November 30, 2006
Retired
sLop (the blog you are reading) is retiring..
The archives should stay up indefinitely though so feel free to continue linking in if you like..
In the coming weeks, I should have something new up. Please stay tuned.
Posted by vanevery at 11:49 AM | TrackBack
September 12, 2006
Asterisk 1.4 Coming Soon!
Digium - The Asterisk Telephony Company
Ok, this is a big deal. The next version of Asterisk supports GoogleTalk!
From the Press Release:
Asterisk 1.4 is the first major release of Asterisk since the release of Asterisk 1.2 in November 2005. With over 20 new functionality additions including IPFAX compatibility, unified messaging capabilities and Jabber/Jingle/GoogleTalk protocol compatibilities, Asterisk 1.4 features overall quality and performance improvements, as well as increased scalability and interoperability.
Posted by vanevery at 11:34 PM | TrackBack
August 14, 2006
Verizon Naked DSL Working!
In July, I complained that Verizon was constantly changing my IP address.
I theorized that it had to do with my impending transition to VoIP and that Verizon may have been punishing me... Well, turns out that I was wrong and that it was probably due to a lightning storm.
After contacting support several times I was finally sent a new DSL modem which is working great. I am still having some period disconnects but the reconnect is almost immediate and I am once again happy with my DSL. The speed is much closer to where it should be as well.
In other news, I was able to transition my phone number to Broadvoice and keep my DSL (without any problems). Now when I pickup the phone at home that is connected directly to the Verizon line I get a message saying that this is a dedicated data line and can not be used to make calls). Yippee!
Posted by vanevery at 04:35 PM | TrackBack
ITJ Project Beta Released
Interactive Tele-Journalism
So.. I have finally released ITJ on SourceForge.net.
With support from Konscious and Manhattan Neighborhood Network we have packaged and uploaded the latest version and it can be downloaded at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/itv-ism/.
Posted by vanevery at 04:26 PM | TrackBack
August 05, 2006
Dreamhost, my web host has had some difficulty lately
DreamHost Blog Anatomy of a(n ongoing) Disaster..
Damn.. I am glad I no longer work in that industry.
Posted by vanevery at 11:17 AM | TrackBack
August 03, 2006
YouTube APIs.. Is this new?
Hmmn.. This could be very interesting..!
"YouTube is excited to offer APIs to the developer community. Using our APIs, you can easily integrate online videos from YouTube's rapidly growing repository of videos into your application. The APIs currently allow read-only access to key parts of the YouTube video respository and user community."
Thanks Steven.
Posted by vanevery at 04:39 PM | TrackBack
July 30, 2006
Popularity Dialer - Relaunch (and Dugg)
Go Jenny and Cory, go!
"Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting."
Posted by vanevery at 12:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Verizon DSL constantly changing IP address
So, I haven't called support and I know that is the first thing I should do when problems like this arise but it just seems too fishy.
To make a long story short, I recently decided to switch from regular home phone service from Verizon (who also supply my DSL) to VoIP service. I have had VoIP and regular phone service for quite some time and things were well. Recently though, we had a pretty nasty electrical storm and one of the things that got zapped was my Asterisk box which handled the integration between normal phone service and VoIP.
After a bit of research, I found the Verizon does in fact offer naked loop DSL (DSL without a phone number) for existing customers and that I could continue with my DSL and transfer my phone number over to my VoIP provider and basically save myself $50 a month.
Now here is the troubling bit. After filling out the paper work and sending it to my VoIP provider who subsequently contacted Verizon to get the process started my DSL has been tremendously flaky. So flaky that my IP address is repeatedly changing. Not once a day, not 10 times a day, somewhere in the vicinity of 100 times a day! I probably don't need to mention how bad this is for services like VoIP. Essentially making it useless and unusable.
I could chalk it up to damage from the electrical storm (but I didn't notice it until after sending in the paperwork) or:
Could this really be a Verizon tactic to prevent people from going with 3rd party VoIP?
Posted by vanevery at 11:57 AM | TrackBack
July 27, 2006
Dear telephone, meet the internet
Pheeder
"Pheeder is a whole new way of using your cellphone: it lets you communicate with all of your friends simultaneously, with a single phone call. To use it, you just call Pheeder, leave a message and hang up. Seconds later all of your friends, or anyone you want, receives the message at the very same instant. And if they want, they can send a reply to your message."
Posted by vanevery at 11:21 AM | TrackBack
July 14, 2006
Increasing cooperation in the IM space..
