In a dualistic way, there are two types of time in the world: time spent watching BSG, and time spent waiting to watch BSG. I have to kill 9.5 hours until the next all-new episode airs. I will likely spend that time in contemplation of the awesomeness that is BSG.
I had to explain this to some of my classmates when one called me a ‘nerd’ and I corrected him to say that I was a ‘geek’. This is my own opinion, and please feel free to agree or disagree below.
Geek: a socially comfortable individual who likes weird shit and is not ashamed of it. Weird shit can include, but is not limited to, Sci-Fi, Science, ancient languages (yays!), history, technology, and music. Examples include the guys from Mythbusters, Vin Diesel, and Miracle Ed.
Nerd: a socially uncomfortable person (introvert) who likes weird shit and doesn’t want other folks to know about it. They tend to not make eye contact and speak haltingly, even when doing simple things like ordering food at Subway. Weird shit is as above for geek, with Sci-Fi replaced by Fantasy, Science replaced with Math, and the rest remaining the same except music, which goes away. Examples include everyone from Revenge of the Nerds, the kid from Head of the Class, and all of Sean’s friends (I kid).
Discuss.
but i got nothing to say. ok random commentary here we go.
that’s pretty much it.
I have teh intartubes again! Holy shit. 2+ weeks without the internet is a jarring experience. Hell, I had internet access in my classroom, but couldn’t look at pr0n, Amazon, or anything with “blog” in the title. I kinda felt like a character from a book Ed recommended to me because he thought it “kinda sucked but was interesting.” If I’m not mistaken, he gave me that book when he and Seamus was straight cockblockin’ a bruva in Vegas.
WTF is with the spam this weekend? I have over 40 spam messages in my gmail inbox over the past two hours. Anyone else getting nailed this badly?
Seamus and I have had many a conversation, probably adding up to several hours’ worth of minutes on the cellies, about what I term the “GMC (Great Media Convergence)”. I believe that hard entertainment media will be dead within 7-10 years. These dead media will include CDs, DVDs, and anything else that delivers programming to your house. I want to speed along the process, and I am a Tivo-brand loyalist, so following are my ramblings.
Amazon Unboxed is a new service whereby one can buy/rent movies and shows from Amazon through their Tivo and broadband connection. They select the purchase on the intartubes, pay for it through Amazon, and it is downloaded for them to view on their Tivo or computer, depending on their preference. Advantages include ease of use and video quality, while disadvantages include DL time and limited timeframe for viewing the ‘rentals’ before Tivo snatches it away from you.
Tivo has also come up with the “universal swivel search”, which is a way to search for programs from multiple sources, including TivoCasts (faux-Podcasts for Tivo only), Amazon Unboxed, and the normal TV. Getting warmer. Disadvantages again include DL time, but the advantage is that when you sit down to watch TV, you can interact solely with the TV.
Those two things out of the way, here’s my idear: why don’t networks and/or production companies deliver programming directly through Amazon and Tivo, sans DVDs, for permanent use as the consumer sees fit? Using torrent tech, they can upload a program to their servers, seed it for an appropriate amount of time, and then let the customers pass it around as needed. Revenue would come through embedded ads during programming and between acts. I have no business degree, but I can read the frakking newspaper. Google-style embedded ads and short ads with revenue sharing can get everyone the cash they need. Think about it: ESPN, CNN, Fox News, et al. all have mad scrolling shit at the bottom of the screen, and customers learn to pay minimal attention to it unless something catches their eye, kinda like ads nowadays anyways. Distribution costs can be minimized by using DivX or Xvid codecs and torrenting to limit bandwidth usage.
A walkthrough:
Kinyahbrutha goes to his Tivo and gets a series pass for International Rugby. Ding dong, Tri-Nations rugby comes up, and BBC puts four seeders up on their server, distributing a 700mb file in .avi format. Embedded ads include things of international/national interest (Coke, Pepsi, jeans) or specific interest to the target audience (rugby shit) as well as local ads keyed to IP addresses could all be run. Kinyahbrutha gets it through his Tivo box, which is running an RSS waiting for just this sort of thing (I think, my geekery is limited). An hour or so later, it is downloaded and he watches it through his new Divx-enabled Tivo (software upgrade only: free). During the hour-long program, Coke, Polo Jeans, and Jordan’s Furniture ads run along the bottom and during pauses in the game. If he is interested, he can click on the green “thumbs up” button (like he can do already) to find out more about stuff. Since he is using torrent, the program can promulgate indefinitely, bringing in more customers forced to watch the ads. A HUGE benefit to advertisers is that they get a real and accurate count of how many people have DLed their show. That isn’t to say everyone will watch it, but surveys can easily determine what percentage of people watch the shows they DL.
A non-Tivo example:
Kinshay subscribes to Charles In Charge via his FIOS. Nobody buys CIC DVDs, so this is an untapped marketplace. He dowloads five at a time and watches them over the course of a week, with ads geared specifically towards people who were 13-18 at the time of the show’s initial run. Since only gay people and weirdos like CIC, there aren’t many DLers, but who cares? The distributor doesn’t pay shit to deliver the product to the marketplace, and four slow seeders on the company’s server will be enough to keep it alive indefinitely. Win/win.
I honestly don’t think there is any technological hurdle that needs to be addressed; it is just a matter of figuring out how the ad money gets chopped up. Like cable, this will not kill broadcast TV, but instead it will add hundreds of thousands of paying customers who would normally be outside the area. I love Dr. Who, Sean loves Rugby, and Kinshay loves…dudes. Whatevs. We will get our programming by, like Malcolm X said, whatever means necessary. Why don’t the networks capture that markey and get paid for it? Nobody skips through 5-second ads, and while someone will surely hack their system to get rid of the scrolling ads, those people would be ganking this shit anyway.
Please start sharpshooting to address problems with the model, and I need someone with an MBA to write a business proposal for forwarding to the powers that be at the end. Next up: the 120-gig wireless single-DIN head unit. GMC, bitches!
Brandon has gone all cliche and posted about his favorite Firefox add-ons that he uses. While I do not install from scratch so often, I do need certain add-ons. This list is a good way of keeping them all in one spot for new installs.
One thing I love about firefox is the fact that I use the same add-ons with my Mac, work pc and home server.
Any other great add ons we should all be using?
There are three physicals things I want on this earth, not counting homes spread throughout this glorious world.
1. Flat black Harley that is new and reliable. Check.
2. 1961-1965 Lincoln Continental, slammed to the ground with 20″ rims and a deadly quiet motor, to be called the Assassinmobile (License plate: SSN MBL). Not there yet.
3. Old School Series Land Rover with a tire on the front. Check.
No shit, I got this thing for a song. It needs a little clutch work and mayhaps some cosmetic tweaks, but it is in incredibly good shape. I am the second owner of the vehicle, which was bought new by my benefactor in 1974. As it is English, I will have to cover it with Rebel, Papi, and assorted other stickers to show my allegiance to all things non-British, but that is a small price to pay.
Jake may have the horn for the new iPhone, but here’s what I get excited about (via SciFi Wire):
Diamond Age, based on Neal Stephenson’s best-selling novel The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, is a six-hour miniseries from Clooney and fellow executive producer Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions.
When a prominent member of society concludes that the futuristic civilization in which he lives is stifling creativity, he commissions an interactive book for his daughter that serves as a guide through a surreal alternate world. Stephenson will adapt his novel for the miniseries, the first time the Hugo and Nebula award winner has written for TV.
They need to work on their punctuation, but the info is good. Granted, Diamond Age is my least-favorite Stephenson Novel (except the Big U, which doesn’t count because it was shit). Still, a mini-series is perfect for any of Neal’s tomes. Pissah.
So my earlier comments about BSG make it obvious that I’m mental for science fiction. Whatevs. I haven’t found a truly great sci-fi author for a minute. Oh, wait…it’s only the Campbell-Award-winning author John Scalzi. John Scalzi, what are you writing? The best science fiction novels since Heinlein died? Awesome.
I avoided Old Man’s War for months because everyone liked it. That’s my M.O. When people started liking NIN, I stopped liking it, even though I was in the game early. Call it an aversion to false accusations of jumping the bandwagon. But my man Tommy Rocc told me I had to read it, and he digs on good shit, so I took his advice. He was so right. Old Man’s War has the best dialogue in the history of science fiction, and the plot and action are first-rate. His follow-up effort, Ghost Brigades, is only 6 times better than most stuff, instead of the 7 times better that OMW was. Who gives a shit? It’s all outstanding.
He has a new limited-edition type thingy going on, wherein you can get a nice copy of a new book with your name, or that of someone else, in it. I ordered one to get the dead old man’s name in, but I think I ordered too late. ‘S’All good. We’ll see what happens. Worst-case scenario: I get a sweet new Scalzi book to read sans ‘Michael J. Corcoran’ somewhere in the text. I’ll take it.
