The Life of the Traegorn

Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan Must Be Out of His Damned Mind

Traegorn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:26:54 -0500

So I may be the only one I personally know actually following the drama surrounding the lawsuit between TechCrunch and Fusion Garage over the whole CrunchPad/JooJoo fiasco, but it fascinates me as I am:

A person who reads TechCrunch.
A person who has wanted a simple web tablet for years.

For those of you who are reading this, I'll sum up the situation as best I can.

Michael Arrington, who owns the popular technology blog network TechCrunch, a while back proposed building a simple web tablet for cheap. With some help, they developed some prototypes and named it the CrunchPad. After working on the project for a while, Arrington partnered with Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan's company Fusion Garage to work on building something they could bring to market. In November, Rathakrishnan tried to push Arrington out of the project just prior to the expected launch, and renamed the tablet "The Joojoo" (which is a terrible name if you ask me).

Cue lawsuit frenzy.

Now, I'm the only one of my siblings who isn't a lawyer, and therefore I'm not about to argue the merits of Arrington's case or the movement for dismissmal that Fusion Garage just filed. What I will comment on though is what I titled this loose collection of text with:

Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan must be out of his damned mind.

Anyone who has looked at a tech blog in the last week has been unable to escape the coverage of Apple's impending iPad. Regardless of your opinion of it, the iPad is, without a doubt, one of the most publicized products Apple has put out in a while. While not without it's flaws, I will admit that I'm a big fan of the iPad as it stands -- but as previously stated I was already looking for this exact product.

This exact $500 product.

When the Joojoo was known as the CrunchPad, it had many price points attached to it. Arrington wanted to build something for $200, but that price kept going up. The price they were finally hovering around was $300-$400, as (or at least as the story goes) Arrington had managed to secure some personal favors to reduce costs. Rathakrishnan lacks the goodwill in the industry that would have made this possible though, and the final price of the Joojoo is instead $500.

Rathakrishnan has said that he's not threatened by the iPad though. He thinks his product is the better one and that consumers will choose to go with Fusion Garage's web only tablet.

While the Joojoo has a larger screen than the iPad as well as Flash Support and a webcam, it lacks the ability to actually store anything or run any sort of non-Web application. If you don't have a WiFi signal, it is an expensive paperweight. The iPad on the other hand runs local applications on a robust platform, plays locally stored media, and the WiFi only version costs the same amount of money.

Who on earth buys the Joojoo now?

Think about the risks of quality control and support. Given the choice between one of the most well known tech companies and a start-up embroiled in legal action, who do you think will build the better quality product? Who will have the warranty support to help you? Who will patch the OS if something is wrong?

The answer is apparent.

If Rathakrishnan doesn't think his product is DOA, he's either delusional or an idiot. It's entirely possible he's both. Of course, it's also entirely possible that he knows it will flop, and plans on taking the money and running -- but that's just pure speculation. I mean, it's not like the man has a history of ditching his partners when it's to his personal advantage or something.

Oh, wait...

Engineering an Apocalypse

Traegorn — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:28:53 -0500

So for the three of you who might read this who don't follow No Brand Con news, this year the convention's theme is "The No Brand Apocalypse." For those who haven't checked the No Brand Con website, it's related Facebook/Twitter accounts, or even my Youtube channel, the first plot video for this year has gone online.

You can watch it here.

When I talked about filming a video for this year's con way back in September, I was actually referring to the SECOND video (although twelve seconds of that footage does find itself in this installment). That's the video that takes place AFTER the No Brand Apocalypse. Writing and filming comedic post-Apocalyptic material is easy. For this video though, I had to establish the actual event and end the world in the first place (along with set up that this story is happening AFTER the convention). Not only that, but since this is by far the darkest premise we've ever done, I had to make sure that it wasn't too dark... so the lighter tone of the next video doesn't feel strange for people.

Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.

