Computers & Internet

The Dramatic Prairie Dog

3 Comments / Computers & Internet / /

I recently came across this silly video, and have since become interested in its evolution.

It’s strange how these memes progress. Is this really a worthwhile enterprise? It’s amusing and fun, but also ephemeral. My initial thoughts are that stuff like this, while not necessarily brilliant in themselves, are a natural byproduct of a system that will produce good content. In other words, if you want to create something great, you’ll probably have to endure creating a lot of crap before you cross over into greatness. Same thing with blogs, I think. Everyone tries different things and experiments, but only a few blogs become really good.

Twitter

Computers & Internet / /

So this Twitter thing seems to be all the rage these days. I signed up a few days ago, just to see what all the fuss was about. It turns out to be a little nebulous and I’m not sure it’s something I’d use all that much. Everyone seems to have a different definition of what Twitter is, and they all seem to work. Mine is that it’s a sorta mix between a public IM system and a stripped-down blogging system. It’s got some similarities with certain aspects of MySpace and Facebook, but it’s much simpler and stripped-down. Here’s my twitter:

There’s “Friends” and “Followers” and you can update your Twitter via a number of interfaces, including IM Clients, SMS messaging, and the web interface (amongst other similar connections). You can also get updates on such devices. I don’t use any of these methods with regularity, though the concept of being able to update Twitter while waiting in line or something seems like a vaguely interesting use of normally wasted time.

I guess the idea is that if you and all your friends are on Twitter, you can keep up with what everyone’s doing in one quick and easy place (the default way to read Twitter is with your posts and your friends’ posts mixed together on one page). My problem: I don’t think any of my friends would be into this. I suppose I could mess around on Twitter and find a bunch of folks that I’d want to keep up with for some reason, but that seems… strange. Why would I want to keep tabs on some stranger?

Jason Kottke claims that this is a huge time-saver and perfect for people who are really busy:

For people with little time, Twitter functions like an extremely stripped-down version of MySpace. Instead of customized pages, animated badges, custom music, top 8 friends, and all that crap, Twitter is just-the-facts-ma’am: where are my friends and what are they up to? … Twitter seems to work equally well for busy people and not-busy people. It allows folks with little time to keep up with what their friends are up to without having to email and IM with them all day.

I suppose this would be true, though I’ve been busy lately and have only managed to update Twitter once or twice a day. Naturally, there are some interesting side-projects like Twittervision, which shows updates happening in real time on a map, or Twitterverse, which shows common words and users.

It’s an interesting and simple concept, and it could be useful, but I’m not sure how much I’ll get into it… It seems like more of a novelty at this point. Anyone else use it?

Update: Some people are using Twitter for unintended uses, and there are some great ficticious Twitterers like Darth Vader. It’s interesting how quickly people start pushing the boundries of new stuff like this and using it for things that were never intended.

Update 4.12.07: Aziz comments. He’s using it to power a section of his sidebar, dedicated to songs… a pretty good idea, and using Twitter (“a device-agnostic messaging system,” as he calls it) to power it is a good fit.

Oh, and it appears that my little flash badge doesn’t really update (it does, but most browsers cache it and Flash won’t update unless you clear your cache manually).

Link Dump

3 Comments / Arts & Letters, Computers & Internet, Science & Technology, Security & Intelligence, Video Games / /

Various links for your enjoyment:

  • The Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique: Like the Boy Scouts, but for Scientists. Aside from the goofy name, they’ve got an ingenious and hilarious list of badges, including: The “my degree inadvertantly makes me competent in fixing household appliances” badge, The “I’ve touched human internal organs with my own hands” badge, The “has frozen stuff just to see what happens” badge (oh come one, who hasn’t done that?), The “I bet I know more computer languages than you, and I’m not afraid to talk about it” badge (well, I used to know a bunch), and of course, The “dodger of monkey shit” badge. (“One of our self explanatory badges.”). Sadly, I qualify for less of these than I’d like. Of course, I’m not a scientist, but still. I’m borderline on many though (for instance, the “I blog about science” badge requires that I maintain a blog where at least a quarter of the material is about science – I certainly blog about technology a lot, but explicitely science? Debateable, I guess.)
  • Dr. Ashen and Gizmodo Reviews The Gamespower 50 (YouTube): It’s a funny review of a crappy portable video game device, just watch it. The games on this thing are so bad (there’s actually one called “Grass Cutter,” which is exactly what you think it is – a game where you mow the lawn).
  • Count Chocula Vandalism on Wikipedia: Some guy came up with an absurdly comprehensive history for Count Chocula:

    Ernst Choukula was born the third child to Estonian landowers in the late autumn of 1873. His parents, Ivan and Brushken Choukula, were well-established traders of Baltic grain who– by the early twentieth century–had established a monopolistic hold on the export markets of Lithuania, Latvia and southern Finland. A clever child, Ernst advanced quickly through secondary schooling and, at the age of nineteen, was managing one of six Talinn-area farms, along with his father, and older brother, Grinsh. By twenty-four, he appeared in his first “barrelled cereal” endorsement, as the Choukula family debuted “Ernst Choukula’s Golden Wheat Muesli”, a packaged mix that was intended for horses, mules, and the hospital ridden. Belarussian immigrant silo-tenders started cutting the product with vodka, creating a crude mush-paste they called “gruhll” or “gruell,” and would eat the concoction each morning before work.

