For whatever reason – and I don’t care the reason – Rocketboom is no longer with Amanda.
What does this mean?
This means the web is shifting. No one was hurt here; Amanda (etc) will do well.
Shift.
It leaves the Web a little poorer, understand. Not good for average surfer.
(Though look at the upside-down map – subtext there. What does this mean? My whole world has been turned upside down, perhaps?)
Slate – one of the pioneering online magazines (whatever the hell that means) has undergone a pretty extensive redesign as it enters its second decade.
Some AJAX-goodness, bigger pics, more screen real estate. Overall, looks pretty good.
One nit to pick: The hover color for text or background (as appropriate) is yellow – your basic hex ffff00).
ICK!
Walk the LineThe story of the early life of Johnny Cash, up to the time when he finally married June Carter.
I don’t know much about Cash’s life, and nada about Carter’s, but this was an extremely well-done movie, with outstanding performances by Joaquin Phoenix (Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (Carter). The amazing part is that the actors did the singing for the movie, and – at least for Cash – Phoenix nailed it.
Begins – and ends – in Folsom prison.
One quibble – the sound was a little muddy, at least to me.
Officially off work today, but starting back in. What fun. Spend a good part of the day cleaning up the basement, as well – hell, I’d rather be working…I was a soaking mess. It’s hot and muggy out there/in here.
You’d be correct.
I am a late comer to Cash, I don’t mind admitting that – a friend gave me American IV – The Man Comes Around to listen to and I was hooked. Shortly after that, I got – as a gift – a copy of The Essential Johnny Cash I was sold.
However, I’ve got to say that I’m more of a fan of Dylan – Dylan is an artist I’m beginning to listen to after a break from listening to him for a couple decades.
I’m especially loving his live cuts, such as on Live at the Gaslight and the No Direction Home soundtrack. Raw, and – especially on the former – embryonic.
Well, not really in the country – but it almost feels that way.
Just off Eden’s Expressway (I-94) at Lake Cook Road in Glencoe is one the best gardens I’ve ever been to, the Chicago Botanical Gardens. I’ve be going to the bot gardens for decades, but yesterday was the first time I’ve been there in two years – and are they doing some impressive work there.
I’m finally getting around to creating a gallery for this precious piece of real estate; the first pictures will be (a handful) of digital pics I took there; I’ll slowly add other scans – 35mm color; 4×5 B&W; images; 35mm infrared (I have to do some more infrared shooting there!). This gallery will quickly grow.
If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. It’s a flat entry price – $12 per car – but be prepared to walk. And it’s not a place most kids will enjoy. Sure, they can run around in the woods and along paths, but wouldn’t they rather have a picnic in some forest preserve?
The Bot Gardens are very strange: It is bordered by a major expressway of a major city, and it’s in the suburbs, where you’re more likely to find a strip mall than a garden.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, the Bot Garden is an emerald island in a concrete sea…
I’m a big fan of Stephen Colbert, but I really don’t think he ranks spots 1-5 of 5 on the MSN “It List”. Especially when he’s also earmarked for the “out” category.
(Captured around 10:20pm CDT; still the same at 10:50pm. Ouch! Someone’s getting a spanking next week!)
Yes, it’s a glitch – page those Flash programmers! – but still funny. And it’s the same in Firefox and IE (Windoze), so it’s not a brower issue per se.
I dunno, just struck me as funny.
Dick Cheney, the Right-Wing conspiracy, aliens or perhaps the students of Scientology are behind this hijink.
Or maybe the NSA is testing us…
Update:
In the spirit of “truthiness,” I am here to tell you that we are officially retiring the “It” List. We’ve decided to end with Stephen Colbert in honor of a reader who thought our “It” List should feature no one but him. Your wish. Our command.
— The It List comment for the first Colbert pic, which I was too stoopid to read
I’m surprised to see this feature go away (I presaged People magazine, mind you…), but…what do I know?
Today, the U.S. Interstate Highway System turns golden – 50 years old. (Newsweek)
While pushed by President Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower and the legislative lead was Al Gore’s dad (Al Sr.), the man in charge of the whole project was Frank Turner, an unassuming engineer whom I had the pleasure of interviewing for an article discussing the 40th anniversary of the same project.
For a man who had spearheaded the construction of one of the most important construction projects in history, Turner was remarkably plain-spoken and came across as just another guy. (A very smart guy, mind you.)
My article captured only a small slice of Frank Turner; the phone interview lasted over two hours.
Here’s to you, Frank!
Below, Frank Turner – second from the left – at the Oval Office ceremony where Eisenhower was shown the national interstate plan.
This will not be a short entry, and I’ll probably edit it several times post-posting because this entry covers subjects I’ve thought long and hard about, yet – once actually putting them in print – may well seem moronic. You’ve been warned.
The title of the post is “DRM and the Future of Your Data,” and it’s a misleading title. I will be talking about DRM, and I will be talking about the future of your (digital) data. The weird thing is, I will not necessarily be talking about both at the same time.
DRM is tied to the future of our data (and vise-versa), but I won’t be concentrating solely on this connection. This is more of a big-picture entry.
Again, you’ve been warned.
Before I plunge off the edge of the cliff, I think it’s important to understand my background and current position:
My DRM take-away?
DRM should go away.
Yes, it’s that simple.
Why? Three main reasons:
Let’s examine each point individually:
If you don’t believe this one stop reading and go back to the Disney Channel.
To paraphrase an old chestnut, security is a journey, not a destination. As security improves, so do the hackers and so on.
