Archive for the 'new media' Category

IceTV wins appeal against Channel Nine

Published April 22, 2009 new media , stupid greedy white men Leave a Comment
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at last, some good news!

IceTV has won its three year battle against Channel Nine’s specious copyright suit against IceTV.

http://www.icetv.com.au/news/?p=614

Nine’s competition reviewed IceTVs processes from a copyright perspective years ago & decided there was nothing for them to answer for.

so i’m not sure what, at this late stage, Channel Nine’s end-game was supposed to be in persevering with the case, but now that i’ve switched entirely to using Elgato eyeTV + IceTV (in other words, the tv tuner in my TV is rarely used now), not-infrequently seeing “not available” in the program guide for Channel Nine (due to IceTV’s observance of the original judgement’s ruling) made them (Nine) look – once again – like frakking idiots.

if it’s not in IceTV, I CAN’T (read: won’t) WATCH IT !  admittedly there’s rarely anything on Channel Nine worth watching… more Two & A Half Men, anyone??? <yawn>

lets hope Channel Nine give up on this bullshit for good, and, um, perhaps focus on being a TV station in dire need of pulling thier finger out, programming-wise.

i hope the people at IceTV are drinking the champaigne tonight, they sure deserve it after being dragged through 3 years go specious copyright claim bullshit in Nine’s futile attempt to dodge the future.

Dear Manhunt.net…

Published February 16, 2009 Good Stuff! , bad service , new media Leave a Comment
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Manhunt.net, a gay ‘dating’ site, recently chose Australians to beta-test their new site upgrade.  oh boy…

if they put up a localised blog with comments, they must want some feedback!  here’s mine… ;)

“

1) my login-failure solution:
after an unhelpful reply from tech-support (”be patient”) my patience wore out after 3 days unable to login, having tried clearing browser caches, restarting browser, rebooting, trying other PCs, all with no luck. UNTIL i clicked on the ‘English’ language link at the top, then bingo, able to login fine ever since. maybe it was just a coincidence of timing, but one minute no joy, the next i’m in.

2) ‘Private pics unlocked’ notifications incorrect:
i got one today, which said “xxxxxx has unlocked his Private Pix for you.”
but *I* am xxxxxx, it should (of course) say the name of the profile that sent/unlocked :). looks like a simple coding oops.

3) no search by postcode/distance:
the temporary removal of this feature before the site went live was a major tactical blunder – unless you had a REALLY good (undisclosed) reason to NEED to migrate to new servers before it was ready on the new version.

Manhunt is of limited _efficient_ use without this critical feature (i don’t care how many hapless users don’t use search, wasting time online is their choice!), and now with one amorphous mess of hundreds of towns (and several of my local inner city suburbs missing, inc Collingwood, Clifton Hill, North Fitzroy!!!), it’s even worse than the original Manhunt and postcode/distance search is still weeks away :(.

who wants to wade through endless “who’s online” lists containing everyone in the state? or wade through that amorphous mess to list who’s online one suburb/town at a time? i really think you need to somehow get sensible area groups in the list too (not just as a stop-gap until postcode/distance works). yeah i noticed you can now add a bunch of suburbs to a saved-search, which is great, but that only applies to search, not simple ‘who’s online’ lists.

4) the tedious logout/log-back-in shuffle to remain reasonably visible:
basing the ordering of lists according to how recently someone logged in would have to be one of the most brain-dead designs i’ve ever come across in this genre of site. i understand you wanna ‘reward’ those who remain active (rather than those who just login & walk away for a day/week like some on Gaydar!), but this logout/log-back-in BS is not (and never was) the answer – not for us, and not for your systems that have the additional burden of processing several/dozens(?) of logouts/logins per actual user session.

it is in fact a fundamental admission that you haven’t nailed that problem at all if i have to do the work for you on top of actually being an engaged user. that there is still no way for a user to select how a list should be ordered, other than your hard-coded ‘time since last login’ is probably the fundamental problem.

