Fishing for something to do…
More often then not I am plagued by intolerable amounts of boredom. Heaped on that is the fact that I find myself lacking the free time I once had to shoot the breeze and chat about whats happening in the world of books, movies, music and video games… Not only that but it is getting cold and rainy, a perfect time to try something new. So to start this thread, which will hopefully illicit some interesting ideas in the form of comments, I will discuss my latest media experiences…
(more…)
Boycott DRM now!
If you thought opening up your XBox or PS2 to solder in a mod chip was fun, the future is brite. The brave new world of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) will soon have all of us, opening up our TVs, computers, and monitors in various risky maneuvers, and I cant wait. Imagine a world in which it is a felony for any of us to watch a movie at home, or listen to music… And it’s not just that, imagine a world where one or two company’s hold a monopoly on computer operating systems, which will be in everything. An operating system that only runs digitally signed code, where it is mathematically impossible to run software that they don’t want you to, using a computer you own. And best of all it eliminates competition, because companies will soon be able to choose who can and cannot compete with them, just keep enough staggering ball twisters around to make it look like there are other players in the industry, other player that at a drop of a hat could have their license to run code revoked, or made prohibitively expensive.
(more…)
In other blogging news
It looks like slashdot.org is finally making the leap to css. I for one am quite happy about it. It leads to the possiblity of a contest to create a new look for the venerable old home page. Slashdot is one of the oldest blogs of the internet, if not the oldest, and in that time I can’t remember anything changing. It has actually been quite frustrating to think that a site that champions open source and open protocols could spend so much time in the dark.
Blogging For Bucks
Wired has an interesting article about the potential profitability of blogs. Personally, I think that the amount of work required to make the kind of scratch they reference in the article from a blog would be a lot of freaking work… but then I suppose I do check out Defamer, Gizmodo, and some of the other sites mentioned multiple times per day.
Flashback 1985
I somehow missed this when it was originally posted a month ago today, but Engadget has a great entry mimicking what a tech blog would have looked like on a BBS in 1985.
Music Downloaders: BEWARE!
Artists should be paid a fair price for a digital download. This is a mantra that has been thrown out since the first MP3 was shared on Napster. This is not something with which one can readily disagree and with Apple’s success in pioneering legally downloaded music files and the lawsuits clogging up courts backed by the 800-lb gorilla that is the RIAA, one would think that the RIAA would be pleased with the new revenue streams Apple has created from nothing.
In the past…if one desired an old Bing Crosby record one either went to a second-hand store or hoped the songs would be released as a compilation.
This meant a company somewhere would have to create a compilation CD and decide to plant the one song you want on that CD. Then, of course, one would have to visit a brick-and-mortar store and mine the racks until the hidden treasure was uncovered.
Apple has revolutionized it so one can now find and download the song virtually instantly…and good old Bing (or whichever company is currently the rights-holder for his music) will get some bling-bling out of the deal.
Now the Recording Industry wants more. But since Jobs has all but cornered the market on legal digital downloads he has the power to tell the Recording Industry to bugger off.
This will definitely not be the last salvo heard from the Recording Industry. But as they fight to increase the price of the songs…one cannot help but wonder how long it will take for new piracy applications to sprout.
Arrrr!
To da’ moon!!
This week NASA unveiled its grand plan for the future of space exploration, and it’s nothing if not ambitious.
Is that petechial hemorrhaging or are you just happy to see me?
Ah, fall. For me it means one thing: new pilots and season premieres. I’m here to sort the good from the bad from the very, very ugly.
Bones: Do you have an unexplainable affection for Dave Boreanaz? ‘Cause I do. And that’s probably the only reason I’ll watch this show. It, like all other crime shows on television, follows doctrine straight out of the Bible of Bruckheimer, Book of CSI.
(more…)
What an insurance agent said on ABC news.
I was typing about 10 minutes ago and listening to the news when ABC had a story about insurance companies not paying for the “flood” damage because it isn’t covered under a “hurricane” policy. Definitely shitty, but here’s the kicker. They played a clip of an insurance representative saying the following:
“We can’t, unfortunately, confuse compassion with contracts.”
I laughed uncontrollably for a bit, after further consideration I think it struck me as funny because it employs alliteration and is a really crappy thing to say.
Nintendo Revolution Controller
The Nintendo Revolution controller represents a major change in the video game industry and will greatly affect the way people interact with technology.
Watch the trailer from the Tokyo Game Show from 1up.com.
Nintendo just announced the highly anticipated controller for it’s ‘Revolution’ video game console and it is significantly different than any of the rumors predicted. At first there was speculation that the controller would feature gyroscopes, then the rumors turned to some sort of shape-shifting touch pad. The final product was different than anything anyone had predicted… it looks like a remote control.
(more…)