I read a post in Hydrogenaudio forums in which somebody speculated that new WMA codecs in Windows Media Player 11 incorporate SBR (Spectral Band Resampling) and PNS (Parametrically Normalized Stereo). That would be hugely important because it would open the way for Microsoft together with Yahoo, its greatest ally in pushing WMA formats, to provide fine-sounding files at the 64 kbps-and-below bitrates that HE-AAC makes possible. This dawned on me as I finally got a Yahoo Messenger 7.5 build that allows me to listen to their Launchcast radio stations. [But, I've got to confess I don't like the regular commercials I'm getting between the fine selection of Chill music on that Yahoo genre station -- their way of nudging listeners to subscribe?] Supporting this line of reasoning is the fact that Yahoo and MSN Messengers are to become interoperable.
What I see here is the possibility of having WinMobile Smartphones continuously play streamed channels like the one I'm now listening to via the free metropolitan networks of Wi-Fi (and WiMax) that will blanket all major metropolises in years to come. Over 10 million will be within reach of the system to be set up in New York City -- a pretty good market!
One may suppose that the next afiiliation in this area would put Symbian OS supporters like Nokia in bed with AOL and Coding Technologies, probably along with the latter's licensee XM Satellite.
And still there's no peep out of Apple about how they'll preserve their portable music franchise.
Technorati Tags: WMA, HE-AAC, Launchcast, Apple
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Saturday, May 13, 2006
FLAC is for future-proofing
I had commented in an Opera-hosted blog where a University student reported his pleasure that his new cell phone plays HE-AAC. Ever the busy body, I offered a heads up on the new Nero encoder.
An emailed reply held surprises: 1) he favors using version 1 of HE-AAC and 2) he uses LAME MP3 for archiving music. That he preferred command line encoders to something like MediaCoder must be considered as being Opera user behavior. (Mind you, I've had occasion to wish to take up with Opera again, but the fact that many of the coolest Web 2.0 apps don't work with it prevents defection.)
That first is bizarre, but perhaps shows that people aren't all that fussy about how their music on mobile devices sounds. But, the real surprise is that someone technologically savvy would toss aside the future-proofing FLAC provides. No matter what audio codec may hold sway in some years time, I know that my FLAC files will be readily converted along with their tags.
Friday, May 12, 2006
AAC with MediaCoder and Rockbox
Stanley Huang in Shanghai has released a new version of MediaCoder which can directly transcode from tagged lossless formats like FLAC, using Nero's new AAC encoder, properly transferring the tags to new *.m4a files. This is a huge convenience for those diligent enough to have gone to the effort of converting old CDs into tagged lossless files -- just load in 500 or so files and when you awake you've got many hours of music for your shiny next-gen musicphone.
I have a 60 Gb iAudio X5 player, now 93% full up with Ogg Vorbis files at q 6.16 -- nominal 197 kbps. There's lots of excitement in user forums at iAudiophile.net because Rockbox alternative firmware has been working on the player for a couple of months. Atypically, I'm not jumping at the opportunity to try new software. I really am a believer in the Ogg Vorbis format and I don't think any "lossy" format, including Nero AAC, can yet achieve transparency at barely above 200 kbps, which seems the case with latest Ogg Vorbis builds from Japan by people who call themselves aoyumi, lancer and blacksword -- the latter two optimizing for encoding speed while the first does the golden-eared tweaking. The major disadvantage of Ogg Vorbis is that it taps batteries more, and this is especially a problem in the iAudio x5 -- eight hours max with Ogg. I'm pretty sure that play time can be greater with LC-AAC on the iAudio x5 -- the official Cowon firmware didn't support it. But, talk in the threads is that battery efficiency with Rockbox is under what the original firmware offered, though improvements are deemed likely.
What clinches me on being a late adopter of Rockbox is that I really like BBE brilliance enhancing effects that the original firmware offers. Audiophiles dismiss BBE as artificial, but I think it a major plus for a mobile device that has to feed one its music while being carried through urban traffic and noise pollution.
But, it's nice to know that I have new options for expanding my music choices.
