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Today's Topics:
1. Unlock work internet or risk losing staff: Microsoft
(Greg Williams)
2. Help! I See Somebody Help! Not Just Anybody (George Antunes)
3. Solid rocket booster tests could be ordered (Greg Williams)
4. Researcher throws in towel after animal rights groups harrass
him and his family (Greg Williams)
5. Fugitive exec nabbed after Skype call (Monty Solomon)
6. Launch Delayed Until Tuesday (Duane Whittingham)
7. College Texts Free On-Line, With Ads (George Antunes)
8. Some DVD fans live for the binge (George Antunes)
9. Ship lines get on board with cellphone and Wi-Fi (George Antunes)
10. 'Gilligan's Island' boat up for sale (Greg Williams)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:56:43 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Unlock work internet or risk losing staff:
Microsoft
To: Media News <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
http://bink.nu/Article8176.bink
Jobseekers will think twice about employers who lock down work internet
access, a senior Microsoft executive said today.
?These kids are saying: forget it! I don?t want to work with you. I
don?t want to work at a place where I can?t be freely online during the
day,? said Anne Kirah, Microsoft Senior Design Anthropologist.
?People that I meet are saying this to me every day, all over the world.?
Kirah made the comments during the keynote at the opening of Microsoft?s
annual developer love-in, Tech.Ed, in Sydney.
?Companies all over the world are saying, oh, you can?t be on the
internet while you?re at work. You can?t be on instant messaging at
work?? she said. ?These are digital immigrant ideas.?
Kirah defines ?digital immigrants? as people who were not born into the
digital lifestyle and view it as a distraction rather than an integral
part of life. The younger generation of workers have been using
computers and mobile phones since birth and she calls them ?digital
natives?.
Kirah cited a Norwegian psychologist who claimed that young people were
now so reliant on digital communication that ?taking a mobile phone away
from a teenage girl is the same as child abuse.?
?Digital communication is part of people?s lives now. Their friends
online are the people they identify with.?
Microsoft Australia Group Manager of Technical Communities Frank Arrigo
said people were so frustrated with limited internet access at work that
they were finding their own workarounds anyway.
People were increasingly making use of anonymous proxies that couldn?t
be easily blocked by corporate firewalls, bringing in their own wireless
broadband services for use with a personal laptop or with a work PC or
accessing instant messaging via mobile phones and PDAs.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:31:12 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Help! I See Somebody Help! Not Just Anybody
To: [email protected]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed;
x-avg-checked=avg-ok-4FD6542C
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-briefs26.1aug26,1,5924706.story?coll=la-headlines-technology
Help! I See Somebody Help! Not Just Anybody
From LA Times Wire Reports
August 26, 2006
An American helped foil a burglary in northern Britain while watching a
Beatles-related webcam over the Internet, police said.
The Dallas man was using a live camera link to look at Mathew Street, an
area of Liverpool synonymous with the Beatles and home to the Cavern Club,
where the band regularly played.
He saw intruders apparently breaking into a sporting goods store and called
Merseyside police. Officers were dispatched and arrested three suspects.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 04:16:04 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Solid rocket booster tests could be ordered
To: Media News <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Solid rocket booster tests could be ordered
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts115/060826srbtest/
Posted: August 26, 2006; Updated at 2 a.m. Aug. 27 following MMT meeting
NASA's Mission Management Team decided early Sunday to continue testing
and analysis to assess the possible effects of a launch pad lightning
strike Friday on the shuttle Atlantis' solid-fuel booster and
self-destruct systems. A Monday launch attempt remains feasible for now,
sources said, but only if the community agrees time-consuming tests to
verify the health of booster and range safety pyrotechnic systems are
not needed. If the tests are required, launch likely would slip to mid
week or later.
The Mission Management Team plans to meet again at 6 p.m. Sunday to
discuss the progress of the analysis and to make a decision on how to
proceed.
The lightning bolt hit Friday, pumping some 100,000 amps of current
through the launch pad's lightning protection system. Lightning strikes
typically generate 5,000 to 20,000 amps of current and the bolt Friday
is one of the strongest on record at the Kennedy Space Center.
