Category Archives: Technology

Music, News, Popular Culture, Technology

In the iTunes Store Today (Update)

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I noticed that Metallica has been added.

I hadn’t heard anything about these long-term digital music hold outs joining the masses so I can only assume that this quiet, unassuming addition has to do with the band still paying for that terrible lawsuit-against-their-fans a few years back.

I just have a question. I have enjoyed Metallica over the years. I even enjoyed the doc “Some Kind of Monster.” which made me revisit their last album St. Anger. And they are even slated to appear on the season preimeire of the Simpsons this fall. But I beg the question…

Is (Can) Metallica still be relevant?

Update
iLounge just posted about the Metallica add. Here is what they had to say:

Long-time digital music holdouts Metallica are now selling their entire back catalog on the iTunes Music Store. Apple is currently offering 10 albums, from the band’s debut “Kill ‘Em All” to 2004’s “Some Kind of Monster” EP. Previously unreleased live tracks have also been added to each of the first four albums as iTunes bonuses.

“Over the last year or so, we have seen an ever-growing number of Metallica fans using online sites like iTunes to get their music,” the band says on their official website. “So, in continuing with the tradition of offering our albums for sale online (which we’ve been doing for a few years through various sites), as well as making our live concerts available for download in their entirety (through the livemetallica.com site), we are now offering fans the opportunity to obtain our songs individually.”

Let me interpret Metallica’s press release for you: Nobody is buying our stuff at these other sites because nobody uses these other sites. Please buy our stuff. We’re sorry that Lars is an idiot. Please fans, come back to us. Please!!!! We’re still relevant. Aren’t we?

Cinema, Technology

An Askew View Thinks Outside the Box

Ok, all the crude, vomitous humor and abhorrent language aside, director Kevin Smith usually thinks way outside the box. Smith has done some pretty unlikly things during his time in the spotlight. He has made movies on a shoestring budget yet he has still been able to attract big audiences. He has made movies that speak directly to his fanbase, The Viewaskeniverse, and yet many of his films have had mass appeal. Smith works on and off for those in the comic book industry helping to reinvent or revive old franchises such as the Green Arrow and Daredevil (DC and Marvel respectively).

Now Smith, hoping to create synergy between his fans, technology, and geekdom, is embarking on a new stunt that many Hollywood directors could learn from.

In an ingenious new ploy, (Smith) has recorded a commentary for “Clerks II” that will be available for free download on iTunes, encouraging viewers to take their iPods to the theater for a second viewing.


I would like to see this happening alot more. I think that video podcast has helped spread word of mouth and excitement about upcoming films. Disney/Pixar used them for “Cars” and Paramount for “Nacho Libre.” Director Podmentary could catch on as well. If there’s more money to be made…

Via
New York Times (Subsription only)

Ministry, Technology

Things I Go Geek For

I am a minister, a technophile, and a Mac user so naturally I have the premiere Bible software available for the Mac (read: only Bible software available for the Mac), Accordance.

My wife can’t understand why I get so excited about this stuff. When she asked me what I wanted for my 24th birthday I didn’t hesitate. “Oooooh, can I please get this really awesome Bible software,” I said enthusiastically. After she relized that I wasn’t kidding, she looked real disappointed that I asked for something so practical. However, that April she bought me the Library 6 collection and I have since added a module here or there. In fact I added a level this past weekend. I installed the new Personal Growth Suite by Zondervan. The suite includes the TNIV Bible and quite a few tools for Bible study (Discipleship, Fruits of the Spirit, and Men/Women of the Bible studies).

I love Accardance. I have roughly twenty Bibles at my fingertips, not to mention all the comentaries, Greek lexicons, and historical texts a guy could ask for. The program really has hellped me become a better lover of scripture. Someday, I’ll get the Essential IVP Reference Collection. Right now though I’m excited about the next official update.

Library 7 is a few weeks away from being released. The official blog has been posting some screencaps and secret goodies to whet our appetites. For the one or two of you who care, check out the new features.

Accordance Bible Software: Something I Go Geek Over

Music, News, Technology

The RIAA is on a Roll

I have never made my feelings for the Recording Industry Association of America a secret. I have always been pretty honest with my belief that the record execs do not have the public’s best interests at heart. We have seen their true colors through the recent payola scandals and their squabbles over the 99 cent price point for the iTunes music store.