Did I mention that I have more than 7,000 files on my iAudio? Truth is, I don't have time to listen to all of it.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Nerotunes for musicphones
I notice in the discussion about the freeware Nero AAC encoder that's going on at Hydrogenaudio that the Nero guys are proposing to offer device/brand-specific settings for subsequent versions. That's directed more at musicphones than iPods and the like. And it's a major move to supplant iTunes as the Windows desktop music conversion software. Nero is offering their software in Linux, also, but not Mac OS.
We already knew that Apple had deliberately weakened the encoding algorithms for MP3 in iTunes, since they are so tied into the Low-Complexity Advanced Audio Coding format (LC-AAC). Since the Nero coder clearly surpasses the Apple codecs in LC-AAC (iPods play that and MP3, only) and doesn't even try to encode to High-Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC), Nero has a very good chance of dominating how we feed the coming generation of musicphones. It's a bit difficult to see Microsoft in this picture since their WMA format simply cannot compete at these low rates -- say, 30% of an iTunes store-bought song and at almost comparable quality.
We now await response from the Winamp/AOL/Coding Technologies alliance. Since AOL already collaborates with XM Satellite, another Coding Technolgies-type HE-AAC licensee, that is the obvious group to bet on. Honestly, it's a helluva lot of work doing one's own music file conversion and tagging (yikes!), so I really think pre-programmed channels like XM's (or even on-demand delivery to musicphones) will utterly alter the way people get their mobile music.
This really is disruptive technology at work! First Apple steals Microsoft's expected busines, then Coding Technologies and, maybe, Nero, muscle aside both Apple and Microsoft.Nero,
Now trying Zoundry
Now it's Zoundry I'm trying for Blogger.com . Something seems to be screwed up and prevents posts getting Technorati pinged.
How an 83-yr-old likes Flock
I was just at my father's -- he's 83 -- to update him
with the newest 0.7 branch Flock and add in some extensions. He
especially liked the CoolIris extension (gives BIG page preview when
one hovers over the linl line in Google search results) and the Flock
Faves / News multiline bookmark bars. He has a difficult time clearing
the URL bar and entering a new address.
Technorati Tags: Flock, CoolIris
with the newest 0.7 branch Flock and add in some extensions. He
especially liked the CoolIris extension (gives BIG page preview when
one hovers over the linl line in Google search results) and the Flock
Faves / News multiline bookmark bars. He has a difficult time clearing
the URL bar and entering a new address.
Technorati Tags: Flock, CoolIris
Another stupid gecko trick
I just discovered that, when in Flock, I couldn't edit the colors in a zap annayances javascript bookmarklet from squarefree.com -- the zap white backgrounds one; I change the newly rendered background to wheat instead of tan. But, I could open a Firefox browser and drag the bookmarklet from there to Flock.
Technorati Tags: Firefox, Flock, bookmarklets
Technorati Tags: Firefox, Flock, bookmarklets
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Stylish extension; Netvibes abuilding
I'm again building a profile, this time for Flock 0.7 builds -- the Slim Down GUI style from the Stylish extension-enabling usercripts.org site is essential, IMO. It's really gratifying to see how many new CSS styles are being added, and the easy install option in Stylish ver. 0.3.2 is a major convenience over prior. I saw a couple of new scripts for the Netvibes portal were added in the past week. That's a sure sign that Netvibes is gaining critical mass; I'm already using a Greasemonkey script to enable simple RSS feed adding to my Netvibes page. Of course, as so often happens, Greasemonkey's userscripts.org is down. Another thing I like about Netvibes is that I can have a Yahoo mail POP account than current browser default displayed on my Netvibes page.
Technorati Tags: Stylish, Flock, Netvibes
Technorati Tags: Stylish, Flock, Netvibes
Museum of Modern Beta (republish from LJ)
The Museum of Modern Betas is such a great site. I forgot the name of the online spreadsheet I registered in just two days ago, had failed to save password info locally, couldn't find it in history, and Google searches went unavailing. Searching for "spreadsheet" at MOMB immediately identified it as Editgrid; obviously Editgrid is doing a poor job in search engine optimization and PR. Investigating the others will be today's task. This could be interesting since I don't have others' preconceptions. I'd like something that teaches me math analysis the way my HP-41C once did.
