If anyone needed any further proof that the interweb tubes were acting as a disruptor to the media and entertainment industry, this story from Wired has to be a wake up call.

It’s been interesting watching the trends when it comes to the effect the internet has been having on the media and entertainment industry. You’d have thought they’d have picked up on this a bit quicker…since the trends have been pretty clear for at least ten years (see below), and the trends have started in the US–home of the world’s largest entertainment industry (“Hollywood”).

It all started with music
First hint at the huge disruptive impact of the internet came waaay back in 1999 when Napster was released to the world by Shawn Fanning. Sure there were other music sharing apps out there, but Napster went viral, and soon enough dominated the field. The music industry’s reaction? At first indifference, then [...] Continue Reading…

There are occasions when I hear such a ridiculous argument advanced that I feel compelled to speak up about it. Don’t get me wrong–both liberals and conservatives have their ideologues who simply push forth sophist litanies which do nothing to advance debate, but are specifically designed to obscure and misinform.

One such occasion was this evening, when Representative Paul Ryan, R-WIS, strode up to the podium on the floor the House, and proceeded to regurgitate a talking point by the Republican party and their apparatchiks in the Tea Party (note that not all of the Tea Party has been subverted by the GOP, just most of it–I am also amused by the formation of the anti-Tea Party, the Coffee Party). That point? Well, of course the watered down healthcare reform bill was evil, as it was an affront to the values of our founding fathers by virtue of it’s socialist [...] Continue Reading…

Spence goes looking for an ultimate DVR/fileserver/webserver/mail server solution for his home…ideally all on the same machine. Well. It didn’t quite work out that way.

So one day I had the epiphany: wouldn’t it be cool to have one server that could basically take care of my home computing server needs. I’ve gotten a bit spoiled, I have to admit: I became somewhat addicted to timeshifting my favorite TV programs to a time which would fit into my somewhat hectic life (it’s the gym workouts which did it–I would go to the gym every Tues and Thurs nights, and that required a DVR to record some of my favorite nights of TV). I also had a number of other servers running–a web server to serve this site as well as a half dozen others, a mailserver to support the various domains I owned, and a fileserver to make it convenient [...] Continue Reading…

Over the weekend, former governor Sarah Palin gave the keynote speech to the Tea Party Convention held in Nashville, TN. During the Q&A session (after her speech in which she, amusingly, mocked President Obama for his use of teleprompters), Palin used her own version of prompting…albeit an old school, low tech version: crib notes scribbled on her palm with, what looks to be a sharpie:

So what’s the big deal?
Simply put, it’s the content of the crib notes which is disturbing. Keep in mind, this Q&A session included questions that Palin was made aware of before the session…in essence, she knew what would be asked of her. One of the questions was “what three things would you do if you were elected President”. The crib notes on her hand was, in effect, her answer: concentrate on energy initiatives, [...] Continue Reading…

Recently, with the earthquake disaster in Haiti, I have noticed a marked uptick in the criticism of the disaster relief efforts aimed at helping the people of Haiti with care and support. Accusations of a flat-footed response, cries that the relief is “too slow”. Bemoanings by some that the efforts have a political twinge. To which I can only shake my head in wonder: is this what we’ve become? A nation that simply complains without facts, without educating ourselves as to the realities of the situation? Are we really that shallow?

Some facts about the Haiti relief efforts: The United States has committed more to the relief efforts of any other nation, group, or organization. The US administration has committed $100M to Haiti’s relief efforts. The people of the United States are on track to beat the $2B in donations they made to the Tsunami disaster of 2004. Compare this [...] Continue Reading…