dannyman.toldme.com

Battlestar Galactica Paid Download

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/01/25/battlestar-galactica-paid-download/

[From an e-mail I sent to the Sci-Fi Channel . . .]

Hello,

I don’t have cable, and my only access to TV shows has been via Netflix and Internet downloads.

I am very excited that you folks are now offering paid downloads of Battlestar Galactica! Bittorrent works great, but I’d like to see you guys compensated for the creative work and production costs, right? And since I only watch a few shows per month, the $2/episode is definitely a better value than buying Cable access, which is overpriced for my needs.

UNFORTUNATELY, the iTunes store is a closed, proprietary system, that can not be accessed from my home entertainment center, which runs on FreeBSD. So, even though I own a video iPod … I can not easily obtain the downloads from your vendor … and if I do somehow get to the iTunes store, I have no idea if they’re DRM-protected, which would block me from watching your show on my entertainment center anyway. :(

Please … please try to either:

a) Convince Apple to open up iTunes access to third parties. A while back, the open source community reverse-engineered the iTunes protocols so that Linux users could access this resource, but Apple locked these consumers out again.

b) Consider adopting Google Video as a sales channel — they have the capability to sell videos via traditional web browsers, which would allow ALL computer users to access your content, increasing consumer accessibility and sales for Battlestar Galactica.

Failing that … can I Paypal you guys $2/week for the episodes I have been obtaining via Bittorrent? :)

Thanks,
-danny

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Google Updater

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/01/12/google-updater/

So, the pattern with Google projects seems to go like this: release something mediocre and not so interesting, and over time, it gets a lot better.

Case in point: Google Video. At first, I saw no utility in this disorganized beast that only supplied video within the confines of a web browser. Ah, but the times they have been a changin’! Now you can buy videos from Google video, and unless the content provider has DRM, you can download the Google video in a file, and watch it without a stinking web browser. It is my fervent hope that before long, I’ll be able to download the shows I like to watch for about $2/hour, and I won’t have to deal with the gorge-your-brain-on-crap-all-you-can-eat buffet of mediocrity that is Cable.

Well, we’ll see if things go that way. But I think the TV industry is ready to learn from the opportunities missed by the music industry. And I think that while Apple Video store has an early lead in this territory, the Google Video store shows more promise, as it is in the business of making video available to the widest audience possible, where Apple is in their 1980s business of giving people an incentive to buy their proprietary hardware.

But what really gets me excited is Google Updater. What’s this? Well, they aren’t touting Updater, they’re touting Google Pack, which is a software bundle that Google thinks you should download. The pack is mediocre–Norton Antivirus? Norton is the suck! The Pack software litters up your desktop with icons . . . grr! And since Google is making your decisions for you, Google decides that you need Firefox with Google Toolbar. Okay . . .

So, Pack is mediocre, but Google Updater . . . now this is what excites me! It is a tool to update new versions of software. Nothing so magical about that–we have been automating software update deployment in the Unix world for years now! The cool thing is that Google is releasing a tool to do this on Windows. I hope they’ll release an API, as this would be very useful for IT folks. I think this will ultimately come to pass . . . much as Google Video ultimately let you download and buy video.

But why I really want Google Updater to be unleashed as a generally useful tool, is because this sort of framework for tracking and updating installed software really ought to be a part of the OS–it is in Unix land–but Microsoft has . . . well, let us say that they have not chosen to innovate in this direction . . . and Microsoft is ever so jealous of Google, with Ballmer throwing chairs around. If Google gets into the business of improving Microsoft’s core product, man, that’s gotta scare a few in Redmond.

And nothing proves that you’re doing no evil more than sticking it to the man.

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No More IKEA Emeryville for Me

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/01/09/ikea-emeryville-bah/

IKEA Flags, San Diego (Thanks, Juan23)

Don’t get me wrong, I mean, I love shopping at IKEA . . . the drive to the mega-store, the search for parking, the endless meandering through furniture and accoutrements, only to find yourself facing the stark reality of a giant warehouse, asking yourself if the Black-Brown BILLY bookshelf, which looks so black in the warehouse, is really the same color you were looking at in the showroom, and standing in line, wondering just what kind of crap they put in a 50c hot dog. But once you pay, and you’re rolling out the door, you know you’re not far from the actual joy of wrangling your heavy flat-packed furniture up the stairs and getting busy with the allen wrench.

But yesterday . . . well, I have officially given up on the Emeryville, CA IKEA. Here is my tale, as told in the call-and-response format that passes for “customer service” via the “Internet” these days: (more…)

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Sony is Fony

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/12/05/sony-is-fony/

In Sony’s defense, they are renting the walls that they are defacing:

Coming on the heels of widely publicized news that Sony music CDs infected customers’ computers with security-hole-inducing spyware, Sony has hired graffiti artists in major urban areas to spray-paint buildings with simple, totemic images of kids playing with the [PSP].

dannyman says:

Corporations who think they have Street Cred are kind of lame an awkward, like White People who think they can Rap. I’ll grant you, there may be a Corporate analog to Eminem, but it aint Sony.

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Gilmore v. Gonzales

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/12/05/gilmore-v-gonzales/

If you are free to visit San Francisco on Thursday December 8, then this may be an interesting activity. Even if you can’t go to this thing, you may be interested in your freedom anyway:

On the 4th of July 2002, John Gilmore, American citizen, decided to take a trip from one part of the United States of America to another. He went to Oakland International Airport — ticket in hand — and was told he had to produce his ID if he wanted to travel. He asked to see the law demanding he show his ‘papers’ and was told after a time that the law was secret and no, he wouldn’t be allowed to read it.

