Filsinger.org

On my way to work today I was listening to the radio and heard a news article on how Canadian Broadcasters are crying to the CRTC to allow them to reduce their local programming.  The Globe and Mail has an article up on the same issue.  Essentially, the broadcasters are in peril and local programming is losing them money.  To compensate for this down trend in the economy, and demand for local programming, they want to bring in more American programming and charge a fee to the other carriers for using their signal.  In the last few years there have been a microcosm of events that each on their own wouldn’t have caused this issue, but together is making the perfect storm.

1) The Internet – The interweb has created a completely level playing field.  My little blog on the net has as much of a chance of being viewed by people as a news article written on the Globe and Mail.  The know-how to get your message out there is next to nil now.  Me personally? I get more local news from a few Charlottetown bloggers than I do from The Guardian or the CBC.

2) Youtube – Now anyone can be a star.  Look at people like sXePhil, some guy who makes “what interested me videos” and puts them up.  He gets 300,000 views per video, daily.  His audience is world wide, his content is immediate, and more relevant than any fluff piece that the local tv station puts up.  This is only the beginning.

3) Torrents – You can now watch any show you want, within 1 hour of it being on TV without commercials and in High Definition on your TV.  Why would I sit through programming and force fed commercials that do not relate to me and waste my time, when I can digest any media I want, instantly and when I want.  (I am willing to pay for this service if stations offered it.  Give me the ability to download your shows on Demand, in perfect quality the second they air on TV and I will pay… no one offers this yet, wake me up when they do).

4) The Recession – Add in a recession to all of these things, people are cutting back.  I pay $40/month for my TV and $40/month for Internet.  What would I cut first? My TV of course, I rarely watch anything on satellite now, and would not miss it.  Advertisers are cutting back as well, so funds are being sucked from the broadcasters.

In 1998 Napster came out, the music industry had an opportunity to seize a new trend, make it their own and deliver us high quality music, DRM free for a fee.  They balked at it, and instead of embracing it they fought it, and have lost millions and millions in the process.  Imagine if they had bought Napster, turned that into a service and started the shift THEN to this new medium, I bet they would be in much better shape.  TV is going down the same path with the high availability of any show on the Internet, and people watching more Youtube than they do actual TV.  The CRTC and the broadcasters are clinging on to this old world and not embracing this new trend that will take over.  With the Internet, the world is flat, so stop fighting against it, embrace it.  I believe in local content, but I believe news will be brought to me by the local people on the ground, not traditional news outlets.  Look at what happened with Twitter and the Plane crash in the Hudson.  We were getting updates from the people IN the plane, not the fools out there with cameras and a microphone.

TV as we’ve known it for 50 years is dying.  The game is changing.  There is money out there, and great ideas for programming.  It’s just going to be delivered to us differently, and if the CBC, CTV and other Canadian programmers don’t realize this fast enough they will be left in the dark and eclipsed by some guy in his basement making funny videos with a webcam and he will be the rich one with the advertising dollars.

ps.  Print media is dying too, and that is a similar case to this.  Stop clinging to your old ways, adapt, embrace or be forgotten and out of a job.

I’ve now worked in the game industry for over a year and right now the annual Game Developers Conference is in full swing.  For those of you who don’t know what GDC is, it’s when all the worlds developers get together to discuss what they’ve learned with others in the hope that someone doesn’t repeat the same mistakes they did in developing something.  New products get announced here as well.  I have followed the GDC for the last couple years, and this year is no different.

One trend I’m following is the discussion around the iPhone and the games made for it.  Right now I believe the company I work for Sculpin QA is the premiere testing studio for iPhone games.  We’ve worked on such hits as Rolando, Super Monkey Ball, Topple, and Diner Dash and learned a lot in the process.  One year ago no one was talking about the iPhone as a legit gaming platform, now indy devs are making $600,000 creating games in their basement.  Just a couple weeks ago, Apple announced OS 3.0 where they will be integrating in app purchases, peripherals, bluetooth, P2P, cut and paste, and a ton more other features.  Their SDK has opened the doors for some crazy ideas, and it’s not going to stop, according Neil Young of ngmoco 148 apps a day are being released on the store.  There are some issues with the store at the moment, but that is an entirely different discussion.  Google is releasing a competing operating system called Android with an app store, but I just don’t think it’s going to be as big as the iPhone.. but that remains to be seen, perhaps i’ll be blogging about that in a year.

