I'd have thought that by now big Internet companies would have found a solution to losing money big on big "successes". I could understand it in the nineties when the Net was new and everything was experimental. Wikipedia sez:
"As of Q1 2008, YouTube is not profitable, with its revenues being noted as "immaterial" by Google in a regulatory filing. Its bandwidth costs are estimated at approximately $1 million a day. It is estimated that in 2007, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000."
You'd think that even Google would try to offset a cost like a million bucks per day somehow. Like with the very successful Adwords program. Shouldn't be tough to include a couple of Adwords ads on each page. ... Hmm, of course adwords are for Google's customers, not for Google. I dunno. But it's a strange kind of loss leader, especially since they paid 1.65 Billion dollars for it. It must be important to them somehow.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Moon Unit Zappa
Dharma: "Our [doctor] treated the Zappa kids."
Kitty: "What are zappa kids?"
Dharma: "You know, Dweezil, Moon Unit..."
(Kitty looks blank.)
[From Dharma and Greg season two.]
So of course I had to look up Zappa's kids. Hark at this from Wikipedia:
Moon Unit Zappa (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress and musician. She goes by the name Moon Zappa; "Unit" is her middle name.
Zappa was born in New York City, the eldest child of Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business, and rock star Frank Zappa. She has three younger siblings, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva. Zappa's father was of Sicilian, Greek-Arab and French descent and her mother was of Danish, French, Irish and Portuguese ancestry.
... Man, you can't make stuff like that up!
----
By the way, how come it's always "actress and musician"? It's never "actress and novelist" or "actress and party organiser" or "actress and designer" or "actress and carpenter".
---
Update: Alex pointed out I was remiss for not including a picture of Jenna Elfman. I miss her, I hope she finds her way into some good shows or movies soon.
Kitty: "What are zappa kids?"
Dharma: "You know, Dweezil, Moon Unit..."
(Kitty looks blank.)
[From Dharma and Greg season two.]
So of course I had to look up Zappa's kids. Hark at this from Wikipedia:
Moon Unit Zappa (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress and musician. She goes by the name Moon Zappa; "Unit" is her middle name.
Zappa was born in New York City, the eldest child of Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business, and rock star Frank Zappa. She has three younger siblings, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva. Zappa's father was of Sicilian, Greek-Arab and French descent and her mother was of Danish, French, Irish and Portuguese ancestry.
... Man, you can't make stuff like that up!
----
By the way, how come it's always "actress and musician"? It's never "actress and novelist" or "actress and party organiser" or "actress and designer" or "actress and carpenter".
---
Update: Alex pointed out I was remiss for not including a picture of Jenna Elfman. I miss her, I hope she finds her way into some good shows or movies soon.
Fred is huge
Fred is one of the most popular comedy acts in the world. He is not on TV.
Article.
"So here we are at a moment when for all its cash and talent, the best of Hollywood's online efforts slide off the wall like penne al dente, while a Nebraska kid with a $100 camera can attract a giant, hugely valuable audience by jumping in a baby pool with his clothes on. What does he know that we don't?"
Another example of the hugely leveling effect of digital technology.
----
It seems "Fred" is making a mint sponsoring the Zipit Wireless Messenger. Good for him. I looked it up, and Amazon is selling this little wireless texting device for... thirty-eight dollars! Holy frig! That's less than I paid last time I took a friend to lunch. And this thing is an MP3 player too, and plays radio from the Internet!
It seems we are teetering on the edge of the age where digital gadgets are as disposable as Bic pens.
Article.
"So here we are at a moment when for all its cash and talent, the best of Hollywood's online efforts slide off the wall like penne al dente, while a Nebraska kid with a $100 camera can attract a giant, hugely valuable audience by jumping in a baby pool with his clothes on. What does he know that we don't?"
Another example of the hugely leveling effect of digital technology.
----
It seems "Fred" is making a mint sponsoring the Zipit Wireless Messenger. Good for him. I looked it up, and Amazon is selling this little wireless texting device for... thirty-eight dollars! Holy frig! That's less than I paid last time I took a friend to lunch. And this thing is an MP3 player too, and plays radio from the Internet!
It seems we are teetering on the edge of the age where digital gadgets are as disposable as Bic pens.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Concise writing
In school I was known for saying things with few words. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes I went overboard and didn't use enough words get my point across. I'm just very lazy.
Where I went to school there was no lower limit on the length of essays. But it seems there is in much of the world, and I wonder if it's ruined millions of people's ability to make a point briefly. It should be rewarded to be able to write concisely. An essay is only too short if it does not make its point well.
From this article:
The student toiling away at his weekly English theme is too often tormented by a figure: five hundred words. How, he asks himself, is he to achieve this staggering total? Obviously by never using one word when he can somehow work in ten.
He is therefore seldom content with a plain statement like "Fast driving is dangerous." This has only four words in it. He takes thought, and the sentence becomes:
"In my opinion, fast driving is dangerous."
