links for 2007-08-28
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Lectopia, the enterprise-level presentation capture and delivery system developed at the University of Western Australia (formerly know as iLecture) has been purchased by Anystream Apreso. Sad to see it go, but good luck to the Lectopia team!
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The next Adobe Flash player will support H.264! Bring on the high-quality YouTubery! 😉
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Light-weight but interesting profile of the three guys behind The Pirate Bay, the web’s #1 stop for illegal bittorrent files! [Via]
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“… IBM’s 9,000 workers in Italy, is planning a most novel form of industrial action – a strike on Second Life – and it wants as many avatars as possible manning the picket lines.”
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“Education Minister Mark McGowan will introduce new guidelines to ban the use of mobile phones in Western Australian classrooms.”
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“A bid to create a new world record and have the biggest number of people dressed up as daleks in one location has taken place in Manchester.”
links for 2007-08-27
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Blogger blogs now support free-hosting of videoblogs: “Today we are releasing video uploading to Blogger! This feature allows you to upload videos and create a video podcast with the same ease that we currently provide with photo uploading.”
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“A New Jersey teenager has unlocked the iPhone, opening the way to Apple’s iconic mobile telephone being used by non-US networks. The Associated Press news agency confirmed George Hotz, 17, had unlocked the iPhone …”
links for 2007-08-25
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“A 21-year-old man from the western Sydney suburb of Prairiewood faces up to five years’ imprisonment after he was charged with uploading a pirated copy of The Simpsons Movie on the internet.”
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The Australian Government’s “NetAlert” website and free internet content-filters for all Australian families is finally released. This addresses symptoms, not causes. Even the filters themselves don’t actually work!
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A “corrupted blood” disease infecting World of Warcraft avatars is being used as a model of real-world behaviour in the case of a viral pandemic!
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“A new study conducted by Nottingham Trent University …found one in 10 players who regularly played online games had started a physical relationship with a fellow gamer, and most had made good friends while playing. “
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“Internet addiction’ doesn’t exist. It can’t, because it’s a logical impossibility … ‘Internet addiction’ researchers conceive of the internet as if it were a set of activities when, in fact, it’s a medium for communication.”
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A combination of successful radio-based podcasts and newer TV-based ‘vodcasts’ have Australia’s national broadcaster serving over 5 million downloads per month.
Australian Politicians … editing Wikipedia and spending big on redundant Internet filters
(I’m back in Perth, and …) All over the world the WikiScanner has been uncovering interesting trails and tails of previously unnamed Wikipedia editors. PerthNow quickly jumped on the bandwagon and discovered the the Office of Australia’s Prime Minister has been busy:
The Prime Minister’s staff has been editing Wikipedia to remove details that might be damaging to the Government in the lead-up to the election. Staff in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet have made 126 edits on subjects ranging from the children overboard affair to the Treasurer Peter Costello, Fairfax reports.
So, too, has Australia’s Department of Defense, although they’ve gone into Wiki lockdown while the Department figures out exactly who was changing what (or working out how to spin that story, at any rate). The PM’s office have supposedly launched an internal inquiry, but I’m sure any interesting findings (whatever that might entail) won’t quite surface until the 07 elections are done, anyway!
At the same time, the long-awaited Federally-funded NetAlert website, which is supposed to educate and arm parents, children and teachers to the dangers of life in a networked culture, has finally been released. Sadly, though, the keystone of NetAlert are free family internet filters, which have been poorly received and for the most part, don’t appear to work.
PS Running WikiScanner past the University of Western Australia IP Address is far less exciting; there is one big Portishead fan, a few rants about masturbation, but that’s the juiciest we’ve got!
Update: Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer takes the cake with his thoughts on Wikipedia:
“My sort of recollection of Wikipedia sites is they are a bit, sort of, a bit anti-government, they are sort of a bit negative about people in the government,” Mr Downer said today. “That is my recollection of them, so maybe we should fire people up to edit them – but I know they have editorial control at Wikipedia so it probably wouldn’t help.”
It’s such a delight to have such informed politicians leading this country. *sigh*
Off the Grid!
I’m on leave, and Emily and I are away, until August 24th. More to the point, we’re going to be completely without internet connectivity (partially by choice, more by circumstance), so I’m going to be completely off the grid until we get back to Perth. So, please don’t take offence if emails go unanswered or moderated comments don’t appear in the meantime … I’ll get to most stuff within a couple of days after August 24th. Until then, enjoy this little picture I took of a little memento from our honeymoon …
The image shows a few rocks and pebbles that made their way from a park in Venice to our bedroom in Perth!
Propel Arts – Pollinate Forum – ‘MySpace is better than Yours’ – Monday, August 27th
When I get back to Perth, one of the first things I’m doing is speaking as part of the next Propel Arts Pollinate Forum. It’s a free event for anyone under 25 years of age (but don’t forget to register) and $10 for older folk. Here’s the details:
MYSPACE IS BETTER THAN YOURS – POLLINATE FORUM
MONDAY 27 August
– skills development for ALL young artists –
Our next Pollinate is fast approaching and it asks the question: Is MySpace is better than Yours?
Join Propelarts and a group of young artists, arts workers and young people on Monday 27 August to discuss the digital age and its transformation of the arts space as we know it. Helping us take a look at issues around promoting your arts online will be:
Dr Tama Leaver: Tama is an academic from the University of Western Australia, who’ll be talking about the trends and theories of digital spaces.
Bonnie Davies: Bonnie is more than comfortable with new technologies. She’ll talk about some of the creative possibilities they offer and what she has learnt in working for the media artists of PVI collective.
David Hodgkinson: Our Propelarts treasurer is also a qualified lawyer, and for this Pollinate, he’ll help unravel the legal ramifications of putting your art online.
Lots of interesting discussion and tips and tricks for getting your message out there! Check out Propelarts at www.propelarts.org.au and RSVP to Maeve on 9328 5855 / maeve@propelarts.org.au.
… see you there! …
Where: Minter Ellison, Level 49 Central Park, 152-158 St Georges Terrace, Perth
Date: Monday, 27 August from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Topic: MySpace is better than Yours – promoting your arts on the internet
Cost: Free for Propelarts members and all people 25 or under. Otherwise, $10
I hope to see at least a few readers of this blog there! 🙂
Tama Leaver dot Net by Tama Leaver is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.