Yahoo, Microsoft IM Beta Joined at The Hip
Definitely a good thing. Perhaps a standard will emerge.. Nah.. That is just hopeful thinking. Besides, I would rather Jabber was the standard.
Posted by vanevery at 05:05 PM | TrackBack
June 11, 2006
Video Comments, WordPress Plugin
ITP Research >> Video Comments, a WordPress Plugin
Keeping the conversation alive in media blogs
Video Blogging, Vlogging or what ever you want to call it was born into a tradition of self publishing on the internet and benefits greatly from the infrastructure developed for blogging. The tools to create media and now to distribute media online are accessible and affordable. Furthermore, video blogging is often considered participatory and socially interactive. Much of this is due to what blogs have done, enabled true two-way conversation through comments and loose networking through trackbacks.
Unfortunately, while video blogging benefits from these, it doesn't really do much to improve or enhance this capability with video.
At ITP Research, myself and a couple of others have been working to change this or at least push commenting and trackbacks a bit further. We have created a Video Commenting plugin for WordPress that allows people to leave comments in-time with a video. This, we believe is one of the first steps to allowing conversation to happen around video and furthermore enable richer conversation with video.
Check it out, download it, modify it, use it... Video Comments, WordPress Plugin
From the site:
It’s really exciting to see the number of blogs that exist today, thousands of voices are talking about every possible topic. Blog syndication and commenting allows readers to subscribe, discuss and carry the conversation further, however, with the different forms of media becoming a normal part of many blogs there’s a need to keep this open communication open. Audio and video blogs are forming communities and to encourage conversation the viewers must be able to respond, so we developed a plug-in for WordPress called Video Comments.
Posted by vanevery at 01:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 27, 2006
Net Neutrality takes a step forward
Free Press : House Judiciary Passes Net Neutrality Bill
I love how AT&T is trying to spin this:
“While we are disappointed that the Judiciary Committee chose to move toward regulating the Internet, we are pleased that the majority of the majority recognized that this legislation would deter investment in our nation’s broadband infrastructure,” said Tim McKone, AT&T executive vice president federal relations, in a prepared statement. “We are optimistic that the majority in Congress will see this legislation as an attempt to solve a problem that does not exist, and will instead focus on bringing choice to consumers by passing video choice legislation.”
"the majority of the majority" .. That is nonsense.
"will instead focus on bringing choice to consumers by passing video choice legislation" .. Now there is a problem that doesn't exist!
Wake-up!
Posted by vanevery at 11:27 AM | TrackBack
April 27, 2006
Online video via RSS comes to Linux
Democracy: Internet TV
Now supports Linux..!
Posted by vanevery at 04:37 PM | TrackBack
April 19, 2006
ITP End of Year Events - Thesis Presentations and End of Semester Show
ITP Spring Show 2006
A two day exhibition of interactive sight, sound and physical objects from the student artists of ITP.
This event is free and open to the public. No need to RSVP.
ITP Thesis Presentations 2006
ITP's graduating students will be presenting a wide variety of highly creative and interactive projects that they have constructed over the course of their final project seminars.
Students have been encouraged to undertake projects that bring together the conceptual and design issues that they have engaged in during their two years of study at ITP.
Projects will include installation based work, digital video and audio pieces, interactive 3D, games and educational applications, to name only a few.
ITP will be providing a live webcast of all the thesis presentations.
Posted by vanevery at 02:41 AM | TrackBack
March 29, 2006
LifeBlog doesn't use XML RPC
Robert Price - Lifeblog Posting Protocol Example
Alas, after doing a bit of exploring, I see why LifeBlog never worked with my blog(s). It doesn't do XML-RPC. Arrrg..
In any case, detailed on the site above, Robert Price has done the hard work and figured out just what it does and how it can be used. A bit painful but some progress..
Does anyone have a pointer to XML-RPC J2ME code for me?
Posted by vanevery at 09:32 AM | TrackBack
March 26, 2006
Techdirt: Why Aren't The Telcos Paying Google For Making Their Network Valuable?
Techdirt: Why Aren't The Telcos Paying Google For Making Their Network Valuable?
It is true, cable franchises pay the networks for the privilege of carrying them. This is on a per-subscriber basis and allows the television networks to double dip in a sense, get per-subscriber fees as well as ad revenue.
The argument that Google makes the broadband networks valuable is true although there are a plethora of such services, no lack of content which is why the cable co.'s started to pay the networks in the first place.
