Monthly Archives: September 2009

Tweeters Never Prosper

Posted on September 28, 2009 | 4 Comments

Man, everyone’s in a tizzy over The Washington Post’s new social media guidelines for reporters. The full text of the policy is on PaidContent.org, but to summarize, WaPo expects its editors and journalists to be responsible on Twitter/Facebook and not post anything that might be construed as editorializing.

Bloggers are having all kinds of fun opining on how restrictive and backwards the policies are. Journalists should be able to say whatever they want, right?! (TechCrunch rails on WaPo here). I disagree with just about everything in that post. News organizations have a huge stake in maintaining objectivity. They owe their very existence to it. In the case of reporters, they’re paid for their unbiased take on news events. Why should WaPo let them go shoot their mouths off on Twitter? Credibility and the perception of objectivity of the kind that WaPo relies on is not easily obtained, but it is easily lost.

PCMag has a much more relaxed policy, mainly because they see Twitter as a traffic driver to the PCMag.com site and a way for writers/editors to build PCMag’s cachet on the social network. But the staff’s tweeting runs the gamut. Brian Heater (@bheater) has a feed full of non-sequiter jokes–no tech stuff at all. Sascha Segan (@saschasegan) and Cisco Cheng (@ciscoc) are, in my opinion, some of the best tech tweeters, providing their followers with all kinds of good info.

But that’s only one approach to the Twitter issue, and it’s too early to say if it’s the right one. Would PCMag be better served by keeping all those writers locked up and making them supply that info for publishing on the PCMag web site/blogs? I don’t think so, but perhaps. Would they have a right to enforce such a policy? Of course. After all, Twitter is, in some respects, a competing publishing platform.

Lastly, TechCrunch’s bloggers always seem unable to grasp the idea that not every news outlet can be or should be or wants to be just like TechCrunch, and that there’s a need for different news outlets with different goals and models. I’m glad TechCrunch does what it does, and it does it well; but we need some WaPos and some NYTs and some PCMags too.

Update: I meant to include this story from Mashable, about Texas Tech football telling the players to stop tweeting after a couple of them said negative things about the team and head coach. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

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Posted in Tech Stuff, Web Stuff, Work Stuff

I’ll Miss You, PCMag

Posted on September 16, 2009 | 8 Comments


Today’s my last full day at PCMag, after working there for five and a half years. It was my first (paying) job in the media, and my boss, Vicki, was the one that hired me. And, incredibly unusual for a media company, our PCMag.com team has changed very little in the past five years–most of the people on the PCMag.com online team were there when I started, or were hired soon after. I think that’s a real testament to quality of the workplace and the quality of the work the team does.

As with any group of people that have spent so much time together, we’ve built some tight bonds and our own culture, which I’ll really miss. I’m leaving PCMag of my own volition, but it’s still going to be hard to leave the friends and the job behind. So I thought I’d make a list of all the things I’ll miss about the place. It’s mostly for myself, but also so the people I’ve worked with will know how I feel upon leaving. Here’s the list:

The Lunchtime Music Jams
Almost every day, a group of us eat lunch in my office and listen to music on GrooveShark.com. We choose a theme each day, and go around the circle picking songs that fit with the theme. We have the snobbiest of indie music snobs (Brian) and the poppiest of American Idol fans (Jen), so the playlist we create is bizarre and delightful. It’s like a midday party every day!


The Creative Mischief
Creative people have fun in creative ways, and I’ll never forget the pranks and games we played in our downtime. Office laser-tag wars. An office filled to the ceiling with balloons. A 50X-scale recreation of the PCMag.com homepage on Vicki’s office wall. Epic Rock Band and Karaoke nights. The Battle of Hello Kitty vs. Bobblehead Michael Miller. The many, many one-joke websites we launched. The mischievous idea that morphed into a full-blown podcast with thousands of listeners (oops!)

The Toys
We are literally surrounded by toys in the office, and encouraged to play with them. We have PR people emailing us, begging us to accept new toys to play with. That’s quite a nice situation to be in.

The Smart People
Top to bottom, PCMag is full of smart people. Those analysts in the PCMag Labs know everything, and it’s fun to associate with guys like that. And of course I’ll miss the intelligent, fun editorial and production teams.

