Click on the image for a new window with a cropped image, and click a second time for the Full Size Version.  Pictures taken from the 75th Floor of the Columbia Tower using “night” mode

South Shot Landscape

2013-04-13 21.45.51-2.jpg

2688 x 1520

f2

1/4 sec

ISO 782

28mm

South Shot Portrait

2013-04-13 21.46.29.jpg

1520×2688

f/2

1/3 sec

ISO 790

28 mm

Click on the image for a new window with a cropped image, and click a second time for the Full Size Version.  Pictures taken from the 75th Floor of the Columbia Tower using “night” mode

HTC has Sense customization.  Perhaps it is useful for a new smartphone user or a user migrating to Android with the concept that you can use a menu system on a full size browser to setup your phone perfectly.  Unfortunately Sense on the web has many issues and might end up giving  future headaches with how it is currently being done.

It starts as pretty straightforward, providing you a KEY for linking your phone to Sense.  You then go on your PC/MAC browser to HTCSENSE.   You confirm your code and your carrier, and then it throws you into a quick option to see a tutorial on Blinkfeed, where you can configure what you want to see on your first (left-most) home screen.

You are provided a curated list of web sites where you select which feeds will be shown on  Blinkfeed.  These are also configurable directly on the phone.

I’ve been testing out Facebook Home, which is beautiful and will increase mobile interactions (like likes), I find the Sense “Facebook selected” interface to be faster to parse for information.  The One is able to run Home, but right now I’m keeping the Sense interface.

HTC Senese will then ask to add their recommended Applications to the Phone.  Unfortunately this web-app does not synchronize with my Google account/Play to provide a full list of apps.  This seems to be a “partner” app-discovery play.

Then HTC Sense provides for an interface to load custom ring tones.  This too has some terrible limitations.  There are two artificial blockers.  First, if your MP3 source file is greater than 8MB, then it will prevent you from uploading.  Yes, that’s 8MB before uploading to their site to be shortened.  Second, there are no sound-leveling or noise-reduction tools to help clean-up a new ringtone.  Also, I just discovered that of the three MP3 ringtones I loaded, only one transferred to my phone.

Background pictures to upload seemed pretty neat, but similarly, only one photo of two backgrounds that I loaded and cropped were transferred to the phone.  

Work email synchronization was also set-able here, although for some reason I still needed to edit the account manually on the HTC One beyond this, and then the phone prompted me to sync.

So, my conclusion is that for a new user this Sense personalization would be alright, but for an existing Android user this provides nearly zero functionality.  There are already HTC options directly on the phone to do data transfer from older Android devices and other non-Android phones.  This web setup doesn’t do much.

Further, if I’ve already installed bunch of applications on my One, this doesn’t help me change how Sense arranges applications/screens/widgets.  Since HTC controls the way in which Sense handles where to put things, this customization app should already be able to pull the id’s of everything installed and placed on screens and be able to customize the layouts easily.  That would make the most Sense.

I’m a long-time HTC fan.  My first smartphone was an HTC EVO 4G, and my second an HTC EVO 3D.  I convinced my father and sister into buying HTC phones as-well.  In addition to supporting HTC’s products, it felt good supporting a Taiwanese company.  (Yeah, I’m Taiwanese-American)  :)  When I was given the opportunity to join HTC Elevate last year, it made alot of sense.  (Not a pun… not a pun!!!!)

You ask, what is HTC Elevate?

From the HTC Elevate front page  (which is actually Elevate 2.0),

HTC elevate is a private, VIP community for our top fans and supporters from around the world. If you’re reading this, we could be talking about you! HTC values authenticity and personal connections with our customers – these are two of the driving forces behind the purpose of this community.

There are online forums, and sometimes there are benefits, like being able to try out the coolest new tech.

A few of us were selected as from HTC Elevate to be early adopters of the  HTC One, and I’ve got to say it’s a great feeling knowing that I will be able to spend some quality time with a protective case…

… OK, well the case will be protecting what I’ll have more fun with: the new HTC  One.