Telemetry showed a very small "spike" in one of the shuttle's electrical
buses and a larger surge in the circuity associated with a launch pad
pyrotechnic device used to disconnect a hydrogen vent arm from the
shuttle's external tank.
Concern that induced currents could have affected other sensitive
electrical systems on the pad or in the shuttle, Mission Management Team
Chairman LeRoy Cain on Saturday ordered Atlantis' launch delayed for at
least 24 hours, from Sunday to Monday at 4:04 p.m., to give engineers a
chance to assess their systems.
Later Saturday, representatives of the shuttle booster program and the
range safety system raised concerns that prompted a late night meeting
of the Mission Management Team.
Atlantis was powered up when the lightning struck and an analysis of the
powered systems shows no problems. But the boosters were not powered and
engineers have no data to assess the health of critical components. At
issue is whether the strike might have affected circuity that fires
explosive charges used during booster ignition and separation. Similar
concerns were raised by Air Force range safety officers about the
shuttle's self-destruct system.
To test those circuits and their pyrotechnic initiator controllers, or
PICs, engineers would first have to drain liquid oxygen and hydrogen
from the shuttle's fuel cell system and open the ship's aft compartment.
Ordnance would have to be disconnected and then reconnected as part of
the verification process. Then engineers would have to close out the aft
and reload the shuttle's fuel cell supplies to ready the ship for launch.
If such tests are ordered, sources said early today, launch likely would
be delayed to late this week.
But it may be possible to clear the PIC systems without disconnecting
the ordnance based on more detailed analysis of shuttle grounding and
response to electrical transients. If that turns out to be the case,
NASA could, in theory, press ahead with launching Atlantis Monday.
But as of this writing, it is not clear when a decision to pick up the
countdown would have to be made. Updates will be posted as warranted.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 04:20:37 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Researcher throws in towel after animal rights
groups harrass him and his family
To: Media News <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Throwing in the Towel
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/22/animal
The constant calls, the people frightening his children, and the
demonstrations in front of his home apparently became a little too much.
Dario Ringach, an associate neurobiology professor at the University of
California at Los Angeles, decided this month to give up his research on
primates because of pressure put on him, his neighborhood, and his
family by the UCLA Primate Freedom Project, which seeks to stop research
that harms animals.
Anti-animal research groups are trumpeting Ringach?s move as a victory,
while some researchers are worried that it could embolden such groups to
use more extreme tactics.
Ringach?s name and home phone number are posted on the Primate Freedom
Project?s Web site, and colleagues and UCLA officials said that Ringach
was harassed by phone ? his office phone number is no longer active ?
and e-mail, as well as through demonstrations in front of his home.
In an e-mail this month to several anti-animal research groups, Ringach
wrote that ?you win,? and asked that the groups ?please don?t bother my
family anymore.?
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office, a resource for the
media on ?animal liberation actions,? according to the group?s Web site,
posted a news release from the Animal Liberation Front, a separate group
that sometimes engages in illegal activities, about Ringach?s decision.
The press release describes Ringach?s research as torturous and ?a far
cry from life saving research.? UCLA officials said that groups like ALF
often misconstrue information, and that, in the interest of researchers?
safety, the university is not releasing detailed information about
projects being attacked by such groups.
Colleagues suggested that Ringach, who did not return e-mails seeking
comment, was spooked by an attack on a colleague. In June, the Animal
Liberation Front took credit for trying to put a Molotov cocktail on the
doorstep of Lynn Fairbanks, another UCLA researcher who does
experimentation on animals. The explosive was accidentally placed on the
doorstep of Fairbanks?s elderly neighbor?s house, and did not detonate.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the
incident. Fairbanks said in an e-mail that the ?protests against me are
based on complete fabrications that, unfortunately, are believed by many
of their followers.? She added that she is sad that Ringach is giving up
his work, because he ?was making new and important advances in our
knowledge about how the brain processes information.?
Upon Ringach?s decision to stop his research, UCLA issued a statement
saying that ?we all suffer when animal rights activists attempt to
intimidate researchers by physically threatening and harassing them and
their families, including young children.? The statement added that ?to
be so extreme as to use violent tactics aimed at halting animal research
is to take away hope from millions of people with cancer, AIDS, heart
disease and hundreds of other diseases.?
Jerry Vlasak, a practicing physician, a spokesman for the Animal
Liberation Press Office, and a former animal researcher, said that
?obviously the roughly 30 non-human primates [Ringach] was killing every
year would be ecstatic? with his decision to halt his work. Vlasak said
that when he was an animal researcher, he published papers on his work,
but didn?t feel that he contributed anything important to society. As to
the Molotov cocktail, Vlasak said that ?force is a poor second choice,
but if that?s the only thing that will work ? there?s certainly moral
justification for that.?
Leo T. Furcht, president of the Federation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology, said that extreme anti-animal research tactics
have a longer tradition in Britain, where he said some of his colleagues
gave up their cars rather than having them searched for bombs every day.
Still, Furcht said, he doesn?t think ?that these acts of extremism are
going to deter the broad class of researchers.?
Furcht, who is head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and
Pathology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said that, a
few years ago, some people let a bunch of birds and mice out of their
cages in Minnesota labs. Furcht added that, because it was winter, the
animals ?undoubtedly died. It?s really a form of terrorism.? ALF claimed
responsibility for a similar action at the University of Iowa, where
animals were released and equipment damaged. Furcht, and other experts
who follow the issue, said that extreme actions are on the rise in the
United States, partly because organizing and disseminating a target?s
personal information has become very easy using the Web.
Mary Hanley, executive vice president of the National Association for
Biomedical Research, said that actions against pharmaceutical companies
have definitely been on the rise. Hanley said that the association is
hopeful about legislation that has been introduced in both the House and
the Senate.
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act would make it a federal crime to
harass or cause ?economic disruption? to animal researchers, suppliers,
and even people who might be tangentially associated with a researcher,
like, for instance, a researcher?s babysitter. Hanley said that the
legislation would make it a crime not only to carry out such ?economic
disruption,? like bombarding someone with non-stop phone calls, but also
to organize such a campaign, ?so they can?t say, ?well, I didn?t do
it,?? Hanley said. The House bill has 36 sponsors, six of whom are
Democrats, and the Senate bill has five Republican sponsors.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:56:00 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Fugitive exec nabbed after Skype call
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Fugitive exec nabbed after Skype call
8/24/2006 11:25:54 AM, by Eric Bangeman
Kobi Alexander, the founder of Comverse, was nabbed in Negombo, Sri
Lanka yesterday by a private investigator. He is wanted by the US
government in connection with financial fraud charges. He is accused
of profiting from some very shady stock-option deals, to the
detriment of Comverse shareholders. Once the deals became public and
he was indicted, he resigned as CEO and fled the US.
Alexander was traced to the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo after he
placed a one-minute call using Skype. That was enough to alert
authorities to his presence and hunt him down.
The fugitive former CEO may have been convinced that using Skype
made him safe from tracking, but he-and everyone else that believes
VoIP is inherently more secure than a landline-was wrong. Tracking
anonymous peer-to-peer VoIP traffic over the Internet is possible
(PDF). In fact, it can be done even if the parties have taken some
steps to disguise the traffic.
...
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060824-7582.html
Tracking Anonymous PeertoPeer VoIP Calls on the Internet
http://ise.gmu.edu/~xwangc/Publications/CCS05-VoIPTracking.pdf
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:08:14 -0500
From: Duane Whittingham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Launch Delayed Until Tuesday
To: [email protected]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Launch Delayed Until Tuesday
Mission managers have determined Shuttle Atlantis will not launch
before Tuesday, Aug. 29. This delay is as a result of the lightning
strike at the pad on Friday and the need for additional time for
further analysis of the shuttle and ground systems. No damage to the
vehicle or pad has been found at this time, but more time for
analysis requires an additional launch delay.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Duane Whittingham (N9SSN) - Producer
Tom and Darryl Radio Shows
Heard on C-Band Analog Satellite (W0KIE) - Telstar 6 (IA6) Ch 1 6.2/6.8 mHz
Also on WTND-LP Macomb 106.3 FM, WQNA 88.3 FM, WBCQ 7415 kHz & the Internet.
