Google is Evil

I now think Google is evil, and I’m getting rid of most of my use of their services. Read why on Macworld.

A few links:

How to Rob Someone Using Google Buzz

Government Grants Google Power to Sell Power Like A Utility

Does Google like Wikipedia too much?

Here’s another perspective on the Google Question (naturally it’s on YouTube, owned by Google):

The Weather Here in Kirkville

Just thought I’d share; this is how it looks here this morning (this is the view from my office window). It’s been a very snowy winter. We got a foot of snow yesterday, added to a packed foot of snow that was on the ground from a few previous snowfalls in December and January. In the ten years that I’ve lived in the Alps, this is the most snow we’ve had.

Some Thoughts on the Future of Newspapers

I’ve just finished watching The Wire for the second time. For those unfamiliar with the TV series, the fifth and final season features two concurrent plot threads: one has to do with the police and their investigations, and the other has to do with the press, notably the Baltimore Sun, the daily newspaper in the city where the series is set.

Throughout the season, you see the difficulties that the Sun faces; even though this was made several years ago, and the Internet is not mentioned, it is clear that times are tough for that venerable daily paper. The Sun has a storied history, counting one of America’s most famous journalists, H. L. Mencken, as one of its alumni. But in season 5 of The Wire, you see the problems faced by today’s newspapers, and how they cope.

This made me think about how newspapers have changed in my lifetime, and how they may change in the near future. At first, I found the newspaper to be a sacred object. In 6th grade – and this goes back about 40 years – I recall our English teacher showing us how to fold the New York Times to be able to read it efficiently. As with any broadsheet, the right fold is essential to be able to read the paper in the subway or on a bus.

Over the years, as an adult, I bought papers most days, and skimmed the news. At a time when I watched little television, the newspaper was my only source of information about what was going on in the world. When I moved to France 25 years ago, I started buying the International Herald Tribune, and over the years, subscribed to it from time to time. This slim broadsheet, now owned by the New York Times, was a condensed version of the world’s news, and it showed up in my mailbox six days a week. Unfortunately, French newspapers are quite expensive, which has always prevented me from buying them regularly, but with the Internet, and my RSS reader, I keep up with what goes on in the world, much more than when I was reading a paper.

But now that’s all about to change. With Apple most likely releasing a tablet computer, I’m looking forward to a shift in the way we get news. Instead of reading unrelated articles with an RSS reader, we will be able to buy “newspapers” digitally, and read them on the Apple tablet. What seems likely is that we’ll be able to subscribe to a paper – local or national – and get it daily, via iTunes, on the device. This will renew people’s interest in newspapers.

Some people think this won’t work. They think that no one will pay for news when it’s free; or they’ll just download pirated copies of newspapers for their tables. I truly think that the Apple tablet will save newspapers, for two reasons. First, why go to the trouble of rounding up the news you want to read when you can get it all in one place? There are a few trusted newspapers – the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde – any of which will give you a good overview of the news. Second, why pirate these papers when they’ll cost you less than a dollar a day? It’s too much trouble to spend the time necessary to find and download the files.

Journalism has power, and we can’t afford to lose it. From Henry Mencken (I recently read a biography of him), who, coincidentally, worked at the Baltimore Sun, to Woodward and Bernstein, by way of Albert Camus, journalists have kept people honest and kept us informed for a long time. Without good journalists, we would be a much poorer society.

I think the Apple tablet will change the way we get daily, weekly and monthly news. Because it will not only delivery daily papers, but also weekly and monthly magazines. This new way of getting news will be a paradigm shift for publishing, and will have a huge effect on the availability of free content. While you’ll still be able to get some news for free, the good news – that which is sanctioned by a respected newspaper or magazine, or the analysis that depends on the best journalist – will no longer be free, but it won’t be expensive enough to make you want to seek out free.

I hope that with Apple’s (still only rumored) tablet we’ll see a resurgence of publishing, because the news is too important to lose to free. What’s happened in recent years, because of the Internet, has endangered all of us, because we need the press to serve as a check and balance for government, corporations, and our own stupidity. Let’s hope that Apple’s tablet will pave the way for a renaissance of journalism.

Please Update Your RSS Feed URL for Kirkville

Please update your RSS feed URL to this URL: http://www.mcelhearn.com/feed

RSS Feed Problem

I’ve noticed that a lot of 404 (not found) errors are coming up for my RSS feed. If you have this problem, and if you read this article, change the RSS feed URL to this URL. Apparently, there are a couple of different ways to set up RSS feeds for WordPress, and the other one is not working reliably.

