Wednesday, September 21, 2011
High-end audio sounds great, lasts decades
The Audio Research VSi 60 amplifier
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg) As high-end amplifiers go, the VSi60 isn't very big--it measures 14 inches by 8 inches by 16 inches--and it has an anodized aluminum top plate with an inset Audio Research logo. The supplied remote controls all functions including power, muting, stereo/mono, input select, and volume up/down. The rear of the chassis has five pairs of RCA inputs for CD, tuner, video, etc.; a mono subwoofer output; and custom-made, speaker-wire binding posts. It's a 50-watt-per-channel stereo amplifier.
The VSi60 proudly displays its 6H30 driver tubes and KT120 output tubes on the top plate, and uses audiophile-grade parts throughout the design. Each VSi60 is hand-crafted and completely hand-soldered, assembled, and not only bench tested and measured; every amp's sound quality is carefully scrutinized over a pair of very high-end speakers. If the sound is not up to snuff, it's sent back to production to be corrected.
Since I was unfamiliar with the sound of Audio Research's reference system, I compared the VSi60 with the company's very best gear, namely its Reference Anniversary Preamplifier ($24,995), the Reference 250 power amps ($25,990), with a pair of Wilson Audio MAXX 3 speakers ($69,500). Before we go any further I have to admit something: I don't think Audio Research tube gear sounds "tubey." That is to say, overly rich, warm, or mellow. It doesn't sound like solid-state, either; Audio Research designs just provide a clear "window" to the sound of music.
First up, "The Way," from Neil Young's "Chrome Dreams II" CD, which features a large vocal choir backing up Young. The clarity of the sound, the voices, piano, and percussion were a thrill to behold. This 2007 recording's quality really helps, of course, but when you play a great recording, the Audio Research/Wilson Audio system can conjure a remarkably faithful recreation of the original event.
I also played some early 1960s Duke Ellington CDs recorded in the famed 30th Street Columbia Records studios. These recordings put you in the acoustic space of the studio, and when they're played over a world-class system you feel like you're in the studio with the band. Tube electronics reveal that virtual reality aspect of recordings better than solid-state gear; the presentation is more three-dimensional, so the instruments have an almost physical presence between the speakers. Those impressions were based on the sound of the more expensive Audio Research system.
Switching over to the VSi60 amplifier, the system couldn't play as loud; the bass weight and oomph were scaled back a bit, but the essential effortless quality of the sound was much the same. The Audio Research "sound" is hard to describe, because it's essentially neutral, and that's just as true for its most affordable as it is for its flagship designs.
The VSi60 amplifier sells for $4,495, so sure, it's expensive, but it's designed to sound spectacular for many decades. That's no hype; Audio Research already offers reasonably priced repair services for nearly every product it has made over the last four decades. Sony, Apple, Chevy, or BMW don't service every product that bears their name. A good number of Audio Research customers are still enjoying components they bought when Jimmy Carter was president. Other than the sound I can think of one other small reason why Audio Research customers are so loyal: when you call the company during business hours, a live human being answers the phone!
Monday, September 19, 2011
iPhone with Artificial Intelligence Is Next
from:
http://www.cultofmac.com/114276/how-this-guy-is-making-your-iphone-virtually-human/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cultofmac%2FbFow+%28Cult+of+Mac%29
Today, your iPhone is a gadget, a mere consumer appliance. But your future iPhone will become increasingly human. You’ll have conversations with it. The phone will make decisions, prioritize the information it presents to you, and take action on your behalf — rescheduling meetings, buying movie tickets, making reservations and much more.
In short, your iPhone is evolving into a personal assistant that thinks, learns and acts. And it’s all happening sooner than you think.
The history of interface design can be oversimplified as the application of increasing compute power to make computers work harder for human compatibility.
In the beginning, humans did all the work because computers weren’t smart enough to handle human language. Code had to be punched in. Output had to be translated.
When computers became more powerful, they could interact with users with something similar to human language via a command line interface. Later, PCs and workstations were re-imagined to handle icons, windows, trash cans and dragging and dropping and all the rest.
As Moore’s law continues to deliver ever more powerful processors at lower cost, that available power can be applied to the creation of even more human-compatible interfaces that include touch, “physics,” gestures and more.
Ultimately, however, human beings are hard-wired to communicate with other people, not computers. And that’s why the direction of interface design is always heading for the creation of artificial humans.
There are four elements to a machine that can function like a person: 1) speech; 2) decision-making algorithms; 3) data; and 4) “agency,” the ability to act in the world on your behalf.
Apple already has rudimentary technology and partnerships to achieve all this. The initial launch of the iPhone 5 will likely offer a small sampling of this technology, and subsequent releases of iOS will dribble out more.
Eventually, your iPhone will function as a virtual human that you can talk to, that suggests things to you, that you can send running on errands.
When you get your shiny new iPhone 5, you’ll notice a new feature called the Assistant. This feature won’t be an app, but a broad capability of the phone that combines speech, decision-making, data and agency to simulate a virtual human that lives in your pocket.
For speech, Apple has maintained a long-standing partnership with the leading company. A version of iOS 5 with Nuance Dictation has reportedly been sent out to carriers for testing.
For decision-making algorithms, Apple can rely on the amazing technology it purchased in April, 2010, when it bought Siri, a company that created a personal-assistant application that you talk to, and it figures out what you want.
Many iPhone users don’t know this, but Siri is still available free in the app store. You should be using this every day. You talk to Siri in your own words, and Siri’s algorithms figure out what you mean. It sorts through a large number of possible responses, and chooses the best one with uncanny accuracy.
For data, Apple can use your own behavior with the phone, which can inform the system where you are, where you’ve been, what your preferences are, what your schedule is, who you know, and much more. Solid rumors suggest deep integration of the Assistant with Calendar, Contacts, E-mail and more.
And for agency, Apple can rely on the technology and partnerships developed under the Siri project. The existing Siri app leverages partnerships with OpenTable, CitySearch, Yelp, YahooLocal, ReserveTravel, Localeze, Eventful, StubHub, LiveKick, MovieTickets, RottenTomatoes, True Knowledge, Bing Answers and Wolfram Alpha.
These services both provide judgement (you can say, “find me a GOOD Mexican restaurant”) and agency (you can say, “make me a reservation.”) Siri is designed to actually book you a hotel reservation, buy movie or concert tickets and much more.
There is absolutely no question that Apple is getting into the virtual human racket, starting with the iPhone 5 and iOS 5. But Apple is a consumer electronics company. What the hell does Apple know about artificial intelligence?
The answer may shock you.
The iOS ‘Assistant’ is US Military Technology
The most expensive, ambitious and far-reaching attempt to create a virtual human assistant was initiated in 2003 by the Pentagon’s research arm, DARPA (the organization that brought us the Internet, GPS and other deadly weapons).
The project was called CALO, for “Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes,” and involved some 300 of the world’s top researchers.
CALO’S mission, according to the Wikipedia, was to build “a new generation of cognitive assistants that can reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain what they are doing, reflect on their experience, and respond robustly to surprise.”
All this research was orchestrated by a Silicon Valley company called the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). The man in charge of the whole project was a brilliant polymath who worked as senior scientist and co-director of the Computer Human Interaction Center at SRI, Adam Cheyer (pictured above).
Cheyer is not only one of the world’s most renowned artificial intelligence scientists, he’s also one of the leading experts in distributed computing, intelligent agents and advanced user interfaces.
Cheyer now works as a director of engineering for Apple’s iPhone group. He also manages the awesome team he assembled for Siri. Together, these brilliant minds are inventing the future of cell phone interaction.
The iPhone 6 Virtual Human
Here’s how your iPhone 6 will probably work. When you want to make a call, search the web or send an e-mail, you’ll just hold the phone to your ear and say a command.
The phone will recognize your voice, which both authenticates your identity and enables the phone to cater specifically to your needs, your data and your vocabulary.
When you want to do the town, you’ll say things like “make me a reservation at a good Italian restaurant.” and “buy me tickets for a good movie for after dinner.” The phone will do your bidding.
Before meetings, your phone with alert you. You’ll listen, and the phone will give you a briefing about the people you’re meeting, with history and personal information so you’re prepared. If you want to reschedule the meeting, the phone software will interact via e-mail with the people you’re meeting with, finding a new time when all are available, and adding the new meeting time to your calendar.
Your iPhone will make suggestions about gifts, books, music and upcoming concerts. It will learn from your actions, getting better over time.
In short, your phone will evolve from a gadget to a virtual human, one you can talk to and that talks back. It will anticipate your needs, make decisions, and act on your behalf.
That’s the iPhone 6. Exactly how much of this virtual assistant technology will show up in the iPhone 5 is still essentially unknown. But what we do know is that Apple is definitely headed in this direction.
Are you ready to carry a virtual human in your pocket?
~ Thanks Walter !
http://www.cultofmac.com/114276/how-this-guy-is-making-your-iphone-virtually-human/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cultofmac%2FbFow+%28Cult+of+Mac%29
Today, your iPhone is a gadget, a mere consumer appliance. But your future iPhone will become increasingly human. You’ll have conversations with it. The phone will make decisions, prioritize the information it presents to you, and take action on your behalf — rescheduling meetings, buying movie tickets, making reservations and much more.
In short, your iPhone is evolving into a personal assistant that thinks, learns and acts. And it’s all happening sooner than you think.
The history of interface design can be oversimplified as the application of increasing compute power to make computers work harder for human compatibility.
In the beginning, humans did all the work because computers weren’t smart enough to handle human language. Code had to be punched in. Output had to be translated.
When computers became more powerful, they could interact with users with something similar to human language via a command line interface. Later, PCs and workstations were re-imagined to handle icons, windows, trash cans and dragging and dropping and all the rest.
As Moore’s law continues to deliver ever more powerful processors at lower cost, that available power can be applied to the creation of even more human-compatible interfaces that include touch, “physics,” gestures and more.
Ultimately, however, human beings are hard-wired to communicate with other people, not computers. And that’s why the direction of interface design is always heading for the creation of artificial humans.
There are four elements to a machine that can function like a person: 1) speech; 2) decision-making algorithms; 3) data; and 4) “agency,” the ability to act in the world on your behalf.
Apple already has rudimentary technology and partnerships to achieve all this. The initial launch of the iPhone 5 will likely offer a small sampling of this technology, and subsequent releases of iOS will dribble out more.
Eventually, your iPhone will function as a virtual human that you can talk to, that suggests things to you, that you can send running on errands.
When you get your shiny new iPhone 5, you’ll notice a new feature called the Assistant. This feature won’t be an app, but a broad capability of the phone that combines speech, decision-making, data and agency to simulate a virtual human that lives in your pocket.
For speech, Apple has maintained a long-standing partnership with the leading company. A version of iOS 5 with Nuance Dictation has reportedly been sent out to carriers for testing.
For decision-making algorithms, Apple can rely on the amazing technology it purchased in April, 2010, when it bought Siri, a company that created a personal-assistant application that you talk to, and it figures out what you want.
Many iPhone users don’t know this, but Siri is still available free in the app store. You should be using this every day. You talk to Siri in your own words, and Siri’s algorithms figure out what you mean. It sorts through a large number of possible responses, and chooses the best one with uncanny accuracy.
For data, Apple can use your own behavior with the phone, which can inform the system where you are, where you’ve been, what your preferences are, what your schedule is, who you know, and much more. Solid rumors suggest deep integration of the Assistant with Calendar, Contacts, E-mail and more.
And for agency, Apple can rely on the technology and partnerships developed under the Siri project. The existing Siri app leverages partnerships with OpenTable, CitySearch, Yelp, YahooLocal, ReserveTravel, Localeze, Eventful, StubHub, LiveKick, MovieTickets, RottenTomatoes, True Knowledge, Bing Answers and Wolfram Alpha.
These services both provide judgement (you can say, “find me a GOOD Mexican restaurant”) and agency (you can say, “make me a reservation.”) Siri is designed to actually book you a hotel reservation, buy movie or concert tickets and much more.
There is absolutely no question that Apple is getting into the virtual human racket, starting with the iPhone 5 and iOS 5. But Apple is a consumer electronics company. What the hell does Apple know about artificial intelligence?
