|
How did you like the show?
Report a problem
Reviews:
| Review this podcast |
| Review this podcast |
Episodes
- bike at Erie Canal locks just south of Akron Ohio [Flickr]
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:51:56 -0500mmeiser2 posted a photo:
I believe this was the first set of locks south of Akron on the Erie Canal Towpath Trail.
- great country roads NW of Wooster [Flickr]
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:51:26 -0500mmeiser2 posted a photo:
I loved heading west from Wooster on Ohio's back roads.
All ohio's backroads are superbly paved, but west of wooster you're crossing ridge lines going over toward the Tuscarawas River valley. The roads just sort of gently roll and wind through these beautiful valleys. No traffic, smooth roads, rolling hills, hitting speeds of 35mph. - City Hall Wooster Ohio [Flickr]
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:51:02 -0500mmeiser2 posted a photo:
I believe this is the City Hall. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Great building. Rivals even those of Chillicothe Ohio.
- the new Salsa [Flickr]
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:11:58 -0500mmeiser2 posted a photo:
So, new Salsa came out yesterday... this bike was built for me. Really it was. I swear it. :)
The first pictures even have my fav Topeak Morph bike pump on it. It's like I've already ridden it. They should have called the Mike'r. ;)
In fact it's called the Fargo (like the movie) and it is a 29'r mountain touring bike. It's a whole new breed of mountain bike. A morph of cyclocross, touring and mountain.
If you were going to do the GDR, simply the TransIowa or for that matter just roam the back roads of Fargo North Dakota this would be the ultimate bike for you.
A few highlights.
1) Can switch between 700c road or 29" mountain tires up to 2.4" in width. In fact you could even build up a 26" wheel on the disk hub if say you were on the other side of the world and you busted a rim. It's just one of the many advantages of 29r's and disk brakes. In fact the only thing they possibly could have added was v-brake mounts for 26 and/or 29 inches wheels "just in case".
2) Cyclo-style drop bar for many hand positions.. for when you're out there riding a 14 hour day. (Still definitely a mountain bike.)
3) Has six water bottle mounts... see if you can find them all. Hint: when you have six water bottle mounts you can spare one for mounting other essentials.
4) Has all the mounts and trimmings including those for disks, fenders, and all manner of touring racks.
5) You can probably put a 29'r front suspension fork on it if you like but most likely it won't ever need one since 29r's are famous for their ability to absorb anything... well anything unless you're looking to do downhill or free ride... which I suppose you could swap out the bars and front for and do that as well.
6) Cro-Mo frame. The ultimate material for durability and value.
All in all it's a TREMENDOUSLY versatile bike.
I can't wait to get mine.
The only problem is it supposedly won't be available until February!?
Perhaps Salsa should send me one for "testing". At 6'5" and 250+ lbs I've been known to push things to their limits and I just got back from a 4 day / 400 mile trip down into the hills of SW Ohio on my Surly Cross-check. (Pics are forthcoming.) - Links for 2008-08-28 [del.icio.us]
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500 - City of love (a video)
(-0mb)
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:30:01 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
City of love HD from Leonardo Dalessandri on Vimeo.
This is just a superb video I stumbled upon today of compiled of footage from Parma, Italy by a talented Leonardo Dalessandri.
The sound track is a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity (aka. Major Tom) by Emilie Simon, whom I've blogged about before.
The subject is of course love in the city of Parma.
I strongly suggest checking it out on Vimeo where you can view it in HD. - Flickr has a new slideshow (0mb)
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:20:34 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Many of us have been wondering when flickr would redo their excellent slideshow feature to support video (since flickr now supports video).
Starting today flickr has a new slideshow. It not only supports video but has a full screen feature. Works great for embedding photosets in pages, but still has some wonkiness as it doesn't always play videos nor always go full screen, but I'm confident they'll straighten these minor problems out.
Enjoy some of my latest photos and videos. :)
From: mmeiser on flickr - Links for 2008-08-20 [del.icio.us]
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500- Electric Bikes - Electric-Bikes.com
An excellent overview of existing electric bike kits including BMC, Go-hub, BionX and Crystalyte. Far and away the brushless hub motor looks to be the way everything is going.
- Electric Bikes - Electric-Bikes.com
- first time out [Flickr]
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:17:20 -0500mmeiser2 posted a photo:
first time out with the new toy, handles great, glides a lot better then I thought it would and the drop skeg keeps her going straight while cruising.
