Uh-oh. Netflix throttling is in the news this week, and I’m steamed about the tactic. I am so mad that service cancellation is one option. More likely, I will, eh, throttle down my number of rentals.
Throttling is a strategy whereby heavy users are penalized for using the service. Netflix reasons it loses money on these customers, so they get lower shipping priority.
Scientists force evolution? Maybe the folks over at LiveScience need to evolve their reporting. Adaptation isn’t evolution. Polypheniesm is typically environmentally caused; color change induced by environmental variations is to be expected.
Let’s look at ourselves, as example of where LiveScience falters. Homo Sapiens is considered to be one species, right? But there are different races, which, to my understanding aren’t considered subspecies. Racial variations would appear to have derived from environmental causes long ago.
One of the great benefits of my job is opportunity to speak to people running some really cool companies. Today I got the grand tour of photo-sharing site SmugMug. I had strongly considered setting up shop at Flickr, for which I had already plunked down $24.95 for a year’s Pro service. I probably will upload some stuff to Flickr, mainly stock images for my blog posts. Externally hosted images would make for less work should I ever move my blog to a new host. Looks like SmugMug will become my main photo flat. I’ve already started moving in.
SmugMug is one of the best photo-sharing sites I have seen. Tools are excellent for amateur or pro photographers. Technology is modern, fresh, and easy. SmugMug also is a successful family business, something you don’t see much in high-techdom. My temporary SmugMug site is up and running. I plan to use a domain, if I grow to like the service as much as I expect to.
I just whiled away part of the evening as the voyeur, looking in on the blogs over at MSN Spaces. By default, each Space includes a sidebar module containing recently “Updated Spaces”. I navigated from blog to blog, seeing what I would find. I’m a studier of people, so the look inside people’s lives is fascinating.
I observed a few things.
From the critics corner: “Battlestar Galactica.” To recap, the last half-season concluded with some wicked female violence and an attempted rape (all in the name of killing the evil Cylons). Two weeks ago, the show opened with more violence against women and the young male fantasy catfight, where one woman (OK, robot) shoots the other woman (and evil authority figure) in the head. Maybe the presumably young-male audience appreciates the the show’s assault on women.
This week’s episode, “Epiphanies,” took position on some of the most fiercely-debated philosophical and moral issues dividing U.S. liberals and conservatives.
Jack’s back, and I’m waiting for my daughter to turn over the Windows Media Center PC. I watched 17 nail-biting minutes of “24” before relinquishing the Media Center so that she could watch (again) movie “Castle in the Sky“, which I recorded the other night on Turner Movie Classics. I’ve got to say that a Xbox 360 would come in handy right about now to stream her movie to the TV in her bedroom.
Best running commentary on “24” episodes goes to Dave Barry. And his humor is sharp as tacks tonight as in real time he pokes at every nail-biting twist and turn. I highly recommend Dave’s blog. By the way, Internet Explorer 7’s security features warn that Dave Barry’s blog is a “Suspicious Website”. Ha. How true!
I am on vacation this week—well, mostly—and have used some of the time to play with a few my tech toys. It’s a relief to actually enjoy some of the technology available to me. The tech toying means more time with the Canon EOS 20D and real chance to tinker with this blogsite. I also plan to overhaul the look of my blogsite, hopefully over the next month (fingers crossed).
Back in 1996, I bought some great Image Club clipart that I used for my first website. I still have the original floppy disks, but no floppy drive to use them, assuming the installer would even load under Windows XP (installer doesn’t work on Macs). I recall backing up the lot of images to CD ages ago. If so, extracted artwork available for the blogsite redesign (fingers crossed, again).
Last Thursday night, my daughter did a sleepover, and I used the occasion to go out on a date. My wife and I watched “Pride and Prejudice” at the AFI theatre in Silver Spring, Md. Movies in this genre generally appeal to her. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, which I highly recommend.
But the plot moved too slowly for Anne, who found some of the dialogue to be too accented and archaic to follow. She is right on both counts, but, still, I really got into the movie. Strange, because I don’t much espouse to, uh, love stories.
Okay, so a few days back, I grumbled about how all those repeated showings of “It’s a Wonderful Life” had kind of killed the movie’s appeal for me. Maybe I am extra sentimental this holiday, because the classic film is yanking on yea `ol heartstrings.
I got some sentimental boost from OldFunRadio.com, which has a radio theatre version of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, with original cast (including Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed). [Editor: Original link is gone, use this one.]
After reading Thomas Hawk’s account of his bad shopping experience at PriceRitePhoto and good experience with B&H Photo, I wanted to pipe an endorsement for the B&H folks.
My family visited long-time friends in Fredericksburg, Va., on Friday. My good friend told me that she had ordered a combo camera/camcorder for her husband for Christmas. She called B&H, which didn’t have the device in stock. After she expressed disappointment, the sales clerk suggested calling Adorma, where she eventually purchased the camera. In an experience straight out of “Miracle on 34th Street,” she praised B&H for recommending a competitor and pledged to shop there again.
I still ponder exactly what to do with my blog. I am considering five choices: Blogger (mixed feelings); MSN Spaces (least likely); .Mac (I’ve got an account with 2GB of storage and could use software client to post, but so-so likelihood); Yahoo! hosting using MovableType or WordPress (highly likely); or TypePad (also highly likely, and what I’ve got now).
The latter two options could lead to lots of work, and I find myself resistant. What I want is to create an inviting blog with lots of photos, too, possibly using Flickr, Slide, or both. Actually, there’s quite a bit I’d like to do with my blog, with respect to personalization, beyond using canned templates.
Blogging is a fun, and it’s a great way for creating community across many different types of boundaries. Some bloggers have influence, too, as evidenced by the Sony rootkit DRM or Thomas Hawk’s PriceRightPhoto debacle. But for all the talk about bloggers changing information dissemination and even some bloggers deserving press credentials, the real influence, the credibility remains with real journalists.
And New York Times has done some great investigative journalism of late. Two big stories from the last week—the kind of stuff that requires real reporting and deep editorial soul searching: “Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers without Courts” and “Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World“.