Before I go any further I should probably explain what this “ancient business model” even is.  In ye olden days, a single company would own the rights to certain properties.  Sometimes these properties would be songs, sometimes movies, sometimes newspapers, and sometimes people.  Yes, in the history of entertainment industry artists were considered property or assets.  If a radio star wanted to release ANYTHING, from a song to an interview, it went through the studio.  Things have changed in some areas of the industry, but for the most part the overall idea is much the same.

Don’t believe me?  Here’s an example:

Tal Bachman is a Canadian song-writer best known for his 1999 hit She’s So High that hit #1 in Canada and was in the Top 10 in the USA and internationally.  It was a huge hit for such a breakout artist and many people expected great things.  No one ever heard from him until his 2004 album.  It turns out that his label had signed him into an exclusive three album deal, where he was legally committed to make three albums for them before being able to seek out other labels.  After his huge success from his debut album, the label felt that people would probably not want to hear him again and refused to produce any more of his music.  This caused a “Catch 22″; he was legally obligated to release two more albums under this company, but the company refused to release any more albums.  In essence, he was locked in and couldn’t do anything until the contract expired.  In the music world, being out of the public eye for 5 years is a hard thing to recover from.

Another great example would be OK Go, whose viral video on treadmills made them a household name.   Their label didn’t want people “stealing” the video by embedding it on other sites or posting it where they (the label) wouldn’t get money from Pay-Per-Click advertising and so blocked the video.  OK Go rebelled, stating that without people sharing the video and posting it everywhere like they did no one would have ever known who they were.  Now operating independently, the band takes great efforts to make outrageous videos and make them available to the public.

Now that we have the problem out of the way, we still have to answer why the problem still exists in today’s world.  I mean, surely a generation who was brought up on technology and media sharing should be more savvy with how to sell to other, technology savvy people.  Right?

In an interesting conversation with my mom (yes, my mom) we discussed the different generations and what defines each group.  My mother falls right on the dividing line between “Baby Boomers” and “Generation X”, somewhere in the “Generation Jones” group.  I fall in the “Millennial” generation (or, as some morons put it, Generation Y*).  My generation is often described as having grown up during the advent of such communication technology and so have a good understanding on how to use it.  We love to share (social networking), love to learn what could be considered useless info (Wikipedia), and love to expand our horizons (Google).  We also don’t put the same value on works of media as previous generations do, likely because of those three points I just mentioned.  As some experts have put it, my generation is the first to not have actually produced anything new but instead have embraced and adopted older works of media as our own.  Sounds harsh, but how many of you have a retro cartoon character shirt or something similar?

The Baby Boomers, on the other hand were raised during the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s.  They learned how to control industry, media, politics, the works.  And by Crom, there were a lot of them; the “Boomer” part of their name is due to the huge population boom that happened with their generation.   The problem is, they grew up with a completely different mindset when it came to intellectual property and technology.  And while the Boomer generation is now starting to retire, many of them are still working . . . many of them in the top seat at many of these media companies.  Those that aren’t from the Boomer generation are the older Generation X’ers who might have once shared our idea of free information, but have since sold their VW Microbus for the new VW Touareg.

My mom’s observation was that in previous times, the older generation would have retired by now and left things to the newer generation.  However, due to the sheer amount of them flooding the workplace, the improved health care that’s prolonging their “working years”, and the worsening economy making it harder to retire in the first place, these older generations haven’t left the workplace yet.  The end result is a workforce of Generation X engineers helping to drive technology forward, Millennials deciding how new technology will be used, with the Boomers trying to control it all (despite not understanding how it works or how to use it).

This sounds like I’m inciting ageism, or trying to specifically blame a part of our society for the way things are now.  I believe everyone has a right to work, no matter your age, and frankly I don’t know a Boomer who wouldn’t love to retire and leave all of this mess to the rest of it . . . but can’t.  This is not a rant article.  However, this is a possible theory that might explain why so many companies that should know better are still using such outdated business models and losing money because of it.

And blaming it on those darn kids and their computers.  (ok, that was a little ageist)

*I think the term “Generation Y” is beyond dumb because it gives the impression that the next one will be Generation Z and the one before was W.  Modern civilization has had more than 25 generations in it, and each were named for what happened, not some letter.  Generation X was coined because they were described as an “unknown” generation, or a generation struggling to find identity. Naming every other generation after it off a letter for no reason is just stupid.