The One is the flagship phone of HTC.  It’s the phone where HTC has invested all their technical know-how and right now they are depending on it to be a huge hit.  HTC took a huge penalty in last quarter’s profit because they were not able to launch the One as quickly as they had planned.  Rumors have indicated that some particular suppliers were unable to deliver parts quickly enough in the quantities that they needed.

OK, it’s a box.

OK, it’s pretty phone when the box is opened.

Check out the black glass at front left of the phone.  That’s the infrared port.  I haven’t had an infrared port on a portable device since my Sony Clie NX70!  That means that the HTC One can be used as a universal remote!

The HTC one is pretty stunning.  The feel of it is great, and it’s light.  I can’t wait to try out the camera with its predicted amazing low-light capabilities.

The front camera is also special, being wide angle so group pics are super easy.

But right now the unboxing is all I promised and all I will do tonight.  I’m charging her up overnight and will start in on testing tomorrow.  Thanks again HTC Elevate for letting be one of the first US users of the HTC One.

Nice bridge, but where the heck is everyone?

Spock is still reeling from the destruction of his race.  Let’s have him take a solo journey through a firey planet and meditate.

Kirk and Bones are doing something that probably breaks the Prime Directive in all sorts of ways and they need to run for their lives.

Somewhere here Kirk gets a love interest since Uhura is spoken-for.

Earth is getting attacked.

The team ends up looking around, then battling someone and are getting their asses whomped when they are saved by Sherlock Holmes

Kirk and Uhura wonder who the heck is this?

Rather than just say thanks, they decide to attack him, bring him back on the ship and put him in the brig.

Well of course this is never a good idea and something worse happens.

Begin big battle sequence

But Earth is getting whomped and a kid that looks like Eddie Furlong can’t stop the Terminator.

Kirk goes on a mission to sneak through space wreckage to … oh who knows what…

Battle stations!

Someone sad about the attacks.  Flips a coin in the water.

So the Enterprise goes down

but a new Enterprise will rise

Insert big battle scene then insert Spock sacrifice here.  Where’s Khan?

Spock is dead.  Let’s go find him.  Note the lack of colors in the crowd.  Is this Starfleet?  Has it gone military?

French-Canadian Artist Patrick Boivin created home videos of his kids better than whatever our parents had ever done.  He did that by infusing CG with homages to movies we love.  I think this should be an open challenge by him to all other artists with kids on how to make a non-boring home movie.

DRAGON BABY

IRON BABY

The line at the Microsoft Store is for the new Surface, it’s not the line to get a latte from Starbucks.

There has been the saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. That must have been the way the first engineers at Xerox PARC reacted when they internally showed the first computer mouse. This is what new users felt when they used the first mobile touchscreen smartphones. This is what Microsoft hopes you will feel once you use a touch-enabled Windows 8/RT device.  If you came here to help you decide whether you need a Surface tablet, an iPod or an Android tablet, then skip ahead, otherwise I’ve got some good ranting to do.

For the most part Apple has been able to drive the market with products that for the average consumer were as close to magic as possible. While they may not have invented core technologies, Apple has been able to create integrated devices that appear like every new product is magical, more shiny than the last. Even while pushing forward with product innovations like the iPhone and the iPad, Apple never brought the full touch experience (no, a big touchpad doesn’t count) to their mobile or desktop computers.

Microsoft separately had developed and experimented with many bleeding-edge products in the past, but many were too-early for their customers. When technology is too advanced folks just get scared.   Microsoft‘s Surface (non-Pro) is running Windows RT on a system powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 ARM chip. That last time that we saw a commercial version of Windows running natively on a non Intel x86 was Windows NT on PowerPC/Alpha/Itanium, and those didn’t sell well. Of course that was going from the most standard chips to the least standard. It should be noted that Apple’s 2005 switch from IBM’s PowerPC to the far more standard Intel x86, really allowed Apple to match faster-improving PC specs more cheaply while retaining high margins. It was possible then for Mac users to run PC OS’s at native speeds without a pesky code translator ala VirtuaPC getting in the way.

