Chxta's Space (3 Viewers)

swag

swag

L'autista
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#765
Sep 23, 2003
84,749
#765
Almost as irrelevant as the Twitter feed for "DelPiero (juventus)":

http://twitter.com/juventus

Hello ! I want to do homework-
0-11:32 PM Apr 16th, 2007 from web

hello I am HK
11:32 PM Apr 16th, 2007 from web

I am playing online game
11:28 PM Apr 16th, 2007 from web
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I think Wayne Rooney has been trying to pull a fast one on us.
 
OP
Chxta

Chxta

Onye kwe, Chi ya ekwe
Thread Starter #768
Nov 1, 2004
12,088
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    • Thread Starter #768


    "But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing hollywood ever taught us."
    ---Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström
    ​

    In the early 1980s, the film companies in the USA fought to prevent the newly invented Video Cassette Recorder from entering the consumer market. They were concerned about copyright violations. In the landmark case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the US Supreme Court ruled that the device was acceptable for private use. This ruling changed the face of home entertainment as we know it because from then on people were able to watch their favourite movies from the comfort of their homes even when such movies were no longer being shown in cinemas. Following that ruling, the film companies themselves found that videorecordings of their products had become a major income source. In other words, their initial resistance to the proliferation of the new device was not only unnecessary, but it was short sighted as well.

    Some hours ago a court in Stockholm found the good guys at The Pirate Bay guilty of file-sharing and sentenced them to a year in prison each. Speaking as someone who has benefited from their largesse on more than one occasion, I am appalled at the fact that the Swedish government and legal system caved in so easily to the demands of the American entertainment establishment.

    People always make random noises about how software, or music, or video piracy is a crime. Sorry, I beg to differ. And yes, I am guilty of downloading movies and music for free. Software is something I have not done for yeas since I got introduced to the wonderful world of Ubuntu, but that is a story for another time and place.

    When the Internet first became ubiquitous, file sharing was not popular until Napster came along. With the advent of Napster, people found that they did not even have to leave home to get their hands on their favourite movies, or music, or software. Despite the repeated attacks on file sharing networks, each time one is forced to close down, many more rise up to take its place. Laws are being passed to strangle people's ability to share files, but people are coming up with more and more ingenious methods to circumvent those laws. When will the governments and entertainment industry learn that Pandora's box has been opened and that there is nothing they can do about this technologies to make them go away?

    As access to the net becomes more widespread and download speeds become faster, people will as a matter of course download more and more material, from their favourite applications, to their favourite artiste's songs, to pornography, to their favourite movies. It cannot be stopped, but it can probably be controlled. Ever since the invention of the mp3 file format, people no longer saw the need to store large amounts of disks in their living rooms. With the constantly falling costs of electronic storage, there is no need to keep large numbers of DVDs in your movie cabinet. It will never stop.

    The entertainment industry has to be creative (is that not what they are supposed to be?). In 2007, the rock band Radiohead released their album In Rainbows as a digital download. Fans could download some of the music for free and if you liked what you heard, you could get some more for a token fee, and of course come and see the band when next they came on tour close to you. They made a killing from that model. Some other music groups have done that since then and all have met with moderate success. The lesson that can be picked from that exercise is simple: if your art is good, people will still pay to come and see it. Hell, Chxta got to watch Slumdog Millionaire and The Reader but still went to the cinema to see them. They were that good. Why can the movie industry not find a model that is more in line with today's market place instead of pushing everyone to criminality? As for the software industry, a solution has been in place for donkey years now, it is called Open Source.

    For the sake of clarity, it is the belief of this writer that the entertainment industry is fighting a loosing battle on this matter. Today's pirates would become tomorrow's heroes.
     
    OP
    Chxta

    Chxta

    Onye kwe, Chi ya ekwe
    Thread Starter #769
    Nov 1, 2004
    12,088
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    • Thread Starter #769
    So with the new season about to get underway, the madness is set to resume and I am back. Missed y'all. Forza Juve!!!
     
    OP
    Chxta

    Chxta

    Onye kwe, Chi ya ekwe
    Thread Starter #770
    Nov 1, 2004
    12,088
  • Thread Starter
    • Thread Starter #770
    I'm the head of the online team at this news organisation in Naija. This is what one my my staff wrote...

    Barely days after I grandly declared this website the nation's only proper news site, the elements decided to put my words to the test.

    I come into the office on a Friday afternoon (August 14) and there is a determined buzz. Apparently, that morning, the CBN governor had decided that at least four demi-gods (also known as bank CEOs) were, to put it simply, frauds.

    Evidently, NEXT has the scoop. Cue newsroom drama.

    The first story, sketching out the details, is already up on the website. Admittedly, the headline is sensational, we don't quote any known sources, there is no by-line - but our sources are solid. We ignore doubting Thomases wondering how come we are the only ones to get the news, those ones unaware that news around the world has changed and we refuse to be left behind. We knew what we knew, and we are in the business of telling what we know.

    Following the sack of the chief executives, the CBN governor is also having a meeting with all 23 bank chief executives that same day; so the story is developing.

