Category: Media
A funny Christmas Letter
Posted by Richard in Media Friday, 5 December o 13:08 4 Comments
It’s that time of year again when holiday cards come with those unpersonalized letters that explain everything a family has done for a year, interspersed with several photos and printed on a single page. If you’re thinking about a humorous alternative check out one of my favorites that was written for 2000. Barbara and I are working on a shorter version for SMS that I’ll share next week.
From a Nick of Time.
Dear Friend,
It is that time of year again to share with you our adventures in this journey we call life. 2000 has been another year of magic and wonder…Lori almost 3, is quite a talker. She continues to amaze the professors at the University with her intuition in foreign languages. It was fun for her to serve as Official Translator for Warren Christopher at the Bosnian-Serbian Peace Talks. She intends to spend this Holiday transcribing War and Peace into Arabic and Cantonese.
Chris, now 5, is growing in leaps and bounds. When he got his first set of building blocks he seemed quite interested in large buildings. This year he designed his first skyscraper and ground was broken in Hong Kong for the new “Little Man” Towers. It is great to have a budding architect at home as he made a new addition to the house and a wonderful gazebo for our garden. Martha Stewart will be filming her next show here in April.
Betsy had a very busy year. In between her work as President of the American Cancer Society and Senior Partner of Goldman Sachs, she introduced a line of children’s novels and hand made active-wear. She remains occupied with the children and has introduced them to Yoga and power walking this year. We are particularly proud of Mom as a starting forward representing the United States in the World Cup.
Dave was immersed with his Graduate School studies, and managed to co-author a paper on Multidimensional Customer Attribute Analysis by Conjoint Survey and accept a Nobel Prize for his discoveries in Quantum Physics. Along the way Dave took three startups through their IPO. We are proud of his work serving on the Board of Directors of IBM, Coca-Cola, and Walt Disney. Dad was also active with the kids teaching Lauren Ballet and helping to lower Chris’ handicap to 5. We were able to squeeze a little traveling in this year. We started in Aspen, went to Belarus, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, the Falklands, Greenland, Holland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela, and Zaire. Our trip sailing our new boat around the world was a great experience for the kids, we learned to communicate with Dolphins and discovered a new region of deep water volcanoes.
And Sergeant, our German shepherd, learned to speak. Latin. Other than that, it was a very quiet year. So from our household to yours, all the Blessings of the Season and may your New Year be prosperous. We found out yesterday that we won the $150 Million Powerball Lottery.
The Wannabes,
Betsy, Dave, Chris & Lori
Popularity: 44% [?]
If only …
Posted by Richard in Media, Music Thursday, 4 December o 10:43 No Comments
Hindsight is 20-20. The record labels have never had great foresight, otherwise they may now been offering concerts, ticketing, merchandise, and many non-music ways to make money. This one beats it all. Seymour Stein as quoted in the Globe and Mail:
Stein says the rot set in the music industry 60 years ago. “We blew it,” he says on the phone from his office in New York. “The first major music labels were all phonograph manufacturers, but by the time the Beatles came along, most companies were no longer involved in the hardware.
“Had we remained in control of the hardware,” he adds. “We wouldn’t be hurting as much as we are now. And the iPod would be ours.”
Popularity: 6% [?]
The Real Sarah Palin on SNL
Posted by Richard in Media Sunday, 19 October o 11:38 No Comments
Popularity: 4% [?]
Digital Hollywood Panel
Last week, I was a panelist at Digital Hollywood. As usual I was invited to speak to issues around the intersection of technology, digital entertainment business models and content licensing. It turned out to be a great discussion. I suspect that the panel moderator, Mike McGuire of Gartner, had hoped to pit us against each other, and to a certain extent he did. In fact we did not agree that outdated copyright laws and complex content licensing are a bad thing.
The panel split into two groups, the lawyers and the entrepreneurs. We had very different perspectives on how to solve the difficulties, complexities and time involved in negotiating content licensing, especially for new tech enabled entertainment startups.
Technology now enables us to push the edge of the envelope with new entertainment business models. Consumers and artists are ready to try new approaches. In fact, one audience member suggested that Creative Commons offers a solid alternative to the current approach.
This panel, reinforced my opinion that the greatest obstacle to new entertainment business models may be outdated copyright laws and not content pirates or fear of technology.
Popularity: 7% [?]
How old Google Earth — What’s up CNET?
Posted by Richard in Media Sunday, 30 July o 13:07 No Comments
In a recent CNET article “Why isn’t Beirut burning in Google Earth?” the author points out that in Google Earth, the skies over Beirut are clear, the grass is green and the buildings are standing. The article goes on to say that according to a Google spokesperson, the images come from Digital Globe and are updated, on average, every year to 18 months.
According to one comment, it’s at least 30 months since Google has updated their neighbourhood in Google Earth. On the Google Earth website questions and answers section it states: “Google Earth acquires the best imagery available, most of which is approximately one to three years old.”
Since Google’s search and other products and services seem to be real time, why wouldn’t we expect Google Earth results in real time? Are we expecting too much — I believe so. I’m just happy for services like Google Earth and look forward to the day when the entire planet is covered. Obviously, the first information to be real time for Google Earth and similar services will be related to traffic in urban communities in Asia, Western Europe and North America, where GPS and personal navigation markets are growing fastest.
While Google, is one of the top aggregators for text based news, it is hardly a top source for visual news. CNET should be careful for what it’s wishing for.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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