Insert The Media Here

Conjoinment

2009-06-02T00:28:00.003+01:00

Anyway, just a quick post here, to anyone who has heed to pay, that this blog will be kept up for the foreseeable future. But I've also copied everything over to my other blog, http://insertthepotatohere.wordpress.com/

Also, any new posts on the subject will also be there, under the Digital Media category.

Anyone who read all those posts below may of gotten the impression that I think there's too much shit on the Internet, and that shit is hard to find. Which is why I do this.

And also, I'm lazy. To post here, I have to sign out of my main gmail.

Enjoy.

Looking into Jay Walker's claims.

2009-04-26T16:30:00.005+01:00

1Mb downloaded is one piece of coal burned. The veracity of this I'm not sure about. And of course, it's a rather far reaching claim to make, and when you take into account renewable and nuclear energy, how many computers, routers and servers are behind your download, who knows how many energy stations across the world contribute to the 1Mb coal fund. And how big is this piece? Unlike at home, coal is ground down into dust before it's burnt in power stations, and also, I've been searching but can't find out how much energy is given off per weight of coal burnt.

But, lets ignore all that, take it as truth, and imagine that its your local power station up the road that is burning this lump. How much have I contributed? How many polar bears are stranded on ice melts due to by new found obsession with Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe?
Lets try and see if I can prove this without an army of Trinity research students.

Well, yesterday after some surfing, blogging, couple of episodes of shows on YouTube, Video Tutorials, image downloads for projects, instant messaging.... I could go on. But about 1200 Mb's.
And what does that mean? It means about 6 of his bags of coal. Which would keep me warm for the Winter, easily. But lets look into this further.

Just how much does this little guy cost?

It been a while since I last lifted coal (we're farmers, turf all the way), but I'd put that bag at 25 to 30kg. Quite possibly more, but we'll say 25. I'm just on this website, where I can get a 50kg bag (your usual sized bag when we used to get coal. His looks about half that size so that goes at least someway to corroborating my figures) of coal for £15.60 sterling, which is about €17.28. So we'll say an even €8 for that bag he's holding. At 200Mb per bag,, and if both are figures are someway correct, that's 200 lumps of coal in that bag, €0.04 a lump, and hence, Mb of coal. So, hypothetically, where I to somehow create my own Internet that's what it would cost me. Of course, power stations and the Internet don't work like that, but for the purpose of this, lets say they do.

How much are being charged for this broadband we're using now? Well, according to here, when we go over our download limit, (which is part of whichever package you decided on with whichever company, the figures are something like this:

UTV Broadband - €0.0126 per Mb over usage limit
Imagine Broadband - charge €0.035 per Mb over usage limit
BT - charge €0.03 per Mb over usage limit
Perlico - charge €0.03 per Mb over usage limit
3 Ireland - charge €0.05 per Mb over usage limit
O2 Mobile Broadband- charge €0.0201 per Mb over usage limit
Vodafone Mobile Broadband - charge €0.02 per Mb over usage limit
Eircom - charge €0.01 per Mb over usage limit
Eircom Satellite - charge €0.15 - €0.20 per Mb over usage limit

Ignoring the satellites, those figures are pretty close to my 4 cent a Mb.

So, what does that mean? Scientifically, statistically? Nothing. My figures have been gotten through loose research and guesswork. His figures, I can't find any sources for, only forum posts giving out arguments for and against using roughly the same Google search methods are me.
A useless exercise? No, defiantly not. It proves that his figures might not be wildly off the mark, and it helps me prove a more important point.

It also does prove just how easy it is to come up with this figures. He or I could easily of gotten our figures from anywhere. I just referenced a random coal distribution website from England for God's sake. He's showing us lumps of coal in plastic bags with no figures. I haven't taken into account shipping, the Dollar, coal efficiency. He doesn't mention where this coal is being burnt.

You can't just make throwaway remarks like that these days. Like I said, whether he's telling the truth, what he believes is the truth or just lying, is moot. Lets see some figures for this argument, and then we can decide for ourselves. Jay Walker needs to be using much more precise language before talking to a public that is more then willing to panic over issues that bear even the slightest relation to global warming. A word like 'piece' just doesn't cut it.

Favourite Designer

2009-04-26T15:50:00.004+01:00

Right. Still blogging. Too late perhaps? I'm not sure, but I do admit to enjoying this somewhat so what the hell. And I've been told that over the course of this, I was supposed to blog about a favorite designer, and how much coal I'm burning as I throw these words out over the world. And what do you know, I'm 2 short of the required 27 posts.

So firstly, a favourite designer. Hard to say, there are many. And a lot of fields I'm interested in: Web, animation, gaming, and while overlooked in our course, online journalism is a part of digital media in my opinion at least.
But, to pick one, I'll go back to a post I was going to do a month or so back, about actual designers in the workplace, there views on digital media, Avant Garde, etc, etc. I sent about 10 to 15 emails to various designers, with poor results. About a 2 thirds no answers and a third a "can't anwer your questions now, I'm fighting cancer" (or something).
But, I did get one reply, and to be honest, was more then pleased with it, as he has worked on some big name products and also, I mentioned him in a previous blog post about film titles.

http://dannyyount.com/

He's essentially a directer of main titles for films and Television (Iron Man, 6 Feet Under, Rock N Rolla for example), and since learning about him after seeing the Kiss Kiss Bank Bank title sequnece, I have to say I enjoy his work immensely, and from that and a few assignments I've done this year, have been getting into Motion Graphics more and more.

So, here I'll just post some of his work and some of his answers.

Q. The name of the class that this assignment is part of is calledAvant Garde in Digital Media. Do you as a person try to be Avant Garde in as many ways as possible, or do you take a more contemporary approach?
A. Experimentation should always be part of the process. Sometimes there is only enough time for something that is popular, but we always try to stay sharp and evolve. But you have to be realistic and listen to what your client wants.

