Author: Kirk

Microsoft Scrambles and Comes Through for the Obama Inauguration Speech

For those of you who didn’t know, (now) President Obama’s inaugural speech was broadcast live across the Internet.  The technology behind this massive amount of video distribution was Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, a browser-based technology that is similar to Flash – which is what websites like UTube use to allow people to play videos without actually having a copy of them on their computer.

Why is this interesting?  Well, Silverlight is Microsoft technology, so of course it really only works on Microsoft’s web browser – Internet Explorer  So what this means is you have to have payed a “Microsoft tax” by buying Windows or an “Apple tax” by buying OSX in order to hear the president’s speech.  If you are running an open source operating system like Linux you can not use Silverlight, and thus theoretically could not participate in this historic event.  Now I am sure you can understand why Microsoft would be interested in getting the government to use Silverlight.

Why did Obama’s team choose Silverlight?  I’m not sure, but it certainly isn’t a great way to start off a revolution.  Why should a US citizen need to pay to listen to the speech?  This actually brings up another topic for another day – why I think government should be focusing on deploying Open Source software rather than proprietary, so that the citizens of the country are not beholden to a company to participate in the country’s affairs.

Anyhow, what I wanted to mention today was that there is an alternative to Silverlight, named Moonlight, that is being reverse-engineered with the aim to bring Silverlight compatability to the Linux operating system.  However the version of Silverlight being used for the speech was not yet playable using Moonlight.  Since it is a proprietary technology there really was nothing to be done … unless …

Microsoft to the rescue!  At the last hour Microsoft employees pulled out all stops and hacked together a version of Moonlight with its Linux business partner Novell that would allow Linux users to watch the broadcast.

*phew*

Microsoft must really want us to listen to the speech, right?

Why does this feel like they’re trying to solve a problem they themselves have created and propagated?

Star Wars – Abridged and “Loosely Interpreted”

There are many amongst us who have seen Star Wars – or at least some part of the double trilogy (is that a sextilogy?) But it interesting to see things such as this video. Not only is it funny and well animated (if you thought Monty Python was well animated) but it is also a testament to just how pervasive these movies are, and how entrenched some of the characters and plotlines are in our popular culture.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

An Interesting Senator in the U.S.

During a heated discussion at work between two people arguing about whether or not global warming is a hoax, a Senator’s blog was cited as a resource.  Curious, I hit up Wikipedia and found a page on Senator Jim Inhofe.

Quite an interesting fellow really.  Here are some choice quotes from the wikipedia article (take them for what they’re worth).

“It kind of reminds… I could use the Third Reich, the Big Lie… You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that’s their [the environmentalists’] strategy”

He also stated that Global Warming is

” … the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state.”

Yes, that whole separation thing was a massive … uh .. hoax?

He’s even pinned down who’s behind this environmental hoax: The Weather Channel.  They need to keep up their ratings after all.

Now, if this was a joe-shmoe on the street I wouldn’t have noted it, but this is a Senator.  The very same Senator that was chair of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

And his ideas on other issues really don’t resonate with me at all.  For example he’s trying to amend the constitution to make same sex marriage illegal.  His presentation on the Senate floor included this little gem, while pointing to a poster-sized picture of his family.

…As you see here, and I think this is maybe the most important prop we’ll have during the entire debate, my wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship.

Yup, no homosexuals in his family.  None at all … hey .. don’t look in that closet!  What worked for him must therefore be struck into law and work for everyone.

To top it all off, he seems to be representing the people, as his record shows landslide wins for decades now.  Either that or people are simply voting along party lines.

Really?  How does this make any sense at all?

A New Year, A New Gadget – Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet

Welcome to 2009 – the year I began by setting myself free  I’m free!  At long last I’m free from the ‘i’ overlords, be they iPods, iTunes, or iDon’t care anymores!

Back in March 2005 I bought my first personal music player – an iPod.  At the time I thought the 40GB would be more than enough.  I honestly don’t think I expected it to last almost 3 years.  And it is still ticking along quite nicely – the battery has held up well as I typically have it charging via the FM radio attachment or the dock.  But my library … she has grown too large!  And so I cast about for alternatives, and came to settle on two devices: a 120GB iPod Classic or an Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet.

This was back in September, planning for a certain gift-giving holiday in the months to come.  At that time the Archos did not support ogg or Flac encoded files, and thus it had no real advantage over the iPod Classic.  It was more expensive, and it didn’t come with a lot of the things the iPod did, like a dock or AC charger.  Sure it could connect to the Internet via a wireless connection, but that was just a gimmick.

