The Silent Number

Final push for Ubuntu @ Anime Boston

2010-03-08T20:49:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all of you who've made tax-deductible donations so far. We're so close! We still need help to reach and, better yet, push past our fundraising goal. This is the most important time for this project as our deadline is almost upon us. We have a lot we're excited to announce once we finish fundraising, so stay tuned and thank you so much for your generous contributions.

We have a first draft of one side of our tri-fold flyer by Martin Owens and we'd love to hear what you think of it! We want to do the best we can to showcase Ubuntu and promote free culture, software, and content, to people who might not understand the benefits of being able to edit code when they're not coders.

Lastly, we're in need of a couple more volunteers who would like to help us out at the booth. If you're interested, please get in touch.

Yo Frankie! to be available for the masses in Ubuntu Lucid

2010-02-24T17:03:00.000-05:00

I excitedly blogged about Yo Frankie! once before when i said it was "available to the masses" in Karmic, but it still had to be acquired through PlayDeb. Now, thanks to the attention we've raised to get Yo Frankie packaged, all the legalities (sorting out the licensing) have been dealt with and we managed to get it in Lucid just in the nick of time. This time i'm excited to let you know that the availability of this game has increased once again.

This is an important title for free and open source gaming, and those of you weighing in on the "can FOSS games work?" debate should pay close attention. Although this is not a game i would recommend for a non-FOSS gamer, it does debunks the main arguments against the viability of FOSS games. It's currently the best example of what can be done, even in such a small time frame with a handful of team members, because they had a solid development structure including proper art direction and a sound funding model.

It's currently perhaps the most beautiful FOSS game available, and it was created entirely with FOSS tools. Yo Frankie! is the product of the Blender Foundation's first Open Game Project, one of many of their open projects organized with the goal of stimulating the development of Blender and providing quality examples of what can be produced using only free and open source software. It has successfully funded itself and the development of Blender, while validating FOSS game, tools, and content. The Morevna Project has similar goals for creating a full-length anime film using entirely FOSS tools to be released as Free content. The Blender Foundation has taken the important first step, or leap, proving that such projects can be successful and providing one funding model among others that can work for similar projects.

If you're a free culture advocate, you already know that software and content (and games just happen to be an intensive mix of both) should be free, and there are many examples like this that prove they can be free, and the only thing missing is more people working on projects like this. We're getting there. It's all happening.

The Morevna Project: Free and Open Source Anime

2010-02-23T17:59:00.004-05:00

Regardless of your feelings towards anime, any free culture advocate should appreciate this effort. The Morevna Project is working towards the creation of a full-length anime film using only free and open source software to be released as free content. Similar to the Blender Foundation's Open Movie (and Game) Projects, the Morevna Project aims to promote FOSS tools and ideals, test and improve the FOSS tools used for production, validate the use of FOSS tools for professional use, and finally, to provide free content for others to share, use, and build upon. They will be using various tools to produce their futuristic adaptation of the Russian fairy tale “Marya Morevna”. 2D animation is being done with Synfig, who we'd like to thank for supporting us with a banner, along with Pencil. 3D modeling and animation is of course being done with Blender. Finally, GIMP and Krita are being used for static bitmap images and Inkscape for vectors. We will absolutely be promoting the Morevna Project and as many of these tools as possible when we showcase Ubuntu @ Anime Boston.

The anime community is the most far-reaching group sitting in such a perfect position to embrace the free culture philosophy. They are more ready than most and this could help revive their hurting industry as well as validate the viability of free content for creators around the world.

A CLI-tan by chrislnew

Already, the japanese anime and manga community is highly participatory with the creation of anime music videos (AMV), fansubs, and dōjinshi (self-published fan works), so they should be extremely receptive to the concepts behind the free Culture movement. Getting them to try FOSS tools should also be less difficult because the anime fandom tends to be geekier and more open minded. This group, so incredibly passionate and tight-knit that they have huge conventions around the world and are known for cosplay (dressing in costume), can really help free culture ideals spread virally through their global community. I can think of only two things that might require stressing: dispelling the myth that copyright restrictions are about due credit when in fact plagiarism is plagiarism regardless of copyright, and most copyleft licenses still require attributing credit; and that non-commercial (NC) is non-free.

In addition, we could be a big help to the anime industry. Although generally permissive of derivative fan works, they retain copyright which makes the legality of such works questionable. On top of this, the industry is hurting from their reliance on traditional media distribution and reluctance to embrace new technologies. We should be demonstrating the potential behind embracing their participatory culture and using the internet as a distribution platform in combination with funding models like that of Blender's Open Projects or the threshold pledge system and/or using micropayment services like Flattr. Accomplishing this could both help revive the anime industry as well as the validate publishing free content as beneficial for creators and sustainable for business.

The state of (high definition) video editing on Linux

2010-02-20T10:12:00.001-05:00

Video Editors

We have extremely promising open source media editing applications for Linux like the Jokosher audio editor and PiTiVi video editor, both built on the powerful GStreamer framework, reaching a point of maturity where the focus can shift from making sure the underlying infrastructure of the application is solid to adding all the cool features that everyone's been waiting for. These apps will make multimedia editing simple and easy yet still fully featured. Projects like the recently announced VideoLAN Movie Creator (you know, from the people behind the VLC media player) and OpenShot are certainly cool projects which show that FOSS video editing is really progressing, but PiTiVi will still be my NLE of choice. VLMC is sure to be a great product, but being cross-platform drives the focus away from our OS of choice, and OpenShot while perhaps adding as many features as quickly as possible, lacks the same focus on proper design that PiTiVi has.

