Thursday, September 22, 2005

Goodbye tape

Here they come:

...tiny, lightweight, reasonably priced camcorders that contain iPod-type miniature hard drives. There are four models in all, ranging from the GZ-MG20 to the GZ-MG50. The differences are the prices ($750 to $800 online), light sensitivity, hard drive capacity (20 or 30 gigabytes), zoom lens power (15X or 25X), and the resolution of the low-quality still photos (0.3 megapixel or 1.3). Not one of them uses a tape or DVD.

The hard drive holds five or seven hours of video at top quality - easily a vacation’s worth. The 2.5-inch screen displays each shot as a thumbnail image (or as an entry in a chronological list), so you can jump directly to anything filmed without having to rewind or fast-forward. You can assemble up to 99 video playlists on this screen, too (selected scenes that play back in a certain order). And who among us hasn’t, at one point or another, accidentally recorded over something important on a videotape? (Oh, sorry - touchy subject.) On a hard-drive camcorder, that is impossible.

No longer an early adopter, I’d give it another year. Maybe.

Davis-Bacon

I’m inclined to oppose the president’s suspending of Davis-Bacon, though I’ve read some good arguments in favor of it.

Yesterday on Marketplace Robert Reich made a darned good point. Contrasting how the government has given up its bargaining power to award no-bid contracts to large politically connected corporations rebuilding in the gulf—companies that also just happen to be large Republican donors—he notes:

[I]t does seem curious that when it comes to paying ordinary workers to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, workers who have no political connections at all, the administration is eager to use its enormous bargaining power to get the lowest wages it can. It suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires the government to pay prevailing wages on all federal contracts. Now I could be missing something here, but this just doesn’t seem fair.

Dave had previously made that same good point. The prevailing wage is $9 hour:

NOTE FOR THE MATH CHALLENGED: $9 an hour is about $18,000 a year. The prevailing wage wasn’t about to create any new millionaires on the Gulf Coast.

UPDATE: Nathan Newman says, “It didn’t start with Bush...”

Hooray Phil!

Phil Donohue v Bill O’Relly on Crooks and Liars:

Donohue: Cindy Sheehan is one tough mother and nothing you say or anyone else is going to slow her down.

Bill: That’s fine, she’s has a right-

Phil:....You can’t hurt her, she’s already taken the biggest punch in the nose that a woman can take.

Bill, in his infinite wisdom asks: How? Phil: She’s lost a son- Bill: Oh, OK…

Let Google copy!

From Wired today:

Google’s book war with copyright holders is coming to a head with a lawsuit this week from the Writers Guild of America. The courts should take this opportunity to loosen unnecessary restrictions that are limiting innovation with no clear benefit to the public or rights holders.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, Google stands charged with illegally copying protected works for a commercial purpose without first obtaining the permission of the copyright holders.

The suit hands the courts a chance to revisit a long-standing principle of copyright law that’s increasingly come under pressure thanks to digital technologies. They can either update copyright law for the better, or side with tradition and hold back innovations that would benefit thousands of writers and millions of readers by rescuing books from obscurity. Read on.