And who are these hackers? Your great aunt who paid for and downloaded the Golden Girls marathon? Uh, not – the same folks who film first-run movies and hawk them on street corners. Want a really unfair yet somewhat accurate parallel? Consider DRM = Prohibition. Did your great aunt drink more during Prohibition (nah); did Prohibition open up job opportunities to a lot of bad guys? (yep – Prohibition actually helped establish/entrench Organized Crime)
A DRM-less society will – for most people – have virtually no impact because the great mass of folks use downloads etc for fair-use purposes.
I do see a great increase in sharing/swapping of downloads by the digiteri, such as during the (original) Napster days. Is this a problem or an opportunity for the content producers?
YES.
Content producers are going to have to get over the illusion that they have absolute control over the distribution of their content. That era, for better or for worse, is over. It’s a different business model; work with it – not against it. Example: How is a clip of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show on YouTube not free advertising (hell, I should watch this show!)?
At the same time, it’s probably NOT fair use, so copyright infringement. So?
The rules have changed; work to monitize this New World of content.
John Gruber – who is much smarter (and – damn! – a better writer than I) – had an absolutely brilliant article titled Interoperability and DRM Are Mutually Exclusive that finally put the fire under my ass to put down some thoughts about the same subjects.
You should read the whole article, but here are the take-aways (and I’m greatly simplifying):
Two very important issues here, which I’ll quickly sum:
Apple’s – or anyone’s – DRM = a proprietary format (Gruber’s conclusion, which I cannot disagree with). I have a buttload of iTunes downloads; a better (in my mind) player than iPod comes along…I’m screwed.
If Apple goes out of business and takes FairPlay DRM to the grave with them…all my music is dead.
OK, this seems bad, but one point Gruber – nor anyone else seems to have addressed – is this: the DRM today, for the most part, is handled by the middleman (Apple, Microsoft et al). DRM owners are NOT the content providers. I see issues; do you?
At the same time, if the content providers (Universal, Sony, NBC etc…) did the DRM, this would not only be a nightmare – multiple DRMs would need support by a single middleman, as well as the tool (players) that receive this content.
Doesn’t this all cry out for a universal, SSL-like standard at the very least?
DRM = Lock-In.
You have to agree with this or bail.
DRM = You can only do this or that with this stuff you’ve purchased.
If iTunes changes its DRM, you could potentially be hosed.
Ditto for any other software. If Microsoft Word v111 is not backward compatible with Microsoft Word v110 or v6; again; you’re screwed. This was Pilgrim’s big complaint:
I’m creating things now that I want to be able to read, hear, watch, search, and filter 50 years from now. Despite all their emphasis on content creators, Apple has made it clear that they do not share this goal. Openness is not a cargo cult. Some get it, some don’t. Apple doesn’t.
— Mark Pilgrim, When the bough breaks
He’s right, but this issue is not at all unique to Apple. Let’s take the current (moronic) format war – HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. One will probably win, a al VHS vs. BetaMax. If I start backing up stuff on Format A and Format B wins, at some point my backups are worthless.
Not a good thing.
I worry about this on sites like Flickr and so on, as well. Hell, they could go out of business tomorrow, and … all you digital memories are gone.
Note: I use Blogger to post this site, but the posts go to MY domain, in HTML. It’s all there; it’d just be an ugly parsing exercise to get it all back. But if I used WordPress or similar service, I could be in trouble at some point. Which is why I use my own gallery tool.
We are now entering a digital age, where we don’t use atoms, we use bits.
If we can’t have fidelity – longevity – with our bits as we have for the past millenium with our atoms (papers, parchment, pictures…), well, Houston, we have a problem.
I exchanged e-mails with Robert Scoble about a (somewhat) related topic last week, and his response was spot-on:
No one will care until it’s too late and they realize that their photos are locked into a siloed service…
– Rober Scoble (email)
This is the problem we must consider. I’ve probably explained this badly, but read the Gruber and Pilgrim entries and it’ll seem more clear.
This is not a trivial issue.
Our personal history – notes, pictures, videos, music – is at risk.
And I don’t think I’m being melodramatic.
Wanted to make a site-wide change to my blog.
Fixed two templates; republished…and all is good.
NOTE: It took a bit of hunting on my system to find template (room for improvement).
But – overall – YES! Update X years of stuff with a few changes!
OK – in honor of the summer solstice – I’ve finally coded a Summer theme for the blog. (Had a placeholder, just a copy of the spring theme….)
Not perfect, but OK and … done.
Happy summer.
…House lawmakers Tuesday accepted a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.
The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate.
— Associated Press, June 14, 2006
A bid to boost the U.S. minimum wage failed Tuesday as Republicans in the House of Representatives pushed back an effort by Democrats to force a vote on the measure.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said last week that he wanted to hold off on debating minimum wage legislation until possibly after the November elections. House Majority Leader John Boehner also said he probably wouldn’t allow the legislation to reach the House floor this week.
— Bloomberg News, June 20, 2006
Remember, you elected these officials. Those representaives who – a week after their seventh straight raise – declined to debate if their minimum wage constituents deserve a raise after about a decade. Hey, it’s not like the cost of essentials, such as housing or gas, has risen over the last 10 years. What’s the rush? I’ve gotten my raise…
And don’t get me started on the whole “…until possibly after the November elections…” quotation. Too many things wrong – yet painfully realistic – about that comment to comment.
And people wonder why I don’t vote…
UPDATE: After I read this over, I think there might be an impression that I object to the salaries given to our representatives. This is not the case – for the most part, it seems low. Most are lawyers and so on who could (and, after leaving Congress) do better in the private sector. And they know this.
My issue is that these reps keep getting raises (less than COLA, really, so not out of line), but refusing to discuss those who really need – at least – that COLA raise.
And the sequence this year – yes, we’ll take a raise…[week passes]…let’s not discuss that minimum raise issue – is troubling.
Who are these representaives representing?
*sigh* Yes, this is a rhetorical question.