It’s 1995, and I’m trying to watch a video on the internet. I entered the longest, most complex URL I’d ever seen into AOL’s web browser to view a trailer for Paul W.S. Anderson’s long-awaited film adaptation of Mortal Kombat. I found it in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, tucked away in the bottom of a full-page ad for the film. Online marketing at the time was such an afterthought, studios didn’t even bother grabbing short and memorable web addresses for their major releases, let alone dedicated websites. (Star Trek Generations and Stargate were among the few early exceptions.) After the interminable process of transcribing the URL from print, I gathered my family around our Packard Bell PC (powered by an Intel 486 DX and, let’s say, 8MB of RAM), hit return and waited as the video slowly came down our 33.6kbps dial-up connection. And waited. It took 25 minutes for it to fully load. After corralling my family once again, I hit play and was treated to an horrendously compressed, low-resolution version of the trailer I’d been dreaming about for months. It was unwatchable. The audio was shit. But that was the moment I became obsessed with online video. I imagined a futuristic world beyond my boxy CRT set and limited cable TV subscription. A time after VHS tapes when I could just type in a URL and enjoy a show or movie while eating one of those rehydrated Pizza Hut pies from Back to the Future 2. The internet would make it so. Looking back now, almost 30 years later,... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-03-01 17:00:14 UTC ]
Sales have risen 10%, thanks to TV adaptations and clever marketing. As four publishing houses unveil new looks, John Walsh investigates the battle for new readersImagine you have a sudden burning desire to read David Copperfield, Charles Dickens’s favourite of all his novels. Thanks to Project... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Introducing Nouwen to a new generation of readers, books by and about the influential Catholic priest are releasing this fall, which marks the 20th anniversary of his death. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An exhibition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book is to open next year at the British Library. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2016-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twenty years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 2017 show promises ‘a journey to the heart’ of JK Rowling’s storiesIdeally positioned in King’s Cross, just a stone’s throw from the mythical beginning of the journey to Hogwarts on Platform 9 3/4, the British... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An illustrated edition of A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, will be published to mark the 20th anniversary of the book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Pura Belpré Award for children and young adult books, which honors Latino writers and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino experience, will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2016 ALA annual conference. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Published to tremendous acclaim in 2000 but out of print for much of the past decade, Helen DeWitt’s massive novel The Last Samurai is being reissued this month by New Directions. With any luck, the acclaim for DeWitt’s 2011 tragicomisexual satire Lightning Rods will encourage readers to return... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2016-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The era of the living room computer finally has its last—and maybe most important—piece: Lapboards. Razer’s Turret finally shipped in late April and today Corsair announced that its competing Lapdog ($120 on Newegg) is available for purchase.It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been seeing... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2016-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The retiring B&N chairman reflects on his years in the bookselling business, and the big changes that have reshaped the chain in the past decade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Great American Bargain Book Show, SIBA to discuss moving the annual bargain book event to another city as vendor turnout declines over the past decade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jacqueline Wilson and Melvyn Bragg are among the names to speak at this year's FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the literary event and will bring together an array of speakers including authors David Baddiel, Liz Pichon, Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ingenuity or ruthlessness? Take your choice... but the result is still the sameNewspaper commentators who have been charting the demise of newsprint for the past decade or so have tended to predict that there will be a transformative moment when newspapers go over a cliff.We know it won’t be... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We take a look back at the winners from the past 10 years of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The US indie website, bought this week by the publisher of Vogue, continues growing as the NME goes free, and Q and Mojo’s print circulations slideIf music journalism is dying a slow commercial death, then no one told Pitchfork. While British magazines such as NME (for which I write reviews), Q... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Frankfurt Book Fair is no stranger to change: over the past decade, it has aggressively pursued new initiatives aimed at including the full horizon of storytelling in digital media, in films and games as well as books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The long-anticipated ribbon cutting for Anderson Bookshop’s third Chicagoland store takes place this weekend as does the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival, which has been held every other year for the past decade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Days before Amazon celebrates its 20th anniversary, Authors United is asking authors to sign a letter to the DoJ for an investigation of Amazon, and ABA submitted a similar request on Monday. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dennis Publishing weekly magazine to be handed out for free on Friday in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol and BirminghamThe Week is to give away 100,000 free copies on Friday to mark its 20th anniversary in the largest sampling campaign the weekly news digest’s history.Copies of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Transworld is repackaging Kate Atkinson’s backlist to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of Behind the Scenes at the Museum, as well as the release of her latest novel, A God in Ruins (May, £20). All of Atkinson’s backlist, including the Jackson Brodie series, will be repackaged... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Condé Nast on Monday won a federal judge's preliminary approval to pay $5.85 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by thousands of former interns who claimed the magazine publisher underpaid them. Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2014-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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