Thomas Friedman is overrated in my estimation, but he isn’t a fool: another liberal for regime change: Although President Bush has cast the war in Iraq as being about disarmament – and that is legitimate – disarmament is not the most important prize there. Regime change is the prize. Regime …
Read More »Eric Olsen
Film Sales Tanking
A discussion about Kodak from the NY Times – what other business does this remind you of? For decades, rampant picture taking made Eastman Kodak, the world’s biggest maker of film, an immensely profitable company. Film accounts for about 20 percent of the company’s sales, but up to 50 percent …
Read More »Slippery
Wired, which is big on the future of music in its latest issue, tries to track down the elusive Kazaa. Do to its decentralized nature, there is no practical way to shut down Kazaa and similar systems despite what any given judge may say, though there is no doubt in …
Read More »Soccer Streaker Ad Stripped Bare
The bad news about the hysterical Nike soccer streaker ad – “that image is burned on my retina” – is that it was all staged, the streaker is an actor. But the good news is – authenticity-wise anyway – is that he really did nude up for the ad and …
Read More »Peter O’Toole to Receive Honorary Oscar
O’Toole, nominated seven times for best actor but never the recipient, to get the hardware: “O’Toole’s performances have ignited the screen for more than four decades,” Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Friday in announcing the award. It will be presented during the …
Read More »Gates Third World Health Fund
Bill Gates may be Satan, but at least he gets the concept that the developed world can no longer insulate itself from the problems of the developing world – it’s a small world after all. Gates wants scientists to focus on curing and mitigating the diseases of the Third World …
Read More »Wireless Dreams: Freeeee
It is clear that wireless will be the conduit to essentially free broadband access to the Internet – eventually. I’m very much looking forward to saving the $40 per month. The University of Akron, right down the road from me, is out in front of the curve: The University of …
Read More »A New Reality?
The current wave of reality TV shows, and their frightening success, is leading many in the industry to talk of new business paradigms, grand new vistas of cheaper programming, a no-repeat program calendar (that part’s fine with me), and the return of many prodigal young viewers from cable and the …
Read More »Misunderstood
We mentioned back on the 19th that a statement by the RIAA’s Hilary Rosen seemed to indicate a change in philosophy regarding ISPs and some kind of fee to be paid to enable file sharing. Unfortunately, she took it all back: It seemed too good to be true. When I …
Read More »Internecine
More on the battle going on within Sony – a fine synecdoche of the entire content-equipment struggle – by Frank Rose in the new Wired: For Keiji Kimura, the problem is small enough to fit in his pocket and just heavy enough to weigh on his mind. Kimura is a …
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