There is NO WAY the telcos would fall for this (Verizon/CBS stupidity aside) on broadband lines unless they truly still envision the internet as 1,000,000 channels of TV.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think that Google should pay either. We (the consumers here) are already paying. Unless Google wants to be on the providers home page or portal there is no reason for them to pay.
I hope they do light up all of that fiber they have been buying and route around the telecos and allow me a WiFi Mesh or WiMax connection.
Posted by vanevery at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
VoIP Provider Plan Comparisons
Posted by vanevery at 03:37 PM | TrackBack
February 21, 2006
Open Source CDN
The Coral Content Distribution Network
Not a CDN for streaming, rather a distributed caching system. Developed at NYU and Open Source. Pretty interesting..
Posted by vanevery at 12:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 08, 2006
Web 2.0 Video APIs and Mash-ups
The future..?
Posted by vanevery at 03:54 PM | TrackBack
Verizon home phone features
Online Help For Your Home
Lists commands such as *69, *67, *77 and the like..
Posted by vanevery at 10:31 AM | TrackBack
yubnub - a social command line for the web
YubNub - YubNub.org
Pretty interesting. Brings Web 2.0 into the realm of the *nix geek. I would love to see some shell scripts that utilize this. (Never mind, it is browser plugins, guess shell scripts are out. Perhaps someone will take this concept and build it around wget or something)
Posted by vanevery at 10:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 07, 2006
Asterisk Automated Outbound Calls.. Cool
Asterisk auto-dial out - voip-info.org
Posted by vanevery at 07:24 PM | TrackBack
January 30, 2006
There is no here here
Abstract Dynamics: There is no here here
Google, like the internet itself draws its power from being neither here, nor there, but inbetween everywhere at once, immanent. There is no here there, only results, only meanings.
meanings...?
In any case, interestingly enough, Google for here gives a nice top to bottom list of what people link to when they say "go here" or "download here" or ... Actually, you get very similar results (in the beginning at least) if you Google for download here or "go here".
Interesting that people don't write, "download there". I love the second result: "ThereCare > Where can I download There?"
Last, if you change from treating the web as a consumption network and want to know about it as a publishing network, try Googling for upload here instead. The results are truely Shaken.
Posted by vanevery at 01:26 AM | TrackBack
January 28, 2006
Wireless Networking in the Developing World
Wireless Networking in the Developing World
Creative Commons Licensed book
From the site:
The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue to increase. By applying this technology in areas that are badly in need of critical communications infrastructure, more people can be brought online than ever before, in less time, for very little cost. We hope to not only convince you that this is possible, but also show how we have made such networks work, and to give you the information and tools you need to start a network project in your local community.
Posted by vanevery at 06:52 PM | TrackBack
VSee get's some attention
P2P Videoconferencing Gets Better - Robin Good's Latest News
I had a chance to try out VSee a couple of years ago and was thoroughly impressed. Milton and crew have done very nice work on this product.
From the article:
If you are looking to try out one of the latest and best performing video conferencing technologies available out there, you have come to the right place.
Posted by vanevery at 04:40 PM | TrackBack
January 25, 2006
Bluetooth Remote Control
Miscellaneous Docs and Tools
Sony Ericsson has Bluetooth Remote Control software for their phones and Mac/Windows PCs as well as an API to go with it.
(Once again, I think I have linked to this in the past but I can't find it so here it is again.)
Posted by vanevery at 03:08 PM | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
YackPack - Simple Voice Messaging for Groups
Yack Pack Corporate
From the site:
YackPack is a new way to stay connected with a group of friends, family or work colleagues. YackPack conveys the nuances of spoken language, leading to better communication, stronger friendships, and more group unity. In a nutshell, YackPack is simple voice messaging for groups.
Posted by vanevery at 08:05 PM | TrackBack
January 23, 2006
Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV
Mindjack - Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV
Very interesting and thorough article about recent trends in downloading television programming.
From the article:
Now we have a paradox: the invention of an incredibly powerful mechanism for the global distribution of television programming brings with it a fundamental challenge to the business model which pays for the creation of the programs themselves. This is not at all BitTorrent's fault: the technology could have come along a decade ago, and if it had, we'd have stumbled across this paradox in the 1990s. This is a failure of the value chain to adapt to a changing technological landscape — a technological desynchronization between producer and audience. Once again, there's no need to find fault: things have changed so much, and so quickly, I doubt that anyone could have kept up. But the future is now here, and everyone in the creative value chain from producer to audience must adapt to it.
