The Des Moines Register is checking out the future (or at the very least, the very recent past)

I’ve been hooking up with lots of local Twitter-ers lately (pretty much all of them can be found here), one of which was the Twitter account for the Des Moines Register. I unfollowed this account when, after just an hour or so, it became apparent that it is nothing more than an automated bot distributing top stories to the account. I found the concept a boring and trite use of the technology.

I found out yesterday that there’s an actual person behind the account, and he’s there tirelessly attempting to push the Des Moines Register into some semblance of the future of web-based social systems. I was shocked to learn the truth. But that’s not all.

Today I learned that the Des Moines Register has a page on their site with a Twitter widget that shows all of the tweets of its followers. I just had to capture a screenshot (below) of me admitting that the Register is definitely cooler than I had originally considered.

A newspaper. Trying to redefine itself by introducing its readers – and, truly, itself – to the social pipeline. Twittering, digging, Facebooking, etc. – they are all nothing more than channels for messages, and its great to see a member of “old media” get the “new media” and comprehend its value.

So, good for you, Des Moines Register! Keep stumbling into the future/very recent past, and we’ll keep stumbling alongside you.

Weather is great for sitting inside and watching Nova

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this here on the blog before, but all of us in my family are guilty of being Nova-philes. We gather together every Tuesday evening to watch interesting stories about exploding stars, or volcanic eruptions, or Mayan culture, or melting icebergs. It’s fascinating, and what really makes me smile is the fact that my 5-year-old son becomes just as engrossed in these episodes as I do.

Last night was a great evening for several reasons. I got home from work to a pair of boys that were eager to run and play at the park and enjoy the nice weather. We all hiked up to the park and played together for an hour. We wandered to the grocery store and picked up dinner, then hiked back home (it’s only about 4 blocks – not much of a hike, to tell the truth) and sat down for some Nova. It wasn’t an overly interesting show (I prefer the ultra-science topics, like space and biology, interspersed with the occasional ancient civilization), but we all got to hang out together.

At one point I realized that I need to cherish these moments. My boys are currently only 5 and 2, but the laws of nature dictate that they get older, and eventually they will have their own social lives to manage, far, far away from our cozy little home. For now, I have to hold onto the moments where we get to cuddle together on the couch and watch a show together. Someday very soon, the very word “cuddle” will force my boys will roll their eyes and pretend that we old parental units don’t exist.

Using Twhirl – so far, so good

So, I’ve moved from TwitterFox back to an Adobe AIR app for my Twittering. This time, it isn’t Snitter – I’m now using Twhirl.

So far the experience is pleasant. The interface is easy to use and understand, and it runs fast and doesn’t eat up too many CPU cycles (more of an effect of it being an AIR app than anything else, I’m sure).

Just two fairly annoying gripes:

1. When I log on for the first time, it loads up my 20 most recent incoming tweets AND my 20 most recent REPLIES. I can’t change that. So I’m immediately hit with over half my quota of 70 connections for the hour for no apparent reason. Luckily this issue is at the top of the Twhirl feature requests page.

2. All links open in IE, regardless of my default browser settings. I don’t know how it acts on a Mac when there’s no IE available, but on my computer, I want my links opening in Flock. Listed as a bug. Let’s hope it gets fixed.

Other than that, I’m loving all the rest of the features. I wonder if there’s a site that tracks Twitter tool usage so we can see which app has the most usage.

Okay, so the Twitter habit is hard to break

I guess that Twitter can still be useful in some areas. For instance, without Twitter, I wouldn’t have known that Chris Pirillo and his wife are planning to make an appearance in Des Moines at the beginning of May. I also might have missed this wonderful tweet from R Stevens:

Trader Joe, I like the taste of your pea berries. So hot and flavorful. Please explore my trade routes.

Yikes.

Barry Smith brings back InkTank

I missed the news when it was first announced, but caught it on ComixTalk last week: Barry Smith is sporting a return to webcomics in the form of InkTank.

Back when I was first covering webcomics back in the 1998-2002 timeframe, I was good friends with a number of cartoonists that have since fallen off the public radar and moved into different areas. Barry Smith was one such cartoonist. I was always a big fan of Angst Technology (my online persona “Doctor Setebos” even had a brief cameo in the fifth panel of this Halloween comic). Seeing Barry return to doing webcomics is a bit of a blast from the past for me (and a tiny reminder of how old I am), but it is definitely a welcome blast, if there can be such a thing.

