The Otterman Empire @ work

hey iPhone video can we hear you now? Owle solves two large issues re iPhone video.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:19:08 GMT

Anyone that improves sound capture, stability and control of the main function of a camera ( the amount of lighting getting in) are friends of mine, at least in the Facebook sense.

Owle, not a Pixar sequel, is an acronym for Optical Widgets for Life Enhancement housing that allows you to add additional lenses, an inbuilt mic,add lighting and stability to your iPhone 3gs which markedly improves real time video gathering while remaining hand held portable. Why write what you can see

It’s pretty obvious how much the viewer stands to benefit from this platform ,YEP that’s the viewer. Local company too : )

I’ve often thought of the iPhone as being a glorified controller that just happens to make phone calls.

Cloudy with no chance of data. Like many super heroic efforts sometimes the Sidekicks suffer.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:49:03 GMT

Danger, Danger Will Tmobile get away with giving two months of free service for losing all of your data?

I’m not a fan of clouds , other than flying through them, when it’s the sole method of storage. User’s of the Sidekick have found out that the distance between back up and fuck up is a little more then inconvenient.

How would you like this mail from a service you PAY for ( It would be easy to bitch at 2.0 companies that have lost my data but realistically I got what I paid for)

We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers’ personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer.

Inconvenience in the street lawyers thesaurus sounds a little more like negligence

Own your own data or lose it and three years later win a class action suit, with 100k of your “friends” that gives you a month’s free service but only when renewing your contract for two years.

http://mashable.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-sidekick-data/

An amusing title. Akamai is bringing "HD" to the iPhone. How would we know?

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:54:09 GMT

Today's "O'Really moment"

Akamai Technologies is extending its content delivery network to the Apple iPhone as it introduces the Akamai HD Network, a system for streaming high-definition live and on-demand video to a variety of devices. Source.

It's been said twice in the comments over at Mashable that HD streaming to a device that cannot render HD is a bit of a non starter. It's not been said with a Douglas Adams line from Dr Who. May as well get started then.

"The concept is simply staggering. Pointless, but staggering"

Actually it's not that staggering. While there's a case for streaming HD it's maybe better if the end device could actually utilize it.The iPhone can not and has likely been mentioned just to fulfill the buzzworthy compliant criteria of the release.

The iPhone's max output currently is 640 x480,the screen resolution of the device itself is is 480 x 320. HD is usually considered to be 720 or above but realistically anything under x2 ( 960) the resolution is really stretching the term and even the mighty 3GS currently falls far short of either mark without an external screen and short of the mark with one.

Thankfully a better post than I can justify the time in writing,without need to claim lack-of-talent, appears over on the streaming media blog. with the main thrust of the argument coming from the Workflowed blog.

Akamai.....as long as it's above 700 kbps and starts as an HD source, it can be considered HD. So the house of cards of the iPhone claims in the rollout of the Akamai HD Network rests on HD 'quality' that's below that of today's average standard-definition stream

And in my unrefined language.

Just because you start out with a HD source doesn't make that which you receive HD. If I were to hold my cell phone to a speaker for you to hear a song would you be happy with the term CD quality being used to describe it? If I have ATT iPhone it's unlikely the call would last long enough to finish this experiment. That's the second part. Even running at 640x480 with 2.5Mbps , back to those iPhone specs again, you are still not HD and are still exceeding what you could likely extract from ATT on your iPhone.

In short Penn and Teller don't need to do a show about this claim because it's prima fascia Bullshit!

Want HD Video on the iPhone? Akamai Is Making it Possible

Test post from posterous.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:23:49 GMT

Making sure my Meta weblog api is happy with the service.

Posted via web from haltse's posterous

Sanyo HD100. A curious camcorder because it takes a dump on an entire line.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:32:37 GMT

SANYO :: Digital Cameras :: VPC-HD100 High-Definition Camcorder

When I was in need of a quick pocket camera to go on vacation I stumbled on this at Walmart,the camera seems to be exclusive to them, for a considerable sum under the usual selling price. A few days before I bought a cheap point and shoot Panasonic which also has a video function.

No matter how much I read about the acceptable nature of crappy sound and video online the garbage coming out of my sanyo hd100r would seem to be taking the piss. Why even make such a lo-end piece of crap at the risk of poisoning your brand? ( Thankfully I paid nowhere near the msrp but it's not hard to see why.. )

It's autofocus hunts for faces like Cheney and then pulls the trigger at the incorrect time. It's hideous at capturing indoors without a spare nightsun(the lights you get on the bottom of helicopters) and it's not so hot with movement during daylight. It's garbage. The panasonic tz5 on the other hand does 720, it's HD, can focus ,and works in lower light and it's a point and shoot camera that does video. The Sanyo is a video camera that can do stills, er no it can't since they too suck.

Why even compete at the crappy end? There's nothing here that makes me want to try a better Sanyo, all they've done is out crapped the market at a higher price than Aiptek.

first self portrait

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:48:47 GMT

first self portrait
Originally uploaded by haltse.

A test run. This is my son's first self portrait. He turned on, turned round and then zapped himself in the face Not quite Bresson but it's a start)

I heartily endorse #3 ,and the rest,but are the audience doing their part?

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:35:41 GMT

Zadi Diaz,new media producer and more erudite than most at explaining what she does,posted several interesting theses, little short of Cluetrain's 95,but not a million miles away in spirit when dealing with those that buy eyeballs for people that appear to still be conducting business from back in the 1960's.

Zadi Diaz - Home - Advertising is FAIL. Communication is WIN.

3. STOP calling people consumers!
People are not mindless drones waiting to consume. We are all people hoping to
connect and you are hopefully facilitators of conversation. As soon as
we change the language we will change the action.

I'm wondering if we are missing out on a large part of the problem here,and that's with those "consumers" Oh hell I'm being contradictory
but if you can give me a few seconds to work out my confusion I'm sure it's all going to be OK in the end.

There clearly are consumers, though not self-identifying and maybe it's better to remove this learned behavior at the source? Would it not be more useful inoculating those on the receiving end of the advertiser's missives, at least giving a framework for understanding what's going on would be a start?

Take iPhone3Gs and Video as an example. Youtube saw a huge increase in videos that were posted. Does this strike anyone as creatives all having a new tool or the marketed-to masses waiting to be told that video online is indeed cool and they have Apple's permission? What was stopping them before?

In other words are people using what's fed to them?

Yes it's an issue complicated by data plans and that most decent phones for video,aren't subsidized but it's not been hard to avail yourself of expression via video in the last two years but even that didn't appear to be easy enough. Seriously most of the article makes very good points for trying to sell to those whose lives are interwoven with the net, but as long as there's more and more people from the old-school getting on line I fear we're stuck with this until it's no longer a viable audience to talk at rather than talk with.

Where the wind blows. An EU "competition weenie" speaks anonymously of course

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:21:19 GMT

I really need to get my browser to display "anonymous coward" whenever it quotes those paid by a state,with public funds,that wont use their real name while they go about their day protecting their investment, er consumers especially when they spout crap like this.

"The essential point of our case is consumer choice," said the spokesman. "

Really?

I never had an issue changing the browser, adding different grips to a gun, upgrading the lighting on my vehicle etc. There is no choice in which nanny superstate you live in, other thanby leaving which I didn't find that hard to though it was a lot harder than swapping IE for Opera.

I wish MS had gone further and just told Europe to sit on a Mac/ Penguin or come up with it's own OS? You can't win a war of appeasement with anyone that sets themselves up as a monopoly on competitive practices.The one part of mercantilism via corporation that annoys me is their acquiesence rather than withdrawal from hostile markets.

It's the old joke

Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Windows 7 pricing gets unveiled

A Commission spokesman dismissed Microsoft's claim that it was taking the action to comply with European laws.

Apparently there’s no heard-immunity for communication skills.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:20:41 GMT

Over the past months I have made fewer posts than usual.There are several reasons for this but mostly it’s been negative reinforcement that anything that I write only gathers negative comments based on the formatting,length and typos rather than on the merits of the ideas contained within.

Via Robert Anton Wilson’s creations “Hagbard Celine” I believe truth often comes from fictional sources, cartoons and even cereal packets,is the belief that communication is only possible between equals and is contained within the explanation of his second law

"Accurate communication is only possible in a non-punishing situation."

How many situations like that arise?

That may explain the planet a little better but it’s not helping me. The question that I would like to have answered is this.At which point do I benefit from everyone else's communication skills? E.G.; it seems like addressing the correct audience is a one-way-street.

In other words I can haz herd immunity ?

Rushkoff's take on the eating the Apple from the Jobs tree of consumer knowledge.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:00:55 GMT

Douglas Rushkoff takes a look at how training consumers doesn't always work out the way you planned.

Apple’s Army of Whiners - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

No it's not just for the title ,which I like, it's an interesting reflection on many of the "old" Apple sticker-ed cars of activists I see that excoriate corporations but can't seem to apply it to those that make their pc. It's double-think different with those infinitely loopy types

We're from the government we're here to install Windows:)

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:37:19 GMT

Why would this make depressing reading for some? For some reason the left leaning always assume a person that doesn't use,own or even have a desire to do either. Health care is another such 'must-have' regardless of the wishes of those that have it thrust upon them.

Being online is not a requirement for a happy life and the thought of millions of new,uncared for computers dropping hazardous waste in terms of viruses,trojans and other mal-ware onto the net just fills me with joy.

The internet doesn't have to look like a computer and if the idea of getting people online is so that they are more efficient citizens, wait a minute aren't we meant to be in charge of those expense-forging vermin? It would make sense to approach the issue by either using some kind of inbuilt device to a phone or TV either that or cheaper to wait for them to die-out

BBC NEWS | Technology | Free broadband won't entice all

Some 43% of adults who currently do not have internet access would remain disconnected even if they were given a free PC and broadband connection.

Oh another video camera with audio as an afterthought.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:44:00 GMT

You can read all about the new iPhone 3gs on other fine sites such as MobileCrunch. New phone, same old network. I love the iPhone but it's a co-dependent relationship that I'm ready to move on from.

The big news? While some have touted the ability to buy or rent movies over the air this is hardly worth noting.Oh ok note away. Using an iPhone to watch movies designed for the large screen is something I just can't do. Hell I believe we should divide up society by those that buy pan and scanned ( e.g., full-screen) movies and the rest of us.

Video creation is by far the most interesting addition,that and a the removal of the POS lens / imager they've had the balls to call a camera in the current incarnation. iPhone is the most popular source of images on Flickr and it's likely that we're likely to see the same effect on video sites though I can't imagine the sound quality making this a pleasant device to produce anything on.

However using a neat bit of sound / timeline syncing tool that was demoed a while back at the New Media Expo this could be very interesting as a video camera with the sound synced to the source. E.G., think of 100's of people in the same space being able to knock an ad-hoc conference video together.

Heck I can think of a Matrix like bullet-time effect if you could get 20 or so of your friends together with iPhones and an app to sync their shutters. Production , not consumption would really be thinking different my little corporate f(r)iends

You Tube XL. eXtremely Laughable. Pay no attention to the pixelated man, with out of sync sound , on the screen

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:42:18 GMT

You Tube XL, the merging of the living room set with the Oh wait, that's not at all what it is. It's a skin that looks pretty when shown on a large screen. Yes it shows You Tube content on a large screen, like having a really big monitor.

Shame the compressed video and even worse audio depredations on most of the content make this a non starter. Small crap x screen size = larger crap.

The digital TV transition has been "traumatic" enough for people but I'd like to see it go further.There's a lot of spectrum going to waste,off hours, 24-7 on religious channels, and I am wondering why we can't use that as a channel to record our programs in advance for later watching. Yep it's Tivo but not as we know it.Seems odd to limit the transmission to real time recording for most content that really doesn't need a full HD stream.

This waiting for 10pm PST to come along to release a show that was tweeted/ spoiled by many on the East coast viewing is reason enough to do away with the idea of scheduling and appointment TV. Oh then the networks get to control their own DVR channel rather than adding in the add skipping joy of a Tivo. Maybe they can charge too? Seriously if you are paying $10 or so for Tivo I bet you'd pay $10 each a year for major networks, $10 more than they get at present from OTA broadcast.

Will Anyone But Marketers Read It? thoughts on "Web 3.0"

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:33:17 GMT

MY god it's full of douchebags! </Dave> Social marketing types anyway. That's the fate the below entry from the Readwriteweb blog posits as being the likely result of our aggregate life-stream data.

Web 3.0 Might Be Really Stupid

The patterns of activity in that data offer a unique opportunity to learn about ourselves - individually, in groups and as a society. Unfortunately, that opportunity may not be taken advantage of. A better title of this post might be If Web 3.0 Is Poetry, Will Anyone But Marketers Read It?

Oh we'll be taken advantage of , as much as we allow anyway, for the chance to stick yet another piece of bling on our profile.Yet the "good" use of this aggregation as a kind of silicon mirror of introspection poses larger questions.

I want software that will tell me: "On Wednesdays you tend to post messages a lot in the morning, despite the fact that you have a lot of meetings. You post a lot about your health,too. Is work making you feel unhealthy?"

Fan as I am of tech, sign me up for some dsp in my eyes and ears please, having the web look out for you as K.I.T.T would do for Michael Knight,is a service I wasn't looking forward to.Why? Abuse potential seems the most obvious. Want to get paranoid?

"Hey look at the angry posts from Citizen 23 better bring them in for a nice chat and medication" I'll take no thank you Alex, my droog, for $300.

At a loss why they can't replicate decade old satellite technology ? GPS could get flaky

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:02:08 GMT

The title may be a little too strident.E.G.,close is 2010 until you realize just how long these jokers have taken to produce a copy of decades old tech.The Internet and GPS could possibly be too important to leave to the State?

At one time Europe was asked to back off making a GPS replacement for civilian use due to the USA's need to be all snug and cozy even going as far as to say that they'd down the birds if a hostile power was trying to use it. Europe went ahead with Galileo and should be fully operational in 2013. Russia and China have their own systems, GlONASS and COMPASS respectively, so it's not like the world would end if the US one ceased being useful. I bet that just pisses a lot of people off.

Most stories appear to neglect that there's more than one solution available.. and they call this news.. ha!

GPS system 'close to breakdown' | Technology | guardian.co.uk

It has become one of the staples of modern, hi-tech life: using satellite navigation tools built into your car or mobile phone to find your way from A to B. But experts have warned that the system may be close to breakdown.

Search me? A funny recommendation ocurred on the way through the forums.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:56:23 GMT

I probably only learned one interesting thing at the Phoenix Social media club , before my distaste for the balance of people wanting to sell you on things outweighed those that don't want to be sold too. I.E., those on my side of the fence.

That interesting thing was a statement as to the fragility of Google's hegemony and the likely source of their decline.It's not an other search engine but more a negation of the need to have a search site as a destination but we'd be utilizing the search features within our forums and online-communities. While he did not single out Google specifically the bold phrase "search is dead" certainly didn't sit well with the SEO crowd.

What if I decide to follow someone on twitter or facebook who is a guru on the types of cars Im interested in buying ? Could I not just query them and get a response and referral to a site that gives me the information Im looking for ? Mark Cuban's blog

An idea that I've been prattling on about to any that would listen ( not a large number) over the last year has been the community as the search engine. Google is,for the most part, great when it comes to locating information of a static nature, books, maps, quotes,reviews etc. Where it totally sucks is in the area of commerce. Try searching for car parts. In my case for a great little car that no one likes, Suzuki Aerio SX , and you will see many results claiming to have the parts, then you drill down through the model, year, maker and whoops just kidding. They'd gamed the request to create a page with crap info.. WHY? Why the hell would I think oh you don't have Suzuki parts I'll just buy one for a Dodge instead.? It's moronic and it's why I believe I am right on this

There's a forum for the Aerio owner called Aerio style and a search of that gets you info on which people really have parts, have good service, prices and occassionally both Yes that's a specialized case but it's what we've been doing since markets first formed. Ask the person that you trust with experience. Trust? Google's really not too good at that part judging by the dodgy autoparts friends it wants to introduce me to.

Ironically I found Aerio Style via Google I never said they'd die just that search as we know it today isn't serving us well and when that happens? Search Altavista , Hotbot and lycos for answers.

De Ja vu.It's going to be the future soon.. just not mine:)

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:36:31 GMT

Let's just say that it's nice seeing ideas come to fruition.Less so when it's a third party.

Mid Hockey season I submitted this idea which gained as much traction as the Coyotes. On the bright side I do get to use it for free and see if it really was that good an idea.

iPhone users to walk and read at same time • The Register

iPhone users can now walk the streets safe in the knowledge that upcoming letter boxes, errant children or dogshit can be easily avoided, without interrupting the more important act of reading email.

Me Me MEme it's all about me! That's maybe what the social engineers want you to think.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:48:36 GMT

The porn-star name meme cometh.

That people like to help people and will give out all kinds of information that they shouldn't is fairly well established. What's not so well established, at least by the common usage of marketing and SMD types is the term "viral meme" which has been denigrated to include just about any tell a friend promotion or user generated content that's been slapped together.

For once the term viral meme may be appropriate in the case of the porn star name meme that's going the rounds on Twitter.

Security Alert: Twitter Porn Names Scam - PC World

It could be simple human error, but it's also possible that this security hole is an example of truly sneaky social engineering.

In short people are being asked to provide biographical data such as the name of the street they grew up on,your mother's maiden name, place of birth or your favorite pet for the grand payoff of concatenating your porn star name for you to post proudly to Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else you think this ephemera will soon be forgotten. Except that it wont be.

A virus, ( let's leave Mimi out of this for now) can't reproduce itself and to survive it transmits it's message using the resources of the host cell or in this case the message that wraps it up. Seriously would you just send that out onto the web if you had no payoff?

Memes are ideas, concepts, beliefs and thoughts that are transmitted verbally or by repeated action and can move through a ‘culture’ in a manner similar to a virus.

Do you see why most items masquerading as "viral marketing" are bullshit? You know what the marketer wants and are often better able to identify it than they are That's not viral it's an ugly bug that needs to be squashed once and for all.

Paging DR Moron: Maybe some people use both sides of their brain?

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:02:18 GMT

I didn't need to get far into this article before I was annoyed enough to toss up a little blog spitball. The idea that programming is not a creative art and can be tossed at any person is far from reality, at least it is were I work.

The implied insult to Asia re being good for that kind of work further ruffled my fur.So much for the advancement of the human race it appears you have to be in the USA to really be the kind of wacky right brained story teller to get the big picture.

Then again this article from the same woman that gave a platform to anti-science nit wits like Jenny McCarthy which is about as far right brained as it gets. An appeal to get away from engineering and rational thought is probably not the best message to be spreading around but hey she's Oprah why let reality get in the way of a good story.

Why right-brainers will rule this century - CNN.com

during which right-brained skills such as design and storytelling will become far more crucial than traditionally left-brained skills such as accounting and computer programming.

Another tired Wired post trying to Kindle some interest but generating little in the way of heat or light.

haltse@gmail.com (Hal-Tse) — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:16:51 GMT

Now this is speculative "journalism".

If Amazon announce a device, a large scale e-reader this would be defeated in the marketplace by Apple should they create a larger iPhone.

I'm not sure that's the case. Without some significant weight loss I wouldn't like to have a device x3 the size of an iPhone hit me in the face if I feel asleep reading. The heat generated from illuminating that large a screen could be interesting too. With Kindle if I leave the USA it's pretty useless, heck move to Montana and it's useless which is not the kind of behavior one wants from their reading material. This is one early adoption I think I'll pass on.

Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives | GadgetLab