The answer may shock you.
The iOS ‘Assistant’ is US Military Technology
The most expensive, ambitious and far-reaching attempt to create a virtual human assistant was initiated in 2003 by the Pentagon’s research arm, DARPA (the organization that brought us the Internet, GPS and other deadly weapons).
The project was called CALO, for “Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes,” and involved some 300 of the world’s top researchers.
CALO’S mission, according to the Wikipedia, was to build “a new generation of cognitive assistants that can reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain what they are doing, reflect on their experience, and respond robustly to surprise.”
All this research was orchestrated by a Silicon Valley company called the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). The man in charge of the whole project was a brilliant polymath who worked as senior scientist and co-director of the Computer Human Interaction Center at SRI, Adam Cheyer (pictured above).
Cheyer is not only one of the world’s most renowned artificial intelligence scientists, he’s also one of the leading experts in distributed computing, intelligent agents and advanced user interfaces.
Cheyer now works as a director of engineering for Apple’s iPhone group. He also manages the awesome team he assembled for Siri. Together, these brilliant minds are inventing the future of cell phone interaction.
The iPhone 6 Virtual Human
Here’s how your iPhone 6 will probably work. When you want to make a call, search the web or send an e-mail, you’ll just hold the phone to your ear and say a command.
The phone will recognize your voice, which both authenticates your identity and enables the phone to cater specifically to your needs, your data and your vocabulary.
When you want to do the town, you’ll say things like “make me a reservation at a good Italian restaurant.” and “buy me tickets for a good movie for after dinner.” The phone will do your bidding.
Before meetings, your phone with alert you. You’ll listen, and the phone will give you a briefing about the people you’re meeting, with history and personal information so you’re prepared. If you want to reschedule the meeting, the phone software will interact via e-mail with the people you’re meeting with, finding a new time when all are available, and adding the new meeting time to your calendar.
Your iPhone will make suggestions about gifts, books, music and upcoming concerts. It will learn from your actions, getting better over time.
In short, your phone will evolve from a gadget to a virtual human, one you can talk to and that talks back. It will anticipate your needs, make decisions, and act on your behalf.
That’s the iPhone 6. Exactly how much of this virtual assistant technology will show up in the iPhone 5 is still essentially unknown. But what we do know is that Apple is definitely headed in this direction.
Are you ready to carry a virtual human in your pocket?
~ Thanks Walter !
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Recommended Repair Shops and Services - Fort Myers
Car Repair
Winkler Automotive - Mike and James don't sell you more than you need. Always my 1st choice.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3120+Winkler+Ave.+Fort+Myers,+FL++33916&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x88db6a894d175b59:0x4ac293aedfaff1ee,3120+Winkler+Ave,+Fort+Myers,+FL+33916&gl=us&ei=PNdwTvmhKMjpgQfawYyNBQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAA
http://www.winklerautomotiveinc.com/
Pam's Motor City - a bit more expensive but hey, they have the "name" and location.
http://pamsmotorcity.net/
Located at the corner of NE Metro and Daniels.
13395 Metro Parkway
Fort Myers, FL 33966
Garage Door
Current pricing is flat $65 flat fee while Action Door charges by the first 30/60 minutes.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Why Software Is Eating The World
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html
This week, Hewlett-Packard (where I am on the board) announced that it is exploring jettisoning its struggling PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, where it sees better potential for growth. Meanwhile, Google plans to buy up the cellphone handset maker Motorola Mobility. Both moves surprised the tech world. But both moves are also in line with a trend I've observed, one that makes me optimistic about the future growth of the American and world economies, despite the recent turmoil in the stock market.
More than 10 years after the peak of the 1990s dot-com bubble, a dozen or so new Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter are sparking controversy in Silicon Valley, due to their rapidly growing private market valuations, and even the occasional successful IPO. With scars from the heyday of Webvan and Pets.com still fresh in the investor psyche, people are asking, "Isn't this just a dangerous new bubble?"
I, along with others, have been arguing the other side of the case. (I am co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, which has invested in Facebook, Groupon, Skype, Twitter, Zynga, and Foursquare, among others. I am also personally an investor in LinkedIn.) We believe that many of the prominent new Internet companies are building real, high-growth, high-margin, highly defensible businesses.
![[SOFTWARE1]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u8CBMk8aoiupdRdY0cMUuLM79XbaPEQ56riw2fdnQhQGVri0xtAc1V1HaGKR-YpTAixLvr1LzHPmZZ1mfcKRMoZMZqFEfhgFhAqAXcBNlJTCDq4ZCknzS8oJcDCfj7QsaIbThlK1Jv3I8QiLqMDRCQPzs=s0-d)
Today's stock market actually hates technology, as shown by all-time low price/earnings ratios for major public technology companies. Apple, for example, has a P/E ratio of around 15.2—about the same as the broader stock market, despite Apple's immense profitability and dominant market position (Apple in the last couple weeks became the biggest company in America, judged by market capitalization, surpassing Exxon Mobil). And, perhaps most telling, you can't have a bubble when people are constantly screaming "Bubble!"
But too much of the debate is still around financial valuation, as opposed to the underlying intrinsic value of the best of Silicon Valley's new companies. My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy.
More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.
![[SOFTWARE2]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_stxJra_A9EvLzjQciKpgdAzt5sX6dt8D7I6laF7D48JOeREuY05euAL19aPjYw6gGjfzbbgWHFB8vJawPHwI58dCu8aHisGVRm9JZWPTq1VbnrMRNgJU00InvTTudrhs_vS6ThEt-kkvOYZ8xKQ_VrYQ=s0-d)
Why is this happening now?
Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.
Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago, when I was at Netscape, the company I co-founded. In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day.
On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new employees. In 2000, when my partner Ben Horowitz was CEO of the first cloud computing company, Loudcloud, the cost of a customer running a basic Internet application was approximately $150,000 a month. Running that same application today in Amazon's cloud costs about $1,500 a month.
