other

upcoming conferences - vloggercon 06 & where 2.0

2006-05-20T07:45:05+01:00

There's a couple of conferences coming up which I wouldn't mind checking out.. don't think I'll have a chance in person as I'm still in Delhi for work, but I think they'll have video / audio recordings of them so I can check out later.
Vloggercon 2006 is being held in San Francisco this year. Here's the blurb from their site:
"VLOGGERCON 2006 is the intersection between media-makers and technology. A space for dialog and interaction. Of creation and collaboration. A media village born on the internet, and making camp for one weekend in San Francisco.
In the past year, videoblogging has grown into a myriad of forms with a worldwide voice. And your voice is needed at Vloggercon– after all, the media is being made by you so it’s your voice that we want to hear! Vloggercon is a two-day collection of roundtable discussions about the emergence and the future of this new medium; not a series of lec-tures. This conference is created for meeting and learning from each other, so be ready to share your thoughts!
Vloggercon 2006 will be held June 10 & 11 at the Swedish American Hall, 2174 Market Street, San Francisco CA 94114. "
http://www.vloggercon.com/ - tickets are available online.
Where 2.0
This one's about locative and GIS / Google Earth, Second Life / Electric Sheep & similar web apps. Would be good to see what's happening on this front at the moment. Here's the blurb from their site :
" Everything happens somewhere. With open source and free web mapping tools like Ka-Map and Google Maps, we finally have a way to display location information. At last year's Where 2.0, we put the spotlight on the grassroots developers building mash-ups on platforms from Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google. This year we'll look at the latest developments in those platforms as well as the latest startups, civic projects, and labs experiments built on them.
In addition you'll find source mapping tools, open standards for data and location web services, and sensors for obtaining location data. We'll learn how the established geo industry is reacting to the first businesses making money from their grassroots geospatial projects. There's no better place to meet the people behind the mash-ups, the people behind the platforms, and the people looking ahead to the future of geospatial. "
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/where2006/

MacBook Pro

2006-04-07T15:00:25+01:00

here's a photo of my new purchase - finally went to a mac! now I just have to get used to using the apple key instead of the ctrl key in windows / on my old laptop.
have been reading about Boot camp - it's all over the mail lists and blogosphere at the moment - MACs running Windows XP. even macs with infamous BlueScreenOfDeath (BSOD). interesting times ahead.

the software I'm using most often these days

2006-03-03T15:37:24+00:00

This is a reply to a post on Stealth board listing the software I'm using most often these days.
http://www.stealthmag.com/board/viewthread.php?tid=6461
yeah gimp is good. the interface isn't as nice as photoshop but it's free / open source and has many of the same features for image editing & conversion. if u were a graphic designer u'd probably go with photoshop cs or similar but for simple resizing/cropping and converting gimp does the same job.
http://www.gimp.org
here's a list of my fav s/w atm (at least what I'm using most these days). I've been playing with a bit of videoblogging so a lot of this is video related. (not in any order)
isadora : http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html
it's really cool for realtime video processing. so u could spend hours using it. even if u don't have a camera yourself, just download some quicktime movies from one of the videoblogging sites and do a cutup remix or something. the demo version (which I'm still using) only lets u save 5sec, so to make anything longer, u can just save 5sec at a time then past e them altogether in quicktime or another editing tool. some of the effects are similar to jitter (the video add on to max/msp) but they're all prebuilt so u don't have to write the code. just connect the patch cords.
http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html
max/msp http://www.cycling74.com
- it's great for writing realtime music. generally used in art / sound art installations or universities and experimental performances. jitter is the video processing as mentioned above. easy to spend hours using it. though the learning curve is a bit steep until u get the hang of it. I did a course which was helpful. has a 30 day demo. I bought the student price which is $59 for 9months licence so handy if you're doing a project.
http://www.cycling74.com
quicktime pro - www.apple.com/quicktime
if u pay the $30 to upgrade to quicktime pro u can then do video editing in quicktime. it does interactive video as well. and you can add text tracks, html links, link the whole video movie.
www.apple.com/quicktime
freemind mind mapping software
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
- this is great for writing all those ideas down and collecting your thoughts & brainstorming
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
drupal - www.drupal.org
- I use this every day. it's a CMS (content management system) and has features such as blog, rss, chat, forums, user access, stories, project management, images, videoblogging & podcasting support, + a heap more. basically it creates your website then you can start posting information up and sorting/catergorising it
www.drupal.org
if u don't have a website, setup a blogger.com account (free) and start posting info and your creations and let us know the links.
avid free DV - http://www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp
- it's a cutdown version of avid's non-linear editing software. perfect for home use. has the same interface as the versions used in professional video editing houses so good to learn if u hope to work in that field one day.
http://www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp
skype - www.skype.com
- for chatting to your friends for free. good for collaborative projects also.
www.skype.com
eZediaQTI - http://www.ezedia.com/products/eZediaQTI/
- for creating quicktime videos / videoblog movies. easy to do text and tracks and interactivity if you don't want to do it manually in quicktime. demo version limited to 5 objects but that's usually ok for small projects
http://www.ezedia.com/products/eZediaQTI/
itunes - www.apple.com/itunes
- for listening to music and podcasts. ipodder/lemon also good
www.apple.com/itunes
audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
- for audio recording and basic processing. u could do a track for the stealth remix thread in this!
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
hiphopstarz - www.hiphopstarz.com
- free, basic sequencer for creating beats. it's a very simple interface. looks a bit dodgy but works ok for beginner level stuff. doesn't have all the features of cuebase etc, but it's free. if anyone has another good free /opensource replacement, let us know!
www.hiphopstarz.com
fireant - http://fireant.tv/download
- great videoblog aggregator / viewer. you can also use itunes or just view in the web pages, but this is a separate app which does it also. they usually recommend some good videos to watch / subscribe to.
http://fireant.tv/download
if I had a mac I'd be using quartz composer for video also. but I don't so I can't :(
ourmedia - ourmedia.org + Internet Archive - www.archive.org
- I use this to upload video and audio to IA. it's also a blogging site similar to blogger but looks different. if u need hosting space, this could be an option for original works ie don't upload your mp3 collection or u'll be banned. but if u make a track or a video they'd love u to upload it (free)
www.ourmedia.org
some of the producers here could possibly recommend better audio software. but have a play with video - it's fun. combines everything!
microsoft visual c# - www.microsoft.com
- if you want to try programming, c# is probably good to start with. it's a bit like c and java, but you can use the IDE and create windows/web apps pretty easily.
www.microsoft.com
flickr - www.flickr.com
- upload all your photos. it's social software, so you can add friends and tags, and see when your friends upload new pics, and they see when u do. also good for hosting your images. u can get a free account or upgrade to a paid account if u have lots of pics
www.flickr.com

