Archive for the 'Entertainment' category
I’m starting a new podcast project today, and I’m not sure how many episodes it will have. In the episodes I’ll talk about how I’ve learned about my heart — and what I’ve learned. The project is part of a great class I’ve had this term, Designing On-Line Curriculum, at the University of Florida. You can download the podcast episode here, or listen with the embedded player below.
Let me know what you think — more episodes will be coming later this week.
Music in this episode is by High Places / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
[podcast]http://www.cf2group.com/podcasts/heart/CF_LA_Heart_1.mp3[/podcast]
Categories: Entertainment, Grad School, podcast
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This afternoon I was reminded of all the reasons I like satellite radio–and why commercial terrestrial radio is so disappointing. On the way home from running errands, XM Radio’s channel 12–Cross Country–was playing Asleep at the Wheel’s version of a Kinky Friedman song, Homo Erectus . I feel safe in saying that this song contains what must be the best use of the word Australopithecine in a western swing song. Channel 12 is one of my favorite music channels on XM, though it’s far from the only one I listen to. I think it’s interesting that the channel I listen to most–Ngoma on channel 104–is found only on-line. I suppose it’s too much to hope that the proposed merger of Sirius and XM would bring it to the satellite.
Categories: Entertainment
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OK, I’ll admit that I’m not sure what to make of the news that Sweden is opening an embassy in Second Life. On the one hand, it’s cool that a nation has decided to make use of a new medium to put out information on its land, people, and culture. On the other hand, a nation has decided to open an embassy in Second Life. There are big questions here like, who owns the virtual land on which the embassy sits? Can someone go to the Second Life Swedish embassy and request political asylum? Who will be appointed the nation’s first ambassador to Second Life, and to whom will he or she present diplomatic credentials?
After last week’s Lotusphere on Second Life (for IBM software partners) and the news that Reuters has opened a bureau on (in?) Second Life, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. For all that, though, I still can’t help but feeling that there are some real-world activities that might not benefit from being converted into avatars. Given the clear need for positive diplomacy these days, an embassy might just be one of those activities.
Categories: Entertainment, General computing
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If you’ve read more than a day or two worth of posts here, you know how I feel about systems that assume all customers are cheats and thieves. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the way most of us will come into contact with one of hese systems, and the marketplace is full of truly rediculous DRM schemes. Now, however, comes a report that some record labels might be ready to do the unthinkable and release music without DRM crippleware attached.
When you read the article, it’s obvious that this isn’t a move that’s going to happen tomorrow, but as I said in an earlier post, when the record companies feel pain, they’ll look at changing their strategies. There’s nothing like a sales number lower than the one you expected to cause pain in the halls of the record companies, so there’s reason for hope–and reason to keep supporting the artists and record companies that have already taken a listener-friendly approach to distributing their music.
Categories: Entertainment, Media
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…then you might not want Vista running your Media PC. The issue is whether or not you’ll see a true HD image from an HD DVD or BluRay disc played under Vista. If the disc in question is a commercial, copy-protected program, then the answer is…no. You’ll see regular old television quality. The Team Vista Blog has a 20-questions FAQ. One of the exchanges says:
Will the playback quality be reduced on some video output types?
Image quality constraints are only active when required by the policy associated with the content being played, and then only apply to that specific content — not to any other content on the user’s desktop. As a practical matter, image constraint will typically result in content being played at no worse than standard definition television resolution. In the case of HD optical media formats such as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the constraint requirement is 520K pixels per frame (i.e., roughly 960×540), which is still higher than the native resolution of content distributed in the DVD-Video format. We feel that this is still yields a great user experience, even when using a high definition screen.
From my point of view and, I think, that of many other consumers, the issue isn’t whether the delivered resolution is better than a standard DVD. It’s whether the delivered resolution is what we expect it to be when the format promises an HD image.
I gave my opinion of Stupid Copy Protection a couple of posts back. I don’t really blame Microsoft for this–they’re doing what the big studios tell them they must. I have to say, though, that I agree with Glenn Reynolds when he says that the ultimate result might well be to drive more people to pirated programming–which will come without the bits of software that assume every user is a thief.
It’s a vicious cycle, and ultimately the biggest losers are honest, legitimate users, and the artists who try to give them a good show to watch. Unfortunately, there won’t be real incentive for change until the studios and software companies see themselves as coming up with the short end of the stick.
Categories: Entertainment, General computing, Media
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If you have one of the hot new game consoles (Wii or PS3) then you’ve probably heard about the blinking screen problem. It seems that with certain televisions, after a time the screen would start to blink on and off, making the console unusable. Now the folks at Popular Mechanics have discovered the source of the problem. Once again, a scheme on the part of hardware and software manufacturers that assumes users are thieves has caused a problem for legitimate, honest users.
There are several lessons that come from this particular set of circumstances. First, if you’re going to have any process that depends on the timing of signals between hardware from different vendors, you’d better make darned sure that every vendor commits to fulfilling the timing requirements. Next, if you’re going to ship a product that includes firmware, you should have a simple field-updating process in place before you ship the first unit to customers.