![[SOFTWARE4]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tyBoG9lj__FT3SVlq1CUVJb2NUKDu4Obma_yz8cy9izzf91EinBQdFrwvMaiMZ78peBClPxItPE7rRlYkqpvZJfknONTIatkV80FRhNzHYp8-Cy2viWh3_EcjE_ZNnO3_1mQJ83Gois-ttUdMxDXfJLX4=s0-d)
With lower start-up costs and a vastly expanded market for online services, the result is a global economy that for the first time will be fully digitally wired—the dream of every cyber-visionary of the early 1990s, finally delivered, a full generation later.
Perhaps the single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a traditional business is the suicide of Borders and corresponding rise of Amazon. In 2001, Borders agreed to hand over its online business to Amazon under the theory that online book sales were non-strategic and unimportant.
Oops.
Today, the world's largest bookseller, Amazon, is a software company—its core capability is its amazing software engine for selling virtually everything online, no retail stores necessary. On top of that, while Borders was thrashing in the throes of impending bankruptcy, Amazon rearranged its web site to promote its Kindle digital books over physical books for the first time. Now even the books themselves are software.
Today's largest video service by number of subscribers is a software company: Netflix. How Netflix eviscerated Blockbuster is an old story, but now other traditional entertainment providers are facing the same threat. Comcast, Time Warner and others are responding by transforming themselves into software companies with efforts such as TV Everywhere, which liberates content from the physical cable and connects it to smartphones and tablets.
Today's dominant music companies are software companies, too: Apple's iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. Traditional record labels increasingly exist only to provide those software companies with content. Industry revenue from digital channels totaled $4.6 billion in 2010, growing to 29% of total revenue from 2% in 2004.
Today's fastest growing entertainment companies are videogame makers—again, software—with the industry growing to $60 billion from $30 billion five years ago. And the fastest growing major videogame company is Zynga (maker of games including FarmVille), which delivers its games entirely online. Zynga's first-quarter revenues grew to $235 million this year, more than double revenues from a year earlier. Rovio, maker of Angry Birds, is expected to clear $100 million in revenue this year (the company was nearly bankrupt when it debuted the popular game on the iPhone in late 2009). Meanwhile, traditional videogame powerhouses like Electronic Arts and Nintendo have seen revenues stagnate and fall.
The best new movie production company in many decades, Pixar, was a software company. Disney—Disney!—had to buy Pixar, a software company, to remain relevant in animated movies.
Photography, of course, was eaten by software long ago. It's virtually impossible to buy a mobile phone that doesn't include a software-powered camera, and photos are uploaded automatically to the Internet for permanent archiving and global sharing. Companies like Shutterfly, Snapfish and Flickr have stepped into Kodak's place.
Today's largest direct marketing platform is a software company—Google. Now it's been joined by Groupon, Living Social, Foursquare and others, which are using software to eat the retail marketing industry. Groupon generated over $700 million in revenue in 2010, after being in business for only two years.
Today's fastest growing telecom company is Skype, a software company that was just bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. CenturyLink, the third largest telecom company in the U.S., with a $20 billion market cap, had 15 million access lines at the end of June 30—declining at an annual rate of about 7%. Excluding the revenue from its Qwest acquisition, CenturyLink's revenue from these legacy services declined by more than 11%. Meanwhile, the two biggest telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon, have survived by transforming themselves into software companies, partnering with Apple and other smartphone makers.
![[SOFTWARE5]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u52R-9fy-hwyOiU1mOR__Qq-yLhlkVOrLWpbantCFX7wjA4VykKg7YefOHapI3Da2ok9l9mJTdxsjTSCyRXwgOKijpSgoXw7GKE_3haD6m2wkUJbpkyR6Te05MBZCZiBhkU1XZKfnTatTIIxNbE6BuVxU=s0-d)
LinkedIn is today's fastest growing recruiting company. For the first time ever, on LinkedIn, employees can maintain their own resumes for recruiters to search in real time—giving LinkedIn the opportunity to eat the lucrative $400 billion recruiting industry.
Software is also eating much of the value chain of industries that are widely viewed as primarily existing in the physical world. In today's cars, software runs the engines, controls safety features, entertains passengers, guides drivers to destinations and connects each car to mobile, satellite and GPS networks. The days when a car aficionado could repair his or her own car are long past, due primarily to the high software content. The trend toward hybrid and electric vehicles will only accelerate the software shift—electric cars are completely computer controlled. And the creation of software-powered driverless cars is already under way at Google and the major car companies.
Today's leading real-world retailer, Wal-Mart, uses software to power its logistics and distribution capabilities, which it has used to crush its competition. Likewise for FedEx, which is best thought of as a software network that happens to have trucks, planes and distribution hubs attached. And the success or failure of airlines today and in the future hinges on their ability to price tickets and optimize routes and yields correctly—with software.
Oil and gas companies were early innovators in supercomputing and data visualization and analysis, which are crucial to today's oil and gas exploration efforts. Agriculture is increasingly powered by software as well, including satellite analysis of soils linked to per-acre seed selection software algorithms.
The financial services industry has been visibly transformed by software over the last 30 years. Practically every financial transaction, from someone buying a cup of coffee to someone trading a trillion dollars of credit default derivatives, is done in software. And many of the leading innovators in financial services are software companies, such as Square, which allows anyone to accept credit card payments with a mobile phone, and PayPal, which generated more than $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year, up 31% over the previous year.
Health care and education, in my view, are next up for fundamental software-based transformation. My venture capital firm is backing aggressive start-ups in both of these gigantic and critical industries. We believe both of these industries, which historically have been highly resistant to entrepreneurial change, are primed for tipping by great new software-centric entrepreneurs.
Even national defense is increasingly software-based. The modern combat soldier is embedded in a web of software that provides intelligence, communications, logistics and weapons guidance. Software-powered drones launch airstrikes without putting human pilots at risk. Intelligence agencies do large-scale data mining with software to uncover and track potential terrorist plots.
Companies in every industry need to assume that a software revolution is coming. This includes even industries that are software-based today. Great incumbent software companies like Oracle and Microsoft are increasingly threatened with irrelevance by new software offerings like Salesforce.com and Android (especially in a world where Google owns a major handset maker).
