Here are a bunch of interesting podcasts from Hollywood Reporter (THR) starting with Sacha Baron Cohen, one of my most favourite and insightful comedians, and the one that started me on this interesting journey. Have a listen of any one or more of these podcasts as I copied and pasted from THR. Enjoy!
Rereading “The Art of Producing 監製的藝術” (written 8 days before the concert) gives me a moment to think and reflect.
Post-concert thoughts (part 2 of 2)
For the record, these are my brief comments on the morning of March 2nd, 2 days after successfully staged Kashy Keegan‘s Hong Kong Dreams Come True Concert. I finally have a few moments to relax and reflect. If I can find time, I will try to write a longer article later.
– “Kashy, All those lights were for you!”
I told Kashy after the concert that the lights from the cellphone screens in October 2013 were mostly to support HKTV. Whereas, the cellphone lights when Kashy performed “This Is My Dream” at the end of the concert, the lights were for him! People came from all over Hong Kong to listen to Kashy’s music and support him! As I told Kashy moments after the concert, “All those lights were for you!”
Kashy, All those lights were for you!
– “3” for 生生不息 “99” for 長長久久, from 140 to 399
EastWeek 東周刊 interviewed me yesterday to ask about the concert. I told the reporter Kashy and I thought the concert was a success. Some supporters came all the way to Chai Wan to buy Kashy’s CDs and posters. And many came to buy tickets not long before the show starts. It was a bit disappointing (“令人有點失望”) to see only 140 tickets sold on 26 Feb, just two days before the concert. So we were happy to know that when the news of ticket sales situation was reported, Hong Kongers came out in support. And the theatre told us we sold 399 tickets! In Chinese, “3” for 生生不息 “99” for 長長久久, a nice way to symbolize the being of Kashy’s professional music career in Hong Kong.
– Perfect? No. We will get better.
Did we have a perfect concert? No, of course not! No self-respecting artists will say they are “perfect”. In the pursuit of perfection is the ideal. Do it. Learn it. Get better. Do it some more. Learn some more. […] 做。學習。做得更好。做多一些。學多一些。[…]
Big thanks for your support,
Kempton
Kashy’s Hong Kong Dreams Come True Concert producer
“Now the company is asking Chirbit to remove the clip, according to The Globe and Mail.
“Encana is the copyright owner of the Recording. It was expressly stated at the outset of the Conference Call that ‘this conference call may not be recorded or rebroadcast without the express consent of Encana Corporation,’” Encana told the web site in a letter.
“The Recording has been posted without Encana’s consent. The unauthorized use of this Recording clearly constitutes copyright infringement. … Encana views this matter extremely seriously and requests that you respond to the undersigned on or before the close of business on Friday, February 22, 2013, failing which, Encana will have no other recourse but to take all actions as may be available to it to protect its proprietary rights.”
Chirbit has declined the request, invoking fair use laws and saying that under its policy, anyone who wants audio removed from its site should ask the poster to do so.“
To me, it seems a case could possibly be made that Encana is trying to subvert freedom of press by using copyright law, ultimately if it comes to a lawsuit it will be up to the judicial systems to decide. Now you have listened to the recording, and read the relevant materials, do you think Encana is trying to subvert freedom of press by using copyright law?
Please share your thoughts and comments. All comments are moderated but all fair comments will be approved and I will defend your rights to freedom of speech.
Stretching and bending Copyright Law
It should be noted that copyright law has been used in Canada in recent years to over-reach (in my opinion) into other unrelated areas. Take Euro-Excellence Inc. v. Kraft Canada Inc., 2007 SCC 37, [2007] 3 S.C.R. 20, a Supreme Court of Canada judgment on Canadian copyright law as an example, it ultimately is a case about the import of chocolate that somehow got twisted into a case about copyright.
Note: I have made a record of the audio clip in question as a backup in case the original recording was removed for any reason or by accident. Freedom of press is a principal worth protecting and fighting for by all working jouralists.
* 0:00 Heather has been attending Banff for many years now, I asked her why she attends Banff.
* 2:30 For this Banff, did Heather get to meet and talk to senior broadcast executives on behalf of the members?
* 3:42 In our pre-interview, Heather mentioned a figure of 27 hours of bought (foreign) programs for one hour of Canadian produced drama. We talked more on this.
* 5:00 Last year (or the year before), Hon. Lindsay Blackett, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit said something like that the reason we have so little Canada content is because the Canadian creative community creates “shitty” programs that no one watches. I asked Heather to comment on this.
