Publishing in the latest edition of Calgary’s Fast Forward Weekly is my latest “Joystuck” column. This week, an interview with James Hildebrandt of Psyko Audio Labs, about his groundbreaking new headphones.

Despite advances in audio technology, the design of the typical headphone speaker hasn’t changed much in the past century. Until now, that is.

Recently published at bchydro.com is my article looking at the trend to make computers more efficient.

The economic downturn has led to a surge of pragmatism, and it’s true of computers, too. Gone are the days of wanting computers to be bigger, better, faster. Computer manufacturers have recognized that consumers are more environmentally aware than ever before, and are releasing ever-greener systems.

This may have been the worst time in history to decide to focus a career on freelance writing and journalism, but it may also be the best time, if one can accurately and quickly read and respond to the trends.

So I’ve created a new category here at the Mind Control Division: future of media. This is where I’ll be filing the posts that summarize some of the brilliant thinking done by bright minds considering what may lie ahead.

Most recent is this great synopsis, from Fiona Campbell-Howes, of a lecture delivered by Emily Bell head of digital content at London’s Guardian News and Media.

Bell spoke on the topic of “Journalism ten years from now,” and she is optimistic about the future, but she thinks that influencers and journalists will not be limited to medium in the future (that’s a leg up for anyone with a “radio voice”).

The best tidbit was the claim by Bell that “news has never been profitable”. Campbell-Howes paraphrased:

Sky News isn’t profitable; it’s subsidised by other Murdoch enterprises. The Guardian isn’t profitable; it’s funded by a trust. BBC News isn’t profitable; it’s funded by the licence fee. It’s very difficult to make a profit from journalism, although some new models are showing small profits, such as VillageSoup, a hyperlocal news community organisation in the US.

So if you want to know where the money will come from to pay for the future of media, maybe it will come from the same cobbled-together sources as our existing media organizations.

Somehow that makes me feel a bit better. If news has never been profitable, and it’s been around forever, it’s reasonable to expect that it will continue to be around. Which means there just may be a place for me in the days ahead.

An exchange between Sam and Dean Winchester, the brothers from Supernatural, from “Mystery Spot” (season 3, episode 11). It’s a repeating day story in which Sam is the only one aware of the repetition, and Dean dies at the end of every day. This conversation happens on the street after Sam pulls Dean out of the path of a speeding car, which hit and killed Dean the “day” before.

DEAN
Did it look cool, like in the movies?

SAM
(annoyed)
You peed yourself.

DEAN
(realizing this isn’t funny after all)
Of course I peed myself. A man gets hit by a car, you expect him to have full control over his bladder?

Jason Pontin editor in chief and publisher of MIT’s Technology Review has written a manifesto.

In it, he writes about his belief that newspapers and magazines aren’t going to disappear, despite what Clay Shirky and Dave Winer think.

These journalistic institutions will, Pontin admits, have to change, and he has some good ideas about how that can happen.

Because despite the well-documented problems the media industry has at the moment, as Pontin writes, “the number of people who read newspapers and magazines is growing. Of course, with few exceptions that growth is all digital. To take one example, between 14 million and 22 million read nytimes.com every month; the print circulation of the weekday Times is just one million.”

His prescription breaks down into three categories: Circulation, subscriptions, platforms, and frequency; Advertising, sponsorships, and classifieds; Editorial.

Pontin promises that his prescription will not be painless, but he’s got some interesting ideas about how media can survive and flourish.