Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with media

Have you had success returning blank CD (or DVD) media for credit or replacement?

jeremias — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:26:34 -0800

Have you had success returning blank CD (or DVD) media for credit or replacement? So I have these relatively expensive blank "vinyl" cd's from Verbatim. It seems 25% of them are burning coasters which is very frustrating. I'm using the usually reliable Toast Titanium, burning far below the maximum speed, etc. There is a "Limited Lifetime Warranty", but I don't know how Verbatim might interpret that: blame my cd burner, etc.

Seeking a political chart of media personalities.

jcdill — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:07:24 -0800

I'm looking for a visual reference that shows where various media personalities political views are relative to each other. Something like the political compass chart for politicians, such as seen here: http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008

How much money does the gossip magazine / gossip blog / tabloid industry make?

Elle Vator — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:23:45 -0800

So, celebrity gossip is everywhere and lots of $$$ is forked out for images of famous babies, etcetera... BUT how much money does the gossip industry MAKE? I can't find any online statistics about Gossip Industry Revenues. It's actually very odd and mysterious.

I'm looking for numbers on gossip magazines, gossip blogs and/or the tabloid industry, with the goal of comparing the Gossip numbers to the Porn Industry and the Television Industry respectively. I could use global numbers, US or North American numbers.

It would be useful to find a webpage as comprehensive as this: http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html

...but I would take a single, high impact sentence about the tabloids and gossip rags (such as this gem: "US Porn Revenues are greater than the combined revenues of ABC, CBS and NBC"), which was properly cited and verifiable.

Anyone got anything?

Would linux breathe new life into my old powerbook?

jlowen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:21:21 -0800

I want to have a fast capable NAS/file server/upnp device very similar to the QNAP TS-110 TurboNAS. I have an old 12" Powerbook G4 aluminum MAC OS x laptop. Would it be possible to install a barebones linux installation on the Powerbook to have access to many of the same features of the QNAP device? My Powerbook is a 1.3ghz with 800mb memory, with OS X 10.5 (leopard) installed. I want to use it to stream movies to my PS3 using upnp. I have tried software like Nullsoft's medialink and the PS3 media server, but the laptop does not seem capable of serving up media files to the ps3 without serious stuttering and lagging. (Even with both devices using ethernet cables - A problem my new shiny macbook pro does not have)

I was considering purchasing a QNAP TS-110 but it seems that my powerbook has twice the power and should in theory make a dandy media server. Would it be possible to learn and install a linux variation on the powerbook to recreate the same core features of the NAS device and turn the old decrepit powerbook into a capable media/file server? Note: I need only serve the file from the powerbook to be played on other hardware.

Is there a particular linux distribution I should use? Or would it be better to upgrade to a dedicated NAS?

How to set up a project for high school students...

degoao — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:03:42 -0800

I want my students to develop the habit of reading about current events (local to international). Instead of reading a required book over the summer, I would like them to select one to two articles a week from a list of sources I provide them and comment on the articles. (asking for a friend)

I'd like my students to create their own blogs and post their comments once or twice a week. There would be about 600 students for me to keep tabs on throughout the summer. This is for 13-17 year old high school students at a conservative Catholic school.

My questions are:

What publications should I use? I have developed a small list, but I'd like to hear your ideas. (Although the school is conservative, I'd like to get all perspectives)

How can I realistically keep tabs on the blogs of 600 students?

What kinds of exceptions can there be? (For example, what if the student goes to Jamaica for three weeks and has no internet access)

What should the consequences be if a student doesn't do some or all of the project?

Depersonalizing media violence

crazycanuck — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:55:07 -0800

Now that I'm a mother, I'm hypersensitive to portrayals of child abuse or child death in movies and books. I just woke up from a nightmare induced by a novel that culminated in the murder of a child. How do I depersonalize violent media depictions of children? It's a terrible feeling to have some book or some movie eat away at me because I've inappropriately projected the situation onto my own daughter and let the book/movie play off irrational parental fears.

