Web video viewers aren't ready for choice

WSJ.com - AOL to Offer 'Vintage' TV Free -- With Ads:

"Larry Jones, president of Nick at Nite and TV Land, said he's not worried (AOL's) In2TV will erode the audience of his networks any more than the recent boom in classic TV shows on DVDs did. Though he says In2TV is an 'interesting experiment,' he added that his networks provide a valuable service by acting as filter.

'We pick the best of the best from multiple studios,' he said. 'I don't know if viewers are ready for so much choice. Ultimately what [In2TV] does is force viewers to be their own programmers.'"

Update: Direct Shipment of Wine in Massachusetts

Victor Shopov from State Representative Jeffrey Sanchez office, emailed me with a detailed update on the progress of the Direct Shipment of Wine bill.

I've talked to him about this and just wanted to share his update.

Victor writes:

After the House's approval of the legislation, it will head to the Senate for review. They can amend their version as they see fit and approve it. Should they do so and send it back to the House with any changes, a Conference Committee would then meet to resolve the differences between both versions - that committee is typically made up of 3 members each from the House and Senate. They then release their report to both the House and Senate for approval, and if everything passes at that time, ther bill can be finalized and enacted (i.e., become law). In other words, it still has a little ways to go and is now out of the House's hands - it is for the Senate to act now.

In terms of Winery Size, the changed it from 30,000 to 50,000 in the House bill during the debate, but the Senate could change that provision again when they debate the bill. As I described above, if such a change is made, a Conference Committee would likely get together.

Hope that helps - stay in touch.

Best,

Victor

thanks Victor for the update.

Now, I'm off to contact my Senators...

Find out who are yor elected officials in Massachusetts.

Free, Open-Source software for OS X

Open Source Mac - Free, Open-Source software for OS X.
Open Source Mac is a simple list of the best free and open source software for Mac OS X.

Update:
Not sure why this website went away...

Update 2:
It's back. Probably very popular...

Are people chatting along with TV shows?

At yesterday's Corante SSA conference there was an IRC backchannel where attendees where chatting about what the speaker was talking about, how the room was arranged and sharing links to topics that were mentioned.

There was also some random and not so random witty comments thrown in. Those commenters, we found out, we the stars of chat rooms.

Are people chatting along with TV shows?

I don't usually watch anything live, so I hadn't thught about this.

Do people go into chat rooms and talk about TV shows as they are aired?

Might be fun to do with a nightly news program.

New Macs Require Final Cut Pro 5

Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD and earlier not supported on Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) or iMac G5 (iSight).
Final Cut Pro 4 through Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 won't work on the new iMac G5 (iSight)

From the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro Users Group (LAFCPUG):

Over at xlr8yourmac.com they have a first impression report from a new Quad G5 Mac owner. He likes is. He REALLY likes it.

I got three tickets today, bad ones.

This wasn't a good day for me.

I got a $20 parking ticket for parking onthe street in Cambridge for over 2 hours.

Then I got a second $20 ticket for leaving my car in the same spot for 2 more hours.

I thought that if you were already paying $20 for the spot you could then keep it all day. ;-)

After hte second ticket I decided to move my car to another spot.

On Mass Ave just past the Cambridge Common, the only way to make a U-Turn is to drive up something like five blocks.

Well, I saw a nice spot across the street, so I made a U-Turn and pulled up past the spot, undid my seatbelt, and went in reverse into the spot, when a police car puled up.

He gave me a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt - $20. He said he gave me a warnign on the U-Turn and that that ticket could have been $50.

"But I always wear my seat belt I told the officer."

"Well you did not have it on when I approached the car."

Yup. That's true.

M.G.L - Chapter 90, Section 13A:

"Chapter 90: Section 13A Seat belt use required; exemptions; penalty

Section 13A. No person shall operate a private passenger motor vehicle or ride in a private passenger motor vehicle, a vanpool vehicle or truck under eighteen thousand pounds on any way unless such person is wearing a safety belt which is properly adjusted and fastened;"

So this is a warning for you. Don't remove your seatbelt when backing into a parking space.

I guess I always do this by habit without realizing it. My dad did it thaty way...

Amanda & Steve Interview

Amanda & Steve Interview by mjkboston, uploaded from flickr.

We were interviewed by Halley Suitt for Corante in the basement of Harvard just outside the men's room.

Internet wine prohibition bill moves to Senate

House approves Internet wine bill - The Boston Globe:

"The bill now goes to the Senate. Aimed at out-of-state wine producers, it would prohibit wineries that produce more than 50,000 gallons a year from distributing directly to consumers.

Wine aficionados support the legislation. They say that Internet purchases will allow them to buy wines that Massachusetts distributors are not currently providing to retailers."

Regular readers to this blog know that I enjoy wine, call me an aficianado.

I am against prohibition.

I support a free market.

News Bulletin: Direct shipment of wine to Massachusetts

John from Belchertown writes in:

Looks like H 4477 was amended to H 4490 and then to H 4498. The latter isn't available online yet, but H 4490 is. H 4490 would allow direct shipping in two instances: (i) wineries whose production is < 30000 gal/yr (regardless of wholesaler representation in MA); and (ii) wineries whose production is > 30000 gal/yr if they haven't been represented by a MA wholesaler within the past 6 months.

Generally, I agree that no restrictions would be better. However, from a personal standpoint the only wines I'd likely order would be from small production wineries. As such, I'd consider H 4490 "better than nothing," and will maybe support it.

Also of interest in H 4490 is the limitation of 20 liters/month for each household (around 26 750 ml bottles).

Interested in seeing H 4498...

Free The Grapes!

Defining a new marketplace for media

mediAgora.

The Latest from Brightcove

The Latest from Brightcove: Brightcove Illuminates its Ad Strategy.

links for 2005-11-15

• Installing Tiger
  Things to do before installing Tiger
  (tags: Macintosh)

Root out good prices

Root.net
via [ stone ]

mamamusings

mamamusings:

"elizabeth lane lawley: yet another proud member of the reality-based community"

"Make it easier for people to eat well in an information rich environment."

Remix this and that

Media Streams Metadata Exchange - Introduction:

"The MSMDX (Media Streams Metadata Exchange) project’s goal is to create a platform for collaboratively annotating, retrieving, sharing and remixing multimedia content on the World Wide Web."

via [ Kevin Marks Live ]

Mary Hodder: On getting information

From the Symposium on Social Architecture.



Technorati Tag: [ corantessa ]

Kevin Marks: How will we keep up?

From the Symposium on Social Architecture.

Technorati: corrantessa



Technorati Tag: [ corantessa ]

Add rules to delicious?

"When you add rules to a folksonomy you take the folks out." Adam Green

I just met Kevin Marks

Epeus' epigone - Kevin Marks weblog.

First I met him in an IRC chat room, then I stood up and asked Halley Suitt to point him out.

We met.

Then I had to go feed my meter.

David Weinberger: On truth

A brief look at David Weinberger's talk at Corante SSA.



"You need some degree of sameness to enable conversation, but you need some degree of difference to even be able to approximate the truth."

Technorati Tag: [ corantessa ]