Auteur : Martine

More advertisement hatred

I had a bunch of appointments all around town today, so I decided to reserve a Communauto car to avoid spending 4 hours in the m�tro. Instead, I spent a few looooong minutes stuck in traffic downtown. As I was admiring the autumn colors on Mont-Royal in the background, I noticed one of those damn rotating mobile advertisements, stuck in the middle of Peel street with the rest of us. I deeply hate these stupid car ads, and I know my hatred is shared by a lot of people. Do we really need more useless cars on the road? They add to air and light pollution, they’re noisy and they block the way. They make me feel like boycotting the businesses that choose to advertise on them. What a stupid, inefficient way to get a product known. If you absolutely want to do mobile ads, then get those guys on roller-blades to do it. It’s silly, but at least the guys (or girls) get exercise, money, and they don’t take up too much space, except when they decide to skate on the sidewalk…

Hollywood vs. Your PC

There’s an interesting article on PC World’s Web site today explaining the reasons why Hollywood is trying to control your PC (or you Mac). It’s a complex, political issue with more ramifications than we can imagine. The article includes a chart that lists what we’re actually allowed to do with digital media. I doubt you’ve all been very nervous about respecting the laws with your MP3s and DVDs, but it’s interesting to see the possible « crimes » listed in such a clear way.

There’s also a section on the history of copyright. It’s funny to remember that back in 1908, sheet music publishers filed suits against publishers of player-piano rolls who were making a killing selling recordings of popular tunes, without paying composers a dime. And in 1984, The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Universal Studios’ lawsuit against Sony, which had contended that Sony’s VCRs allowed copyright infringement by giving « monsieur et madame tout le monde » the ability to make copies of their own movies. In the meantime the court case opposing the TV networks vs the maker of tv recorder ReplayTV, and its commercial-skipping button, is still pending. (See also Technophobia over the years).

Speaking of TV recorders, has anybody tried Bell ExpressVu’s new Personal Video Recorder? After years of waiting, the technology is finally available in Canada, yet I’m wondering if it’s not too late. Will HP’s Media Center PC (available at the end of the month) render these types of TV recorders obsolete?

VU : Dans le m�tro la semaine derni�re, les nouvelles publicit�s de Radio-Canada pour son site Web.

FRU : Je ne peux pas m’emp�cher de d�tester ces pubs o� l’on voit des jeunes naviguer « en toute libert� » avec leur ordinateur portable dans des lieux o� il serait tr�s improbable de pouvoir se brancher � Internet sans fil. C’est pas demain la veille qu’on pourra capter des signaux wi-fi sur les toits de Montr�al (ou sur le bord d’un lac, comme le montre une autre pub)! Mais ce qui me frustre vraiment, c’est de penser que Radio-Canada investit autant dans des publicit�s pour son site Web alors qu’elle a pris la d�cision, il y a un peu plus d’un an, de se d�barrasser de sa seule �mission de t�l� qui parlait des nouvelles technologies de mani�re sp�cialis�e (�mission qui ne lui co�tait vraiment pas tr�s cher puisqu’elle �tait coproduite). Plus il y aura de gens bien inform�s quant aux nouvelles technologies, et plus il y aura de visiteurs sur le site Web de Radio-Canada, non?

Bon, faut croire que je l’ai sur le coeur, cette d�cision l�…