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  Jonathan McKinnell 2:48 pm on May 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: advertising ( 2 ), widgets   

  Web trends: Using tech for the sake of using it. 

  This is something that bothers me constantly. Clients wanting to use a specific web tech or tool just for the sake of using it. Somehow they think that if they use it, they’ll be cool. Lets use the example of a desktop widget. Widgets are great, when filled with the right content. The daily weather? Sure. An RSS reader? Great. Those are both applications that someone might actually use. Now lets say that a Candy company wants to create a branded desktop widget that has some random RSS Feed content in it. Ok, now we all like Candy right? But would you as the average user want to go to the trouble of downloading and installing what is essentially a 24/7 Advertisement sitting on your desktop? No I imagine not.

  So get this out of your head advertisers. Seriously, think before you try to sell something, put yourself in the users shoes. Think from their perspective. Even if the client really wants something, sometimes it’s better to save yourself the pain down the road when you program is a massive failure.

   

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  Jonathan McKinnell 12:44 pm on April 21, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Deal   

  Deal: Buy Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, get DS3 for $20. 

  Just a heads up on a great deal through best buy. A friend pointed this out to me last week. Sadly I didn’t take advantage of it. But it’s still a pretty sweet deal if you have yet to pick up a Dual Shock 3. (It’s a very nice controller btw) Oh and this is a Canada only thing, sorry!

  http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/dept.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=24334&ILC-Top_Links
  Enjoy!

   
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  Jonathan McKinnell 1:49 pm on April 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: New Media   

  Web trends: Peels 

  This is the start of what I hope to be a semi regular post about trends on the web.

  To start off, this week I’m going to talk about Page Peels. If you don’t know what I’m refering to then check out a couple webcomics that have started using it PVP and Least I could do. Now I started seeing these a long while back in early years of Collage. It was first simply a neat thing to do with flash. I’m not sure what came first, the Page peel, or the Flip book which uses the Page peel to replicate the visual of a page turning multiple times to look like a book or magazine.

  Now I really hate harping on these trends, but I’d have to say that it’s reached the point of being overused. It was cool in beginning, but now I see it all the time. And does it really have an effect on the user? Just seems very gimmicky to me.

  Let me know what you think.

   
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  Jonathan McKinnell 9:32 pm on April 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is released on PSN tonight! 

  Finally GT5p arrives (on the PSN store) I was contemplating picking up the Blu-Ray version and I may still tomorrow. Either way this shows a huge shift in how games are delivered to the masses. No longer is it a Brick and Mortar world to Gamestop’s sorrow (i.e. Ebgames). The ability to download your favorite games is becoming more common. With Steam, and now the PSN Network (as well as Xbox Live) it’s a piece of cake as long as you have a decent highspeed line and the hard drive space to hold it.

  What’s special about GT5p is that it’s actually a “demo” of the final product. Now most people would scoff at a $39.99 Demo. But please keep in mind that there’s a lot more in the package then what you would normally see in a free Demo, A LOT more. Here’s the list.

  • 70 Cars
  • 6 Tracks
  • Online play
  • GT TV, The selling point is episodes of Top Gear
  • Online Ranking for the various single player modes (Drift, Time trial etc)

  So is all of that worth $39.99? Totally. The validation comes when you think of it this way. GT5 has been in production for a very long time, and I’m sure that production costs have skyrocketed with the PS3. Polyphonic Digital being the perfectionists that they are, aren’t going to just release a finished product. So in order to take the string out of those production costs they release a small taste of the final product. Make sure it’s free of bugs and such and release it for $39.99. I also would like to think that they are using this as a Beta test for the online play in the final game. See what works and what doesn’t. PD hasn’t have any experience with online so I’m guessing they’d need to catch up.

  I’m really looking forward to playing this, and I’ll give my impressions later (Though take it with a grain of salt, I’m no Car geek ). If you’re looking to race online, hit me up @ Xebius.

   
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  Jonathan McKinnell 3:31 pm on April 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  A first post. 

  Hello and welcome,

  To what I hope is a great blog that you’ll enjoy. For the longest time I’ve had the dream of starting my own blog site. It started way back with a podcast called the Canadian Perspective Podcast. That died after first year in collage. It was fun, but I just got to busy to really have the time to even think about what to talk about.

  Now with this blog I have the freedom to really put out some great content that’s…well..Geekish from a Canadian perspective. (Like how I brought that back eh?) To often I’ll look around the net and I see so many blogs and sites based around the stuff I love, but there’s not a lot that’s written by Canadians (Ars Techica being the exception).  That doesn’t mean that this site won’t have any international content just that it will be from the Canadian point of view.

  So sit back and enjoy, and if you’re a Canadian who would like to contribute to the blog, give me a shout

  Jonathan
  jon (at) cangeek.ca