Sounds like web spirits

September was the "rebirth of music" issue from Wired - with podcasting filling my Zen with weekly shows and podiobooks, I have to admit that pure music has taken a backseat (even with our whole collection on the pc). So it was interesting to read a bit more about alternative venues (in the broadest possible interpretation of the word) such as Last.Fm and NerdCore Hip hop.

Last.Fm basically takes the community and recommendation aspect of Amazon and brings it to music. By "listening in" on more than 3 billion songs played (software works with most audio player programs, such as Winamp, iTunes and Windows Media Player) they help you discover new music and keep a finger on what's getting hotter around the net.

Nerdcore offer up a twisted mix of geeky rap, with artists taking their names from a broad swath of popular media. Good fun. Have picked up a couple of tracks, and added them to the playlist.

In a way I'm glad that I'm not in the US - free Amazon shipping and NetFlix delivering 7 million dvds each week to 5 million subscribers just might feel to nice and convenient to go out and look for new entertainment on my own. Been feeling the same way about games lately, so when I got a gift card I headed straight to town and grabbed a couple of games that had already made in into platinum (PS2 bestsellers). Review games feel the same way - get several, play some or all for a bit, then a few for more than an hour and then pack up a whole stack and give them back to free up closet space.


Totally unrelated tangent, but she was featured at Wired Next Fest; "Actroid Der Kokoro -- an android resembling a young Japanese woman" - gives off a Bladerunner vibe. Sure you can tell she's not all that human - but give it some years and the money to improve facial texture and complexity, and things might not be so clean cut. Especially if she answered on a video phone. Neat and spooky mixed together nicely.

Time flown by

- and it is another mixed bag of musings going on - from the June issue of Wired at first, for some reason it's been gathering dust next to the pc for far to long with a small note on some of the more interesting subjects.

Connected anew

Mixing up wi-fi to make gps and tagging of real life, Navizon is the brainchild of Cyril Houri. Since gps is not always available in downtown areas - and there are more smart phones than gps portable units in peoples pockets, it makes sense to slowly and gradually build up alternative location mapping and "super size" it with community based tagging of relevant locations such as restaurants and offices.

A nice term Wired also used was "freemium" - the basic service is free for all (like flickr and skype), but there is a premium option (more upload and storage and calls outside the network, respectively) for those that really enjoy the service or just want to support it. The service is good in and of itself, but for a modest fee you get even more. And if the scale is large enough, the company delivering the service can get a solid revenue stream from small payments.

But if you only have a "one off" idea to test out, the ransom model might be worth a shot. Think of it as Paypal support in revers. Rather than having people donate if they like the show / story / blog as a lot of podcaster and others do, set a price and a limit for donations up front for releasing the content in the first place. Of course, it helps if you actually have a track record and some dedicated fans willing to play along. And it should be a feasible amount considering your input and effort. Don't shoot for a million dollars for you short story...

Connecting to disconnect

If you want to get off the net and away from the computer for a while - then the Instructables might be a good "half way house". Featured in the Rave Awards and on Lifehacker among others, the site offers up instructions for DIY projects ranging from weird to bizarre - or how about a 3d scanner based off a laser pointer and a wine glass?

And if you want to dig out that old chemistry set, but live in the US and want to avoid being detained on suspicion of either making drugs or wmd, you might want to head on over to the Society for Amateur Scientists [wikip]. They have a magazine online offering up projects and information for the tinkerer in all of us.

Stuck for ideas? Need to think up something for the sci-fi story without going totally overboard? Well, some of the concepts from the "Simplicity" campaign [flash] by Philips might fit the bill. Personal fave and the reason for going beyond the Wired inset? "In Touch – an interactive touch-sensitive display as an alternative to voice mails and family messages stuck on the fridge."

...and the sun is with us partially behind the clouds - and in 'real time' after the end of daylight savings today ...

Frags for money and boost for free

"play your favourite PC games like Counter Strike and Quake for real money" - A new service coming out of Sweden (but formally operating in Malta), called Gamelio offers cash-based gaming in Quake 4 and Counter Strike 1.6. When I visited there were only 4 players online, so it is still a bit early to call it the next big thing, but the concept sounds solid: why not add a small wager to the general trash-talk of online games?

