Changes Is Good

A couple of years ago a kid from Norway, named Jon Lech Johansen, broke the encryption put on DVD’s to stop people from coping them onto their computers. A year or so later he did the same thing to the iTunes music store and made it possible for folks to share their music purchases. He was pretty unpopular with the big media companies but geek-boys the world over loved him, so he went legit and started a venture backed company. However, going legit isnt what it used to be. His latest application, let’s you share your music and other media with friends and family no matter what device they might be using. The new application called doubleTwist allows you to convert all your iTunes purchases to plain old mp3’s for you can shares them across devices. and it help you manage that process. The application is still in beta (early beta if the number of crashes I’ve had is any indicator) so you might want to check out the PDF press release here , the blog reaction here or the early articles here and here.

Thanks to the erudite scholar and gentleman, david touve for the tip.

It started back in June of ‘07 with “I Got a Crush on Obama” and culminated in “Yes We Can“, people from all walks of life have taken Barak Obama’s message, reimagined it and then shared it with millions of their closest friends via the internet. That trend shows no signs of letting up as we get closer to election day. The latest in this trend is a short-film called Barackula. Made by first-time filmmaker Mike Lawson it promises to be an interesting indie media look at the early years of the future president. I’m hoping that its as interesting as their blog makes it sound, the movie was supposed to be released online yesterday but still isnt up and I cant wait to see it.

Barackula is a short political horror rock musical about young Barack Obama having to stave off a secret society of vampires at Harvard when he was inducted into presidency at the Harvard Law Review in 1990. Obama (Justin Sherman) finds that he must convince the vampire society that opposing political philosophies can coexist or else the society may transform Obama to the dark side. Reminiscent to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and a slight infusion of Jesus Christ Superstar, the film solely depicts Obama’s strengths, merits and genuineness while being quietly respectful towards the other presidential candidates.

The nature of the medium has changed the tenor of the message. Two videos posted this month to YouTube show the power and potential impact of online messaging. The first is will.i.am’s inspirational probama (pro-Obama) video which has attracted millions of people with its moving subtext, great music, beautiful celebrities and grass-roots, folksy nature.

The truly transformative power of Internet messaging is its ability to level of the playing field and allow all voices to be heard. Seizing on this power, a group of political activist supporting John McCain, have posted an inspirational and moving video of their own. While lacking some of the production qualities of the will.i.am video, its another moving example of how the Interent is giving voice to impassioned, but previously voiceless Americans.

Are you rhythmically challenged? Does your guttural moaning and expletive laden calls for incestuous relations with a parental figure ruin your bi-monthly night of passion? If so, then a force-sensitive sound-playing condom might be just what you need to set the mood. The inventor of the musical cock-ring and the burping, peeing doll you played with as a kid has another hit device ready to be licensed by manufactures the world over.

The device is a condom with a little music playing chip at the base that gets activated when you and your partner’s suprapubic genital areas make contact (ie you bumping uglies). As amusing as the device itself is the patent application for it is even better. For example the following passage is direct from the text of the patent:

The music or voice message may be played once (e.g ., an overture or melody may be played for about 20 seconds) or it may be repeated continuously for several minutes to coincide with the duration of coitus. A voiced message may be a warning about safe sex, or a compliment to the couple for using a condom. Suitable melodies (if music is played) may be The 1812 Overture, “The Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the song “Happy Birthday To You“, the “Anniversary Waltz” or any popular love song.

Paul Lyons, the inventor of the musical condoms, must have had phenomenally good concentration and equally bad staying power, because in his world its possible to both get a lady off and keep it up, while hearing the same 20 second clip repeated continuously for “several minutes”. While I’m no tantric god, I can do better then several minutes although perhaps not if there is a continuous loop of “Happy Birthday To You“. Finally, why would I want a safe sex message while I’m having safe sex? If this product ever makes it to the market and you buy one for your partner the absolute worst musical selection I can think of is, “I’m a little tea pot“. Other ideas?

