RSS feedCategory Archives for Culture
Podcasting’s transcription dilemma
Jon Udell nails podcasting.
How to Podcast RIAA Music Under License
Fadcasters continue to invent radio.
At the risk of doing the Vodafone thing to death…
There is a conspiracy in the mobile phone world, using DRM as an excuse for content lock in, and the public haven’t yet noticed.
There was a time, not 10 years ago, when the latest piece of geek gear would open up a world of hacks and extensions. In the Apple II world at least, we’d spend much of our time writing drivers, or coding hacks to get 3rd party gear to work on the Apple II. Floptical drives, personal organiser (now called PDAs) interfaces, printers, tape drives, industrial strength scanners, all had published APIs or protocols, and companies actively promoted technical documentation for hackers to use their gear. Some would require a little hardware hacking, others just software, but in general, the manufacturer didnt care. And in most cases, approaching them about the driver you’d just written would get you a “with our compliments” letter, and they’d start directing other interested users to your code. This has all changed due to DRM.
I’ve written previously about Vodafone’s disgusting attitude towards users, and how key features of my Sony Ericsson K700i have been disabled unless I pay Vodafone for the privilege, but the conspiracy doesn’t end there. It continues with Sony Ericsson, the manufacturer of the phone, and countless other network operators who also rebrand these phones.
I bought the K700i so that I could write Java apps for it, particularly the Apple II emulator that I’ve already written. Nothing special about that, most people learn Java these days at school, whether it be a simple Hello World or something more extensive. And what a great hack to get your own code running on these babies? After all, that’s one of the features marketed by Sony Ericsson, the ability to run J2ME MIDP applications, as is MP3 files as ring tones. Silly me assumed that because the phone supported it, that I’d be actually able to use it. Is it possible to copy J2ME apps directly to the phone and have them run? No it is not.
At least Sony Ericsson have a free developers’ site, where they provide all the technical specifications for writing applications. But the first thing you’re hit with is that the phone is completely managed by DRM. Even free applications need to be wrapped in a DRM package before they will run on the phone. And MP3s? Vodafone won’t allow you to use MP3 files as ring tones, unless they are DRMed. Of course Sony Ericsson provide the developer application that allows you to illegally DRM any content, which rather stupidly defeats the purpose, but still, all these companies are conspiring to make usable content only available for subscription download from the network provider.
And the man on the street apparently has no idea. They’ll happily download that MP3 ring tone or wallpaper from their network provider, for almost a third of what it costs for their monthly rental, and which for the network provider is almost 100% profit.
What if I happen to draw my own wallpaper? Record my girlfriend saying “Ring ring”, or even dare write my own Java application? Can I easily download it to the phone? Of course not.
These phones should be open to everyone, to do what they are technically able to do. If the phone runs J2ME apps, then let me run any J2ME app, and make it easy for me to do so. If I want to use MP3s as ring tones, because it is one of the phone’s key features, then let me do so.
There is a conspiracy in the mobile phone world, where our access to phone technology is being restricted by network providers wanting to make money for downloads. Don’t believe the bullshit that they are protecting copyrighted works, the DRM is there to lock you into paying for downloads. It’s a con, its a conspiracy, and it has to stop.
We’re an inquisitive lot, humans. We want to know, see, experience as much as we can, well most of us anyway, and there’s never enough time in our lives to do all the things we want to do.
A recent CNet article titled Just how old can he go?, talks about Ray Kurzweil’s new book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Although I’ve yet to read the book, it apparently talks about the three bridges to immortality, and if we can live for the next 20-50 years, then science will have advanced enough to if not make us immortal, then at least keep us alive until it is possible to do so. Effectively, stay alive for 20 more years, and you may become immortal.
Aside from the obvious ethical concerns, and the overpopulation and environmental impact that would have Dave Pollard in a panic, what would life be like with eternal life? Life would become even more precious than it currently is, as with immortality at stake, who’d want to chance a car accident, an airline crash, or being caught in a bush fire? The stakes would definitely be raised, and what we do from day to day in our mundane lives, would change forever.
Immortality would also change our attitudes to looking after this fragile planet, as again, the risk of a shortened life would be much much higher.
And with age comes experience, knowledge, and subsequently wisdom, and with wisdom we would perhaps become a more tolerant and pacifist society, caring more for all of the flora and fauna of our world.
Would the atheists survive, unconcerned for the eternally delayed afterlife, while the Christian based religions refuse immortality for the sake of a life beyond the mortal? Or would religions yet again have cause for change, doctoring biblical writings so that the sheep may be saved without passing over into the afterlife? Who would set the benchmark for saviour without requirement of death?
And when we consider that we have nature by the short and curlies, that we have broken the back of mortality, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake comes along and proves that we really don’t understand the universe in which we live. At last count, the earthquake took almost 200 000 lives, shifting some affected islands by up to 20 metres, the total energy released exceeding the yearly energy consumption of the U.S. by 30%, and altering the earth’s rotation by an as yet unknown amount.
Religious groups may say God’s just cause. More likely we’re just sitting on a fragile lump of spinning rock with nowhere else to go, and mother nature likes to remind us of this every once in a while.
Although, having shortened the length of an average day by around 3 microseconds, the average life of a human being will therefore have been extended by a little over 7.7 milliseconds. Not exactly immortality, but a somewhat ironic gift from mother nature none the less.
I stupidly braved the sales today, looking for the elusive pink, red, blue and green socks. Since the Sock Shop franchise closed down (well, was bought out and shut down), wearing mismatched single coloured socks, almost a trademark of mine, has been difficult to say the least, but I figured if anything, stores would most likely be tossing out their old fluoro socks into the bargain bins. No such luck.
It was at that moment, finding myself in the middle of the menswear section of a well known up market retailer, that I noticed I was awash in pastels, particularly baby pink. Under the fluorescent lights, you’d be forgiven for being blinded by aisle upon aisle of almost identikit shirts, if it weren’t for the mostly incomprehensible writing which seems to adorn all modern hip fashion, in an infinite array of fonts, styles and colours.
Yes folks, pink, with gibberish annotations, is the new brown. Born from the world of Euro courture several years ago, and finally making it’s way into the design houses of modern middle class pseudo-fashion, we say goodbye once and for all to the browns and earthy tones which subdued us for many a year.
Walking around the mall today was like being embedded in virtual reality advertising, and I felt strangely compelled to try reading every fragment of script worn by the endless pairs of testosteroned half surf culture half club culture male hipsters, with hair sprayed natural coloured limp mohawks. Sorry guys, but mohawks need to have colour and need to be spiked up, otherwise they just look like a half arsed lopsided business cut. I guess that’s Chatswood for you.
So anyway, I’m rambling now. The point is that the whole day reminded me why I don’t usually hit the Christmas sales. Many a year ago I was teased for wearing pink socks, strange considering my hair colour, but now that fashion and the mighty dollar dictate that pink is OK, calling all macho guys, this year it is swell to wear pink. Hmm, maybe I should switch to yellow…