Behold, the Four Horsemen

We are full of apologies tonight. Oh, and sorry again because we’re going to be talking about upcoming law changes!

(From MakeUseOf)

Just because something was successful 25 years ago, doesn’t mean that it needs to be remade or revisited. Are you listening to me, George Lucas?  Sometimes something comes along that is so well done that it needs to be left as it is so that future generations can appreciate it for what it was.

George Lucas managed to tarnish the Star Wars legacy by releasing prequel films that many consider to be mediocre at best, atrocious at worst. In addition, he’s made his original films shadows of their former selves.  Now, DC Comics is tempting fate and releasing prequel stories to what many consider to be one of the best books of all time, Watchmen.  (Yes, I said books. Watchmen is so good that it was the only graphic novel to appear on Time‘s 2005 “All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels” list.)

For those who haven’t heard, this morning, DC Comics officially announced what many knew was coming when they shouted to the world that Before Watchmen was going to be unleashed upon us this summer.  You can read their words here, but let me sum it up for you.

“We want money.  Watchmen is an important piece of comic book, and literary, history but since we want money, we’re going to crap on that history and reboot it similar to what we did last year with our entire company.  Suck on that Alan Moore, you crazy old warlock.”

Moore’s response?

“I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”

Moore also said,

“I don’t want money. What I want is for this not to happen.”

Anyways, here is what Beyond Watchmen has in store for us this summer:

• RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo

• MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke

• COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones

• DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes

• NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert

• OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee

• SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Now, it seems to me, that everybody but the boss-men at DC thinks this is a bad idea.  Honestly though, how can they not do this?  Sure, there hasn’t really been a huge demand for Watchmen prequels, and fans of the original are screaming out on horror, knowing that there is really nothing that can be added to what Alan Moore did in 1986, yet you know these are going to sell a lot of copies.  As much as I don’t think that this is necessary and should probably not happen, I know that I won’t be able to say no when they start showing up in comic book stores.  I just hope that these don’t completely destroy my affinity for the original Watchmen book the way that George Lucas and has killed the Star Wars nerd in me with his constant tinkering of the original saga.

Some things, however, are not so simple.  For instance, what is your best option when it comes to online storage?  Well, it depends on what you are looking for.  Do you want to pay for space or do you want it to be free?  Do you need more space than is available for free?  Do you need complete backup services with the storage or do you just want someplace to stick a few files that’s not on your local computer?  There are a lot of things to consider when you are choosing an online storage service.  Thankfully, there is now a way that you can see what is out there, how much it costs, and whether or not it is what you want; Top10CloudStorage.com has created a comprehensive site for cloud storage review.

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed anything here at StolenDroids so I thought I’d take a few minutes and tell you about Top10CloudStorage.  This is a site that I happened to come across this morning in my daily surfing of the web and I’m glad that I did because they provide an awesome service: knowledge.  And best of all, their knowledge is shared with you at no charge!  What’s better than free knowledge?  Free knowledge that you don’t need to work for.

These guys have basically taken it upon themselves to rate and review the top cloud storage servers, cloud storage providers, online backup providers, and cloud sync services.  Granted, there are some companies which fall under more than one category, but they have been rated and reviewed based on each specific category under which they fall.  Now, if you want to know if Dropox is your best option for your online storage needs, you can compare it, head-to-head with other providers, such as Mozy or ZipCloud.  Should you use Carbonite or MyPCBackup for your off-site backups?  Who knows?  I’ll tell you who knows: the guys over at Top10CloudStorage, and they are more than happy to tell you which service they think is the best option.

With comprehensive reviews, including reviews from users, Top10CloudStorage.com is a great resource when it comes to choosing storage and backup services in the cloud.  I understand that not everyone is in need of online storage services, but the way that the Internet is going, there will come a time when you need to know what your options are.  I recommend that you check out  them out so that you can make the most well-informed decision. Who knows? Maybe it’ll even get you a promotion at work.

Last week, AMC released the trailer teasing us with what is in store for the second half of the season.  I gotta say that I hate the fact that I have to wait.

If you have read the comics, then you can probably guess some of what will happen when you see images of Rick and Shane fighting and Carl with a gun. This is going to be awesome! Oh, and if you haven’t watched the show before, then there is still time to get caught up.

Especially the ones made in Kentucky. American electronics made in Korea are OK.

