Revisiting the Oscars

I finally saw A Beautiful Mind. Now I'm watching Lord of the Rings (for the third time) on DVD. ABM was a very good movie, but it is a true injustice that LOTR didn't win best picture. Of course, my oldest son is still very unhappy that Memento wasn't even nominated for best picture. The fact that it didn't win for best original screenplay is completely baffling to both of us.

8:55:46 PM     

categories: Movies

DVD encoding

I just bought a DVD player and made sure it was one that supported all regions. In Indonesia there are very few "original" DVDs available. Most of them are copies of DVDs from a variety of regions. So, you either get one that supports them all or you're messed up. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read this article from IHT about DVD encoding. Most of what is in the article is pretty accurate, but when the author tries to explain the difference between region encoding and encryption he makes this statement of FACT:

"Regional coding is a different issue from protecting intellectual property from theft, which is a grave problem for the movie and music industries in the digital age."

I mean sure it is a grave problem, but only because they are making it one by refusing to adapt their business model to new realities.

Also, the article states that some new DVDs are being manufactured with "so-called Regional Code Enhancements" and that they will not play on multiregion players. You've got to love an industry that tries and screws the consumer at every turn.

9:28:03 AM     

categories: Movies

Scary, sad and senseless

U.S. experts fear AIDS resurgence. Several years of decline in the number of Americans being infected with the AIDS virus appears to be leveling off — and among some populations the number of people infected may even be increasing, U.S. health officials warned Sunday. [MSNBC]

6:41:26 AM     

Personal publishing

Blogs as Disruptive Tech  I agree that blogging is the start of a revolution in personal publishing which will change the way we communicate on many levels. It will also change the way we form communities on the internet. Thanks to Curiouser and curiouser! for the pointer. One thing that bothered me, this piece was authored by John Hiler who runs and has written some great stuff on Microcontent blog, but this is the first time that I was aware he owned a company that developes blog software. How did I miss that?

6:03:05 AM     

Music biz idiots

MSNBC: Labels to Net Radio: Die Now. Steven Levy. Instead of instating the kind of royalty already paid to songwriters by both broadcast and Web radio--about 3 percent of revenues--the tariff on digital music is based on the number of listeners . So it's possible for the fee to exceed revenues, especially in a fledgling business where ads are scarce. [Tomalak's Realm]

If you had any doubts that the execs in charge of the major lables are idiots, then this article will help push you over the edge. Amazing!

1:21:09 AM     

categories: Music

Music in Indonesia

Reading Janis Ian's essay on the music biz made me think. Here in Indonesia, locally manufactured releases of "big" music groups are priced for the local market. Now, most people can't afford to buy a CD, let alone CD players. So the popular format is still tapes. They range from Rp. 25,000 to 35,000 each, about US$3-4. CDs are also a good deal, US$7-8. But this is only a good deal to me, a wealthy person (by Indonesian standards) who is used to paying $15-18/CD. It is expensive for the Indonesian market. I think the biggest thing that the US music industry could do to drastically reduce copying of their product in the US is to reduce the price of CDs to $10 or less.

12:59:47 AM     

categories: Music

Collecting digital music the library method

When I was back in the US, I made good use of my local library system. Sure I checked out lots of books and some videos. But what I did most was check out CDs. The King County Library System in the Seattle are is online and linked together. So, from the comfort of my home I would log on and troll the catalogue for the entire system. Finding CDs that I wanted I would request them and have them delivered to my local branch. When they came in I would bring them home and rip them. Many, but not all, of these were CDs that I'd owned as records or tapes. I used Napster and other variants too, but the Library method was much easier.

12:52:43 AM     

categories: Music

Music biz be damned

This is a great piece about the horrid state of the music biz. Many others have pointed to it, but if you haven't read it and care about music then it is a must.

12:29:27 AM     

categories: Music