Archive for the 'Media' Category
I’m at a great workshop today and yesterday, “Social Software @ Work” at HHU’s Schloss Mickeln in Duesseldorf. I didn’t have much opportunity to take part in such conferences – something that has to change! Dozens of like-minded people, from companies like BASF, Daimler and Siemens as well as Frauenhof researchers talking about web 2.0. Check out the speakers list and their publications.
The other day, I was looking for add-ons for Thunderbird and found an article about Rapleaf. In short, if you write me an email, the addon shows me which social networks you belong to. Comes in handy, but the database is not big enough.
The two billionth photo at flickr has been uploaded on Sunday. Very impressive, since 500,000 was not that long ago – I’m curious what’s the first photo on flickr that hasn’t been deleted or is private?
To tell you the truth, I can’t remember when Microsoft came up with something that made me go WOW – check out Photosynth
(0)Pandora, one of the greatest music services online, has been forced to prevent access from outside the US. Welcome back, Dark Ages.
(0)I’ve uploaded over a thousand pictures from my year of study abroad at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University in Japan in 2000 and my travels to South Korea in the same year, 2001 and 2003, including our wedding. My brother’s wedding in 2003 is finally online as well as the series about my intermezzo at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Croatia, the Model United Nation Simulations and a few other events and travels from the last few years. Last but not least: food. Since Google Video is currently the only service that offers unlimited video size and length, it’s the choice of the moment.
Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility with Firefox – extremely practical, install the web developer bar for Firefox and have a go at it.
(0)Make Internet TV is the best place so far to learn how to shoot and publish videos.
Two clients, similar purpose: Democracy and Zudeo/Vuze, open source internet TV and high definition videos.
(0)An old friend from I-House times, Bryan Nykon, made an entertaining short film and posted in on Youtube – enjoy The Commuter.
Click on more to watch a great video about truth (via SecurityTinker).
Just yesterday or the day before I thought, wouldn’t it be great if my camera were able to take pictures and remember the location automagically? A build-in GPS (or better, Galileo) would save the image as well as the exact position along other EXIF information. Then, when uploading it to flickr, your map would be updated accordingly. Having Google Earth updated and linked with taken images would be even better. I tried the flickr map function with two sets, but it’s taking too long to enter the info manually and it’s far from exact, so I pass this feature until I buy a new camera: In five years or so, I thought, when I need to buy a replacement, it might just happen that cameras have such a feature, but obviously somebody had this idea some time ago. Great!
I’ve been looking for free music and soundeffects on the net, here are a few sites I’d like to share:
Jamendo
and of course creativecommons.org/audio
In the search for podcasting websites, I stumbled upon Japancasting at BlogMatrix. If you’re studying Japan or English as a Foreign Language, take a look. The weblog also touches other subjects, use of technology, the web, etc.
The find of the day night: Loudblog
It’s a well coded CMS for publishing media like podcasts on the net. I’m not planning to start podcasting personally, but lately I was asked about this from various sides and started looking for software, scripts that make your life easier. Loudblog seems like the most promising tool out there.
…about the future human condition. Check out the list:
50 books list from the Rand corporation.
I read again through a few hundred pages of trivial literature, but it wasn’t not too worthwhile this time. It was the first one for several years, since my studies curbed my appetite for books unrelated to seminars. My wife usually starts reading something and I jump on the wagon and join her. In this case, we’ve read a book by Chang-Rae Lee, A Gesture Life in its German translation, Fremd im Eigenen Leben. My English is far from being free from errors, but I’m certain that the translator either didn’t have much time or was incompetent. On the first few pages already you get strangely translated words (false friends), throughout the whole book I never had the feeling that the translation was close to the original… somehow… bumpy, inaccurate. The lector also must have been in a hurry, the number of grammar and spelling errors was telling. The story itself was interesting, though, verbose at times, with a predictable character developement. On the bright side, that’s not to say that the characters weren’t intruiging, the relation to reality, a Zainichi in the Japanese Imperial Army is a tantalizing foundation for a story, but the execution was surprisingly uninspired – the author won the PEN/Hemingway Award for another book. Maybe it’s the translation, maybe my expectations were too high. If you’re looking for information about Japan’s war history and the notorios Comfort Women system, better turn to Yoshimi Yoshiaki or Buruma.
Has anybody seen this? Too bad it’s not available in Germany.
