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It appears that way, Derek. It appears that way.

7 days ago on Watch this: One World Trade Center's spire lowered into place above a miniature Manhattan 1 recommend

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Exactly. Dude’s bellyaching about ‘irresponsible journalism’ when the original author drew conclusions about gender relations himself.

I actually think it’s brave of The Verge to extrapolate a deeper, more significant issue than the technicalities of the Python script at work. Despite the sensationalist headline, this brief article is a thoughtful look at using technology as a tool for uncovering deeply-ingrained social bias. If that’s unimportant to davidEchols, well, he’s reading the wrong website. Go read a site about Python scripting, David; The Verge is about culture.

9 days ago on What can Python and the New York Times tell us about gender? 1 recommend

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What these scripts do give us is an interesting look at the most specifically masculine or feminine topics we’re likely to see covered, whether because of editorial choice or as a reflection of the real world.

Exactly. The why is impossible to answer with what is ultimately an interesting collection of facts and figures.

We’re still emerging from a heavily sexist (and racist) culture, so it makes sense that vestiges of this exist; it’ll fade over time.

10 days ago on What can Python and the New York Times tell us about gender? 1 reply 4 recommends

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I didn’t mean to suggest that labels, production, and distribution (whether in music or any other form of content publishing) are useless; I agree that in some cases, they enable reach and audience artists wouldn’t otherwise have access to. I also wasn’t referring to artistic control, so much as control of distribution and copyright.

I was saying that good work finds its audience, and eventually, creators profit, because the distribution paradigm the Internet enables obviates the distribution those companies provide. (Using Youtube as an example: thousands of people make a living videoblogging on Youtube. Videoblogging. The Internet makes audiences that enjoy bloggers accessible, totally of outside traditional media.)

Content companies are still fighting for that control, when they should have accepted the new paradigm and changed their business models long ago. So, yes, it’s likely that people who work for them will lose their jobs as the industry restructures, but since they’ve been so slow to change—and the changes that they have made have, mostly, been shortsighted and stupid—those jobs have been at risk for years. If they fail to adapt, the companies should die, and enable the middle-men they employ to pursue more worthy interests.

10 days ago on YouTube launches paid channels starting at $0.99 per month 1 recommend

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Gigabit. RTFA.

10 days ago on Beamcaster blasts the internet along lasers through the open air 1 recommend

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You’re right that overall revenue per artist will shrink; the point, though, is that the artist has control of what he or she makes—and, proportionally, yes, they make more, since they’re not paying a record company’s overhead.

Really, if content distribution companies had any foresight whatsoever, they would have given artists more control long ago. If they can’t keep up with the times, these companies should die. A service like this YouTube thing should have happened a long time ago.

I think it’s also worth arguing that decentralizing and democratizing content in the way that the Internet has made possible will eventually mean a greater distribution of wealth, even if it costs some office jobs at Warner or Sony BMG or NBC or whatever. The days of corporate hit-making are numbered; instead of buying the next big Black Eyed Peas turd because marketing, people will buy something with soul because they like it. Macklemore will make money, and so will Jonathan Coulton, and the BEP’s will do just fine, too, if they don’t owe their record company millions.

(Unprovable side note: most artists do the thing they love for free, anyway, so the fact that this sort of business model—pay for the stuff you like—enables them to profit financially is icing on the cake.)

The point I’m making is that the middle-men will be fine. The companies that employ them should have changed a long, long time ago, and it’s getting to be too late, so they deserve to die. Who knows, though: maybe an A&R guy at Interscope always wanted to be an animator, instead, and when Interscope downsizes, he pursues his dream, instead of poaching actual artists, and we’ll have a richer content landscape for it.

10 days ago on YouTube launches paid channels starting at $0.99 per month 1 reply 1 recommend

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I think this is more up to publishers than distributors. Big channels like VEVO, with international audiences, protect their content that way. Old media’s trying to hang on to their control of distribution.

11 days ago on YouTube launches paid channels starting at $0.99 per month 2 recommends

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The point is, you’ll have the control to determine how high the bill goes. This is a huge blow to traditional content deliverers (big networks, Comcast, etc.).

11 days ago on YouTube launches paid channels starting at $0.99 per month 5 recommends

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Seriously.

Popular Youtube music guy Jack Conte just launched a service called Patreon that allows users to pay content producers directly.

Up yours, middle-men.

11 days ago on YouTube launches paid channels starting at $0.99 per month 1 reply 5 recommends

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I hope so. They have the market cornered, and the idea of having a tablet that’s useful for graphics work and other things is a pretty enticing one.

Wacom’s pens detect proximity in addition to pressure, and even angle. Since this is a battery-powered, bluetooth device, I imagine it’d be pretty easy to do all but proximity. If the price is right, I’ll be sold; it’s Cintiq functionality at half the price, if you’re just considering the tablet.

14 days ago on Adobe announces first hardware, the Project Mighty smart stylus and Napoleon ruler

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Jobs was not a designer. He was a great curator, maybe, but not a designer. He was primarily a manager and a salesman.

21 days ago on Android design lead Matias Duarte: Facebook Home shows 'incredible amount of polish' 1 recommend

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Plenty of airplanes older than 17 years are still in use.

28 days ago on Senator McCaskill grills FAA chief over 'arbitrary' electronic device restrictions 2 replies 1 recommend

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Explosives are not guns.

Most gun owners use guns for perfectly legitimate purposes: hunting, collecting, general interest, self-defense.

‘Cowering in fear’ (if that’s what this could be called) is a very sensible response to a person or persons wielding dangerous weapons with ill intent specifically against human lives.

28 days ago on Sympathy for the devil: #freejahar spreads across Twitter as Boston bombing suspect charged 15 recommends