the evening of the day

RIAA shakedown

2007-06-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

The persistent suing of fans by the music industry may have case on its hands that sets a new precedent. Tanya Andersen of Oregon has just passed go and is now suing for punitive and direct damage with several defendants. Andersen's defense uses the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Act and claims the organization illegally performed private investigation which in the state of Oregon requires a license.

The RIAA has sued many digital music collectors (usually with a 1000+ songs in their possession) and few have taken the matter to court. Most defendants are parents or students and most cases settle out of court.

making a car the east european way

2007-06-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

After watching the amount of hammering and that every moving piece of these cars get, you would have to think twice if its worth your levis. trabant! Theres a lot of truth to the software comment.

Socialogy norms apply in video games

2007-05-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

Video games may have more in common with cultural behaviors than many believe as revealed by a study of the game "second life". This study has revealed that the norms that apply in real life, also can apply to created worlds. How these online avatars, which is a digital representation of a person, are navigated could fundamentally be an extension of our personality.

take what you want world

2007-05-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

In a news worthy web event, the attitude of the masses with protection is a coup d' etat. Perhaps the future for the media industry includes repackaging itself in a way the home theatres cannot. Re-enter 3-d. The bygone novelty of the 1950's. Hardly bastardized, but often ridiculed mockingly as a relic. The billion dollar movie industry may have found a home theatre killer. Maybe they'll start with decriminalizing the choice of the masses.. After all Jack Valenti did die this week, maybe this will signal a tide shift in hollywoods computer farms. Although the lack of publicity to the initial rollout of 922 theatres and the hardly visible publicity campaign indicates a massive lack of confidence.

Last night Liz and I went to see the new movie "meet the robinsons" we were a little surprised to be sitting in an empty theater. Now I understand... It was a 10pm start for a fantasy film Disney has positioned as a childrens picture. But hell, it was in 3-d! There are several films that peter jackson, robert zemeckis, and stephen spielburg are to release next year in 3-d. So why the lackluster turnout? I know I cannot be alone in my excitement for the possibilities that await us around the corner. This may have the staying power that goes far beyond novelty.

The start of the film includes a short from 1955, but not until a breathtakingly cool prism sequence that shoots out from the screen. There are worlds of difference between the 3-d of 1955 and the current potential that computers offer to the 3-d images. So much more depth to the current crop, and the clarity was amazing. Way to go disney, pairing back up with Pixar was the best move they have made in a while. I had my reservations. I saw the crap they tried to push on the public after the split, and they must have figured out that it takes a lot more than a poorly scripted flat texture-less looking musical set in a city zoo to captivate the public.

PR after the marketing age

2007-05-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

I seem to come across sites more than a few times a week that are faking it. You know the kind that are trying to get the consumer dialog rolling, when even the interest in the product seems misplaced. They say they want to cuddle, but, who is going to belly up to a box store, really? Companies will need to learn the challenges and pitfals of the transparency model to survive. The more their PR is doctoring up the public view, the larger the gaffes can become..

no news

2007-05-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

It is sort of peaceful to think of a news organization without something to say. With all the carnage that usually fills a slow news day. If there was no ambulance chasing, would we sigh with relief or change the channel?

reality TV and what goes on the internet stays on the internet

2007-04-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

Never been too much of a follower of reality TV, even the early forms from "the real world" SF seemed contrived. When everyone is aware of the crew's and the lighting, everyhing changes. When I picked a personal video camera I wanted it as small as they come, even enough to look into the ones the size of a deck of cards. I hate the behavior changes that occur due to camera interference!

My how things have changed. I'm captivated as if its the first time. True reality, sharing the first person memories of the minutia of someones waking life. Suddenly I find myself wondering which one of Justin's roommates slumped on doing the dishes. If Justin is on a date, I'm on a date. This is like some scene from the future, to live the experiences like a cross breed of the films Being John Malkovich, or minority report. Somehow the people within range are cast into the spotlight of widespread awe and their reactions after they get over his borg-like appendage is normal, entirely normal. I saw one moment of Justins life as he went to a moratorium to stop the use of coal for electricity. Average people carrying signs made from markers, their cause is sudenly shared with hundreds. Media has changed drastically from this day forward. As the VW ads make a tool of "the end is near" cardboard signs, we see the legacy of hand made signs as the free speach tool that has always existed.

