Monday, August 01, 2005

Participatory Panopticon, Part III. Jamais' excellent speech on the rise of the participatory panopticon is now available, in full, as audio online. It's worth a listen. (Posted by Alex Steffen in QuickChanges at 08:44 AM) [unmediated] 10:14:33 PM    comment []

Your Body Is Younger Than You Think. Although people may think of their body as a fairly permanent structure, most of it is in a state of constant flux as old cells are discarded and new ones generated in their place. By NICHOLAS WADE. [NYT > Health] 10:11:03 PM    comment []

Wes: New York Times: New File-Sharing Techniques Are Likely to Test Court Decision. No wonder Ian Clarke moved back to the UK; looks like he just painted a big, post-Grokster bullseye on himself. BTW, the proper term is friendnet; a darknet is different. [Hack the Planet] 10:09:05 PM    comment []

Columnist Hints Book Was Source That Led to Use of C.I.A. Officer's Name. In drawing renewed attention to the directory "Who's Who in America," Robert D. Novak seemed to suggest that he might well have figured out the officer's name by himself. By ANNE E. KORNBLUT. [NYT > Washington] Ah, but what did he tell the grand jury? 10:08:43 PM    comment []

Why are some old albums not for sale online?. The Wall Street Journal "Real Time" guys look into one of life's mysteries (free feature). Quote: "...while most pop new releases are a click away, some artists' "back catalogs" are frustrating patchworks, with albums unavailable because of rights issues, because clearing those rights isn't a priority for a record label, or maybe just because they're way down on an awfully long list. Think of them as the digital-music revolution's missing in action. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 7:50:18 AM    comment []

Stay Free's Aristocrat. I'm not an opening-weekend kind of moviegoer, but I couldn't wait to see The Aristocrats. Paul Provenza and Penn Jilette's new documentary about the cult of a comedian's inside joke was better than I expected, but you can read better reviews than what I would write elsewhere. Instead, I will point out that our own Tim Harrod has one of the best lines in the movie, during a writer's meeting for The Onion. Now that he is writing for Conan O'Brien, the blog is short on Harroddities, but you can always read the excellent fast-food themed articles he wrote for Stay Free!: Two All-Beef Patties Special Sauce Lettuce Cheese Pickles Onions on a Sesame Seed LIE!: Surreal McDonald's advertising The Mouse That Whored: The sad decline of Chuck E. Cheese [Stay Free! Daily] 7:49:51 AM    comment []

Mark Cuban: The definition of insanity.. The Music Industry. There is an old saying that the definition of insanity is “Doing the same thing over and over again expecting the outcome to change” I think of this saying everytime i hear about music industry efforts to impact piracy. Insanity is thinking that kids with more time than money will stop finding ways to get music for free. Even if the industry found the end all be all DRM solution that stops 100 pct of duplication, kids will sit in front of their radios with recording capability or redirect  digital music from any source to their hard drives and then spend the time to pick out the music they like and burn it. Insanity is thinking that piracy is the reason music sales are down and then focusing most of your  business on selling music to the exact demographic that has the most time to spend on finding free music and most energy to spend on cracking whatever protections you introduce. Insanity is ignoring year after year , the demographics with more money than time. . . . .  Isnt that why we buy bottled water ? Its easy and convenient ? Hire someone from Starbucks who understands selling music to demographics who are happy to buy the music they want in a setting they enjoy. Insanity is repeatedly telling everyone that  piracy stops the creative process by preventing artists from making a living and then time and time again , going out and giving advances to bands.   Hello McFly, every start up  band thinks the money is in getting the advance of a record label deal, not from selling music.  They are just as motivated as ever to make music.  . . . Insanity is watching the digital download services develop customer relationships with music buyer after music buyer,  while year after year the labels have none. . . . . The music industry has a very unique opportunity to really re establish itself as a growth industry.  Its not like they dont know all of the above. For whatever reason, they just love to do the same things over and over.. Which to me is just insane. [Blog Maverick] 7:45:48 AM    comment []

One page in the sports section, two interpretations of events . . . but one of them is NEWS! Under the Pressure of a Deadline, the Mets Wisely Demonstrate Patience. Omar Minaya passed his first major test under fire: The Mets are Manny-less and everyone is better off. By WILLIAM C. RHODEN. Trading Deadline Passes and Mets Have Nothing to Show for It. HOUSTON, July 31 - The Mets' search for a power hitter ended Sunday afternoon with a big swing and a miss. By LEE JENKINS. [NYT > Sports] (Number 2 has right-justified type in the printed edition, while number 1 is right-ragged, thus number 2 is "news" and number 1 "news analysis" according to NYT conventions as I understand them.) 7:43:40 AM    comment []

Spitballs 'n' stuff: What Does "Copyfight" Mean? (Donna Wentworth).[Copyfight] 7:41:17 AM    comment []