Category: General

3-D Without the Glasses http://bit.ly/dgugBL From Microsoft, but not any time soon.

The new lens, which is thinner at the bottom than at the top, steers light to a viewer’s eyes by switching light-emitting diodes along its bottom edge on and off. Combined with a backlight, this makes it possible to show different images to different viewers, or to create a stereoscopic (3-D) effect by presenting different images to a person’s left and right eye. “What’s so special about this lens is that it allows us to control where the light goes,” says Steven Bathiche, director of Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group.

Google adjusts WebM license to be more like Apache and GPL3 http://bit.ly/cJqsWt

Creating another variation on an open source license would make it difficult to bundle WebM with other software using a different license.

On Friday, Google announced that, in response to the community’s concerns, a “small change” was made to WebM’s license, restoring the “pure BSD nature” of the license as well as GPL compatibility. The change modifies the license’s patent clause to reflect the GPL3 and Apache patent clauses, which separate rights to patents from rights to copyright. Under the original license, anyone bringing patent litigation against Google would have surrendered all rights granted by the license — the new language clarifies that only patent rights would be terminated, the same penalty incurred under the GPL3 and Apache licenses.

Yet another 3D glasses issue: they’re not clean (even in plastic) http://yhoo.it/b5ZGGr No good housekeeping seal of approval!

I should also point out that most surfaces in a cinema will have similar levels of “germs” (ie bacteria and viruses if we want to be accurate) but it’s the yuk factor of having them on your face for two hours that I’d simply rather not think about!

Bottom line: There’s probably nothing to be alarmed about, but if you’re really concerned about the cleanliness of 3-D glasses, you’ll probably need to clean them yourself with a disinfectant wipe before you put them on. Failing that, there are plenty of perfectly watchable 2-D movies that require no special eyewear still making the rounds.

Earlier this week I recorded a podcast with Carl Olson fro his Digital Convergence Podcast. We talked for nearly an hour and covered a wide range of topics, from my desire to overturn the current Television regime and make it more democratized, to Apple’s announcements at the WWUG keynote.

http://bit.ly/bFyBZW

Locals and Tourists heat map for Flick’r uploads http://bit.ly/9ipzzn

As well as being just darn cool and showing off what we can do when we have large amounts of data and the ability to analyze it, I really like this use of Inferred Metadata. Inferred Metadata is not explicit. In this case the inference is that people who upload photos about the target city during a limited period (a month) are tourists, particularly if they usually upload to Flick’r from another city.

There’s a lot that can be done with Inferred Metadata. Check out my article The Mundane and Magic Future of Metadata in Supermeet Magazine number 4 (it’s free).

What exactly does HTML5 mean?http://bit.ly/cCM89x

Just like AJAX/Ajax before it, there’s a battle running over what, exactly HTML5 means. It means many things and this article at Ajaxian.com (would it be html5.com if it were started today?) explains in detail what all the different references mean, and what features are in each. Good read for anyone trying to better understand “HTML5”.

Going deeper, I’ve broken these down into separate areas:

• “HTML5 Strict” – Things that are strictly inside the W3C’s HTML5 spec.
• “Referenced by HTML5″ – Things that are referenced by the HTML5 spec and which can optionally be parsed into the DOM and displayed.
• “Broken out of HTML5″ – Things that used to be part of HTML5 or its older iterations, called Web Applications and Web Forms.
• “HTML5 Family of Technologies” – Extended set of technologies not strictly part of HTML5 spec or referenced but likely to be used in conjunction with HTML5.
• “HTML5++” – More experimental technologies pushing the web forward that are not part of the HTML5 spec at all; may or may not see broader adoption.

One small note; there are actually two HTML5 specs, one maintained by the W3C and the othermaintained by the WhatWG.

A Guide To The Cultural Battle That Is Reshaping The Media Business http://bit.ly/bhV7qC Top-down vs. Passion-driven; The Hero vs The Masses.

A much more thoughtful post than you’d expect from the “icanhascheesburger” guy! It’s not a long article but it’s well worth the read to understand the tension between traditional media and Internet Media.

The challenge for big media companies is not just financial. They have to find a way to embrace the power of their users and change their thought process and attitude towards their customers, while not alienating the creator-centric model that currently pays the bills. Interestingly enough, it’s the music industry (thanks to the pains caused by file-sharing) that’s beginning to experiment with ways to embrace the fans through merchandise and concerts, even if it means less short-term revenues.

RT Early Bird Pricing ends WED June 9 at 11:55pm BEST DEAL – do the WHOLE DAY: http://philiphodgetts.eventbrite.com #money #film #video

If you’re not in San Francisco, I apologize for the interruption.

Apple loves ads in Apps; Safari 5 blocks them in reader mode. http://bit.ly/dp3I8F Inconsistent Apple?

I really don’t have anything to add to the Ars Technica article except that it’s the kind of thing that happens in a big company with different divisions acting independently. I don’t think there’s a big conspiracy going on, just lack of internal communication.

Tremor Media CEO: We Have the Scale of Large Cable Network http://bit.ly/a8tMHc 7 figure advertising deals.

Using familiar TV metrics can help brands open their wallets to the Web. Another contributing factor to the growth in large deals is the scale and scope of online video. Tremor serves more than 1 billion video streams each month to more than 190 million unique users, a reach akin to many of the largest cable networks,

I’d prefer that we paid for our media other than advertising but at least some of the business continues as normal. (That’s not a good thing really.)