In short, PiTiVi's development has a strong focus on doing everything "the right way" before adding extra features, and using the GStreamer framework is an important choice. The result is better integration with the Ubuntu, GNOME-based desktop, a consistent user interface, and clean, modular code that will help development progress faster as we enter the stage of expanding the feature list. It's an exciting time for open source video editing on Linux, and hopefully more developers can hop on board to bring these advancements sooner.

High Definition Video

A snapshot camera that produces .mts files

While things may be looking up, one shortcoming is an ever increasing problem that deserves some more serious attention. There is a lack of proper MPEG-TS support which is used for HDV and AVCHD camcorders and as such, Linux users need a way to easily play, edit and see thumbnails of these videos. Video editing on Linux can't get very far when the de facto standard for high-definition video isn't well-supported especially as more and more cameras are HD out of the box, and the prices for such camcorders are falling.

PiTiVi is one of many multimedia apps lacking proper .mts support

I have a camcorder that happens to produce these .mts/.m2ts files and in order for me to be able to make use of them, I would have to convert it to another format using ffmpeg. This should not be necessary. New users should not need to look up how to convert their video, and they should not need to re-encode the file and lose the original quality of the video. This bug will hold back video editing on Linux and generate a lot of angry users who cannot reliably play or edit their video files.

Hopefully some developers will address this mostly overlooked bug before it becomes a bigger issue and turn it into something to brag about. In the big picture though, this bug isn't huge, and it's sure to get fixed at some point; the question is whether it'll happen sooner or later. Either way, the more developers working on GStreamer and video editors like PiTiVi, squashing these bugs and adding new features, the better.

Why should Google build a fiber to the home network in Boston?

2010-02-18T19:19:00.001-05:00

Google is gearing up to launch an experimental ultra-high-speed broadband network to provide 1 gigabit per second Internet access to up to 500,000 people. I'd like to nominate the City of Boston, and I'm sure my fellow Bostonians, and any ex-Bostonians can understand why. I'd like to share a draft of my nomination and ask for any feedback you might have. Google also asks for a link to any supporting material and encourages YouTube videos and other creative submissions, so please respond in the comments if you know of something good. If you'd like to submit your own nomination, check out the project homepage:
http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/

Image from Wikipedia

Boston is a beautiful city on so many levels. I challenge anyone to live here and not fall in love. The area is rich in history, and it's easy to guess where the , The Cradle of Liberty, comes from. The vibrant, diverse culture is overflowing with creative and intelligent minds who have earned us our title of The Athens of America. This is the hub of many brilliant and forward thinking minds, as well as groups who work to change the world for the better. It's hard to live here and not feel a sense of community.

This city has so much potential still waiting to be tapped. I ask that Google roll out its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network to at least the underpriveledged areas in Boston because it will show how investing in them, and investing in the internet can help similar communities improve, and in turn boost the entire city. This is surely something Google wants to show, and Boston will absolutely make the investment worthwhile!

Tell me in the comments, why do you love Boston?

New Ubuntu @ Anime Boston buttons and banners

2010-02-17T22:25:00.002-05:00

The Ubuntu @ Anime Boston fundraiser is coming along well, and we realized the one button we provided might not work for many websites. To fix this, i'm adding a bunch of different graphics by DoctorMO you can use if the original wasn't a good fit. I'll should have more to announce soon, so stay tuned!

If you'd like to help support the project, please use one of these images below:

350×133

300×250

468×60

728×90

160×600

My question for Professor Noam Chomsky

2010-02-08T20:40:00.000-05:00

I got Reddit to set up an interview with Noam Chomsky, prolific linguist, cognitive scientist, philosopher, activist, and modern day anarchist thinker. The man is a genius, and really knows his politics. He'll be answering the top ten questions submitted by users in a video interview, so feel free to ask him anything, or vote on existing questions you'd like to hear answered. Here's my question:

What are some of your criticisms of today's Anarchist movement? How to be as effective as possible is something many anarchists overlook and you are perhaps the most prolific voice on this topic so your thoughts would be very influential.

Being an anarchist is very fulfilling for people, and most seem to get lost in self-fulfilling work. Many spend their time learning all they can only to get lost in philosophizing and not take any real action, and there are also many others who are very active but, as helpful as their services are to the community, don't really enlighten any new minds.

In addition, there is the ethical dilemma of living in a capitalist system. Is it better for an anarchist live the way they believe everyone should, even though in this case it makes it harder to convince other people to do so, or to temporarily compromise some ideals in order to reach out to more people? It is easy for anarchists to spend most of their time avoiding capitalism in as many aspects of their life as possible.

Perhaps we just need more Noam Chomsky's in the world. Any advice for those who aspire to be more like you is appreciated! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions, and you're always welcome in the Reddit community if you ever want to join us

Please vote it up, participate in the discussion, and catch the interview when it goes online!

Successful community funded (marketing) projects?

2010-01-24T17:51:00.003-05:00

I'd like to ask all Ubuntu LoCo's and other GNU/Linux groups what experiences they've had with community-run projects, specifically with marketing projects and especially regarding funding. What are some good examples of successful projects? What advice and tips can you offer? Please post in the comments and/or contribute to the LoCo Fundraising page on the Ubuntu wiki, part of the FOSS Activism Guide.

