Media Maven
We used to fear a robot army was coming until we realized that they’re more afraid of us than we are of them.
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Pong 2: Be the Ball, Danny
Pong’s Legacy Returns with a Twist In something of an early Valentine to Gen X, Atari has announced an upcoming sequel to its groundbreaking, industry-launching, classic video game… Pong. “Sequel” is a loose use of the term since the new game is essentially a wholesale reimagining of the rudimentary dual-paddle-battle save the inclusion of its…
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Hollywood and AI, the Pas de Deux
If there’s any question that major entertainment studios plan to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in creative contexts that were once solely the domain of humans, look no further than your local job board or business networking event. As Intercept reported to the consternation of many a creative in late July, “Netflix is offering as much as $900,000 for a…
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Public Domain: How to Win the Free IP Game
Cross Pitch: The Public Domain meets Low-Budget Genre Films The “public domain consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply” — you know, just like that preceding phrase, lifted straight from Wikipedia. Because I can — because it’s public domain. It’s yours, mine, and ours — and soon — so…
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Aging Apps
I hate when people say, “Age is only a number.” It’s as if they’re trying to dilute themselves with the shabby math. To my ear, such turns of phrase underscore our country’s clinical obsession with youth—read: an abhorrence of the aged and aging. I used to assume this was just one side of a spectrum,…
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AI Writing Obituaries
Last week I received some trade-pub spam from Editor & Publisher topped by the headline: “Optimizing obituaries to drive traffic and increase revenue.” Ugh. I’m all for driving traffic and increasing revenue, but not as a digital grave robber. Reconciling how our words are read by both humans and the search bots that feed them is par…
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‘Graphic Blandishment’ Explained, Sort Of
This time of year many Gen X parents are making nostalgia-driven searches for A Charlie Brown Christmas, the animated special from 1965 that set the standard for producing seasonal affective disorder in children (FYI, it’s available on Apple TV+). If you happen to make it through the melancholic ode to holiday disillusionment and catch the…
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Cine-meh: Small-screen Blues
TV is not really TV anymore. It’s more like a video jukebox fed by the internet. It’s also one of the few remaining platforms on the internet that we can talk back to and only annoy the person next to us. Anything else shared online could get us digitally dogpiled, so do what my dad…
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How the Volkswagen Logo Signals a Fresh Start
The iconic logo of one of Europe’s leading auto brands has undergone the design equivalent of cosmetic surgery. Volkswagen officially unveiled its refreshed logo at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany today. Accompanying the automaker’s “New Volkswagen” brand concept, the logo can be seen on the company’s much-anticipated new electric hatchback, the ID.3. Will…
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The Fortnightly Column
As a weekly columnist for a 140-year-old newspaper, I’m an endangered species. I’m like a steak, cooking backwards: rarer by the second. More so now that the run of my column is being halved. There was a contraction in the newsroom. The afterbirth is, as Terry Gilliam might say, “100 percent more Less.” Ever hear…