some thoughts on personal videoblogs and comparisons to written blog entries

2006-02-04T05:19:46+00:00

here's another email sent to vlogtheory yahoogroups list on some thoughts and conversations I've been having today.

thanks for the replies guys.I find observing and loosely analysing communities really interesting. human behaviour in groups I guess. online behaviour is a particular interest.

(likely another non topic message, so delete now if not interested)

ok, it's a really hot sat afternoon here now (Auckland) and I've just returned from lunch and taking photos of street art & graf so have turned on the aircon and am emailing to cool down. at lunch I mentioned videoblogging to my friend, who hadn't really heard of it or realised it had a name. but one of the conversations was the difference between personal blogs and personal videoblogs. the main differentiation I see, is that written blogs (or even books), is really the little voice in your head speaking - letting it have a voice, whereas video diary entries are more real as you see the persons expressions and location not just descriptions of it. so you (the viewer) can connect differently to it. ie almost real vs imaginary, though not imaginary in the context of made up, but rather descriptive / virtual reality open to interpretation - the reality inside your mind compared to reality that you see. (prob not explaining this properly, perhaps I should have had the camera running at the time of the conversation as it was more coherent then).

also, I see differences due to differences in speech - ie people write differently to how they actually speak - both in terms of grammar, and sentence structure, pauses, proper/formal language vs colloqialisms and even manner etc as well as topics. in a personal video blog a person might speak about something they might not be able to say to other people, or on a topic which isn't part of their normal day's conversation. perhaps this is due to working with people with different interests and ways of thinking. or they might show you something that they were thinking about, what was going through their mind at a point in time. this also happens in a written blog entry - more so I expect, as many people find it easier to write than speak especially in front of an audience/camera/possible audience.

and one more point I mentioned was that I'm constantly amazed at some of the things people can say in front of a camera and to an audience on a personal vlog - such personal things. I think this has more to do with my confidence levels in comparison. I could use one videoblog entry I've watched recently as an example (hopefully without causing offence. I don't mean to and apologise if it's taken that way) the person recently posted videos of he and his now girlfriend's private videoblog (they were taken at an earlier point in time). it was almost voyeristic of me to continue watching it, but as I watched the video, and could see them falling in love. it's such a great and special time, and it was shared with whoever was subbed to the vlog. I think that's amazing and something I could probably never do. I suppose there've been similarities in published books and letters, but to see their faces & hear the voices and realness during that awkward, exciting and special time brings back such memories of when it's happened to me. I think that's really powerful and something you don't often see except from your own personal perspective. sending their emotions out to the world for anyone to see.

I think perhaps I've been a bit sceptical of videoblogs in the past and have mostly seen video on the internet types, but seeing this level of 'personal-ness' (not really a word but all I can think of atm) available to anyone to see is changing my views of them. still not sure I could do one like that (prefer the live video conference with friends & no archive) but I can see the attraction to them. viewers will almost be watching other people's videos as they do soaps on tv these days. seeing a single video entry from a blog isn't probably going to mean much, but if you watched that person's vlog for a few months you'd have a personal connection to them - whether you interact with them with comments or not. almost like calling your friends to find out how their day/week went. it's reality on the internet. tv reality programs & soaps/scripted dramas on tv have nothing on these ;)

anyway, I'm probably destined to write non-topicness, but wanted to jot down some thoughts whilst it's fresh in my head and see if anyone else is thinking similar. (it's probably all been said before and I've missed it or wasn't listening properly)

ps - Robert, I suppose I'm not watching ebay for RB because I don't care about the result! I guess I don't have a personal attachment/interest to the outcome either way :)

thoughts on studies of trends of communities

2006-02-04T05:15:08+00:00

I sent this email to the vlogtheory yahoogroups list, posting here to keep track of it.