This is one area where oh-so-web1.0 Yahoo really could be a factor. I'm no accountant and the internal logic of Excel and kin isn't how my mind works. But I occasionally use a spreadsheet as a calculator to create weightings for stocks in an industry I'll call "Au," for instance, and then set some date as index base 100. Making it a "Portfolio" in Yahoo Finance, one then has a great view of how one particular industry is doing. With Opera and Firefoxen under 1.6, one can display the Yahoo portfolios in a sidebar. I should make a screen capture to show how cool that is. I sent a note to one Flock person about how cool it would be to integrate auto-refreshed Yahoo stock quotes in a sidebar since they're close with Yahoo. Lamentably, sidebar functionality is pretty much gone in Flock 0.7+.
Technorati Tags: MOMB, editgrid, spreadsheets, Yahoo, Flock
NeroTunes (republish from LJ)
Ahead/Nero, of CD burning fame, released a free to all but closed source AAC encoder on May 4. I spent hours today with it and I would be immensely excited if I used an iPod, but I don't. Still and all, there's no doubt that it produces files in iTunes-store format that are higher in quality, at the same size, than what Apple's codecs produce. That's to say that Nero's encoder produces nominal 160 kbps LC-AAC files that sound significantly better. It's obvious that Nero's chief codec engineer Ivan Dimkovic really has figured out how to use Variable Bit Rate encoding to give iPod users the same type of benefits users of Ogg Vorbis (and MP3, to a lesser degree) have been enjoying for years. To date, Apple has produced only a wishy-washy Average Bit Rate encoder that doesn't drift more than 5kbps or so in a nominal 160 kbps audio file. With Nero's new encoder set for q (quality) 0.5 (evidently well calibrated to 160 kbps nominal), I saw my test file, Tommy Flanagan's Oh, Lady Be Good! show rates as high as 196 kbps when played in the latest foobar2000.
For the time being, until Stanley Huang (aka optimus in the Hydrogenaudio forums) releases his next version of MediaCoder, we have to make do with foobar2000 for encoding from untaggable WAV to MP4. Getting the tags in the output files is a PITA, but I'd use MP3Tag. If one goes about this right, one creates tagged FLAC files at the initial ripping stage for archiving. One way or another one can get the WAV files and from thence the Nero-AAC-encoded MP4s; then it's just a bit of drudgery to transfer the tags from the FLACs to the MP4s, using MP3Tag.
FWIW, I transcoded with a new "NeroTunes" profile in the foobar2000 preferences of -q 0.5 -if %s -of %d . There's also an output filename parameter which I changed to %_filename% .
I don't think the benefits for low-bitrate encoding with Nero's HE-AAC were as obvious as the differences between Apple and Nero LC-AAC. Despite Nero's insistence that a q value is best (.225 seemed closest to producing nominal 48 kbps, which has become a sort of standard), I prefer having tighter control of file size. I'm inclined to go with an Average Bit Rate of 48 kbps using encoder parameters -br 46594 -2pass -hev2 -if %s -of %d .
I've been preparing for the new Smartphones that play these files by encoding with whatever seemed the best at the time I ripped to FLAC. That's been Coding Technologies versions -- called AAC+ by them and licensee Winamp -- except for about three months after Nero Burns 7.0 was released. Helping move me to the Coding Technologies version from Winamp was the slowness of Nero's earlier encoder. Now Nero offers an SSE2-optimized executable which is lots faster. But I'm dubious about Nero's scrapping the Parametric Stereo setting for channel enhancement except down at rates in low 30s and under.
But, hell, let's give Ivan Dimkovic a nice round of applause. After years of trying, he definitely has beaten Apple.
Technorati Tags: Nero, iTunes, AAC, AAC+, codecs, foobar2000, mp3tag, mediacoder
For the time being, until Stanley Huang (aka optimus in the Hydrogenaudio forums) releases his next version of MediaCoder, we have to make do with foobar2000 for encoding from untaggable WAV to MP4. Getting the tags in the output files is a PITA, but I'd use MP3Tag. If one goes about this right, one creates tagged FLAC files at the initial ripping stage for archiving. One way or another one can get the WAV files and from thence the Nero-AAC-encoded MP4s; then it's just a bit of drudgery to transfer the tags from the FLACs to the MP4s, using MP3Tag.
