Month: August 2009

Ebook reader closer to 100 pounds

I'm slightly excited about Sony's new PRS-300 ebook reader. Its out soon and goes for 199 dollars which is about 150-160 pounds. I expect after a while it will drop down closer to 100 pounds which is the ideal price for a ebook reader in my view. You don't get a lot for your money, no Bluetooth, Wifi or even a memory expansion slot. But with 440meg on board and a 5 inch display, its not going to be a bad general purpose ebook reader. I also hear Sony's play PDF's, HTML and Text files without any extra conversions.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Some interesting films you may have missed

I'll admit it I do watch a lot of films, my film collection is full of weird and wonderful films. So today I almost converted all my DVDs to media files and thought I'd share some of the more interesting films people might have missed. I'm not quite say its films to see before your dead or anything like that, just the kind of films you'd pick out and say “what's this one about?”

  • Croupier – A movie about the casino and cheating the casino. The movie is slow moving but builds up to something more like a heist/con film. Clive Owen is fantastic as the higher that everyone dealer and the bump back to earth is received. Well worth catching if you can.
  • Irréversible – This is a shocking movie, think Memento with serious balls. The whole thing runs backwards but when you think this movie has front loaded most of the thrills, your treated to one of the most horrid, nail-scraping moments in movie history. The only thing close to this is some of the scenes in Hard Candy. But the connection with the character is totally different.
  • Death to Smoochy – Another little known movie which was swamped by something else. This movie starts off like a Disney movie and slowly shows the very dark side of childrens entertainment through a parody of its self. Sounds more complex that it actually is but its entertaining beyond the usual levels.
  • Risk – This is almost a unknown film in most circles. Its a con/heist movie with a difference. The whole film centres around insurance and a bleeding heart adjuster. He adjusts special cases handed to him and saves the company lots of extra money. Everything seems fine but its not that simple. What slowly unravels is a scheme with hinges on a careful balancing act/con. Fantastic film.
  • Shadow Hours – One night for one bored petrol station clerk leads to a underground world he's never seen before. Parties, clubs, drugs, all night drinking establishments all come alive as he digs deeper into the night. The rush of finding new experiences leads to some unexpected outcomes. Its not a great film but where it ends up is worth watching at least once.
  • Young people f***ing – I've talked about this film to death. Generally its a good laugh at 5 couples as they spend a night together. Its everything you wanted to laugh and giggle about sex but was too shy to. Its worth watching many times and reminding yourself that even the most human experiences can be fun when talked about openly and maybe we don't do that enough. Avoid seeing with immature idiots.
  • Cashback – This film seems to draw its influence from a combination of Go! and Late Night Shopping. Its the story of a supermarket clerk who works overnight in sainsburys and imagines drawing woman he comes across. Its all a bit strange and surreal but the story of love which is weaved through it works very well. The movie is actually quite beautiful, funny and tragic in parts. Should be on your list of films to see before you die.
  • A complete history of my sexual failures – Another movie I've talked about again. Its about a guy who decides to ask his ex-girlfriends what went wrong with there previous relationship with him. He digs up a past which really needs not be digged up but thats what makes it so watchable. It slightly car-crash like, you don't want to see or know but you can't help it. I guess in everyone of us, we've wondered what would happen if… and this movie fills that if. Painful but worth seeking out if only to watch once in the comfort of your own home. Don't watch with ex-partners.
  • The last Casino – So you may have heard the story before about the MIT students who take the casinos for millions by card counting in organised teams? Yes they even made a movie recently called 21 but before that the Canadians made a TV movie called The last casino. Although its not quite as glam as 21, its got some really nice touches. It also doesn't take its self too seriously. The ends are similar but the path to the end is different. One of the scenes in the last casino includes a high stakes game in an illegal casino where some cheating is going on. How they get out is almost a moment for film history. Its hard to get, but worth seeking out.
  • Dirty Pretty Things – Smart movie which seeks to remind people the hard lives people have coming to the UK to find work and rebuilding their already torn lives. Very fitting with all the news about immigrants taking over jobs, etc.
  • Kill Bill.Volume 1 (uncut Japanese version) – And finally the uncut version of Kill Bill has been in my collection for a while but I recently watched the cut version and started noticing parts which should be there. If you've not seen the uncut version the biggest difference is the black and white section when Uma is fighting the crazy 88 is in full colour and extended by about a minute. So you miss the eye pulling and slicing of people in two. If you want the full low down, check out this post.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

HTML 5 video problem solved?