Films Media Group – Spirits of the State: Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine
For movie enthusiasts, this is a valuable website: Many popular actors and actresses from movies and television series are listed, together with their German counterpart dubbing artists, their profiles including a filmography, a picture and – most interesting for Germans and non-Germans alike – a short sample in German (mp3/ram). Almost all foreign movies are dubbed, so everybody can watch movies without having to read subtitles. It is odd to see Michael Douglas’ “2nd” face, but every German who hears this voice knows it’s Michael Douglas speaking. Nobody knows Volker Brandt’s face, a fate he shares with all his fellow artists. On another note, dubbing artists over time “accumulate” actors, i.e. there’s only one dubbing artist for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Dennis Quaid, Nick Nolte, Dan Akroyd, Christopher Lambert, John Cleese, Michael York, Adriano Celentano, Terence Hill and Rutger Hauer. If you want to know who that unbelievable multitalent is who replaces all of those actors all by himself, take a look:
popular dubbing artists in Germany
Not a patch on those dubbing artists, but I prefer the original voice and language in 99% of the cases. Play on words and subtle humor is easily lost, although sometimes the original text can even be improved by a not too faithful translation. Wikipedia even mentiones the Hungarian version of the Flintstones to have the entire text in rhymes.
update: Of course, I had to choose Volker Brandt as an example… he’s a dubbing artist, alright, but beside that known for parts in TV, movies and theaters – his face is not as unknown as I wrote. (thx, Dennis)
The best place to get Korean books about and from Korea:
Currently, I’m reading Ihr seid hier im Paradies
(engl. This Is Paradise!
) by Kang Hyok and Phillippe Grangereau. Great book so far, rather short with 256 pages, but with such detailed information about misery and sorrow about his life as a kid in North Korea that it blows my mind. I thought I know about the life conditions since my wife told me quite a lot about it in the last four years and I’ve read about it before. We’re actually reading it together… but I had no idea how bad it really is. There’d be too many pieces from the text to quote, so I’ll leave it at a general recommendation: If you have ten bucks to spare, go and get it.
From the EFF’s website:
EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit group of passionate people—lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — who depend on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight —and win—more cases.
You Have the Right to Blog Anonymously. EFF has fought for your right to speak anonymously on the Internet, establishing legal protections in several states and federal jurisdictions, and developing technologies to help you protect you identity. With your support, EFF can continue to defend this right, conducting impact litigation to establish strict standards to unmask an anonymous critic in more jurisdictions.
You Have the Right to Keep Sources Confidential. In Apple v. Does, EFF is fighting to establish the reporter’s privilege for online journalists before the California courts. With your support, EFF can defend news bloggers from subpoenas seeking the identity of confidential sources in more jurisdictions.
You Have the Right to Make Fair Use of Intellectual Property. In OPG v. Diebold, Diebold, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, had sent out copyright cease-and-desist letters to ISPs after internal documents indicating flaws in their systems were published on the Internet. EFF established the publication was a fair use. With your support, EFF can help fight to protect bloggers from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits.
You have the Right to Allow Readers’ Comments Without Fear. In Barrett v. Rosenthal, EFF is working to establish that Section 230, a strong federal immunity for online publishers, applies to bloggers. With your support, EFF can continue to protect bloggers from liability for comments left by third parties.
You Have the Right to Protect Your Server from Government Seizure. In In re Subpoena to Rackspace. EFF successfully fought to unveil a secret government subpoena that had resulted in more than 20 Independent Media Center (Indymedia) news websites and other Internet services being taken offline. With your support, EFF can hold the government accountable for investigations that cut off protected speech.
You Have the Right to Freely Blog about Elections. EFF has advocated for the sensible application of Federal Election Commission rules to blogs that comment on political campaigns. With your support, EFF can continue to protect political blogs from onerous campaign regulations.
You Have the Right to Blog about Your Workplace. EFF has educated bloggers on their rights to blog about their workplace and developed technologies to help anonymous whistle bloggers. With your support, EFF can help shape the law to protect workplace bloggers from unfair retaliation.
You Have the Right to Access as Media. EFF has educated bloggers on their right to access public information, attend public events with the same rights as mainstream media, and how to blog from public events. With your support, EFF can fight for bloggers’ right to access as media.
Know Your Rights and Prepare to Defend Them. EFF has created the Legal Guide for Bloggers to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger and a guide on How to Blog Safely. With your support, EFF can expand and update these guides.