Heard Fridays 9pm ET, Sundays 12am ET and Tues 2am ET (Folk)
An Independent Freeform Eclectic Radio Show.
http://www.tomanddarryl.org
http://www.wtnd.us
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:29:22 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] College Texts Free On-Line, With Ads
To: [email protected]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
x-avg-checked=avg-ok-4FD6542C
August 27, 2006
Words of Wisdom vs. Words From Our Sponsor
By RANDALL STROSS
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/business/yourmoney/27digi.html?ref=technology&pagewanted=print
WHO will stand up to eulogize the fat tome of learning, the college textbook?
Writers have written lovingly of the tactile pleasures provided by printed
books and newspapers, but no one has paid particular tribute to the
voluptuous four-color, four-pound textbook. Now being replaced by
weightless electronic versions, the bound artifact remains forlorn and
unloved. In any ceremony marking its demise, college students may want to
throw a fusillade of stones at its coffin. Expensive texts, after all, have
broken many student budgets.
A $4 billion-a-year business cannot change fundamentally overnight; the
shift from printed to electronic textbook will take years. In the meantime,
a small publisher of college textbooks, Freeload Press of St. Paul, seeks
to take advantage of this flux with a new concept: providing free
e-textbooks to students. The catch? Ads are inserted within the text.
It has been 16 years since Channel One?s advertising-supported news
broadcasts first slipped into the commercial-free space of middle schools
and high schools; today, its in-class advertising, it says, reaches seven
million students.
Channel One was able to parachute in televisions and satellite systems like
relief supplies to school systems short of cash. Having secured the
acquiescence of central administrators, the company never had to fight its
way into each classroom, stepping over teachers who objected to the
intrusion of commercials into their realm.
Higher education has not been so easy to crack. For the most part,
instructors are free to choose whichever textbook they think best suits the
needs of their classes, an arrangement that periodically upsets advisory
commissions that would like to transplant the one-size-fits-all approach of
secondary education to colleges.
Universities will accept gifts from prominent business executives ?
Stanford students, for example, stand a good chance of guessing who
provided the lead gift for the Gates Computer Science Building ? and
corporate benefactors can expect credit on a plaque for donations of money
and equipment. But the core of the university, its intellectual autonomy,
is protected by a faculty unbeholden to outside interests.
Textbooks used in the classroom are, like the instructors themselves,
extensions of a university?s autonomy and no more likely to be considered
an appropriate place for corporate ads than the classroom lectern (or the
instructor?s forehead).
Freeload Press seems unlikely to be the company that will succeed in adding
commercial messages to the typical college textbook. Its problems begin
with that unfortunate name, which conjures an image of party crashers
cadging free beer, not a publishing concern striving for the highest
intellectual standards. It was founded two years ago and has found the
going slow.
Excluding study aids, it offers 15 textbook titles, most of them in math
and business, and relies on an even smaller base of authors who contribute
to multiple books. This summer, the company announced that the University
of Michigan was the 100th college to assign one of its textbooks, but this
number exaggerates the popularity because it includes those that have tried
it once and have not opted for a second trial.
The number of universities that will be using any of its free textbooks as
a required text this fall is only 38.
Without a full range of outstanding textbooks, Freeload will remain nothing
more than a concept with dubious prospects. It can?t sign up the authors it
needs to expand its offerings because professors balk at the juxtaposition
of ?Solution to Demonstration Problem? on one page and an ad for a double
bacon cheeseburger and fries on the next. The example is not hypothetical.
Randal E. Bryant, dean of Carnegie Mellon?s School of Computer Science, did
not have any kind words about the quality of the Freeload titles that he
reviewed. His summary: ?They?re closer to Schaum?s notes than to
university-level course textbooks.? He predicted that Freeload would
continue to find it hard to recruit top authors because of the mingling of
advertising and supposedly disinterested teaching.
?The idea will be too much of a cultural leap for some,? the company says
on its Web site about resistant faculty members. It matter-of-factly aims
at professors willing to choose a textbook based on ?the price/value
consideration alone.?
Asked to select a textbook on the basis of price over quality, professors
will resist, as they properly should. Professors, however, are not blind to
the shocking prices of new textbooks. Nor are they deaf to the complaining
voices of their students. They know that students increasingly buy used
textbooks, and that this in turn affects the prices on new texts that sit
unsold on the shelves.
J. Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the
Association of American Publishers, said publishers report that sales of a
new textbook edition evaporate almost completely after one year, when used
copies flood the market.
