State of the blog 2011

The first thing I should do here is apologise to anybody who is reading this blog post. You see, normally, when I write something on this blog, I write for my reader(s). It could be a picture update of the kids or it could be for the purpose of shooting my mouth off and giving you my thoughts and opinions on what is happening in the World. Either way, it is primarily written for other people to read.

However, this particular post has a completely different purpose. For a while now, I've been struggling with a fundamental question surrounding this blog. I haven't come to an answer yet but I get the feeling that my brain is going round in circles without treading any new ground. In essence, I'm hoping that by putting my thoughts into writing, it will help me clear up some of my thinking.

I've now been blogging for just under 4.5 years (I started in January 2007). When I first started writing this blog, it was primarily as a way for me to get familiar with what this whole "blogging" thing was about. After a while, I even realised that I liked shooting my mouth off and spreading my own unique brand of random rubbish onto the world wide web (the old adage around opinions and assholes springs to mind here).

Eventually, I got into a steady rhythm of posting 3 articles a week (2 on this blog and 1 on my gaming blog). However, you have probably noticed that recently, that publishing schedule has gone to Hades in a handbasket.

Believe it or not, this isn't because I have run out of things to say (although I will admit that I have repeated myself on numerous occasions). The problem is that, due to work and family commitments, my "me" time is, on average, limited to around 30 minutes each day with a bit more at the weekend if I stay up late. And into that brief slot of 30 minutes, I'm trying to slot in gaming, reading and blogging.

Something has to give.

The thing is, despite what I said above about spouting random rubbish, I actually try and put some thought into my blogging. I might not always succeed, but whenever I post my opinion, I try and back it up with reasons why that opinion is valid. I always try to sense check what I'm posting and sense check articles which I link you to instead of just believing anything I read online. This takes time.

Time which is increasingly hard to find. The reality is that I just don't have time to regularly post anymore and, if I'm being realistic, I don't see this situation changing for at least several years.

So what does that mean for this blog?

This is the question which I have been struggling with recently and to be honest - I really don't know. I am hesitant about formally killing the blog as, on the rare situations where I do have time to post, it would be useful to have a forum to spout off from. On the other hand - if my posting is so rare, then it is unfair to expect anyone to check on this blog either regularly or semi-regularly on the off chance that I have written something.

So, that is where my thinking is currently at. Not sure what will happen to this blog but will let you know if and when I come to a decision.

I'm getting younger!

As you know, I play videogames. A lot.

This always seems to surprise people who don't play videogames. They never seem to understand why someone in his mid-thirties would be playing with videogames. Of course, one of the things they don't know is that I am actually in the perfect sweet spot for videogame publishers as I am exactly the same age as the average gamer.

Or at least, I was.

The latest news is that the average age of a gamer is now 37. Which, for the first time that I can recall, makes me younger than the average gamer (but only just). Which means that from now on out, I can expect games to no longer be catered to my tastes but to those old guys who don't have any reaction times worth speaking of.

All joking aside, for the average age to go up at a more rapid rate than my own aging is trending the opposite way to what I expected (assuming this is a trend and not just a statistical anomaly). On one level, there is obviously a pressure on the average age to go up as the people who are playing games get older (like me). However, there is another pressure on the average age to either go down or stay steady as new kids start taking up the hobby.

For the average age to go up more at a more rapid pace than my own aging seems to imply that older gamers are starting to take up the hobby. To be fair, they may not be playing the same AAA reaction based FPS shooter that younger gamers love but that doesn't change the fact that older people are taking up videogames.

Which is pretty frakkin' awesome if you think about it.

Apple sucks

Apple is a strange kind of company. They have a reputation for being a consumer friendly company and, at times, they take actions which are very consumer friendly. But on the other hand, they also do stuff which looks seriously sketchy from a consumer point of view.

The latest case in point is their action against a young entrepreneur who had the idea to sell white iPhone 4 conversion kits prior to the launch of the white iPhone 4 (worth mentioning that I found this post via Techdirt - love that site!).

Reading through that article as well as the various articles it links to, it appears that some 17 year old kid in the US managed to build up a relationship with a supplier in China for white iPhone 4 repair parts from Foxconn, one of Apple's suppliers. This was before the white iPhone 4 actually launched and judging from the articles, it looks like a lot of people were really looking forward to buying a white iPhone 4. The kid realised that there was a market opportunity here (smart kid) so he sold those repair parts as a conversion kit so that people could convert their iPhone 4 into a white iPhone 4.

And for this, Apple is suing the kid for trademark infringement.

Apple - Really? You are going to sue a 17 year old kid for, what is effectively, the buying and selling of iPhone 4 parts?

What are you going to do next? Sue me if I ever sell my iPod nano?

Apple's decision is baffling on many levels and makes me suspect whether there is more to the story than initially meets the eye. With that said, I can't think of any likely scenario where what the kid did could be considered wrong (the only thing I can think of is if he tried to pretend he was an actual Apple representative but if this is the case, I'm pretty sure that the news would have covered it as well).

Update: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha