Tucker's Tuesday Technology Tidbits and Tertiary Trolling

er, did I leave the sink running ? perhaps I should go back and check

2009-06-25T15:44:29-04:00

I have been busy, busy with my Crestron Social Media duties with 3 tradeshows falling back to back to back.

Fear not I have several posts near completion and will update this week

you can always find me in the persona of http://twitter.com/CrestronHQ and http://twitter.com/tuckertues

Station X (or why Math is equal to guns in war)- Memorial Day

2009-05-25T01:14:38-04:00

Why did the allies win? For a good deal of WWII the allies were on their heels, fortress Europe appeared to be lost. A good many fine men and women gave the ultimate sacrifice, meeting their end by a bullet. The bravery and ultimate good of these soldiers in defeating the German and Japanese threat is well know and unquestioned. What many people do not realize is just how important the code breakers of Bletchley Park were to the success of the allied effort.

Bletchley Park and its main mathematician-Alan Turning- figured out methods to decode the NaziEnigma machine and later other high level Nazi and Japanese codes. Early on the codes were decoded by the brute force method of hundreds of ‘decoders’ working of every possible variation. While this worked it was hardly ‘real time’ and the information could be irrelevant by the time it was fully decoded. The site received thousands of coded messages a day. Imagine trying to find what was important and what was old news!

Alan Turning designed a machine to decode the messages in ¼ the time. Bombe was something of a difference engine- only its purpose was the salvation of the world.

President Obama has asked (we Americans anyway) to thank a soldier, I have done so at today’s Hastings on the Hudson memorial day parade, I also plan on a moment of silence for the code breakers of Bletchley Park- for without them it would be uber alles baby, uber alles.

Be in my broadcast when this is over

2009-05-17T00:03:51-04:00

Paul Sidney died a few weeks ago, in all likelihood you have never heard of him but if you are in anyway involved in community building, you need know about him. Paul Sidney ran and was the voice of WLNG radio out of Sag Harbor Long Island. WLNG is local as local radio can get..The station is a throwback to late 50’s style of operation where announcers add echo and heavy bottom EQ to their voices and the News is local, local and local. Growing up in the Hamptons of Long Island it was it was impossible to not be influenced by the sound and programming of WLNG as it was everywhere and literally at every event.

You can read his obituary here, it tells the tale of his coming over to WLNG, becoming its driving force and cult of personality. What it will not tell you is just how deeply he ingratiated himself and the radio station into the very fabric of the lives of those who listened to ‘LNG and even those who did not. The comments section of the article will do that well enough.

In addition to music and local news WLNG features live call in shows such as swap n shop-where people call in to trade a 1940’s fly wheel for a couch or someone looking to buy or swap for a full set of tools and toolbox. While at times it can be nap inducing it also is a window into people’s lives, needs and character. Paul would not just help the caller to describe what they wanted to trade or relive themselves of but also would check on their status – he engaged them in conversation about the news of their neighborhood. It was not radio it was community.

The radio station was among the first to have merchants record their own commercials, clearly not professional actors but direct and personal. The ads could be grating and awkward but then so were all the rest and yes, it was the person who owned the store. The ads always left you feeling – ‘that’s Jim’s place, I should stop by and see how the place is doing.

Having the mission to be local as local radio gets WLNG and Paul would travel to every possible event occurring on the east end of Long Island eventually using two fully equipped remote trucks . The remotes were Mr. Sidney’s glory and crowning achievement. These oversized airstream RV’s were literarily at every store opening, town parade, fund raiser and carnival. The draw an ‘LNG remote could –(and still does I am told)- muster was phenomenal. It was not an event of note if the remote trucks were missing. Paul knew how to work a crowd, how to detail enough to give listeners a good picture, keep them listening AND to come to the event.

In my mid to late teens I developed an overly impressive angst about my surroundings and began a lifelong quest to find new, interesting and thought provoking music and media. This local radio station was the epitome of all I wanted to get away from. In my rush to find something else, the remarkableness of Paul Sidney and WLNG was ignored. As a young person, grappling with defining a personal identity, you grew to loathe when parents put WLNG on, pronouncing it one of the seven signs of local lameness. Yet hearing the station was always comfortable, like going to the carnival with your younger brother- you would rather go alone, check out the girls and hang with friends. But he’s your brother and its okay.