It was always my plan to use public domain stock footage for my end of the world. I used a few old newsreel films on earthquakes and floods, along with the classic Vincent Price movie "The Last Man on Earth." Ironically, the footage that seemed too dark to use, that I had the least ability to use, was the latter fictional portrayal. "The Last Man on Earth" footage involved a lot of (fake) dead bodies, but mixed in with the REAL footage, people might assume they were real as well...

...and then any chance at humor would be destroyed.

I wrote a voice over in a few minutes, the only thing I'd prepared before hand was the acronym M.A.C.G.U.F.F.I.N. for the simple opening joke. I also recorded a new song for this video, which took some time as well. If you really want an MP3 of the song, you can have it. I call the song "The End of the World" and it's sort of our musical theme for this plot. You'll hear elements from it in the music for the second video as well.

I said it before, but I'll say it again: This is by far the most ambitious project we've ever embarked on for No Brand Con plot videos. It's likely my finale as a producer for these videos (having taken over the duty starting with No Brand Con 5), so I want to make it count. I'll be leaving the future in good hands though, so I look forward to watching videos next year instead of spending six hours on a Saturday editing them.

Irrational Wisconsin Pride

Traegorn — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:33:46 -0500

I doubt anyone would be surprised to hear that I watch a lot of Television. If you read this blog, it's exceptionally likely that you watch quite a bit as well. For quite some time the California Dairy council has been running their "Happy Cow" commercials. I'm sure you know what I mean, and on the off chance you don't... just Google it quickly. They especially like to mock other places for being cold, while California is warm and sunny. Every time one of these come on though, I just find myself getting angry...

...because as you all know I live in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, to say that we take pride in our dairy is an understatement. We put giant fake wedges of cheese on our heads at sporting events, we put cheese on just about any food -- hell, we talk about it on our license plates. We are "America's Dairyland" for pete's sake. So, needless to say, when a commercial comes on effectively telling us that we're inferior...

...well, it makes me want to boycott any Dairy product which has even been to California.

Why do I feel like this though? Why do I care so much about what is more or less just a food? I'm not a dairy farmer, nor are any of my family members. Hell, I was born in Illinois and lived there until I was six (hence my sports team affiliation... I'm probably the only person proud of being from Wisconsin who roots for the Bears). Never the less, I find myself enraged at the apparent slander of my state's dairy industry.

I think it's something akin to Nationalism. Deep down, there's some need to pledge yourself to something bigger, and my state is apparently what I've subconsciously chosen. In truth, there is absolutely no rational reason that I should give two craps about a bunch of commercials promoting milk and cheese from California.

But I still think California cows are a bunch of wusses.

The Terrible Things I Do

Traegorn — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:33:01 -0500

For the record, I do not actually believe that I am a terrible person. This does not prevent me though from doing occasionally terrible things.

Like this one.

This week on Facebook a bunch of people decided to have a "Doppelganger Week" in which people replace their Facebook photos with images of famous people we've been TOLD we look like. This does not actually mean we THINK we look like these people (in my case, I have always protested the claimed resemblence between myself and the person whose image I have posted), but merely what other people think they look like. Peso decided to participate, and put up an image of someone that I, for years, have insisted he resembled.

If you want to know who it is exactly, you'll have to click the link.

Some of you might believe my choice to be tasteless, and in truth it's not that I don't disagree... it's that I don't care. While it's true that I don't think that being tasteless for the sake of being tasteless is funny, a funny joke that just happens to be tasteless is still a funny joke to me. In my opinion, this falls into that category.

Also, I'm convinced that I'm right, and that the resemblence between the two is hilarious.

The sad part is that I spent way too much time putting that short clip together. The end results are actually what happens when I sort of give up and say "Hell, it's good enough." But by then, I had already put a good hour of work into the ridiculous, stupid 48 second waste of time.

Honestly though, I think I did it in part just so I could finally post more content to the site beyond the comics and blog entries which fill the week here. Perhaps I did it just to randomly remind people that there's a little more depth. Perhaps I did it just to selfishly promote other short films I've done... hell, perhaps I did it just because I love defaming Peso.

