apple juice

1. the hobbit
2. prometheus
3. the dark knight rises

I thought I had the world’s most unique beard, but Tweedy may be my new competition…

I wish I could see the look on my face when I learned this…

 

Great post from Daring Fireball that sums up why the NYT pricing scheme is ridiculous. Mark that down for any company charging different tiers of pricing based on the device. How about this, I’ll pay you for your content, and I get to watch it or read it in any way that I want.

★ A Rule of Thumb: Pricing Should Be Simple:

“The New York Times’s legacy business is the printed newspaper. They charge less for a print subscription than an all-inclusive digital subscription, despite the fact that all print subscriptions include an all-inclusive digital subscription. This makes no sense. You pay less but get something that intuitively bears a significant real cost: hundreds of pounds of printed newspaper delivered to your home throughout the year. The pricing steers people toward the legacy business.”

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Well, 2010, it was nice to know you. Here’s some of my favorite books, movies, and music from the past year:

Music

It was an all time low for me this year in terms of listening to new music. I think the combination of a lack of money and more important things keeping me busy (see: Sonja and Emilia, house) made for a slow year. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed some great albums. In no particular order:

• The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
• Go – Jónsi
• This is Happening – LCD Soundsystem
• High Violet – The National
• Treats – Sleigh Bells
• Transference – Spoon

What made your list this year?

Movies

Ditto reasons above for not seeing many movies. I think we saw maybe two movies in the theater this year? Lots watched on Netflix, so this list is just some of the favorites that we watched in the past year:

• Inception
• Man On Wire
• District 9

Books

As an exception, I did read quite a few more books this year than normal. I’m proud of that, as it was one of my goals from last year.

Favorite non-fiction: Hamlet’s BlackBerry by William Powers. Basically a call to action for people to lead deeper, richer lives in an age of ever-shallower interactions with digital devices and media. Humans have, throughout recorded history, endured sweeping technological change that caused philosophers of the day to reconcile the positives and negatives of those changes. Mr. Powers draws parallels between the past and the present, arguing in some ways thatt we’ve seen this before and we have the tools to use technology positively. This is the great paradox of my career as well, encouraging people to use technology thoughtfully, to encourage deeper thinking and reflection.

Favorite fiction: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie was actually a “required” summer reading for work, but I enjoyed it immensely. Very funny and serious at the same time. I also enjoyed “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby, though I pretty much like everything of his that I’ve read.

I just heard on the radio (KTLK, 100.3) that Dish network customers were about to lose access to FX, Fox Sports North, Local Fox affiliates, Fox News and Fox Business. The “advertisement” encouraged Dish Network customers to switch to DirecTV so that they could get all of what they “deserve” as satellite dish customers. The advertisement ended with a website: Get what I paid for

Did I mention that the radio station and DirecTV are also both owned by Rupert Murdoch? (As are all the rest of those channels)

This is why things like net neutrality should matter to average consumers like you and me. When one dish provider (who happens to also own a bunch of the content) tells another dish provider they can’t have the channels anymore (unless agree to the new, probably unfavorable terms), it’s not the free market at work! More like monopolistic business practices.

Now, I’m not saying the situation in American media is like that of say, China, where BBC news reports suddenly go black when reporting on Chinese dissidents, but on the other hand, it’s not far from it when a few large companies (Fox, Comcast, Disney) own both the content and the distribution channels.

Go back to the “Get what I paid for” website, and read the comments. For example:

One of my favorite channels is FX. I’ve watched The Shield, Rescue Me, Niptuck & now Sons of Anarchy, to name a few. Now I won’t be able to watch the next couple of episodes of SOA’s. There was no advance warning prior to cancellation of this station from DISH. I’ve been a loyal subscriber for about 6 yrs. Well, I grant you I won’t miss anymore episodes because I AM canceling Dish Network. I am already in the process of going with Directv. I am sure I am not the only subscriber that DISH will be losing. So was it really worth it to deny Fox a fair compensation from the services that DISH are clearly making a profit on.

or:

If Direct TV still carries Fox stations why doesn’t Dish? If Dish does not reinstate the Fox channels, I will move to Direct TV.

or:

Dish Network, when we signed up with you we had no choice but to sign a 2 year contract and pay for one of the most expensive packages to get just a couple of the channels we only watch. You need to remember your in that contract too and now your in breech by not giving us the Fox and FX programming that we contracted to receive from you. You guys sure don’t have a problem charging and collecting your money when your customers breech thier contract with you. I say Class Action Suit!!! My family and friends will definitely be leaving Dish and remember word of mouth and bad customer relations can make or break a business.

Ok, the grammar on that last one is atrocious, probably not a plant.

How about this one:

We’ve been DISH customers for 15 years, but if Fox channels including Fox News are ever removed, we are GONE! If you think it’s bad now—just wait! People are getting tired of paying money just to be told what they can, and cannot watch. Turn lose of some of that money and give us the top rated TV channels we want and deserve as loyal customers. We still have SOME choices left in this country!!!

What choice is left when all your media comes from one corporation?