- Links for 2008-08-11 [del.icio.us]
Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500- Old Man Mountain Pannier Racks For Any Bike
Makers of very tough and relatively affordable pannier bike racks capable of holding up to 60 lbs and mounting on suspension. Used by the guys from epic designs for their loast coast tour. - Iditarod Trail Invitational-home page
Official Alaska Ultrasport homepage for the Iditarod race. The ultimate bike adventure race. Now in 350 and 1100 mile lengths. 1100 miles in winter... that's just insane. In a good way. - The Alaskan beach bike, birding, packrafting, bar hopping, fishing extravaganza! - Mtbr.com Forums
A great overview of a Homer Alaska beach ride involving everything from pack rafting on the ocean to quicksand, wetlands, snow, sand and ice. Pretty amazing stuff. - from hope to homer via bike, a bike expedition
early 2004, expedition from hope to homer dupicated by eric parsons of epic designs in 2008 with his 2 day old pugsley... perhaps it was his inspiration
- Old Man Mountain Pannier Racks For Any Bike
- Links for 2008-08-09 [del.icio.us]
Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500- Airzound - Delta Cycle
rechargeable airhorn works off a plastic bottle. Been seeing these here and there lately, as of this bookmarking it's already been bookmarked 24 times. There's been a lot of times when I've wished i had a 115 decible horn, but I can't honestly say it was for saftey's sake. Mostly I wonder if I'd just use it in a negative / retributive fashion.
- Airzound - Delta Cycle
- Links for 2008-08-08 [del.icio.us]
Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500- BTS | Household Spending on Transportation
2004 study results reported the average american family spent $7,825, representing 19% of "household" expenditures with only housing being more (33%), $3711 of this was spent on purchasing vehicles, $1366 was spent on gas and $2370 spent on related expenses including financing, insurance and maintence. Fascinating, I really wish this could be compared 2008 expenses. Discovered via: http://cleverchimp.com/products/stokemonkey/
- BTS | Household Spending on Transportation
- What happens when every single person carries a camera?
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:08:23 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
AP news wire photo from Obama's rally in Berlin, Germany where 200,000 people came to see him speak. Be sure to view it full size. Originally posted to flickr by David Winer. (his comments) I wouldn't be suprised if it's offline soon because it sounds like he's breaking copyright, so get it while it's good.
Via: Peter Van Dijck?s Guide to Ease - Links for 2008-07-24 [del.icio.us]
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500 - Links for 2008-07-23 [del.icio.us]
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500 - Clever Cycles and the emerging cargo bike market?
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:09:23 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Clever Cycles just opened in Portland this spring selling all manner of European / Dutch style commuter and cargo bikes (via import) and already they're closing! Why? Because they underestimated demand and are running out of stock.Yes, we?re taking a vacation in the middle of the so-called bicycling season, 28 July to 11 August. Why? Because we expect to be sold out of nearly all our most popular products! We?re out of many of them already. (Bakfietsen? Xtracycles? Child seats? Certain Bromptons, Retrovelos etc?) It?s a combination of some of our suppliers being sold out themselves, and others being simply too far away for timely resupply. Sales have exceeded our most confident hopes; thank you!
There's nothing that sucks worse then not being able to meet the demands of brisk business. For most stores this would be like doing away with the Christmas season. :(
Time to state the obvious: Nearly all Clever Cycles models are imports and that is the problem. I smell an emerging market niche opportunity here for american bike manufacturers to fill this market demand which is just starting to evolve.
Ironically while SUV and truck sales are crashing in the american car market cargo bikes, the "SUV of bikes", *may* be the next big thing.
Some solutions that are filling this category.
1) xtracycles - advantage: xtracycles can be added to most bikes / disadvantage: adding an xtracycle requires the skills and tools of your average shop mechanic.
2) baby / cargo trailers - advantage: versatility, easily added or removed from most bikes by an individual of average technical knowhow / disadvantage: trailer wheel width can make riding cumbersome on bike paths and in traffic
3) Cargo bikes - advantage: simple & stable all in one bike / disadvantages: can be costly + some 3 wheel models can be to cumbersome (wide) for city or suburban streets.
Personally I'm placing my bets on the long john design (pictured below). It's maneuverable, has a relatively simple (non patented) design that has been in existence for almost a century, is very stable as the loads sit very low, can handle very heavy loads well, and the cargo is out in front of you where you can not only see it but see over it. Best of all it rides very similar to the average american bike. Oh, and they transport one or two kids very safely, which is a big plus for young families. Not only great for weekend events, but you can go ahead and take the kids to school or daycare and then proceed with grocery shopping, errands or on to work.
Some more thoughts from clever cycles are below.We are reluctant to present bicycling for transportation as a response to hardship, because it is a pleasure and privilege.
It's "style over speed". See my last post for more info.But gas prices are on so many lips, we can?t pretend that they have nothing to do with this year?s blistering business. Word is that some local bike shops who sell car racks and bikes appropriate to them aren?t doing so well. Easy driving is over. Few of our customers are refugees from rising motoring costs, because we live in a city. But everything?s connected, and even urbanites have family, or friends, or enemies of friends hooked on the ?freedom? of driving. Too many of them live in cities, too.
More info at the original post: Clever Cycles > Clever Cycles closing
Some or our customers are extending the trend lines and seeing a near future in which utility biking is less a lifestyle preference than a key element of their own economic well-being. Others are awakening to an ethical awareness distinct from the usual environmental, quality-of-life, and political considerations of not driving: the growing scarcity of motor fuel imposes an obligation on those who don?t need it not to use it lightly. To our way of thinking, this includes most households in places designed before and without cars: places like Portland. But lots of people actually need to drive, or rather have arranged to need to quite extensively for as long as they can see. Naturally, we want our farmers to have motor fuel, and industry, and freight, and mass transit: there is a difference between enough and too much. But for mere personal or family transport, for those of you in human-scale places, not incapacitated by decades of forfeiture: reclaim the legs and lungs of your ancestors for your one and only life ON YOUR BIKE!
