samedi 28 février 2004

Copyright's changing for tunes Though this log didn't take part in Grey Tuesday, the blogosphere's "defiance of the music industry's copyright control" (Wired) this week had my wholehearted support. There's no doubt that small record stores and many people who work in the music business are seeing the raw end of ongoing mega-deals and the slow slaughter of the single by technology. "There's never been a better time to be in the music industry? Try telling that to the thousands of music workers who have been laid off over the past couple of years. Universal slashed its workforce by 11% last year. Tower Records filed for bankruptcy in the US two weeks ago." "But," the same 'Second Sight' (Guardian) story by Sean Dodson reports, "with album sales rising and the phenomenal growth of ringtones and legal downloads, plus record-breaking years for merchandising and publishing rights, it seems the death of the music industry has been greatly exaggerated (...) "It also looks as if digital downloads are the saviour of the industry rather than their destroyer." I spotted that at Casper's 'Chromatic Musings': the blog of a broad-minded bass player who doesn't worry any more than I do that "talking about music is like dancing about architecture". (Alan Scott had a lively time trying to track down who said that first.) 10:30:32 PM  link   your views? [] Joe jumps on the scales "'Dark energy' and 'dark matter' are now believed to make up the great majority of the universe, with our kind of matter and energy comprising perhaps only 5% of it. We are even less significant than we thought, in the grand scheme of things." With the help of a splendid borrowed picture of the past 15 billion years (Astrosociety), Joe goes exploring in 'This is... a time machine' (his Book). The same fellow informs us that insignificant as we are, hubris remains alive and well: "'The greatest and best MP3 reviewing site in the world' [Gods of Music]. Well, you gotta like their modesty, at least." (Blogcritics). Quite. 9:32:13 PM  link   your views? [] Is it safe to go outside? Ask Matroshka Matroshka, "a mock-human of natural bone, simulated organs and synthetic skin, was installed on the outside of the [International Space] Station's Russian Zvezda module during a spacewalk today by Expedition 8 crewmembers Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri. Today's spacewalk [was] the first time the ISS will be left unattended during an EVA. Rigged with numerous radiation detectors both inside and out, the dummy will spend a year on the space station's surface before being returned to Earth," Tariq Malik writes for 'Space.com'. That comes via "the open-the-pod-bay-doors-hal dept." at Slashdot. What with tests like this, the priority restored to the Mars mission and the latest dismal reports on climate change, you might sense a distinct "Stop the world, I want to get off" chill in the air. Is there anything we need to be told? 9:01:01 PM  link   your views? [] Film criticism at a glance I gave up reading newspapers years ago. Monthly magazines, books and the Web are more than enough to keep me informed. On that basis, the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) strikes me as an excellent initiative. It's a pleasingly international offshoot of Rotten Tomatoes, which has long been an indispensable meta-resource for movie reviews. Both get a great deal on to one well-edited page. The OFCS has stringent membership conditions to ensure that you don't waste your time reading badly written, ill-informed opinions of the kind a simple Google search inevitably turns up. "Writers who wish to apply must maintain an annual online publication quota of at least 50 professional-level reviews, no less than 400 words per review, in order to be eligible for consideration," for starters (About the OFCS). If you're a film buff, this is a site to bookmark, along with those tomatoes and the invaluable Internet Movie Database. "Though their readership is growing, online film critics remain at the bottom of the movie-publicity food chain -- far below daily newspaper critics, magazine writers and broadcast reporters. They are the last to be invited for preview screenings, are seldom quoted in movie ads and remain largely off the radar for Hollywood studios." But in today's article at Wired, Jason Silverman goes on to explain that 'The Invasion of the Web Film Critics' has begun to change all that. 8:36:03 PM  link   your views? [] What a fine way to look! The screenshot isn't great, but it gives you an idea of how the Kid's blog comes out if you search for belcatja at Kartoo (.com). This French invention, both fun and practical, "provides a graphical look at meta search results, eschewing the traditional list format to instead map your matches via colorful balls and visual word links. It's definitely not for a mass audience and drew only 3 percent of the winner vote. Most will probably be confused by it, but a few may love the interface. We felt it deserved an honorable mention this year." That's what Search Engine Watch thought of it in their awards for 2002, though I don't see why they reckon it could confuse most people. It makes for a great change from Google and you can count me among those who love its interface and the way it works, using Flash technology. I discovered it via 'A vos Mac!' (Fr). The founders, Laurent and Nicolas Baleydier (Kartoo.net), work out of Clermont-Ferrand. Their invention is, so far, especially friendly to Microsoft, Linux and Unix; there's no indication that you'll be able to grab the full works, including a Kartoo toolbar, for Mac. Never mind. Without Kartoo, I'd not have found some commendable thoughts from web designer D. Keith Robinson: "Lately I’ve been posting about the bad things I see every day on the Web. I do this to help raise awareness and hopefully effect positive changes. The Web is perhaps the greatest invention (if you could call it that) during my lifetime. It has so much potential and brings boundless opportunity to make the world a better place in so many ways, but it’s got problems. Big ones. Problems that need to be addressed. Many people don’t respect the Web’s potential." (Read more on 'The Web and the Good Things' at Asterisk). Keith's ideas about the use and abuse of the Web came to my attention via InfoDesign, which merits immediate addition to my blogroll and looks like a place of guaranteed interest to anybody with a site of their own. 1:13:56 PM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.