Gonzaga star Adam Morrison went to Charlotte at No. 3 with the Bobcats' first since pick Michael Jordan became a part owner of the team, in charge of the basketball operations, earlier this month.

“It would be awesome if I could get some hands-on instruction from Mike,” Morrison said. “Any time the greatest player of all-time is telling you what to do [...] if he told me how to tie my shoes a certain way, I would probably listen.”

[From Yahoo! Sports]

Adam is mostly known as being a diabetic. He injects himself insulin during games. He's also known as the guy who cried big tears seconds before a stunning loss in the March Madness college tournament. First time I saw Adam Morrison play on TV I was wondering who the skinny and scraggy guy with the wild hair and the mustache was. He's the total opposite of a college jock, yet, there he was, making almost all his shots and getting everybody's attention. I wonder how he'll fare in the more rougher NBA with its bulked up athletes. Either way, his plays are cool to watch.

Technorati Tags: adam, draft, morrison, nba, quote

So this entry probably won’t make any sense to anyone who actually reads my blog, but anyway.

Okay, I just checked and apparently I didn’t actually blog about Jen and my epic quest to acquire (rental or purchase) the original X-Men, which Jenny had never seen, after we saw X-Men 3. (I swear, I remember posting about this..) Anyway, during one of our stops on this quest, we ended up at one of the local video rental stores. They didn’t have X-Men, but they did have a “5 movies for $20” special going, so Jen and I picked up several movies. As the 5th movie, I plucked S1m0ne, which interested me for a variety of reasons.

Fast forward to tonight, when I’m at home by myself on a Friday and bored, and I popped the movie in to watch it. (I’m only about 15 minutes in, but it actually seems promising thus far.) What moved me to post is that, in that first 15 minutes, there’s a piece of music that plays which I recognized immediately—the “Adagio for Strings”, by Samuel Barber. The reason I recognized this piece is that it is also a part of the soundtrack for the computer game Homeworld, which is one of my all-time favorite games, and a groundbreaking game in terms of both technology (one of the first true 3-D RTS games) and story (one of the few games which actually successfully evokes strong emotions in the player, at least of everyone I know who’s played it).

Not that there’s any larger significance to it, but I thought all my adoring (and demanding ;)) fans might be interested.

So there, Fiona, that’s two updates for me. Your turn! :-P

I was watching Catalyst last night, it had an episode about lie detection, the part I found interesting was the fact that we as humans find it hard to detect deception. They think the reason we can't reliably detect it is because we evolved in small trusted groups and it was to the benefit of all the young to trust the other members of the group.

Its interesting that this is innate in us, because I think an essential skill for our generation and future generations is critical thinking. For our parents generations (baby boomers) they really only had a handful of sources of information. They could watch the TV listen to the radio or read the newspaper, mostly the interests of these media groups were all the same, so if they all have the same political agenda, an alternative view might not be conveyed.

These days we have the internet which allows people to put out any view, skewed or otherwise. But how does innate ability to not be able to detect deception affect us? Take for instance the blogging world, how do I know the person I'm reading is an authority on a particular subject? I think we need to put more effort into educating our young ones that what you often read, hear or see isn't necessarily what’s really happening. It's already clear that this is what’s happening, even when I was at school critical thinking was present and pushed, but maybe it's place needs to be stepped up a little more.

From a technology side of things it's possible to measure the number of hits and other metrics that could in a simple way see how much of an authority a particular outlet is, but just because a large number of people frequent a particular 'authority' doesn't mean they are in fact one.

In the end I don't really think there is a definitive solution, but an open medium that allows us all to put a view out is probably the best answer, you just need to think about what people are saying and decide for yourself, which in my experience is something people don't like to do (thinking ... do I have to ..).

I saw the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth last month. It's a very important movie, and I hope everyone has a chance to see it.