In addition this year Twitter has now exploded and a lot of the tech savvy crowed at GDC is twittering most of the events going on.  So by following the stream of things tagged with #GDC, I’m getting access to the latest news without having scour the internet for a good article here or there, it just gets fed right to my feedwatcher.

So, within the next few weeks at Sculpin we will be getting very busy.  I’ve learned a lot in the last year about the difference of between White and Black box testing, assumption that should never be made, questions that should always be asked and how to test to a calculator program

If you are looking for some high quality game testing, or some good discussion on technology and where it’s taking us… look me up. filsinger@gmail.com

I went a lot of years without reading.  After University I got really tired of the process, and completely abandoned it for a long period of time.  Within the last few years I have really tried to get into the habit to always have my nose in a book, or two.  There are a ton of books out there, so the question becomes what do I choose to spend my time reading?  Sometimes I choose to read classics (see Fahrenheit 451), sometimes things fall into my lap by pure accident. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne was one of those such books.  3 months ago I had barely even heard of him, and at most was told by someone that he was “raw” (ha!).  Back in early December I had the opportunity to listen to him speak at the Canadian Youth Workers Conference in Toronto.  From there I fell in love with what he had to say about justice, grace, and living in community, so I asked for his book for Christmas, and I got it.  Well a couple nights ago I finished reading it.  So I’ve decided to put down some of my thoughts on it, as I tend to do with movies, and books here on my blog.

I have said this to many people, but to put it mildly, this book has been probably the most convicting book I have ever read besides the Bible.  There are three main areas in which conviction set in for me.

First was my North American Lifestyle.  I do not live an extravagant lifestyle by any means, but I live one that the earth’s resources cannot afford for all 6.5 billion people.  There is enough for everyone to eat, live and enjoy life, but we in North America have consume 80% of the worlds resources, and we are merely a small fraction of the world’s population.  There is something wrong with this, and it is not as some believe “God’s Blessing” for us.  One of Shane’s main points is that if you own two coats, you are essentially stealing from someone else… ouch.

Secondly, my ignorance towards the poor.  Many times in my life I have simply walked by people asking for money and continued on my way.  I have done very little with my life to give back to the poor of my community.  Jesus was homeless, and he asked us to treat everyone as if we were meeting him.  That is something we will be judged on, and it is an area in which I have failed.  Sure I give money to world vision, but that doesn’t absolve me of my duty to others, especially those less fortunate than I.

Lastly, his idea of community is one that has been on my heart for a long time.  But he is actually living it in a major North American city.  He is involved in a community life style with a group called The Simple Way.  His corner store neighbour doesn’t charge him for food, in return he helps raise their son, tutours him and looks out for him.  They went and help another family, and down the road their car was fixed for free.  Love is the great equalizer.  I have not loved my neighbours enough.  So often we have been taught that life is about getting more, internalizing everything, and it’s all about me.  Well, Jesus sure did let us know that the kingdom of heaven is here.  Read Acts 2:42 – 47 to get a better idea of what NT community looked like.  We need a bit more of that here in North America.

This book is a MUST read for anyone.  It will assault your sensibility, it will shake your core beliefs, it will energize you.  If you can read this book, and not be changed than I would have to say you have a hard heart.  He weaves these points through autobiographical stories of his time with Mother Teresa, his time in University, a trip to Iraq and in him living in the community.  Shane is authentic, real, humble, and searching for true Christianity, and he can help you find it as well.

I give this book 10 vegetables planted in old TV sets out of 10.

I’m not one to hype many movies.  I do watch a lot of movies, but rarely do I publicly promote them before seeing them.  I have been a fan of the Terminator series for quite a while and follow the new TV show very closely.  I’ve really liked some aspects of it, and not liked others, but overall it’s better than most TV out there now-a-days.  Anyway, there is a new Terminator movie coming, Christian Bale is playing John Connor and it takes place entirely in the future (where all the coolest stuff happens).  I’ve been wanting an “in the future” Terminator movie for a long time.. and it’s now not that far away.  Anyway, here is the trailer.  Perhaps one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a LONG time.  Reminds me of the Dark Knight trailer that I watched 4 and 5 times.