    It goes on like that for a while. That particular edit has been removed from the real article, but there appears to actually be quite a debate on the Talk page as to whether or not to mention it in the official article.

  • The Psychology of Security by Bruce Schneier: A long draft of an article that delves into psychological reasons we make the security tradeoffs that we do. Interesting stuff.
  • The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi (Audio Book): I’ve become a great fan of Scalzi’s fiction, and his latest work is available here as audio (a book is available too, but it appears to be a limited run). Since the book is essentially the diary of a woman, he got various female authors and friends to read a chapter. This actually makes for somewhat uneven listening, as some are great and others aren’t as great. Now that I think about it, this book probably won’t make sense if you haven’t read Old Man’s War and/or The Ghost Brigades. However, they’re both wonderful books of the military scifi school (maybe I’ll probably write a blog post or two about them in the near future).

Intellectual Property, Copyright and DRM

5 Comments / Best Entries, Computers & Internet, Culture, Science & Technology, Security & Intelligence / /

Roy over at 79Soul has started a series of posts dealing with Intellectual Property. His first post sets the stage with an overview of the situation, and he begins to explore some of the issues, starting with the definition of theft. I’m going to cover some of the same ground in this post, and then some other things which I assume Roy will cover in his later posts.

I think most people have an intuitive understanding of what intellectual property is, but it might be useful to start with a brief definition. Perhaps a good place to start would be Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

I started with this for a number of reasons. First, because I live in the U.S. and most of what follows deals with U.S. IP law. Second, because it’s actually a somewhat controversial stance. The fact that IP is only secured for “limited times” is the key. In England, for example, an author does not merely hold a copyright on their work, they have a Moral Right.

The moral right of the author is considered to be — according to the Berne convention — an inalienable human right. This is the same serious meaning of “inalienable” the Declaration of Independence uses: not only can’t these rights be forcibly stripped from you, you can’t even give them away. You can’t sell yourself into slavery; and neither can you (in Britain) give the right to be called the author of your writings to someone else.

The U.S. is different. It doesn’t grant an inalienable moral right of ownership; instead, it allows copyright. In other words, in the U.S., such works are considered property (i.e. it can be sold, traded, bartered, or given away). This represents a fundamental distinction that needs to be made: some systems emphasize individual rights and rewards, and other systems are more limited. When put that way, the U.S. system sounds pretty awful, except that it was designed for something different: our system was built to advance science and the “useful arts.” The U.S. system still rewards creators, but only as a means to an end. Copyright is granted so that there is an incentive to create. However, such protections are only granted for “limited Times.” This is because when a copyright is eternal, the system stagnates as protected peoples stifle competition (this need not be malicious). Copyright is thus limited so that when a work is no longer protected, it becomes freely available for everyone to use and to build upon. This is known as the public domain.

The end goal here is the advancement of society, and both protection and expiration are necessary parts of the mix. The balance between the two is important, and as Roy notes, one of the things that appears to have upset the balance is technology. This, of course, extends as far back as the printing press, records, cassettes, VHS, and other similar technologies, but more recently, a convergence between new compression techniques and increasing bandwidth of the internet created an issue. Most new recording technologies were greeted with concern, but physical limitations and costs generally put a cap on the amount of damage that could be done. With computers and large networks like the internet, such limitations became almost negligible. Digital copies of protected works became easy to copy and distribute on a very large scale.

The first major issue came up as a result of Napster, a peer-to-peer music sharing service that essentially promoted widespread copyright infringement. Lawsuits followed, and the original Napster service was shut down, only to be replaced by numerous decentralized peer-to-peer systems and darknets. This meant that no single entity could be sued for the copyright infringement that occurred on the network, but it resulted in a number of (probably ill-advised) lawsuits against regular folks (the anonymity of internet technology and state of recordkeeping being what it is, this sometimes leads to hilarious cases like when the RIAA sued a 79 year old guy who doesn’t even own a computer or know how to operate one).

Roy discusses the various arguments for or against this sort of file sharing, noting that the essential difference of opinion is the definition of the word “theft.” For my part, I think it’s pretty obvious that downloading something for free that you’d normally have to pay for is morally wrong. However, I can see some grey area. A few months ago, I pre-ordered Tool’s most recent album, 10,000 Days from Amazon. A friend who already had the album sent me a copy over the internet before I had actually recieved my copy of the CD. Does this count as theft? I would say no.

The concept of borrowing a Book, CD or DVD also seems pretty harmless to me, and I don’t have a moral problem with borrowing an electronic copy, then deleting it afterwords (or purchasing it, if I liked it enough), though I can see how such a practice represents a bit of a slippery slope and wouldn’t hold up in an honest debate (nor should it). It’s too easy to abuse such an argument, or to apply it in retrospect. I suppose there are arguments to be made with respect to making distinctions between benefits and harms, but I generally find those arguments unpersuasive (though perhaps interesting to consider).

There are some other issues that need to be discussed as well. The concept of Fair Use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders. For example, including a screenshot of a film in a movie review. You’re also allowed to parody copyrighted works, and in some instances make complete copies of a copyrighted work. There are rules pertaining to how much of the copyrighted work can be used and in what circumstances, but this is not the venue for such details. The point is that copyright is not absolute and consumers have rights as well.

