Internet

App of the Week: What Is the Deal with Vine Anyway?

If you don't follow social media closely (hey, good for you!), you may be wondering what the hell a Vine is and why it has been in the news lately? Good question. Vine is another free social media app for smartphones built to share super short videos in much the same way Instagram shares videos but ... More >>

Spotify Launches Traditional Television Ad Campaign This Week

Spotify is launching its first-ever advertising campaign this week, with an ad debuting tonight during NBC's premiere of its new season of The Voice, hoping to capitalize on music fans who haven't yet made the leap to streaming music services. The three initial ads are heavy on emotion and slow-mo ... More >>

The Tangled Web We Watch: A Bizarre Episode of Father-Son Bonding in the 21st Century

Internet Scam from DNS Services Sends Solicitation That Looks Like an Invoice

I've worked as a web developer for 15 years and I've seen a lot of scams related to domain names. At least a couple times a month, one of my clients will forward an e-mail to me with some sort of "request to verify domain name" or "domain name registry" service. Scams like that are pretty commonplac ... More >>

Eater National's Talia Baiocchi Joins Wine Spectator Team

UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION: We received word from Talia Baiocchi that this post has caused some confusion. She is not leaving her position as wine editor at Eater National. She is picking up a weekly column for the Wine Spectator in addition to her current job with Eater. New York-based, twenty-some ... More >>

Houston Wine Blogger Community Grows

One of the things that I love the most about wine blogging is the community it creates and the way it brings together people from different corners of society and all walks of life. After all, I fell in love and decided to move to Texas after I met my wife Tracie P through wine blogging. The Housto ... More >>

Almost There: My Digital ACL Festival Experience

Knowing what's happening at a major music festival is easier than ever. Bloggers post daily recaps, people tweet updates round the clock, and Instagram provides a world of images for those that can't afford to make the trip. Rewind: ACL 2013: What's Next For Texas' Other Big Music Festival? Rocks ... More >>

An Evening with Gwendolyn Zepeda

Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention: Inside the World of Wank-Craft

Most conventions are pants-mandatory kinds of affairs -- even those of the adult nature. For the world's first virtual porn convention, however, I'm not wearing any (relax...I'm in my PJs). This past weekend, XBiz and Red Light Center hosted the Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention, porn's first ... More >>

Are Streaming Sites Ensuring The Music Industry's Long-Term Survival?

The look on my face when I couldn't hear "Temporary Secretary" on Rdio.​This past week, Paul McCartney's team pulled most of his catalog - including his works with Wings - off streaming music sites such as Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify and MOG. Listeners are now deprived of Band On the Run, Back To ... More >>

Manipulate And Control A Captive Katy Perry (As A New Sim Character That Is)

Huh-huh-huh-huh ​Today the makers of The Sims 3: Showtime announced that Katy Perry will be a playable character on this expansion pack off of The Sims 3, coming in March for whatever it is you play The Sims on. We haven't played the game in years, becuase all we did was build houses for avata ... More >>

White and Nerdy: Explaining SOPA vs GoDaddy for the Tech-Challenged

When trying to explain the debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act and the involvement of domain name registrar GoDaddy in a staff meeting this week, my words were met with collective blank stares, as if I were speaking a different language. It is a look I often get from Web-design clients when I tal ... More >>

Five Factors That Will Influence the Growth of Streaming Music in 2012

We all know that in December of 2012, the Mayan calendar ends as will the world, but before that fateful day, I've got a lot of music to listen to and, like many, I seem to be doing that increasingly on my computer and via streaming music services. Whether it is Pandora or Grooveshark or Last.FM or ... More >>

Last Minute Shopping: The 10 Best Online Retailers (Not Named Amazon.com)

​For a decade now, online retailers have increasingly grown their sales to the point they now rival traditional brick and mortar establishments. Let's face it, it's just easier to shop online if you have a computer, an internet connection and a desire to avoid crowds. You can sit there with a ... More >>

Black Keys Not Licensing New Record to Streaming Services

​There's been a furor brewing among people who love streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio over bands like Coldplay denying licensing to those services for new releases. Older albums are available, but bands have essentially delayed the release to streaming services. That was all well ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Another Wine Blog: Love born in the blogosphere. It's a beautiful thing. A few weeks ago, when I shared a glass of stinky, delicious Cortese (from Piedmont) with tandem wine bloggers Amy and Joe Power, authors of Another Wine Blog, they told me the story of how they met in the "pre-blog" era, in a ... More >>

Is Spotify Ripping off Artists?

