Archives for December 2008

The Daily Loper – December 31, 2008

December 31, 2008 by Lopy

20 Miles Out of Town In Cold Irons Bound Edition

Todays links of interest:

Using Twitter to Track User Satisfaction
Or, if you pay attention to (and respond to) what your customers are saying, you might come out a winner.
Gonzales Defends Role in Antiterror Policies
Uh huh: "I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror." We consider him to be reaping what he sowed.
‘Colbert,’ ‘SpongeBob’ may go dark on Time Warner
Once again, the capacity of overpaid executives to make bad business decisions overwhelms our capacity to take them seriously as smart, thoughtful stewards of business.

Whatever Happened to The Zune? (2008 Obama’s Zune is Safe Edition)

December 31, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

Zune owners are a notoriously thin-skinned lot. It might have something to do with the Zune’s perpetual status as a third place also ran in the portable media player market. Or maybe it’s the fact that the Zune apparently borrows so much of it’s “innovation” from the world’s worst portable media player.

Whatever the reason for their prickly nature, Zune owners have a whole new reason to grumble. Early this morning every 30 GB Zune on the planet stopped working. You have to give Microsoft credit, this was an act of synchronized ritual suicide that has not been seen before in the consumer electronics business.

How does something like this happen with a mainstream product? Some have speculated that this could be a date problem related to the new year. In fact, many are already referring to this as the Z2K9 bug. But, if that’s the case then there’s a bug in Microsoft’s bug. You would expect a problem of this sort would manifest itself at midnight on New Years Eve, not the night before.

The Daily Loper – December 29, 2008

December 29, 2008 by Lopy

The Physical Kingdom of Time Edition

Todays links of interest:

The New Pop Music Revolution – Pitching Products
You ever feel like the NYT isn’t even trying anymore? Just keep writing the same stories with the same angle and hope nobody notices. In this edition, it turns out that musicians are making money from licensing rather than album sales.
Changes in 2009 could launch new era for concert fans – or just more of the same
We vote more of the same. When it comes to Ticketmaster and its competition, consumers seem to always lose.
Web sites could get cinema-style ratings: U.K. minister
Yay. We love it when government tries to come up with out-of-the-box ideas. First, assuming this can even be done…

The Daily Loper – December 26, 2008

December 26, 2008 by Lopy

Song For Eartha Kitt Edition

Todays links of interest:

Eartha Kitt, sultry singer and dancer, dies at 81
RIP Catwoman.

The Daily Loper – December 24, 2008

December 24, 2008 by Lopy

Singing With the NYPD Choir Edition

Todays links of interest:

CBS sued over ‘Two and a Half Men’
Love this: Chris Ender, CBS’ senior vice president of communications, issued a season-themed statement: "Wow, I wonder what they got the other networks for Christmas."
The Soup Wars: Campbell’s Targets $650 Billion GLBT Community
In other news, the American Family Association continues to prove it is the most anti-family group on the planet.
Some positive signs for Katie Couric in ratings
Good for her. Now can we start talking realistically about this concept of "evening news?"

The Daily Loper – December 23, 2008

December 23, 2008 by Lopy

No Fucking Tiny Fucking Tim For Me Edition

Todays links of interest:

Four Tops, Dean Martin among Grammy honorees
Quick, name what year we’re in.
The awkward charm of NBC’s NewsRadio
An ode to one of our all-time favorite secretly great sitcoms.
The April Fools Joke That Keeps On Giving
That’s the thing about a really really good April Fools Joke: some people never quite understand that it is a joke.

The Daily Loper – December 19, 2008

December 19, 2008 by Lopy

Like The MC 5 Way Past Midnight Edition

Todays links of interest:

Prop. 8 sponsors seek to nullify 18K gay marriages
By the way, you want proof that these people are well and truly evil? Their lead counsel is Kenneth Starr, who was willing and able to blow up a blow job into an impeachment proceeding.
A Horrible Holiday Gift
And by "Horrible," he means "Dr. Horrible," so therefore he means "awesome!" holiday gift.
Music industry drops effort to sue song swappers
Yay! But . . . "working with Internet service providers to cut access to frequent abusers" isn’t much better. How is "frequent abuser" determined? At least, previously, they theoretically had to prove abuse in a court of law. Now, they can just point the figure at anyone with what they determine to have extra-high bandwidth.

21 Musical Moments To Die For

December 19, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the fifth in a series. The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22.

Also: there is a slight — but not total – Christmas theme going on with this one. More of an arc, really. And a couple of mini-arcs, too!

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.

The Daily Loper – December 18, 2008

December 18, 2008 by Lopy

Oh Look At That, A Dumb Idea Just Found A Friend Edition

Todays links of interest:

White House Vows To Avoid ‘Disorderly’ Collapse Of Auto Sector
By all means, let us please make sure that the collapse of the automotive industry is as orderly as possible!
Study: Young people watch less TV
From the "duh" department.
Ho Ho Ugh: Cher’s Ringlets Wish You A Merry Christmas
In anticipation of tomorrow’s semi-Xmas-themed "21 Musical Moments to Die For," here’s Sonny & Cher’s 1970s special. Weirdly enough, that version of "Oh Holy Night" that Paul Shaffer has been making fun of all these years isn’t quite as bad as he always made it out to be. Not that it would make any of our lists, of course.

The Daily Loper – December 17, 2008

December 17, 2008 by Lopy

Snow Riot! Edition

Todays links of interest:

Online film and music piracy ‘could cost 30,000 UK jobs’
File Under: Wild speculation.
So What Do You Do, Joni Evans, CEO, wowOwow.com?
This one is for Kirk.
The Digital Slay-Ride: What’s killing newspapers is the same thing that killed the slide rule.
We quote: "I keep waiting for one of these distressed, failing newspapers to realize that it has nothing to lose and get a little crazy and create something brand new and brilliant for readers and advertisers. I keep being disappointed."