Another topic that must be addressed is Digital Rights Management (DRM). This refers to a range of technologies used to combat digital copying of protected material. The goal of DRM is to use technology to automatically limit the abilities of a consumer who has purchased digital media. In some cases, this means that you won’t be able to play an optical disc on a certain device, in others it means you can only use the media a certain number of times (among other restrictions).

To be blunt, DRM sucks. For the most part, it benefits no one. It’s confusing, it basically amounts to treating legitimate customers like criminals while only barely (if that much) slowing down the piracy it purports to be thwarting, and it’s lead to numerous disasters and unintended consequences. Essential reading on this subject is this talk given to Microsoft by Cory Doctorow. It’s a long but well written and straightforward read that I can’t summarize briefly (please read the whole thing). Some details of his argument may be debateable, but as a whole, I find it quite compelling. Put simply, DRM doesn’t work and it’s bad for artists, businesses, and society as a whole.

Now, the IP industries that are pushing DRM are not that stupid. They know DRM is a fundamentally absurd proposition: the whole point of selling IP media is so that people can consume it. You can’t make a system that will prevent people from doing so, as the whole point of having the media in the first place is so that people can use it. The only way to perfectly secure a piece of digital media is to make it unusable (i.e. the only perfectly secure system is a perfectly useless one). That’s why DRM systems are broken so quickly. It’s not that the programmers are necessarily bad, it’s that the entire concept is fundamentally flawed. Again, the IP industries know this, which is why they pushed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As with most laws, the DMCA is a complex beast, but what it boils down to is that no one is allowed to circumvent measures taken to protect copyright. Thus, even though the copy protection on DVDs is obscenely easy to bypass, it is illegal to do so. In theory, this might be fine. In practice, this law has extended far beyond what I’d consider reasonable and has also been heavily abused. For instance, some software companies have attempted to use the DMCA to prevent security researchers from exposing bugs in their software. The law is sometimes used to silence critics by threatening them with a lawsuit, even though no copright infringement was committed. The Chilling Effects project seems to be a good source for information regarding the DMCA and it’s various effects.

DRM combined with the DMCA can be stifling. A good example of how awful DRM is, and how DMCA can affect the situation is the Sony Rootkit Debacle. Boing Boing has a ridiculously comprehensive timeline of the entire fiasco. In short, Sony put DRM on certain CDs. The general idea was to prevent people from putting the CDs in their computer and ripping them to MP3s. To accomplish this, Sony surreptitiously installed software on customer’s computers (without their knowledge). A security researcher happened to notice this, and in researching the matter found that the Sony DRM had installed a rootkit that made the computer vulnerable to various attacks. Rootkits are black-hat cracker tools used to disguise the workings of their malicious software. Attempting to remove the rootkit broke the windows installation. Sony reacted slowly and poorly, releasing a service pack that supposedly removed the rootkit, but which actually opened up new security vulnerabilities. And it didn’t end there. Reading through the timeline is astounding (as a result, I tend to shy away from Sony these days). Though I don’t believe he was called on it, the security researcher who discovered these vulnerabilities was technically breaking the law, because the rootkit was intended to protect copyright.

A few months ago, my windows computer died and I decided to give linux a try. I wanted to see if I could get linux to do everything I needed it to do. As it turns out, I could, but not legally. Watching DVDs on linux is technically illegal, because I’m circumventing the copy protection on DVDs. Similar issues exist for other media formats. The details are complex, but in the end, it turns out that I’m not legally able to watch my legitimately purchased DVDs on my computer (I have since purchased a new computer that has an approved player installed). Similarly, if I were to purchase a song from the iTunes Music Store, it comes in a DRMed format. If I want to use that format on a portable device (let’s say my phone, which doesn’t support Apple’s DRM format), I’d have to convert it to a format that my portable device could understand, which would be illegal.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that DRM isn’t really about protecting copyright. I’ve already established that it doesn’t really accomplish that goal (and indeed, even works against many of the reasons copyright was put into place), so why is it still being pushed? One can only really speculate, but I’ll bet that part of the issue has to do with IP owners wanting to “undercut fair use and then create new revenue streams where there were previously none.” To continue an earlier example, if I buy a song from the iTunes music store and I want to put it on my non-Apple phone (not that I don’t want one of those), the music industry would just love it if I were forced to buy the song again, in a format that is readable by my phone. Of course, that format would be incompatible with other devices, so I’d have to purchase the song again if I wanted to listen to it on those devices. When put in those terms, it’s pretty easy to see why IP owners like DRM, and given the general person’s reaction to such a scheme, it’s also easy to see why IP owners are always careful to couch the debate in terms of piracy. This won’t last forever, but it could be a bumpy ride.

Interestingly enough, distributers of digital media like Apple and Yahoo have recently come out against DRM. For the most part, these are just symbolic gestures. Cynics will look at Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Music and say that he’s just passing the buck. He knows customers don’t like or understand DRM, so he’s just making a calculated PR move by blaming it on the music industry. Personally, I can see that, but I also think it’s a very good thing. I find it encouraging that other distributers are following suit, and I also hope and believe this will lead to better things. Apple has proven that there is a large market for legally purchased music files on the internet, and other companies have even shown that selling DRM-free files yields higher sales. Indeed, the emusic service sells high quality, variable bit rate MP3 files without DRM, and it has established emusic as the #2 retailer of downloadable music behind the iTunes Music Store. Incidentally, this was not done for pure ideological reasons – it just made busines sense. As yet, these pronouncements are only symbolic, but now that online media distributers have established themselves as legitimate businesses, they have ammunition with which to challenge the IP holders. This won’t happen overnight, but I think the process has begun.

