dcinput

Frank Gruber analyses the various services that sell online music on TechCrunch in a two part piece. In this first piece he compares pay-per-download services. The next part will look at all you can eat subscription services. The outlook is heavy DRM and an AAC/WMA format war which is bound to end in tears for us users.

Dave Winer: “Instead of thinking of “user generated content” think of the Internet as an idea processor, and you’ll be much closer to the power of what’s going on”.

I’m always looking for different ways of looking at the internet and I like this one. Depending on who you are and what you do the internet can seem like very different things, and it changes over time.

When I first started going online in the early nineties I was pretty impressed but I soon got bored as I realised that really the internet was just a glorified catalogue. Websites were static and they just tended to show you things. You couldn’t really interact. I’m sure there were interesting things going on in the web then but I just wasn’t aware of them.

The web today is a very different place. People of all walks of life all around the globe are able to interact in so many different ways, share things, create things, do business and more. Its incredible that the web has so far met everyone’s needs. The pace of change is accelerating rapidly and the boundaries of what the web is are being pushed in ever more directions. The whole net neutrality issue is somehow related to this. Will the web continue to evolve as something for everyone? It’s an important question.

The web as storage in the clouds: Amazon S3 - Simple Storage Services.

Great audio interview by Dr Jobbs with Amazon’s Adam Selipsky about the new S3 service. I’m starting to see the big deal with this thing. I’m also starting to get some really good ideas for new projects. When you don’t have to worry about storage things could get a lot more fun for developers.

Looks like the Da Vinci Code will get released after all as Dan Brown wins his case at the High Court in the UK. Any publicity is good publicity.
NYTimes: “The authors of ‘Holy Blood’, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, had failed in their effort to prove that Mr. Brown had stolen their ‘central theme’ because they could not accurately state what that theme was”.

Rushi has compiled a great list of links for AJAX newbies and its kind of geared towards PHP programmers. Just what I was looking for.

Techdirt: Universal Pictures are trying to beat dvd counterfeiters at their own game in Russia by selling “cheap ‘n early” dvds at lower cost and quality.

I missed this post on Cinematical last weekend about the upcomming Shrek spin off “Puss in Boots”. I had wondered what had happened to this idea. While I was working at the Creature Shop last year I had a load of fun doing some motion capture tests for this. Due to the fact that cats have weird back legs that bend the wrong way, the physical department, which built the animatronics, had made a special Puss in Boots exoskeleton that a human wore and to which the motion capture sensors were attached. In this way the motion data that was captured would look like it was from a walking cat.

I ended up doing the initial testing for the exoskeleton as I was about the right size and had to prance about the studio with a pretend sword. When it came down to the actual motion capture shoot they got someone else in but I did get to try on the Honey Monster outfit that day too. Brings back such good memories.

Complete coincidence but I’m going to a reunion lunch of the Creature Shop engineering team tomorrow which should be interesting. Damn it’s such a shame that the place closed down.

BBC News: “Hundreds of thousands of people have signed up for new .eu domain name since it became available to the public on Friday”. Damn it some person with my name got the one I wanted. Imposter!

BBC News: “Digital download-to-own is the new holy grail of the film and TV industry as it fights to respond to the twin challenges of piracy and new market entrants”…”However, the consumer must be at the centre of all new strategies and DRM systems that are not sufficiently flexible are doomed to failure”.

Sometimes time sure does fly. I missed out on blogging some real interesting stuff the last couple of days due to an insanely busy work schedule. That really bums me out.

Its been a really interesting week for all things digital. Here in the UK for the first time ever a single has made it to number one based on digital downloads alone. Think about it for a second, they’ve got a number one and they haven’t actually made anything that you can physically hold in your hand. Far out.

BBC News: “US hip-hop duo Gnarls Barkley have become the first act to score a UK number one single on the strength of digital sales alone”

One of the interesting things is a massive shift in how the charts are formed. The charts for the last ten years have, for the most part, been defined by what singles teenagers are buying from the shops. With downloads playing a major role, the demographics of chart influence is moving to the 20-30 year olds. IMHO this can only be a good thing for music. But then I would say that wouldn’t I…

The other major news in the world of digital was the announcement that six major studios are clubbing together to sell movie downloads that you can keep.

NYTimes: “The studios are caught between a rock and a hard place”…”If they don’t make movies available electronically, piracy will get them. But they simultaneously have to take care of their brick-and-mortar customers. If the chain stores became angered”…”they might pull back from their heavy promotion of DVD’s”.

Lots of interesting chatter on the blogosphere about the development as the news makes the top of memeorandum.

Great piece by Scott Kirsner on CinemaTech - thats where I heard about it first. One of the best places for anything d-cinema related.

For the most part people are complaining about how rubbish the service is going to be: expensive and heavily DRMed. What people are missing is that this is really just the first step. The studios are just starting to “get the internet” but are treading very cautiously, and for good reason. The prices will come down, the market will see to that, in the end it’s just way cheaper to not actually have to physically make anything.

With companies like Amazon and Apple trying to secure deals with Hollywood this has the potential to drastically change things: jobs will be lost and companies without internet presence will go under. It’s going to be a roller coaster ride from here on in.

Dave Winer thinks that NPR are figuring out how to make money on the internet. The article of his on the fundamental law to making money on the internet (version 3) that he links to makes for interesting reading.

Damn I love the OPML Editor for blogging but it sucks so hard that when you switch to the normal Wordpress interface then back the the OPML Editor that all the work you did gets deleted. All the picks I uploaded just disapeared. Grrr. Now I have to put them back again.

Where does all the time go? I need a time machine. It’s nearly midnight and I have a few PHP/MySQL tutorials to get through before bed…in the end the master plan will come together it’s just sometimes juggling work, professional exams, personal projects and eating good pizza can leave you a bit thinly spread.

The best pizza in London town is the Furnace and you sure better had the pizza Porchetta its just so great. Mmmm.

I really should change my blogroll. I mean who are these guys? Matt, Donncha, Dougal. I sure don’t know.

Microsoft delays launch of Vista. No suprise there.

There is a cool project to map the UK’s underground pipe network in 3D.

Scott Kirsner: “This year is different, they insist, thanks to recently approved technical standards and the first faint signs of a tipping point”

BBC News: Apple tells everyone they are not happy about the French goverment’s plans for digital music. “iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with “interoperable” music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy”.

Michelle Conlin of Business Week Online warns about the dangers of blogging: “Today there are two of you. There’s the analog, warm-blooded version…” “Then there’s the online you, your digital doppelganger; that’s the one that is growing larger and more impossible to control every day”.

Heather Green looks at the claims that Digg is being used for stock manipulation.

Jenifer Lopez to star along side John Travolta in Dallas feature film.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone: “So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun”.

The future of motion pictures as seen by Dolby. Quite a slick looking demo.

Cory Doctorow: “Marvel and DC comics jointly filed a trademark on the word ’super-hero’”. For god’s sake, where do these guys get off?

I listened to a podcast by Will Wright, the creator of the Sims video game, on IT Conversations about a year ago. I think it might have been this one. He seems like a real interesting guy. At the time he was talking about a new game he was developing based around evolution, where you started out as an ameoba and then evolved to land animals, tribes and eventually get out into space to discover how big the Universe is. Here’s a google video of a presentation of this new game which is called Spore. Thanks to Kosso and Doctoe for the link. I’m not a massive games person but this I could get into.

More chatter of net neutrality as the topic makes the shortlist of memeorandum. The original group of companies backing the idea included Amazon.com, the American Association of Libraries, EarthLink, eBay, Google, Match.com, Microsoft, Skype, TiVo and Yahoo. New to join are American Association of Retired Persons Adobe Systems, BT America, the Digital Media Association, Sony Electronics and the Business Software Alliance.

Anne Broach: “Executives at Verizon Communications, BellSouth and the now-merged AT&T and SBC Communications have recently talked about the desirability of such a two-tiered Internet in which they could choose to favor some services–especially video–over others.”

I haven’t seen any big film distribution companies comment on net netrality yet. That would be interesting. If digital cinema is to happen, getting the films onto the millions of digital screens around the world is going to take a serious amount of bandwidth whether its over the internet or via satellite. They are going to need very fast pipes that are highly secure and 100% reliable. Having to delay the release of the next big block buster because it hasn’t downloaded to some of the cinemas really won’t cut the mustard. Sohonet is another company I’d like to hear a comment from.

More net neutrality articles on IP Democracy, TechDirt and by Mark Evans.

I’m off to find out how unfit I am by playing in a charity football match. Oh boy.

I’ve been to many gigs over the years in London. The Bloc Party gig tonight at Fabric was without a dought one of the best to date. These guys really blew the roof off. All in all a superb night.

Oh yeah and happy St Patricks day…

Harry Mathias of NEC tells Scott Kirsner over dinner “by the time half the screens in the US are converted to digital, it’ll be hard for producers of film like Kodak and processing labs like Deluxe and Technicolor to make money in that business”.

Ali Menzies has started blogging at Indigofood. Wehey! She’s a very talented web designer, a healthcare therapist and generally wonderful person. I’ve been trying to get her blogging for a little over a year now as I know she’s got such a lot to contribute. She’s full of great ideas for the alternative therapy community and some interesting business ideas too. Check out Indigobloom and the soon to be Indigoimage. Welcome to the party Ali!

Brian Krebs: “Hacking made easy: automated tools gathering victims keystrokes”. “10 million U.S. households own a computer that is infected with some type of keystroke logging program”. Looks like controling your network of zombie machines is as easy (or easier) than controling my render farm. Scarry.

The Washington Post defines net neutrality. I’m still not clear that everyone is talking about the same thing.

The Common Cause website: “Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be able to access any web content they choose and use any applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by their Internet service provider.”

If you google image net neutrality the first thing that turns up is an AT&T logo with the caption “Net neutrality will triumph”. Are people saying they are lying?

Texas Instruments anounces the Digital Cinema Pioneer Awards which is being help at ShoWest, for extensive contributions to the advancement of the industry. Something to aim for I guess. [Thanks to CinemaTech for the link]

DCinema Today: “TI announced this week that 1,195 DLP Cinema projectors from customers Barco, Christie and NEC are now deployed worldwide, and up to 33,000 additional digital cinema systems are scheduled to deploy in North American in the next few years.”

I only realised a few months ago that ShoWest had a film component to it. I’ve got some friends that go to the music part every year. I hear they know how to thow a party.

This article by Reuters is a little old now but it suggests that “Digital cinema may not be ready to roll“.

FHM gets into mobile TV with the launch of “FHM TV” for mobiles. “It has been designed to deliver the subscriber with immediate satisfaction at any point”. Yes indeed.

Gabe Rivera’s memeorandum has over the last few months really changed the way many poeple view the blogosphere, at least for tech and politics. His new memetracker WeSmirch should bring the hole thing a little more into the mainstream. Dig the dirt on anyone. Wow and its got pictures, nice touch.

Hot topic right this minute in the smirchosphere: Kate Moss is horny! Well well roll on the liable cases.

Hey Gabe, we need one that covers the world of digital cinema, post production, cgi etc. That would be great!

Thinking about it WeSmirch is basically a live version of Heat Magazine except you get bloggers to be reporters and paparazzi/stalkers. Wowzers this could get messy.

Dave Winer: “Why not let me go, quietly and peacefully, I’ll stop writing my blog, I’ll stop developing new stuff, you can be me if you want, I won’t be in your way. How about it?”

Quite appropriate that this should be the first entry in my new blog format. I really hope Dave doesn’t ever stop his blog. I would really miss it. A lot.

The Forbes Billionaires List: Ronald Perelman who recently bought the parent company of where I work is number 94 with $6.1 bn.

Which Muppet are you? The Muppets Personality Test. I’m Gonzo!

Google Mars - you ‘ve got to be kiding me. Hmm Mars sure seems pretty small these days.

Wired magazine reports that “Sweden is one of the worst places in the world when it comes to illegal sharing” due to bit torrent.

OM Malik writes that MySpace is about to release a Messenger service cleverly called MySpace Messenger. I’ve never quite figured out the point with MySpace. I mean sure I have an account (can you guess what the login is?) and sure, trying to get as many hot girls and famous bands as your friends is fun for 10 minutes, but whats the point? It will no doubt be a success though.

The New York Times: “Hewlett-Packard has a mode on its new R-series that it says removes the 10 pounds a camera is said to add”.

Mitchell Szczepanczyk wrote a piece called the “The death of the blogosphere” a couple of weeks back about how big businesses were in the process of creating a multi-tiered internet which will kill “net neutrality” and eventually destroy the web. He was also interviewed on the small WORLD podcast a few days ago about this. The topic has been aproached several times by Adam Curry on recent episodes of the DSC.

I need to do some more research on the subject as to be honest I don’t really understand that side of the argument that well yet. I’m not even entirely sure we’re talking about the same thing. It’s definitely something that could have a major impact on the roleout of d-cinema over the next few years. I’ve recently heard several convincing arguments why a multi-tiered system would help the world of d-cinema. I’d love to hear people’s views on this topic.

Though it is still squinting into the distance with the hope of catching sight of it, for quite a while now the film industry has been looking out to the horizon for a wave that has been predicted by technology forecasters the world over.

With a look much the same as that of the famous archeologist as he turned to find some water to cool his foot following a particularly hairy mine cart chase, the film industry is about to realise that not only is the wave definitely a reality, it is a mere 100 feet away and as tall as the Empire State building.

Riding this wave are three men: Mark Cuban, Todd Wagner and Steven Soderbergh, who, if you listen very carefully, are yelling “Narly Dudes….surfs up!”. You see these guys have had a hard look at what digital cinema could mean and they’re doing something about it. They have announced that the release of Soderbergh’s new film “Bubble” is going to be in theatres, on dvds and on HDNet simultaneously. Many cinema chains in the US are unhappy about this new development and are refusing to show the movie. Mark responds to his critics in his blog and raises some excellent points.

It was only a few months ago that while re-designing some film out workflows people thought I was joking when I said we should be looking into getting our ipod video deliverables sorted. I wasn’t joking and Ben Barren doesn’t think so either.

The big question though is what’s going to happen to Dr Jones? Is he going to get the girl and save the village by delivering the shankara stone back to them? I’m just so tired of listening to people saying that digital cinema is going to destroy this and ruing that. Its simply an unbelievable oportunity. Fortune and glory kid.

Tonight was the first class of the documentary course that I’m taking at City Lit. I find that first classes always have a really interesting dynamic to them: people tend to be initially nervous and apprehensive but as soon as group discussions start, a sort of realisation that everybody has similar interests starts to filter through the room. That’s a great moment. It also became apparent that if this class is at all representative, then 75% of the worlds documentary makers are female.

In this first session we looked at the role of the documentary in defining who we are and how we live, how rather than being a window on the world, the documentary in many ways acts more like a mirror, reflecting various viewpoints back at us. We watched extracts from 2 documentaries:

The first was 49 Up directed by Michael Apted, the latest installment of the Up! Series. Started in 1964, the series follows 14 seven year old children as they get older (revisiting them every 7 years) and explores the notion of class. In order to give a feeling of coherence throughout the series which spans many decades, the style is rather conservative. It focuses on personal lives and the subjects tend to fit certain stereotypes. One wonders how much of an influence the documentary itself has had on the people it follows and indeed whether it has simply helped to lead them down the paths set out by their class. Nevertheless a very interesting series which is ongoing and who’s next installment will coincide with the London Olympics in 2012.

The second documentary by Nicholas Barker, Unmade Bed, is set in New York and follows four heterosexual singles. In contrast to the UP series, this is very stylised can be described as a hybrid documentary / film, the director having asked the subjects to replay themselves under his direction in certain parts. Very beautiful shots of New York in a wide aspect ratio, combined with interesting choices of music and a complete absence of voiceover give this a real cinematic look. In a way the subject matter and also the portrayal of the people give this a black comedy feel to it which can leave you with a certain voyeuristic taste in your mouth. Although it did at first seem a bit strange, I really liked the idea of a hybrid as it helped to push the boundaries of what you think a documentary is. I like looking at things in new ways.

Very much looking forward to next weeks installment which will be looking at the categorisation of documentaries. I’ve also arranged to exchange a list of my favorite documentaries with several of the people I met. That sounds like a job for the opml editor. I love Dave Winer’s idea for reading lists…but what I want is a watching list!