Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

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Medialoper Bebop Episode 26: Washing Your Mouth Out With SOPA

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The week, Kirk, Jim & Tim take a look at the Stop Online Piracy Act, and how its destroy-the-net-to-save-it approach towards internet piracy (or “piracy,”) threatens pretty much the entire internet as we know it.

Thank the gods that the United States House of Representatives is on the case!! (05:19 – 13:29)

Meanwhile, Louis CK (whose name I inexplicably mispronounce) shows exactly how stupid the screams of “piracy is killing our business” are by releasing a DRM-free, consumer-friendly concert. (13:31 – 24:22)

Then, it’s my latest Barry Bonds theory: he’s the Gaius Baltar of MLB! (24:23 – 27:06)

Finally, what’s in my mix? Real Estate, Wild Flag and a great single by Yuck. (27:07 – 30:36)

All that, and pot-smoking raccoons!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:43 — 55.9MB)

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Smell of Books Fails the Sniff Test

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Smell of Books: Classic Musty ScentThe latest innovation in ebook technology isn’t digital, it’s aerosol.

At least that’s what the DuroSport Corporation would have us believe. The company has just released an “aerosol ebook enhancer” called Smell of Books.

The first question that comes to mind is, why? Who would possibly want the smell of books in a can?

Apparently some people *really* like the smell of books. In fact, “the smell of books” has become something of a rallying cry among print book loyalists in their fight against the insurgency of ebooks. If ebooks suddenly smelled like print books, paper sniffing luddites would have one less reason to avoid them.

When you think about it, it’s surprising that Smell of Books is coming from a fringe company like DuroSport instead of a tech leader like Amazon. What’s more, DuroSport’s approach appears to be uncommonly clever. The company has managed to enter the ebook business while neatly sidestepping annoying technical challenges like device compatibility and DRM.

Unfortunately, as with previous DuroSport products there’s a huge gap between the clever idea and the problematic implementation. In reality Smell of Books doesn’t live up to its promise. [Read more…] about Smell of Books Fails the Sniff Test

DuroSport and Star Trek: A Match Made in Hell

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Yesterday we told you about DuroSport’s new retail outlet in Second Life. It was everything we expected a DuroSport store to be — which was exactly the problem. DuroSport has become so predictable that even their failures no longer surprise us. But there is a new development that even we find quite surprising. DuroSport has just announced an exclusive partnership with the most highly respected content franchise in history: Star Trek.

Yes, you read that correctly. Star Trek. Starting today, Star Trek and DuroSport Electronics have partnered to release what they are calling “DeMastered” episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. The episodes are being made available exclusively through DuroSport’s new video download service called — predictably — DuroView.

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DuroSport Strikes Again: Second Life Store a Health Hazard

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Virtual Prism DuroSport The first thing you notice is the boxes. The huge, huge boxes, piled high on top of each other from the floor to the airplane-hangar sized ceiling.

What, you wonder, could these gigantic boxes possibly contain? The only possible items are washers and dryers, refrigerators, sofa sets, even SUVs. Maybe a really huge television. But if you’re the DuroSport Electronics Corporation, then these impossibly large boxes contain your latest product: a portable virtual media player.

During the past year we’ve had more than our share of laughs over the ongoing foibles of the DuroSport Corporation. From the company’s unbelievably bad portable media player to an embarrassing t-shirt recall last summer, it sometimes seems like DuroSport can’t do anything right. As it turns out DuroSport’s problems are not the result of poor engineering and horrendous customer service. No, according to company officials DuroSport has been victimized by “the current technological limitations of reality.”

So what’s a consumer electronics company to do when reality lets it down? Open a store in the virtual world known as Second Life, of course.

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A History of the Ricky Gervais Show

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As these things go, I’m a relative latecomer to the podcasts of The Ricky Gervais Show: I only got ’round to listening to them a couple of weeks ago. Better still, I came into it totally cold, not knowing what to expect, and I was instantly hooked on the mad ramblings of Karl Pilkington.  So much so, that as a matter of fact, I have no issues with paying for the podcasts of the second season.

It totally passes my Blackjack test:  do I anticipate getting more pleasure out of this than playing a single hand of Blackjack?  And in this case, the answer is a resounding “yes.” To be fair, Ricky was on Letterman last week, and explained that they are charging for this season to recoup the hosting and bandwidth costs for all of the downloads.

However, for those of you who don’t want to pay for your monkeynews, or you want to see to find out what the buzz is all about  prior to  paying — it looks like the Podcast Series  1 archive will also cost $5 to grab in one fell swoop — I’ve discovered a secret online stash of dozens of episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show.

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“I heard that we’ve sold over a million downloads”

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That, my friends, is a million downloads of a television show — the U.S. version of The Office, which in its second season, has come into its own, both critically and commercially.

It’s always great when quality and popularity intersect, especially when they intersect in a show that nobody really gave a chance to succeed. So how did the U.S. version of The Office get to be so great? In a long interview with Television Without Pity’s co-founder Wing Chun, writer and actor B.J. Novak (he plays Ryan, the temp) holds forth on such topics as:

  • Living in the shadow of the Ricky Gervais version
  • All of those downloads.
  • Improvisation on the set.
  • Michael’s man-crush on Ryan.
  • Why their move to Thursday nights makes sense.

Nothing, alas, on the Prism Durosport. Nevertheless, from my standpoint, it’s beginning to look like The Office is going to end up being the greatest cover version of a stone-cold classic since Husker Du’s “Eight Miles High.”