"Max Hardcore" may not be some people's idea of a nice man, and his porn videos even fewer people's idea of wholesome culture (they often contain consensual violence or actors pretending to be minors), but the verdict against him is highly problematic because it's a verdict against fantasy. If people can be put in jail for what goes on in their heads, we're on a very slippery slope.
P said:
In Lebanon and most arab countries, if you criticize the State, its leaders, or do the same with a "friendly country", you can be sent to jail by virtue of law. It doesn't matter for one second if you were merely stating the bare truth. Besides, anything bare is public obscenity, so there!
Otherwise put, if as a journalist -or a blogger- you can reveal a genuine and proven corruption scandal and present irrefutable proof in a court of law, the local George-W-Bushes can legally haul yo' ass to da slammer. Giddit? So jest shaddup, boy, and bow yo' head to da man. Sit. Be quiet. Play dead. Heel.
So much for freedom of expression and the Chart of Human Rights, eh?
Phooey. ):-P
Now THAT's what I call repugnifying public pornographic obscenity. But I'll call it without raising my voice too much...
Friday, June 06, 2008
Land of the blind
Does anybody know that old short story about a man who comes to an isolated land where everybody is blind? He can't prove to them that he has an ability they don't.
It's highly interesting. If you think about it, if the blind people did start to believe him, they would view his ability as a supernatural one.
Graham sed:
Sounds like H G Wells' "In The Country Of The Blind." It was a great story IMO.
Yep, that's the one. Thanky.
It's highly interesting. If you think about it, if the blind people did start to believe him, they would view his ability as a supernatural one.
Graham sed:
Sounds like H G Wells' "In The Country Of The Blind." It was a great story IMO.
Yep, that's the one. Thanky.
LisaNova and Jenna Elfman
Like I've said, it seems this is the rise of the age of the female comedian. "Comedienne" for short, I guess. Bully for them.
Lisa Donovan Nova plays Ashley Moorehouse, Jenna Elfman plays Shirl Davidson.
"Ashley" interviews Dubya.
Jenna and Lisa in another sketch.
Lisa is a phenom I'd missed. She has over 100,000 subscribers on U-toob. Often funny, pretty hot, and not above using her assets.
I'd missed her because I don't surf around on YouTube that much. Am I the only one who finds it stressing? I quickly get into a mind mode of "find the next good one, the next better one, better, one more, next..." Total sensory overload.
Here's a video interview with Revver's founder about Revver's revenue-sharing program. The cola/mentos guys earned $35k in a couple months. I wonder how U-toob's revenue sharing program is doing?
Lisa Donovan Nova plays Ashley Moorehouse, Jenna Elfman plays Shirl Davidson.
"Ashley" interviews Dubya.
Jenna and Lisa in another sketch.
Lisa is a phenom I'd missed. She has over 100,000 subscribers on U-toob. Often funny, pretty hot, and not above using her assets.
I'd missed her because I don't surf around on YouTube that much. Am I the only one who finds it stressing? I quickly get into a mind mode of "find the next good one, the next better one, better, one more, next..." Total sensory overload.
Here's a video interview with Revver's founder about Revver's revenue-sharing program. The cola/mentos guys earned $35k in a couple months. I wonder how U-toob's revenue sharing program is doing?
Web sites die quick
Web desing guru Jakob Nielsen (both spellings are due to him being Danish) says that your addresses/pages on your web site must live forever, because every time you change them, you disconnect from all the sites which may have linked to them.
But it seems most don't follow that advice. And worse: even domain names don't live forever. For various reasons I've checked up on domains I've found on old links pages and on old graphics I have lying around. And I'm shocked, shocked I tell ya, to note that better than half of those randomly selected domains are simply gone. Defunct.
Even big commercial ventures like for example StanLee.net, which was an attempt by comics legend Stan Lee at making web comics commercially viable, is just gone. No site, not even a single page. It's just stupid, because keeping a domain and small site on a server will only cost you like twenty dollars a year. And you can put links on the page to whatever new things you would like your old fans to look at now. I've only let one of my domains expire, and that was because it was a .dk domain, and the Danish registrar authority was a pain in the ass to deal with, so I just gave up.
A similar point: I am also shocked, shocked I tell ya, to notice how many artists and celebrities don't even have their own web sites. Even as a very, very minor artist myself, I find it inconceivable to not have my personal site. Apart from anything else, it's just fun. And people can find you. But better than half of the actors, artists, writers etc that I look up don't have their own site. They let it be up to others to project their image on the web. Such a pity. I mean, even a discussion board for the fans on your own site must be an invaluable resource for keeping the finger on the pulse, for any well known person.