See also: High Gas Prices Cause Bike Shortages in N.Y., The New York Sun - When bikes become fashion and status symbols
Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:52:40 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Triobike and Heels
Originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness]
Been having some conversations on the evolution of bike culture.
Here in the U.S. in all but the most cutting edge of markets like Portland, NY, and a few other college towns they are but an item of either strictly recreation or a symbol of minimal function, i.e. commuting.
Ironically though while the bicycle industry here in the U.S. has been driven by technology bicycle culture will never change until we move beyond the "functional" debate.
As a friend of mine says, "Style over Speed".
It may seem counter intuitive but bikes and bike culture must transcend the argument of function, technology or speed and move into art, fashion and style in order to catch on in a more meaningful way.
For me this picture of a stylish, young twenty or thirty something mother riding an high end cargo / baby bike in high heals is the absolute epitome of the difference between the way Dutch bicycle culture has transcended the functional debate.
I guess this is what is meant by designers when they say "fashion is the aspiration of technology".
Need further evidence? Look no further then the iPod/ iPhone. It's only when technology stops being a gadget and starts being fashionable or an accessory that it becomes a seemless part of everyday mass culture.
To put it another way. If the best indicator of a healthy startup is a full parking lot on the weekend, then the best indicator of a healthy bike culture are moms on bikes. Bonus points for moms wearing non-bike specific / fashionable cloathing (no lycra), running errands (groceries?), and above all riding with the kids (Is biking safe in their area?). - Can big box go bike friendly? - Ikea, Denmark and biking
Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:31:19 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
This has to be one of the most curious images I've seen lately. Ikea is pretty much the epitome of big box retail, car culture, and urban sprawl, and yet in Denmark they're experimenting with loaner bicycles and trailers.
Apparently in Copenhagen Ikea marketing research has realized 20% of store visitors visit Ikea via bike even though Copenhagen's two Ikea stores are 10km and 20km from the city center.
I can only imagine people bike commuting to the Ikea in Chicago, especially with a trailer. In fact I'd be suprised if you can even aproach an Ikea on bicycle with all the freeways. This just further illustrates the strange and wonderful differences in Danish culture. I believe the statistic is over 60% of Copenhagener's bicycle commute.
More Info: Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog: IKEA Idea With Velorbis Bikes
P.S. I strongly recommend subscribing to the Copenhagenize.com. Lately it's been one of my favorite blogs on bike culture. - mmeiser.com now on a new host
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:24:22 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
mmeiser.com should now be up. Switched to a new hosting provider. - Ubuntu 8.04 now in beta
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:32:04 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Ubuntu 8.04, aka Hardy Heron is now into beta. I've been running it since it was in it's early alpha releases on my intel desktop machine. I'm getting so excited about how good it's getting. Let's face it. Running Ubuntu is just plain fun.
- Revision3 Branded Miro Player
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:20:31 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
I seem to be blogging an awefully lot about Miro lately. The new custom version of the Miro player for Revision3 is out today. All I can say is the future of internet "tv" is pretty. :)
Via: Mashable.com - Flash on the iPhone is a technical not political problem
Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:05:28 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
There has been a lot of speculation lately that politics between Adobe and Apple are causing the delay in bringing Flash to the iPhone.
However, beyond proving that there's tremendous demand for Flash support on the iPhone I believe these political ramblings are irrelevant.
While Adobe and Apple have had their differences in the past I think this is a purely a technical issue not a political one.
Apple does not have an alternative that competes with Flash.
There is no conflict of interest.
Flash has an install base of over 90% of all computers1 and it is now the norm on websites for both advertising and video playback. As such Flash is an integral part of the Internet experience.
Finally, as mentioned, if the amount of news and blog posts about Adobe / Apple politics is any indicator there is clearly tremendous demand from iPhone fans and developers.
And why shouldn't iPhone owners expect Flash support on their iPhones? Wasn't it Apple who stated in one of the original iPhone ads:"This is not a watered down version of the Internet, or the mobile version of the Internet, or the 'kinda sorta looks like the Internet', Internet. It's just the Internet on your phone."
So the demand, the interest, and the benefit are there for all parties including iPhone fans, iPhone developers, Adobe and Apple. What then is the problem?
Here's my stab at the issues:- Potential hardware dependencies in Flash such as video codec support may mean many of the most popular Flash applications may simply not work well or at all on the current iPhone hardware.
- Limitations in processing power on the iPhone may lead to inconsistent or poor experiences with Flash applications in general
- Processor requirements of flash may well severely drain and reduce battery life.
- AT&T's wireless network is extremely limited, thus extraneous Flash applications in web pages such as advertisements might diminish the whole iPhone Internet experience.
Off hand I can think of one simple solution that may mitigate many of these limitations.
