Ted Ritzer: NetMedia

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 08:29:52 GMT

NBC Universal Delivers Content to Paid P2P Platform. A new file-sharing model has recently won the support of massive media conglomerate NBC Universal. The deal involves Peer Impact, which will soon offer movies from Universal ... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 01:43:07 GMT

American Idiot mashed up. Cory Doctorow: American Edit is a concept mashup album that combines American Idiot with lots of eclectic material. I love the remix with the Dr Who theme! Link (Thanks, DD8!) [Boing Boing]

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 01:17:31 GMT

How to make a film, with no money, while being bombed. Xeni Jardin: From Jasmina "Mrs. Bruce Sterling" Tesanovic, in the current issue of MAKE magazine:

Back in 1999, while my hometown of Belgrade was being blown up by 19 different countries, I was writing and uploading a diary. One day, a producer from German national TV phoned me. Sheâo[dot accent]d been reading my online journal (Diary of a Political Idiot) and thought it might make a good film.
Unfortunately, since her country was so busy bombing mine, she couldnâo[dot accent]t give me any practical help. However, she thought that if my film somehow got made, she could promote and distribute it, and show it at film festivals.
Immediately, I said yes! What a great occasion to make a meaningful European art film, without those tiresome commercial restrictions, backers, producers, and other artistic brakes that every true cineaste fears!
First, I found a cameraman who had somehow survived Bosnia with his equipment intact. He was a Serbian CNN stringer, which was perfect since everyone in 1999 thought that wars could only be won by and/or through CNN.

PDF Link (via Bruce Sterling's blog) [Boing Boing]

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 06:29:47 GMT

Will direct sales of attention data disintermediate publishers and Google Adsense? Looks like Seth w. My old friend Seth Goldstein just announced his new company, ROOT Markets. If first met Seth in Silicon Alley back in 96. He was running an interactive agency called SiteSpecific. While other folks were building web pages he was doing advertising campaigns. He was the cover story for the first issue of Silicon Alley Reporter in October of 1996.Seth's a brilliant guy, no doubt. He has often explained my various businesses successes and failures to me in very complex terms. I would respond &q... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 23:27:27 GMT

Google Weblog. The latest news on everyone's favorite search engine. [Most popular feeds from Syndic8.com]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 02:43:13 GMT

Open Source Multimedia Center For Windows. An anonymous reader writes "A new opensourced multimedia center for Windows has been released. Media Portal boasts the ability to turn your PC into an advanced HTPC (Home-Theatre PC) and PVR/DVR (Personal/Digital Video Recorder). It allows you to listen to your favorite music and radio, watch all your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more. The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run." [Slashdot:]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 02:38:59 GMT

Podcasting mechanics. After I posted yesterday's audio interview, Paul Schaeflein wrote to point out that I ought to be using RSS 2.0 enclosures in my feed so that enclosure-aware aggregators can download media objects. ... [Jon's Radio]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 02:16:57 GMT

Personal soundtracks. Online: Ben Hammersley on how audio programming led to the rapid spread of the podcasting phenomenon. [Guardian Unlimited]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:57:17 GMT

BBC: Blog picked as word of the year. Slow news day. [Scripting News]

Google Local is sooo cooool

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:17:57 GMT

Google Local. Better than the yellow pages [Cool Tools]

like the man says, my wife and I like East Indian food, typed in that put in our city, Edmonton, Alberta and bingo bango a map with a list of East Indian food restraunts.

I will never let my fingers do the walknig again!!!!YAHOO FOR GOOGLE LOCAL!!!

nixMoneyMachine-Sticking it to the Status Quo!

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 18:16:36 GMT

nixMoneyMachine-sticking it to the status quo!

this new category, came about as a direct result of my disgust with a recent headline about Microsoft releasing a product which has been called an iPod Killer! Fuck it, I have had with this kind of BS, where monopolies that don't have an innovative fiber in their being, watch the market and wade in after an innovator like Apple creates it out of nothing, and then ends up losing it, just because of the monoolie's sheer size and money reserves!

Microsoft did this against the Mac, then against Netscape! Do we as consumers have to keep supporting greedy monopolies!

I remember when Mosaic first came out and for me the Internet was a place where the little guy could innovate and create a decent living, and in some cases create fortunes based upon creativity, hard work and luck! The iPod Killer headline is so cynical, and it assumes that the only thing the consumer cares about is money, and that the only thing the producer concerns themselves with is money too!

Well how bout this, why don't we come up with some truly innovative business models that put the power in the hands of the content producer, and in the process create cheaper content, get more people producing digital content, and get more developing nations into the digital economy as well!

Accoring to Robert Young found of Red Hat:

"You can't compete with a monopoly by playing the game by the monopolist's rules."

Well fuck the old models, the old rules and the old approach to operating systems, software and digital content!

I have just had it with this bullshit, and this is what nixMoneyMachine is about, proposing new economic models to stick it to the status quo!

Stay tuned!

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:49:00 GMT

Michael Moore endorses file-sharing of his movies. Here's a wild video of Michael Moore at a Q&A session, being asked if he minds people on file-sharing networks passing around rips of his movies. His answer, in a nutshell: "Share away!"... ... ... I don't agree with copyright laws and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it...as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labor... ... I make these movies and books and TV shows because I want things to change, and so the more people who ge... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:46:58 GMT

Memo to the New Head of the MPAA. Trading movies digitally still isn't easy, but Hollywood has a lot less time to act than it thinks. Here's some advice to help it avoid the fate of the music industry. By Wired magazine's Chris Anderson. [Wired News]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:46:11 GMT

Mac Founders Push for New Ideas. The crew that put together the first Mac is celebrating its 20th birthday, but some are disappointed over the apparent lack of innovation in personal computers. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:40:19 GMT

Fun in Davos.

My goal this year is to have fun in Davos. This will be my fourth World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and the third time that I will be attending it in Davos, Switzerland. (One year, it was in New York.) This year's meeting will be January 21-25. The meetings are always very interesting and I meet lots of people, but I don't usually have much of what I would call "fun". I don't know enough people and I get a little tired of meeting important person after important person who says, "so, what do you do?" It's very humbling to go to a conference where just about everyone is more important than you and has NO IDEA who you are, but it's tiring. The other problem is that for some reason, there is always a screw-up in my invitation and I end up registering the very last minute. There are never enough hotel rooms to go around so I always get stuck with the most inconvenient hotel room and find myself stomping through blizzards in a suit. This year is the same. At least I didn't end up in "hotel igloo" which is where people who end up not getting a room go.

I usually have fun at conferences by picking a few "conference buddies" to hang out with and share notes with. I'm hoping that this year a few of my GLT and Social Entrepreneur friends will be there who I can hang out with.

I will be speaking at two sessions. I will be participating in a discussion with the Club of Media Leaders -- a community of 30 editors in chief from leading global news outlets and topic will be "Rethinking the Net -- Internet Media Strategy, Wireless, Bloggers and Others" from 10.45 to 12.00 on the 21st of January. On Thursday the 22nd of January I will be on a panel titled Will Mainstream Media Co-opt Blogs and the Internet? which will be open to the general audience. If you're planning on coming to either of these, let me know so I can feel like at least someone else there knows what I'm talking about.

In any event, if you're going to be in Davos for the meeting and can/want to hang out, please drop me an email or post a comment here.

Now if only Google will direct people searching for "Fun in Davos" to this entry, we'll be all set. :-p

UPDATE: PLEASE stop sending me 419 Fraud mail. (I set up the email address above just for this entry and it is getting spammed by 419 Fraud email.)

By Joichi Ito joi_nospam_@nospam_ito.com. [Joi Ito's Web]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:35:22 GMT

Smiling makes you happy.

An interesting theory that facial expressions affect blood-flow to the brain and are not just results of emotions. The assertion is that these blood-flows affect our emotions. So SMILE! :-)

Zajonc, R. B., Emotion and Facial Efference: A Theory Reclaimed, Scince, 1985, 288, 15-2

He also asserted that elation follows the smile, not the opposite. The blood flow changes caused by contracting the facial muscles in the smile alter cerebral blood flow and cause an emotional change. He extends this reasoning to account for all kinds of other bizarre facial habits associated with emotions -- wrinkled forheads, rubbing one's eyes, hand on forehead, pulling earlobes, licking lips, etc.

Via Jonas

By Joichi Ito joi_nospam_@nospam_ito.com. [Joi Ito's Web]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:33:28 GMT

You remind me of those people who said they'd never get cell phones.

I remember when everyone shouted into their cell phones and thought that their batteries drained faster when they made long distance phones. I remember when people (who now have cell phones) swore to me that they'd never have a cell phone. I remember when cell phones looked more like military radios. I think it's fine to gripe about technology, but I would warn those people who swear they'll never use a technology. Technology evolves and so do social norms.

