w w w . i s h k u r . c o m
An interactive guide to dance / elctronic music genres. Neat.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Mobile Thoughts
One of the key things that has made money for mobile providers is personalisation - ringtones, fascias, ringback tones... the things that make your mobile stand out in the pub, distinguish it from your friends' phones, and make it easy to tell it's your phone ringing on a crowded bus.
So... by extension. With new WAP/web services, and 3g and all that mullarkey...
Is your mobile your access point to your personalised slice of cyberspace? Your blog access point, your own walled garden, set up as you want it. Your link into your YASNS network. Your playlist device, your EPG...
So... by extension. With new WAP/web services, and 3g and all that mullarkey...
Is your mobile your access point to your personalised slice of cyberspace? Your blog access point, your own walled garden, set up as you want it. Your link into your YASNS network. Your playlist device, your EPG...
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Sex code bracelets
Via Die Puny Humans, and the New York Post Online Edition
Kids are wearing bracelets to signify sex acts. A bit like a resurgence of the 70s gay hanky code.
The thing that got me was a quote from one of the mums...
Megan's mother, Michelle Stecher, 33, originally thought it was an innocent fashion fad.
"I thought it was an outrageous Britney Spears phase, like Madonna used to do in the '80s with the black rubber bracelets," she said. "But when I found out, I was outraged. I sent her to Catholic school to avoid things like this. I thought this could never, ever happen there."
Yeeeees. And the thing about convent girls is...?
Kids are wearing bracelets to signify sex acts. A bit like a resurgence of the 70s gay hanky code.
The thing that got me was a quote from one of the mums...
Megan's mother, Michelle Stecher, 33, originally thought it was an innocent fashion fad.
"I thought it was an outrageous Britney Spears phase, like Madonna used to do in the '80s with the black rubber bracelets," she said. "But when I found out, I was outraged. I sent her to Catholic school to avoid things like this. I thought this could never, ever happen there."
Yeeeees. And the thing about convent girls is...?
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Dumb Songs
A quick linkdump of some really dumb music:
Food safety music - Microbes They Might Kill You! is a particularly inspired reqorking of Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. With a food safety message.
Dr. Chordate Biology, Plus... - A reworking of Elvis becomes 'Ain't Nothing but a ground Hog'. 'Furrier than Thou' is pretty special, too.
Greg Crowther has written a song about Pi. And one called 'Take me to the Liver'
There will be more, I know it...
Food safety music - Microbes They Might Kill You! is a particularly inspired reqorking of Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. With a food safety message.
Dr. Chordate Biology, Plus... - A reworking of Elvis becomes 'Ain't Nothing but a ground Hog'. 'Furrier than Thou' is pretty special, too.
Greg Crowther has written a song about Pi. And one called 'Take me to the Liver'
There will be more, I know it...
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Monday, May 17, 2004
Future Broadcast Production - Mad thoughts
I've been thinking about collaborative filtering. - it's SO relevant to imp/tivo/epg/pvr culture. Imagine if the BBC could set the standards for TV-programme id3 tags?
The implications are huge.
Just before the first day of a shoot, the continuity lady marks up a script on a computer - with reference to the shooting schedule. This then gets donwloaded to a pda-enabled clapper board. At the head of every shot on set, the clapperloader sends tag info to the camera by bluetooth during preroll, so the scene details and script are automatically recorded on the 'tape' at the head of the scene.And Lets face it, tapes should just be hot-swappable 100 gig hard drives in a year or two...
The director's monitor has an 'approve' feature - so when the shot is 'the one', a signal can be sent to the camera to mark it as being the shot for the final assembly. Any comments or notes could go up to - again, by pda.
Thinking about it, you wouldn't actually need to store the data on the tapes - the camera would just need to broadcast synch timecode to keep all of the devices cued up.
Then you don't need to log tapes etc for editing, or rewrite script for subtitling. And instead of just finished programmes being available to search in archives, every scene of the rushes is fully marked up with cast, crew, script, location...
To capture a clip for net use, you just perform a contextual search on the info in the bbc's huge media database at I&A... and say 'squirt on to the server in this format at this bitrate, please'. of course, in a few years time, networks will be fast enough to take broadcast-quality video, so compression ceases to be an issue. (If anyone ever gets round to laying fibre optic cables... but what would happen if TV wavelengths were used for ubiquitous 'broadband by radio'?)
And to broadcast, you just send a 'playlist' to the broadcast centre, and the show streams from the media server, assembled on the fly.
Rights issues or editorial issues can be tagged in the video files data container - so no need to check, the system automatically notifies you if there's an issue with reusing footage.