In order to prevent advertisements and other Flash applications from needlessly using up processor cycles, draining the battery and wasting precious wireless data bandwidth the iPhone interface could simply require an extra click before a Flash application begins to load in a web page.
Anyone who's a fan of the FireFox Flashblock extension will understand what I mean. Flash applications are merely represented in the page by a Flash button and will not load / play unless first clicked upon.
This simple UI enhancement would solve the problem of needlessly wasting limited bandwidth and processor cycle by allowing users to ignore all Flash applications except those which they specifically choose to load.
Alternatively in order to avoid taxing AT&T's network Apple could block flash usage while on AT&T's network all together, but don't think this will be necessary. - CBC to release a TV series via BitTorrent (0mb)
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:20:06 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
As previously predicted and then reiterated last week another public television network has started to dabble in DRM-free BitTorrent distribution. (yeah!)
According to Michael Geist the CBC is going to use bittorrent to distribute the program "Canada's Next Great Prime Minister" which airs this Sunday the 23rd.This is not quite as adventureous as Norwegian Public Broadcasting's first try, but it's a good start.
Pardon me I spoke to soon. Upon reading up on the CBC's "Next Prime Minister" show, I see now it's an ambitious ongoing show, not just a single special as I had prematurely assumed. This release of an ongoing show is a very ambitious start for the CBC as it will give viewers a chance to establish regular viewing habits week after week. By the end of the series the CBC should have a really good idea if they can establish a regular audience for Internet based TV viewing.
While I haven't heard of anything from the Participatory Culture Foundation I certainly hope the two are working on a specialized distribution of the Miro open source TV platform for the CBC, as this would not only be tremendously beneficial to both parties, but I believe it may be essential to the success of the CBC's trial. (hint hint ;)
My guess is sometime in the next six months either the BBC and PBS will be the next to embrace BitTorrent distribution on limited programing. Once again I must point out that the model of distribution that the Participatory Culture Foundation has attempted to promote with Miro is exactly what I believe to be the winning model and that a partnership with the CBC would be a logical step on forging alliances with either the BBC or PBS.
As to my supposed success in predicting the popularization of BitTorrent by public TV providers it doesn't take a genius to spot this trend. It is one I and other video bloggers have been promoting since as far back as 2004 and it's one the Participatory Culture Foundation has been working on since at least 2006.
P2P technology is the only distribution technology that can effectively scale to meet the demands of timely full length and high definition TV programing on the Internet. It is an inevitable part of the future of media distribution on the Internet especially as Internet distributed video gets more timely and gains the attention of large global audiences.
Add to this the fact that public radio and television stations such as NPR, the CBC and BBC were some of the first to embrace audio and video podcasting and you have to deduce that sooner or later they would be among the first to start dabbling in BitTorrent TV distribution as well. In fact I have to point out that I'm still amazed that NPR has over 500 podcasts.
With this embrace of podcasting by public radio and TV it was only a question was timing, and with Norweigen Broadcasting taking the lead January of this year other public broadcasters were likely to soon follow.
If the trend continues then sometime possibly before the end of 2008 we may well see a commercial TV network dabble in BitTorrent distribution as well.
Counterpoint Hulu.com
Speaking of commercial TV networks there is a very interesting counter point with the launch last week of Hulu.com. Hulu.com is a very centralized, "page centric", albeit fairly sociable attempt at offering full TV and movie screenings to users. So far in my limited experience with it it seems to be holding up (scaling) well to the traffic. However I don't believe demand has been overwhelming do to Hulu's the very inconsistent offerings.
To be specific even though there are some great TV and Movie offerings that I think the early adopter / high tech crowd would be interested in (i.e. Battlestar Galactica, Serenity) these offerings often have very inconsistent episodic offerings. It would seem that instead of building viewing habits (an audience) Hulu.com and it's partners are "expiring" older episodes in what I can only guess is some misguided attempt to "tease" fans into purchasing further options. However this just leaves would be fans just as befuddled as the TV scheduling experience, perhaps more so.
In short, they have failed to fix the major problem. Hulu.com does not even solve the basic problem that Tivo has solved in letting your return to old episodes you may have missed or might want to see again.
If a user has missed an episode there is once again no alternative source for the fan to find these episodes but turning to the bittorrent grey/black markets. Hulu.com should be this catch all, not continue to perpetuate this problem of TV scheduling.
Hulu should be offering back episodes so a fan can catch up with an episode they may have missed, or would be fans can preview early episodes to determine if a show is something they're interested in. This does not undermine TV viewership or DVD sales of a show. In fact it supports them.
Hulu.com is not, nor is it likely to be an *alternative* to TV. Hulu.com's role in this future should be a *supporting role*. I know of no one who would rather watch their favorite TV show on a computer rather then live on TV or via DVD with no commercial interruptions.
As long as content creators struggle to understand this new medium fans will keep returning to p2p grey markets as that catch all solution.
It is all about building viewer habits, and as long as media companies fail to provide solutions on which fans can form good habits with good quality alternatives to cable or satellite fans of shows will build habits around p2p grey markets and it will be increasingly costly to lure them from those habits. This is particularly true of younger generations whom are growing up in this age of digital media prohibitions where all they have known is getting their media from the local speakeasy (p2p nets) because there has been know other digital option.
