- David Duchovny goes into sex rehab. Just by coincidence, he is currently starring in a new Showtime drama called “Californication” (a nod to the Red Hot Chili Peppers) as a sex addict. Interesting coincidence, no? Does it occur to anyone else that this could be an extraordinary publicity ploy by David to give new rise to his flailing career? I mean, really. His official statement via publicist is “I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family.” Ummm. If you really wanted to keep it hush-hush, David, why did you release a statement announcing you were entering rehab in the first place? Nobody was watching. They haven’t for years. Perhaps that’s the problem?
- The newest bright shiny object on the political scene has some local connections. In an article bragging as such, a local Republican Party committee guy says of Sarah Palin: “What impresses me most about her is she took on the Alaska Stevens-Murkowski-Young political machine, run by an old-boy network of members of her own party, and beat them. That took courage and a commitment to principle that is rare in politics.” If that last sentence is true, how sad a commentary on what the norm has become in governing ourselves.
- Teaser headline: Students show off stylish togs for fall. Question: If one uses “togs” to describe fashion, does one really have the qualifications to deem what is stylish?
- As of October 1, Comcast is going to limit the amount of data its customers can download and upload each month. I’m not a Comcast customer (cable doesn’t run to the nether regions of Woodhaven), but I was rather annoyed by this opening statement. Later in the blurb, it explains that the limit will be 250GB of traffic per month and that few subscribers use more than that. Ummm. OK. So the point of the limit and the bad Big Brother publicity would then be?
- Who says the financial pages are boring? In answer to a question about why Yahoo!’s CEO (Jerry Yang) vehemently turned down a buy-out offer by Microsoft, a hoot of a columnist named Malcolm Berko replies: “Jerry “No Yin” Yang…is an industrial-strength dork.” Ah. Courage and commitment to telling it like it is. Malcolm for President!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Going through the stack of newspapers
Random thoughts while catching up on the news..
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3 comments:
Is Duchovny's career really struggling? "Californication" is one of the highest-rated shows for Showtime, and it did get a 2008 Emmy nomination.
Did you see the Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page was sanitized just minutes before McCain announced her as his running mate?
Comcast's 250GB limit is a huge improvement over their current notion of network management, which even the FCC has blasted. Comcast was (and--to the end of the year--might still be) using deep-packet inspection to target certain types of data transfers with forged packets meant to shut down the connections. (Comcast originally denied this practice, but when bloggers offered evidence, they fessed up. Then they paid homeless people to take up many of the seats at the public hearing in an effort to keep critics out.) A 250GB cap means they won't be looking so closely at the content of our transactions, just the quantity. That's less big brother, not more. It also means they won't be discriminating against the protocol you use to transfer files. A 250GB limit is reasonable (for now) for a residential account. If you need more, you can pay a little more for a commercial account. The fundamental problem is that they oversold their bandwidth and advertised the service as "unlimited".
Jerry Yang's a good guy doing what he thinks is right. Other than PowerPoint, can you think of one company that's been absorbed by Microsoft that hasn't been completely dismantled? I'd have a hard time selling my baby to Microsoft, too. And if I had to, I'd hold out for a very good price. I suspect that's what Jerry was doing, which allowed Steve Ballmer to save face and back out when they realized what a horrendously stupid move it would be for Microsoft.
Hey Aid, thanks for your comments!
Really?? "Californication" isn't a brand new show? I hadn't heard of it until about a month ago and I haven't noticed David in "People" in ages. So, by my measure, if you aren't gracing the pages of "People," you aren't in the mainstream popular culture. Too bad "Love Boat" isn't on any more. Then we'd REALLY know if his career is struggling or not.
And interesting observation about Sarah Palin's page. How do you know it was sanitized? I can see the last time it was modified (today as it turns out). Is there a way to know what changes were made?
You lost me at "deep-packet inspection." But it sounds like their move is actually one that gives, not robs privacy and freedom? If that's true, they need a better marketing department.
You obviously would have paid much more attention to the Yahoo/Microsoft interactions given your work history. From the outside observer -- and probably even more so to Yahoo stockholders -- it really looked like Jerry was acting like a whiny pre-schooler holding tight to his toys.
Also on Comcast: the WSJ reported that they were already limiting bandwidth for certain heavy users, but on a more or less ad hoc basis. The limit varied by time of day, past history, and current network loads. Putting a number on the policy makes it more fair and transparent for everyone.
The (unfortunate) missing piece is a meter you can use to see how much bandwidth you've used. They don't have that now and aren't planning it. I suspect that'll have to change.
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