Q. When coming up with something new, or trying to be particularly original, what starts this process? Would you, for example, come up with it in the initial design stages, or perhaps, when your quite a bit of the way into the process of creating something, think of a new and interesting idea and try it out?
A. I always stay grounded to win a presentation. I solve the design problem first. Once that is accomplished I then start to find ways to make it as fresh as possible.

Q. How often would you find yourself creating/designing something that could be called avant garde just for the sake of it, as opposed to sticking to contemporary norms?
A. I would call that experimental work. I have done a few of those in the past when I need something to do, but lately I have been just trying to find opportunities in what I am making to infuse those kind of things.

Ironman

The Invasion

The Sopranos

Bloggers being treated like Journalists: Mixed results

2009-04-13T00:39:00.006+01:00

Two stories today, related in the broad scheme of things (The only way I look at things).

Firstly, we have a story from The Telegraph about how Goldman Sachs is trying his hardest to get a blog shut down.
Well, I say they're trying to do it, but its one of those lovable banks, so in truth, they're getting some lawyer lackeys to do it for them. The blog in question? http://www.goldmansachs666.com/

So, what's this got to do with my course? Well, everything. Information over the Internet is starting to be taken seriously, and by association, blogs are being taken seriously. The owner of the above blog has already been take to court over a website, and has since started to become savvy about what he can and can't say.

"Since I went through this with Lennar, I've had advice from some of the best intellectual property lawyers, and I know exactly what I can and can't do. We're not going to back down from this," he promises.

So, what was previously looked over (or perhaps just never noticed) in the past, may well end up being libelous, with a day in court if you're not in the know about what you can and can not say.

Pictured: My understanding of liable laws

Of course, when enforced correctly, this is a good thing. After all, liable and slander laws are there for very good reasons. Television and print media aren't allowed to spread lies and half-truths (no matter what The Sun thinks), so it wouldn't be right if this didn't apply to the Internet and other media. But differences apply, and should be considered by courts. For example, it will be much easier to bully a small blog then a multinational news firm. And it is relatively easy to start a new blog, not so much CNN.

On the other end of the scale, we have a rather heart breaking story; The news that a blogger, Omidreza Mirsayaf in Iran, who was imprisoned for airing his views on his Internet blog, died in prison recently. A simple blog, which started broadly but developed into an attack on Iran politics ended up being the death of him.
Of course, this is par for the rather crazier then the craziest golf course that is Iran. Similar views vented over print media would have the same results. But it adds to the argument that the world is taking notice of bloggers. But the world is still full of a lot of stupid people taking things too far.

Omidreza Mirsayaf said himself: 'I wish I actually did something real to insult the regime since I ended up in prison anyway.'

So, bloggers are now being treated like adults. The level of trouble that lands you in depends on your address.

Answer: No. No they can't.

2009-04-10T21:52:00.006+01:00

Goddamn it, France. Making me waste my time on a now immediately redundant blog. France, seemingly in direct answer to the blog directly below this, have not held their nerve, and have rejected the 3 strike law. While the Parliament had in voted in favor of the law, the law was rejected by the National Assembly yesterday. So, back to the drawing board lads.

So, what will this mean for the future of online piracy? Well, it pays to shop around for your info, and according to France24, it will be revised and put to the assembly again. The main reason for the rejection was due to a clause that required banned users to still pay their Internet fees. Which, to me at least, makes sense. After all, you don't continue to pay rent after you're evicted.
But once this is amended, it seems likely that it will be passed. And then, well, an end to piracy? Not completely. Like always, the smarter people will just get smarter, hide themselves away in the proxy forests deep within the Invisible Surfing valley. Like most things, it will be the non-elite who get caught.

For me, my previous fears (for them or for us? not sure yet) was that they wouldn't enforce it. Or at best, enforce it poorly. But now, after all this hoo-ha, will they-won't they, kind of to-ing and fro-ing, eventually the people who are in favour of this law will realise it was the bestv thing they could of hoped for. Yes, its delaying things, but you can't buy this kind of publicity. If it had just been passed like any other normal law, fine, it'd work out alright. You'd have a few early prosecutions maybe, then things might die down. Pirating might lessen, but would by no means be eliminated. The government will no doubt move on to what they see as more important things (naked charactachures of the head of government anyone?) But now, when it eventually is passed, after all this talk and preamble, they will have to act on it. Hard and fast. Anything less would make them look incredibly stupid and cowardly.

Well, maybe not that stupid.

And if it works? Well, the Internet might change very quickly. The Internet we see now has been forced to existence due to rise of piracy and copyright infringement (iTunes might never of started had we not been robbing music, production companies now have their own YouTube channels because we were watching it on JohnnyJoeSoap86534's channel anyway). While I won't sit here and predict the Internet will be set back 5 years, I will say that there could be another major rethink of some companies business models because of this.

And the real result of this? The end product for the everyman? My summary?
All this bickering over torrents is just more time not being spent on inventing ways to upload movies directly into my brain or helping me do the dishes from my bedroom. Honestly, all this talk of the wonder of the next incarnation of the web or where the Internet is going next is redundant since the abiding memory of the last 10 years of the Internet was companies/governments/Metallica trying to stop us downloading Big Momma's House 2. And, by the sounds of things, it could be all we end up doing for the next 10 years.

Time better spent: Inventing Hover Cars

Can France hold it's nerve this time?

2009-04-07T18:47:00.006+01:00

I was going to wait till tomorrow for my next post (things to be doing don't you know), I just came across this on Digg.

According to France24.com:

French lawmakers on Thursday adopted the most contested provision of a tough new anti-piracy bill that would punish illegal downloaders by cutting off their Internet access.

I've blogged about this before, but now it seems like its definitely coming in. In layman's terms, it will work like the infamous American law, '3 strikes and your out,' where any Internet user caught downloaded content illegally more then twice will have their connections terminated for a period between one month and a year.