Posted by vanevery at 12:54 AM | TrackBack
January 18, 2006
Network Neutrality
Free Press : Press Release
From the report:
"Congress should enact tough new laws prohibiting cable and telephone companies from blocking consumer access to content and services on the Internet, bilking both consumers and Internet-based companies," said Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst at Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. "If they don't, these big companies will use their market power to line their pockets by discriminating against competitors in favor of their own content and service offerings."
I completely agree.
Hopefully, if Congress doesn't do something, the marketplace will.
Here is an idea: http://www.freepress.net/news/13403
Posted by vanevery at 02:28 PM | TrackBack
January 17, 2006
The end of broadcast as we know it...
The Doc Searls Weblog : Friday, January 6, 2006
Doc writes:
The meta-story behind Intel's Viiv and Clickstream announcments yesterday is not just the death of TV as we know it, but the gang-stabbing of it by Intel, Apple and their new partners in the broadcasting and entertainment industries. Or, if you prefer, by the reconstituted entertainment industry, which will still be about production and distribution, but without the current channel-based TV system (which will come to an FCC-mandated end in 2009 — it was originally scheduled for 2006 — when every TV station will be required to move off its branded VHF channel and up to some unbranded UHF digital channel, by which time nearly everybody will stop watching over-the-air TV anyway, getting everything we used to call TV over cable, satellite or Internet).
Epeus' epigone - Kevin Marks weblog
Kevin Marks Follows Up with:
In 1998, I went to work at Apple on QuickTime, and started work on live streaming. This was hard work, but interesting - making a personal TV Transmitter for anyone with a Mac, so they could use the internet for lots of people to watch them at once. Having built this technology, I started looking for uses for it, and was rather bemused to find there weren't any.
The problem was storage again. It was always better to have a locally stored copy of the video than to try to get it over the net in real time. It just didn't use the net efficiently, and the 'buffering' experience really sucked. In fact, what I realised was that live TV was a waste of time too. But now we had enough storage.
People spend lots of money on iPods and TiVo's, whose whole purpose is to turn live streams into files so you can pause and skip them, moving the storage into their houses, and pockets. This personal storage is why Podcasting makes sense.
Downloading is always better than streaming, and Edited better than Live, except in one instance.
That difference is when you have 2-way interaction. When you can speak back to the person at the other end, either via iChat AV or Skype, or just by having a textual back channel to a conference.
That's where Live is needed.
EXACTLY!
Posted by vanevery at 05:34 PM | TrackBack
Reinventing TV
Release 1.0 / Publication / Reinventing TV: Network TV Signs Off. Networked TV Logs On.
Scott Kirsner write in an older Release 1.0 about Networked TV. It is a good article, too bad it costs so much.
From the abstract:
Television, because of its high production and distribution costs and FCC regulation, has always been the most massive of all the mass media. It seeks the middle ground, and usually finds it. The ads that accompany today's shows are made with a similar shotgun mentality: There's no such thing as one-to-one marketing on the tube. Any niche-oriented programming that does exist tends to be available only to small audiences, on obscure satellite channels or community cable access stations.
That will change over the next decade, as a growing number of television sets, PCs and mobile devices are connected to what Jeremy Allaire, the founder of Brightcove, has dubbed "the Internet of video." Plugging TV into IP rather than into a terrestrial cable system or a fleet of geosynchronous satellites, could redeem - or at least reinvigorate - the medium. The hermetically sealed world of television is about to be cracked open and rewired, transformed into an open publishing platform as a variety of new devices and services emerge to make independent video content easier - and perhaps even profitable - to produce and distribute to smaller subsets of the population.
Posted by vanevery at 02:50 AM | TrackBack
The Future of Independent Media
GBN: The Future of Independent Media
I thought I linked to this a while ago but I couldn't find it recently when recommending it to a student.
Andrew Blau writes a great essay contemplating Independent Media in the face of the quickly changing technological landscape. A very good read:
From the text:
The technologies that enable us to make and consume motion media are becoming better, cheaper, and more widely available—and with blistering speed. As a consequence, patterns of media production and consumption are changing just as rapidly. The Internet continues to create new opportunities to connect with audiences. Video games are becoming a platform for critique and education. A new generation of media makers and viewers is emerging, which only increases the likelihood of profound change. Images, ideas, news, and points of view are traveling along countless new routes to an ever-growing number of places where they can be seen and absorbed. It is no understatement to say that the way we make and experience motion media will be transformed as thoroughly in the next decade as the world of print was reshaped in the last.
Posted by vanevery at 02:44 AM | TrackBack
January 16, 2006
Jabber, Jingle, Google and Asterisk
Google Jabbers And Jingles
What a funny bunch of words..
In any case, a quicky on Google's use of Jabber and their extensions (Jingle). A little tidbit about Asterisk support forthcoming near the end.
Posted by vanevery at 08:52 PM | TrackBack
Massive Media, distilled
Future Of Television Is Self-Service, P2P Distributed Media Consumption - Robin Good's Latest News
Robin Good edits and re-presents Dan Melinger's Massive Media thesis.
Posted by vanevery at 11:48 AM | TrackBack
December 18, 2005
Music publishers going after lyrics sites
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Song sites face legal crackdown
Grumble grumble.. increased sales, free information.. grumble. dumb move.. obviously people want this, where do you find it legitimately. grumble.
Posted by vanevery at 11:32 AM | TrackBack
December 14, 2005
Content for P2P about P2P (almost)
THE.SCENE
From the FAQ:
Q: What is "The Scene" in real life?
A: The Scene is the piracy underground where 99% of pirated movies, songs, video games, etc start out. There, thousands of pirates upload, download, and trade files (often illegally) using FTP sites. From there, the files make their way onto the peer-to-peer networks, that so many know and love.
Posted by vanevery at 12:16 AM | TrackBack
December 11, 2005
Good WML/WAP related development resources
The Wireless FAQ
WURFL: the Wireless Universal Resource File
Yahoo Groups: wmlprogramming · WML ,XHTML MP and Wireless-related stuff
Posted by vanevery at 08:14 PM | TrackBack
December 10, 2005
Build Your Own Geocoding Solution with Geo::Coder::US
Build Your Own Geocoding Solution with Geo::Coder::US
I can think of a couple of classes that could use this. On my list..
Posted by vanevery at 09:10 PM | TrackBack
Asterisk: The Future of Telephony
Asterisk Documentation Project - Project Information
Book available online, Creative Commons licensed. Very nice..
A good book for anyone doing anything with Asterisk!
Posted by vanevery at 08:57 PM | TrackBack
Java + VNC, nice..
VNCj
Add remote GUI control capabilities into your Java app. Very very nice..!
Posted by vanevery at 10:15 AM | TrackBack
December 09, 2005
Future of Television Conference
Beyond TV: TVSpy.com Next Generation TV
So, I went to the Future of Television conference a couple of weeks ago and was somewhat suprised. Last year, I poked my head in to see what was being discussed and it was a big snooze. After checking out the website, I figured it was worth my time this year so I went.
Wow.. I was surprised. You wouldn't know it but there are people in TV who really "get it"... Larry Kramer from CBS most notably get's it.
Here is what I had to say on the day of:
I am writing from Future of Television Conference at NYU's Stern School of Business today. I am here for several reasons, first of all I would like to know what the networks and traditional media concerns think of the scrappy interactive folks. Second, I am here doing recon. Specifically, I would like to know how long video bloggers and other decentralized media creators have before traditional media begins to offer enough of what they are doing to satiate "consumers". (Perhaps that is not exactly my fear but close enough for now.)
First of all, I have to say that Larry Kramer gets it. He really does. He is open to experimentation. At CBS he has launched many interactive initiatives from a broadband news channel to podcasts of daytime soaps to fantasy sports sites to deep entertainment content add-ons to viewer/user photo posting to writer and producer blogs to actual audience participation through SMS. Phew..
CBS isn't the only media company doing this type of experimentation. The other networks, cable and broadcast are doing the same or similar. Notable is ABC News Now, ESPN, Playboy and the like.
The question is, whether or not this is enough. Will this engage and empower viewers enough to keep them despite the ever growing number of alternative content channels. The networks certainly know how to deliver programming to a passive audience. They are just beginning to support a more engaged and digitally connected viewer.
A later speaker in the day, IBM's Saul Berman described the audience by categorizing them in 3 camps. "Massive passives", the folks that CBS has always served, lean back, over 35, want to be entertained but don't feel compelled to buy the latest gadget or create their own media.
The next camp, arguably the focus of most of these efforts he described as "Gadgetiers". He describes this group as heavily involved in content, they are fans, will seek out other individuals who are interested in the same content they are. They will purchase the latest devices, use time shifting (TiVo) and will space shift (TiVo To Go). They are also the heavy buyers, the early adopters, in short, the people that the advertizers (and therefore the networks) covet.
It remains to be seen whether what the networks are starting to do will appeal to this group in the long run. In the short term, it is clear, if you put it out there they will come. How long they stay is another matter.
