A Golden Facebook, A Wired Manga, and Drew’s Beauties?
As promised, here’s the first ever K-Max Media blog entry of the four-oh era talking about media stuff on the net and with some interesting news and stuff that I found on the net. Microsoft has brought into Facebook, Wired has once again gone Manga and it’s all about Drew’s Beauties.
Just this past week Facebook did something that I would never have thought it would do considering it runs on a LAMP system. LAMP meaning, a system comprising of Linux with the Apache web server, mySQL Database system and the PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. Don’t be afraid if you don’t know all of that right away, just keep reading. Facebook sold a stake of its company to Microsoft, you know, the guys that makes Windows, Internet Information Services web server along with SQL Server and ASP.NET. This is what I would call the WAIS? Er– ASIW? Um… SIAW? WISA… YES. A WISA system. Take that LAMP! WISA is almost like credit except for one letter!
Despite the fact that Facebook uses little, if not none of Microsoft’s technologies in their website infrastructure, Microsoft braved out tough competition and spent a reported $240 million US (or about $233 milllion Canadian as of the close of Oct. 28) to buy a stake of Facebook. A 1.6% stake for $240 million. Yes, for a 1.6% stake. That means Facebook would be valued at $15 billion dollars based on that deal. In retrospect, Facebook staved off a takeover bid from Yahoo for $1 billion in 2006. You talk about a situation of a “Deal or No Deal” decision, try doing one with an amount with one with nine zeros on the board. Facebook, known for its free Social Networking system is a goldmine when it comes to information about other people who are living near you or in the same college or university as you or work in the same place as you.
The demographic is not surprisingly the tech-savy college age group. Unlike MySpace owned by News Corporation (that owns FOX), the site after a recent revision this year, presents a nice clean and simple look that heavily uses JavaScript and AJAX to drive the use experience along with providing developers a gateway to utilize the information users provide. Personally, what made me jump on the bandwagon was the fact that it was quick and clean to use, though lately with the mounds of new applications added, it’s beginning to weigh heavily on my ol’ reliable Pentium 4 machine and is flirting with the cluttered look that MySpace has. That and random functionality hiccups and security issues like accounts being closed randomly though with its vast storage of “real” information by “real” people. It’s no wonder hackers, spoofers and spammers are salivating at the massively meaty information just itching to be grabbed and stolen. Oh and here’s my facebook page.
Now that I think about it, we should look at the possibilities more carefully considering it is US putting OUR information on there. Think about it. If Facebook is sold at $15 Billion (likely higher) one day, what are they actually buying? OUR Information no less and with Microsoft making an investment, they could have access to it, though with only a 1.6% stake I doubt they’d get it so easily. The purchase is one of few victories over Google that they can enjoy. Well, that’s until Google buys a 1.7% stake or higher and unlike Microsoft, Google actually uses some of the same technology Facebook uses. Don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Microsoft to start using PHP.
I was at the mall the other day and saw a cool cover at Wired Magazine about their feature on Manga. This is reminiscent of the look at the futuristic culture in Japan feature that was run in their September 2001 issue about 6 years ago. I still have this issue on my bookcase and you can view that issue on their website. The main feature takes a look at the Manga culture in Japan and a brief look at how Manga has literally exploded in the Americas and now has become very much a normal thing in American culture. Heck, now we have Manga created by non-Japanese companies as well. Go to any bookstore and you’ll see the sign “Manga” that can be found easily. If not manga then “Graphic Novels” would be the same thing. The best part of the article that I found was the exploration of dojinshi’s and even a bit of the relationships between publishers and the fans that produce these Fan Manga, notably the copyright issues surrounding them. I found that to be very interesting as it would be contrary to what goes on in the Americas with the constant battles between users and record companies. The article is awesome, READ IT.