Maybe I really am a horrible person...

Resurrecting LostChylde9000

Traegorn — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:26:57 -0500

So back in 2006, I began an experiment with a chat bot. It was just a basic MegaHAL installation (for those who were curious) that I put up on AIM with the username LostChylde9000, and fed it a few chat logs and a few Aaron Sorkin scripts as a base vocabulary. I had a grander experiment in mind, but due to limitations of my old computer hardware, I was forced to abandon the project.

Then I remembered it a few days ago.

Since then, I've decided to launch my scheme again, feeding in the same Sorkin scripts along with a random chatlog I found on a website so it would have some normal conversational patterns. After that though, I added one major ingredient: Several years of TRHBlog entries.

That's right, not just mine but EVERY public post made by ANY user over the last few years. Then I unleashed it on the web...

...and this is what happened.

Several people have already struck up conversations with the lost one. Fortunately, I log everything the bot does, so I can just pull up a few examples. I describe talking to LostChylde9000 like talking to a Schizophrenic, and you'll soon see why. Katie, for instance, decided to try and confuse the bot, but just ended up being confused herself:

Tall Katie: Greetings.
LostChylde9000: But things move on, And so i guess that it's about a half my political views have changed drastically. Just how drastically they differ has become increasingly obvious when discussing politics with my family (my parents, Myself, My parents, My brother, And my car towed in for a sec.heya, Koi!hey guyssorry i'm late ...
Tall Katie: Things move on?
LostChylde9000: I've got a parking ticket this morning, But it makes it sound like a hardware store.
Tall Katie: Don't panic.
LostChylde9000: Update: More about my car and then not having a nice, Quiet relaxing weekend the week after that though, The biggest problem we had time to go back to me, People making their own "not purple" Photoshopped images, People making their own self evaluations bite them in my youth, Along with topher's family, And the broken coffee pot was still experimenting with things back then) and it's mildly taken over my head so i can see part 1 of this series, So i don't panic, I don't get from the dutch "vrijbuiter," Which translated literally means "freebooter."
Tall Katie: Why is that in Dutch?
LostChylde9000: Just keep that in dutch.
Tall Katie: Why?
LostChylde9000: I know, It's because i'm working on a cause just because some internet crazy has declared me his personal boogey-man...
Tall Katie: What do you know about Albert Camus?
LostChylde9000: Part of me to be one of us have lives we'd like to watch videos of me to be mean to my site to know about albert camus.
Tall Katie: Who is Matthew Bellamy?
LostChylde9000: On the upside it's up to matthew and andrea's wedding, At which i put any efforts on following that whole mess up aside and care not where they totally screwed up.
Tall Katie: Mazel tov.
LostChylde9000: We successfully got to feel old together at derek's house to hang out.
Tall Katie: You are not Calvsie.
LostChylde9000: The 30 year old looking for me, I have corrected my mistake though, So i'm really glad that we have calvsie and the player was probably going to work on tuesday, My brain just refused to remember me.
Tall Katie: I'm looking for Fastspells.com.
LostChylde9000: Background.and if you're in the mood for - so shuffle ends up in bed, And hope to make me look like you're trying to plug the whole fastspells.com for those who are making the photographer who took the 2004 election.
Tall Katie: This is all your fault, Trae.
LostChylde9000: Trae is a total view count before this is all your fault, Trae.

