Who is Nick?

Asking all my life.

Author: Nick Kempinski

  • Information Economy: Now with Time

    Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash

    Today I saw that the Georgia Straight launched an insiders club. And one of the perks, reminded me of an idea:

    – Access to 55 years of iconic Straight stories and archives

    A quick skim through my archive, and I’m not sure if I’ve succinctly shared my idea, so here we go.

    Time & Information

    It’s no longer just an information economy. It’s an Information & Time economy.

    You want to see a new movie?

    • pay big bucks for the whole theater experience
    • or pay specifically for the streaming service that will exclusively pick it up
    • or wait a little longer, not pay for any new streaming services and hope your primary streaming service you pay for will pick it up

    Information and Immediacy are now intermingled. We juggle and mix and match to our own liking. But they are never independent. Like the classic design triangle.

    Good – Fast – Cheap
    (pick two)

    Yet outside of watching publications purging their archives from the public, and then making it all or nothing access I I haven’t really seen much experimentation:

    • You want access immediately when published ( aka the fire-hose )? 💲💲💲
    • You want retroactive access to what we’ve released over last week or yesterday? 💲💲
    • You want retroactive access to what we’ve released over last month? 💲
    • You want access to anything we’ve released two months or older, sure… you can have that for free.
    • Oh you want archival access? Last year? 💲
      • For the last 5 years? 💲💲
      • For the last 10 years? 💲💲💲
      • The complete archive? 💲💲💲💲

    Traditional Models

    Business models are being inspired by the old models that worked.

    For the streaming wars: old TV advertising models are back hard; weekly time releases; live streaming events and shows – all of which, for the most part, people were “OK” with it and it worked.

    Now for publication cycles. Why isn’t there more. At one point there were daily/weekly/monthly releases. They could be again. It was fine by us at the time.

    I think all the old will be “new” again. We’re seeing it creep every forward, daily.

    BTW: I’m still waiting for an AI version the Talking Yellow Pages.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-07-18

    Photo by Marek Pavlík on Unsplash

    Tried to flex some digital art since my last weeknotes… and no, this one isn’t mine, it’s by Marek Pavik, and I found it on Unsplash.

    Why? I’m a fragile artist.

    Along the way I discovered a few things:

    I remember, I am an artist

    Just writing that, and posting it online for the world to see oddly feels scary. But why? I have been an artist in some fashion my whole life. In my 20’s I self published poetry books and zines. I was a union card holding musician. I drew. I wrote. I yelled at the top of my lungs “Look at me create! I dare you to stop me!”

    And then… I stopped.

    Food. Rent. Bus Pass.
    Car. Insurance. Phone Bills.
    Cable. TV. Internet. Computer.
    Family. Mortgage.
    Diapers. Toys.
    Provide. Summer Camps. Swimming Lessons.
    Toys. Oh the Toys.
    Care for others. Take care of others.

    One of the classic nay saying phrases from even personal help book on the planet ringing in my head, “Art doesn’t pay for these things.”

    But it could.

    Geek & art is complex

    A while back I removed windows from all my personal computers. I switch every non work computer to Linux ( Ubuntu for those curious ). And that fared well until… well… this.

    Turns out Adobe and Affinity don’t do Linux. So that digital art… there are ok alternatives. I’ve been adjusting fine to Inkscape. Haven’t done any full photo editing yet, to really hunker into the choices that work for me.

    Audio and Linux are overly complex. It does show how much magic is required for good digital sound. I have yet been able to figure out how to get music to sound as good as it should. Drivers, hack on hack on hack. And while I can do it, why do I even have to?

    I haven’t even gotten into real audio editing. I am a well trained Adobe Audition editor, and I’ve had to hobble on Audacity a few times. And it ended up…ok. Again… I could do it… but why did I even have to?

    Need to get back …

    Again cliché, but it’s time to get back. Create. Try something different. Throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.

    Practice. Experiment. Find time for it. Nurture it.

    Maybe then, I’ll feel brave enough to share it… again.

  • It all looks the same

    Photo by Dhruv P on Unsplash

    …I’ve kinda given away the ending.

    But let’s rewind.

    Next up in my ever continuing exploration of Ong and Oral Culture

    Conservative or traditionalist

    It’s fair to say oral cultures moves slowly. Things were moving at a pretty chill pace until that good old day in 1450 when Gutenberg turned on the press.