I know there was lots of talk about the HTML 5 video element which originally was meant to support the Free and Open video codec and architecture Theora/Ogg Vorbis. But that got written out of the standard specs and each next generation browser went there own way. So from memory, Firefox 3.5 supports Ogg/Theora, Opera supports Ogg/Theora, Safari/Webkit supports Mpeg4/H.264 and Google Chrome supports both Ogg/Theora and Mpeg4/H.264. Anyway, Google just recently bought On2 which could be a interesting move if they decide to open source or free up the VP7 codec (just incase you didn't know VP3 was the base for Ogg/Theora). On2 have always said there codec is more efficient that H.264 and one of the things which always gets thrown at Theora is the lack of efficiency against modern codecs like H.264. To be honest, anything like Xvid or better works for me, but I get the point. So could this latest move finally unite the likes of Mozilla and Safari? Maybe unite against Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight platforms? Actually being open would really be a stake in the heart of these closed technologies. Oh by the way did anyone see the HTML5 timed media example from BBC RAD?

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Ten rules for Radical Innovators

I didn't blog Twitter's Ten Rules for Radical Innovators (found via @adew), because I think it was about the time of my blog being down. Umair Haque describes across 10 points why Twitter is changing the way we not only communicate but also innovate. Following the last blog post its good to point out that this is another reason why its critical that one company isn't going to rule this field no matter what their indentations may be at the time.

Interestingly the rules are actually good enough almost by themselves to create all types of dialogue around. We actually have a copy printed out on our wall in work. The Video above is Jeff Jarvis and Umair Haque at the Next09 conference, where they talk about the money side of all this.

  1. Ideals beat strategies
  2. Open beats closed
  3. Connection beats transaction
  4. Simplicity beats complexity
  5. Neighborhoods beat networks
  6. Circuits beat channels
  7. Laziness beats business
  8. Public beats private
  9. Messy beats clean
  10. Good beats evil

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Too important for one company to rule the field

Thats how I generally feel about a lot of things. Microblogging included. Slate have a post (found via @tdobson via @technicalfault about the recent Twitter outage, which I've not really talked about too much yet.

Twitter is run by a single company in a single office building in San Francisco. When you send out a message, it flies about Twitter's servers and then alights in all your Twitter pals' cell phones and Tweetdecks. The system is fast and technologically simple, which helps explain its exponential growth.

But for Twitter, centralization is also a curse. In its early days, the site was known for its regular brokenness—its error-page logo, the “fail whale,” became a cultural shorthand for suckiness. Twitter went down so often because the idea behind Twitter—sending out short status updates to the world—became too popular for one company to handle.

I know Twitter's strategy is to connect everyone, but I don't see it. The big systems are interconnected with interoperable standards and work although on paper they wouldn't. Email, Newsgroups and the internet generally are good examples. All too important for one company to rule.

The rest of the post switches into looking towards alternatives. On one foot you got the open microblogging platforms such as Laconi.ca and Jaiku Engine. But then on the other you got the RSS extensions such as RSS Cloud and Google's new pubsubhubbub. Both approaches are valid and I can see room for both. I'd like to see pubsubhubbub in my desktop reader one day soon.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

The remixes, the contests

Pacemaker summer mix contest

Just seen there's a couple of interesting remix competitions which some people might not be aware of. Felix Da Housecat has a remix contest around we all wanna be prince. Then I also spotted Skint records have one for the Speed garage classic Double 99 – Ripgroove.

Its not just music makers getting in on the action, There's also a few dj contests I've spotted and may enter. Dirty smart have a Dj competition but its not going to be the right type of music for myself. I just missed the In Trance we trust dj contest but I'm not too late for the Pacemaker summer contest it seems.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Wall of Fame: Napster vs iTunes

napster

The Gadget show's wall of fame again and this time its the battle of music download sites. Thankful this time they picked the right one. Napster.

In the red corner: Napster. A bit of a rebel it shook the music industry to its core and changed the way we thought about music for ever. Devised by an 18-year-old college student, Napster launched in 1999. It combined a music search function with a file-sharing system, which effectively meant you had access to all the music on all the hard drives of computers connected to Napster. It was bit dodgy, infringing on copyright law, and the music industry had it shut down in 2001. But Napster lives on in an online music store, and it’s the legacy of the original site that makes it so great.

In the blue corner: iTunes! Proclaiming to be the daddy of online music, iTunes is like having a massive music and video warehouse in your bedroom. It originally launched in 2001 as a digital music player before it converted to an online store. It makes transferring music to your iPod easy as! And it’s this simplicity that’s led to its dominance of the online music world with over four billion songs sold!

