Thursday, July 29, 2004

So Cool

Let's all go the Phantasmagoria! Early Visual Media

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

A Modest Proposal: The Media License

I've been kicking around a proposal for years. Unfortunately, I'm only a voice in the wilderness with no one in a position to make it happen listen to me.

This blog post at Home Theater Watch reminded me of it: Home Theater Watch: DVD producers lament shortened windows

Here's what I recommend that will put untold riches in the studio's hands while treating the consumer fairly AND taking into account changing technology. The media license.

Here's how it would work: I go to a movie and pay not just for a ticket, but to license the content - it's no longer an anonymous transaction, but an agreement. I could, like the blog suggests, buy the DVD on in the lobby on the way out, but in my scenerio, I already have a license to the content, so I'd only need to pay a small media charge for the DVD.

If new editions or new formats come out, I could pay the media charge and get them as well. I could not, however, resell my discs. I could show them in my home to friends as much as I want, but not lend them out. On the other hand, if the DVD format goes to HD-DVD and then to totally online, I wouldn't have to repurchase the content again and again.

Rogue Waves redux

Interesting post on rogue waves! I too wonder what the frequency is. My grandfather's grandfather was engineer (yes, a Scottish engineer) on a sound and well-maintained passenger ship with an experienced captain and crew sailing in familiar waters that foundered off Halifax, N.S., just after the turn of the 20th century. I still have copies of clippings and a copy of a long letter of condolence his widow received from their pastor.

My ancestor was the hero of the occasion, going below himself to try to keep the ship afloat long enough to get the passengers and crew off in the lifeboats. He went down with the ship, knowing when he went below that it meant he was doomed. I think this makes him a great man, but I'm not sure how much comfort that idea was to his widow on that occasion.

Yes, some people were killed in the tragedy -- stormy seas, difficulty getting boats and the people in them to other ships and to shore -- but not because anyone got stranded aboard the ship, except for my ancestor (and, I believe, the captain of the ship).

I don't know if a rogue wave was involved or not. And we'll never know, will we? But it gives one furiously to think.

Someone at JPL has a sense of humor

Of course, you'd have to be a geek like me to get it.

Cassini-Huygens-Multimedia-Images

Monday, July 26, 2004

Stop It. Just Stop It.

I'm so tire of it all. Yet it's important that we flush these guys out and get it right.

What's wrong with our political system? Money. People who want it and people who what to keep it (and get LOTS more). All of the rhetoric, the playing to religious camps and social ideals is so cynical it make the bile rise in my throat (and I had my gall bladder out last year, so that's no easy task).

Thank god for people like Bill Moyers who do really understand this issue.

Democracy in the Balance, Sojourners Magazine/August 2004 "And what is driving this shift? Contrary to what you learned in civics class in high school, it is not the so-called 'democratic debate.' That is merely a cynical charade behind which the real business goes on - the none-too-scrupulous business of getting and keeping power so that you can divide up the spoils. If you want to know what's changing America, follow the money."

Physical Theories as Women

Telling stories like this was probably why I didn't date in High School.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Physical Theories as Women