5) search flexibility
even if(when) postcode/distance search is reinstated, i still find the limitations of search feature to be quite frustrating – i can tick various attributes to be “yes, i want them to be into this”, or leave it un-ticked for “i don’t care what they answer here”, but there’s _still_ no way to filter on “i want them to NOT be into XYZ”, which is sometimes where the best filtering happens for some users/purposes (eg. guys4men.com)

i understand a single tick-box is nice n compact, and a 3 way choice (probably a drop-down list) on each attribute will take up alot of space, but for your ‘get on, get off (quick)’ mantra to be realised, there needs to be better ways to filter guys out to minimise results lists.

6) web programmers love making stuff in fancy AJAXy/fly-over/hover/translucent/auto-pop-menu/blahblah, and sometimes it works well, but not on the main menu, especially now that your auto-drop-down menus are across the top instead of down the left side – i’m finding they pop-down almost every time i move the mouse to/from the browser tab bar &/or other stuff on the desktop, which is incredibly frustrating, and utterly unnecessary. so what if i have to click the menu to drop it down?!? i’d rather that than have them getting in the way all the time when i had no intention of ‘clicking on’ the menus anyway! it’s web-designer wankery that doesn’t serve the user.

7) “he’s online now” lights
speaking of web-designer wankery, those new indicators to show if someone’s online are far less ‘readable’ with all that orange simulated LED bezel BS surrounding them. someone in the design department’s been drinkin way too much of the coolaid…

Manhunt, overall i like the new layout, and i dont mind ’silly bugs’ cuz they can be fixed, and i really appreciate that there’s this this localised blog to keep us in the loop & make feedback easy (and bypass the scripted robots in tech-support), but as you can probably tell, and as a paying customer, i’m pretty PO’d not only because a major upgrade to the site has left a critical feature missing for unspecified weeks, but much moreso that a major redesign has failed to address glaring limitations in functionality & usability.

i was questioning whether to remain on Manhunt after my current subscription, and unfortunately this ‘upgrade’ hasn’t done much to increase the site’s utility for me.

not only does the upgrade seem to have been rushed, with Australian’s used as beta testers like it or not, but too few improvements beyond a new coat of paint.

sorry to stick the knife in, but this seems like a classic case of an IT upgrade project mis-managed (too influenced by web-designers & not addressing core issues or features) and poorly executed from the user’s perspective.

“

* UPDATE:

Tim at Manhunt emailed to thank me for my comprehensive feedback, which may help nail a bug or two (as well as assure me that my thoughts were heard loud & clear ;), and a brief email exchange ensued.  I neglected to mention in my comment on their blog that much of what they’re doing is behind the curtain stuff aimed at achieving better scalability, and to that end, “more power to them”, it’s a complicated and major undertaking for websites of this size & 24/7 operation.  He assured us in further blog comments, and in his emails, that they’re flat out dealing with the cut-over, but that the postcode/distance search is the next cab off the rank, with several other popular issues including some i’ve raised as also high on their agenda &/or being (re)considered.  Perhaps there is hope yet.  One has to give credit for any organisation willing to put thier cock on the block in a public blog/comment forum and engage their customers ‘face to face’ rather than only through the arms-length of tech-support.  Thanks for listening & hearing, Manhunt, I’ll wait patiently for what’s around the corner, and perhaps beyond.

QLD man charged for propagating a baby-swinging viral-vid!

Published December 20, 2008 new media Leave a Comment
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this time the “do-gooders” are the Queensland police with their heads up their arses, with the way they’re *choosing* to enforce the law:

A Queensland man has been charged for re-publishing on a video-sharing site a viral video of a man swinging a baby around like a rag doll.  The video he uploaded to the site was reported to police by a Britton.

The controversial three-minute video had already been published widely across the internet and shown on American TV news shows. The clip can still be found online today.

Chris Illingworth, 60, a father of four from Maroochydore, thought he would share it with fellow users of Liveleak, a site similar to YouTube but focused on news and current events. In two years, he has uploaded hundreds of videos to Liveleak.

(source: theage.com.au)

the implications for ordinary internet users who propagate certain material is enormous.  in the minds of Do-Gooder Extremists, it doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re the subject in the video, the videographer, performing citizen journalism, or simply passing/soliciting comment on the subject – all seem to be fair game for those who charge themselves with the task of “protecting the children”.

as the article goes on to suggest, this year we have indeed reached hysterical levels of ridiculousness in efforts to combat child abuse and child porn (and yes, there’ve been some excellent wins, too).

just for the record, i abhor child abuse & child porn.

but for the love of god, is it too much to ask for you do-gooder maniacs put your efforts where they might actually MATTER and COUNT for what you supposedly stand for?

cuz from where i’m standing, these mindless shenanigans are just wasting my tax-payer money.

i can only hope(?) there’s A LOT more to this Queensland man that hasn’t yet come to light – other than being an ordinary netizen – to justify this crap.