FWIW, I transcoded with a new "NeroTunes" profile in the foobar2000 preferences of -q 0.5 -if %s -of %d . There's also an output filename parameter which I changed to %_filename% .
I don't think the benefits for low-bitrate encoding with Nero's HE-AAC were as obvious as the differences between Apple and Nero LC-AAC. Despite Nero's insistence that a q value is best (.225 seemed closest to producing nominal 48 kbps, which has become a sort of standard), I prefer having tighter control of file size. I'm inclined to go with an Average Bit Rate of 48 kbps using encoder parameters -br 46594 -2pass -hev2 -if %s -of %d .
I've been preparing for the new Smartphones that play these files by encoding with whatever seemed the best at the time I ripped to FLAC. That's been Coding Technologies versions -- called AAC+ by them and licensee Winamp -- except for about three months after Nero Burns 7.0 was released. Helping move me to the Coding Technologies version from Winamp was the slowness of Nero's earlier encoder. Now Nero offers an SSE2-optimized executable which is lots faster. But I'm dubious about Nero's scrapping the Parametric Stereo setting for channel enhancement except down at rates in low 30s and under.
But, hell, let's give Ivan Dimkovic a nice round of applause. After years of trying, he definitely has beaten Apple.
Technorati Tags: Nero, iTunes, AAC, AAC+, codecs, foobar2000, mp3tag, mediacoder
Kiko (republished from LJ)
I just read what the guys developing the Kiko Calendar/PIM app have accomplished in the past month: http://kiko.infogami.com/blog/
I think it remarkable, above all because they're really doing a lot of lateral thinking about how people interact with contacts and info. I just wish the private ICS file format was already implemented. I've now established that Spongecell works with the iCal viewer in Netvibes, but Spongecell is rustic in comparison with Kiko and Google Calendar is Neanderthal.
This area of calendar-PIMs also looks exciting because it's one of the few where there's a real chance of getting money via add-ins and add-ons. For example, think of calendar and contact sharing by the Smartphone-equipped in a disco or concert hall -- who's going for pizza or is up for a rave?
Isn't it odd how Google is falling behind? The google.com/ig portal now looks so old, their page creator is retarded and their chat system is no worldbeater.
Technorati Tags: Kiko, Google
I think it remarkable, above all because they're really doing a lot of lateral thinking about how people interact with contacts and info. I just wish the private ICS file format was already implemented. I've now established that Spongecell works with the iCal viewer in Netvibes, but Spongecell is rustic in comparison with Kiko and Google Calendar is Neanderthal.
This area of calendar-PIMs also looks exciting because it's one of the few where there's a real chance of getting money via add-ins and add-ons. For example, think of calendar and contact sharing by the Smartphone-equipped in a disco or concert hall -- who's going for pizza or is up for a rave?
Isn't it odd how Google is falling behind? The google.com/ig portal now looks so old, their page creator is retarded and their chat system is no worldbeater.
Technorati Tags: Kiko, Google
Zohowriter -- social Web 2.0 PIMs (republish of LJ)
This is my first effort creating a blog post using Zohowriter with the intent of exporting directly into Livejournal. We shall see ...
I was in the Village at a rather dull meeting and thought back to when every girl in Manhattan had a Palm Pilot with her friends, contacts and to-the-minute schedule in it. As an aside, I loved the anal retentive Olsen twin in New York Minute who had even her bathroom trips scheduled in her Day Runner.
That train of though also had me remembering when there were Palm Pilot syncing stations at most Greenwich Village sidewalk phones -- the notion was to get local info, maps, happenings, etc. Wi-Fi now and Wi-Max later make that seem retarded. I also recall the Manhattan launch party for Mozilla 1.0, held in a bar patterned on Parisian meeting spots of the 1890s where people would phone other tables in an attempt to get something on. That launch party bar added TV cameras you could swivel to view patrons in further reaches of the club. Lamentably, we initially had oodles of Chinatown cuties who'd come in for reasons unknown, decided we were too geeky, and were all gone by 10:00 P.M.
