worldwide pablo

That is the question

To tweet, or not to tweet? MoDo asks the question.

Bailing but not sinking

A interesting description of The Zero.

iLove

Not even five minutes away from the house this morning did it dawn upon WWP’s noggin that something was missing. Gym bag? Check. Wristwatch? Check. Wallet? Check. Phone? Ack!

Only six months ago WWP would have simply forged ahead and endured the day unwired. In fact, there have been plenty of times in the past when early morning forgetfulness meant a day without a watch or a wallet. Not being able to tell time or pay for lunch? A small inconvenience.

But a day without the phone? Not on your life.

That’s telling.

[But then again, it's not just any phone.]

Not feeling the iLove

As regulars here know, WWP took his place last Friday in the Jonestown line and picked up one of the hottest gadgets available in the whole effing universe. It's been a steep learning curve since -- and we're not talking just about navigating our way around new device with its different technology and language, but also the endless downloads and passwords to enter, to say nothing about our basic unfamiliarity with the rites and sacraments of The Church of Steve. We weren't amused today to find that every single "app" [one of the most vaunted parts of this new technology] went missing today and had to be reloaded. Passwords and logins to remember, and to peck them all back in with that infernally small keyboard. We hadn't experienced a horror of this kind from the competitor for at least a decade -- and we weren't happy at all to be reminded of it. [Realize that this device is not a phone; it's a computer.]

Yet, there are those who remain in a state of euphoria. Maybe we'll get there sometime soon. At least we were enabled to take that cool and utterly meaningless photograph above on the way to work this morning. Tubular!

"They dared to cover the news and went out of business"

Depending on who you talk to, the blogosphere is either a salvation from mainstream media monopoly or it's a slippery slope to certain chaos of under- or uninformed "newsiness." Being a former newsman himself, Worldwide Pablo has his own opinions [which shouldn't be so hard to figure out], but we'll save those pithy comments for another day.

In Bellingham, Wash., the local independent newspaper -- the aptly named Whatcom Independent -- has published its last issue, a victim of falling readership and flagging advertising revenues. This is the sort of "death to the dead-tree media" rallying cry that normally cheers the blogging class. But we wonder: Is this such a good trend? And moreover: When the last of the these newspapers is gone, what exactly will bloggers actually have to write about?

What's more, who's stepping up to the plate? Well, as it turns out, no one, really. As Editor Sheri Ward notes in her farewell column:

"Web-based news blogs may fill some of the need, and the quality and reliability of those is evolving. One can hope the bar for quality local news coverage rises enough to render news-oriented blogs useful for the general community."

She adds:

"It's time to pass the baton. Unfortunately, at this point, there's nobody on the receiving end of that pass."

Exactly. Whatcom County is something of a media test tube, when you think about it. Retrenching mainstream newspaper, other shrinking and disappearing media, no one really stepping up to fill the void. That's something to celebrate?

WWP will take Walter Cronkite over that any day.

Thrive

While awaiting the arrival of his new chariot, Worldwide Pablo has been preparing to part with his trusty Toyota of nine years. Like all the kids are doing these days, WWP ventured over to Craigslist to put the Camry up for sale. He typed up all the features, uploaded the pictures and punched all the buttons Craig requires. WWP finally got to the last step, that phase asking users to enter some random letters, or in this case, random words, in order prove one's not a spammer or a bot.

The resulting screen “captcha” was startling, to say the least.

Too bad this guy is no longer in the market for a good pre-owned automobile.

[Interested in a decent used Camry? See the ad here.]

Gotta love Google

As you might be able to discern, WWP doesn't spend a lot of time tending to the technical side of things on this blog. [Outdated blog rolls, stale design, etc.] But in a semi-annual fit of curiousity, WWP set about tonight to check the visitor stats, find where they are coming from, and, most importantly, learn what search-engine queries are leading to this site.

The top search?: "Man's head explodes." It's currently in the No. 1 slot at Google for that search term. Go figure.

We're not sure this is why Al Gore invented the Internets, but we'll go with it.

Cool tool

Here's something cool: A web-based tool that turns your photos into instant antiques. With just a few clicks on a Japanese website, you can give your modern-day JPGs the "browned out, decades-old look" that might even fool your grandparents into thinking you are using an old-fashioned Graflex or Brownie camera.

That's WWP above, by the way, just a week or so ago, in the desert outside of Las Vegas. [Here's the original photo.]

Give it a try for yourself. Report your results, if you like.

[Via Waldo Lydecker's Journal. Don't miss the Japanese-to-English instructions!]

Power down

Amazing how something as regular as a summertime power failure can bring ginormous websites to their knees. Even at this hour, Craigslist -- the vaunted classified "ad killer" -- is not yet fully functional [especially to its outer rings and levels]. In fact, deep in the bowels of Craigslist, one still encounters error messages that implore, "We are aware of the situation, and the happy craigslist elves are scurrying to make it better, even now."

Imagine all the frustrated couch-sellers and sexaholics tonight...

Disclosure: The afternoon meltdown in S.F. also affected WWP's host, Typepad, preventing viewing and posts to this site for four or five hours. Our apologies to those who attempted to connect here during that time. But, we must stand by Typepad. Great site, great service, terrific people. We're not leaving, and we stand by them.]

While we're at it

Come to think of it, the test [in a previous post below] is not the only quiz we've taken tonight. Now, finally, here's proof of our "middle-aged" geezerhood:

Your Taste in Music:

80's Pop: High Influence

80's Rock: High Influence

90's Pop: Medium Influence

90's Hip Hop: Low Influence

Adult Alternative: Low Influence

Classic Rock: Low Influence

Country: Low Influence

Punk: Low Influence

R&B: Low Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?