To continue with this metaphor... once the prohibition is removed, and work is done to rebuild trust and remove the taboo of digital media consumption.. when these goods come back to an open and sociable market the people will return to the digital sidewalk cafe's of the future and business will be brisk... but it must be natural, and open. No one is likely to return to this market with an attendant watching over them like a hawk, eavesdropping on their conversation and constantly reminding them of the time.
Respect, balance and trust must be restored to the digital marketplace and given how badly generations feel it has been betrayed it is not likely they will easily return. It's going to be costly.
We need to drag media and digital culture back out onto the open Internet where it can benefit everyone and be a part of a naturally sociable vibrant and bountiful marketplace. This digital prohibition has gone on to long. This last week was the ten year aniversary of the mp3 player. TEN YEARS and only this year have the major labels finally started selling mp3's.
If you failed to respond to your customers for ten years where would your business be? - Hulu.com lauches
Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:42:48 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
So, after an extended private beta Hulu.com launches publicly today with tv shows from Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, Sci Fi, Style, Sundance, and Oxygen.
More: Digg discussions, Wikipedia
Since I just posted about the advantages of peer based media distribution I find Hulu worth noting. It will be an interesting test of a centralized distribution for popular mainstream TV shows. Despite the fact that it's a huge improvement over past IPTV services it displays many of the shortcomings I speak of in previous posts. Some of these issues include:
1) Now that it's out of a limited private beta can it scale to meet demanad?
2) There is no subscription mechanism (i.e. RSS) or standardized interface (i.e. Miro) for subscribing to Hulu content as well as content from other distributors. In the long term can we really expect people to go around and visit 8 or 18 different websites in the future to catch up on their favorite weekly TV shows?
3) The Hulu interface is not conducive to important social aspects of the web that would encourage it's use... i.e. linking to shows, embedding shows in a web page, or even linking to a particular segment of a show for reference in discussion. These social aspects are the life blood of all websites, particularly where video is concerned (i.e. youtube) since more truditional search mechanisms don't work well on non-textual content such as video.
4) While a huge improvement over previous mainstream media attempts to bring tv shows to the web the general UI is still very cumberome by traditional TV standards. There is to much clicking, to many destractions, it has a non-standardized UI and has overly intrusive / even obnoxious advertising.
5) Hulu is not available worldwide. It is only available in the US. Meanwhile the market is increasingly global.
While I expect Hulu to have some degree of success until many of these aspects improve I would not expect to see a downturn in the peer based black/grey markets for mainstream media. - HDTV Series Mass-Distributed for Price of an iPhone
Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:47:23 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Some people took exception to my recent(ish) post about DRM-less peer based distribution being the future of IPTV. Their primary issues being that "people can skip the ads" and/or "cut out the ads and redistribute ad-less shows".
My points are as follows.
People can already cut out the ads with now common solutions like TIVO, and people can and do already cut out the advertisements and redistribute TV shows via bittorrent. No amount of DRM is going to stop this. Period. The promises of DRM are a myth. It only takes one person to crack the DRM... and the very fact that you can hear and see TV means it is fundamentally re-recordable and copyable with little to no loss of quality.
Secondly, If there is an "official" peer based release, a legal, legit and secure alternative that offers a sufficiently user friendly experience (i.e. not to excessive of advertising or to cumbersome an interface) this greatly diminishes the demand and interest in grey market or black market alternatives.
Thirdly, Advertising is already evolving away from 30 second interstitials into integrated product placements, overlays and sponsorships which are not as easily removed or skipped. I always use the example of the NFL game: Advertising and sponsorship is seamlessly integrated into every aspect of the experience... both on the actual field, in the stadium, on the uniforms and equipment, even the stadium name, as well as overlaid with scoring and stats on the screen. The advertising model is increasingly independent of the proverbial 30-second spot.
Finally, These above points brought up by readers are not even the primary issue.
The primary issue is as such: centralized distribution systems are increasingly cost prohibitive and do not scale well at all for the mass market.
The infrastructure and inherent cost in distributing media from a centralized point or non peer based CDN (content distribution network) such as Akami or other is tremendous. In fact with more popular and mainstream content where there may be real-time demand for HD quality video upwards of 400,000 this distribution model completely short circuits.
Timeliness is an important factor both to the media (ie. news and content) and the experience (ie. skipping video). Peer based distribution such as bittorrent therefore become not just a logical alternative but in some cases a necessity.
Peer based systems are not just the most efficient means to scale distribution with demand, they are fundamentally the only way when dealing with economics of scale in an increasingly global market.
Protecting this future is yet another reason why protecting net neutrality is so important to the future of the internet. Peer based mechanisms are a fundamental and important part of the internet. Not just with media but in all aspects of social networking and communications of which media in the form of VOIP, video sharing, podcasting and such are increasingly the killer applications of the network. In short communications are fundamentally peer based. All that's changing is we're making them media rich with video, VOIP, podcasting, and blog-like mechanisms.
