France weighs ‘culture tax’ for Apple, Google products
(Reuters) - President Francois Hollande will decide by the end of July whether France should impose new taxes on technology giants like Apple and Google to finance cultural projects, a move t …
Le sigh.
(Also testing out Flipboard/Tumblr integration.)
Pay-TV Sector Posts Worst Subscriber Trends in Four Years -
Todd Spangler on the most recent cable television numbers:
Q1 is historically one of the strongest periods for pay TV providers. But the 176,000 net adds in the most recent quarter came in at less than half the totals for the sector in the previous three years, according to Bazinet’s calculations. The industry added 403,000 in the first quarter of 2012; 483,000 in Q1 2011; and 507,000 in Q1 2010.
Indeed, the four largest publicly held MSOs in the States — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems — collectively lost 208,000 video subscribers in Q1 2013, exactly double the 104,000 they dropped in the year-earlier period.
I sense a trend. And if my math is correct, that trend is not a good one for cable television.
[via @ryanlawler]
5 years ago, I packed my bags and moved to San Francisco. I was 26 years old. Wild ride.
Don't make fun of renowned Dan Brown -
Michael Deacon:
“Hello agent John, it’s client Dan,” commented the pecunious scribbler. “I’m worried about new book Inferno. I think critics are going to say it’s badly written.”
The voice at the other end of the line gave a sigh, like a mighty oak toppling into a great river, or something else that didn’t sound like a sigh if you gave it a moment’s thought. “Who cares what the stupid critics say?” advised the literary agent. “They’re just snobs. You have millions of fans.”
That’s true, mused the accomplished composer of thrillers that combined religion, high culture and conspiracy theories. His books were read by everyone from renowned politician President Obama to renowned musician Britney Spears. It was said that a copy of The Da Vinci Code had even found its way into the hands of renowned monarch the Queen. He was grateful for his good fortune, and gave thanks every night in his prayers to renowned deity God.
Well played.
The Evolution of the Web, in a Blink -
Vijith Assar:
Since <blink> won’t blink in Blink, Firefox would be the only remaining browser that allows text to actually flash using the <blink> element. In the messy world of Internet technology, where the browsers often can’t even agree about the size at which to draw a simple box, that is as clear a signal as one can reasonably hope for: perhaps it’s time to retire <blink>.
A few hours after Google unveiled its plans for Chrome and Blink, a manager on Mozilla Japan’s internationalization team, Masayuki Nakano, filed a new ticket in the company’s internal bug-reporting system to suggest that Firefox do just that. After a few rounds of discussion, Nakano altered the necessary code in about a day’s worth of work, and submitted his changes on April 14th. Starting with version No. 23 of Firefox, Gecko, Mozilla’s internal rendering engine, will no longer support the <blink> element.
So long <blink>, it’s been an awful ride.
Happy Mother’s Day, from Federico Fellini
Indeed.
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“Golly, I’ll go with Bruce Seldon. I didn’t even hit him; I think the wind knocked him out.” —
Mike Tyson, when asked who he views as a real-life version of the Glass Joe character from the 1987 NES game Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! — number three on ESPN’s best sports video games of all time.
I used to play it with the Power Glove.
The Place Beyond the Pines by Terence Shek
Right down to the shirt.
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