He's a sworn enemy of the Dodgers but damn if he isn't hilarious to watch.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
One Foot Tsunami: The Most Rockin’ Jingle Ever
Marco Arment [Marco.org]
Weezer recorded their version of the State Farm song in a tremendous “sellout” move, but it actually sounds great — I’d say it’s better than almost every song the band has recorded in the last decade.
Kind of makes Pork And Beans less ironic and more foreshadowing...
Selig rejects Fox proposal to loan Dodgers (read:McCourt) $200 million
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has rejected a proposal under which Fox would have lent about $200 million to Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, three people familiar with the discussions told The Times.
Just what the Dodgers need, Fox in the driver's seat again... pass. I'm just suprised Selig made a decision that wasn't completely idiotic.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Day the Movies Died
The fear of nonbranded movies can occasionally approach the ridiculous, as it did in 2006 when Martin Scorsese's The Departed was widely viewed within the industry as a "surprise" hit, primarily because of its R rating and unfamiliar source material. It may not have been a brand, but, says its producer Graham King, "Risky? With the guy I think is the greatest living director and Nicholson, Matt Damon, Wahlberg, and Leo? If you're at a studio and you can't market that movie, then you shouldn't be in business."
They just don't get it.
[GQ]
Friday, February 18, 2011
Details on Albert Pujols' Negotiations with St. Louis
Pujols was interested in owning part of the Cardinals and the team explored the possibility, according toDerrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Players cannot "directly or indirectly, own stock or have any financial interest in the ownership or earnings of any Major League Club," unless the Commissioner approves the agreement, but Bud Selig could be open to allowing such an arrangement between Pujols and the Cardinals.
You know you're big time when just getting paid (over $20 million a year no less) isn't enough. Pujols actually wants to be paid in ownership of the team, crazy.
[MLBTR]
Antitrust Enforcers Eye Apple
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission's interest in Apple's new subscription service is at a preliminary stage, and might not develop into either a formal investigation or any action against the company. But it comes as Apple has attracted growing antitrust scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, said Thursday that the commission was aware of the new subscription service and was "carefully monitoring the situation."
DOJ, FTC and European Union... That's not the kind of interest you want.
[WSJ]
Gawker's Gulp Moment
According to Quantcast, which directly measures the sites, Gawker’s U.S. daily unique visitors were cut in half from a high of 561,000 to 257,000 (see chart above). Gizmodo dropped from 746,000 to 420,000 in the U.S. Sitemeter shows an even more harrowing freefall for Gizmodo (see chart at right). Jezebel and Deadspin also took hits. Only Lifehacker seems to be holding steady.
Ouch, not the kind of numbers you want to see. Good to see Lifehacker readers keeping steady.
My biggest issue with the site redesign is linking on mobile devices. Instead of going to the actual page it just loads a mobile version of the site which lists articles chronologically. Not very helpful if the link you've been given is for an article that was posted more than 15 minutes ago.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Apple Announces Subscriptions Via App Store, For A Price...
Today Apple annouced they will now be supporting subscriptions in the App Store. This has been discussed at length over the past few months and no one wants to beat a dead horse, but reading the press release one section stuck out.
“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.”
Seems pretty simple; customer starts the subscription in the app and the publisher gets 70%, start the subscription out of the app and the publisher gets 100%. The caveat being that both subscriptions have to be the same price. What if a magazine wants to give digital subscriptions as part of their standard snail mail issue subscription? Would the publisher have to give the same offer through their app and subsequently give Apple 30% of their print issue business as well?
I for one will be subscribing to items directly on publisher's websites if I have the option. Getting 30% in the App Store is one thing, but 30% when you are mearily a credit card processor is akin to robbery.
As Marco Arment said on Twitter:
Apple's "you must sell subscriptions through us, at the same price or less, if you also sell them on your website" is a huge dick move.
[Apple]
Criterion Collection available on Hulu Plus
Hulu Plus just announced a deal with Criterion Collection. They are starting with 150 available now and another 650 to come. I know what I'll be doing for the next few months.
For Criterion, thanks to our advertising partners, Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to watch the Criterion Collection free of interruption. (Any ads will play up front.) For those who don’t have a Hulu Plus subscription, each month we’ll still rotate a few Criterion titles through Hulu.com with our normal periodic ad breaks.
If you're Hulu Plus subscriber you get to watch these films ad free as well, just walk away during the preroll.
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