The following is a recent post from the Miro blog providing further details about the Norwgian Public Broacasting's use of bittorrent to distribute programing.Norwegian Public Broadcaster, NRK, recently made waves with the success of their pilot project where they put one of their full series online, in HD, without restrictive DRM, over bittorrent.
The initiative has been a huge success on every front ? viewers love the super high-resolution picture and most people have reported incredibly short download times (given the file sizes). Furthermore, viewers have been downloading the episodes en-masse (around 80,000 times in the past 3 weeks). To top it all off, NRK hasn?t broken the bank to deliver the goods; in fact, they haven?t even broken a sweat.
To-date, NRK has paid a total of $350 for storage and delivery of the entire series. This information was disclosed to me by project manager Eirik Solheim; he also estimated that the bandwidth bill would have been roughly $8,000, had NRK chosen a more traditional delivery method.
Eirik shared the secret sauce behind the project:
All the HD video files were stored and delivered using Amazon?s S3 data service, which has optional bittorrent capabilities. NRK syndicated the .torrent episodes over an RSS feed, which allowed the program to work something like a podcast.
NRK recommends that people use Miro to subscribe: it?s the easiest way for folks to use BitTorrent and it fits their public-interest mission. The estimate that a high percentage of their downloaders (50% or more) are using Miro.
The ease of use is very important, because it encourages more people to participate in watching and sharing the shows. Technically, the cost to the producer for distributing to a handful of viewers, say 300, is basically the same as doing so for 1,000,000 people. This is because after a point, distribution is handled by the viewers themselves; as the number of viewers rises, the work that NRK does stays constant.
All in all, the pilot has been a major success, and is blazing a trail to wider adoption of bittorrent delivery for NRK programs. We?ll definitely post here when we get more details.
- The perfect laptop sleeve for your macbook air
Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:58:00 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
The perfect laptop sleeve for your new macbook air. :)Wonder Threads has come up with the Inter-Office laptop sleeve that looks a lot like the real thing, but is made of poly microfiber complete with red tabs and a neoprene lining.
Via: MoCo Loco: MoCo Submissions - Random election 2008 internet folk art
Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:57:04 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Just a random sampling of fun stuff I stumbled on while surfing the internets. Absolutely none of this is from any official campaign group. It's all pure fan art or folk based.
My personal favorite... must view large. It's made of thousands of DeviantArt user icons.
One of many variation on shepard fairey's posters.
Shepard fairey originals
Nice Parody
Just funny. :)
A couple favorites from gotellmama.org
- HardyHeron/Alpha4 - Ubuntu
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:16:34 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Great overview of some of the stuff coming up in the next version of Ubuntu 8.05, aka. Hardy Heron. Complete with screen snaps
HardyHeron/Alpha4 - Ubuntu Wiki
Some items of particular interest.- Firefox 3
- Transmission - the open source bittorrent client that has been popular already on Mac
- Gnome system monitor - a beautiful new system monitor (seen below)
- Trends: French police switch to linux
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:51:12 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
AFP: French police deal blow to Microsoft: "The French paramilitary police force said Wednesday it is ditching Microsoft for the free Linux operating system, becoming one of the biggest administrations in the world to make the break."
Well summarized.
More notes:
"There are three reasons behind the move, Geraud said at the Solution Linux 2008 conference here. The first is to diversify suppliers and reduce the force's reliance on one company, the second is to give the gendarmerie mastery of the operating system and the third is cost, he said.He also added that "the Linux interface is ahead of other operating systems currently on the market for professional use."
Vista, for example, Microsoft's latest operating system, is being spurned by consumers who cite "concerns about its cost, resource requirements, and incompatibility with their existing applications," according to InformationWeek.com."
[...]
"The gendarmerie with its 100,000 employees is the biggest administration to shift to open sourcing for its operating system, but it is not the first in France. That honour belongs to the National Assembly which adopted Ubuntu for its 1,200 PCs in 2007." - RSS + Bittorrent distribution for TV and online video
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:18:46 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
The Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) has made their most popular TV series available DRM-free via BitTorrent, even better it's available as a subscribe-able RSS feed via software like Miro. Shown here is the subscribe-able feed in Miro the popular open source video aggregater.
I just wish the show was available in English. :)
Entire and partial news programs like CNN, ABC and CBS nightly news are already widely available via subscribe-able RSS feed (podcast), and the Daily Show, Colbert Report and other highly popular TV shows have been widely distributed unofficially via similar means on TVRSS.net, but this may be the first TV show to officially embrace this technology pioneered by video bloggers.
I expect that this form of distribution (RSS + Bittorrent) will become increasingly popular with TV producers as they realize it does not threaten their traditional advertising supported models.
To start with I expect PBS, BBC or other distributors less threatened by peer based distribution (P2P) culture to officially embrace the RSS + bittorrent distribution model.
NPR has already widely embraced RSS distribution (aka. podcasting) for audio programing with over 500 subscribe-able channels for their radio shows, and PBS has a dozen or so subscribe-able video podcasts though they are currently just partial shows or show clips. I expect timely news programs such as Frontline will be the first to officially embrace the RSS + bittorrent distribution model as bittorrent scales much better for popular, timely, high definition content, much like the Daily Show and Colbert Report.
