Warren Ellis's Blog, page 16

Because, if you’re a regular reader, you know I’m shit at keeping track of things.  So this is one of those posts that’s mostly for my own benefit.  That I’m burying on a Saturday night.

 

I have Skype and WhatsApp.  Hilariously, almost nobody has my Skype and WhatsApp IDs.

The first two screens of my phone are always the most-used apps, and the apps I kind of feel like I should be using more.  If I’d shot this yesterday, Days would have been on there, but I tried that app today, and it didn’t seem to be in the mood to let me use it, so. 

Downcast is a pretty good podcast app.  A damn sight better than having to manage them through iTunes or Apple’s appalling Podcast app that I’ve railed about before.

You may, if you haven’t passed out already, have noticed there’s not a writing app in the first two screens.  There are a couple in the back screens.  But I don’t want a writing app staring at me on the phone, demanding I write something in it.  (The WordPress app, on the other hand, is there specifically to taunt me.  I am way out of practise with this blogging shit.)  The phone is, first and foremost, a thing that gathers information.  And I live on this goddamn phone.  I can and have written on it, using a foldaway Bluetooth keyboard, and it works fine.  But I find – and here is the proof, horribly, now I look at it –- that, as much as I talk about devices needing to be equipped as communication and creation tools, it’s become a consumption device.

Which is kind of an interesting thing that I didn’t realise until I put this up here.

The Prefuture of Synthetic Biology « NextNature.net
"Somewhere between a vat of expensive face cream and a baby Neanderthal lies a probable future for synthetic biology."
(tags:future )
soundcloud.com
D Towards K toronto, field, recording, ambient
(tags:music ifttt soundcloud )
Booke
"Booke is a smartphone companion, which will help you capture,

keep and share all the important moments of your 'real-book' reading experience."
(tags:apps books )

Just discovered her work.  Some fascinating stuff at her Tumblr portfolio.

Model: Ellie Lane

Makeup: Juliet Blind

Photographer: Karen Jerzyk

BLDGBLOG: Forest Tone
"Lorenzo Pellegrini, who "gardens" the Risoud Forest in Switzerland to assist the future resonant acoustics of the wood currently growing there. It's a violin garden for the 24th century."
(tags:eco art )

So I’ve been messing around with Vine occasionally over the last few months. I followed some very heavy users – all strangers –- to get a sense of how it was being played with. As a professional writer, this can leave one with the sense that one is the only person in the world who doesn’t leave the house. Or have friends. Or eat, apparently, because damn I looked at a lot of food and coffee. Shades of early Instagram.



I’d always liked the idea of social short video – remember 12seconds?  Vine is very much a refinement of that idea, with much better tools.  I have to give it to them: the app is very well done.

I don’t know if it’ll ever leave the app-testing folder in the back of my iPhone, but I think I’d like it to.  It has that essential Instagram-like appeal of making me smile whenever I open it.  Matt Sheret once called Instagram the Twitter you look forward to opening.  Also, John Hodgman’s Vine is frequently wonderful.

How cross-media storytelling is about to change the way that we consume and interact with content
"The way in which the public consumes media is changing though. Television shows are broadcast globally and social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook allow millions of fans to communicate and debate with one another in real-time. There’s a chance here to move away from a passive, never-changing form of content"
(tags:media )
BBC News – Google searches predict market moves
"The volume of Google searches for finance-related terms may predict moves in markets, research suggests." You'd think that was an obvious signal
(tags:money )

I’m at an event in Brixton with authors Lauren Beukes and Ben Percy. It sold out weeks ago, but it’s not very big, so I’m expecting a relaxed evening. It’s an overnight trip, because my experiences of trying to get out of Brixton late at night to make the last train have been grim. One time someone tried to stop me getting the last Tube by throwing themselves under it.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t specifically to spite me. But still.