Month: March 2012

Connected Studio, what a good idea…

News recently has been talking about Ralph Rivera’s Connected Studio.

Mr Rivera is set to announce the creation of a £3m “Connected Studio” project which aims to connect BBC developers and producers with their commercial counterparts, and establish a new technical platform for outsiders to build digital services around BBC content.

Speaking about the plans at the conference today Rivera said “the studio is that space where technology and the creative storyteller come together” and that it “made sense” to “create a connected studio”.

He told the audience this could see the creation of a virtual space and possibly a physical one also.

What a excellent idea…

Just the kind of thing which cuts the gap between, narrative and interactivity. painters and hackers? storytellers and architects? Something which has been crumbling for as long as I can remember.

Escaping to alternative media ecosystems

Google play and DRM

@tdobson asked me on twitter what I thought of the above problem with Google Play/Marketplace.

This tally’s with a post I was going to write about how DRM only hurts people doing the right thing and how a generation are feeling the pain of moving out of media ecosystems. Theres a excellent letter on Framerate highlighting this exact problem, (clipped below, hoping it won’t get taken down but just in case you can hear it here about 10mins in).

So what do I mean? (just incase you don’t know)

Imagine you’ve bought into music from Microsoft’s playsforsure a long time ago and then recently you got rid of your Zune (because MPeg3 players are so over girlfriend…) in favor of a iPhone? It might be possible to move your music over but with some difficulty. But imagine if you swap audio for video?

You’ve gotten rid of your DVD collection and replaced it with downloads from the Apple itunes store because your so cool and everything just works. Then you buy a new TV without a Apple TV and it supports this thing called DLNA. You start wondering maybe theres more to media than Apple’s dream. Of course you can swap Apple for Google, Microsoft, etc…

Anyway the point is, piracy wins here. Currently the only way to effortlessly switch between ecosystems is to either buy physical products or pirate them (I challenge people to find a 3rd option without buying the same content more that once). Once again not condoning this but there is a problem here and no one seems to want to fix it! Mainly because forcing you to follow one route is so much easier and they can make money that way too.

So whats this got to do with a rooted phone? Well its the assumption that if you have root, that you will subvert the DRM and make a mockery of there ecosystem. I get it, Google, Apple and others said to right holders they will protect the content in there flawless systems and they will do all they can to honor that but what a house of cards this agreement was made on.

Change needs to come from both sides, the content makers and the content consumers. This is why I love and support Creative Commons.

This is our culture not theres and we don’t just want it back we demand it back! Whos with me?

Decent cocktails or nothing please

Which cosmo came out of a packet?

The one on the left is out of a packet (just look at the nasty cloudy bog colour). The one on the right is fresh (see the pink and consistent transparency) plus note the froth on top and finally the lack of straws because cosmos are meant to be drunk from the glass not through the straw. Ideally if the orange peel is burned, there is a thin oily skin which is lovely to drink, just in-case you were in any doubt…

This was going back a while ago… last year while I was down in South East London.

The Novotel Hotel Bar in Greenwich served me a Cosmopolitan while I was at the bar one night with mark boas, thornet, cyberdees and others… I was so shocked at how bad it was, I complained and got the manager to make me a fresh one. They said it comes out of a packet and that most customers don’t have a problem with it!

Me on the other hand, well I was bloody horrified and couldn’t believe they would serve up that much as a cosmopolitan. Worst still they were charging £6 for it! I was truly outraged…!

Once the manager made me a new one fresh, we talked about lighting the orange peel but he refused, so I did it myself. Anyway to prove the point about the packet cocktails, we lined them up on the side of the bar and took sips of each one.

They did give me the packet one for free but I still refused to drink it instead giving it to other Mozilla fest friends to taste and get there feelings about.

As you imagine the fresh one peed all over the one out of the packet, not a single person said the packet version was nicer or better, even the manager and the bar staff agreed.

The amount of times I’ve referred to this true story is the last few months is untrue. Its also the reason why I won’t put up with crappy drinks I don’t actually want to drink. I’d rather go thirsty or drink water…

Geeks talk sexy becomes Geeky & Sexy –

geeky and sexy logo...

Photo credit: bigbirdz

I’ve threaten to do it for a while and its back with a bunch of changes…

Geeks Talk Sexy turns into Geeky & Sexy and the we move from the excellent MadLab to FYG Deli which isn’t far away from Madlab. Madlab is great but it wasn’t great for a fruity conversation. We use to rearrange the furniture quite a bit each time and couldn’t decide what worked best.

Madlab use to make special cocktails for each event, which was great but a event like this really needs drink on demand. FYG has lovely wine and some stunning deli dips and platters. Hopefully there will be a package for food & drink on the day, details coming soon.

Geeky & Sexy will be more about the discussion than presentations and we have new people on board (details to be revealed soon). Unfortunately Samantha is still very busy working on her PhD and Hwayoung won’t be as involved. I can confirm we have a new person on board. Shes the (self described) Nigerian Scouser, Ngunan Adamu, heavily opinionated (usually the total opposite views of myself) and will be very vocal about who pays on the first date, which is also one of the main topics in episode one : Social Etiquette and Politics of first time dating

geekyandsexy s2x1

You can sign up on eventbrite and we’ll be posting more information at the new home of geeky & sexy… Of course the hashtag stay’s #sexygeeks.