Hi everyone, to change the topic slightly, and I'm not sure if it's really videoblogging theory or related per se, but one thing I like to notice is the changing moods and behaviours of when different technologies or interests are taken up. I've never done actual studies on it, so my thoughts are purely from observations, but I've seen it happen across many fields. do you know what academic studies there might be on these things?

basically what I'm talking about is watching the curve of the hype as people get interested in a new system, eg videoblogging, then over time seeing how their interest either remains or starts to fade. I noticed it changing again today which is a little earlier than other trends after reading some of the 'burn out' / take a break thread emails (I can't keep up with all the VBG emails due to volume & available time so there may be other examples). actually a chart/cluster diagram would be useful in describing it if I'm not doing that coherently enough.

obviously it's a natural thing for people's interest to change over time and according to responses either externally or internally to their involvement. but I've seen it in many communities both online and not. I find it interesting as there's always a few who stay for the long trip, lots who come and go and some who just try it out once or twice. happens in music communities (down to sub-genre level within the community), arts collectives, online mail lists and I definitely saw it in the internet radio community I used to work with also. I also love to see people get really passionate about things - some to the point of obsessiveness (record digging comes to mind). eventually people tend to get a bit jaded then they stop the activity. I think videoblogging, especially the personal videoblogging content producers might suffer this earlier due to the personal nature of their work and responses to their work as feelings get hurt. it will be interesting to see how many of the personal videoblogs are still around in say 5-10 years (though they'll likely be replaced by some other system by then), or if it's just a continual stream of new people topping up the number of personal videoblogs out there whilst early ones drop off for any number of reasons. this is looking at it from a slightly different perspective - not counting the acutal number of personal videoblogs, but monitoring individual blogs and monitoring their lifespan so to speak. from observations on other systems, it's the ones who can make it financially viable that are generally the longrunners, though it becomes 'work' rather than what it originally started as, even though they still enjoy doing it. and also the people who move more slowly & constantly through the system, perhaps contributing less or on a more occasional basis compared to the higher output/short term contributors, but who still like to keep their finger in the pie so to speak.

have others here noticed this also with communities you've been involved with. is it something used in academic worlds? (I always studied IT/eng so never came across it, but perhaps I just never looked in the right place)

anyway, just something that came to mind whilst browsing emails on a sat morning.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a reply from Enric with great links to chase up: hopefully he won't mind me posting it here.

Quote:

You are referring to near term information, Kath. However, related to
this for long term analysis, Ray Kurzweil and his group have been
studying, graphing and analyzing technology for over seven years now.
Kurzweil's book, "The Singularity is Near" shows data, graphs,
stastics, conclusions and projections from these studies.

I found them fascinating and enlightening. One of the interesting
findings is that people have difficulty predicting when a technology
will become prevalent. Humans tend to see technological pace occuring
linearly while it operates exponentialy. So the predictions are too
soon (e.g., the dot.com boom) and too late (e.g., Film Studios
dismissing TV as a fad.)

Article related to the book:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

Current articles and news:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1

Graphs and charts from data with projections:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kurzweilai.net/article...
http://tinyurl.com/73st4

Video of Ray's keynote presentation at Extro-5 in 2001
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0235.html?m=1

naming rights

2006-01-25T10:28:39+00:00

reading more saria website articles. from what I can tell whilst reading the Ibarat 01 publication, life in the colony follows different rules than in the cities. local communities are tight-knit. lanes and streets become named after the locals, businesses who inhabit them or are even based on a purely descriptive nature. I suppose this is how early settlement streets in Australian cities were named also - that's why there are so many church streets with churches, railway parades next to the railways, bridge streets with bridges, hill lanes with hills etc. the Indian stories remind me of the City of God / City of Men movie/series where the kids go about creating a map of the favela they live in and the dramas and ego flattering they go through to offer naming rights to prominent community members.
it'd be interesting to see the work Sarai is doing whilst in country if I get the chance. they have a range of projects with visiting contributors as well as in-house fellows working in different areas.

the longest comment to a blog post.. so far

2005-12-20T10:17:09+00:00

Blogging has become very popular over the last few years as I'm sure most people are aware. here's one possibly for the record books - an Indian blog entry received a comment 4,827 words long! almost like writing a paper.. the poster was encouraged to start their own blog..

goas - week 3 notes

2005-11-30T10:17:24+00:00

notes about studying methods:

http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=...

SQRRR METHOD OF READING

There is a method of reading that all of our students will benefit from; it is called the SQ3R. Let me describe how to use the SQRRR method (Believe me it is wonderfully efficient).

The Theory is based on the five letters in the name.

S Firstly when you meet new material, SURVEY it, which includes looking at the title, the headings, the pictures or diagrams (you know, what a kid would do when first picking up a book).

Q Then ask yourself a question like Is this what Einstein was on about? or How will this fit in with what I have already learned in this course?

R Only after asking yourself that focus question should you start reading. As you READ think of all the strategies our friend Harry used to keep his attention in focus. It does help to use all the strategies that are taught to kids to make them better readers (Read out loud, follow difficult materials with your finger, outline or copy key words, put comments in the margins, put a ruler under the line, in short anything that keeps us attending to what we are reading).

R Then RECITE, that means talk about, what you have read either to yourself or to another person (Dogs are great because they listen to every word their master says).

R The last step is to REVIEW . At this point go back and see if your question was answered by what you have been reading.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does the SQ3R work? Because it keeps your mind continually focused by using a variety of strategies to keep your attention.

Isn't the SQ3R a longwinded way of reading? No. It is not only efficient but also time effective. A student who uses the SQ3R method will read more quickly than another student who has to re-read material twice or even more times.

Why don't students all use this method if it's so great? The SQ3R method needs to be learnt and practiced. It involves a conscious effort on the part of the student to CHANGE their behaviours and use a new way of thinking and behaving. So becoming an optimist can certainly help enrich your study life.

Think about what the four students said about their reading styles. Can you recognize the pessimistic language like I have never and It is not possible for me.

You will remember what we have already discovered about the ABC. If you believe you can, YOU CAN.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=...

