Saturday, September 04, 2004
A Preview of ESPN Broadband
As you all know I’m a hockey nut. ESPN was advertising they were showing all games, however four weren’t on the tv schedule. These four are all on ESPN Broadband.
It pops into a large-ish window and has a SportsCenter/ESPN video game like feel. I think it’s all Flash 7 (which is fine since they’re catering to a broadband/cable audience). The video isn’t clickable or right-clickable, I’m going to assume it’s streaming through Flash 7 rather then integrating another format, but you never know.
They’ve got their pipes going strong as the picture quality is very good. I’m watching Finland beating Sweden 4-3 in the third period right now. Easily the nicest integrated streaming video I’ve ever seen. To be able to see the puck in a small window through a live feed is pretty decent work.
Now, this hasn’t been over-promoted, so hopefully if they boost it more, they’ll keep the bandwidth at this high level, the rare stuttering is the only thing that can bring it down. Even when a live game isn’t on, they have some news clips to watch. Also, after the game is completed, it’s supposed to also be available on demand.
There’s a “free preview” from now until Monday. It will be a service available to certain subscribers of cable or dsl companies. I read how RCN has a deal with them, so this should be included for all RCN subscribers, but I have not read anything about Time Warner NYC (my current provider). Hope they pick this up if they haven’t already; there’s supposedly already some bitterness between ESPN and quite a few cable services due to the high price ESPN charges per subscriber (and some cable systems even wanting to make it a premium channel).
Thursday, September 02, 2004
The Next Step in Blogging
So I’m not just blogging now (not that I’m a heavy blogger), but I’m clip blogging too.
First off, if you aren’t using Bloglines as your rss reader, you’re missing out on a mighty fine (free) service. Much easier then bringing my updated blogroll back and forth with me between work and home (or wherever else I may be). They have a few things to help you out too, like browser plugins to easily subscribe to feeds and a nifty little notifier to let you know when your favorite blogs are updated.
So what the hell is a clip blog?
Well, as you read your feeds you can “clip” certain ones, which automatically leaves a link to the article/blog post that you were reading along with any other thoughts you want to add. It’s all those little things you like or hate or just find cool that you’re not going to make your own separate blog entries for.
Now go, start your own clip blog, or just make your life easier and use the feedreader.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Convention Updates
So things have been alright here. The biggest thing people notice is… there are no people. While tons may have come into the city for the convention, even more seem to have left to avoid it, and commuters are taking their vacation times to avoid it as well.
Best scene: I’m walking home and there are about eight cops on the sidewalk gathering for whatever they’re gathering for. As I’m walking by the crowd, directly to my right I hear a thud. Cabbie slams right into an SUV (looks like an officials’ car). Nice. All the surrounding police shout “ohhh…” and start walking away shouting one guy’s name while laughing. Everyone else around there starts laughing as well at the rookie abuse. Nothing like a little extra-security-in-the-city humor.
So I snapped some pictures the last couple of days.
Here are some eerily empty streets in the morning:
Looking up Ninth Avenue
Looking Down Seventh Avenue
Cops and horses aren’t actually an uncommon sight in Times Square, although there’s rarely more then two, and now there were a handful scattered around. I always love it when tourists come to the city and are shocked to see horses walking (and crapping) around Times Square. Apparently they didn’t think we allowed animals other than rats here. They’re close to right.
Hey! It’s Erik Estrada! What’s up Ponch? There are a slew of bike and motorcycle cops around actually. We saw a pack Saturday night of over 20 motorcycle cops, and there are a few bicycle stops around that usually have at least 15+ bike cops parked there. And look who else is there - the Naked Cowboy. See, not everyone is staying home this week. Some New Yorkers obviously have work too important to let any silly convention get in the way.
This girl was arrested. I never got the real story why. I think it was because some of her hair was green since no one had a good reason. Someone said it was because she was biking, but, of course, this bystander was on her own bicycle. There were a few others with bikes around and at least one of them said “bicycling against oil wars ” on the back of it. Then a few other people biked by. So I’ll take this crazy guess it wasn’t because she was biking. This same bystander then started yelling at the cops about how people are allowed to bike in the city. Apparently they already knew this because they didn’t arrest her.
So I then asked another person. He mumbled something incoherent. Great help he was. I then walked to someone else who was talking to other people, looking like she was filling them in.
“Do you know why she was arrested?”
“Yes, because they’re all facists”
“Oh really?”
“They’re like this everywhere…”
“Where are you from?”
“L.A.”
“Well thanks for filling me in about my own city’s cops…”
“They’re just arresting people for no reason…”
“No one else was arrested, she must have done something.”
“No, they’re just looking to arrest anyone who’s…”
“Listen, they’re doing their job and ignoring all these other dopes yelling at them, she did something and no one here admits it. Go back to L.A. if you don’t appreciate it.”
She then huffed and we walked away from each other. I tried to get this other girl’s attention because she was a radio reporter with a mic and a bag around her shoulder but she was running all over the place and it was hot and time to keep on moving. I really can’t stand some of these out of town protestors. You want to say your thing, fine. Don’t tell anyone here “how it is” though, you have no clue.
Now this guy I had no problems with. He wasn’t yelling at anyone. He moved from spot to spot and simply stood there with his banner. Almost everyone saw him, knew what he was about and on one was bothered. He also gave me a good picture. Thanks guy, for that you get a link: www.veteransforpeace.org. I’m not a veteran, but peace never sounds bad.
See - I wasn’t lying - it’s not just the Naked Cowboy, people are still working hard here in NYC, and we all can’t just take off because of the convention. Go get ‘em Spidey.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Nintendo DS May Have Free Voice Over IP
GameSpot is reporting that Nintendo DS will be used in conjunction with the built-in wireless 802.11b networking capabilities to offer voice-over-IP chat—in effect, allowing gamers to use the DS to make free phone calls at wireless network hotspots.
While this may not help a soul in rural parts of America, those in cities with hotspots popping up all over the place may be able to have yet another easy way to place a call, especially if a hotspot hits one’s home.
Microsoft to Go After iTunes
If you’re not subscribed to 100 feeds you may not have heard that Microsoft is preparing to launch a service to compete with Apple’s iTunes.
Everything planned right now is in the “not done yet” stage, so it’s a bit early to make any predictions. One thing Microsoft will have to do very well to make a dent into iTunes sales is come out with a great media player that will sync automatically with all their software. A very smooth iTunes store -> iTunes -> iPod is one of the biggest reasons Apple is so successful right now. Microsoft will not only have to mimic that, but come out with a cheaper device with more storage that does more/performs better, otherwise Apple will keep on selling their products well simply because so many deem them as “cool”.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Convention Updates
Well, the convention was definitely “in town” by Friday. It was obvious when I went into the bodegas on my corner and five midwestern women were in there and asked me if Ground Zero was within walking distance. I told them “yes, if you have a few hours”, then smiled and told them with five they might as well just hop in a cab over taking the subway (if they could find a cab who will let all five of them in).
Today Ninth Avenue had the parking lanes coned off and four police on every corner. A bit crazy for the distance we are to the convention.
Here’s a CNN article: Tens of thousands protest GOP convention
A few channels also have the protests airing live.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Not Looking Forward to the Convention
Protests and such started for the Republican National Convention today. Blah. It’s not that I hate when NY gets crowded, as it usually is crowded, but this is the type of thing where most people I know, including Republicans are saying “please go somewhere else”. The extra people are just extra people, you manage to get around them somehow. The extra police and security checkpoints aren’t horrible either. The protests are usually the worst. They completely block off streets and walkways, the people involved are usually after anyone not within their group, yelling at all who walk by as though you’re closely aligned with whoever they’re hating at that point. Cathy (my girlfriend, a nurse, for those who don’t know) heard about how one of the so-called protests is going to involve flooding hospitals with calls about chest pains when Bush is talking. What? That’s productive? Holding back a hospital from helping people who are actually sick and injured is easily one of the dumbest things I’ve heard yet.
What won’t be fun is my walk to work the next week as it’s generally right down Broadway through Times Square, stopping at 37th Street. Times Square will most likely be hell. Perhaps I’m jumping the gun, but any time they even close part of it for any reason - or even if it just rains - it’s hell. Cabs will be out of the question. The subway will not just be super crowded as well, but there will be few places you could probably feel less safe. That and because of the location of the stations, it’s only one or two stops anyway and I tend not to take it unless it’s pouring out. So walking it’ll stay, and there’s very little “out of the way” other then perhaps going up and down 6th Avenue or 9th Avenue, but that’ll add time to the commute and I sure know I’m not going to volunteer to do that.
Maybe things will be smooth and I’ll have little delay, doubt it, but I’ll try and play the opitimist until something crappy happens.
Perhaps I’ll carry my camera around and do some amateur photojournalism.
RSS in the Money
RSS, one of my favorite “toys” on the web (as I love syndication) is attracting serious money according to Wired News.
Technorati, a company that’s like a search engine of blogs through rss feeds, received funding, which reportedly totaled $6.5 million. So what’s the company doing with the cash?
“We’re putting our investments to work building infrastructure and providing service to a population that’s growing at an explosive rate,” wrote Technorati founder David Sifry on his blog Monday. “Frankly, we’d rather talk about that than about the money others have invested in us.”
More funding into rss companies to come - but I am curious to see where the money does wind up and how or if it will help the technology in any way or just help these companies become larger.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Matisyahu: Hasidic Reggae
From the “now I’ve seen it all” department I present to you: Matisyahu, Hasidic Reggae star. While I have no idea how much of a “star” he is, his name’s gotten around and I caught him on Jimmy Kimmel last night.
From his interview on the show after he performed it seems he was just a “normal” guy growing up, liked reggae as a teen and stuck with it. He became religious a few years ago and I can’t think of anything that would advance his career more then that. His performance on the show was pretty good too. Which then brings up the question - is it weird that he’s Hasidic and performing reggae or is it weirder that he actually didn’t sound bad on the show? I’ll admit, I’m not into reggae all that much, so what the hell do I know, but a lot of musical acts sound like crap on late night shows and his didn’t. In the end, I think he’ll get at least part of his 15 minutes from this, good or bad.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Will DVDs Be In Your Future?
Mark Cuban, co-founder of Broadcast.com and current Dallas Mavericks, HDNet and a bunch of other things owner, writes about
HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future.
It’s simple in theory, and there are obviously some things that need working on, especially for people to rely on hard drives more. Reliability would be concern #1. Sure, a DVD can get scratched, but the odds of a DVD going bad compared to my hard drive crashing are pretty low I’d assume. Some would say that’s why hard drives are becoming so cheap to begin with (made cheap, priced cheap). Anything that I’ve ripped from tape hasn’t been to dvd, it’s to mpg2. Same thing in viewing, but I’ve got the files all saved on a big hard drive, and when I can, backed up on another. It’s not close to cost effective right now, but it’s much more flexible for viewing then DVD and it also is portable in mass (one of my external drives could probably hold 60 DVDs and many more “DVD quality” movies).
The worst part of the whole discussion is you know the best technology won’t be backed by the big companies, only the most profitable. All we can hope for is backwards compatibility, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.