    Ong says it’s all because of mental load. An oral culture doesn’t have room for new things. It takes a long time for new things to stick. Without the written word to do the repeating, new idea’s must be all word of mount, and repeated at nauseam.

    An oral mind relies heavily on patterns and repetition. On sticking with the old things because the new things hurt.

    “Oral cultures do not lack originality of their own kind”

    When I first read that, I thought maybe his literate bias was showing. I’ve said if before, Ong does a very good job at staying unbiased towards orality in his Orality and Literacy. Maybe it was faltering a bit here.

    Ong is also very delicate in his use of words. He didn’t say “oral cultures do not lack originality”, he says, “… originality of their own kind.”

    Some technology seems to come out of nowhere. You think… holy smokes where did this come from: ovens, fridges, cars, planes, computers, quantum computers.

    Maybe the type of originality of an oral culture is through variations on a theme; slowly changed over time until the invention or “new” thing seems inevitable.

    Scissors – take two swords and connect them so they cut up and down at the same time.

    The sandwich – We have meat. We have bread. Why aren’t they together?

    Where have the new things gone?

    And we’re back to the “same same but different”

    Music, fashion, movies, are all feeling like a repetitive loop of what’s come before. The Spaceballs 2 teaser I posted previously echos this sentiment.

    Do you think cars are all ending up looking the same?

    Logo’s all look the same?

    Websites all feeling the same?

    Maybe it’s because our collective oral mind. We’re loosing the cognitive load to take something too different.

    The million user test

    But, look how fast we signed up for ChatGPT or Threads!

    Ong points out,

    In oral tradition, there will be as many minor variations of a myth as there are repetitions of it, and the number of repetitions can be increased indefinitely

    Is ChatGPT really much different than ICQ? Is Netflix so far off from TV? When twitter came out, was it so foreign? You used to send it text messages.

    I don’t think it’s that we won’t all flock to the latest “thing”. I just question our future appetite for true novelty. Newer is ok. Newest if fine. New New? I’m feeling doubtful.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-07-04

    Photo by Mārtiņš Zemlickis on Unsplash

    I want to work on trying to think more like a marathon runner.

    Perhaps it’s the ADHD, perhaps it’s the situation I’m in.

    I tell my kids all the time of The Tortoise and the Hare. I say to myself, I’m not the hare because I’m not cocky and rarely nap. But…

    Maybe I’m hare-like. I do these insane short bursts. I do everything. I run and I run so fast that I crash. My crashes are mostly mentally and emotionally, which my wife loves 🤨

    Also, when I’m in my particular position I say yes to everything, what else am I doing? I make a mountain pile on my shoulders so big… then a subtle wind from life, let’s say a little girls upcoming 4th birthday party, and down it all crumbles.

    I need to get back to simple, slow and, steady.

  • Weeknotes 2025-06-27

    Photo by Growtika on Unsplash

    I’ve been trying to flex the brain a bit more since my last weeknotes.

    Orality and Ong

    I’ve continued my journey comparing today’s world with Ong’s characteristics of an oral culture:

    It’s coming along. I’m enjoying some of the interesting things I’m connecting with. Still not sure how to tie a bow on all of this. However, That’s the reason for the exercise, to explore.

    ActivityPub

    I’ve also continued my exploration of what could be an ActivtyPub platform for me to tinker on all AP idea’s. I’ve taken months to hunt and try a bunch of possibilities out. They are all are really good in their own way, but to me, feel like I’m strong arming what I want it to do. So… I’ve started and stopped and started and stopped, and now I’m started again to do the silly thing, and build something for me and my own brain.

    • Using PHP – because everyone has a server for PHP. Plus it’s the simplest for my hosting and my budget, which should be no more than I’m already spending on hosting.
    • Using Slim PHP – because I want to keep this light. Laravel and Symphony are great, but overkill at the moment. If this becomes “a thing”, then a rebuild would be in the cards, but that’s a 2.0 or 3.0 problem.
    • ActivityPub first – this is where I’ve found my mental problems. Many implementations feel like you’re always fighting some dissonance with a core foundation. It’s an extension, a plugin, a layer it on top of.. all of which work… but… not quite what I’m looking for.
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