The Milken Institute, founded by Michael Milken the “Junk Bond King” and real life Gordon Gekko, in an effort not to be referred to as the “Junk Bond King” or real life Gordon Gekko, released an interesting research report on the state of capital access across 122 countries. The research looks at a bunch of factors like interest rates, equity markets, venture capital and the access to credit cards (the fuel of a million start-ups) and comes up with a ranking for each of the 122 countries. In the Top 10 are several countries most American’s couldnt find on a map, including the UK, Singapore, and Canada. I would have included the US in that list except it didnt make the Top 10 ranking in 2007.

Continue reading ‘Singapore, and 9 others, beat US in Capital Access for Entrepreneurs’

PETA, towards which I have no strong feelings (positive or negative), has taken its online activism to new heights with its Trollsen Twins campaign. The campaign is named for the fur loving waifs, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, best known for being human cash machines as children. According to PETA, they decided to provide the web with the above hilarity when to the Olsen twins’ refused to remove fur from their personal wardrobes and retail fashion collections. Of course, PETA might also want to address the “Pro-ana“, drug addled, self-destructive behaviors of the duo. I mean as long as they are throwing stones…

I was getting caught-up with Josh Spear this morning and came across an amazing stunt site TV show vlog, called 2 Husbands. At first blush the concept isnt that interesting. Two single guys want to get hitched and they have turned to the Internet for help. On their site women can upload videos of themselves and visitors to the site vote on who they should marry. Think of it as a mash-up between The Bachelor and American Idol with a $50,000 prize to the lucky ladies who get the most votes.

But wait, there’s a twist, one of the guys is gay. Yup, one of potential mates is quite openly, comfortably and happily gay. Now I’m not one to judge the mate selections of others, but I tend to prefer mates who are at least potentially sexually attracted to me. Call me old fashioned.

The site was launched back in November and will run for a year or until it collects 500,000 votes for the various brides. Votes cost $2 a piece, which would give the 2 husbands 1 million bucks to start their lives with their new wives. Of course given how they got those wives the likelihood of keeping that money are pretty slim.

I really like this video, its kinda old but still very clever. Everytime the stats come on the screen I’m reminded of where the music industry needs to be.

Isnt music a huge part of Internet downloads? Dont music related sites proliferate and spread in much the same way as porn sites? So, where is the music industries Adult Friend Finder? Why is there no Jane’s Guide for music? Someone needs to tell Doug Morris to stop watching online porn and start studying it, it holds many of the answers that could help him save his business.

While scanning headlines over at Docuticker a came a cross a story which caught my attention, entitled Cash Starved Forest Service Spends $600,000 to Buy Tasers. Hmmm, lets seee should the agency buy more flame retardant or electroshock treatment for wild bears and hippy stoners? What to do, what to do….

It appears that the Forrest Service has ordered a truck load of Tasers for the 700 officers in its employ. However, they forgot to get those same officers some training in the use of those Tasers so unfortunately the weapons are sitting on a closet self in Gail Kimbell’s office. You gotta love the Bush administration!

Its been months since I last mentioned Zopa, the UK strain of the P2P lending bug which will hopefully wipe-out retail banking and credit cards. So it came as a bit of a shock when I got an email from them yesterday morning loudly proclaiming their imminent launch.

Well, we told you we were coming! At this very minute, we are testing the service and expect to bring it to everybody within a few days.

Thats what they said months ago! Still, as a former Prosper lender (I stopped actively lending back in June), I’m pretty excited to try out Zopa and jump back into the P2P lending space. Zopa promises shorter loan terms, potentially higher returns and lender selected rates (on Prosper rate are set by bid). One line from their email really jumped out at me:

No risk for investors.
Your funds will be federally insured. No more worrying about whether your borrowers will pay your loan back.

No risk and investors should never be used in the same sentence, as it is very rarely true. I’m clearly not the only skeptic out here (and here and here). Why would the federal government insure my private loan to another individual? Makes no sense to me but when it launches, I will be lending… I can spot you $50 for 3 months at 6%, with 200 other strangers. You can use the $10k to fund that new web 2.0 start-up you’ve been dreaming about. You know, that Myspace meets YouTube idea, for English speaking Mexican boys between the ages of 9 and 17, living in the suburbs of Spokane. Its a winner for sure!