The Next Great Talk-Show for the Internet Generation

It’s been a while since I looked forward to new programming on Comedy Central.

Seriously, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Louie led me to believe that FX was actually funnier than CC’s programming outside of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

But, gladly, that streak has been broken.

@Midnight is the brain child of Chris Hardwick, a podcaster, blogger, newsletterer, and nerd extraordinaire. In every one of those endeavours he’s proven himself to have a unique talent: honest, courageous wit.

The format of the show is simple: Hardwick identifies some of the most interesting social media, and web content out there, whether it be funny, weird controversial, or otherwise and asks his panel of comedians to compete for seemingly arbitrary points by offering the best comments on them.

And it’s hilarious.

The show will cover anything from an AMA gone wrong with Ann Coulter on reddit where a redditor has compared the author/talking head to skeletor with a side-by-side image, and ask the panel to answer the absurd question, “What do you plan to do with Heman?” to a twitter contest where Hardwick will ask the audience to participate in naming #SluttyMusicals.

Hardwick isn’t just funny, and yes, there are many jokes that would seem inappopriate were he not so good at moving on to the next gag, he’s also a skilled navigator of the web scouring all corners for some of its most ridiculous questions like, “Do Asians Lay Eggs?” which of course somebody answered with a laconic, and maybe absurd “Yes.” But we’ll never know.

The best part of the show is that perhaps it truly reflects how we use the web through one of its most interesting personalities.

If you’re not up on your news, Hardwick’s Nerdist Industries has recently been acquired by Legendary Entertainment and you should expect to see more content from Hardwick’s team in the years to come.

A welcome addition to the late night lineup.

Last night, when it was over and I was looking for something to follow, I landed on Conan on TBS. Shocklingly, it felt slow, and old after watching the much quicker-paced and fresh @Midnight with Chris Hardwick.

I’ll maintain my love for Conan, but seriously this is a show to watch.

@Midnight is on Comedy Central at Midnight Monday-Thursday following the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

The post @Midnight First Impressions appeared first on Rookerville.

10/9/2013 AUSTIN -

Despite a Federal shutdown in Washington, Austin’s tech scene hosted an event at the Capital Factory last night to help small businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals in the work force get educated on the new healthcare marketplace.

But, it’s not just employers who should keep up to date. Individuals with or without coverage should also check out the Federal marketplace at HealthCare.gov and if that’s not working, Fredriksen recommends signing up over the phone.

After speaking she fielded questions from the audience who asked a wide range of questions including whether employers have deadlines to inform their workers of changes in their healthcare policy to allow workers time to explore their options. The answer is a no.

Not all Texans will have options though. The Law only helps people above the poverty line, and in states like Texas where the governor, and legislators have decided not to expand on Medicaid, approximately 1 million citizens are expected not to find coverage, still an improvement over the estimated 5 million uninsured currently.

The post Refresh Austin Educates Austin Entrepreneurs On Affordable Care Act appeared first on Rookerville.

Tsinghua University Hospital v. the International SOS Hospital

I shouldn’t have had the water.

They brought me to a room that was small. It had maybe a dozen seats, and setups for IVs. It wasn’t a bad room, but it was unfamiliar. I didn’t know what my expectations were, but what I noticed was that it looked somewhat dirty; the paint on the walls was faded, and the equipment looked old and worn. Wear and tear from past patients.

Over the last 18 hours I’d lost 9 lbs. because I drank the water and it made me sick. Now I was at the Tsinghua University hospital waiting to hear them tell me so.

I couldn’t understand what they were saying, whether they thought I was going to be just fine, or not. But I never really got the chance to think about it.

The nurse came to give me the IV in my hand. I held my breath as she poked me, biting down for the brief second she pushed hard but couldn’t break the skin. It hurt for a second, and then everything went black and there was a loud buzzing sound. I came to, could hear and feel footsteps, and several echoes of voices, two of which were speaking in Mandarin. They sounded aggressive. The floor cooled my face. It was an oddly nice sensation.

The doctor, and my friend grabbed me and sat me back in the chair. They panicked, seeing how pale, and cold I was. Or maybe it was seeing my head bounce like a basketball. I don’t know if that happened though. This is what it’s like when I get a shot, or have my blood drawn, but I forgot to tell everyone, hoping maybe this time it’ll be different.

The doctor and nurse got louder, and one of my friends started to laugh. “They’re blaming each other.”

They decided they couldn’t treat me. The SOS hospital wasn’t far. The doctors there spoke English, beds had mattresses, rooms had a private bathroom with shower, and you could stay the night.

I signed in, eager for the IV. I knew I needed the drugs

They gave them to me and I started to feel better within the hour. After the antibiotics they gave me glucose and I got my strength back. I felt incredible. I thought of Michael Jordan when he came down with the flu during the playoffs.