I believe that Web 2.0 PIMs can be an organizing theme for entertainment event info and dating/matchmaking services. With cellies also offering cameras, I can also imagine something akin to that experience in the Mozilla launch club.
[5 Minutes later: OK, Zohowriter worked very nicely for this post. But what really surprised me is that Technorati immediately picked up that there is new material here. Dunno if that was Zoho or LJ's doing, but it's pretty damn slick!]
I was in the Village at a rather dull meeting and thought back to when every girl in Manhattan had a Palm Pilot with her friends, contacts and to-the-minute schedule in it. As an aside, I loved the anal retentive Olsen twin in New York Minute who had even her bathroom trips scheduled in her Day Runner.
That train of though also had me remembering when there were Palm Pilot syncing stations at most Greenwich Village sidewalk phones -- the notion was to get local info, maps, happenings, etc. Wi-Fi now and Wi-Max later make that seem retarded. I also recall the Manhattan launch party for Mozilla 1.0, held in a bar patterned on Parisian meeting spots of the 1890s where people would phone other tables in an attempt to get something on. That launch party bar added TV cameras you could swivel to view patrons in further reaches of the club. Lamentably, we initially had oodles of Chinatown cuties who'd come in for reasons unknown, decided we were too geeky, and were all gone by 10:00 P.M.
I believe that Web 2.0 PIMs can be an organizing theme for entertainment event info and dating/matchmaking services. With cellies also offering cameras, I can also imagine something akin to that experience in the Mozilla launch club.
[5 Minutes later: OK, Zohowriter worked very nicely for this post. But what really surprised me is that Technorati immediately picked up that there is new material here. Dunno if that was Zoho or LJ's doing, but it's pretty damn slick!]
Sites galore (reposted from LJ)
These Web 2.0 happenings so much remind me of the exciting days between IE and Netscape versions 3 and 4 when everybody was desperate to get their site deemed a new standard. I think the Web 2.0 app that is most needed is an expedited sign-up system for what is possibly cool (but right for me?) so one could have a one-week trial without the endless rigamarole each time. That's an idea not so different from what used to be offered for investment newsletters and tip sheets -- back in the day when snail mail ruled (and postage was cheap).
Such quick tryouts are another reason that I'm finding the Places feature in my Bon Echo April 27 build utterly invaluable. Looking back in where I explored is so easy, and even more needed since so many sites have names that really aren't memorable. I am utterly and angrily opposed to Goodger's decision to remove it from the 2.0 milestone. Yes, I absolutely agree that it is false advertising to bill the next Firefox as 2.0 unless it finally brings interface and features up a level from IE and Netscape 3 and 4.
Java is so 20th Century, and that's how I dismiss Thinkfree. I'm not trying it out now since it's approaching Saturday evening (party!), but the export to blog function in Zohowriter seemed really cool; my quick take is that it is more useful to me than AjaxWrite or (eegad!) Thinkfree. I've a hunch a .NET app could beat Thinkfree Java. I think .NET is great!
I liked Spongecell better than Google Calendar, and Kiko better still, but the last doesn't yet offer iCal export. I've yet to check if Spongecell can be imported into Netvibes without times getting borked as happens with Google Calendar. I think PIM/calendar functions are a great Web 2.0/AJAX opportunity that may change our lives.
Other sites quickly visited included gabbr.com, which I thought a nice news delivery system
Two search engines that grabbed me were gigablast.com and golexa.net .
I need this blog as a backup to remember what I explored!
Technorati Tags: Goodger, Zohowriter, Spongecell, Kiko, iCal, gabbr, gigablast, golexa
Such quick tryouts are another reason that I'm finding the Places feature in my Bon Echo April 27 build utterly invaluable. Looking back in where I explored is so easy, and even more needed since so many sites have names that really aren't memorable. I am utterly and angrily opposed to Goodger's decision to remove it from the 2.0 milestone. Yes, I absolutely agree that it is false advertising to bill the next Firefox as 2.0 unless it finally brings interface and features up a level from IE and Netscape 3 and 4.
