Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. shut down last year, leaving the future of many anime titles up in the air (regarding distribution in North America).

FUNimation Entertainment and Geneon Entertainment Sign Exclusive Distribution Agreement for North America

First Titles Scheduled for Release in Late Summer

FLOWER MOUND, TX, July 03, 2008 -- FUNimation Entertainment, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Navarre Corporation, and Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc., a leading producer of Japanese animation, announced today their partnership to distribute select DVD titles in North America.

Under the terms of the agreement, FUNimation Entertainment obtains the exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of established Geneon titles, including international successes "Ergo Proxy", "Hellsing Ultimate" and "Black Lagoon".

Among the first titles to be released includes the special edition of "Hellsing Ultimate", directed by Tomokazu Tokoro and produced by Satelight (“Aquarion” and “BALDR FORCE EXE Resolution”).

Follow up releases include "Black Lagoon Second Barrage", “Karin”, "Kyo kara Maoh! Season 2", and "Lyrical Nanoha".

“Geneon is a strong producer, known for excellent production and quality of its anime series,“ said Gen Fukunaga, president and CEO of FUNimation Entertainment. “We are pleased to partner with them and we are committed to the successful release of these series.”

"FUNimation's momentum as the leading anime distributor continues to build," said Yushin Soga, president and CEO of Geneon. "We are sure this partnership will only grow the prominence of our portfolio."

Additional titles include: “Black Lagoon”, “Elemental Gelade”, “Fate/stay night”, “Kamichu”, “Ninja Vixens”, “Paradise Kiss”, “Rozen Maiden”, “Rozen Maiden - Träumend”, “Shana”, “Shonen Onmyouji”, “The Familiar of Zero”, “The Story of Saiunkoku”, “When They Cry”, and “The Law of Ueki”.

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Hellsing Ultimate, and Black Lagoon are the main titles I was concerned about. This is welcome news!

FUNimation Will Distribute Geneon's Anime Titles

Most anyone in the free and open source software realm can tell you not only that Linux is better than Windows, but also that it is an optimal alternative to the closed-source and proprietary operating system from Microsoft. Anyone at a Linux-oriented event or group can assure you that you have no need or even legitimate reason to continue using commercial operating systems nowadays.

Indeed, GNU and Linux have radically transformed software development and systems administration in practice and in culture, but to replace Windows broadly, it is essential to accommodate the influx of commercial software refugees.

Above all else, Linux is a paradigm, or a way of doing things; rather than needing to know every detail, users can start using it and getting results by just knowing what to expect. Computer technology grows more sophisticated by the day, and to keep improving free and open source software, we need a sophisticated and flexible educational infrastructure that allows users to reach their desired goals as quickly and as easily as possible.

Linux Community Should Plant Seeds for Consumer Demand

This is an excerpt from an album review that I recently stumbled across.

Then I heard track 21. The "hidden track". Oh, my God. Imagine the most beautiful woman in the world, and making love to her, in an open field, during a full blown thunderstorm. That's how awesome track 21 is.

I think he liked it.

This article triggered flashbacks from PhreakNIC 11.

When I wake up every morning, I'm thinking one thing: It takes a wolf to catch a wolf.

If you want me to help you find plane tickets, you best unlearn all that shit they taught you in Sunday school. I got your back, yeah—but I can turn on you in an instant. I just don't give a fuck. Expedia, Hotwire, Cheapflights? Fuck them bitches. I got my own methods, shit you ain't never seen before. Shit you never knew existed. But I ain't holding no hands, I ain't babysitting—you don't like my style of airline-ticket purchasing, then get the fuck out my home office. Shit.

I ain't afraid to open up my eyes and see the world of air-travel ticket searches for what it is. Sometimes you gotta look right into the credit-card payment field and see that nothing's down there but fear. Sometimes you gotta get your soul a little dirty.

lol

For Acidus...

Warren Buffett doesn't like Hillary Clinton's gas tax holiday. Doesn't much flip over an estate tax holiday. In fact, doesn't much like any tax holidays. But he does like taxes apparently.

He spelled it out for my colleague Liz Claman on FOX Business Network — did I tell you if you're not getting this fantastic business service, you're really missing out? But I digress.

Back to taxes. The world's richest man seems to like them. I think it's fair to say most other folks do not. I am not here to quibble with the sage, perhaps the single best investor who ever lived. I am here to quibble with his faith in government. After all, taxes support government. And more taxes support more government.

