Freyburg

According to a recent article in Slate, movies appearing at the Sundance film festival by and large don’t get pirated, and instead wallow in obscurity. The author’s contention is that pirates only pay attention to big releases, but I think it may have more to do with the fact that the average Sundance filmmaker probably isn’t tech-savvy enough to get their film onto torrent sites in the first place. After all, 90 percent of the films at Sundance and other film festivals go on to virtually no distribution, so why not at least try to get some eyeballs on all that hard work?

So last night we went to see Cloverfield, the much-vaunted “Blair Witch meets Godzilla” mishmash of home video and huge effects. I’ll start with the good…the effects are top notch and the monster is pretty cool. Where the film falls apart is in dialogue, plot and character. The alleged protagonists are all self-absorbed hipster douchebags, and not nearly enough of them get eaten or otherwise butchered for my liking. I don’t think I was supposed to laugh at this film or cheer on the monster, but I did anyway. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, because it was cool to see Manhattan get menaced by a giant whatsit…but I wish they’d picked somewhat less retarded individuals for me to root for.

After scheduling snafus and real life intruded to keep us from recording last week, the RFS crew returned to discuss the first two episodes of Torchwood (verdict: pretty decent), speculate on the latest round of rumours, and digress as always into realms nonsensical. And for once we actually came in at under an hour. Enjoy!(feed, web, direct download)

The always interesting New York Times Magazine has a long article up about how America is no longer able to dominate the world, and will have to share power with China and Europe in the coming decades. While predictions like these are a dime a dozen and the US seems to have a way of bouncing back where other countries fail, the author does raise some good points. Check it out.

With an unending writer’s strike and web video nipping at its heels, the tradition of spending millions on pilot episodes of series that usually never get made is slowly winding down into oblivion NewTeeVee explains how the web model of cheaply building an audience organically is the way of the future. Kent Nichols of “Ask a Ninja” fame has further thoughts on the democratization of series development.

Good news everyone! (said like Professor Farnsworth) The Atlantic, one of the best magazines in print, is finally tearing down its paywall. Presumably they did the math and figured they’d get more out of advertising than they would from charging people to read the site, but no matter what the reason for the change, I’m happy to report their excellent articles are now free for the reading.

Frontline, the always excellent PBS documentary series (which has a repository of shows available online for your viewing pleasure) is fixing its lens upon the online generation, and how growing up with the internet, instant messaging and constant connectivity as a part of everyday life affects today’s youth. It’s on television tonight, though I’ll likely watch it online, seeing as how I’m part of the 1200 baud generation and know how to do such things.

Due to my crazy post-Macworld schedule and other circumstances, Radio Free Skaro #67 has hit a bit of a delay…..but by garr, we’re trying to get it out as soon as possible. So patience, faithful listeners, it’ll be here soon!

A couple of months ago, local blogging luminary and online marketing expert Darren Barefoot let me know about a promotion for the Brother HL-4070CDW color laser printer involving several local bloggers. In exchange for reviewing the printer on our blogs, we used (and in some cases presumably abused) the printer for a couple of months. My take? First off, the thing is a tank. It’s intimidatingly large and extremely heavy, and it honestly frightened the UPS guy when he delivered it to me. But what about, you know, the printing? Top notch, both in color and black and white. Never really had a problem with it….except for one time when I needed to print out the resume and the printer simply wouldn’t respond. That may have had more to do with my network connection than with the printer itself. And speaking of connections, the Brother has many, including network, wireless, and all the other standards. For a guy who generally wrestles with sub-$100 laser printers that don’t recognize anything other than their own inherent badness, it was nice to finally have a printer in the condo that actually WOULD print from whichever computer told it to, instead of retreating into spool queue hell. So all-in-all, I’d say the Brother HL-4070CDW is a decent printer, though I think it might be better suited to a big office and less for a guy who occasional prints out directions from Google Maps.

My days mostly consist of hanging out in the Podcast Studio and getting my learn on (now that I have a business that depends on such things), so yesterday I checked out an awesome session on green screens for video podcasts, and later got to meet Stu Machwitz, the guy who wrote the DV Rebel Guide. I later made my way (and not without difficulty, San Francisco is pretty but its organizational skills leave a little to be desired in terms of street layout) to the Final Cut Pro Supermeet, which was a thing to behold. There were at least 500 if not more people there, and all of them knew a hell of a lot more about Final Cut Pro than I do. Well worth checking out. I kind of got lost on my way to the event, and dealt with a surly but ultimately helpful cabbie. Still, what would a working vacation be without adventure, uncertainty, and lots of gadgets?