They handed out copies of Seed Magazine at SXSW this year. There were a few articles on global warming, including this depressing quote from James Lovelock, the environmental scientist responsible for the Gaia hypothesis:

'The prospects for the coming century are pretty grim: If these predictions are correct, it means that all of the efforts that have been made, like the Kyoto and Montreal agreements, are almost certainly a waste of time. They should have been done 50 or 100 years ago. It's too late now to turn back the clock, so to speak.'

What are we supposed to do with that? If we are scared and powerless, nothing will change.

The Bush administration agenda too is based on fear. Fear led us to IRAQ, to no-warrant wiretapping. Instead, with An Inconvenient Truth you leave the movie theater inspired, with a new sense of urgency. This is beautifully woven together -- personal highlights from Gore's life with his talk with facts with videos.

And as a Mac user, it's nice to see Keynote played such an important part in the production of his talks (via James Duncan Davidson).

Also, this on YouTube: A Terrifying Message from Al Gore (Futurama!)

MSN Video Download  apparently went live today with a choice of two membership types  Premium and Basic.  Premium is $19.95 a year and has more content than the free Basic membership.  Not wanting to commit myself to a membership yet I signed up for the Basic membership, thinking I could load some videos on to the miniSD card in my smartphone....

Sign up was easy, I used my passport account, agreed to the terms and installed the download software.  The download status page showed content was downloading from Fox Sports.  In order to sync content to my phone I needed a smart playlist so I followed the instructions to download one.  This was the first problem, the instructions used Windows Media Player 9 and I'm using Windows Media Player 10, a little strange, but not a huge problem.  With the smart playlist in place I thought I'd be good to go...

That wasn't going to be the case though.  I started by trying to play a video in Media Player directly and got prompted for a username and password which was being requested by 'admin.theplatform.com' not 'msnvideodownloads.com'.  I tried my Passport email address and password which might not have been a great idea, but it didn't work anyway.  Meanwhile I could see that Activesync had been trying to sync the content to my phone so I checked the Sync page in WMP.  Nothing had been synced, instead  there was an error message 'Windows Media Player can not synchronize the protected file.  Protected files can not be converted to the required quality level or format'.

Now I have almost half a gigabyte of content (and it's still getting downloaded) and I can't watch any of it.  If anyone gets this working I'd love to know how.

This picture was taken on Saturday in Titusville, Florida. If you look closely, you'll see the space shuttle not taking off in the background as thousands of people watch with excited anticipation along the banks of the Indian River, 19 miles across the water from the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.

I'm standing in a field on U.S. 1 just south of the Miracle City Mall, which the Unofficial Space Shuttle Launch Guide recommends as one of the best places to not see the shuttle take off:

If you can't get a launch pass I suggest you come to Titusville. Go east on State Road 50 from I-95, to US-1. Go north on US-1 to the 'Miracle City Mall' at Harrison. Park somewhere north of this spot. Anywhere north along highway 1, or east (as far as you can) along highway 406 (402) is good (specifically Sand Point Park), just as long as you can see the VAB and don't have trees blocking the view.

Because another disaster would mean the end of the program, I dragged the kids on one of those 'memory of a lifetime' moments when parents force their children to enjoy something under protest, like the time in 1981 my siblings and I were subjected to a live performance of the Gatlin Brothers.

Traffic was horrible on Interstate 95 between the scheduled launch, the Pepsi 400 race in Daytona and July 4 weekend vacationers. After the shuttle was declared a no-go because of gathering storm clouds, the three-mile drive back out of Titusville took an hour.

The family will never forget the time we spent six hours in the car to stand spend 45 minutes in a weed-filled vacant lot.

On Sunday, we saw the launch from Butler Beach south of St. Augustine, which looked like a lot like this picture from Canova Beach to the south of the cape. This was a thrilling experience that left hundreds of beachgoers awestruck -- especially if miraculous feats of human engineering make you weepy.

But next time around, I'm going to get close enough for the launch to shake loose a few fillings.
read more:

Another massively late film fight, yes, but a good one.