If you haven't heard enough about it already, the Ubuntu @ Anime Boston effort is coming along well, but it's been difficult to keep momentum and get the donations we need. We're just about two thirds of the way to our minimum target of $2200 which covers our two primary goals of $700 for a booth at the convention and associated costs, and $1500 for printed materials. This is enough to print informational flyers about FOSS, Ubuntu, and the Massachusetts Local Community Team, plus 2000 copies of the Ubunchu Manga. Every additional $300 after we meet our goal will double the number of issues we can print.

€35 ($50) if you package Yo Frankie!

2010-01-23T01:26:00.004-05:00

Yo Frankie, the Blender Foundation's Apricot Open Game Project, is probably the best example so far of FOSS 3D gaming. Nexuiz is up there as well, but Yo Frankie is an important title which shows what can be be done using entirely FOSS tools with limited time and resources when you have a solid development model. It is a testament that Free games and Free content, like the films produced by the Blender Institute's Open Movie Projects, can (and will) succeed!

Sadly, even though Yo Frankie was released during the Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) release cycle back in 2008, it is now over a year later with Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) coming up and Yo Frankie is yet to be packaged for Debian/Ubuntu. COfundOS, which uses the threshold pledge system to create a monetary incentive for a specific task be fulfilled for a Free software project, currently has €35 or $50 waiting for whoever is willing to package this software! Isn't anybody up to the task?

Download Disobedience, pro-piracy campaign

2010-01-19T03:55:00.004-05:00

We're all pirates. The situation is similar to that of marijuana use, but even worse. Not everyone smokes pot (i personally don't), and policy reform seems to finally be coming along now. Piracy on the other hand, is something hardly anyone isn't "guilty" of, including anti-piracy and copyright advocacy groups, yet public awareness isn't rising and it seems nothing is being done about it.

I would like to announce the Download Disobedience campaign which aims to raise awareness of the misinformation concerning piracy, dispel myths, and spread the truth about copyright and other forms of intellectual property by and while encouraging the act of piracy as a civil disobedience. I've chosen to host the project on the infoAnarchy wiki which was co-founded by Erik Möller, Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

There are currently two ways to get involved with the campaign. Firstly, i have created a couple of flyers that can be distributed in the real world. One is a general handout which provides lots of information about piracy and debunks many myths surrounding it all in bullet form. The other is targeted towards US universities and reads as a letter to school administration while meant for circulation by students. It contains some of the information from the first flyer and tells students to download as a civil disobedience. I also used a comic along with some action ideas for a page which can be used as the back side of either flyer. I hope some artist will come along and "steal" them to pretty them up! Please print them out and hit the streets.

Secondly, you can make your opinion known and raise awareness of the issue by singing Happy Birthday against copyright. Time Warner claims to own the copyright to "Happy Birthday" so it is actually illegal to sing it in public unless royalties are paid. Post recordings of yourself singing the happy birthday song to YouTube and other social media sites as a protest against copyright insanity. Here's mine:

Sex in the Pink

2010-01-19T03:54:00.005-05:00

I'm starting a new BayWords blog, Sex in the Pink: Healthy thoughts on fucking. I do not recommend subscribing if you do not want to learn, beyond just textually, very intimate aspects of myself and others, but if you are a fellow sex-positive who has seen how insane our faux-abstinent, sexting-enraged, pedophile-hunting, child-arresting society has become, please follow along and send me a message if you have anything you'd like to contribute!

On a somewhat related note, i created a this graphic representing "love outside the box" to be used for polyamory, non-monogamy, and LQBTQ. The image is a line beginning as a box representing heteronormativity which continues outwards to form a classic symbol of love. I created this primarily for polyamory as i noticed most of their symbols weren't very elegant. Already, it looks like it won't be needed as the purple mobius by Joreth InnKeeper makes for a much better symbol (but someone needs to vectorize it). My image may be interpreted to put heteronormativity at the heart of love, which was obviously not my intention. It still wouldn't look too bad on t-shirts.

YouTube 2.0 needs your input!

2010-01-12T15:59:00.008-05:00

YouTube hasn't changed much since it was first acquired by Google in 2006, but YouTube 2.0 might finally be arriving as according to their blog, "spring cleaning" is coming early for them. Funny how this announcement comes shortly after they revised the terms of the On2 merger. They're opening up for ideas and i hope you'll take the time to vote (requires Google Account login) for HTML5 support with open formats as well as ending the one-channel-per-user paradigm. The blog post seems to be focusing on just fixing what's broken, but i hope to see a lot more from them. I can sense a subtle hinting towards greater changes, so this could very well be an exciting development!

Update: Wow, HTML5 with Free formats immediately jumped to the #1 spot and has maintained twice as many votes as the next-highest item! It currently has 584 votes.

Update: Holy crap! Not only is my submission still in first with over 5100 votes, but others have submitted similar suggestions as well and HTML5 is completely dominating the vote with 9 out of the top 10 ideas! I wonder if this can make it to Slashdot too... my submission.

Update: Google is going to seriously hate me if they weren't already planning on implementing HTML5 with Free and Open formats. I made Slashdot, and my idea now has over 11500 votes!

Update: WE DID IT!!! We've gotten an official response from Google, as pointed out by MrMcQ2u in the comments:

"We've heard a lot of feedback around supporting HTML5 and are working hard to meet your request, so stay tuned. We'll be following up when we have more information. We're answering this idea now because there are so many similar HTML5 ideas and we want to give other ideas a chance to be seen." That response was from mia on the youtube team.. Seems like they have closed that request so that other non html 5 requests have a chance to be seen :D I think this deserves an update to the blog :D

End Institutionalized Corruption FIRST

2010-01-05T20:56:00.002-05:00

The hugely popular YouTube vlogger known as TheAmazingAtheist recently held a few auctions on eBay to raise money for his Free Speech Vids project. Similar to The Video Bay, it aims to showcase videos too dangerous for the family(and DMCA)-friendly YouTube. For $102.50, i won this auction:

The Amazing Atheist is auctioning off his autoplaying featured video to the highest bidder. Got a great video that you want to get thousands of legitimate views? Here is your answer. Videos featured on my playlist often get upwards of 10k views a week. Two weeks featured on my channel could get your video seen 20,000 times!

