Archive for the ‘bling’ Category

How Much Money Did These Ninjas Make?

Internet users, downloaders in particular, are always talking about the need for the record industry to update its business model to take advantage of new technology. I myself was brainstorming on how to do so after watching an interesting documentary about piracy. Then these Radiohead ninjas crossed my mind. As you all know they released an album by themselves entirely through the internet. The plan was to do that and then later (for the Holidays) release the same album on CD with bonus tracks. Internet users who downloaded the album had the option to donate whatever they wanted in exchange for the music. My question was, how much dough did they make?

"In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever a€" in terms of anything on the Net. And that’s nuts. It’s partly due to the fact that EMI wasn’t giving us any money for digital sales. All the contracts signed in a certain era have none of that stuff."

[On the physical CD version of In Rainbows that will be released in January]
"It starts to get a bit more traditional. When we first came up with the idea, we weren’t going to do a normal physical CD at all. But after a while it was like, well, that’s just snobbery. [Laughter.] A, that’s asking for trouble, and B, it’s snobbery. So now they’re talking about putting it on the radio and that sort of thing. I guess that’s normal."

"I was thinking about that Johnny Cash film, when Cash walks in and says, ‘I want to do a live record in a prison,’ and his label thinks he’s bonkers. Yet at the same time, it was able to somehow understand what kids wanted and give it to him. Whereas now, I think there’s a lack of understanding. It’s not about who’s ripping off whom, and it’s not about legal injunctions, and it’s not about DRM and all that sort of stuff. It’s about whether the music affects you or not. And why would you worry about an artist or a company going after people copying their music if the music itself is not valued?" [LINK]

Thom Yorke’s representative told me that the band have "decided not to give out any figures" for sales of Radiohead’s In Rainbows

album, but that isn’t stopping people from making their best guesses based on what little information is available.

The Seminal estimates that Radiohead sold about $10 million-worth of albums as of 10/12, assuming that their source was correct that approximately 1.2 million people downloaded the album from the site, and that the average price paid per album was $8 (we heard that number too, but also heard that a later, more accurate average was $5, which would result in $6 million revenue instead). [LINK]

Enjoy.

The Luxury Collections

Livin’ the life, or trying to? The Luxury Collections has everything you need to start ballin’ out! And you know this is where we get all our ish for the dojo.

Creative Steampunk

Steampunk is a kind of speculative fiction that usually takes place in urban settings where the future meets the past: Victorian era inventions clash with often dark alternate realities. However, what started as a literary genre has since evolved into an art form with incredible real-life inventions, modifications and redesigns. The following is an introduction to the art of Steampunk, with everything from altered guitars to a Steampunked iPod.

weburbanist

Some chains for your next tech event

via zedomax

Soviet-era postage stamps, a collection

from thingsmagazine

Picture Perfect

The Hasselblad H2 is a medium-format, dual-platform camera that builds on the success of the popular H1. This model, designed for the toughest professional use, makes either high-end digital capture or film capture as easy as point-and-shoot.

An SLR that can support multiple backs, shoot film, etc?AA NASSSTY.AA You can have it for just around $25,000 of your hard earned money.AA My cousin said a review referred to this camera as "the Bentley Coupe of cameras."AA I’m inclined to second that. Check it out here.
Thanks to Mandela for the heads up.

Grantwriting Jargon

capacity-building — This is a particular category of grant, where the non-profit seeks funding which will expand their reach or make them more self-sustaining. One example of a capacity-building grant is obtaining funds for a development person who can raise money from other sources and move the organization toward being self-sustaining.

sustainability — Once you get started, how will you continue this project or program? Will you be dependent on the funder for some time into the future? This is an important consideration for foundations in particular. Foundations in particular seem to be averse to funding operational costs of existing programs, preferring to fund new projects or provide seed money. One of our guest speakers characterized this as a subject of growing debate in the philanthropic community, and it’s possible that they may be more open to funding operational concerns in the future. Government grants and corporate sponsorship don’t seem as averse to this type of funding.

cost-sharing — A popular term, if you can use it. Basically it means that someone else is putting up some of the money, and thus the foundation gets more bang for their buck.

dissemination — How you will share the project with others. Will an article be published in the New York Times? Will you present results at conferences? Historically, this is of particular concern to agencies that fund basic research, but over time this is also more of a concern for foundations.

leverage — Another popular term, if applicable. Will foundation money enable you to better use existing resources?

cultivation — the process of forming the very particular type of professional relationship between funder and fundee. As described in the course, this seems like a truly complicated art. Our instructor emphasized the need to be "non-cheesy" — slick, stereotypical salesmen types will lose out to genuine but strategic human beings in this business. Funding agencies prefer projects which are both aspirational and realistic.

stewardship — the process of taking care of a grant and its funder after the grant is made. Thank-you notes, progress reports, and invitations to view the results of the work are all appropriate. Getting a grant from a funder more than once is impossible without this.

more words at connect.educause

LCD Rims: TV for the Tires

Remember what we said about finding the tasteful stuff among the endless supply of aftermarket glitz here at SEMA? We lied. The above video clip indicates what can happen when technology meets the world of dumbass automotive accouterments. The idea is to use these TV rims as a new mode of over-the-road product messaging, though we’d imagine all sorts of uses, like displaying other cars’ rims, Japanese tentacle-rape porn or random shots of vegetables. The possibilities are endless.

VIA jalopnik

The World’s Coolest Hotel Pools

Check them out @ thecoolhunter