This morning I received the following email from XM Radio.

Everything we’ve done at XM since our first minute on the air is about giving you more choices. We provide more channels and music programming than any other network. We play all the music you want to hear including the artists you want to hear but can’t find on traditional FM radio. And we offer the best radios with the features you want for your cars, homes, and all places in between.

We’ve developed new radios — the Inno, Helix and NeXus — that take innovation to the next level in a totally legal way. Like TiVo, these devices give you the ability to enjoy the sports, talk and music programming whenever you want. And because they are portable, you can enjoy XM wherever you want.

The music industry wants to stop your ability to choose when and where you can listen. Their lawyers have filed a meritless lawsuit to try and stop you from enjoying these radios.

They don’t get it. These devices are clearly legal. Consumers have enjoyed the right to tape off the air for their personal use for decades, from reel-to-reel and the cassette to the VCR and TiVo.

Our new radios complement download services, they don’t replace them. If you want a copy of a song to transfer to other players or burn onto CDs, we make it easy for you to buy them through XM + Napster.

Satellite radio subscribers like you are law-abiding music consumers; a portion of your subscriber fee pays royalties directly to artists. Instead of going after pirates who don’t pay a cent, the record labels are attacking the radios used for the enjoyment of music by consumers like you. It’s misguided and wrong.

We will vigorously defend these radios and your right to enjoy them in court and before Congress, and we expect to win.

Thank you for your support.

I heard rumblings about this lawsuit over the weekend but didn’t think much about it at the time. Now, the more I think about it the more frustrated I get.

It isn’t that I am against the RIAA. I am not rooting for piracy or for blatant disregard for the artists. No, what I am for is an industry that seeks innovation and creativity instead of complaints and lawsuits. The RIAA has circled the wagons and has been fighting technology instead of working with it for the better part of a decade now. True, the industry was hemorrhaging money due to online piracy. However, instead of looking for innovative ways to meet the demand for online music they went looking for lawyers and congressman to haul the offenders in front of the public in order to scare us into submitting to their old form. While the music industry was in court, tech companies were we busy in the labs creating. They created the iPod and the iTunes store. These products changed the listening habits of music fans all over the world. The RIAA was begging and pleading to be a part of iTunes. That is until they wanted a bigger slice. Today is no different.

It’s the same old song and dance: An innovated product and company that will allow consumers to get the music they want when the want it is being sued by the RIAA.

I am incensed by this industry embracing litigation over innovation. Get your heads out of the sand: Music on demand is here to stay. Like it or not. The RIAA has two choices. They can keep suing and complaining and crying and wasting tax dollars through litigation or they can begin to look ahead to the future through creative marketing and innovated products and begin to be on the forefront of technology. The industry could look like a stallion: Muscular, strong, beautiful, and running at full stride. Instead, they look more like a little kindergartner on the playground screaming at the top of his lungs to the 12th graders:

“Stop! I can’t keep up. Teacher! They won’t stop! I’m telling! Please, stop!”

Pathetic.

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News, Rants, Technology

As It Stands Today, Microsoft Wins

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I believe that a death blow was dealt yesterday in the battle between Microsoft and Sony for hearts, minds, and opposable thumbs of the world’s gaming community. Microsoft came out hard last holiday season weilding its brand new weapon, XBOX 360. Sony faltered and delayed the release of the much anticipated Playstation 3 until later this year. Sony had been the clear champion with the PS2 and was poised to again soundly trumb the XBOX with their upcoming console.

That is until yesterday when Sony came out and cut its own head off.

Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 3 will be the most expensive game system on the market when it debuts Nov. 17 in North America.

The much anticipated video game console will sell for $499 for a system that has a 20-gigabyte hard drive or $599 for a system with three times the storage, the company said at a news conference Monday night. Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 starts at $299.

I will tell you what I am not. I am not a gaming expert. I will never have a show on G4 and I will never win any awards for my gaming abilities.

However, I am a male, age 18-34, who derives a good deal of pleasure from playing video games during some of my free time. I am your average video game player. I was born during the heyday of the arcade, played Pitfall with my dad on our Atari, grew up with my little grey friend the NES, played too much Goldeneye in college, got married and fell in love with my PS2.