My video, titled "End Institutionalized Corruption FIRST", should be up for at least a week although the description suggests two. Either way, i'm very happy to win this spot and contribute to FSV, so thanks TJ. Watch the video and let me know what you think, and please rate, favorite, pass it on, whatever! Subscribe to my channel =]

Lojban featured on BBC Radio 4's "Word of Mouth"!

2010-01-05T16:45:00.003-05:00

Today's segment was on artificial or constructed languages. It was very refreshing that they did not give the entire show to Esperanto and actually spent a fair bit speaking with Colin Fine about lojban, the best invented language as we here know. Follow the link to have a listen!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pkbh9
Lojban starts at 9:49

Liveblogging the Nexus One (Google Phone) Press Conference!

2010-01-05T12:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Philipp of Blogoscoped for sharing access to the private webstream of the press conference with a few of us! For those of you who find it more convenient to follow on Identica or Twitter, you can follow me there, thanks.

My college essay on the problems with school

2010-01-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

My gap year has been going well, but i've decided to apply to school at Hampshire College. Here's the essay i sent in. Let me know what you think and feel free to tear it apart =]

Thoughts on school

I'm not sure when it happened; perhaps it was a gradual transition. By the time I reached my senior year of high school, I had developed a passionate dislike for my educational experience. While my interest in school declined, my love of learning did not, and I sought education outside the classroom. My feelings are not just some slacker's discontent. They are a burning opposition to the unfair and ineffective education model, a model which has lacked any substantial innovation since its inception in ancient times. Being confronted with the increasing pressure to do what every high school student is expected to do has forced me to be able to articulate and reconcile my thoughts toward modern institutionalized education. I did not let my opposition to this system stop me from applying to college in order to try to improve it and gain what experience I can.

A fundamental problem with this conventional approach to education is concisely summed up in two lines of dialogue from Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.

"Self-taught, are you?" Julian Castle asked Newt.
"Isn't everybody?" Newt inquired.

From my perspective, school often got in the way of its own purpose. Contrary to the popular quote attributed to Mark Twain, I felt unable to keep from letting schooling get in the way of my education. Meaningless letters on pieces of paper were no motivation for me as I watched many students cheat their way through school. In this place, success was determined not by capability or effort, but by willingness and ability to play the game better than everyone else. Students, teachers, and undoubtedly the administration were all aware that the entire system is a game. How can this be a widely accepted reality? Conformity to an unnatural learning environment should not be a primary factor in one's academic success.

I learned much more from pursuing my own interests outside of school than I ever did from sitting in a classroom. Class assignments seemed to be for someone else's approval, rather than for the learning experience. I devoted most of my time instead to projects outside of school. I was able to become more than just a consumer. I became a creator. I contributed countless hours to various projects by writing or creating materials, and maintained a somewhat well-read blog, which even provided me with a small income. The people who I have been able to reach out to, from an executive at a Fortune 500 company to nomadic radical activists, have broadened my perspectives and served as invaluable connections. Outside of school, I motivated myself to work tirelessly, but in school the subjects which would normally interest me were forced upon me.

Nobody should be expected to force themselves to conform to this inadequate schooling system. A system should conform to the needs of those subject to it, not contrariwise. A government should conform to its people, a school to its students, a prison to its prisoners. Otherwise, the system is just a mold producing molds.

I don't claim to know exactly how the ideal school system would be designed, or even if such a thing exists, but I do believe our age-old system fails to fulfill the needs of students. Take grades, for example. Should they be based on quality or perhaps effort? How can they be kept accurate and unbiased? Even more basic than grades is the question of what purpose do schools serve. My own Newton North High School avoids this question in their mission statement with the empty slogan "Learning sustains the human spirit". Should schools be producing skilled workers, good citizens, or freethinking creatives Should the curriculum be broad or narrow? The generally accepted purpose, however vague it may remain, seems to be to prepare pupils for "the future". Yet, in a world which is continuously changing drastically, this seems to be the wrong job for a stagnant institution which has always been stuck, rooted in the past. It may not be possible to find answers to all of these questions, but a solution that answers none of them is not a solution at all. Education needs to be rethought from the ground up, keeping all of these questions in mind in order to effectively reinvent the structure of the system.

Deciding to apply to college has forced me to balance my ideals. When I was a young child, I made a promise to myself and embarked on an ambitious mission. I would better myself in order to better the world. I would strive to have the greatest possible positive impact; from a global level down to every individual I would encounter. I have been torn between rejecting outright a system that propagates an unhealthy reliance on meaningless standards, or taking advantage of the system in order to oppose it. My decision to apply is to keep the opportunity open for me. My desire to attend is not to acquire some degree, but for my own experience in order to fulfill my promise. I can not be confident that I will be accepted, but I can be confident that I will always make the most of my learning opportunities.

On a related note, you may be interested in this TED Talk by Ken Robinson on schools killing creativity.

Ubuntu will be at Anime Boston 2010!