While I admit that punishments for this offense are needed (though I believe they already exist, just need to be enforced. Theft is theft.), this punishment, while seemingly sensical in these times, in the coming years, will be much harder to enforce. As we move closer towards the 'Internet of Things', and the lines between what is Internet access and what is television, advertising, your washing machine, become more blurred, this law will be seen to be increasingly harsh. And then of course, there are the technical concerns, for instance, for households with multiple users, wireless networks, etc

.You can take our porn and music, but please France, not our web-enabled fridge with food serving suggestions.

Its an interesting route to take. We'll just have to wait and see how well or unwell the first wave of offenders are dealt with.

South Park: TV's Longest Week

2009-04-07T18:13:00.003+01:00

South Park: TV's Longest Week

This was emailed to me a while back in the Creative Cow magazine. It's a very interesting look into the creation of South Park.
I had always wondered how the story lines on the show are so up-to-the-minute, but had heard that it only takes a week to make it. While I believed that, until this article I had never realized that in that week is also all the writing, re-writing, voice recording, re-recording due to storyline changes etc. It really is quite amazing what a small studio can do.
According to this, the whole work flow is based around the writing, so that changes can happen constantly, and after years of the experience, the animators and artists are confident (and talented enough) to be able to cope with this.

New ideas from Matt and Trey are constantly coming in, and the process of tightening and refining each scene goes on until the very last minute. “Basically every time Trey walks away from the Avid, we have another version of the show,”

I'll refrain from regurgitating the whole article, as its already well-written here and well worth taking 5 minutes out for the read. A very interesting insight in what it might be like to work in one of the more unique animation studios going today.

On a side note, I'd also recommend the Creative Cow website, for tutorials, guides, articles and forums, all related the creative field and the kind of computer applications we use every day. The pod casts for instance are in depth and helpful, and most importantly, free (suck on that, Lynda). Special mention goes to the forums. Any question I've ever posted has been replied to quickly, with none of the condescending, annoyed attitude I've noticed with some other forums.

Lastly I found this out courtesy of Iolo's blog, but just in case, surely everyone knows by now that South Park is now available to watch guilt free from South Park Studios?

Metamaterials: Kevin Bacon's dream.

2009-04-06T23:47:00.005+01:00

At bloody last. One of the exciting, amazing, drop-your-jaw shade of awesome futuristic dreams we had as children could soon be real.

Invisibility.

Badass.

Not seen: My foot.

Granted, at the moment its only small objects, but soon who knows? This is all made possible because of something called metamaterials:

"a radical new technology that could lead to other applications, including barriers to prevent waves damaging the shore, acoustic cloaks to reduce noise, stealth systems for the military, and faster telecommunications."

Scientists seem pretty enthusiastic about their possibilities.

And yes, I appreciate the irony of me raving about the loss of privacy in previous blog posts and then getting really excited over some one being able to hide their morning cup of tea. But.... I mean, invisibility!

Irish firm offers 10,000 for a good idea

2009-03-30T15:54:00.004+01:00

Just came across this here while looking through the weeks news. Said I should pass it on as I haven't seen it anywhere else.

An Irish firm is offering €10,000 for a good business idea

Sounds pretty good, a company trying to give something back to the Irish web community. I've read it through and there really doesn't seem to be a catch, but don't take my word for it, have a look.

http://iqprize.ie/

"We’re not investors. We’re not venture capitalists. We’re not looking for equity and we don’t want your intellectual property. There’s no catch. There are no strings. Seriously."

Closing date: 12th May 2009.

Links: I open it with thinking I might be lazy and yet still spend a half hour on it

2009-03-30T00:47:00.007+01:00

So, at the risk of appearing lazy, here's some links to other people's work.
Course, if you read this regularly, you'll see it's just me refusing to contribute to the wave of unoriginal, seen it all before crap that has flooded the Internet, leaving this Noah and his Friends slightly bewildered. If someones done it better, its merely my duty to pass it on to the people who don't float in the similar Internet ponds I wade through.

First off, here's a guy doing exactly what I'm doing, showing you where to look for information.
20 Excellent Blogs for Those Who Love Design

A lot of information there. I recommend a sift through, some wet afternoon. Unless you have actual work to do. In which case, do that. I'm talking about some wet afternoon where all you find yourself doing is watching all 36 series of Have I Got News For You on Youtube. I'm on 34.

50 Things Every Mac Geek Should Know

Most of it won't be new to you, but I came across some stuff I'd never heard of before. Some of the terminal commands could be handy. And I'd never attempted the dive into Automator before this.

25 free Mac Apps for freelancers

Once again, most readers would know of a lot of these, but to those who don't, I pass this on. 2 special mentions that you mightn't of heard of go to Disk Inventory X for finding out where all your hard disk space has gone, and App Cleaner for getting it back.

50 Brilliant Typography Designs to Inspire You

Pretty self explanatory. Some nice ones there for us multimedia people who don't really consider typography.

My God, that's a lot of water themed phrases. I should go to the toilet.

Google Street view: Cool, invasive, cool.

2009-03-28T17:35:00.004Z

I love the way things like this happen, and no one notices or cares, because its Google. Google taking photos of men coming out of sex shops.
Yes, its all mostly harmless, and I'm not going to be organizing any Lynch mobs towards Google offices (only to RTE if they don't give me the Late Late Show job I've been promised), but it is a bit strange that they can do this and barely a whimper. Oh yes, controversy at first, but it soon gave way to just how damn cool it was. I'm sure there was a lot of "I probably would of closed my curtain that day if I had known, maybe clean up the front garden", that kind of thing. "It sure was a bad day to have my annual naked barbecue." You know, that kind of talk emanating from the pubs and restaurants of fair England, as people sit down to roll their eyes at Google once more over their pints and cake, all of them looking forward to going home and trying it out on their neighbors.

Google Earth was a little weird at first, but we got over it once they showed us how cool it was. I for one can't wait to look through people's windows in England, eager to see which of the people who don't donate to charity have trampolines in their back garden.

