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The Virtual Revolution On BBC

[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 23, 2010 by admin in Technology

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Ironically, I’ll probably watch the latest TV show I’m excited about on the Internet, not on TV.

It’s a little ironic that I’m as intrigued as I am with the upcoming BBC Television series The Virtual Revolution, because I haven’t had TV since 2002. Since I don’t have TV, I have no idea how well they’re promoting the program through that medium, but I do know that – true to the concept of the series – they’re promoting it rather brilliantly via the web. If you follow any of the mainstream tech blogs like Gizmodo, you may already know about the program, but if you fall a little lower on the Social Technographics ladder, you’ll hear more about it soon. So why am I so excited about it? Well, aside from my minor crush on the show’s host Aleks Krotoski, the PhD-bound tech journalist who (among other things) writes a tech column for the Gaurdian, the show has been open-sourced in a fashion reminiscent of Trent Reznor’s recent concert DVD. The BBC web site for the program features a blog to keep you updated, and they’ve already had a mashup contest to highlight the series’ special content that you are allowed to download, edit and republish under a permissive licence. They even open-sourced the name of the series. View the intro teaser at left, and the mashups and other clips below; the program launches on BBC2 Saturday January 30, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Best Sites For Watching TV On Line

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 26, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Video Killed The Radio Star, but NOTHING seems to be able to kill TV. If you’re ready to surrender, here are 7 great sites for watching TV on line.

Although in general I might rather watch TV On The Radio than watch TV on the Internet, I still do it on occasion. The convergence of The Web and television is an idea that’s been around for ages (anybody remember Microsoft’s early feeble attempt?) but has taken a remarkably long time to catch on. My first bet was on Joost, one of the first web TV services that worked exceptionally well right out of the gate. Alas, America always makes weird choices driven by marketing rather than logic (anybody remember Betamax vs. VHS?) so one of the first pervasive services stateside was Hulu. If you really want to watch a TV show (or even full-length movies) bittorrents might be the way to go, but you have to be a bit of a nerd to figure the whole thing out, and if you want to watch the content as a stream or if you have any respect for those arcane documents that comprise copyright law, bittorrents probably aren’t for you. So back to the point: where can you watch TV on line? Below is a list of sites that actually have worthwhile content and seem to function reasonably well. If you have trouble with getting decent streams on any of these major services, check a few things before you start blaming the service. Aside from having enough RAM or a decent video card, you might try checking your firewall settings, updating your version of Flash, or get your butt off of sites like Facebook that hog system resources and bandwidth. Read the rest of this entry »

Is The Internet Becoming A Giant Flesh-Eating Robot?

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 26, 2009 by admin in Technology

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

The human race. It’s what’s for dinner.

Great. Not only does the Internet eat all our time, now it’s going to start eating us. We treat the idea of a self-aware Internet as science fiction that only exists in the form of the Terminator franchise’s Skynet or old 70′s movies like Colossus – The Forbin Project. Personally though, I’ve been saying to friends for a while that the Internet already is self-aware. It’s controlling our time and modifying our behaviour slowly and subtly, by forcing us into social networking, mobile devices, and pornography. Sure. Go ahead and convince yourself that it was your personal volition that turned you into an ADD-afflicted, Facebook-obsessed, Tivo-ing, CrackBerry textaholic, but I’m convinced the Internet is slowly training us to communicate in its preferred mode – text and images. And apparently I’m not too crazy for pondering this line of thought. Two respected scientists in this NewScientist article say that a self-aware Internet may already exist, and there was recently a serious scientific summit addressing the concern that machines may soon outsmart man. Combine this with the fact that military researchers are developing corpse-eating robots (which of course the company involved immediately denied, claiming they’re vegetarians) and you have some pretty scary scenarios brewing, even if they seem a little silly at the moment. Read the rest of this entry »

Playing for Change – Peace Through Music

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on April 29, 2009 by admin in Music

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Peace and Understanding, Brought To You By Their Friends – Music & The Internet

Throughout history, one form of communication has had the power to cross all cultural barriers to aid in peace and understanding: music. In modern life, one other form of communication comes close: the Internet. The video clip at left uses both to convey a global message of peace and unity, and if it doesn’t evoke a little something in you – a smile or a bittersweetness, see a heart specialist. You might not have one. The video is part of a multimedia project called Playing for Change, conceived, in their words, “to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music”. The song in the video is Stand By Me, but played in a way you’ve never heard it before: by artists from Santa Monica, to New Orleans, to South Africa, brought together in a “virtual studio” that allowed them to play their parts live in their native setting. You can buy a collection of songs produced by Playing for Change on CD and DVD, and they also have a non-profit foundation at PlayingForChange.org. Is there anything cooler than peace, inspiration, and understanding on a global scale?

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Is Your Virtual Life Better Than Your Real Life?

[ 6 Comments ]Posted on April 3, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Or: Why I’m Probably Getting Married On Facebook

Tell me if you’ve noticed any of the following in your behaviour over the past couple of years: You no longer bother remembering phone numbers, you just put them in your phone. You’re talking to a friend about a movie, can’t remember the star, and turn to Wikipedia or the IMDB. Someone has seemed annoyed that you actually phoned them instead of texting or “Facebooking” them. You can’t seem to get into books like you used to. You’ve joked that you have a disorder because of your poor recall or attention. Nicholas Carr has written a few articles addressing this topic, including Is Google Making Us Stupid? in the Atlantic Monthly, and Computing The Cost in The Sun Magazine. This topic is nothing new, this 1998 Science Daily article touches on it. And the book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, by leading neuroscientist Gary Small actually brings some hard science into the discussion. What’s new is that we’re seeing and experiencing the results of the theory every day. You can for instance (you Facebook test addicts will love this) take this quick on line test to see if you’re addicted to the Internet. Personally, I feel like I have this under control; I scored a 41. My frustration is that I’m convinced that technology is affecting my love life. I’m pretty sure I haven’t “dated” anyone since 2005. I mean, I’ve gone on “dates”, I think, but actual courting (flowers, gifts, etc.) seemed to turn women off, and whenever I phoned, they’d seem annoyed. The texting would occasionally get hot and heavy, but would always devolve into dialogues like “OMG UR SO HAWT<3″ and “<3 U2″. I used to blame this dating failure on losing my looks, or the basic math involved. I’ve since become convinced that it has more to do with the fact that all the intelligent chicks are playing word games on Facebook, and not answering my pokes as a result. That’s part of why, although I think I’m falling in love with someone in real life right now, I’ll probably just get married on Facebook instead.

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