AppleTV + iPhone + Apple Remote (app) = Steve Job’s latest technologically-disruptive Trojan Horse?

Published July 15, 2008 new media 2 Comments
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Just penned a letter to Leo Laporte & Paul Thurrott (who’re just as likely to ignore this novel as not :), so thought i might as well resurrect this blog:

Hey Leo, Paul,

Leo, I reckon I’ve got your next MacBreak Weekly episode feature topic.  I reckon Sneaky Steve’s slipped in the biggest ‘technologically disruptive’ Trojan Horse of all right under our noses while we were all ooh-ing and ahh-ing over something new and shiny.

You better grab a coffee, but I think it’ll be worth it :)

I just got home from my friend PJ’s place, who was one of the dedicated lucky ones to snag an iPhone 3G here in Melbourne last Friday.  He’s got an all-Mac setup (although iTunes on Windows PCs will all work the same): iMac in the study, MacMini connected to a 32″LCD TV & 5.1 sound system with the gorgeous Apple Bluetooth keyboard; AppleTV connected to same (or could be in a 2nd room); a Mac laptop (doesn’t matter which type); and now the iPhone (3G or otherwise) with software v2.  And for good measure lets also throw in an ‘AirTunes’-capable speaker system in the bedroom (or simply any sound system with any old or new Airport base-station with AirTunes audio output connected to it).

You’ve undoubtedly seen for yourself or at least heard by now about some of the capabilities of Apple’s new free iPhone app ‘Remote’ (top free download?!?), how it can control an AppleTV (or even multiple AppleTVs!), very sweet!  You might also have heard that you can control any other iTunes ’source’ with it – run iTunes on any Mac or PC and be able to connect to it remotely from the iPhone using the Remote app.  And you might also have heard how you can use the iPhone’s Remote app to control iTunes on that computer to send its audio output to any AirTunes audio output device, including the AppleTV (ie. the media is coming from the Mac/Windows desktop or laptop, but being played on the AppleTV or any other AirTunes audio system.  That’s all working right now, just seen it all with my own eyes, and clearly fantastic!

Stay with me here…

PJ’s also got eyeTV running on his MacMini working as a DVR for free-to-air TV, using Australia’s excellent IceTV EPG.  Pure simplicity!  But there’s also an eyeTV/IceTV iPhone app that lets  you not only program your eyeTV DVR remotely, but also stream your eyeTV-recorded media over Wifi to your iPhone!  Because with the eyeTV software, you can export a recording to any iPhone, iPod (any type) or AppleTV resolution/format, so you get a perfect fit for the specific device’s LCD resolution.

So, we’ve got free-to-air DVRd content, an AppleTV full of ripped, &/or rented &/or bought content, content on any other Mac or PC, playable on any audio or video device in the home, all remote controllable from a single iPhone – or multiple iPhones!  *With the near promise of real-time transcoding capability using the GPU instead of the CPU, perhaps even a MacMini could do this in real-time, skip the post-process.  Almost any other modern Mac certainly could.  This is all in our (Mac) homes RIGHT NOW.  Lets collectively call this state of the art in domestic mass consumer a/v “Version 1″.  If this isn’t already a techy’s wet dream with even more just around the corner, I don’t know what is!

But lets not stop there.  Think of the potential:

Steve made a very specific point at MacWorld about how AppleTV v1 (and everyone else) got it wrong.  AppleTV Take2 was all about untethering the AppleTV from the compulsory need for iTunes on a Mac/PC.  But of course this is just AppleTV software Version2.  The only way is up.  Hold that thought for a moment…

Just one next version of eyeTV (or a competitor) could totally usurp Slingbox and its rather expensive ilk, if they choose to rise to the challenge.  On a suitably powerful Mac doing the transcoding / up/down-scaling in real time*, could send that recorded, or live, TV out over the ‘net to your iPhone 3G, all remote-controlled via the eyeTV/IceTV (or competitor) app on your iPhone3G (or any iPhone or iPodTouch using WiFi).