Better, but he can do better still:
"In my opinion, fast driving would seem to be rather dangerous."
If he is really adept, it may come out:
"In my humble opinion. though I do not claim to be an expert on this complicated subject, test driving, in most circumstances, would seem to be rather dangerous in many respects, or at least so it would seem to me."
Thus four words have been turned into forty, and not an iota of content has been added.
------
This was told by a Danish teacher. In Danish, the number six is written and pronounced "seks". The six graders had been assigned an essay: "What makes life worth living?" The usual prodigy turned in this essay: "6".
Where I went to school there was no lower limit on the length of essays. But it seems there is in much of the world, and I wonder if it's ruined millions of people's ability to make a point briefly. It should be rewarded to be able to write concisely. An essay is only too short if it does not make its point well.
From this article:
The student toiling away at his weekly English theme is too often tormented by a figure: five hundred words. How, he asks himself, is he to achieve this staggering total? Obviously by never using one word when he can somehow work in ten.
He is therefore seldom content with a plain statement like "Fast driving is dangerous." This has only four words in it. He takes thought, and the sentence becomes:
"In my opinion, fast driving is dangerous."
Better, but he can do better still:
"In my opinion, fast driving would seem to be rather dangerous."
If he is really adept, it may come out:
"In my humble opinion. though I do not claim to be an expert on this complicated subject, test driving, in most circumstances, would seem to be rather dangerous in many respects, or at least so it would seem to me."
Thus four words have been turned into forty, and not an iota of content has been added.
------
This was told by a Danish teacher. In Danish, the number six is written and pronounced "seks". The six graders had been assigned an essay: "What makes life worth living?" The usual prodigy turned in this essay: "6".
Ubiquitous computing
"I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20 years ago. When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors [these are the major component of all computers] would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, ‘Where are they all going to go? It's not like you need a computer in every doorknob!’ Years later, I went back to the same hotel. I noticed the room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors.
There was a computer in every doorknob."
(Danny Hillis, circa 1999)
There was a computer in every doorknob."
(Danny Hillis, circa 1999)
Tippi of Africa
Tippi Degré is famous in France, subject of books and documentaries. She grew up with African animals and was and is totally fearless with them.
Tippi and a snake. Tippi and bushmen.
Tippi documentary trailer. Even in her mid-teens, she is clearly still a tiny person.
I don't understand her French, but she seems very together.
TTL added:
Beautiful! Thanks for this post.
Check out these amazing photos of her!
Funny that it's only one letter difference from Pippi. Maybe you need an *ippi -name to be fearless and free.©ˆ :-)
1) Consider Tippi Hedren's role in Hitchcock's films, and that she now runs an animal rescue taking care, among others, the two tigers that used to belong to Maicol Geckson.
I can imagine many adults in the west thinking it's just horrible... not because they consider she is in danger from the animals, but because she is often dirty, and out of control, and out of supervision, untamed! not in school! Doesn't keep her elbows off the table!
I just can't believe she is crawling around on crocodiles, elephants, cheetahs... for somebody like me who is uncomfortable around a poodle, it's inspiring.
I haven't been able to find a DVD, but there is a highly rated book.
Tippi and a snake. Tippi and bushmen.
Tippi documentary trailer. Even in her mid-teens, she is clearly still a tiny person.
I don't understand her French, but she seems very together.
TTL added:
Beautiful! Thanks for this post.
Check out these amazing photos of her!
Funny that it's only one letter difference from Pippi. Maybe you need an *ippi -name to be fearless and free.©ˆ :-)
1) Consider Tippi Hedren's role in Hitchcock's films, and that she now runs an animal rescue taking care, among others, the two tigers that used to belong to Maicol Geckson.
I can imagine many adults in the west thinking it's just horrible... not because they consider she is in danger from the animals, but because she is often dirty, and out of control, and out of supervision, untamed! not in school! Doesn't keep her elbows off the table!
I just can't believe she is crawling around on crocodiles, elephants, cheetahs... for somebody like me who is uncomfortable around a poodle, it's inspiring.
I haven't been able to find a DVD, but there is a highly rated book.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The counter-Hasselblad
What kind of digital camera can you get for $100 these days?
Hint: more camera than you could get for $10,000 ten years ago.
See these things are not taken into consideration when they calculate inflation.
Stop press!... you can also get a $100 notebook now.
... No, wait, that's one hundred sterling. Never mind.
Apple iTit
[Got this in the mail.]
Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost $499 or $599 depending on cup size. This has been hailed as a major breakthrough because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.
Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost $499 or $599 depending on cup size. This has been hailed as a major breakthrough because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
New Hasselblad
Funny, I thought a Hasselblad camera was expensive when I was young. That's nothing compared to the digital generation Hassies: thirty thousand dollars. Without even one of the also very expensive lenses... [Update: I stand corrected, it's nothing so cheap, it's forty thousand dollars for the new top model...]
