Democracy Player Is Dead, Long Live Miro 296
MrSpin writes "Democracy Player has relaunched today as Miro. Developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation, Miro aims to make online video "as easy as watching TV", while at the same time ensuring that the new medium remains accessible to everyone, through its support for open standards. The open-source application combines a media player and library, content guide, video search engine, as well as podcast and BitTorrent clients. But why the name change? According to last100, who have published a full review and guide to Miro: "When Democracy Player launched back in February 2006, the feedback received was that the name evoked different, yet equally negative responses. For many Americans it conjured up an image of yet another left wing media project, and to the rest of the world it was, rather bizarrely, being associated with the policies of the Bush administration. In contrast, the new name is purposely abstract.""
Judged by who you friends are (Score:2, Insightful)
Particularly sad, since neither one practiced either doctrine.
Re:Creepy (Score:3, Insightful)
Republic! (Score:2, Insightful)
A Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting for "what's for dinner".
(hmm, I wonder how you relate a republic to two wolves and a sheep...)
Bizarre? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not 'bizarre' at all. Actually I and everyone I know expected exactly those reactions, and were therefore puzzled by the name choice of 'Democracy Player'. It was just a half-step better then 'Freedom Player' (to make the comparison to 'Freedom Fries' even clearer, not that there is any need).
The project itself is a nice idea. Hopefully the misguided name choice didn't set it back too much.
Re:Any reason to switch from VLC or BS? (Score:3, Insightful)
No. Actually, I switched back to VLC almost instantly. It's totally unusable and awfully bloated.
I wonder if the foundation... (Score:3, Insightful)
has cleared their trademark with Joan Miro's [wikipedia.org] estate?
If not, queue intellectual property lawsuits in 5..4..3..
It's happened before. [sfgate.com]
Re:Creepy (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Bush and friends have done to the word "democracy" what Stalin and comrades have done to the words "socialism" and "communism"
Accurate name? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Judged by who you friends are (Score:3, Insightful)
Bush's policies are indefensible. Every human life is precious. But for the love of all that is good, have a sense of proportion! Comparing Bush to Stalin is simply frivolous.
-Peter
The player isn't the problem, whatever it's called (Score:3, Insightful)
So how about we focus instead on getting some free resources for the production of decent content? Right now, there is a VERY sharp divide between professional studio productions (that are heavily DRM'ed and can only be accessed by paying $ at sites like iTunes) and crappy home videos/video podcasts that look like they're made in a junior high AV room.
Re:Creepy (Score:3, Insightful)
Our idea of political debate is standing in an empty house of congress, with a sign that says "let us vote". Our idea of public discussion and debate is 2 idiots on the news argueing talking points back and forth. Its the same thing everyday with little change, little progress, and its just not taken serious by either party or the voters. The voters have mostly given up because of this nonsense. The voters know that we only get 2 choices. Just because 10 democrats debate for candidacy, doesnt mean any of them are really any different. They are the same. REAL, political new comers.. are not allowed "IN". The chances of entering these debates is none. The chances of getting on ballots in every state, is virtually impossible and its getting harder and harder.
And we go to war over lies and bullshit. We kill people because we want to. That is why democracy isnt so loved these days. We cant even provide healthcare for our people, and we're in serious fucking debt and we refuse to tax the corporations that now have the highest dow jones ever... SOMETHING is serverely broken... and by something, i mean everything.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Creepy (Score:4, Insightful)
Similarly, before Hitler adopted it for his own nefarious uses, the swastika was seen as a symbol of luck in the west.
Stalin killed people 1920s - 1960s, though, right? (Score:2, Insightful)
There's no such thing as an "inappropriate" comparison. The results of the process of comparing two things reveals the level of resemblance between them - which might be zero, of course, but that's still a comparison. Granted, either you compare things fairly or you don't. The oft-repeated mantra "you can't compare Bush to Hitler" is bullshit, though - I can compare fish to the Dirac Sea if I want to.
Re:Judged by who you friends are (Score:2, Insightful)
It isn't as if B was democracy and D was the rules at my apartment's swimming pool.
-Peter
Re:Creepy (Score:5, Insightful)
At this point, I'm personally willing to suspend Godwins law for discussions about American politics. The more that people look at fascism and the USA next to each other, the more likely it is that we'll be able to fix some of the disturbing similarities.
Re:What communist countries? None have ever existe (Score:3, Insightful)
BTW, can you name one Communist country that wasn't totalitarian? You said they're 'mutually exclusive' however I have yet to see an instance where a Communist country was NOT totalitarian.