The Playstation 3’s price point is astronomically high. Let’s say you buy the basic PS3 and one game. You are out $560. That’s without tax. I live in a city that has a 10% sales tax. That would bring the price for a basic system and one game to $616. I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

I predict that come this November, Microsoft will drop the price of the XBOX 360 for holiday shoppers and the battle will be over. Even something as small as a $50 dollar price cut would entice more mothers and fathers to choose the XBOX over the PS3.

Sony, you priced yourselves right out of the game.

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Music, News, Technology

Beatles’ Apple Corps loses trademark suit against Apple Computer’s iTunes

I had no doubt.

LONDON (AP) — Apple Computer (AAPL) is entitled to use the apple logo on its iTunes Music Store, a judge ruled Monday, rejecting a suit filed by Apple Corps, the guardian of the Beatles’ commercial interests.
Apple Corps, which contended that the U.S. company had broken a 1991 agreement in which each side agreed not to enter into the other’s field of business, said it would appeal.

Judge Edward Mann ruled that Apple Computer used the fruit logo in association with the store, not the music, and thus did not breach the agreement.

“I conclude that the use of the apple logo … does not suggest a relevant connection with the creative work,” Mann said in his written judgment. “I think that the use of the apple logo is a fair and reasonable use of the mark in connection with the service, which does not go further and unfairly or unreasonably suggest an additional association with the creative works themselves.”

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Music, News, Popular Culture, Rants, Shameless Self Promotion, Technology

IPAC, I’ll Take a Free iPod For TechEd!

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If you are a Senator who has received thousands of campaign dollars from the entertainment industry (including the RIAA) and then you are given an iPod by a non-profit organization highlighting the need to change legislation that could affect technology forever, what do you do with the iPod?

Apparently, you send it back.

The people over at IPAC, whose tagline reads, “Defending the public intrest where culture and politics meet,” recently sent a number of iPods to various senators and congressman for the purpose of encouraging these public servants to take a serious look at technology and see how congress can better serve it’s people through new or improved legislation.

The letter that was enclosed with each iPod explained further the reason behind the gift:

Why did IPAC send my campain an iPod?
Though iPods are best known for playing music, they can also be used to assist your campaign. You can use the device to store contact information for donors or manage your busy calendar. You can archive footage of your public speaking engagements or view recorded television and radio interviews on the road. We hope you find other uses for the device as well.

The iPod is also a useful illustration for many complicated copyright and technology issues. In fact, pending legislation in the Senate will make some of your iPod’s uses illegal. For example, if Senator Gordon Smith’s “Digital Content Protection Act” becomes law, it could prohibit the transfer of digital broadcast content to personal media players and stifle American technical innovation. We believe that hands-on experience with the same devices that your constituents use can provide a new perspective on these topics.

Other legislation would make this device more useful. For example, the House has been considering Representative Rick Boucher’s “Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act”

(DMCRA, HR 1201), which would amend our copyright law to protect American consumers and technological leadership.

What is on my iPod?
Your iPod has been pre-loaded with video, music, images, and text that is in the public domain or released under permissive terms like those provided by Creative Commons licenses. This means that everything on your iPod is free.

But that does not mean it isn’t valuable.

Far from it. In the “Notes” section, you’ll find the complete works of Shakespeare, the Constitution of the United States, and other important literarature. The audio content includes music by David Byrne, the Beastie Boys, and scores of independent artists. We also included a slideshow with 101 photos selected from the millions in flickr.com’s Creative Commons image pool. Under “Videos,” you’ll find a special presentation from Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on the importance of balancing copyright law with technical innovation and the rights of the public. A full list of your iPod’s contents is available here:

https://ipaction.org/campaigns/ipod/content.html

If you are pleased by the richness you see and hear, we also hope that you are troubled by what you do not. In the public domain texts there are very few female and non-European authors. That is because in America, the public domain was essentially frozen in 1923, when our national chorus was only open to certain voices. The public domain has become an island, cut off from our cultural mainland and populated by ghosts.

Copyright policy shouldn’t only be concerned with expanding copyright – it should focus on calibrating these policies to support artists, the public, and access to our common heritage. We look forward to working with you and your campaign in the future to ensure American innovation continues.