November kicked off with the controversial Borat (yes, I can't be arsed looking up the full and correct name). Enough has been said about this film: Sasha Baron Cohen travels around America as one of his alter-egos baiting people into saying some pretty awful things. It's an amusing and tragic look at both the attitudes in some parts of our society and the way we choose to deal with them. I would say this is worth seeing regardless of whether or not you find the man's work particularly amusing, as his subject's are suitably horrifying.

Christopher Nolan keeps up his near unsullied record with The Prestige. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians locked in a vicious feud, pressing forth the boundaries of magic, showmanship and dedication to their cause with the most poisonous venom. With the director's usual sleight of hand present, excellent performances all round (including a cameo by David Bowie), and some fairly interesting set pieces, this is a masterful work, beautifully presented. A definite must-see.

After years of Bond heading towards mindless Hollywood action, full of cheap special effects and ludicrous adversaries, it is a pleasure to watch such a solid piece of cinema in the form of Casino Royale. With Brosnan ousted, Daniel Craig plays Bond like never before: as the determined government killer, torn by morality, that Ian Fleming always intended in his earliest works. Gone are the outlandish gadgets (for the most part), in are some fast cars and some of the best action sequences the series has yet to produce. Though the free-running inspired building site hunt is in stark contrast with the plodding pace throughout much of the casino material, the latter is bolstered by a few interesting twists. It's not much of a compliment to say this is the best Bond movie since GoldenEye (which shared the same director) since the rest of the films were garbage, but perhaps it is worth saying it is likely to be in my top 5 bond films.

Finally, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny has much of what you expect from a Jack Black comedy: a silly premise, executed warmly but lacking the really big laughs of his peers (such as Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller). The early scenes present few laughs, mostly rehashing material the band has previously used, but starts getting funnier towards the end. This is not much more than an extended music video for the band, so if you like them, go get the album and you'll have a large chunk of the strongest material here.

In other months, Casino Royale would have won, but The Prestige is just such a great film that it was never going to get beaten, hard as Bond is.

Python and X10 Home Automation, Part 1.1

I wrote previously about Project WiSH, which gives you access to X10 computer interface controllers via device drivers.  I also wrote about uprading my home system to Mandrake 10.  Mandrake 10 has the new 2.6 kernel.  Sadly, WiSH does not (yet) work with that kernel.  So, I had to find an alternative.

From googling around, and comments from readers, I found the 'bottlerocket' software, for accessing the CM-17a 'Firecracker' X10 computer interface.  This gives you a simple command-line program for issuing X10 commands via the CM-17a.  It lacks the ability to watch for an X10 command coming in from a sensor, or querying the status of a status-capable X10 controller, so it's not a complete replacement for WiSH (but that functionality is not supported by the CM-17a anyway, so you don't get it with WiSH either), but it will do me for now.

When you are doing time-based automation under Linux, it makes sense to leverage Linux's built-in abilities.  The 'cron' system lets you schedule tasks for execution based on date/time, either periodically on a period of your choosing, or at one particular data/time.  The 'at' command lets you schedule a command for execution at one particular time in the furture.  For example, typing the following command at the Linux command-line prompt will schedule the running of the command '/usr/local/bin/br a2 on' for 8:00pm today ('br' is the bottlerocket command):

at 8:00pm today <<EOF
/usr/local/bin/br a2 on
EOF

To test the usability of 'at' for X10 home automation, I wrote a simple shell script that issues two 'at' commands -- one to turn on my driveway lights at dusk, and one to turn them off at 10:30pm.  I then set up a 'cron' job to run this shell script ever day at 00:05 in the morning.  Thus, each day the two 'at' jobs are reissued for the current day.  It's necessary to reissue the commands each day because an 'at' job is a one-shot deal, while 'cron' is what you use to run commands at regular intervals.

This system of 'at', shell scripts, and 'cron' works fine, and demonstrates the simplest Linux/X10 home automation setup.  For your needs, this may be all that you require.  For me, this was just baby's first steps.