In the middle of the night I could actually walk myself to the bathroom dragging the cart with the IV. I was part mechanical now. Poked and prodded, wheeling the new part of me around, hunched over and supporting my weight with it. By the next morning, I could drink water, cold, continuous and uninterrupted gulps. It felt like the first time in my life I’d had water.  The gulps were so big I hurt my throat with a few of them.

When I signed out I regretted not getting treatment at the University clinic. There was lots of paperwork.

I knew when I looked at it, I’d made a big mistake. There were too many columns of text. The university clinic would’ve been enough to get me on the road to recovery. Their plans were the same essentially, antibiotics and glucose. It was the bells and whistles that I focused on that distracted me from telling the staff my little idiosyncrasy, “I am going to pass out, I should be on the floor.” I had expected fresh linens, reclining beds, and a private bathroom.

I focused on all the wrong details.

The difference? The university’s treatment would’ve cost me about 300 kuai, or somewhere under $50.00. The international SOS? $1,800.00. All of it going to comfort. No significant difference in treatment. Though I did like the bed and that I got to spend the night there.

Food for thought.

When I told a Chinese friend of mine from the University about my story, he had a description of my fear I’ll never forget, or truly understand, though on its face I’d have to say it’s accurate. He called it a “shadow spirit.”

NOTE: you might see me on NBC’s Revolution for the next five or six episodes. Check it out Wednesday, 8PM EST!

The post I Lost 9 Pounds In One Day After Drinking Tap Water appeared first on Rookerville.

Can I Share a story and a photograph about my first time traveling abroad?

Leading up to my trip to Beijing in 2009 I’d seen tons of headlines that talked about how Beijing was quarantining travelers who had a temperature right at the airport. I couldn’t help but wonder, would I be quarantined? Did that mean being confined to an international hospital? A hotel? A local hospital? Would they speak English?

It was easy to focus on all the negatives…

I was nervous on the flight, something that wasn’t helped by the passenger next to me who told me he designed the landing gear and we’d be the last to die if something went “wrong”.

Really, guy? We’re flying over the arctic circle…

Every time I thought about the word “quarantine” I pictured 28 Weeks Later. You get quarantined to keep from infecting others, right? But in the movies the people who get quarantined usually have some life-threatening infection.

There were a handful, maybe 3, other people on the plane who were coughing constantly throughout the 14 hour flight. Surely being confined to a plane with other sick people put us all at risk of creating something more sinister than Swine Flu. Maybe Swine Flu Version 4.0.

When we got there it hadn’t really hit me that I was on the other side of the world yet. I was still worried about being “cleared” to enter the country. I handed my passport to a woman with neatly bunned up hair wearing a surgical mask. Then I walked through the temperature gauge just like everyone else. No trouble.

The next thing I saw took my breath away.

It was the airport. I immediately felt awe struck at how beautifully laid out it was, how symmetrical, shiny, open and majestic it felt walking through.

Here’s a picture:

I was on my first trip outside of the United States, save for Canada, at the mercy of a foreign country, its people, their customs, their food, and their government. I couldn’t just go back.

This view was exactly what I needed to ground me. How could you not want to write a story about this place?

Just wanted to share because, while Shitty Beijing Bike is fiction, it was inspired by the majestic beauty of the real China I spent 4 months in!

Will Ruff is currently working on completing his book Shitty Beijing Bike. Which if you’re interested you can be apart of the focus testing he’s putting on right now by visiting the following the link: http://shittybeijingbike.launchrock.com and subscribing. 

The post I Was Afraid to Cough At Beijing International Airport appeared first on Rookerville.

I have to fess up. Back in 2007, I bought a Wii. Why? Both the XBox 360 and the PS3 were way too expensive. The Wii was affordable, and different. But then it took a bad turn.

In about a year and a half I bought something like eight games including Mario Galaxy, Paper Mario, MarioKart, Zelda, some war game whose name eludes me, Resident Evil 4, and I can’t remember the rest.

Seriously. It was that bad.

With every passing game I thought to myself “this is going to be the game where the Wiimote proves truly innovative, and it never came. In fact, I think the game I owned that showed the most promise was actually Resident Evil 4. And that was ported from the PS2! Fast forward a year or so, and a friend of mine tells me his cousin is selling his 360 for $200.00.

I pounced.

Halo 3, GTA IV, Modern Warfare… commence drooling. I’m an FPS fan at heart, but admittedly more of a casual player. I’ll experiment with in-game physics, or put another way, I’m more taken by the flashing lights, and the ridiculous carnage in each one of these games, enough so that I rarely play with a winning strategy, opting instead to see if I can sticky grenade a guy from some incredible distance.