I had a lovely walk today through Ingress Garden in London, saw a young lady walking who I hope was her child. He had his uniform on. I hope she didn't take him out of school.
Saw a man with a skirt walk his dog. Harmless really. Pretty cool even.

Its amazing how privacy takes a back seat to entertainment.

MAC Vs PC: Git Vs Idiot

2009-03-28T16:24:00.010Z

The new PC ad. Or Windows to be more specific, but the two words are pretty synonymous at this stage in the 'throwing rattles out of prams' advertising world we live in. And here's another smug Apple monkey talking about it.

Sometimes I wonder how this whole tedious debate of Mac Vs. PC would of gone had Microsoft never released Vista. Its the ultimate comeback for a Mac Owner. One of those, 'this is not exactly what we're talking about but you can't argue against it so I'll say it'.
The 'You're gay' of the teenager's insult arsenal.

PC Owner: "So, I hear your 2 grand Apple Mac just died for no reason after 6 months. Logic board I think, wasn't it?
Mac Owner: "Vista is shit."
PC Owner: "..."

Yes, Vista is horrible, absolutely horrible, and nothing can change the fact that anyone who uses their computer for anything other then crappy Windows Movie Maker anime montages are downgrading to XP , but do we all have to be so damn smug about it? The focal point of advertising shouldn't be about how bad the other option is. McCain was slated for doing much the same thing towards the end of the presidential campaign in America. Bloggers, Windows basher, typed out their dismay on their Macbooks, brown sweat stains around the trackpad, cracked edges inviting moisture. Hypocritical? Possibly.

An extended warranty shouldn't be an absolute necessity. Also, providing an extra warranty that is recommended by ever person on every mac forum ever reeks to me.

Apple Sale Rep: "Would you like an extended warranty?"
Citizen in need of Laptop: "Why, do I need one?"
ASR: "It's in case it breaks."
CINOL: "Oh right, so if I accidentally break it? That sounds go-"
ASR: "Oh, no, that's not covered."
CINOL: "So... if my child smashes it?"
ASR: "Oh, no, that your parenting problem, not ours."
CINOL: "So, if it just breaks?"
ASR: "Yes."
CINOL: "Like... its, faulty?"
ASR: "We don't make faulty products sir."
CINOL: "But, if it just breaks, after a year, for no reason, I need this warranty for you to fix it."
ASR: "Yes."
CINOL: "Will it break?"
ASR: "It might."
CINOL: "How, if its not faulty, and not because of me, or any human reason?"
ASR: "Vista is shit."
CINOL: "..."

Of course, I say all this as just a simple Mac owner, tired of being made look like a smug git by fellow mac owners, the overwhelming loud minority (I hope). I'm typing this from a laptop with external mouse and keyboard, because one day, my logic board decided to go bust. No real reason, no fault of my own, the Mac tech told me that sometimes "These things happen." Plugged into the wall after my third battery refused to work one day.
But, when eventually I do get some money together, I will buy another Mac, under no illusions, knowing that it will die horribly at the worst moment.

Why? I think you know the answer to that. But I won't be shouting it from the mountains.

The problem with this topic is maintaining credibility after watching Die Hard 4.0

2009-03-24T13:48:00.006Z

Another article on how the Internet is going to be all-prevalent, omnipotent, ubiquitous, all-powerful, this time from Time. All of this has been said before, but the last paragraph is worth noting. Vinton Cerf here wonders about how the treat of virus attack could affect us when we're so dependent on the Internet. While since its inception, the Internet has never really gone fully 'down', but if it does become the all-knowing owner of the Pearly Gates, what would happen if there was a major crash? I'm sure the whole Internet couldn't go down, there's too many servers, routers etc in too many different locations for a total collapse, but viruses could perhaps spread at a phenomenal rate, unlike anything imagined. I just hope as much effort is going into firewall (or the future equivalent) and anti-virus software as the effort going into making my dishwasher IP-enabled.

Jesus, I'm starting to sound like pirate radio.

Anyway, on a more down to earth note, how much has human error been factored into this? If banks can lose laptops like I lose socks, how much responsibility are we even deserving of in this new future? And at what point are computers doing too much? I'll leave my rant on this topic to a later date on my other blog (not really within the scope of this Digital Media blog I think), but to leave with a link, this very question is already under serious consideration.

That's fine then. It's not like the US Military to rush into things.

Paul promotes discussion on how we all might be screwed

2009-03-13T01:15:00.013Z

(I stress the word might)

So, Google just keeps on rising. Well, according to this, maybe not. But then, you have this, which clearly believes they are. But I could go on and on and on about these numbers. Point is, taking search engine numbers on a monthly or even biannual bases is a bit pointless. People seem to be blogging frantically the second Yahoo creeps up a half percent, or Google plummets by a humiliating .2%, or something like that.

So, I will refrain from doing either, and me, of heady heights and lofty goals, will instead talk about the big picture. The big picture being, no matter what figures you believe, what little risings or fallings there are, Google command a huge share. Averaging about 60 to 70% around the world. And I'm sorry Yahoo, but I don't think your plucky underdog status will help you here. The 'against the odds', 'rising from the flames', 'on the ropes but wins because of Uniflu' probably won't cut it here.

Emilio Estevez: How the Mighty have fallen. Yup, I just punned.

Is anyone else worried? Well, 'worried' sounds a bit strong I admit. Its more along the lines of 'it crosses my mind semi-regularly'. Sure Google are great, we all know it. Their ads have become more annoying, but it's the only really search engine web designers have to care about (not to mention the sheer handiness of Google Analytics). Google Reader has changed my life. Google Images gave me the above picture.
But its like anything, competition is healthy. And I'm sorry, but the fact that Google is great to work for, that they can do no wrong product wise, and that it's all mostly pain-free and pocket-free, if the Internet is to continue the way its going, we need competition to breed new ideas, to have choice. It's like most elections of the past few years, including American and English elections; the alternative to the current regime is horribly mediocre (and I say that as a serious anti Fianna Fail-er).
Sure, Google seem pretty good at doing this now, and if they continue going on in the vein they are now, things will all be rosy. But it could just turn into the benevolent dictator. And a benevolent dictator is still a dictator.