In some industries, particularly those with a heavy real-world component such as oil and gas, the software revolution is primarily an opportunity for incumbents. But in many industries, new software ideas will result in the rise of new Silicon Valley-style start-ups that invade existing industries with impunity. Over the next 10 years, the battles between incumbents and software-powered insurgents will be epic. Joseph Schumpeter, the economist who coined the term "creative destruction," would be proud.
![[SOFTWARE6]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u72_1lyOzcZ3TsB3m6VXd02Xbp3zMKIsBfdToiVjcEXtu4aIeqMwwdncHnltthT2Ge5DUm_5wspiNodsgxTB-a5BRG_RL2coGxBOxTZPdXZY-B0wJ10vFqePgFV0qFEjzsXuUa1yAJzKXl2PChKANiow=s0-d)
And while people watching the values of their 401(k)s bounce up and down the last few weeks might doubt it, this is a profoundly positive story for the American economy, in particular. It's not an accident that many of the biggest recent technology companies—including Google, Amazon, eBay and more—are American companies. Our combination of great research universities, a pro-risk business culture, deep pools of innovation-seeking equity capital and reliable business and contract law is unprecedented and unparalleled in the world.
Still, we face several challenges.
First of all, every new company today is being built in the face of massive economic headwinds, making the challenge far greater than it was in the relatively benign '90s. The good news about building a company during times like this is that the companies that do succeed are going to be extremely strong and resilient. And when the economy finally stabilizes, look out—the best of the new companies will grow even faster.
Secondly, many people in the U.S. and around the world lack the education and skills required to participate in the great new companies coming out of the software revolution. This is a tragedy since every company I work with is absolutely starved for talent. Qualified software engineers, managers, marketers and salespeople in Silicon Valley can rack up dozens of high-paying, high-upside job offers any time they want, while national unemployment and underemployment is sky high. This problem is even worse than it looks because many workers in existing industries will be stranded on the wrong side of software-based disruption and may never be able to work in their fields again. There's no way through this problem other than education, and we have a long way to go.
Finally, the new companies need to prove their worth. They need to build strong cultures, delight their customers, establish their own competitive advantages and, yes, justify their rising valuations. No one should expect building a new high-growth, software-powered company in an established industry to be easy. It's brutally difficult.
I'm privileged to work with some of the best of the new breed of software companies, and I can tell you they're really good at what they do. If they perform to my and others' expectations, they are going to be highly valuable cornerstone companies in the global economy, eating markets far larger than the technology industry has historically been able to pursue.
Instead of constantly questioning their valuations, let's seek to understand how the new generation of technology companies are doing what they do, what the broader consequences are for businesses and the economy and what we can collectively do to expand the number of innovative new software companies created in the U.S. and around the world.
That's the big opportunity. I know where I'm putting my money.
—Mr. Andreessen is co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz. He also co-founded Netscape, one of the first browser companies.
Thanks Ryan !
By MARC ANDREESSEN
In an interview with WSJ's Kevin Delaney, Groupon and LinkedIn investor Marc Andreessen insists that the recent popularity of tech companies does not constitute a bubble. He also stressed that both Apple and Google are undervalued and that "the market doesn't like tech."
In short, software is eating the world.This week, Hewlett-Packard (where I am on the board) announced that it is exploring jettisoning its struggling PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, where it sees better potential for growth. Meanwhile, Google plans to buy up the cellphone handset maker Motorola Mobility. Both moves surprised the tech world. But both moves are also in line with a trend I've observed, one that makes me optimistic about the future growth of the American and world economies, despite the recent turmoil in the stock market.
More than 10 years after the peak of the 1990s dot-com bubble, a dozen or so new Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter are sparking controversy in Silicon Valley, due to their rapidly growing private market valuations, and even the occasional successful IPO. With scars from the heyday of Webvan and Pets.com still fresh in the investor psyche, people are asking, "Isn't this just a dangerous new bubble?"
I, along with others, have been arguing the other side of the case. (I am co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, which has invested in Facebook, Groupon, Skype, Twitter, Zynga, and Foursquare, among others. I am also personally an investor in LinkedIn.) We believe that many of the prominent new Internet companies are building real, high-growth, high-margin, highly defensible businesses.
But too much of the debate is still around financial valuation, as opposed to the underlying intrinsic value of the best of Silicon Valley's new companies. My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy.
More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.
Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.
Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago, when I was at Netscape, the company I co-founded. In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day.
On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new employees. In 2000, when my partner Ben Horowitz was CEO of the first cloud computing company, Loudcloud, the cost of a customer running a basic Internet application was approximately $150,000 a month. Running that same application today in Amazon's cloud costs about $1,500 a month.
Perhaps the single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a traditional business is the suicide of Borders and corresponding rise of Amazon. In 2001, Borders agreed to hand over its online business to Amazon under the theory that online book sales were non-strategic and unimportant.
Oops.
Today, the world's largest bookseller, Amazon, is a software company—its core capability is its amazing software engine for selling virtually everything online, no retail stores necessary. On top of that, while Borders was thrashing in the throes of impending bankruptcy, Amazon rearranged its web site to promote its Kindle digital books over physical books for the first time. Now even the books themselves are software.
Today's largest video service by number of subscribers is a software company: Netflix. How Netflix eviscerated Blockbuster is an old story, but now other traditional entertainment providers are facing the same threat. Comcast, Time Warner and others are responding by transforming themselves into software companies with efforts such as TV Everywhere, which liberates content from the physical cable and connects it to smartphones and tablets.
Today's dominant music companies are software companies, too: Apple's iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. Traditional record labels increasingly exist only to provide those software companies with content. Industry revenue from digital channels totaled $4.6 billion in 2010, growing to 29% of total revenue from 2% in 2004.
Today's fastest growing entertainment companies are videogame makers—again, software—with the industry growing to $60 billion from $30 billion five years ago. And the fastest growing major videogame company is Zynga (maker of games including FarmVille), which delivers its games entirely online. Zynga's first-quarter revenues grew to $235 million this year, more than double revenues from a year earlier. Rovio, maker of Angry Birds, is expected to clear $100 million in revenue this year (the company was nearly bankrupt when it debuted the popular game on the iPhone in late 2009). Meanwhile, traditional videogame powerhouses like Electronic Arts and Nintendo have seen revenues stagnate and fall.