But you'd think this remarkable man, who places so much faith in the government with our money, would share the same view when it comes to his own money. He doesn't. He's already announced that he will give away his entire fortune to Bill Gates' charitable foundation. For good reason. Bill and Melinda Gates are doing a remarkable job at charity. And I guess, by inference, the government is not, speaking very charitably.

So think about that: When the smartest investor in the world had to decide the best use of his money for doing good in this world...he chooses not his Uncle Sam, but his friend Bill. I didn't follow his words. I followed something else. His money.

Neil Cavuto - "World's Richest Man Likes Taxes, but Most Other Folks Don't"

In common with most Allied air officers, Major Blake, who was responsible for Richthofen's remains, regarded the Red Baron with great respect, and he organised a full military funeral, to be conducted by the personnel of No. 3 Squadron AFC.

Richthofen was buried in the cemetery at the village of Bertangles, near Amiens, on 22 April 1918. Six airmen with the rank of Captain — the same rank as Richthofen — served as pallbearers, and a guard of honour from the squadron's other ranks fired a salute. Other Allied squadrons presented memorial wreaths.

Truly, a different era.

Manfred von Richthofen Shot Down 90 Years Ago Today

The latest advertising campaign by Absolut Vodka for Mexico, created by Teran|TBWA, is causing controversy online. The creative for the campaign returns the lay of the land in the Americas to what it once was. The map depicts the whole of California as still part of Mexican territory, sporting its former name of Alta California - higher California.

Although the campaign caused no ripples south of the border, many in el Norte have found it offensive. Follow the story as it unfolds at MexicoReporter.com

Thank you to the ad agency for providing the image, which is running as part of a campaign in Mexico currently.

Alta California (Upper California) was formed in 1804 when the province of California, then a part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain, was divided in two along the line separating the Franciscan missions in the north from the Dominican missions in the south. The southern part became the territory of Baja California (Lower California). The two territories were also alternatively called Nueva California (New California; Upper California) and Vieja California (Old California; Lower California).

Mexico lost control of the territory as a result of the Mexican-American War.

I prefer Stoli Elit and Imperia, anyway.

Absolut Ad Redraws Mexico-U.S.A. Border

Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Given our company's commitment to environmental awareness and energy efficiency, we strongly support the Earth Hour campaign, and have darkened our homepage today to help spread awareness of what we hope will be a highly successful global event.

At least the temporarily black Google page matches my Firefox skin.

Google Earth Hour

John C. Dvorak

Therein Lies the Rub Dept.:
What I constantly hear regarding a new OS is the issue with drivers. People can't get the drivers needed for a new OS. Why not? This is the computer age; can't something be done to automate driver development? How about compatible drivers—the plug-compatible idea that was thrown at the IBM mainframes in the 1970s? Let's say I have a new OS that uses the highly universal W2K drivers to communicate with peripherals. You want to add your weird scanner? You download the W2K drivers, and it works. Is this impossible to comprehend or do?

I cannot see how licensing restrictions would apply to this idea since the peripheral makers usually provide the drivers. In terms of talking to the OS, I'm sure Microsoft has some patented tricks. But who can't circumvent those nowadays?

Complaining about drivers makes no sense. Has anyone seriously tried to do computer analysis of existing drivers to create an original driver? Let's say you have that weird scanner. You can get a Linux driver, a W2K driver, and an XP driver for it. These drivers act as middlemen between the scanner and the OS. They follow rules to do their job. Dissect these rules and create a new set for a new OS. Automate it.

There may be some sketchy DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) strings to this, but at least develop the code. If you are worried sick about getting sued, throw the code into the public domain and see what happens. I'm baffled as to why someone hasn't created a driver converter for Linux. Is it impossible? Or just too much work?

Creating driver converters for various operating systems?

On behalf of the OZ4 staff, thank you to everyone who attended the con! This year, we had enough speakers to extend Outerz0ne to a two-day event, and we had enough attendees to keep the conference room full throughout the schedule. We appreciate all of the time and effort that went into the presentations.

We also thank those of you who offered donations and bought T-shirts, because you prevented SkyDog from taking a bath on the con! This means we'll probably do it again next year. :)

Stef

p.s. Rattle beat out dc0de to win the auction this year. Thanks to everyone who placed a bid!

Outerz0ne 4 - Thanks To Everyone!