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The day the ink ran out: The WGA Strike
On Monday November 5th 2007 movie and TV scribes from the palm lined shores of LA to the concrete jungle of Manhattan put down their pens. It was not writers block, or laziness because they loved their job. Creating characters that viewers felt they knew as well as their own family. Orchestrating plot twists that were discussed around water coolers. Coining catch phrases and one-liners that were repeated ad nauseam in school yards until they became imbedded in pop culture. Though they may not be household names like movie or TV stars, Hollywood writers are the architects of celluloid worlds we visit daily, in the theatre or our living room. No one wanted it to come to this, not the writers walking the picket line, not the producers who were left scrambling for material. But the sand ran out and the sword that had been hanging by a thread over Hollywood for the past few months finally fell...Read More
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How fresh is Joost and what on earth is IPTV?
The IPTV service Joost seems to have a lot going for it. First off it has a funky, fresh sounding name pronounced 'juiced' and not like the Dutch name it resembles, despite the fact that the company has its roots in Amsterdam. Second it boasts quite a pedigree- it was founded by Nicklas Zennström and Janus Friis the masterminds behind Kazaa and Skype, two other disruptive and innovative concepts. And just like Skype shook up the international long distance market, Joost wants to reinvent your television watching experience. This is quite a lofty goal and one which at first glance Joost appears to be serious about delivering . It allows you to create your own channels of streaming content catered to your interests and forward others Links to your favorite shows, chat with viewers and so on. Joost has languished in private beta for almost a year allowing only a select few, preferably online influence peddlers like bloggers and assorted technorati to glimpse what lay behind its invite-onlye...Read More
Format Wars, Episode 2 'Vudu's black magic'
Here is a quick episode recap…On the last installment I was lamenting the fact that my carefully catalogued film library was facing the same fate as those cassette tapes that are stashed away in a dusty box at the back of my garage. The DVD was being made obsolete by new technology that allowed for denser data storage on a disk of the same size. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD developed by Sony and Toshiba respectively were locked in a fight to the death over standards in which the loser would perish or at best be marginalized like Beta whose superior technology could not compete with the popularity of VHS. I was sitting on the fence out of stubborn loyalty to my 'antique' DVD collection and because I was waiting to see which of the two combatants would emerge victorious. But that was only half the story, literally because those new high definition disks are not the only formats battling for a share of the home movie market. Lightening fast bandwidth and the need for instant... Read More
Format Wars, Episode 1 'The brilliant history of the DVD
I confess to having a penchant for purchasing movies that borders on an addiction. While some people collect first edition leather bound classics by Dickens or Dumas and others hunt down $3 500 antique Chinese snuff bottles, I collect movies, a considerably cheaper indulgence if cost was a concern and unlike Faberge eggs they are much easier to come by. I feed my habit from all sources, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Blockbuster, the Virgin Megastore and the now defunct Tower Records not to mention all the ones I get from business associates. Every week like clockwork FedEx or UPS leave packages on my doorstep with yet another movie treasure. Since I have such a steady stream of incoming purchases I never really know what to expect when I tear open the packages. It's like getting a birthday present every other day, one which I add to all the others that are piled up in my screening room. While it may not be the library... Read More
Starbucks rocks music but fails to heat up the movies.
If you popped into your local Starbucks this week you may have gotten a song to go with your ' iced decaf triple grande four pump soy no whip Mocha'. In about 600 Starbucks locations in New York and Seattle the 'Now Playing' service, an exclusive venture between Apple and the coffee maker was quietly rolled out. U sing the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store you could instantly preview, buy, and download the music currently being played in the store. It also allowed you to see what had recently been played and offered an exclusive Starbucks section on the iTunes website. Despite some hiccups and snafus on the west coast, for the most part it was a successful launch. What was notable however was the lack of noise around the whole affair. There were no dramatic press conferences or signs flashing the event and the download vouchers for a free Bob Dylan song were kept not out front with the other gift cards, but tucked away in the back... Read More
Green Screen: Why being eco-friendly is hot in Hollywood
The last two decades have been littered with doomsday criers foretelling the imminent repercussions of our insatiable urge for carbon based fuel, our destruction of oxygen producing forests and our indiscriminate dumping of industrial waste into the ocean. The 90's were awash with horror stories of holes in the ozone layer, acid rain, melting icecaps and the greenhouse effect. There was even a popular animated cartoon 'Captain Planet' where the villains were big bad polluters. While the Democrats paid lip service to environmental issues, the Republicans dismissed them and although it was bandied between them, it paled next to more immediate concerns like war, social security and the national debt. But as evidenced by the recent craziness over the sold out ' I am not a plastic bag' canvas tote designed for Whole Foods, the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles and concerns about reducing our carbon footprint (total amount of CO2 produced by an object or service) suddenly... Read More
From condescending advertisement tagline to irrefutable
Hillary Clinton, presidential hopeful, is advancing her bid for the Democratic nomination in leaps and bounds. The past two weeks have given her increased exposure and favorable press. It all started on September 17th when she unveiled her revised universal health-care plan to generally favorable reaction despite it being immediately dubbed “hillarycare 2.0”. Then on September 23rd she was a guest on no less than five different Sunday talk shows leading in to a polished performance in a Democratic debate in New Hampshire and a speech at a forum sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus.
