Legal Music Online? What If I Can’t Find It?

Posted on July 3, 2008
Filed Under Daily Links, Digital Music, Web 2.0 (Observations) | 1 Comment

Dear BPI,

I’ve not recieved one of your lovely letters, but I would like to hear an answer to a point I have regarding music online. What if I can’t find a music track or album online?

I’m sure you’re familiar with artists who don’t appear electroncially, such as The Beatles, or do not wish to appear in certain stores (Kid Rock and Garth Brookes to name two). What happens when there is music that I would like to buy, but it’s not available legally? This happened recently; after Eurovision 2008 I decided to grab some of the albums of the artists. Norway’s entry, Maria Haukass Storeng was top of my list. From what I can see, it’s not available online (although her previous album , Breathing, is). It’s not even on sale via Amazon on a physical CD.

From other more grey sources, it is.

There’s also the argument that if I don’t want to buy from iTunes (DRM, product lock-in, crappy encoding, low bitrate, I don’t particularly support Apple’s distruibtuion of the money to artists, etc), I couldn’t even get a copy of Breathing online, and would have to resort to my dark corner of the web of choice.

The market has provided me with choice. It should be in the music industry’s best interests to not put barriers in the way of people who are happy to drop money on something like 15 albums of artists where I have heard a single track. Without internet music stores (in some cases), or other means (in the other cases) I wouldn’t have music from Ani Lorak, Mor Ve Otesi, Tersabetoni, Kalomira, Maria Haukass Storeng and Dima Bilan to listen to and enthuse about.

GIve us options we want, not options you think are the only ones that will keep you in the financial nirvana you had in the 80s and 90s.

Yours,
Ewan Spence.

Watch Out Twitter Investors - Here Comes Identi.ca

Posted on July 3, 2008
Filed Under Daily Links, Web 2.0 (News) | Leave a Comment

My old Warrant Officer always used to say (in that low voice of menace) that you should never just state a problem, but state a problem followed promoptly by “here’s what I think we should do.” So if Twitter is Fail-Whaling, then we need another service. Lots of people have said it needs to be de-centralised, that it needs to be replicabla,e it needs to e open-source, using as many standards as possible,

Evan Prodromou has done just that. Welcome to Indenti.ca.And yes that does point to my account there, and not the top, because the site is still in it’s early days, so there’s no direct friend import via your address book (or the Twitter api, heh-he).

That early days is worth pointing out - Identica’s big problem is people may be expecting a full range of Twitter services (heck we expect the full range of Twitter services from Twitter) but I suspect that with an Open Source code base they’re going to get a lot of eyes looking over problems and tweaks - it appears for example Dave Winer is already nudging the code that generates the RSS feeds.

If I was Twitter, I’d hope the big section in their VC pitch addresses an Open Source, Distributed system as a threat, and how they would counter it. If their defence is “we’re the biggest” and “it’s hard to move away from Twitter with your friends” then Identica might be a game changer, if not in the form of the final site, but in the final code-base.

Why The Current N-Gage Games Are Crap.

Posted on June 30, 2008
Filed Under Links to my Articles | Leave a Comment

Simpla answer, because it’s going to take the programmers and developers a lot longer to get up to speed with the system. All the signs are that this summer’s Reset Generation (preview here) will be the first ‘true’ N-Gage game for the new gaming platform of S60 v3. Anyway, more indepth stuff on today’s editorial at All About Symbian.

In short order Krisse and I looked (electronically) at him and said that it’s way too early to make that sort of comparison. After all, the games Steve is probably remembering from the N-Gage classic are titles like Pathway to Glory or System Rush, while the new N-Gage titles springing to mind are titles like Midnight Pool (AAN’s review) and Sims 2:Pets (AAN’s review). This isn’t a fair comparison – not because they are different games, but because they are at different stages in the life cycle of their respective platforms.

Read on, MacDuff.

