Author Archives: iksib

I guess I’m on a mobile kick lately. Writing about Mr. Jain’s commuting vlog (below) made me remember this piece of news I meant to get up yesterday. The peeps at Make:Blog posted a nice do-it-yourself (DIY) guide to turning your PowerBook into a WiFi access point, in this case using Verizon’s EVDO wireless access card (What’s EVDO, you ask? It’s a new type of wireless broadband that uses cellular telephone networks, letting you get online without keeping you tethered to a wireless hotspot). Since Verizon recently released Mac-compatible drivers for their EVDO cards, no real hacking is involved, making this little project even easier.

No World of Warcraft in the car, people (Hands at 10 and 2! C’mon!), but Skype seems like a viable alternative, doesn’t it? I still can’t get around the inherent irony associated with using a cellular phone network to connect to the internet and make VOIP calls, but hey, whatever does it for you.

This is awesome – Ravi Jain set a camera up in his car and records his 30-minute drive to and from work each day; from that footage and has decided to turn the video into a show to be posted every Friday, dubbed DriveTime. Jain lives in the Boston suburb of Jamaica Plain and commutes to nearby Allston (those familiar with Boston can check his route map here). This got my brain immediately thinking: I live nearby…I think Mr. Jain needs a weekly tech segment! Maybe I’ll send him an e-mail to see if we can work something out. Any thoughts, dear readers?

Gather round, MMORPG-ers…I want to send out a welcome to McKay, a new writer here at LIVEdigitally. He’s even starting out in the field! Writing from BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment’s convention this Friday and Saturday celebrating Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo, McKay’s going to give all of us a taste of what Blizzard’s cooked up for its fans, from shots and highlights to any other interesting tidbits that cross his path.

Mmmmmm. Gaming. Now if only I could find a way to get some of those freebies!

Government breaks up corporate behemoth, smaller companies fight during their mad-dash for market share, companies start buying one another and soon the founding member is no more…or is it? Gather round, my children, for another story from “American Capitalism: TelCo Edition.”

SBC Communications (currently awaiting federal approval on its January announcement that it would snatch up telecommunications pioneer AT&T) announced today that it realized the name SBC Communications is incredibly boring will take AT&T’s name once the merger goes through.

Yeah yeah, so it’s just a stupid name, right? Not really. AT&T is a serious brand, born as a subsidiary of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell’s Bell Telephone Company. Ma Bell’s innovations include the first transcontinental phone call (1915), the first demonstration of television in the U.S. (1927) and the invention of cellular telephony and the solid state amplifier (both 1947). Perhaps it’s stupid to develop some childish level of comfort with a brand, but there’s no need to argue about the value of a such a thing. Companies spend scads of cash every year promoting their identities, and SBC is getting an American brand recognized by millions, giving them an advantage right out of the gate, in addition to the company’s business partnerships, markets, technologies, etc. etc.

[From The New York Times]

I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the whole “Napoleon Dynamite” thing when it came out – people raved about a movie that I almost immediately deemed a total waste of my time.

Having seen the film, I can appreciate it’s sheer absurdity, and the guys at eBaum’s World now have a Napoleon Dynamite soundboard full of audio clips from the film, plus a hillarious prank call using the soundboard. If ND’s not your thing you can check out the other soundboards on the site, from notable personalities Homer Simpson, Chris Farley and Howard Stern, among others.

Yeah, so we’re not quite influential enough to roll side by side with the big boys, but mark my words…one day I’ll be the guy issuing commands from on high and wooing all of you with my sharp wit and insightful industry commentary, esoteric news tidbits and ingeniously subtle pop culture references.

*wakes up from daydream*

The “blog worth” number displayed below is obtained using the numbers from AOL’s recent purchase of Weblogs Inc. (a deal worth an estimated $25 – 40 million). Using Technorati’s data on both the number of links to/from each blog and the amount of traffic handled by those links, a blog’s percentage of total network linkage can be determined. Multiply this percentage by the monetary value of the AOL/Weblogs Inc. deal and you have your blog worth. Check the link and throw some of your fav blog addesses in the empty field!

Check this year’s Visions of Science Photographic Awards – winning entries range from cleaner shrimp (left) and chameleons to some shots from the ever-superb scanning electron microscope, in this case used on salt and peppercorns (right), peas and more. Larger versions can be found at the following:
• The BBC website.
• National Geographic.

[Kudos to Slashdot]

I just found out about, downloaded and am writing to you from within Flock, a Firefox-based browser released today as a developer preview (i.e. potentially buggy but functional) version for Windows/Mac/Linux. I’ve only been playing for a few minutes, but thus far I’m impressed, especially with the built-in blogging tools. Flock has a built-in system for browsing through your Flickr account while blogging and something called “The Shelf,” a separate popup window where you can drag and drop images and/or highlighted text for use later in blog posts (a great idea for those of us who keep multiple browser tabs open while surfing and/or blogging). The browser also eschews traditional bookmarks (based locally) in favor of online, shareable bookmarks made possible by del.icio.us.

Flock also has a built-in RSS reader, which at the moment appears to work perfectly well with LIVEdigitally and NYTimes.com but is stumbling a bit with Engadget. Like Firefox, Flock supports extensions like Greasemonkey and AdBlock.

Take a look at this news.com article for more info. Vive le open source movement!

