Mike's blog

Bruce Sterling, novelist and futurist, points out the BBC article "Future is TV-shaped, says Intel" and comments at length:

This means the Net has killed TV and put its skin on. That’s not “television.” That’s as if the transmission systems in cars had taken over the function of cars, except you had no highways, no parking garages, no Ford, no General Motors, no gas stations and no traffic regulations; no drive-in movies and no back-seat lovers lanes. That wouldn’t be a “car.” You might call it a “car” in order to make your victims in the dying car industry feel better.

Last year, some predicted that cable TV would do just fine in a recession--why would people be quick to cut back on their best entertainment value?

This survey found many were thinking of cutting cable:

Consumers are cooling to cable. And they're not very satisfied with satellite TV. In fact, according to consumer research firm GfK Roper Consulting, about 40% of those surveyed during mid-2008 and early 2009 said they'd be willing to do without cable or satellite TV. Instead, they'd just as soon watch programming on free sites like Google's (GOOG) YouTube or buy videos à la carte from Netflix (NFLX). Of those surveyed, only 37% said they were getting good value for the price they pay for cable or satellite subscriptions.

[...]

Typically pithy commentary on why "Facebook killed TV":

Whether [TV networks] like it or not, big changes are coming, because the Internet dissolves the two cornerstones of broadcast media: synchronicity and locality. On the Internet, you don't have to send everyone the same signal, and you don't have to send it to them from a local source. People will watch what they want when they want it, and group themselves according to whatever shared interest they feel most strongly. Maybe their strongest shared interest will be their physical location, but I'm guessing not. Which means local TV is probably dead. It was an artifact of limitations imposed by old technology. If someone were creating an Internet-based TV company from scratch now, they might have some plan for shows aimed at specific regions, but it wouldn't be a top priority.

Note that many have predicted that an in an economic crash, cable TV will do quite nicely, as it's such a cheap form of entertainment. Note too that WCCA, as a non-profit channel, is in quite a different business from the networks.

Bruce and Mike talk with Justin and Andy, coaches of the Bronx robotics champs Boogie Down Bots. They make awesome robots, and they have an idea for killing Asian Longhorned Beetles with nanotechnology.

Also: Kevin Ksen and Mike talk about the City Council's new video stream.

Download the mp3, see more formats, subscribe to the podcast feed.

Asian Long-Horned Beetle: Reign of Terror from salman uddin on Vimeo.

From Worcester's Government Channel 12. You can watch it on the city's website.

VHS Rides Off Into The Sunset:

After the 2008 holiday season, Distribution Audio Video—the last major distributor of VHS tapes in the United States—is finally calling it quits, and will stop distributing VHS tapes. Although Hollywood hasn't released a movie in VHS format since 2006, a number of bargain retailers were still stocking the format, and it's also lived on in a number of isolated markets like cruise ships, public libraries, military bases, and care facilities.

(via Bruce Sterling)

Meanwhile, Mark Pilgrim is posting a helpful series about digital audio and video formats:

When you talk about “watching a video,” you’re probably talking about a combination of one video stream, one audio stream, and possibly some subtitles or captions. But you probably don’t have two different files; you just have “the video.” Maybe it’s an AVI file, or an MP4 file. These are just container formats, like a ZIP file that contains multiple kinds of files within it. The container format defines how to store the video and audio streams in a single file (and subtitles too, if any).

Bruce is trying to win this contest to play a showcase in NYC. If you have a minute, give him a vote!

I got 2 karaoke-related e-mails this morning, so I gotta blog 'em.

First: this is billed as "First Amendment Kareoke," but it's more like the First Amendment gospel-style, as performed by the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. If you like this, you should see them live sometime.

Second: Holmes Wilson announces "Towards a true karaoke revolution..."

Wednesday June 4th (like, today!) 10PM 'till close
Where: Ralph's downstairs
Worcester, MA
Free! Every Wednesday
Friends come at 9PM at help me set up!

Starts at 10pm, or come at 9 to help me set up. This will go weekly for the rest of the summer. I have a fine partner in Dan Burke, which will ensure the thing will be regular and reliable. So you can come any Wednesday, but please come tomorrow to help me kick things off right! But you know it's going to get crazy and I have high hopes. Karaoke mashups, dancehall, soca, reggaeton, shatners, trapped in the closet, live bands, "Switched on Karaoke", MIDI night, foreign covers it is on.

Nothing better than walking into WCCA in the morning and being handed a free Quan Yin tote bag.

Adherents of the Quan Yin Method and Supreme Master Ching Hai present the program "Supreme Master" on WCCA, Mondays at 1:30pm. They also run two vegan restaurants in the city, Quan Yin and Buddha Hut.

I'm not a follower of their philosophy, but I like the cheerfulness of their materials, and I like their food.

Above: Some of the Supreme Master stuff I keep in my office. Thanks to Tracy Foley for loaning her copy of "The Noble Wilds" for this photo.

Bruce lived with Tom Lewis until the time of his recent death, and interviewed Tom back in January.