We have a guest panelist on this week’s episode!  RIM proves its corporate culture has killed all hope, Hollywood doesn’t want to know how to fix things, and we’re all fascists!

Headlines:

The Warp Nacelles

Everytime someone says “nacelle”, I immediately think USS Enterprise.  After all, that’s where I first became familiar with the term.  The obvious truth is, of course, that “nacelle” as a word has been around much longer and means  simply “a streamlined enclosure on an aircraft used to hold passengers or engine that is separate from the fuselage”.  Still confused?  It’s these things:

Click on it. I dare you.

In the world of Star Trek, plasma from the Warp Core is shunted to the “driver coils” inside the nacelles which creates a “warp field” around the ship and initiate “warp drive”, or faster-than-light travel.  Now, I’m not going to get into the dynamics of warp drive as it pertains to physics, simply because everything in that book is entirely fictional and that’s fine.  What isn’t fictional are the REAL physical ramifications of placing such important equipment in such stupid places on a ship.

Take a look at the Enterrpise (any of them) and look at where the warp coils are located on all of them.  Now, there are two schools of thought about warp drive and we should address both of them to give a good idea of all possibilities.

Theory 1: The nacelles are only used to create a warp field where FTL flight is possible.  They aren’t used for actual thrust, which is left to the impulse engines.  Since the impulse engines are operating at a constant 1c (speed of light), you can only control how fast you’re going by altering the warp field.

Two impulse engines in the top (saucer) and one large one on the lower (behind the nacelle).

Theory 2: While not really cannon, we do see in a few instances (Star Trek, 2010 for instance) where the nacelles aren’t only used to generate the warp field, but also used for thrust.

Take a look at the picture* above and imagine that it’s a real ship weighing an untold number of tons.  Now, imagine trying to push it from only the very back walls of the nacelles.  Can you picture where the stress points are?  That’s right; where the nacelles are connected to the ship itself.  Let us not forget what we talked about in Part 1 of this as well; those pylons that are holding up the nacelles, the same ones under tremendous stress, are also filled with tubes transporting the “death-in-a-bottle” from the warp core!  Let us also remember that so far we’ve only pictured the Enterprise-D, which has the most robust nacelle pylons of any of them.

The rearward placing of the nacelles has another problematic issue as well; the warp field itself.  Assuming the warp field acts much like a magnetic field (and according to the Technical Manual . . . yes I’ve read it) it does, then one must also assume that the field must extend equidistantly from the nacelles.  That is to say, if the field goes 10 feet in front, it must also go 10 feet back.  With this in mind, we have two scenarios.

1. The warp field ends at the rear of the ship, but also doesn’t make it far enough forward to encompass the other 60% of the hull.  Ship goes to warp, and the stresses tear the ship apart.
2. The warp field does encompass the entire ship.  However, if it extends far enough to cover the entire saucer then it must also extend just as far backwards.  The size of such a warp field would literally be twice the size of the Enterprise.  You could fit another ship back there!

Finally, you have the issue of the maintaining a warp field at all.  Imagine you have a bunch of magnets out in front of you.  We all know that “like poles repel, and opposite poles attract”.  So put a magnet down, and try to levitate another one on top of it.  Chances are good you’ve done this before (haven’t we all) and know what’s going to happen; you might get half a second of levitation before the other magnet does something uncontrollable.  This isn’t because you aren’t good enough with magnets, it’s because energy fields are hard to control/predict.  Any number of things would make that magnet not levitate; air currents might throw it to the side, one side might be heavier and it flips to the opposite pole, you really are bad with magnets.

Now imagine that instead of a magnet, you’re doing the same with two VERY large driver coils that are trying to do the same thing.  Oh, and there’s a ship in the middle.  And they’re supported by toothpicks.  One last thing, they’re probably flexing back and forth from the stresses of maneuvering AT HALF THE SPEED OF LIGHT.

I’m not even going to start on the Bussard Ramscoops.  If you know what they are, good for you. You probably also know why they have no reason to be where they are.

How It Should Be Instead

This one is surprisingly easy; bring the nacelles to the mid-line of the ship and attach them with something more substantial then gossamer and a prayer.  Let’s face it, the only reason they were there in the first place was because Roddenberry didn’t want his ship to look like a rocket and the only reason they’re there now is to tie it to the original “Not-A-Rocketship” design.

Next up: How maneuvering will kill everyone aboard!

*This was originally a very nice high resolution image you can find on Google.  If you would like an unedited copy of it, click here.