Last year, I purchased a computer game called Galactic Civilizations II (and posted about it several times). This game was notable to me (in addition to the fact that it’s a great game) in that it was the only game I’d purchased in years that featured no CD copy protection (i.e. DRM). As a result, when I bought a new computer, I experienced none of the usual fumbling for 16 digit CD Keys that I normally experience when trying to reinstall a game. Brad Wardell, the owner of the company that made the game, explained his thoughts on copy protection on his blog a while back:

I don’t want to make it out that I’m some sort of kumbaya guy. Piracy is a problem and it does cost sales. I just don’t think it’s as big of a problem as the game industry thinks it is. I also don’t think inconveniencing customers is the solution.

For him, it’s not that piracy isn’t an issue, it’s that it’s not worth imposing draconian copy protection measures that infuriate customers. The game sold much better than expected. I doubt this was because they didn’t use DRM, but I can guarantee one thing: People don’t buy games because they want DRM. However, this shows that you don’t need DRM to make a successful game.

The future isn’t all bright, though. Peter Gutmann’s excellent Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection provides a good example of how things could get considerably worse:

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it’s not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server).

This is infuriating. In case you can’t tell, I’ve never liked DRM, but at least it could be avoided. I generally take articles like the one I’m referencing with a grain of salt, but if true, it means that the DRM in Vista is so oppressive that it will raise the price of hardware… And since Microsoft commands such a huge share of the market, hardware manufacturers have to comply, even though a some people (linux users, Mac users) don’t need the draconian hardware requirements. This is absurd. Microsoft should have enough clout to stand up to the media giants, there’s no reason the DRM in Vista has to be so invasive (or even exist at all). As Gutmann speculates in his cost analysis, some of the potential effects of this are particularly egregious, to the point where I can’t see consumers standing for it.

My previous post dealt with Web 2.0, and I posted a YouTube video that summarized how changing technology is going to force us to rethink a few things: copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, ourselves. All of these are true. Earlier, I wrote that the purpose of copyright was to benefit society, and that protection and expiration were both essential. The balance between protection and expiration has been upset by technology. We need to rethink that balance. Indeed, many people smarter than I already have. The internet is replete with examples of people who have profited off of giving things away for free. Creative Commons allows you to share your content so that others can reuse and remix your content, but I don’t think it has been adopted to the extent that it should be.

To some people, reusing or remixing music, for example, is not a good thing. This is certainly worthy of a debate, and it is a discussion that needs to happen. Personally, I don’t mind it. For an example of why, watch this video detailing the history of the Amen Break. There are amazing things that can happen as a result of sharing, reusing and remixing, and that’s only a single example. The current copyright environment seems to stifle such creativity, not the least of which because copyright lasts so long (currently the life of the author plus 70 years). In a world where technology has enabled an entire generation to accellerate the creation and consumption of media, it seems foolish to lock up so much material for what could easily be over a century. Despite all that I’ve written, I have to admit that I don’t have a definitive answer. I’m sure I can come up with something that would work for me, but this is larger than me. We all need to rethink this, and many other things. Maybe that Web 2.0 thing can help.

Update: This post has mutated into a monster. Not only is it extremely long, but I reference several other long, detailed documents and even somewhere around 20-25 minutes of video. It’s a large subject, and I’m certainly no expert. Also, I generally like to take a little more time when posting something this large, but I figured getting a draft out there would be better than nothing. Updates may be made…

Update 2.15.07: Made some minor copy edits, and added a link to an Ars Technica article that I forgot to add yesterday.

Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us

4 Comments / Computers & Internet / /

Via The Rodent’s Burrow, I come across this YouTube video on Web 2.0:

It’s an interesting video, but I have to admit that the term Web 2.0 always bothered me. This is odd, because obsessing over terminology is also annoying. As you can see, I’m in a bit of a bind here. Web 2.0 has become a shorthand for the current renaissance in web development which is focused new web services and applications that emphasize social collaboration and openness. That, of course, is a lame definition. Most definitions of Web 2.0 are. However, I think Paul Graham hits the nail on the head in his essay on the subject:

Web 2.0 means using the web the way it’s meant to be used. The “trends” we’re seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the Bubble.

Right on. Key to understanding “Web 2.0” is the concept of the internet itself. I should also note that the web and the internet are not the same thing. The internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks (i.e. the physical hardware), the web is a collection of interconnected documents and data that lives on the internet. If you don’t understand the historical resources that lead to the topology of the internet, “Web 2.0” won’t make much sense. The internet is made by human beings, and it’s history extends back to the 1950s (well, the branch of mathematics that represents our thinking about networks is called graph theory, which finds its roots in the early eighteenth century, but the physical internet has its roots in ARPANET, the 1950s governmental precursor to the internet), but it was not a centrally designed system.

