Video killed the internet star

January 17th, 2007 Mack

This is going to be the year! Yes it will, yes it will.

This year, video will rule the internet, and ultimately destroy it. It’s been coming for quite a while now, what with everyone and his gay pet chihuahua downloading blurred, camcorder captures of newly released movies or watching hot off the oven TV shows before they hit our shores via P2P applications.

The ISPs throttled the P2P ports, paid millions to Cisco and the likes for traffic-shaping technology, and it was like peeing in the ocean. Other than showing what pricks they are, nothing much was achieved.

Then there is the blogger revolution. No, I don’t mean ‘blogger’ as in someone who blogs. I mean the real deal, mate. Almost everyone and his cam whoring inner-self has a blog, and punditry lost it’s credibility in a sea of bad english, and even worse sense of logic. The international links were heating up, and actually getting bloody best effort speed wasn’t something you get on a good day, but on a day so good it just doesn’t happen, to borrow a phrase from Bob Cringely.

Now the hottest thing is YouTube, and boy it’s not likely to frakking cool down anytime soon. From videos with a political message, people trying to prove you don’t explode when drinking Pepsi and downing a menthos (or is it the other way around?), bandwidth hungry and hosted overseas, the international links will fry.

That notwithstanding, how can a 34Mb backhaul possibly serve approximately 2500 households all subscribed to a 1Mb package? If only 35 households hit streaming video on YouTube, sucking of 700kb (best effort speed, bud), everyone else will be screaming bloody murder as they wait for their blog entry about the lousy internet to be uploaded on to Blogger, without much success. Man, even a 155Mb backhaul will bite the dust.

It’s all about video now. IPTV, free music videos of Gwen Stefani pretending to have tits, and Mariah Carey pretending to be young, will flood the internet. This is over and above the ever trustworthy and always there, pornography. Net Nanny be damned, MILFs are the flavour mate, and none of these sites are hosted here.

Video man. Wait for it to bust the internet and finally give us proof positive that the ISPs have been bluffing, and our over-reliance on content hosted on foreign shores to really screw us over.

Hurrah. I am so happy.

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Punditry

January 16th, 2007 Mack

Everyone wants to be a pundit nowadays. I guess the satisfaction of having your say to your hearts content, and having legions of adoring fans must do something for the soul. At least for those whose soul lacks any substance, as to find any small quantity satisfying.

Punditry used to be about having analytical skills, and articulating opinions in a manner where both sides of the coin are examined, and the positives were found wanting. It also used to be about exploring possible alternative actions that could have been taken in order to avoid the undesirable circumstance. To top it all off, it also used to be about inviting subject matter specialist to discuss possible fixes and solutions.

Now, in line with the integration of technology and the convergence of media, punditry is all in one and simplified as well. All that needs to be done is string together half truths or rumours, add a little spice and scream bloody murder. The more polite ones ask for answers, which essentially means all and sundry are obligated to be guilty until proven beyond a single doubt to be innocent.

All in the name of free speech.

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A heavy toll on miscommunication

January 15th, 2007 Mack

Malaysians don’t like to pay more for anything, and regardless if it is right or wrong, would go for the cheapest route. As an example, the case of the pirated movies we buy from our friendly neighbourhood salesmen. So when the rates for tolls on certain highways are raised, we scream bloody murder. It’s good political capital.

However, drowned out in the noise is why we are protesting. If it is for the government to continue subsidising Malaysians to use tolled roads at a cheaper cost, then I don’t get what the protest is about. One one hand, Malaysians feel that subsidies seem to be bad, and that Malaysians should stop rent-seeking activities and be less reliant on welfare, but on the other hand when fuel subsidies are reduced, and toll rates go up, we feel it’s unfair.

However, if the message is that there is some mismanagement in terms of how the charges for toll is calculated, and the corporations are fleecing Malaysians for unfair profitability, then by all means, protest. But, please, protest at the offices of the toll operators, and not cause a bloody congestion at a shopping mall.

The chaps who allegedly profit unreasonably from this toll rise don’t seem to be to harshly inconvenienced by the protests. It was the management and visitors of the mall who had to put up with the mess, and how did they profit from the toll increase, per se?

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Flight of Icarus

January 12th, 2007 Mack

… otherwise known as the fuck up from high up.

I’m going to be slightly philosomythological for a moment here. The word might not actually exist, but then again it means something and suits this occasion. So I’m now declaring this word to be officially recognised by Mentera, so there.

Anyway, to this issue about Icarus and his flying. For those who might not be familiar with Greek mythology, Icarus and his father Daedalus were prisoners in a tower on an island called Crete by a king called Minos. They could not escape by sea, seeing that they have no boat, and every boat leaving Crete was searched carefully. So the two — more father than son actually — contrived to escape by air. So they made wings for themselves with feathers and wax. The story goes that they could fly with these wings, and proceeded to escape Crete and King Minos.

So Icarus, exuberant at being able to fly, flew too close to the sun, at which point — to cut a long story short — the heat melted the wax of his wing and the feathers wafted gently to the ocean, slightly longer than Icarus who had by then plunged to his death.

That’s mythology.

Now I am going to philosophise about this mythology — hence philosomythological — and connect it to something from the real world, where people take commercial airlines and wax themselves for other, more painful reasons.

Mainstream media going into blogging. Yes, that’s my real world issue. It’s not wrong, and frankly it’s a right. Bloggers are not a new strain of homo-sapien totally disconnected from the function of norms. It’s just a noun given to someone who does something, like a cyclist is a noun for a person who rides a bicycle, or tricycle and even a unicycle. They ride different things, in different ways but still… well, cycle.

So yes, newspapers can blog — in fact to progress, they MUST make headway in the internet — just like CEOs, politicians and semi-retired journalist blog. We blog. We are websiters, commenters, readers, and in some cases, losers.

You can’t go saying that so-and-so can’t do this or that. It’s like a cyclist going around saying that motorbikers cannot buy bicycles. Then pedestrians would start telling cyclists that they are hijacking the walking agenda by… walking. It gets ridiculous.

However, being in the business of publication and mass communication, one would expect that mainstream media companies and organisations related to them would want to do it better, having more experience in ‘flying’. So unlike Icarus, or us mere amateurs in the business of mass communications, one would expect them to build better wings.

Wings that can withstand the heat of the sun, or more to the point, stand up to the scrutiny of discerning readership. This is important, because at some point, the organisations would want to monetize. After all, the gauge of a successful business activity is how well you garner revenue, regardless if you later squander it on ‘growth’.

Moving into a new space, like Icarus flying away when his peers paddled away or walked, is invigorating. The hubris is exceptional. However, without good wings, you will fall. Flat on the face.

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