The Fourth Level

Two scenes from the movie The Trial of Billy Jack have stuck with me throughout the years.

Recently this movie ran on cable and I was again impressed by these scenes.

Not being able to find anything about them on the Net — including video clips — I decided to do my own post.

Since I’m not confident YouTube will defend my Fair Use, aside from the video clips I’ve taken the precaution of doing a virtual storyboard of the scenes that can never be DMCAed away. There are over one hundred snaps and two video clips after the break.

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FTC Disclosure Update

I’d tell you to go here and jump to the bottom, but I think this merits repeating here in a post:

November 30, 2013 Update: I should have added this sooner given how it’s come up more than once. There are ads on this blog. I do not put them there. I use the WordPressdotcom service for free. In exchange for that, WordPressdotcom sells ad space to cover my free use. I don’t see these ads unless I’m logged out — and I’m hardly ever logged out. None of the money WordPressdotcom collects goes to me. I have no say over what ads appear, either. I could make the ads go away by paying for a premium tier of WordPressdotcom but I’m not yet at the point where that’s something I want to do. This is not intended to be a permanent endeavor like a professional website that exists to pay people. That this one blog has now continued for several years surprises even me.

The Internet Versus Books, Yet Again

The internet is wiping out gardening books so I’m giving up, says author, 85

To write a bestseller now you need to choose something that you can’t look up on Google.

@mikecane No surprise there! I watch vids from the NY Botanical Garden. They have little webinars in all sorts of things.

— ljndawson (@ljndawson) November 30, 2013

Amazon Pushes Prime In New TV Ad

I’ve never seen this ad before today. It doesn’t appear on YouTube and there’s no Twitter chatter about it aside from my mention and one other. So I think this is brand new.

In a TV ad of a whopping two minutes in length, Amazon is pushing its Prime service really hard. In time for the holidays — as they are keen to mention in the ad.

What interests me is the mention of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, letting Prime members read books for free. This should help writers, allowing them to spread the word to Prime members for free reading — and getting paid for it — instead of just giving away their work for free and getting nothing for it.

The complete ad can be seen here.

A Little Memo To Samsung

Samsung’s marketing splurge doesn’t always bring bang-for-buck

Samsung’s latest marketing splash has been on its Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which has been almost universally panned by reviewers. The device has been aggressively marketed through adverts and collaboration with fashion shows – yet only 800,000 Gears have been shipped since its launch two months ago.

And:

“Probably Samsung knows better than anyone that Gear will not become a mainstream product. Still, they are trying to convey the message that ‘we are first with such technology,’ which they hope will help build their brand as an advanced technology firm,” said Interbrand’s Moon.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

People don’t give a damn about which company does something first.

People spend money on the company that does it best.

HP Slate 8 Pro Has A File Manager

Unlike the very, very basic User Guide PDF, HP has a site that provides more information about using the Slate 8 Pro.

This section is about the HP File Manager and contains this spoilsport — and rather WTF — notice:

HP File Manager displays in landscape mode only; the screen does not rotate to portrait mode, even with screen rotation enabled. Hold the tablet in landscape orientation while using HP File Manager.

Seriously, HP? You couldn’t be bothered to also give it Portrait Mode — the way most people will hold the tablet?

It will be a measure of how serious HP is about the Slate 8 Pro to see how soon they kick out an update to File Manager to give it Portrait Mode too. This is 2013 and Landscape-only is just inexcusable.

Same-day update: Someone at HP needs a slap. All of the words next to the icons — Refresh, etc — are superfluous. These are all Android conventions and people would understand the icons alone. Also, advanced users are the ones likely to use the File Manager, not novices, so the words are doubly superfluous. Delete the words and Portrait Mode is easily created. Also, shrink the icons for My Storage and SD Card. Those are just crazy big.

HP Slate 8 Pro TV Ad

Continuing its tradition of miserable TV ads for tablets, HP has posted to YouTube its ad for the Slate 8 Pro.

The best that can be said is that it lacks the Palm Pre Borg Queen and Russell Brand.

HP Slate 8 Pro User Guide PDF

It’s a nineteen-page PDF that is very, very basic.

So basic that it doesn’t tell people to swipe through photos in Gallery or to even pinch-zoom them!

Screensnaps are done using the Power and Volume Down button. I had hoped there’d be a dedicated icon that could be added to the bottom bar.

My Twitter Account Has Been Bombed Yet Again

It began happening live, in real-time, after I few tweets I made about an episode of Run for Your Life.

Yeah. Go figure.

Animals Are Not Toys

The Hollywood Reporter blows the whistle on the corrupt American Humane Association’s monitoring of animal welfare on entertainment productions.

“It’s fascinating and ironic: From being the protectors of animals they’ve become complicit to animal cruelty,” says Bob Ferber, a veteran L.A. City Attorney’s office prosecutor who founded and supervised its Animal Protection Unit until retiring in March.

Animals are not toys. Any owner will vouch for the fact that even their own pets can become unpredictable when exposed to unfamiliar places and people — and to other animals. This is why we always use carriers. So for professionals to wind up injuring animals is just inexcusable. And for the Hollywood machine to be uncaring about it is doubly egregious. I’m sure the value of food wasted during catering is more than the amount it would take to ensure proper animal safety.