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We're Not Who You Think We Are

Archives for May 2006

Mr. Updike, You Are Missing The Forest

May 22, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

One of the privileges of advanced age is the freedom to say whatever you want to whomever you want. One of the dangers of saying whatever you want, of course, is the risk that you’ll look like a clueless blowhard. Case in point: John Updike at BookExpo America 2006.

While ostensibly promoting his new book Terrorist, Updike decided to take the opportunity to remind the publishing industry that they remain, if I may quote Kirk, firmly mired in “Nixon-era technology”. Updike railed, specifically, against Kevin Kelly’s New York Times Magazine article from last week — the article, not ironically, titled “Scan This Book!”

[Read more…] about Mr. Updike, You Are Missing The Forest

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Publishing Tagged With: BEA2006, book-scanning, John-Updike, Kevin-Kelly

That’s What I Like: O’Reilly Media’s Safari Bookshelf

May 21, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Back in a more primitive time I used to lug copies O’Reilly Media’s massive technical books home from the local bookshop. I’d drop $50 on copy of Unix Power Tools and six months later a new edition would be released. Not only did those books eat up shelf space, they ate up my bank account.

O’Reilly is, without question, the leading technology book publisher. Their books are generally regarded to be the gold standard for technical information. They publish a mind boggling array of titles covering every minute detail of the Internet and programming. How’s this for a title: Checking C Programs with Lint? No technology topic is too esoteric for O’Reilly, and no technology is too new. If it’s worth knowing about, O’Reilly will have a book coming along any day now.

Not only does O’Reilly publish great tech books, they’re also technology leaders in the publishing industry. While other publishing houses struggle with the concept of eBooks, O’Reilly launched a subscription based eBook service way back in March of 2001. Five years later Safari Bookshelf is still the only service of it’s kind.

[Read more…] about That’s What I Like: O’Reilly Media’s Safari Bookshelf

Filed Under: Publishing, That's What I Like Tagged With: ebooks, O'Reilly Media, ORA, publishing

The Daily Loper – May 21, 2006

May 21, 2006 by Lopy

Today’s links of interest:

  • Around the corner: ‘Food’ and Germs
    PopCandy highlights the problem with old media and online promotion. Check out what she says about finding a trailer in a haystack.
  • Crowds Bless ‘Da Vinci’ With Million
    For the two or three of you who were worried, the numbers are in. Sony sees this as the start of a very good year. Note: Sony’s fiscal year just began. Semantics are cool.
  • Politicians Brave the Internet – With Help
    Politicians discover the Internet (and all of its geegaws). Will this make them rethink the Network Neutrality issue? Uh, they’re politicians…
  • [Read more…] about The Daily Loper – May 21, 2006

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

The Weekly ‘Loper – May 21, 2006

May 21, 2006 by Jim Connelly

While you were standing in line to see The DaVinci Code, here’s what we were looking at:

  • Why I Hate The Sunday Paper – And of top of all that, it’s 2006 and the LA Times still hasn’t figured out how to keep newsprint from melting in our hands.
  • Upfronts: Will Studio 60 Be The Greatest Thing Ever? – Is NBC hoping for too much from Aaron Sorkin?
  • See You Next Year! – With 45,090,999 shows on 98,909 networks (not an exact count), not to mention the Internet, DVDs, and all of the other choices for your ever-dwindling mindshare, Season Finale Season is becoming increasingly anachronistic.
  • Hillary Rosen vs. the RIAA – Though she’s currently on the side of the angels, it’s amazing how some people’s principles shift with their paychecks.
  • Upfronts: CBS? More Like CBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ – I was trying to remember the last time CBS put out a drama that I was interested in, and I seriously can’t. Is it me? Or is it them? It’s them, right?
  • No, No, Let’s Wait – Remember how Radio replaced Newspapers and how Television replaced Radio and how the Internet replaced Television? Me neither. So why do people insist on thinking that these choices are “either/or” instead of “and/or”??
  • BEA 2006: News Embargo Broken – A report from BookExpo America in Washington, DC., where oldest of old media is quite possibly having the most trouble adapting to the newest of the new media. Also, erstwhile National Nanny William Bennett? Whalelike.