I left for NYC and its heady world of aggregating cultures and slick production values leaving the ‘farm report’ station behind me. Imagine my shock when I attended an NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow and one of the first things I see upon stepping on to the exhibit floor is Paul surrounded by a flock of people. I nearly retained my youthful arrogance and rushed by thinking ‘what’s this goat doing here, intruding on my sanctuary? Instead I stopped to see just what everyone was doing around Paul Sidney. The questions were eager often hyperactive, asking just how such a small station could grab such large shares in the face of the conglomerates and city backed stations. Paul Sidney’s answers stuck me and started to chip away at my preconceived notions.

My thoughts wandered back to WLNG and Mr. Sidney as I started to get involved in hosting bulletin boards on BBS, AOL and later a few web communities in the early to mid 90s. It always struck me that group chat rooms were, in effect, community halls- only broadcast. Many compared and still compare them to the days of CB radio popularity, complete with the snide disregard for the value of conversations it generated. The online community often overtly revels in the fact that they are community, ideas are shared and bonds forged. More often than not individuals or groups talk just to hear themselves but in the end fundamental value is created– community radio. Social media now is, in part, the largest community radio project only the community is not a location but global and based on common interest.

Next time you tweet an event, start a rolling discussion on FriendFreed or post ‘real-time’ photos to facebook, remember that you are utilizing a form once dominated by people who used radio to build and keep communities talking. We owe our current mass media social networking to men like Paul Sidney, they may not have fully understood the import and impact , they provided the framework for it to be successful.

Paul Sidney’s Über local radio is the model social media should pay attention to, all media is local, regardless of the physical location of the community. Those of us who take forward positions in the creation and application of social media groups need to remember the passion, investment and yes, love of the community Mr. Sidney exhibited. I for one will miss his voice and although I rarely venture back to the Hamptons he and WLNG will always be the sound of The sound in my head.

Confessions of a lightfair virgin

2009-05-12T16:46:30-04:00

Lightfair was 09 was held at the Jacob Javits Center and with Crestron showing I had and opportunity to attend and get a good overview of the lighting industry.

For the uninitiated Lightfair is a trade show where the main manufactures and suppliers of everything from ballasts to building management systems show off their fixtures, tools and systems.

While I consider myself a veteran of over 1000 tradeshows as both presenter and (for the majority) as a behind the scenes technician, Lightfair was illuminating to me. (Sorry, I just could not resist). As I have just begun my tenure in the new position of marketing writer, specifically in support of the lighting division, the show was a good place to acquire marketing material and an education on products and technologies similar to ours. I also reveled in the general easy tenor of the show; it was a simple task to get around, lacking the press of bodies moving you in directions unintended. Tradeshows like Infocomm, where the attendees are literally banging at the doors to get in each morning, the pathways can be like a roiling stream of class 4 rapids. This “benefit” was certainly a worry for the Lightfair sponsors who sent out missives to proclaim 20K registered attendees and the exhibitors could be overheard worrying that they overstaffed their booths. Day 2 on the other hand was much more to the hopes of the sponsors.

Both days I attended it was decent enough out to walk from Grand Central to the Javits, as I used to work on 45th and 11th for a number of years the walk was a bit of nostalgia. Since I started working in New Jersey and therefore becoming a driving commuter I rarely get to the city and when I do it is to bring the kids to a museum. I evidently no longer have the native Manhattanite walking pace of my days living on the east side –( I skated everywhere anyway back then). The slower pace was, at first, disconcerting but I found it gave me the opportunity to walk with my head facing forward not down –(in the bull mode). In addition to noticing the changes my old work neighborhoods had undergone my NYC-sense started to come back and I could start to identify who was Javits bound. It did not hurt that many had on what I call the tradeshow targets on, those access badges that so many people seem to want to wear outside an event. In many of the sections of the city directly adjacent to the convention center these badges say one thing- ‘target’.

When the Democratic National Convention came to town in the 90’s I spotted a 20 something woman at the intersection of 42 and 7th looking very confused and harried. In addition to the large parcel she was struggling to keep hold of and the 4 inch heels she had a large convention badge with her name, home town and the word DELEGATE. Around the time of the DNC Times Square was in transition with the seedy side still being pushed out and it was very irritated by the Disneyfication of the area. Angry wolves were still trolling the late dusk afternoons despite the heavy police presence. Typical New Yorker I rushed past her making it a full half block (cross town) before my brain registered what I saw and how bad it could go. I doubled back to her let her know that the cabs with three lights lit on the top were off duty and being 3:30 it was shift transfer time-(90% of the cabs were heading back to the garage). I hailed an available cab and got her inside, offered her my business card, and informed her that the heels and event badge was not a good combo. Julie – her name- looked at me wide eyed as I leaned into the driver’s window addressing him by the name on the license-(back then they were mounted in the front passenger side) telling him how to take Julie to her destination. I corresponded with Julie for a few months after and she shared some stories of her associates being bothered during the event but once they removed the badges whilst walking the harassment was reduced.