What I want is a more capable solution to the X10 home automation problem.  I want to be able to schedule both periodic and one-time events.  I want a system that understands how to deal with times like 'sunset' and 'sunrise'.  I want to be able to alias the X10 house/unit code that controls my driveway lights as 'driveway lights'.  I want to be able to create macros that trigger multiple commands, so that I can execute macro 'wakeup', and have the commands sent to turn on the TV, the coffee maker, and the window blinds opener(insert images of George Jetson being ejected from bed like toast from a toaster).  I want to have a web interface to all of this.  And, of course, I want to do it all with Python.

Sure there are several other pre-existing Linux solutions for X10 home automation.  For fun and learning, stay tuned as I put together my own solution using Python.

The overnight flight to Oslo was uneventful and the weather on arrival Monday morning was as rainy as it was leaving New England -- Norway is 59 degrees north latitude (and ten degrees east longitude) so it is not too far north of home. Opera Software is a short cab ride after taking the clean and comfortable train from the airport to central Oslo.

After the board proceedings a some follow-on meetings, it was time for a taxi ride to the Holmenkollen Park Hotel where a special dinner would be held for my friend and Opera chairman Christian Thommessen who will be leaving the board to take on an important position as a diplomat at the United Nations Development Program at U.N. Plaza in New York. I am sorry we will be losing him from the board but am happy that he will be putting his time and energy into some really important work and also that he and his family will be close enough for more frequent visits.

During my last trip to Oslo in February, I was determined to find the "Troll's View" geocache which is hidden across the street from the world famous Holmenkollen Ski Jump. The first jumps at the "Holmenkollrennet" took place in January 1892. The world's skiing elite meets at Holmenkollen every year and 50,000 spectators watch the jumps from the 180 feet high spectacle. The view of Oslo and the fjord below is breathtaking. The cache is in the woods near the famous Kollen Troll but it was so cold and there was so much snow and I was not dressed for the hunt. I finally had to give up.

Yesterday when I got to Holmenkollen, the rain had stopped and the weather was perfect. I remembered where to have the taxi stop to wait for me. It did not take too long to follow the needle into the woods and find a blue bag hanging in a tree exactly at the latitude and longitude where it was supposed to be. I signed the logbook and headed back to the taxi and on to the hotel. It was a late but delightful evening with my colleagues from Opera Software. Results for the first quarter were posted during the day.

Some gems this month, some crud.

First off is X-Men 3. If you've seen the first two, you know exactly what to expect: brainless over the top action, terrible dialogue, and a plot which is poor enough before the fan boys scream at it for being entirely off-canon. The show can be pretty and there are some good moments (exemplified by the under utilised Kitty Pryde) but it is, for the most part, forgettable.

Remakes are hard to do, and classic disaster movies like the Poseidon Adventure are no different. Renamed to simply Poseidon, we get the same premise: a luxury cruise liner is sinking and a small band of survivors want to escape. Despite the plot, this is a film that manages to create some genuine drama and suspense with masterful shifts of water and fate. If you can place the character development as secondary to the spectacle of the journey through an upturned ship, then there is plenty here to enjoy.

From Hong Kong comes a Triad flick, Election. Following the fate of two potential leaders of the triad at the upcoming traditional elections, we see a power struggle fought out politically at first, but quickly turning to violence. An interesting take against the good and bad dichotomy (even the 'good' side are bad), the film still does not surpass the sum of its admittedly competent parts.

Thank You For Smoking is a fine comedy about a smooth-talking, tobacco industry lobbyist who tries to balance his job with raising his son well. It's a surprisingly well cast film, even Rob Lowe comes off well, full of the sort of lines that you will be quoting for months to come if you are the sort of person who does such things. Definitely one to see.

