Last night I finally got round to watching the South Bank show on Pixar. Brad Bird was talking about how Disney during the 1980s and 1990s was petrified of having anything scary or exciting or racy in its animated movies. Over time, the highs and lows were removed, omitting emotive content and, in Bird’s words, ‘flatlining’ the movies.

SFGate now has an article with the headline Maurice Sendak tells parents to go to hell. In it, Sendak, creator of  Where the Wild Things Are, has a to-and-fro with a reporter about the movie adaptation of his 1963 picture book:

Reporter: “What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?”

Sendak: “I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.”

Reporter: “Because kids can handle it?”

Sendak: “If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered.”

If only more people responded in this way. I’m not suggesting kids should be presented with the likes of Saw or Friday the 13th on entering a cinema, but it’s insane how do-gooders constantly try to revert children’s media to something that Mary Whitehouse would have been satisfied with. Surely, creating children’s movies with a full gamut of emotions is better for them and their parents than more grey mush?

Once, there was this great app called Tweetie by Atebits. It was a Twitter client for iPhone and iPod touch, and very good, and the (Twitter-loving iPhone-using) people rejoiced.

And then there was Tweetie for Mac OS X. It was a Twitter client and very good, and the (Twitter-loving Mac OS X-using) people rejoiced.

And then there was Tweetie 2. It was a Twitter client for iPhone and iPod touch, and very good, and the (Twitter-loving iPhone-using) people GOT TERRIBLY ANGRY.

The reason behind the vitriol? The dev had the audacity to charge three bucks for his updated, rewritten Tweetie for Apple handhelds. Three dollars, for an app that you’ll likely use daily! Shocking!

But it’s not like this is without precedent. Increasingly, consumer-level software provides no upgrade cycle. On the Mac, the likes of Bento, iLife, Photoshop Elements, iWork and many others provide no discount if you bought the previous version, which is largely countered by the value of the product.

Tweetie 2 is on the App Store, which provides no upgrade model anyway, and so the dev had no other choice other than ‘work for nothing and eat baked beans every night for dinner’, which would pretty much guarantee no Tweetie 3 and no further apps. So, here are some helpful tips if you’re a Tweetie 1 owner who’s feeling hard done by:

1. Carry on using Tweetie 1. Atebits didn’t include a ‘blow up iPhone if user doesn’t delete Tweetie 1 when Tweetie 2 comes out’ feature. Your app will continue to work, enabling you, ironically, to bitch about its follow-up on Twitter.
2. Save up your pennies for Tweetie 2. I know times are tight and the economy’s screwed, but let’s look at something for a second: you’re sitting there with an iPhone or an iPod touch, which cost quite a lot of money. If you really want that copy of Tweetie 2, which costs all of $2.99 or £1.79, I’m fairly sure you could save up your pennies. Don’t have that Starbucks coffee for one whole day, or make your own sandwich for work. As if by magic, you’ll have saved enough cash to buy Tweetie 2!
3. Stop bitching. No, really—it’s getting old, and you sound stupid.

Great article on TorrentFreak: Copyright Drama Prevents Artist From Sharing Music on MySpace. The short version is this:

• Edwyn Collins pens and has a hit with A Girl Like You.
• Collins retains copyright and the licensing deal expires.
• Collins tries uploading the track to MySpace.
• MySpace yells NO! and sends Collins to a chilling REEDUCATION page.
• Detective work unearths the fact Warner claims rights to the song that Warner doesn’t have.
• Warner lawyers told to resolve the issue.
• Warner can’t be arsed to resolve the issue.

The article also notes: “Several big shot labels are still selling Collins’ track today even though their license to do so expired several years ago. This basically means that the labels are pirating his music, and making profit from these activities.” And while lots of idiots helpfully suggest Collins should sue or shut his whinging mouth (or words to that effect), it’s worth noting that it’s hardly simple to sue a massive record label, nor even keep track of ‘cease and desist’ notices and subsequent lawsuits if a whole bunch of labels are ripping you off.

I wonder whether Peter Mandelson and his Labour chums will cut off the internet access of all the major labels’ UK offices—in the manner they’re planning for individuals (Times Online: Can Peter Mandelson cast the internet pirates adrift?)—for such flagrant rights violations?

TechRadar reports Adobe’s firing more shots at Apple regarding Flash on iPhone. The arguments, made via an irritating, patronising ‘skit’ suggest 1) Apple is really stupid because Flash doesn’t run on iPhone, and; 2) Adobe is really great, because it can get Flash to run on iPhone.

However, important points are missed:

• The Mac version of the Flash plug-in sucks balls. It’s the main source of Safari crashes on the Mac desktop, and the sandboxed plug-in still crashes regularly on Snow Leopard. The likelihood is, on the basis of the Mac version, the Flash plug-in could also suck balls on iPhone. Worse, with iPhone being relatively underpowered compared to desktop Macs, a Flash plug-in would wreck Safari’s stability and speed.
• Adobe’s mostly crowing about standalone Flash apps. There’s a whole world of difference between Flash apps on iPhone and Flash working within a browser that has its own overheads. (Note also that Flash apps don’t have access to OS X for iPhone UI components, and so many of them are a mess in terms of interface.)

I very much hope reporters don’t start moaning in unison that since Flash apps run on iPhone, so too should the plug-in—but I’ll bet they will. In the meantime, perhaps if Adobe rewrote its Mac Flash plug-in so it was even remotely comparable to the Windows one, Mac users and Apple itself wouldn’t be quite so hostile towards the technology.

When I was a kid, digital calculators were roughly the size of a brick, and had satisfyingly chunky displays. They also, in those pre-internet days, provided a means of minor technical mischief. Type in 5318008, flip your calculator upside down, and it appeared to say ‘boobies’. If you were five, this was the most hilarious and original gag in the history of the world.

In this modern and rather less innocent age, the media would have you believe that personal technology devices in the hands of children merely teach them how to joyride while murdering innocent puppies and simultaneously fashioning bombs out of string, jelly babies and bits of twig. It’s presumably for this reason that Apple considers it a good idea to warn you (Every. Single. Time.) when you download an eReader from the App Store that it—shock!—potentially enables you to view content that some people might deem objectionable.

Enter, stage right, James Thomson, creator of iPhone/iPod touch calculator PCalc. In a minor slice of design genius, he combined the two issues mentioned above and PCalc now slaps a huge ‘Censored!’ sign across ‘naughty’ words when your device is flipped, thereby ensuring fragile little minds aren’t warped beyond all recognition.

This is a smart, funny, satirical swipe at the recent trend towards over-zealous censorship. Unless you’re, say, Sajid Farooq of NBC, who, inexplicably takes Thomson’s joke seriously (and, sadly, he’s not alone) and states PCalc’s change would “make even George Orwell shudder in his grave”. I’m thinking Orwell would be more likely to laugh his CENSORED off.