Java is so 20th Century, and that's how I dismiss Thinkfree. I'm not trying it out now since it's approaching Saturday evening (party!), but the export to blog function in Zohowriter seemed really cool; my quick take is that it is more useful to me than AjaxWrite or (eegad!) Thinkfree. I've a hunch a .NET app could beat Thinkfree Java. I think .NET is great!
I liked Spongecell better than Google Calendar, and Kiko better still, but the last doesn't yet offer iCal export. I've yet to check if Spongecell can be imported into Netvibes without times getting borked as happens with Google Calendar. I think PIM/calendar functions are a great Web 2.0/AJAX opportunity that may change our lives.
Other sites quickly visited included gabbr.com, which I thought a nice news delivery system
Two search engines that grabbed me were gigablast.com and golexa.net .
I need this blog as a backup to remember what I explored!
Technorati Tags: Goodger, Zohowriter, Spongecell, Kiko, iCal, gabbr, gigablast, golexa
Goodbye LJ, hello Blogspot
I've spent 36 hours trying to get LiveJournal working properly, or at least with Technorati ping facilities. It ain't gonna happen. I really think that LJ is just being malicious in its efforts to extort money. Too bad that other free alternatives look like crap or are down while they ward of denial of service and spam accounts.
Technorati Tags: livejournal, blogger
Technorati Tags: livejournal, blogger
powered by performancing firefox
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Obsolete music stores
I spent 12 hours yesterday converting CD music to formats of FLAC, OGG,
MP3 and AACPlus. Programs used in the process are ExactAudioCopy,
BulkRename, MP3Tag, MediaCoder, and foobar2000. Most of the effort is
in editing and formatting tags. Net reduction with so many different
formats is only about 15%. And there's already hundreds of hours music
on my 60Gb iAudio I've not got around to hearing. (And my podcast
subscriptions -- oy vey!)
How absurd is this process, or so will it
seem in a few years with everyone able to get wireless broadband. Local
storage of music on mobile players will be replaced by on-demand access
to streaming content like what XM and Sirius Satellite already play --
or the In2TV streaming telly programs AOL just introduced. And yet
there's no sign of Apple preparing for a world where iPods will be
thought laughable fossils.
And we can be pretty sure the tag
information will be as accurate as what XM and Sirius now provide. In
fact, I suspect that the corrupted info in the online Gracenote and
freeDB services that is supposed to aid us is deliberately created to
enhance the appeal of subscription music or, at least, buying music
online.
I was in two of Manhattan's biggest CD stores the last few
days and it was so comically obvious that these stores are obsolete.
Indeed, I've little doubt Spitzer is right in saying online music
pricing has been set by monopoly conspiracy. How can one equate costs
of music on discs in a huge store with rent, staff, electricity, etc.
with the reduced form delivered by the iTunes store?
I believe a
price equating the two delivery forms would be 20 cents per download.
It's fairly clear that Tower Records isn't financing itself and I think
it most likely the RIAA and record companies are supporting the chain
as part of the conspiracy to maintain an inflated price structure for
music.
MP3 and AACPlus. Programs used in the process are ExactAudioCopy,
BulkRename, MP3Tag, MediaCoder, and foobar2000. Most of the effort is
in editing and formatting tags. Net reduction with so many different
formats is only about 15%. And there's already hundreds of hours music
on my 60Gb iAudio I've not got around to hearing. (And my podcast
subscriptions -- oy vey!)
How absurd is this process, or so will it
seem in a few years with everyone able to get wireless broadband. Local
storage of music on mobile players will be replaced by on-demand access
to streaming content like what XM and Sirius Satellite already play --
or the In2TV streaming telly programs AOL just introduced. And yet
there's no sign of Apple preparing for a world where iPods will be
thought laughable fossils.
And we can be pretty sure the tag
information will be as accurate as what XM and Sirius now provide. In
fact, I suspect that the corrupted info in the online Gracenote and
freeDB services that is supposed to aid us is deliberately created to
enhance the appeal of subscription music or, at least, buying music
online.
