Iron Sky is set to premiere at the Berlin Film Fest this weekend and due for wide release in April, and I’m more excited about going to see this in the theater than I have been about any movie in a long time, with the possible exception of the upcoming Weta Works production of The Hobbit.

Now, unless you’re a sci-fi movie geek or an indie movie geek, or some weird hybrid of the two, you probably haven’t even heard of this film.  Even if you do fall into one of the previous two categories, this movie might have so far slipped under your radar.  Really, who’s going to pay a lot of attention to the production of a sci-fi-action comedy about a bunch of Space Nazis who return to earth after 70 years on a secret moon base in order to seek revenge for the loss of WWII.  This isn’t exactly what you would call mainstream big box office material.

I can’t exactly remember who it was that first turned me on to this film, but I’ve been half following the production, and anxiously awaiting its release since the first teaser trailer slipped online back in the spring of 2008.  Yes, you read that right, the first trailer for this film came out almost 4 years ago.  It actually only finished post production within the past couple of weeks.  That’s a heckuva long time to build up anticipation for a movie.  And it’s a very long time for a movie to be in production.  The production actually extends back to 2006, when Energia Productions first started on the storyboards and artwork for the film.

Think about that for a minute.  6 years to make a single film.  And an underfunded, indie film at that.

The first teaser trailer above was used for three reasons.  First, to show a bit of what the film-maker was capable of visually and rustle up some funding.  Second, was to begin raising awareness of the project online as a guerrilla marketing tactic.  Third, was to draw in a cadre of movie geeks to actually help with crafting the story and creating the movie.

That’s right.  Parts of the story and production are crowd sourced.

By all accounts, it was wildly successful on all counts.  Energia Productions raised enough money over time to fund the filming using the spectacular Red Camera system, pay for the actors (who may not be known in North America, but many are fairly well known in Europe), and cover the costs of post production.  The initial teaser has been viewed over 2 and a half million times as of this date, generating a not insubstantial buzz.  And the film makers and producers were smart enough to build a community website around the project, listening to, interacting with, and integrating the suggestions of, a growing fan base of hard core movie buffs who decided to take Energia up on the crowd sourcing offer.

The end result?  Before this has even hit the film festivals, this movie has generated a fan base.  And this is made up of people who haven’t even seen the final product.

A big part of the devotion some people are giving this film goes to point three of above.  The movie makers didn’t just pay lip service to the community of people that began to surround the production, they actively engaged with them.

Now, whether or not this will result in an actual good film has yet to be seen.  But I’ll pony up my $15 to go see it in the theater regardless of what the reviews end up being like.  The passion for the craft of making a film that went into this should be rewarded, as well as the desire and drive to build a relationship with the audience and film buffs.  And that passion, along with 6 years of dedication to producing a film, will undoubtedly show through in the final product.  And if the following two trailers are any indication, then it really is a film worth paying for, in a way that 99% of the crap coming out of Hollywood isn’t.

Which brings us (eventually) to the main part of the post.  Remember a few years ago how digital photo frames were all the rage?  Every online electronic store, every photography store, department store, electronics retailer carried them.  You pretty much couldn’t walk through a mall without tripping over a few kiosks full of them?

Like some people, I ended up with a few, that I gave away or loaded up full of pictures, then mostly forgot about.  Never got around to loading new pics on them, and, well….  They’ve been collecting dust for a couple of years now.  It turns out, I like my family photos printed out, in a real frame.  As old-timey as that may sound.

Anyway, over Christmas I got given a free snow-globe from the Hallmark store when I bought a massive round of cards to send out.  It’s kinda a neat, in a trashy-hokey way, with a colour shifting LED, and a a little motor that stirs the glitter inside it.  I gave it to my toddler, who became instantly fascinated by it.  And the wife and I fell in love with its magical ability to zone out the wee one when we put her to bed.  Better than a shot with a tranquilizer dart.  Probably easier on the toddler too

So how does this all tie together?  Fractals and digital picture frames and toddlers with high tech snow globes?

Well, the one problem with the snow globe is that it eats batteries.  So I got to thinking that what our wee one really needs is some kind of electric lava-lamp to help her get to sleep, and now I bet you can guess where this is going…

I loaded up one of the picture frames with a mess of different fractals, set it to random transition mode with the picture changing every 5 seconds, and BAMMO.  A plug-in-able mesmerizer for our precious that doesn’t eat batteries.

So, if you happen to have a toddler that has trouble getting to sleep, feel free to raid the collected fractals from here and give it a try.  Come on, when was the last time you actually turned on that digital photo frame anyway?

It contains films and TV series from this past year, as well as a few things that are a bit older, and a brief description of them.  I got thinking of it when a friend visited yesterday and we got talking about videos and I started mentioning some of the stuff I had watched last year he might be interested in.

The main common thread is that these are all things I watched (or re-watched) in 2011 and enjoyed, and think that other people might enjoy too.  If it contains things you’ve never heard of, then those are the first things you’ll want to try out.

So here’s the list, in alphabetical order:

*****

Black Mirror:
Genre: Sc-Fi
Format: Short TV series (3 episodes)
Origin: BBC/UK
Year: 2011

Each episode is a stand alone story.  The basic premise is that each one represents a future based on current tech trends, if we allow things to go just a little bit “off”.

These are extremely well written, very smart “Big Idea” science fiction stories written and produced by Charlie Brooker.  If you know who Charlie Brooker is, then I really don’t need to say much more.  He’s probably the smartest Sci-Fi/TV Fiction writer in the UK right now.  Sooner or later, he’s going to make the jump to the big screen and then everyone will know his name.

*****

Contagion:
Genre: Sci-Fi/Pandemic Pron
Format: Movie
Origin: Big Budget U.S. Theater Release
Year: 2011

You might have heard this one referenced, it was a popular media subject when it came out.  The premise is pretty stock – new pandemic contagion causes panic, lots of people die, the U.S. saves the world (again). Blah-blah-blah.

But it’s fairly well done.  The science and theory in it hold water.  The actions of the government and individuals make sense.  It has a good a-list cast who give their parts some depth.  Much smarter, overall, than your average American blockbuster.

