Freyburg

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?

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.

Just got to my hotel in San Francisco, and I’m headed out to the Moscone Center right away for Macworld. Wish me luck, fellow Macophiles!

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.

That’s the contention of the Globe and Mail’s Matthew Ingram, who says the Hollywood writer’s strike might actually be an indication of the start of a migration tot he Web, upending the traditional content creation business. I’d be perfectly happy to see that happen, as it raises the bar for what we’ll see online. Having said that, Silicon Valley technologists (the perceived saviors of the content business) often tend to see the world through a very tech-centric lens and assume the Internet is the answer to everything, so we’ll have to see how this situation plays out over the next decade.

Looks like the striking Hollywood writers are clueing into the fact that they don’t really need the studio system to make media. The LA Times chronicles several writers who are turning to venture capitalists rather than going back to the studio trough cap in hand, as per usual.