2009-12-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

Many many thanks to everyone who has donated to the Ubuntu @ Anime Boston campaign so far. It hasn't taken us long at all to surpass our first primary target of $700 and guarantee the Ubuntu Massachusetts LoCo Team's presence at the event. We have officially secured a booth from which we can showcase and promote Free and Open Source software to thousands of convention goers! This would not be possible without your generous support, so thank you all again; your contributions are invaluable to us.

Now that we will be attending, we need printed materials to distribute. Our next primary goal is for an additional $1500 to have copies of the Ubunchu Manga to give out. After we reach this milestone, we can get a lot more for a lot less. Community marketing events of this size are a rare opportunity, so lets make the very best of it! We welcome ideas and feedback in the comments or by email.

Please donate here:
http://www.ubuntu-massachusetts.com/events/9/

How far will they go to kill the internet?

2009-12-24T15:45:00.001-05:00

Mainstream media feeds information to the masses and opposes independent voices over democratic-- no, dare i say it-- anarchic mediums. Copyright crusaders want to take our rights to share and sell them back to us. Think tank, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, says that the future will be free, belonging to what they call, an "anarconomy". Such a future has great potential, and already the internet has peacefully risen as a parallel anarchic society which profoundly impacts the real world. But how far will the powers that be go to stop it? More importantly, how can we fight back?

On one front, they erected the debate, if you can call it that, over network neutrality, a straw man designed to make us believe that bandwidth caps will eventually be necessary in order to restrict video streaming online and keep cable television a monopoly. They also call us pirates and claim that copied digital content is actually stolen ~~intellectual~~ imaginary property. If you thought the prospect of losing network neutrality was frightening, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is far, far scarier. So long as the internet exists, we will find ways to share; and when it comes down to darknets, they will try to legislate the internet to make it "controlled by and for big business, which can only be accessed by those willing to pay”. Even if we win on all of those fronts, they may have other tricks up their sleeve. They are still the keymasters and the gatekeepers, after all. This is entirely speculation, but without a necessary upgrade from IPv4 to IPv6 which they refuse to support, the internet may very well break down in just a couple of years. Where else could they be waging battles against the internet shaded from sunlight (said to be the best disinfectant)?

It's time to ditch cable TV. It's outdated and the internet can supply everything cable can, and do it better. Why pay pay for cable and internet when you can get everything you need online? Money talks; make a one-time investment in a home theater PC, and kick your cable box to the curb. You can build your own HTPC, that is, if you're savvy enough or, purchase one just as you would a normal computer. I personally recommend the Neuros LINK TVPC as it runs Ubuntu and supports Free and Open Source technology. The first Neuros LINK was Slashdotted three times and sold out pretty quickly, but the new ones are out. In time for the holiday season too, but of course i didn't get to posting this until Christmas Eve. Also, i have to mention the beautiful Boxee Box by D-Link, but the Boxee media center software is not entirely FOSS. The project is a fork from XBMC and uses proprietary additions.

Of course, there's more to do than just cancelling your cable subscription, but it's the first step. Really, if you give the slightest damn about these issues, why are you still giving them money for this?

New Anime Boston event page and thanks to Ad Bard!

2009-12-12T22:18:00.006-05:00

I just put together a complete event page on the Ubuntu Massachusetts website with event details, our motivations, and ways to contribute. Check it out and let us know what you think: http://ubuntu-massachusetts.com/events/9/

With this, we ask that anybody hosting a button please change the linked address to our new event page and if you aren't already hosting the button, please use the code below!

We would like to thank Tag1 Consulting, the people behind the Ad Bard network, for donating a $250 advertisement to be displayed on all Ad Bard member websites for a month! I just added an Ad Bard snippet to this blog and i encourage others to join the network as well.

What might we see in YouTube 2.0?

2009-12-07T00:04:00.003-05:00

Is a new YouTube on the way? If so, what changes can we expect, and is there a need for a total overhaul? What motivation does Google have to completely redesign the popular video sharing site, and what evidence is there that this will really happen?

So what is wrong with YouTube? It's still the predominant video hosting and sharing website in the world, and competition hasn't stopped it from growing. Well, let's take MySpace for example: it still has plenty of users, but we know it's just a behemoth stuck in the past that will never be able to catch up with Facebook (though that's not to say Facebook can't soon be replaced). So why hasn't YouTube been overtaken in popularity, or even lost any significant ground to competitors? In a word, Google. YouTube has more resources at their disposal than anybody else and, on top of that, they have an enormous community that's instrumental to its success.

Just because YouTube is still on top, doesn't mean that everyone is happy or that the way things are currently being run is sustainable. Innovative competitors like The Video Bay have sprung up in response to users demanding the use of HTML 5 and/or raging over suspensions due to mass-flagging, ridiculous copyright enforcement, and unfair accusations of violating the community guidelines.

Many users, even many very popular ones, proclaim that YouTube is dying, but it's just in a very long transition period. Since Google acquired the company, i suspect YouTube has mainly been maintained and operated separate from the rest of Google as the site still looks more like it did pre-aquisition than it looks like a pure Google project. This is completely reasonable. For one thing, users hate change, even if it ends up growing on them after the fact (see Facebook and the new YouTube channel layout). Also, the site is so large and holds such a high volume of data that simply maintaining the site as it's been growing as fast as it has is surely a challenging project as it is: it isn't uncommon for YouTube to display a banner in light green about undergoing routine maintenance or even completely shutting down briefly on occasion with a similar message. "A lot" doesn't even begin to describe the amount of work cleaning out and rebuilding YouTube's infrastructure needed to make things "Googley", but that doesn't mean there isn't much being done behind the scenes.