As you identify each step for writing assignments note especially the people who can help you through to a successful conclusion.

Step1: Check with your lecturer or tutor or study buddies what the assignment question is asking.

Step 2: The CQU Librarian will help you access your information. Are you aware that each faculty has a resource librarian who will answer your questions? Another resource person is your study buddy. You will recall how Pete and Ali share resources for their assignments.

Step 3: Talking over your ideas and plans for the assignment with a study buddy can help clarify the direction, arguement or perspective you decide to take in your writing.

Step 4: Time to Evaluate; This is the time for you to ensure you have enough research material to start answering the question. You may need to supplement it later with further information but start writing as soon as you can. Pessimists NEVER get started whereas Optimists start their tasks NEXT.

Step 5: This stage you MUST complete alone to avoid plagiarism. Write your first draft. You now will have a number of topics or headers that you will explore through your assignment. Type them in as Headers, that you can remove later, but which will give your work some structure. Start with whatever area seems easiest and proceed to other areas. This is not the time to worry about writing style but aims to get your ideas and research written down.

Step 6: Working to improve your draft can involve family, a friend or the Communications Learning Centre. Others can help you identify grammatical errors, how clear your arguement is expressed, can make suggestions. In short this stage brings the assignment to life.

Step 7: If you have kept to your 10% rule you will have time to leave your work for some time then return to fine tune it with a fresh approach.

copying files off my ipod to pc hard drive

2005-11-30T07:35:30+00:00

I have an external 120Gb firewire hard drive which has travelled with me from Sydney to UK to Auckland. It's worked really well. Well, until last week when it fell over and now makes horrible clunking noises when it's spinning up. Unfortunately this drive holds my ipod music files - copies of my cds and records that I couldn't bring with me from home. Luckily I'd done a full transfer to my ipod a couple of weeks ago, so the music is intact, but I can't export it back onto a hard drive (planning on buying another 2.5" drive instead of the firewire drive). I just found an article on endgaget about transferring files from your ipod back to hard drive using ephPOD. cool :) now I just have to buy the new drive and try it out.

mmst11001 week 2 exercises - photoshop files - 3d ball

2005-11-28T11:40:21+00:00

week 2 photoshop files for mmst11001 uni subject

different 3d balls, saved at different qualities
(unfortunately I cropped the drop shadow)

I should have spent more time on getting the image to look more 3d, but I wanted to try out the different formats vs filesizes and quality so I spent more time on this aspect.

[CSV]
3d_ball.jpg : manual save as jpg - medium quality (34 kb), 3d_ball.png : manual save as png - interlaced (75 kb)
,
3d_ball_adapt_128.gif : web save adaptive 128 colour gif (27 kb), 3d_ball_high.jpg : web save high quality jpg (18 kb)
,
3d_ball_low.jpg : web save low quality jpg (3 kb),3d_ball_medium.jpg : web save medium quality jpg (4.5 kb)
,
3d_ball_qual8.jpg : manual save as jpg quality=8 (36 kb),3d_ball_qual10.jpg : manual save as jpg high quality=10 (43 kb)
,
3d_ball_adapt_pattern_64.gif : manual save as gif adaptive pattern 64 colours (17 kb)
,
[/CSV]

semiotics - reading notes

2005-11-27T04:53:52+00:00

reading notes from Balsem's chapter on Semiotics

page 7-9
(pdf page 3-4)

Quote:

... signs are socially active forces, and so is interpretation. Therefore, the study of signs and the semiotic perspective on social communication is a relevant activity. But it can only be so if the factors so far encountered are taken into account. Signs are not things, but the result of acts carried out by individuals belonging to social groups. They do not emerge in isolation, but in relation to other signs, previously produced. They are based on grounds and result in effects that deserve to be studied as part of a larger endeavour whose goals stretch beyond purely academic understanding.

Thus conceived, semiotics is a much needed theory. It puruses various goals at the same time, in an attempt to be helpful for various purposes. It is meant to provide tools helpful for the interpretation of cultural products like texts, literary or not, films, paintings, music, gestures. It is also meant to provide insights that help us not only understand, but also counter, eventually undermine, social practices that are felt to be damaging to certain groups of people. It can be of use to students in disciplines like English, various literatures and comparative literature, art history, musicology, film studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and the study of religion, and in group-related fields like African American studies or women's studies. It can be used for the analysis of cultural products and for the understanding of their ideological basis; in other words, it can be used with or without explicit political purpose.

The most common answer to the question "What is a sign?" is: a sign is something that stands for something else. A flag stands for a nation, a set of letters for a word, the word for a concept; a drawing of Clinton, whether a caricate or not, stands for the President of the United States; an i.d. card stands for the bearer; a trumpet call in military camp stands for the order to wake up; a kiss for affection and an anxious, tense face for the anxiety the person feels. What are the implications of the idea of "standing for"?

Whenever there is a sign, there are two element: the thing that is the sign and the thing that the sign replaces. The thing for which the sign stands is absent; that is why the sign needs to stand in for it. If the absent item shows up, we don't need the sign any more.

... It is the relation between the sign and its environment that make it a sign. This is the syntactical relation.

... It has been designed as a sign, but it can only have that meaning, it can only function as a sign, if somebody sees and understands it as such. This is the pragmatic relation.

... If we take all these requirements together, we can say that a sign is not a thing but a function, an event. A sign does not exist but occurs. A sign occurs, then, when something is perceived, for certain reasons or on certain grounds, as standing for something else to someone. It needs interpretation. Most work in the humanities consists of acts of interpretation.

page 10
(pdf page 5)

Quote:

Signs allow us to communicate about something which is absent. As soon as a sign-event occurs, the question of that absent item arises: what is it that the sign stands for? What does it mean?