Authors say that this drives publishers to shorten the intervals between
revisions and to raise prices to try to recoup development costs from a
shrinking base of new-book buyers ? then the cycle repeats.
The system is broken. Its replacement, however, should not entail a hasty
embrace of advertising and substandard contents, but rather adoption of
electronic versions of the best textbooks in their field, at much-reduced
prices and free of advertising.
When I spoke last week with Jefferson P. Williams, a lecturer of accounting
at the University of Michigan, whose summer school course placed his
university at the top of Freeload?s celebratory news release, he did not
assert that the Freeload textbook was equal in quality to better-known texts.
He had selected the financial accounting textbook for a class of 20
non-accounting majors mainly on the basis of price and adequate coverage.
It is noteworthy that he found that many students ended up paying after
all. Most class members found reading the dense pages on the computer
monitor to be a strain and resorted to buying a softbound printed version
of the book ? free of ads ? from Freeload Press for $35.
The reading difficulty is created by Freeload?s use of PDF images, which
retain the printed page?s layout without reformatting. Navigating around a
single superwide, supertall page requires lots of clicking and zooming and
patience. The company will soon use improved software that can
automatically adjust the text so it is more legible, said Tom Duran, a
founder of Freeload Press and its chief executive.
Also planned are what Mr. Duran calls a ?payload version? of the print
edition, one with ads embedded in the text. His company likens its textbook
advertising to that accepted by newspapers and magazines.
But this defense ignores the main reason that the advertising in textbooks
is objectionable. It?s not the fear of direct tampering with content but
the idea that select interests shouldn?t be able to rent the attention of a
captive student audience.
When soliciting advertisers, Freeload unapologetically calls attention to
its own readership?s lack of choice: ?Your Marketing Message works overtime
in textbooks? because ?grades provide motivated readers; quizzes, tests and
finals drive traffic back and forth throughout the medium.?
Most faculty members do not wish to have their teaching associated with
specific sponsors. Mr. Hildebrand, of the Association of American
Publishers, said, ?Faculty want their instruction material to be neutral.?
Last year, a Canadian subsidiary of McGraw-Hill began to solicit
advertisements for a printed textbook, but an uproar of objections caught
the attention of the home office, which promptly shut down the initiative.
A spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill, Mary Skafidas, reiterated last week that the
company did not place ads in its textbooks. ?We never have, and we never
will,? she said.
THE major publishers are introducing e-textbooks at reduced prices.
McGraw-Hill offers 2,000 of its textbook titles in electronic format in
addition to print; Pearson has 800 electronic titles. Less expensive to
produce for obvious reasons, both publishers? e-textbooks are priced at
half as much as the printed versions. The software used by these publishers
automatically resizes the e-book?s pages, reducing the pain of reading
on-screen.
These e-textbooks are not books in the customary sense. Sandi Kirshner,
chief marketing officer for Pearson?s higher-education group, says the
e-textbook is offered only on a ?subscription basis,? which means that a
student buys access for a defined period, like a semester, and cannot
resell access to the book to others.
A real-world Solution to Demonstration Problem: hold the double bacon
cheeseburger and fries.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:32:01 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Some DVD fans live for the binge
To: [email protected]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
x-avg-checked=avg-ok-4FD6542C
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ca-binge27aug27,1,7400955.story?coll=la-headlines-technology
TV, straight up
Some DVD fans live for the binge, and the industry seems to like their choices.
By Melissa Pamer
LA Times Staff Writer
August 27, 2006
IS a populist cabal of remote-control-wielding, DVD-obsessed fans
controlling the Emmys?
OK, not quite. But heading into tonight's ceremony, it's indisputable that
"24" ? the fifth season of which earned 12 Emmy nominations, more than any
other series ? owes much to viewers like Starlee Kine who consume entire
seasons in a few short days.
"That show is like crack," she said. "I don't know how you watch that show
and not binge."
It didn't start out that way. Back at the end of its first season on Fox,
"24" ranked as one of the most expensive shows on television and was a
critical and cult favorite ? but it was only a moderate ratings success. To
recoup some of its costs, 20th Century Fox Television ditched the
traditional four-year wait and released the series on DVD in September
2002, six weeks before the second season premiered. The results were
unexpected: Not only has the first-season set sold 1.7 million units, but
the return of the series averaged 3 million more viewers than the previous
year. "That seems to be the way people find the show," said "24" executive
producer Howard Gordon of the DVD success. "It's been a great enhancement."