The best new movie production company in many decades, Pixar, was a software company. Disney—Disney!—had to buy Pixar, a software company, to remain relevant in animated movies.
Photography, of course, was eaten by software long ago. It's virtually impossible to buy a mobile phone that doesn't include a software-powered camera, and photos are uploaded automatically to the Internet for permanent archiving and global sharing. Companies like Shutterfly, Snapfish and Flickr have stepped into Kodak's place.
Today's largest direct marketing platform is a software company—Google. Now it's been joined by Groupon, Living Social, Foursquare and others, which are using software to eat the retail marketing industry. Groupon generated over $700 million in revenue in 2010, after being in business for only two years.
Today's fastest growing telecom company is Skype, a software company that was just bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. CenturyLink, the third largest telecom company in the U.S., with a $20 billion market cap, had 15 million access lines at the end of June 30—declining at an annual rate of about 7%. Excluding the revenue from its Qwest acquisition, CenturyLink's revenue from these legacy services declined by more than 11%. Meanwhile, the two biggest telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon, have survived by transforming themselves into software companies, partnering with Apple and other smartphone makers.
Software is also eating much of the value chain of industries that are widely viewed as primarily existing in the physical world. In today's cars, software runs the engines, controls safety features, entertains passengers, guides drivers to destinations and connects each car to mobile, satellite and GPS networks. The days when a car aficionado could repair his or her own car are long past, due primarily to the high software content. The trend toward hybrid and electric vehicles will only accelerate the software shift—electric cars are completely computer controlled. And the creation of software-powered driverless cars is already under way at Google and the major car companies.
Today's leading real-world retailer, Wal-Mart, uses software to power its logistics and distribution capabilities, which it has used to crush its competition. Likewise for FedEx, which is best thought of as a software network that happens to have trucks, planes and distribution hubs attached. And the success or failure of airlines today and in the future hinges on their ability to price tickets and optimize routes and yields correctly—with software.
Oil and gas companies were early innovators in supercomputing and data visualization and analysis, which are crucial to today's oil and gas exploration efforts. Agriculture is increasingly powered by software as well, including satellite analysis of soils linked to per-acre seed selection software algorithms.
The financial services industry has been visibly transformed by software over the last 30 years. Practically every financial transaction, from someone buying a cup of coffee to someone trading a trillion dollars of credit default derivatives, is done in software. And many of the leading innovators in financial services are software companies, such as Square, which allows anyone to accept credit card payments with a mobile phone, and PayPal, which generated more than $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year, up 31% over the previous year.
Health care and education, in my view, are next up for fundamental software-based transformation. My venture capital firm is backing aggressive start-ups in both of these gigantic and critical industries. We believe both of these industries, which historically have been highly resistant to entrepreneurial change, are primed for tipping by great new software-centric entrepreneurs.
Even national defense is increasingly software-based. The modern combat soldier is embedded in a web of software that provides intelligence, communications, logistics and weapons guidance. Software-powered drones launch airstrikes without putting human pilots at risk. Intelligence agencies do large-scale data mining with software to uncover and track potential terrorist plots.
Companies in every industry need to assume that a software revolution is coming. This includes even industries that are software-based today. Great incumbent software companies like Oracle and Microsoft are increasingly threatened with irrelevance by new software offerings like Salesforce.com and Android (especially in a world where Google owns a major handset maker).
In some industries, particularly those with a heavy real-world component such as oil and gas, the software revolution is primarily an opportunity for incumbents. But in many industries, new software ideas will result in the rise of new Silicon Valley-style start-ups that invade existing industries with impunity. Over the next 10 years, the battles between incumbents and software-powered insurgents will be epic. Joseph Schumpeter, the economist who coined the term "creative destruction," would be proud.
Still, we face several challenges.
First of all, every new company today is being built in the face of massive economic headwinds, making the challenge far greater than it was in the relatively benign '90s. The good news about building a company during times like this is that the companies that do succeed are going to be extremely strong and resilient. And when the economy finally stabilizes, look out—the best of the new companies will grow even faster.
Secondly, many people in the U.S. and around the world lack the education and skills required to participate in the great new companies coming out of the software revolution. This is a tragedy since every company I work with is absolutely starved for talent. Qualified software engineers, managers, marketers and salespeople in Silicon Valley can rack up dozens of high-paying, high-upside job offers any time they want, while national unemployment and underemployment is sky high. This problem is even worse than it looks because many workers in existing industries will be stranded on the wrong side of software-based disruption and may never be able to work in their fields again. There's no way through this problem other than education, and we have a long way to go.
Finally, the new companies need to prove their worth. They need to build strong cultures, delight their customers, establish their own competitive advantages and, yes, justify their rising valuations. No one should expect building a new high-growth, software-powered company in an established industry to be easy. It's brutally difficult.
I'm privileged to work with some of the best of the new breed of software companies, and I can tell you they're really good at what they do. If they perform to my and others' expectations, they are going to be highly valuable cornerstone companies in the global economy, eating markets far larger than the technology industry has historically been able to pursue.
Instead of constantly questioning their valuations, let's seek to understand how the new generation of technology companies are doing what they do, what the broader consequences are for businesses and the economy and what we can collectively do to expand the number of innovative new software companies created in the U.S. and around the world.
That's the big opportunity. I know where I'm putting my money.
—Mr. Andreessen is co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz. He also co-founded Netscape, one of the first browser companies.
Thanks Ryan !
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Holy $(@(@@_)$ Batman !
Trivia department: While Batman was always poised and in control of his emotions, Robin was a highly excitable young man. Throughout their exploits, Robin would often find some event, some comment, some thing, completely unbelievable. On these ocassions, he would exclaim, "Holy (insert words here), Batman!"
What follows is a an authentic list of such outbursts.