Reading that had me fairly entertained... but not as much as Calvsie's conversation with LostChylde9000 about God and Conventions...

programrgs: morning!
LostChylde9000: This means i'm very paranoid about it.
programrgs: paranoid about the morning?
LostChylde9000: I need to burn an effigy of guy, But we're not paranoid homophobes in any way.
programrgs: guy fawks?
LostChylde9000: In unrelated strangeness, There's always the guy who would be a lot of hours to the baddies from the movie will also work with me though, And nothing ever happens.
programrgs: so you are a villian?
LostChylde9000: Behold some odd moments from the opening to the writer of the life of me i can say this, But there are a villian.
programrgs: we are speaking of god?
LostChylde9000: I pulled the still-beating god out of your chest, Except they pulled the still-beating god out of the life of the second annual geek.kon in madison this weekend and rejigger the whole thing fell far below my personal favorite of many mountain dew (and one diet coke) boxes and duct tape? Well, Because we god dang felt like doing things on purpose.
programrgs: geek.kon has no god now?
LostChylde9000: Yes i have been looking forward to not having god, And loathe yourself for rejecting god.
programrgs: then why not return to your belief in god?
LostChylde9000: I speak, Of course, Return to the original 1960 roger corman classic "the little shop of horrors (1960)as always, I'll approach this in the house in general from the return of the preregistration confirmation letters for this belief.
programrgs: but what does that have to do with god?
LostChylde9000: So we do what me must, Because we god dang felt like i do so on wednesday, Right? At least topher isn't a requirement, But remember that i don't wish to be referring to these people.
programrgs: was topher ever a requiement?
LostChylde9000: Take a look at a to slay zombie newton, But i might be fun to go gallivanting to multiple conventions this fall, Probably over steak weekend when topher is off the favorite npc of one company's product versus the other's without morons turning it into a break.
programrgs: attend other conventions during steak?
LostChylde9000: During the christmas season, And that's nice, But then again the apartment to about twelve and go to reactor this weekend, So before you ask, That is during steak weekend.
programrgs: so scheduling conflict aye?
LostChylde9000: Just remember, Happy wednesday has a good time to write this entry was, Of course, The second introduce the conflict, And the short films section of the point when i drive back to work today, So we used their guitar hero and i loaded up the theme, The second introduce the conflict, And the apparent quality of the bible study groups.
programrgs: bible study groups?
LostChylde9000: Like what i was performing peso and vinnk, So i don't feel like i was eight, I was shaking with adrenaline by the t.v. In front of me, That i would have made for interesting study when i walk out of the bible study groups.
programrgs: what were they talking about at the bible study?
LostChylde9000: What kind of appropriatefirst off, I would have made for interesting study when i was using it in front of the bible study.
programrgs: It qas about you doing drugs?
LostChylde9000: I mean, This is me we're talking about you doing drugs.
programrgs: I don't do drugs
LostChylde9000: Or in other industries, But it wasn't part of the end in the world of the stuff you did not get me wrong, But when you say that any con work i did near the end in the world of the world is a video to the wicca essays that i'm on fire." I was actually being available, It was twelve thirty in the entry they have occurred and are so many people have gotten fired for talking about you doing drugs.
programrgs: I have to go
LostChylde9000: Faa to begin work on data-link communications.sam picks up an orange.staffer 1.

If you'd like to join in the insanity, just message AOL Instant Messenger User LostChylde9000 and say hello. Just remember, this is merely phase 1 of my grand design...

...okay, so phase 2 will be fairly unimpressive, but it's still fun to talk to a virtual crazy person.

Facebook and the Website Community

Traegorn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:25:31 -0500

Sunday night I posted a blog entry which was, for better or worse, slightly controversial. As I expected, it generated quite a bit of discussion, and I think an interesting insight into the minds of my friends.

A discussion that visitors to TRHOnline have never seen.

You see, these entries, besides appearing on my website, are also syndicated out to my Facebook page. Combined with my Twitter feed being linked to my status there, you can assume that while everything I do online appears on TRHOnline it also appears on my Facebook page. Because my friends are almost all (with a few notable exceptions) heavy users of that popular social networking site, they chose to respond there instead of here (assuming "here" is TRHOnline, because it's actually entirely possible you're reading this on Facebook... and then my statement makes absolutely no sense...)

...I've been confused by my own parenthetical comment.

I'm more than happy for the feedback for my ideas, and I'll take readership and comments any way I can get them. And if the majority of discussion had been on the "Note" (the fully syndicated, full text of the entry) I wouldn't have thought twice about it... but they weren't.

