Gigli currently at a rating of 20 on Metacritic and falling
Gigli currently at a rating of 20 on Metacritic and falling.
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Entries for July 2003
I love that Anil, Userland competitor, is
I love that Anil, Userland competitor, is wearing a Blogger tshirt in this photo. Competition? Naw, nothing but love between weblog software companies.
New edition of Best American Science Writing 2003
New edition of Best American Science Writing 2003 out soon, edited by Oliver Sacks.
Restaurant, The
I don’t watch reality shows, but I made an exception for the The Restaurant, a show about the opening a new NYC restaurant…cause I like food and restaurants. About five minutes in, I knew it was a mistake. It’s like they took everything I hate about New York & media and crammed it all into one show. Everyone was a jackass…I had to turn it off after 10 minutes. Should have known when I first heard about it via Gawker. Blech.
Wow, the Blogathon raised over $100,000 for various charities
Wow, the Blogathon raised over $100,000 for various charities.
The Kid Stays in the Picture
The story of Hollywood mogul Robert Evans is reason enough to tune into this film, but the on-the-cheap special effects are notable as well. The primary effect — building on Ken Burns’ technique of panning and zooming across photographs to create the illusion of motion — separates the subjects of photos from the backgrounds and then panning each at different speeds, creating a remarkably alive 3-D “scene”, almost like Bullet-Time from the Matrix, only with photos.
Uncommon knowledge about a computer game
I played a few games of 20 questions against a computer yesterday. The system learns how to guess more effectively from its opponents; the more people play it, the better it gets. It’s pretty good right now, but needs a little work here and there. It guessed that I was thinking of “a computer game” in about 16 tries, but offered up the following extra information about computer games after its successful guess:
Uncommon Knowledge about a computer game
Does it have a handle? I say Probably.
Is it cold blooded? I say Probably.
Does it lay eggs? I say Probably.
Does it live in grass-lands? I say Probably.
Can it be worn by a person? I say Probably.
Does it change colours? I say Yes.
Does it beep? I say Probably.
Can you read it? I say Yes.
Can it swim? I say Probably.
Does it have a hole in it? I say Yes.
Do you open and close it? I say Yes.
Can it live out of water? I say Doubtful.
Have you seen one in real life? I say No.
Does it reflect objects? I say Yes.
Is it mechanical? I say Yes.
Does it usually live on a farm? I say Probably.
Did it conclude I was thinking of a video game or a cold blooded duck with a handle? Or, as a computer game itself, is it so deluded as to believe it can swim and lay eggs?
Budget cuts=no overniters for air marshalls, $4
Budget cuts=no overniters for air marshalls, $4bn/mo in Iraq? It just don’t add up!. Josh Marshall follows the money. Did I mention the hijacking warning?
You’d think that Yahoo! could do a
You’d think that Yahoo! could do a better job in coordinating their advertising with their news content. screenshot of Kobe pic right next to Reebok “Whodunit?” ad
Pirate radio’s all you get in Marfa, Texas
Pirate radio’s all you get in Marfa, Texas. unless you have XM radio or something, but you don’t.
The British government has learned that J.
The British government has learned that J. Lo is no longer “Jenny from the block”.
Stare tactics: NYPD toodling around on Segways
Stare tactics: NYPD toodling around on Segways. so Segways aren’t allowed on the street, and bikes aren’t allowed on the sidewalk?
Actual Phrases from My American History Textbook
Actual Phrases from My American History Textbook. A McSweeney’s list
Keep your marketing department out of my iPod
Well, Sippey’s publishing stuff on Stating the Obvious again, offering up some possible next steps for Apple’s iPod, including making it more like TiVo:
Imagine similar functionality on the iPod: when you sync your catalog with iTunes, the device uses iSync to fetch new content to insert into the iPod UI: headline news, sports scores, weather reports…as well as promotional content for the Music store, quick surveys, email program opt-ins, third party ads, etc. Give the user the ability to opt out of the marketing content, of course, but provide micro-incentives like Amazon.com’s nickel-incentive trivia program towards song purchases at the Music Store.
Great idea and pretty much inevitable, but the suggestion of it makes me want to hop on a plane to SF and strangle the responsible party. I see ads when I pee. I pay to watch ads at the movie theatre. Most television programming is filler for advertising (which explains why most of TV sucks). Many magazines are mostly advertising. MTV is 100% advertising. The Post-It Notes on my desk are from Barclay’s Capital. Clothing without prominent advertising printed on it is getting difficult to find. I am marketed to and advertised to everywhere I go. So now I’m supposed to sit through promotions — while draining my battery, BTW — each time I turn on my iPod?
Of course not…the user will have “the ability to opt out of the marketing content”. Given that in the entire history of capitalism, this has happened very few times, I’m understandably more than a little cynical on that reassurance. I guess if anyone could pull off a good balance between the utility of such a system to the user (which could be considerable) and the annoyance factor, it would be Apple (or Google). But that’s a pretty big if.