And, once broadcast, the return path from the audience can be used to aggregate viewing figures, ratings, preferences... and the public slice of information kept available for Imp/Tivo/pvr users to navigate around a sea of content by aggregated reccomendations from the entire viewing public.
Hmmmn....
The implications are huge.
Just before the first day of a shoot, the continuity lady marks up a script on a computer - with reference to the shooting schedule. This then gets donwloaded to a pda-enabled clapper board. At the head of every shot on set, the clapperloader sends tag info to the camera by bluetooth during preroll, so the scene details and script are automatically recorded on the 'tape' at the head of the scene.And Lets face it, tapes should just be hot-swappable 100 gig hard drives in a year or two...
The director's monitor has an 'approve' feature - so when the shot is 'the one', a signal can be sent to the camera to mark it as being the shot for the final assembly. Any comments or notes could go up to - again, by pda.
Thinking about it, you wouldn't actually need to store the data on the tapes - the camera would just need to broadcast synch timecode to keep all of the devices cued up.
Then you don't need to log tapes etc for editing, or rewrite script for subtitling. And instead of just finished programmes being available to search in archives, every scene of the rushes is fully marked up with cast, crew, script, location...
To capture a clip for net use, you just perform a contextual search on the info in the bbc's huge media database at I&A... and say 'squirt on to the server in this format at this bitrate, please'. of course, in a few years time, networks will be fast enough to take broadcast-quality video, so compression ceases to be an issue. (If anyone ever gets round to laying fibre optic cables... but what would happen if TV wavelengths were used for ubiquitous 'broadband by radio'?)
And to broadcast, you just send a 'playlist' to the broadcast centre, and the show streams from the media server, assembled on the fly.
Rights issues or editorial issues can be tagged in the video files data container - so no need to check, the system automatically notifies you if there's an issue with reusing footage.
And, once broadcast, the return path from the audience can be used to aggregate viewing figures, ratings, preferences... and the public slice of information kept available for Imp/Tivo/pvr users to navigate around a sea of content by aggregated reccomendations from the entire viewing public.
Hmmmn....
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Collaborative CD Stacks
Well, I in the FUCKING office on a FUCKING sunday, having also been here most of FUCKING saturday. Ont eh plus side, I'm actually doing some design and code of a webpage (the reason I like this job). On the downside, I have a v. pissed off fiance at home, who is feeling utterly neglected by my lack-of-attendance in the premarital home, and also my general mein of distraction bought on by stress, fatigue and large doses of antidepressants.
Note to self - put in a bit of work on the relationship - after all, she bought you diamonds.
So, anyway, as traditional, I've spent the first hour 'doing the rounds of the internet' - geting my information fix. And boy, have I found some good stuff. Not only is the fantastic Alice Taylor blogging from e3, but Martin Belam has been nice about me, and also I've discovered a collaborative playist aggregator Mixmatcher via Dan Hill.
Now... I had a very interesting (and, OK, drunken) chat with the iD&E gods of code, Matt and Alistair on friday, about ratings, reccomendations and other such stuff. And I'm mulling over an idea.
So, here's the deal. I've just got an ipod, and itunes. And I've got 400 CDs that I keep in a very specific 2-D classification system. Imagine 6 stacks, equivalent to genre. Then imagine that the lower down the stack you go, the lower the rating of the cd in that genre. (Actually, this has changed recently to a slightly simpler alpabetisation in some areas, as Sarah couldn't find anything)
Now, my genres are very personal. Going left to right....
Dance for distracting myself
Good Dance music, for actually listening to.
JazzorClassicalorEasyorExotica
Girly SingerSongwriters
Art Rock
Other rock I don't really want to listen to very often
Now, none of the genres that are offered by a lot of the CD Databases seem to fit the music. Electronica is just one big bin of stuff, and I have a lot of CDs that fall into that category. And are the Velvet Underground really 'indy'? Surely that's an 80s thing?
So... I checked out the wikipaedia, and it has a very interesting collaborative start on defining subgenres.
But... how do I know which of my music fits in to a predefined subgenre? It's a pretty subjective thing. But one that could be solved by consensus.
So I started thinking about a rating system, done in a similar way to Urban Dictionary.com collaborative moderation interface - if you appreciate the site, you can spend ten minutes winnowing their data for them - using a very simple 'Agree-Disagree-Don't Know' interface.
So... what happens if you could do that in Itunes / Gracenote / FreeDB?
And what would happen if, say, the google toolbar had 3 options to say 'Likey/don'tlikey/don'tknow' once you've hit a results page?