The trail-blazing DVD release boosted the number of Jack Bauer-worshipping
viewers and ? along with the show's cardiac-arrest-inducing cliffhanger
endings ? contributed to a new phenomenon: binge-watching.
Serialized narratives such as "24" are tailor-made for such
back-to-back-to-back episode viewing ? and their release on DVD has altered
the way we watch TV by giving consumers the freedom to view shows on their
own schedules, all at the flick of a fingertip. Just a few of the
binge-watchers' favorites: HBO's "Six Feet Under" and ABC's "Lost" (which
netted nine Emmy nominations each), as well as lighter fare such as HBO's
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage" (five nods apiece) and Fox's
"Arrested Development" (four nominations).
Clearly no one's going to raise a silver disc overhead during tonight's
acceptance speeches at the Shrine Auditorium. But it's impossible to look
at these series' showings this year without noting the intersection between
the Hollywood awards culture and this evolving consumer behavior.
*
An obsessive compulsion
IN addition to feeding her "24" addiction, Kine, a New York-based writer,
has binged on another nouveau classic: the BBC version of "The Office." She
recalls placing the first season of Ricky Gervais' droll English comedy
into her DVD player and settling down with her boyfriend on an air mattress
with a slow leak. After it was over, she said, "we looked at each other and
it was a silent agreement." Season 2 went into the player.
"We were like junkies," Kine, 31, recalled, and then chided herself: "It's
not good to watch that much TV."
Another binger, Jessamay Kroth of Chicago, calls herself a "recent addict."
Kroth, 30, didn't watch much TV growing up, but now she finds herself
obsessively consuming a broad variety of serials on DVD. Like many bingers,
one of her earliest forays came with "24," and she too speaks of it in
terms of a drug.
"I was so hooked," said Kroth, who recently completed a master's degree at
the University of Chicago.
Initially, Kroth relied on Netflix for her series fixes. Now, like some of
her more obsessive fellow bingers, she makes sure to keep track of DVD
release dates so she can be among the first to rent or buy entire seasons
of her favorite shows. (That crowd is eagerly awaiting Sept. 5, the day the
second season of "Lost" is released on DVD. "It's going to be huge," said
Dan Vancini, DVD editor at Amazon.com, where the season ranks as the most
popular DVD.)
Kine and Kroth are a new kind of couch potato. This variety of 21st century
television watcher might not subscribe to premium cable, or even basic
cable. Some don't even own a TV ? holy Homer Simpson! ? instead viewing
shows on their laptops or PCs. Yet this new group has the devotion of the
recently converted.
And movers and shakers in the television industry can't help but take
notice. "It is kind of a new behavior," said Ted Sarandos, chief content
officer at Netflix Inc., which supplies many television DVD junkies with
their product. About 20% of the 1.4 million discs Netflix ships daily to
some of its 5.2 million subscribers are television-content DVDs, he said.
Sarandos too has succumbed to binge-watching, especially with "Entourage."
"Without this kind of watching, 'Entourage' would have been off my radar,"
he said.
Judith McCourt, director of research at Santa Ana-based Home Media
Retailing, has been tracking the TV/DVD market since the first television
shows were released on DVD in 1997 (among them "Beavis and Butt-head") and
the first-season sets came out in 2000 ("The X-Files," followed by "Sex and
the City" and "The Sopranos"). She said the sale of TV shows on DVD
continues to show double-digit-percentage rate growth ? and will approach
$3 billion this year ? even as the DVD market as a whole has flattened.
"Because series are available on DVD, people can go back and devour them,"
McCourt said. Viewers "can get everything they want all at once. They can
indulge themselves."
And indulge they do, especially those who've shied away from TV in the past
or have been reluctant to jump into the middle of a complicated plotline.
(More of those types of narratives are on the way: Many of the most
talked-about new shows this fall will carry the same serialized plot
structure that has made programs such as "24" so captivating.)