*****

Death Valley:
Genre: Zombie Horror Comedy
Format: Weekly 1/2 hour TV series (12 episodes)
Origin: MTV
Year: 2011

It’s a “what if” zombies/vampires/werewolves etc we real, and instead of society collapsing, the LAPD just formed a special unit to deal with it, and LA just keeps rolling along, only marginally weirder than it already is.

Humor level is college frat-boy.  Think Reno 911 meets zombies and you’ll be pretty close.  Dumb, but fun, and not a lot of commitment to watch.  Got bupkus for ratings and was cancelled after the first season.

*****

Defendor:
Genre: Action/Super Hero(ish)
Format: Movie
Origin: Mid-budget U.S. Theater Release
Year: 2009

You’ve probably heard of this one, might have even watched it.  Basic premise is “what if some Asperger dude starts wearing a costume and wandering around pretending to be a super hero.  Injuries ensue.”

Stars Woody Harrelson, and it’s fairly dark.  Well written, good movie.  Came and went from the theaters in minutes.  Don’t expect to be uplifted by this movie, although I wouldn’t call it depressing either.  Woody brought his A-Game to this one, and I think it was just a little too offbeat to succeed in the theaters.

*****

Game of Thrones:
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Weekly 1 hour TV series (10 episodes)
Origin: HBO
Year: 2011

Awesome.  Just….  Awesome.  This is serious Fantasy done right, with good budgets, great acting, a good base story to work from (based on a series of novels by George RR Martin).

WARNING:  It’s only just getting going when the season ends, and you’ll have to wait until the summer of 2012  for Season 2 to start.

*****

Margin Call:
Genre: Drama
Format: Movie
Origin: Mid-Budget U.S. Theater Release
Year: 2011

Smart little drama about a smaller brokerage outfit on the eve of the 2008 collapse.  Ensemble cast of A-Listers.  Essentially a “24 hours in the life of a brokerage house” with the onset of the 2008 collapse as the story driver.  Remarkably light on the moralizing, no one is presented as particularly evil – maybe a bit slimy and self preserving, but not evil.

Got rave reviews from all 10 people who saw it in the theater.  Did poorly at the box office, probably because by the time it came out, everyone was sick of hearing about the banking/stock collapse of 2008.  Combined that with intelligent writing (never a good sign for commercial success), and a lack of violence/guns/explosions (almost mandatory for a film to make money in the U.S. nowadays), and it just didn’t have anything for the marketers to promote.

*****

No Heroics:
Genre: Comedy/Super Hero
Format: 1/2 hour TV series (6 episodes)
Origin: ITV2/UK
Year: 2008

One of my greatest annoyances with the UK TV scene in general is that they’ll run a quirky little show like this for a 6 episode season, and regardless of the ratings and critical reviews (which were both very good in this case), simply forget to ever get around to making a second season.

Follows the lives of B-List superheroes, who’s powers aren’t that great, and who mostly can’t even afford their own cars so have to take public transport or cabs to get to crime scenes.  Mostly centered around a superhero hangout pub, with tons of “in” jokes for comic book superhero fans (which were mostly lost on me because I never got into comic books).  Funny even without knowing the in jokes.

*****

Orcs:
Genre: Fantasy (duh – just look at the title) / commedy
Format: Movie
Origin: U.S. Low budget, limted release, B-Movie schlocker
Year: 2011

B-Movie schlocker that was just kind of fun.  You have to be in the mood for a b-movie schlocker or this just isn’t going to work for you.

The production quality is better than I would expect from a movie with a non-existent budget, a PR team so weak it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry or it’s own website, just an “official” Facebook Page, and a viewership so small Rotten Tomatoes hasn’t even gotten around to giving it a meta-critic score yet.

From the Facebook page:

From deep under the mountain, a horde of ancient warriors has been unleashed. They prey on human fear. They live to kill. They are coming. And they won’t stop until we’re all dead.. ORCS! The ultimate Orcs movie is coming soon.

*****

Sherlock:
Genre: Mystery
Format: TV Series
Origin: BBC/UK
Year: 2011

Only 3 episodes in season 1, plus an un-aired pilot.  Watch the real episodes before you watch the pilot (if you can even find it).

Nice re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes set in modern times.  All around great little British gem of solid acting and writing, with good production values.

Best part?  It got picked up for a second set of 3 episodes to be aired January this year.

*****

Super:
Genre: Action/Superhero
Format: Movie
Origin: U.S. Mid Budget
Year: 2010

This is another one that came and went from the theater in seconds, mostly because I don’t think people got it.

Like Defendor, it features a non-super-powered guy who sets out to become a superhero, injuries ensue.  Different take on it, though.  The guy who becomes a superhero is fully aware of how nuts it is, he just has a very specific motivation for doing it.

Neither uplifting or depressing, it’s one of those movies you watch and just kind of say “Huh” at the end of it, but in a good way.

*****

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen:
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Movie
Origin: U.S./UK Big Budget Theatrical Release
Year: 1988

This is what happens when Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, Brazil) decides to make a “kids” movie.  You’ve probably already seen it, but it’s worth watching again.  I watch it every couple of years and it never gets old.

Delightfully quirky, and even though it’s billed as a kids movie, it’s actually quite adult.

*****

The Princess Bride:
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Movie
Origin: U.S. Big Budget Theatrical Release
Year: 1987

You’ve seen it, you love it.  Watch it again and love it all over again.  This is another of those films that I watch every couple of years and fall in love with all over again.

*****

The Troll Hunter:
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Movie
Origin: Norway – Theatrical Release – Subtitled
Year: 2010

Bill in most of the world as “Dark Fantasy” – it was actually considered comedy fantasy in Norway when initially released.  Makes you wonder about Norwegian humor.

This is an incredibly tough movie to describe.  The best I can come up with is somewhat like The Blair Witch Project, only the student film makers come across a weird hermit dude who wanders around the Norwegian wilds tracking and occasionally hunting Trolls.

The effects are quite good, with a few “gotcha” moments, with a cameo by the Norwegian Prime Minister at the end of the movie.

This ended up on a lot of hardcore film buffs “Best Of” and “Must See” lists since it was released on BluRay this year, and for good reasons.  There’s a ton of stuff in here that you just wouldn’t see in a normal western production, and it’s a very fun watch.