And there’s no technical reason why Apple couldn’t similarly allow iTunes content to be streamed via the home LAN (WiFi or wired) onto the ‘net (perhaps even SSL encrypted?), over 3G into your iPhone, anywhere, if they wanted.

I’m not very familiar with the options available to you in the US, but I’m guessing there’s existing technologies/products for getting cable-TV content under similar control/availability.  Where ever you are with 3G or WiFi, there’s all your TV and media, without having to hold it on your iPhone.  No expensive Slingbox/etc box needed, it’s all potentially doable now with the devices we already have, with the very next generation of this collection of software!  Sure, 3G bandwidth coverage and/or cost is currently an issue in some places, but that, as always, is a rapidly improving issue.

Or how about this:

Apple have just sneaked into our homes – without any of us realizing it until it’s under our noses – a complete infrastructure for remote control of ANY device in the home that has a LAN connection (WiFi or wired).  This is the first reason why I’ve CC’d you, Paul :).  The whole gamut of Home Automation, and home security, if suitably equipped with LAN access, and adhering to a hypothetically open Apple Remote protocol standard, could all be controlled from your iPhone or iPod Touch, completely usurping an entire – and expensive -  segment of the Home Automation market: integrated control.  And, pending the license availability of the Apple Remote protocol (unless it is already?), all possible right now to anyone so inclined to design it in.

Whilst these HA devices could, if they wished, still retain the various techniques/protocols/proprietary-standards currently used to integrate them, they could also support the Apple Remote protocol, and open up their HA & security market not only from the sales growth potential brought about by the unprecedented ability to mix-n-match previously incompatible products, but also a broader target market more able to afford the product.

Have I just been smoking too much, or Is this not a HUGE opportunity, and threat, for so many players in the home media and home automation and home security arena?  All from just two cute little devices, and one deceptively adaptable OS?

Put the next AppleTV Take 3 (or oh-so-easily hacked AppleTV), or any Mac, back into the equation, with new apps, and you’ve got your media – anywhere you want, home automation, and security (including CCTV low-frame-rate video recording?) integrated, on your living room big-screen TV, remote controlled from your iPhone, potentially all with existing hardware (barring of course the cost of HA & security devices around the house, which runs a huge range of capabilities and prices).

Will Apple finally realise the much speculated potential of this little wonder-box?  Is the AppleTV Apps Store just around the corner, finally?  No more illegitimate hacks needed to bridge its gaps?  All the building blocks are now there.

First came the Apple Computer, then the Macintosh, then the iPod, then the iPhone, each almost universally regarded as revolutionary or at least extremely progressive leadership.  Has Steve Jobs just laid the foundation for his next coup – as well as those of many others thus far barred entry into these traditionally expensive up-market dedicated-hardware market segments (nirvanaish home media, home automation& home security) – right under our noses?  Has he just demonstrated yet again the repeatedly delivered promise of general purpose computers replacing multiple dedicated devices (and often closed/proprietary ones) at a fraction of the cost, size and user-complexity?

I don’t know if anyone else has published similar predictions for iPhone Remote technology and its potential capabilities, but just for the record (cuz he’d kill me if I didn’t ;), my friend PJ foresaw embryonic versions of many of these ideas (current reality and imminent possibility) well over a year ago when we first laid eyes on our AppleTVs.  So I wonder how much of this Steve Jobs foresaw before that, when the AppleTV was just a twinkle in his eye?  Or do these things almost inadvertently have a knack of growing into something far greater than their constituent contributors, with Jobs merely a pro surfer of the front wave of personal technology, rather than the hand of God pushing the wave along?!?  We do call it the Jesus Phone!

