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	Julien Prunet

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Fêvrier 08, 2002

Our favourite sport: good, healthy San Francisco bashing. It took him a while, but former Bay area enthusiast Nick finally realizes how provincial, self-aggrandizing and dreadful San Francisco really is. I guess he's heard the story of our pal Rick's Hungarian mother-in-law visiting San Francisco and saying: "What a pretty little city. It looks like Györ!" (Györ is a cute town of 140, 000 halfway between Vienna and Budapest, with no pretention to be a culturally significant Baghdad by the Danube or anything.) Nick also notices that "the pretty people are in Los Angeles"! (or Miami, OK.) Merci, mon ami.

posted by on 11:52 du matin | link

Fêvrier 07, 2002

Press release: TONIGHT on TeeVee: AMERICAN PORN
PBS Airdate: Thursday, February 7, 9 P.M., 60 minutes

It's one of the hottest industries in America. Easier to order at home than a pizza, bigger than rock music, it's
arguably the most profitable enterprise in cyberspace. AT&T is in the business. Yahoo! has profited from it. Westin and Marriott make more money selling it than they do snacks and drinks in their mini-bars...

UPDATE: that's nice: the PBS site links to my OJR Story about the hyperbole that accompanies most of the current reporting on the porn industry. Too bad Frontline does exactly that: it mention lots of unsourced stats and wild figures. The most interesting part of the show, I thought, was on the very puzzling concept of "local community standards." If I understand well, a jury consisted of my neighbors and people from my town, can decide of what is acceptable for locals to watch in the privacy of their living rooms. Read pornsters and xxx fans reactions about the show.

posted by on 06:58 du soir | link

Fêvrier 06, 2002

Beware Tony, of the Vivid babes! To all Vivid video fans who have ever entered their credit card number on the XXX company's web site, read this report about the way Vivid online makes its dollars: Digital Coast Weekly (sorry, can't link to the story itself) talks to David Schlesinger, head of online operations for Vivid Video who confirms what people had suspected before:

"Vivid's revenues are impressive, with approximately $7.7 million revenue per month. Much of that money, Schlesinger admitted, came from users who may not have even known they were paying, as Vivid uses a negative billing model where those who sign up for trials are automatically charged until they cancel, which they often don't do until they see a month or two worth of bills on their credit card statement.
In the meantime, though, Vivid pulls in an impressive $39.95 per month from each user and has approximately 150,000 subscribers at any one time.
As a result, Vivid gets numerous requests for refunds from credit card companies and often ends up paying fines to Visa for constant complaints from users."

posted by on 12:00 du soir | link

How Andy Will Stay CONNECTED in France Le co-présentateur de Ken Radio's Tech World Round Up a quitté San Diego pour la France et explique comment il va resté connecté au Net pendant son séjour "Geeks meet Grapes" entre Paris et Montpellier. Mis à part l'option des cyber-cafés, tous ses gadgets me paraissent assez chers... C'est sans doute le prix pour être à la pointe du progrès dans la vieille Europe. Bon voyage Andy.

posted by on 11:49 du matin | link

Fêvrier 05, 2002

"Do you like PURE TEEN FUCK NOW?" writes this friend in a group e-mail. "Me too, but not in my email every day. That's why I'm discontinuing the use of my ---- email address. Being one of my oldest addresses, it's basically become nothing but a spam magnet, traded around the spam industry like a Romanian orphan boy in an Istanbul brothel."

The pal sure sounds angry. Who doesn't hate spam? CNET has a story today about a guy in Mass. who takes about 5 minutes each day to fire off e-mail complaints to spammers and ISPs that relay the junk. And Ken Rutkowski links to this New Zealand Herald column: "Spammers know what we want - don't they?" Lots of money, a robust sex life, less bugs on our Windows operated computers...

posted by on 01:04 du soir | link

Fêvrier 04, 2002

The dignity of a blog Told Ben tonight about my favorite part of Bush's State of Union address last week: "Every American should have the dignity of a job."This is a great concept. I often feel like I would love the dignity of a job. No more free-lance, a real job. But Ben said: "What's the problem? At least you have the dignity of a blog!"
And the dignity of health insurance too. I love America.

