This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.
With deep apology to our customers,
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Sure, deleting customers copies of George Orwell’s books off their Kindles remotely was a stupid thing to do, not to mention ironic in the extreme, but you have to appreciate a decent apology by someone who at least sounds like they’ve learned something.

Here’s hoping the Kindle starts opening up a bit and digital publishing continues to grow. Until then, there’s still Stanza (even if Amazon now owns them too).

I thought the game was very cool and, even then, thought that it would lend itself brilliantly to a movie. Somehow Alice in Wonderland works really well with a bizarre macabre twist, who’d have thought?

via The Age

If nothing else, I can’t wait to see what they pull out for the last shows. Hopefully they stay true  to Wil’s threat of ‘going out with a bang’.

The incident was not shown in any way on Channel Ten, let alone on Big Brother itself. In fact, Channels Seven and Nine have shown more footage than Channel Ten. The footage was streamed live on the website. Among others, Senator Helen Coonan, Stephen Conroy and that insidious Family First guy (Steve Fielding? Man I hate that ‘party’) have all jumped on their horses and started shouting in the name of children, women’s rights, sexual assualt, broadcasting decency, internet regulations, ad nauseum. Even politicians that matter have joined in, such as John Howard, Kim Beasley and, on the other side of the argument, Peter Beattie.

The incident was shown only on the live streams at 4.30 in the morning. Any child watching at that time is falling victim to a greater, and more prevelent, evil than Big Brother, namely bad parenting. If they want to have a go at letting kids see the footage, speak to Channels Nine and Ten and their ‘news’ departments. Even YouTube pulled the videos within about six hours of them surfacing. Women’s rights and sexual assault issues are fair enough, but the real analysis shouldn’t be of what happened, but of how it was dealt with. The actions were wrong, no debate there. However, the consequences were harsh and relatively swift. These things happen, and I believe that by showing they are not tolerated, this sets a better example then not having the problem in the first place.

As for John Howard calling to axe ‘this stupid program’, well maybe he should stick to the job he’s been given, rather than dip into a bit of media censorship. It’s not like he’s paid attention to anyone saying pull the troops out of that stupid war, or let the stupid refugees into the country now, has he? And now Howard has turned this into an international affair that’s starting to move its way around the internet.

It’s a TV show. Lots of much worse things (in terms of sex, violence, crime and other ‘moral outrages’) are depicted in many other shows and every night, the ‘news’ from all channels bombards us with horrors in more detail that make this pale in comparison. The best thing is to take the incident, and the actions that followed it, learn from them and use them as an example.

Big Brother is a social experiment, let the results of the experiment become lessons, not condemnation.

As always, thanks to Behind Big Brother for the open forum and ability to provide the information that the official channels couldn’t.

I think this is tied up in the Free-Trade Agreement with the States, which I assume is bringing in a whole heap of bad legal stuff, such as DCMA, but at least this is a baby step in the right direction.

edit: yep, there’s a bucket of bad stuff. this SMH article has a little bit more on it. also, it looks like au will be on the bad end of the DVB broadcast flag debacle.

Boob-job mother/daughter combo Karen and Krystal are this years Logan and Greg, having to hide the fact that they are related for a while. Other notables are Katie, the sun-addled blonde virgin; David and Jamie, the slabs of meat with grins; and Camilla and Tilli, who basically dry-humped anything male that came into the house. I think the only impact of Big Brother airing this year will be the lack of promo models wandering the streets.

Once again, my opening night tips are:
To win: Gaelen/Camilla
First out: John/Elise
Best of show: David/Krystal
Entertainment factor: Katie

And as always, the real news and name-muddying can be found at Behind Big Brother and probably at The Spin Starts Here. All Big Brother nudity can usually be tracked down at Reality Skin.

In general, Australia doesn’t respond well to tall poppies. We appreciate their success, but resent any sign of an overinflated ego. Jana has presented herself and has been presented as the prima donna of the track. Every major track meet has seen multiple days’ newspapers devote covers to her and her injuries, personal clashes and chances. This naturally creates resentment and, as far as the public is concerned, she has done little to change any of this. Hence the lack of people really caring that much if she does move and we begin to hear less of her. Tamsyn Lewis, Jana’s rival apparently on and off the track, has done the opposite. She’s taken a laid back and cynical approach to the whole thing, and apart from coming across a little catty, has come out far better off in the public eye.

As for Lleyton and Cathy, yes, they did move, the same as a vast percentage of successful Australians, sporting or otherwise. However, they are still happy and proud to represent Australia and that is where the difference lies. Compare yourself to when Jelena Dokic left, Jana, not the others. If you burn your bridge on the way out, you may find it even harder to return when the rest of the world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You can ask Jelena about that one too.

edit: Here we go again. Now Jana has pulled out of the baton relay for fear of aggravating an injury. I can understand pulling out of the A series meet ahead of the Games, but seriously. If she can’t handle a brief jog holding a stick, then how the hell is she meant to compete in a matter of days? Or perhaps that’s the question we’re supposed to be asking…

Now, I’m wondering what Channel 4 thinks of this.

They release the episodes online themselves, but only under DRM and only in the UK after the episode has screened (I’ll skip over the DRM issue for the timebeing and won’t mention stuff like the ‘Fair use has a posse’ stickers from the EFF on the set, props though for the FSM poster). However, the obvious target audience is the IT-savvy; people who know how to beat DRM, record TV, reencode video and setup BitTorrent streams.

With this in mind, would they view the number of BitTorrent seeders and leechers as pirates or thieves. Or would this be viewed as ratings??

I really hope the latter, but expect nothing less than the former from a television station.