March 2002 Archives
I know, it should have had it ages ago, but there is a spell-checker for Mozilla! Ya! (now all i need is one for my blogging tool...)
I was going to write about C64audio, another old school computer music site, but the site seems to be down right now. You can check it out via google's cache tho. But, as it was down, i went to slashdot and read about a new article/speach Richard Stallman gave about how "Software patents victimise developers".
For those few of you who read my site and not Tony's, he has an article at shift-online about 'Frag', a board game about playing a computer game. Just read it.
Funny and interesting site where folks submit "remixed" versions of old video game sounds and music. I especially liked the "Kung-Fu 'SoundTest' OC ReMix". (link - aj)
Oh man, cool ass phone/sms/IM/net device - Danger HipTop. Read the FAQ. Good idea about putting all the processing in the backend, and using the device as a front end, but ultimatly i always worry about security in these setups. Like, do i want to store the fact that i've got an appointment with (insert embarrassing/compromising event) on a server that i have no control over and could be broken in to (either physically, or virtually). This is the big advantage of the pilot/PDA - you know your data is with you. Its not on the net, in the ether. Anyway, that could just be me tho ;)
Huh, some interesting 802.11 wifi links - Sputnik is developing a GPL'ed "Enterprise Gateway" for "managed 802.11b networks in the enterprise". Then there's Joltage which will provide you with free (non-open source) software to use on your wifi network. They then charge a fee for anybody that wants to access the network though their software, and you 50% of any fee's collected from customers using your "hotspot". Pretty cool. Much easier then trying to set up your own wifi access point (if you wanted to charge for it). If you were setting up some kind of free community style wifi access point, Sputnik would be the one to check out. But i love how Joltage can easily grow its coverage...
Hoi, a nice diatribe on the Oscars. (link - ciara)
Holy shit, no new updates since the 15th! Well, i don't really have to much to say right now
, but i will try to get some stuff up here - of course, i'm going to be gone
for the first two weeks of April, so there will probably be no updates during
that time either. sigh.
I've been looking into audio codecs again. Trying to figure out what codec
to use, how much space i can get cheap, etc. Here is an email i just wrote
to a friend about audio codec choices:
Ogg has plugins for
serveral players on the PC, i'm not sure about on the mac side. Its
compression has been compaired favourably to MP3, if not better at the
same bit rate. People also say that at high bit rates, it sounds much
more full then MP3. However, it is still in development (RC3 - release
candidate 3) so some changes could still surface in the file format, tho
this is highly unlikely at this point (this would mean that you might
have to re-rip your collection to stay up to day with the format -
again, this is highly unlikely). It is an open source codec, meaning
there are no royalties or IP issues. It is being developed all the time,
so its only going to get better. Ah there is mac support (QT and other
players). I like it.
ACC - i've not seen wide spread adoption of ACC yet. The biggest strike
against it is that it is a closed source, IP protected format with
potental royaltie issues. However, if it sounds good, go for it! I'm
objecting more on a moral stand then a technical one, tho, again, i'm
not sure about the addoption rate for this format...
Other things to think about - lossless compression - see:
http://www.firstpr.com.au/audiocomp/lossless/
This site does a great comparison of lossless codecs, and talks about
the general difference's between lossless and lossy. Unfortunatly, the
only lossless codec for Mac's that i've found (just a quick search,
there are probably more) is here:
http://www.emagic.de/english/support/download/toolsmac.html
at the bottom of the page - called ZAP.
So, at the end of the day, what i see people doing is - Losslessly
encoding their favourite songs, and ripping the rest of the CD using MP3
or OGG to save space.
Hah - Floaty Pens. I remember, like, a long time ago finding one of these, and discovering that if i tilted it upside down, i could see a naked woman! I think i was about 12. Crazy.
Ok, so, for some strange reason, i decided to do this search at canada411...
Ah i know i know, no blogging for a bit... its like i got back into it, then fell off again, then one... blah blah. Anyway, that's not to say that there isn't a lot going on that you all should be checking out! I will carry on with my carping about CARP! In fact, here is some more by Doc Searls.
Yet another long, wordy article about Copyright in the states. If you have hung in with me through all the others, this one is a worthy read too - deals with a case going to the U.S. Supreme Court, which may help to overturn all the extensions to the Copyright act (11 so far). Quite interesting. Got the lead on this from Doc's site.