*****

Wizards:
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Movie (animation)
Origin: U.S. Theatrical Release
Year: 1977

Another movie I watch every few years to bask in its greatness.  Only this time the movie is on the obscure side.

I have to admit that I’ve been on a mission over the past few decades to get everyone I know to watch this movie.  Its a Ralph Bakshi animation when he was at the top of his game, and had the money and freedom to do what he wanted – within a few years of this movie, his career spiraled into oblivion during some epic booze and drug fueled battles with the studios.

This is not a kids animated fantasy movie, although Ralph figured it was.  Of course, we’re talking about a guy who made the world’s first x-rated full length animated movie (Fritz the Cat).

The art and animation in this movie are amazing, all hand done cels mixed with rotoscoping and some other techniques.  Everyone I know who went to art college is in awe of this movie for the artwork.  Everyone I know who was into fantasy or played RPG’s as a kid is in awe of it for its story and obvious faith to the genre.  Hard core movie buffs love it because it’s such a stand-alone unique, wonderful little movie.

And having said that, there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll hate it.  It’s just one of those movies that you either love or hate, with very little ground in the middle.

That isn’t to say I haven’t written anything here, just that I haven’t completed anything I was writing and actually posted it.

I could blame a busy work schedule (true) and a busy home life with my wife and daughter (also true), and I’ve also been getting out more and off visiting friends since I swore off social networking sites (again, also true).

But really, what it comes down to I haven’t had anything really inspire me enough to sit down and crank out a full post.

And that includes today.  Sort of.  I don’t have much to say really, other than…

With the Christmas season on us, I find myself in a warm house, with a loving wife and daughter.  Everything else, the daily grind of the office, and all of life’s other annoyances, are small in comparison.

I don’t think of this as a religious time of year.  For me, it’s a family time of year.  And with that in mind, I just want to wish everyone the same joy in being around the people they love, that I’ve come to be privileged with.

Happy Holidays to all.

1920 x 1200

In a nutshell, very well, thank you very much.  And actually, the changes I’ve made go somewhat deeper than I had initially envisaged.

Shortly after I wrote that post, Facebook began to really lay on the changes, much more than the ones that had irked me in the first place.  Those changes were merely the first pieces of a major overhaul to re-envision no only how the site works, but how it interacts with and streams information about its users.  The term used during Facebook’s f8 developers conference is frictionless sharing.   In plain English, what that means is that so long as you are logged in, have enabled Facebook Platform, Facebook will “share” a lot of what you’re doing without your direct input.

Watching a movie on Netflix?  Facebook will automatically share that in your timeline.  Listening to music on any one of the services with Platform integration?  It will share that too.

If you have “Check In” and location services enabled on your phone, it will start showing the places you shop, as you walk into the store, without you having to go through the worry and bother of actually doing anything.

Depending on your point of view, this is either really convenient, or among the creepiest damn things any web service has done.  Ever.

Now, they do offer ways of controlling how and what is shared, but like so many other privacy options on Facebook, it’s on an opt-out basis.  Many of these services will be automatically enabled by default, and you’ll have to wade through a matrix of options to figure out how to turn them off.    To heck with that.  I just turned off all platform apps, logged out of Facebook, and forgot about the whole thing.  Life’s too short to waste time managing my Facebook privacy settings.

But then I got to thinking about the breathtaking gall it takes to imagine it’s OK to track, record, and then display for the world to see all of that information…  And it motivated me to log back in.  Specifically, I logged back in so I could go and delete the majority of my history on the site, post by post, picture by picture.  Facebook is now a repository of links back to this blog, the blog of a friend or two, and a couple of posts with interesting threads I found amusing – I’ll copy those, archive them, and delete them off Facebook as well, at some future time.

And now that’s what Facebook will be to me.  A place to spam links back to posts here.  Probably, that’s all I’m going to use Google+ for as well.  From time to time, I might use the services to get in touch with a few people, but rarely.  Most people I actually want to be in contact with, I already have their phone number or email.  I’m stunningly non-sentimental about looking people up from “back in the day” kind of thing.

And have I been spending more one-on-one time with actual real people as a result of this?  I’m not sure.  My social calendar has been a bit busier the past couple of weeks, but that could just be a coincidence.  Either way, I don’t really care.  What it comes down to is that Facebook is a shitty way to communicate with others and share my thoughts, and I’m not interested in playing along anymore.

1920 x 1200

One of the great things about Canada is how freaking huge this country is.  People from other parts of the world have a lot of trouble grasping the reality of the enormity of this nation, coupled with a lack of population density.  If you’re from Europe, Asia, the US, or even from Africa, it’s difficult to conceptualize the vast emptiness of most of this country.  Huge chunks of countryside with almost no development or human impact.

The upside to that, for someone like me, is the relative ease with which you can drive for an hour or so, starting from a densely populated city like Calgary (with a population of over a million, it’s a much bigger city than most Americans or Europeans realize, if they’ve even heard of it), and end up…  Nowhere.  Completely cut off in a way that isn’t possible in Europe or the U.S.  Not only distant from any significant population center, but in areas so sparsely inhabited you can’t even get any cel coverage.  A few years ago, definitely within the past decade, that would have been an easy thing to do just about anywhere.  Now, it is an increasingly hard thing to do.  Cellular coverage has become ubiquitous throughout the developed world.  It is actually a challenge to find places in the U.S. or Europe that isn’t blanketed with some sort of coverage, except for some very small pockets of “dead zones” – and even these are becoming rare.

Here…  Drive for an hour or so away from a city in most directions, pitch a tent, and open the glovebox and chuck in your phone for the weekend, because it won’t be any good to you.  And that is ever so wonderful and liberating.  Maybe, given my last post, the joys of disconnecting have been on my mind more lately.  More truthfully, it has always been something I have enjoyed.  The ability to head out and just turn it all off.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Luddite.  I enjoy my modern conveniences, and unlike a lot of neo-hipster environmentalists and fringe animal rights activists, I am deeply aware of the costs we must pay as a global society in order to maintain a relatively high standard of living for the population as a whole, and the costs to natural spaces and wildlife.  On the balance, I’m  Ok with those trade offs.  Can we do a better job of managing our resources so that we have less impact on the natural world?  Certainly.  Would I be willing for us to sacrifice any of the quality of life mankind has worked so hard to achieve over the past few thousand years in order preserve the natural order?  No.  That would be a middle class conceit.  It is the conceit of idle suburbanites and white collar workers who have never experienced poverty, true poverty, and cannot understand its deprivations.  What people who have never gone hungry fail to understand is that while they can easily sacrifice 10-20% of their wealth, standard of living, and quality of life…  For more than half the population of the planet, you know, the ones that live in poverty, or on the edge of it, such a sacrifice would be brutal, dangerous, and quite possibly fatal.

If it comes down to a choice between saving a human and shooting Bambi, in my world, it is no choice.  Bambi’s going to take a bullet.

In an indirect sort of way, that brings me around to what it is I get out of camping.  First and foremost, I get a needed disconnect from the buzz and hum of everyday life.  Nothing puts all the crap you go through on a daily basis in perspective as taking a serious step away from it.  Getting out of cel range, pitching a tent, and having to sleep rough and cook over flame, not having the opportunity to jump online to google the name of that character actor, in that b-flick, you know the one?…  It has the ability to show you exactly how irrelevant a lot of all that really is.

The other thing I get from camping is that its hard.  As in, not easy.  As in, a lot more challenging than cracking open the freezer for a TV dinner, wandering across the street for a bag of chips , getting warm by adjusting the thermostat or cooling off by turning on the AC.  Sleeping in a nice comfy bed piled high with covers and pillows.  Flush toilets.  Showers…  The list of things that, while you can technically live without but would rather not have to for any extended period of time, is rather long.

The long and short of it is, essentially, camping reminds you of all the things you have in this modern world that are good to have.  It also reminds you of all the things you could just as soon do without.

1920 x 1200

In fact, I’m thinking of abandoning the whole artificial construct of the large commercial Social Networks entirely, and I have a number of reasons that have been brewing at the back of my mind for a while.

First off, I was a late adopter to the Social Networking scene in general, and was never really convinced of it’s usefulness. I completely missed the MySpace and Friendster era of social networking, and don’t feel any pangs of regret over that.  I had trouble with the whole concept of joining such an artificial construct in order to make it easy for distant acquaintances to keep in touch with me.  I have a very small circle of friends and family that I keep in touch with, and this is by choice.  It is a limited group due to the fact that I don’t keep in touch with people I’m only tangentially interested in dealing with.  Life’s too short.  I would rather spend my limited socializing time with people who’s company I genuinely enjoy.

Secondly, and no less importantly, I have never been particularly comfortable with such blatant profiteering by others of my friendship circles.  Facebook, MySpace, G+, LinkedIn, essentially all of the “free” social networks make their dime by selling marketing information and access based on how you intersect and interact with others on their network.   This is really not much different than how marketing and sales works in the real world, but the social networks make the data-mining trivially easy.  I expect marketing companies to analyze individual behaviour and relationships to effectively target their wares.   But my general sense of orneryness makes me want to make them at least work for it.

Further, I wonder about the time commitment it takes on my part to make effective use of the platforms.  I won’t deny that they have some use, but to really get something out of it, you have to put something in.  And the time involved with putting something in is striking me as more valuably spent on other activities.  The Return on Investment I get from my activity in social networks is fairly negligible.

Overall, I just don’t “get it” never did, couldn’t be bothered to waste the time to figure it out, and am somewhat creeped out by the whole thing on a subconscious level.  So why the heck should I continue to spend time on it?

So, do I actually believe I can drop the habit?  I honestly don’t know.  If I’m being honest with myself, it will probably be difficult to wean myself of Facebook and G+.  In spite of never really being comfortable with, or fully embracing, either the concept or the platform, I’ve found myself spending an increasing amount of time on them over the past year or so.  It has become somewhat of a reflex to “check my news feed” on FB and G+ several times a day.  I’m almost interested in trying to abandon it just to see if I can, if I have the will-power to do it.

Do I plan on any alternatives to Social Networks?  Maybe, partly, kinda sorta, in a nebulous sort of way.  Maybe spend some more time blogging.  Maybe build out a limited access BBS or some such and take a stab at creating a small community of like-mindeds that I actually find it appropriate to keep in touch with in an online kinda way.  Most people, I’ll just call, visit, or email directly.  That strikes as being a far more effective and genuine means of maintaining a genuine social network.

1920 x 1200

Google is very good at this kind of marketing.  In any given room, if Google is there, then they’re the 1,000lb Gorilla.  Anytime someone from Google whispers about an upcoming product or service, it sets off a flurry of blog posts, forum discussions, news articles, analyses, navel gazing.  And they’ve been talking about “social” for years.  It was only a matter of time before they took another stab at it.

Currently, Facebook “owns” the social space, and that’s been a concern for the planners at the GooglePlex, because they just don’t have an in with Facebook.  They’ve tried, but Microsoft beat them to it.

Social is important because of it’s marketing value.  People reveal things about themselves – their associations with others, the types of events they attend, activities they participate in, websites the visit, and much, much more.  This information is a treasure trove to maketers.  It allows them to target advertising in ways that they simply didn’t used to.  For a company like Facebook to control that space, in a walled garden where they get to determine what information leaks out, and what information stays in, is a direct threat to Google.

The general public thinks of Google as many things – a search engine, an email service, a news aggregator, a mapping service.  And it is many things.  But first and foremost, it is something the general public rarely even thinks about.  Google is an advertising agency.  That’s where they derive their revenue from, or roughly 90% anyway.  By selling those little text ads you see almost everywhere on the web, that often seem almost prescient about what you might be interested in.

Actually, they don’t just seem prescient, they are prescient.  Google delivers these ads base on a very complex series of calculations it makes.  It takes into account the information on the page – if you are reading an article about toaster oven safety, there’s a good chance you’re in the market for toaster ovens, so guess what kinds of ads you’re going to see?  It also takes into account your personal surfing history – which it knows more about than you might realize.  Every time you visit a page with one of those Google ads, it knows.  So it knows a lot about your surfing history, your shopping patterns.  It also knows the types of things you search for, and a great deal of other things.  As a result, the ads you see aren’t just targeted based on the content of the page you’re reading, but based on you, and your web history.

But all that intelligence hits a wall when it gets to Facebook.  Google can’t really see inside Facebook, what you’re doing there, talking about there, who you’re associating with in there.  Facebook is what’s referred to as a “walled garden” – somewhat like the ads for Vegas.  What happens in Facebook, Stays in Facebook.  Except for all the information that they choose to leak out (which is a lot, actually).

But Google wants more than the breadcrumbs that Zuckerberg and his crew allow to dribble off their dinner table.  They want the full five course meal.  So it’s inevitable that Google will fight hard to gain a foothold in the social space.  They don’t even have to win the battle.  They just need to have a big enough share of the market that they can build more refined trend-lines into their algorithm.  Basically, so they can become more effective at pitching products to you.

So let’s get something out of the way:  Privacy is a non starter with Google+. By it’s very nature, it wants to learn as much about you as it can.  But that doesn’t make them worse than Facebook, or LinkedIn, or MySpace, or any other social network.  They’re all after the same thing: as much information about you as you’re willing to give them, and your friends and acquaintances arte willing to give about you.

That’s not paranoia.  That’s just business.  If you approach Facebook and Google+ with this in mind, then you’re far better off in the long run.

Now as for the service itself, my first impressions are actually fairly positive, especially when I compare it to Facebook – which let’s face it, that’s what everyone will be comparing it to.

For one thing, they’ve kept to the Google design ascetic.  Which is minimalist, clear, with lots of white space.    In many ways, it’s very similar to Facebook – a three column layout, with two narrow columns on either side containing navigation and other “tidbit” info panels, with a wide central column that contains the “stream” of posts from yourself and those in your circles.  But Facebook jams way more “stuff” into those columns.  The spacing is tight.    With Google PLus, the text size is, by default, slightly bigger.  And there is just a hint more space between lines, and even more space separating the different info boxes.  The overall effect is fairly dramatic.  Google+ seems far less busy and cluttered.  It’s easier to spot the information you’re looking for when everything isn’t all jammed together.

It’s just nicer to look at.

But really, only typography nuts and commercial artists are going to pay close attention to that.  Everyone else will sense it viscerally.  And different people will have different preferences.

The really big, killer feature of Google+ is circles.  And I’ll refrain from making too many references to The Hudsucker Proxy here.  You’re going to be hearing a lot about Circles in the coming year, trust me.  So why not try and be one of the cool kids and get a grasp of the concept early on?

Facebook doesn’t differentiate between your “friends”.  Everyone essentially gets piled into one big list.  Everything you post on your wall gets broadcast to all your “friends” – regardless of whether they’re actually friends, family, coworkers, or some random schlub you met on Kijiji who sent you a friend request you were too embarrassed to turn down.

My wife summed it up brilliantly as to why this is a bad idea.  “I never post anything because everyone on my friends list can see it – and it’s rude to unfriend people.”

Circles gets around this problem by allowing you to organize your contacts.  Google+ offers 4 default Circles to start with: Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Following.  You can add as many Circles as you want, into order to further refine how you organize your contacts.  And any given person can be in more than one circle.  My wife is both a Friend, and Family.

Then, when you go to post something, you get to choose which of your circles you’re going to broadcast to.  You can send it to all your circles, some of them, or just one.  And when you’re looking at your stream, you can do likewise.  You can look at the stream coming from just your friends, your family, or whatever.  Depending on what you want to catch up on.  And it is very neat, easy to figure out, and thoughtfully organized.

And you never have to worry about un-friending someone.  People on the far end only know that they’re in your circles.  They don’t know what circle you put them in.  I already have a circle called “Mushrooms” – for people I don’t actually like, want to hear what they say, have them hear what I have to say.  I keep them in the dark and feed them s**t.  And I can do it very conveniently without overtly offending them.  Nice!

In fact, it’s such a good idea, that I fully expect Facebook to copy the functionality in the coming months.

Other than that, it’s a typical Social Web concept.  Share photos, videos, thoughts of the day (blog posts).  But it’s very well designed, clear and intuitive (at least for me).  It’s snappy, and uses a lot of the lates AJAX tricks to keep the interface humming along.

In a lot of ways, it makes Facebook look like the 8 year old technology it is.  Dated, clutterd, with a whole lot of crap that got bolted on along the way.

Google has the advantage of starting with a clean slate.  And by the looks of it, they really though it through this time.  Is it going to knock Facebook off it’s pedestal?  Probably not.  But then, no one thought Facebook was going to knock MySpace off it’s pedestal.

One think is for certain.  When it comes to “The Social Web” – Google now has some serious skin in the game.

1920 x 1200

Synchronized online storage is one of those things that sounds way geekier than it really is.  As a result, it’s one of those things that less people use than should – a lot of people could get a lot of benefit from “Cloud Storage” – if only they really know what it is and what it does.

Think of it this way.  Imagine you have a file folder on your computer with a limited amount of storage space. It acts just like any other file folder.  You can drag and drop files into it.  If you’re a bit savvier, you can even set backups to update to it automatically.  Now imagine you can access that exact same folder, with all it’s files, from any computer you wish – so long as you have the password for it.

And that’s pretty much all cloud storage is, when properly done.  It’s a folder you can sync up with as many different computers on as you like, regardless of their physical location.  The only caveat is that each of these computers has to have a net connection for the folder to update.  And if you don’t want to specifically install the folder on a machine, but you want to access the files in that folder, (say you’re at your Aunt Edna’s and you want to show her your latest pics from nightclubbing), you can log into a web interface and bring up specific files.

While sharing/accessing files online has been around for a long time, the services have generally been single purpose – a service for storing/sharing photos, a service for storing/sharing videos, etc.  And the emphasis has generally been on sharing.

With cloud storage, the emphasis is about making certain key files available from every computer you generally access.  And maybe acting as a backup of certain key files to a location off-site.  It’s not about sharing stuff with others.  It’s about keeping a small subset of your files shared and synchronized for yourself, wherever you are.

For me, I use it for some work spreadsheets I might need to access, work on from home or when I’m out and about.  And also for storing/backing up family photos.

Dropbox is the thousand pound gorilla in this market, for some very good reasons.  Specifically, it has a catchy, easy to remember name, a really strong marketing department, and a dead simple, easy to use interface.  And it’s free (for the basic version) – and by free I mean FREE.  No ads, no crapware installed on your computer.  Free.  The business model is based on the concept that you’ll like it so much, you’ll pay a nominal fee to get a larger storage allotment.  And so far, it’s working out pretty good for them, in business terms.

The basic free version comes with a a 2Gb storage limit, which might seem kind of small until you think about it a bit.  If you’re just using it to keep some key files that you’ll need to access anywhere (the aforementioned spreadsheets, maybe some scripts I’m tinkering with that I want to edit whenever inspiration strikes, the working .doc files from that “Great American Novel” you’re working on), 2Gb is actually quite a lot.  It’s potentially hundreds of documents.  In my case, it’s an actuality of just over a thousand small documents (no, really, I just checked), and that takes up less than 1/2 of the free minimum.

Ok, I’ve been using it for a year and a half now, and I could probably wipe out 90% of those files, but why bother?  They’re actually quite well organized, easy to find, and they’re not actually bothering anything there.  (How you organize your file system is your problem).  My point here is that it’s useful storage for those little documents you might want to get at from anywhere (my work computer at the office, my home computer, my laptop, my smartphone and my tablet).  Yes, they even have special clients for iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile.

Which is really handy because I tend to keep a selection of my favourite pics of my 2&1/2 year old daughter, so I can quickly bring them up to annoy whoever happens to be around.

Using it involves installing an app on your computer or portable device, but it’s dead easy to do, is platform agnostic (fancy geek speak for “it will work on your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine).  You also have to sign up for an account, which pretty straightforward and easy to do (the only real information you have to give them is a valid email address), so that you can access the web interface, or tie in the installation to other computers.

If you need more space, you can earn extra space through referrals, linking it to your Facebook account, following them on Twitter, or you can pay $9.99/month for a 50Gb box, or $19.99/month for a 100Gb box.

If any of the stuff I’ve mentioned before sounds interesting, then why not head over and take a tour of the features.  Like I said, they have a great marketing department, and they explain a lot of this much better than I could.

One of the key problems with Dropbox is that the security is all on the far side of the pipe – your files are all encrypted (good) – bu they’re only encrypted on the Dropbox servers.  They’re fairly open on your own machine, and while they’re being transferred (mostly a problem if you have a system already compromised by viruses, or if you’re one of those people who likes to use open-air WiFi hotspots a lot).  But it also presents a problem in that if the service itself is hacked, or they screw up an update and leave the entire service wide open for four hours.  It also means that they can open up your files and turn them over to anyone with a warrant.  That’s a bigger concern for some than others.

Wuala is a relative newcomer to the field.  It’s a somewhat geekier product, with more fine grained controls, and a strange, hard to remember name.  On the surface, it does pretty much the same stuff as Drobox, only with half as much storage to start with- 1Gb – and a cludgier, harder to figure out interface.  Doesn’t sound like promising competition off the bat, now does it?

But looks can be deceiving.

First off, the product is still in “Beta” phase, so they openly admit they have work to do.  I suspect this work has mostly to do with the interface (it needs it), and on some performance issues (more on this in a bit).  It’s stable and usable, and while you might never have heard of LaCie, the company behind the service, they are, in fact, a fairly large and well known company that builds consumer and corporate storage devices – flash drives, portable hard drives, etc.  Which is to say it isn’t some fly by night startup that’s likely to disappear without warning.

Second, they’ve gone to pains to address some of the concerns that privacy and security types have about Dropbox.  Wuala works on an entirely different storage principle, that negates a lot of these security concerns.  All the files are encrypted on your own computer before they’re uploaded, and can only be decrypted if you have the password.   This is a big step forward, in terms of both security and privacy.  The people at Wuala can’t open your files, even if you want them to, without your password.  (Note:  Don’t forget your password).

Also, Wuala works on a decentralized storage model.  Dropbox has central servers where all your info is stored.  If something happens to that central storage system, you’re potentially in deep trouble.  But while Wuala does have a central storage system, they maintain this primarily to ensure a high level of speed and reliability.  The real magic is that they’ve set the service up as a giant RAID array, where every computer that is a part of the service, acts as a part of the array.

Ok, I probably just lost half my audience there, but for those of you brave enough to stay, let me explain that a bit.  Essentially, only a part of your files are actually stored on your computer.  The rest of the files are broken up into tiny bits and scattered across a wide range of computers – including the Wuala servers, and everyone who is a member of the service.  In fact, those bits are stored many multiples of times across all those computers, so that if anything goes down, or becomes unavailable, it doesn’t matter.  You can get the same bits from somewhere else.

Neat, huh?

Now, you might be concerned that bits and pieces of your files will end up on “some random guy’s” computer, but you needn’t be.  Remember that bit about encryption I mentioned above?  Two things are happening here to protect your files.

1. Only tiny fragments of any given file will be on any one other machine.
2. Those fragments are encrypted, and essentially unreadable by that other machine.

Also, you might be worried about “some random guy’s” files being on your computer, but again, the two points above work in your favour.  Even if someone were to intentionally put something bad in their folder (say, a virus, or maybe a Milli Vanilli tune), you would only get a tiny fragment of that file, and it would be safely encrypted – garbled and unreadable by your machine.  So you’d be safe from both viruses, and having to accidentally listen to “Girl You Know it’s True.”

Conceptually, it might be harder to wrap your head around.  In practice, it’s several orders of magnitude more secure and reliable.

And that tiny 1Gb storage allotment to start with?  Don’t be fooled.  It’s actually far easier to earn large amounts of free storage with Wuala, which creates something with far more potential.  Sure, you can buy more storage – and if you look at the pricing, on an annual basis 50 or 100Gb is actually cheaper than with Dropbox, and by a not small margin.

But you can also trade for more storage.  This is especially useful if you’re someone like me, who has several “always on computers” with very large amounts of storage (11 Terrabytes, and counting).  In fact, most people nowadays could easily spare 20 or 40 Gigabytes of storage on their home computers, given the rapid drop in cost of very large hard drives. (2TB drives can be had for less than $100, if you keep your eyes open).

And once you get into the 20+ Gb range, the possibilities for what you can do with it become all that much greater.  We have over 5,000 family photos, that only take up around 9Gb on disk.  I have all of this set to sync up nightly with my Wuala folder.  All those cherished memories, safely stored online, encrypted, where I can recover them should the unthinkable happen – say we get burglarized, or if the house burns down.  That’s a lot of peace of mind for something with so much personal value.

I’ve traded for 40Gb of extra space, a small fraction of what I have available.  And it’s enough space to backup all my email, key documents, and family photos.  The family videos would take up more space, but I’m thinking of trading up enough for even this to become feasible.

The truth is, that while I use well over 60% of the storage I have at home, most of it is things that I’m not concerned if I lose – it’s replaceable.  It just happens to be convenient for me to burn all my DVDs to my hard drives, so I can access them/watch them from any screen in my house.  The actual irreplaceable data is a small fraction of the overall storage picture for me.

The big downside to Wuala is the interface.  It’s needlessly obtuse.  It’s not obtuse to the point where an “average user” couldn’t figure it out, it will just take a bit longer than needed.

And the performance.  File transfer speeds are a bit on the sluggish side.  Much more so than with Dropbox.

But most of it is files that I’m backing up – I’m not accessing them directly from the Wuala drive, so the speed isn’t that huge an issue.  And the kludgy interface?  That’s all in the setup.  Once you have it set up, you can access it just like any other folder.

And as for trading – again, the grief is on setting it up.  And on waiting for it to grow to the point where it’s useful.  You only get a small percentage of what you trade at first – it bases what you get back as a percentage of your total online time, modified by your connection speed.  I have good broadband connection, and my computers are always on, so over time it works out to a 1 to 1 ratio.  But even there, it takes weeks for that to turn into a reality.  I think they need to be a bit more generous here to entice people to share. (They also have weird conditions on how much you can trade based on how much you’re already using).

And the Winner Is….

Well, it somewhat depends on what you plan on using it for, how you use your computer, and how much effort your willing to put in.  If you just want something quick and simple, even if limited, then Dropbox is probably a safe bet.  Sure, they’ve had a few security blips, but I think these have been somewhat over-rated.  From what I can tell, they are genuinely concerned about security issues, and are actively working to improve it.

But if you want something bigger, with more flexibility, and a gnerally superior security model is important to you, then Wuala is the winner hands down.  Client side encryption (for those of you who know what that means), is definitely the way to go for security.  And while you might have to work at it a bit to “earn” the extra free storage, it isn’t too onerous, and it’s within the reach of most people.

And what do I use?  Both.  I just use them differently.  Because of the speed performance, I use Dropbox for those quick little files I need to access all the time.  But because I was able to work up an extra 40Gb of storage with Wuala with relative ease, I use it for mass backups of key personal data (Wedding, Family, and Baby pics of my beautiful little daughter).  Over time, I can see myself relying more heavily on Wuala.  But there will always be a place for Dropbox as well.

And why not?  They’re both free, and like so much to do with computer software nowadays, you just have to think about how your going to use it, and they both can serve a purpose.

1920 x 1200

What I got was an eeePad Transformer from ASUS, with the optional keyboard dock and a slip cover for the tablet portion.

So why did I get a Tablet Anyway?

This will say a lot about what I expected to get out of the device. Basically, what I wanted was an eReader, but with a colour screen and a decent browser. And hey, if it could do email and a few other things that would be great too, maybe play some videos. What I absolutely didn’t want was a 3g device. Say what? That’s right. Absolutely did… not… want… But I have a good reason for not wanting 3g in my tablet. I already have it in my phone, and if I’m out and about with my tablet and really need a net connection, I can tether. No need to pay for yet another phone bill.

That’s it. And it’s not much, really, to ask of a device in this day and age. Oh, and it wasn’t going to be an iPad. If there’s one thing that my iPhone taught me, it’s that I will never, ever, buy another Apple device.

And why did I decide on the eeePad Transformer?

A couple of reasons. By the specs, it looked pretty good. For one thing, it has a 10.1″ screen, and that’s a definite plus. I’ve toyed with a few other people’s devices, and the 7″ range of screens seemed just a bit too small. The 10″ range struck me as more functional, if a bit heavier to tote around, with no possibility of slipping it into your pocket. It has a beefy enough dual core processor with a Tegra 2 Chipset for graphics, good storage for a tablet (32Gb), and ASUS has a pretty good reputation for building quality, reliable devices. (Actually, the fact that ASUS makes it almost turned me against it – my personal history with their equipment and motherboards and such has been spotty…. And that’s being kind.)

It’s also a fairly well reviewed device, with CNET and Wired both giving it high marks in the field of Android Tablets. The online reviews from end users were absolutely glowing. At least the ones I could find.

And it comes with a twist, the “transformer” part of the equation, if you get the optional keyboard dock. This is a pretty neat feature in the Tablet market. The keyboard is full(ish) sized, has a number of extra connectivity options (a pair of USB ports and an MMC/SD/SDHC reader), and includes an extra battery bank so that when docked, the tablet draws power from the keyboard, while recharging itself. This greatly extends the life of the device between charges.

First Impressions Out of the Box

My first impressions were very positive. Keep in mind, I hadn’t even laid eyes on a display model when I purchased this, I went strictly by the specs and positive reviews. The few photos I’d seen hadn’t made an impression one way or the other, and I’ve bought enough devices over the years that I’ve learned to view any online product photo with a large dose of salt.

Colouring is a dark, rich bronze, with an aluminum bezel and keyboard tray. The back of the screen and the keyboard is a textured plastic that doesn’t feel cheap at all (really! It’s quite nice). It’s a very smart looking device, that feels like it will hold up well to the urban warfare that I put my portable electronics through. It has a nice, solid feel to it, without being too heavy to carry around. And I’ve tested this last part. I walk home from work most days, about a half an hour, and I’ve carried the device both with and without the keyboard attached. In both cases, it didn’t tire out my arm in the least. It has the effect of walking around with something that weighs in about the same as a large paperback, but is as thin as a Nat Geo magazine.

Even my wife, the household design guru with the BFA in Art and Design, thought it was a very nice looking piece of kit. And that’s higher praise than you might think, as by and large, she “tolerates” my electronic gizmos at best.

Turning it on and using it for the first time…

I was genuinely impressed by the snappy responsiveness of the tablet. The dual core processor in this thing puts the older generation of single core netbooks and smartphones to shame. Flipping between desktop sections and apps is smooth and flawless.

It was a matter of moments to connect to my home WiFi and sync up my Gmail account, and I found myself enjoying exploring the built in apps. It comes with a very good eReader app (which is important, because this was one of the prime reasons I got the thing in the first place), a passable office suite (sadly, it does not include support for ODT documents, which I found odd), the mandatory YouTube app, and a very good navigation app that works well with the built in GPS and compass, and functions well with voice recognition (as well as anything else I’ve played with) and does a stellar job of turn by turn navigation (something I tested in the car on my second day with it).

Some things were a bit more obtuse than they needed to be. It took a few minutes to figure out how to tether to my phone for the net, but I was able to do this within about 10 or 15 minutes without having to resort to googling it. And throwing it into debugging mode so I could transfer files directly from my Linux desktop was a fair bit more complicated than necessary. Really, I shouldn’t have to adjust settings to make that work. But, unlike with an iDevice, at least it’s possible without having to install software on your desktop machine.

In short, within an hour of first turning it on, I had all my basic connectivity working, synced my email and calendar, and was up and surfing the web.

Oh! And Flash! It doesn’t come pre-loaded, but as soon as you launch the browser, it prompts for the install, and I had that working in no time.

Putting it through the paces for a week…

I really wanted to work this thing during the first week, on the off chance that it wasn’t going to cut the mustard and I needed to return it. I wouldn’t call it much of a spoiler to say, right off, that this is definitely not going to get returned.

The eReader/eBook organizer that comes with it is first rate. I’ve already gotten through the first book in The Dark Tower series (which has been on my to-read list for far too long). For reference, I tried a few different options from the Android Market, but none of them were any better than the one that came shipped with it.

The browser, on the other hand, needs some work. Ok, it needs a lot of work. Fortunately, the market has a lot of options in this regard, and I’ve settled on Opera for the moment, after playing around with FireFox for Android a bit as well. (Note: I’va actually change this preference to Firefox, for the simple reason that you can install an add-on to spoof the browser agent, so that websites stop delivering their crappy dumbed down mobile versions. The 10.1″ screen is plenty large enough to work with the full version of virtually all websites.) I haven’t fully committed to any one browser yet, they all seem to have their weaknesses, and haven’t really figured out this whole “tablet” thing yet – they all seem optimized for a much smaller screen. Which brings up another peeve that has nothing to do with the device itself. A lot of the larger websites have developed mobile versions of their sites, and these are decidedly unpleasant on a larger screen, not to mention buggy as hell. Really, I wish they would just show the full version of the site. (See above comment on my solution for this.) The screen on a 10′ tablet can more than accommodate it. Most sites have the option to view the full site, but not all. And none of them seem to remember the choice from one visit to the next. This is no small annoyance because the worst offenders seem to be the sites I visit most often. Overall, it’s workable, but I find the browser to be the low point of the total experience. I suspect this would be the same for any Tablet at the moment, as the problem lies with both the browser, and how websites are serving up content to the browser.

The docking station/keyboard is an absolute dream. It took very little getting used to, and I’m finding it easy to fly through typing with it. I’ve been writing this entire post on the docked keyboard, and am amazed at the low number of missed strokes, and the speed I can type with. Coupled with the touch screen, it’s quite easy to edit surprisingly large documents. Sure, I could use the touchpad on the keyboard, but this seems a little extraneous. It’s much easier to just tap the screen where I want to move the curs0r. I should note that I downloaded and am using a dedicated WordPress app, because (surprise surprise) the web editor and the various browsers I’ve tried really disagreed with each other.

The Android Market seems to be filling out quite well, and I really haven’t come across a “need” that I haven’t been able to fill. And I only see this as getting better over time.

Battery life is stellar. Just running the tablet un-docked, I haven’t come close to being able to drain the battery in a day, and that’s with fairly heavy use. Docked, I could easily get two days with room to spare – and that’s a real killer feature. Effectively, it negates my need or a laptop other than I will still need some of the functionality of a full flavour of Linux in a portable device – but mostly for work related reasons. Even here, I’ll probably be able to ditch the laptop, because I can use VNC and Telnet to connect to a full functioning machine at home or the office. I can’t say enough about the battery. It smokes the longevity of any laptop or netbook on the market, especially when docked.

As far as viewing Flash, I’ve read a lot of negative about Flash on Android, but I haven’t experienced any of those problems. Videos and light flash games run without a problem, and the quality is quite good. I wonder if the problems other people have had stem more from running it on under-powered devices, rather than the platform itself.

Final Thoughts

In a way that very few devices I’ve bought over the years have, this tablet has rapidly integrated itself into my life, both personal and work. I don’t have to think about grabbing it as I head out the door, it just magically appears in my hand. I don’t need to come up with excuses to use it, I just find myself turning to it on a regular basis to accomplish things that I used to do either on my smart phone or my desktop machine or laptop. It doesn’t replace either my phone or my desktop, but it is quickly replacing my laptop. It fills a niche I really didn’t realize needed filling, and has complimented my workflow and recreation time quite nicely. It’s always at hand, and it is small and light enough that it doesn’t weigh me down.

The two “killer” features are the eBook reader and the battery life. These two things alone make the device worthwhile. Yes, the browsing experience needs work, but I have faith – I accept that we’re still in the “early adopter” phase, and some kinks in the software will need to be worked out. The hardware itself is rock solid, and I expect to be able to get a couple of very good years of use out of it. I never expect more than 2 years from a computing device, so anything I get past that will be gravy.

I’m very happy with this purchase, and am glad that an un-expected bonus prompted me to jump into the tablet scene. For portable computing, I can see tablets, whether or not they have optional keyboards, relegating the laptop to irrelevance.

If you’re the type of person who needs to compute and surf on the go, and enjoy a bit of tinkering, then I would highly recommend the eeePad Transformer. The tablet by itself is a stellar device, and if you choose to get the optional keyboard dock, it will give you a flexible platform for on the go.

And it has drawn far more oohs and ahhhs at the office than the few iPads that have turned up, which kinda surprised me. I didn’t buy this for the ego or to be in the “in crowd” – but it draws way more people to my desk than I would have expected. Granted, I work at a dot-com with a heavily techie crowd, but it’s surprising nonetheless.

As a friend of mine commented when I dropped by his place the other day… “Holy crap! The age of the TriCorder has arrived!”