One Reason Why My Laptop Has Been Rubbish… Dust

Posted on June 27, 2008
Filed Under Mobile Computing | Leave a Comment

Yes, after some terminal-ish spluttering this morning before a cloud of dust turned me into Wile. E. Coyote, I had to strip down the Compaq laptop (again) to find out what’s gone wrong with it. While I’m sure this isn’t the only cause of the recent crashes and blue screens (and of course Ubuntu is Rock Solid, it’s only the dual-boot to XP that goes wah-wah), this has certainly not been helping.

Dusty Laptops

Dust. Lots of dust. So much dust that grey patch above the orange radiator is actually a block of dust and rubbish about an inch long and a 1/4 inch square. Which peeled away in one block.

Let’s see how the little blighter gets on now. I took the chance to switch out the keyboard and pop in a new Bluetooth module (I have a similar Presario V2000 that I use for parts). And while I could go out and just buy a new laptop, there’s a certain pride in just tinkering and keeping the current ‘pair’ of V2000’s ticking along to give me a functional laptop.

My Mashed Report [Via BBC News]

Posted on June 24, 2008
Filed Under BBC Mashed, Daily Links, Links to my Articles | Leave a Comment

My personal experiences of Mashed, and the story of the Social Flight Simulator will be along shortly. I’ve been busy today covering the news of Nokia’s purchase of Symbian for All About Symbian, and my overall view of Mashed for the BBC News Technology section has also went live. Head over to BBC News to read it.

BBC Mashed: Video of the Social Flight Sim Presentation

Posted on June 22, 2008
Filed Under BBC Mashed | 1 Comment

It’s late, and after two very packed days at Mashed with the Social Flight Simulator, I’m ready to sleep. More in-depth stuff tomorrow, but for now, here’s a quickly edited video of the team’s presentation at Alexandra Palace.

[Mashed] Introducing The Social Flight Simulator

Posted on June 19, 2008
Filed Under BBC Mashed, Links to my Articles | Leave a Comment

It’s time to let you all know what I (and others) have been spending the last week or two planning for our BBC Mashed hack. There have been a few hints out on the web already, but the biggest one was in Matthew Cashmore’s [Mashed organiser on BBC Backstage] interview on NetMag:

In fact a bunch of developers are building a flight simulator to bring along that they intend to fly around the world in Google Earth, making all their data available as they go. You’ll have everything you’d get from a real plane, right there inside Ally Pally!

If you had any doubt about who would propose such a mad project, and then put together a team to do just that, then you can relax again. I’m one of the team behind the Social Flight Simulator (http://socialflightsim.wordpress.com/)

Yep, right there, in the halls of Alexandra Palace, we’ll start constructing our aircraft (a mix of Grob 103 and A4 Skyhawk styling), putting together flight controls and avionics, with the latest web 2.0 principles and 1930’s rear screen projection special effects. Designed for twin seat operations with a pilot up front and a Navigator/Wirleess (Internet) Operator in the back seat, if all goes well construction should be finished by noon on Saturday, with flight testing over the next hour.

And as the 24 hack-a-thon starts, the first pair of flyers will take to the sky at 1pm, from London Stanstead, overfly Alexandra Palace (how meta!), head over to Dover and through Europe on the first leg of a 24 hour flight around the world. With frequent planned stops along the route to land and change over the crew (think Le Man driver changes), constant twittering and blogging from the cockpit, and a live webcam feed mixing in Google Earth views, pilot and navigator cams, and other fun stuff, there should be a lot of content going out.

But it’s also social.

By that I mean we’re providing information about the flight as we fly via a Web API that any developer can call on during the day for the live position or historical flight path, and build their own hacks from that. I’d really love to see a number of hacks around the Flight Sim, perhaps a “Simulated Carbon Calculator,” an automatic “Lonely Planet Guide to What You’re Flying Over,” or tie in with a wealth of data already geo-tagged and available on the web. Just amble over to us at the event and we’ll let you know how to access the API (or we’ll point you at Alistair, who’s writing it as you read this…)

Of course the Social Flight Simulator is not just for coders. With a round the world flight, there’s a lot of bum-in-seat time to share out, so we’re on the lookout for people who’d like to do some piloting or navigating of the aircraft through the journey - training will be given. It’s struck me there are always people who come to Mashed (and similar Hackday events) just to find cool things to do, soak up the atmosphere, and maybe do a few little things. Hopefully the appeal of flying round the world, and talking to the audience watching the flight on the internet, is something that’s cool.