I relate this tale to mark

1. Just how much the city has changed, most people walk around in a manner that would have made me cringe, scream and consider taking up a life of crime.

2. The New New York has reduced the potential for petty crimes and thus more people walk around broadcasting their participation and destination. Because of this it was quite evident that Wednesday had far more people attending Lightfair. My zigzag path allowed me to see that the mass of humanity was not just random but was migrating toward a common destination. By 11 am the exhibitors had the mixed expression of happy relief and harried eyes at the preoccupation of talking to multiple people at once.

It is also of note just how many of the attendees and exhibitors were on twitter giving updates on attendance, products, release announcements and general observations. Everyone noted the enormous number of LED products being shown and the declarations that the revolution had arrived. The Department of Energy, one of the main proponents pushing LED adaptation, had a booth in the back where they held hourly seminars on everything from ‘LED basics for lighting specifiers’ –(a design guide is anticipated for release in September)- to the DoE testing and certification process. The LED’s were shown as task lights, street lights, general luminaries, in RGB array , as light walls and with white or yellow phosphor coating. There was also what appears to be a ‘PR war’ brewing between the manufacture of traditional incandescent bulbs and the LED people, with tit for tat press releases comparing incandescents to garbage or LEDs as off color and immature technologies.

A good number of the discussions about LED’s centered on CRI, dimming and availability. The CRI, specifically the level of white had many set into two camps, the first stating that the obsession with the white level was much ado about too little and the second group claiming this was task one –(followed closely by the need for dimming).

Phillips made its dominant presence well felt by not having just a booth but something more akin to a city consisting of 9 or 10 interconnected booths. The Phillips people all appeared to be dressed very corporate, the Men in dark grey suits with Phillips stripped blue ties, the women in late 80’s suits with matching blue striped scarves-(both reminded me of stewardesses, er..flight attendants). I call this out as it was in stark contrast to the rest (besides Lutron) of the exhibitors and as there was an accessories show on the floor below, I at first took them to be part of the latter show when I saw them in the lobby.

The show had a sizable section in the back which appeared to be a collective of Chinese manufacturers of everything lighting. The booth was constructed, intentionally – I think, as if part of an open air or Hong Kong alley way market place. A quick click pipe frame covered by an orange tarp created a large rectangular booth which was divided up into smaller square ‘booth-ettes’ where exhibitors had product hung from the frame and on white peg boards in the back. The offerings were your standard low cost products but a few were showing LED lights as well.

Lutron had one of the more stylish booths, built in a similar look and style to a Frank Lloyd Wright home; I think it may have been modeled after the one which resides in the MET. True to its inspiration the booth also had low ceilings, lowest of the show, and it reminded me of a story told in a PBS documentary on FLW. Typical of his work Frank Lloyd Wright made the scale of his homes and furniture to his height (about 5’ 8”) which topped the ceilings off at about 6’ 4”. Mr. Wright had in his employ, so the story goes, an gentleman who was 6’ plus and whenever he would stand up FLW would shout – ‘Sit down Wes, your ruining the scale’. I did indeed witness several taller attendees start in then back out due to the height limitation. I give them an A for concept but a C- on providing accessibility to everyone.

On the Odd side of things there was the Down and Dirty, the booth was an 8’ high chain link fence with graffiti covered lockers which had lighting fixtures in them. I cannot say I understood what this was for or if it was associated with any particular company, but they did serve free beer and hotdogs on the second day! The number of booths offering libation did peak my interest as several offered microbrews on tap and others a selection of California wines. Near the end of day it started to look more like a social mixer than tradeshow, I half expected someone to start rolling out the kegs and hand out red plastic cups at the door.

I also noticed a far greater number of women attendees than at most other technically centric tradeshows I have attended. Is this because there are a good deal more women in the lighting field? I could not find any data to support this but it did appear so over the two days I attended.

All in all the show was a great experience, not nearly as nutty as others but busy just the same. The booths were creative and had great aesthetic about them; it was almost disappointing to walk out into the sun and workaday lighting after being surrounded by all the color and ambient light. Next year I will have a much better attack plan to seek out the booths and players first, and then look for the niche and oddities.

What’s the next show I am attending?

INFOCOMM Orlando baby! If you are planning to attend let me know, we can share ideas and make time to meet up.