If you haven’t seen anything from Kirkville in your RSS reader for a while, this will explain it. It seems that this has happened sporadically for at least two months, and, no, I didn’t spot it before. But it’s also possible that you’d simply have gotten fewer updates.

In any case, if you haven’t seen my articles, feel free to check out what shows up in your RSS reader, or go back and see what I’ve posted over the past couple of months.

FTC to Require Bloggers to Disclose Freebies and Payments

As reported on many websites (here’s a link to an article on Macworld), new FTC regulations will require bloggers – at least those in the US – to disclose any freebies or payments they have received from vendors in exchange for reviews they post on their blogs. This is to attempt to help consumers know which reviews are sincere and which are the result of coercion.

This is an interesting issue, and one that, if addressed, should be dealt with for all media. For example, I write occasional reviews for Macworld, and also review classical CDs and DVDs for MusicWeb and audiobooks for Audiofile. Never have I paid for any of the items I have reviewed, whether they be in digital form (software or audiobooks) or physical form (CDs or DVDs). This is simply a question that doesn’t arise in the media. Companies, publishers and record companies are constantly looking for reviews for their products, and, naturally, they send out review copies. None of these outlets would ever consider paying for items to review. This has always been the case, for any type of item that is reviewed by serious outlets: books, records, movies, hardware, software, etc. So should these media also specify whether they have received items for review without paying them? Should they also be required to disclose whether the companies being reviewed have purchased ad space in the past? (Which is often the case, at least for print media.)

Here at Kirkville, you’ve noticed that I write a number of reviews of books, CDs and DVDs. (I have also written a few book reviews on my new site, Reading Henry James.) In some cases I’ve gotten free items. Looking back at my Books category, I see that 13 of the 56 posts (not all of which are actually reviews) feature books that were sent to me by publishers. The Music category contains 4 posts which discuss freebies, and I’m sure I’d find a few more in the other categories. I have no problem with this; in some cases, the items I have reviewed were also reviewed for other media, so I’m more or less “reprinting” a review that was published on, say, MusicWeb. But in others, I’ve either asked for or spontaneously received review copies. I’m choosy, and won’t give a good review to something I don’t like, and I won’t bother reviewing something that really sucks. (And I’d like to point out that I’ve never been “paid” to write a review; I’ve only received free items.)

But is this a big deal? Pretty much everyone knows that, for example, review copies of books are sent out to any media outlet that asks for them. That doesn’t mean that a reviewer is going to gush about the book; at least in most cases. You can generally spot bogus reviews pretty quickly, because they are adjective-heavy, and don’t say much about the item being reviewed (other than that it is good).

It’s a thorny question, but I think the FTC’s rules will be ignored almost entirely. (Well, maybe not entirely; I think bloggers will write about it, as I have here, but won’t be concerned about respecting it.) I’m not going to pay much attention to it, for two reasons: first, I’m not in the US, so it doesn’t concern me. But also because if you read my site regularly, you’ll know that my reviews are honest.

No matter what, as informed consumers, you need to judge the value of reviews for what they actually say. I think most intelligent people can do this, and I think this is a pretty useless rule. We’ll see how much it’s respected.

By the way, if any publisher or record companies who have seen what interests me want to send me review copies, feel free to contact me.

Moved to New Host

I’ve just moved this site, and a few others I manage, to a new hosting company. So far, everything seems fine; WordPress seems to work well, and I haven’t spotted any problems. If you see anything that look strange, let me know in the comments.

For now, at least from where I am, it seems that pages load much faster. What about you? Where are you located, and is it faster for you?

French Bookstore in Rockefeller Center to Shutter

When I lived in New York City, long ago, and I was taking French classes at the Alliance Française, in the years before I decided to travel and then stay in France, I used to buy the occasional French book or magazine at this bookstore. It is located in Rockefeller Center (if I recall, on the section just off Fifth Avenue above where the Christmas tree is set up every year), and is a small, archaic store. (Well, it was at the time; I haven’t seen it in 25 years…) It’s closing down, after 74 years, meaning that buying French books in New York has gotten harder.

However, times have changed. Back then, there was no Internet, and no way to get books easily by mail order. I’m sure Amazon.fr is serving many of the French-speakers in New York City, as the books in that bookstore, when I was there, were relatively expensive. But it’s another sign of changing times, and another landmark, to many, that will be closing shop.