* 8:23 With respect to the fees paid to performers for digital/online content, I ask Heather to explain the current situation and whether the ACTRA Toronto members are being fairly treated.
* 9:50 I asked Heather to give some specific examples and detailed explanation of the fee payment structure for digital content.
The following is a review of the pre-release version of FlyingWord Treasure Island iPad app. And I will post my video interview with Joe Weber, CEO and co-founder of FlyingWord, later.
– Lively and very engaging narration of the original full-length classic Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. (beautifully narrated for about 7 hours)
– Excellent music and sound effects at the right places.
– Nicely rendered 2D illustrations into “3D projections”, camera angle controllable by readers. [Note: the 3D here is not real Avatar 3D, but closer to what Ken Burns does with his “layers” of photos in a scene.]
– Some of the pages have objects for readers to play with. For sure to check out the cannon. (These objects have “physics engines” behind them to allow users to move them around.)
Cons
– The initial version of the app has a few bugs that I’ve reported to FlyingWord.
-The app has problems waking up from “sleep” or “auto-lock” modes. Narration fails to restart gracefully. In a few instances, waking up after sleep actually tripped the narration and it got stuck in repeating a word/sound.
– If the reader flip to a page where part of the text in the paragraph is in the previous page, the narration will read from the text in the previous page. This result can be very confusing for the readers as they may not know this is the “expected behaviour”. To me, readers may expect when flipping to a new page, the narration will match the text she/he reads on the page.
– Many of the objects are a bit too small and difficult to control.
+ e.g. in the breakfast scene (bottle is ok, but the egg, plate, and sword are difficult to manipulate)
+ in the scene with the apple barrel, the barrel can be easily moved but the apples are not controllable even though the readers will likely spend time to try to move it. It may be more enjoyable if the apples are made bigger and controllable by readers like the barrel.
– This one is technical. Currently, the space outside of the edges of the 2D to 3D projections are blank (set to black space). I think it will look nicer and gives a more immersive experience if the whole background are filled and readers won’t see black space around the edges of the original 2D frames.
Comments:
As discussed in the Pros section, the narration is lively and very engaging and I really love it. At the same time, the app may have been a bit ambitious in using the full-length original Treasure Island in its launch version. The good news is that an abridged free update will be released in a few weeks after the initial launch. To me, the abridged version with shorter audio (~1.5 hour long) and text will be a nicer fit for kids who will appreciate the physics engines games and 2D-to-3D effects more.
To write this review, I also found and checked out a LibriVox free audio book version of Treasure Island on the app store and it has the original text and the audio is reasonably good but definitely not as exciting/engaging as FlyingWord‘s version.
Ms. Audrey Eu, Hong Kong Legislator, shares her insight about the harsh 11 year prison term of Liu Xiao Bo, the pending “de facto referendum”, and the implication of Liu’s sentence in Jan 3rd, 2010 RTHK radio program “Letter to Hong Kong” (audio program with text).
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I am enclosing Ms. Audrey Eu’s letter to Hong Kong here for the record. Emphasis and comments added.
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It was especially cold last Christmas, not because the Copenhagen conference succeeded in halting global warming, but because the well known dissident Liu Xiao Bo was given a harsh 11 year prison term on charges of inciting subversion of the State, and stripped of his political rights for 2 years.
The fact that he was held for a year and then dealt a harsh sentence on Christmas Day, a day traditionally for peace and celebration, seems like a cruel joke that China is intent on playing with the rest of the world. [Kempton’s note: This is China’s way of saying “F*** You” to the world. Or “財大氣粗”, a rich man’s ability to ignore the world.]
Liu was charged with co-authoring the 08 Charter and disseminating 6 articles. The 6000 words judgment mainly consists of evidence which is not in dispute, namely he wrote and disseminated the documents in question, but it carries no explanation as to how this contravenes the Criminal Code. The critical part of the judgment is but one tenth of its length. It mentions 4 provisions of the Criminal Code without stating what they are, let alone explain how they apply. [Kempton’s note: To those who claim China has a good legal system, I don’t know how can they kid themselves.] It says the writings spread quickly and widely on the internet and thus goes beyond the bounds of freedom of speech and amounts to a serious crime that justifies a heavy sentence. There is no explanation of where lies the boundary of freedom of speech, who has been incited to do what or what harm the State has come to, or how Liu’s act is different from the tens of thousands who have co-signed the Charter. Anyone who has illusions that a strong China means a modern China should wake up.
I appreciate very much Globalive chairman Tony Lacavera taking time today (a Sunday) to have an interview with me to talk about Globalive/WIND Mobile‘s plans after the government of Canada overturning the CRTC decision 2009-678 (PDF).