Google is all about speed, efficiency, and usefulness. While it may be a huge undertaking, reconstructing the underlying framework behind YouTube has a huge long-term benefit to these core focuses. So, what might be coming?

HTML5 Open Web Video

New features like 1080p and 3D videos present a greater case for HTML 5 as higher resolution exacerbates the already unreasonably CPU intensive Adobe Flash player and 3D playback could much better be done using the many capabilities of HTML 5. Google is already supportive of the new HTML 5 open web video standard and has a demo in TestTube. Many, myself included, have been pushing for this to happen with the Free (not patent-encumbered) formats, Ogg Theora and Vorbis and have embarked upon endless debates that in the end are a complete waste of time. Google's currently pending acquisition of On2 Technologies, which incidentally created the VP3 codec which Theora is derived from, opens up the possibility of something much, much better. The new expectation is that Google will open up On2's codecs which are higher in quality than the H.264 standard, and use that with HTML5. Can you really imagine Google keeping them closed and making money off of royalties?

Invite-Only Beta

Orkut is the only major service offered by Google that is not just sub-par but downright shameful for them, showing no foresight or direction and holding no real promise-- until recently, that is. The new version of Orkut will pave the way for real improvements. While by no means is it a solid final product, especially by the standards to which we hold Google, it is a major improvement and the first shift toward a solid platform that they can really begin to expand on. Now YouTube has taken Orkut's place as the least Googley-looking service and putting aside the task of actually fixing it, getting users to warm up to change is damn near impossible. Google already has a way around this though, and you should be quite familiar with it. Their well-known tactic of making new services invite-only to make upscaling easier has the added benefit of dramatically altering users' perception of the service. Instead of approaching with fear and anxiety, the exclusivity of invitations produces an excitement and curiosity toward the product. This open mind is essential to get the vast majority of users to appreciate a new service-- otherwise, users who are currently ignorantly content would riot over any major change.

New Look

With a complete overhaul in order, a brand new look would be the most obvious thing you'd notice upon visiting the revamped site. While YouTube has cleaned up fairly well, it still hasn't reached a level of beauty expected of Google. Compared to other Google services, YouTube is ugly, cluttered, and disorganized. We should expect that YouTube's many features be balanced by a clean interface. The colors, while in line with the brand image, are not clean and basic; use of space is very very very inefficient; and things like "Featured videos" (not to be confused with promoted/sponsored videos) should not exist. Google's way of doing things is automated using algorithms, not by hand-picking content to showcase.

In a possibly related experiment, TestTube has a new "Feather" beta which aims to serve YouTube video watch pages with the lowest latency possible by severely limiting the features available to the viewer and using techniques to reduce the total amount of bytes downloaded by the browser. A new video player would be sleeker and do away with all of the loading problems that users frequently encounter: slow loading times, buffering getting stuck, not being able to seek to an exact point in a video, etc. A new look should also solve the problem of increasingly obtrusive advertising and find a satisfying balance to provide a much better user experience. Not too long ago there was a press conference scheduled and cancelled where YouTube was supposed to unveil its new look, but Google claims it was merely a miscommunication.

Multiple channels per user

Channels and users should be entirely separate things, especially now that YouTube uses Google Accounts. One should be able to have multiple channels and channels should support multiple admins. I should not need a new account if i want to create another channel for a different focus. What if Blogger only allowed one blog per user? This can already be seen changing through YouTube Groups. Groups are actually channels and you cannot have a group with the same identifier as a channel because it is a channel. This is the beginning of channels having multiple uploaders and permissions management. Of course, this functionality is pretty shabby right now, but things are moving in the right direction.

Personal Video Storage

Personal video storage has not been a focus of YouTube so far, but Google wants you to move your data to the cloud, so you can bet it will be. Cosmo, previously Google Web Drive (GDrive), originally codenamed "Platypus", as discovered in a leaked document, will become part of Google Docs. Icons have already been found for videos and Google Video closed off uploads long ago. Videos currently hosted on Google Video will likely be moved, and other Google hosted videos that use the Google Video player like Picasa Web Albums, for example, will likely be put in a new YouTube player. With changes like this happening, a complete re-branding including a change of name isn't completely out of the question.

Live Streaming

Currently, TestTube has "streams", but that's just real-time sharing of YouTube videos which lets you chat with other users in the room. YouTubers are still forced to use other sites for live video broadcasts. YouTube has experimented with streaming events live starting in late 2008 so it's safe to assume they've been working on adding this capability for some time.

AdSense for Everyone

Most people that apply to for the YouTube Partner Program get an email which open up with this: "Thank you for your interest in the YouTube Partner Program. Our goal is to extend invitations to as many partners as we can. Unfortunately we are unable to accept your application at this time. The current level of viewership of your account has not met our threshold for acceptance." If YouTube really wanted to extend this program to as many partners as possible, why is there even a viewership threshold? Anybody eligible for an AdSense account should be able to make money off of ads displayed with their videos. It's mutually beneficial. YouTube must do away with its partner program as it exists today.

More Mainstream Media, Less Copyright Craziness

Google will work hard to get major content companies to put their videos on YouTube and make money off of them. Once this happens, there will be less reason to attack users for uploading copyrighted content since users are more likely to get it from the source anyways. Then, Google could also lift the painfully restrictive 10 minute length limit for videos which is said to have been put in place to hinder copyrighted uploads. In addition, it should be easy for users to specify their copyright and license videos with copyleft licenses such as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-BY-SA), Creative Commons Zero (CC0)-- which is a "stronger" Public Domain dedication that functions internationally--, GNU FDL, Artists License, Kopimi, etc. Picasa Web Albums already supports Creative Commons licensing.