Spanish film El Lobo is based on the story of the mole sent to infiltrate ETA in order to collapse the Basque leadership and stop violent action against the Spanish state. We follow the main character from his family life through to militant spy. While some of the progression is patchy at best, the story is decent enough. If you view it more as a dramatised and possibly skewed documentary, then you won't go far wrong.

On the other hand, if you watch Ultraviolet you will go far wrong. Let me start by saying it's a candidate for worst film of the year, it's that bad. The ineptitude of this film permeates through every fibre of its being: the lousy acting, the drunken plot (the term is used loosely), the abysmal lighting, CGI, physical world; everything is wrong. And not just wrong: inconsistent. The only way a film could be this poorly conceived is out of sheer malice.

Finally, Fearless is the final martial arts film starring Jet Li, before he takes more serious roles (how long will it last? Not long). The plot is pretty standard (brash young kung fu kid makes horrible mistake, takes up a simpler life, then returns as a wisened master) but, as always, it's the choreography that makes the film. The fights are the nuanced masterworks of motion that we've come to expect, and with minimal wirework encroaching into the sense of solidity. Though it won't change the world, Fearless is a solid kung-fu film.

The winner for June is: Thank You For Smoking.

Either that or just a complete mess. I stayed up till 4AM to watch my native country's representatives take on Portugal. It started out quite well for both sides. Nice offensive plays by Holland and then a brilliant goal by Portugal. The equalizer seemed to be coming no matter what, but then lots of weird things happened and suddenly I'm looking at two 9-men teams and a clean scoring sheet. I lost count of how many times Holland shot on goal, but today the luck was for the Portuguese. Rasheed Wallace would have said: 'Both teams played hard'. It was liberating to see Holland fight so hard, since they've always had a label of being a team that relies too much on fine plays and soft touches. They now just need to be a bit more smarter, which hopefully happens when the younger players age a bit. The way Portugal kept possession of the ball in the last couple of minutes was absolutely clever.

The English must be totally thrilled. Not only did my favorite Dutch player of this tournament, Boulahrouz, take out their best winger, Ronaldo, Portugal will also have to play without their best midfielder, Deco, and one of their regular defenders. As for Holland, they have a future, especially with fresh players from the under-23 squad that won the European Cup earlier this year ready to join. Van Basten is a young coach, but he knows his stuff and has a clear vision of what he wants the team to do. Scoring goals would be a nice thing to practice on, though.

Blossoming romance

Best action: Van Persie faking two defenders off their feet before curling a shot a hair's width past the goal. He should have laid the ball on the incoming Sneijder's path, though.

Worst substitution: Van der Vaart for Mathijssen. Holland's defense was rock-solid, the offense was going well. There was no need to shake up this balance. It was even more unfortunate as Boulahrouz was sent off just a minute later.

Best substitution: Petit for Pauleta. Scolari played it smart by reinforcing his defense and playing Figo solo up front. The Portuguese gambled on the counter and it almost got them a goal more.

Worst acting: Figo gives Van Bommel a lame head-butt, which Van Bommel initially barely noticed, but seconds later he seems to realize that could mean a red card for Figo so goes down theatrically, clutching his face as if his jaw fell off. Gets him only a meagre yellow card for Figo.

Best acting: Boulahrouz bullies Figo for the ball and his elbow gets in Figo's face in the heat of the chase. Figo goes down as if gunned down by elite commandos. His reward: A sent-off for the best Dutch defender.

Best moment: Red-carded Boulahrouz, Van Bronckhorst and Deco sitting next to each other on the stairs, chatting amicably about and watching the game.

I'll be rooting for Australia now. Go Oz!

Technorati Tags: game, holland, soccer, world cup

After finding four official National Geodetic Survey benchmarks during an interesting walk around downtown New Orleans, it was time to meet at Antoine's for dinner. The famous restaurant has been continuously operated by the same family since 1840. Through wars, the Great Depression, epidemics and storms, the culinary treasures continue to be served. The French Quarter, where the restaurant operates, was fortunate to not have any water damage, although the winds took a toll and repairs are still underway. After dinner, my son and his friends headed for the music they wanted to hear. For me, there was only one place I had in mind.