As mentioned previously, my Twitter feed is linked to my Facebook status, and most of the comments were on the status update announcing the blog entry. This means that people went to the blog entry, then went back to Facebook to discuss it rather than using the comment system on my site.

This is, to me at least, quite interesting.

Facebook it seems has become the center point for my generation's online communication. Where years ago people would go to individual forums and blog to talk about things, now people just use that one, pivotal site. What it does mean though is that the individual, self managed website community is shrinking.

Now, I'm not going to complain about the size of TRHOnline's community. The fact that it's the size that it is on a site which is ostensibly just to talk about crap that I've done is amazing unto itself. I am, despite my own occasional demands to the contrary, a fairly unimportant and unimpressive person in the grande scheme of things.

But it makes me wonder about where this is all going. What happens if we centralize too much. We've already seen the havoc that can occur when Facebook or Twitter have problems now. What happens in a decade if all of the small community sites have died out?

It is something to think about.

Could We Please Stop Celebrating a Rapist?

Traegorn — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:50:32 -0500

So I write this as I watch the end of the Golden Globes - yes, I'm watching an Award show, get over it - and "The Hangover" just won something. This in of itself would be no big deal, but they brought Mike Tyson up on the stage. That's right, Mike "Convicted Rapist" Tyson. Now he's in the movie, and I get that - but my question is why was he in the movie? Why have we as a culture forgotten his horrific crime against a young woman and allowed him to regain stardom?

Day after day, the media feels the need to remind us of the infidelities of Tiger Woods, a man who while violating cultural taboos and destroying his marriage, at least did so with consenting adults. We're told what a horrible person he is.

Meanwhile, Mike Tyson is applauded about having a sense of humor about himself, and loved by the press. You know, that guy who brutally raped someone albeit almost 20 years ago. And I'm not talking about an "alleged" incident. I'm talking about a conviction in a court of law. 12 people sat down in a room, deliberated for 10 hours, and found him guilty.

The media and people in our culture have the memory of a mayfly. If it didn't happen within the most recent news cycle, it just fades into the background. If you have enough money, you really can get away with anything it seems.

There is a reason there is no funny cartoon with this entry. There is a reason I'm not making jokes. I'm honestly angry about this, and at the culture we live in that allows this man to have only served three years of his sentence. I'm angry that we still celebrate this man, and I'm angry that no one is saying boo about this whole damned mess.

And I'm angry at you if you haven't been thinking about this either.

For once I wish people would consider the greater ramifications of what we say and do. I wish we would consider who we celebrate and who they are as people. I wish we didn't admonish one person for cheating on their spouse while ignoring the 220 pound rapist in the room.

Seriously... this needs to end.

Strange Reflections

Traegorn — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:29:11 -0500

I've been thinking about the strange quandaries of daily existence lately. Take for instance the policy where I work that disallows me from listening to internet radio, but technically allows me to have my iPod touch playing movies in my cube. One would assume the latter would be the greater work distraction, but no. Okay, so likely the policy has to do with a company terrified of it's network being used in a way that could violate copyright (not to mention potential stress on the network) -- but still...

...I find it funny.

I've been taking advantage of this policy, and have been going through episodes of Jericho while working, the American Post-Apocalyptic Drama, not the British Detective show (considering how much British TV I watch that distinction is actually quite important). I forgot how much I absolutely love this show. There's something about it as a divergence from stereotypical post-apocalyptic fare which endears it to me greatly.

Most of the time, post-Apocalyptic stories focus on a lone-wolf hero and possibly a sidekick. They wander around like romanticized ronin doing good deeds and punching bad guys, and while they may help a community -- they are never a part of it.

Jericho takes this and puts it on its head. There is a hero figure in Jake, but the main story is the community itself surviving the "End of the World" - and that is awesome.

You have no idea how sad I was when Jericho got cancelled... both times.

