Bob Jonkman’s Techdirt Profile

bobjonkman

About Bob Jonkman

Computer consultant at SOBAC Microcomputer Services, Elmira, Ontario, Canada.

http://sobac.com/sobac/

http://www.linkedin.com/bobjonkman



Bob Jonkman’s Comments comment rss

  • Sep 19th, 2011 @ 5:29pm

    Need text links

    Hi Techdirt: Can you post ordinary text links for those embedded objects? Some of us use browsers that are restricted in what they can display, eg. no Javascript, iframes or media objects. But there's no problem in downloading an actual video file...

    Thanx,
    --Bob.

  • Jan 10th, 2011 @ 9:16pm

    LinkedIn is not accurate

    LinkedIn does not accurately display what a user enters as his job title.

    For example, my LinkedIn profile shows Computer Support Generalist at The Working Centre, but I've actually entered Contract Computer Support Generalist at The Working Centre. I also tried Computer Support Generalist Contract Position but that didn't work either. I wonder what else LinkedIn alters (censors?).

    Moral of the story: If you read it on The Internet it isn't necessarily true.

    —Bob.

  • Sep 28th, 2010 @ 1:09pm

    Making money by giving away music for free

    This summer there was a free concert in our town. We really liked the band that played (Gavin Knight and the Rhythm Resurgence), and stopped to talk to them after the show; asked about websites and concert calendars and so on. Gavin Knight himself GAVE us a copy of the band's CD.

    We went to see them at The Boathouse a few weeks ago. And we'll be going to see them again next month.

    Now, these guys may be playing for a hobby; maybe they all have day jobs -- I don't know. But by giving away their music the first time, we're now paying for cover charges and restaurant meals so we can listen to the music we enjoy. There's lots of money to be made, not directly from selling the music, but from all the peripheral businesses that rely on the music industry.

    Graham Henderson is full of horse puckey, and can't prove a thing.

    --Bob.

  • Mar 19th, 2010 @ 4:14pm

    Old way == easy, new way == hard. Or not.

    AC: Old way of doing business = easy

    MM: Not even close. The old way was very very hard.

    AC: New way of doing business = very very hard.

    MM: Wrong. It's much, much, much easier than the old way.

    I think the two of you are looking at it from opposite ends. Anonymous Coward writes from the PoV of the Record Industry Executive. Under the old model, the artist had a very, very hard time of making it, constantly at the whims of the Record Industry Executive, who had it very, very easy with an exclusive lock on distribution. But under the new model, the artist has it very, very easy, with a World Wide Content Distribution System and Marketing Engine at his fingertips, while the Record Industry Executive has it very, very hard trying understand all this new-fangled media stuff.

    --Bob.

  • Mar 19th, 2010 @ 4:41am

    more of the same...

    There's more of the same discussion on the Spark Exchange blog.

    Even for musicians knowledgeable about the nature of the Internet, knowing that their music will be shared, knowing that the Big Music labels are unlikely to make them mega-stars, even then some musicians are afraid to embrace new business models.

    --Bob

  • Dec 26th, 2009 @ 11:56pm

    Vimeo is a commercial service

    A bit of paradox: Vimeo is a commercial service, so anything posted on Vimeo is used for commercial purposes (increasing Vimeo's revenues), so Vimeo should be banning everything posted on Vimeo.

    But seriously, folks...

    Any time you give a third party control of your material they can do with it what they want. It may go against an up-front agreement you made with them, and you may have recourse to the courts. But in the meantime, they've got your video and you don't.

    If you want to be immune from these (frivolous) actions, then host your own content. Provide the video in an accessible format (.OGV or .MPG) and make proper use of the HTML "object" element, or the HTML5 "video" element.

    Don't use Flash (no guarantee Adobe will continue to support it), don't use YouTube or Vimeo or any other service you don't control.

    --Bob.

  • Nov 24th, 2009 @ 1:00pm

    Videos available in non-Flash?

    I'd love to see these videos -- are they available in a real, non-Flash video format like .OGV or .MP4 ?

    I'm using a computer that doesn't have Adobe Flash, but can play real videos quite nicely.

    Thanx,
    --Bob.

  • Jan 20th, 2009 @ 11:57pm

    Bell also throttles resellers

    Of course, smart Canadian ISPs don't throttle their customers' traffic. Unfortunately, Bell will do it for them -- Bell throttles all bandwidth of third-party wholesale resellers, so it's not possible for any Canadian to get unthrottled service.

    The cable providers are just as bad. From DSLReports.com I've heard that there is only one third-party ISP brave enough to resell Rogers wholesale broadband, and that gets throttled too.

    There won't be true competition until the third-party providers have their own tubes into their customers' premises. After digital TV is enabled in Canada (2011) I hope all that surplus TV bandwidth gets auctioned off to independent ISPs.

    Wireless will be the salvation of us all.

    --Bob.

  • Sep 14th, 2008 @ 9:07am

    It's been done.

    Wired Magazine is not the first "content provider" to open their creative process to their consumers. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has done it with their shows Spark and Search Engine (sadly muzzled for mocking the government). And then there's Snakes on a Plane... --Bob.

  • Nov 19th, 2007 @ 10:39am

    Re: Parallel the Musician's Strike in the '40s

    I'm not sure I can find this online. I listen to a local jazz station JAZZ.FM91, and one of the hosts, Glen Woodcock mentioned this many years ago -- at least, that's where I think I heard it. You may need to contact him for primary source material...

    --Bob.

  • Nov 19th, 2007 @ 9:42am

    Parallel the Musician's Strike in the '40s

    The current writer's strike reminds me of the Musician's strike in the 1940's -- the orchestras of the big bands and backups for vocal stars argued with the record labels about royalties for recordings. While they were quibbling, the law of unintended consequences took effect, and small, individual bands took over where the large orchestras used to be. Rock'n'Roll was born, and no-one really listens to big band music any more.

  • Oct 25th, 2007 @ 10:10am

    Re: This has been going on for years

    I first experienced this in 1999 when I was helping a friend look for a vanity domain name. We did the search together on some Web-based whois, then he went home and tried to register, only to find the name had already been taken. Ever since, I've only searched directly from the registrar that I'm buying from, and buy immediately.

    --Bob.

  • Dec 20th, 2005 @ 1:29pm

    Labor disputes will shut transit down, regardless

    If there was a labor dispute in the transit system, the operation would be shut down even if the subway was running automated trains. The current shutdown is a people problem, not a technical one.

    --Commutative Bob.

  • Nov 29th, 2003 @ 9:37pm

    Re: What about Male/Female

    The plumbing industry has it even worse -- not only do they have Male and Female connectors, plumbing parts also abound with nipples and cocks. Perhaps LA County should be targeting the plumbing instead...

  • Jul 22nd, 2003 @ 11:09am

    Read Harlan Ellison's fiction anyway

    I didn't realize that Harlan Ellison was such a self-proclaimed Luddite. Still, please don't deny yourself from reading his stories -- they're really quite good. Ellison was largely responsible for turning SF from Space Opera into Literature. And yes, the Terminator does resemble one of his stories (of course, there are only five different kinds of stories anyway -- I read that on the Internet so it must be true :-)
    --Bob.