We've been having a dialog recently about the relationship between social norms and technology. I think this is part of the same dialog. New technologies disrupt our habits and our norms and what we feel comfortable with. I am an early adopter type who uses every technology possible and I try to wrap my life around it all. Some people try the technology and point out the tensions. Some people ignore the technology. Technology evolves along with the social norms. When it works well, we end up with a technology that contributes to society in some way and becomes a seamless part of our social norms. When it doesn't work well it either damages society or does not integrate and is discarded.

Being the techno-utopian optimist that I am, I think that writing off Skype and IM as annoying is a big mistake. They are what military radios were to the cell phones of today. I think it's important to take what David Weinberger and danah have to say about the tensions they create and thinking about how to make presence more granular, how to make it easier to manage the emission of your presence information and control access to you. What DOES free VoIP really mean? Can it be a background thing that allows us to continue to focus on our work instead of being an interruption? I am very excited by IM and VoIP and think that the tensions and the annoyances they are creating is a good a reason as any to dive into the privacy, identity, presence and interop issues that we've been talking about for so long. The more annoying it becomes, the more people will care about these issues.

By Joichi Ito joi_nospam_@nospam_ito.com. [Joi Ito's Web]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:30:43 GMT

I gotta say that this title, about a Microsoft iPod Killer for me is depressing, in that wherever there is a market created by a true innovator like Apple, that Microsoft is able to through its sheer size and market dominance, steal that market away from the ture innovator!

Think Mac vs Windows, think Internet browser, Mosaic then Netscape.

The only ray of hope I can see on the horizon is Open Source Business Models, that create new opportunities for innovators!

Microsoft's iPod-Killer: Portable Media Center?. securitas writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop reports on what's billed as an iPod-killer: the Microsoft Portable Media Center line of digital ... [Slashdot]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:25:20 GMT

Global broadband keeps climbing. Broadband technology is fast becoming one of the quickest growing technologies in history, analysts suggest. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 16:48:02 GMT

IT Giants Return Home For the Money. Broadband, wireless, digital content and PCs turned home entertainment hubs have tech heavyweights at CES taking a fresh look at the consumer market. [internetnews.com]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 16:43:04 GMT

I don't agree with copyright laws and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it...as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labor...
I make these movies and books and TV shows because I want things to change, and so the more people who get to see them, the better.

5.4MB DivX Link (Thanks, Kolano!) [Boing Boing Blog]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 04:38:41 GMT

Competitor for Visual Communicator?Apresso

Not sure that this is really a competitor for Visual Communicator, but the Apresso product has been receiving glowing reviews from a number of sources. What it does is create the ability to easily create copies of your PowerPoint presentations that capture your presentation in both audio and video. All you need is a mic, webcam and the Apresso software.

Once I get a chance to try this, I will update my Visual Communicator story, but in the meantime, I will still go with Visual Communicator. If you would like to read that article, try it here.

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 19:20:06 GMT

Social Networking One 2003 IT Stories:

this info seems to have struck a chord with the blogging community, and there are of course lots of blogs with their social software links. For a good introduction into this phemonena check out Anne Kandra's article at PCWorld.

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:56:09 GMT

The economy according to eBay (USATODAY.com). USATODAY.com - In 2003, the nation finally felt worn out. That's the conclusion when looking at the year through the unique lens of eBay, the gigantic, freewheeling online marketplace where one can buy anything from a Beanie Baby to a backhoe. [Yahoo! News - Technology]

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:54:10 GMT

Curses. the Political Weblog, just what we need for a better work, a chance for more insincere political propoganda!

The Scotsman: "Every political animal -- from George W Bush downwards -- began to notice the potential for communicating directly with voters without irritating media types getting in the way. The political weblog was born." [Scripting News]

Sun, 28 Dec 2003 02:26:02 GMT

PowerPoint Talking Heads:

Talk about a silly analogy, David Byrne from the Talking Heads likes Powerpoint?

This would go into my Go Figure category if I still was uising it.

check this article out that examines the talking heads use of powerpoint

Sun, 28 Dec 2003 02:17:18 GMT

Grateful Dead Lyracist has blog-John Perry Barlow I think,been a while since I looked at a Deadhead cover jacket. Let's see what category would I put this one in, right up their with the Rolling Stones will never stop touring?

I guess this guy will never stop trying to be on the next big thing! Oh, and BTW at just 2% of the market, Macs are pretty much irrelevant.

Oh, well I guess this will go into my NetMedia category.

He does certainly warrant that category of self promotion.