The last camp, the "Kool kids", the ones really getting all of the attention, are the hardest to understand. He suggests that this is the group that rejects DRM and "walled gardens", in short, the group that wants media on their own terms. This is the group that uses P2P software and is heavily social. They have dream devices that aren't out in the market as of yet.
I know that the kks (short for "Kool kids") are what have network executives up at night. They are the hackers and inventors who are really driving the internet. TV and media in general will fit into their game or be disregarded.
Ok.. So the big question at the end of the day? Will the cable and TV networks run scared and do everything possible to protect their business models or will they embrace the new like they must. My feeling after this conference is that they have learned something from the music industry and will try to embrace but there will still be a major shakeup and Yahoo! and Google just might become the "new" networks. Good or bad.
Posted by vanevery at 09:31 PM | TrackBack
AIM + Java
Create a Java TOC2 Class to Communicate with AIM
AIM + Java.. Nice, didn't know that AOL had a publicly available AIM protocol.
From the article:
However, you may not be aware that the protocol underlying AIM, called TOC2, is the gateway through which you can create a lot of customized AIM-based applications. AOL provides an API that anybody can use to connect to TOC2 and AOL's network.
Posted by vanevery at 05:04 PM | TrackBack
David Pogue writes "What's Holding Back the Digital Living Room?"
What's Holding Back the Digital Living Room? - New York Times
In the article he posits a couple of theories ending up with:
Could it be that the digital living room concept is equally flawed--and all Silicon Valley's horses and all Asia's men are barking up the wrong tree?
Perhaps I am jaded today but I think the concept that Silicon Valley is pushing forth is flawed for many reasons. First and foremost is that entertainment companies don't understand interactivity (games aside) and tech companies don't understand entertainment, specifically that their content doesn't *work* on TV.
After saying all of that, I do believe that there is a way to "infect" the entertainment industry with interactive technology. Some day I will let you all know how. ;-)
Posted by vanevery at 04:42 PM | TrackBack
December 08, 2005
EPIC is about to arrive, powered by Googlezon
Posted by vanevery at 02:28 PM | TrackBack
Mobile Location Tracking Library
Welcome to the Place Lab homepage
Java based location finding libraries using GPS, GPRS, WiFi and Bluetooth (all the good stuffs).
From the site:
Place Lab is software providing low-cost, easy-to-use device positioning for location-enhanced computing applications. Place Lab tries to provide positioning which works worldwide, both indoors and out (unlike GPS which only works outside). Place Lab clients can determine their location privately without constant interaction with a central service (unlike badge tracking or mobile phone location services where the service owns your location information).
Posted by vanevery at 12:57 AM | TrackBack
Mologogo - Internet enabled mobile phone tracking
From the site:
Mologogo is a free service that will track a friends GPS enabled cell phone from another phone or on the web. Mologogo also serves as a dirt-cheap tracking system, so go ahead and fauxjack something.
Posted by vanevery at 12:36 AM | TrackBack
December 05, 2005
XMLTV
Cover Pages: XMLTV
Continuing with my links to computer in living room technology.
From the site:
XMLTV is a set of utilities to manage your TV viewing. They work with TV listings stored in the XMLTV format, which is based on XML
Posted by vanevery at 02:40 AM | TrackBack
Apple Rumored to be building Mini into a set-top-box
Think Secret - Road to Expo: Reborn Mac mini set to take over the living room
The living room is HOT!
From the site:
Apple's Mac mini will be reborn as the digital hub centerpiece it was originally conceived to be, Think Secret sources have disclosed. The new Mac mini project, code-named Kaleidoscope, will feature an Intel processor and include both Front Row 2.0 and TiVo-like DVR functionality.
Posted by vanevery at 02:38 AM | TrackBack
November 19, 2005
What is an STB?
The Set-Top Sage Knows All, Sees All - New York Times
Don't know, then read this article.
Is it possible create an "open" set top box? One that can decode a signal, whether it be from a cable company, digital tv broadcast or satellite?
Posted by vanevery at 09:42 AM | TrackBack
November 17, 2005
Java + BitTorrent Library
TorrentSniffer - TorrentSniffer
TorrentSniffer is a Java library for reading BitTorrent information. TorrentSniffer currently implements the following sections of the BitTorrent Protocol Specification 1.0: Metainfo File Structure, Bencoding and Tracker 'scrape' Convention. The primary purpose of this library is to retrieve the number of seeds and peers of a torrent. This is done by using the Tracker 'scrape' Convention.