.. Sign and first meaning become a new sign. Logically, the first sign implies the second: the second sign consists of the first sign and its interpretation.

It is precisely because second (and further) meanings are developed out of first, previous meanings, that they are neither vague nor arbitrary. They are not vague but, on the contrary, more specific than the first meanings.

... The Robinson story confirms what we knew already: that signs-events occur only when signs are interpreted and that interpretation occurs in an interaction between sign and sign-user. It teaches us a little more about the process of semiosis and especially of the activity of the receiver or addressee in it, about interpretation that is. It teaches us in the first place that semiosis is a process, which involves agents, events, things and time. Specifically, we have seen that meaning, the result of interpretaion, is no more than the sign itself, not a fixed, objectified thing, but a complex process.

The following features of this process casn be retained:
* a second interpretation is the interpretation of a combination of sign and interpretation
* second interpretations are more specific than the first; first are more general
* second interpretations represent a further stage in the development of the sign event
* second interpretations are not vague, not arbitrary and not less important than the first interpretations
* no interpretation can be "right", "exhaustive", "certain" or "objective"
* but interpretations can be "wrong", that is, inadequate, when the relation whichthe sign-user establishes between sign and interpretation does not exist, is different, or sufficiently grounded
* mistaken interpretations will show by the lack of follow-up; they stop the interpretation, remain isolated, or bring no new insights
* first interpretations are sometimes called denotations; second and further interpretations, connotations

audio on the internet - internet radio, podcasts and hosting audio files

2005-11-26T02:17:28+00:00

I received and email from the guys at www.radioheritage.net who are setting up a non-profit project involved in 'Sharing the stories of Pacific Radio'. The site has a wealth of information, but they are looking for assistance in putting audio on their site, so people can listen to some of the radio programs. Unfortunately I don't have a great deal of spare time to assist them in depth, but I can provide some advice if that's of use so I replied as such. Perhaps this will be useful to others as well. We were always getting asked for advice on how to do internet radio (it's rather easy once you do it - people think it's harder than it actually is!), and these days with podcasting being so popular and becoming more prominent, anyone can create, broadcast and distribute their own radio programs, whether they be music related, talk show/story format or a combination. anyway, here's a few ideas, I'll try to post more as I get a chance. perhaps some tutorials or help notes on how to setup these things. posting video shows/videoblogs is what I've been trying out lately too, though most of my videos are still offline as I practice editing and capturing the story element.

Quote:

I worked on an internet radio project
and had a weekly (& some times twice weekly) show on the station for
about 4.5 years. the show was done from home, so I had to setup a
mini-radio studio using a couple of pcs, turntables, cd players,
minidisc, microphones etc. it was more convenient than actually going
to a radio station as I could do the show from home and have guests
come in for a dj set or to play live or have an interview/chat. this
is similar to what a radio station does, but doing it from home is
different from working at a radio station per se. (less politics for
one!) the server was in sydney, or usa (plus relay servers in other
places) but we had shows broadcast from cities around the world. I was
originally in brisbane, then moved to sydney, but also did a couple of
shows from uk whilst on holidays, so it didn't matter where I was
physically in the world. I've setup net radio servers on pcs at home
(using shoutcast/oddcast server technologies) to do my own shows
separate from the station, and have setup some podcasts with local and
remote files to see how it was done, though I haven't had time to do a
regular show since moving overseas. I'll only be in Auckland until
next March or so when I return to UK for work, but I'll still be
available on email.

there are a few options for audio on your website, forgive me if I'm
repeating what you already know,

- internet radio - your site is the server
- internet radio - server hosted remotely (sometimes there is a cost
involved in this)
- posting individual audio files onto your site (hosted locally) (mp3
would be the most commonly used for listeners)
- posting links to audio files/mp3s on your site but the files are
hosted remotely
- distributing the files as podcasts using rss feeds - audio files
hosted locally
- distributing the files as podcasts using rss feeds - audio files
hosted remotely

you could have one or all or a combination of the above depending on
things such as:

- amount of webspace you have available for hosting files (diskspace,
file management)
- the amount of bandwidth you have available for people downloading
files (it can become expensive, as you will pay the costs of visitors
downloading if files are hosted locally or served from your local
server)
- the amount of resources you have for server maintence, remote access
to be able to restart server (eg for internet radio option)
- cost factors such as remote server fees (but then the remote server
company manages the servers so it's similar to website hosting costs &
less hassle for you)
- other features which help create/build community such as irc/chat,
forums, shoutboxes, answering emails from listeners,
newsletters/maillists, ability for listeners to leave comments on the
website for show feedback - so the listeners and the radio
broadcasters can give/receive feedback. we found this was really
useful as it created a vibe and people wanted to be involved and it
kept people interested as they felt part of the community
- rss feeds on your site for podcasts, so people can subscribe to the
podcast feed, then whenever a new show is available it is sent to
their podcast software (eg itunes, ipodder/lemon, doppler). rss feeds
can be hosted locally if you're website CMS/blogging system supports
it or they can be created externally and linked to your site if you
don't have rss capabilities already.
- licencing costs eg APRA/AMCOS are the Australian organisations, I'm
not sure what are the equivalent NZ orgs.

