Digital Impulses

Dead Sunday and fighting the very last of the Great Cold of 2007

Ugh.

Aside from adding the X-Box 360 Elite that we purchased on Thursday to our home network (and thereby allowing the sharing of all media from any of our computers), I walked over to Piggie's for breakfast, watched a little football and then just lazed around the house and my room, trying to get rid of the stupid cough that is just lingering and lingering.

Most of the afternoon and evening were spent in my office, working on my computers and getting caught up on a bunch of Podcasts that I had fallen behind on.  It's a great life if you don't weaken.

Well, I just purchased my ticket to Gnomdex 7.0, the premier tech industry conference for bloggers, podcasters, Vidcasters and all manner of Web 2.0/Social Media influencers.

Gnomedex this year is going to Rock!  See you there...

The "applephoneshow": A podcast dedicated to Apple's iPhone

Scott Bourne is an author, lecturer, teacher and new media pioneer, and the president of Podango Productions in San Francisco, CA.

He is the founder of the world's first Internet-only radio network, Netradio, and is a co-host on several prominent podcasts including:

• MacBreak Weekly
• Apple Phone Show
• The iLifeZone

Bourne has also been a featured speaker at events such as Macworld Expo and the Podcast & Portable Media Expo.

With the "applephoneshow" podcast and website, Scott intends to provide a one-stop shop for all things iPhone.  Anything and everything related to the iPhone, including the very latest news, tips, step-by-step how-tos, reviews of iPhone accessories and anything else of import in the iPhone universe.

Tune in and stay tuned to all things "iPhone" at http://www.applephoneshow.com

Canada Fulbright Chair Lecture Series: John Gilmore & John Perry Barlow

USC Annenberg
School for Communication
Center for Public Diplomacy
3502 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Room 207
Google Map

Tuesday, November 14, 2006
1850 Hrs

John Perry Barlow & John Gilmore on the continuing erosion of Civil Liberties

Between them, Gilmore and Barlow co-founded EFF, Greenpeace and Earth First; co-developed the compiler that runs almost all the code you've ever used; wrote the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace; founded the first great dial-up ISP and invented the alt. hierarchy; wrote the Grateful Dead's best lyrics and much more -- Gilmore philanthropic work includes relief for victims of Guantanamo Bay, lawsuits against the Attorney General over the right to fly anonymously, and much more.

1849: Cory Doctorow, John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore just walked into the room.  I am amazed at how completely unassuming these guys are.  They look like anyone else sitting here in this room.

1900: John Perry Barlow has launched into a background talk on the beginings of the EFF.

1940: John Gilmore has just explained how he made a pile of money by creating a set of tools and giving them away, charging large companies on a support package for these tools lik the gnu compiler, etc.  His company was sold to Red Hat in 1999 for 675 millon dollars.

2000: John Gilmore has just stated that all commercial / consumer printers embed a series of dots in any image that is printed by the engine in that printer that can be used to tie that print-out to the  serial # of the printer that printed it.

So, when you buy a printer or copier anywhere they really would prefer that you pay for it with a credit card so that they can trace the sale of the printer or copier to you directly via the CC transaction.

Here are a few images of the event:

John Gilmore on the left and John Perry Barlow on the right:
   

John Perry Barlow & Cory Doctorow:


Cory Doctorow:

This room is PACKED like I have never seen it before.  They are bringing in extra chairs as I type this.  I am very glad I got here 90 minutes early. 

It's a little surreal to be sitting directly across from John Gilmore and John Perry Barlow, true living legends of the computer industry... 

John Perry Barlow is wearing an Osama bin Laden t-shirt that says "He's still free.  How about you?"

I am really enjoying these talks, and seeing as to how Cory is scheduled to be the Fullbright Chair at USC until July of 2007, here's hoping he keeps inviting interesting people from around the Tech industry to come and speak at USC.  I will be at each one, time permitting.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, drop by USC when one of these talks are scheduled. Highly recommended.

Canada Fulbright Chair Speaker Series: Cory Doctorow

USC
Annenberg School Center for Public Diplomacy
Room 207
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
1837 Hrs

I am sitting at USC in the Annenberg School for Communication waiting for the talk by Cory Doctorow to begin at 1900 hours.

Because the original speaker slated for this evening had to cancel and subsequently Cory did not promote this event, only 4 people showed up aside from myself and so we had the whole room to ourselves and got to listen to Cory give a really interesting talk on the evils of DRM, Intellectual Property rights, his work with WIPO  Copyrights, Trademarks and how all of this affects the developing world.

As usual, Cory was at his articulate best, riffing on a wide-ranging palate of topics and kept me engaged from beginning to end.  I attempted to record the talk via Audacity on my IBM Thinkpad T60 but the integrated speaker was much to weak to pick up Cory's un-amplified voice from across the room.

So, that part of the evening didn't work out so well.

I am really enjoying these talks, and seeing as to how Cory is scheduled to be the Fullbright Chair at USC until July of 2007, here's hoping he keeps inviting interesting people from around the Tech industry to come and speak at USC.  I will be at each one, time permitting. 

If you are in the Los Angeles area, drop by USC when one of these talks are scheduled.  Highly recommended.

Canada Fulbright Chair Speaker Series: Steven Starr

USC
Annenberg School Center for Public Diplomacy
Room 207
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
1837 Hrs

I am sitting at USC in the Annenberg School for Communication waiting for the talk by Steven Starr to begin at 1900 hours. 

