Donnerstag, 18. November 2004

Advertisers Muscle Into RSS. There's no escaping advertising. Show even a modicum of success, and marketers start looking for a way in. Really Simple Syndication feeds are the latest target. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News] 6:00:22 PM    comment []

eBay's Grilled Cheese Diet. The online auctioneer has a hot -- if not grilled -- item on its hands. [The Motley Fool] 5:57:32 PM    comment []

Bill Gates and Spam. Gates 'world's most-spammed man': This is insane. INTERNET junkies, take heart: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates receives four million emails a day, and is probably the most "spammed" person in the world. Via Slashdot. [Gadgetopia] 5:51:06 PM    comment []

Very, very geeky chess set. You’re not seriously going to throw money buying a chess set at a store when you could just make one out of whatever spare 50 ohm BNC, SMA, and N terminators with various BNC, SMA, N, APC7, F, UHF connectors and inter-series adapters you have around the house, are you? [Via BoingBoing] <div style="text-align: center; margin: 0; padding: 6px; color: #000000; vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid #555555; background-color: #fffff5; font: 12px/16px Verdana;">Weblogs, Inc. RSS feeds brought to you by iPod®. Meet Bose. Introduce your iPod® to Bose, then listen to the new SoundDock™. [Engadget] 10:39:32 AM    comment []

Icon War. Icon War: This is what happens at night when you shut off your computer. MSN starts it, and Diablo finishes it. Hysterical. [Gadgetopia] 10:38:40 AM    comment []

Edit Plus Wiki. Main Page - EditPlusWiki: I waxed romantic about Edit Plus a few weeks ago. Now there's a wiki just for Edit Plus, and I admit to learning a few great tricks in just a few minutes of browsing. The EditPlusWiki exists to provide users of the excellent EditPlus text-editor with a freely available and community-contributed information resource. You are invited to add information that you think would be useful to current and future EditPlus users. [Gadgetopia] 10:38:18 AM    comment []

SIP and SIMPLE: an overview from Microsoft. Microsoft has recently published a paper on Technet which provides an excellent overview of the SIP and SIMPLE protocols.  SIP is the main technology behind VoIP communications and SIMPLE is the main technology behind Instant Messaging and presence awareness technologies.  These papers are highly technical and not for the faint of heart.  If you are interested, they provide an excellent and detailed overview of two technologies that are becoming increasingly pervasive in our day to day lives. This paper is written for IT professionals and developers interested in understanding the concepts, protocols, and technologies of real-time communications. It describes protocols such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), SIP Instant Messaging and Presence Language Extensions (SIMPLE), and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). Microsoft uses these protocols and related technologies to provide a real-time communications (RTC) platform for corporate multi-modal communication, which includes voice and video communication, instant messaging, application sharing, and collaboration. Throughout this paper, voice communication and the way the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system supports it are used to illustrate how the underlying technologies work [The VoIP Weblog] 10:37:16 AM    comment []

VoIP port blocking is now a hot topic. I have commented a few weeks ago about the possibility of broadband providers blocking VoIP communications. It seems BT was doing that, although they now deny it. Anyway, this episode will not be the first or the last to occur. Now, a small VoIP company from Kansas city is pressing the FCC to prohibit broadband providers from blocking third-party VoIP traffic. Of course the opposition to such action by the FCC has strong names. I understand that companies want to preserve their networks, and want to use it to drive their own projects, but as a consumer, I want to have the right to use whatever VoIP service I choose. [The VoIP Weblog] 10:36:46 AM    comment []

Too many configuration options for Wi-Fi VoIP phones ?. As we are having more Wi-Fi VoIP phones available, it seems that there is also a growing pain to use it in areas other than your “home” area. We know that the Wi-Fi hotspots are now encrypted, and even with wireless laptops it can be difficult to connect to certain networks. Now imagine if you travel quite a bit…setting up different profiles for every place is not very handy. We want instant configuration. That’s why I think Boingo needs to come up with a solution to make it easy for users to connect. For now it is too complicated, and upgrading the firmware of one of these Wi-Fi phones may not be that easy…. Another thing that I support is a platform-based phone, such as Microsoft Smartphone or Symbian. So these companies may provide all the necessary support in a more uniform way. [The VoIP Weblog] 10:36:15 AM    comment []