OK, RDF Mode: OFF, you can stop puking now :), but I labour the point, Paul, because I read your WinSuperSite blog a couple of weeks ago that was essentially a call to action/arms for Microsoft to wake up and pull their finger out, and I fully agree with it.  But, as (a) a long-time & rather techy Windows non-fan-boy, who (b) for the last 5 years has progressively been trying to elude the offensive mundanity of commercial broadcast TV in preference to “what i want, when i want it”: DVDs (purchased, and rented via Bigpond’s a-la-Netflix), podcasts, bittorrent, Joost, (etc. etc. etc.) and now finally in Australia iTunes TV & movie downloads, I’ve (c) just spent a difficult 12 months switching from Windows to Mac, based only in part on a whiff of the promise of “a better way of life” and the demonstrable surperiority-in-a-simpler-way in many ways (though not all) of the Mac / iPod / iPhone /AppleTV platforms.

Now I’m twelve months on from that leap of, erm… faith?, and now that we’ve reached this post-iPhone3G / AppleTV-Take2 point, I feel even more confident that I made the right decision ALSO because neither 12 months ago nor now are we seeing anyone or anything from Microsoft, let alone anywhere else, that suggests it has a hope of catching up to what we all (can) have right now.

But who would have thought all of this would come so far so soon?  It was only less than 4 years ago, with Australia’s beligerantly stupid 3 free-to-air commercial TV station oligarchy (who, seeing their writing on the wall, tried to sue IceTV, and failed) ensuring that the only way I could watch Battlestar Galactica was to  anxiously wait for someone on the other side of the planet to post it on ThePirateBay & download it via (comparatively slow) bittorrent, dragging my recliner arm chair into the study to watch it on my 17″ LCD monitor!

Now I can just press play on my AppleTV when it’s automatically downloaded.  They get their money, and I’m tickled digital.  Is this finally not win-win, a truce with the big-media industry?  Can we now just get on with it?

What of the next 4 years?!?  Maybe, finally, DRM will be gone completely, seen for the needless sham of scared old-media executives who for years resisted the inevitable, clinging to their unsustainable business models and brandishing thier lawyers club?  Yeah you’re right, probably not.

But we’re still living in awesomely interesting times!

Cheers, Anthony.
nocomply2007@gmail.com

Goliath vs countless Davids

Published February 14, 2007 new media , renewable energy Leave a Comment

i’m suddenly struck by the parallels between “old media” vs “new media”, and the fossil fuel vs the renewable energy industries.

“old media” (large monolithic tv/radio/newspaper organisations) are feeling the threat of “new media” – smaller (sometimes tiny) nimble online sites serving news & insightful commentary & entertainment, from various styles of social-networking sites (in words, pictures & video) to millions of networked blogs & podcasts.

‘new media‘ and ‘Web 2.0′ are a democratisation of media at a time when old/big media amalgamated ownership elicits even greater conern about diversity & vested interest. it’s an enabler for anyone sufficiently motivated to reach to a hitherto inaccessible public audience (and talented enough to keep them!). this is a time of transition & experimentation, and the end-point – if there will ever be such a plateau again – is unknown, and certainly old media will reinvent itself (it already is) to adapt to our rapidly evolving preferences for how, when, & where we ‘consume’ media. i suspect the already slightly fading line between old media and new media will disolve into a continuum that offers the best of both worlds more seamlessly than it does now.

the fossil-fuel industry – despite being fundamentally entrenched in almost every facet of modern life & will fight like hell to stay there – is facing the question of its fundamental long-term viability (global warming) & sustainability (Peak Oil). we & they know it’s just a matter of time. in the orther corner, we have the renewable energy industry, who, rather than waiting for the hard ground to meet our fall, are slowly but surely proving – most on a small scale – their viability as substitutes for fossil-fuel sources.

in particular, renewable energy’s ubiquitous, small-scale, distributed nature flies in the face of the few large monolithic power stations, distributors & retailers. it promises to give consumers greater choice, and less reliance on a few god-like utilities, for some even complete independence from ‘the grid’ or even the ability to feed their excess back into the grid.

renewable energy represents a much finer-grained redistribution & democratisation of the energy industry, from selection of type (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, etc) according to the natural capacity of the local environment, to choices of source – from an installation small enough to fit in your own back yard or roof, through facilities powering a neighbourhood or town, right up to massive systems rivalling fossil fuel output.

and you can bet the thought of this has the fossil fuel industy’s knickers in a huge twist!

Happy Valentine’s Day fossil fuel industry. but i just don’t love you any more! please don’t be offended, it’s not you, it’s me…

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