semester 3 2005 uni timetable

2005-11-25T11:16:05+00:00

semester 3 uni timetable

[CSV]
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
day,week 1,week 2,week 3,week 4,week 5,week 6,vacation,week 7,week 8,week 9,week 10,week 11,week 12,review,exams
date,14-Nov,21-Nov,28-Nov,5-Dec,12-Dec,19-Dec,26-Dec,2-Jan,9-Jan,16-Jan,23-Jan,30-Jan,6-Feb,13-Feb,27-Feb
course 1,,,,,assignment 1,,,,assignment 2,,,,assignment 3,,
MMST11001,,,,,animated gif & essay,,,,cd cover & essay,,,,hypertext & html,,
,,,,,due Friday 16th,,,,due Friday 13th,,,,due Friday 10th,,
,,,,,final edit Wed 14th,,,,final edit Wed 11th,,,,final edit Wed 8th,,
,,,,,20%,,,,30%,,,,50%,,
,,,AS1,AS1,AS1,,,AS3,AS3,AS3,AS3,AS3,AS3,,
,,,,,,AS2,AS2,AS2,AS2,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
course 2,msg board,msg board,msg board,msg board,msg board,msg board,,msg board,msg board,msg board,msg board,msg board,msg board,,
,WK1,,WK3,,WK5,,,WK7,,WK9,,WK11,,,
GOAS,,WK2,,WK4,,WK6,,,WK8,,WK10,,WK12,,
,0%,0%,0%,0%,0%,0%,,0%,0%,0%,0%,0%,0%,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
[/CSV]

weekly timetables :

template:

[CSV]
time,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday
6 - 7,,,,,,,
7 - 8,,,,,,,
8 - 9,,,,,,,
9 - 10,,,,,,,
10 - 11,,,,,,,
11 - 12,,,,,,,
12 - 1,,,,,,,
1 - 2,,,,,,,
2 - 3,,,,,,,
3 - 4,,,,,,,
4 - 5,,,,,,,
5 - 6,,,,,,,
7 - 8,,,,,,,
8 - 9,,,,,,,
9 - 10,,,,,,,
10 - 11,,,,,,,
11 - 12,,,,,,,
12 - 1,,,,,,,
total hours,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
daily tasks,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
[/CSV]

week 3:

[CSV]
time,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday
6 - 7,,,,,,,
7 - 8,,,,,,,
8 - 9,,,,,,,
9 - 10,,,,,,,
10 - 11,,,,,,,
11 - 12,,,,,,,
12 - 1,,,,,,,
1 - 2,,,,,,assign1,
2 - 3,,,,,,assign1,
3 - 4,,,,,,assign1,
4 - 5,,,,,,assign1,
5 - 6,,,,,,assign1,
7 - 8,work,work,work,work,work,,
8 - 9,ex2,ex2,readings3,assign1,,,
9 - 10,ex2,ex2,readings3,assign1,,,
10 - 11,ex2,ex2,readings3,ex3,,,
11 - 12,ex2,ex2,ex3,ex3,,,
12 - 1,,,,,,,
total hours,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
daily tasks,,,,,,,,
readings week2,,,,,,,,
readings week3,,,,,,,,
ex3,,,,,,,,
ex2,,,,,,,,
assign1 prac,,,,,,,,
assign1 research,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
[/CSV]

MIT open courseware - CMS-930 Media, Education and the Marketplace - Fall 2001

2005-11-18T10:12:53+00:00

notes from the Media Education and the Marketplace video lectures

lecture 1 & 2
reading list
personal media :
- ability to control point of view -> who's point of view is the media designed for?
- ability to appropriate things
- storytelling
- importance of media literacy in education : teacher=broadcaster, kids=consumer
with examples from www.starfestival.com educational cd

lecture 3
video internet :
- details of the internet 'plumbing', tcp/ip, internet technologies, media transmission technologies and systems
- rtp (realtime protocol) instead of tcp, mpls (multi-protocol labelling system??) to speed transmission of packets, with less jitter
- wave division multiplexing - carrying signals on light waves (wavelengths of light); lambda switching networks
- what is the next killer app?? (2001) vod, video phone, video conferencing, email, HD on internet, ..
- phases of new tech: arbitrage, domination of new technologies, new applications available on new technologies, convergence/integration of old and new technologies, introduction of standards
- communication technologies have historically (wrt to internet) been more successful than content, then came commerce
- education vs entertainment media - education usually doesn't have the same budgets or production values available to them compared to entertainment
- presentation of HD video over internet II

lecture 4
reading list
Media, Education, and Technology
- educators need to adapt to the readily available media which kids are surrounded with; allow teachers to explore the technology and create 'learning landscapes'
- allows kids to be creative and think differently and use technology effectively
- engaged learning
- create paths to lifelong learning
- ubiquitous computing : any time, any place, any where
- examples :
Nasa website - nebula
'seas of change' seashore project - kids created journals, booklets
virtual cave - exploration of caves, planet, human body, etc...
immerse-a-desk?? in the future??

lecture 5
Educational Uses of Technology
- describes different projects
- learning tutor software agents which predict & suggests similar information to that which the student is searching for or researching at that point in time. agent keeps history information on what the student is looking at and uses this data to provide more references

this morning's dream while it's fresh in my head

2005-11-11T23:06:24+00:00

I woke up at about 4:30 this morning then couldn't sleep properly, thinking about this week's nightmare at work, but must have finally drifted back to sleep as I woke again at 11:09 and then drifted off for another sleep.