For a very small outlay of time, we can start building useful relational information about data (ie, turning the Data on the internet into Information - or maybe the information into knowledge?).
So, can someone build me a collaborative music genre machine? please?
Note to self - put in a bit of work on the relationship - after all, she bought you diamonds.
So, anyway, as traditional, I've spent the first hour 'doing the rounds of the internet' - geting my information fix. And boy, have I found some good stuff. Not only is the fantastic Alice Taylor blogging from e3, but Martin Belam has been nice about me, and also I've discovered a collaborative playist aggregator Mixmatcher via Dan Hill.
Now... I had a very interesting (and, OK, drunken) chat with the iD&E gods of code, Matt and Alistair on friday, about ratings, reccomendations and other such stuff. And I'm mulling over an idea.
So, here's the deal. I've just got an ipod, and itunes. And I've got 400 CDs that I keep in a very specific 2-D classification system. Imagine 6 stacks, equivalent to genre. Then imagine that the lower down the stack you go, the lower the rating of the cd in that genre. (Actually, this has changed recently to a slightly simpler alpabetisation in some areas, as Sarah couldn't find anything)
Now, my genres are very personal. Going left to right....
Dance for distracting myself
Good Dance music, for actually listening to.
JazzorClassicalorEasyorExotica
Girly SingerSongwriters
Art Rock
Other rock I don't really want to listen to very often
Now, none of the genres that are offered by a lot of the CD Databases seem to fit the music. Electronica is just one big bin of stuff, and I have a lot of CDs that fall into that category. And are the Velvet Underground really 'indy'? Surely that's an 80s thing?
So... I checked out the wikipaedia, and it has a very interesting collaborative start on defining subgenres.
But... how do I know which of my music fits in to a predefined subgenre? It's a pretty subjective thing. But one that could be solved by consensus.
So I started thinking about a rating system, done in a similar way to Urban Dictionary.com collaborative moderation interface - if you appreciate the site, you can spend ten minutes winnowing their data for them - using a very simple 'Agree-Disagree-Don't Know' interface.
So... what happens if you could do that in Itunes / Gracenote / FreeDB?
And what would happen if, say, the google toolbar had 3 options to say 'Likey/don'tlikey/don'tknow' once you've hit a results page?
For a very small outlay of time, we can start building useful relational information about data (ie, turning the Data on the internet into Information - or maybe the information into knowledge?).
So, can someone build me a collaborative music genre machine? please?
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Domestic Robots - the way of the future
Leave It to Roll-Oh - a vision of domestic harmony, run by a giant Robot.
I... Want.... one...
It's like the biggest cigarette lighter in the world, and it scares postmen. AND it's got a button on it's control that says 'Get Hat'.
Watch the movie using the left hand panel. Joy.
I... Want.... one...
It's like the biggest cigarette lighter in the world, and it scares postmen. AND it's got a button on it's control that says 'Get Hat'.
Watch the movie using the left hand panel. Joy.
Monday, May 10, 2004
Oliver Postgate - Articles
The estimable Mr. Postgate has started publishing writings on his own website.
It's a sort of slow blog, appropriate for one of his sagacity and years.
Oliver Postgate - Articles
It's a sort of slow blog, appropriate for one of his sagacity and years.
Oliver Postgate - Articles
firebox.com - Blik Invaders
firebox.com - Blik Invaders
Want. Want Want Want.
Someone should invent a website-agnostic wish list facility. I adore Amazons' wish list, primarily because it gives you nearly the same hit as _actually_ ordering stuff, whilst being less likely to send your credit card into meltdown.
But I've got to the stage where I use it so much, I miss it when I find something _not_ on amazon.
So, some kind of Blogroll 'purchase list' that combines your amazon wishlist (well, obviously) with a selection of links to other shopping sites would be good.
And maybe would result in less packages turning up on my desk at random.
Want. Want Want Want.
Someone should invent a website-agnostic wish list facility. I adore Amazons' wish list, primarily because it gives you nearly the same hit as _actually_ ordering stuff, whilst being less likely to send your credit card into meltdown.
But I've got to the stage where I use it so much, I miss it when I find something _not_ on amazon.
So, some kind of Blogroll 'purchase list' that combines your amazon wishlist (well, obviously) with a selection of links to other shopping sites would be good.
And maybe would result in less packages turning up on my desk at random.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
300 Images From 1800 Sites
300 Images From 1800 Sites
A beautiful collection of tiny icons.
I wonder what the print equivalent would be?
A beautiful collection of tiny icons.
I wonder what the print equivalent would be?
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