After this blog, I might as well tear up that job application I was about to send them.

If the whole Internet, phones, banks, everyone knowing everything about everybody (something Google are well on their way towards), are soon to connected in this 'Internet of things', I don't feel comfortable knowing that one company will be at the focus of such a thing, even if it's a company as great and revolutionary as Google. Sure, if more companies get better involved in the market, things might slow down for a bit technology-wise, (which honestly, is debatable, and I do believe we'd start getting things of a higher standard), but anyway, no matter the outcome, competition is Democratic. At least, in 10 years time, we can say we had the option of considering things before we marched blindly on.

It sounds like I'm scaremongering again here, like I'm saying a vote for Google is a vote for terrorism, but I'm not. I just think people should just sit down for a bit and think this out. Now everything's great, but every Orwellian vision we have for the future has to start somewhere. 50 years from now, who knows what effect Google's supremacy will have? Whether we end up cursing or praising them, it's worth a thought.

Torrents: Right or wrong? - What this post isn't about.

2009-03-11T23:41:00.006Z

Two related stories here about Torrents.

Stumbling along through this hellish place that is the Internet, 3% chocolate, 97% marzipan, I came across this story.

Yup, the torrent battle still rages. Anyone not in the know, for Ireland, it can be summed up in two links. In Sweden, The Pirate Bay was sent to court, in Ireland, Eircom took a stance.

For people like me who find hyper linking distracting: Eircom are attempting (Succeeded? Who knows in this country?) to ban P2P file sharing, things like music downloading, films, etc. This is because The Pirate Bay, a torrent site, was brought to court. Results on that aren't out till April.
But, in the meantime, France are starting to debate on a seriously tough new law against file sharing.

"When ISPs are notified about alleged file-sharing, they first send an e-mail to the customer involved. The second time, the customer gets a registered letter. The third time, the customer gets booted off the 'Net for three months to a year."

Sooooo.....what does this mean? Just more hot air? There's a new story for banning this kind of activity for every hair on my head (And I have beard hair these days too). And so far, not a great deal has come of it. The odd young lad behind bars, a few fines. But not much considering how often the topic comes up.

Before I get to a point, here's another link. That ones worth a scan through.
So, stealing online has become a competition. Some sort of sliding scale. Before, it was like stealing 20 euro that was left on a table with no one around. With this, its like stealing a 20, waving it in front of someones face and telling them, "Yeah, I nicked this. With my iPhone. Oh yeah, I also have an iphone. Jealous?"
Glorified competitive stealing. A competition for who can help people steal the best.

Main thing I don't get about this: Surely this would make stealing harder? I can search for something from my bed on my laptop, why leave the house so I can scan a bar code? The more I blog on multimedia, the more I think how people need to just sit down and ask themselves, "Is this worth doing? Or should I just walk the dog?"

But, to be honest, there's no point me voicing my views on P2P sharing here, whether its right or wrong, those arguments are 10 a penny online and I have no intention of being a bore and add to them. But I do have a point here.

As far as I'm aware, stealing is illegal in France. Ok, ok, I admit, I haven't researched this. I was about to pop down to the library, get the legal books out, consult a few law student friends of mine. But, you know how things just pile up on you.

Come on man, that handlebar tache is the one detail they won't miss on Crimewatch

So, uh..... a new law? Just enforce the old one. Is there a specific law over stealing with a red hat over no hat? What about if you get away on foot over a van?
Surely stealing a DVD from a shop, while its being delivered to a shop, from the factory, over the Internet all comes over the same law? The law that's about stealing. Anti Theft I believe?

Frankly, if you're really against illegal file sharing, quit bitching about it and get the handcuffs out. You don't need any new laws, just enforce the old ones.

Links: Title Sequences

2009-03-10T01:28:00.006Z

Just a few links to share today (...Tonight? I'm not really a day blogger).

These all relate to a College Project I'm doing, a new title sequence for the old Alfred Hitchcock film, Vertigo.

"A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television shows present their title and key cast and production members utilizing conceptual visuals and sound. It should not be confused with opening credits, which are generally nothing more than a series of superimposed text."

From Wikipedia

I found this very good website, Art of the Title, while researching title sequences, I said I should pass it on. Easy to miss it if your not looking for it.
Its essentially a website that has gathered numerous famous and not so famous title sequences and put them in a nice handy space, and gives a brief description. Its well worth a look, and not just if your into titles and video production. There's plenty of inspirational animations and interesting techniques used.

Two that I just want to mention quickly: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which made me want to know how to make it the second I saw it last Summer. Created by a man named Danny Yount, who's website is well worth a look. Hes also done some work for Sopranos, 6 Feet Under, among others.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Incidentally, a badass film to boot

The other I want to say something briefly about is Novaya Zemlya, which has a very cool title sequences. I admit, its a bit flashy, nearly too flashy, but technique and idea wise, I was intrigued the second I saw it. Also, I had never heard of the film before, and now I might have a look around for it.

One of the more original things I've seen in a while

I'll more then likely talk about title sequences more, since I'm looking at loads of them and the techniques behind my favourites, so I'll post them up as and when I find them.
In the meantime, if your interested, start with Saul Bass, basically, the Grandaddy of the Title Sequence.

Paul talks Internet Fame, Future. Borderline Scaremongering Included

2009-03-07T22:41:00.005Z

Today I've a few clips from a man called Chris Tolles, who's the CEO of a site called Topix, which is a site that basically collects local news from all over the world into one area, and provides a medium for discussion on the news.

Here he talks about the website, and the way the Internet is going with regards to news. The one truly interesting point is summed up in his view that "The Internet isn't about reading anymore". While, at first, a pretty obvious point, but when you think about it, that's all a lot of people used to do. Read, watch video, download etc. But now, the Internet seems to be moving more and more towards interaction. Commenting, sharing your views, user created content in social networking sites. In the following clip, he alludes to how marketing has been changed by the Internet.

While, he doesn't directly say it, the Internet truly has changed the way companies interact with their customer. Complaints, made by the right people, can make real change in a company, for good or for ill.
Of course, and here's my cupla cents on the matter, that's the thing isn't it? Who decides who the 'right' people are? Over the Internet, the 'right' people are the ones who have the most Twitter followers, the most page hits, the most Facebook friends. A virtual popularity contest. The most recognizable face/name/avatar. If I have a genuine complaint about an airliner for example, only the few people that visit this blog, and the locals in my pub will hear about it. But if Maddox does, people are gonna hear about it.
My views on Britney might be entirely valid, but Perez will always be 'right' in the view of the Internet common folk.

And who decides this? Well, us the public of course, but how we come into contact with one blog or website over another can depend largely on luck. Its much like the Meme phenomenon, hate them or love them, they command an audience, and hence, can have an effect on our opinions on products/people/whatever, whether we notice this or not.

Finally, we have this:

Yes, I'm sure you've heard this before, I myself have come across views like this probably more then 5 separate occasions just this week, but its worth bearing this in mind when thinking about what I've said above.
If everyone knows everything about everyone (or, at least, has access to a medium that can tell them), in 10, 20 years time, who's to say these 'right' people can't command real power over us? Hopefully not in the Hitler sense, but even in terms of businesses or government elections?
Most people had heard the rumours of Steve Jobs dying, and this caused real change, with Apple stock falling by 2%. Of course, everything was rectified quickly, but think of the way the Internet is going; soon, most electrical goods will have IP addresses, 'the Internet of things', 'Web 3.0'. It will soon become an almost omnipotent presence in our lives.

What then? What then if we continue to let Internet fame, and in my opinion, by extension Internet power, be decided by luck?

(If embedding doesn't work, all links can be found here)

Twitter saves lives, promptly belittled

2009-03-04T20:53:00.007Z

Just came across these two stories and said I'd share them because of what I was talking about the other day.

Firstly, we have the story which just came out about Twitter being used to help rescue Skiers. I admit to still being a bit skeptical of the service, but I can't argue that its saved at least one life in this case.

Also, the same day, we have a Google chairman's views on Twitter. The bit that comes out at me is when he asks:
"To me, the question about companies like Twitter is: Do they fundamentally evolve as sort of a note phenomenon, or do they fundamentally evolve to have storage, revocation, identity, and all the other aspects that traditional email systems have? Or do email systems themselves broaden what they do to take on some of that characteristic?"

Eric Schmid doesn't disappoint in these recession times, predicting worse to come

"I think the innovation is great." he adds, before adding a not-so-subtle kick to the kidneys, "In Google's case, we have a very successful instant messaging product, and that's what most people end up using."

The thing is, if Twitter evolves in such a way, it stops becoming what made it popular in the first place, becomes more macro-blogging then micro-blogging, or perhaps more of an IM program then the occasional @user we use now. Or maybe just adds these features yet retains the main scope of what it is now.
But then, of course, who's to say such a thing would not be even more popular? No one predicted how popular Twitter would become. So, on this topic at least, I for one won't even try to guess the minds of an increasingly unpredictable web community.

Links: Things to consider when setting up that Portfolio website

2009-03-04T01:14:00.007Z

Just want to post a few links that might come in useful to any media heads out there.
First one I came across is a pretty detailed post on Typography.

This goes into how to pick a type that suits the design of the website. Sometimes having a 'cool' font, or a really small one to suit your design will take precedence in a designers mind, when really, this can be a very dangerous tactic. This should help you get the best of both worlds.
In my experience anyway, I was never told too much about fonts, other then 'No, that doesn't work' or 'yeah, that's alright, I suppose'. Oh yes, we all heard about ligatures, points, pica's and kerning way back in first year, but not exactly how any of it applies to the day to day life of a web or print designer.

Also, anyone with any interest in media should of heard of DaFont by now, but if not, I'll mention it here. Just keep those fancy fonts for logos and headings, not for your 700 page magnus opus.

Secondly, all this talk about putting up online portfolios and whatnot made this page jump out at me when I came across it, 10 Steps to the Perfect Portfolio Website.
Its been said that everyone involved in this industry needs an online presence, which is entirely true, but I think that just throwing up screen grabs onto a blog will fail to catch the eye of any discerning multimedia companies. The web equivalent of putting your print designs in between two pizza boxes.
While a lot of the tips are pretty obvious, I provide the link mainly for the examples at the bottom, three of my favorites being:

http://mikeprecious.com/

http://www.mikimottes.com/

http://www.vanityclaire.com/

Sideproject: Twitter

2009-03-03T19:03:00.005Z

OK, I think most of us dismissed Twitter when we first heard of it. I know I did. Dismissed it completely.
"What," I said, "140 characters? Update what I'm doing? And people will follow this? Bullshit"
Fisr I heard of it was back in the Summer, after coming across this.
I had much the same opinion as that guy.

But, my God, it really has caught on hasn't it? News updates, Brandjacking, McHammer.

Praise God, we can all rest easy.

But, looks like we weren't alone. Evan Williams, the man behind this phenomenon never even saw this coming.
What was essentially a side project turned into something huge. Fiddling around with status updates and SMS is now a way to connect with anyone, find out about serious events (most news agencies now have twitter feeds that people subscribe to).

This guys 'side projects' probably make more money then a small African country

While a lot of this talk seems to basically plug his product, it brings home just how popular this thing is.

I can see this possibly becoming a more popular way of RSSing to feeds, another timesaver so people don't have trawl through websites for the latest content. Google Reader is getting more popular, but it seems that simple is best these days.
And how can you get any simpler then a 140 character message?

