Archive for February, 2007

Questionable Content

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

If you’re still getting your comic-strip entertainment in dead-tree form, you’re missing out big-time. There’s much better stuff available on the Intarwebs.

One of the better online comics out there is Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques. The man has an ear for witty dialogue, and the characters have more depth than the sarcastic repartee would lead you to believe at first. And reading Jeph’s work is my sole claim to knowing anything about the indie scene.

I’m not so keen on his accasional forays into high-tech absurdity; Marten and Faye’s world seems identical to ours, except for the sentient, and somewhat perverse, little anthropomorphic personal computers roaming around. But I guess that’s just some of that “magical realism” stuff the kids today seem to like so much.

Now if only Jeph would go back to doing more on his Indietits strip (not what you think it is), all would be right with the world.

Anyway: click, read, and enjoy.

Posted in Teh Funny | Comments Off

That Old MP3.com Feeling

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

I have fond memories of MP3.com, back when it was cool. Okay. waaay back. Yes, you had to wade through a boatload of bad music to find the few gold nuggets available; but frankly, that’s half the fun. Like a golfer who plays to recapture feeling of that one time he made a hole-in-one, the hunt for good music is all the more rewarding for the challenge.

MP3.com is now an also-ran DRM-infested music rental service (or was the last time I looked, and frankly I’m not going to bother looking again. No linkee love, baybee!). I rooted through GarageBand.com for a while, but somehow it wasn’t the same. (I did make one very nice find, though: “Look At What You Get” by Taxi Doll.)

Something more was needed: specifically, a non-screwball business model. Money for the site owners, money for the artists, and no Web 1.0-style revenue-someday hand-waving. Something that will challenge the RIAA’s reptilian world-view; something that will really shake the pillars of heaven.

For instance: what if you let artists upload music on a non-exclusive, withdraw-at-any-time, no-cost basis; let users download it, in DRM-free MP3 format; make it free at first, then escalate the prices as tracks become more popular, and split the proceeds between the site and the artist with complete transparency? Plus, give users an incentive to evaluate and recommend new artists, let them receive store credit when artists they promote become successful? Throw in some social-networking features for Web 2.0 cred. Wouldn’t that kick ass?

Welcome to Amie Street.

The old MP3.com mojo is back here. No, it’s not free-as-in-beer, unless you limit yourself to new downloads. Though that’s not so bad; sampling free new tracks, I’ve found some very cool acts, like Alexa Ray Joel, populuxe, and Rick Miller. I even struck it rich by recommending one of ARJ’s tracks. (For a very small value of ‘rich’: about $0.60; still, that’s sixty cents more than I paid to download the song.)

Is this the shape of the music industry of the future? I think it’s part of it; just as with Second Life, I place my faith more in the model than the actual company. Amie Street, or someone very much like them, will extend this social-network model to merchandising and promotion of live appearances. The result will look surprisingly similar to the current music industry, with one critical difference: the artists and the audience will be very much in charge, with the middle-men as lean and efficient facilitators, rather than the self-important, overpaid power brokers they are now.

Posted in Media, Music | 1 Comment »

Windows Vista Already Impacting Google?

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Microsoft has admitted that Vista’s shipping numbers are not as good as hoped (to no one’s real surprise); yet the numbers are apparently good enough to have a measurable impact on Google’s traffic numbers. All the major search companies’ numbers are rising, but the rate of rise has shifted, for both Google (for the worse) and Microsoft (for the better).

I suppose that this good to see the big boys sweat and have to work for their money, and Google has gotten big enough one can no longer back them on a strict root-for-the-underdog basis. Still, I’ve enjoyed seeing Microsoft actually scared by a competitor for once, and it’s hard to set that enthusiasm aside.

And frankly, I have a deeper reason for liking Google over Microsoft: Google gets the Internet. They know what it is, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what it is capable of becoming. They have embraced it totally, in a way that Microsoft cannot, because it would mean leaving behind their safe desktop empire. It’s a classic Innovator’s Dilemma, with Microsoft in the role of the buggy-whip maker.

Posted in Tech Industry | Comments Off

Rand On Rudi

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

In Transterrestrial Musings, Rand Simberg expresses a viewpoint on abortion basically identical to my own, and why it troubles me not in the least that Rudolph Giuliani is not a “real conservative”, i.e., a social conservative. My only real reservation about Rudi is his stance on gun control; and if he follows up on his apparent preference for strict constructionist justices, I have little to worry about on that score.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, one fo the major parties may be about to nominate someone that I actually want to vote for, rather than one that I least want to vote against. (In restrospect, I’m not even so crazy about the Libertarian candidates that I voted for.) Steve Forbes came close, until he started romancing the religious right; Giuliani doesn’t seem that politically inept.

Edit: Didn’t I say something about writing less on politics? Oh well, it is hard to avoid these days…

Posted in Politics | Comments Off

Write Something, Dammit!

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

I got nothing.

Okay, it’s a new weblog, and an exercise in writing something new every day. (That’s the plan, anyway.)

I’ve already done one weblog, which I allowed to lapse into disuse and comment spam. What’s different this time?

The focus will be less on politics (though still a little), more on technology, with a little more effort into quality wordsmithing. Wordsmithery. Smithage. Whatever.

Anyway, I’ll be writing about dynamic programming languages, programming in general, Second Life, Web 2.0, music, futurism/transhumanism, my semi-libertarian political beliefs, and whatever else seizes my tiny attention span.

Posted in Life and Stuff | Comments Off