Barry says that his new InkTank comic is going to be slightly auto-biographical. A nice movement for him. I’m eager to see how it turns out. Great to have you back, Barry!

Twittering away

This comic from Hugh MacLeod has been making the rounds since yesterday. It’s very telling because it accurately portrays the movement of communication amongst techies on the internet away from blogging and towards the Twitter microblogging microcosm. I’ve seen it myself. If you look back at my archives for February and March, and especially April, you can see how my blogging has gradually decreased in quantity AND quality. I’ve been Twittering a lot lately. There are a lot of conversations occurring on the system, and some of them are very interesting. The problem is, there is a lot of meaningless drivel there, and it takes time and patience to sift through the pointlessness to find the valuable content. It certainly distracts from other, more sensible ambitions. It’s taken me about a month to come to terms with that reality.

I’m not quite ready to delete the account just yet, but I’m definitely not going to be paying as much attention to it as I have been. My biggest concern is that none of my true friends and family are on Twitter. So when I post and read tweets, I’m essentially communicating with interesting strangers; whereas when I blog, I get to communicate with the people I know and care about on a personal level. I think that’s where my focus should be.

So, yeah. I’m back.

All these wonderful toys!

I’ve picked up a few nice toys in the past week or so. They’re so much fun, I thought it was time to share what I’ve been playing around with.

My first HDTV. The reviews aren’t spectacular for this particular model, but the price was right: $100 from a co-worker. He explained the issues that the TV has had in the past – and could potentially have again in the future: color smearing, speaker buzzing, etc. But really, you can’t pass up such a cheap opportunity to enter the HD demographic. I also grabbed some clearance Wii component cables so I can play in 480p.

Awe. Some.

2GB SD card and USB reader. This was something fun to pick up for my participation in the Evil Avatar Super Smash Bros. Brawl stage builders guild. I’m able to transfer a stage I’ve built from the Wii to the SD card. Then I can stick the card in the USB card reader, plug it into my computer, and upload the stage to the internet. You can see (and download) some of the stages I’ve built on my Brawl page.

So, what has everyone else been playing with lately?

2008: the year of the Wii RPG?

There are so many Wii games to look forward to this year, it’s hard to pick a few out and hold them up as shining examples of what I’m most hopeful to see before the holidays. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do. More to the point, I’m taking a look at the list and seeing lots of RPGs in the pipeline, and that makes me a happy gamer.

RPG gaming was abysmal on the GameCube. There were a couple of fantastic projects – Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos stick out in my mind. But that was really all there was. If you’re a fan of RPGs, you really need to have a PS2 anymore.

But hopefully, that’s about to change. Opoona has just seen a US release. It doesn’t appear to be well liked, but I’ve heard from trusted sources that if you can get past its quirkiness, there is a genuinely fantastic game underneath a bit of overzealous clutter. I see Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World slated for a summer Japan release, followed closely by a potential holiday US release. Square Enix has reported that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: the Crystal Bearers is still on track for 2008, though it will likely hit Japan first, and then the US sometime in early 2009. But before that hits, we’ll be treated to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King on WiiWare in May. While not a true RPG experience, it will be close enough to keep me satisfied.

Also, Baroque should be hitting the US this month. I’m convinced that its poor review from Nintendo Power is more of a question of whether or not the reviewer acknowledges and understands rogue-like dungeon crawling RPGs, than it is a consensus of the game’s overall quality. I’m also looking forward to Namco Bandai’s Fragile that is still expected to come stateside in late 2008; though, admittedly, that’s a bit of an optimistic outlook since a Japan release date hasn’t been confirmed yet. And Cing’s King’s Story looks like it’s coming along nicely. Also not a true RPG, but still in the same vein as FFCC: MLaaK.

My hope is that there are other projects being worked on that haven’t been revealed yet that will make 2008 and 2009 more interesting for Wii owners looking for solid RPG experiences. Monolith can’t just be working on Disaster: Day of Crisis, can they? Surely they have another (potentially Baten Kaitos-esque) project on the table. That has to be the reason Nintendo bought them. And what of Sword of Legendia? Namco Bandia mentioned this title briefly prior to the Wii launch, and it has never been heard from again. Was that title a mask for the Tales of Symphonia sequel? Who knows? My hope is that it is a Wii remake of Tales of Legendia for the PS2. I have absolutely nothing upon which to ground that theory besides pure speculation. At this point, I’ll take what I can get.

2008 – the year of the Wii RPG? It’s definitely looking that way. And it can really only get better from here. Maybe 2009 will be the year of the Wii FPS.