So is this a transformational switch from Microsoft to support and push into ARM chips? ARM-based processors have been the fundamental building block used by Apple (for their A5/A6), TI for their OMAP, Nvidia for their Tegra, Qualcom for their Snapdragon chips. They are no longer only for embedded devices requiring low-power-consumption, low-clock, single-core setups. ARM designs can be integrated into multi-core monster chips purpose-built for anything a solid EE/CE can dream-up. They can also be cheap, far cheaper than what Intel or AMD may charge for an equivalent processor, and you can customize it for your needs and fabricate integrated chips yourself. That means that more inexpensive devices can take advantage of your OS as long as you support that architecture.

Why didn’t Microsoft choose to use an Intel Atom processor, you know, the x86 chips that powered the entire netbook revolution. I used to have a Dell Mini 9 with an Atom churning away for low-CPU-intensive tasks like web browsing and email. I’m not sure, although those chips were almost like a Celeron dumbing-down of their current full-power mobile chips. The recent push of Intel into ultrabooks may have confused the Atom messaging.  There are some new Windows 8 tablets coming out with Atom chips, but the brand value may not show the value of maintaining compatibility with existing Windows applications.

So, why am I writing this blog post? This week I was asked by a few people, including @ImeldaDulcichPR, about Windows 8 and the Surface Tablet and how they compare versus an iPad.

For Surface, there will be two versions.  The first to be released is the one running Windows RT on an Nvidia Tegra 3, and the one to be released in a few months will be the Surface Pro that will be running an x86 processor (not sure which one) and running full-blown Windows 8. Both will have the beautiful metal casing with accessories like their keyboard covers to make them “transformers” from mini laptops to touchscreen tablets.

So the question becomes, “Which tablet should I buy?”

This is a question that is dependent on your needs, and I’ll list what I think based on this selection, all of which I happen to own right now except for the two Surface products.

Buy an iPad if

…you own an iPhone, own a MacBook, bleed Apple blood.  This series of devices is for you. Fully integrated into the entire Apple ecosystem, this is a beautiful and expensive device that will work with iTunes, sync everything using the Apple cloud and be an extension of your arm. The screen is beautiful and battery life is excellent. What is it missing? Swype (we’ll get to that), but with Bluetooth support you can add an external keyboard easily-enough.

Apple has been designing their own chips based on ARM licenses, and it allows them to custom-craft their processors without needing to support excess features that would require more power-hungry silicon. While a standard ARM design might have the ability to support 20 different types of I/O, Apple can decide that they only need to support a single I/O channel and remove the transistors for the other 19. Worried about an Operating System call that asks for access to I/O channel 20? No problem, they also write the OS. This means that Apple’s control of both hardware and software makes their iPad the most closed-system custom device which should be expected to have the best performance and best battery life.

Buy a Generic Android Tablet if

…you are cheap and a hacker at heart.  Because Android is a “free” operating system some tablets can be purchased for as little as $50 on-sale at Fry’s. If you want something for the kids to play-with and don’t mind doing your own tech support, than this might be the bargain device for you. At this time, I might never go this route again.

I actually spent around $200 a few years ago picking a Viewsonic G-Tablet with a Tegra 2 (the dual-core predecessor to the Tegra 3) to start testing Android and to learn more about some of the alternate enthusiast OS builds. The device initially came with a proprietary “market” app and would not let me buy applications from the Google Play (it was named App Store back then) store. That severely limited the selection of applications I could use. Fortunately the machine was easily “hacked” to another version of Android, enabling more features and usability. Unfortunately it wasn’t really very stable and I was basically throwing any warranty support out the door.

Buy a Nexus 7 or a  Kindle Fire HD if

…you want a quality screen on a 7″ tablet.  I’m not going to cover the iPad mini here because I haven’t seen or held one.  Both the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have beautiful 7”IPS screens running 1280×800. Some reviewers have remarked that the Fire HD screen is a bit more colorful, but both are clear and colorful winners in the mini-tablet race completely crushing my 10.1″ Viewsonic screen.

While the Nexus 7 is pure Google, the Fire HD is pure Amazon. What this means is that the Nexus 7 has a pure installation of every Google application, uses Google Play, has Gmail, integrates well with Google storage and Google apps. The Fire HD however limits users to the Amazon ecosystem of Amazon App Store, Kindle Books, Amazon MP3, Amazon Instant Video (note: the Fires are the only Android tablets which can take advantage of Amazon Prime Free Videos. I can watch Amazon Instant video on my iPad, but not my Nexus). Access to Google apps and store are blocked by default.