Perhaps this TV revisioned is the offspring of a generation molded by "american idol" and the awkward public moments of Jessica Simpson. In this age the saying "any press is good press" is more true than ever. Flopping in public gets you fans, if for nothing else, because its real. Sure people mold themselves through the reflection they see in myspace and facebooks. The most insecure are the most enveloped. They friend everyone, posing as an idea enough to relate to others through their TV and music preferences. Even myspace and facebook may soon see their era of social networking passing. For they are a reflection of the way we see ourselves not the way we actually appear to the public eye. Now is the 2.0 era, the blogging, youtube time of revisioning. Your thoughts are not your own, they belong to the internet, to our species. Technology like twittervision reflect how small our world is and how universal our thoughts have become.

For an "in my day" ageism I must reflect on my early adoption of BBS'es from 92-93 of my life. While this technology was a very close refection of the social networking that became of the internet long after its incarnation of 1994, it was on a localized scale. While I frequently communicated with Europeans via fidonet, the 2 day roundtrip delay of my e-mails was closer to snail mail than of today's twittervision. The people I chatted with (occasionally this could include 3-party chatting) were all locals, and the people of all ages that used BBS'es to exchange information would occasionally schedule "meet ups". Most people participated in these. I never did go to a meet up. Later in my BBSing I was on the front page of my community's highest circulation newspaper. I was profiled as being the youngest area SysOp. While proud of my accomplishment, I preferred the anonymyty of BBS'ing since although I often identified with adults much better than people my age, I found there to be a certain amount prejudice with PC users towards meeting a 12-14 year old computer tech that had mastered in a few years what they struggled through for several. Sure computers have become easier with every revision. If we were still a DOS and linux world then computers would never have reached this level of acceptance. In school I think I was probably the last generation that experienced ridicule for adopting computers to my daily life. What a relief for the children of today for there to be such a widespread adoption of computers. The constant tech-ignorance of my day was brutal and is still seen today in the generational gaps. Oddly the most challenging generations to assist are easier to spot now. They all wear blinking bluetooth earpieces everywhere they go. To the movies, to public restrooms, probably even to church. This is somehow the way they have chosen to identify, as the masters of the telephone universe. Now they are adopted, although they collectively have identified with the most bizarre of all technical cults. Strange the unforseeable utopia that the future holds. I'll take my flying car now!

dream machines

2007-04-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

These dream machines may be the best fodder I have found for modeling a cross section of vehicles, even down to the truely bizarre jetpack. Surprisingly there is a jetpack man that has survived numerous flights.

Going all g-mail

2007-04-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

With the google calendar, there really is an amazing tool that is one step closer to defeating microsoft. Count that as a mini victory.

hurry up and adopt!

2007-04-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

With emerging technologies, there is always a segment that gets left behind. In this case, e-mail. The least mobile, and the oldest form of non-terrestrial communication still around is dating itself. Not the communication method of choice on campuses, people everywhere are switching up. As virginia tech has shown the college community, technology must follow its emerging trends faster. Perhaps spam has caused this, or perhaps writing a message off into a void now fits into the bloggers arena better.

Lee Iacocca rants

2007-04-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

In this exerpt from Lee Iacocca's new book, his rant is testy, fiery. Maybe even spoken at a raised volume sans hearing aid. However he does seem to clearly be part of the problem whether he can see this or not.

Lee wants to know, "where have all the leaders gone?" It could be that they are CEO's now, drawn in to the allure of making a disproportionate income and not into the public service sector. But why? Is this the effect of played out capitalism? Is the accumulation of wealth only a means to an end? Lee Iacocca wants to know.