​Spotify made one hell of an entrance in July. Swedish-founded and U.K.-headquartered, Spotify arrived the States three months ago to adoring fans. Like a new bride, glowing in the light, flashing that pizza smile logo at us. Everyone wanted a piece of the sexy digital jukebox. Now that the ve ... More >>

My Five Most Indispensable Music Technologies

Previously the pinnacle of music technology...and pure awesomeness.​I started listening to music on vinyl way back in biblical times and things seemed just fine. CDs came along and made hauling around music somewhat easier and, once you got past the crispy clarity, the music sounded pretty dam ... More >>

5 Ways Apple Revolutionized the Music Industry

No other company has changed the music industry as much as Apple. For the better part of the last decade, the late Steve Jobs and his co-conspirators have empowered music consumers in ways no one would have ever imagined. The monstrous iTunes store made it possible for anybody to buy music without ... More >>

Houston Texan Winston to Host Online Monday Night Football Show

Could Eric Winston's new online MNF simulcast be MST3K for sports fans?​Houston Texans offensive tackle Eric Winston is a funny and insightful guy who is a regular on local and national sports talk shows as well as a very good follow on Twitter. Tonight, he launches a Monday Night Football com ... More >>

The Austin Food Blogger Alliance Weighs Ethics Against Charity

​Texas is ablaze today, wildfires ravaging Bastrop and threatening small towns outside of Austin. Fifty-seven fires are burning across 100,000 acres of Central Texas, and more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed since this latest rash of fires broke out on Monday. And in Austin, local blogger ... More >>

Restaurant Ejects Diner for Tweeting While Eating

Social media isn't always as friendly as it sounds.​Ever since Te House of Tea and its sister restaurant, the now-defunct Saute World Bistro, signed up for Twitter accounts in August 2008 -- the first two restaurants in Houston to do so -- it's become not only de rigeur but almost necessary f ... More >>

Invasion of Piracy

Illegal downloading costs the film industry billions of dollars per year. But does the legal strategy designed to recoup this lost bounty amount to extortion?

Why The Bloggerati Turned On The Watch The Throne Leaker

​Things just ain't the same for bloggers. A couple of events transpired in the last few weeks that may completely change the way most people view music bloggers. First, there was the incident where a writer from The Fader got kicked out of a media-only listening session for Jay-Z and Kanye Wes ... More >>

Comment of the Day: If Twitter, Google and Social Media Were Around During the First Moon Walk

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Masters of Cyberspace

The Press hands out its first Houston Web Awards.

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Know a Houston-based blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Vintage Texas: Top Texas wine blogger Russ Kane may be based in Houston, but, man, this dude gets around. His blog is always our No. 1 go-to resource for wine events happening aro ... More >>

App of the Week: MySocialMania

It doesn't get much easier than this.​App: MySocialMania Platforms: iPhone Web site: Apple Link Cost: $0.99 Mania seems to be an appropriate word when discussing the crazed use of social media by millions worldwide. From Twitter to Facebook to Flickr to MySpace (God help us), millions of ... More >>

Amazon Crash Hits Reddit, Others: Social Media Armageddon

Now get some work done.​The spinning of the earth has nearly come to a standstill thanks to major server problems with Amazon.com's Web Services, a cloud-computing platform used by dozens of very popular social networking sites. "The cloud," for you luddites, means stuff that's saved in the ... More >>

Is Blog Love Overvalued?

