On Writer's Guild Strike

Douglas McGrath writes on the strike...

But there is a much bigger issue at stake, because it concerns where the future—and a good deal of the present—is: the Internet. The studios can now sell you a movie, or an episode of a TV series, or a whole series of series, right over your computer. Not only is it convenient for you, it has dramatically reduced the studios' costs: they need not make a videotape, with its plastics and tape and spools and boxes. They need not print and package a DVD, with their team of overzealous shrink-wrappers that make your average DVD harder to get into than Princeton. They have no shipping costs, no storage costs, only the movie or TV show that already exists.

With their costs substantially reduced, this would be the right time to correct the old imbalance of the DVD rate and give writers a share more fairly in line with the level of our contribution. But the studios are not looking to find a more equitable residual rate—it seems they are hoping that the new media will allow them to do away with the idea of residuals altogether.

Right now, if you go online and watch a streaming version of a TV show, the company that owns that property is getting paid by the advertisers whose commercials appear at the top of it. Just like TV, but with one difference: the writers are paid no residual, not even the four cents. The companies say they don't need to pay us for this: it's "promotional." By that I suppose they mean that it promotes the size of their earnings from smaller to larger.

Read more here...

NTSC-PAL Conversion In Mac

I had always struggled with finding a good NTSC-PAL converter on MAC (or even PC!). In fact, its one of the few services that I have paid for in the past.

Today, I discovered that the solution was sitting right in Apple my lap(top) - Toast Titanium 7. The in-built NTSC-PAL conversion feature is one of the best that I have seen (most plugins for Final Cut Pro has failed me miserably).

Just add your uncompressed Quicktime file into the DVD video section, and export it back as Quicktime after setting your preferences correctly!

I am still trying to figure out how to kick myself for not trying this out in the past. Unfortunately, human body has been designed in a way where its extremely painful to kick any part of yourself properly (unless you are a kung-fu master!).

Hidden Flight Simulator in Google Earth!

In case you didn't know, Google has hidden a flight simulator in Google Earth. The option to uncover the easter egg is - Command+Option+A (note it must be capital A) or Ctrl+Alt+A if you’re using a Windows Machine.

The History of the Multiverse

Just came across the Wikia hosted DC Database Project, which has an incredibly detailed description of the Multiverse.

"The Multiverse consist(ed) of multiple versions of the universe existing in the same physical space, but separated from each other by their vibrational resonances.

The Original Multiverse was created as the result of interference in the Big Bang by Krona. It was destroyed by the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

An Interregnum Multiverse was created by Alexander Luthor during Infinite Crisis.

After the events of Infinite Crisis, the remaining Earths created collapsed back together, combining historical remnants to form one New Earth. However, the single universe was too small to contain the energy inside it and it began replicating - into 52 identical Universes, the 52 Multiverse."

Continue reading here... BTW, I am quite impressed by the Wikia project by Jimmy Wales. Apart from the fact that its highly usable, generating 40-50 mil pageviews simply through viral marketing (after raising 10 mil series B funding from Amazon) is the sign of a *very* smart venture.

Cloverfield's Monster Movie!

I get bored. I watch YouTube. and this is the stuff I come across...