With poker reaching new millions weekly, the digital economy and online community might be ready to step it up another notch. This should not be confused with the more "organized" gaming competitions (as discussed in podcast #8 by the fragdolls) where only the top contenders will walk away with a cash prize. Gamelio appears to be all about "putting your money where your mouth is" and will be interesting to follow over the coming weeks/months

snippet

Seeing the gulls float by,
so effortlessly and
graceful on the winds currents
- tilting their wings slightly

Pure white feathers in the sun
Touch of yellow on the beaks

Nature all around.
Yet so urban and made up
balcony, faux stone floor

Moving beyond games and movies?

Another thought-initialising piece from Gamasutra - "Beyond Machinima" delves into the impact of games on cinema and the other way around. In terms of using game-related tech to test and develop ideas for movies, and in terms of how we as viewers and players are affected by both media in terms of our expectations for each experience.

It tangents of into the perfect home environment (including oxygen systems...) and how driving games influence car chases and our need for speed. Same as how the Matrix lifted expectations for visual effects, and LOTR for epic storytelling and sweeping battles - games influence our cultural frame of reference. And collaborative environments like the NWN community fostering the need for fan / user participation to make something more than "just" a finished product.


And for a more lighthearted piece of entertainment, the new Aardman film - Flushed Away, has some goodies and info up at the site


...and the sun shines on the brightly colored trees in their fall habit...

What have you done?

The PS3 is more or less "around the corner" - at least for the US and Japan, while Europe is left behind in the x360 world for another few months. Eurogamers have posted an interesting preview of the online solution Sony is developing - featuring easy friends list, multiple accounts for family members and a store with "actual" prices rather than points. But the one big unknown, which should be evident for Sony that they have to deal with (considering the Final Fantasy and Ratchet style games with tons of hidden goodies to find/solve/get) - is, as pointed out in the article, the achievements on Xbox Live. A common interface for displaying your deeds and skills is a nice add-on for any community based system, and without a basic framework in place the Sony offering becomes yet another 'also ran' along the lines of the Net Walkman.

Another game-related story is from DrDobb - an interview / product preview with Chris Crawford on storytelling and his upcoming SWAT tool. He has ambitious visions for the future, but is open enough to admit that it is basically a gamble on how he thinks things might pan out;

"computer games are a tiny subset of — what? That thing doesn't exist yet, but when it does, it's got to be, ... much bigger than computer games."

And I got a bit sidetracked based on his mention of Eclipse - since it can also be used for mobile devices, with a collection of acronyms such as eRCP and SWT doing most of the job for you. Might be worth some further investigation as a supplement to .Net - if there is a good set of database sync solutions available to rival the MS solutions.

Machinima last year

A short interview with Paul Marion, as well as his great "Still Being Breen" music video made in Half Life 2 - over on YouTube. Currently you get 2150 results if you search for Machinima over there, with the most-watched racking up over 2 million views since September 13th ("Male restroom" - psa style with Sims2 and edited in 'special effects') while the rest of the top five have 100 - 250 thousand.

So, not quite LonelyGirl style fascination - but then again most series have their own sites, such as RvB from Roostertheeth with 1/2 million registered users, or put their clips up at machinima.com (2317 shows, total of 4,7 million views)

The next big thing? Well, at least it is a great channel and tool for aspiring filmmakers to test their skills at writing scripts, editing dialogue and cutting scenes into a cohesive story. Maybe the next George Lucas is picking up Sims2 or HalfLife2 today.



...and the sun is slowly setting behind the clouds...

Touching

It is an old story (January actually) - but still a fascinating subject: improved touch-based interfaces
The Minority Report made real - at least in terms of how we interact with the computer. Having used a pda (qtek 2020i currently) for several years, and worked with a touch-screen based reporting solution I can truly appreciate how nice something like this would be.

Using your hands to gesture or point something out is a lot more convenient for shuffling through large amounts of data, or for indicating a general direction.

On a slight tangent, a small plug for the audio version of Spherical Tomi - it is a sort of cyberpunk space crime novel. The story is good, but does leave you hanging (part two is being written...) - the tech on the other hand is marvelously described: the spheres are "screens" around the person using them, containing code and parts of programs - strung togheter and activated with laser-tipped fingers (paraphrasing) in a mash-up of Matrix and Minority Report.

With the Beta.Blogger running rather well, this blog will probably get another re-design shortly - fading down the backgrounds and adding in some new features (labels)
...and the sun is dim - fall is in full effect...