I forget the reason why, but I remember talking with 3 other people, though they were more like avatars, or characters out of lord of the rings. a wizard character carrying a long wooden staff, and two others. for some reason we decided that the only way to solve whatever we needed to solve was to walk across this huge expanse of water and land on the island we'd heard about (but not seen or been before) on the other side. we had special fittings on our shoes that allowed us to walk on the water - but as long as we didn't stop. if we stopped, we'd fall into the water and likely drown. so off we went, walking, walking, walking for what seemed like hours. the water was very calm, much like a lake, with hardly any waves to disturb our journey. after walking for a long time and seemingly only half way there, one of us said, "you know, it would be good if there was a pylon or wooden deck in the middle of this waterway so we could stop and rest for a short time. soon after, that's exactly what we saw. a wooden deck was floating in the water, though it was fixed to the bottom of the seabed. we walked to it and stepped onto it. from the water, it had looked as if it were empty, but as soon as we stepped onto it, we saw that there were many others there also. once on the wooden planks it looked like a platform, there was a barrier which most people were sitting behind. many of them seemed to be school children from a private school, aged about 12-15, all neatly dressed in school uniform of long dark coloured shorts and white button up shirts. there were also some others who seemed, from their clothes at least, to be waiting to go on their way to work. I looked out the otherside of the platform and could see boats moored against the side of the platform. we asked what they were doing there and received replies of 'oh nothing' , 'we're just having a rest'. we asked if they were waiting for a train to collect them and take them to the island on the otherside, and they said, 'no, there's no train out here, we're just resting'. soon we heard a loud irregular splashing noise, and turned to see a gigantic crocodile heading towards the platform. it had what seemed to be train carriages on it's back and was steaming through the water towards the platform. it was just like a train, though the carriages were irregularly shaped, much like enlarged pieces of the crocodile's skin blown up to a size that people and avatars could sit inside. the front carriage sat behind the crocodile's head and snout and had an opening so you could sit inside and outside on small benches if you wanted to see the view as you travelled. the crocodile made a wide circle in the water and turned around so it was facing the island. it seemed as though the crocodile train would not take us back the way we had walked, but it could take us to the island which was where we wanted to go. we walked to board the crocodile once it had berthed, then were lost in all the workers and school children as they rushed to board also. I was thinking, 'but they said they weren't waiting for the train, now see them rush to board so as not to miss it, strange'. we spoke to the crocodile as he was waiting for people to climb aboard and he said it was a good job and he enjoyed it and that crocdiles had changed alot since we had last heard of them. they no longer tried to eat people, but instead gave them rides to where they wanted to go, similar to what the dolphins had once done. he smiled, then we climbed aboard into the front compartment and off we went. the crocodile's legs seemed like they were spinning in the water, making loud whirring, splashing noises. the trip was quite comfortable.

then I woke up! so not sure if we made it to the island safely or why we wanted to go in the first place. but it was an adventure along the way, and when we thought of things, we made them happen so a positive dream all in all.

(apologies for typos and grammatical errors - written in free form while I remembered it and not edited. I hardly remember dreams though this week I've remembered 3 days in a row but the others have been work related conversations, so it's unusual for me - I wanted to capture it while I could)

video for web settings

2005-10-09T08:53:42+01:00

I went to the Auckland Hip Hop Summit on Saturday afternoon and caught some of the b-boying / breakdancing DISRUPT THE FLOOR heats and semis. The finals were held that night but I didn't make along. The Hip Hop Summit website will have the results. I took some video and am trying to convert it so I can upload to archive.org. What a challenge this is proving to be! The camera records direct to DVD which is great for previewing directly on my pc (or dvd player - though I don't have one here in Auckland), but the software that it comes with doesn't provide much in the way of conversion utilities. :( I have some software called MGI VideoWave which I've had for a while - since buying my Belkin usb/rca converter I think. It works ok - it's like a mini- Premiere package with a basic interface. But it doesn't open mpeg2 files or DVD .vob files directly.. So, to use this method, I need to connect the video camera to the Belkin video input and capture the vide and audio. Now, the camera does AC3 audio inherantly which sounds great on the DVD, but pretty crap once it's been recaptured - especially since the input on the level meter is stuck at 100% so it's really high level. I can capture the video this way, save as .avi file, then open in Quicktime and convert to .mov but quicktime is dropping the audio altogether!

The other method I can use, is to use quicktime to open the .vob files on the DVD, but this only seems to open the first chapter of the movie so I only get a short video not the complete video. It was a drama to even get this to work as well. I'd previously purchased the quicktime mpeg2 option but have since upgraded my version of quicktime (I think when I upgraded my iTunes) and somehow the mpeg2 option was lost as I couldn't even open .mpg files in quicktime at all. Since the cost is pretty low (+ I've lost the original install file for the mpeg2 option), I purchased it again, and at least now I can open .mpg files and the .vob files in quicktime even though the results are not perfect. I tried opening mpeg files and saving as .mov but I lost the audio again!

I also tried saving the encoded movies as .asf files but this made the files twice the size which doesn't help for the web now does it!

The quest continues...

I think it's time to read through some of the tips at node101 and see what the videobloggers would do.

VIDFEST

2004-05-25T19:51:00+01:00

Join today's top creators and producers of digital content at the
Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST) June 25-26, 2004.
www.vidfest.com
Keynote Panels + Short Films + Master Classes+ Web Design + Animation + Video Game Championship = A Superlative Showcase of Digital Media
Don't Miss it! *Early Bird Tickets On Sale Now Until June 4th*

a n a r c o n . 0 4 : autonomous activist conference

2003-12-13T07:03:00+00:00

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
a n a r c o n . 0 4

australian anarchist & autonomous activist conference
perth_WA
invasion day long weekend
jan23-27.2004

lets spend a long weekend non-stop talking the anarchist talk: from staunch
anarchist to hard autonomous activists - or those of slight anarchist
politico persuasion - or just emotional anarchists or people interested in
talking/listening/sharing ideas towards society based on active voluntary
participation and respect... or whatever the `anarchism` box means to YOU!
you should come to Anarcon04 to share ideas, words, art and respect.... all
welcome!

