says Holovaty, 27. "Then there's the Chicago thing: Do something, do it well and be modest about it."

Google's Chicago office, a few blocks north, has an espresso machine, Lava lamps, free lunches. EveryBlock, located in a room it sublets from a map company in a drab 4th-floor office overlooking the downtown "L" tracks, has desktops and electrical outlets.

"This should not be here," Holovaty says one morning in June, spying an empty almond can and throwing it out. "We are sparse."

The site itself is sparse, like Holovaty's manner, sober and forthright, but not without flashes of dry humor.

Holovaty, part programmer, part journalist, hates "hackish" but loves "elegant" computer code: It has to look good not just on the Web but to developers peering under the hood. EveryBlock.com is a reflection of that: a clean, crisp, contemporary design, no extraneous parts, no begging for the current buzzword of user-generated content, no mechanisms to let you upload video of your cat doing something cute, because that's what everyone else is doing these days.

"I'm just amazed at how much the news industry does because other people are doing it," he says. "There's no sense of individuality or entrepreneurship."

Reflecting his belief that data can tell a story and has been underused in doing so, EveryBlock is databases in action, organized to be instantly searchable by location.

Continue reading "EveryBlock's Adrian Holovaty can't find "individuality or entrepreneurship" in the news business"
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About this blog

In Hypertext, Internet critic Steve Johnson attempts comment on what's new and/or interesting on the Web from the perspective of a user, rather than a business writer or a gadget freak. He also reserves the right to digress.

For some of his recent in-print writings, go here. For e-mail, use sajohnson@tribune.com, although 'A' is not his middle initial.


Comments are reviewed before posting in an effort to remove foul language, commercial messages, irrelevancies, unfair attacks and suspiciously accurate descriptions of the blogger's darkest fantasies.




>> About Steve Johnson
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Last 10 posts
•  The real Sarah Palin scandal

•  High Five: Guns N' Roses, Huffington Post, Mariotti and the brotherhood of the common name

•  My Google Chrome experience: Crash, fail to initialize, "whoa"!

•  Google's new Chrome browser: Analysis in a vacuum

•  On Twitter, McCain veep choice Sarah Palin already a folk hero

•  Also taking the bait of EW's 25 Funniest Movies list

•  Ten plot points in Aaron Sorkin's Facebook movie

•  High Five: Seinfeld for Vista, Cusack for spellcheck, and LA Times for Hillary as veep

•  Life, meet hands: Biking Western Avenue

•  EveryBlock's Adrian Holovaty can't find "individuality or entrepreneurship" in the news business



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