March 2007 - Posts
There was a funny story in tech circles this week, summarized well in this headline: Microsoft Sends Secret Dossier on Reporter, to Reporter. ...Plus... Peep show!, Unfried fish, And the amazing flying Imams
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Today's entry took a little longer because it's a lot of video, which is harder to skim. Some entertainment show or award ceremony will have the Ninja on for a brief skit and if you're young you'll know it and love it and it will represent the validation of cyberculture and if you're old you won't get it and who the hell was that guy. Having just turned old a few weeks ago this may have already happened and I'm too out of touch to know it. ...Plus... strung out Kermit, the creature from Saturn's hexagon, and the story of my life.
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The online tech community is seized by discussions of death threats and incivility in online discourse. Actually, "incivility" is probably too mild a term when you're talking about hanging someone and other mortal threats. ...Plus... Which way is the media wind blowing?, he ain't a sheep, he's my brother, and the enemy has four wheels.
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**That's "vérité" in the headline but for some reason the characters with the accents aren't rendering.
UFOs flew over Phoenix in '97, Symington says - That's Symington the former Arizona governor who (according to a TV report I just saw) was dismissive of the sighting at the time to prevent public panic even though he was convinced that it was in fact aliens. ...Plus... moist robots, rules for writing, podiobooks, and how many beer police were lost on 9/11?
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Historically is it common for an industry to not understand or properly execute the medium by which its product is delivered? Maybe I'm suffering from selective memory, but is there a historic equivalent of the struggle newspapers have had with blogs, or as in this case, the music industry has had with portable music files? ...Plus... Google's secret YouTube plan, artists look different(ly), and rage is good for her acting.
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Bob wrote about this and others last week but for some reason it's all over TV and newspapers today. Of course, if you're finding out about it from the TV you don't get to actually watch it for yourself so here's the link. And here's a whole lot more on tracking the creator of the video.
UPDATE: Arianna Huffington found the guy who made it and got him to write a piece for her site.
Some mail from the past couple weeks in basically chronological order.
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Alex asked in the comments of my previous entry if I'd found a link to a new controversial Dolce & Gabbana ad. As a matter of fact,
you can see it here. (Click the thumbnail for the larger view.) What's ironic is that in the course of looking for it I also saw
this one which either evokes date rape or some independently drug induced blitz state which I think (for what my opinion as a non-woman is worth) is much more offensive and damaging to women than the D & G ad. But then from an industry that
applies sex to any product to the point of self parody, it's hard to take anything they do very seriously. (
NOTE: The thumbnail image in that last link is probably small enough to be safe for work but if you click it for the larger image I'm pretty sure that's a nipple, not a coffee bean.)
In case you needed more reasons to be disappointed in the federal government, the RIAA has apparently convinced the federal Copyright Royalty Board to implement an unreasonably high fee on online music, outraging everyone from NPR to cutting edge webcasters. ... Plus... Kids and animals, owning a piece of Al, and who opposes medical marijuana?
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"Can large groups of widely scattered people, working together voluntarily on the net, report on something happening in their world right now, and by dividing the work wisely tell the story more completely, while hitting high standards in truth, accuracy and free expression?" ...Plus... Men look at crotches, robot dog fights, twirling squirrels and more.
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Trying to catch up on my Web reading I remembered seeing headlines about "news rivers" and thinking at the time that they might be useful to someone who needed to catch up. ...Plus... gamers vs. daters, the Web is atwitter, and someone ought to invent that...
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It's that time of year again. I'm out all week. Let me know if I miss something good while I'm away.
I'm going to be away next week so I just wanted to clear out some of my notes. Mostly light, entertaining links.
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I started talking about proxy servers as a means of pointing to the GreatFirewallOfChina site, but after some feedback from readers I can share a little more on the subject for those who are interested.
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Is your site banned in China? Clicked worked. My Blogger blog worked. Wikipedia, no. Vox blogs, no. But a proxy server gets through the wall. ...Plus... Online drama, suicide bombers aren't always funny, economists sometimes are.
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