Mac Slocum's Recommended Stuff and Links of Note

Scan through Techmeme and you’ll see a showcase of...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:24:42 -0400

Scan through Techmeme and you’ll see a showcase of headline writing and audience targeting.

The practical application of science fiction

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:56:29 -0400

A great description of sci-fi’s importance (yes, it’s important) from Intel’s Brian David Johnson:

“So you know that if we write science fiction based on science fact, it allows us to explore the human, cultural and ethical implications of technology. It enables us to ‘prototype’ our ideas. Even the futures that we don’t want are good fodder for this. Think about the combination of authoritarianism through constant surveillance, linguistics, changing history books – all of those awful things can be encapsulated by ‘Big Brother.’ George Orwell’s 1984 gave us a symbol of a future we didn’t want to see, and it’s part of the culture now.”

See the full interview

Gawker took the pain out of page views, and the same model applies elsewhere

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:29:00 -0400

Gawker took the pain out of page views, and the same model applies elsewhere:

Phenomenal analysis by Andrew Phelps looking at Gawker’s approach to low-level content (i.e. the weird goats, the funny videos, the celebrity scandals, etc).

Here’s how Gawker handles it:

“A different staff writer will be forced to break their usual routine and offer up posts they feel would garner the most traffic. While that writer struggles to find dancing cat videos and Burger King bathroom fights or any other post they feel will add those precious, precious new eyeballs, the rest of the staff will spend time on more substantive stories they may have neglected due to the rigors of scouring the internet each day to hit some imaginary quota.”

And it appears to be working:

On their assigned pageview-duty days, Gawker writers produced a cumulative 72 posts — about 14 posts per writer per day. On their off-duty days — and remember, each had four off days for every “on” day — the same writers cumulatively produced 34, or about 1.3 posts per writer per day …

… Those 72 pageview-duty posts produced a combined 3,956,977 pageviews (as of the days I captured data, Friday 3/9 and Monday 3/12), a mean of 54,958 pageviews per post. The 34 off-duty posts produced 2,037,263 pageviews, a mean of 59,920 pageviews per post.

Most important: Gawker’s editors have found a way to take the soul sucking out of the soul-sucking content. I could see how a one-day-per-week approach to page view duty could actually become fun/competitive. It’s a great idea.

The same “shift-based” approach would work for any repetitive editorial task — copy editing, headline writing, overseeing a Twitter account, updating Facebook, etc. This adds new voices and fresh creativity to activities that can easily become boring if any one person is forced to do them day after day. That’s good for the staff and good for the audience.

Dwight Howard To Be Named Owner, President, CEO, Star Player Of The Orlando Howards

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:31:34 -0400

Dwight Howard To Be Named Owner, President, CEO, Star Player Of The Orlando Howards:

A great headline that fully captures the ridiculousness of the Orlando Magic’s management.

Just because it’s awesome. Ref Is Giving Him The Business...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:36:09 -0500

Just because it’s awesome.

Ref Is Giving Him The Business (by whbassett)

More than 25 million tune into World Series Game Seven, Fox earns most-watched Friday in history

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:25:20 -0400

More than 25 million tune into World Series Game Seven, Fox earns most-watched Friday in history

11 critical questions you should ask about election polls

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:38:25 -0400

11 critical questions you should ask about election polls:

Via the O’Reilly Radar Tumblr:

The most important lesson I learned in journalism school:

Question everything.

And that’s why Andrew Balemi’s elegant post, “All about election polls,” makes me happy.

My favorite of the SteveNotes. Steve Jobs Introducing The...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:37:02 -0400

My favorite of the SteveNotes.

Steve Jobs Introducing The iPhone At MacWorld 2007 (by superapple4ever)

Apple Wants Its Lost iPhone 5 - Conan on TBS (by teamcoco)

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:36:00 -0400

Apple Wants Its Lost iPhone 5 - Conan on TBS (by teamcoco)

Ridiculous. Via Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | Must C...

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:57:55 -0400

Ridiculous. Via Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | Must C Cannon: Ankiel makes an amazing throw to third - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia.

Mariachis serenade beluga whale

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:51:36 -0400

Mariachis serenade beluga whale

The Bestsellers: Michael Connelly And The Art Of E-Book Price Cutting

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:23:12 -0400

The Bestsellers: Michael Connelly And The Art Of E-Book Price Cutting

This is really clever. (Thanks to Jim for pointing the way.)

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:06:24 -0400

This is really clever. (Thanks to Jim for pointing the way.)

Stars who died at the age of 27

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:45:09 -0400

Stars who died at the age of 27

Must read: "Facebook and the Epiphanator: An End to Endings?"

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:42:29 -0400

Must read: "Facebook and the Epiphanator: An End to Endings?":

Via oreillyradar:

Some lovely bits from Paul Ford’s excellent piece, “Facebook and the Epiphanator: An End to Endings?”

“There should be a word for that feeling you get when an older person — and not much older, so quickly are things changing — shames him or herself by telling young people how to live. I’d vote for Bedeutungslosigkeitschmach, or ‘irrelevance shame,’ (made up with the help of Google translate) or perhaps Rünschmerz, the horrifying gut pain one experiences watching Andy Rooney.”

“Google regularly announces initiatives to ‘save’ the newspaper and book industries — like a modern-day hunter who proclaims himself a conservationist.”

“I keep sensing some serious hurt feelings from the older-media side — ‘Why would you love that thing instead of me?’ They act like my wife would if I brought home a RealDoll. But it’s not like that. I don’t think people love Twitter or Facebook in the same way they might love Parks and Recreation or Twilight. Rather, we like the beer and tolerate the bottle. And even if we have those other browser tabs open, we’re still hungry for endings.”

Those are just highlights. This is a phenomenal essay.

Watch 880 iPhones Dance Like Fireflies In The Sky [Video]

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:14:30 -0400

Watch 880 iPhones Dance Like Fireflies In The Sky [Video]

Hey carriers, you deserve [theoretical] app revenue!

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:02:46 -0400

Hey carriers, you deserve [theoretical] app revenue!:

… RIM has repeatedly told carriers that, unlike Apple, it believes that they deserve a portion of revenues from its apps store and as well as future services. Although given the relative paucity of BlackBerry apps, the offer has relatively little financial value as of now.

That’s the same as me telling the carriers they deserve revenue from my app store.

A Bill Pullman Independence Day NYC (by...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:54:55 -0400

A Bill Pullman Independence Day NYC (by FunkanomicsComedy)

Everything about this is brilliant.

The theology of iCloud | Tablets | Macworld

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:34:01 -0400

The theology of iCloud | Tablets | Macworld:

I’m not sure a religious construct will hold up under strict scrutiny, but this is still an interesting comparison of cloud ideologies:

In a sense, these three companies’ cloud services do represent three different concepts of God. Google is an Old Testament, theist-style cloud all the way: He through whom all blessings and punishments come, who must be praised and supplicated; without the Cloud, you are nothing and have nothing. iCloud represents more of a Deist ideal. The Cloud exists, but its presence is more to be felt than seen; if it does its job right, iCloud will instill great doubt that it even exists, or that it takes any notice of us at all. Amazon is a form of agnosticism. You don’t know if you really believe in it or not, but you do know that on the third weekend of every month this pointy building near the center of town throws a really great bake sale.

Mark Cuban Files MOST BADASS Legal Doc EVER

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:00:19 -0400

Mark Cuban Files MOST BADASS Legal Doc EVER