The Third Guy was absent for this week’s podcast, and he missed a heap of news with the release of not only the Series 4 trailer and various teasers on the interwebs but an honest to goodness announcement of April 5th as the airdate of the Series 4 premiere. Warren and Steven tried to hold down the fort through jocularity and sarcasm, but their constant threats involving the Gun of Spite (and later, the Cannon of Hatred) because of the Third Guy’s impending trip to Paris and to a studio audience to view David Tennant in person meant an air of amusing menace permeated the proceedings.
Chris Anderson, who wrote “The Long Tail,” (a great book, btw) has a new book in the works called “Free,” all about how digital goods are plummeting in cost and hence are driving the new gift economy. Wired has an excerpt from the book, along with video.
And with that Variety-esque headline, here’s a story abut how the Washington Post (paper version) and the washingtonpost.com (series of tubes) don’t get along all that well. I’m not privy to the WashPo as a paper, but I know the website is doing good work on the net, including a heavy emphasis on video.
Besides all the other stuff I’m doing, I’m also going to be co-presenting a “VideoBlogging 101” session at Northern Voice, Vancouver’s annual blogging conference. Roland Tanglao, Jordan Behan and myself will walk attendees though the basics of videoblogging, from shooting stuff on your cell phone and streaming it to the net to basic video making techniques, getting your video onto the net and my section on how to effectively prepare and plan for your shoot, as well as a bit of an overview of higher-end tools. You can also make suggestions on our wiki prior to the event.
Roland has also posted on his blog about the event, and put up a video of our recent meeting that he shot on his Nokia N95.
Microsoft wants to spend 44 BILLION dollars to buy Yahoo. Is it just me, or does this remind anyone of the AOL-Time Warner disaster? Neither company can compete with Google, so together….they can’t compete with Google? This deal strikes me as phenomenally stupid. By the way, when this story hit Digg, the assembled wisdom of the site’s users cited it as “possibly inaccurate.” That’s right, Diggers, the BBC is questionable, while 9/11 conspiracy sites and Ron Paul advocacy rants are completely above board.
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?
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.
A former NBC journalist breaks down exactly how network news works, or doesn’t, in an article for the MIT Technology Review all about working at Dateline NBC, the program behind “To Catch a Predator,” the circus-like takedown of online pedophiles that has become the raison d’etre for the show. It’s an interesting article covering the differing perspectives of old and new media, the future of journalism, and how the news business has gone off the rails in the last decade.
Sounds like a contradiction in terms, since the average Youtube video’s comment section is an ode to idiocy and barely-related ramblings, but the good people at openculture.com have compiled a list of the brainiest channels on a website known primarily for videos of pooping cats and man/animal love.
