Apple and Google are making money. Conde Nast and The New York Times are barely breaking even. What gives? Personally, I think the issue is that Apple and Google sell me an experience, they make my life easier. The other guys just sell content. People, however, never paid for content. Homer wrote the Odyssey for meals and a place to crash. Shakespeare became a prosperous land owner, but he never saw any bank from the Leonardo DiCaprio flick. The money is in the medium.

I live in Sri Lanka. I buy used books from the street. My parents give me books. Most Sri Lankans have even less access than me. Anything that makes books available to more people worldwide is good to me. Google Books is one place where any Internet Cafe Johnny can search and reference (mostly old) books if they have the initiative. What they’re calling for isn’t that controversial, they’re just collecting and preserving out of print books and ‘orphaned’ books where the copyright has expired. These would likely disappear into McCallum street, or entirely. They’re also talking about a payment system for copyright authors. Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon, however, are suing them.

Low light is the holy grail of photography. The shot above, for example, was taken outside at 1:50 AM. This is only possible by keeping the camera still and shutter open for 20 seconds. The subjects have to sit still the whole time, like old timey photographs. It is also possible to use a high ISO setting (literally the same ISO standard for companies) to get greater sensitivity to light. That means you can keep the shutter open less and maybe even hold the camera in your hand. The Panasonic LX3 is OK for this, but the new Canon G11 may be better. The New York Times also profiles two more pocketable cameras which may be just as good.

This irritates me. On an average (American) questionnaire they have a standard race category. I inevitably click the Asian category. This annoys me because A) I’m not Chinese and B) Asian includes almost 40% of the world’s population. That click box amalgamates China and India (and everybody else) into one category based on some outdated Orientalism. I don’t mind being grouped with India demographically as we are both brown and enjoy curry. However, I don’t like being grouped with China, which is what Asian generally ‘means’ in the US. At least break Asian into ‘Paki’ and ‘Chink’, for courtesy’s sake.

Today’s New York Times (International Herald Tribune) demands that IDPs be allowed to leave, presumably now. However, they are not in a position to demand, and it is not as easy as it looks. First off, you don’t get anywhere demanding anything from this popular government. Like India, it pays to be diplomatic. By speaking quietly and giving big donations, India is helping the IDPs. By speaking loudly and coming empty handed, the Times is not. Furthermore, there are serious security and safety issues letting people go.

After a suicide bombing, northern frontier villagers rioted and killed neighbors in their homes. Military gunships then bombed the civilian area and injured and displaced many. That’s one way too look at it. The New York Times reports “men from surrounding villages began looking for Taliban militants and their supporters, burning houses and killing at least 11 men they identified as Taliban fighters… government officials asked for help from the military, which came in the form of helicopter gunships Tuesday morning. Most missed their marks.” The headline is Attacked, Pakistani Villagers Take On Taliban. I guess terrorism is different when it affects you.

The New York Times is basically calling for economic sanctions on Sri Lanka in order to force a cease-fire. This includes the $1.9 billion emergency IMF loan which is basically to prevent the economy from cratering. I know that the Times doesn’t advocate terrorism, it’s my favorite paper. However, I can’t think of a greater weapon than if Prabhakaran wrote it himself. The LTTE wants the ‘international community’ to bail them out. The New York Times wants to do it.

What I hear from the Red Cross and UN people is that the situation is dire. About 250,000 civilians and LTTE are being herded into a ‘safety zone’ and sorted out with the bombs. The real asshole in this drama, however, is certainly the LTTE. They are preventing people going out and using human shields as policy. Don’t get me wrong, they are a terrible stain on this nation and the world and the greatest threat to the Tamil people. If only because the language now becomes about fighting terrorism, and that justifies any amount of collateral damage. The LTTE must be eliminated, but the sad effect is that this is being done by killing and oppressing the shit out of the Tamil people. Collateral damage.

I’ve thought about this before, but the logistics seem daunting. You can print and distribute blog posts as a newspaper. Print is dying in the West, but it is still pretty powerful in the developing world. Internet is still non-competitive in the Third World because not enough people have access. Print media can still travel to more poor, rural people and reach more eyeballs. This article discusses an interesting bridge between the two – republishing blog posts in print media and distributing on the ground.

I spend a fair amount of time in meetings. If I have more than two I consider the day a wash. Not that meetings are unimportant, some are vital turning points in a project, some actual create consensus and new ideas etc. However, more than anything, the lack of any meetings often ensures that a project will fail. However, I feel like little thought is given to getting value for time and things often amount to just a discussion of obvious facts and promises of future action. A few rules of thumb I apply are that if there are more than 5 people or no actual decision makers then the meeting is useless. These facts are obvious to anyone who’s ever worked a job, but the New York Times has an interesting article on actually codifying the lesson.