RSS + bittorrent distribution is a counter point to new proprietary distribution services from content creators like Hulu.com (currently only available via private beta) and NBC.com and which are only currently available by visiting and watching programing on website, have no subscription mechanisms, and are not available beyond desktop computers.... i.e. on your TV or hand held device.
There are also alternative systems like Joost and Veoh but while these proprietary 3rd part networks have a high degree of usability and interface polish as is typical of proprietary solutions they lack the flexibility to scale to handle the wide variety of newly available content on the web and the various cellular, hand held and set top box platforms.
Of course there are also solutions from Apple, and Tivo for television producers, but these are increasingly complimentary to RSS / Podcasting and perhaps in the future even added bittorent distribution.
What makes RSS + bittorrent such a powerful combination is it's increasingly openly accessible to virtually anyone who wishes to distribute media online via various services, and RSS / podcasting is already starting to be adopted by set top box, cellular, and handheld manufacturers like Apple (AppleTV, iPod & iPhone), Tivo, Nokia, Akimbo and many others.
Bittorrent is the final piece of the puzzle allowing extremely rapid scaling for the distribution of high definition content but it may take much longer to popularize do the greater technical requirements in implementation on various hardware platforms. - Mozilla Prism - bringing office 2.0 back to the desktop
Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:55:06 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop.
I've been telling my friends about one of my favorite new apps which just came out of private beta, Mailplane. It's one of the few pieces of shareware I've actually bought. It's not that it's that amazingly innovative. It basically is just a standalone web browser using Safari's Web Kit that's sole purpose is to run gmail.
It brings gmail out of the web browser and back into the Mac OSX interface.
It has some custom configurations, but that's basically what it does and that's really all it needs to do.
Nough' said. - CNET, RIAA does NOT claim ripping a CD is illegal
Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:06:19 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Despite a Washington Post article (and the fact that the RIAA is widely despised for suing their customers) the RIAA did NOT claim that ripping a CD to your computer is wrong. In fact what the RIAA specifically stated (in their brief vs. Jeffrey Howell) that ripping files directly to his "share folder", hence with the INTENT TO SHARE, is wrong.
read more | digg story - The Elephant in the Ad Room
Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:10:06 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Had to reblog this post from Jan of Faux Press. Hugh Macleod rules.
This is what advertisers don't yet understand - but will - or they will cease to exist.
News outlets should come to understand this concept, too.
Talk down to your audience at your own risk.
Thanks, Hugh.
Raise the barre or die. - T-Mobile blocks Twitter
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:55:49 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
This strikes a cord lately with cellular services like Verizon and then AT&T paying lip service to "open". And people say we don't need net neutrality laws? I can't wait to see what becomes of this issue.
From: Alternageek Technology Podcast > T-Mobile blocks Twitter? (updated)
From: T-Mobile Turns Off Twitter?"T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of service, to which you agreed at activation, indicate ?? some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions (such as international, 900, or 976 calls) at our discretion." Therefore, T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation."
I?m a T-Mobile customer and testing the issue right now, although I have received sporadic updates as recently as last night. It would be quite astonishing if T-Mobile is blocking an opt-in text messaging service considering how common they are and T-Mobile?s relatively small market share in the U.S. However, it wouldn?t be the first time the company has been at loggerheads with a third party service. Earlier this year, T-Mobile blocked VOIP-based free calling service Truphone, but eventually lost in court.
There's an bit more including some responses from twitter on it at the interesting customer empowerment site getsatisfaction.com.
GetSatisfaction.com > T-Mobile Shuts Down Twitter Service for Good? - Western Digital DRM Hard Drive, the most insane DRM implimentation yet? (5mb)
Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:20:28 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
When I read this I thought it was a hoax, but April is 4 months off.
From: Western Digital DRM'd Hard Drive Won't Let You Share MP3, DivXWestern Digital's 1TB MyBook external hard drives won't share media files over network connections (UPDATE: Don't install the "required" client software! See workaround below). From the product page:
"Due to unverifiable media license authentication, the most common audio and video file types cannot be shared with different users using WD Anywhere Access."
It doesn't matter what the files are: If you try to share these formats over a network, Western Digital assumes not just that you're a criminal, but that it is its job to police users. You see, MP3, DivX, AVI, WMV and Quicktime files are copy-protected formats.
The list of banned filetypes includes more than thirty extensions. Some of them are bizarre: .IT files are banned ? these are Amiga-style music modules composed with Impulse Tracker, a particularly well-loved tracking sequencer that hasn't been updated in almost a decade. I composed with IT myself, back in the day, and still have all my shitty compositions, none of which Western Digital would have me share. (Try MOD vs. Speak&Spell masterpiece Eddie Dreams of Women, if you dare: IT, MP3)
Isn't it cute how the only data it views as worthy of policing are music and movies? These are the only copyrights that matter under corporate monkey law.
It's the most astonishing example of crippled equipment I've ever seen. A DRM'd hard drive! Whatever next? Dreaming meat?
