« March 2002 | Main | May 2002 »
"Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming." Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO, Turner Broadcasting System.
New Macromedia MX products announced, most available for download prior to release. What does MX stand for?
"The reality, or substance, of professional wrestling is the ability to perpetuate a fantasy... I can look back and credit my tremendous success to what some would term insanity. I never distinguished between fantasy and reality. I made my fantasy reality for over 60 years." Lou Thesz, perhaps the greatest pro wrestler of the 20th century, died yesterday. His autobiography, Hooker, is one of the best books about pro wrestling ever written.
Last week I did something of an inventory of the various domain names I've accumulated over the years, with the plan of moving them all to the same low-cost registrar, perhaps Go Daddy or Gandi. In the meantime I thought I'd transfer my last Network Solutions domain to OpenSRS. Everyone have a horror story about NetSol, right? I started the transfer to Domain Direct and almost immediately got a phone call from them telling me that they wouldn't do the transfer because the contact information for my account and for the domain I wanted to transfer were completely different, which was true. I thought that was pretty impressive.
There are a few stories floating around of stolen domain names. The latest: weblog succaland.com was taken by an outfit in Hong Kong called Ultimate Search, which also grabbed the domain of The Poetry Society some time ago. Other domains stolen in the past few months include Hoopla.com and smug.com.
Cory at BoingBoin suggests putting Network Solutions, the number one domain registrar, to death. Zeldman has the last word: "This company's incompetence staggers us. Just when we think they can't get any worse, they exceed all previous feats of non-service. A gibbon with an abacus would do a better job. Lord, if you are listening, smite these evil clowns." It's funny what gets the webloggers worked up.
"From my cold dead hands." A vice-president of the National Rifle Association took credit for President Bush's election Saturday, saying that those who would restrict gun rights are engaged in "political terrorism." Hyperbole aside, is gun control a failure in the USA?
Google is neat, and you knew that, but perhaps you aren't aware just how neat Google is. g2 told me about the Google Weblog, which has news about Google but mostly seems aimed at pointing out cool things about the searh engine.
From the New York Times: "When Google responded to the church's complaint by removing the links to the Scientology material, techies and free-speech advocates accused Google of censoring its search results... At that point...[Google] started developing a better way to handle such complaints... Under Google's new policy, when it receives a complaint that causes it to remove links from its index, it will give a copy of the complaint to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse... a project of a civil liberties advocacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several law schools."
"i met ben affleck today. he's the title role in a movie we'll be shooting called gigli. i'm sure you'll hear about it sooner or later... but anyway, this affleck character - he's a pompous asshole. i have tremendous respect for him, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing wrong with this kid that a good ass kicking won't fix. and take it from your buddy chris, he's one of the most deserving people in the business. i punched tarantino in the jaw because he looked at me funny. my part in pulp fiction was much longer and more involved, and he cut it afterwards just to spite me. i'll make you pay for that, tarantino... you mark my words." Christopher Walken's LiveJournal?
Network Associates, who purchased encryption platform PGP from Phil Zimmermann in 1997, has put their PGP products in "maintanence mode." Zimmermann is undaunted: "PGP has been around for 10 years and has endured incredible obstacles and hardships... Powerful forces have been arrayed to stop PGP and yet those obstacles were overcome."
"All democracies turn into dictatorships -- but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea... It isn't that the Empire conquered the Republic, it's that the Empire is the Republic." George Lucas talks about the politics of his new Star Wars films.
Great story in yesterday's New York Times Magazine by George Packer, author of ''The Village of Waiting'' and, most recently, ''Blood of the Liberals.''
"When Here Sees There": "The globalization of the media was supposed to knit the world together. The more information we receive about one another, the thinking went, the more international understanding will prevail.... But this technological togetherness has not created the human bonds that were promised. In some ways, global satellite TV and Internet access have actually made the world a less understanding, less tolerant place. What the media provide is superficial familiarity -- images without context, indignation without remedy. The problem isn't just the content of the media, but the fact that while images become international, people's lives remain parochial -- in the Arab world and everywhere else, including here."
Update: The article is now available at the World Policy Forum Web site.
It is snowing outside and the temperature hovers around freezing, which in itself isn't that odd for April 22nd in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. What is odd is the heat wave the city experienced last week, with days of 28°C (82°F) and 30°C (86°F).
Refugees denied human face in Australia: "Taking photographs that could "humanise or personalise" asylum seekers was banned by former defence minister Peter Reith's office, the Senate inquiry into children-overboard claims was told yesterday."
Thinking cap: "Australian scientists say they have created a "thinking cap" that will stimulate creative powers... The invention raises the possibility of being able to unlock one's inner genius by reawakening dormant parts of the brain... It is based on the idea that we all have the sorts of extraordinary abilities usually associated with savants. According to scientists at the Centre for the Mind in Sydney, these hidden talents can be stimulated using magnetism... Professor Allan Snyder and colleague Elaine Mulcahy say tests on 17 volunteers show their device can improve drawing skills within 15 minutes."
"People trying to get internet tech-support often 'misdial' the phone number, and get me. So I try to help. This is what happens." May I Help You Dumbass? from the Upright Citizens' Brigade.
A bit of a sea change at CNN.com: the "War on Terror" news heading, which has been part of the right column of CNN's home page since late September 2001, is gone, and not coincidentally, the massive non-news of the arrest of actor Robert Blake is the lead story. Not the growing world outrage over the Israel action in Jenin, nor the death of four Canadian soldiers by an errant US bomb.
Copyright © 1993-2006 John Harris Stevenson. This Web site's content is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Some rights reserved.
Powered by Movable Type 3.33 and hosted by Dreamhost.
ISSN #1496-9351.