I had not been to Preservation Hall for more than thirty years but I remembered exactly what to expect. The sound of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is unique and inspiring. The musicians are polished and professional. I talked with the trombone player during break and he told me he was a professor of music at a local college. To hear him and his colleagues play you would never see a piece of music. It seemed to come from their soul. The saxophone player told me he read music when he was a boy but that now it comes from the soul. From their web site are a coupe of great quotes. "Musicians in New Orleans are born to entertain. There's nothing wrong with that, because I'm happy when I play. I love what I do". "We play gospel music here. We play old spirituals. We play military marches. There's no end to the variety of music that we play. But we play it all our way. And the more we play, the more the level of happiness rises. Just to watch our audiences go wow when we play, that gives me a good feeling and makes me want to put out more."

The amazing part to me is the coordination. There is no sheet music, no conductor, not even subtle leads from one of the members. All seven -- trumpet, two trombones, tuba, drum, tenor saxophone, and piano -- played as one. Soloists knew when to stand -- at times several would stand -- the crescendos and decrescendos were perfect and soft harmonies were flawless. These are truly great musicians. Walking a half mile down Bourbon Street back to the hotel there were dozens of "bands" playing at peak volume. It was a different world than Preservation Hall. I prefer the latter.

After Sunday brunch overlooking the mighty Mississippi River, it was time to head for JazzFest. The temperature was 90, the humidity was 100%, the crowd was 100K+ and there was no place to sit. In spite of this it was a great experience. The Paul Simon performance, in particular, was worth the price. Nice to see the 60+ performers -- he was amazing in every respect. Digital music is great but nothing compares to a live concert. The big screen made you feel like you were in the front row (even though there were no chairs). Regrettably, Fats Domino (78 years old) cancelled at the last minute for health reasons. Lionel Richie took took the stage instead.

On Monday morning it was a pleasure to make a presentation to a group of networking and IT executives at the English Turn Country Club. The topic was, guess what, the future of the Internet. With the incredible humidity, I do not regret not being a golfer and staying for the afternoon.

With regard to New Orleans,I found a mixed story. The water marks, damage, and debris were staggering. One can see why a huge number of people have been displaced and why housing is the main issue on many people's minds. I spoke to a number of residents who were working in the service industry. The common thread was that they were hopeful, courteous, and wore smiles on their faces even though they had every reason to be bitter. One person told me there was three feet of water in the second story of his house. He and his family moved in with a cousin -- eight people in a small home. The only good news is that there are plenty of jobs. The biggest tragedy may be that there are only five schools open in a city that was once more than a million people.

Technology writer, Peter Svensson, wrote an interesting story called "Will video break the Internet?". From a technical point of view there are many factors to consider. If a large number of web "surfers" were using the Internet as their primary way to watch TV, there would be a problem. More capacity is clearly needed, especially as HD-TV becomes more prevalent. The pessimists -- and some telecommunications operators -- see rising fees to pay for the bandwidth expansion. Optimists know that various technologies such as multicasting, caching, digital video recorders, etc. are dramatically improving the Net's ability to deliver video content and in parallel the cost per unit of technology continues to decline. History would suggest the optimistic view is the right one.

During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta there was a bomb blast. Native Atlanta ex-patriots living in Japan and Germany and other parts of the world wanted to get as much news coverage as possible about the status but had few choices (there were no blogs then). The Internet Technology team at IBM in Southbury, Connecticut was running a large web infrastructure for the Games at the time and one of the engineers, Andy Stanford-Clark, got the idea to "stream" a local Atlanta radio station over the Internet using an IBM technology called Bamba. It was a very successful project but only a handful of people could listen simultaneously due to the limitations of the technology and the Internet. Some people thought that if there were large numbers of listeners "audio would break the Internet". Today millions of people consider audio over the Net as commonplace. (Listening to crystal clear classical music from KUSC-FM in Los Angeles through my Sqeezebox as I write this). Based on the tens of millions of daily visitors to YouTube, it is clear that video has also become commonplace. Another leading indicator is what is happening on campus. A number of universities have decided to use the Internet to deliver cable TV to their dormitories.