If you are tied to the Amazon ecosystem, have Amazon Prime, have lots of Kindle books, don’t mind ads on the lock screen or mind paying to have that removed, and want to be able to set parental controls on your tablet for your kids, then the Kindle Fire HD would be the choice. I can not see using a Kindle Fire for work, only for the consumption of content from Amazon.  Yes, you can download additional apps from the Amazon App Store, but the selection is limited versus the Google App Store.  For the device size and features, the bigger speakers are nice, and the external micro-HDMI is a great way to project content to an external monitor or a TV, but the Fire HD  is too chunky to hold with one hand.  It’s not obvious how much bigger it is until you compare it directly with the Nexus 7.  See the width of the black bezels in the picture above.

If you are tied to the Google ecosystem, if your company uses Google Apps, want to use third-party storage Dropbox/Box/etc…, then the Nexus would be the choice.  The other awesomeness is that Swype Beta works perfectly with the Nexus 7.  The Nexus 7 would be my dream tablet except that it lacks video-out and lacks Amazon Instant Video support (because Amazon is saving that for their Kindle Fires).  The Nexus 7 was built as a budget device but it has the full-fledged Tegra 3 chipset driving it, and it should be for the next year be the most “standard” tablet for Android users.  Android 4.1 also finally removes the size limit on applications, so that rather than have only 500MB of space to hold applications and their data, the entire memory space (8GB/16GB) can be used.

Buy a Microsoft Surface with RT

…if you want to have what Microsoft considers to be their standard tablet.  It’s a beautiful machine with a metal/glass exterior that feels solid, it runs quickly on a quad-core Tegra 3 chipset, and it even comes with a trial version of the ARM-version of Windows Office.  There are no other tablets currently that can say they have MS Office except full x86 Windows tablets.  If you want to be able to do some Excel on the tablet, than this is the only ARM solution available to you.

So it runs office, does that mean that it will run all of my current Windows apps?  No, it won’t run any of them unless it was something recompiled and built for an ARM processor to be distributed by the Microsoft App Store.  If you want to run existing Windows apps on a tablet, then skip down to the next section on Windows 8 machines.   Much like Apple’s App Store, Google’s App store, Facebook’s Apps, Amazon’s App store, Microsoft has realized that while creating an ecosystem is good, getting revenue from everyone who participates in the ecosystem may be more profitable for them long-term.  In this way they control distribution and control of their entire machine in the same way that their competitors do.  Strangely this means that Android becomes the most “open” platform on ARM (since we don’t talk about linux as mainstream these days).

At this time the Surface has many applications that are now available in the Microsoft App store.  There is a fantastic link to the XBOX infrastructure as-well, so you can control many aspects of your XBOX with the Surface.  There is also some other technology that they developed to have the Surface as a control/display device integrated with future products.  Eventually the Microsoft App Store ecosystem will be as fully populated as the Apple and Google ones are today, and you will have full choice among applications for your Surface.

So you think this guarantees you maximum future compatibility   Yes, for this version of Windows RT.  Unfortunately buying Microsoft hardware does not guarantee that they will support it with the next version of an operating system.  Talk to all of us who had bought the original series of Microsoft Sidewinder Joysticks and Control pads.  These were some of the most configurable devices made with excellent software.  All that ended when Microsoft made an OS upgrade, and they didn’t bother to retain anyone to update the drivers for these old products.  Our very expensive toys were reduced overnight to paperweights.  A similar story can to said of those who bought the first Microsoft Phones who were similarly blocked from an upgrade path.

Buy a Microsoft Surface Pro or Other Manufacturer Windows 8 Tablet or Convertible

if you don’t care about 8 hour battery life and you want full support of all your existing PC applications and want all the benefits of the new Surface. Buy a Windows 8 machine with a touchscreen or a Surface Pro. I have been running early builds of Windows 8 on my ASUS EP121, and it has been excellent. The Windows 8 experience is highly optimized for touch control and side swiping, and while I decry the loss of the start button (and I believe that this will lead to massive consumer confusion) it has served all of my basic needs.

