Jonathan is a VJ, Part 2

Here we are again, folks. It’s time for another edition of “Jonathan is a VJ.” This time around, I’m thinking that I’ll take you on a journey of old school MTV / VH1 delights, stuff that I watched over and over again as a kid. Without further delay, let’s get started with probably the first music video I ever watched. Incidentally, it’s the first music video I watched on MTV’s New Site.

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All The Best Problems Are My Fault

If you follow me on twitter, or if you just live within the vicinity, I’ve no doubt told you that I was trying to attach my domain name to a specific folder within http://www.hilarioushenry.com . You probably also caught my copious frustration as attempt after attempt to get the darned thing to work failed. I called up GoDaddy support and they were very helpful, and were even very patient with me, but the problem persisted. So, then I get a call from @godaddyguy and we went over the problem again. As it turns out, it was something I had failed to change in my WordPress settings. When I changed that, the domain latched onto the folder instantly.

Do you realize how exciting it is to know that the problem is on your end? When things go to shit, it’s a comfort to realize that you are to blame and that it’s not something on the other end, something that you can’t control. Take my past relationship with Comcast for example. All of my problems with them stemmed from something that only they could fix on their end or come over to my end and fix. Waiting on them was hell. Waiting to see where the problem existed was hell. Here, it was just a simple tweak on my end and everything was as right as rain.

That, my friends, is exciting.

And now I’ll stop rambling like a buffoon and go make some lunch.

Time To Update You

If you haven’t heard yet through the social network grape-vine(s), I’m co-hosting a new podcast with three friends I met on the internet called Generation Tech. The team is comprised of yours truly, Matsie, Matt, and Mike. We gather on skype each week to record our thoughts and feelings about the tech world today and it’s implications on our lives, all the while talking trash. It’s truly a remarkable endeavor and it’s been nothing but a blast these past few episodes. Granted, we’re only coming up on our fourth episode, but don’t let that deter you. Get in on the ground floor and check us out. We also write articles throughout the week and spend copious amounts of time on twitter, friendfeed and facebook. (Add us, please….or else)

I’m also working on various writing projects and generally keeping as busy as I possibly can. Don’t really want to spoil anything or give away too much too early, but I think there is some promising content coming your way. Anyway, that’s really all I have for you this evening. Before I go, here’s a song that’s been running through my head all night. Ciao.

Jonathan is a VJ, Part 1

With the new MTV music video site just recently launched, I thought I would start a small little series on my blog where I pick five music videos I have saved in my favorites and embed them here for you to enjoy. If you want, you can friend me on the new site and keep up to date with what music videos I’m favoriting. The list right now is mostly small, but I’ll be adding more as I find them. Anyway, onto the music fest!

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Weighing In On Rev3 Changes

Big news today in the world of New Media. Revision3 decided today to cut back some of it’s shows as well as a few of it’s employees to persevere through this economic downturn. While I’m saddened that such talented people are out of work, I’m not too terribly disappointed that some of these shows are no longer a part of the Rev3 lineup. Of course, I’m referring to Internet Superstar, Pixel Perfect, and Pop Siren.

Internet Superstar. A lot of problems exist with this show, in my opinion, and they all seem to stem from Martin Sargeant’s very first show with Rev3, Infected. I gave that show a chance when it first aired, and just didn’t get it. I understood what was supposed to be funny about it, but I lost interest about ten minutes into the first episode. I also couldn’t get through episode two, or episode three, and stopped completely ten seconds into the fourth episode. It was the kind of humor that I don’t subscribe to, and the lack of focus for the show only served to piss me off.

When Web Drifter came into the fray, things changed for me. The show had Martin Sargeant in his element: out and about with all the “weird” internet people he could find. It was a promising concept, and as the series progressed, it started to take a form that I really enjoyed.

And then it was dropped for Internet Superstar (or Infected 2.0: Where’s Joey?). Despite being more focused in scope than infected, it just couldn’t make up it’s mind about where it wanted to go. This was quite evident when the full length version of the show got cut down to just it’s daily “bytes” only. Really, how much longer could this show have gone on anyway? Personally, I think cutting this show down was a wise choice, and should have happened even before this economy crunch occurred.

Pixel Perfect. I really liked this show, but as it continued, I noticed that it just didn’t really fit into the Rev3 lineup. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks that, but there was a definite vibe that this show was kind of outside the core content that Rev3 was producing.

Pop Siren. Now here’s a show with promise and a lack of vision at the same time. I remember watching it a few times between the older (longer) version and the updated version. It lost a lot in the translation, and it only showed me that like Internet Superstar, it just wasn’t finding it’s place in the core lineup. A shame, because I was definitely into it for awhile there.

All in all, it’s a shame to see these shows go. Wine Library TV and EPIC FU will of course find their footing again, considering they were established before Rev3. I can only hope that the talented people from these dropped shows will find their next big thing and give it their all. Best of luck to everyone!

Paralyzed With Joy

Had my RSS feed reader on this afternoon in class (I know, shame on me..) when this article popped up on Gizmodo about these brain implants that help paralyzed monkeys regain movement. I clicked through to the New Scientist article and read further on the breakthrough implant. I must say that I’m quite fascinated by the implications of this, especially since I have a constant fear of waking up one morning and finding myself unable to move. Anyway, give the articles a look-see.

If We Could Still Have A Song

Had the chance awhile back to see The New Pornographers live at The Hideout here in Chicago. They played a lot off of their new(ish) album Challengers, including this gem that I hadn’t given much of a chance. Listening to their performance live was nothing short of spectacular, and the circumstances around hearing that changed the way I looked at the album completely. Anyway, check it out.

(NOTE: If it doesn’t play. Hit the play / pause a couple of times)

Instant (hard) On

Was poking around on Valleywag and noticed a small piece about Microsoft probing it’s users in regards to an “instant on” feature for their computers. The question asked if they would be willing to part with a majority of features of the Windows OS for an 8 second boot time. I don’t know about you all, but I’m wondering why this has to be so “gosh darn” complicated.

It’s this simple: All the current instant-on solutions involve packing the computer with a flash memory chip, one that contains a downsized operating system.

Why can’t they just figure out a better way to manage resources and not load all of them on startup? Granted, I’m asking these questions as someone who doesn’t know a lot about “OS startups,” but as a simple consumer I have to wonder if things aren’t just arbitrarily complicated. Any light shed on this for me would be super.