VoWi-Fi Gathering Steam. According to industry insiders, the launching of a WiFi/Cellular working group (WCC) within the WiFi Alliance is an indication that Voice over WiFi (VoWi-Fi) technology is close to realization. In addition, a set of protocols for seamless handoffs between cellular networks and IP-based wireless networks such as WiFi has been ratified by the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) Consortium. What these activities indicate are industry consortia falling in behind new products from IC vendors and equipment and service providers which are pushing VoWi-Fi from the enterprise to the wider consumer market, offered Phil Solis, senior analyst of wireless connectivity at ABI Research, in a statement. For example, IC vendor Agere has withdrawn from the general market and is focusing all its efforts on Wi-Fi chips to be embedded in mobile handsets. And Texas Instruments is making Wi-Fi and VoIP ICs, and has produced a reference design to make it easier to build future handsets, Solis noted. [The VoIP Weblog] 10:35:39 AM    comment []

Another cordless phone using Skype. There is a new cordless phone that also works with Skype. Called Dualphone, it uses a regular landline as well as Skype’s network. It connects to a desktop computer through a USB port. The adopted standard is DECT, an european standard. Engadget has reported it here. Apparently there are no online retailers in the US with this product, and the only online vendors are in Europe. Anyway, even though the product seems interesting, I haven’t seen any major marketing efforts so far. There is no announcement even on Skype’s website. [The VoIP Weblog] 10:34:51 AM    comment []

Subversive shopping carts. Public Broadcast Cart, by Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga (author of Vagamundo), is a shopping cart equipped with a microphone, a mixer, an amplifier, six speakers, a miniFM transmitter and a laptop with a wireless card. This system allows any passer-by to become the producer of a radio broadcast. As the Bush Administration and the FCC seek to hand over our media resources to the wealthiest corporate media entities looking to monopolize the media from print to radio to television, it is upto the independent producers to subvert big money domination of our culture. Canadian artist Michelle Teran uses also a cart in her ongoing project Life: a user's manual . This series of public performance walks and online mappings explore the stories captured by private CCTV. Dressed as a homeless woman, Teran pushes a shopping cart containing, under rags and discarded objects, a mobile computing system that snatches surveillance broadcasts from the surrounding airwaves. Along with the images displayed on screens visible on the side of the shopping cart, the captured sounds are broadcast, weaving a narrative of the unseen eyes and ears of private policing as Teran navigates both the real and virtual urban landscape. Here, the artist taps the potential of the invisible by giving it exposure to the world. Life: a user's manual is exhibited in ECHO local, Gallery 400, Chicago, till November 27. [we make money not art] 10:34:02 AM    comment []

A guitar-solo-playing circuit-bent iPod Extremely stylish circuit-bending duo Censtron have attacked a second-generation iPod and turned it into something with a bright red LED on the front, a proper on/off switch (nice!), a pitch-bend mod wheel and the ability to play glitched-up guitar solos. It's not totally clear what they've done to the poor thing, but it looks like it will never play another Dido album. Hear it here and buy it on Ebay here it's currently just $31. (Thanks to the mysterious "gins0018") - Tom [Music thing] 10:24:22 AM    comment []

eBay's Very Merry Catalog. Online auction house eBay goes the traditional route for the holidays. [The Motley Fool] 10:16:35 AM    comment []

Ze Frank's Communication Course #1. Mark Frauenfelder: Mark Hurst sez: The world's only Ze Frank teaches us how to rethink e-mail communications. Genius. Link [Eyebeam reBlog] 10:11:08 AM    comment []