I was in two of Manhattan's biggest CD stores the last few
days and it was so comically obvious that these stores are obsolete.
Indeed, I've little doubt Spitzer is right in saying online music
pricing has been set by monopoly conspiracy. How can one equate costs
of music on discs in a huge store with rent, staff, electricity, etc.
with the reduced form delivered by the iTunes store?
I believe a
price equating the two delivery forms would be 20 cents per download.
It's fairly clear that Tower Records isn't financing itself and I think
it most likely the RIAA and record companies are supporting the chain
as part of the conspiracy to maintain an inflated price structure for
music.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
AOL streaming media
AOL is trying. They added two XM stations to the Radio@AOL lineup --
the 128 kbps LC-AAC feed for subscribers, not the low qualty
open-to-all online version). The channels are XM Big Tracks and Chill,
though the latter has now stopped working. In fact Chill disppoints me
since it is mostly lounge with little sign of the electronic ambient I
best like.
March 11 saw start of beta testing "AOL Hi-Q Video" which uses Kontiki
DRM stuff. I had problems with "Delivery Service" software. Fast
enough,
though, since 43 minute, 430 mb WMV, episodes of "La Femme Nikita" were
pushed to me in a bit more than 30 minutes. They expire June 1.
I couldn't download more than two episodes without having to
force close AOL and reboot to download another two. So I couldn't
simply have all episodes consecutively download.
Not worth the effort since one can only play shows (after closing
Zonealarm) in AOL's wrapper of WMP 10, which precludes pan/scan.
Quality was poorer than XviD.
But, this seems promising of what can be accomplished. With the right
codecs, one could view HDTV-quality shows, likely even having them
streamed real-time. I'm surprised ITV and Sky don't offer such a
service to the US and Canada, though time zone differences make it more
desirable that downloads occur while subscribers sleep. "Hex" is a natural for American teen girls...
But bogging down PCs with complex new DRM software will surely deter users.
BTW, why do we need BluRay? Reduction of over 75% is obviously possible
with the best codecs; i.e., current movie DVDs could hold 37Gb of info.
the 128 kbps LC-AAC feed for subscribers, not the low qualty
open-to-all online version). The channels are XM Big Tracks and Chill,
though the latter has now stopped working. In fact Chill disppoints me
since it is mostly lounge with little sign of the electronic ambient I
best like.
March 11 saw start of beta testing "AOL Hi-Q Video" which uses Kontiki
DRM stuff. I had problems with "Delivery Service" software. Fast
enough,
though, since 43 minute, 430 mb WMV, episodes of "La Femme Nikita" were
pushed to me in a bit more than 30 minutes. They expire June 1.
I couldn't download more than two episodes without having to
force close AOL and reboot to download another two. So I couldn't
simply have all episodes consecutively download.
Not worth the effort since one can only play shows (after closing
Zonealarm) in AOL's wrapper of WMP 10, which precludes pan/scan.
Quality was poorer than XviD.
But, this seems promising of what can be accomplished. With the right
codecs, one could view HDTV-quality shows, likely even having them
streamed real-time. I'm surprised ITV and Sky don't offer such a
service to the US and Canada, though time zone differences make it more
desirable that downloads occur while subscribers sleep. "Hex" is a natural for American teen girls...
But bogging down PCs with complex new DRM software will surely deter users.
BTW, why do we need BluRay? Reduction of over 75% is obviously possible
with the best codecs; i.e., current movie DVDs could hold 37Gb of info.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Samsung to murder iPods
Samsung today announced the SGH-i310 Smartphone which supports songs encoded with the super-small-size HE-AAC codec, also known as AACPlus or AAC+. The phone can hold about 6,600 "songs" in that format.
Why would anybody carry an additional iPod for music?
Why would anybody carry an additional iPod for music?
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Failures of Firefox 1.5
Firefox 1.5 ought to have been wonderful and it certainly is anything but.