Then I abandoned my search, as nothing really pleased me.  Why didn’t I want to stay with an iPod?  Here’s a partial list:

  • Apple continues to use DRM to support their business model.  I don’t want to support anything that relies on DRM.
  • Apple continues to make changes to their players in each generation, ensuring that anyone not running their “free” iTunes software could not use their device.  I did not want any part of this software lock in.  I also can’t run iTunes as I do not run Windows.  This meant that I had to wait for hackers to reverse engineer each new device as they came out, to add support for the device in Linux.  Why would I want to give money to a company that obviously does not want to listen to my needs?
  • The iPod continues to not support anything but the tired old MP3 standard and the Apple DRM’d files.  I want to support a manufacturer that looks to open standards rather than software lock in.

As you can see, most of the reasons are quite ideeological in nature.  But there were some dark, distasteful reasons to buy the 120 GB iPod:

  • I already have spent $70.00 on an FM transmitter/charger that only works with iPods.  I could continue to see a return on that investment if I again bought Apple.  Yes, I know this is a classic sunk cost falacy, but I’ve never claimed to be a rational thinking person, have I?
  • Apple stole my idea of providing a guided playlist maker for their newest generation, calling it the “Music Genius”.  Whatever, I’m not bitter, but the feature is a serious draw for me.  A dynamically built playlist based on recommendations is a great way to just load up music and listen.  No other hardware device offers that functionality right now.

So I decided to just let it sit.  I had a few gigabytes of space left on my iPod and I could delete some of the podcasts to make space if needed …

Then Archos updated their player to support ogg and flac.  And then I started to drool, as the devices were on sale for boxing day.  And then I decided to splurge, to trust my gut, and to put my money where my mouth was.

Man am I happy I did!  I don’t want to gush, I don’t want to sound materialistic.  BUT THIS THING IS AWESOME!

I had no idea that having a wireless connection to the Internet, and also my internal network, would actually open so many interesting doors for me with this device.  I’ve spent a lot of my free time the past week just figuring out how this thing can integrate with my existing devices.  I’ve figured out how to have any of the television shows I’ve recorded get automatically transcoded into a format the device supports.  I’ve figured out how to manage my server using the web connection.  I sit on my couch and browse the most recent photos I’ve uploaded to my long term storage space from my camera.  It’s just an entirely new way of working with my network systems.  And frankly, I’m geeking out here!

I plan on posting a few tidbits I’ve gathered through research on how to best set things up, so I don’t have to keep it all on paper around my office.  If you’re interested in the device look for that.

So I’m starting 2009 with a new gadget, a new zeal for technology and “convergence”, and a spring in my step.

Yes, I’m ashamed of my carnal attachment to a technology gadget.  Yes, I’m embarrased by just how excited I am about it all.  And no, I don’t regret it for a second.

Vaccines In The News Again – Sometimes

As a parent surrounded by other parents I know that the topic of “vaccine safety” is on most parent’s minds.  Sure it is a small sample size, but it is what it is.  An interesting aspect to the controversy surrounding the topic is the question of where do people get their facts from?  Where do we learn about the most recent scientific discoveries and findings?  The truth is, most of us rely on the media.

Here’s a great example of where the media is giving us misinformation by not giving us any information at all.  6 papers ran a story about how the MMR vaccine was being linked to asthma.  When the results actually came back and there was no link, did the 6 papers run the updated information?  No, its not really as interesting, is it?

We (media consumers) have to be careful about how we interpret and act on information provided by the media.  They really aren’t on our sides, for the most part.

High Def – Scam or Saviour?

I know the world is going to high definition TVs.  I know it!  But I’ve been refusing to capitulate to the capitalistic calls – so far.  But my strength is waning …

My issue is that buying a HD TV means I then have to get some HD content.  That means a new digital box from my cable company, or hacking some antenna together to try to capture some of the HD channels floating over the air.  I’d also want to get a HD disc player, which means Blu-Ray.  And then there’s the expensive cables, etc.  All in all, moving to HD means a completely new television ecosystem within the house – not a cheap proposition.

But then there are soothing, affirming articles such as this one at PC World, that claims that 1 in 5 of those HD television watchers can’t actually tell the difference betwen high def and standard def.  Now that just warms my cockles.

Take that Capitalism!