On a side note, another one of Evan's 'sideprojects' was Blogger, the very blogging tool I'm using now. Makes you wonder what kinds of things he does when he supposed to be actually working.

Irish Political Parties stumble into the future.

2009-03-01T19:13:00.006Z

I read an interesting piece yesterday in the Irish Times (page 2 of the Weekend Review if you have it). Its essentially about how all the Irish political parties are trying their hand at Internet Politics, or, 'pulling an Obama', in the run up to the June local and European elections. The parties have moved from the doorstep and have branched into Facebook, blogging, Bebo and Twitter, with according to this article, the exception of Fine Gael.
A spokesman said that importing strategies blindly from America will not work in Ireland.
True enough, but who said it had to be done blindly? Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't necessarily mean the idea has no merit. Fine Gael has no plans to update its website any time soon they say, and in my opinion this is foolish. Especially considering that of the 3 main parties websites, theres is the poorest.

http://www.fiannafail.ie/
http://www.finegael.ie/index.cfm
http://www.labour.ie/

Of course, Fine Gael do have a point. America is a completely different country. For example, according to the article, in 2008, only 43% of people in Ireland have a broadband connection, which, as I'm sure many of us would testify, is essential if you want to convey any kind of message these days. Dial-up and modern websites go together like birds and clean windows. My connection back home in Tipp for example would struggle to load even this blog at any kind of bearable speed.
The article also compares Obama's 5 million Facebook friends to the average Irish politician's 300, without taking into account the vast population difference.

But, an Internet presence is pretty important these days, and naturally, this 43% is still a substantial number. The thing is, and this is where I see the problems will arise, is that our politicians may well end up copying something blindly. Blogging for the sake of blogging. Twittering for the sake of Twittering. Having a web presence because your competitor is doing it.

I applaud this step into the future for our politicians, but just make sure you stick to the issues lads. We've had enough glossing over of things for years, don't use the Internet as just another way of covering up your mistakes with Flash animations.

Plagiarism

2009-02-25T07:48:00.000Z

There's been a lot of talk about plagiarism lately. CIT have this new-fangled-doohickey (technical term) that will detect if any work we submit has borrowed liberally from someone Else's work.

Course, as this Internet becomes all encompassing and prevalent, and students been given less the benefit of the doubt, it may (will) come to the stage where we're at the thieved end. So, how to solve this? We all know about copyright, trademark etc, but what to do if this is infringed on?

Found this article which goes some way to answering this.

The main reason I post this is; in college, we've all been told about it, all been told what to do, but all in a very broad way. This website also shows you exactly how to find to find out if your content has been stolen, and what to look out for, something that hasn't been explained to us in any technical way to us in CIT anyway. Also, with a big increase in online portfolios, its good to know that we have a leg to stand on.

Also, for those who don't intend to have their content online (unlikely the way trends are going), or plain just don't care (useful link here about that), there's a lot of tips here for Wordpress blogs and blogging in general.

No stupid jokes or ridiculous metaphors here, I've been awake since half 6 and still dying with the flu. Thought that I might as well be somewhat productive with my time.

Jeff Bridges tries his hand at something new

2009-02-22T15:54:00.001Z

Right, not much to say this time, been busy catching up on college stuff and fixing the ridiculous number of typos I have here, but here's something that might inspire some people:

http://jeffbridges.com/

Yup, that says Jeff Bridges, but bear with me, its different. While admittedly, design-wise, it can be a bitch to navigate, its nice to see a Celeb trying something different. And it's kinda endearing to see that The Dude has a website this simple looking.

Original designs aren't just for Design Studio Portfolios y'know.

Blogging Money Myth

2009-02-22T15:00:00.000Z

"Your dreams mean nothing to me"

Found this a while back, but Blogger was being a bit of a temperamental git so didn't get around to adding my 2 cents. Or, in reality, my zero cents.
An article by the a man named Daniel Lyons, telling us that making money from blogs is pretty much a myth. Here's a small poll done about generating money for blogs, which pretty much confirms Daniel's opinion.
Course, it's not exactly a well known myth along the lines of Zeus and his fondness for the ladies. A brief straw poll of the lads in my house and a few friends told me that they never thought blogs made money anyway, unless I'm talking about the ones with ads up the wazoo. Of course, people don't like blogs with ads everywhere, and pop-up Flash ads are the best thing for generating anger and loathing since Hitler. And, in my opinion, this advertising revenue thing can't last. People are getting so good at ignoring them over the Internet, I can see it becoming a non issue over the next 10 years.
Either that, or Snorg Tees will start literally screaming at us to buy stuff over the speakers.

Heres a blog on how its down to the blogger's intentions for generating money. Course, to me this seems pretty obvious. I'm sure if I intended to make some money from this I could. Change it to Rated R, load it with porno ads, emoticon ads, Snorg Tees ads. But I say some money, how could I go about getting to the stage where i can quit my day job? And would anyone listen to my opinion if I did load it with ads?
People listen to newspapers, even when Micheal O Leary commissions whole one-page ads, why not me?

I've gone a little off the point here, so my synopsis: Online advertising is mostly obnoxious, in-your-face, irritating. Which doesn't work for small blogs like this. It'd get crowded, posts would take second place to the ad about the latest Rom-com. Big website, content outranks ads, people get less irritated. Big website, more content, more to read, more traffic.

Essentially, the Internet is no different from the outside world. A small business can become big and make ridiculous amounts of money, but don't cod yourself by thinking its going to easier to do it online rather the offline.

(By the way, for anyone wondering where to start about how to make anything from blogging, heres a good starter)

Siftables to teach kids that oversized heads are not mandatory?

2009-02-14T23:20:00.000Z

So, TED is where my latest exploration led me. For those not in the know,

"TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader."

Essentially, a conference for people that are far cleverer then we'll ever be. Its not just all about tech and spec though. I found this interesting talk from a journalist which pretty much is telling us to just chill the hell out.