As a current Bell Mobility customer, I am excited to see a new wireless provider coming to the oligopolistic Canadian marketplace. The following are some highlights of my interview with Tony (mp3 download).
* WIND Mobile‘s plan to sign up new customers before Christmas and new year
WIND Mobile stores will open this week and Tony confirmed that WIND will roll out its wireless service as soon as possible and most likely before Christmas. I tried but was unable to get Tony to say the launch will be this week. Tony sees WIND has one chance to demonstrate to Canadians that it is a serious 4th national wireless provider competing with the likes of Bell, Telus, and Rogers. So he wants to launch when everything is ready. (Dec 15th update:BlackBerry Bold 9700. Dec 14th update: According to WIND’s latest press release, at 10:30am on Dec 16th, Tony and Ken Campbell, CEO of WIND will be unveiling the WIND Mobile store, and “the full line-up of products and services. The WIND network is currently live and fully operational with beta customers actively using the service and providing feedback.“)
WIND will have a few different phones available at launch and hope to expand on the choices available to include more offers. At launch, iPhones will not be available but will be available in the near future as WIND network can technically support the phones. As to the Google Phones, Tony also assured me the WIND network can support it when the phones are available. (Dec 14 Update: Some pricing & devices rumours from MobileSyrup, “Are these the Wind Mobile price plans?” and “The week the WIND came rushing in…“. We will know for sure on Dec 16th.)
* Last Friday on BNN, Tony said WIND Mobile has a target of 4-6 million subscribers in 5 years. I asked about their expected number of new customers vs customers that switch?
Tony explained that it will be difficult to estimate as different cities have different number of providers and level of competitions. For example, in Toronto, there are 7 brands/sub-brands operating and that is different from other smaller cities.
(Dec 14 update: BMO Nesbitt Burns telecom analyst Peter Rhamey estimates, “three dominant players – BCE (BCE-T), Telus (T-T) and Rogers Communcations (RCI-T) – stand to see a 5 to 10 per cent decline in subscriber additions next year … along with a price war, will erode earnings per share by 2.5 per cent at BCE and 5 per cent at Telus and Rogers“)
“These paragraphs signal the prioritization of enhanced competition in the marketplace. With support for foreign investment, the removal of foreign control limits may not be far behind.“
Tony reiterated the importance of the foreign control limits and Globalive is a Canadian company as he had said to other media outlets. You can listen to his answer in the audio interview.
* Telus’ Twitter comment
I asked for Tony’s comment to the following tweet by Michael Hennessy, Senior VP, Regulatory and Government Affairs, Telus
“Merry Christmas Michael. My Christmas comes early today! […]“
I will let you hear what Tony said in response to the above tweets in the audio interview. :)
* Few other questions & answers
Tony also indicated that WIND Mobile is a startup company, the network is brand new, and stated that “there is no question that we are going to make mistakes and it is not going to be perfect.” But Tony emphasized their main differences with the incumbents likes of Bell/Telus/Rogers is that WIND Mobile is going to keep listening to customers, “We need feedback on WINDMobile.ca … so we can constantly improve the offering”.
Only time will tell if WIND Mobile can deliver on their promises. The first things we will see are the pricing and service plans. And then the customers will have a chance to give their feedback on the call qualities and internet surfing experiences, etc. Later, we will see if Canadians will get new phone offerings like the iPhones and Androids “soon” as promised. I hope WIND will keep its promises and truly listen to its customers’ feedback and suggestions.
“Two news stories today may mean that the internet is getting a little less open. Julia Angwinwrote in the Wall St. Journal today about how the number of volunteer editors on Wikipedia has dropped precipitously over the past year. Then, Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com discusses reports that Rupert Murdoch is in negotiations with Microsoft to provide content exclusively to Bing, and not Google.”
Have a listen to CBC The Current interview with Malalai Joya. I may not agree with each of Malalai’s suggestions but what she saw and experienced in Afghanistan is scary and we need to know.
Here are some info from The Current (emphasis added).
“Malalai Joya
Hamid Karzai was sworn in for another term as Afghanistan’s President this morning. This against the backdrop of explosive news here in Canada that in 2006 and 2007, senior government officials including the prime minister’s office and the defense ministry were told Afghan detainees taken by Canadian troops and handed to Afghan officials were subject to beatings and electric shocks.
This morning as Ottawa reels from news that could affect Canadian politics and it’s place in international law… a lone Afghan woman is making her way across to Canada arguing that our troops and all foreign forces should get out.