Filed Under: The Weekly 'Loper

The Daily Loper – May 20, 2006

May 20, 2006 by Lopy

Today’s links of interest:

  • New Proof of (Long Tail) Concept
    Though we don’t actually require proof, it’s not a bad thing to have. See proof, believe.
  • Satellite shows are interfering with some FM stations
    Yeah, yeah, yeah — this time, it’s not what you think.
  • MGM to Handle Domestic Distribution of ‘Rocky Balboa’
    You’ll know it as "Rocky VI". Or given Stallone’s age: "Rocky LXVI"
  • [Read more…] about The Daily Loper – May 20, 2006

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

BEA 2006: News Embargo Broken

May 20, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

BookExpo America (BEA) is currently under way at the Convention Center in Washington DC and Medialoper has been on the scene hoping to make some sense of the current state of the publishing industry.

In an apparent nod to the current administration, BEA has reverted to the use of Nixon era technology. While wireless internet is available at the convention, it’ll set you back $49.95 per day (that is not a typo), reporters are encouraged to use typewriters (manual, of course), and the Scientology Racing Team appears to be the hight of technological sophistication here.

[Read more…] about BEA 2006: News Embargo Broken

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon-Upgrade, BEA2006, BookSurge, Google, Microsoft-Live-Books, publishing

The Daily Loper – May 19, 2006

May 19, 2006 by Lopy

Today’s links of interest:

  • Senate’s Indecent Proposal
    This is not a rhetorical question: will this still matter five years from now? Just asking…
  • Circus Skips Town For Good
    You know you’re old when you look at a cover photo and think, "Nice glasses, Reg."
  • Spin-free Spiral
    It’s sort of like that scene in "Ghost World" – freedom of speech, freedom of speech. Only nobody is taking this seriously either.
  • [Read more…] about The Daily Loper – May 19, 2006

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

No, No, Let’s Wait

May 19, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

We have not (yet) instituted a “Quote of the Week” feature here on Medialoper, but if we were to do so, this would win hands down.

t would be too bad if the elders of the news business decided that the way to apply the marvels of the Internet to their operations was by a bold new push for reporting that’s hasty, fragmented and half-baked. It would be even worse if redirecting newsrooms to online news ended up by degrading the working conditions of journalists and diverting energies away from the kind of richly detailed, thoughtful reporting that exemplifies the best in journalism.

[Read more…] about No, No, Let’s Wait

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Publishing Tagged With: News, Newspapers, online-media

Upfronts: Veronica Lives!! FOX, Not So Much

May 19, 2006 by Jim Connelly

I know, I know — we’ve all been reading for a few weeks now that the low-rated but critically-loved Veronica Mars was going to make the cut at the CW, but I wanted to wait until it was officially announced.

I’m so happy that I promise not to make fun of their name for at least a few months. Though I think, given all of the narrowly targeted shows that they offer — the aforementioned Veronica Mars, Smallville, Supernatural, 7th Heaven — their name stands for “Cultshow Watching.” OK, now I won’t make fun of their name.

It will be interesting to see where they go. More towards the WB than UPN, I should think. By the late 1990s, the WB pretty much took over the mantle from FOX as the network that would try just about anything. Yet anybody who actually watched their shows could see that there was much more going on than pretty white teenagers who happened to be aliens and/or superheroes.

[Read more…] about Upfronts: Veronica Lives!! FOX, Not So Much

Filed Under: Television Tagged With: 24, Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer, CW, Everwood, Gilmore-Girls, Television, The-Simpsons, Upfronts, UPN, veronica-mars, WB

The Daily Loper – May 18, 2006

May 18, 2006 by Lopy

Today’s links of interest:

  • Historical Sounds in MP3 Format
    Strangely, I’ve always wanted to listen to Spiro Agnew on my iPod.
  • Survey: Employees favor personal surfing
    Um, yeah, they actually did a survey on this. In other surveys, employees also favored lunch hours and going home early.
  • That New Show Starring . . . a Tube of Toothpaste
    Product placement is the topic du week. Everyone has an opinion on it. But the ultimate success of placement will lie in manufacturers’ ability to make fun of themselves. Otherwise, people will treat the placement like wallpaper.
  • [Read more…] about The Daily Loper – May 18, 2006

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2629: Talking Heads – “What A Day That Was (Los Angeles 12-1983)”
  • Certain Songs #2628: Talking Heads – “Slippery People (Los Angeles 12-1983)”
  • Certain Songs #2627: Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”
  • Certain Songs #2626: Talking Heads – “Burning Down The House”
  • Certain Songs #2625: Talking Heads – “Crosseyed and Painless (Cherry Hill 11-08-1980)”

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