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MPAA censors film about itself

How do you stop a film that exposes how the film industry assigns a rating (G, PG, PG-13, R) to a film?

Rate the film NC-17. Rating a film NC-17 stops the movie from being advertised, limits which theaters will even show it, and effectively censors the message.

The Independent Film Channel (IFC) has stepped up and will show it uncut in Fall 2006, after the film’s debut at Sundance this January.

The film industry is broken – from the hypocrisy in how it rates films to how what films are made to it’s excuses why total revenue is down. And this just highlights how Big Media continues to abuse its power.

  • in General
  • 1 min read

Public Relations is a machine

I try not to talk about work on the blog for a number of reasons, one being that I work in Marketing for a Fortune 100 company. There are times when my personal beliefs might clash with my corporate responsibilities.

However, with that said, here is a fascinating story about the power of public relations firms.

As someone who has used PR as a tactic, the article is pretty damn close to the truth. This paragraphy in particular struck me, and I thought the author’s conclusions about PR and the blogosphere are right on. I’ll leave you with the quote:

I didn’t realize, till there was an alternative, just how artificial most of the writing in the mainstream media was. I’m not saying I used to believe what I read in Time and Newsweek. Since high school, at least, I’ve thought of magazines like that more as guides to what ordinary people were being told to think than as sources of information. But I didn’t realize till the last few years that writing for publication didn’t have to mean writing that way. I didn’t realize you could write as candidly and informally as you would if you were writing to a friend.

  • in Politics
  • 1 min read

Fight the Power

Just recently, I had mentioned Senator Feingold on the blog, and here is more proof that he gets it.

As Congress gets closer to extending the police state that is the Patriot Act, Senator Feingold says:

“I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms,” said Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., who was the only senator to vote against the original version of the Patriot Act.

Secret laws requiring identification for interstate travel, wiretaps without judicial review, secret reviews of what books you check out from a library or you buy, and other invasions of privacy are about to be extended for another four years.

Talk to your representatives in Congress, and let them know it’s wrong.

Next Generation Consoles



Next Generation Consolles, originally uploaded by ez3kiel.

Sure, it’s photoshopped together, but this gives you a gut feel for the size of 3rd generation consoles.

The more I think about it, the sexier the PS3 gets. And the lamer Revolution is.

I should post some 360 thoughts after playing with one this weekend.

Del.icio.us Bookmarking

As a (spoiled) multi-computer user, one of my small annoyances is keeping tracks of my bookmarks on different machines. I’ve tried the Firefox extension that syncs bookmarks via FTP with mixed success, and a while back I signed up for a Del.icio.us but didn’t make great use of it.

Well, now Del.icio.us built a Firefox extension that makes it a cinch to keep track of all your bookmarks via their service. Use it to find new sites, see what others think is popular, or just keep to yourself and keep track of your own bookmarks.

I’m adding bookmarks like crazy, and may just wait for the import service to kick back in as it seems to be down. I highly recommend del.icio.us.

Weekend O' Fun

I’m back from my weekend of fun, if you were wondering where the blog updates were.

We had a mini get together, as we tried to keep the group (and more imporantly, the LAN party) manageable, especially as it’s the holiday time of year.

A few folks flew up from Texas, a few drove over the border from Wisconsin, and the core MN group got together. Friday night we hit Sportspage, with the best wings in Minnesota. The owner of the bar let us hook up a Xbox 360 on one of the plasmas, while the other plasma had the Gopher – Badger hockey game going. (Good job this weekend Badgers!)

Saturday saw a very relaxed LAN party, with Quake IV, UT2k4 (Bombing Run & CTF) and CS:S all played. And we wrapped up with some poker.

A good time was had by most… let’s say all but one, and he knows who he is. 😉

MP3tunes.com

Michael Robertson has done it again. Mr. Robertson founded MP3.com in the mid-90’s before selling it, and went on to found Linspire (I’ll give him credit for owning a Linux distribution, especially one built off Debian, but still…) as well as a VoIP company, and now he’s back in the music business with MP3tunes.com. He was in the news a few weeks ago for hiring DVD Jon, aka Jon Lech Johansen, who cracked the DVD encryption a few years back, as well as iTunes DRM.

What is MP3tunes.com? From their FAQ:

Q: What is the MP3tunes Locker?

A: The MP3tunes Locker gives you unlimited online storage to back-up your entire personal music collection, including your playlists. You can sync your music collection in your MP3tunes Locker with your computers, portable players and devices. You’re able to webload free tracks you find on the Internet directly into your MP3tunes Locker or sideload with one of our partners. You can play your music collection and playlists in iTunes and anywhere you have an Internet connection. The MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite is free and includes Oboe Sync, Oboe for iTunes and Oboe for Firefox.

The Basic MP3tunes Locker includes webloading, sideloading, MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite, and streaming inside iTunes on the Internet at a medium quality bit-rate (56k).

The Premium MP3tunes Locker is $39.95 per year and includes back-up with unlimited storage, syncing, webloading, sideloading, MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite, and streaming inside iTunes on the Internet at a high quality bit-rate (128k).

Do you remember when MP3.com got hosed by the RIAA? Basically, they had an idea that you inserted a music CD in to your PC. Their website said, hey look – you own that CD, thanks for verifying it. Now we’ll stream it to you wherever you are! Well, the RIAA went through the roof, and they took that feature out.

It looks like Mr. Robertson has brought that idea back, but in a much, much bigger way. This time you’re the one uploading your music – and while it may take forever to upload a large collection, you’ve proven that you’ve sent over your files. And now, you can “sideload” – buy music from another provider and have it synced.

Check the site out, and read the FAQ. While some of it will require using their syncing software to get the heavy lifting done, I do give MP3tunes.com credit for having Windows, Mac and Linux clients, multiple music format support, such as MP3, OGG and WMA, as well as a plugin for iTunes and Firefox ready to go at launch.

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this.

Ten and oh and then …

Today’s quote of the day, from a Page 2 article on ESPN.com looking at the last 10 teams to start the season 10-0. The quote is from the last paragraph of the article:

ESPN.com: Page 2 : Ten and oh and then …

In 1998, Broncos backup QB Bubby Brister’s 99.0 QB rating was higher than John Elway’s. Brister, who was an ace sub for the injured Elway early in the season, completed 78 of 131 passes (59.5 percent) for 986 yards and 10 TDs. Brister also outran Elway, carrying 19 times for 102 yards. (Elway finished with 94 yards rushing.) According to Sports Illustrated, Brister motivated his teammates in the huddle by saying, “All right, [expletive], I’m not John, so get your asses in gear.”