Tings

So everyone knows that the recent troubles in the stock market and the ongoing uncertainty is caused by the bubble burst of subprime mortgage loans in the US. This, amazingly, affects most of the worlds economies, including my little portfolio. Though I knew all this for a long while now, I had only a vague idea of how this happened, or what the hell are subprime loans.
Surprisingly, all the answers came in a well written (not surprising) blog post from David Byrne. Yes, I get my economics from the former leader of the talking heads himself.
Anyway, if you want to make some sense out of all this go read his post on the subject. It’s good stuff.

A recent Cory Doctorow post on BoingBoing hits straight on mark. He quotes a CD/DVD pirate telling how he went out of business because his clients started torrenting the same movies/CDs he was selling them. So maybe P2P isn’t the best thing that happened to the recording industry or hollywood (arguable still) in general, but it sure helps them against the the “heavy duty” pirates - Those who actually profit from stolen copyright material as apposed to the P2P users who only DL for their own consumption.

I never sold or bought a pirated copy of CD/DVD personally so I don’t fit in this equation. Yet, I’m glad to hear that P2P is influencing this industry for the better on both fronts - pushing the RIAA and Hollywood into a better non-DRM digital distribution model and taking the real pirates out of business.

I feel better already. Torrent clients - full speed ahead

Technorati Tags: torrent, pirate

I’ve been waiting on the sidelines of the digital photography revolution for years now. Mainly because I haven’t been willing to replace my analog SLR (Nikon F80) with a point a shoot digital camera. Not for lack of output quality; some of these smaller cameras give very pleasant results. One of things that I love is the TTL (through the lens) viewfinder that you can only find in a SLR camera. So I haven’t bought one yet since DSLRs are costly and though this may sound contradictory to what I just said about the TTL experience, DSLRs had till now one major flaw over all other digital cameras - they don’t do live LCD preview of the shot. While I would spend maybe 80% of shooting time through the viewfinder, there are shots that are better taken with the LCD. This is changing these days. Both Canon and Olympus are releasing new DSLRs with live LCDs. I’m not sure how the Canon system works but the Olympus one is clever:

The seven-point-five megapixel E-330 is the first digital SLR designed to provide a full-time live view on its LCD monitor while still providing a usable through-the-lens viewfinder. It provides two live view modes, the first uses a small CCD sensor integrated into the viewfinder chamber, the second mode uses the main sensor but this blocks the viewfinder and disables auto-focus.

I’m guessing that all the other manufacturers will follow shortly (I only really care about Nikon), and that this technology will permeate down to the more affordable DSLRs like all other advanced features. Now I have a good reason to wait another couple of years for my DSLR. Should I get a point and click digital in the meantime? I have also been eying these hybrid video/photo digitals that look like they have progressed from the “jack of all trades, master of non” stage.

Technorati Tags: photography, DSLR

One of my favorite media formats is the music video. This short, decisive and unencumbered format has endless possibilities and is a true multimedia art form. Music video directors can go nuts and do all the things they would never do in a film or even a commercial. I have been disconnected from music videos for a very long time since I don’t have any form of cable TV (including MTV) for some years now. Then comes Democracy player (again). One of the default channels that come preinstalled in Democracy is Telemusicvision. Every now and then (about once a week) I get a music video delivered to my virtual door step these days. Telemusicvision defines itself as a “venue for independent music videos”, it showcases music videos of both indie bands I’ve never heard of and some recognizable names. The quality of the videos is always great so make sure you view it full screen. The quality of the content varies like any art piece - some is great, some just OK and some of these are total crap (still fascinating at times).
Here is a link to cute video I’ve enjoyed to get your appetite rolling (download, watch it and then subscribe to the feed):
The Shins - Pink Bullets

Technorati Tags: telemusicvision, democracy, torrent, video

Waltz of the Polypeptides is an eighty-foot long, ten-foot high sculpture by Mara G. Haseltine that was recently installed at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York.

The inspiration for “Waltz of the Polypeptides” comes from one of the smallest muses on the planet, a subject so tiny it can only be seen with an electron microscope. It is a subcellular organelle called a ribosome. Within each cell, ribosomes produce the smallest functional elements in all living organisms, proteins. In “Waltz of the Polypeptides” the viewer literally walks through the birth of a single protein.

Artists page
(via BoingBoing)

Technorati Tags: Protein, Art, Waltz of the Polypeptides

WARNING: above average geek material ahead. skip it if torrent or RSS doesn’t even register on your radar. sorry.

As noted before I am a user and even an evangelist of the Democracy player software (a recent update to 0.9.2 was released a couple of days ago and should be faster and better). One of the unique features of democracy is a totally seamless integration of a bittorrent client, meaning that your RSS feed can point either to a direct (HTTP) download of a video or to a torrent file. Democracy makes it transparent to the user. This is a great feature and is very beneficial for the content providers in that it can allow them to deliver large files without the burden of paying for all the bandwidth involved. where’s the catch? I’m concerned about the availability of older files once some time has passed. Bittorent is great for those “off the line” hot new files you want to download at the same time as everyone else, but what happens if I want to watch an old episode of TechnologyEvangelist (which is supplied in torrents)? you think someone out there is seeding a 5 min clip of a report on last years CES? So I guess torrents will always have to coexist with direct downloads. Back catalogs will always have to be available in direct download. I think this discourages people from using torrents. maybe future torrent protocols should have also a direct download option, where you can suck things straight from the tracker if 0 seeders are available or a certain time has passed.

Technorati Tags: RSS, torrent, Democracy

Nothing much to say about it - Apple brings it’s A game again.
The new iPod shuffle Ad
These will sell like hotcakes. bring on the iPhone - I’m waiting.

no, really.

I just handed in my Masters (M.Sc.) thesis today. Of course I still have to go through the oral test but the hard part is over. I had tons of fun during the past two years and I have learned so much. I still have no idea what I’m going to do next but I’ll let you know when I decide.
For anyone interested, the topic of my thesis is: “Kinetic Aspects in Catalysis and Regulation of Eukaryotic Sulfhydryl Oxidase Enzymes“. catchy, right? The hardest part of writing the thesis was trying to translate the title to Hebrew.
So, if anyone has some good advice for people in major intersections of life, I’d be glad to hear it.

I have this secret blog I’m subscribed to that reports on all kinds of weird art. I like some of the things I see there but the thing I love most is my brother’s reaction to some of these. you can see an example here: link.
or you can wait for the comment to come on this one: it’s an art installation by Gilles Barbier. It’s a room with big dark hoods, each with weird electronic music playing inside it. It is supposed to simulate the emotions of an autistic individual. you can click on each mask to hear the music that is played inside it.

I’ve bumped into the Ted talks site recently to view a very amusing talk given by Ze Frank that was linked in various places on the web lately. My brother also noted that he found some interesting things on the site so I kept a note to check out more talks in the future. Then I saw the Dawkins documentary I wrote about in the previous post and recalled that I saw his name on the Ted talks page. I went and viewed his talk and it was purely fascinating. I think this site is a real gem. The list of speakers is long and full of names I recognize and would love to watch. Go have a look and if you watch anything that was really good come back and inform me.

You can go to the site and pick the shows you want to see or subscribe to an RSS feed of the talks.

Technorati Tags: ted talks, dawkins, ze frank