For those K-Max Media hardcore fans that have been around since 2001, you no doubt remember our coverage while I was at Anime North producing coverage in 2001, 2002 and 2004 AND also stepped in as a volunteer producer in 2005. Throughout those years, the fans and their willingness to embrace the big shiny eye looks and the insanely high powered fights was astounding. Compared to the art style in the Americas, it was a completely fresh and futuristic look that raised the bar on the quality of how to use art and exaggerated motions, body parts and expressions to push the story. I think it even increased the quality of even American comic and ‘toons because when it came here, it was THE product to get, so traditional companies had to scramble to adjust. Most of all, if you took a simple trip down any art based community like Deviantart, you can easily find awesome fan art based on today’s Manga including what if scenarios like the elusive “Super Saiyan Women” that Toriyama-san has yet to draw himself. There is likely no other thing than Manga and Anime that you’ll find the most loyal fans.
Speaking of loyalty, how are you folks liking: “from the Bob Barker Studio at CBS, in Hollywood! Television’s most exiting hour of fantastic prizes! It’s the (36th Season) 60 minute Price is Right!” with your host, Drew Carey! Yes, it has happened, the host of the Price is Right has changed to the comedian who had his own sitcom, brought an English classic comedy show here and hosts a powerful cash game show Wednesday nights on CBS.
I absolutely LOVED, LOVED the set design change. You talk about how a company stands behind its product, they did an absolutely sweet job on it. The future retro look of the new set of the Price is right totally works for me keeping with the original style and modernizing it. Obviously CBS has learned their lesson from the 1994 syndicated days and with it, I’m sure they avoided the same mistake while bringing a totally fresh twist on a staple show that has been successful for them time and time again. As for its new host, I did see some heavy criticism from fans from various sites. All I would say is to give Drew a chance this season and let him develop his style. Obviously the fast talking will make people’s heads spin and the improv during the show won’t be totally liked right away and Drew has to memorize over 70 games. Okay, so he wasn’t a huge fan of the show at first when he was approached with the prospect of hosting, but he loves it now, so give him a break for a while and let him… work with the beauties.
Last but not least, in a not so favored decision by YTV was their revision to their Bionix Schedule (along with others) this past week. For those who don’t know Bionix, it’s their Anime / Sci-fi block running from 8pm to 2am on Fridays. After beginning the fall season with a line-up from 8-10pm which I thought was their best line-up they had in a long time this week it changed again after only 4-6 weeks. The line-up in September was with all new episodes of Naruto, Zatch Bell, Gundam Seed Destiny and Bleach, in that order. I loved the fact I could for 2 hours straight sit on my butt on the couch, chair, bed watch some cool shows. That has not happened in a LONG time as I was uber busy anyway so I taped and picked the shows I liked. This week, they changed the line-up to: Naruto, Avatar, Futurama and Gundam Seed Destiny. Bleach got moved back to 10:30pm after the new show Death Note at 10pm and before Eureka 7 at 11pm.
I was stunned that Zatch was replaced so quickly after it started its Season 3 run. But, after some initial sniffing around it looked like Viz has put the show on Hiatus and no Season 3 episodes were shown on Cartoon Network yet. So perhaps YTV might have aired the new episodes prematurely? But that’s a real shame because I was really getting into it and liked the story in its later episodes. So the move of Avatar from Saturday Morning’s Crunch to join Bionix was perhaps the easiest decision considering its deeper, richer storytelling and its Anime look. Poor Zatch. Futurama joining in the 9PM slot, I think was just raw filling in a meaty prime slot considering they already have it airing at 12AM and it enjoyed a long run on Teletoon’s “The Detour” 14+ block. I’m not sure what would have been better, airing Inuyasha AGAIN or Futurama’s (newly syndicated episodes) AGAIN. It looked like YTV’s programming staff was caught off guard by all of this as they aired an Avatar marathon the week before. I guess they chose the least of two evils until they can find a brand new show to fill that prime slot sometime in winter 2008. Too bad. They had a lineup I really liked and it’s gone again so soon. Now I must tape again. We’ll see what happens through when they get their Anime Network up and running.
Thoughts? Leave a comment. You have no excuse now. Mua ha ha.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I have been trying to reach CP24 on Rogers cable #24 - can you help me?