Because this is Windows, you can use ANY browser you want. You can view any media, whether it is Netflix, Amazon Instant Video or just the free version of Hulu. There is no need like other mobile tablets to pay for Hulu Plus (unless you want the historical content). Have a Japanese Anime that requires an unusual codec? No problem, the Windows 8 tablet can run any video decoder the same as a regular Windows box. Want to play a flash-based Facebook game on the tablet? No problem because it’s a full PC. Want to play an Android game on the Windows 8 tablet? Sure, you can run the SDK or one of the other apps that run Android on a PC. Want to run MAME? Well you get the idea.

So with a new x86 Windows 8 touchscreen tablet/convertible you have a machine that may sacrifice battery life but provides continued functionality to “classic” windows applications and games that you are used to running on your XP/Vista/7. Additionally you get the benefit of the touch-screen experience, so that sounds like a pretty good deal.

If you don’t want to wait a few months for a Surface Pro, then there are many other options. Head to Dell and consider an atom-powered Latitude 10, or head to ASUS/HP/ACER and see what they have. I’m actually drooling over the ASUS Taichi right now.

The Best Windows 8 Desktop Experience

I don’t like using Windows 8 with just a mouse.  A touchscreen is really required, even for a desktop.  At the Microsoft store I drooled over the Dell XPS One 27 with multitouch and Windows 8.  I already own too many computers and too many tablets.  I have no justification for even thinking about another desktop system, but the Dell XPS One 27 really provides the single best sensation using Windows 8 that I’ve yet experienced.  The screen running at 2560×1440 is beautiful, the fast i7 is responsive  and the touch integration gives me the control of the machine that I really want.  It also comes with the still all-too-necessary keyboard.  If I wanted a new system or two, then these would be my choice.

I’m hoping that manufacturers will start churning out some 24″ monitors with multitouch touchscreen support via secondary USB connection.  I’m really curious to see how our peripherals will change with this next evolution in Windows.

My Summary

Apple fan = iPad (any flavor)

Amazon fan = who absolutely needs Instant Video, Kindle Fire HD

Google fan = Nexus 7 (it also does 90% of what the Fire does)

PC Office non-power user = Windows RT tablet = Surface

PC Power user who doesn’t mind carrying around a power brick = Windows 8 tablet with multitouch

 

Pricing Notes Including Video Out, Plug-in Power Adapter and a Keyboard When Necessary

Apple	iPad Retina 16GB Wi-Fi	$499.00
	Leather Smart Cover	$69.00
	Apple 12W USB Power Adapter	$19.00
	Additional Lightning to USB Cable	$19.00
	Apple USB Keyboard	$69.00
	Lightning Digital AV Adapter	$49.00
	TOTAL	$724.00
Microsoft	Surface with Windows RT 32GB	$499.00
	Surface Type Cover	$129.99
	Surface 24W Power Supply	$39.99
	HD Digital AV Adapter	$39.99
	TOTAL	$708.97
Google	Nexus 7 16GB (price updated 10/29/12)	$199.00
	Generic Case	$10.00
	Generic Stylus	$1.00
	Generic Micro-USB 2A Power	$10.00
	Swype Beta (no need for a keyboard)	$0.00
	No External Video	$0.00
	TOTAL	$220.00
Amazon	Kindle Fire HD 7 16GB w/o Offers	$214.00
	Generic Case	$10.00
	Generic Stylus	$1.00
	1st Generic Micro-USB 2A Power	$10.00
	2nd Generic Micro-USB 2A Power	$10.00
	Consume Media, no keyboard needed	$0.00
	Micro HDMI to HDMI cable	$8.99
	TOTAL	$253.99
Apple	iPad Mini 16GB	$329.00
	iPad mini Smart Cover Poly	$39.00
	Apple 12W USB Power Adapter	$19.00
	Additional Lightning to USB Cable	$19.00
	No Apple USB Keyboard	$0.00
	Lightning Digital AV Adapter	$49.00
	TOTAL	$455.00

What would you buy?

