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Retweet of doctorow

2016 Feb 8, 5:08
A digital, 3D printed sundial whose precise holes cast a shadow displaying the current time https://boingboing.net/2016/02/09/a-digital-3d-printed-sundial.html … pic.twitter.com/zTSRoXL9a7
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Retweet of waxpancake

2015 Apr 2, 8:55
"But you're not you. You're your digital you. Virtually real, controlled by real you." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9FGgwCQ22w … pic.twitter.com/JhhdPNMN4g
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Retweet of verge

2015 Apr 2, 6:22
Max Headroom: the definitive history of the 1980s digital icon http://theverge.com/e/8049180  pic.twitter.com/ZRLbVJrRBO
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Internet Archive lets you play one of the earliest computer...

2014 Apr 28, 9:39


Internet Archive lets you play one of the earliest computer games Space War! emulated in JavaScript in the browser.

This entry covers the historical context of Space War!, and instructions for working with our in-browser emulator. The system doesn’t require installed plugins (although a more powerful machine and recent browser version is suggested).

The JSMESS emulator (a conversion of the larger MESS project) also contains a real-time portrayal of the lights and switches of a Digital PDP-1, as well as links to documentation and manuals for this $800,000 (2014 dollars) minicomputer.

PermalinkCommentscomputer-game game video-game history internet-archive

(via Descriptive Camera) A digital camera sends photos to...

2012 Apr 25, 4:23


(via Descriptive Camera)

A digital camera sends photos to Mechanical Turk service to generate a textual description and print the result on a thermal printer.  Thus a camera that prints out a textual description of what you photographed.

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Blackmail DRM - Stolen Thoughts

2012 Feb 13, 4:00

Most existing DRM attempts to only allow the user to access the DRM'ed content with particular applications or with particular credentials so that if the file is shared it won't be useful to others. A better solution is to encode any of the user's horrible secrets into unique versions of the DRM'ed content so that the user won't want to share it. Entangle the users and the content provider's secrets together in one document and accordingly their interests. I call this Blackmail DRM. For an implementation it is important to point out that the user's horrible secret doesn't need to be verified as accurate, but merely verified as believable.

Apparently I need to get these blog posts written faster because only recently I read about Social DRM which is a light weight version of my idea but with a misleading name. Instead of horrible secrets, they say they'll use personal information like the user's name in the DRM'ed content. More of my thoughts stolen and before I even had a chance to think of it first!

PermalinkCommentsdrm blackmail blackmail-drm technical humor social-drm

Why We Need the New News Environment to be Chaotic « Clay Shirky

2011 Jul 10, 5:49"The ‘analog dollars to digital dimes’ problem doesn’t actually seem to be a problem. It seems to be a feature of reality. Digital revenue per head is not replacing lost print revenue and, barring some astonishment in the advertising market, it never will."PermalinkCommentsnews media journalism clay-shirky

Multi-Stream Tuner Cards by Ceton

2010 Dec 8, 5:43This that lets your PC read four digital encrypted cable signals at once with a cable card from you cable company. This is cool although expensive. What frustrates me is the lack of choices in this area.PermalinkCommentscable cablecard hardware pc technical mediacenter

Wired Magazine Goes Digital - Video - Wired

2010 Feb 22, 4:25Wired's concept for a digital version of their magazine to run on tablets. Looks pretty but of course its running on Flash or somesuch Adobe product.PermalinkCommentsvideo wired web adobe magazine

Photos Bahamas Anecdote

2010 Feb 17, 8:09

Sarah and I just got back home from a Eric and Jane's wedding / Sarah and Dave's vacation trip to the Bahamas (note the lack of activity for the past twelve days on my website). I've got plenty of photos and things to post but for now I'll just relate this humorous anecdote during the rehearsal dinner. I had said something about photos to Jim, Eric's brother and he gave me a crazy look. "Oh, I thought you meant like pho-tos" he said. It took me a moment to realize he misunderstood what I said as "faux toes". I laughed until I cried a little. Also works with digital faux toes.

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No, you can’t do that with H.264 « Digital Diary of Ben Schwartz

2010 Feb 4, 2:01On the crappy licensing of the H.264 and MPEG codecs in popular video encoding software.PermalinkCommentsvideo encoding codec patent legal law apple microsoft theora h.264 technical

Metalink/HTTP: Mirrors and Checksums in HTTP Headers

2009 Nov 24, 5:51"Metalink/HTTP describes multiple download locations (mirrors), Peer-to-Peer, checksums, digital signatures, and other information using existing standards for HTTP headers. Clients can transparently use this information to make file transfers more robust and reliable."PermalinkCommentshttp metalink url p2p http-header cache redirect reference technical

Comcast Digital Switch Impact on My Windows Media Center

2009 Sep 25, 2:19

Amateur wireless station (LOC)Irritatingly out of line with what their commercials say, in my area Comcast, under the covers of the national broadcast digital switch, is sneaking in their own switch to digital, moving channels above 30 to their own digital format. Previously, I had Windows 7 Media Center running on a PC with a Hauppauge PVR500 which can decode two television signals at once setup to record shows I like. The XBox 360 works great as a Media Center client letting me easily watch the recorded shows over my home network on my normal TV.

