I’m thinking of producing a video podcast in a short-length reality TV format based on the struggle of my sister to make it in showbiz. The show, tentatively titled Living the Dream, needs to have a model for making money. Either people will pay to watch a 5-10 minute weekly podcast or they will get it free and I will sell short 5-10 second advertising space at the beginning and end of the podcast.

My quandry is this: would you be willing to pay a minimal fee, such as 99¢ per download, or would you prefer a free download if it contained short ads at the beginning and end of the episode? Myself I can tolerate ads if it means it’s free but then again I’m a cheapskate. It also may mean a broader viewing base and that in turn may mean more advertising revenues. But I would prefer to deliver ad free product if at all possible. It just may not be the way to make a living at it.

Does every web site in the world have to start with “www?” This one doesn’t. And I fear if I tell people to go to “blog.rosenberg-watt.com,” they won’t understand that you don’t put a “www.” in front of it. At this point I think they’re just extra letters: a formality of the olden days of the internet, if you will. But they may be necessary. Are they?

I’m migrating from pMachine Pro 2.4 to ExpressionEngine. There may be some hiccups in the process. Not like I have a large reading audience anyway; I guess this is more for my own logs than anything else. Anyway, I’m starting with EE Core v 1.4.2 and it seems to be going pretty smoothly, only a few minor modifications done so far. And the Pictures category comes across too wide at the moment.

RIP, little doggie. ☹️

Yesterday I was all ready to post a comment about how VW sucks because my window fell down yesterday on the freeway as the rain was moving in. And of course it was Sunday so I couldn’t get to the dealer until today. But fortunately they offered to fix it for me today for free as well as the driver’s side window if it is indeed the window regulator clips. And I’m confident that it will be. So VW doesn’t suck, after all. At least they have atoned for this particular sin—designing a plastic window clip that breaks more than occasionally. To their credit, they did put redesigned ones on the 2003+ cars.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=938

It seems logical to me, but personally I don’t feel that Comcast has its act together enough to subtly sabotage Vonage VoIP packets. I’m just lucky if my Adelphia cable internet stays up for more than an hour at a time. Or maybe it’s their DNS servers, who knows what my problems are….

I call this one “Center of Gravity.” MC Escher would be proud.

My mother was right. The show is too violent.

A while ago I asked her to watch an episode on Wednesday night. It happened to be the one where Sayid beat on their Other hostage Henry. I explained to her that she needed to understand the backstory as to why the people behaved this way. Well last night the producers pushed me closer to that line where I will no longer watch the show.

This morning during my morning routine I realized that I still reeled after last night’s events. At some level I must have internalized the show. In the last 30 seconds of the show, one of our most sympathetic characters murders a sitting, defenseless woman in cold blood right after he says “I’m sorry.” First of all, if people could actually be brainwashed into killing their own with such specificity of purpose, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t apologize beforehand. (Nevermind the rest of last night’s particularly awful dialogue.) Yes, yes, it’s supposed to be a dramatic element. It’s not real, it’s fiction. Well Star Trek was even more removed from real life and people believed in it. But Lost is no Star Trek. Ethically.