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We the Media

I finished We the Media by Dan Gillmor last week on the flight to Atlanta.

It was a great book, and extremely topical at this time. Published last July, the book’s focus is grassroots journalism, through mainly, blogs. While the first third of the book is very high level, it’s a great starting point for folks who aren’t necessarily steeped in technology daily. The book shares some interesting history, just in the last few years, of how blogging and grassroots journalism can help hold Big Media accountable.

It also covered the ongoing fight around copyright, Big Media, with a focus on professional journalists and their role in the evolution of journalism.

Mr. Gillmor makes the point a few times that really sticks with me: most of the hundreds of thousands of blogs are too self-centered, nothing more than online journals. It’s those blogs that find a topic, and become experts through commentary, analysis, or news that really make a difference. And he’s right – those blogs I have bookmarked are exactly that, where my blog is nothing more than an online journal.

It was a very good book, easy to read, and the timing is definitely right. Mr. Gillmor has also released it under a Creative Commons license, so you are free to read it on the web without having to buy it in a bookstore. That’s putting your money where your mouth is.

Get all of Napster for free

So yesterday I’m talking about Napster, and what do I see on BoingBoing today but a link to a how-to on burning all of Napster – for free.

There I go again being ahead of the curve. But seriously, sign up for the Napster 14 day trial, download Winamp 5 and a couple of plugins, configure them, and stream the albums on Napster. The plugins will take the stream, and convert it to wav, which you then burn. The only catches are that one, it works in real time, so you have to listen to the music, and two, you have to provide the CD-Rs.

From the site:

Three computers, one fast networked drive, and a few dedicated people: Turning Napster’s 14 day free trial into 252 full 80 minute CDs of free music.

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Have fun!

Napster 2 Go Reviews Start

Boing Boing links to a Washington Post review of Napster to Go. Let’s just say WaPo found it… wanting. Napster’s PR firm has been running full steam lately with numerous mentions in the press (after their post-Super Bowl Ad) where they’re trying to show the math hat an iPod with 10,000 songs = $10,000 or Napster can get you the same thing for $15 / month. That is, $15 / month for forever. Because once you stop paying your songs go poof.

Now I have a friend, who shall remain nameless, that loves Napster for their streaming service. He’s had various MP3 players over the years, but they were clunky, so he bought an iPod mini mid-last year. Loved the Apple experience when it came to digital music – he’s fairly technical but Apple made it easy to get and transfer music. Yet he comes back to Napster to use their radio stations. For $10 bucks a month (or whatever it is, somewhere in that ballpark) you can listen to any song Napster has. You want to burn it? Just like iTunes, that’s 99 cents please. So Napster to Go will be the premium version of their monthly fee based service.

I can see both sides – if you have a Microsoft powered (codename Janus) player, or in Microsoft marketing speak, Plays for Sure, Napster to Go can fill up your MP3 (or should I be saying WMA?) player until you stop paying for Napster. That’s pretty cool – I can get thousands of songs to go work out to, or listen to my car, my choice of songs, for $15 month. Compare that to Sirius or XM, and it could be a better option that satellite radio.

But on the on the other hand – DRM makes bad business sense as I’ve noted before. Think about it, as Xeni points out so eloquently on BoingBoing:

What if Napster To Go were Napster The Grocery, and milk you bought could only be consumed from proprietary square mugs (known for continually sprouting holes you have to patch on your own), and milk cartons vanish from your refrigerator shelf if you don’t re-up your subscription? You’d get milk elsewhere.

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I’ll let you figure out the allegory on your own.

I am Joe's Hard Drive

I just finished Chuck Palahniuk breakthrough novel Fight Club. Yes, the novel that inspired the movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. (On a side note, I’ve mentioned to one of my friends that I don’t think Ed Norton has ever done a bad movie. Even that one with Robert DeNiro – not a good movie, but it had DeNiro.)

The book was amazing. It’s very short, just slightly longer than a novella. The movie was surprisingly closer to the book than I expected, but the book’s ending was better. I can see why the movie couldn’t go that direction and applaud the way the movie did end in keeping with the spirit of the book.

I am Joe’s impressed reader.

The book makes you question everything – how you live, American consumerism, and what matters. The prose’s style is quick and captures you. You quickly overcome the quirkiness of the prose itself and have a hard time putting the book down.