Structurally, the internet is like an ecosystem. It’s essentially a self-organizing system, and the gigantic information resource we call the web is the emergent result of billions of interactions. Note that while this information resource was the goal, the system’s designers did not go about planning what that information would look like. Their primary strategy was to build an efficient system of collaboration. Sound familiar? “Web 2.0” isn’t really new. It’s the whole point of the internet. Sure, there are specific technological advances and tools that have accellerated the process (i.e. thanks to AJAX, javascript actually kinda became a legitimate web-based scripting language), but the technology of the internet and the web are just the natural extensions of the grand experiment of life, driven by evolution and selection.

The web isn’t all that different, but we are, and we’re taking advantage of it.

Update 2.14.07: It seems that this post has kicked off a little discussion of Intellectual Property, starting over at 79Soul with a response by me here.

iPhone

4 Comments / Computers & Internet, Science & Technology / /

iPhoneA couple of years ago, I was in the market for a new phone. After looking around at all the options and features, I ended up settling on a relatively “low-end” phone that was good for calls and SMS and that’s about it. It was small, simple, and to the point, and while it has served me well, I have kinda regretted not getting a camera in the phone (this is the paradox of choice in action). I considered the camera phone, as well as phones that played music (three birds with one stone!), but it struck me that feature packed devices like that simply weren’t ready yet. They were expensive, clunky, and the interface looked awful.

Enter Apple’s new iPhone. Put simply, they’ve done a phenominal job with this phone. I’m impressed. Watch the keynote presentation here. Some highlights that I found interesting:

  • Just to mention some of the typical stuff: it’s got all the features of a video iPod, it’s got a phone, it’s got a camera, and it’s got the internet. It has an iPod connector, so you can hook it up to your computer and sync all the appropriate info (music, contacts, video, etc…) through iTunes (i.e. an application that everyone is already familiar with because they use it with their iPod.) It runs Mac OSX (presumably a streamlined version) and has a browser, email app, and widgets. Battery life seems very reasonable.
  • Ok enough of the functionality. The functionality is mostly, well, normal. There are smart phones that do all of the above. Indeed, one of the things that worries me about this phone is that by cramming so much functionality into this new phone, Apple will also be muddying the interface… but the interface is what’s innovative about this phone. This is what the other smart phones don’t do. In short, the interface is a touch screen (no physical keyboard, and no stylus; it takes up the majority of the surface area of a side of the phone and you use your fingers to do stuff. Yes, I said fingers, as in multiple. More later.) This allows them to tailor the interface to the application currently in use. Current smart phones all have physical controls that must stay fixed (i.e. a mini qwerty keyboard, and a set of directional buttons, etc…) and which are there whether you need them for what you’re doing or not. By using a touch screen, Apple has solved that problem rather neatly (Those of you familiar with this blog know what’s coming, but it’ll be a moment).
  • Scrolling looks fun. Go and watch the demo. It looks neat and, more importantly, it appears to be consistent between all the applications (i.e. scrolling your music library, scrolling through your contacts, scrolling down a web page, etc…). Other “multi-touch” operations also look neat, such as the ability to zoom into web page by squeezing your fingers on the desired area (iPhone loads the actual page, not the WAP version, and allows you to zoom in to read what you want – another smart phone problem solved (yes, yes, it’s coming, don’t worry)). The important thing about the touch interface is that it is extremely intuitive. You don’t need to learn that much in order to use this phone, and the touch screen interface.
  • The phone does a few interesting new things. It has a feature they’re calling “visual voicemail” which lets you see all of your voicemail, then select which one you want to listen to first (a great feature). It also makes conference calls a snap, too. This is honestly something I can’t see using that much, but the interface to do it is better than any other conference call interface I’ve seen, and it’s contextual in that you don’t have to deal with it until you’ve got two people on the phone.
  • It’s gyroscopic, dude. It has motion sensors that detect the phone’s orientation. If you’re looking at a picture, and you turn the phone, the picture will turn with you (and if it’s a landscape picture, it’ll fill more of the screen too). It senses the lighting and adjusts the screen’s display to compensate for the environment (saves power, provides better display). When you put the phone by your ear to take a call, it senses that, and deactivates the touchscreen, saving power and avoiding unwanted “touches” on the screen (you don’t want your ear to hang up, after all). Another problem solved (wait for it). Unfortunately, the iPhone does not also feature Wiimote functionality (wiiPhone anyone?)
  • Upgradeable Interface: One of the most important things that having a touch screen interface allows Apple to do is provide updates to installed software and even new applications (given that it’s running a version of OS X, this is probably a given). Let’s say that the interface for browsing contacts is a little off, or the keyboard is spaced wrong. With a physical keyboard on a smart phone, you can’t fix that problem without redesigning the whole thing and making the customer purchase a new piece of hardware. The iPhone can just roll out an update.
  • Apple could put Blackberry out of business with this thing, provided that the functionality is there (it appears that it is for Yahoo mail, but will it work with my company? I can’t tell just yet.). Blackberries always seemed like a fully featured kludge to me. The iPhone is incredibly elegant in comparison (not that it isn’t elegant all by itself). This would also mitigate the whole high price issue: companies might pay for this thing if it works as well as it seems, and people are always more willing to spend their companies money than their own.

Ok, you know what’s coming. Human beings don’t solve problems. They trade one set of problems for another, in the hopes that the new are better than the old. Despite the fact that I haven’t actually used the iPhone, what are some potential issues?