Feel free to comment here, otherwise see you all at Ally Pally on Saturday - and if you’re not at the event but want to watch, then http://socialflightsim.wordpress.com/ is the place to be.


Proposed Floor Plan

[Mashed] Top Ten Tips To Survive the BBC Mashed Experience

Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under Daily Links | 3 Comments

So it’s that time of year again, when the great and the good gather to watch the pivotal episode of the Doctor Who season gather in Alexandra Palace for two days (and one night) of hacking, coding, building, geeking out, and other stuff - BBC Mashed. Yes I’m there again; no I’m not building a rocket (but Ant is); yes I am doing something (ask me tomorrow); and yes I’ll speak to you if you point a video camera at me.

In the meantime though, there seems to be a lot of people attending the event who weren’t there last year. So to give them a leg up, here’s my Top Ten Tips to Survive BBC Mashed…

* Ask For Help
You’re in a room with some of the smartest laterally thinking brains in the United Kingdom. Got a problem? Then go and ask someone if they can help, or know who to ask. Last year, I walked into the hall thinking “I want to build a rocket” and started sketching out plans. About ten minutes later, I had Greg McCarroll and Gervaise Markham interested and working on all the problems we had. The same goes for coding issues. We’re a community and unlike the normal British reserve, the hacker community thrives on sharing knowledge.

* Stay Hydrated
There’s going to be a lot of food going round, but most of it will probably be on-the-go food. By all means keep your energy levels up, but it’s probably just as (if not more) important to stay hydrated. Last year there were crates of mini-bottles of water going around, and if there is the same again, grab them and drink them frequently.

* The Time Goes Very Fast For Project Building
24 hours may sound a lot, especially if you’re sharing the work with others, but in actual fact it’s not. You need to have a good plan, either beforehand or run with your inspiration in the 4 hours of talks at the start of the day - you need to be aware you need to have a finished product at 1pm Sunday, and then you’ve got 60 minutes to work on the presentation to the rest of the delegates. At every point where you can choose complexity or simplicity, go for the latter. Decide just how long to spend on eye candy compared to code. But most of all plan well, and have some slack. If you want to reach out to people and discuss a team idea beforehand, by all means do so - because others are!

* Bring a Sleeping Bag
Assuming you’re planning on sleeping (and you should consider at least a power-nap at some point) then it might be an idea to bring along a sleeping bag or big warm fluffy blanket. The hall at Ally Pally is big, and the temperature may drop a bit in the night. Plus it’s nice and cosy, and a good place to…

* …Get Away From It All
500 geeks in a room (okay 499 geeks and you) might sound like a recipe for silence, but it’s not. Everyone, at some point, will want to just get away for a bit. I’d recommend some good headphones (noise canceling if that’s your preference), one of those masks you get to help sleep on a plane, and just grab one of the many BBC beanbags and head towards a darkened corner. Certainly consider that at some point you’ll need to chill - for me music and a good book is a must, even if it’s just for 30 minutes, followed by the aforementioned power-nap at 5am.

* Bring a Power Cord, and Consider a Four Way Extension Cable
There will not be enough power points - at least not if everyone wants to plug in at the same time. And the plugs might not be close enough to any little oasis you craft out. So an extension cable with 4 plug points on it will be worth a 2d6 roll on your karma.

* Deodorant
It’s not much, but we’re going to be in the event space for close to 36 hours, and we’re going to be busy little industrious bees. Please consider nipping off to the loo every few hours for a top-up. While you’re at it, switching T-Shirts is more than making a fashion statement. It can save lives by helping us all to breath.