Well, in another big "fuck you" from big business/government to the net community, this ruling from the american copyright office looks to put most, if not all, internet radio stations out of business. Read what Doc Searls has to say (he also has links to other well written responses), and also check out DIU's news. Man, it would suck large if we all had to go back to listening to the corporate shitass radio that currently exists, if all the great indy stations on the net were shut down.
Excellent article from the IEEE about the Freenet Project - Protecting Free Expression Online with Freenet. I've been watching this project since it pretty much got on the net, and its great to see that its still growing. This article gives an excellent overview of what it is and how it works. If you are worrited about privacy and censorship online, and how the 'net is becoming more and more 'managed', you should check this out. (link /.)
On a technical note, i think that Freenet's routing algorithms are very like the network that is outlined in "the diamond age" by Neal Stephenson. The reason i find this at all interesting, is that that system allowed for people to make monitary transactions while remaining anonymous to each other. Read the book, its pretty interesting.
The Government (of canada) is holding hearing's about Digital Copyright Issues in Toronto on March 26th! Register and get out there!
Later - Ok, i actually read the changes to the bill, and they don't seem that onerous to me... mostly having to do with retransmission of signals...
More online comic goodness - Demonology 101.
I know his books have been heaped with accolades elsewhere, but i just have to chime in with some of my own. I'm reading "Code and other laws of Cyberspace" by Lawrence Lessig. Pretty heady strong stuff about the future of the internet. It all ties into alot of the other stuff spouted off about on my little blog and other net savy blogs - Intellectual Property, Copyright, the DMCA, etc. If these issues have any resonance with you, you should read this book. Highly recomended.
Lessig also has a new book - "The Future of Ideas" - which if is even a bit as good as Code is going to be a must read. Here is a Q and A that he did at Slashdot.
Hey, you know, i just found something interesting. I have a pet-peeve ("what, just one" i hear all you sarcastically cry...) about fixed width columns on webpages. Now, this isn't to say that i don't like pages that have a nice layout, that use tables to enable the design. No, i'm talking about pages that primaraly display text. Like newspapers, or blogs. So, doing a quick bit of research (ha ha), the major online papers that actually allow for folks with bigger screens to use them to their advantage are - the globe and mail, now toronto, national post (who have an article about how the Kyoto plan is "foolish". Ya, i always thought that the death of the human species was over-rated too.), eye mag, etc... actually, quite a few more then i'd have thought. Really, this makes the star and cbc's sites look pretty bad by comparison. Tho, really, i guess you could put this down to a personal taste issue... But i'd still argue that flexable layouts allow the user to make the choice about how she wants to view the content. Which, if its text, probably doesn't have the same design challenges that a more "artistic" site might have. Funnily enough, two [1][2] of the three [3] main blog sites that i visit (not including Tony and Ryan's, who are both guilty too) have this issue of constraining how i view the text on their page. I have no idea what this all means, but there you go.
Ok, i don't really know why i'm linking to this, but it is kinda funny and crazy... Ok, its late, my back hurts, and i just want to blog a bit, ok? Is that so bad?
First googlewhacking, now googlebombing. I have to wonder what the staff at google think of all these crazyass ideas that these crazyass geeks keep coming up with? I suppose that since google was built by a bunch of crazyass geeks, they probably love it.
And even more about flash - its pre-history.
Mummm, more crunchy 3D flash! (i could go on about the new release of Flash [Flash MX], but i won't - go see flashmagazine or macromedia's site)
OMG. So, the RIAA and MPAA and all those folks want all (read that again, all) computer/digital technology to have built in "anti-pirating" capabilities in the hardware. Here
is a description from somebody in the audience at the hearings about this proposed law. The cost and complexity, along with the plain stupidity of it are astronomical.
Just crazy. And depressing. Tho i just cant imagine all hardware/tech manufactures going along with it. Tho hearing that Eisner said (paraphrased) "the only reason he could think of for Dell not to build in ubiquitous copright-policing functions is that dell wants to sell their products to infringers" (read pirates/people breaking the law). Simply by having a computer/device that does not have copyright functions built in, puts you into the camp of law breakers. Oi.