Unfortunately with Comcast's change, now one needs a cable box or a Comcast digital to analog converter in order to view their signal, but Comcast is offering up to two free converters for those who'd like them. The second of my two free converters I hooked up to the Media Center PC and I got the IR Blaster that came with my Hauppauge out of the garage. I plugged in the USB IR Blaster to my PC, connected one of the IR transmitters to the 1st port on the IR Blaster, and sat the IR transmitter next to the converter's IR receiver. I went through the Media Center TV setup again and happily it was able to figure out how to correctly change the channel on the converter. So I can record now, however:

  1. I can only record one thing at a time now
  2. Changing the channel is slow taking many seconds (no flipping through channels for me)
  3. The Hauppauge card can't know if the channel change worked. So if it tries to change to HBO (I get it for free with one of the Comcast packages) which is encrypted and the converted won't show, the channel doesn't change but the PC doesn't know it and ends up recording some other channel.
To fix (3) I need to manually go through and remove channels I don't have from the Media Center. To fix (1) I may be able to get a second IR transmitter, a third digital converter, hook it up to one of the other inputs on my Hauppauge, and go back through the Media Center TV setup. There's no fix for (2) but that's not so bad. All in all, its just generally frustrating that they're breaking my setup with no obvious benefit.PermalinkCommentsdigital tv hauppauge mce cable windows media center comcast

Brier Dudley's blog | More on Comcast digital: TiVos, Media Centers, HD ...

2009 Sep 20, 10:44Grumble grumble...PermalinkCommentscomcast digital cable windows mediacenter tv television tivo

CableCARD now a go for homebrew home theater PCs - Ars Technica

2009 Sep 10, 5:52Just in time for Comcast switching channels above 30 to digital only. My current Windows Media Center setup will not function soon. How much do you think I'm going to have to spend to get it working now...PermalinkCommentscablecard cable tv windows mediacenter media technical

The Hierarchy Of Digital Distractions | Information Is Beautiful

2009 Sep 8, 7:29The food pyramid of digital distractions.PermalinkCommentshumor visualization information pyramid hierarchy distraction procrastination twitter facebook phone via:waxy

Major labels preparing new digital album format | Music | guardian.co.uk

2009 Aug 11, 6:22Good luck with that. "Forget WAV, MP3 and M4A – major labels have something new in mind, and it's called CMX. Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are reportedly preparing a new digital album format that will include songs, lyrics, videos, liner notes and artwork."PermalinkCommentsmusic cmx mp3 audio apple itunes

s i x t h s e n s e - a wearable gestural interface (MIT Media Lab)

2009 Apr 3, 11:40"'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information." The page is a lot easier to read with styling turned off. Actually, skip the text just watch the TED video.PermalinkCommentsvisualization design research mit hci mobile interactive ted

Digital Urban: The City as a Canvas: Video Projection Showreel 2009

2009 Jan 15, 6:02Projecting giant images onto buildings that appear to interact with their surface. Lovely video. "We have posted quite a few times now about using projectors in the city to beam images onto Architecture and the screengrab above is one from one the best examples we have seen so far."PermalinkCommentsvideo graffiti cultural-disobediance art technology projector light

Back from California

2008 Dec 30, 2:29

Sarah and Me at ChristmasSarah and I are back from a short Christmas visit to California. We spent the days around Christmas with much of my extended family in Sacramento many of whom I had not seen in quite a while. It was nice to see everybody again. I ended up taking a few pictures on Christmas in order to add to the digital photo frame I gave Grandma.

San Francisco Pier at NightWe flew in and out of San Francisco on Virgin America which was really nice. The staff is trying their best to be hip but accessible, the safety instructional video is entertaining, there's mood lighting, and all seats have entertainment systems as well as power outlets and USB ports to charge your electronic devices. They don't have many flights which appears to mean shorter lines. And it was cheaper to fly with them and then rent a car and drive to Sacramento then to fly in to Sacramento. I'll for sure be flying with them again given the opportunity. Before flying back Sarah and I spent a day in San Francisco, where we decided that if we don't go back to Fisherman's Wharf again in this lifetime that would be acceptable, saw the Golden Gate Park and met up with my friend Jake who I haven't seen in at least four years. Next up, happy new year!

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