Relax ...and buy my book

Came across this interesting link on Digg.com, a new way of computer interaction (all they seem to be doing these days), that kinda remind me of Reactables, which I'll probably talk about another day, but really, placing things on tables is where the similarities end.
Anyway, these things are called Siftables, and a talk about them can be found here.

In the talk, David Merrill goes through many ways of using the Siftables, comparing them to building blocks we all used as young'uns, and shows us painting, like above, and maths and word games.
This is what interests me most here, as any way to educate kids earlier in a fun way should be encouraged. After all, before you know it, your child has gone from stacking and moving things to this.

For ages: Girls - 7 to 12
Boys - 12 to 18

Course, as usual, how long will we have to wait before thing like these filter down from big boys with little toys to the children that could benefit most? Money, money, MONEY!!

Course, now that Bratz have been banned, maybe MGA Entertainment, who make, ahem, made Bratz, could throw some money down Merrill's way?
Nothing like some new business ideas to drag us out of a recession.

Sorry little dudes, but don't but your Lego away just yet

Youtube to be rendered even more meaningless in the future

2009-02-09T18:59:00.001Z

Fora.tv comes up trumps again, and looks like YouTube is going to get another going over from me. I won't be mentioning comments this time though.

Pictured: A disgustingly rich man

For those with attention spans of under 3 minutes, Chad Hurley is a co founder of YouTube, and here, talks about the future of YouTube, more specifically, uploading content directly from mobile devices onto YouTube.

While this will probably not see a rise in the current favourite posting: 'Random clips of Anime put to rock music', it will no doubt cause a surge in 'look what my friend did lolroxors!!!!!!11!'
Chad even mentions of how there will be a lot more content now, because of how people will have better access to mobile phones then expensive camera equipment. Excuse me while I choke on my metaphorical chips and cheese, but this is a good thing? What YouTube does very well is get people watching videos from all over the world, catching up on missed TV shows, and provide an outlet for independent movie makers, sketch show troupes, prospective presidents. While I admit, this is all just opinion on my part, if the majority of Youtubes 15 hours of video uploaded a minute is anything to go by, 15 hours a minute is quite enough thank you. This new trend will only be an increase in the inane rubbish that clogs YouTube, once again just making it even more difficult to sift through the nonsense and find the good bits. For every rare Bill Hicks clip there's at least 86 of these.

He talks about HD for YouTube, and how its got the most HD content on the web. Well, for one, with that much content being thrown on, a couple of HD clips are bound to find their way in. But we should be encouraging this, not mentioning it as an after thought. Get people out there trying their hand at movie making, editing, whatever, but don't be tempting couch-paparazzism for the masses. I think the Internet is just about full up of cheesy Norwegian metal put to a still image of a cute baby.

'When will I get to the stage where I'll be recording and uploading video all day long?' is a question he's asked.
I can't think of anything worse. While I don't want to limit technology, or put reins on it, surely someone should be saying, 'Wait a minute, is this a good thing?' One of the best things about the Internet is how it is something of a hierarchy-less community, with people of all ages and sizes throwing their 2 cents into the works. But surely a bit of common sense is needed? Someone to say, 'Wait a minute, that's shit, I don't see a need for it'.

One thing I've noticed about YouTube is the lack of making videos private. The option is there, but people don't seem to use it. I'm sure that a 5 second video of your friend falling over is funny to you, but does the whole world need to see it? Do you need to ad tags so it appears to be related to a Parkinson interview?
While this all seems like common sense to me, if the people in charge don't see it, what hope is there for us looking for some real Internet worthy content?

Trolls have moved out from under their bridges to a screen near you.

2009-02-09T17:56:00.003Z

Pictured: A Boring man

So, Mr Craig Newmark, of Craigslist fame, once again brings up the topic 'trolls', IE, annoying people on the Internet, looking for attention by shouting obscenities. The Internet equivalent of kids in Tescos.

This is all in relation to that man of the moment, Barack Obama, and how he will be seeking to take advantage of the Internet, much like Clinton did with interns, and become the 'wi-fi' president that seems to be the buzz phrase of the moment. Obama wants to use the Internet to get in contact with the electorate. Craig thinks all this is very well, and it is, but he seems to think that as usual, the main problem with the Internet, IE, that people use it, will rear its ugly head again, and that flame wars will break out everywhere, much like what happened with Bush, and, you know, actual wars.

But, sorry Craig, this isn't new. Not even to the Internet. Remember all that rubbish and hoop-la during the race for the white house (or, as The Onion brilliantly put it, the War for the White House)? Racist chants during rallies? Hate crimes? The Internet is not the sole hideaway for trolls as you put it, its merely just another refuge.

And, YouTube comments aside, I hope that were people posting about the running of a country would have a bit of seriousness about them. For one, I can't see the usual exchange of:

User567uk: This video is great! :)

James875F: I'm gonna kill your family

happening, which I read everyday on YouTube (I admit, I get a good kick off reading comments).
And why do I feel that this won't happen? Well, for one, on whatever format this proposed venture will take, the posts about serious videos, serious topics, serious issues will surely outnumber the posts as about boy getting football in face. People who are interested in these topics will be adding to this discussion. People looking for improbable accidental violence to children will look here.

While, like anything in life, human stupidly must be considered, I think trolls and flame wars will be the least of Obamas worries.

And, on a lighter note to all you budding Website developers out there, how not to do things:

You can tell he did Computer Science

Paul lollygags for a bit.

2009-02-09T17:48:00.001Z

So, welcome I suppose. I'm Paul Kennedy, author of the locally famous Lyons pyramid shaped tea bag scandal. I say author, because I have quite a distaste for the word blog. Strikes me as a filler word someone came up with one day, just something to fill the gaps with till he did a Search and Replace with a better word. But unfortunately it stuck, so here we are.
I'm not gonna pigeon hole myself here by focusing on any particular media topic for this blog, due to my nature of never really sticking to an interest for long.
But anyway, enough lollygagging, time to get some marks.

Ha, lollygagging.