Mmm.... Dreaming meat.
Wait... what the hell is wrong with Western Digital!?
It's so arbitrary, and they've done it on such a large scale. This may end up being the biggest DRM debacle ever.... though it will be hard to beat Sony's rootkit fiasco.
Certainly someone is going to end up suing them over this. - youtube, censorship and the open conversation space
Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:21:32 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Re: Egyptian anti-torture blogger says YouTube shut his account. - Boing Boing
This is a very egregious case of censorship. I've been following the censorship issue on youtube as it has happened time and time again.
These issues of censorship will inevitably happen again and again and again because Youtube has little concern in safeguarding the rights of it's users. It has an fundamental incapacity and has no economic incentive to protect it's users rights, nor the rights of copyright holders. In short, youtube is a mess.
Whether the excuse be violation of youtube's terms of service or copyright infringement the bottom line is centralized closed systems like youtube are fundamentally bad for safeguarding diverse conversation and culture.
On one hand video bloggers should know better to depend exclusively on a service like youtube. In order for the space to be diverse, dynamic and safeguard free speech it must support a diversity of hosts including completely independently hosted video blogs.
You might accuse me of tooting my own horn here, but this is not me promoting mefeedia (a pet project of mine for several years), but this is WHY I started working on mefeedia in the first place.
There must be an "open alternative" to the walled gardens like youtube. Mefeedia is approaching 30,000 video blogs and audio podcasts and they're hosted on 14,000 websites. Which include 300-350 video or audio specific hosting sites and the rest completely independently hosted endeavours. These videoblogs and podcasts reflect a quality and a diversity that is not found on youtube. This includes everything from the entire CBS nightly news (hosted by CBS), to independant endevours like Alive In Bagdad.
In a marketplace / conversation where people can host their own media or choose from a variety of competing services that marketplace can support the innovation and the diversity of the whole world and those people can safeguard their own voices from censorship.
Youtube may have had an early lead, and I bear them no ill will, but they have simply become the AOL of video. Just like AOL before it is not an ecosystem which can meet the diverse needs of a global conversation. The conversation must be decentralized, diverse, and remixable.
These means independant hosts of content, and independant places for sharing, searching and discussion of that content. It is not just about Wael Abbas' right to securely post his videos of human rights abuses, but also the right of the individual to comment and discuss them independantly of Wael Abbas's domain. The videos are the very article of discussion. As such they must not be bound to any one host or domain and to do so it to restrict and censor the scope of that conversation. - The future is open, Verizon to support any device or app on it's network? (0mb)
Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:09:57 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Michael Meiser (mmeiser))
Some people may overlook the importance of this.
Verizon opens up, will support any device, any app on its network
However, the end-to-end (aka. common carrier, aka. network neutrality) principal of the Internet is slowly taking over how other networks operate as well.
These networks are increasingly finding themselves *competing* with the Internet and they cannot do so without opening themselves up and creating a level playing field for innovators as well. You can see it with cellular networks (competing with wifi & the infinite array of internet services), traditional telephony (competing with VOIP), and to some degree cable TV, which is now competing in a very direct way for the attention of younger generations.
What this eventually means for Verizon customers is:- Good bye having to *rent* the GPS features on your phone.
- Good bye ridiculous 10 cent text messages.
- Good bye paying $2.99 for ring tones.
- Good by buy or rent stupid applications like "weather" on your sell phone.
- Good bye having to pay $10 a month extra just to be able to blog photos from your camera capable phone.
- Good by having to choose a cell phone based the scant choices your cellular company provided.
What this means is in the long run a veritable cornucopia of services will be available to you on your phone, whatever entrepreneurs or anyone else can dream up, and all you'll have to pay Verizon for is the bandwidth you use.
What Verizon looses off charging service fees for few obtuse services they will MORE than make up for selling bandwidth for the 100,000's of thousand mobile services that will increase the utility, use and validity of their network.
Verizon no longer gets to tax based on the contents of the package or the type of service. Unlike the cable companies they no longer get to pick which content makers get to use their network.
They're now pledging to be a "carrier neutral" shipping company for bits. This throwing away of arbitrary and frankly stupid criteria can now mean innovation can really happen. Verizon will no longer arbitrate the winners and losers instead the playing field will be open to ALL comers. All, specifically meaning anyone who has access to the Internet or a cell phone. This means potentially billions of users can use or offer services or benefit from services on their network instead of the few dozen services Verizon offers its customers now.
It is funny to watch how the cellular provider "tax" on items like the absurdly overpriced 10 cent text message and other capabilities of cell phones have shifted and distorted innovation which has routed itself around them.
This taxing has been going on, and will still continue to go on for a while, but with Verizon declaring its cellular network neutral, the apple iPhone challenging traditional rules set down by cellular carriers and above all Google throwing down the gauntlet in helping create an open source mobile OS the paradigm for these closed networks like cable, cellular, and traditional telephony seem to be opening up.
The future is open.
Related article: Apple to Unveil Faster IPhone, AT&T's Stephenson Says - Bloomberg.com