*
An anytime affair
BEFORE it was popular to release a TV series on DVD, watching episodes back
to back was possible only if viewers caught a marathon rerun session on-air
or, more recently, were willing to pay for TiVo or other DVR services. But
drawbacks included endless commercials, teasers and branding that is
"turning television into frustration," said Gord Lacey, founder of
TVShowsOnDVD.com, a site that tracks new releases and seeks to gauge viewer
desire for the DVD release of old shows such as "The Wonder Years."
"Watching it on DVD, you get rid of all that. It's a lot better, more
enjoyable way of watching television."
He added: "You just pop the DVD in and watch just one episode. Or 20 episodes."
Some industry observers say this new way of viewing may benefit television,
leading to more compelling shows.
"The power of that marketplace ? certainly impacted the way we go about our
business in terms of developing shows that seem riskier financially," said
20th Century Fox Television President Dana Walden. " '24' prompted the
industry as a whole to be much more ambitious."
And it shows, critics say. "Everybody I talk to seems to feel like the
quality of the good TV shows is so much better than it used to be," said
Jason Snell, editor of Teevee.org, a decade-old blog-like site that hosts a
variety of TV critics. "Suddenly TV is much more like a book or a movie
where it's this discrete thing that can be watched by itself."
And that's the way 29-year-old David Morini has consumed shows such as
HBO's "Six Feet Under" and "Arrested Development," one of a spate of
retiring shows that will live on in the DVD format.
The administrative assistant and graduate writing student who lives in
Oakland was "anti-TV" from the time he graduated from high school until
fairly recently. "I feel like I missed out on a lot of popular culture," he
said regretfully. Now he's attempting to make up for that.
Thanks to Netflix, Morini said he became "obsessed" with "Six Feet Under,"
which concluded its final season last August and is a contender tonight.
Morini said he frequently watched an entire disc or sometimes two (at three
hourlong episodes each), after coming home from school or work. Weekends,
he stayed in to watch even more of the show. He's now watched the entire
series ? five seasons.
"I just finished the last episode on Friday," he said a few weeks ago. "I
was going to go out, but I couldn't; I was an emotional mess. I had never
cried so much in my life."
Next up, Morini said he'll finally get to "24."
"I hear it's addictive," he said.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:34:42 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Ship lines get on board with cellphone and Wi-Fi
To: [email protected]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
x-avg-checked=avg-ok-4FD6542C
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-tr-cruise27aug27,1,5517748.column?coll=la-headlines-technology
Ship lines get on board with cellphone and Wi-Fi service
A few are holdouts, and some set etiquette rules. Wireless offers savings
over satellite phones.
Mary Lu Abbott
LA Times Cruise News
August 27, 2006
FOR better or worse, your boss now can reach you on your cellphone or
BlackBerry, even when you are vacationing on a cruise ship in the middle of
the Caribbean Sea.
There's no need for a special satellite phone or calling plan because most
ships are being equipped to accommodate late-model wireless devices. When
you call the boss or check in with the kids at home, the call on your
cellphone will cost you less ? sometimes much less ? than dialing from the
satellite phone in your cabin.
Wireless voice and data communication is the latest high-tech service
cruise lines have embraced. Computer centers with Internet access already
are common on most ships. Newer Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing vacationers to
access the Internet with their own laptops, is spreading from designated
hot spots to all parts of the ship, including cabins.
About a dozen lines now have wireless service on some ships.
Notable holdouts: Cunard, Princess Cruises and Seabourn. Cunard and
Princess are considering it. Seabourn has not had "a hue and cry from our
guests requesting this service," says Bruce Good, director of public relations.
But other cruise lines are promoting cellular service as an amenity that
many of today's travelers expect. A July survey of 1,071 adults age 18 and
older by International Communications Research for Cingular Wireless showed
that a quarter of the respondents used their cellphone when traveling
outside the United States. They averaged 10 calls per trip, most of them
personal.
But not everyone welcomes the idea of hearing those ring tones and the
one-way conversations of cellphone users.
"I don't think [cellphones] belong on cruise ships," says Cheryl Tokarski
of Philadelphia, a member of Cruise Critic, an online network of cruise
enthusiasts. "I fear we'll be in the dining room, and everyone's on cells
talking, but they have nothing to say: 'Yep, we're on a cruise. We're
eating dinner,' " she says. "Once I go on vacation, I'm on vacation."
