Jonathon Delacour returns after two months with another wonderful piece of writing. Thank you for your work Mr. D.
Monthly Archives: February 2024
#joiito channel
fpzilla, my uninspired nickname, has been lurking on the #joiito IRC channel for the last few days. Interesting to learn how use the IRC piece of Mozilla, but I don’t have much to say. Just not a chat room kinda guy I guess. Too married to be flirty, too cool to be hot, too hot to be cool, fpzilla seems to have other things to do. The IRC thing works for me when it’s sidebar conversation to real-time events. See you at the BloggerCon!
I really didn’t care…
…about Howard Stern’s problems anyway. Still, anything that moves more media onto the net and helps tear down the corporate mass mnedia concentration is fine with me.
Lord Hawhaw and Tokyo Rose
[Edit - Shelley informs me that Stern was only carried on six ClearChannel stations. I infer from this that the other 35 stations are independent of ClearChannel. I retract my paranoid ravings about Lord Hawhaw, but I don't take back one bad word about Barbara Bush. In fact, my maundering about media concentration looks pretty dumb in the face of ClearChannel's failure to control those other stations. Hey! CC! You monopolistic bastards have some work to do! Get off Howard's ass and get out there and buy up some more markets! Hate it when reality is better than my paranoid fancies...]
Shelley Powers has a post with a string of comments relating to Howard Stern’s transgressions and the modest wrist slap he received from ClearChannel when he said bad things about that bad bitch Barbara Bush’s baby boy.
ClearChannel Communications has a market penetration that Emperor Hirohito himself would have admired. Not since the days of the radio networks of the axis powers has one editorial voice so dominated the radio market.
When I read about the Howard Stern matter (and I can’t locate the item in the tons of trash that fills my mailbox), I was struck by the correspondent’s assertion that the reason for Stern’s removal related to him waxing pugnacious with an anti-Bush attitude. Further, I read that the markets from which his material was removed were areas where he could conceivably influence election outcomes. He was not removed from markets where his anti-Bush posture would have little affect on the elections.
For me, this whole issue boils down to one of the ill effects of media concentration, not one relating to the rights of Howard Stern.
If ClearChannel was making a statement about decency, they would have pulled Stern off the air. Instead they removed him from WXDX/Pittsburgh, KIOZ/San Diego, WNVE/Rochester, WTFX/Louisville, WTKS/Orlando and WBGG/Miami. Not a very bold statement in the service of public decency, rather a media event in itself. The whole thing is sure to boost Stern’s ratings in the 35 markets where he continues to broadcast for ClearChannel.
Stations of the Angry
Well that’s a son-of-a-bitch if there ever was one: condemned to watch Mel Gibson movies for eternity. You’d be pissed off too. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and left the courtroom, shoulders hunched forward, sort of a Bob Dylan against the world attitude in my stride.
No sooner do I get out the door but some schmuck loads me up with a 43 inch plasma screen unit and a box of DVDs. Mad Max is on top. Boy, I got to carry that weight all the way home to skull-fuck acres.
Shit… I tripped over my own shoelaces and fell face first in the street. Tore a big hole in my new Dockers and spread DVDs up the block in front of me. Now I gotta pick them all up.
To be continued…
WTF2004
Anybody out there waffling about whether or not to sign up for David Isenberg’s WTF 2024? I’ve been looking through the list of participants and I’m intimidated. I’m glad that I’ve signed up… my recent assignments have been ridiculously computernoid and I need to get back into the telecom scene.
A meme I haven’t been able to get my mind around is the thing about dumbing down the network and putting the intelligence on the periphery. The model is seductive, but it requires infinite bandwidth and new ways to manage accounting. I think. There’s a lot to be learned from the experts at WTF.
There are many professional meetings this spring, from PyCon to PingCon with the big gouda in Cambridge. David Isenberg’s WTF2004 from April 2 to 4 at a retreat center outside of Chapaqua , New York. Berkman Fellow Wendy Seltzer is going to be there putting the IP in IP.
Boxes and Arrows
Steve MacLaughlin has published a review of The Book of Probes at Boxes and Arrows. And if you like Boxes and Arrows, then you might also get off on Elegant Hack. (This latter suggestion is offered just to show off the power of Mozilla, my new default browser. For a very long time I have resisted the impulse to get lizardly or go operatic… early versions just munged up my Wintel boxes over the last few years. But today I grabbed the gecko by the tail, downloaded Mozilla, and made it my default browser. Sorry I waited this long!)
MindJazz!!
What is required for a MindJazz session?
System requirements (minimum): Two human minds that are live, awake, and aware of self and the other. Essential: Trust and respect, the freedom to “go big” and a focus on “easy, effortless, and enjoyable.”
(“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” –Plutarch)