Downloads

It should be made much easier to download videos with permission of the uploader. With better codecs used for HTML 5 and Free Content licenses, it would just be silly not to make downloading videos easy. Just like The Internet Archive, users should be able to download the original file and anything YouTube transcodes it into.

Small but Significant Changes

I imagine that few, if any aspects of the site would be spared from replacement, at least not without significant reworking. Some small but significant changes might include, but are not limited to:

View count and ratings should update immediately and users whould be able to change the rating they've given a video.
The rating system is inherently flawed and might disappear completely to be replaced with a "like" button, as expressing approval is all it's used for anyways.
Comments are stupid and should require a capcha for repeat and short posts (filtered to a similar effect as of ROBOT9000) as well as allowing URLs with a capcha
Better search options, perhaps using Google Video search and searchable inboxes
Instead of importing contacts from Gmail, YouTube should be using Google Contacts

When?

I'm sure you're itching find out how much of this will materialize or not, but there's really no telling how soon we'll see. A YouTube help article says that they will only allow logins using Google Account passwords, May 2009, but i can still sign in using my YouTube account and password. Perhaps this outdated article indicates that the new YouTube is behind schedule, and we could see it any day now, whenever it's ready.

Ubunchu! on BBC Radio and other exciting news

2009-12-01T14:34:00.001-05:00

First i'd like to say that anyone who wants to follow this blog only for updates on the Ubuntu at Anime Boston campaign can filter out all of the unrelated posts by subscribing to the "Ubuntu" tag.

Our local team leader, Martin Owens, was just interviewed by BBC Radio Live’s Pods and Blogs show where he talked about Ubuntu, the Ubunchu manga, and the up and coming Anime Boston event.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/pods/pods_20091201-0330a.mp3

In other exciting news:

We've been slashdotted!
There is a new website for Ubunchu at http://www.ubunchu.net/
Chapter 3 of Ubunchu has been released in Japanese and the translating, transcribing, and editing process has begun
We are on track to surpass our initial fundraising goal thanks to many generous donors
We have at least one hardware supplier to provide us with demo machines at the event

I'll post updates for more details on these developments and more!

A real reason to hate The Friend Zone

2009-11-30T01:39:00.004-05:00

You know, besides it being generally sucky for whoever's stuck in it. A friend of mine who shall remain anonymous wrote this and i'm sharing it not because i agree wholeheartedly with it, but because although i am familiar with the concept of The Friend Zone, just as i'm sure all of you are as well, i'd never considered this before. My friend would like to note that this was written from discussions with their female friends, not experience or large, detailed research. I'm reminded of a somewhat-related XKCD.

TL;DR: Skip to the last paragraph.

Guest writers and anonymous contributions are always welcome! Please feel free to contact me if you have something you'd like to share here.

Although I knew this in the past, it was truly solidified for me today. While I have long heard of "The Friend Zone," a proverbial place a man finds himself in after befriending a lady, I did not truly believe that real, decent womenfolk participated in this kind of -- friendly castration. Essentially, it works like this. You are a nice guy, perhaps a bit low on confidence, and you meet someone. A girl, in fact. She's quite pretty, but you didn't notice that -- the first thing you truly noticed about her was that she was talking about XKCD. Math. Your favorite band. Really, whatever floats your boat. Love at first... overheard conversation? Yes. Anyhow, you summon up your courage and approach her. You understand her. She understands you. Before long, you're confiding in each other, letting each other in on your deepest secrets... you realize that whenever you think about her, your heart skips a beat... you go out of your way to run into her... and when you look into your heart, you realize that truly, this must be love.

The problem here is that by waiting long enough after meeting her to truly fall in love with her... you have sealed your fate. By initiating your interaction with the thought of friendship rather than the subtext of seduction, you've forever locked yourself in a part of her heart known as... the Friend Zone. The Friend Zone is a place that is all well and good, if you really just want to be friends. However, once in, you can't back out. The closer you become to her, paradoxically, the less room you have to maneuver the relationship into something Bigger.

Recently, after having a philosophical conversation with a certain female confidante who I believed to be, well, rather sane, I discovered that she too suffers from this strange disorder. I started realizing that every female friend I had was one less fish in the sea -- one more person I could never hope to date. By being the man that I am, I've found myself the subject of the adoration of many people I might, at some point, be interested in dating. But, alas, this adoration is the wrong kind... I have become, perhaps not "just" a friend, as that would dilute the value of friendship, but, well, solely a friend. No longer am I a "man," possessed of the equipment and accessories that make me a suitable suitor, but some sort of psychological eunuch. A creature not quite capable of sex. Not a man, but a sexless companion.

I truly do not understand how the female mind can possibly justify this. It encourages the kind of behavior that women claim to despise -- approaching them with the intent to get to know them better, but only in the biblical sense. If a man truly wants to get to know a woman for who she is -- there is no chance for him. He shall be a Friend, nothing more. If in the course of friendship, he realizes that he has met someone he finds truly special, it's too late. The very fact that he's discovered who she is, at her core, makes him unsuitable. In my experience, getting to discover a personality can only make me feel more strongly -- however, in the fairer sex, this process works backwards. It goes beyond rational desire to maintain a friendship without complications. If it were only that, the feelings would still be there. But it is beyond that -- not only is there no logical desire for a relationship, there is no capacity for romantic love when companionate love already exists. The sum is not commutative -- in order for a man to be successful, he has to enter a situation first with his penis, then with his heart.