 

One of the great surprises of Fantastic Fest this year was the arrival of Andy and Lana Wachowski who brought their new film Cloud Atlas to the festival.  The Wachowskis have been known to be media and press shy, and it was refreshing to see them so smart and so full of enthusiasm for their new film.

My opinion is that Cloud Atlas will be a memorable film, but it will be far too confusing for most of the general public.  While the majority of professional film reviewers in-audience declared that it was their favorite movie of the year, I really was distracted too much by the intermesh to follow any plotline all the way through.  Cloud Atlas was a playground for fantastic actors and special effects people to practice their craft, but as an audience member I really needed less rather than more.  The “more” relates to the amazing broad story scope that they tried to cover, and perhaps that was the  reason they added a third director, Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame.  By removing at-least one of the timelines in the film they could have tightened things up a bit and removed some really incomprehensible language.  In terms of the makeup, sometimes it really works, and other times it completely ruins the scene.  I would have preferred that each story have completely different actors except for the one common element running through the storyline.

Tom Hanks really pulled off another Oscar-worthy performance (but when does he not perform to that level).

Jim Broadbent is magic in every scene that he is in, and the foreshadowing at the nursing home was brilliant.

Hugh Grant can be hidden in makeup all you want, but he can only play an English gentleman if he has a speaking role (growling however was fine).

In the most futuristic timeline, double double talk talk is is annoying annoying.

Hugo Weaving needs a hug for having to be a(the) villian(s) in every film of the Wachowskis.  He needs a good hero role.

Doona Bae in whiteface in a historical timeline takes away from other elements of her performance.

For me the movie was mostly “meh,” so the best part of the experience was  seeing both Andy and Lana.  They were incredibly smart and were the kind of geeks and comic book fans that most of us at Fantastic Fest would have hung out with growing up.  They were just so skilled that they were able to achieve success in doing what they loved.

It is likely that the white elephant in the room is the discussion of Lana being transgender, and I guess that few have had to go through this as publicly as she had.  There’s a fantastic story on The Hollywood Reporter which discusses the situation including a clip from Lana receiving an award from the Human Rights Campaign.  In the embedded video she talks about her childhood experiences including a suicide letter that she had written.  It’s a powerful story told by a really smart woman.

The argument has been made that government investments in clean energy are essential for the United States to maintain its position as a leader of technology and innovation.  The DOE’s fear was that China’s large internal  investments in clean energy were putting the US at-risk of falling too-far behind.  On that I can not fully disagree.  I am however shocked by what seems like incredibly poor choices in using our tax dollars.

Solyndra was a spectacular failure, and now it looks like A123 Systems will be following them to oblivion.  These do not demonstrate a well-planned, fully-public vetting of investment dollars, but it shows the power of government insiders to reward their campaign donors.  The fact that the A123′s possible path to salvation was that a Chinese car company would acquire them for half a billion dollars really put a huge hole in the DOE theory.

Separately from the government’s bad idea to give a quarter billion dollars to a company named after a yellow-pages plumber (A123), it might have been worse for investors to help them raise an additional $380MM based on the stock ticker being named after a steak sauce (AONE).

I would propose an alternate direction.  Own the brains and technology, not the hammers.  Allocate a portion of those dollars to increase the amount of government grants for primary scientific research at US universities with two additional requirements.  1) Fifty percent of the grants are slated to fund PhD and Postdoc research for US Citizens.  2) All foreign-citizen’ed PhD and Postdocs are immediately offered US Citizenship at graduation.  It’s a great incentive to keep the best and brightest US students working on these problems, and it helps us recruit the smartest foreign minds to the US and lets them stay to create new industries and join emerging new companies.

Control of the technology is better than maintaining the means of production.  I just came out from Walgreens, and for $3.25 I bought some Q-tips.  On special at the front was a 4-pack of CCFL lightbulbs selling for $1.25.  Yeah, not $1.25 each, $1.25 for all 4, a 3-year lifespan of bulbs times four being sold for cheaper than little balls of cotton stuck on sticks.    I still remember when each CCFL bulb would sell for $20, so yes, China has already won the production war.  The only factories I would want to control now might be hydroelectric power plants and the factory that makes Q-tips.

