"We need to make a comic so I can eat lunch." You're in your office sitting at your desk. There's a hot mic in the room. It's 45 minutes 'till lunch, your tummy's grumbling and you still have to write a comic. Fortunately your best friend -- who is also the co-founder of your decade-old business empire -- is sitting at his desk a few feet away. You are "Gabe" or "Tycho" of Penny Arcade, and the next 45 minutes will be captured on tape and published for all the world to hear as a podcast. But only if it's good. "Downloadable Content, The Penny Arcade Podcast" is practically a documentary on collaboratively authoring webcomics. The most recent episode is a particularly good example of that.
posted on Mar 11, 2008 - View this thread

Bud BlueBlew It With a typically punny Hollywood Reporter headline, the news is out that Anheuser-Busch's new video site with Original Content (launched during the Super Bowl, naturally) is not nearly as popular as expected. The promoters blame the registration/age-verification requirement for discouraging users (noted here earlier today), but 21 State Attorneys General say it's not discouraging enough. But is the content any good? Here are a couple reviews.
No, I didn't link or even mention the site's obvious address. I don't want anybody to think I actually encourage stuff like this ;)
posted on Mar 18, 2007 - View this thread

Kirupa.com is a resource for designers who want to become better developers. Whether you want a tutorial to help you make a Flash zoom motion blur, some help with php and html, learn object oriented programming, or use photoshop well, kirupa might be of assistance to you.
posted on Feb 23, 2007 - View this thread

The mobile content market is big but the mobile service companies control the bottleneck of data to your phone and may well be holding the industry back. A NZ site has launched offering a platform for mobile content producers to sell direct to mobile content consumers globally: Voeveo.
posted on Feb 11, 2007 - View this thread

Web 2.0 (2nd draft) A short film by Kansas State Cultural Anthropology Professor Mike Welsh. Find out what happens when content and structure finally break-up and structure gets a place of its own.
posted on Feb 4, 2007 - View this thread

"[C]omputer design is being dictated not by electronic design rules, physical layout requirements, and thermal issues, but by the wishes of the content industry." By deliberately breaking audio and video functionality, opening up new avenues for debilitating malware, and reversing performance gains in desktop PCs and third-party components, Peter Gutmann argues "the Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history."
posted on Dec 23, 2006 - View this thread

MSNBC soft pedalled the story while others have offered their regurgitated take on the press release. But I can't find anyone asking the tough questions about the new deal between Microsoft and Vivendi/Universal wherein MS will pay Universal a flat price for every Zune player sold.
With big names like David Geffen saying, "Each of these devices is used to store unpaid-for material. This way, on top of the material people do pay for, the record companies are getting paid on the devices storing the copied music." are we really getting to the point where everything we think we know about property and theft is going to be re-defined in terms of someone's perceived loss?
posted on Nov 10, 2006 - View this thread

Edits of NWA's Straight Outta Compton and Fuck the Police... with anything not offensive removed. Just the swears, ma'am. via /dev/null
posted on Apr 15, 2005 - View this thread

Tivo for Webcomics? Found by way of Comixpedia, this Sun-Times article finds shareware that rips comic files off the web to be something of a God-send. As a web-comic creator, I have no problem with my readers writing personal scripts that pull the .pngs from my front page. But when the rippers begin asking for money for their app that distributes someone else's content (without asking the creators' permission), it seems as though somewhere, there are some enormous balls just a'swingin' in the breeze.
posted on Mar 16, 2004 - View this thread

Scott McCloud and Clay Shirky are trading ideas on Micropayemnts again. Clay Says user-pays schemes can't simply be restored through minor tinkering with payment systems, because they don't address the cause of that change -- a huge increase the power and reach of the individual creator.. Scott Says micropayments, well, BitPass are here to stay this time.
As a content producer I like the idea, but as a content consumer I'm just not sure yet.
If mefi went Micro, would you pay?
posted on Sep 13, 2003 - View this thread

Dev Articles is the latest in a line of thieves who steal from free publications such as A List Apart, Digital-Web and Boxes and Arrows to pilfer content and make a buck off of other folks' generous efforts. What is wrong with these folks? Dev Articles at least credits the authors (without letting them know... even that their stolen photo is up) but not the publication that provided the edits, formatting and forum to make the article real. And they make the advertising buck. This month alone Nick Finck has had to stop Morpheous from their theft of 7 of his articles (and they claimed authorship!) What is wrong with people?
posted on Jan 20, 2003 - View this thread

As stock prices plummet, Salon.com continues to think of imaginative new ways to make a profit. This article, is of course, a joke. But not too far from the future, I'm sure. Are there any other ways to make money on the web besides porn and ebay?
posted on Mar 23, 2001 - View this thread

About.com acquired by old-media concern Primedia for $690 million in Primedia stock. One of the true original web-content concepts has found a valuation anchor.
posted on Oct 30, 2000 - View this thread

The end of view source? New software on the horizon may allow you to control who saves, copies or prints your web content. Are the days of right-click piracy coming to a close? Will this add weight to the budding concept that people might actually pay for content they want? Should we care?
posted on Jul 11, 2000 - View this thread

bla-bla.com and grrl.com (a new chickclick style portal from womensforum.com) are on the hunt for independent female sites to lump together and sell off to their advertisers. what have your experiences been with .commers? how do you feel about advertising on yr own site? what kind of money is actually earnt from being part of a portal (which seems to be their major selling point)? what resources are available to independent site owners? perhaps another branch of the metafilter community could be dedicated to informing people about what does happen when a site signs on to a portal business, and what the alternatives are.
posted on May 13, 2000 - View this thread