Cory Doctorow is holding an animated discussion with two gentlemen on the evils of DRM and what the MPAA and the RIAA in lockstep with the hardware manufacturers are planning to foist on the public in terms of DRM and your ability to do what you want with the media you pay for.

Cory just stated that if you update your Creative MP3 player to get the newest firmware, it surreptitiously disables the ability to record from the built-in FM receiver, all this under the guise of “added functionality”. This is precisely the reason I am here tonight.

 Here we go:
 (1903 hrs) 

• Steven Starr is the co-founder of a company called Revver.
• Revver pays MORE the MORE a media file gets played
• He just mentioned the sale of YouTube to Google
• Revver sets up technology to allow the distribution of media files
• They have developed ‘Super Distribution’, where media files fly through the      Internet, reporting back to Revver “Hey, I'm being watched! Send me an Ad!”. So people get paid on those terms.
• Revver splits ad revenue 50-50 with the media creator
• The Mentos and Coke creators got:
  • 5 – 6M views and
  • got $70K in Ad revenue that they split with Revver, thus
  • making 35K on a 2.5 minute video that cost
  • $100-200 to make
• Revver has a set of tools and technologies, with an API that allows you to create      your own site and become an affiliate of Revver that makes money as a      re-distributor who makes 20% of the Ad revenue
• Content creators can opt out of Ad categories that they do not wish to be associated with
• Revver released its BETA 11 months ago
• They do NOT allow copyrighted video
• Revver has been seen as a company that has taken UGC to the forfront of the ‘free media conversation”.
• Revver uses CC licenses. Every piece of video flies out with a 2.5 version CC license.
• Revver is NOT a video portal destination site, per se. They differentiate themselves as a tools and services company

All in all, it was a great talk, where a lot of very good questions and issues were raised on the legalities and dangers of content creation and rights retentions/ownership in the world of UGC or User Generated Content.

Keynote speech at ToorCon 8 by Cory Doctorow

Cory  Doctorow did his usual spectacular job when dekivering a Keynote.  The Keynote in question was delivered at ToorCon 8 the hacking convention in  San Diego, CA.

Click below to watch the video:

At the USC Annenberg School Center for Public Diplomacy

USC
Annenberg School Center for Public Diplomacy
Room 230
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
1900 Hrs

Some images from outside USC







I am in room 230, waiting for Cory Doctorow and Wendy Seltzer to arrive.  There are 11 people here right now, including myself. Mostly student types, with three women and eight men making up the gender breakdown.  Another young lady just arrived, making 12 of us.

19:04:  Cory Doctorow has just arrived accompanied by Wendy Seltzer.  They are busy up at the front, trying to get her communication equipment set up.  Here we go...

Wendy gas started off by giving us a background on the case involving speech suppression and copyright law.  Wendy is a Law Teacher at Brooklyn College and works with the EFF and also founded an organization called the  Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

Wendy is speaking to the following themes:

• Diebold Electronic Voting Machines
• DMCA
• Myth TV
• The transition to Digital Television
• The government is eager to speed up this transition so that they can resell the spectrum that will be freed up as analog broadcasters move over to all digital systems.
• Content creators refuse to create "high value" content until assurances are in place that will protect said content from "indiscriminate Internet-based re-distribution of digital content".\
• The Broadcast Flag

Day Against DRM

Today is "Day Against DRM" day.  Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing! has a post with all of the relevant links. 

For now, right-click on the following images and use them to post on your blog or anywhere else of prominence to do your part in celebrating International Day Against DRM

At the USC Annenberg School Center for Public Diplomacy

Tuesday, September 26, 2006 @ 18:37 P.M.

Bruce Schneier talk on Security and Terrorism @ USC

I am sitting in room 207 waiting for the talk to start.  At the front are some hacker types, setting up equipment for the talk and the Podcast of this event.

Bruce Schneier will be speaking here tonight, and I hope to get his book "Beyond Fear", signed.  Also I am looking forward to meeting Cory Doctorow.

Pictures and hopefully audio to follow as the evening progresses.

1854: UPDATE: Cory Doctorow and Bruce Schneier are here. THey are discussing alternatives to iTunes for people who use Linux.

1926 Update: Some Pics:

UPDATE:  OK, back home from USC.  Wow. What an excellent lecture given by Bruce Schneier.  Among the topics we discussed were:

• On-Star, the in-car help system offered primarily by GM and other car manufacturers has the ability to surreptitiously turn on the MICROPHONE inside your car and evesdrop on any conversations taking place inside your car.
• Hotel room keys are now networked into a central system,
• In Italy, trash has to be placed in clear, transparent plastic trash bags that reveal their contents.
• Everything is being recorded somewhere, at some time.
• Under the guise of a criminal investigation, Law Enforcement has the right to confiscate any and all security tapes from commercial establishments.
• There are companies that dedicate themselves to flying low-altitude aircraft that take pictures of commercial and residential structures that may need some kind of repair to their roofs or other parts of their property, and then SELL this data to roofing, construction and other repair business for the purposes of targeted advetising.
• Privacy has been dead for a long, long time.  It is mearly an illusion nowadays unless you become virtually Omish-like and attempt to remove yourself from the Grid completely by paying cash for everything, etc.

All in all, I am very glad I came to hear Mr. Schneier speak and I plan on coming to all of the talks presented by Cory Doctorow and the USC CPD.  Highly Recommended.