The latest podcast from Leo Laporte is covering some very interesting stuff – mostly Google, but other web news / technologies too. In the second show they cover the Pushbutton web in detail – well worth listening to.
… and whilst you’re there, check out the links on the left – MacBreak Weekly (all things Apple) and FLOSS Weekly (open source software) are recommended.
I’ve just finished Season 4 – I’m going to miss one of the best shows ever…
This week we celebrate man’s first landing on the moon. NASA has released restored footage:
• Compare the original and new footage: Apollo 11 Partial Restoration HD Videos
• Wikipedia: Apollo 11 / Moon landing(s)
• We Choose The Moon – CHECK THIS OUT, IT IS FANTASTIC
Also this week, Russia completes a simulation of a long distance space voyage as part of its preparations for a manned trip to Mars:
Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Remy Steinegger
A very timely interview with Craig Barrett, the recently retired Chairman of Intel, by Peter Day as part of the Global Business programme on the BBC World Service. Intel has recently been fined over $1bn by the European Commission for anti-competitive practices, and although Day asks about his views on the subject, Barrett sidesteps the question. Even so, this is a worthwhile listen as they talk about the growth and success of the company, competition in general, Moore’s Law and why there will always be a need for ever increasing computing power.
• Radio programme: Goodbye to Intel
• Wikipedia: Craig Barrett
It’s taken a long time for me to see this. It’s great. My Coolest Film In The World This Week.
Ok, so I’m using Twitter to follow some people and am getting a lot of good links to stories as they appear in real time – it is working well. This means I’ve gone beyond the “it’s just a lot of blathering idiots talking shit” stage. Other people – such as Jay Rosen and Alan Rusbridger (editor of the Guardian) – use it to discuss the future of newspapers, and they have some ideas on how to use Twitter within a news organisation. As I work at the Guardian, it is interesting to know the direction we are heading in editorially.
Here’s Alan Rusbridger:
Expanding on his points in the video, he has spoken recently at length about Twitter and the benefits he believes it can bring. Here is how the introductory article sums it up:
Rusbridger confessed that he couldn’t see the point of Twitter to start with, but described an attitude within the Guardian of engaging with trends in technology which, although they might not seem related to the news industry, invariably end up being very significant. Look at what the technology journalists are doing – because that’s what the rest of the industry will be doing in five years. Guardian Tech has more followers on Twitter than the Guardian newspaper has readers each day…Twitter is both a source and audience for news and encourages a direct relationship between reporters and readers
• Direct link to the full speech
A couple of examples where Twitter has shown its benefits:
• How Guardian Tech readers detailed Oracle and Sun’s buyups
• Guardian Tech Twitter feed passes Stephen Fry (the main point being that they now have more followers on Twitter than the printed paper has circulation.)
Probably the best discussion of this is between Jay Rosen and Dave Winer:
• Can Twitter save the news? (direct link to the discussion – note that the audio quality is variable.)
Shortly after posting about the videos from Tim O’Reilly and Tim Berners-Lee the latest issue of Nodalities came through the door. The main article is about how developers at O’Reilly (the company) have used some of the principles of the semantic web to help them tidy up their book information and become more responsive to the needs of the business. I can’t say I understand it all, but it is interesting stuff.
• Nodalities: Linking Data and Semantics at O’Reilly (downloads the pdf of the latest issue)
• Semantic Universe: O’Reilly Media Joins the Semantic Web
I’ve been trying out Spotify – a streaming music service – for the last couple of weeks and I really like it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to music, preferring radio programmes and spoken word / audiobooks. This has gotten me listening again – all the old stuff that I never got around to buying years ago, artists that I’ve always wondered about but never known where to start or what to choose, like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Early Tom Waits is cool stuff, better than his more recent music that I still can’t fully appreciate even though I’ve tried. Albums that I had on tape that I never bothered to digitise. Albums that I’m glad I didn’t waste my money on. Hell, even albums I know I bought but I just can’t find any more.
Strangely, I’m going for live music more than recorded albums. Queen kicking ass. Johnny Cash at San Quentin. The laid back blues of the Grateful Dead – who I’d never heard before. Shit, I’m starting to sound old. I’m not that old, promise. There’s a lot of stuff to explore.
Sound quality is good for everyday listening but not as good as you would get from iTunes. CD quality is out of the question – still, if I like something so much that I want that quality I can always go out and buy it. As a free account listener there are ads about every 20 minutes, but there is only one at a time and they are not too long. There are ads that pop up in the application window, but I’m not really looking at that very often anyway. It’s a fair trade off – they have to make money and the ads aren’t particularly intrusive. There is the option to pay £10 / month for going ad free. I wouldn’t consider that, but maybe £5. £2 / month and I wouldn’t even notice.
The application itself is good – perfectly straightforward if you’re familiar with iTunes. There’s no delay playing tracks. Your playlists follow you around when you log in on another machine. All works well.
You can also listen to other peoples’ playlists – this is very early days but a few sites have popped up with lists.
I think this one could last, and seriously take off.
• Wikipedia: Spotify