Anne Goyer, a Cruise Critic follower in Sarasota, Fla., says she's drawn to
sea travel "to totally escape the hectic pace and constant contact of the
real world." She resists using computers aboard ship. "The advent of
cellphones on cruise ships, in my opinion, will significantly impact
cruising as we know it and certainly not for the better," she said.
Cruise lines walk a fine line between passengers who want to disconnect
from the real world and those who won't go on a vacation unless they can
stay connected to it.
"Travelers should have the option of choosing just how connected they'd
like to be with the outside world while on vacation," Terry L. Dale,
president of the Cruise Lines International Assn., said in a statement.
CLIA is a marketing organization for 19 North American lines.
"There's clearly an unmet demand," says Leighton Carroll, vice president of
Cingular Wireless, which has teamed up with Maritime Telecommunications
Network to form Wireless Maritime Services. WMS is equipping the ships of
several cruise lines with cellular service technology.
Carroll says he often fields questions from people who want to be sure they
can use their wireless devices on a specific ship before they book it.
WMS and SeaMobile are two major providers of the wireless technology on
cruise ships. The service works with most late-model wireless devices.
Guests can make and receive calls ? and send pictures or text messages ? as
they do on land. But the service works only when a ship is offshore,
Carroll says, because the provider companies don't want to interfere with
local laws or compete with local shore service. The required distance from
a port varies from about a mile in some places in Europe to 20 miles from
many ports, Carroll says.
Passengers are billed by their home cellular service carrier at
international roaming rates and don't have to pay extra to use the phone on
board. (Cruise lines share in the revenue with the cellular-service providers.)
Costs are $1.99 to $4.99 a minute, according to an association survey.
Carroll says Cingular charges $2.49 a minute from anywhere at sea to a U.S.
city. Data transmission, such as text messaging, usually is 50 cents a
minute. Using a stateroom phone for a ship-to-shore satellite call runs $5
to $25 per minute, CLIA reports.
Most major cellular service carriers ? Cingular, T-Mobile U.S., Sprint
Wireless and Nextel ? are linked with at-sea service companies, such as WMS
and SeaMobile. WMS has agreements with 340 providers, but Verizon is not
among them yet. But on ships using SeaMobile, Verizon customers can use
their phones.
Although some cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival, have no
rules about where passengers may use cellphones, other lines have set some
guidelines or are considering them.
At Regent Seven Seas Cruises, "We do request that guests set their ringers
to vibrate, avoid loud conversations and do not use their cellphones in any
of the ships' restaurants, bars or lounges," says spokesman Andrew Poulton.
Silversea Cruises asks guests not to use their cellphones in public areas,
such as the restaurant, spa, shops, library, Internet center, show lounge,
bar, casino and outdoor grill, says Brad Ball, director of corporate
communications. "We understand that there is a need for some guests to be
fully connected at all times, but they must respect the rights of fellow
passengers," he says.
Norwegian Cruise Line asks people to avoid using cellphones in theaters and
restaurants, and Holland America Line restricts use in all entertainment
venues.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:02:45 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] 'Gilligan's Island' boat up for sale
To: Media News <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
'Gilligan's Island' boat up for sale
http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060827-053546-9688r
PARKSVILLE, British Columbia, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The S.S. Minnow, which
gained notoriety for its role on U.S. TV's "Gilligan's Island," is being
sold by a Canadian boat broker for just under $100,000.
The New York Post said George Schultz is selling the 37-foot boat for
$99,000 in British Columbia for its owner Scotty Taylor, who is parting
with the large piece of TV memorabilia due to his increased age.
Originally built in 1960, the wooden Wheeler Express Cruiser was visible
in the popular TV comedy's opening credits starting in 1964 and Taylor,
its third owner, has added over $200,000 worth of refurbishments since
its TV debut, the Post said.
"It's a nice boat," said Schultz of the famous vessel. "A lot of money
went into this boat."
The newspaper said that ironically the Minnow has been shipwrecked in
real life as well, as its second owner sunk it after hitting a reef,
prompting Taylor's extravagant refurbishments.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
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End of Medianews Digest, Vol 13, Issue 1
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