More Reasons to Become God

Part One

There's a photograph, of a particular woman, sitting on a cold beach in an oversized sweater (hugging her knees, I think), and she has this really lovely melancholy smile. 

The last time I went to look at it, someone had switched it with another.

I haven't had cause to feel that emotion myself in a very long time - which is good - but in no longer having access to that image, my life is made a little smaller, and a little stupider.

...

There's more to be said about curation, creation, balancing reliability with variety, infinite galleries, and sooner or later attaining access to the full archive, but whatever governs my brain on this is resisting, so it will wait.

Legacy Antitrust Decrees Ending?

[Unusual post today. I don't plan to make a habit of it. Orville post Thursday, BattleTech post next Sunday.]

Apparently, the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has filed to end the Paramount Consent Decrees (and other similar decrees across other industries).

It's disconcerting to see the body responsible for combating anti-competitive practices try to argue that anti-competitive practices will benefit consumers, or to say out one corner of their mouth that the Decrees no longer serve a purpose while admitting from the other corner that these tools could allow the studios to force some theaters out of business.

I'm reluctant to dispute their reasoning without knowing more about the body of antitrust law. Ultimately though they rest their argument on what the grand purpose of antitrust is, and... isn't innovation associated with ecosystems which favor lots of little guys over a handful of monoliths? Ditto, resilience? If lifting the Decrees does turn out to be a mistake, are there provisions to reinstate them, and protect the most vulnerable theaters until that happens?

I don't know. The Department may be right to let the pendulum try to swing somewhere new. I would be more comfortable with it if their press release had been able to cite similar historical examples from comparable industries, and if all the guilds weren't disagreeing with them.

Personal Update

I don't mean to be uncommunicative. A malfunction over the winter holidays has limited my productivity. In theory I'm better off now, but in practice it's a side grade which doesn't address the root problems.

I regret if anyone's been put out. 

Immediate upshots:

• I remain unlikely to record video in my current environs.
• Twitch remains unfeasible for me. 

I appreciate that YouTube allows double-speed playback but I wish it wouldn't keep bumping the quality up to where the video starts getting choppy. I notice the updated Terms of Service include an item about not using third party services to evade YouTube's controls - I assume that's directed at Facebook and the like, yet I can't help thinking how useful it would have been to have a service which allows playback at triple and quadruple speed.

internet forums: be excellent to each other, and party on

I used to frequent a forum which had sometimes heavy-handed moderation. The rules there boil down to "don't be a dick." This axiom, known as "Wheaton's Law," was formulated by Mr. Wheaton for competitive environments where people all generally recognize (if not explicitly share) the same goals and social norms--things you simply can't assume to any degree of precision on an internet discussion board.

I think it's better to distill them into something adaptive and proactive:

Relax. Be friendly and helpful. Put each other at ease.