posted by on 09:27 du soir | link

Too many caps spoil the blog Merci à Stéphanie et à Manur pour leurs remarques sur les majuscules dans ce blog, complètement involontaires. Stéphanie avait flairé juste: il s'agissait bien d'un problème de CSS. Désolée de ne pas avoir attaqué le problème à bras le corps plus tôt. Non seulement je suis assez nulle en HTML (pas très futée en informatique non plus et je tape à la vitesse d'un escargot rhumatisant) mais le travail m'achève ces temps-ci, d'où rares mises-à-jour du blog, retards dans les emails, poches noires sous les yeux etc.

posted by on 09:08 du soir | link

Free the Grapes! So you can buy Viagra without a prescription or even a cow online but in more than half of the U.S., it is illegal to buy a bottle of wine and have it directly shipped to you! I had no idea that Americans do not have a constitutional right to purchase alcoholic beverages. A report from CMP TechWeb says that “The 21st amendment, which repealed Prohibition in 1933 merely turned over the power to regulate the sale of beer, wine, and liquor to the states. As a result, 28 states prohibit direct shipping, including Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida.”

But wine lovers are taking action. Matt calls to my attention a site recently mentioned by John Hunt in San Francisco that seeks to ensure to all Americans access to fine wine. This California group called Free The Grapes! is devoted to easing state restrictions against interstate wine trade. The group is a coalition of 230,000 consumers and more than 1,000 wineries. If you reside in a state that does not permit wine shipments, check out the site for help to contact your legislators and ask for a change in shipping regulations. Free the wine!

In the meantime, if you still buy your wine the old-fashioned way (Trader Joe’s anyone ?) and wonder how to match tonight’s food with the right wine, tech radio veteran epicurist Ken Rutkowski recommends a fun and useful site, Eat Drink Wine. Choose your main dish, drill down through the menus, and you'll get suggestions on specific wines guaranteed by a "Master Sommelier" to go with the food. You can also search in reverse, starting with the wine. You might learn that, beef Burritos go well with a Bordeaux or Cabernet Franc, Pad Thai with a Gamay and hot dogs with Riesling!

posted by on 12:06 du soir | link

Fêvrier 03, 2002

Encore Drudge Deux ans après avoir quitté son trou à rat d'Hollywood pour un appartement luxueux à Miami Beach en Floride, le cyber-journaliste Matt Drudge fascine toujours autant à Los Angeles. Son nom revient régulièrement en soirées, dans les conversations. De nombreux amis bloggeurs se disent drogués à son site, (je clique dessus au moins 30 fois par jour.)

Le lapin Heather racontait hier qu'elle l'a rencontré en 1997, bien avant qu'il ne devienne célèbre avec le scoop Lewinsky. A l'époque, le DrudgeReport était posté sur Usenet. Drudge commencait à couvrir Hollywood pour Wired news, et Heather se souvient d'un mec sympa. Un an après, il était déjà devenu inabordable. La très persistente Cathy Seipp a sué pour obtenir une interview de Drudge pour Penthouse, sans succès. Encore un an plus tard, je tombe sur lui à une conférence de presse de Larry Flynt -odieux.

Mais je n'avais encore jamais rencontré quelqu'un qui connaissait Drudge à l'époque où il travaillait dans la boutique de cadeaux des studios de CBS, dans la vallée de San Fernando. Il venait d'arriver de la côte est. Ce devait être en 1994-5. Un ami d'Heather employé sur un show de CBS, allait acheter des tee-shirts et des tasses siglés dans la boutique. Il se souvient que Drudge était "creepy" et lui filait le bourdon. Drudge n'arrêtait pas de lui poser des questions sur tout le monde, et faisait preuve d'une connaissance étendue de ce qui se passait dans les couloirs de CBS. Peu de temps après, le copain a compris pourquoi Drudge pressait les clients comme des citrons: tous les ragots étaient publiés dans sa lettre d'information par email. Drudge fouillait les poubelles, récupérait les fax des uns, les papiers des autres et dénichait ainsi des pépites d'information.

Si seulement Drudge avait pu raconter tout ca dans son bouquin, l'ouvrage aurait de l'intérêt. S'il sort autant en rave qu'il le dit, Drudge a certainement une poignée d'employés qui mettent son site à jour le samedi soir et le dimanche matin. Il a désormais des millions de lecteurs chaque jour, une émission de radio assez divertissante le dimanche soir et même un cybersquatteur qui essaye de vendre des ouvrages politiques sur un site simulacre, The Drudge Report.com