Art on the cheap in London. The Royal College of Art in London "Secret 2004" event allow anybody to buy a mini masterpiece for only £35! Over 2,000 postcards have been donated by world renowned artists and designers such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sir Peter Blake, Manolo Blahnik, film director Ken Loach, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, Bill Viola, Mario Testino, Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park, Sir Terence Conran, Richard Billingham, etc. They will go on sale beside the creations of aspiring RCA students and graduates. And the key to the sale is that the identity of the artist remains unknown until the piece of work is bought and the signature is revealed on the back. Viewing Days: 19-25 November. Sale Days: 26 and 27 November. What is good design? Is it about looks? Functionality? Innovation? Sustainability? Inclusivity? The Design Museum in London has asked twenty people, each with a particular perspective on design, to choose ten examples of what they think is good design. And nothing can cost more than £10. Oscar Pena, creative director of Philips, chose six Raspberry Rock Meringues, costing £1.55 each. Brazilian furniture designers Fernando and Humberto Campana selected a pair of flip-flop; Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, prefered a biogradable cardboard toilet, etc. "It is an interesting way to provoke debate," says curator Sophie McKinlay. "A lot of museums spend their time looking at the high end of design, at design classics - a term I loathe, but which people are very hung up on. There is nothing wrong with the chaise longue by Le Corbusier, but design affects every aspect of our lives. It is also about the pencil and the paper clip, both beautifully designed but not terribly expensive." 3 Dec 2004 - 27 Feb 2005. Details in The Independent. [we make money not art] 10:10:14 AM    comment []

Watch this Wednesday: The Samsung GPRS Class 10 Watch Phone. Last week we rocked around the couch with the TV Remote watch, this week we ask, Where’s our frickin’ watchphone already? What is it? Samsung’s been telling us we’d all be wearing a 2.8 ounce, GSM, voice activated, OLED displaying (Organic Light Emitting Display), Bluetooth syncing watc phones since 2000. They might have thought we forgot, but we didn’t and we want our watch phone already. Why we like it This is up there with a Daisy Youth Red Rider BB Repeater, yet this Christmas, we think the tree will still be empty. It’s cool to show this off, but to never offer it up? C’mon, that’s just cruel. 2000 2001 2003 Where to get it and how much Samsung, since 2000 you’ve been taunting us each year with a new watchphone model, usually at a trade show with the flurry of accompanying press releases. You best represent at CES in January. <div style="text-align: center; margin: 0; padding: 6px; color: #000000; vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid #555555; background-color: #fffff5; font: 12px/16px Verdana;">Weblogs, Inc. RSS feeds brought to you by iPod®. Meet Bose. Introduce your iPod® to Bose, then listen to the new SoundDock™. [Engadget] 10:07:25 AM    comment []

Augmented reality handshake. Developed at the Media Lab Europe (Dublin), iBand is a wearable device that allows the exchange of information via a simple handshake. The bracelet (still a prototype) stores and exchanges information about you and the persons you meet. The data gathered is reflected on the bracelet itself and can serve as a reminder or as an ice breaker for further conversation. The circuit board and battery lay under the wrist and an infrared transceiver is positioned near the back of the thumb. A handshake is detected via IR transceiver alignment combined with hand/wrist orientation and gesture recognition. To use it, you first have to enter personal information into a kiosk, which stores it and assigns a unique ID number to your iBand. When you shake hands with another iBand wearer, ID numbers are exchanged and stored. When you return to the kiosk, you can read a list of new contacts collected in the database. The group (Marije Kanis, Cian Cullinan, Anna Gavin, Stefan Agamanolis and Niall Winters) is working on additional functionality and richer wearable displays to support more complex social networking scenarios. More on iBand. [we make money not art] 10:06:32 AM    comment []

Ring phone concept. 24-year old designer Tao Ma won first prize in the Sony Ericsson Phone Concept Design Competition in China. He imagined a mobile phone encapsulated into a ring you wear on the finger. The microphone is placed on a retractable piece of string. You hold your hand up to your ear while talking in it. Cross-posted on Core77. [we make money not art] 9:09:08 AM    comment []