The book has been on my want to read list for years, and my wife got it for me for Christmas. Now to collect the rest. Unfortunately, most of his books are trade paperbacks, and are fairly small, so paying $10-$14 is a bit much. I’ll have to check half.com to see if regular paperbacks were ever published.

89.3 The Current

I’m consistently impressed with 89.3, KMCP, The Current. The music keeps getting better and better. I had some money left in my MusicNow account, so I took Mary Lucia’s advice and picked up Ted Leo & The Pharmacist’s Shake the Sheets. I had looked for it at Best Buy, but they had had only 2 of their older albums. I also picked up Tegan & Sara, a Canadian folk duo (sisters, I think) that have opened up for Sarah McLachlan a few times.

Both discs were their newest releases from late in 2004, and both kick ass. Ted Leo reminds me of a fast driven Tim Mahoney, with a similar vocal style, but very different musically. Tegan & Sara are impressive in their own way, with poppy, fast alternative.

About 2 weeks ago The Current started giving away bumper stickers one or two nights a week. Unfortunately, the volunteers were always in downtown St Paul or Minneapolis, or Uptown, and I live in the boonies in the suburbs. I was pleasantly suprised to get a letter from The Current yesterday with a thank you for donating, and one bumper sticker and 2 window clings, and a promise that my welcome kit would come in a month, and my vinyl record in a few more. Time to get a car wash, peel off my Kerry sticker, and replace it with something better.

Current Bumper Sticker

Paper Sushi

The New York Times has an article up about Homaro Cantu (no registered required link!) who prints edible pictures of sushi on a Canon i560 inkjet printer and serves them to customers.

Mr. Cantu has a vision to make technology enhance the dining experience, including making food levitate, edible printouts (in 3d no less), and edible utensils.

Interesting stuff.

MythTV & Filesharing

The New York Times has a decent article up about MythTV, the Broadcast Flag, and Filesharing up. While it’s fairly high level, and some parts are wrong (Bittorrent letting you download a 1 hour show in minutes for example: I’ve downloaded plenty of TV shows and it’s not that fast, trust me) it’s not a bad article.

Even mentions the EFF and how they’re going to fight the Broadcast Flag, which may or may not put a stop to some of the filesharing. I agree with parts – I own Alias, 24, Sports Night, and every season of the Simpsons available on DVD. Purchased them and everything. I don’t mind buying TV I love (though it drives my wife crazy why I buy TV shows on DVD for shows I’ve already seen). But the government regulating even more the TV that comes over the air on what I can record, and how long it stays recorded for I start to have issues. It’s one thing if we’re talking about pay TV, say the Sopranos. But when I miss a week or two of 24, what is the issue if I download it?

If I miss an episode of 24, and I can’t download it, there is a good chance I am done watching for the season. Especially with serial shows like Lost, 24, Alias, and Desperate Housewives. Is it worth it to Big Media to not allow me to download and lose me as a customer for the entire season? I don’t think they always see the forest for the trees.

I’ll be buying a pcHDTV card for my MythTV box prior to July 1st when the Broadcast Flag goes in to effect. Maybe even two since hard drives are cheap now.

An Asinine Hodgepodge

So I’m browsing the ‘net mindlessly this afternoon, and decide to take a peek at the Star Tribune’s movie page just to see if any new movies have come out I may be interested in. And what do I see halfway down the page but a story to the movie “Alone in the Dark” that came out this week, and this is what the synopsis said before you even click to read their review:

If you took the 100 worst ideas ever conceived for a science-fiction film, rattled them around in a Lotto tumbler and spilled them out onto the screen at random, you could not produce a more asinine hodgepodge than this.

How many people do you think will even read that review, much less go to that movie? That cracks me up, tell it like it is Star-Trib!

Poker Results

Kento & His Cards

Kento was the big winner last night in our first monthly poker tournament.

It was quite fun, we made a few mistakes here and there, and a few people bet big early to get out more than anything, but I think it’s safe to say a good time was had by all.

Liquor flowed freely, food was consumed, and money exchanged hands. How can it get any better! 🙂

I’ll do a recap of how I did later. For now, all the photo’s from Fri. night are here on my Flickr site.