much less than 00000011

Japan in May, 2008, Part Final

Japan in May, 2008, Part 3

Japan in May, 2008, Part 2

In the silence, it became so very clear /
That you had long ago disappeared /
I cursed myself for being surprised /
That this didn’t play like it did in my mind

He’s a Secret Dance Freak, Too

It’s true: I’m a Secret Dance Freak [muchlessthanthree.com]. He’s a Secret Dance Freak too [vimeo.com]. Courtesy of the latest blog I can’t stop reading [blogspot.com].

Be sure to check this one out, folks. It’s worth the four and a half minutes of your time.

Don’t care so much about the past
Nothing like feelin’ my love
Baby, baby, dance with me tonight
Tonight, the night

Perspective

Raph Koster’s latest post [raphkoster.com] really does an excellent job of putting the various American entertainment industries into perspective. I’d really like to see these same figures ordered according to the price per good. Clearly price affects it greatly - you’ll notice that the only things in the tens of millions (outside of movie tickets) are the items which cost the least.

* Number of users in Habbo Hotel worldwide: 20,000,000
* Best-selling book in the US last year: 1,500,000+. (A Thousand Splendid Suns)
* Best-selling graphic novel in the US last year: 80,000. (Naruto)
* Digital sales of a hit song: 2,100,000 (Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love”)
* Average downloads of a downloadable Rock Band track: 100,000
* Viewers of the #1 show on US TV (including DVR): 28,800,000 (American Idol)
* Viewers of the #150 show on US TV: 2,400,000 (Gossip Girl)
* Users of World of Warcraft in North America: 2,500,000
* Monthly uniques for Gaia Online: 2,000,000+
* Total number of movie tickets sold in the US in one year: 1,400,000,000
* Estimated tickets sold to the new Indiana Jones movie in five weeks: 42,290,849 (using 2007 average US ticket price and grosses to date).

Everybody scream!
意味ないけど、
コンビニが好き

Future of Copyright

A very interesting article by Rasmus Fleischer on the future of copyright [cato-unbound.com] hits a lot of topics I often find myself discussing these days. The movement to digital media has really changed the landscape, but unfortunately has yet to change the way some people approach said landscape. Fleischer does a very good job of putting into words the butting ideologies:

The real dispute, once again, is not between proponents and opponents of copyright as a whole. It is between believers and non-believers. Believers in copyright keep dreaming about building a digital simulation of a 20th-century copyright economy, based on scarcity and with distinct limits between broadcasting and unit sales. I don’t believe such a stabilization will ever occur, but I fear that this vision of copyright utopia is triggering an escalation of technology regulations running out of control and ruining civil liberties. Accepting a laissez-faire attitude regarding software development and communication infrastructure can prevent such an escalation.

Give it a read if you have a few moments and the inclination.

Japan in May, 2008, Part 1

Some pics from my trip to Japan last month. Enjoy!