Sun, 28 Dec 2003 01:33:03 GMT

Some of brightest writers found in the National Review archives

Sun, 28 Dec 2003 01:31:40 GMT

John O'Sullivan Archives worth a look

"The Chinese are Communists the way the French are Catholics."

National Review's Editor at Large-John Sullivan

check out his insightful social commentary at this archive.

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 16:15:22 GMT

We've never had it so good, says Film Council. Film: Investment in the UK film industry has reached an all-time high with production levels second only to Hollywood, the Film Council says. [Guardian Unlimited]

Thu, 25 Dec 2003 17:26:48 GMT

This mass media portrait of space activity at a standstill in 2003 couldn't be more wrong - once again proving Garrison Keillor's theorem that "if you watch television news you know less about the world than if you sat at home and drank gin from a bottle [SPACE.com -- Something Amazing Every Day]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 18:59:39 GMT

John Shirley has a weblog. One of my favorite authors, John Shirley, has a blog. John is the original cyberpunk writer. If William Gibson is Johnny Rotten, John Shirley is Richard Hell. Here's what Gibson says in his forward to Shirley's 1980 novel City Come A-Walkin':

John Shirley was cyberpunk's patient zero, first locus of the virus, certifiably virulent. A Carrier. City Come A-Walkin' is evidence of that and more. (I was somewhat chagrined, rereading it recently, to see just how much of my own early work takes off from this one novel.)
Shirley made the plastic-covered Sears sofa that was the main body of seventies sf recede wonderfully. Discovering his fiction was like hearing Patti Smith's Horses for the first time: the archetypal form passionately re-inhabited by a debauched yet strangely virginal practitioner, one whose very ability to do this at all was constantly thrown into question by the demands of what was in effect a shamanistic act. There is a similar ragged-ass derring-do, the sense of the artist burning to speak in tongues. They invoke their particular (and often overlapping, and indeed she was one of his) gods and plunge out of downscale teenage bedrooms, brandishing shards of imagery as peculiarly-shaped as prison shivs.

John's new blog is well worth reading! Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 18:58:49 GMT

Internet Politics & Journalism. UPDATED Lots of folks have pointed to Frank Rich's perceptive essay about the Dean presidential campaign and why it's so... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 17:54:48 GMT

Merry Christmas from the Accordian Guy worth repeating:

Stole this file from the above site, cause I think it really does capture some of both the frustration and the joy of Xmas.

All the best from WIFLblog and enjoy the Accordian Guy's Christmas story, and don't forget to visit his site:

the Accordian Guy Christmas story now follows:

Merry Christmas, and I mean it in the nice sense of the phrase

by Joey deVilla on December 24, 2003 12:13PM (EST)

This is from last year (with a little polishing up), but it's worth repeating.

While I do believe that some traditions should be put to rest, I also believe that a lot of tradition-bashers are poor-impulse-control cases. Having abandones any actual tradition or culture of their own, they fill the void with a couple of < href="http://www.utne.com/">Utne Reader platitudes, a mild revulsion for anything even vaguely Judeo-Christian, even if it aligns with their beliefs, a pro-pot slant and a half-formed belief in eye-for-eye karmic payback.

Standing for almost nothing, they tend to fall for just about anything.

Chris Baldwin's summed it up pretty handily -- and perhaps unintentionally -- in a Bruno comic from last year:

To borrow the line about Klansmen and Martin Luther King Day: C'mon, Bruno, how hardcore a secularist must you be to not want a day off?

Of course, those of us who celebrate Christmas would argue the exact opposite: here we took a beautiful Christian holdiay and destroyed it through corportization and "We're white, we're straight, we're sorry!" guilt.

(There's a Randroid who would take another tack and say "here we took a beautiful commerical holiday and destroyed it in usual religious fashion." Haven't we developed some kind of Ayn Rand repellent yet?)

In the end, I believe that intent counts.

I'm certain there is no malice, no implicit "convert or die" message and no forcing of one's beliefs on others when someone wishes someone else a Happy Chanukah, Eid, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Tet or even Festivus, the actions of certain vicious zealots notwithstanding. Balanced minds do not see any implied Hitler overtones at Oktoberfest nor Hirohito/Tojo insinuations at the sushi house, and neither do they see the Crusades in Christmas.

When people say "Merry Christmas", most of them are really saying "Happy Holidays, and I'm celebrating them Christmas-style. You do your thing, and I'll do mine. Come by for drinks."

That what I'm really saying, anyways.

