Top Dollar for Old Comics!

Action Comics #1Wow! I gotta go through my comic book collection and sell some stuff!

The Most Expensive Stuff You Can Buy At New York Comic Con

The Daily Digg – “While comics may have started as disposable entertainment, it’s no secret that many books can fetch a hefty sum based on their rarity, CGC grade*, illustrator, and/or characters that may have first appeared in them.

We talked to the people working every collectibles booth at this year’s New York Comic Con and asked them what their most expensive item is, and what made these items so astonishingly valuable.

$17,000
Original Palitoy Star Wars figures, complete set
from the 1970s

$20,000
Gobbledygook #1 and Gobbledygook #2
(Only 50 copies made)

$35,000
Pep Comics #22 [Restored**, CGC Grade 8.0]
(Introduction of Archie)

$45,000
Strange Tales #110 [CGC Grade 9.4]
(Introduction of Dr. Strange)

$65,000
Robert Crumb complete four-page story

$75,000
Original art from Spider-Man #32

$250,000
Cover of Spider-Man #300

$550,000
Detective Comics #27 [Restored, CGC Grade 9.4]
(Introduction of Batman – 1939)

and, finally…

$3,200,000+
Action Comics #1 [CGC Grade 9.0]
(Introduction of Superman!)

*CGC, or Comics Guaranty, is in independent grading service that launched in 2000 whose purpose is to determine how well preserved a book is. The scores are given out of 10, and the color of the label implies its state: blues are unadulterated books, purples are restored, greens have a significant defect and yellows are books that have been signed in the presence of a CGC employee.

**Restoration can be accomplished in a number of ways including conservation (removal of dirt, debris, or stains) leaf casting (which fills in missing paper that may have rotted away) and color touch (recoloring worn pages). The process can be quite expensive, and restored comics are usually worth less than a blue labelled version of the same book.”

Geek Software of the Week: Clementine! (For Linux and Windows)

ClementineThis week’s GSotW was suggested by Linux user Rod, who watches the show! Thanks, Rod!

Clementine is for Linux AND Windows! Check it out!

Clementine – Music Player and Organizer

“Clementine is a multiplatform music player and library organizer. It is inspired by Amarok 1.4, focusing on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing your music.”

The Tricaster Mini: A New Mini-Video Studio System

Posted to YouTube by Robert Scoble – TriCaster Mini from NewTek: the all-in-one portable TV studio

“Philip Nelson, chief relationship officer for NewTek, dropped by and pulled out an entire TV studio from his backpack and to our amazement, set it up in less than 5 minutes. At the heart of it is the new TriCaster Mini, that makes it easy for anyone to make great looking network-style TV anywhere.”

Netflix via Google Chrome Now Works in Linux!

There are a lot of tricks to get Netflix to work in Linux. Now, it will work via Chrome… awesome!

Netflix comes to Linux via Ubuntu and Chrome

PCWorld – By: Jared Newman – Ubuntu Linux users no longer need to employ arcane workarounds to watch Netflix on their computers.

“Instead, they can just head to Netflix’s website through Google’s Chrome browser to start streaming. Netflix is supported in Chrome 37, which runs on up-to-date Ubuntu installations of 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS or later.

Why this matters: Previously, users had to tweak the user agent string in Chrome to fool Netflix into thinking the browser was Internet Explorer. And before that, users had to run a Netflix desktop app through WINE, a popular Windows software emulator. While many Linux users are presumably savvy enough to jump through an extra hoop or two, it’s nice that they no longer have to.

A matter of DRM

The reason Netflix hasn’t worked across all Linux distributions and browsers is related to digital rights management. As PCWorld’s Chris Hoffman explained last month, Netflix streams its video in HTML5, but uses a technology called Encrypted Media Extensions to prevent piracy. These extensions in turn require a set of libraries called Network Security Services that the browser can access.

Until recently, Ubuntu hadn’t included NSS in its normal updates. That changed with Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04, and so Netflix has made good on a promise to allow streaming without any changes to the user agent string.

Although there’s no official word on Netflix working with other Linux distributions, they should also be able to stream from Chrome if they include a recent version of NSS. One user on Reddit’s Linux section claims that no user agent switching is required in Linux Mint 17, kernel 3.17.

As for Firefox, support won’t be possible until Mozilla supports Encrypted Media Extensions. After some resistance, Mozilla is working to add EME support in a future.”