If you live in the Portland area, please go out and get yourself a copy of the newest (#4) issue of BANG when it comes out April 2ndish. It’s free! They were really nice and approached me about running part of my Simpsons episode guide, and I did some new doodles for it.
Here’s a list of locations where you can get it. You can buy a digital PDF version too.
If all goes according to plan, rubbercat.net/simpsons will be print-only by 2016.
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while… I heard there was an episode of the Disney version of Doug that tackled the subject of eating disorders with Patti as the main character. Since I already liveblogged the anti-tobacco episode I figured I should review this one too. It’s called “Doug’s Chubby Buddy” (even though the whole point is that Patti isn’t chubby…?) and it’s on YouTube (part two), though probably not for long.
Here’s some observations, adapted from my Twitter liveblog of it:
Why must all my favorite web services leave me? I’m still peeved about yesterday’s announcement that Google Reader, the very best RSS reader out there, is being shut down. The move is ostensibly so the company can “better focus” on other things, like making products no sane person could ever want, even though Reader used very few resources – there were zero developers working on it in the past year, according to a former member of the team.
There have been death knells ever since Google+ came out, and probably before that, but I didn’t think it would actually go away for a few reasons:
- They spent millions of dollars in RSS technology as well as blogging software.
- As of 2010, the number of users was steadily increasing and RSS seemed healthy.
- The founders and most of the company itself used it:
“Everyone from Google used Reader, from Larry and Sergey to the newest engineers. It’s such a beloved project.”
- It is the market leader, albeit in a niche field. With most everything else – search, maps, e-mail, mobile operating systems, cloud services, browsers – Google has a strong competitor or two, but Reader stood alone.
I think part of Reader’s lack of success was due to Google never really giving it a big push. There was very little marketing for it at all; a new user checking it out for the first time is greeted with example feeds from typical nerd sites like xkcd, which reinforces the “RSS is for nerds” mentality. Maybe they should have put it in Gmail, like they did with Google Buzz, strengthening the “it’s like e-mail for websites” metaphor. Google Chrome has no built-in RSS detection (there’s extensions you could download), which is completely inexplicable for a modern web browser, particularly one made by a company with a vested interest in feeds.
There’s already a number of alternatives out there but so far the ones I’ve seen lack some of the functionality, are slow, and/or have unpleasant designs. Still, here’s hoping a great one will come out soon.
So, how ’bout it, gang? Are you up for some ANTI-AGING TIPS? The secrets of IMMORTALITY? The whereabouts of the legendary FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH? Well, TOO BAD, because I’m keeping this exclusive knowledge all for myself.
Yahoo! Avatars is shutting down, so please take this opportunity to gaze one last time upon the marvel that is JAMES CAMERON’S AVATAR: