Best MP3 players around

Truly excellent list. Although I have a well-publicised dislike of Apple iPods, this list even picks out the least offensive one. Now there's absolutely no excuse to be a Massed Induhvidual with white earbuds.   http://tinyurl.com/mrxuaw   Philips GoGear Spark
Gavin Dudley • ONLINE EDITOR • MEN'S HEALTH Tel +27 21 408 3858 • Cell - N/A • Fax 021-408 3931
For TLM corporate overview click here

Today's little sdaness

This stuff is so damn diheartening... but it certainly fules my tiny blaze about the media as we know it imploding itself through irrelevance, the ultimate price for thegreed of a few individuals...

Business Day: Compromised Icasa Toothless Against SABC (Page 1 of 1): "A weak regulator suits both big business and the government, says Limpitlaw. She says broadcasting needed to be regulated in the public interest, to ensure that broadcasters meet their constitutional mandate.

Both the SABC and Icasa are forfeiting autonomy in favour of external, and perhaps exclusively political, intervention, Rhodes University journalism professor Guy Berger said in his Thought Leader blog last week."

Media vs text-based brand extensions

Last week was a landmark for me and it's worth telling about... I have general low-level irritation at working for a flush, glossy mag which places me a comfort zone, but which turns out to be a gilded cage of editorial bankruptcy. So last week the senior editors meet with this excellent media consultant fellow who reminds me of my sage mentor from M&G days, Irwin Manoim. So I'm taking him seriously, in other words. He's telling us what to do with our web site and he's telling us about brand extensions and organizing online events and users sending in videos etc. and because things are rapidly turning into a commercial smorgasbord of revenue opportunities I stop him and say: "But what is the editorial value of that?". He smiles benignly and says "The editorial rules have change a lot, you see." I say: "So, you've crossed over to the Dark Side". And he says: "Well, you're a brand, you see." His subtle point was that we stopped playing by traditional media rules way back when everything we did was focused into a profit making exercise. We now have so many lucrative brand extensions that the mag increasingly is just a tool for marketing them. Sooo, my point is that if this former editor of a major SA newspaper and all-round media heavy hitter can Transition then I have to get off my embattled moral high ground of editorial quality and Fourth Estate kak and get with the program. Last week I embraced User Generated Content, Facebook, Twitter and blogging as the Way To Go, and I'm much happier now. Soon I will be invited back to senior staff meetings and will be embraced by our directors as having Seen The One True Light. Conclusion: I realise that my calling is to promote this new social media stuff as strongly as possible thereby speeding its demise so that the true media will be called back into existence out of social necessity. Which is how it should be. Which is why I am posting all this to my top secret blog, yeah?
Gavin Dudley • ONLINE EDITOR • MEN'S HEALTH Tel +27 21 408 3858 • Cell - N/A • Fax 021-408 3931
For TLM corporate overview click here

Timeless toys

Un-frikkin-believable! Rupert gave me a small Lego figure of Father Xmas in 1998, and it has lived on my desk ever since. It has survived more than 20 desk moves since then. It consists of 19 pieces and has been a source of creative energy all that time. Now after 11 years (!) you'd think all the possible variations on this kit would be exhausted. Frankly, so did I, until I invented two new models last week. Both models use all 19 pieces...

20090621 Aquaplane

20090629 Hoverboard skater boy

(Here piece no 19 is concealed, making the board appear to hover.)

Geez, the gift the keeps on giving, eh? Rupert, love man.

Google waves back

First update for a while. Why? I'm a busy guy but my employers have sanctioned personal blogging/teeting/postings during office hours as a way to stimulate our brands involvement in Social Media. Me? On the "Internet" since 1994 I've gotten pretty tired of the fads. I still remember Instant Messaging and Voip as pretty cool. Blogging is the lesser of several evils for "Internet Participation". I post these blog entries via email from my desk and phone (and only occasionally pull up my site to see how they displayed!). I still get genuine pleasure out of spamming my group of a dozen "real" friends with my clips and thoughts, whines and moments of clarity BY TEXT-ONLY EMAIL. Which makes it noteworthy that Google (starting to dislike them almost as much as the Cult Of Mac) has invented a threaded messaging app that aggregates all your chitchat together, obviating the need for any standalone services from tw or fb or blogs. *sigh* Google Wave looks like a winner, and nicely timed to co-incide with fb boredom (and disillusionment that, amazingly, we don't feel more loved and appreciated and noteworthy, despite all those friends). http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/
Gavin Dudley • ONLINE EDITOR • MEN'S HEALTH Tel +27 21 408 3858 • Cell - N/A • Fax 021-408 3931
For TLM corporate overview click here

Aeroplane graveyard

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