VENUEs:
CITY FARM [behind claisebrook train station]
GROOVY SPACE - 195 pier st perth. [indymediaHQ]

ALL peoples invited / entry by DONATION

GET INVOLVED...
we want to hear from YOU!
brian g - gaudium@planet-save.com
allanboyd - allanx@octapod.org
[come to a meeting - join the list]

heres some proposed ideas...

WORKSHOPS
workshops/discussions:
programmed topics - some floating ideas:
# anarchy? in 21century? no way?- Q & A about anarchism now.
# i am not an anarchist but i love you - autonomous radical activism
# wobblies iww - anarco-perspectives
# anarchist history of australia/WA
# no borders - no nations
# anarchist sectarianism?
# aboriginal activism and anarchism
# building community spaces - the city farm/groovy space experiences
# anarchist organising? collective process and concensus
# deep ecology & biocentrism - bioregionalism?
# scamming - how to survive and scam the system
# how to stay a sane and healthy activist
# banged up - supporting the prisoner movement, you could be one yourself
very soon!
# voice control - voluntary participatory media be the media! [perth
indymedia collective]
# 21st century activism - networks without system.
# why r socialists such bastards? - megaphone/politix etc
# radical vegainism explored - u are what u eat - an anarchist cookbook
# simple methods of anarko-retaliation 101 / 102 / 103 / 104
# obedience kills ideas - open source technology and copyleft ideology
# ASIO bills and anarco-activism.
# LOCK it on - NVDA workshops
# junkadelic workshop/ performance
# stencil/graf workshop / brick poetry / street art legals etc
# laptops in active intervention
# digital cam / audio recording workshop
# film screenings by perth.indymedia
# zine-makers jam/workshop
# random art collaboration
[hey - more topix needed - let us know - contribute yr ideas now!]

OPEN_SPACE WORKSHOPS:
all day organic topics / design yr own workshop / ANYTHING
engage and participate in free-space open workshop/discussions!

ANARCON_04 EVENTS:
# opening welcome and walk - by local indigenous & activist mobs.
# ZINE.CDr tradefair
# indymedia activist video-fest
# anarchist libray / anarko-activist art exhibition
# anarchist ball / Seize the Streets party
# perth surface urban collaborative pirate interventions
plus evening entertainment chill/band/hard recommended gigs

||?ANARCHIST BALL?||
venue: shhh secret abandoned warehouse!
featuring CarCrashFace / noisecore_discofck / pumkinfish99 / and
lollywaterDJ.
projections/things and insane poets...
possible nudity. donation entry.
byo urban decorations.

DIRECT ACTION TOURs:
journey to various active sites
Ludlow Tall Tuarts / Lake Jasper / Windarling Range / Lancelin / Fremantle
etc...
more suggestions welcome...

FOODandACCOMODATION
we can billet - please enquire
or camping... backpackers... squats etc

ANARCON_04 CONTACTs:
let us know yr comin and we`ll put the jug on...
brian g - gaudium@planet-save.com
allan boyd - allanx@octapod.org
phone: 0402 573 580
snail: PO Box 389
Kalamunda WA 6076
fax 9257 2844

http://www.anarcon.org for more details/plans/discussion/travel/accom etc
[fully functioning by dec12]

info on anarcon03 here:
http://www.anarcon.org

anarcon04 conference will be documented:
on http://www.perth.indymedia.org
and http://www.nomasters.org

|||||...so like er, what is an anarchist, mate?

perhaps anarchists could be defined as people who reject all forms of
coercive authority.
anarchists actively resist or reject, indeed seek to abolish, all forms of
domination or hierarchy.
with radical intention, an anarchist desires a life free of exploitation or
corporate-based profit.
anarchists intrinsically demand human rights and seek to inhabit a society
without State, Church or Capitalism; without Sexism, Nationalism, Racism or
Homophobia... etc.
furthermore anarchists believe that Private Property [private, corporate,
state ownership of capital, resource and ideas] is theft and that wage
labour is a form of slavery.
anarchists want to share their society completely, encourage respect for all
resources and distribution of all responsibilities fairly and equitably
across all societies and all life.
an anarchist seeks a productive culture of voluntary contribution and
participation without threat, fear or intimidation. many anarchists practice
deep ecology.
like all humanity, meaning is relative to experience - even to anarchists.

info on [filter] + instructions for posting your news

2003-10-17T14:54:00+01:00

::: the aim of www.AliaK.com / [filter] is to help spread the word of Australian electronic music, arts, multimedia, technology via news, project, calls for submissions, new releases and event listings ::: listings are sent to maillists and websites via the XML newsfeeds and sometimes people read them via this site ::: visit the forums for instructions on how to post your news and for new features added to the site - try out the search page ::: all work on this site is on a voluntary basis so any help uploading news items is greatly appreciated! ::: you can also find details of my [briz:b:e:a:t:s] internet radio show listing past, present and future featured electronic music artists on www.pulseradio.net. click on the collaborative book link above to view [filtered], an online book of interviews with Australian music/arts artists ::: help support local electronic & electroacoustic music artists! ::: see you out & about :::