bookmark_borderContent in the City

Various recent events have me pondering. At what point does the amount of digital content we have become a burden? In the age of “more”, when does “a lot”, become “too much”?

Why do I have Carrie Bradshaw’s voice in my head?

Leaving the exquisite Ms. Parker (or Mrs. Broderick if you prefer) to one side, for I’ll get back to her later, the topic of digital content is a current constant around these parts. Hell even the name of this blog hints at my general leanings in an age where content = information.

With the presumption that I’m already informationally overloaded, should I continue to consume and obtain, adding more and more digital content in the vague hope that some far off tipping point will be reached when, in the blink of an eye, a sticky idea will come along and all our digital woes will be answered. Apologies to Mr. Gladwell for that last sentence.

One of the problems we face is that it’s so (too?) easy to create digital content. Rip a CD and you’ll have MP3s or WMAs, take photos and you’ll have JPEGs and possible RAW files too, send emails and you’ll likely store a copy of your sent email in some format or another, type up and send a letter and you have a new document to store, and all of that is presuming you are only using your computer for ‘everyday life’ tasks. If your work requires a computer Id guess that you are creating, probably, mega-bytes of brand spanking new digital content every single day (although you might not store it all on your own computer).

But what’s the big problem? As the cost of storage continues to drop, it’s now relatively inexpensive to have at least a Terabyte of easily accessed disk space in your home. I currently have around 850GB of space, spread across three drives (one of which is an external drive used for backup only) none of which are even remotely close to being full, although that’s mainly because I’ve not yet resumed my on-going CD conversion project.
Continue reading “Content in the City”

bookmark_borderSelf-censoring Take 14

Friends read this site. Colleagues read this site. My family, occasionally, pops in and reads this site.

I think I need a new site. Somewhere anonymous, somewhere I can spout forth without having to worry about who’s reading. I can’t talk about three pieces of news at the moment. May never talk about one of them to be honest, in fact I kinda know that, depending on the outcome, I may never talk about two of them. The third will become general knowledge at some point, and it’s really not that big a deal, but it’s news and is happening to me and has prompted thoughts and emotions that I can’t discuss here.

So I’m trying to stay away from these partially related topics (well two of them are… keeping up?)

I guess this is where being a ‘blogger’ has it’s advantages. If I were Julie Burchill, exempli gratia, I’d be expected to spout forth with my feelings on this topic, regardless of my wants… and the advantage of being a journalist is that you are expected to, so life events witnessed can be expected to turn up in print. What is the etiquette regarding these things when it comes to blogs? Do I seek my friend’s/colleague’s/family’s approval before mentioning them here? (Ohh and if any of the aforementioned are reading, feel free to state your object, or lack of one, in the comment box).

I do have some other thoughts flittering about my head, the current postings (elsewhere and mentioned here on Saturday) about attribution of links for example: my take is that I attribute the site I found it on. If I came across it myself or via an email or IM then it remains unattributed. RSS news aggregators, a few thoughts about tagging Blogger posts to create categories, why trackbacks are hard, why I can’t get motivated to finish the Scottish Blogs site, and why I’m currently promising to go for a walk tonight but have the feeling that by the time I get home I won’t feel like it, and many other fascinating, and somewhat, limited topics.

Another one that has just popped into my head is my overuse of commas (Oxford or otherwise) but I’ll leave that one alone, for now (dammit, did it again…)

What else can I do to distract my brain – music: Scissors Sisters album is good, as are Kings of Leon and Joss Stone all of which are currently cycling round my playlist – books: current read is alright but can’t really see that it’s going anywhere, and not sure what I’m in the mood for next – films: didn’t make it to the cinema and beginning to wonder why I’m paying for an ‘Unlimited’ pass that I use all of once a month (needs to be at least twice if not three times to be justifiable) – money: no, no… wrong topic. Damn you brain!

See what happens? I start rambling. Almost incoherently.

Where is the fast forward button anyway?

(and first person to say “you’ll wish your life away” gets a smack, and no, not THAT kind of smack you perverts…)

Ultimately, am I doomed to see the downside all the time. Is my glass always half-empty?

(And why do I have Carrie Bradshaw’s voice in my head?)

Christ, I really need to get a grip. This is just the sort of navel-gazing nonsense I promised myself I’d stop doing. I guess I could always NOT post it… the ultimate in self-censorship.