I’m in the process of listening to a live broadcast of the first hour of On Point, an excellent program produced by WBUR, the National Public Radio affiliate here in Boston (runs 10 am – 12 pm M-F). The first hour of today’s show is devoted to a discussion of the modern media revolution, and the role Apple products are playing is said change.

Host Tom Ashbrook is talking with Lander Kahney, Wired staffer and Apple journalist, along with other guests including Lev Grossman from Time Magazine (this week’s issue has Steve Jobs on the cover).

While I don’t intend for this post to piggyback on my earlier one about the same subject, I find it interesting to listen to those with more experience and more complex and insightful commentary on the same subject. While Apple’s at the center of the stage of the discussion, it’s sharing the space with larger, more revolutionary ideas about how we’re changing the ways we consume and create our own media. Some of the more interesting points:

• Madison Avenue (the big media companies) are obviously growing concerned about the potential for serious change in revenue streams (Think $1.99 TV shows without any commercials).
• Our society is tailored to the needs of baby boomers and is now only starting to shift to reflect the desires of younger consumers. Are we moving to a culture of shared music and video (iTunes) despite the fact that people are increasingly empowered to create their own “microcultures” of music? Individual consumption will obviously differ but it may be done via a similar channel.
• Actual content ownership – do ownership preferences differ along generational lines? A caller asked if perhaps younger people have less of a compulsion to want to own their content.
• The power to create media is increasingly migrating to the hands of individuals, should they be interested in creating their own content and making their work available on their own terms.

Before I listen to the entire show and give you the full recap here, go check it out! If you can’t get it on your local station, just listen to the archived show – good stuff.

I don’t know about you, but when someone creates a piece of mobile technology that it describes as functional, provocative and designed for expanding the possible meaning and metaphors about access, proximity, wireless and WiFi, the svelte language is a siren song with its forked tongue in my ear. Where can I get such a product? What is it? What could this possibly mean?

[slaps self, feels ashamed for being seduced by hyperbolic marketing jargon]

In struts a geek wearing the WiFi.Bedouin, an “art-technology product” (read: backpack) that acts as a mobile WiFi node. Combine a PowerBook G4 running some custom software, an 802.11b access point, RF amplifier, power supply and a viewable PDA used to display GPS data and you have true mobile internet, as opposed to simply mobile users (forced to drink Starbucks coffee while they work).

Seriously, though – check out Julian Bleecker’s unique creation, developed during the fall and winter of 2003 at New York’s Eyebeam Atelier.

Listening to Engadget podcast number 47.5 (a special edition due to last week’s Apple announcements) this morning, I wanted to throw down a bit of “less news, more commentary” for all y’all. Last week’s Apple event (we found out about the iPod video, the new iMacs, iTunes 6 and Front Row) is significant for much more than the sense of glee created by shiny new hardware and software.

With its ABC/Disney deal allowing iTunes users to download episodes of LOST, Desperate Housewives and others (and other deals apparently in the works), Apple’s increasing presence in the entertainment biz justifiably leads to legitimate discussion about where the company (and the industry in general) is heading. The podcast really got me thinking about how Apple has grown, from playing an integral role in the birth of the PC industry to the design revolution spearheaded by the first iMac. The company is increasingly paving/heading down a road where its machines are integral aspects of our digital lives (this is no big secret), but in striving to be a purveyor of devices that provide us with access to all of the media in our lives, does it logically follow that Apple then becomes more of a media company?

As iTunes and iPods form a greater share of the company’s earnings (last week’s record earnings came from 1.2 million computers and nearly 6.5 million iPods), it will be interesting to see if they shift their focus a bit. The iPod’s place in history is secure, and without the ability to read the mind of Steve Jobs, any statements I make about where Apple’s going would obviously pure specualation, and from a person with only a few years of experience following the industry.

Watching sales of the iPod video and iTunes music videos will truly show us what customers want, and Apple’s decision to back into the portable video player market after establishing a stranglehold on the portable music biz is, in my opinion, the perfect way to see how excited consumers are about the ability to watch video while on the move. Is the screen too small? Does the fact that you need to actually watch it (as opposed to listening to music in your pocket) limit potential growth? Time will tell.

Have a good Monday.

The masculine part of my brain is slapping the cutesy part around in the corner as I’m writing this post. It’s all because of iAttire…they’re selling a line of limited edition Halloween costumes for iPods. Yes. iPods.

My flummoxed brain is unable to pass judgement on these things without fanning the precursory flames of some sort of intra-cranial civil war – traditional masculine, geek, emotive and other sects are duking it out in my gray matter as we speak (not that they are necessarily mutually exclusive). On one hand I have absolutely no plan to shell out $40 for one of these things [Yeah! 40!], but what would my price point be? Would I even be caught dead with one if the price was right? Is this just downright stupid? Too girly? Is that a completely baseless sexist comment? Yeesh. One thing I can appreciate is the sheer ingenuity of the person/people behind these. Make a completely new genre of accessory for the iPod. Watch out, iGuy.

It’s anthropomorphization to the absolute extreme; these are the same people who name their cars and bikes, for crying out loud. Awww, hell…I can’t get over it! Just look at the little vampire shuffle! He’s sooooooo cute!

(Thanks for helping me work through some of my issues, dear readers. It really felt good to get all of this off my chest.)