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Hollywood, Politics, and ACTA

Craig Michael Patrick — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:15 +0000

You may have heard of ACTA, which is essentially Hollywood buying legislation to globally enforce its views on copyright.

Kader Arif, the European Parliament’s rapporteur, resigned over the issue this past Friday. Emil Boc, Prime Minister of Romania, also resigned, though it’s not entirely clear if it was directly due to ACTA, stating:

“I do not hold any information on the circumstances in which Romania has adopted the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.”

TRANSLATION: “I just sign stuff.”

Similarly, Poland has put ratification of the trade agreement on hold. The Slovenian ambassador to Japan, Helena Drnovsek Zorko, apologized for signing ACTA. In a written piece translated into English, she admits that she signed it because her government told her to, and “out of civic carelessness” in not bothering to understand what ACTA meant before signing it.

A spectacular mess.

Samsung Airs Super Bowl Anti-iPhone Ad for $10 Million

Craig Michael Patrick — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:05:56 +0000

I’d lose the pen.

Indicative, I think, of the fundamental differences in thinking between Samsung and Apple. Apple wants you to streamline and be better for it. Samsung wants you to digitally maintain your way of doing things, maintain your way of thinking about things.

‘Think Different’ is a philosophy, not just an advertising slogan.

Trending Inhumanity: Flowfulness

Craig Michael Patrick — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:57:45 +0000

Artists are keenly aware of flow. ‘Flow’ is that point at which focus is utterly effortless, completely laser-like, and is not an uncommon occurrence in right-brain types. The challenge is that it usually takes a little while to submerge yourself into the folds of your consciousness and wrap yourself completely around what you’re doing.

New Scientist¹ has an interesting article called Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus which suggests short-cutting into that precise focus.

Frankly, it’s disconcerting. Some things should be difficult. Some things should take time and training to attain. There should be effort, there must be some sense of struggle.

It’s a human story, that struggle, and it helps define our humanity, flaws and all. Part of being human is the struggle to maintain our humanity, in spite of ourselves.

The New Scientist article is, unfortunately, a multi-page article to help offset the cost of the magazine to multiple advertisers. Sorry about that. Fortunately, there’s a way around all this. If you’re using Chrome, download the iReader plugin which consolidates articles like that into one scrolling window. If you’re using Safari, a reader plugin is built into the URL bar. iReader for Firefox is also available. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, I recommend you use something else. Anything else. Even Lynx.

Same As It Ever Was, ‘Til It’s Not

Craig Michael Patrick — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:57:34 +0000

Here’s to hoping that Video Game Chief, Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s new CEO, can rebuild the Sony brand name, a name once synonymous with ‘quality.’

Hirai replaces Howard Stringer, who permitted departmental siloing, a debilitating intrusion on the Playstation Network, and endured declining HD television sales.

I would love to see Sony give Apple a run for its money, but I’m afraid it’s just too big, too unfocused, too encumbered by bureaucracy. Apple needs the competition.

Top Critically Reviewed Shows of 2011

Craig Michael Patrick — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:08:04 +0000

I agree Breaking Bad is the best show currently airing on television. In fact, I’d argue it’s one of the best shows ever created (right up there with The Wire).

Homeland is excellent (in a first season of 24 kind of way). Game of Thrones, Louie, Justified, and Boardwalk Empire are all fun to watch as well, though The Walking Dead seems to have some pacing issues to me. It seems that the film version of The Walking Dead loses some of the nuance the comic communicates. I suspect comic books are just a better vehicle through which to tell those stories.

I’ve yet to catch American Horror Story and Friday Night Lights.

Still, I like Complex’s list a bit more.

UPDATE: Checked out a few episodes of American Horror Story online. It’s good. Meanders a bit here and there, and the season finale’s denouement is forced (it seems to me as though it was not written backwards), but I’ll check out the second season when it airs.

Over Average

Craig Michael Patrick — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:38:35 +0000

Thomas Friedman writing for the New York Times:

“In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.”

It’s difficult to disagree with the majority of Friedman’s points, but two additional points are worth considering:

Higher education will not save the unemployed in a “contracting” job market. I view Friedman’s argument as a band-aid to cure cancer. Government needs to re-evaluate policy to buttress local job growth rather than off-shoring.
While technology continues to be disruptive, there is some degree of balance. New jobs are now available that previously did not exist. There’s likely a pretty good-sized disparity in the ratio of elimination to creation, but still – the forecast isn’t entirely gloomy.

And let’s face it, the story concerning the waiters and waitresses is just … disturbing.

Business Is War

Craig Michael Patrick — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:00:11 +0000

Fantastic article by entrepreneur and software developer, Joel Spolsky, concerning the military tactic of Fire and Motion and how it relates to personal productivity and business.

Fire and Motion, for small companies like mine, means two things. You have to have time on your side, and you have to move forward every day. Sooner or later you will win.

So How Do You Like Censorship?

Craig Michael Patrick — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:29:59 +0000

Wikipedia makes a stand against censorship, this time in the form of the SOPA and PIPA initiatives. I’ve never given to their fund raising drives before, but chalk me up for a donation on the next one.

“Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet,” it said.

Louis CK By Volume

Craig Michael Patrick — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:54:43 +0000

Louis CK, an excellent comedian, recently experimented with micropayments on his website, selling his most recent concert via Paypal for $5 a pop. Cheap. He wrote, produced, directed, and edited the film himself. The concert file download contains No DRM. No middle men. No nonsense. Just his material, his website, and you.

If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I’ll do it here and I’ll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.

You really should read his thoughts concerning the ‘experiment.’

This is entirely cool.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Star Wars

Craig Michael Patrick — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:57:17 +0000

So true.