The reason the used book can be further bought and sold is the concept of the “first sale doctrine” which allows the purchaser of a copyrighted work to use or sell it.  It’s the same rule which allows us to resell our used CD’s and DVD’s.  If the “first sale doctrine” did not exist, then we would never be able to resell anything copyrighted.

So what if you happened to find a place that would sell you the same book brand-new for $40?  You would purchase it right?  If you could sell some to your friends at $60?  That’s still saving them money, and you’re making some as-well.  Arbitrage FTW!

That’s exactly what Supap Kirtsaeng did when he was in school at Cornell, and his PayPal records showed that he made $1.2 Million in revenue from sales of books.  So why does this matter to us that he figured out a way to profit from the sale of textbooks?  It’s because the books that he sold in the US were the versions published for sale in a foreign country.  Typically academic publishers will sell slightly different version of textbooks for far cheaper outside of the US.

In the Copyright Act of 1976, Congress enacted what is now 17 U.S .C. § 602(a)(1)

Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501.

It’s not that the books were made in a foreign country but that the publisher owned the US rights and is saying that the rule of the “first sale doctrine” does not hold for the same books published under copyright in a different country.  They are saying that the books published in Thailand are illegal to be exported and are illegal to be sold in the US.  Again, it’s all about the country of copyright versus the country of manufacture.

The case is going to the US Supreme Court in JOHN WILEY SONS INC v. KIRTSAENG   It’s a pretty long read, but it is pretty interesting especially since for each claimed infringement he can be liable for some significant penalties.

This could make any online ecommerce company (like eBay and Amazon) that is handling third-party sales be at-risk as-well.  I guess all of my imported Depeche Mode CD’s will need to stay in my collection next to my original Guttenburg bible until the Supreme Court decides.  :P

With all of the news of child and teen bullying, I do wonder whether Tim Burton was considering racial stereotypes as he put together the stop-motion animated Frankenweenie.

I was fortunate enough to attend the world premiere of Frankenweenie at Fantastic Fest, and I have to admit that I was shocked at how poorly the Toshiaki character was introduced, portrayed and voiced.

Toshiaki is the sole voiced Asian role, and the character was added apparently to provide an antagonist for our hero Victor Frankenstein and a way to introduce an Asian-themed monster into the movie.  Unfortunately all I could consider was how Toshiaki was being so terribly portrayed and how this movie could possibly lead to severe bullying of Asian-American kids because of this portrayal.

1)  Toshiaki has narrow eyes which went slanted when he was “plotting” something.   He also has a pocket protector (geek stereotype).  Visual stereotyping.

2) Toshiaki is portrayed as a genius who wants to be first place in the science fair, something that Victor has determined to do as-well.  These two are of-course competitors against each other, and this is obviously the “Model-Minority” stereotype.

3) Toshiaki is the ace baseball pitcher who is indirectly responsible for Sparky’s death.  I was OK with him being a star athlete,  but again it’s the point he indirectly causes Spark’s death.

4) Toshiaki does not speak in full English sentences.  It’s broken pidgin, and the fact that it’s voiced by an adult Asian actor does not make it any less racist.  It’s very disturbing.

If the child voice actor Charlie Tahan could do such a great job with Victor,  Atticus Shaffer with Edgar ‘E’ Gore, and Robert Capron as Bob, why couldn’t Toshiaki be voiced by a child actor?  The answer is likely that a young Asian-American child actor would be unable to listen to voice direction as, “Sound more FOB.  Slur those words together.  Speak like you can’t really speak English.”

Asian-Americans have fought for years as first and multi-generation immigrants to not be persecuted for real or perceived language barriers in both social and business settings.  Why must Tim Burton fail to provide a positive role for his only Asian character in this movie?

I went through Tim Burton’s Directorial records from Pee-Wee all the way to now via IMDB.  In 21 movies, there are only 4 Asian roles including Toshiaki, and Toshiaki is the only male Asian role.  The three female roles played by Asian-Americans are Ada Tai and Arlene Tai in Big Fish and Foh Shen in Planet of the apes.

Tim Burton has created some excellent films, but this negative characterization of an Asian-American kid did concern me.  It really made me worried that young Asian-American children will be stigmatized by such a negative portrayal and will lead to additional unwarranted bullying.