At the forum the presidential hopeful called for a government “baby bond” of $5,000 for each and every child born in the United States. It was the day after the Republican Presidential candidates sidestepped a debate on minority issues. Avoiding public debates used to be a seen as ducking the issues. With the advent of 24/7 internet coverage of...Read More
Selling the American Dream 'Be all you can Buy'
Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, this is the call of Lady Liberty. She is the manifestation of the hopes and dreams that all immigrants carry with them as they wave goodbye to their native soil and make for these shores. But this famous tribute to freedom has unfortunately become a lightening rod for vitriol from individuals who view America as a bully intent on beating the rest of the world into submission. So I propose a solution to this dilemma, with all due respect and thanks to the French (being one myself) for their generosity, maybe the time has come to makeover this symbol of possibility that has stood arms outstretched at the gateway to New York since 1886. Why not erect another statue, one more universal in its appeal, one that lacks political subtext and embraces the capitalist streak in all of us, something that will stand as a 151 foot tall postmodern manifestation of the... Read More
Surreality: When is seeing not always believing?
Being a student in Florida is dangerous. Well at least it is if you are attending a university sponsored John Kerry speech and are attempting to get him to answer a question while trigger-happy, Taser toting campus police are hovering within striking distance. By now almost everyone has heard something about the incident at the University of Florida where twenty-one year old Andrew Meyer was stunned into submission by a non lethal electroshock weapon. Meyer had apparently been posing persistent questions to Senator John Kerry during a university forum when he was forcibly restrained by the campus police. Several officers pinned him down and one officer used a Taser on him. It was the shock heard around the world and Meyers plea "Don’t Tase me bro became an instant catch phrase. The incident was roundly condemned by both the media and the public, the officers were suspended and an inquiry was launched. Then the questions started to... Read More
YouTube reveals what should be concealed.
I’ve followed Google’s meteoric rise from quirky startup to global search leader while rooting for its success at every step. It showed that it could remain creative and cool even while playing with and eventually becoming one of the grownups. It was a verb; it had innovative applications and was making a difference. Google promised to save us all from a world dominated by grey uncaring multinationals. Just take their slogan “Don’t be evil” for example, such a welcome departure from the limp meaningless one-liners that usually pass for corporate taglines. But there is one part of the company that is driving me nuts and shaking my faith in the infallibility of the messiah from Mountain View. Google’s enfant terrible, YouTube. Now unless you’ve been confined to a hut in the most desolate part of the Amazon..... Read More
The Channel Surfing Mouse: TV comes to the web
Chances are you’ve been at a social gathering or on a date and heard someone use that putdown in response to a comment on the plot twists of Lost or some other TV show. Maybe their condescending tone made you choke on your Veuve Clicquot in your rush to disassociate yourself from those “TV watching” cretins. While movies and theater are deemed perfectly acceptable, even culturally enriching, TV conjures up images of an overweight, unemployed, beer drinking underachiever manhandling a remote. I honestly don’t turn on the tube myself. I have seen none of my favorite shows on their original network airings preferring to stockpile whole season DVD’s of House, The Closer, 24, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy et al, a consequence of my hectic schedule not allowing me to plop on the couch during the week. But there is a get out of jail free card for the entertainment addict who wants to wean himself off his cable box while still getting his daily fix. Coming ...Read More
Good Apple or Bad Apple: Is there a worm in Cupertino?
