Joss Whedon’s Wacky Web Experiment Kicks Off
GigaOM writes about Joss’s new experiment: forget the studios (like Fox, that screwed him over by canceling Firefly), put it on the web, then straight to DVD. It looks amusing and I’m upbeat about it generally. Will this become the future of TV Series distribution? Will we need a new name for it besides “TV Series”?
Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.
Via GigaOM
Convicted murderer Hans Reiser leads police to Nina’s remains:
OAKLAND, CA (KGO) — ABC News has confirmed that authorities are in the process of recovering Nina Reiser’s remains from Redwood Regional Park, east of Skyline Boulevard.
We spoke with the office of Reiser’s attorney, William Dubois. They confirmed to us that Dubois and Reiser accompanied police into the park Monday afternoon. ABC News reports Reiser led them to his wife’s remains.
The body was found in a bag, buried deep in a ravine. The bag was well concealed and could have been easily overlooked. The remains have not yet been exhumed. Present at the scene were Judge Goodman, members of the district attorney’s office, Oakland police and Alameda sheriffs.
Reiser’s son testified at the trial that he had a dream that he saw his father carry his mother out of the house in a bag.
Sources tell ABC News that a deal was struck with Reiser that would reduce his conviction from first-degree murder to second-degree murder. The lesser charge means Reiser could receive a sentence of 15 years to life, instead of the previous 25 years to life.
Via abc7news.com
Microsoft’s Ballmer Touts Vista-To-XP Downgrade Program
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer has a unique sales pitch for the company’s Windows Vista operating system — if you don’t like it, you can turn it into Windows XP.
Referring to Microsoft licensing policies that allow customers who purchase an operating system to legally install predecessor versions on their PCs, Ballmer noted that the program allows customers who aren’t satisfied with Vista to use XP.
“Customers get both,” said Ballmer, during a brief interview at an event Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Ballmer was responding to a question about whether Microsoft would extend Window’s XP’s shelf life beyond its scheduled June 30 expiration for the broader PC market. The company earlier this week said it would give XP a reprieve for installations on ultra-low cost desktops.
Ballmer implied that an extension for mainstream PCs isn’t in the cards because customers who want XP past June 30 can simply purchase Vista and exercise the downgrade option. “I don’t know how you can do better than getting both,” he said.
Via InformationWeek
shameless.
EFF attacks foundation of entire RIAA lawsuit campaign:
By Nate Anderson | Published: June 22, 2008 - 09:03PM CT
The Electronic Frontier Foundation weighed in this week on the Jammie Thomas file-swapping case, where the judge has asked for public comment on whether just making a file available for download on a P2P network should count as copyright infringement. In its filing (PDF), the EFF goes for the jugular, seeking to show that the RIAA’s entire approach to file-swapping cases is flawed.
from the article:
So RIAA investigators just have to download the file instead of peeking into a shared folder, right? Sure, it’s a bit more resource intensive, but it’s not big deal.
Not quite, says the EFF in its brief; downloads by MediaSentry and other investigators don’t count, either.
“It is axiomatic that a copyright owner cannot infringe her own copyright,” says the brief in its concluding section. “By the same token, an authorized agent acting on behalf of the copyright owner also cannot infringe any rights held by that owner. Accordingly, where the only evidence of infringing distribution consists of distributions to authorized agents of the copyright owner, that evidence cannot, by itself, establish that other, unauthorized distributions have taken place.”
OUCH
Concept Cars: Shape-Shifting BMW Concept Car Is Made of CLOTH: NEW YORK, 8:54 AM, WED JUN 11
“BMW has created a concept car called the GINA Light Visionary Model, which takes a seamless, plastic-coated lycra material, and stretches it over a metal frame with moving parts—allowing for the car to have shape-shifting properties. The shape of the body can be changed without tearing or loosening the fabric, and the steering wheel, gauges and headrest all move into place after you sit down in the car.”
Via Gizmodo