  • The touchscreen: Like the iPod’s clickwheel, the iPhone’s greatest strength could prove to be it’s greatest weakness. Touch screens have been in use for years and have become pretty well understood and revised… but they can also be imprecise and, well, touchy. When watching the demo, Steve didn’t seem to be having any problem executing various options, but I’m not sure how well the device will be able to distinguish between “I want to scroll” and “I want to select” (unless selecting was a double-tap, but I don’t think it was). Designing a new touch screen input interface is a tricky human factors problem, and I’m willing to be it will take a little while to be perfected. Like the scrollwheel, I can see it being easy to overshoot or select the wrong item. I could certainly be wrong, and I look forward to fiddling with it at the local Mac store to see just how responsive it really is (it’s hard to comment on something you’ve never used). However, I’m betting that (again like the scrollwheel) the touchscreen will be a net positive experience.
  • Durability: Steven Den Beste hits (scroll down) on what I think may be the biggest problem with the touch screen:

    I have some serious concerns about long term reliability of the touch panel. When it’s riding inside a woman’s purse, for instance, how long before the touch panel gets wrecked? Perhaps there’s a soft carrying case for it — but a lot of people will toss that, and carry the phone bare. Nothing protects that panel, and it covers one of the two largest faces on the unit. There are a thousand environmental hazards which could wreck it: things dropped onto it, or it being dropped onto other things. And if the touch panel goes bad, the rest of the unit is unusable.

    Indeed. iPods are notorious for getting scratched up, especially the screens. How will that impact the display? How will it impact the touch screen?

  • Two hands? It looks like you need to use two hands to do a lot of these touch screen operations (one to hold, the other to gesture). Also, when writing an email, a little qwerty keyboard appears on the touch screen… which is nice, but which also might be difficult to use with one hand or without looking (physical keyboards allow you to figure out what key you’re on by touch, and also have little nubs – home keys – which don’t translate to the touch screen). I don’t know how much of an issue this will be, but it will affect some people (I know someone who will type emails on their Blackberry with one hand, while driving. This is an extreme case, to be sure, but it doesn’t seem possible with the touch screen).
  • Zooming: The zooming feature in web browsing is neat, but the page they used in the demo (the NY Times homepage) has 5 columns, which seems ideal for zooming. How will other pages render? Will zooming be as useful? The glimpses at this functionality aren’t enough to tell how well it will handle the web… (Google Maps looked great though)
  • Does it do too much? This phone looks amazing, but it’s price tag is prohibitive for me, especially since I probably won’t use a significant portion of the functionality. I love that it does video, and while the 3.5″ screen is bigger than my iPod’s screen, I have to admit that I’ve never used the iPod video to watch something (maybe if I travelled more…) Brian Tiemann notes:

    If it weren’t for the phone, I would buy this in a heartbeat. As it is, I wish (as does Damien Del Russo) that there were a way to buy it without the Cingular plan, so you could just use it as an iPod with wireless web browsing and e-mail and the like.

    Again, there is a worry that a device that tries to do everything for everyone will end up being mediocre at everything. However, I think Apple has made a very admirable attempt, and the touch screen concept really does cut down on this by allowing applications their own UIs and also allowing updates to those UIs if it becomes necessary. They’ve done as good a job as I think is possible at this time.

  • Battery Life: This goes along with the “does it do too much” point. I mentioned above that the battery life seems decent, and it does. However, with a device that does this much, I have a feeling that the 5 hours of use they claim will still feel a little short, especially when you’re using all that stuff. This is one of the reasons I never seriously considered getting a music/camera/phone a while back: I don’t want to run out my batteries playing music, then not be able to make an important call. This is a problem for mobile devices in general, and battery technology doesn’t seem to be advancing as rapidly as everything else.
  • Monopoly: This phone will only further cement iTunes’ dominant position in the marketplace. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I go back and forth. Sometimes Apple seems every bit as evil as Microsoft, but then, they also seem a lot more competant too. The Zune looks decent, but it’s completely overshadowed by this. We could have a worse monopoly, I guess, but I don’t like stuff like DRM (which is reasonable, yes, but still not desirable except insofar as it calms down content owners) and proprietary formats that Apple won’t license. Will third parties be able to develop apps for the iPhone? It could certainly be worse, but I’m a little wary.

All in all, it’s quite impressive. Most of the potential issues don’t seem insurmountable, and I think Apple has a hit on their hands. It should also be interesting to see if other cell phone makers respond in any way. The cell phone market is gigantic (apparently nearly a billion cell phones were sold last year), and it seems like a lot of the best phones are only available overseas. Will we start to see better phones at a cheaper price? Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be getting an iPhone anytime soon, though I will keep a close eye on it. Once they work out the bugs and the price comes down, I’ll definitely be tempted.

Updates: Brian Tiemann has further thoughts. Kevin Murphy has some thoughts as well. Ars Technica also notes some issues with the iPhone, and has some other good commentary (actually, just read their Infiinite Loop journal). I think the biggest issue I forgot to mention is that the iPhone is exclusive to Cingular (and you have to get a 2 year plan at that).