Apple seems to have something in common with Lindsay Lohan. Lately both have become ubiquitous with their exploits receiving through coverage in the media. Just as the fallen starlet has paparazzi dogging her in and out of rehab, Apple is facing similar scrutiny, its every move being dissected by tech blogs, business gurus and financial pundits while the info hungry public laps it all up. This has the Cupertino based company’s marketing and PR departments working overtime doing promos or damage control to ensure their brand retains its cachet. I must confess I have followed the tabloid worthy fortunes of Apple Inc. as eagerly as the next guy, if not more so. And I have good reason to, being the owner of two iPods (the 8 gig nano and an 60 gig video iPod), a 17 inch Mac Book Pro, a Power Book, an Apple TV, an iPod Hi-Fi and the iPhone. Now before you accuse me of drinking the Kool-Aid, I’ll have you know I also own a Toshiba Tablet PC, several non iPod... Read More
Reflections on an Election
With President Bush’s approval ratings hovering in the 20s for a majority of states and in the 30s only in southern states the end of the Republican era seems a given. Even though the general election is still over a year away public discourse is already focusing on the next President, with a plethora of candidates for the electorate to study and choose from. On July 21st the Financial Times called this election race “peculiar” stating: “(…) the race for the US presidency is already one of the oddest that anyone can recall. To call it wide open hardly does it justice. Although the contest is well underway, plausible heavyweights have yet to announce; the incumbent is a liability to his party; for Democrats and Republicans alike, the front-runner divides rather than unites; the eventual winner may be a woman, a black man, a Mormon or conceivably even an independent... Read More
Flivor: Live less ordinary
Webcams have been gaining significant buzz of late. Some of the websites that are taking advantage of their rising popularity are uStream, HeyCosmo and Operator 11. Justin.tv purports to cover the exploits of co-founder Justin Kan 24/7 but it uses a mobile camera not a webcam so it could be disqualified on a technicality. The idea however is essentially the same “the power of the camera”, turn one on and average Joe morphs into his less inhibited stage persona. Flivor www.flivor.com is the latest of the pack and its name is not the only notable thing about the newcomer. Unlike the others its slick landing page looks more like a multimedia desktop application than your standard issue web 2.0 social networking sites. If you click on the list of live users you instantly see their video feed and can join their live video session. Or if you tend to be more of a leader than a follower, you can try hosting and inviting users to join your own cam session. The fact that you can...Read More
Microsoft's Valentine to IBM
The gloves are off between Microsoft and IBM concerning OpenXML, the new format of Office 2007. Microsoft's Open XML and supporters of OpenOffice.org's Open Document file (ODF) format comes from Microsoft. On February 14th, Microsoft officially published a little love note to IBM. Their love-hate relationship is well known and this time the offensive was signed by Tom Robertson (General Manager Interoperability & Standards Microsoft) and by Jean Paoli (General Manager Interoperability & XML Architecture).
The subject at hand? IBM's failure to support Open XML, the new Office 2007 format, as the industry standard. OXML has been certified by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and is currently awaiting certification by the International Standards Organization (ISO). IBM, with many others, supports the Open Document Format (ODF) which ISO established as an open standard in 2006. Microsoft with OXML is... Read More
The high cost of Star Gazing and the rewards
With the Oscar's coming soon, many people are already watching the stars to see who will be chosen by the Academy for an Oscar. But, there are many people who are watching other stars. Most of them here in the U.S. are working for NASA and have had a hand in developing or operating the space-based observatories already in orbit around the earth, or the land-based observatories scattered around the world.
Attention was called to this original form of star gazing when the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) stopped operating at the end of January after returning some 5 years worth of interstellar images. NASA personnel are scrambling to analyze this unexpected anomaly... But, Hubble still has significant science capabilities... Read More
I installed Microsoft Windows Vista...
I did it!! Just like millions of folks worldwide today, January 30th, day of the grand individual rollout, I installed Windows Vista all by myself. Well... more or less. What I did do by myself was stick the packaging on a shelf in my office between 2 DVDs.
It's not as if I hadn't seen Vista before. For months I have been playing with the beta versions, one after the other. I admit it; all the beta versions I toyed with were on my Mac Book Pro. The first time I did this I was flabbergasted. I literally shouted out 'wow"; it was fresh, graphically stunning and it was on my Mac. Microsoft was right: 'the 'Wow" start(ed) now! I couldn't wait to have a go at the real thing on my P.C. but I wanted the true-blue experience; I needed the official release.
Okay, granted there were some bugs in the betas; but everybody knows that there are always kinks to iron out in a new operating system and I had confidence in Vista - after all its initial versions showed potential. I...Read More
Your Call is Important to Us: picking a mobile network..s
Choosing a mobile carrier is akin to going on a blind date. In both cases it can either be a match made in heaven or a disaster you'd rather forget. Either way the more you know at the onset the better your odds. So when you start flirting with the idea of going mobile the first two questions to consider are; how much and, for how long?
Moneywise it turns out to be a whole lot of the same since prices for similar plans hardly differ from provider to providers. However optional services -we may not need but can't seem to live without- may vary significantly. For example, that multimedia messaging service without which you'd be in tech purgatory can send your monthly fees through the roof. So it pays to shop around and avoid what can sometimes be unpleasant surprises.
A fairly recent trend has been for providers to offer 2-year plans throwing in a new discounted or free phone to sweeten the deal. Though attractive on the
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Apple iPhone: The must have Phone
The Chinese call this the Year of the Pig, but 2007 will be the Year of the Apple. With his MacWorld Keynote announcement of iPhone Steve Jobs appears to have hit a home run. Slated to be in stores mid 2007, it's already causing waves in both tech and consumer circles. Understandable since this will be the first major new product in 5 years from a brand known for its innovation. iPhone, like that veteran blockbuster the iPod is quintessential Apple, a marriage of design and cutting edge technology.
Our market surveys at Lexink indicate that this product has a high'want factor' not just among early adaptors but across the Smartphone customer base. Tech pundits worldwide are falling over themselves filling their columns with reviews and speculation on its incorporated technology and the partnership with Cingular. It recalls 2001 when the mp3 player was changed forever by the little click wheel that could.
Existing multi-tasking phones haven't... Read More