Neo Industrial Technorotic Aesthetic Death Trip.

2009-03-02T13:29:30-05:00

Design, the facet of presentation which attracts the eye and stirs thelittle grey cells into action. I have long understood that I have an aesthetic which is somewhat off center with most of those around me. Yet, If I were to invite you to my second life abode the chill would soon settle into a yet unrecognized comfort; like sinking into the plush furniture of proper Victorian drawing room.

I bring this subject up from a find whilst I scrolled through my 300 news feeds in my Google reader, (love google reader), and came across a metal skull lamp in an article in Gizmodo. The writer of the article calls it “..the most terrifying table lamp…”.I call it beautiful. I want it, crave it.
If I could have my druthers I would have a ‘den’ which looked much like the ‘Closer’ video by NIN, this is what I would do if means were no object.

Growing up in Sag Harbor I was fascinated by the Victorian aesthetic and had ample opportunity to explore show homes which reproduced this, but it was too soft, too tranquil. Where, I asked were the drawing rooms of great explorers, whalers, and botanists?-(think about it, in order for someone to see and study a rare plant he would have to travel in harsh accommodations and face death by nature every moment. No rescue by GPS here. Darwin was a tough mother!). Everything had been sanitized by the local historical revisionists.

I left the semi isolated Sag Harbor to shack up with an artsy hipster in downtown NYC and found a world I only previously dreamed I could be part of. The girl and I soon parted but the stamp of what I was introduced to struck home, THIS is where I was supposed to be, this is what I had been searching for.

Concurrently I had just begun to understand and appreciate the Punk and hardcore movement in music when I met Pam and Marc. The Koch’s were uber NYC downtown rock hipsters via Buffalo and close friends with one of the great unknown bands of the early 80s, The Splat Cats. Marc collected the ephemera of kitsch gothic ghoulishness. Their Ludlow street apartment was filled to the brim with records, comic books, videos, pop culture models, books of suspicious origins and early 19th century coffins-the ones with viewing windows on the cover. I still have several of the birthday cards given to me which consisted of heavily gilded photos of a specific coffin or groups of coffins. One birthday I was given the book Wisconsin Death Trip, a book I read nearly as often as I do Cyrano de Bergerac or Foucault's Pendulum. The Koch’s home was not so much an education as a revelation, that central aesthetic which I had been searching now surrounded me each time I entered their home. I was introduced to the art of Joe Coleman, Joel Peter Witkin and innumerable bands of nearly every genre. It was a cross between Maxilla and Mandible and the Rembrant room at the Met.

Around the same time I chanced to meet Robin Ludwig, an artisan for whom the word itself is his being. I met Robin through his daughter when I was in an Aveda show, I had very famous scissor hands cut my, then looong, hair and got a few products and bucks to boot. Robin played gritty guitar, growled when he sang and created works of art out of metal with skilled delicate hands. Watching him work was nearly as intoxicating as the mead wine he brewed in the loft apartment they occupied smack dab in the heart of Chinatown.

This combination of old world craftsmanship and a full involvement of the modern drew me into a local high end audio store to drool over an early 80's retro tube amp placed in the front window, and to be promptly be escorted out by staff – “come back when you have money to spend kid!”. The amp itself was evidently very good but the cost was for the art of the product, it called out and pulled you in with how it played with the light, its warmth and visual shimmer.

While I worked in recording studio and learned the in n’ outs of the main gear I was constantly drawn to theFocusrites, Joe Meek gear and theUREI LA-2A’s . The fascination was not just as moth to flame but a concerted study of the device and the names behind it. The boxes spoke to me, called me in to learn not just about compression or EQ but about the early days of audio and the men who made or inspired these gleaming boxes; I also found out about their inspiration and obsessions.

So, you’ll excuse me as I mount this “…most terrifying…” lamp to a brushed aluminum stand shaped like a gothic fence rail and revel in its lineage of history, artisanal heritage and learning it encapsulates for me.

Same thing we do every night Pinky, Plot to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

2009-02-24T22:17:04-05:00

Every couple of years someone comes up with a daring plan to have one system take over and become the ubiquitous backbone of a market or function. MIDI laid claim to something like this for several years in music and interface automation. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) has continued to fight for complete dominance of the device configuration arena, despite several Bill Gates Blue Screen failuresat live events. IEEE recently announced the formation of working committees to formulate content over CAT 5 standard.

HDMI has announced – (admittedly, this was announced in January but it is still relevant and moving forward) plans to present HDMI not just for content delivery of video and audio but to act as the data backbone as well. It is an interesting attempt to grow the usefulness of HDMI and insure its necessity in any wired home; and, of course, fulfill their plans to take over the world!

