Kill the Irishman

Just watched Kill the Irishman, a half mafia - half American Irish film about a Cleveland union rep turned muscle turned boss, Danny Greene. The cast had some surprising names (surprising because the movie came out this year and never hit the radar...was it even in theater?!) - Christopher Walken, Paul Sorvino, Fionnula Flanagan, (the forgettable) Val Kilmer, (the beautiful) Laura Ramsey, and (the lead) Ray Stevenson.

I think the first thing that might turn people off about this movie is the lead is not made out to be a handsome mob boss or sexy Irishman. Instead, to the director's credit, he stayed fairly close to how Greene actually appeared. Perhaps, it will help the ladies to know that the actor who plays Greene is seen below as Greene in this movie, sexy man on the red carpet, and in a pretty boy still...now ladies, watch the movie with that in mind.

Of course, the next jab could be taken at the director though. I will let you judge him on his past works yourself, but I don't think it was the acting that made this movie lackluster. And of course, I think the post-production team could have done a better job with either making the movie indie and grainy or polished and mafia...but it kind of fell in the middle.

Or, it could be the storyline itself...it is hard to really identify with Greene. The movie does a good job of showing him as a flawed human without glossing over his faults and where they lead him.

ALL that said, I thought this was a good movie and one worth watching when you are feeling patient and up for an atypical, somewhat-true story.

Verizon + Google...first steps.

In a promising move, Google has partnered with Verizon to allow Verizon customers to watch popular YouTube videos with Verizon's web service. Now this may not be an indication that my fantasy three-way partnership amongst Google, Verizon and Netflix is coming true. In fact, this agreement may have been in the works prior to Google's takeover.

However, perhaps these companies will interact enough to see their need to partner in order to stay competative in the changing VOIP market.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo...play nice together.

What it is:
"Web site owners will be able to go to one place for alerting all three major search engines to their Web pages." (Tim Mayer, director of product management at Yahoo Search)

The real big news:
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are collaborating. Perhaps this is the beginning of many such collaborations? Let's hope so.

Oh, I need to point out that this is Microsoft and Yahoo adopting Google's existing service as the standard. Hoorah Google!

Wikia Campaigns + Evolution Schmevolution

A long time ago I watched John Stewart's week long special on evolution. Watching the perspectives presented on a "panel of experts" inspired me to find out more about the topic. After asking a lot of questions I came to an interesting conclusion.

I then wrote out my arguement and posted it to Ender!Krum's brother blog Far Side of Complexity and then on Wikia's new campaign-oriented discussion site.

Let me know what you think. This is a work in progress and any constructive feedback would be appreciated.

MagLev Bed

Stats:
- $1.5 mil
- No creaky bedposts

Google + Netflix + Verizon...I wish

Ok, so I might be too keen on the integration of technology...but I really do think these three companies complement each other well. They are all innovative companies who serve there customers well. Also, the announcement alone would generate so much press...they would hardly need to spend any money advertising.

Google and Verizon
1. Develop Google Talk as the first widely used and accepted VOIP service.
2. Integrate email, chat and voice communications...and then take them wireless.
3. Add Google's personalized homepage material to Verizon's "interactive TV."

Google and Netflix
1. Since Netflix is going to begin offering video rentals over the internet soon, they should partner with Google to create the most powerful video download service on the internet - Google can search...Netflix can rate.
2. I think both companies see DRM as a necessary evil and would be able to collectively push for more freedom for consumers (obviously not for pirating...but maybe allowing clips to be taken from movies to be shared and blogged).

Netflix and Verizon
1. Even high speed internet is not going to be able to handle the bandwidth needs for HD content (which is where all content is headed).
2. Give TiVo a run for their money...are maybe bring them on board too...hmm, maybe that's too much integration.

My book was published by...Google

Ok, so I haven't written a book, much less had it published (much less with Google). However, now that Google allows consumers to upload their video content (and charge people to watch it if they so choose), why not do this with text?

Say an author has a short novel but no publisher? They could upload to Google Books, choose to allow the first half to be read for free and the last to be purchased for a small fee. Also, the uploaded content could be searched for plagiarism, prior to publication. Everyone wins!

Some problems:
Well, ok so its not that easy.

1. Protecting the material. DRM for text would be harder since it is easy to copy and paste text, then distribute it outside the original format. But then again, who reads books electronically? Books practically don't need DRM since the format is prohibitive.
Google could solve both of these problems by coming up with a program (Google Reader?) which would make text easy to read (and perhaps, hard to copy). By doing this, they can increase reader participation and guarantee content protection to providers with their proprietary software.

2. The amount of junk that would be submitted would be awful. Yes, this is true. Google would definitely have to distinguish between real publications and their "self-published" works. However, internet users love peer to peer rating systems and the cream would rise to the top. Conversely, the $#!* could be recommended for removal, as with YouTube...and the gazillion other sites out there.

3. ... what other issues need solutions?