I’m an iPod owner. Owner. I own it. It’s mine. It’s not Apple’s, BMG’s, or Universal’s. It’s mine. I can put whatever I want on it, be it music or anything else that I can fit into its 15 gigabytes. As Cory found with his T-Mobile Sidekick, purchasing a device that relies on a service/interface/whatever that is controlled by someone else is not ownership. Such rented devices (TiVo springs to mind) can be extremely useful, but perhaps not so good in the long term (what happens when TiVo goes out of business?). If Apple is pushing me advertisements and marketing which I can’t opt out of and are draining *my* battery while I look at them and taking up *my* hard drive space, is my iPod really mine or is it Apple’s? Will there continue to be a market for hardware that the buyer completely owns or — because it makes more money for the companies producing the hardware — will everything I “own” in the future (telephone, DVD player, DVR, music player, cell phone, PDA, PC, refrigerator, television, washing machine, &c.) be dependant on a service for its continued operation?
Sun tattoo
Late last week, I got a small cut on my chest that I covered with a band-aid. Before heading out to the beach on Saturday, I took the band-aid off and put on some SPF 15 sunscreen. After taking a post-beach shower, I looked in the mirror and noticed a mark on my chest. Somehow the skin where the adhesive parts of the band-aid had been affixed had burned a bright red, leaving the part where the bandage was, along with the rest of my chest, lightly tanned. So now I’ve got what looks like a band-aid sun-tattooed on my chest.
3mm photos of Paris, by street
3mm photos of Paris, by street. oh, and nine other French cities. via archinect.com
That one will stick with me for awhile
While picking out some orange juice at the market just now, I glanced at the expiration date. SEPT 11. Instead of thinking, “oh, that’s a good one, that’ll keep for awhile,” I thought, of course, of 9/11.
Six Apart will be unveiling the features
Six Apart will be unveiling the features for TypePad this week. On the first day of TypePad, my CMS gave to me…
The Free Store in Brooklyn, where everything
The Free Store in Brooklyn, where everything is free, the customers do restocking, cleaning, etc..
“Um, are you a dealer?” production groupblog
“Um, are you a dealer?” production groupblog of ‘Buddy: The Musical’. neighbor spies piles of prop money. mild hilarity
Seabiscuit
Pretty good, but a little heavy-handed in spots. Can Hollywood make a “serious” film without being heavy-handed?
Also, before the show, Mark bounded up to the folks waiting in the front of the line to get into the theatre and said, “are you guys as excited as we are to see Seabiscuit?” Instead of the proper response of laughing nervously, one of the guys yelled, “yeah!” We then laughed nervously.
Disney celebrates infinite copyright extension of 75yo
Disney celebrates infinite copyright extension of 75yo Mickey with big merchandising push. guess what’s not on Lessig’s Amazon wishlist
Sesame Street Fever OR Sesame Disco? Now
Sesame Street Fever OR Sesame Disco? Now you don’t have to choose.. via TravelersDiagram.com
‘little guy’ stars of MPAA ads losing
‘little guy’ stars of MPAA ads losing jobs as studios move production out of US. est. impact to US economy: up to $10bn/yr
Pop!Tech 2003
The highly regarded Pop!Tech conference is coming up in a few months, October 16-19 to be exact. I’ve never been, but from hearing about from various sources (a list below), it sounds like an ambitious conference that tries to identify and discuss broad trends across politics, technology, culture, science, and economics…and largely succeeds in doing so. This year’s roster of speakers includes Golan Levin, Tom DeMarco, James Howard Kunstler, the L Train, Bob Metcalfe, and Kevin Sites.
The organizers of Pop!Tech have been nice enough to extend a special offer to kottke.org readers. Register for Pop!Tech 2003 using this link and you’ll save $200 off the early bird rate and $500 off the regular price. Who says kottke.org never saved anyone any money?
Oh and here’s the promised links to coverage of past Pop!Tech conferences:
PopTech, The Blog (J.D. Lasica and Buzz Bruggeman)
PopTech 2002 coverage (David Weinberger)
PopTech 2002 (Ernest Svenson)
Conferenza Pop!Tech 2002 Report #1 (Shel Israel)
Conferenza Pop!Tech 2002 Report #2 (Shel Israel)
Conferenza Pop!Tech 2002 Report #3 (Shel Israel)
My toothbrush can kick your toothbrush’s ass
I returned home from the drug store last night ready to write something about the odd arms race that’s developed among toothbrush manufacturers. A competition is afoot to make the world’s most colorful, fat-handled, ergonomic, elaborately bristled, and, in some cases, motorized toothbrush. I was skeptical that any of this was in the service of making consumers’ teeth cleaner, but merely for emptying our pocketbooks at a faster rate for the privilege of buying something that doesn’t even fit in the toothbrush holder. But, I had to buy a new brush, so I selected the one that least resembled a cartoon spaceship and placed it in my basket.
This morning, I brushed my teeth with my new toothbrush. And damn if it didn’t feel about 200% better than my old brush. The grip was very comfortable, and the way the brush was angled…well, it was just perfect. My teeth practically brushed themselves. The toothbrush arms race is paying off! Here’s to toothbrushes with really big handles and 6 HP motors.
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