Best way to store 4 TB of media?

heliostatic — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:58:36 -0800

I'm looking for reliable, scalable storage, around 4 TB. I've got the usual setup: several computers, home network, lots of media to share. Right now, I've got most of the media on a NAS (Infrant NV), which holds ~2 TB with RAID. However, I've got another 2 TB floating around, and I'd rather use the NAS for backup. I don't want to lose the media, but the current setup is expensive and doesn't scale well (i.e. cheaply). I'd be willing to add external storage to an existing computer or build a new file server, but I'm not sure what will scale best over the next couple of years.

A piece of fruit on prime time?

slactoid — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:33:38 -0800

Fruit on TV? I remember someone saying something to the effect of, "If we put a piece of fruit on television every night, it will become a national icon". Who said that? And I think that someone actually did it (SNL?), did THAT happen?

Multimedia-filter: Looking for help from all you Network and digital media Gurus in making my first house totally awesome. Movies, Televsion, Music, Wifi, Streaming Content and 50mgbt broadband within.

Cogentesque — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:03:13 -0800

Multimedia-filter: Looking for help from HDTV, NAS, Media Servers and Network Gurus' in making my first house totaly awesome. Movies, Televsion, Music, Wifi, Streaming Content and 50mgbt broadband within. Ok guys, this is my first new message on metafilter, so thanks for everything thus far - to business.

The Premise:
In two weekends time, my girlfriend and I are moving into our first house together in Southampton (UK).

Thankfully she is very accomadating and shares the same views with me reguarding the wonder of technology and allure of gadgetry and thus: we have decided to go down the "cyberhouse" network route - all be it slowly.

What we currently have
50mgbt line and a Television package from Virgin.
2 relatively high-spec PCs downstairs (in the lounge) (XP/Vista soon upgrading to Windows 7 im sure)
A new TV - to be bought - (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154997/show_product_reviews?offset=10&review_type=both&review_order_by=RLF - ebuyer's own)
1 ipod touch
Host of parts to make a low spec PC.

What I would like in my cyber house
DVD's playable on the TV
Normal channels (Virgin package) playable on the TV
Video (films, episodes) from PC's playable on the TV
Music, both downstairs and upstairs: DAB radio/Cd's/Downloaded Music/Online Radio (last.fm etc would be great)
The ability to change the music remotely (ideally, different sources for different rooms)

Some ideas I've been looking at so far
KVM Switch and a long HDMI cable for my computer to use TV as alternative screen - enabling videos from pc to be played
NAT Storage hiding somewhere in the network
Popcorn Hour to play video from PC
Sonos music system to play upstairs and downstairs
Media pc configured to do the job of sonos and popcorn hour (apparantly this is very tricky?)

What do you think metafilter? Remember that we are definately "on a budget" but I much more trust your collective ideas and conceptions than my own - so what would you reccomend should be my immediate course of action?

Like, the hairdressing-industrial complex.

liketitanic — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:48:48 -0800

How do I figure out who covers a particular beat for a national magazine (besides lots of drill-down googling)? I'm working for someone who wrote a book on the history of an important social issue. Say it's . . . hairdressing. I'm working with the author to make a list of folks in media who might be interested in reading this book about hairdressing. How do I find hairdressing beat reporters for national magazines like, say, the Atlantic or the Nation when their site search functions are so unwieldy? Is there some shortcut I don't know about?

I allegedly don't understand the word "allegedly." Allegedly.

the foreground — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:32:09 -0800

I am confused as to the use of the word "allegedly" and why it is used outside of a strictly legal sense (in the media for example)? For instance, with this most recent shooting in Texas, there are obviously dozens of eye witnesses, only one suspect under consideration, no one is going to argue in court that someone else did it, so why on the news are the anchors still saying Mr. Hasan "allegedly" shot these people? It just seems weird... I understand the term might be more relevant in a case of a burglary, or when there is only circumstantial evidence to tie a suspect to a crime, because then there is a doubt and if you straight out accuse someone and they are acquitted, then you might be liable to be sued. It seems in this case the only thing in doubt is the motivation or mental state of the accused (temporary insanity etc.), there is no real doubt that he actually did it...so why is everyone so noticeably still prefixing the crime with "allegedly?" Also, it seems the media are really selective with this term. If an investigative reporter uncovers something legally dubious about a company for instance, the headline would read "Documents reveal Company x laundered millions" you never see "Documents reveal Company x allegedly laundered millions." Unless I just am not noticing it. Can someone explain the technical issues around this word, when it is appropriate to use and when it is not?

Internet art?

yegga — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:43:21 -0800

Internet art? I'm looking for internet art and the people behind them. To be clearer, ideas that can be put together only in the age of the internet. I mean art of the kind here: Internet Art, net.art, the work of Aaron Koblin, Golan Levin, Ze Frank.

Collectives/groups also welcome.

Most of the above are from the US, please show me some international flavors too.

Women who runs with the Wolf Lecture

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:34:02 -0800

What have you heard about werewolves? I need to know everything there is to know about the mythology of werewolves, from media, from folklore and especially from batshit cryptozoology circles, for a surprise (as in, surprise to ME) lecture I'll be delivering next week. I'll be doing academic research on the topic on my own, but I thought this would be a good place to get a broad pop-cultural base of different facets of this concept in a hurry.

Some sample ponderings I'm beginning with:

- What are the "rules" of werewolves? Are they strictly involuntary shape-shifters?
- What other kinds of were-animals have there been in myth? (Cat People comes to mind.)
- What are some weird werewolf anomalies from werewolf stories you know of?
- Werewolves: sexy? hungry? what's their motivation?
- Are there werewolf myths from foreign lands?
- What's the moon significance? Is that a jacked-the-hell-up gender thing or what?

I've seen: Teen Wolf and its sequel, Wolf, An American Werewolf in London, and am familiar with Remus Lupin in book and film. I think that's about the entirety of my werewolf exposure. Any movies I MUST see ASAP? The class will be screening Ginger Snaps.

Since the class I'm lecturing for thematically treats issues of wildness vs. domesticity, any anecdotes or examples of werewolves interacting with wolf-wolves or with pet dogs would be good to come up with.

Obviously lots of kinds of info or pointers are welcome.

Am I gunshy after "Balloon Boy" or are there legitimate reasons to question whether Jessica Watson is really sailing around the globe?

kellygreen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:56:36 -0800

Am I just gun-shy after the "Balloon Boy" hoax or are there legitimate reasons to question whether Jessica Watson is really sailing around the world? What evidence can you find to support the theory that this is another hoax and what evidence can you find that refutes that theory? Over the past week I have been captivated by the Jessica Watson story. Ms. Watson is an Australian teenager attempting to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe on her sailboat, unassisted. I read her blog each day and I even purchased a world map so I could follow along on her journey. Things were going smoothly with my new hobby until she posted this blog entry about finding a bunch of squid on deck that morning. I was puzzled as to why she posted a "stock" photo of herself instead of pictures of the squid and began to wonder whether something was amiss.

My skepticism grew when I then read this article which noted that Ms. Watson has decided not to release her precise position information lest she be chased down by the media. I also learned that Ms. Watson plans on sailing nonstop and will not be stopping for media photos in port. This is unusual as young sailors typically make stops in ports when circumnavigating the globe: Zac Sunderland made loads of stops and Michael Perham took a Christmas break. The sailors give interviews at port and pose for media photos as they travel to foreign lands.

I want to continue to believe this terrific story and cheer on Ms. Watson, but I also want to be a savvy media consumer. How do you answer either one or both of my two questions?

Name that campaign - innovation + social media

latch24 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:27:33 -0800

Name that campaign! Need help finding an inspiring name for an internal/staff campaign that encompasses innovation + social media use... So, I am responsible for running this campaign for work and I am struggling to think up an inspiring (and short) name for it. At the moment I am just calling it "Using social media effectively" but its boring, long and not particularly inspiring. The whole idea is that we want staff to think of innovative and effective ways to use social media (facebook, twitter, flickr, etc etc) to solve problems, communicate ideas and create opportunities for discussion and interaction between staff and perhaps even our external clients. So far I have come up with... nothing and my team, friends and family haven't been a whole heap of help either so I come to the mefites for ideas. I would love to hear your ideas! It can incorporate the name of media, rhyme, anything!

If I have to use "Using social media effectively" it won't be the end of the world but I would like to at least try something a bit fun first! Thanks for helping.

I can haz media centre?

sully75 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:14:56 -0800

I'd like to build the world's cheapest media center PC. Budget is teensy. My roomate and I decided we'd like to get rid of our monster TV and the cabinet it came in (left by a former roomate). We don't watch TV but do enjoy a DVD, maybe once a week. The TV was never hooked up to an antenna or cable. We also both love music A LOT.

I was thinking that we can sell the cabinet (and the somewhat crapped out TV) on craigslist...and maybe get $150 or a little more than that for the two of them.

My idea is that we could get a cheap ebay dell ($50ish) and a cheap LCD ($100ish) Mounting the whole thing on some sort of rolling cart, with speakers attached. Installing Linux on it, and using this to play DVDs, music, youtube and things like that. Oh and I'd probably install a cheap big hard drive, there's a lot of music floating around our other computers.

I searched online quite a bit but mostly found people who are looking to do Tivo kind of stuff, which is not a priority for us at all. My main concern is that DVDs look reasonably good on screen. Our TV was crappy but ideally the color on the LCD would look good and it would not be choppy.

Suggestions of computers (is this Dell overkill for what we need, or undergill) LCDs (would we be terribly dissapointed with a cheepy) and software (Windows is a possibility too, and what programs would you run on this?). Also alternatives to this whole plan would be good too. I'd also consider modding a xbox off ebay. You can consider me moderately handy with computers and OS stuff.

Thanks!

Radical critiques of cyberspace?

jammy — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:02:44 -0800

If Karl Marx & Emma Goldman were arguing about the internet on Metafilter, what might they be saying? What kind of radical left analysis &/or commentary exists concerning the internet, new media, & computer technology? Looking for books, articles, essays, websites, etc...

I am most interested in work that takes relatively recent social & technological developments into account (e.g., the rise of social networking sites, mobile devices, etc., or advances in robotics & prosthetics).

Gracias!

Copyright filter

quidividi — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:42:34 -0800

Copyright filter: Do publishers of books like Richistan, Microtrends and The Ascent of Money—all of which use stories from newspapers, magazines and wire services as source material—have to pay the periodicals for the use of their material? Thanks!

How was print produced and distributed during the early Medieval period?

slowcat — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:28:33 -0800

How was print produced and distributed during the early Medieval period? I've been doing a lot of reading lately on early Christian thinkers, and I was wondering how much influence their writings could have on the general Christian public if this were before say, movable type. For example, Origen's writings are listed as being highly controversial in his lifetime, but how many people really had access to them? Was it really only the academic elite? Did they have to be manually copied?

I feel like I can't truly appreciate the ideas without understanding the context.
Thanks!

can I use an Atom eeeBox as a Media Center "server" for an XBOX 360 "client"?

bartleby — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:21:48 -0800

XBOX 360 as Media Center hackery: what's the minimum hardware I can get away with to serve as the Media Center PC "server" to the 360's "client"? NOTE: I am aware of things like MythTV, XBMC and TVersity that can act as replacements for a Media Center PC, and display content from there. But I'm not asking about those on a full PC as a solution - I'm asking about something minimalist to act as a Media Center "server" and using the XBOX 360 as a "client" that does the streaming and display.

I'm going to do a case mod on my 360 because the thing is so damn LOUD it makes a lousy home theatre. I got a replacement case (Lian Li XB01)that promises to be much quieter.

Opening it up, it definitely looks like there's room for something small and quiet like an eeeBox or a mini(micro?)-ITX motherboard to also live inside the case, running headless and acting as the Media Center PC, adding MCE features to the XBOX 360. But it's gotta be small, very quiet, and have minimal cooling needs.

I already have an eeeBox (Atom N270 @ 1.6 ghz, 1gb RAM) at home. I'm not using it for anything, since I first got it to use as a mini HTPC and found out that it's NOT up to doing something like watching Hulu on an HDTV; between the streaming, processing, and HD output, it's underpowered.

But as I understand it, the XBOX would be doing all the video output processing; so I'd just need something to be the Media Center "backend", on the same router/switch as the 360, and stream from that backend to the 360's frontend.
Do I have that right?