Since I'm not a pro and don't so far make very large exhibition prints, I'm not likely to get a Hasselblad any time soon. But I'm still a little interested when they introduce a record-breaking 50-megapixels camera, for the reason that there's always a trickle-down effect. If 16 megapixels was still the highest you could get, it would still be costing twenty grand like seven years ago. Instead you can now get a Pentax 14-megapixel camera for only a thousand dollars (excellent camera too), and very likely a new 16-megapixel Canon full frame camera pretty soon for little more than two grand. That's a tenth of the price.
Since I'm not a pro and don't so far make very large exhibition prints, I'm not likely to get a Hasselblad any time soon. But I'm still a little interested when they introduce a record-breaking 50-megapixels camera, for the reason that there's always a trickle-down effect. If 16 megapixels was still the highest you could get, it would still be costing twenty grand like seven years ago. Instead you can now get a Pentax 14-megapixel camera for only a thousand dollars (excellent camera too), and very likely a new 16-megapixel Canon full frame camera pretty soon for little more than two grand. That's a tenth of the price.
Women then and now
[Thanks to shorpy.com]
I think women look better these days. It may be the easier living.
1923:
1925:
1925:
1929:
1957:
(OK, not exactly modern times yet, but what an improvement already. One would almost think WWII did some good.)
Update:
"June 17, 1922. Iola Swinnerton and Anna Neibel, winners of a beauty contest at Washington's Tidal Bathing Beach."
I think women look better these days. It may be the easier living.
1923:
1925:
1925:
1929:
1957:
(OK, not exactly modern times yet, but what an improvement already. One would almost think WWII did some good.)Update:
"June 17, 1922. Iola Swinnerton and Anna Neibel, winners of a beauty contest at Washington's Tidal Bathing Beach."
Internet censorship?
Jim in Seattle wrote this to me today.
"This article appeared in the local paper today. Our local problem in Seattle is that the "adult gigs" category in Craigslist, a good source of models, has been systematically flagged and deleted every day since January. Theories abound, but consensus is that CL administrators started flushing the ads last winter, but since then there have been religious nuts and feminists flagging ads for female nude models, perhaps to protect the virtue of young naive damsels. Nobody knows, but the censors are winning in this small battleground with Craigslist's tacit approval because they have done nothing to stop it."
Wired article:
"The governmental role that companies play online is taking on greater importance as their services - from online hangouts to virtual repositories of photos and video - become more central to public discourse around the world. It's a fallout of the Internet's market-driven growth, but possible remedies, including government regulation, can be worse than the symptoms."
I haven't met any of this personally, but it fits with the way the world works. The way from barbarism to civilization is partly that of spiritual maturing, but it's also partly simply suppressing the barbaric urges, white-washing them, with the natural consequences mentally and societal. At today's state of mankind, you either have an oppressive mafia or you have an oppressive government or big companies, but there's nowhere you don't have oppression.
Of course, when somebody says:
"I never thought of it as a photo of a smoking kid," Dors said. "It was just of a kid in Romania and how his life is. You can never make a serious documentary if you always have to think about what Flickr will delete."
... One might say "get a serious web host instead of Flickr". It's not censorship if it's not pervasive. Like my experience ten years ago. A web host is perfectly in its right to determine what they want on their servers. The thing that irked me was the underhanded and disruptive way the whole thing was handled. If they had just given me a polite notice instead of simply turning off my site before a three-day weekend, I could have found a new host no problem.
"This article appeared in the local paper today. Our local problem in Seattle is that the "adult gigs" category in Craigslist, a good source of models, has been systematically flagged and deleted every day since January. Theories abound, but consensus is that CL administrators started flushing the ads last winter, but since then there have been religious nuts and feminists flagging ads for female nude models, perhaps to protect the virtue of young naive damsels. Nobody knows, but the censors are winning in this small battleground with Craigslist's tacit approval because they have done nothing to stop it."
"The governmental role that companies play online is taking on greater importance as their services - from online hangouts to virtual repositories of photos and video - become more central to public discourse around the world. It's a fallout of the Internet's market-driven growth, but possible remedies, including government regulation, can be worse than the symptoms."
I haven't met any of this personally, but it fits with the way the world works. The way from barbarism to civilization is partly that of spiritual maturing, but it's also partly simply suppressing the barbaric urges, white-washing them, with the natural consequences mentally and societal. At today's state of mankind, you either have an oppressive mafia or you have an oppressive government or big companies, but there's nowhere you don't have oppression.
Of course, when somebody says:
"I never thought of it as a photo of a smoking kid," Dors said. "It was just of a kid in Romania and how his life is. You can never make a serious documentary if you always have to think about what Flickr will delete."
... One might say "get a serious web host instead of Flickr". It's not censorship if it's not pervasive. Like my experience ten years ago. A web host is perfectly in its right to determine what they want on their servers. The thing that irked me was the underhanded and disruptive way the whole thing was handled. If they had just given me a polite notice instead of simply turning off my site before a three-day weekend, I could have found a new host no problem.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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