Putting my hate for the itunes store and its locked in ecosystem a side, itunes would never have come about unless Napster had come on the scene. Napster took all the risks and got finally sued so much that it went legit. iTunes has a massive audience but its just a large download store and isn't ground breaking. Even the removal of DRM came late to iTunes. No doubt Napster deserves the position on the wall of fame.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Northern Exposure

I don't mind being asked about my time in Manchester, I've come to really enjoy Manchester even with its changeable weather. So changeable that I usually keep my sunglasses on my head even when its raining. Anyhow I was interviewed by Ariel which is BBC's internal weekly newspaper about my move to Manchester. As usual what was printed does not truly reflect what was said. For example at the end, its writen that there are things you couldn't do in London such as hold meetings in the bar. Well actually no, I said there's lots you can not do in London such as host external usergroups from around the region in our bar and meeting rooms after hours. The picture isn't too bad, but I did think there were many better ones which reflected Manchester better that a tatty billboard with club flyers over it. We did shoot pictures inside the bars on deansgate locks but instead they picked that one. in Anyway its done and I'm left feeling that lack of trust again for mainstream media. If your interesting in reading the whole piece, you can read it here.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

TEDxLiverpool

TEDx Liverpool

TEDx Liverpool happened yesterday (Aug 7th) at Liverpool's ICDC. Being the first one of five is no mean feat but the TEDx Liverpool team pulled it off nicely. The line up included Steve Clayton from Microsoft, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino from Tinker.it and Alison Gow from Liverpool's Daily Post. The concept of TEDx is that there are live speakers crossed with pre-recorded talks from the real TED events. The choice of videos was good and mixed well with the live speakers, I did wonder if it would work as smoothly but it did. I would say there was about 100+ people at the event, but a lot of people did drop out for one reason or another. So anyway the friendly challenge of one upping each other is off to a great start. I took some nice pictures of the event.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

The Case Against Apple–in Five Parts

Jason Calacanis has wrote a extra long essay about why the love affair with Apple is over. Its a good read and hopefully adds to the mounting public pressure. The essay is broken dowin into 5 main points.

  1. Destroying MP3 player innovation through anti-competitive practices
  2. Monopolistic practices in telecommunications
  3. Draconian App Store policies that are, frankly, insulting
  4. Being a horrible hypocrite by banning other browsers on the iPhone
  5. Blocking the Google Voice Application on the iPhone

Of course I've been writing similar things for a while but its always good to hear Mac fans coming to there senses.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

The fiery warm snap mix

Another mix, this time on the more chilled side of the trance spectrum. It was recorded at about midnight while sitting on my balcony watching the trains go by. It was a warm night and I was sipping a Diet Ginger beer while mixing. Its a good mix, lots of lesser known tunes with some new ones. I did make one mistake in the middle where I pressed the pause button on the wrong track but otherwise its all good. Let me know what you guys think… The artwork for mix cover is from – Burn Blue under CC licence of course.

  2. She wants him (Blake Jarrells Panty Dropper Remix) – Moussa Clark & Terrafunka
  3. Fallen (Gabriel & Dresden Anti-Gravity Remix) – Sarah McLachlan
  4. Made of Love – Ferry Corsten feat Betsie Larkin
  5. Body of Conflict /images/emoticons/laugh.gifub mix) – Cosmic Gate
  6. Isn't Life Wonderful (Flat 6 mix) – Alex D'ella vs E-Bop Allstars
  7. Into Something – Richard Durand
  8. Language (Santiago Nino Dub Tech Mix) – Hammer and Bennett
  9. Minimalistix (Club mix) – Close Cover
  10. Unprepared – Marco V
  11. Silver Bath – Plastic Boy
  12. The Situation (Liquid life remix) – A Situation
  13. Radio Crush (extended mix) – Ferry Corsten
  14. Can't Sleep – Marcel Wood Feat Elles De Graaf
  15. It's time (Ferry Corsten's flashover mix) – Ferry Corsten

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

ESPN needs to get on the Cluetrain

ESPN Tells Employees They Can Only Tweet About ESPN, as reported by Mashable. Shocking stuff I would say. Telling your employees that they must talk about only your business is bad news. It feels unhuman. I'm so happy that the BBC are more forward looking than this. Here's some cluetain's which seem to fit.

36. Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end.

38. Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about human concerns.

55. As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets.

57. Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

The new look Kdenlive

New look Kdenlive

When I upgraded to the latest version of Kdenlive a free software non-linear editor which runs on every platform except windows. I was honestly shocked, it was clean, crisp and professional. There's little doubt that open source and free software has somewhat left user experience and interface design concerns closer to the bottom of the pile but this is radically changing. I'm hoping to show some of the new look applications which are worthy of another look and your attention, starting with the new look Kdenlive.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]