* Don’t Worry About Missing Your Favourite TV Show
This is a BBC event after all - if they ram it on the Radio Times cover as often as possible they’re not going to hold out on their target audience…

* Non Programmers Can Have Fun Too
While Mashed is billed as a programmers event, and there will certainly be a lot of code hacking going along, you don’t need to be a hacker to actually enjoy yourself. Many projects ill need other skills - websites and UI’s ill always need people who can do graphics, htere will be games and fun in all corners (I’ll probably have Fluxx on me), and many projects will have need of people to do things other than code. I know mine does…

…and the number one top tip to survive this year’s Mashed event at Alexandra Palace is…

1: Be very very afraid of whatever project Ewan Spence is involved in - after filming a spoof of the last episode of Torchwood (five hours before it was aired), or building Diet Coke and Mentos powered rockets, whatever is planned for this year is either a must see, or must avoid, depending on how reckless you’re feeling.

[Mashed] Would You Like To Volunteer For My Mashed Project?

Posted on June 16, 2008
Filed Under Personal Posts | 2 Comments

As you may recall, I’m working on something for the BBC’s Mashed event this coming weekend. I’m delighted to report that the final few pieces are falling into place (in readiness for my nail-gun…). That means that the next part of the project - actually using the hack after it is built - comes into play.

So, can you spare two hours during the Mashed event to get involved in the project? Again, without fully describing it (tease!) you might be a touch wary, but let me explain a few more things.

Firstly, this isn’t an embarrassing thing (it’s not a Web 2.0 Gunge Tank), it is a genuine challenge, that will take place over a 24 hour period. There will be two ’seats’ for each 90 minute to 2 hour slot, starting at 1pm on the Saturday, through to 1pm on the Sunday. Some slots are taken (for example I’ll be doing the graveyard 1am to 5am slot, although if you care to join me in the darkness, that’s fine…), but I’d love to accomodate as many people as possible to make it a genuine collaboration,. Full credit and training will be given, no prior skills in anything required.

Of course it (a) leaves you plenty time to work on other hacks and (b) because of the positioning of the hack, you won’t miss any of the scheduled events in the hall. Feel free to leave your sign-up in the comments here, mail me on ewanspence@gmail.com, or ping me on the Mashed Network.

To sum up the hints…

This physical thing needs two people at a time to make it work.
It will run for 24 hours.
It will have a definitive start and end.
And part of it will look like this:

[Mashed] My Plans for BBC Mashed [!Hackday] Next Week

Posted on June 13, 2008
Filed Under Daily Links | Leave a Comment

Next weekend is the BBC’s Mashed event, and I think there are a few tickets left, but in any case it’s going to see close to 500 hackers, developers, web 2.0 specialists and a fair proportion of the UK’s digital community in one place. Throw in a bundle of sessions, overnight hacking, and some planned entertainment from the BBC team behind it (and I’ve no idea what it could possibly be… on a Saturday night… with geeks in the room…), and you have the recipe for a fantastic weekend of non-stop stuff. 9am on the Saturday to 5pm on Sunday (and beyond).

If you’re coming along to Mashed, you should be registered with the Backstage Network, in which case you can find me under (surprisingly) Ewan Spence.

Mashed08: London, June 21/2 2008

Regulars to this blog and these events will know that in the past I’ve contributed to some rather fun hacks and projects at these events. During April (at Over the Air) I had the delights of participating in the swedeing of the final episode of Torchwood, which we aired just before actually watching the last episode of Torchwood. I still think our version was more true to life. And I doubt that the Alexandra Palace crowd will forget last year’s Diet Coke and Mentos powered Rocket.

So there’s an in-built ‘anticipation’ about what I’m going to be involved with this year from certain quarters, not least the BBC Backstage team who do sterling work organising the event. Needless to say I’ve spent some time working on a project, and the euraka moment of something reasonably practical happened last Saturday. Since then I’ve been working on the idea, and doing the classic putting the team together.

I’m not quite ready to say hat the project is, because it could all fall flat, but in the best tradition of 3-2-1 (Yorkshire TV, I know, shhh, maybe they won’t notice), I’ll be throwing out some cryptic clues to the project.

It is bigger than last year’s rocket; it will be a hack that interfaces with the physical world… but it is not a rocket.

See you next week - either at Ally Pally, or online through the event (because there is an online component).

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