Malalai Joya was 27-years-old when she became the youngest person elected to the new Afghan Parliament. She’s now suspended from Parliament for criticizing other MPs and accusing many of being warlords and criminals. She calls Afghanistan’s democracy a farce and says her country’s liberation is a lie.She has written a book called A Woman Among Warlords. Malalai Joya was in Toronto.”
American military recruiters have moved online, using web quizzes, Xbox shooters and sophisticated data mining to woo young recruits. Post your comments on the Search Engine blog: http://www.tvo.org/searchengine
Have a listen to what Warren Buffett said on CNBC live about his decision to buy the remaining shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Here is a good quote (emphasis added),
“[Burlington Northern Santa Fe] do it in a cost-effective way and extraordinarily environmentally friendly way. BNSF last year moved on average, it moved a ton of goods 470 miles on one gallon of diesel. It releases far fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. It saves enormously on energy consumption and, you know, it diminishes highway congestion. Rails last year moved 40 percent, more than 40 percent, over the country. They moved more than all those trucks, just the four big railroads. It’s a very effective way of moving goods. I basically believe this country will prosper and you’ll have more people moving more goods 10 and 20 and 30 years from now, and the rails should benefit. It’s a bet on the country, basically.”
“Our country’s future prosperity depends on its having an efficient and well-maintained rail system,” said Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive officer. “Conversely, America must grow and prosper for railroads to do well. Berkshire’s $34 billion investment in BNSF is a huge bet on that company, CEO Matt Rose and his team, and the railroad industry.
“Most important of all, however, it’s an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States,” said Mr. Buffett. “I love these bets.”
“Warren had a little single oval HO-gauge train set and coveted a more elaborate version, the kind he saw at the Brandeis deaprtment store downtown, which had multiple engines twisting and turning past flashing lights and signals, rising over snow-covered hills and dropping into tunnels, racing past tiny villages and disappearing into pine forests. But the closest he came to owning it was buying the catalog that depicted it.
‘If you were a little kid with one little oval track, looking at this thing, it was completely unbelievable. You’d gladly pay a dime for the model-train catalog and just sit there and fantasize.‘ [Warren Buffett said]” – The Snowball – by Alice Schroeder
Note: Baby Berkshire shares (i.e. class B) will be easier to buy now once the 50-for-1 stock split is approved (a formality).
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Nov 4 Update: Have a listen of Warren on CNN talking about the deal and other things. And Warren on Fox News (transcript and video). And Alice Schroeder’s (Warren’s biographer) opinions on the deal.
Description
Intel Corporation legend, former CEO, and Chairman of the Board Craig Barrett discusses his personal career path from a Stanford Associate Professor, to Silicon Valley consultant, to a 35-year career inside one of the globe’s most prominent players in technology. His talk concentrates on Moore’s Law and the myriad factors in place to ensure its continued progeny.
Because of the proximity of Hong Kong to Japan, I grew up watching many Japanese cartoons and children shows. And the original Astro Boy (dubbed in Cantonese《無敵小飛俠》) was one of many Japanese cartoons that I enjoyed.
So when a friend (a former publicist of CIFF) reached out to me and told me that she has promotional audio interviews/chats of some of the cast members of the new Astro Boy film (see HD trailers), I jumped at the chance to have a listen.
Edmonton hostage taker called CBC Edmonton, and Esther Enkin, CBC’s executive editor of news operations, writes about her views and the thinking behind some CBC decisions.
“Gareth Hampshire, who is News Coordinator in Edmonton, did an excellent job of deconstructing the episode on The Current Thursday morning.” (highly recommended)
I am glad that CBC News got the call and not “Cox” News.
Now, here is a hypothetical question.
What if the hostage taker actually had the capability to broadcast live video or tweet live? What would then be the appropriate thing for the media to do? What if individuals are spreading the news themselves already? You see, we would not only be dealing with the media (which may or may not exercise their journalistic integrity), we would then be dealing with anyone who has a Twitter account or YouTube account and news/rumours will likely spread fast like a wild fire.
In the age of Twitter and Youtube and other social media tools, we collectively will have to learn how to act appropriately. There are no easy answers but we need to think deep and hard.
“In this U.S. Supreme Court case, the Court was asked whether a patent holder can seek royalties from the downstream third-party purchaser. The Court concluded unanimously that it could not. Writing for the Court, Justice Clarence Thomas relied on the theory of “patent exhaustion,” which provides that a patented item’s initial authorized sale terminates all patent rights to that item, denying LGE royalties from companies down the line of commerce. The panel of experts discuss the decision, and the implications of the decision for patent law and licensing agreements.”
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