A Suggestion for Shareware-ing TV and Movies

I’ve got a handful of password-protected PDF files. I can share those files with anyone, back them up on as many computers or discs as I’d like. If I want to actually read them, I need the password. The password cost me a $10 or $50 or what have you.

I’d like to see this model applied to TV shows and movies. If I want to watch my favorite TV shows for free – then I have to wait for a new episode each week and have it interrupted by commercials. If I’d rather watch on back-to-back episodes on my schedule, here’s $50 for the digital files and a password to open them. I’m far more comfortable paying for .movs than I am DVDs.

As a quick aside, this is what Doug Kaye talks about for IT Conversations in his conversation with Moira Gunn.

What about crackers writing patches to break this loose DRM? Yes, that’ll happen as it has and as it always will. They don’t really care about your stuff anyway, they’re just looking for something to break. If you’re real worried about that, just makes the files available for download and on BitTorrent and put a ‘Pay $50 to remove this message’ over the video. I’m confident a quick search at MacUpdate.com or VersionTracker.com will shake out more than a handful of software developers this model is working very well for.

TV and movie producers – if you’d still like a place in my daily life, I’m going to need your stuff in a format that fits my life. I’m not interested in filling my closets with DVDs or chaining myself to the sofa to purge the TiVo recordings. I’d much rather play your latest offering in the few moments I have in waiting rooms.

I’m weaning myself off public radio for this exact reason and I like them.

An Evil Genius With the Personal Touch

I received my Evil Genius stuff package from Dave Slusher today. If you’re not familiar, Dave’s selling the Gentle Readers’ HiHoney and EGC t-shirts to support both his podcast and the band.

This month, he’s donating $25 of the $35 to the Red Cross. How could you not support that.

Opening up the package; yes, there’s a t-shirt and yes, there’s CD. Neatly tucked in the shirt are two pleasant surprises.

  1. August 27/28 from Dave’s George Carlin Quote of the Day calendar. Entertaining in itself. Flip it over and there’s a personal, handwritten note from Dave.
  2. Dave’s business card promoting Evil Genius Chronicles and Voices In Your Head. Again useful and hand in itself. Flip it over, and it’s one of Hugh Macleod’s gapingvoid blogcards. You know I’m a big fan of Hugh. Yeah, that really made my day.

Thanks Dave and yes, there’s photo forthcominghere’s the photo:

Evil Genius Style Council - Van Buren Branch

Hugh Laurie on KCRW’s the Treatment

Elvis Mitchell interviewing Hugh Laurie from Fox’s House – my favorite new show. It’s a great listen. I was completely taken aback by Hugh’s extremely British accent. I think that’s a mark of a fantastic actor – being able to remove yourself from the character completely.

On a slightly related note, Cayenne Chris‘ voice does a marathon of identities in the latest Teknikal Diffikulties.

This reminds me that in this week’s episode, where House admits he still loves his ex, he attempts to walk without his cane.

Honestly, if he would have succeeded in making that first step, I would have stopped watching. House is a great character because of the contrast of this most obvious weakness and his bitter, curt, authority. If he ever loses that weakness, the show will jump the shark.

Katrina – Timeline of Events

Think Progress has a comprehensives Katrina Timeline. I thought it could use as much Google Juice as possible.

Two sections are good to remember.

Friday, August 26

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: [Office of the Governor]

GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]

Saturday, August 27

5AM — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE

GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.”

FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.”

Wednesday, August 31

PRESIDENT BUSH FINALLY ORGANIZES TASK FORCE TO COORDINATE FEDERAL RESPONSE: Bush says on Tuesday he will “fly to Washington to begin work…with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.”

Thursday, September 1

8AM — BUSH CLAIMS NO ONE EXPECTED LEVEES TO BREAK: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

I believe Amazon’s Free Shipping estimated delivery is 4 days, even then you get a tracking number.

George Lakoff on Katrina – Failure of Moral Values

In a nice follow up to my earlier There’s No Helping the NeoCons post, George Lakoff comments that Katrina was not only a natural disaster and federal failure, it was a complete failure of the Republican moral and political philosophy.

(emphasis is Lakoff’s)

“The [right-wing conservatives] central principle: Government has no useful role. The only common good is the sum of individual goods. It’s the difference between We’re all in this together and You’re on your own, buddy. It’s the difference between Every citizen is entitled to protection and You’re only entitled to what you can afford. It’s the difference between connection and separation. It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina.”

Federal Ineffectualness Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

If you’re trying to show the value of and need for a small government, what better way to do it than bog it down in red tape, heel-dragging, target-less finger-pointing, and ignoring the pre-existing plans.

By cutting funding, acting slowly, and otherwise sabotaging success – whether in the public education system or the New Orleans recovery – the belief that “big” government “doesn’t work” is proved.

Unfortunately, the reason we have a federal government is to handle situations larger than any single state and important to all states; highways, commerce, disaster response, citizen education, and a handful more.

Best we can hope for is that dead at the bottom of Lake George is the conniving, budget-cutting, nihilism that caused it.

Until Audio Hijack Pro for Video, Videoblogging Won’t Take Off

Before I made my first videoblog, I assumed there were 2 challenges video-blogging had to overcome before it could be as be as hot as podcasting

  1. File size for video are a magnitude larger than audio, so bandwidth is that much more precious. Without something like BitTorrent, each additional download is money out of the producer’s pocket.
  2. Videoblogs aren’t portable. Unlike podcasts, I can’t catch up with my videoblogs while on the bike or in the car. For video, I’m tied to my laptop. Less fun for me.

Both of those are somewhat strawmen arguments, I was able to compress my 17 minute video down to something acceptable even by podcast standards. So the bandwidth is less of a concern. The second point will be mute as soon as more portable digital video players get on the market (any day now really…yes, really…holding breath).

The biggest challenge facing videoblogging is the production effort. In podcasting, if I don’t feel like doing any post-production, I have Audio Hijack Pro handle everything for me; recording, ID3 tags, mp3 conversion, and FTP uploading (via an Automator script).

When I’m done recording, the podcast is up.

Over on the video side it was 36 hours from when I shot the video to when I uploaded it. Much of that waiting for the laptop.

I’d love to see something like Audio Hijack Pro for video.