The Nerds
Seriously, PCMag has some NERDS. You think I’m a nerd? Get Brian Heater, Eric Griffith, and Whitney Reynolds together–it’s like they’re speaking a different language (probably some mixture of Klingon, high-elvish, and parseltongue).


The Creative Freedom
Vicki has always left me to my own devices, to a large extent. When I wanted to launch a software blog (AppScout), she and Jim Louderback both encouraged it and facilitated it. When I wanted to write a fun story or review a cool new game or attend a nerdy tech conference, she’s always given me the green light. And she was very supportive of the PCMag After Hours podcast, even when it became more like PCMag Workday Hours. That kind of freedom at a workplace is rare, and I’ll miss it very much.

The Grammar Fights
Words cannot express how much fun it is to have it out with co-workers over grammar and usage. Hashing out the perfect wording of headlines might actually be my No. 1 favorite workplace activity, and I love that there are plenty of other people at PCMag who feel the same way. I hope my successor discovers the trove of good headlines that is Whitney Reynolds (she’s not technically an editor, but more than once I’ve given her dull headlines or dreary copy which she miraculously made fun and interesting).

The News
It’s fun working in the media. You get to meet interesting people and always be in the know on the cool tech stuff that’s happening. I love the churn of the daily news cycle, and though I wouldn’t call myself a *real journalist*, it’s been fun to participate in the news world in the limited capacity that I did.

The Events
Even more than the daily news grind, I’m going to miss covering events. I’m seriously going to be depressed come early January when half the world is in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s stressful, it’s exhausting, and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite four days of the whole year.

Web Surfing
Facebook? Twitter? Digg? It was my job to check them regularly/obsessively. :-)

I’ve only highlighted the fun stuff, of course. Here’s my list of things I didn’t like about PCMag:

Just kidding. I’m not blogging about that.

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Posted in Tech Stuff, Web Stuff, Work Stuff

SuperBaby!

Posted on September 14, 2009 | 4 Comments

So, Bumblebee’s kind of standing on her own, holding her head up on her own, and she’s getting really good at kicking me in the stomach. Which means it’s time to come to grips with what’s really happening here: Our baby is clearly the first of a new race of mutant superhumans. We don’t know whether she gained her powers through a genetic anomaly, or maybe she was bitten by some kind of bionic insect in our apartment. Or perhaps Corinne produces milk with an abnormally high concentration of midi-chlorians.

Whatever the cause, it’s good that Corinne and I caught Bumblebee’s “special-ness” early, so we can be on the lookout for any unusual traits, like levitation or telekinesis (known in some circles as “mind bullets.”) We’ll be able to catch any trait early and assist her to fully develop it. Will she be a Jean Grey? Wonder Woman? Matilda?

But the real test for us as parents will be to make sure she grows up to be a hero instead of a villain. For instance, she’ll need to be smart, but not so smart that she can build a giant undersea laser gun to blow up the moon. We’ll need to teach her that with great power comes great responsibility, that she can only use her powers for the good of mankind, and that Anakin didn’t HAVE to become Darth Vader—it was a choice he made. And we’ll have to be ready to enforce a strict no-school-sports policy. (“If Clark Kent didn’t get to run track, YOU don’t get to run track.”)

Hopefully she gets a cool power like flight or imperviousness to injury. None of this X-ray vision nonsense. And pray with us that her skin doesn’t turn blue when her power starts to manifest itself.

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Posted in Family Stuff

Bumblebee’s First Photo Shoot

Posted on September 12, 2009 | Leave a comment


Check out my buddy Josh Maready’s photography site—alongside pics of supermodels and Olympians, there are some super rad shots of little Bumblebee. Josh must’ve been shooting with a very fast lens to be able to capture her in between crying fits.

Josh, you’re a good photographer and a good friend for spending an afternoon with a crying baby and making her look so adorable! Readers, browse the rest of his pics, they’re great!

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Posted in Family Stuff

How ‘Bout That Mountain West Conference?