What. The. Fuck?

Can Ubuntu reach over 16,000 anime lovers in April?

2009-11-23T17:55:00.015-05:00

Can Ubuntu reach over 16,000 anime lovers in April? Of course it can, with the support of the rapidly expanding super mega-awesome community (that's you all)!

PRESS RELEASE

Anime Boston returns for 2010 on April 2-4 and the Ubuntu Massachusetts Local Community Team has some ambitious plans. Last year, I went in on behalf of the team and dropped off 50 copies of the Ubunchu Manga with Jaunty CDs attached, and they were all gone within the first couple of hours of the first day of the convention. It seemed to be the only thing on the flyer table that people actually wanted! The event was amazing. There were people there from all over the country, even across the world. Over 15,000 people attended and that number has risen from little over 4,000 since the first convention in 2003. For 2010, we're going to be reaching out to this huge potential user base. While we're at it, we'll also be creating a new model for Linux groups to raise funds for projects without the having to go through registering as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or being legally recognized in any way.

Ubuntu really is a perfect candidate for the new operating system of choice for all anime lovers, and that is exactly what we aim to make it. Is there a more passionate and tight-knit, yet diverse and open minded cultural phenomenon that we could target than the widespread anime fandom? Convention goers are a great target audience. They tend to be slightly on the geeky side but still cool of course and very receptive to Ubuntu. An OS that is beautiful yet still highly customizable, Free and Open Source with a supportive enthusiastic community that very much mirrors their own couldn't be a better match! With the right planning along with support from the community and maybe a couple of the big dogs, our goals are very attainable.

So, what exactly will we be doing? We can approach this on several levels, starting with setting up a booth in the Dealers' Room of the convention. From here, we can distribute free copies of the Ubunchu Manga, Ubuntu LiveCDs, and materials on FOSS, Ubuntu, and our team. Most importantly, we'll be out there talking and connecting with people and generally just making a big impression on them. We will also offer live installs and do some cool demonstrations, the basic stuff that should be expected. If we gain enough resources, another great opportunity is distributing our materials in the Anime Boston registration bags. This would put our materials in the hands of almost every single convention attendee. That's expected to be over 16,000 people!

It's important that we are smart about how we spread Ubuntu since buying a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed is the most effective way to get people to switch. We are hoping companies who are committed to FOSS and GNU/Linux will be willing to partner with us for the event. We have already contacted some manufacturers such as System76 and ZaReason and would happy to hear from any others. With additional funding we may be able to sell Ubuntu merchandise like bootable USB drives and display some machines from our partner(s) with anime themes (some good wallpapers from here and here). If possible, we'd like to auction or raffle off a customized laptop with anime themes and an Anime Boston design laser-etched into it. How cool would that be!

I might also be signing up for a tech staff or volunteer position at the event so I can be an inside man solving problems and being a computer hero all the while spreading Ubuntu to everyone running the convention. If you thinks you might be interested in doing this, you're encouraged to apply at the Anime Boston website. During one of the main events at the 2009 convention, I remember hearing Windows error sounds!

On top of all of this, we have a digital camcorder which will capture everything every step of the way. The video camera records in full HD and everything (Sony HDR-XR520V if you're curious). So not only would we have an immediate impact on everyone at the convention, but we can extend our reach to YouTube and continue to have a lasting impact long after the convention closes its doors for the year.

As mentioned before, we will be setting a precedent with this project. To the best of our knowledge this has never been done before or at the very least not on this scale. Thanks to Linux Fund, we will be able to accept tax-deductible donations to cover the costs of this event. Linux Fund is currently in the process of setting up a system that will allow them to provide this service to other FOSS community groups at a competitive rate. Such a valuable resource has not been readily available to unincorporated FOSS groups in the past. This is a real game-changer: the possibilities are endless. This relationship reflects the growing trend of FOSS groups building relationships with the nonprofit community. Once this infrastructure has been implemented, we can expect to see many more projects of this magnitude and greater spring up.

This is where all of you, the community, come in. We cannot depend so much on big sponsors to jump on board just yet, so we are going to start with a community fundraiser to raise money for the essential elements of our campaign and show our potential sponsors that this is a worthwhile endeavor. The most important element of this campaign is our physical presence at the Anime Boston conventions so our first fundraising goal will be $700; that's just 70 people willing to give ten dollars! Help us blow this goal out of the water so that we can move on to the good stuff. Please repost this everywhere you can: (micro)blogs, YouTube, etc. Also pitch us your ideas in the comments of this post and please subscribe to keep up with our fundraising. Thank you all!

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For more donation options, please visit our project page at Linux Fund:

http://linuxfund.org/projects/ubuntu/

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Link to this blog post: <a href='http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/11/can-ubuntu-reach-over-16000-anime.html'><img src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PtyHEChBKZw/Swoc8F21TGI/AAAAAAAAd3k/jbx3yTEdDDc/s1600/ubunchu-animebostonbutton.png' alt='Ubuntu Anime Boston Button' border='0' /></a>	Link to Linux Fund project page: <a href='http://linuxfund.org/projects/ubuntu/'><img src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PtyHEChBKZw/Swoc8F21TGI/AAAAAAAAd3k/jbx3yTEdDDc/s1600/ubunchu-animebostonbutton.png' alt='Ubuntu Anime Boston Button' border='0' /></a>

No Flyers Go Farther

2009-11-19T05:09:00.000-05:00

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yamNKwoYvps

From my YouTube channel (please subscribe!): http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSilentNumber

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU— the system.

2009-11-18T04:50:00.000-05:00