Energy Conservation in real life...

So, we're all trying to do our part to reduce our energy usage at home right?

Er... well... uh... not really. Our energy use in our home has roughly doubled in the last year as we added new gadgets and electronics, which of course means a [more than] doubling of the electricity bill as use and rates rise.

As I started researching the biggest "power suckers" in our home, a few of the devices it turned out drew nearly as much electricity while in standby as if they were on 24/7.

The problem comes in that a lot of these interdependent devices have settings that are lost if you completely cut off the power to them. But a number also retain their settings. With that in mind, I went searching for some kind of digitally timed powerstrips to plug stuff into and set power timings on them.

Imagine my surprise to find that what's out there for timed power strips are... well... kludgy at best. There's nothing out there at all that you can plug into your computer and set timings, or create "whole house" energy timing policies with.

The options I did find, were literally impossible to find locally, and I ended up ordering a few of these powerstrips from Intermatic with digital timers on them. While not as elegant a solution, these actually worked out pretty well. We now have about 500w of standy appliances and electronics that power all the way down each night during non-use hours.

We'll be interested to see how these help reduce energy usage (or not) over the next couple of power bills - I'll post results here when the data comes in.

Cato on Copyright

Great article today over on Cato about copyright being stretched until it's broken. In many comments around the web, the sensible reaction is "well, let's abolish copyright."

I don't necessarily disagree, even as a content creator.

I thought this bit in the article was really important:

Adding more “content” will strictly speaking produce no value — whether culturally or economically. What’s valuable is supplying a context where people can come together to create meaning out of abundance. The digital world poses questions whose answers can’t remain within the digital sphere. A key challenge is to relate the digital to that which is not digital: time, space, human relationships, and so forth.

The digital world poses questions whose answers can’t remain within the digital sphere. A key challenge is to relate the digital to that which is not digital: time, space, human relationships, and so forth. Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, has recently captured it well: When copies are superabundant, they become worthless, while things which can’t be copied become scarce and valuable. What counts in the end are “uncopyable values,” qualities which are “better than free.”

This "frame of reference" in the first paragraph, and the "uncopyable" values in the second, I really think are the key to the next for-profit generation of entertainment.

It's important to note that "for-profit" segment, as the not-for-profit content creation market will continue to explode, and erode the ability of a large segment of people in the entertainment industry to make a living. This is simply the way the world changes.

So how are you going to evolve your style?

Storytelling Evolution

Over the last 100 years, the motion picture has changed our world, and our storytelling frameworks from what had preceded it for thousands of years. Stories used be told either verbally by local story tellers or by the presentation of plays.

The more I watch the films we produce any more, the more convinced I become that in another 100 years, or perhaps sooner, we'll look back at passive films as a quaint storytelling medium.

I don't think that all storytelling become active gameplaying experiences, but I do think there will be a medium of exploration and of shared discovery that will lead us to create new forms of storytelling. These new forms will grow from the mediums that become possible.

As the last 100 years we've been restricted to the visual storytelling of those that had access to celluloid. Then to television, and now to digital cameras. A progression of the art, to be sure - and there is more progression to come.

What will it be?

It's up to any and all of us who dream of telling great stories, to stretch our imaginations beyond the story arcs, beyond the character development, beyond the visual styles we use to communicate our ideas and themes and our innermost hopes and fears of the human experience, and find news ways of weaving these into the mediums now evolving.

And for those of the new generation that understand the possibilities now blooming before us, and the opportunities to create things utterly new - there's a new wild wild west of storytelling laid before us.

Got yer spurs?

Goodbye Plaxo

After years of having Plaxo screw up my address book updates, they've finally graduated to aggregating enough data about what I'm doing around the net, to make me nervous.

To have that coupled with the fact that Comcast bought them, which adds another level of discomfort, I've decided to delete my Plaxo profile.

To all of you have my contact info from having directly worked with me, please don't take it as a slight to any of you, and please feel free to stay in touch (y'all know how:).

I'm still (for the time being) on Linkedin (only approving those people I have had actual; real-world work and contact with, thanks).

Sometimes, making your world a bit smaller, makes it a bit more manageable in the big picture.