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January 08, 2009

Rinky-dink ink tinkering isn't the answer

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 11:57 AM ET | Comments (0)

A Dutch design firm has released a new computer font, Ecofont, that they say uses less ink, and can therefore reduce the e-waste that results from depleted toner cartridges. It's a regular-looking font except that it's riddled with holes, and the firm, Spranq, claims this reduces toner use by up to 20 per cent.

Their hearts are in the right place, but this is clearly public-relations bunk. (And I realize I'm playing into it by linking to them.) There are plenty of environmental problems in the world, and technology waste is some of the most difficult to deal with. But the real effect of this font is statistically insignificant, and no one should be fooled into thinking it's a real solution to any of our pressing environmental problems.

This kind of "environmental" measure is increasingly common — easy to implement, emotionally gratifying, socially acceptable, and totally ineffectual. You would be better off turning on the ink-saving features now available in every modern printer; even better would be choosing not to print that two-line email in the first place.

This morning on Twitter I linked to a new advertisement from the World Wildlife Fund that makes a crucial point: consumers and end-users are being constantly scolded to change their behaviours and reduce their environmental footprint while government and industry continue to allow damaging beahviour to go unchecked. Individual efforts like installing compact fluorescent lightbulbs and downloading an "Ecofont" are fine, but they won't get us where we need to go unless the biggest and baddest polluters are brought to heel.

More entries on: Cultural industries | Environment | Planet Earth | Time Wasters | Visual art

September 03, 2008

Stephen Harper's Twitter profile. LOL!

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 02:41 PM ET | Comments (1)

This email just landed in my inbox:

Hi, This Magazine. Stephen Harper (pmharper) is now following your updates on Twitter. Check out Stephen Harper's profile here:

http://twitter.com/pmharper

Best,
Twitter

I'm not sure, but I have my doubts about whether the PM and This Magazine are going to be BFF's.

Still, this is a good way to introduce you to This Magazine's Twitter feed. If you're not familiar with Twitter, you can find out more about it here. Basically, it's a very tiny blog: we use it to point you toward interesting news articles throughout the day, and updates to our blog show up there too.

You can see our Twitter page and start following our exploits (140 characters at a time) at twitter.com/thismagazine.

More entries on: Time Wasters

February 23, 2007

Porn Pressure

Posted by calvin at 09:14 AM ET | Comments (1)

Adult content though your cellphone is officially canned due to pressure from concerned parents and Catholic lobby groups. Is sex and sexuality becoming repressed in an increasingly conservative North American climate? Or are companies finally being challenged on profiting off sexual content? Discuss.

More entries on: Time Wasters

February 19, 2007

Fox News fails to replicate Daily Show

Posted by mason at 01:19 PM ET | Comments (1)

Some people seem to think that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is losing its edge. While it's true the era-defining satirical news show has lost a number of fine correspondents, I find the writing and analysis to be as sharp as ever on most nights. And if you need something to remind you of how good it is, try a simple comparative analysis.

Fox News has launched its own spoof show, The Half Hour News Hour, which only deserves laughs for its sorry attempts at humour. The following clip has received roughly 400,000 views, but judging from the comments its "popularity" must be due to people's voyeuristic need to see it for themselves. And it truly is awful, with a laugh track complete with a loudly guffawing man and incredibly lame jokes told by a stern-faced anchor. See it for yourself, then thank the heavens we still have The Daily Show.

More entries on: Time Wasters

February 14, 2007

At the end of the day, all porn is handheld

Posted by calvin at 11:26 AM ET | Comments (0)

Porn is a bellwether of media format success. Typically, its seedly, unspoken nature, at least according to prudish Western sensibilities, belies the fact that it has proven time and time again to be a pioneer on new technology fronts.

Take, for example, the internet. While the battle fields of the world wide web lies scattered with the carcasses of many unmonetized dot.coms, Porn has proven itself a stalwart and profitable colonizer. Looking further back to the eighties, Betamax's superior quality standards were thwarted in part by the porn industries rally behind the VHS format. The current high definition format war between Blueray and HD-DVD is claimed to be actively courting the porn industry to "strongly influence" the balance of adoption to their respective formats. So with porn's pioneering track record in check, where is there left to conquer?

Wireless.

Canada's adoption for wireless benchmarked versus the rest of the world is markedly slow. This molasses-like pace is linked to many reasons including Canada's lower levels of disposable income, high network to low population density cost ratios, and a national competitive set consisting of only three giant, fiscally conservative telecoms.

While countries like South Korean, the UK and Japan continue to innovate laps around Canada with average consumers lapping up streaming TV, radio, games, customized downloads, instant messaging, email, social networking and GPS/LBS services all from their mobile devices, the average Canadian consumer remains in the dark ages with single digit percentages of Canadians using, let alone aware of such capabilities.

Enter Porn.

Given that the telecom trinity is reluctant to drop prices to increase consumer uptake on wireless services, adult content again becomes a pioneering spirit of, pardon the pun, "sex it and they will come."

Of the top 25 Web sites visited by Telus customers via their handsets in December, more than half were adult sites, Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson said. So if people are already seeking it out on their own volition, why not provide more of it? And charge $3-4 per item? The economics of it are a no-brainer.

The old tennet of "sex sells", holds true. In this case, perhaps sex sells cellular, but it is nearly unfathomable that any modern man or woman did not any any stage of their emerging sexual identity did not look a piece of porn. Because the lesser know tennent of "sex wanted is less than sex gotten" also holds true, sex and sex proxies have an ascribed value similar to any scare resource. Once a subsegment of people try paying for adult mobile content, people will be disposed to try other types of mobile content. Since Canadians have show reluctance to pay for more acceptable mobile content such as music or tv, adult content, becomes a more seductive ringer albeit on a teeny tiny mobile screen.

So why did it take so long for porn to make it to the mobile handset?

Without trying to sound like a broken record, it breaks down to the conservative nature of the telecoms and the prudish Western sensibilities on sex and pornography. Canadian telecoms are notorious for having a tight leash on content control over their airwaves. Unless you're crafty enough to have obtained an unlocked GSM phone from Chinatown, very little gets on or off the handset without authorization. The recent Catholic Church furor over Telus' initiative to monetize adult content is both expected and fading. Can you imagine if religious groups even tried to remove porn from hotel pay-per-views across the country? Inconceivable! In fact, the other two telecoms, Rogers and Bell, are likely waiting in the wings to launch their own adult content services while Telus navigates the theo-political minefield.

But at the end of the day, porn, as uncomfortable as it makes people feel (at least publically), should have an acceleration effect on Canadians using their handsets beyond just voice service. To Telus' credit, they are "giving consumers the option to access it in a responsible way, with proper age verification and ensuring that the content is actually legal for download in Canada." It took Canadian Idol to help mainstream text messaging to the broad Canadian public. If it takes adult content to eventually mainstream mobile phones as multimedia devices, personally I would consider that a less heinous price to pay with just a shred more dignity.

More entries on: Time Wasters

October 20, 2006

Procrastination deluxe

Posted by mason at 11:52 AM ET | Comments (4)

It's Friday, and if you can't find anything to procrastinate with, you're just not trying hard enough. (Try it on "manic mode" for best results.)

More entries on: Time Wasters

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