Greenflame » Digital Technology

DRM Frustrations

stepheng — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:21:13 +0000

I was talking to someone today about their experiences about buying DRM audio books, and how in the end they gave up. Between grief with paying and downloading, installing a separate piece of extra software to play the books, and then finding on the bus that the software then wanted to authenticate via the net before things would play (and that wasn’t an option), he’d basically lost any faith that it was worth it. Too hard and too painful.

The cartoons in this post sum that experience up quite well. See TidBITS Tech News: A Pair of Cartoons Reveals DRM Frustrations.

Paying by the Bit: Internet Access in New Zealand

stepheng — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:08:59 +0000

I often get annoyed by the various ‘powers that be’ spouting on about faster broadband and how it will improve life and business for all in NZ because I don’t think speed is the issue - it’s data caps. Until broadband in general in NZ stops being charged by the bit (or subsidising that through something like a pay TV subscription) then digitally downloadable movies, music, TV programmes and large software updates in bulk just isn’t a reality for most people.

Nice to see an outsider’s perspective on this, from someone who’s recently moved to NZ. See TidBITS Networking: Paying by the Bit: Internet Access in New Zealand. And interesting to read the comments from folks who live in the US but outside of larger cities.

Virtual miscellania

stepheng — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:09:29 +0000

So it seems that the situation posited in William Gibson’s book "Idoru" back in 1997 comes to pass in some form in 2009. See Man marries virtual girlfriend | Stuff.co.nz.

And this is interesting too - Church fined for blocking cellphones | Stuff.co.nz.

Social networking for the dead?

stepheng — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:43:07 +0000

Every now and then I ponder what happens to people’s different online presences when they die, but I hadn’t realized Facebook has a memorialization function for their accounts. See Social networking for the dead | Alan Wilson | guardian.co.uk.

In-App Sales and iTablet: The Killer Combo to Save Publishing?

stepheng — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:21:24 +0000

I don’t know if something like this (In-App Sales and iTablet: The Killer Combo to Save Publishing? | Gadget Lab | Wired.com) would work, but I really like something like that to buy and read comics and graphic novels on. If the screen was the same size as a printed comic book page and in colour then I’d be first in line to buy one. (Plus I wouldn’t have to worry about the plastic bags etc. for keeping the comics in).

Digital Gated Communities?

stepheng — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:56:01 +0000

A week or two back I was talking with a colleague about the difference between between Facebook and blogs, and in particular how my use of those media intersects with different communities. My Facebook posts are restricted to a group of people I’ve selected, whereas my blog posts are more public. I select who’s in my Facebook community (and they get the blog posts too), but I’ve made more friends and contacts from the blog. I think in the conversation I used the term ‘gated community‘ to describe how I saw Facebook.

I mentioned the idea in passing, but this posting picks it up and deals with it in much more detail. Confessions of an Aca/Fan: Archives: Is Facebook a Gated Community?: An Interview With S. Craig Watkins (Part Two)

I began reading some of the research on the rise of gated communities in America and found some interesting parallels in the language used by residents living in physical world gated communities and young white collegians who preferred Facebook (a kind of virtual gated community) over MySpace. They both use words like “safe,” “clean,” “private,” and “neat” to describe attachment to their communities. They both practice what cultural anthropologists call “gating,” that is, the tendency to build physical/virtual, social, and cultural walls that are exclusive.

One of the things I see communities like churches doing is creating more Facebook-type communities. Perhaps they like the “safe,” “clean,” “private,” and “neat” aspects of that, of the control over who can participate. Wondering if a modern day parable about the Kingdom of God might be better seen as a blog or MySpace page.

digital nation - life on the virtual frontier

stepheng — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:41:18 +0000

This looks interesting digital nation - life on the virtual frontier | PBS

Digital Nation is a new, open source PBS project that explores what it means to be human in an entirely new world — a digital world. It consists of this Web site as well as a major FRONTLINE documentary to be broadcast in winter 2010. Our production team is posting rough cuts and raw footage on the web, and gathering input, feedback and stories from users as we go.

From Mac Portable to MacBook Pro: 20 years of Apple laptops

stepheng — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:38:24 +0000

Nice little article on the development of Mac laptops over the past 20 years. See From Mac Portable to MacBook Pro: 20 years of Apple laptops - Ars Technica.

In order of the ones I’ve owned/used…

Macintosh Portable (back in 91-93 for work) - very heavy, but the trackball worked well.
Powerbook 520c - bought one in 1995 (esp. with the ethernet) back when trackpads were new. Worked well, but sold it to get PowerMac 6100.
Powerbook 150 - best machine I’ve every had for plain writing. A keyboard you can hit, no bells and whistles. Great with Word 5.
12″ G3 iBook (White, twin USB) - got me through the PhD, but ran out of steam towards the end. Still working as a ‘netbook’ at home.
15″ MacBook Pro - day to day machine. Works well, though it’s a bit heavy to carry everyday.

An exercise for you…

stepheng — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:15:29 +0000

In the manner of many examination and essay questions…

Compare and contrast the perspectives of each of these people:

Next-Wave Ezine - There Is NO Virtual Ecclesia by Bob Hyatt.
The various articles by Mark Brown at: Articles for download at Brownblog, and especially:
- The Bible in the Digital Space
- Christian Ministry in a Technological Age
- The Digital Revolution and the Church
- Christian Mission to a Virtual World
Shane Hipps interview with Christianity Today about virtual community.
For further investigation look at:
Who’s Got the Power? Religious Authority and the Internet by Heidi Campbell

Have fun

Various transmedia reflections

stepheng — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:41:24 +0000

Henry Jenkins’ blog has had a number of interesting recent postings related to transmedia storytelling, computer games and various other things: