Downloaded Skype but haven't used it yet. Here's the open source alternative, which uses the SIP standard and features one-button recording of calls - an easy podcast.
Gizmo - A free phone for your computer
Last fall I was looking into putting links in Quicktime audio files to do this. Now Apple has created Enhanced Podcasts with chapter marks that trigger pictures or links. Details here:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) - iTunes 4.9 Chapters in Depth
No one knows yet what the plan is, but it's apparently a move into political action.
BBC NEWS | Americas | Mexico hails rebel 'initiative'
For better or worse, Google rules.
Google Print Search: Usumacinta
Here's the first photo of the newly discovered Usumacinta watershed catfish that I've seen. We ate catfish right out of the river 2 years ago. Were they Lacantunia?
New Catfish Species Discovered
Typically, I've lurked on the edge of Ourmedia for a couple of months. Here's an overview of what's happening in and around. Confusing and exciting, and very early in the process.
Be the Media: the state of the public webcasting platform - CommonMedia.org
On Avenue D?
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Vertical Farming
Latest in the legislation battle.
It's McCain Vs. Telecom Firms On Broadband
One of the best analyses of the current political struggle over PBS. Disclosure: I worked for the MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour, 1983-1988, and edited shows in Bill Moyers' series "World of Ideas."
The Armstrong Williams NewsHour - New York Times (may require fee, subscription, or that you go out and buy the paper right now)
"The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense."
This bio of Dianah Neff has an impressive list of what they've been able to accomplish with Wireless Philadelphia, including links to some of the community projects
Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo 2005 - Dianah L. Neff
This suits my current black mood regarding the digital life.
In slashdot, a thread on "Best way to back up digital photos and video" that takes unusual turns in the comments.
Slashdot | Best Way to Back Up Photos and VIdeo?
Having just tackled the issue of backing up a network, I read a number of posts describing 3-level backups on tape, hard drive, CD and DVD, fireproof storage, etc. before coming across this discussion (click More).
this is actually a BIG question (Score:4, Insightful)
by Ralph Spoilsport (673134) on Sunday June 26, @12:13AM (#12912210)
(Last Journal: Monday July 12, @10:38PM)
And one that I have railed about for many years.
I have been in the same position the Author discussed, and I have come to ONLY negative conclusions. In a few words, and I hate to say this, but buddy:
WE'RE FUCKED.
Digital is a loser's proposition. backing up to analogue or even digital data on analogic substrates (such as DV tape) fail. Simply nad purely.
The *only* thing that comes close is some kind of RAID, and those, even with the plummeting price of storage, are still too expensive given the needs.
Also, a RAID assumes a continuity of several things that are not likely to be continuous:
With Video:
Framerate, number of lines, colour depth, aspect ratio, file format, compression format, Operating system compatibility, etc etc etc. All of these things are variables.
With Audio:
sample rate, compression format, bit depth, file format, etc.
Basically all of it points to very bad places.
I am fairly well convinced that our age will simply disappear. They will find our garbage, the few books not pressed on acidic paper, our paintings (fat lot of good the abstract stuff will mean to them) and drawings, that's about it. the rest will just be shiny little bits of crap in the landfill.
Since we will have used up all the dense energy forms, they will be appalled at the energy requirements just to get the few remaining museum piece devices to work. Archiving the 21st century will be impossible. To the 25th century, the 21st century will be seen as a dark age - not only for the holocaust of the die caused by the failure of the petroleum based economy, but from the simple fact that very little of the information formats we are totally geared into will survive, including this note on /.
His problem of saving personal video is just the tip ofthe iceberg. His problem is the problem of our very civilisation, writ small.
That's why I am abandoning video, and going back to painting. In 500 years, my painting CAN survive. the video simply won't.
RS
[ Reply to This ]
Re:this is actually a BIG question (Score:5, Insightful)
by agent oranje (169160) on Sunday June 26, @01:47AM (#12912580)
(Last Journal: Wednesday June 04, @05:01PM)
Mod parent up "brilliant."
In the digital world, there's currently no such thing as an archive. There are backups that last for quite some time, but I seriously doubt any of them will last forever. The only reason any of these backups last so long is because the people creating them put some serious effort into keeping the data safe - and even then, what's to say it's not going to fail tomorrow?
You're right about the 21st century becoming a second dark age. Half the time, it proves extremely difficult to find web-published articles from two years ago, never mind what someone was putting on the web 15 years ago. Servers come and go as those involved become disinterested with the media they created. But, the difference between a print magazine going belly up and a dotcom media source going belly up is that the printed magazine will still exist while the data from the dotcom will likely never be accessible to the public again.
In the case of personal media, digital is a disaster. My grandparents still have stacks of photos documenting their entire lives, as do my parents, as do my parents for me. However, my photo collection currently suffers a gap which will never be recovered, specifically 1997-2000. During those years, I used a digital camera, and I left the photos on a working hard drive for safe keeping - alas, when I went to retrieve some files off of the drive when I wanted to go back and read a paper, I discovered the drive had committed suicide in a year without use. Yeah, that sucks.
Currently, the best way to back up data is RAID - and that's not even backing the data up, it's just making it more persistent. When you move to another machine, move all of the data to the new RAID. Repeat forever. To be extra safe, have a backup RAID just in case the first one suffers from a catastrophe.
Why is digital media troublesome? Books rarely render themselves unreadable while sitting on shelves, and are likewise rarely destroyed when dropped. Carving something into rock requires a bitchin' act of god to get rid of. But the deleting of a file, or the death of a hard drive, can wipe vast amounts of history out of existence, both in a personal and societal sense. Without an ability to permanently archive digital data, none of the data from the digital age will exist in the future.
[After a rebuttal from someone who claims data has never been more permanant, the first writer responds:]
wow - what a load.
OK - point for point:
Thus it's not supprising much of it gets destroyed. For that matter, most of it isn't worth saving anyhow.
That's not the argument - the problem is the evanescence of digital media itself. It's not a question of most - it's a question of ALL.
Books are not such a perminant media as you might think. They wear out, and can be destoryed.
I didn't say they were - they are merely MORE permanent if they are made properly. furthermore, the *context* of their information is much lower - all it takes is paper and pen and you can (carefully) copy the data *with no loss* of the "original* message. This is how the Bible and other "important" works were maintained over the centuries.
DIgital data requires a very high context situation for its copying: it MUST be copied to another digital (drive) or digital supporting substrate (tape). Tape breaks down (I occassionally work in tape restoration - tape SUCKS for storage. Sticky shed gets you sooner or later...) and drives die and corrupt (I found that out the hard way last month when my main computer AND my back up both died within 2 weeks of each other. I lost a LOT of data...)
No one can sit and copy out trillions of ones and zeros - there isn't enough paper. Digital requires a huge and wasteful industrial system, which has been proven over and over to be unsustainable. Something's going to go, and I would submit that video and digital audio will be among the first to go.
The Nordic Legends weren't written down for centuries, yet today we still have them. They were passed down, as an oral traditon for generations. There was no perminance to them other than stories in people's minds, yet they've durvived thousands of years.
Then I suggest you learn all your favourite slashdot posts by heart so you can pass them down to your grandchildren, assuming we all don't starve to death with our kids in a refugee camp in Oregon in 2032.
Via Joi Ito:
Asterisk - The Open Source Linux PBX
It's unclear so far what the Zapatistas are reacting to and what their next step is. But they are in the papers again.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Zapatistas await orders in hiding
Rebecca MacKinnon is on the case.
RConversation: Screenshots of Censorship
RConversation: Chinese Bloggers Respond: The Plot Thickens
RConversation: Confirmed: All Typepad blogs blocked in China
Thanks to Chris Shaw for this tip. Now I have to work on the Usu maps.
Maps of the Maya Area (PDFs in three sizes)
Like it says.
Daily Wireless - Muni/WiMax Weblogs
My new mantra - just add Apple.
Intel invents agile wireless chip - Computer Business Review
Intel late last week said its scientists had invented a new type of chip that can process signals from different types of wireless networks. The chip also could handle upcoming WiMax technology, that promises wireless internet connectivity for up to 30 miles, and future flavors of WiFi.
Because it's smart. Because I have to read this more carefully. Because librarians rule.
The Shifted Librarian: Why RSS and Folksonomies Are Becoming So Big
When I paint my masterpiece...
MacDevCenter.com: An Introduction to Tiger Terminal
MacDevCenter.com: An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 2
and
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) - Terminal Tips
If you have a fast connection, this site offers 3D rotations of the skull of the Usumacinta catfish.
Digimorph - Chiapas catfish, Lacantunia enigmatica
From Tabasco Hoy to CNN, Lacatunia Enigmatica is finally hitting the news after millions of years in the Usumacinta watershed.
CNN.com - Researchers identify new species - Jun 15, 2005
Tabasco Hoy || Descubren especie de peces en el Usumacinta
More on the unusual catfish recently found in the Usumacinta River watershed.
Researchers find new family of catfish | Science Blog
From the report:
Discovery of new families of living vertebrates is rare; in ichthyology there have been just two new families discovered in the past 60 years: the coelacanth in 1938 and the megamouth shark in 1983.
Daily Wireless - Intel + Nokia = WiMax Mobile
UPDATE:
Apple added:
Nokia - Nokia develops a new browser for Series 60 by using open source software
Summary of successes and challenges, from Chihuahua to Chiapas.
Mexico environmentalists see bright spots in a tough struggle
Now I have a good reason to get Tiger.
From The Unofficial Apple Weblog, an automator workflow (it does all the steps for you) to create a podcast. I've been doing the hard way. Now we can give a copy of the podcast to the interviewee before they walk out the door.
According to the blog poster:
Basically it launches Quicktime Pro 7, starts a new audio recording using the audio-in device you have set up in your System Preferences, waits for you to click "Continue" to stop the recording, and then automatically imports the file into iTunes, converts it into an mp3, and changes its name to "podcast."
Direct link to the zip file (28kb)
And how do we improve it? Have it change the name and the id3 tags for a start... post it to the web, create the RSS enclosure...
Technology News Article | Reuters.com - CVS launches disposable digital camcorder in U.S.
Yesterday's announcement by Apple that it would move to Intel chips generated a lot of blather. Blogger Scoble said the whole industry was shaking while his boss at MSoft, Ballmer, asked "What's changed?"
Little has been said about the potential for Apple to take the lead in WiMax enabled devices. Intel wants to build it into laptops. Apple will have Intel based, faster and cooler-running laptops. Conclusion?
WiMAX, wireless, WiMAX Forum, WiMAX one stop, resources from Wireless Review magazine
Finally another entry for my cacao category: a life changing experience for Cory Doctorow, drinking Mexican-style chocolate (complete with chilies) in Florence.
Boing Boing: I have seen God in a cup of chocolate
I've posted another junglecast on EchoRadio. This one is the first part of a walk in the jungle with Nicco and Ed Barnhart, on the way to Moises' Retreat.
Update: The Pacal's tomb junglecast has been picked up on Adam Curry's new 'soundseeing" website.
This document contains a critique of the recent NYC report on the state of broadband in the city. Here's an excerpt:
Almost No Mention of Connecting Low-Income Communities
The report does not discuss bringing broadband to those communities to who could benefit from technology the most low-income communities. Low-income children and families are mentioned once in the entire report. Instead the focus of the report is on attracting and retaining talented people and creative professionals as opposed to growing the talent who live and work in New York City already. The report also remarks that 38 percent of all New York City households have adopted broadband. That means 62 percent of all New York City households have not adopted broadband, and it is likely that most of these households are low-income households. According to recent data (2004) from Nielsen/Netratings and the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the penetration of high-speed Internet in [among households with incomes below $30,000] is around 10 percent.
Limited Mention of Wiring of Nonprofits and Small Businesses
Nonprofit Organizations
In New York City, there are over 27,000 registered nonprofit organizations, including over 9,000 public charities. These over 9000 public charities account directly for $43 billion in annual expenditures, more than 528,000 jobs, or 14% of New York City's employees, and an annual payroll of more than $22.7 billion. In addition, they had assets of $65 billion and revenues of more than $48 billion in the year 2000, which is larger than New York City's manufacturing sector. An estimated 200,000 additional jobs result indirectly from purchases by nonprofits of goods and services from private firms. Despite the apparent importance of the nonprofit sector is to the New York City's economy, there is only one action item of the Administration's telecommunications plan relating to the wiring of nonprofit organizations. Even then, that action item relates to a nonprofit organization, New York State Education and Research Network (or NYSERNet), not the City, working to help nonprofit organizations get access to a broadband connection. Also, while there is a plan for small businesses to be educated on the benefits of broadband, nonprofit organizations have been excluded from this initiative.
Small Businesses
The report focuses on the telecommunications needs of several of the large industries in New York City, most notably financial services, media, health care as well as telecommunications itself. Most of these industries are composed of the largest corporations in the City and are located in the central business districts in Manhattan. These industries are undoubtedly important to the health of New York City's economy. However, there is little mention of the many businesses that support these industries as well as the businesses that serve the workers of these industries who often reside outside of Manhattan. Even though the report concludes that small business have few broadband options and that small businesses often must wait longer [for a broadband connection] and do not receive the highest level of service, the report does not mention any concrete program to wiring small businesses outside of Manhattan besides the program to educate small businesses on the benefits of broadband. The report does state that the City will help Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and Local Development Corporations (LDCs) deploy wireless networks for the small businesses they serve. However, the City's role in this initiative would be limited to helping local organizations explore the potential of wireless technologies for improving the availability of broadband in their neighborhoods, assisting them in developing project plans, and identifying potential service providers.
Anything with the words community, mesh, Soros, and RoofNet will get my attention. Then "under-$100 nodes" made it a post.
Thanks as usual to Sam Churchill.
Daily Wireless - CommunityInternet.us
Note: I couldn't connect to the MIT RoofNet links, but they live in the Google cache.)
A new catfish, Lacantunia enigmatica, is puzzling icthyologists. It's been placed in a new genus and family all its own.
PFK Fish News | Lacantunia catfish placed in new family
I got my annual shot of inspiration yesterday at the American Visionary Art Museum when we took two big vans full of Girls Club folks down to Baltimore. Too quick, but a brilliant blast of light and hope from Rebecca Hoffberger, the director and visionary.
Why is this post in the "Watery Way" category? Here's a page on their current show:
American Visionary Art Museum - Holy H2O: Fluid Universe