What does an outdated journalism service do to protect itself? Crawl further into its shell. If there ever was an age of information (and disinformation), this is it. News and events no longer come from a handful of media outlets and quick hit journalism services like the AP and Reuters. Instead it now comes from the citizens themselves. It’s done through blogs and social media and it’s killing old school media services that fail to keep up.
CNN has proven its ability to keep up through the heavy promotion of its i Report service. In the past few week they’ve showcased i Report stories as the featured story on the CNN home page. Similarly, the New York Times has embraced many new features to their site, including links in their stories (that’s actually a big deal) and the ability to leave comments.
Then there’s the AP — the Metallica of outsourced journalism. Instead of adjusting and changing their model to compete in the new news market, they’ve dug their heals into the ground and made both their partners and readers into enemies. Jeff Jarvis captured the dire situation best with his article Whither the AP.
I want it to morph to a new model and a new future. But I am afraid that in its fights, we are seeing its inability to adapt (not all its own fault; I’ll bet blame goes to its board and member/owners). And in its current combatants, we see the preview of a day when the AP has no friends left: not its members, not us readers/writers. If it does die, it could be that these parties would shrug and not mourn. And that would be the tragedy.
Certainly, there’s outright theft of content. I see it everyday on the Internet with my job. I stumble upon sites all of the time that have stolen our marketing copy, layout and many times our complete blog entries. However, it doesn’t really concern me. Ultimately, most of the sites that steal content don’t really profit much from it. And for the few that do — the ones that actually make an impact — that’s what lawyers are for. In regards to the AP and their desire to charge for using 5 words from an article, it’s ridiculous and they can suck it. And by suck it, I mean go down in flames by a fire they started in their own house.
When I first saw the cover of Madonna’s new album, Hard Candy, my first response involved throw up in my mouth. Later, without the need of actual research, I discovered that the original album name was should have been Hard Cougar. Here’s the album image for your puking pleasure.
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Frank Schaeffer, John Whitehead and Cal Thomas have repudiated the theocratic movement they once led. Here’s why.
This review that I found on Amazon.com’s website encompasses every reason why I’ll be avoiding the purchase of a Kindle for now.
1. The buttons are misplaced and extremely easy to hit by accident causing your page to flip unexpectedly. Inexplicably, the NEXT PAGE button on the left side is only 1/3 the size of the PREV PAGE button, when in fact you want to go to the next page 99.9% of the time. On the right side, the NEXT PAGE button is properly sized, but it consumes nearly the entire right side of the device, all the way to the underside of the unit, making it annoyingly easy to accidentally bump and click. This is something I am certain Amazon will fix in their next version, so you should wait.
2. Page turns are slow. I clocked nearly 2 full seconds. This makes the accidental click even more annoying since it takes you a while to page back to where you’re supposed to be. I have seen prototype e-ink displays where the page turn is far faster than this, meaning: you should wait for version 2.0.
3. Page turns have an annoying black flash. Some people report they get used to it, but it’s definitely a turn-off for me. I have seen other e-ink device prototypes that do not have this flash, so waiting for version 2.0 might be a good idea.
4. The EVDO cost model is not fully figured out yet. This is evident in their “experimental” browser which the documentation says is “free for the time being”. I.e., there are potentially hidden costs that are not know at this time. Again, this means you should wait. Perhaps in version 2 they will go with WiFi which really would have been a better choice since it works in Europe and has no fees or costs associated with it.
5. The Price. $400 would be fine if this were perfect, but with all those flaws you can expect Amazon to be putting this thing on the bargain shelf in a few months. You’ll feel stupid paying $400 for a device with these flaws when a new device with everything fixed up is most likely around the corner and probably at a much lower price. Again, all the evidence says: BE PATIENT and wait for version 2.
A recent article by Matt Richtel of the New York Times entitled Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal reminded me of a gadget I purchased several years ago — TV-B-Gone. TV-B-Gone is a small keychain remote control that will turn off any TV anywhere!
Your TV-B-Gone universal remote control resembles other TV remote controls, but is different in two important ways. First, it only has a power button that allows you to switch a TV on or off. You control when you see, rather than what you see. Second, the device is so small that it easily fits in your pocket, so that you have it handy whenever you need it wherever you go: airports, bars, restaurants, laundromats, etc. TV-B-Gone now features the Instant Reactivation Feature which allows you to turn TVs on or off quickly and easily. TV-B-Gone is a type of Universal Remote Control which works by shining pulses of invisible light that tells most any TV to turn off or on.
I’ve really only used the device once and it was in a sports bar — not the best place to try it out in public. People were visibly perplexed and pissed. Although I never tried it again, and I have no idea where it is now, I often think about it when I’m at the airport being forced to listen to some channel in the waiting area.
In reference to Don Reisinger’s CNET article on Say goodbye to Blockbuster
Many, many years ago I worked for a music store called Turtles. Turtles was bought out by Blockbuster in their attempt to break into retail music sales (which failed miserably).
When their takeover was complete, they made all of the Turtle employees sign several new contracts with Blockbuster. I was able to sign a couple of them, but there were a couple I couldn’t sign. One in particular stated that I couldn’t talk to the media ever. And by ever, I mean if I was on the street, not working mind you, and if anyone from the media wanted to ask me what time it was, I could be sued by Blockbuster for breach of contract (or whatever).
Now you’re thinking, that can’t be so! You must be kidding? Nope, I’m not kidding and it was so. I even had the luxury of putting their policy to the test. I refused to sign their contract and was therefore given notice of my termination. I had about one week left, before I was let go.
The beauty of working at a music store is that you get a nice discount on the music, so the last day I was supposed to work there, I decided to go in several hours before my shift started and use my discount. It just so happened that a news crew came by the store looking for music fans to comment on the Rolling Stones coming to town. They came into the store and asked if anyone wanted to be interviewed. I said yes.
So I came outside for the interview. Remember, I’m not working and I’m in street clothes. Before the interview started, the manager came outside and told me I couldn’t be interviewed by media. I told him I could and also reminded him that I didn’t sign Blockbuster’s contract. He looked really worried and insisted that I couldn’t be interviewed. I ignored him.
After the interview was over, the manager came out and said he had someone from Blockbuster’s corporate office on the line who wanted to speak with me. I said sure.
There was some bigwig on the other line who started to tell me how I couldn’t talk to any media and how I was in breach of their contract. I calmly explained to him that I could talk to the media and that I didn’t sign their contract. He was extremely irate. I was pretty sure that he wasn’t used to anyone talking back to him and my guess was that he was someone who surrounded himself with yes men. Although the conversation with him seemed to go on for quite a while, it wasn’t much of a conversation. It mainly consisted of him screaming profanities at me through the phone and me calmly telling him he was wrong and that I never signed their contract so I could talk to the media if I wanted. He eventually hung up on me.
Later that day, before I returned to the store to complete my last shift, the head manager called me — upset at what I had done. Apparently, the bigwig had told him that I cussed at him the entire time and that I hung up on him. My only guess is that he told him that to cover up his own behavior — thinking that I would have already told him what he did to me. The reversal of what actually happened both irritated and irked me. I guess that guy had more to lose. I calmly told my manager the truth and also reminded him that there are usually three sides to the story, their side, my side and somewhere in between is the truth. That, along with him knowing my character, was enough to calm him down. Needless to say, I was asked to never come back.
In the end, the irony of this story is that the news channel that interviewed me, intentionally misrepresented and misquoted me. So Blockbuster and scruple-less media can all go down in flames for all I care.