And I have the videos to prove it.

Yes, I’m what you might call a casual, but I’m looking at the next-gen list, eagerly anticipating a definitive review, and noticing that in my game collection, there are really only a handful of exclusive titles for the XBox. The two I’m most partial to are Left 4 Dead, and Halo. But, is that enough to keep me backing Microsoft?

Probably not.

There are a handful of Playstation exclusive titles I’d love to get my hands on like Killzone: Shadow Fall, and I’ve always felt anxious not being able to play anything Naughty Dog.

So, then, what’s it come down to for me?

Maybe a few things.

Firstly, I really prefer the XBox controller to the Playstation. It just feels better, like it’s made for me. If that’s consistent with the XBox One then I’d rather continue down that line. However…

Mandatory game installs, mandatory Live, and always online really rub me the wrong way. I haven’t borrowed games more than once in the past ten years, but the fact that you can’t trade games with others who have an XBox is downright confounding.

Even given that Microsoft has walked back virtually everything they’ve said about all of the above, I’m not sure the system they’re building is for me so much as it is for developers, and publishers who want to start policing their gamers. On top of that it seems like this close to the release, something like that can’t be changed without throwing a wrench into some sort of longterm plans for the XBox One, so I’m skeptical about the future of the system at this point.

Pricing… the XBox One is actually $100.00 more than the PS4. That’s enough to make a difference for me. Especially if I have to get Live.

And finally, the most important thing, which one is going to get better over time? The first round of games isn’t really that important to me, because nobody really knows how to build games for either system yet. But which one is going to push developers into new territory?

In case you haven’t heard, Amazon just opened a game studio and hired a director of narrative who’s written and shaped game franchises including Halo and Gears of War, and while Amazon is mainly focusing on mobile, maybe they’ll throw their hat into the console ring in the near future. At the very least, they have considerable resources to change the future of gaming, and it appears that that’s exactly what they want to do.

So, which one is going to win? I doubt either is going to put the other to rest. If I had my way, I’d probably get both, but in the end I think the XBox One controller might be the deciding factor for me given that most of the games I play aren’t exclusives, and that they reversed their position on all the crazy mandates they laid out earlier this year.

Have you decided which console you want to get, and why? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Next-Gen Console Wars: Which One 4 U? appeared first on Rookerville.

Will offers up his feelings on the news of the new Blackberry phone being released.  This isn’t a review. It’s more of a cathartic letter written in response to Blackberry’s sinking ship.  Here’s to you Blackberry. Here’s to you.

It sat loosely in my pocket, was thin, and had a keyboard and scroller ball. I’d pull it out whenever it dinged to let me know I had a message, text, SMS, email, or of course a phone call, but there were times where I just flat out neglected it.

I bought mine shortly after the iPhone came out. They were in competition. It didn’t have much of a camera, or anything worthwhile really except for Brick Breaker. My scores weren’t that impressive.

Apps weren’t the best, not that I used them anyway. Still, I felt like a boss when I had it. The possibilities were endless. I could be a CEO, or a self-made man. I was for a while — self-employed — not quite self-made, and then the iPhone caught steam, and I lamented my premature next-gen phone buy. A reminder of previous technological missteps, like the mini-disc player I got just before the iPod came out when MP3 players were around, but nobody really carried one.

I went the wrong way on that one.

I’m a career bad-purchase maker when it comes to making tech buys, because I really don’t use them. I neglect them. I wonder if there’s a culture among Apple’s greatest supporters something akin to the Animal Right’s movement, though clearly less noble. Is there an Iphone Rescue Center, where misused iPhones go to find their “forever homes,” or at the very least their “till next model” homes?

Blackberry’s like the Rottweiler of Smart phones, there’s a community who thinks they’re misunderstood, a community with an overly zealous opinion of them, some of whom may even raise them to be violent, and then there’s an overwhelming voice condemning the whole breed as being prone to aggression.

Someone at the Blackberry office probably sat around thinking, “why are people buying our phones?” Wondering if it was all just a cruel joke, the iPhone like the iceberg that brought down the Titanic.

Will s/he go down with the ship?

The last memory I have of my Curve, a silver, and thin piece of tech, is the frozen screen that stared back at me with an animated waiting symbol. Without provocation, it looked inward, never to be disturbed again. Then I quit my job, and went back to the good old fashioned brick phone that’s a genuine pain in the ass to use. Is the predecessor to a smart phone a dumb phone, or is it just ignorant?

And is it dead, or is it waiting?