​It's funny watching new artists stumble over themselves trying to score coverage on popular blogs. Take the fast rising L.A. crew Odd Future, for example. Group captain Tyler, The Creator is almost as famous for his musical ingenuity as he is for his feud with revered rap blogs Nah Right and ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Houston Food Adventures: Phaedra is back and blogging, and just in time to help ... More >>

Why We Can't Be Friends on Facebook

Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends.....​Something interesting happened when social media started bearing down on us a few years back. We began to yearn for friends, and not the kind that you can call up on a Tuesday night for a bull session at the bar, or someone to watch your pu ... More >>

What Do Rappers Have Against Facebook?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday (or thereabouts) that isn't a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Z-Ro, Slim Thug, hasHBrown, Kirk ... More >>

Before Networking Was Social: Ten Early Social Websites That Are Dead or Dying

Who needs Classmates.com when we have Facebook?​Social networking today is a foregone conclusion. Many of us wake up and check Twitter on our smart phones or pull up Facebook on our laptops. We surf YouTube videos in our spare time, find dates on Match.com and spend hours reading music, politi ... More >>

Dana Durnford Fights To Give Indie Artists A Chance On YouTube

​From a hospital bed in British Columbia, one man is fighting as hard as he can to open the doors for independent musicians to go viral on YouTube. Eleven years ago, Dana Durnford woke up in a hyperbaric chamber after a commercial diving accident, and has lived the rest of his life in a whee ... More >>

New Web Series "Tour H Town" Opens With Punk Lifers The Hates

The Hates' Christian Arnheiter in the inaugural episode of Christine Dauzat's Tour H Town​Christine Dauzat is not a filmmaker, television producer or musician. She's a realtor. Dauzat does, however, have a lot of musician friends. One day she woke up and asked herself, "How can I help those p ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. And after this Monday's nearly comprehensive list of all the Houston area food blogs, we now have even more blogs to spotlight each week! Know a blog we should be paying particular atten ... More >>

A Comprehensive Guide to Houston's Food Blogs

Cartoon does not reflect reality (most of the time).​In a city as large as Houston and with as many culinary options as we're blessed with, it's no surprise that the food blogging community here is large and diverse. Say what you want about food bloggers: that we're arrogant, obtrusive know-i ... More >>

Where Not To Go In Texas If You Want Broadband Service

No broadband?!​More than a quarter-million Texans have no access to broadband service, according to figures and a new map put out today by Texas Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples.Two questions: First, how do these people live without viral videos like "BP Execs Spill Coffee"? Second, the Agri ... More >>

The Twitterverse

More than just cyberspace, the tweet life inspires people to make friends and adopt causes in person. It has a few problems, too.

Blog Stars

Ten local sites that rock our world

Mayor Parker On Twitter, Facebook And Those Nasty People Who Leave Comments On Blogs

Intrepid blogger Mike McGuff  has an interview up with mayor Annise Parker on her -- and the city's -- use of social media in the past and the future."She reveals the steps her campaign took to effectively utilize social media and the blogosphere to win the votes," McGuff tells Hair Balls.No ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Beyond Beltway 8: Although he shut down his previous food blog, Cory Crow (our ... More >>

Social Distortion: The End-All, Be-All Cure For Your Social Media Sickness

You log into Facebook, and you're hit with the sudden pang of 172 unread messages in your inbox, 146 unread updates, 59 event invitations, and a partridge in a pear tree. Your Google Reader is uncomfortably lodged at 1000 unread, and it hasn't been touched in ages, sorta like your sexy bits. You ... More >>

Outed on the Internet: A Houston professor's plight becomes a web phenomenon

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Byte This

Consumers try hawking "old" digital music files through new Web sites.

Social Distortion: Every Blog Has Its Day

Stardate: 1999 (or 02254.5, if you're nasty). Also known as Pretty Much the Stone Age, when talkin' 'bout the internets. Al Gore had barely invented the term "social media," and no one called themselves social media gurus. Yes, those were the good ol' days. Amidst the tumult that climaxed in the ... More >>

What It's Like To Get Outed On The Blogosphere

Photo courtest STCLBlevins the BloggerThe famous blogger was on the computer in his mother's basement when he got the news. A rival had uncovered his true identity and would soon reveal it to the world.And so John Blevins gathered his kids and went to lunch.Blevins, a professor at South Texas Colleg ... More >>