But it seems most don't follow that advice. And worse: even domain names don't live forever. For various reasons I've checked up on domains I've found on old links pages and on old graphics I have lying around. And I'm shocked, shocked I tell ya, to note that better than half of those randomly selected domains are simply gone. Defunct.
Even big commercial ventures like for example StanLee.net, which was an attempt by comics legend Stan Lee at making web comics commercially viable, is just gone. No site, not even a single page. It's just stupid, because keeping a domain and small site on a server will only cost you like twenty dollars a year. And you can put links on the page to whatever new things you would like your old fans to look at now. I've only let one of my domains expire, and that was because it was a .dk domain, and the Danish registrar authority was a pain in the ass to deal with, so I just gave up.
A similar point: I am also shocked, shocked I tell ya, to notice how many artists and celebrities don't even have their own web sites. Even as a very, very minor artist myself, I find it inconceivable to not have my personal site. Apart from anything else, it's just fun. And people can find you. But better than half of the actors, artists, writers etc that I look up don't have their own site. They let it be up to others to project their image on the web. Such a pity. I mean, even a discussion board for the fans on your own site must be an invaluable resource for keeping the finger on the pulse, for any well known person.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Transformers shirt gets jet ban
"Transformers shirt gets jet ban". The Sun.
(Why do mainstream media publications insist that headlines must be nigh unreadable?)
I'm sorry for a week full of making fun of people's insane phobias, but I just can't get over the surrealism of it all.
Mini-notebooks are taking off
Mini-notebooks are taking off.
"“This is for people who would have bought a desktop, but buy this to save money,” said Leslie Fiering, a vice president at the research firm Gartner."
Is this a stupid thing to say or what.
"“This is for people who would have bought a desktop, but buy this to save money,” said Leslie Fiering, a vice president at the research firm Gartner."
Is this a stupid thing to say or what.
Nude cell phone pictures
Teens are sending nude pictures of themselves over the cell phone. It seems this is a crisis on par with a serial killer on the loose.
"In Utah, a 16-year-old boy was charged with a felony for sending nude photos of himself over a cellphone to several girls."
From the dictionary:
Felony: "One of several grave crimes, such as murder, rape, or burglary, punishable by a more stringent sentence than that given for a misdemeanor."
... Murder, rape, burglary... and nude self-portraits. Wow. The mind boggles.
"In Utah, a 16-year-old boy was charged with a felony for sending nude photos of himself over a cellphone to several girls."
From the dictionary:
Felony: "One of several grave crimes, such as murder, rape, or burglary, punishable by a more stringent sentence than that given for a misdemeanor."
... Murder, rape, burglary... and nude self-portraits. Wow. The mind boggles.
Robot Chicken
Just watched season one of Robot Chicken. Toy violence, hot plastic chicks, and more pop culture references than you possibly imagine. Warmly recommended.
More on fears, real and imagined
A good theory as to why photographers are being harrassed everywhere these days.
Here's an article about the frustrating overreactions we always seem to get to rare dangers.
"Our greatest recent overreaction to a rare event was our response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I remember then-Attorney General John Ashcroft giving a speech in Minnesota -- where I live -- in 2003, and claiming that the fact there were no new terrorist attacks since 9/11 was proof that his policies were working. I thought: "There were no terrorist attacks in the two years preceding 9/11, and you didn't have any policies. What does that prove?"
What it proves is that terrorist attacks are very rare, and maybe our reaction wasn't worth the enormous expense, loss of liberty, attacks on our Constitution and damage to our credibility on the world stage. Still, overreacting was the natural thing for us to do. Yes, it's security theater, but it makes us feel safer."
Update: Jon Stewart in a Comedy Central commentary video. Very funny and observant.
Here's an article about the frustrating overreactions we always seem to get to rare dangers.
"Our greatest recent overreaction to a rare event was our response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I remember then-Attorney General John Ashcroft giving a speech in Minnesota -- where I live -- in 2003, and claiming that the fact there were no new terrorist attacks since 9/11 was proof that his policies were working. I thought: "There were no terrorist attacks in the two years preceding 9/11, and you didn't have any policies. What does that prove?"
What it proves is that terrorist attacks are very rare, and maybe our reaction wasn't worth the enormous expense, loss of liberty, attacks on our Constitution and damage to our credibility on the world stage. Still, overreacting was the natural thing for us to do. Yes, it's security theater, but it makes us feel safer."
Update: Jon Stewart in a Comedy Central commentary video. Very funny and observant.