Apparently, these issues are not high on Senator Conrad Burns’ priority list. IPAC recieved the iPod back with a note that read, “Thank you, but we cannot accept this gift.” There was no leagal reason for Burns to send the gift back because IPAC followed the law regarding donations to a T. So why send this small gift back? According to IPAC, Burns’ campaign spokesperson said that the iPod, “is the first time (Burns’ campaign) has received something technological” as a donation, adding that ‘it’s just not a donation that we want’ and confirming that while Burns does not presently own an iPod, ‘if he wants an iPod, he’ll buy one.'”

The concerns that IPAC raise seem pretty important and I think that sending these iPods to our nations leaders was a wonderful, creative, out-side-the-box approach to change. I think the next step for IPAC should be to send these iPods to consumers thus educating the people who vote for these elected officials.

IPAC, you can reach me a kickingattthedarkness(at)gmail.com. I’ll send you my address. I’m ready to be educated.

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Faith in Action, Popular Culture, Religion, Technology

Righteous Anger Toward “Left Behind: the Game”

“Combines Tom Clancy-like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical refrences.”

That is how the NYTimes describes the mind-numbing bad idea that is Left Behind: Eternal Forces. This game first raised my eyebrows when I read about the Christian video game market in Time Magazine a few months back. I shook my head and forgot about it. That is until today.

After reading a hilarious parody on Radical Conguency, I made an off-handed remark about the game and the comments rolled in.

Justin went above and beyond writing a stark and brutally honest critique of this abomnible “game” where unbelievers are slaughtered in the streets of New York.

Here is an excerpt:

The idea of religious video games that celebrate the death and eternal destruction of non-adherents – worse yet, that makes their annhiliation the primary task of the Christian community – raises my abhorrence for the Left Behind phenomenon to a level of utter disgust that I previously reserved only for racism and genocide.

Left Behind is to Christianity what terrorism is to Islam. Both are narcissistic and destructive distortions of otherwise (mostly) benign religions. Believing in hell or something like it does not require us to take pleasure or desire to participate in the destruction of others. If God wants to kill certain people at a certain point in history, that’s his business. And he can damn well do it himself. He doesn’t need any help from a bunch of self-righteous, overcaffeinated adolescents with bad theology in one pocket and ammo in the other.
If someone released a jihad video game, right-wing bloggers would waste no time denouncing it and pointing out what a terrible idea it is to teach young minds that it’s a good idea to murder people who don’t share your beliefs. I fear that this will not happen with the Left Behind series of game, though; the blogosphere’s reaction is likely to go no farther than scoffing and incredulous eye-rolling.

Please check out the rest of the article. Let these video game developers know that these kind of games are unacceptable.

Left Behind Video Games: Possibly the Single Worst Idea Ever

Church of Christ, Technology

big PROPS

It isn’t to often that you can put a post in the category of both CoC and technology but I am thrilled to do so today.

According to Reporter-news.com, Abilene Christian University will begin to offer iPod video content on two graudate level degrees.

Students who enroll in Abilene Christian University’s Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation or Master of Education in Leadership of Learning programs will receive an Apple Video iPod as part of their course cost.

Students will use the handy tools to download and access videos and other study materials at their convenience. Students can then take those materials anywhere they go.

The program will allow busy graduate students to enhance their education while meeting the responsibilities of jobs and family, said Dr. Gary Tucker, director of distance education.

The classes are the first in what the university is calling ”ACU WorldWide,” designed largely to bring ACU’s classes to students in urban and global markets, he said.

”The people who need graduate degrees are busy professionals, and they don’t have the time to come to a university,” Tucker said. ”This will allow them to take classes that will fit into their lifestyles.”

Way to go, ACU! It is exciting to see colleges embrace technology and use forward thinking to better serve their students, faculty, and staff. Awesome!

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Music, Popular Culture, Technology

Here Comes the Sun

According to iLounge.com…

The Beatles are preparing to make their albums available through online music services after years of refusing to embrace digital music. During the Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer trademark lawsuit last week, Neil Aspinall, a former Beatles road manager and managing director of Apple Corps, said that the company was digitally remastering the entire Beatles catalog in preparation of selling it online. “I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters,” he said. “It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc.” A spokeswoman for Apple Corps confirmed Aspinall’s statement.

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