One of the issues Mr. Svensson raised in his story is "net neutrality", a term that means different things to different people. The fear is that the really large telecommunications companies that provide parts of the "backbone" of the Internet may decide to not only raise fees but also to be discriminatory. In the extreme it would mean that Verizon would block access to Google because they made a deal with Yahoo! or visa versa. The telcos have never been successful in getting into the content business so a new angle for them might be to make deals with content providers that would make their video move through the Internet backbone at a higher priority in return for fees. These fears have gotten the attention of lawmakers who are now talking about legislation to insure net neutrality. Legislation is the worst possible way to address the issue.

What is really needed is more competition. In Japan, the Internet service available to consumers is significantly faster than in the U.S. and significantly less expensive. For example, Yahoo! Broadband offers 8 million bits per second for about $20 per month. Up to 100 million bits per second is available. What technical breakthrough have they had? None. The breakthrough was to separate the various infrastructure elements of Internet service and allow "Adam Smith's invisible hand" to go to work. More competition means higher speeds and lower prices. In the U.S. we have legions of lawyers and lobbyists at work doing their best to gain protections for themselves and to slow the spread of innovation such as municipal wireless and voice over IP. Will video break the Internet? No. The biggest threat to freedom of choice for content at competitive prices is a lack of competition.

Misguided or overly-prescriptive legislation can have unintended consequences. It can often fix one problem and create two new ones or add yet another layer of protectionism. Mike Nelson, former Director for Technology Policy at the Federal Communications Commission (and former colleague at IBM), says "a lack of competition which lets companies exert monopoly or duopoly power is probably the biggest damper on innovation". Not all legislation is bad. It is possible to use it to increase competition and decrease regulation, to fund e-government pilot projects, "connect the unconnected," or fund university education and research.


Other patrickWeb stories about Internet Technology
read more:

Uninnovate.com hasan interestingarticle on Apple's new support of 'Reverse syncing' of content with the iTunes7 release yesterday:

Today, Apple released iTunes 7.0,among otherthings. In earlier versions of iTunes, Apple didits best to prevent users from being able to copy music from an iPod back to adesktop computer. Now, Apple has changed course and is marketing “ReverseSyncing” as a new feature of iTunes 7.

But there is one giant catch:

1. Music and media not purchased from the iTunes store only syncs one way, fromyour computer to your iPod.

This is uninnovation in its most frustrating form. It’s easy to spot and avoid drm-saturatedjunk, but these kinds of subtle limitations in an otherwise great product frustrateusers and drive them to alternative applications.How about trusting the user enough to let them get at their own files without thesechildish restrictions?

WMP11 added reverse filetransfer support back in March which works with purchased, and clear content.(It’s also had album art matching in WMP9, dramatically improved in WMP11). I thinkthe author is being a bit overzealous however in his claim of “uninnovation”- it'salways been easy to transfer music off your iPod, it's just a little hidden. Here it’s a little less hidden.

