Category: Item of Interest

Darpa looking for “anomalous behavior” http://bit.ly/dsR2eV Once you get computers “inferring” all sorts of editing can be done automatically.

Inferred metadata: metadata that can reasonably inferred from actual data. For example photos with a similar time stamp are grouped in iPhoto (and other apps) as an “Event”: inferred from the time stamps being grouped together.

Check our my “The Mundane and Magic Future of Metadata” Article in Supermag Number 4 for more about the different types of metadata (I think there’s a sixth type of metadata” links back to my earlier articles. Inferred is Number 4.)

Good article on self promotion http://bit.ly/bdkfas -How to have good relationships as a self publisher. Networking gets us work! Work at it constantly.

So, after that quick brain dump, let me recap:

• Relationships are everything.
• We publish primarily in text without the nuance of critical non-verbal communication.
• Text has non-verbal elements like style and emoticons, but we can only control the latter.
• Context is also non-verbal communication. Context is karma: Character and professional reputation.

Written from a British perspective but with an American context in mind. Good advice for anyone who needs to network, and that’s everyone.

Cringely talks on the future of Television http://bit.ly/cxfa37 First I heard of it, but Veetle http://bit.ly/r3cJP looks interesting.

I disagree with Robert Cringely as much as I agree, but I always read his recent postings because they make me think. And that’s a good thing for me.

What makes this one interesting is that he exposed me to Veetle for the first time. Veetle is an attempt to bridge the openness of the net, the on-demand future of media consumption, with a protection model that doesn’t get in the way.  I could be interested in that!

Veetle, if you haven’t heard of it, is a Palo Alto-based startup that isn’t nominated for this summer’s Startup Tour.  Veetle appears from my vantage point to be a peer-to-peer video distribution system that most closely parallels the current cable TV model except applied to the Internet.  Veetle video channels can be viewed in a browser (32-bit plug-in required) and present — just like CNN — a continuous stream of programming that can’t be interrupted, paused, or changed and can’t be very easily recorded, either.

In fact a Veetle channel very well could be CNN, because almost anyone can become a Veetle broadcaster by just grabbing a video feed from their DVD player or cable box and throwing it up on the web in glorious H.264.  Veetle is an adolescent cesspool of intellectual property confusion but that’s part of what makes it so much fun.

HTML pack for Dreamweaver http://bit.ly/9AXrmA Adobe is moving quickly demoing HTML 5 support in Dreamweaver at Google I/O Conference.

It’s in Adobe labs http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/html5pack/ ready for experimenting now.

Demonstrated on stage:

First, Kevin [Lynch] is showing the HTML5 pack for Dreamweaver. It augments Dreamweaver with code hinting, an updated WebKit for the live view, the fun multiscreen demo that Adobe has been sharing for awhile, and starter layouts for HTML5.

Then we see Kevin use a new prototype tool that allows him to create a rich ad (of course! 🙂 using CSS3 transforms and animations. This is a design tool folks. Think timelines, layers, and more.

I think this is great news for Adobe and HTML5 regardless of what might happen with Flash (which is going to be with us for quite a while).

Not so wonderful in implication is the comment:

Once people figure out HTML5 ads are much harder to block than flash or simple images, it’s going to take off.

Darn. Flash advertising is easy to block and blocked, the web is a better place, generally.

Selectedable output control *isn’t* going to lead to earlier online releases, just break your tV http://bit.ly/d7ySVq

MPAA stupidity (well, outright lies really) about why they needed Selectable Output Control (that turns off digital outputs when a studio or broadcaster feels like turning your outputs off):

Oh, and my favorite part is how the MPAA is playing this. Acting MPAA boss Bob Pisano put out thefollowing statement when the FCC’s announcement was made on May 17th:

“This action is an important victory for consumers who will now have far greater access to see recent high definition movies in their homes. And it is a major step forward in the development of new business models by the motion picture industry to respond to growing consumer demand…” (emphasis added)

So, gee, what does Pisano have to say, just a few days later when it turns out that none of that is true?

When asked about the studios’ plans late last week, Bob Pisano, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said, “I can’t tell you that, because I don’t know.” To comply with antitrust law, he added, “we stay out of business-model decisions.”

 

Uh huh. So, let me get this straight. He argued — successfully — to the FCC, that granting this waiver to break people’s TVs and DVRs would certainly create new business models and allow much more content to be available earlier. But, when it comes to actually supporting that, he claims that the MPAA “stays out” of business model decisions? So, how could he possibly have promised such “new business models” to the FCC in the first place?

 

If it comes from the RIAA or the MPAA it’s almost certainly not true or based on facts.

 

Computer algorithm understands sarcasm http://bit.ly/cjwbRp Better understanding than most people!

About half of Adobe’s Flash Showcase has iPod/iPad/iPhone ready content http://bit.ly/9cR2aN

In preparation for Google I/O and the partnership between Google and Adobe, both companies are planning to show off just how well flash runs on mobile devices. This is of course a rebuttal of Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash. Adobe has now released a site that will display a list of these sites, much like Apple did with the iPad. But here’s the kicker: A large majority of the sites on their list already display HTML5 content in place of Flash, and some of them even have custom apps available for iPhone/iPad. Let’s look at the breakdown:

It’s mostly the Flash gaming sites that, not surprising, won’t work on the iDevices.

Oprah Winfrey Network “Documentary Club” http://bit.ly/dt5WQi Will Oprah do for docs what she did with Book Club and how do I get doc in?

Inspired by Oprah’s celebrated Book Club, OWN’s documentary film club will include a primetime airing on the channel, an online community experience on OWN.tv, and potentially, a nationwide theatrical screening event.

The application of the Book Club model to a dedicated documentary slot could be a game-changer for the niche:

• Time magazine reported that book publishers credit an Oprah endorsement with increasing print runs by up to 500%.

• According to a 2005 Business Week report on the book-buying ‘frenzies’ that Ms Winfrey inspired: “Publishers estimate that her power to sell a book is anywhere from 20 to 100 times that of any other media personality.”

Pro Apps Interface update? Job ads might suggest http://bit.ly/9rOuhX Not surprising considering what is to be done. http://bit.ly/dv9zpu

It makes sense that they’re hiring interface designers. Final Cut Pro (next) needs to transfer from using the current interface to the Pro Apps Kit interface framework that is used by Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Compressor and Cinema Tools. (And for the late LiveType.) Even when remaking similar interfaces (as most of FCP (next) will be) there’s still a lot of work to be done, and presumably they’ll add in one or two new features!

I’m personally hoping that the Bin/Browser structure gets updated so we can see all the Source Metadata from cameras without having to use miniME. Plus I’d expect it’ll be 64 bit (as most Apple software already is) and take advantage of Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL to give Mercury-Engine-like performance.

Iron Sky Releases First Footage to Get Donations http://bit.ly/btqncj Followup movie from Star Wrek producers http://bit.ly/kNbeW

Iron Sky is the next production from the producers of the amazing Star Wrek, which was created in a small 11×12′ room despite being set in the vast reaches of space. 3D CG and smart use of green screen and compositing created a big screen feel for Star Wrek.

Production of Iron Sky, the storyline for which involves Nazis that escaped to the moon at the end of World War II ready to come back to Earth, involves more than 1,500 volunteers and a big donor base, which Energia is tapping into to cover half of the movie’s production costs. The movie’s total budget is €6.5 million (about $8.2 million), the biggest budget ever for a Finish movie, according to Iron Sky director Timo Vuorensola. Iron Sky will be professionally distributed in theaters, and the soundtrack is from the Slovenian Industrial group Laibach.