No matter what you believe, enjoy the break from the hustle and bustle of 21st century life. Be nice to each other. Hug someone you love.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:12:18 GMT

Bollywood Embraces Kazaa Movie Downloads. MaximusTheGreat writes "While Hollywood tries to debate how to tackle P2P movie downloads, Bollywood the world's largest film industry has decided to embrace ... [Slashdot]

Sun, 21 Dec 2003 23:14:35 GMT

Frank Rich: "The political establishment has been blindsided by the Internet's growing sophistication as a political tool -- and therefore blindsided by the Dean campaign -- much as the music industry establishment was by file sharing and the major movie studios were by The Blair Witch Project, the amateurish under-$100,000 movie that turned viral marketing on the Web into a financial mother lode." [Scripting News]

Sun, 21 Dec 2003 02:41:17 GMT

John Perry Barlow Starts Blog; Rich and Powerful Tremble. Let's all welcome the excellent John Perry Barlow to the blogosphere...... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 15:57:06 GMT

http://archive.scripting.com/2003/12/20#When:6:56:33AM. Erika Stutzman: "The University of North Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communication is hosting a Weblogs in Journalism seminar in January, yet another sign that the online journals and forums are starting to mature."... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:33:08 GMT

What a crappy present.com

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:29:59 GMT

Saddam not terribly brave

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:28:48 GMT

911 Attack was preventable

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:15:12 GMT

Michael Moore outsells David Beckham. Books: Michael Moore's root-and-branch onslaught against George Bush and the globalised economy yesterday brought off a coup in publishing, if not politics. [Guardian Unlimited]

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 23:33:19 GMT

Are You Ready for Some Science?. The originators of an all-science, all-the-time cable channel bet that Americans will happily tune out charismatic chefs and shopping programs for a little mind-expanding TV. By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News]

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 22:18:22 GMT

Jay Rosen on journalism [Scripting News]

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 22:15:57 GMT

Online art gallery: Suehiro Maruo. ... ... ... At left, my favorite from this wonderful collection of the works of Suehiro Maruo -- sexy, disturbing, nostalgic, and supercool. Link (thanks Invisible Cowgirl) [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 06:11:35 GMT

Reith Lectures 2003: The Emerging Mind. In 1922, a young Scottish engineer called John Reith was appointed General Manager of a fledgling national broadcasting service, known at the time as the British Broadcasting Company. With little experience and without any established purpose to guide him, Reith shaped the growing institution according to his vision of what a public service broadcaster should be. Reith defined the BBC's role as "to bring the best of everything to the greatest number of homes". He maintained that it was the duty of a national broadcaster to make an intellectual contribution to public life. According to his principles and in honour of his work, the BBC inaugurated the Reith Lectures in 1948. Every year a leading figure is invited to deliver a series of public lectures informed by their particular field of expertise. The purpose of the lectures is "to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest". The first Reith Lectures were given by Bertrand Russell and notable contributors have consented to participate ever since. Former Reith Lecturers include Robert Oppenheimer, JK Galbraith, John Searle, Steve Jones and Edward Said. This year's Reith Lecturer was Professor Vilayanur Ramachandran, Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition and professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Programme at the University of California, San Diego. [kuro5hin.org]

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:45:45 GMT

RSS + BitTorrent= Answer to Bandwidth Woes. It's obvious that peer-to-peer is the answer for people who want to give away great Internet content without losing their... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:35:34 GMT

Heil Honey, I'm Home: Britcom about Hitler. In 1990, Britons were delivered a a short-lived sitcom called Heil Honey, I'm Home, about Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun's home-life next door to a Jewish couple in the 1930s.

This most infamous of all British sitcoms attracted controversy out of all proportion to the number of people who saw it. Naturally, the hullabaloo was built on the shocking notion that anyone would mount a comedy about Hitler and the Jews - seemingly the definition of poor taste. In reality, the show was no more than a spoof - and not of 1930s Germany but of the kind of 1960s/1970s American sitcoms that would embrace any idea, no matter how stupid. The title, the corny dialogue, the applause when anyone arrived on set, the acting (McCaul's Hitler was more reminiscent of Chaplin's The Great Dictator than your actual Fuhrer) - all were clear signposts of parody. Mel Brooks had already explored the concept of pantomime Nazis in his masterpiece movie (and eventual stage musical) The Producers.

Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:29:07 GMT

Okay I can tell I'm going to watch this about 100,000 times. [Scripting News]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:26:27 GMT

Rolling Stone interviews Steve Jobs. [Scripting News]