If I could get everything I want, it would:
-enable Hulu watching through the 360, like PlayOn does on a windows box

-allow me to hook up a Hauppauge USB TV Tuner stick or ATI TVWonder unit and record/watch HDTV (since the eee's Atom would have a hard time doing video transcoding on the fly, if it could just capture and then play back after chewing on it for a day, that would be fine - I'm almost never watching anything the day it's on anyway.)

- for super extra bonus points, it would run on Linux. Since it's going to be always-on, internet connected, and headless, I'd like to not have to worry about malware, windows crashes and patches, etc. But that may be asking for too much.

Any Media Center or XBOX 360 experts out there able to advise?

Vietnamese TV, anyone?

mordecai — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:36:34 -0800

Does anyone watch Vietnamese TV here? hey guys, I'm a student doing my BFA in Creative Producing at Chapman and I'm looking for information on Vietnamese television.

I know this is a bit of a long shot, but would you guys be able to help me out? I need information on the kinds of programmes they show on Vietnamese TV, some of the popular shows, whether programmes are imported, if they're dubbed, etc.

I would be able to do this research myself if not for the fact that most Vietnamese websites are, well, in Vietnamese. So I guess I'm really looking for someone who can speak the language?

Thanks folks! I'd appreciate any help!

Free or cheap CRM / PIM / wiki that imports and exports vCards with pictures? Suitable for film production?

Josh Coe — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:47:28 -0800

Is there a free or cheap shared PIM that imports and exports vCards with pictures? Preferably something suitable for film production? I need a PIM-sort-of-software for my web-based team to keep track of a database of actors. Additional functionality would be nice such as keeping track of projects (I've been looking at something like Chandler as a group task organizer, but an all-in-one option would be nice) and managing email campaigns (via a less complex clone of SugarCRM perhaps), but the necessity is the actor database.

I found Smibs Doorbell. It seemed perfect. I like the way it's organized by Contacts, Tasks, Groups, and Opportunities, but it exports vCards without pictures, which would be a dealbreaker if we outgrew it.

I'm a graduate student, so $20 per month is way out of my price range. $5 would be possible; free is better.

I wouldn't mind a hack-like solution. I even tried Google Apps. I thought we could manage email campaigns via Google Docs, and maintain the actor database in Google Spreadsheets, but the pictures don't go inside a spreadsheet cell but rather hover above the entire document.

I thought about using Wordpress. I tried Chris Wallace's Gallery Pro theme, but the functionality wasn't quite what I was looking for. Now I'm looking at WP-CRM or Celtx as possibilities. A wiki like Pimki seems intriguing but I haven't wrapped my head around whether that would meet my needs yet.

I'm using Mac OSX Leopard with WinXP Parallels, and my admin has a PC. I have Mediatemple hosting, so I could host it there. The company would manage multiple film projects at once.

Any suggestions on what CRM / PIM / wiki platform we should use?

Studying the rise of social websites?

toastchee — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:49:43 -0800

I am keenly interested in the social aspects and pervasive expansion of sites like Facebook. Is this a field of study? Are there good books available to understand this phenomena?

Who are our Pansexual Icons?

divabat — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:23:57 -0800

There are gay icons and lesbian icons - are there people who are bisexual/pansexual icons? I don't necessarily mean icons who are bisexual/pansexual (though they can be), but people who particularly appeal to bi/pan people the same way gay icons are, well, icons. How would you define such a person anyway?

I asked this on a LJ community for pansexuals and the only answer I got was the lead character of Torchwood, who's bisexual. Are there any others that would qualify? I'm thinking Lady Gaga or Angelina Jolie, but that's more "appeals to both sexes" rather than "appeals to bisexuals".

Escaped from Greenock Prison

cameronfromedinburgh — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:13:33 -0800

Browsing today's newspapers here in Scotland it would seem that there is an anti-Scottish feeling pervading the whole of the USA after the compassionate release of the Pan-Am bomber last week. Question1: Am I right in thinking that this is the case, or is it just right wing neo-con nonsense eminating from the Fox News stable? Question2: If this anti-Scottish feeling does exist, how best can I explain that we the UK/US public have been sold a lie by our Governments and that this guy was merely a patsy? The usually sound Scots legal system was a victim here and was used and abused by the use of Public Interest Immunity Certificates and dodgy state sponsored witnesses. This system needs rectified, what is the best forum to speak out on?