The pursuit of one system that does-it-all over a single cable or methodology can be almost spiritual in function, acting as if in recursion, much like the mythical Ouroboros, forming a constant state of eternal return. In such cases the apparent limitation and exclusivity are, in actuality, inspiration to development and open new pathways of innovation.

There is also a danger in allowing a single technology to be the medium for all content. Kevin Kelly recently wrote a fascinating and captivating commentary on the Ted Kaczynski\ Unabomber treatise. In life as well as technology there always exists the danger of over reaching the purpose and function of a topology or medium, winding up like Bellerophon , wandering alone.

At its barest form the concern stems from the debate of centralized vs. distributed control and memory. Is it best to store values in the processor – (centralized) or to store them in individual units being controlled? The arguments on both sides carry a great deal of validity and detriment in application.

In the Case of HDMI, One has to question if it has the data rate room for 1080p Deep Color (which requires a data rate of 6.7Gbps) and full Ethernet data? The better question is just what would have to be given up to accommodate the addition of Ethernet backbone topology? Would CEC have to go away? This would not be such a bad thing as nearly no one actually uses it those who do appear to have only conceived of this as a single source to display concept. I am unclear, and the press releases does not attempt to answer, just what would have to give, (if anything), In order for this to be accomplished.

Given HDMi’s severe limitations on cable distance one would have to presume that some manner of CAT 5 solution or converter will be necessary, especially if it is intended for retrofits. The proposition leaves many who are building HDMI distribution products without an eye towards this latent but present capability suddenly tagged as legacy. For those who designed with an understanding of just what HDMI is, and will be, capable of the world just may be their oyster.

Update: 2-25-09

Ah, the things twitter can show you. This morning I opened up my twitter account ,my http://twitter.com/TuckerTues and not the http://twitter.com/CresrtronHQ , and find an endgadget article on the DiiVa connector which claims

"Forward channel video speeds of 13.6 Gbps provide plenty of room for 1080p and higher resolutions with Deep Color, plus the two-way connection at up to 2.25Gbps that can simultaneously handle multichannel audio, control or other data"

http://tinyurl.com/akh6ep

TouchScreen Esperanto

2009-02-17T09:53:48-05:00

This was originally posted on my Tumblr site: see the video at http://tuckertuesday.tumblr.com/

In my time supporting automation systems I often have had the compliant come back that the interfaces are too daunting, confusing. Such complaints are so common that ICIA published a paper “Dashboard for Control’ to act as a template for interface design. The documents are more ‘like guidelines then actual rules..” as Barbossa would say. My current interface uses the System Builder template which as Dashboard concepts built right in.

Still I get people who are either taken back by a touch screen just at the concept or cannot make sense of ‘all the buttons’. To prove that it can be intuitive, I showed my 3 yr old twice how to turn the system on and find ‘his’ page. All the icons are graphical. As you can see my 3 yr old can easily navigate the touchpanel. He is so comfortable with the interface that he has begun to teach my 1 year old.

That is fine enough, you may say, but it is like the old joke: the package said ‘so easy a 5 year old can assemble it’, so would someone get me a 5 year old to put this together?! Granted children absorb new concepts, just look at how all the kids who watch ‘ni hao kai lan’ can recite the colors in Chinese. But, it does not have to be that difficult. Simple straight forward concepts make the transition from one form factor to another more about getting a task done than the bells and whistles.

About 6 months ago my wife’s mother watched the kids for us, when asked by my son if he could watch TV grandma took one look and said she did not know how. “oh, I so you” was his response and he promptly turned on the AV system and choose Disney. Once he taught the grandma, the device was not so fearful. Now, partly based on her comfort level with our home system grandma has downloaded her first songs from the itunes store and connected her Nano to her car’s in board connector. ‘It’s so cool and easy’ she recently told me. Custom design is a wonderful thing but if it is complicated no one but the person who created will use it. I would love to spend hour’s custom designing a touch screen theme but if I uploaded it to the panel I would have my wife calling me all day asking where to find this or that function. KISS rule applies to all our designs.

Its like being at your summer retreat, only there are not so many drink specials

2009-02-16T11:04:31-05:00

see me at

My Daily Twitter:

http://twitter.com/TuckerTues

My Tumblr Account: (short and sweet ramblings)

http://tuckertuesday.tumblr.com

The Typepad blog: (full fleshed out articles)

http://tuckerstuesday.typepad.com/

LinkedIn: (Business Resume

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/a12/73a

BrundleFly?

2008-12-20T23:09:31-05:00

One has to wonder if the quest for wireless HD distribution is more closely related to the Philosophers Stone then Grand Unified Theory at this point. A friend of mine compared this to eating a cake by saying 'you never know if its going to taste good until you eat it, and then its too late. A lesson in confections from the kitchen of Mrs. Schrodinger indeed.

Wireless HD distribution is something I would install in the blink of an eye, were I confident it would\could work reliably in both speed and location. My home is not new, not nearly new, not was new to my father in his youth; in fact my home is just barely considered new by the strict definition of antique. While spacious and accommodating my 1901 colonial home still has walls of 1x3's and lathe under plaster. I spent a good portion of my formative childhood tearing down just such walls in the numerous homes we lived in to rebuild and update. I know just how difficult it is to retrofit these homes with modern wiring without planning a complete renovation. It is not a task I look forward to with any pleasure.

I also have years of experience working with wireless systems of all sorts and know full well the fragility of the connective infrastructure. RF transmission of media can be summed up simply - Wireless transfer of data is the most convenient method yet developed, it is also the most inconsistent and unreliable form ever put into operation. (I think this statement has a very Mark Twain lilt to it and given his relationshipp with Tesla quite possibly attributable to him in an alternate Universe).

The EE Times has published, as part of a year end 'Hot Technologies to Watch for in 2009, an eye opening article on the the relative stasis HD home distribution over RF has exhibited. In the article 'Not getting the big pictures(s) yet', the EE Times editors describe 802.11n as 'troubled', UWB as a 'failure' and the 60GHz as '...too immature...'.

So, why pursue an RF HD distribution model? HDMI has some notorious short falls when it comes to whole house distribution which include but are not limited to cable length and physical connectors. It is a market that has huge potential to make redundant an entire category of cable and distribution. Trouble is what we have currently and for the near term results in an end video more BrundleFly then Seth Brundle.

I suppose I should take a deep breath, thank my mother for having the forethought to prepare me for this moment and with wrecking bar in hand begin the process of renovating to run wire.

Then where would I keep my pencil?

2008-12-13T23:20:04-05:00

While I only rarely write about the newest or hot item, I came across the Truphone product. The Truphone allows a user to turn a iTouch into a wifi ready phone. It struck me that this would be a steampunk application from the perspective of my three year old (or at least when he is old enough to understand such things).

So, an iPhone that is not an iPhone can now be an iPhone(ish). VerySteampunk, in a post post modern way -(maybe neomoderist?).

If you are unfamiliar with the culture of steampunk think of a world where Victorian England driven by the revolutionary difference engine creates a world which has many of the same modern convienecines of the 21st century just not based on the transistor. A good start is " The Difference Engine" byBruce Sterling and William Gibson. Much in the same fashion as the Maker Movement hardcore fans of steampunk retro fit modern equipment to reflect their pre-modernist aesthetic. On first look it can be a bit daunting and too much of a contrast for some viewers; it bears to reason that it should not work this re-purposing of 19th century technology and modern computers. Once the initial shock wears off, one finds a warmth to these hardware mash-ups which are far more enticing than the gleaming cold Borg boxes such as the Mac Air.

In a world where no one knows what tomorrow will bring economically or technologically and despite the was to rich for my blood now cheap as sand in Dubai cost of oil we do have to consider a life after the End of Oil. Is the SP movement a harbinger of a new technological age, where products contain a minimal to no petrol base products - Bakelite enclosures anyone ?

Another major influence on the SP movement is the original Tech punk himself Nikola Tesla. If you only know the name Tesla from an 80's hair band then you should really listen to the Studio 360 Broadcast concerning him (Thanks to John Huntington's link on his Control Geek blog). Much of this modern world started in the brain of dear ole' Tes, Yahoo Serious's Young Einstein notwithstanding . Two of His last ideas to be tested were the 'death ray' and wireless power, one inspired the Regan era 'Star Wars' development and one has actually been shown to work!

So, are you ready to be a 'Clacker'?

[Gordon produces a notebook and pencil on wrist springs]
Capt. James West: You know, you could put a gun on that.
Artemus Gordon: Then where would I keep my pencil?
quote is from -[Wild Wild West]

Throw it out, keep it in -- I don't know why (Nirvana)

2008-12-04T23:38:47-05:00

I wanted to title this piece 'Jello Biaframust be Pissed!' but could not find the supporting documentation. Jello was a vocal opponent of the practice 'Pay to Play' which a number of LA clubs began to use the late 80's. In short aband would have to insure a minimum number of people attending a show by purchasing a number of tickets which they would have to resell. Tough luck to the band that could not meet the minimums and don't even think you'll get any part of the bar take -(minus what the band drank). It is similar to the bar gig scene in ' The Blues Brothers':

Jake: Uh, Bob, about the money for tonight.
Bob: Oh, yeah, $200, and you boys drank $300 worth of beer

As you may have heard in the ubiquitous news reports, the FCC has posited the idea of a nation wide network for free Internet access. The effort is not altruistic but a carrot to spur on the growth and implementation of the 'White Spaces' frequency spectrum -(the 300 to 400 MHz range). Several reports have mentioned that the free portion would be 'adult content ' prohibited which those over 18 can opt in to, for a price. We have seen several attempts at Muni-Fi systems but only the small township and hamlet systems appear to have any lasting life. Philadelphia struggled to build and maintain their free access system only to finally shut it down then re-start, sort of.

A truly free access nationwide Internet is a grand thing. Just the effect of bridging the 'digital divide' would be significant in and of itself. My question is just what price this freedom. Unlike the NY Public Library show, this price of freedom may just inhibit your access to it. If anyone thinks that the entire Net Neutrality debate will not be finally fought out in this venue are to be sadly shocked.

Who will determine what is adult content?

How will it avoid the blocking of terms like Breast Cancer rather than just Breast? (recall the gaffs the content protection software many public libraries faced?)

Who will determine which sites and which content will require a premium subscription?

Just how long before demand 'forces' providers to lobby the FCC to reduce the amount of free content to just a bare minimum? There is only so much bandwidth you know.

Pay to Play ?

I'd gone on Holiday by Mistake!

2008-12-02T00:35:15-05:00

It would seem I have been on an unintentional sabbatical for the last 4 months or so. I would like to thank all of you who emailed, IM'd. sent LinkedIn mail and contacted me via Facebook to ask where T6 had gone. I appreciate the interest, concern and friendship you have shown me.

So, what happened?

In very simple terms I stopped sleeping.

In the past I would have thought this was a dream come true, 'finally time to finish all those projects ! Yeah, not so much. Around late June I began to wake every hour or hour and half and then up for the day with a jolt of my legs at 5am. No matter what time I would go to bed ,(and trust me I was often in bed by 8pm, just after my kids), within two hours the pattern would begin. shades of Groundhog day. Coming from a background in event staging I was used to, hell I was proud of my ability to shrug off sleep with a glib " sleep give you cancer man, nobody wants cancer". I have a personal best of 60 hours with no sleep on a Comdex show in Vegas. The Machismo associated with staging techs and the utter disregard for healthy sleeping patterns was just as important as your ability to perform with out missing a cue.

After leaving the event staging life and getting a office job I still only slept on average 4 hours a night. reading news aggregate, commenting on blogs, catching up with work issues and finally writing my own blog would fill the hours after my kids then wife would head to bed. I would insist on getting up at 2 or 3am when one of the kids would get up.

Then I stopped sleeping.

The first month I was only mildly annoyed by the now 2 hours of real sleep.

The Second month I started to become a bit more testy to my co-workers but held it together, for the most part.

The Third month I just ran on instinct and drive to get my day done and be a presence in my family's life.

The fourth month was just running on empty and finally admitting that something was up.

In the long run my answer was not the Tylenol PM's nor any self medicating, it was a morning ritual of Yoga. yeah, yoga.

So, as T6 creaks back to life and I wipe the cobwebs away from the machinery and the little grey cells I ask for your suggestions and contributions. Are you interested in becoming a guest writer for T6? If so i will send you a T6 Style sheet and method of submitting your articles. I intend to start off with two guests a week and see how it works.

I think withnail would agree - going on holiday by mistake is never a good idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L95MAROlcqg&feature=related

Goneril, Regan and Cordelia

2008-06-30T22:27:04-04:00

EE times posted video and a short article on a symposium consisting of manufactures of three main technologies vying to be the wireless digital video delivery system. While the event appeared cordial with pronouncements of coexistence and equitable market distribution, it is quite clear all are looking for blood in the water. It is still possible at this juncture that all three technologies will find a place and coexist with the others but it will not, cannot be in the same market.

The full article and video clips are at http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801236&cid=RSSfeed_eetimes_newsRSS

I suppose one's outlook all depends on whether you prefer the original play or the apologist performances of the 18th and 19th century.

I mean, once work's out there it's meant to be used. - Kathy Acker

2008-06-26T23:25:08-04:00

I am a minimalist by nurture with regards to my physical space-(I like my art cluttered, my space sparse), as my family moved eight times before I was fifteen and each new place was totally rebuilt as we lived in it. I shared a room with my sister more than I did not as walls were stripped down and rebuilt around us. I remember the spackle dust most, not quite unlike animal hair; it tends to get onto and in everything no matter the preventative measures taken. Not having a lot of room for things you learned to keep tidy or lose all hope of finding something which would wind up buried in growing piles of clutter. When my then girlfriend had first spent a few nights at my Spartan apartment and viewed my tightly folded and distinctly organized clothes she was convinced for months that I had either spent time in the military -(no, I did not) or might be a bit psychotic-(jury is still out) . My Wife met me at a time during which I only wore black, every item of my wardrobe was black leave for one dark red 50’s shark skin sport jacket. Wearing black had several advantages. It was hipster de rigueur for lower Manhattan, anything I wore would be back stage appropriate and everything could go in the same load of wash. When my then girlfriend –soon to be wife-and I decided to move in and ‘take the next step’ she needed a moving truck while I moved all I possessed in the back of a small van in one trip. Now I live with two kids under 5, my wife, 2 cats and a thousand toys – (I am convinced that the latter multiply overnight in some sick toy mating ritual\orgy) – and a secret part of me yearn’d for minimalist order of prior.

As I have been thinking about this I came across an article on Gizmodo about a set of ‘one line’ furniture by Aykut Erol. Perhaps as I have been tinkering with concepts of space and environmental influence (see ‘My God it’s full of Stars’ and ‘I Sing the Building Electric’) and my growing comfort with overstuffed plush-ness of Victorian drawing rooms, I had an immediate, and unexpected, repulsion to the images. The first two images suit me just fine and echo the Pompideu or the Blue Man Group Tubulum. The third picture just does me in as I instantly associate it with Edward Kienholz’s ‘ The State Hospital’ and get a real uneasy feeling at how similar the color and lighting are. Both are most certainly places I’d rather not be.

I also like my Radio (Terrestrial, Satellite or Streaming) to be bare bones and simple. Gob it up with excess chatter, nonsense bumpers or too many ads and I will not listen – or at least I will find ways to note the non music cycles and avoid the station at those times. I have no issue with stations generating revenue but make it something I have the option of pulling up. Make it flashy, intriguing, and compelling but do not interrupt my access to content. Now the RIAA is equating General radio broadcasts as “a form of piracy”. Essentially the RIAA is attempting to push legislation to enforce radio stations to pay royalties on every song played. The RIAA already wants streaming stations to pay fees based on a per song \ per user structure. In the end this just means stations will pay for the added fees by playing less music and inserting more ads. Will any of these collected fees ever go to any of the artists RIAA claims to be ‘protecting?’

To be clear here I have never been a supporter of the Napsters of the Inter-tubes. My strong opinion is that if the artist wants to sell the music based on per item fee structure, then obtaining it any other way is stealing, period. You can disagree with the concept but it is how this artist has decided to do business. If you have strong feelings about this do not buy their ‘product’ and do not go to their shows, the market will dictate. If you like the music enough then you must respect the wishes of the artist, otherwise have nothing to do with them. More artists are breaking –(or attempting to ) from their labels, how can major labels survive when mainstream artists like Josh Stone proclaim piracy to be ‘great'.

NPR has been running a great series on the arts and Internet in China. The second article in the series of three is a real eye opener for me. The article entitled ‘Internet helps liberate, Create Music in China’ discusses the duality of the internet’s ability to expose millions –(or be exposed yourself) to music in a society where piracy is rampant to the point of cultural. China may be the test model for where the west will be in 5 years. Chinese artists are struggling to make a living from their music where selling content is already considered worthless. An early answer is to provide file sharing as a collective by offering the tools and content, pooling resources and drawing users to each artist’s live events. The article also has a link to the independent collective site and tools mentioned in the article. The Site is in Chinese but is fairly intuitive to negotiate – (although many of the links pop up new browser session which can be a bit of a clutter).

I just have to ask, who says pirates are a bad thing? Think of the environment people!

A word on subscriptions to T6

2008-06-25T21:30:36-04:00

I have been made aware of an issue with my RSS link -(located at the top right). The error is caused by Microsoft Word adding an HTML anchor at the beginning and end of some sections. I mostly compose in word then transfer over to Typepad.

In order to fix this I must edit every article shown on the main page. I hope to have this done shortly. In the mean time the Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, etc reader links Do work.