I’ve seen lots of chatter on iTV - Apple's Media Center Extender-esque device forstreaming video to the living room.  It feels like we’ve been here before. LongZheng at istartedsomething.com hasa good recap of the relative strengths and weaknesses of products in this space.  It seems a bit odd that Apple would break from long-time tradition and givea 'sneak preview' of a product that won't be available for at least Q1 '07, particularlywhen they could have held the announce to availability around MacWorld in January.It's clear they had to do this to try and spur purchase of movies from theirnew store- with no rental model, people just don't want to buy movies towatch on their portable players. Tell them they'll be able to play it in other placesas well around the home and their likelihood of purchase is higher.  It’s the battleof cognitive dissonance - buyer's remorse. After all, you're already dealing withthe psychological barrier in that the user is buying an intangible good, somethingwithout physical form that perceptually has less value than physical media such asDVDs. But... you're going to charge about the same as a physical DVD. Without theBonus DVD content.  Oh and the 640x480 video quality people are downloading isgoing to be between VHS and DVD quality (which offers 720x480p).  Never mindthat it will be potentially less for letterboxed content since the new iPod doesn'tsupport 16:9 (widescreen) display.  In the time it will take most customersto download one of these movies, I could have gone to the store, bought the DVD, popcorn,a 6-pack of Coke, dinner, come home, cooked dinner, and be ready to watch. Ina rental model, all of these issues can be forgiven for immediate gratification anda lower price, as witnessed by the popularity of Video On Demand and InDemand services.

The challenges in streaming TV from the PC aren't just the hypothesized need for higherspeed wireless (802.11n) which should be provisionally approved in early 2007. This might be delaying their launch, but streaming 640x480 video across the home hasbeen possible with Media Center Extender for just about two years now.  A challengeis going to be convincing consumers to buy and set up yet another single-purpose devicein the living room, another remote, another input on the TV for this thing.

Today, you can get an Xbox 360 that includesMedia Center Extender at no additional cost. Over 16 million Media Centercustomers can use this today, no additional charge. Even if you don’t have a TV tunerin your PC, you can connect a USB tuner and record TV or HDTV (OTA today, DigitalCable with equipped PCs with Vista). No additional fees.  As announced at CESlast year, multiple HDTV manufacturers are putting Media Center extender into theirdesigns, something that costs less than a night at the movies to implement.

As for another box in the living room, the Xbox 360 does HD gaming, DVD/HD-DVD Playback,Music, Photos, Video, TV/HDTV playback, runs rich media apps from a multitude of providers,and delivers an increasing amount of media content via Xbox Live, including HD.  And it's going to get significantly better with WindowsVista Premium's Media Center features – automatically updating your Xbox 360 tosupport in the family room with the same level of animation and experience. 

Either way, a saying comes to mind: “A rising tide raises all boats” and for thatI welcome Apple's foray.  But if Apple's iTV costs the same as an Xbox, offers nothing more than a 'simplified remote' and fewer mainstream features whichreally makes more sense when competing for  consumer dollars outside the Job'sfaithful?  With Sony and Nintendo's Wii also vying for that same space, it'sabout to get a bit more crowded. Or perhaps just noisy.  So begins the 'Great FamilyRoom Battle of 2007'.

(Disclaimer: I used to work on Media Center, but haven't for over a year, andspeak only for myself.)

1. Make sense of an increasingly complex market (especially one that is in a constant state of flux)
2. React and adapt quickly (learn to function within a state of flux)
3. Become increasingly aware of context (both cultural and temporal)

1. As Niti mentioned, an inherent ability to recognize patterns enables designers to find relationships within the flux and their storytelling skills (visual communication and metaphor) allow them to communicate those patterns and their meaning to others.
2. Rapid prototyping and a 'design is never done' philosophy make the design process well suited to react and adapt quickly to changing markets. Bruce Sterling articulated why design is always in a state of flux in Shaping Things: 'People are time bound entities transiting from cradle to grave. Any 'solved problem' that involves human beings solves a problem whose parameters must change through time. A thing is no more stable than the humans who cherish it. Properly understood, a thing is not merely a material object, but a frozen technosocial relationship.” With globalization we also need to consider global technosocial relationships whose parameters shift when viewed though the lens of culture.
3. The right design answer is always: 'it depends'. Context determines the right technosocial relationship for people at any given time. As Richard Farson put it : 'Designers ... create situations. (environments, forms, rituals, experiences, relationships, systems) and situations are far more determining of human behavior than are character, personality, habit, genetics, etc. Nobody smokes in church, no matter how addicted.'