Archives for October 2006

The Daily Loper – October 25, 2006

October 25, 2006 by Lopy

Somebody’s Obviously Back on The Hillbilly Junk Edition

Today’s links of interest:

More Cable Networks Decline Commercial-Ratings System
Turns out that this expensive undertaking by Nielsen isn’t quite as popular as expected.
Rush Limbaugh On the Offensive Against Ad With Michael J. Fox
There’s a reason that Rush Limbaugh is such a frequent winner of Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World award…yeah, accusing a dude of faking his Parkinson’s symptoms. Good move.
Hacker targets iPod, iTunes restrictions
He plans to market his solution to play Fairplay-encoded music on non-iPod players. However, it had better be cheaper than a CD-RW, which is what I use.

The Word On The Not-So-New Fall Television Season

October 25, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Man 1: I’m not watching TV anymore. They cancelled the only two shows I was watching.
Me: Which two shows?
Man 1: Smith and Kidnapped.
Man 2: They cancelled Kidnapped? But I was watching that. I need to check the TiVo. Did they find the kid?
Man 1: I don’t know. It’s just gone.

The Daily Loper – October 24, 2006

October 24, 2006 by Lopy

What? What Did You Say? Edition

Today’s links of interest:

eBay: Arrested Development – Gob’S Screen Used Segway W/Coa
It’s hard to accept that this show is never coming back.
The CW rocks to "Songs" – Scripted skein to focus on all-girl rock group
See? If y’all don’t start watching "Veronica Mars," this is exactly the show that is going to replace it.
Hazards: A Study Gauges the Risks for Ears With iPods
Number 1,111,999 in studies on how loud music causes hearing loss.

NBC’s Insidious Plot

October 24, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Last week, NBC Universal announced that, as part of a cost-cutting measure, that they were going to totally abandon the 8:00pm hour to game shows and reality shows. No more sitcoms or dramas with their pesky and expensive money-wasting frills like “actors” and “scripts.”

In the age of TiVo, YouTube & iTunes it doesn’t really matter when or where a show airs as long as it does air. So the worry here is mostly if this means something like Nobody’s Watching will ever make it to the airwaves. Also, how much longer NBC will be considered a “major” network when the fracking CW ends up carrying more scripted shows just because NBC doesn’t think it can have a sitcom hit at 8:00pm? Bill Cosby must be spinning in his grave.

Anyways, I thought it would be ironic to get some comments from fans of NBC’s low-rated freshman drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip — which has spent a lot of time and energy railing against this exact type of situation — but I had a helluva time finding any. And when I did, I was very much surprised by their reaction to this news. They weren’t at all upset. As a matter of fact, they supported NBC’s move.

[Read more…] about NBC’s Insidious Plot

The Daily Loper – October 23, 2006

October 23, 2006 by Lopy

The iPod is Going to Kindergarten Edition

Today’s links of interest:

Conan episode to air in ‘skelevision’
Oooooooooh, scary!
Sony’s BDP-S1 Blu-ray player delayed again…again
Can you really have a format war if nobody shows up?
How to mend a Picasso painting
This right here, by the way, is a point for digital art. You never hear about a multi-zillionaire accidentally poking a hole in a .jpeg.

Five Lessons The Music Industry Can Learn From AllofMP3

October 23, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The recording industry has been waging war against Russian-based music websites for years. While the industry has successfully litigated most file sharing networks out of existence, they haven’t had much luck stopping sites like MediaService’s AllofMP3. Despite the RIAA’s best efforts AllofMP3 continues to sell digital downloads to music lovers around the world, while technically complying with Russian copyright laws and licensing agreements.

While complying with the laws of your country may seem like a loophole here in the United States, it makes perfect sense to a company that’s based in Russia. Unfortunately for MediaServices that the loophole is about to be closed. There are signs the Russian government is planning to crack down on grey market download sites like AllofMP3 in an effort to gain admission into the World Trade Organization.

Regardless of what you think about the legality of AllofMP3, there’s no denying that MediaServices has created one of the most innovative and consumer friendly digital music services around. AllofMP3 is so well done that the “legitimate” recording industry could learn quite a bit by studying it. Hopefully the major labels will take a long look at AllofMP3 before it gets shut down.

Here are a few lessons the music industry could learn from AllofMP3:

The Weekly ‘Loper – October 22, 2006

October 22, 2006 by Rox

While you were busy wondering what NBC’s latest announcements would mean for The Office, this is what we were looking at:

Irrational Exuberance: Wall Street Rediscovers Hollywood – As Kassia explains, investing in Hollywood is not for the timid.
Adventures With The Cable Company – Love the TiVo Series Three. But anytime we deal with the cable company, Jim needs to be sedated.
9 Reasons Digital Media Products Are A Bad Deal For Consumers – A brief rundown of the inherent problems with digital media. Does this mean I’ll never get rid of the wall of CDs in my living room?
The Fall of Allofmp3.com – When is “free” bad? Possibly when it comes to music downloads from Allofmp3.com and Spiral Frog.
That’s What I Like: Amazon Prime – Who does’t love Amazon Prime? I’m counting the hours until Slings & Arrows Season 2 is delivered to my door.

The Daily Loper – October 21, 2006

October 21, 2006 by Lopy

Maybe You Shouldn’t Pitch To Pujols With An Open Base Edition

Today’s links of interest:

The Rural Hipster: Why We Need Chuck Klosterman
Because he’s hilarious; has an unique perspective and writes amazingly well. We will always need people like that.
It’s Google’s world
Bow down to Google! BOW DOWN!!
You can’t do that to me!
Round and round and round it goes, and where it stops, noone knows.

The Daily Loper – October 20, 2006

October 20, 2006 by Lopy

We Kinda Kicked It At The Chillout Tent Edition

Today’s links of interest:

YouTube purges 30,000 copyright files
Mostly Japanese TV shows. Which, as it turns out, are (were) just about the best thing on YouTube.
Media Consolidation: Hollywood Versus The Big Six
Six owners, ninety percent of the media. Only the FCC couldn’t see that one coming.
Rock Critic Robert Christgau Joins Npr As Contributing Critic for All Things Considered
Noted as a service for Jim.

That’s What I Like: Amazon Prime

October 20, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Much to my husband’s dismay, I have a book addiction. I’ve never met a book that I wasn’t eager to add to a teetering tower in my office. Since I’m a reviewer, I get more books than I can possibly read from publishers — it is rather amazing and terrifying how eager they are to send me books. Not that I’m complaining. I was one of those girls who’d rather get a book than a Barbie doll. Never could figure out what you did with one of those.

For me, though, it’s not enough to receive books by the pound from publishers — there are always books that I want — need — to purchase. I mean, what’s a girl to do when she knows she has a copy of V, but can’t quite figure out where it might be stored (yeah, the daughter of a librarian, and I can’t come up with a good storage system for my books)? Buy a new one. Thomas Pynchon isn’t complaining. It’s only embarrassing when I have to explain why I have three copies of Nora Roberts’ Carnal Innocence (let’s just say it’s a long story and I don’t come out looking good). And since some members of my family fully support the loaner book concept, it’s not like we don’t have spare copies of Snow Crash hanging around. Just in case.
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