Posted on September 5, 2009 | 1 Comment


I’m not going to gloat too much about BYU’s win over No. 3 Oklahoma (I didn’t have much to do with it, all told), but the national media and NCAA/BCS are going to have to give the MWC some respect now. 2008′s season ended with a terrific Alabama thumping by the Utes, and 2009′s season opens with an ugly BYU win over Oklahoma (and we really did play a better game, even before Bradford went out [and here's hoping he has a quick recovery, because that really sucks for him]).

When you factor in the financial discrepancy between a BCS team like Oklahoma and a non-BCS team like BYU, and then factor in the recruiting advantages OK has due to better TV contracts, better funding, and the chance to play for the nat’l title, this is a momentous win for every non-BCS school.

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More Blogs! We Need More Blogs! (Pt. 2)

Posted on September 5, 2009 | Leave a comment

Certain harrowing thrills never go away. The moment before my band strikes into our opening song, we all look at each other and nod that we’re ready, and it’s quite a rush (when you play in small clubs, you never REALLY know how that first note is going to sound–it usually sounds horrendous).

I get a similar rush of adrenaline every time I post something to PCMag or AppScout. I’ve posted hundreds of stories to those sites, but there’s still that little bit of fear that maybe I just wrote a piece of total crap that everyone’s going to call me out on.

It’s not the random hate-spewing trolls that have me worried. Everyone who ever creates anything online has to deal with those morons, and they’re easy to ignore. No, I worry about the commenters who might read my article and find either factual errors or glaring flaws in my reasoning. Luckily, that’s only really happened once that I can think of off-hand (it was a doozy though).

Much more terrifying than writing for tech publications is blogging for By Common Consent, a blog frequented by friendly but crazy-smart mormon lawyers, historians, and scholars.

Even scarier than that is a new gig I got through my friend Jeff–writing album reviews for PrettyMuchAmazing.com. Tell you what, reviewing cameras and music players is NOTHING compared to reviewing a collection of music. There are no objective lists of specs and features to fall back on, no quantifiable performance stats, just a bunch of notes and words. You have to decide whether you like those notes and words, and then be ready to defend yourself against the inevitable horde of fans or haterz who think the album is amazing/awful–the only thing they’ll ever agree on is that you’re full of crap.

As I told Jeff this week, music criticism is a terrifying hobby.

In any case, it’s one I’ve just recently picked up: My first review for Pretty Much Amazing went live tonight, a review of White Denim’s new album “Fits.” White Denim is one of those polarizing bands that people seem to either love or hate, so I guess we’ll see which crowd comes out in greater numbers in the PMA comments.

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Posted in Music Stuff, Web Stuff

Visitors!

Posted on September 3, 2009 | 2 Comments

We’re now officially halfway through the post-delivery “visitor phase” of Bumblebee’s young life: Corinne’s mother, father, and sisters+bro in law have been out to stay with us and meet the baby, and my brother and parents will be coming out in the next few weeks.

We love having family around; it’s been especially good for Corinne to have company while she adjusts to being home during the days instead of at the office. But I always feel a little guilty when we have out-of-town company.

Not because our apartment’s smaller than they’re used to, or because we don’t have a closet or a spare bathroom to offer guests. More just because I feel like we’re letting our company down if they’re not having an amazing New York experience.

When Corinne’s family was here, much of our time was spent trekking back and forth to Whole Foods, playing Rock Band, walking around, eating at various neighborhood restaurants, and watching music videos (I’m teaching Bumblebee the moves to Shakira’s “She Wolf”–they’re never too young!).

It’s all fun stuff, and it’s the kind of stuff Corinne and I do when we don’t have company, but it’s not, like, party-in-The-Big-City type of stuff. Like, we should be hanging out with Jay-Z and partying with Lady GaGa on the set of her new video shoot.

Oh well. Our neighborhood is a lot more fun now that we have a Whole Foods. It opened last Thursday, and I think Corinne has been there 5 of the 6 days it’s been open. I’ve been there thrice. Their dessert bar is way better than anything Jay-Z has to offer.

Come to New York: The City of Organic Lemon Bars and All-Night Rock Band Tournaments!

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Posted in Family Stuff, New York Stuff