Holy demolition, Batman! - Robin
Holy heart failure, Batman! - Robin
Holy Long John Silver, Batman! - Robin
Holy Captain Nemo, Batman! - Robin
Holy costume party, Batman! - Robin
Holy shit, Batman, another birthday? - Robin
Holy Hamlet
Holy flight plan
Holy alter ego
Holy rat trap
Holy fireworks
Holy hood-wink
Holy mashed potatoes
Holy red snapper
Holy human pearls
Holy jelly moulds
Holy nick of time
Holy movie moguls
Holy mechanical marvel
Holy stomach ache
Holy remote control robot
Holy wedding cake
Holy Frankenstein
Holy Hollywood
Holy crystal ball
Holy human collector's item
Holy uncanny photographic mental processes
Holy nerve center
Holy oil factory
Holy reverse polarity
Holy ice skates
Holy complications
Holy hieroglyphics
Holy missing relatives
Holy sudden incapacitation
Holy one track mind
Holy Fourth Amendment
Holy heart failure
Holy purple cannibals
Holy understatement
Holy pin cushions
Holy human surfboards
Holy rising headlights
Holy incantation
Holy Robert Louis Stevenson
Holy cold creeps
Holy here we go again
Holy special delivery
Holy return from oblivion
Holy crucial moment
Holy finishing touches
Holy bargain basement
Holy Rip Van Winkle
Holy interplanetary yard stick
Holy rock garden
Holy Jack-in-the-Box
Holy Fourth of July
Holy interruptions
Holy toreador
Holy matador
Holy guacamole
Holy bat-logic
Holy deposit slip
Holy stratosphere
Holy ghost writer
Holy autobon
Holy crack-up
Holy miracle
Holy astronomy
Holy terminology
Holy mashed potatoes
Holy naivete
Holy cliffhangers
Holy sub-orbit
Holy history
Holy catastrophe
Holy cryptology
Holy trampoline
Holy fork in the road
Holy Titanic
Holy hypotheses
Holy bijou
Holy split seconds
Holy olfactory
Holy jetset
Holy tipoff
Holy hamburger
Holy Luthor Burbank
Holy anagrams
Holy haziness
Holy contributing to the delinquency of minors
Holy roadblocks
Holy show-ups
Holy Alps
Holy hamstrings
Holy underwritten metropolis
Holy karats
Holy unknown flying objects
Holy unrefillable prescriptions
Holy giveaways
Holy astringent plum-like fruit
Holy skull tap
Holy ashtray
Holy smoke
Holy haberdashery
Holy lodestone
Holy rainbow
Holy hallelujah
Holy fishbowl
Holy crossfire
Holy red herring
Holy serpentine
Holy bouncing boiler-plated fits
Holy transistors
Holy rats in a trap
Holy alphabet
Holy ball and chain
Holy fruit salad
Holy New Year's Eve
Holy homicide
Holy reincarnation
Holy explosion
Holy helmets
Holy happenstance
Holy switcheroo
Holy ricochet
Holy jackpot
Holy bat-trap
Holy nightmare
Holy Taj Mahal
Holy tee shot
Holy smokestack
Holy camouflage
Holy masquerade party
Holy taxidermy
Holy Grandma Moses
Holy triple feat
Holy kindergarten
Holy Wayne Manor
Holy puzzlers
Holy oxygen
Holy jitterbug
Holy firing squad
Holy Davey Jones
Holy epicure
Holy love birds
Holy bunyons
Holy olee-o
Holy taxation
Holy rocking chair
Holy gunpowder
Holy hairdo
Holy forecast
Holy Motor Von Bon
Holy jawbreaker
Holy sun dial
Holy squirrel cage
Holy hijackers
Holy horseshoes
Holy transistor radio
Holy rainbow
Holy fly trap
Holy semantics
Holy polar front
Holy hijack
Holy tuxedo
Holy shamrocks
Holy distortion
Holy chicken coop
Holy epigrams
Holy travel agent
Holy impossibility
Holy metronome
Holy apparition
Holy perfect pitch
Holy relief
Holy piano
Holy fugitives
Holy fratricide
Holy Caruso
Holy greed
Holy Sherlock Holmes
Holy bank deposits
Holy graft zeppelin
Holy voltage
Holy sedatives
Holy memory bank
Holy multitudes
Holy sonic booms
Holy holocaust
Holy gambles
Holy cinemascope
Holy miscast
Holy armadilloes
Holy precision
Holy dead end
Holy bankruptcy
Holy madness
Holy stewpot
Holy caffeine
Holy flypaper (twice)
Holy unlikelihood
Holy jet set
Holy hoaxes
Holy hostage
Holy agility
Holy blackout
Holy mucelage
Holy timebomb
Holy gemini
Holy eggshells
Holy ten toes
Holy hyperdermics
Holy detonation
Holy gullibility
Holy homework
Holy dilemna
Holy homecoming
Holy tartars
Holy gall
Holy karate
Holy hoofbeats
Holy stuffing
Holy grammar
Holy Koufax
Holy safari
Holy headlines
Holy iceberg
Holy blizzard
Holy snowball
Holy backfire
Holy felony
Holy geography
Holy sewer pipe
Holy Venuzuela
Holy stalactites
Holy trolls and goblins
Holy ordeuvres
Holy jigsaw puzzle
Holy stampede
Holy human pearls
Holy resourcefulness
Holy mush
Holy handiwork
Holy self-service
Holy mermaid
Holy bulls-eye
Holy stereo
Holy shucks
Holy diversionary tactics
Holy Houdini
Holy funny bone
Holy hutzpah
Holy clockwork
Holy hunting horn
Holy Zorro
Holy living end
Holy oversight
Holy floor covering
Holy escape hatch
Holy chillblaines
Holy polar ice sheet
Holy standstills
Holy riot ball
Holy surprise parties
Holy tintanabulation
Holy rising hemlines
Holy levitation
Holy molars
Holy knit one pearl two
Holy slipped disc
Holy mechanical armies
Holy disappearing act
Holy helplessness
Holy human pressure cookers
Holy non-sequiturs
Holy barracuda
Holy showcase
Holy popcorn
Holy hole in a donut
Holy birthday cake
Holy graveyard
Holy schizophrenia
Holy ravioli
Holy conflagration
Holy armour plate
Holy wigs
Holy magician
Holy vacuum
Holy Las Vegas
Holy Benedict Arnold
Holy hailstorms
Holy murder
Holy detonator
Holy Cinderella
Holy tome
Holy trickery
Holy cats
Holy icepicks
Holy knockout drops
Holy hot foot
Holy Romeo and Juliet
Holy iodine
Holy paraffin
Holy spiderwebs
Holy looking glass
Holy impregnability
Holy encore
Holy Golden Gate
Holy hurricane
Holy whiskers
Holy false front
Holy skyrocket
Holy headache
Holy chocolate eclair
Holy fog
Holy rudder
Holy straightjacket
Holy blank cartridge
Holy flip-flop
Holy cliche
Holy weaponry
Holy dart
Holy inquisition
Holy deviltry
Holy Blackbeard
Holy green card
Holy jail break
Holy rheostat
Holy Einstein
Holy high wire
Holy mainframe
Holy corpusles
Holy sarcophagus
Holy cosmos
Holy kilowatts
Holy Bill of Rights
Holy hot spot
Holy IT&T
Holy banks
Holy hypnotism
Holy harem
Holy fate worse than death
Holy hardest metal in the world
Holy journey to the center of the earth
Holy waste of energy
Holy razor's edge
Holy taxidermy
Holy bluebeard
Holy Parefski
Holy heartbreak
Holy vertebra
Holy keyring
Holy keyhole
Holy mesmerism
Holy pseudonym
Holy hydraulics
Holy floodgate
Remember Robin, always look both ways. - Batman
Thursday, September 1, 2011
When We Could Drink At Age 18
Remembering 2 bars in N.Y. just over the N.J. state line.