I honestly don't have that much more to say on the subject, so I'll cut this particular entry short. Maybe I'll stretch it out by talking about how short I'm cutting this entry per-normal.

No, that would be stupid.

Surveying the Landscape

Traegorn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:24:54 -0500

On Saturday night we held an informal No Brand Con meeting to review the attendee surveys from 2009. I know it's been a while since the last con, but this is when we had time to actually sift through the feedback. As always though, this event is one that's occasionally just as entertaining as it is informative. We also decided to review surveys going all the way back to 2006 for comparison (since we had them there) to look how reviews had changed over the years.

Now don't get me wrong, a good chunk of the surveys included valuable feedback which we'll take to heart. Some of it was praise, but we also value the criticism too. This is how we learn, this is how we improve, and this is how we adapt to move forward. Our main focus is, and always has been, to provide the most positive experience for as many people as we can.

There are always bizarre conflicts in what people want which will never cease to amuse me. For instance, it seems no matter what we do with the dance, we will make SOMEONE unhappy. The Too Long/Too Short moment in the comic frame for today is taken from real surveys. I think at this point Katie has crafted the dance into something quite good, but the goal has changed from "make everyone happy" to "make the fewest people unhappy" which is a little disheartening. But even this is information we need to hear, as it helps us understand the interests of the congoers.

Well, the guy who complained there were too many people at the dance isn't one I'm going to worry about though... that's the kind of problem I'm okay with.

And then there are the not so helpful surveys.

By this I mean ones where the entire thing is just filled with "Your mom" jokes. Some were just random scribbles. I think one just said in giant letters "Oh god I'm on fire." I was actually surprised that we didn't run across one with a picture of male genitalia drawn on it. I honestly want to know what these people were thinking when they did this?

I guess when part of your attendee base includes teenagers, you get what you get.

...although I highly suspect Peso himself might have filled out some of those surveys.

In the end, the evening was productive. It's true that the two ends of the spectrum who fill these out are the completely satisfied and the severely unsatisfied, but the information on most of the surveys is invaluable to us.

Except that guy who wrote the "your mom" jokes. Those haven't been funny since 1993.

Creative Recycling

Traegorn — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:29:40 -0500

So, I have to come clean to the readers of UnCONventional: One of the four main characters of the strip wasn't created originally for it. That's right, Lynn, the snarkiest of all of our protagonists, is recycled from not one, but two old projects of mine.

I know, you're shocked. Either that, or you're choking. If you're choking... umm... "Keep Coughing, Keep Coughing." Yeah. That's what the manual said.

The image that accompanies this post is how Lynn was represented the last time I used her in a project I was co-writing called "Full Circle" - which was 2006 if I recall correctly. The design is a bit different than what you'll find in, say, Tuesday's comic strip, and I'm not just talking about the stickfigure/non-stickfigure transition. Lynn used to be a little gothier than she is now -- but she was 21 in her last appearance. I figure I'm currently writing Lynn at age 25, so those changes may just be someone aging.

It's interesting though because Lynn wasn't created for the 2006 project either. She was invented for a project I was working on in (gasp) 2003. That 2003 story was intended to be a much more serious piece about characters who were putting their lives back together, and Lynn was one of the two protagonists.

The other was a recycled character from Room 825. He got recycled into the 2006 story too...

...and yes, that means UnCONventional directly takes place in the same continuity as Room 825. No one read Full Circle or Room 825 though, so I doubt anyone cares.

But the point is she was created for a much darker story than what I plan for UnCONventional. It means her past is fully fleshed out, and there are actual issues she has which have led to her sarcastic exterior. Will we ever explore these deeper motivations in UnCONventional?

Umm, that's highly unlikely.

It wouldn't fit in on any level, and it would make the strip far too depresssing. But I'm really curious to know if anyone else has a cast of characters they recycle on occasion. I mean, I do it constantly as I spend so much time building these complex backstories. I put so much in that I just don't want to be done with a character merely because I've shelved a plot idea.

I think I'd miss them honestly.