In the only possible model it can resurface as, the imagery is unmistakable: the Phoenix. The ashes of my Curve, and all the other abandoned Blackberries out there will rise up again to give new breath to the “Smartphone” market, more glorious than Transformer’s 4, Fast and Furious 6, or Paranormal Activity 4.

Brace yourself for the Blackberry Phoenix. It’s coming.

The post An Ode to Blackberry appeared first on Rookerville.

Director Neil Danson showed up to the set of his feature film on Monday with no intention of giving one extra any legitimate screentime, but his hopes were crushed as he reviewed the footage.

“There’s just no way to take him out,” he said. “It’s just awful because he’s so fucking awkward.”

The entire production team is baffled at how the extra wound up in the shots, chalking it up to a ton of handjobs, but nobody has come forward admitting anything.

“Word around the set is he gives good handjobs, like unbelievably good handjobs. Not that I know anything about it” said production assistant Dyson James who asked not to be quoted.

The crew went on to say they tried everything, literally everything in post.

“It’s just such a damn shame” continued Neil. “I mean, there’s so many people out there with MORE talent than this guy. I’ve tried cropping him out, digitally removing him, using one of the other cameras, but the guy’s just in too much for me to cut him.”

Apparently, bad extras are an epidemic in the film and television industry, with everyone from directors, producers, writers, and talent actors in agreement.

The area man, who will go unnamed, because at least the director can do that, will be the awkward guy you see, acting unnaturally in various scenes, and he can be seen running awkwardly, removing things from a table awkwardly, and crossing the street in a way that will make you EXTREMELY uncomfortable.

“Brace yourself” said Danson, as he discussed the details of the episode. “We’ve literally tried everything. I’m legitimately sorry you have to see his work.”

The film is set for a limited release this Friday in some artsy movie houses, and Danson insists it’s still worth seeing.

“Honestly, just close your eyes for those five awful seconds, and you should be fine.”

Please be aware that this a piece of satire. In no way does this report any actual news.  Actually there were no details so I’m not sure how you could’ve thought this was news.  Will has a lot of experience on-set for movies and television (one might even call him an “on-set correspondent”) and likes to make light of some common issues he comes across when is there.  Hope  you enjoyed his take on the annoying extra. 

The post Awkward Extra’s Scenes Can’t Be Cut Says Director appeared first on Rookerville.

When did “technology”start referring to anything with computer code?

It used to be a wheel, a hammer, a combustibile engine, or something that made a process easier. Something that allowed the human race to move forward and provide each other with more food, or opportunities.

Now, the next big thing I keep hearing about on NPR, and fill-in-the-blank news source is the iWatch — Apple’s expected next big reveal.

Frankly, I’m disappointed.

Since unleashing the iPod on the world, nearly every single device Apple’s released is one more avenue to the app store.

Is there any reason to believe the iWatch is going to be any different?

Maybe I’m biased though. I don’t actually buy anything from the app store aside from movies (I have four). Not even music (Seriously, I have none).

Don’t get me wrong, light saber battles are fun. And who wouldn’t want to make their phone look like an electric shaver? But, really, one more item to up my screen-time and it’s going to be on my wrist? I’m already straining my neck to look down at my laptop, and I really can’t imagine doing anything with a watch other than checking the time. And there’s no way in hell I will ever bother with an iWatch if it’s blasting ads at me. Oh no.I’m especially not looking forward to all the web designers, copywriters, coders, and admen who are going to blog about the art of temporal marketing.

The biggest concern I have though isn’t about giving Apple more money, it’s that the era of technological achievement seems to have plateaud. We’re now in a period of technological regression.

Our devices are not moving us forward.

Think about it, every new device requires Internet access, and they all connect back to the app store where you can slowly but surely continue feeding the beast. Seriously though, I don’t have a problem giving Apple money.

I’ve come to depend on their devices. I can’t remember the last time I looked up directions to somewhere before hitting the road. Or put another way, when I get in my car sometimes I don’t have a fucking clue where I’m going.

And I have no thoughts that last longer than a minute, at least not as long as there’s some digital device within twelve feet of me, and there always is.

No long form writing. I’m too busy tweeting, posting selfies on facebook, or thoughts that go nowhere. They’re brief, undeveloped and all narcissistic.

No curiousity. Any thought or question I have is immediately answered via wikipedia, or Google.

No solitude. I’m on a computer in my room in my underwear and a t-shirt, and yet I’m aware of what most of my friends are doing.

And I’ve done it to myself.

No longer, I say!

If the next big thing coming out of Apple’s labs is a watch, and it doesn’t somehow cut the cost of my healthcare, prolong my life, cut my screen-time, make me a damn sandwich, or time travel, I don’t want one.

Let me know when real technology comes back.

The post The Gilded Age of Tech appeared first on Rookerville.