Posted by vanevery at 09:46 AM | TrackBack
November 13, 2005
Cisco makes a dumbass move
Slashdot | Linksys WRT54G drops Linux
Posted by vanevery at 04:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Shelly's on to something here..
Emmy Advanced Media - Television Business News: The WiMax Price Club
A nice idea...
From the site:
They’re popping up all over America -- in backyards everywhere -- it’s the latest do-it-yourself craze – the WiMax Price Club. Want free Internet access for life? No problem. Just go to http://www.WiMaxPriceClub.com and order your tower kit online. When it arrives, get your building permit (if required by local zoning laws) and erect your new 80’ antenna tower in your back yard or on your rooftop. Just plug in the included WiMax repeater and you’ll be online in a jiffy! Imagine over 70 megabits up and down, FREE for life! Nothing else to buy
Posted by vanevery at 04:46 PM | TrackBack
SMS signup via phone in
ChristDaily.com Television Commercials by Shelly Palmer
Content aside, the ability to phone in and signup for SMS is great. Such a simple idea, I am surprised that it has been overlooked till now. It would be easy to setup Asterisk to grab caller-id and pump out an SMS message.
Excerpt from site:
these two direct response television commercials show off a new way to subscribe to a brand new information service. The spots offer the audience an opportunity to purchase a subscription to an SMS (short message service) cell phone service via an IVR (interactive voice response) system. This is important because so many cell phone users don't know how to send a text message - but they can easily dial a toll-free number.
Posted by vanevery at 04:31 PM | TrackBack
November 06, 2005
Ninjamonkey on Instant Mobile Social Networks
Ninja Monkey Party 411 : Instant Mobile Social Network Or; Listserv + Email-to-SMS Gateway = LOVE
Ninjamonkey describes a service he setup for his birthday party a couple of weeks ago using off the shelf components. Of course the magic sauce was that his crowd includes some tech savvy and highly motivated social drinkers.
From the page:
Social networks and mobile applications are obvious bedfellows, but aside from a few noteables like dodgeball almost nothing has been done to exploit them. The thing that many people may be missing is that SMS is pretty much like email, except with extreme size restrictions (160 characters/message) and controlled solely by the telcos (which is sort of like having a draconian ISP with terrible, terrible service). This means that as long as you can find a way to translate between email and sms (with, say, a publicly available email-to-sms gateway) you can pass messages between them.
Posted by vanevery at 11:05 AM | TrackBack
The Participatory Generation
The Lives of Teenagers Now: Open Blogs, Not Locked Diaries - New York Times
NY Times is running an article about a recent Pew survey that is demonstrating that teenagers have embraced publishing media online. From myspace and the like to creating their own websites featuring music remixes, videos and so forth.
They have become the participatory generation.
From the article:
According to the Pew survey, 57 percent of all teenagers between 12 and 17 who are active online - about 12 million - create digital content, from building Web pages to sharing original artwork, photos and stories to remixing content found elsewhere on the Web. Some 20 percent publish their own Web logs.
That reality is now inextricable from the broader social, cultural and sometimes, as in Melissa's case, deeply personal experience of being a teenager. And it is one that will undoubtedly have profound implications for the traditional managers of content, from big media companies and libraries to record labels, publishers and Hollywood.
[Later in the article]
The Pew survey shows "the mounting evidence that teens are not passive consumers of media content," said Paulette M. Rothbauer, an assistant professor of information sciences at the University of Toronto. "They take content from media providers and transform it, reinterpret it, republish it, take ownership of it in ways that at least hold the potential for subverting it."
Posted by vanevery at 10:37 AM | TrackBack
October 10, 2005
Bandwidth for Ads
Welcome to The Free Bandwidth Project (Beta)
—
The Free Bandwidth Project
Then again, not that interesting.. I suppose that if you need it and are advertising friendly it could work out well.
Posted by vanevery at 02:02 AM | TrackBack
A world of webcams
Newest Webcams
From the site:
Random live webcams from the Net
These webcams were found automatically through a variety of clever search techniques. Their owners might or might not have intended for them
to be public. But they obviously are. Many of them are security cameras in companies or
semi-public places. If you hover over the picture you'll see what location information is available.
Interesting how "security cameras" are not "secure" themselves..
Posted by vanevery at 01:56 AM | TrackBack
TV to Go.. (I feel like I am repeating myself)
Sling Media :: Welcome
From the site:
The Slingbox enables you to watch your TV programming from wherever you are by turning virtually any Internet-connected PC into your personal TV. Whether you’re in another room or in another country, you’ll always have access to your television.
Just what the world needs, more access to broadcast television. ;-)
Posted by vanevery at 12:52 AM | TrackBack
Group as User
Shirky: Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software
Clay makes a great case against developing user centric software.
A random paragraph:
And yet, when we poll users about what they actually do with their
computers, some form of social interaction always tops the list --
conversation, collaboration, playing games, and so on. The practice of
software design is shot through with computer-as-box assumptions,
while our actual behavior is closer to computer-as-door, treating the
device as an entrance to a social space.
Posted by vanevery at 12:00 AM | TrackBack
October 09, 2005
Closed Caption Text from Blog RSS feeds..
META[CC] -Main
From the site:
META[CC] seeks to create an open forum for real time discussion, commentary, and cross-refrencing of electronic news and televised media. By combining strategies employed in web-based discussion forums, blogs , tele-text subtitling, on-demand video streaming, and search engines, the open captioning format employed by META[CC] will allow users to gain multiple perspectives and resources engaging current events. The system we are developing is adaptable for use with any cable news or television network.
Posted by vanevery at 10:29 PM | TrackBack
October 08, 2005
Neighbornode Article
Free Neighborhood Wi-Fi - Popular Science
Pop Sci publishes a nice write-up about John Geraci's Neighbornode project. I had my hands in this a bit early on, a great idea, hope it continues to catch on.
http://www.neighbornode.net/
Posted by vanevery at 11:59 AM | TrackBack
October 02, 2005
Open Source Textbooks
Main Page - Wikibooks
a collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit.
Posted by vanevery at 01:51 PM | TrackBack
September 20, 2005
Scan those books!!!
AOL News - Ambitious Google Project to Put Copyright Laws to Test
Scanning to start scanning again in Nov.
Not surprisingly, I see this as great all around. Those publishers who don't allow it will be sorry in the end.
Posted by vanevery at 01:40 PM | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
Prodigem creates BitTorrent API (seems to be a web service API for BitTorrent)
Prodigem API - TorrentocracyWiki
From the site:
The Prodigem API is an interface for programmers to gain access into the Prodigem Bit Torrent Hosting Service. It allows the possibility of designing new Prodigem interfaces and making Prodigem a part of other services (eg. blogging tools, content management systems). Imagine the power of a "Help, I've been slashdotted!" button in any web management tool.
Posted by vanevery at 10:34 PM | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Local Report
local report: home
For those of you wondering what I have been up to for the past month or so, here is your answer: Called, Whitman Local Report, this is a performance piece utilizing mobile phones to create a montage of video "reports" and phone "reports" all in real time (live).
I created some custom software that runs on the phones (Nokia 6710's) to shoot and automatically upload video from the participant's phones (30 of them) and more software to playback the videos as they come in (with some controls for play, pause, stop, next and previous).
Hans, my technical collaborator, took care of setting up an Asterisk server and queue to receive the phone in reports and play those out as they came in.
We have one performance to go, please tune into the live stream, come to the live event or check it out afterwards. The previous 4 are available now if you would like a taste.
Here is some press that I just came across: Art and Innovation Collide
Posted by vanevery at 12:02 PM | TrackBack
August 09, 2005
DTV for MacOS X released
Participatory Culture: News and Ideas
From the site:
This is a big day for us we just released a Beta of DTV for Mac OS X.
Nice interface, easy to use.. Great stuff!
A couple of important things missing: Comments and Permalinks to the vlog entries. Vlogs aren't vlogs without them.
Posted by vanevery at 10:09 PM | TrackBack
Freenet - Anonymous File Distribution on the Internet
The Freenet Project - whatis - beginner
From the site:
Freenet is free software which lets you
publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of
censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely
decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous.
Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without
decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack.
Posted by vanevery at 04:58 PM | TrackBack
Darknet: J.D.'s New Book is out
Darknet
From the site:
Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation is a new book that offers first-person accounts of how the personal media revolution will impact movies, music, computing, television and games
Posted by vanevery at 04:33 PM | TrackBack
July 19, 2005
Verizon, calling P2P illegal
I am a Verizon DSL customer. Perhaps once a month I receive a newsletter, generally marketing their latest product or offering some tips. In the latest newsletter, they have a little tidbit regarding P2P and filesharing. Here is the paragraph that troubles me:
"Remove file sharing software from your computer. The way many popular file sharing software programs work is by allowing ot