Mother's, Greenwood Lake
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/greenwood-lake-ny/T983FQ29RHM8THE01
Long Pond Inn
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33415568/Find-Big-Fat-Fanny-Fast-Greenwood-Lake
Mother's, Greenwood Lake
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/greenwood-lake-ny/T983FQ29RHM8THE01
Long Pond Inn
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33415568/Find-Big-Fat-Fanny-Fast-Greenwood-Lake
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Female Demerit System
In the world of romance, one single rule applies: Make the woman happy. Do something she likes and you get points. Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted.You don't get any points for doing something she expects. Sorry, that's the way the game is played.
Here is a guide to the point system:
SIMPLE DUTIES
You make the bed (+1)
You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillow (0)
You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets (-1)
You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) in the rain (+8)
But return with Beer (-5)
SAFETY
You check out a suspicious noise at night (+1)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing (0)
You check out a suspicious noise and it is something (+5)
You pummel it with iron rod (+10)
It's her pet (-20)
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS
You stay by her side the entire party (0)
You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with an old school friend (-2)
Named Tina (-10)
Tina is a dancer (-20)
Tina has silicone implants (-80)
HER BIRTHDAY
You take her out to dinner (+2)
You take her out to dinner and it's not a sports bar (+3)
Okay, it's a sports bar (-2)
And it's all-you-can-eat night (-3)
It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted the colours of your favourite team (-10)
A NIGHT OUT
You take her to a movie (+1)
You take her to a movie she likes (+3)
You take her to a movie you hate (+6)
You take her to a movie you like (-2)
It's called 'Death Cop' (-3)
You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)
YOUR PHYSIQUE
You develop a noticeable potbelly (-15)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy Hawaiian shirts (-30)
You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-8000)
THE BIG QUESTION
She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) (Yes, you lose points no matter what)
You hesitate in responding (-10)
You reply, "Where?" (-35)
Any other response (-20)
COMMUNICATION
When she wants to talk about a problem, you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression (0)
You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)
You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV (+500)
She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep (-4000)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Classic 1974 Movie - Flesh Gordon - Check Out the FX
From:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FilYgi_LZ_c
I remember what a hilarious parody this was in 1974.
Directors Howard Ziehm and Michael Benveniste draw from the same cliffhanging Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s as the glitzy 1980 tongue-in-cheek space opera for their soft-core spoof. Hockey hero Flesh Gordon and often-naked love interest Dale Ardor join Dr. Jerkoff in his battle against the mad Emperor Wang from the planet Porno, who has unleashed his diabolical sex ray on the Earth. Full of toilet humor, juvenile sexual innuendo, and unending naked romps and orgies, it's hardly in the same company as the Mel Brooks genre goofs Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. But amidst the slack direction, flat performances, and grungy photography are some lovingly crafted low-tech effects, including marvelous stop-motion creatures from Jim Danforth and spaceships courtesy of future Oscar winners Greg Jein and Dennis Muren. The film's best sequence is a King Kong tribute with a giant rampaging satyr (voiced by an uncredited Craig T. Nelson, who ad-libs quips in a cultured but expletive-filled whine) kidnapping Dale as Flesh buzzes him his phallic space ship. All the restoration in the world won't make this dark, grainy, bargain-basement parody look any better, but the retro effects, inspired score, and playful attitude make this silly sex romp a kitschy cult item from the randy 1970s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FilYgi_LZ_c
I remember what a hilarious parody this was in 1974.
Directors Howard Ziehm and Michael Benveniste draw from the same cliffhanging Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s as the glitzy 1980 tongue-in-cheek space opera for their soft-core spoof. Hockey hero Flesh Gordon and often-naked love interest Dale Ardor join Dr. Jerkoff in his battle against the mad Emperor Wang from the planet Porno, who has unleashed his diabolical sex ray on the Earth. Full of toilet humor, juvenile sexual innuendo, and unending naked romps and orgies, it's hardly in the same company as the Mel Brooks genre goofs Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. But amidst the slack direction, flat performances, and grungy photography are some lovingly crafted low-tech effects, including marvelous stop-motion creatures from Jim Danforth and spaceships courtesy of future Oscar winners Greg Jein and Dennis Muren. The film's best sequence is a King Kong tribute with a giant rampaging satyr (voiced by an uncredited Craig T. Nelson, who ad-libs quips in a cultured but expletive-filled whine) kidnapping Dale as Flesh buzzes him his phallic space ship. All the restoration in the world won't make this dark, grainy, bargain-basement parody look any better, but the retro effects, inspired score, and playful attitude make this silly sex romp a kitschy cult item from the randy 1970s.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Top 100 - Best Places To Live in N.J.
Chatham Township finishes first among the state's 566 municipalities. Where does your town rank?
http://njmonthly.com/articles/best-of-Jersey/best-places-to-live---the-complete-top-towns-list-.html
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