He hasn’t flown in his own country since.

On December 8th 2005, oral arguments in Gilmore v. Gonzales will be heard before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. At stake is nothing less than the right of Americans to travel anonymously in their own country — and the exposure of ‘secret law’ for what it is: an abomination.

You may think he’s crazy, but it is good when people challenge the government–read more at http://papersplease.org/gilmore/facts.html.

Thanks, Jeff!

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Early Retirement!?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/12/05/early-retirement/

I think my mom once said that she tried to send money to one charity a week. I thought “hey, that’s a neat idea.” So, I tend to cut checks . . .

. . . but, honestly, I’m sick and tired of the massive volumes of direct mail I receive as a consequence of my good intentions. My favorite are the environmental charities that send me mailing labels . . . I have like 6zillion mailing labels already, right? So, let’s kill s’more trees.

Well, here’s the final straw: (more…)

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Negative “Reader” Feedback

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/07/negative-reader-feedback/

(I tried Google Reader today. It sucked. Then I went back to my other “Google Reader” and saw they had posted about Reader to the blog . . . I tried to keep it civil . . . but I failed.) (more…)

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Jesus McChrist Writes Back

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/16/pledge-of-allegiance-under-god/

Well, they haven’t updated their website yet but the AFA are advocating that Congress pass a bill that reads:

S.1046 – The Pledge Protection Act of 2005 – reads as follows: ‘No court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance, as defined in section 4 of title 4, or its recitation.’

Now, while I can appreciate concern that some might have about “activist judges” this “activist legislative pre-judgement” or whatever you’d call it, uhmmm. Well, Jesus McChrist wrote them back: (more…)

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Kinky Friedman: “Under God?”

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/12/kinky-friedman-under-god/

So, I wrote the Kinky campaign: (more…)

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Those Little Subscription Cards

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/06/30/those-little-subscription-cards/

From: Danny Howard <dannyman@toldme.com>
To: themail@newyorker.com
Subject: Those Little Subscription Cards

Hello,

For generations, our species has been plagued by little slips of paper that fall out of magazines like The New Yorker when we are trying to read. This is very distracting, as the environmentally conscientious reader must bend down and pick these off the ground, and carry them over to the paper recycling bin. (more…)

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Flag Burning

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/06/26/flag-burning/

The flag stands for our nation, and its values, including Freedom of Speech.

Our men are dying in Iraq, and our nation and our planet have far more serious problems than flag burning. Our nation is run by crooks who write laws to please whomever pays them the most. We are sacrificing our moral superiority by torturing people, many of whom turn out innocent, and Osama bin Laden is still on the lose, and you have the cojones to tell me it is illegal to be unpatriotic?

If the jingoistic idiots running our nation do manage to pull off that flag-burning amendment, I will only be able to conclude that our nation is in fact in deep sh_t, and the only adequate way to express that will be by burning the flag in public.

Unless I’m a big chicken.

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Evolve!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/06/20/evolve/

(more…)

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Microsoft and the New Yorker

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/03/01/microsoft-new-yorker/

I’m flipping through the latest New Yorker, which this week has page after page of old New Yorker covers. This seems like a cheap ploy at generating the week’s content except that every New Yorker cover is, literally, a piece of art. Some are from way back, and so I have never seen them before. Others are familiar to me because I have been a subscriber for about two years. I turn from a full-page ad for Microsoft and see an old acquiantance. (more…)

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Dear Air America Radio

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/08/30/air-america/

Dear Air America Radio,

I have only heard that Steve Earl commercial maybe 10,000 times. I don’t think you are playing it enough. Please, please play it more, okay? “The revolution … the revolution …” I just can not get enough of that annoying plug for some lame musician. I makes me tune in to NPR from time to time …

Thanks,
-danny

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Dear Washington Mutual

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/07/09/washington-mutual/

I received a $4 check from Washington Mutual, which upon deposit would enroll me in some crazy program with undisclosed fees. I crossed out all the stuff on the back of the check about “By endorsing and depositing this check with Washington Mutual …”

I am depositing this check at my friendly local Washington Mutual ATM, with the following letter. We’ll see what happens.

Dear Washington Mutual,

As a consumer, I have a lot of choices as to where I do my personal
banking. I chose to do my banking with Washington Mutual because you
don’t charge other folks to use your ATMs. I think that is a righteous
policy, and all banks should operate this way.

I recently received the enclosed check for $4.00, which would enroll me
in some program I know nothing about. The check arrived from your
company with no descriptions of the fees you wish to charge me as a
consequence of depositing this check. This is misleading,
bait-and-switch trickery based on some misguided theory that as your
customer, I just might be dumb enough to fall for it.

You insult my intelligence, and my sense of doing the right thing, when
these are the very things that brought me in as a customer in the first
place. This is chutzpah. I return your chutzpah in kind. If this
check is credited to my account without preconditions, I will forgive
your breach of etiquette. If you prefer not to do this, I will keep my
eye out for other banking opportunities.

Thank you for your time and banking services. Thank you for the $4.
Thank you for firing the person who persuaded you to enact this scam.

Sincerely,
-danny

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