That is my whole point. Communism is the antithesis of capitalism, which are both economic ideologies, not political ones. Totalitarianism is the antithesis of democracy, which are political ideologies, not economic ones. But the general public is always grouping these things together when really they have nothing to do with each other than the fact that up to this point all communist societies have turned out to be totalitarian.
It is perfectly possible for a communist socienty to exist democratically if all residents endorse it. The problem lies in the transition because you have all these wealthy and/or powerful individuals who don't want to give up that power for the benefit of everyone else.
I should say so. If the State came along and said I had to operate an engine lathe because the State needed it thus, what do you think I would do?
This is a straw-man argument because in a true democratic communist society YOU would elect the people who run the state and local governments, so in effect it would be YOU who decide you want to operate the lathe.
Re:What communist countries? None have ever existe (Score:3, Insightful)
There has never been any modern communist government in the past few hundred years.
A real communist country WOULD BE a democracy; in fact if you take democracy to it's logical course (where everyone has a say) you inevitably end up with a communist state.
It would be kind of like I started a philosophy called "Chocolatism" that said "If you eat nothing but chocolate, you will live forever"... Then, when people ate nothing but chocolate and inevitably died, I said "That isn't real Chocolatism... In real Chocolatism people live forever".
Let me explain (Score:3, Insightful)
The media player itself is the product of a non-profit which has a political, although non-partisan mission: "to build tools and services that give people more ways to engage in their culture."
So it seems to me that this story is very much about the issue of power in a democratic society. Naturally, whenever this comes up, the people who like to make a distinction between a "republic" and a "democracy" also appear -- and they are in fact on topic here. To them "democracy" means "direct democracy" which in turn has negative implications of mob rule. Bringing this full circle, this is precisely the complaint of the mainstream media about YouTube and the blogosphere. These remove the media's cultural gatekeepers, creating an immense crush of material unfiltered for any property, whether it is taste, factual accuracy, or pleasing orthodoxy.
This trend is one that the program is intended by its sponsoring organization to accelerate. The trend can be called with equal truth the democratization of media, or the undermining of media standards.
So, on the whole, a discussion of power, democracy and egalitarianism is equally if not more on topic in this than a discussion of the player's technical and artistic merits (e.g. whether the player's skin sucks, neat features in play list management etc.).
Re:What communist countries? None have ever existe (Score:2, Insightful)
They may not be starving, I agree, but many do not have vehicles. Here in Nashville, we do have MTA (Metro Transit Authority), but the schedules make it difficult to get to work and get back home. I know I had a job once about 15 minutes away by car. I could take a bus there, if I left three hours early, but I couldn't get back home. None of my co-workers could give me a lift, and I couldn't find anyone to carpool with. The poor here DO have a lot more money than people elsewhere in the world, but consider the cost of living is also much, much higher.
They make just enough money to get to work every day. I'm not kidding you. The cost of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation JUST to get back to work is dead even with that they're paid, and sometimes even then, it's not enough. If the "richer people" decided to take a little pay cut, these working poor (which is probably most poor people) could have a much higher standard of living.
No! Absolutely wrong! Imagine if every cashier decided not to work. Retail would go out of business in a day. Just because their work is 'menial' or doesn't seem to require much skill doesn't mean it's not highly-valued. It's this sentiment that's caused "customer service" in general to take a nose dive. Do you really think someone making six bucks an hour is going to care if they made your sandwich correctly, or if they smile, or if they say "thank you come again"? They have nothing to lose here. Just as easily as there's another employee waiting to replace them, there's another company that pays shitty wages waiting to hire them. Smiling, or paying attention to detail, or anything else they can do isn't going to get them out of the poor house. The only thing that might is education, and that's not going to be available to someone who can barely afford food.
You realize that SOMEONE has to work those shitty paying jobs, right? SOMEONE is always going to be pushed into that wage bracket because there aren't enough 100k a year jobs for every American to have one. Most of them max out their credit cards because they have unexpected expenses and bills. Not flat screen TV's. An education is expensive. Even with all the programs out there to help you, it's expensive. You have to have support from somewhere in order to be able to do it. You can't work for $6 an hour, have to fully support yourself, and go to college all at the same time. Sure, there might be some rare exceptions to that, but for the majority of the "working poor" it's just not possible.
As for the kids, I agree with you there, actually. People who can't support themselves shouldn't be having kids. As for drugs, I can't say I blame a lot of people for turning to drugs. If you life sucked as much as theirs, you might, too. And once that process starts, it's vicious. What people who are addicted to drugs needs is -- wait for it -- medical care. Which you know they won't get because they have no heal insurance. Rince. Repeat.