The Gvlshornbook

and so another media conglom buys a content delivery company. Disney can spend $6mil but not spend to 2.5% for their writers….

Disney’s Steamboat invests $6M in EdgeCast - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:
Steamboat Ventures has invested $6 million in Los Angeles’ EdgeCast Networks, according to media reports Monday.

EdgeCast is a content delivery network, transporting such items as music and video downloads through its network infrastructure. Steamboat is the investment arm of the the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

With the investment from Steamboat, EdgeCast has raised $10 million in its latest round of funding. The funds will be used to increase the capacity of its network, as well as grow its sales and marketing staff.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the company, which was founded in 2006, expects to turn a profit in the second half of 2008.

Another Self-Flagellating moment in the Life of Me.
I am, if nothing else consistent when it comes to intellectually beating the shit out of myself, and today’s episode comes to your courtesy of the word:
HYPOCRISY This is my current state. While railing against violating confidences, little did I know, that I would succumb to that same Adversary a short while later… and, so I am a Hypocrite.

A part of me died the night I betrayed a friend. I felt/feel? as though

For what is Hypocrisy? Well, according to Webster:

Etymology:
Middle English ypocrisie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis act of playing a part on the stage, hypocrisy, from hypokrinesthai to answer, act on the stage, from hypo- + krinein to decide

The Irony being, I AM a hypocrite… I am an actor.

““We respect the rights of our freelance and temporary employees to express their opinions on the changes that have been made” VIACOM the MTV Freelancers walkout

MTV walkoutt

by metro / metro new york

DEC 11, 2007

Times Square. Hundreds of freelancers working for Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, walked out of MTV headquarters yesterday to protest the terms of their new contracts, which cut benefits.

They estimated freelancers make up half of Viacom’s workforce.

“We respect the rights of our freelance and temporary employees to express their opinions on the changes that have been made,” Viacom said in a statement. “Our new programs and policies are still highly competitive with the rest of our industry.”

HALF the workforce of VIACOM is freelance. HALF. and they want to cut benefits to HALF the workforce? Oh, Sumner, you are indeed getting spongy in your pia mater

Dear Whoopi,
Thank you for the hot chocolate. We appreciated it. actually, we LOVED it!!!

First, a bit of context:
We arrived at 9 am at the ABC studios where The View is taped. Two pickets were formed one at the audience entrance to the studio, and one behind, so peopele entering and leaving could not avoid seeing us and our signs. AFTRA and SAG both were showing in larger numbers than before, and as a member of AFTRA, it made me feel good to see my fellow performers on the line. Two boxes filled with hot chocolate were sent out by Whoopi Goldberg for us, and later she and Elisabeth Hasselback came out to spend a bit of time with us.

(more…)

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/120407-microsoft-santa-bot.html

An artificial-intelligence Santa bot operated by Microsoft to talk to children wavered off topic saying: “It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else….”

Microsoft Tuesday confirmed the bot’s potty mouth and snipped Santa’s Web connection.

“Yesterday we received reports that the automated Santa Claus agent in Windows Live Messenger used inappropriate language. As soon as we were alerted, we took steps to mitigate the issue, including the removal of language from the agent’s automated script. We were not completely satisfied with the result of these actions, and have decided to discontinue the automated Santa Claus agent,” Microsoft said in a statement sent to Network World. (See more bad Microsoft ideas.)

Once the report of the randy Santa broke, questions prodding Santa to give up even more questionable answers took off like eight tiny reindeer.

Some users got Santa to comment on his sexual orientation, others to reveal a criminal side.

One person said “…..come on you like big hairy men — don’t hide it!” To which Santa responded, “I know, I know. I just hope you won’t get mad at me.”

The references to sex acts, first reported by British news outlet The Register, came when the bot was answering questions about eating pizza. At the time, the bot was chatting with two girls age 11 and 13.

Good move Microsoft…..

Scribes to propose pay rates tied to viewershipSTRIKE ZONE: LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES

The WGA Tuesday will deliver a counterproposal to a recent offer from studio reps regarding pay for new-media streaming, with the guild proposing fixed compensation rates that also are graduated in increments tied to viewership rates.

“If the number of eyeballs go up, then our residual would go up,” a source close to WGA negotiators said. “Our proposal tries to find a way of making things a little more flexible.”

Let’s see what the AMPTP has to say about this proposal. besides :Fuck you. and now a word from the youtube cuties: