Last: December 2004
Next: February 2005
January 15, 2005
a telegram
IN ITALY STOP BEEN IN IVREA AT A WORKSHOP STOP FOOD REALLY GOOD STOP NOW IN TORINO STOP SEND BIGGER TROUSERS STOP
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January 12, 2005
mini mac, with fries, to go
The Mini Mac is looking like a must-buy, even if another computer was not top of everyone's shopping list. The dust hasn't settled yet, but to me the most important things aren't the computer - a fine beast it seems - but the accessories available.
Put it this way, the Mac Mini could decimate your front room.
There are some add-ons that are needed to make the Mini idea fly in a living room:
1. Bluetooth remote control. For DVDs, iTunes, Keynote, iPod, whatever.
2. iAmp. This will replace your hi-fi. Someone will rush out a decent Mini-style amplifier. As long as the Mac autoplays albums, and you have a remote, it is basically your music system.
3. Media Centre UI. It's time to kiosk everything - full screen versions of iTunes, Quicktime (DVD player), iPhoto... all controllable by remote.
4. iTV. Cable, satellite, terrestrial, digital. It's your new TiVo.
5. Some DVD hack to multi-region the Mac Mini. This is the only reason to keep another DVD player.
In all of this, for some reason I am thinking of the Acorn Archimedes pizza box stack system. It's time for computer separates.
Only thing left in my living room other than the Mac and accessories will be a PS2 and a Gamecube (and a VHS). So, when is the Mac going to compete on gaming?
Two caveats - this thing had better be quiet, and hiding all the ports on the back, and even the power switch, goes against living room usability. So another accessory will be the iPort, giving you access to USB, Firewire and reset from the front. How else are you going to plug in your digital camera and iPod?
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January 11, 2005
great expectations
It's started to occur to me that our expectations of digital stuff is very different to that of real tangible goods. An example: if I bought a song from an online music store, I expect I'm buying some kind of entitlement, or deeds: a license (and with DRM I guess that is all I'm buying). They keep track of what I have bought - so why can't I redownload it?
This is a natural assumption I've seen lots of people make. To retailers, it must be baffling. "They lost a CD, and they expect us to replace it?" Well, yes, because the cost of digital distribution approximates to 0. They don't see you being put out by reproviding the music.
Basically, digital = free, in all senses of the word, even if I paid for it, and this I think is where customers will bite DRM on its ass. We're getting used to big sloppy buckets of digital data (iPods and digital cameras starting the living room attack) that can be poured at whim.
Take the idea of lending. I've seen a few DRM types try to cope with the natural use case of lending. It gets very technical very quickly, with key exchanges and lots of malarkey. What isn't realised is that mentally we see the replacement cost as 0, so lending isn't the action, but copying. The thought is the same.
I noticed this again when reading interviews with a couple of people being sued by Apple for distributing betas of Tiger. They were just sharing with a few interested parties - where's the harm in that? It's digital, it's free. It has a replacement cost of 0. Note, replacement cost, not manufacturing cost, or development cost, or even purchase cost.
Now the hard part is to make something digital that is so appealing it becomes tangible to people.
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January 03, 2005
more technoutopianism
I've just been listening to (UK) Radio 1's bank holiday ten hour takeover. Nothing unusual there, except I'm in Finland, and I was listening to it on my phone.
Today I thank the gods of 3G, mobile versions of RealPlayer, Dave's BBC streams list, and, most importantly, a company paying my phone bill.
(note to other wannabe radio streamers - make sure you're using an Internet APN, and that the APN in your phone's web browser is the same as the one in RealPlayer)
I've always said radio was a killer app for 3G, and it really is fantastic.
Update: well, it's not all that stable yet, but as a proof of concept, I think it's great. Now if only Radio 1 accepted text messages from other countries to request tracks. Oh, and 5 mins of listening to Radio 1 = 1.8Mb of data, so you can do the math on how much it costs.
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January 02, 2005
no resolution
I am not one for resolutions, they seem prescriptive, artificial, and far too arbitrarily time based. That said, I guess having a bit more time for reflection has been good, as well as the arrival of 43 Things, in which I describe pretty much the Western world universal life goals of exercise more and find a boyfriend. Other than this, I think there are a couple of overriding related themes for me:
make, don't think
more craft, less art
real, not digital
In other words, rather than having books full of ideas, actually start making some of them real, with the process being just as important as the finished work. I want to get my hands dirty again - normally this would mean programming, but I want to it to be real dirty, making things, so soldering and electronics, cooking, making cocktails, and more material based craft, maybe knitting, with glassblowing as an ultimate dream thing I want to try at least once.
I also think that this site has become a bit dry, a bit impersonal, with the posting threshold far too high. So there will be some changes, less technoutopianism, and probably less interesting to anyone other than me. Anyway, I'm generally in a far better place I feel than at this time last year, so thanks to absolutely everyone - it's been a rush.
