Matt Bors for Salon on the consequences of the rush to be first:
“Social Media” didn’t get anything wrong or right. Reporters got things wrong – people who made choices about what to post and how to headline it – and they looked like fools for doing so.
Out of respect to those who lost their lives, their family, and those in the community, I have hesitated to post anything about the horrific shooting in Connecticut. If you’re looking for gun law-related links, both Gruber and Kottke have a collection of good ones.
However, I feel that one of the nasty side-effects of the tragedy was that cable news channels plastered a photo of a man onto millions of televisions without verifying it. Turns out the guy that they posted is both innocent, and whose brother was the shooter. He now has to cope with the emotions that come from both of those aspects because Fox, CNN, Gawker, and others were in a rush to be first.
Last week, I wrote:
I noticed that I was able to top up my Starbucks card through its app. I emailed to ask whether they were getting special treatment from Apple and, after many layers of customer support, I couldn’t get a straight answer. I do believe they are accepting a 30% cut in potential profits through the app, though.
A representative from the PR firm that represents Starbucks in Canada let me know that I should contact Apple “to learn more about exceptions to Apple’s app policy.” At this point, I’m not entirely certain that Apple is taking a 30% cut for in-app purchases made through the Starbucks app.
If you, as I, have spent many a lonely evening staring out on a darkened city, you’ll recognize the value of DJ Shadow’s records. Don’t be fooled by Shadow’s (real name Josh Davis) opening track, “Vee in Detroit”. Just because there’s a funky synth bass sample to kick this record off, that doesn’t mean that the rest of it isn’t for the night.
And, indeed, by the time the sixth track (“Intensely Hitting”) rolls around, this record has settled into the lonely, desolate, and mysterious samples you know and love. Except this wasn’t the mood DJ Shadow knew or loved, because these tracks were all created before he released Endtroducing… in 1996. In many ways, it shows that Shadow hadn’t settled into the role of a mashup artist extraordinaire yet. These are all prototypes and working drafts of a format he would later perfect. They’re great nevertheless. A thoroughly enjoyable album.