Fabulous scopitones. Slightly bulkier than a video phone, the Scopitone was a "Film Jukebox" invented in France (from surplus WWII airplane parts!) in the early 1960's and also the films (the ancestors of video clips) that were played on it. The first Scopitone videos were made in France around 1960, and the craze spread throughout Europe (especially in West Germany and England) before landing in the United States in mid-1964. By the end of the 1960s, they were gone. Just for those who are not French. This singer is Claude François, aka Cloclo, a star of the Scopitones. I had to listen to his songs during all my childhood as my mum was a fan and taught me how to dance like him and his "Clodette." Looks uninteresting, but you should see how the crowd gathers around me when I dance on "Alexandrie Alexandra", "Magnolia Forever" or ""Belle, belle, belle" at wedding parties. Via Octopusdropkick. [we make money not art] 9:08:30 AM    comment []

Legal guerilla advert. Boston media company Alt Terrain LLC has a series of original advertising media that "exploit" the street culture. - The 100% Legal Graffiti Advertising murals are sprayed by graffiti artists on legally leased wall space. - The Guerilla Media Programs consist of various forms of wild postings, urban market pole posters, sidewalk chalk stencils, static-cling posters, sidewalk decals, etc. - The Rip-Away Posters are poster pads that encourage passer-bys to rip-down and take it home. The Rip-Away Posters campaigns target mainly suburb locations such as skate parks, beach boardwalks, schoolyards, and shopping districts. - The Guerilla Video Projections screen images of brands, messages, and TV commercials on outdoor structures during the night. Talking about graffiti, have a look at the wonderful job of Banksy. [we make money not art] 9:07:58 AM    comment []

Anywhere interactive interface. A technology, developed by Paris-based Ros Kiri Ing and Mathias Fink, can turn any rigid surface into an interactive interface for electronic systems. Sensitive Object uses one or two inexpensive accelerometers to detect finger taps on, say, a shop window or a keyboard drawn on a blackboard. A computer chip calculates the exact origin of each tap and translates that information into mouse clicks and keystrokes. The system can work with a surface as large as four square meters, and the number of [base "]keys[per thou] can reach 544. The technology has already been tested in a Paris shop selling lamps where 8 tactile buttons, designed as small white circles, were pasted on the interior of the window shop. Passer-bys can, with a simple touch, activate the different lamps. Via Trends < Technology Review. [we make money not art] 9:07:21 AM    comment []

Bruce Sterling's (c)lamp. This is what makes America great. A writer of science fiction can also find work as a technology pundit, which in turn nets him enough money—and freedom—to design the World's Least Attractive Lamp. In many countries, people are run through with pig iron skewers just for writing science fiction, let alone making glowing orange rind monstrosities. It is a testament to our great society that we suffer Bruce Sterling to explore the heights of photonic faux pas without fear of retribution or accusation that he stole it from his grandmother's macramé class. The (c)lamp is nearing production as they finish "ironing out final manufacturing details." It's hard to keep that many factory workers stoned, for instance. (c)lamp. [FunFurde] [Gizmodo] 9:06:36 AM    comment []

ATRON, the multi-molecular shape-shifting robot. A prototype shape-shifting robot, called ATRON, that can reconfigure its many individual modules to change its mode of locomotion on command has been developed at the Maersk Institute in Denmark. ATRON is made of roughly spherical modules. Each one is split down the middle and can rotate one hemisphere using an onboard motor. The cells can also latch onto each using connectors placed at either end. The coordinated movement of the cells enables the robot to change its shape and move itself along. The cells each have a computer and communicate with each other via an infrared link. "We can envision it being used to inspect hazardous environments or in space exploration where they could replace devices such as the Mars rovers," says Henrik Hautop Lund, who leads the research. The scientist also hopes that modular robots could first find use as home entertainment. "A new concept in toys - and more advanced than say the AIBO dog," he adds. Via New Scientist and Robotics. More info in the PDF. [we make money not art] 9:06:04 AM    comment []