December 2009
18 posts
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From the archives: Building an Internet TV...
The below is lifted from a couple of posts I wrote on my old blog (and didn’t bother to migrate) back in April 2007. Some may find them interesting, mostly it’s just brain-dump stuff. (I got caught up in other things and didn’t ever write Part Four).
Part One
You can say ‘Internet TV’ to ten different people and get ten (in fact, probably more than ten) suggestions back as to what you might...
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Do not adjust your set
Part One: Going Live!
Part one of three. Documentary series taking you on a journey through the past, present and future of television broadcasting in the UK.
From the earliest days of the television, through the creation of the BBC, the trials and tribulations of the Independent Television Authority, the birth of satellite and cable television and the launches of MTV, Channel Four and Five,...
Maybe I am too stupid or not fucking xenophobic...
souplines:
I don’t unnastand it either. When Timothy mcvay was tried as a terrorist, no one was afraid to try him on US soil. They are all murderers and should stand trial right here. Show them that we are not afraid, and oh yes, I live blocks from the courthouse
(Originally from sistermarymartha)
The problem seems to be—from over this side of the pond—that trying them in court doesn’t seem...
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Some straightforward questions for Project Canvas
Will it be possible to deliver linear services over IP to badged (and strictly compliant—thus, all) devices which, from a UX perspective, are equivalent to “traditional” broadcasts—e.g., Freeview/Freesat? (If not, isn’t that awfully short-sighted)?
Will service availability be automatically determined with the ability for the user to override? (e.g., over the air transport stream includes...
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Someone tell the Photoshop team that Fireworks... →
adobegripes:
Why must Adobe keep investing time in trying to make Photoshop a UI design tool… I know some misguided designers like to make their UIs in Photoshop but they’re wrong to do so, its a horrible tedious tool for UI design. Don’t believe me? If a shit how PS user and a shit how FW user both had to change the layout and sizing of the same form controls I bet the Fireworks user would be...
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Security versus DRM
DRM is often talked about as being a security measure, especially with its reliance on cryptography.
DRM isn’t really a security measure in any real sense, though. Let me explain why.
In a security system, you have two parties: A and B. Sometimes both parties will need to verify each other’s identities (mutual verification) together, but quite often these are distinct steps from each other and...
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GitHub and Tracking Open Source Licenses
rentzsch:
I think GitHub is in a great position to revolutionize open source with regard to license management.
I’d love to see GitHub allow me to optionally declare the license of a public repository.
Then, licenses could follow forks and GitHub could even track and store click-wrapped copyright releases that are “signed” in your pull requests.
I can imagine a scenario where GPLv2 code is...
stevenf:
Slightly longer version of a tweet from this morning:
Apple makes the iPhone SDK. They’re also one of (if not the) biggest contributors to WebKit.
WebKit’s capabilities continue to grow exponentially. I’m blown away by what can be done with it today. If development continues apace (and there’s no reason to believe it won’t) it seems realistic that within a reasonable amount of...
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${AS YET UNNAMED IDENTITY VERIFICATION SYSTEM}
So, I have an idea.
It works like this:
When you create an account on some Internet service, be it social networking or web hosting or whatever, the service gives you a passphrase. This is randomly-generated, but tied to your account.
You enter this passphrase into a little applet—which could be a dashboard widget, or an iPhone app, or a J2ME MIDlet, or something else—and it displays a...
Will someone please tell me...
kurafire:
dielaughing:
kurafire:
dielaughing:
Why the hell people don’t find technology conferences in meat-space the stupidest fucking thing ever? Anyone? It’s not even ironic, it’s just stupid. Hello? You’re attending a conference about using tools that allows location independence by booking a flight and staying in a hotel and PAYING ADMISSION to attend a swine flu orgy. Retards.
As an...
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PSB/CC
The BBC, like most PSBs, broadcasts lots of content which is distributed under strict conditions, and made up of lots of content which it distributed under strict conditions.
Thou shalt not copy, modify, redistribute, etc., etc., because the people who licensed us the music, or produced the programme for us, or whatever, say so.
Fine.
But… there’s a fair amount of the BBC’s output which...
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“Nevertheless, there’s something about lying in the back of a tour bus...”
– Louise Wener, writing in the Guardian in 2002
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Official Project Canvas Website
No, not this.
This (Twitter account over here).
What it has:
A .info domain. Lawks.
A logo which looks… eerily familiar.
A couple of “Under construction” pages.
What it doesn’t have:
An explanation of why agreement to adhere to the technical standards isn’t sufficient to constitute a “platform” (i.e., if the BBC adheres to DBook7 and the CE manufacturers do the same, they should be able...
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The Problem With Music →
An article which originally appeared in Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine in the 90s, and was penned by Steve Albini, producer of Nirvana’s In Utero. Worth a read.