Broadband woes and wins
I've never been very happy with either of my broadband connections, not even the "XL" cable connection which I'm paying more for. Now yesterday, oddly, I got a bill which showed I was being billed both for an XL connection and a Medium connection. So I spoke at length to a guy in the billing department, and he was very puzzled too. No clue how that happened.
But a lot of good came from it: it seems that since I still use a set-top box and never got the more advanced modem, I can actually only receive a 2Mb connection, not the 10Mb connection I have been paying for in the past two years!
So he refunded me 300 pounds ($600) for all those overpayments. And next week I get a proper cable modem and my bandwidth should rise not only to 10Mb, but to 20Mb for some reason. I'm much looking forward to that.
And to cap it off, just out of the goodness of his heart apparently, he gave me an 8-pounds discount per month in the future!
See that's the kind of support call I like.
But a lot of good came from it: it seems that since I still use a set-top box and never got the more advanced modem, I can actually only receive a 2Mb connection, not the 10Mb connection I have been paying for in the past two years!
So he refunded me 300 pounds ($600) for all those overpayments. And next week I get a proper cable modem and my bandwidth should rise not only to 10Mb, but to 20Mb for some reason. I'm much looking forward to that.
And to cap it off, just out of the goodness of his heart apparently, he gave me an 8-pounds discount per month in the future!
See that's the kind of support call I like.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
iTunes for movies, in UK
I'm happy to be informed that I can now rent movies on iTunes here in the UK. So maybe now I don't even have to get up from the chair to change a DVD. How much more couch potato can you get? Except maybe, like the boy in Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently book (I think it's the second one, The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul), who is living in the attic, watching TV 24/7, and has a hose connected to an electric kettle and a big crate full of instant noodle meals, and only goes to the toilet during commercial breaks...
Nicely, Apple has amended their ways, at least here, and now offers movies for rent for 48 hours instead of 24. But then it's not exactly cheap. £4.5 for an HD rental if the movie is pretty new. That's nine dollars at current rates. Given that the cost of delivering the movie is nil*, I'd think they could rent them cheaper. Lovefilm mail DVD rental is much cheaper, and they have to pay postal costs and replace worn out DVDs.
Delivery is very quick over broadband. The HD movie I'm trying out right now was ready to start viewing after downloading just two minutes. I'm amazed, I did not think we were there yet, real time movie viewing over the Net, and in HD. But Apple is using the excellent Akamai network and it's always been much faster than the Net is on the average.
The picture quality is good. Not quite as good as Blue-Ray (at least yet), but it looks close. According to this bitter article, it is not 1080p, only 720p, and quite compressed. I dunno.
Finally something to use my Apple TV for. It's been languishing.
HD movies are only available over Apple TV, not a computer, for some reason.
* OK, not nil, but I'm guessing insignificant in the whole game. Interesting question though. Bandwidth pricing is dropping fast all the time. Over a year ago, I found 5TB use per month hosting for down to $300. Say $200 now. Say an MP4 compressed HD movie is 5MB. That's a thousand movies delivered for $200, that's 20 cents per movie. But iTunes/Apple is a monstrous customer, surely they can get a much better deal than that, say under five cents per HD movie. I'd say compared to a nine-dollar rental price, that's insignificant, it's less than one percent.
Nicely, Apple has amended their ways, at least here, and now offers movies for rent for 48 hours instead of 24. But then it's not exactly cheap. £4.5 for an HD rental if the movie is pretty new. That's nine dollars at current rates. Given that the cost of delivering the movie is nil*, I'd think they could rent them cheaper. Lovefilm mail DVD rental is much cheaper, and they have to pay postal costs and replace worn out DVDs.
Delivery is very quick over broadband. The HD movie I'm trying out right now was ready to start viewing after downloading just two minutes. I'm amazed, I did not think we were there yet, real time movie viewing over the Net, and in HD. But Apple is using the excellent Akamai network and it's always been much faster than the Net is on the average.
The picture quality is good. Not quite as good as Blue-Ray (at least yet), but it looks close. According to this bitter article, it is not 1080p, only 720p, and quite compressed. I dunno.
Finally something to use my Apple TV for. It's been languishing.
HD movies are only available over Apple TV, not a computer, for some reason.
* OK, not nil, but I'm guessing insignificant in the whole game. Interesting question though. Bandwidth pricing is dropping fast all the time. Over a year ago, I found 5TB use per month hosting for down to $300. Say $200 now. Say an MP4 compressed HD movie is 5MB. That's a thousand movies delivered for $200, that's 20 cents per movie. But iTunes/Apple is a monstrous customer, surely they can get a much better deal than that, say under five cents per HD movie. I'd say compared to a nine-dollar rental price, that's insignificant, it's less than one percent.
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