What qualifies me to say such a thing? I'm not a programmer and the HTML skills of most 16-year-old bloggers are above mine. But, I live on the web and I've used nearly 2,000 builds of various Mozilla/Gecko browsers over the last five years. In particular, I have vast experience in the creation and maintenance of "profiles" for the browsers. Indeed, I think profiles are one of the greatest benefits of these browsers because they always allow one to get a fresh start. And, I guess the firstmost tip to any Moz user is to get the MozBackup program and run it regularly.
Firefox 1.5 leaks and crashes when it does the things its natural constituency wants most to do. That natural constituency consists of bright young people who mingle through web social networks and professionals with an interest in the cutting edge of technology, currently implying Web 2.0 apps. The former is best known as the MySpace crowd, who like to look at one anothers' pages of pictures and dog's dinner pages of plugins and effects. Let's not argue about whether it's good but just accept that this is an important part of growing up in the 21st Century.
The testers for Firefox daily report in to forums at Mozillazine about problems when they visit sites like CSS Zen Garden. Never have I seen a posting: "Firefox crashed when I visited Samantha's MySpace page!" Regardless of how poorly Samantha's page is created, Firefox should not crash. And can we reasonably expect Samantha's friend to go through the incredibly bureaucratic ordeal of creating a Bugzilla report?
The Bugzilla system was created to keep developers in an ivory tower protected from the scruffy masses of users. I recall once in the forums complaining about difficulties uninstalling a prior version of (what was then called) Phoenix and Blake Ross asked what my problems were. He was immediately chided by a couple of other developers not to respond to queries from the public. And a fine irony in all this is that most of Blake's career as a Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox developer has been as a teenager.
So, here's where something can be done: create forums especially geared to young, non-technical users where they can also socialize but be listened to by developers. Perhaps there could be developed a streamlined form for reporting bugs and crashes frequently encountered. Let's not get bogged down in details, simply think about how to get a community of younger people involved with reporting the bugs in Firefox.
I've got plenty more to say, but looking back over this, I'm quite pleased with how I articulated the problem while offering the glimmerings of a solution. So, I'll just say...
....................................................................To be continued..............................
What qualifies me to say such a thing? I'm not a programmer and the HTML skills of most 16-year-old bloggers are above mine. But, I live on the web and I've used nearly 2,000 builds of various Mozilla/Gecko browsers over the last five years. In particular, I have vast experience in the creation and maintenance of "profiles" for the browsers. Indeed, I think profiles are one of the greatest benefits of these browsers because they always allow one to get a fresh start. And, I guess the firstmost tip to any Moz user is to get the MozBackup program and run it regularly.
Firefox 1.5 leaks and crashes when it does the things its natural constituency wants most to do. That natural constituency consists of bright young people who mingle through web social networks and professionals with an interest in the cutting edge of technology, currently implying Web 2.0 apps. The former is best known as the MySpace crowd, who like to look at one anothers' pages of pictures and dog's dinner pages of plugins and effects. Let's not argue about whether it's good but just accept that this is an important part of growing up in the 21st Century.
The testers for Firefox daily report in to forums at Mozillazine about problems when they visit sites like CSS Zen Garden. Never have I seen a posting: "Firefox crashed when I visited Samantha's MySpace page!" Regardless of how poorly Samantha's page is created, Firefox should not crash. And can we reasonably expect Samantha's friend to go through the incredibly bureaucratic ordeal of creating a Bugzilla report?
The Bugzilla system was created to keep developers in an ivory tower protected from the scruffy masses of users. I recall once in the forums complaining about difficulties uninstalling a prior version of (what was then called) Phoenix and Blake Ross asked what my problems were. He was immediately chided by a couple of other developers not to respond to queries from the public. And a fine irony in all this is that most of Blake's career as a Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox developer has been as a teenager.
So, here's where something can be done: create forums especially geared to young, non-technical users where they can also socialize but be listened to by developers. Perhaps there could be developed a streamlined form for reporting bugs and crashes frequently encountered. Let's not get bogged down in details, simply think about how to get a community of younger people involved with reporting the bugs in Firefox.
I've got plenty more to say, but looking back over this, I'm quite pleased with how I articulated the problem while offering the glimmerings of a solution. So, I'll just say...
....................................................................To be continued..............................
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