Again New Computer

2 Comments / Computers & Internet / /

A few weeks ago, I wrote about what I was looking for in a new computer, and various buying options. I had it narrowed down to a few options, but being cognizant of the paradox of choice, I decided on ordering a Prelude system from Maingear, a small custom computer shop that actually had reasonable prices (I got the system I was looking for: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, etc…). I probably paid a little more than I would have if I just bought all the components and then put it together myself, but I was willing to pay for the convenience of a pre-configured system. Also, unlike other cheap custom PC shops like CyberPowerPC, Maingear has a fantastic reputation for building quality systems and providing excellent support. I’m pleased to report that Maingear lives up to its reputation. Shortly after ordering my PC, they contacted me to confirm a few things and ask if I had any questions or special requests (I understand they’ll preinstall various games for you if you want, provided you have the CD Key. Alas, I have no such games, so I didn’t get to request this, but that’s a neat service.)

They also informed me that they (like every other retailer) were quite busy at this time of the year, but that they would try to get me the PC before Christmas. And it arrived just in the nick of time, on Saturday, December 23 (another Festivus miracle!). It was well packaged, and appeared to be in working order (as compared to a friend’s experience with CyberPowerPC where his DVD drive was mounted incorrectly amongst a bunch of other strange problems). The case looks great (I don’t know why, but most custom PC cases are very crappy looking or obscenely gaudy):

PC Case

The insides are arranged about as neat as could be expected, with all the various wires and connectors hidden or tied tightly together. This is nothing short of amazing when compared to my previous computer.

PC Case

And it came with a nice personalized binder that had all of the installation CDs, backup CDs, and documentation for the computer.

PC Case

When I fired up the computer, I was pleased to find that no Windows configuration was really necessary. The desktop was relatively clean (no annoying special offers from AOL, etc…), all the latest patches and updated drivers had been installed, and everything was ready for me to install my favorite apps. As far as performance goes, it appears to be a champ (according to a screenshot they included, it scores a 5453 in 3DMark06 – but I have no frame of reference for telling just how good that is). They also included a copy of Hitman: Blood Money (an unexpected and pleasant bonus), which I’ve been working my way through ( it’s one of those annoying DIAS type of games, but hey, I’m not complaining).

All in all, I couldn’t be happier with my new computer. For something I use as often as I use my computer, I think it was worth every penny.

New Computer

Computers & Internet / /

As I’ve recently mentioned, my old computer isn’t doing so well. Built with turn-of-the-century hardware, she’s lasted a long time, more than I could really expect. So it’s time to get a new computer. As I’ve also mentioned recently, the amount of options for building a new computer are staggering (and the amount of choices can lead to problems). However, with the help of the newly released Ars Technica System Guides (specifically the Hot Rod) and some general research, I should be able to slap something together in relatively short order. After some initial poking around, here’s what I’m looking for:

I’m leaning pretty close to the recommendations from Ars Technica, with only a few minor tweaks. They claim their Hot Rod rig can be had for around $1622.71, but when you add in shipping, an OS, and my tweaks, I’m betting that’s more around $1800. Of course, I’ll have to order all this stuff, assemble it, and install the OS, which will probably take a few hours, so let’s make a conservative estimate of around $2000 (I’m valuing my time at around $50 an hour here). Not too shabby, and it’s a pretty impressive PC. So is it worth putting it together myself, or can I order a comparable system from somewhere else that is cheaper and/or easier? Let’s take a look at my options:

  • Dell: A comparably configured XPS 410 system comes in around $2200. The only major addition here is the 2 year warranty and support.
  • HP: Well, the HP Pavilion d4650y series computer I configured came in at a pretty cheap $1600. However, I wasn’t able to get the GeForce 7950GT 512 MB and had to settle for a 256 MB card (I’m sure there are other computer models that I could configure, but this seemed reasonable enough).
  • CyberPowerPC.com: A comparably configured Intel� Core� 2 Duo Custom Build machine runs about $2017. They also have a 3 year limited warranty and support. However, I should note that a friend recently purchased a PC through CyberPower and was thoroughly dissatisfied: several incorrectly installed pieces of hardware as well as an OS that had to be reinstalled. From online reviews, their support seems notoriously bad. However, it’s difficult to tell with online reviews sometimes. The good reviews outnumber the bad. I’m still considering these guys because they can save me some time and energy without having to really pay too much. However, I’m guessing that I’ll have to do some mucking around with the hardware and software, which would put the price up a bit when you consider time and effort.
  • ABS.com: ABS is the parent company of newegg and has a mildly better reputation than CyberPowerPC. However, the price here comes to around $2200, and it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.
  • Maingear: Most high end brands or boutiques like Alienware, Voodoo, or Hypersonic can get pretty expensive (easily $3000+), but Maingear was surprisingly reasonable. I was able to configure their Prelude system to what I wanted for around $2050. With some fiddling, and perhaps purchasing some components separately, I think I could drive that down a bit. Also, unlike CyberPowerPC (or Dell for that matter), these guys seem to have stellar reputation (there are only 10 ratings on ResellerRatings, but they’re all great reviews and they also seem to be consistent with professional reviews). They’re service and support appears to be good as well. I’ve got a good feeling about these guys, and I’m glad I’m writing this entry because I probably wouldn’t have found them otherwise.

So I’m looking closer at Maingear and if that doesn’t work out, it looks like I’m putting it together myself, unless anyone else has a better idea (if you do, leave a comment below). I’m going to hold off a few days before actually placing any orders, but I think I’ll be happy with what I’m getting.