    The newsroom is agog: more than three desks tear into the developing story, dogs with a bone, harassing industry insiders (that code word for people who work inside the affected industry and really shouldn't be talking), CBN officials, frenzied shareholders, panicked customers.

    Slowly, other media houses play catch up, but as they are mostly unequipped for the new media, they can only do the basics. As word begins to spread that NEXT's website has all the details, traffic to the site begins to build. The hits multiply; the comments reach 50 within minutes, soon sweeping past a hundred. And as traffic builds, the newsroom feels the pressure to feed the hunger.

    There is a continuous stream of shouts across desks as supervising editors and reporters become one in the pursuit of a story. "Who is with X story?" The managing editor charges up the stairs, face flush with excitement. "You are? Well you are too slow. It is the latest update - it has to be up right now!"

    I watch, mesmerised. I had, the week before, also waxed poetic over ‘State of play', the newsroom drama with Helen Mirren and Russell Crowe, and here was life imitating art... I was at the scene of an ongoing drama.

    "Where is the scanned copy of the central bank governor's speech?" The publisher bellows from downstairs. "It's three hours after and it's still not up! People are interested in this story, and they are coming to us!"

    It occurs to me that we are not just reporting a story; we have become a part of the story. For the story to be a story, we have to break it. Without us, there is no story. Without the story, the public cannot see; cannot hear.

    There is a basic understanding across the newsroom that our new, groundbreaking media enterprise is building a trust relationship with the public. Indeed, the contract the news media has with the public is a simple one - win their trust and they will come back. We just hit a rich vein, one that goes right to our ethos and pathos as a media enterprise, and everyone involved in this venture was going right at it.

    The stories roll in one after the other, excitement building with each. There is ‘CBN sacks CEOs and management of', then there is ‘CEO dismissals: CBN now acting in its full capacity', then there is ‘CBN appoints replacements for sacked bank chiefs', then there is ‘We have know the truth all along - Peterside', ‘Sacked CEO guilty of ‘poor corporate governance practices', ‘Sanusi Lamido speaks on CEOs dismissal', ‘We will not allow any bank to fail - Sanusi', ‘Those who will take over the banks'... it is dizzying.

    Our Twitter updates are coming in like rapid fire; meetings are being called almost on the hour. I catch the head of the online team guy, at some point, motionless by the entrance to the office, staring into space. Who can blame him? Our hits had surpassed any other newspaper website. Ours had become a newsroom on crack.

    In the July edition of Vanify Fair (which I swear by), its editor, Graydon Carter, had a word of advice for the many newspaper across the world struggling with decreased readership and advertising. "My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here's an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences."

    This was such a moment. For a country whose people have become cynical towards the media, here was an opportunity to restore trust. We devote all of our resources to it, and the public gratefully responds with phone calls, emails and website comments.

    Carter had reminded his readers in the same editor's letter that the health and vigor of a nation's dailies are vital to the intellectual health and vigor of the nation, and that newspapers remain the most essential force in keeping a watchful eye on corrupt politicians and venal corporate overlords - here I am, living that dream.

    As the day rolls into evening, the pace expectedly slows. Slows enough for the paper's publisher to come upstairs and manage some banter. "You guys have been catching the mistakes?" He asks the standards team. "Yes, when there's this kind of pressure, the mistakes multiply. But everyone has done a great job today." He smiles. We smile back.

    It is almost 9pm. That's the time when, tired from 8 hours of re-writing sometimes frustrating pieces, those on the afternoon shift can begin to leave one after the other. But today, all of us on the standards team stay put on our chairs, not wanting to drop the ball. What if one of the bank CEOs did something newsworthy? Someone has to edit that story.

    My colleague on the night shift soon arrives, and she notices that something is different. "Didn't you hear the news?" One of us asks. She draws a blank. "5 bank MDs were today sacked by the CBN governor." Her eyes light up, and she hurries me up from the chair.

    Perhaps on another day, I would have been a teeny bit offended by the wordless nudge; but today I understood what it is about.

    It was the same reason I came back from boarding school after my fourth year, and told my shocked mother I no longer wanted to be an accountant. Clutching proudly my ‘Journalist of the Year' award from the press club, I declared grandly that being an accountant had no meaning; it couldn't change the world. "I am going to be a journalist," I said, smiling.
    Click to expand...
     
    OP
    Chxta

    Chxta

    Onye kwe, Chi ya ekwe
    Thread Starter #771
    Nov 1, 2004
    12,088
  • Thread Starter
    • Thread Starter #771
    Source

    There is in my mind no other browser that is better than Mozilla Firefox. And the reason for this is simple: extensions. Firefox extensions or add-ons are installable enhancements to the Mozilla Foundation's applications (such as Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey and Sunbird).

    They allow the user to add or improve the features of the applications, make use of new themes to his liking, and handle different types of content.

    Ever since I made the switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox some five years back, I have tried a whole lot of other browsers but simply find myself returning to Firefox again and again. For the casual user out there, find below a very quick tutorial on installing extensions in Firefox...
     
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