Dinosaurs and Robots Dispatch: New Digital Mag from Mister Jalopy and Mark Frauenfelder
Mister Jalopy and I are working on a new media conglomerate called Dinosaurs and Robots. Here is Mister Jalopy to describe it:
It is true that my entertaining internet presence, Hooptyrides, has been neglected as of late. As Ed T. -- official stalker of Hooptyrides -- has pointed out, the time elapsed since my last post has officially set a new record for inattention by shattering the Spring 2007 period of neglect.
Though I would like to claim sloth as the excuse, I have been fantastically busy launching a media conglomerate with Mark Frauenfelder called Dinosaurs and Robots. In addition to a blog and radio station, Dinosaurs and Robots is also publishing a (digital) magazine called Dispatch.
Make Magazine has been terrifically supportive of trying all sorts of novel approaches to conveying technical information and have backed it up by hiring great artists to illustrate whatever I am trying to explain. The relationship is better than great and I am spoiled by their attention to excellence. But, as a DIY-snob, I have always wanted to try to do the entire thing myself. The first issue of Dispatch is a handy magazine of projects, techniques and tools, loosely arranged around the idea of transport.
Besides planning and executing every step of the projects myself, I was also the sole designer, photographer, writer and editor of the inaugural Dispatch. It was a good deal of effort - maybe 60 hours, as it required a lot of starting from scratch. But, it was great fun and the next one will be less onerous as I have now set some standards for how I want to convey information.
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There are folks who do not believe creative effort should be rewarded monetarily. I am not one of those people. Dispatch is released as a PDF with dynamic ads from Adobe/Yahoo. You can choose to turn off the ads or open the PDF with Apple Preview, which does not support ads. However, if you enjoy the Dispatch and would like to see future issues, I would appreciate it if you'd open with the Adobe Reader and leave the ads enabled.
Since I have had a sneak peek, I am eagerly looking forward to Volume 2 by Mark Frauenfelder. It is very cool.
(Thanks to Eric, Mike and Matt of Yahoo!)
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That title is a little too close to my web comic Dino vs Robot.
Why split into two files? This creates a major point of confusion.
The two documents don't mention the spilt, and the second file ends without a closing page. It's therefore impossible to know if the last page of the second file is indeed the last page, or if there is a third, missing, file.
If the split was due to wanting to use free file hosting, it was a bad save. Mediafire is a spammy site with pop-unders and an intentionally confusing interface. It's a weird choice for do-it-yourselfers.
The net result a bad first impression to an otherwise informative and interesting mag. I nonetheless look forward to future issues!
"There are folks who do not believe creative effort should be rewarded monetarily."
this was an unnecessary and somewhat ignorant thing to say. in fact, it puts me off to the point where i am not interested in perusing your publication despite my actual interest in it.
also, while i do believe in supporting creative effort, i might not want to become targeted and tracked via the data profile generated thanks to those dynamic ads. i am sure i am not alone in this feeling...
sum.zero
So how do I get invited to your little blogg club, I sign in to blogger with my trusty google (gmail) account, and it says i'm not invited, is this really how ya'll want it, countryclub style? Why not have it open to all? then I know when to go get the next issue and click on viewing the adds which pay you...... I just want to help!!
Jack (#1): there's also a web comic called "Dinosaur and Robot" and a self-published (well, lulu) book called "Robots and Dinosaurs" by Jeff Vandenberg. It's just not as unusual a combination of words as you might think..
Mister Jalopy, the magazine looks cool! I'm not familiar with any particular security / tracking issues with those ads; Sum.Zero, are you referring to a known problem with that specific setup or just computer-based ads in general?
Oh, and the title made me think of Oingo Boingo's song, Reptiles and Samurai .. for some reason. Now I'm going to have that stuck in my head.
Reptiles and Samurai
Inhabit my head
Invading my dreams
Sleeping in my bed
awesome.
You must be really popular right now.
After a long pause ...
Safari could not open the page “http://download119.mediafire.com/dydut05dhylg/awmcn1zm3u0/Dispatch+Volume+1+Pt1.pdf” because the server stopped responding.
Firefox complains also
quote>
The server at download119.mediafire.com is taking too long to respond.
I don't think anyone is a fan of advertising, but if it helps get this kind of material produced and out there, then so be it.
Sum.Zero, I think you're being just a bit dramatic, no? Targeted and tracked? So you don't use a store discount card when shopping? You don't shop at a member store (BJ's, Costco, Sam's Club, etc..)? Certainly more personally identifiable and 'real world' tracking is going on there.
I never quite understood how people could be so negatively critical about something that was released for free.
@#6 - Stevew: Doesn't matter how many different browsers you try to access it with if you can't make the actual connection (if you're blocked for some reason).
Did you try pinging donwload119.mediafire.com? I'm able to access it without issue right now.
I can't get the mediafire server to give me the file, either.
Besides not working, it is kind of a spammy, tacky way to distribute files. Can't Make spring for some bandwidth?
Thanks for the kind words re: Dispatch.
@#1: Many more dinosaur and robot references than I would have thought. I wanted to call it mastadons.com. I like the hand puppets on Dino Vs. Robot.
@#2: Two files: Yeah, it was a major pain in the neck. The original PDF was 12mb but the Yahoo/PDF portal can only handle files to 5mb. I had to reorder the pages and re-edit photos to get it to size. I should have zipped it originally.
Mediafire: I have used Mediafire before without issue. No pop-unders on my Mac. Mark called and suggested archive.org, which was a much better idea. It is there now and zipped.
@#3: Being ignorant, being tracked, etc: As I stated in the post, you can choose to disable the ads in Acrobat. Or, you can avoid ads altogether by using any other PDF reader.
@#4: Help, blog club: And your help we want! The blog isn't live yet. Real soon now.
@#10: Tacky file sharing: I am twice as tacky as Mediafire. I am lucky they would have somebody as tacky as me. Luckily, archive.org has similarly low standards. Now hosted there:
http://www.archive.org/details/DinosaursAndRobotsDispatchVolume1
Check out Mr. Jalopy's site - it's the best thing on the internet...
http://hooptyrides.blogspot.com/
Great looking mag. It's a shame people can't focus on the words and pictures and ideas and joy in the thing.
Next time, more robots and dinosaurs, please.
Nice little zine. I liked the projects, but I kept thinking that I was missing some explanatory text. A little wordier next time?
Also, the radio station on page 2 seems to be nonexistent: www.live365.com/dinosaursandrobots -- There were no stations matching dinosaursandrobots
Thanks for the preview, I look forward to the next volume.
my complaint was about this statement:
"There are folks who do not believe creative effort should be rewarded monetarily."
it is out of place and has nothing to do with the subsequent paragraph.
the issue with ad-tracking was an aside...
that said, perhaps instead of tossing around crass generalizations in your appeal for ad revenue, you also considered offering a paypal [or whatever] donation option.
sum.zero
sum.zero > CONSUMERS complain and criticize, instead CREATORS make a better thing by themself if they don't like something!
If you don't like it, just make a better magazine...
In the past people "who do not believe creative effort should be rewarded monetarily" have killed many ideas so I like the fact that Mark pointed this out!
well that was condescending.
the fact is the statement was unnecessary.
if someone wants to use ads to generate revenue, by all means they should do so. i'm not above this myself. however, i don't see why the discussion was framed in such a confrontational tone. imho, nothing is gained by opening with a polarizing generalization in support of your chosen method. it's a lot nicer to simply ask that people support your project in method x.
sum.zero