Update: After some fiddling, I got the Maingear PC down to around $1800 without a monitor. I’m also getting a lightscribe DVD burner, which is a totally frivolous expense (extra $70), but pretty neat too.

Link Dump

2 Comments / Computers & Internet, Movies, Science & Technology / /

Time is short this week, so a few quick links:

  • The 1,000 Greatest Films: Aggregated from 1,193 individual critics’ and filmmakers’ top-ten lists. They’ve got all sorts of different ways to look at the numbers, including a way to keep track of which ones you have seen. As you might expect, the list is diverse and somewhat contentious, with lots of foriegn films and some very questionable choices. There are tons of films I’ve never even heard of. The list is somewhat skewed towards older films, as they use some older lists (some of the lists used are as old as 1952), but then, that’s still to be expected. Older films tend to get credit for their importance, and not as much because of their entertainment value today (I’m horribly understating this issue, which could probably use a blog entry of its own). As an aside, the list sometimes reads like the Criterion Collection catalog, which is pretty funny. I used the listkeeper site (which is pretty neat and might help make these type of memes a little easier to deal with), and I’ve apparently seen somewhere around 16% of the list. Given the breadth of the films covered in the list, I think that’s pretty impressive (though I’ll probably never get past 30%).
  • Shuttle Launch Seen From ISS: Photos of a Space Shuttle launch as seen from the International Space Station. Neato.
  • A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates: Ok, so this is a book comprised solely of a bunch of random numbers, and that’s it. Nothing funny or entertaining there, except the Amazon reviewers are having a field day with it. My favorite review:

    The book is a promising reference concept, but the execution is somewhat sloppy. Whatever algorithm they used was not fully tested. The bulk of each page seems random enough. However at the lower left and lower right of alternate pages, the number is found to increment directly.

    Ahhh, geek humor. [via Schneier]

  • BuzzFeed: A new aggregator that features “movies, music, fashion, ideas, technology, and culture” that are generating buzz (in the form of news stories and blog posts, etc…). It’s an interesting idea as it’s not really a breaking news site, but it seems to have it’s finger on the pulse of what folks are talking about (on the homepage now are sections on the Wii, PS3, Borat, and (of course Snoop Dogg’s new line of pet clothing). It’s not like Digg or Reddit, and thus it doesn’t suffer from a lot of their issues (unless they branch out into politics and religion). I’m sure some people will try to game the system, but it seems inherently more secure against such abuse.

That’s all for now.

Update: This Lists of Bests website is neat. It remembers what movies you’ve seen, and applies them to other lists. For example, without even going through the AFI top 100, I know that I’ve seen at least 41% of the list (because of all the stuff I noted when going through the top 1000). You can also compare yourself with other people on the site, and invite others to do so as well. Cool stuff.

Bag O’ Crap: Close, but no cigar

2 Comments / Computers & Internet / /

The term “woot” (or more accurately, “w00t”) is slang for expressing excitement, usually on the internet (especially popular in chat and video games). The etymology is a little unclear (many speculated origins), but the word itself just sounds celebratory. In any case, there is an online store that has appropriated the term and “focuses on selling cool stuff cheap.” They basically sell one item a day, and that’s it. Talk about your simple concepts. I should also mention that their product descriptions are awesome – they have a lot of fun with it, so that even though I don’t think I’ve ever bought a Woot, I still stop by frequently. For instance, a while ago, their description for a JVC Camcorder was written as a letter from Osama Bin Laden to his subordinates:

To: Media Relations Division

From: OBL

Well guys, we’re starting to see the infidel press reviews of our latest audio release, and they’re not good. First of all, the heathens had to subject the thing to two days’ worth of analysis just to be sure it was my voice! Then CNN said “Poor quality.” CBS called it “Insignificant.” And the most devastating criticism of all came from Pitchfork Media: “badly-recorded, smug pontificating for those who find the spoken-word releases of Jello Biafra too funny and incisive.” They gave it a 2.4! No distributor will touch it now!

Heh. Anyway, when that item sells out, the site starts selling alternate items in what is called a “Woot-Off.” These alternate items are typically in shorter stock than the original Woot, so they don’t usually last long, and you see a lot of items during the rest of the day (as each Woot-Off item sells out, it is replaced by the next item, and so on).

Now, the holy grail of Woot is this thing called the Bag O’ Crap. Basically, instead of selling an item, they offer a grab bag that is typically filled with dollar store junk, but which sometimes contains things of significant value (I heard of someone getting a decent quality graphics card in a BOC). Naturally, this is a popular item, and it usually sells out within minutes. I have never even seen one, though I always know when I’ve missed it. Quite frustrating, but today was different. I go to Woot this afternoon, and I get a “Server Too Busy” error message. This essentially means that they’re selling a BOC, and everyone is going to the site in a furious attempt to purchase one (well, typically you purchase 3 at a time), clogging up their servers. A few reloads later, and I see it (click for larger image):

Woot: Bag O Crap (click for larger image)

Overjoyed, I attempted to get one. After several minutes of tense refreshing to get past server errors, I finally get to the page where you confirm your order, I click, and I get the message:

Sorry, we’re now sold out of this item or we don’t have enough left to complete your order.

Khaaan! You win this round, Woot. But I’ll be back. I’ll get that Bag O’ Crap someday.