Wow, but that’s a bad opening lyric.
I write for a variety of outlets, online and in print, and I’m always somewhat amused by the pro-blogger stance that anything that isn’t online is automatically “outdated” or “inferior”. Pejorative phrases like “MSM” or “Dead Tree Media” get thrown about as badges of superiority, all the while ignoring the fact that nothing — including the beloved online space — exists in a vacuum, and ultimately they’re all just different aspects of publishing. It’s even possible to compliment online offerings with print, and vice versa.Some things work better online — and some don’t. Some people see this — and some don’t.
Now, some people are also good at tripping over their own feet on this kind of issue too. I found it somewhat amusing and contradictory that many of the same people who declare anything that isn’t online is a dying art were tripping over themselves in excitement (via Twitter, because, hey, it’s online!) that TV host Rove McManus mentioned Twitter on his Sunday night T.V. program. Apparently, this was big news. Because… hang on. Isn’t he old, dead media? Mainstream, and all that? Why would you, if you honestly believed that, get all excited when boring old TV mentions the latest social media fad?*
Oh yeah. Because it’s not in a vacuum. They’re all parts of publishing and media. But, if it makes you happy, don’t feel as though you have to remove your self-attached badges of superiority or anything. The pins might jab you on the way out.
Speaking of the ol’ dead tree media, I’m in print again. Well, given my client list, I’m almost always in print, but I’ve been a touch out of it lately, both busy and sick, and as such I’ve not been promoting my print work as heavily. Sorry about that, print-editor-type-people. I’m not infallible, or anything.
Anyway, the latest issue of Netguide Magazine is on store shelves right now. Looks something like that image to the right, only more papery and less pixelly. Within its delightful A5 pages you’ll find my roundups of the latest Netbook offerings, broadband deals, and standalone reviews of the Belkin Notebook Surge Protector, Uniden Trax 350, BullGuard Internet Security 8.5, WD TV, Kogan Blu-Ray Player, Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, Sony Vaio VGNZ17GNB, Quicken Personal Plus 2009, Digitech USB Turntable, Prince Of Persia, Call Of Duty: World At War, Guinness World Records The Videogame and Resistance 2.
Jumping publishers, the April issue of PC Authority is also heavily Alex-equipped, with my regular Apple column — looking this month at the whole PowerPC/Intel future, iPhone Apps and wobbling bits of lady anatomy (no, really), reviews of iLife 09 and iWork ’09, Mac news as well as a review of F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin and games news.
*The author is well aware that he was part of a panel on Twitter at Kickstart09. I like Twitter quite a bit, but there’s no doubting it’s a hyped fad right now.