Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
The Wachowskis Are Making a Show for Netflix — Vulture
It was announced today that Andy and Lana Wachowski will be producing a show for Netflix with Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. Beyond being great news for fans of “skis,” the show, Sense8, will be the Wachowskis’ first foray into “television.” Its ten-episode first season is scheduled to premiere in late 2014. There’s no word yet on what the show will be about, but considering the source, we imagine it’ll involve future-space-robots.
BBC News – Global internet slows after ‘biggest attack in history’
The internet around the world has been slowed down in what security experts are describing as the biggest cyber-attack of its kind in history.
A row between a spam-fighting group and hosting firm has sparked retaliation attacks affecting the wider internet.
It is having an impact on popular services like Netflix – and experts worry it could escalate to affect banking and email systems.
Five national cyber-police-forces are investigating the attacks.
Spamhaus, a group based in both London and Geneva, is a non-profit organisation which aims to help email providers filter out spam and other unwanted content.
To do this, the group maintains a number of blocklists – a database of servers known to be being used for malicious purposes.
Recently, Spamhaus blocked servers maintained by Cyberbunker, a Dutch web host which states it will host anything with the exception of child pornography or terrorism-related material.
via BBC News – Global internet slows after ‘biggest attack in history’.
Breaking Bad Script Stolen From Bryan Cranston’s Car
Depending on how you feel about spoilers, this could be bad news or good: Last December, someone broke into Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston’s car in Albuquerque, where the show is filmed, stealing the actor’s bag containing an iPad and a copy of a Breaking Bad script from one of the show’s final episodes.
At least, that’s according to a criminal complaint filed in Bernalillo County; KOAT in New Mexico reports officials at Sony Television, which produces the show, have no record of a missing script.
The relevance of Paula Broadwell’s security clearance – CNN Security Clearance – CNN.com Blogs
As a commissioned officer in the military reserves, Paula Broadwell’s security clearance would be “secret” or “top secret,” which would allow her access to classified documents, according to military officials.
But exercising a security clearance depends on the type of job a person has, said the officials who spoke privately about the matter because Broadwell is entangled in an investigation of her ties to former CIA Director David Petraeus.
Related: Will scandal create national security risk?
She has been identified as his mistress. The affair forced the former four-star general to resign his post last week. She also co-authored a biography about him.
Related: Who might replace Petraeus at the CIA
As CNN first reported, her government security clearance was suspended pending the outcome of ongoing investigations, two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.
via The relevance of Paula Broadwell’s security clearance – CNN Security Clearance – CNN.com Blogs.
The Law and Order Database: All 20 Seasons | Overthinking It
At Overthinking It, Law & Order is analyzed by two separate yet equally important groups: the people who watch the show and send in the data, and the people who build the spreadsheets. These are their findings…
via The Law and Order Database: All 20 Seasons | Overthinking It.
Google named 2nd best company to work for in the world | Internet & Media – CNET News
Google is the second best company to work for across the world, at least in the opinion of CNNMoney.
Ranking the top 25 global workplaces, CNNMoney praised Google for its coaching services. The company offers a “CareerGuru” program in which 43 of its senior leaders provide career coaching to employees. These gurus are available in 14 offices around the world.
Google engineers can also discuss issues and concerns with senior engineers known as “EngAdvisors.” More than 900 engineers have taken advantage of this program since it launched in 2009, CNNMoney said.
Currently, Google gets 61 times as many job applications as it has existing jobs. Last year, the company ranked No. 4 on the list.
But software company SAS took the top spot among the 25 candidates, up from second place last year. Located in North Carolina, SAS provides business analytics software and services to its corporate and government customers.
via Google named 2nd best company to work for in the world | Internet & Media – CNET News.
The Full ‘Haunted Toaster’ Segment is Too Incredible to Be Believed
Yesterday, many of you witnessed what could only be described (by me) as “the greatest interview in television history.”
So sure was I that nothing could ever top the Today Show’s “Haunted Toaster” demonstration that I went head first into hyperbole and declared it to be unarguably the best. Turns out I was dead wrong.
That title clearly belongs to the full segment from which the haunted toaster interview was plucked.
Producer Boyd Matson writes:
The devil toaster was part of a story I did on supermarket tabloids. It also included an interview with a man saved from an icy lake by his Howdy Doody dummy, and an interview with a woman who had sex with aliens for several years. Here’s the complete story.
Hold on to something.
via The Full ‘Haunted Toaster’ Segment is Too Incredible to Be Believed.
Apple Maps: Damned If You Do, Googled If You Don’t | Monday Note
While still a teenager, my youngest daughter was determined to take on the role of used car salesperson when we sold our old Chevy Tahoe. Her approach was impeccable: Before letting the prospective buyer so much as touch the car, she gave him a tour of its defects, the dent in the rear left fender, the slight tear in the passenger seat, the fussy rear window control. Only then did she lift the hood to reveal the pristine engine bay. She knew the old rule: Don’t let the customer discover the defects.
Pointing out the limitations of your product is a sign of strength, not weakness. I can’t fathom why Apple execs keep ignoring this simple prescription for a healthy relationship with their customers. Instead, we get tiresome boasting: …Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world…we [make] the best products on earth. This self-promotion violates another rule: Don’t go around telling everyone how good you are in the, uhm…kitchen; let those who have experienced your cookmanship do the bragging for you.
The ridicule that Apple has suffered following the introduction of the Maps application in iOS 6 is largely self-inflicted. The demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers…but not a word from the stage about the app’s limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking, running, and ultimately lapping the frontrunner, Google Maps. Instead, we’re told that Apple’s Maps may be “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”
After the polished demo, the released product gets a good drubbing: the Falkland Islands are stripped of roads and towns, bridges and façades are bizarrely rendered, an imaginary airport is discovered in a field near Dublin.
via Apple Maps: Damned If You Do, Googled If You Don’t | Monday Note.
The Rights Of Man : CITIZEN KHAN IS NOT RACIST IT’S MAN-HATING MISANDRY
Whenever a show like Citizen Khan comes on the TV, the Guardian and various politically correct types get very twitchy – accusing the BBC and others of racism. The absurdity of it is that if the ethnicity of the character was changed, and it was just a white Christian man in a Christian family they wouldn’t bat an eyelid – such is their hypocrisy. They also go into some ideologically torment because one of the writers is actually Asian so they cannot heap racism at them.
They had probably written their critical pieces before they had even seen it.
Some (good and bad) articles are here – Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and BBC
The bigger issue though is that it is another example of television (and the media in general) portraying men and fathers as idiots.
The main character is made to look like a buffoon but he is the one that came to the country (the show’s words not mine), worked his backside off to create a business and a home for his wife and family – and he is portrayed as an idiot.
It is another example in the long line of characters that show men as idiots and used to undermine men and fathers. Where is the equivalent about a women and mother.
Citizen Khan is not racist it’s men-hating.
via The Rights Of Man : CITIZEN KHAN IS NOT RACIST IT’S MAN-HATING MISANDRY.