Finally, I’m going to give away my secret plan for the ultimate copy protection plan. Ready? Create content that people are willing to pay for. There it is. Lots of artists and musicians find this plan works quite well. It’s positive, not subject to technological revolution, and places no undue burden on your users (or customers, or fans). Any content distribution scheme built on the assumption that everyone who pays for content is, at heart, a lying thief, deserves the failure it will ultimately find. Most of the content moguls know this, which explains the time they spend in Washington, D.C.: they want the government to slow their march to failure by limiting their customers’ ability to choose options.
What can consumers do about it? Try saying “no”. Don’t buy products that come with stupid, restrictive technology built in. Support artists and technologies that treat you (the person who gives them money and lets them pay the rent) as a supporter instead of an enemy. And speak up–write a letter, especially to your elected representatives. Let them know that your rights matter just as much as the rights of media companies. They really do, you know.
Categories: Entertainment, Media
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Earlier, I mentioned that Popular Mechanics had some of the best coverage I’ve seen of this year’s CES. Of course, they weren’t the only crew covering the show–my second place vote goes to the gang at Gizmodo, who get a special nod for doing a super job at the MacWorld Expo while CES was going on. In particular, if you’re interested in the new Apple iPhone, they’ve got blanket coverage going, including hands-on impressions.
It was interesting seeing these two shows run concurrently. By any objective measure CES is by far the larger show, but MacWorld had the big news splash based on the iPhone and an SEC investigation of stock options awarded to Steve Jobs. That these two things dominated electronics news this week says a lot about the industry and its product cycles. Here’s what I think:
It’s getting easier for “just folks” to create high quality audio and video. CES saw scores of companies presenting their small form-factor HD camcorders, podcast kits, solid-state camcorders, and digital cameras. The result is a rising corps of people who are learning audio and video production, just as desktop publishing tools in the 1980s brought out an army of paginators and publication designers. As was the case with desktop publishing, 90% of the audio and video produced will be crap, but with so much to sample, we’re in for a great world of creativity and citizen journalism.
I’m like a lot of people in that I’ve had an HD television for a good while and have yet to receive an HD feed. The DVD vendors are ready to fix this, though first there’s the small matter of which HD DVD format to adopt. This edition of the CES didn’t do anything to resolve the issue. Sony is pushing Blu-Ray as hard as it can, while a consortium of other manufacturers wants the world to watch HD DVD. If you’re old enough to remember the Beta-VHS wars, this has a disturbingly familiar ring. Since I don’t have to own one or the other right now I’m going to wait for things to settle out, but if I had to bet it would be on HD DVD. Why? It seems to be the format of choice for the early adopters in “adult films”, and that market can drive an awful lot of hardware sales.
Between increasing LCD yields and improved HD projectors, home theatre screens just get bigger and bigger. Me, I want to be the first on my block with a drive-in screen. If you know a good source for the awful-quality speakers that clip onto your driver door window, let me know…
There’s more to come, in the consumer market and in the blog. More of both, later.
Categories: Entertainment, Media
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If you’re interested in finding out just how green your technology is (or, conversely, the extent to which you and your toys are despoiling the environment), then you should make TreeHugger a regular stop on your daily e-travels.
One of their more interesting recent articles looked at the amount of power used by the servers for Second Life and its avatars. It turns out that the 4,000 servers consume a substantial amount of electricity, with a correspondingly large carbon emission. I’m not in the camp that says it’s time to go back to a cave-based economy, but I do think it’s good to think about how our various activities–especially those that are optional, rather than essential–have an impact on the environment.
Categories: Entertainment, General computing
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, Steve Jobs used his keynote address at the MacWorld Expo to unveil the iPhone. It’s a slick-looking device that Apple has positioned to be iPod, cell phone, and Internet communicator (web and e-mail) rolled into one. The bad news is that it will almost certainly become the cool-geek status product for the next few months. The good news is that it should ignite a serious battle of manufacturers building better and more feature-rich mobile devices.
Categories: Entertainment, Mobile, Wireless
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In just a few hours, the Consumer Electronics Show will begin in Las Vegas. I’m not there. I’m not sure I’m sorry. I have received scores of press releases from the companies exhibiting, and I’ll be sharing the virtual news this week, as well as passing along impressions from colleages who are trekking the miles of aisles at the Sands Expo and LVCC.
If you want to read the day-to-day stuff, you should check out Popular Mechanics’ coverage of the show for the consumer’s point of view, and InformationWeek’s take from the business perspective. Both should be fun.
If CES weren’t enough excitement on its own, this year we get MacWorld in San Francisco at the same time. Will Steve Jobs announce the iPod phone in his keynote, or is there something else waiting to come out of the Moscone Center? We’ll find out in the next 24 hours…
Categories: Entertainment, General computing
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