Things of note for the week ending Friday May 8th, 2015.
I don’t like to apologise too much for this update going out late. The fairly loose ‘terms of service‘ do say that it’ll sometimes arrive late so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve been travelling this week and genuinely got my dates mixed up. In fact, this week in general has been fairly epic. As I write this [in my moleskine] to you now, I’m somewhere over the Atlantic on my way home. I’ve just left Boston where I’ve been for some amazing work-based things and, well, aside from a minor brush with a dangerous health issue (all is fine now), this week has been ridiculously positive.
If you know me well enough, you’ll know that positivity is my thing. My blog is called ‘My Happy Place’ for a reason, y’know; I am a terminal optimist.
I mean, when you see a BACON TRUCK, how can life not be amazing? 🙂
Right then, shall?
1. SOLAR-POWERED SPACE TRAVEL
Carl Sagan once envisioned a universe where humans travelled through it in massive super-amazing solar-powered spaceships. In just over two weeks from now, a company known as The Planetary Society (co-founded by Sagan himself) has scheduled the first test flight of such a vehicle.
This is nothing short of amazing.
Baby steps forward.
2. WEI VS PGA TOUR
AKA: Live-Streaming vs [live] Sports events.
The @PGATOUR is revoking my credentials for rest of season because I used @periscopeco on Monday. Feels personal. #crimedoesntfitpunishment
— Stephanie Wei (@StephanieWei) April 30, 2015
Stephanie Wei is the brains (and words) behind ‘popular’ golfing blog, ‘Wei Under Par’. A couple of weeks ago, Wei posted a few video clips of one of the player’s practice rounds on Twitter’s live-streaming service, Periscope. Given the strict rules around video content rights specifically around sports events, you might be unsurprised to learn that the PGA subsequently threw the book at Wei and stripped her of her press credentials for the rest of the year.
Ouch.
There’s no case pleading ignorance on Wei’s part, alas, as a similar issue came up before at a different Tour but this time the platform of choice was Instagram. Wei got a telling off and the videos removed. Sharing unauthorised video content is a big no no. And Wei knows this.
So when it happened again, you can see why an example has been made.
The commentary since has been very interesting. On one side you’ve got a push back on the rules themselves (are they out-dated? Who do they actually apply to) and on the other you’ve got traditional sports broadcasters saying that Wei had it coming.
With Live-stream going Mainstream, this issue is going to keep coming back. Perhaps even press credentials themselves perhaps need to be reviewed, allowing for impromptu sharing such as this. For now, the industry will safe-guard its revenue first, and the favoured platforms of its fans and reporters second.
Interesting times ahead.
3. HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Did you play with He-Man when you were a kid? Remember the figures? If words like ‘Stratos’ and ‘Orko’ mean nothing to you, then please do skip onto the next item. This thing is not for you.
Still here?
Good!
The geniuses over at iO9 have just published the definitive list and ranking of He-Man action figures – AND IT IS AWESOME.
Covering Skeletor, Kobra Khan, Ram-Man, Fisto, Ninjor, Evil-Lyn,and MORE they’re all here and more.
PS. Major geek points to the first person who can email me/comment with the names of those pictured above. I’ve already given you two of them…
Go nuts.
4. JW-RELATED UPDATES
Minor excuse for an update on a few things from me:
- If you’re coming to see me speak at Digital Shoreditch please note that the timing has changed from 12:35 to 17:25 (on May 14th, btw). On a related note, if you’re yet to purchase tickets – here’s a kick-ass discount code.
- The Pebble smartwatch has changed the way I interact with my smartphone again – in a good way.
- My employer launched an FGM-awareness campaign for 28 Too Many this week. It’s hard to look at but holy hell does it land the message. You’ve been warned.
5. EMOJIS ON INSTAGRAM
Big deal. So what. If you’re a geeky face like me, you might like this deep dive into some of the data behind their usage leading up to the hashtag integration that was rolled out recently.
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Bonuses this week are all video game related:
- Destiny: House of Wolves drops in a week. If you’re a player, this is a great round up video of everything you’ve got to look forward to.
- Arkham Knight is out soon, and you’re going to be able to play as Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman. Nice.
- I’m thinking about getting a Wii U for the sole purpose of being able to play the latest version of Mario Kart. Question for you, do you have a Wii U? Do you enjoy it? What games do you have? I’m listening.
Whatley out.