This night, I was enjoying a virtual trip to Africa (not the tourist park, but the real slums of Nairobi, where people live), courtesy of Nokia, who have set their Social Media Communications team to explore the social life in Sub-Saharan Africa. Jussi Impiö here explains the music project (more from the NRC YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NokiaConversations):
Category: media
media, culture and society
Nokia Maps 3.0 Beta, but not for N95
I have found the mobile location and navigation utilities genuinely useful in several occasions lately, and have been following with interest the release of new, 3.0 version of Nokia Maps. The possibility to have certain landmark buildings as 3D objects in the maps sounds something that should make it more intuitive to place yourself in the real environment. Also, the synchronisation of favorites between a PC version (Maps in OVI service) and the mobile handset one makes it much easier to plan your routes beforehand on the proper PC keyboard, and then utilise those points of interest later, on the road. I was disappointed, however, to find out that currently Maps 3.0 is only available to the very limited number of S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 devices, and e.g. my N95 8GB model is not supported (it belongs to the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 category). But they at least promise a quick release with more supported devices, lets see how fast that will be. More: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps
Streaming media into PS3
I have made various attempts to get media streaming in our house from a server in cellar to clients set up in various other rooms. So far the only system that has really worked well has been the Squeezebox (Logitech, previously Slimdevices). They have dedicated server software that runs very well in a Linux server and integrates perfectly with the well designed player, both over Wi-Fi as well as Ethernet. Otherwise, no luck. Now, after investing to a Sony PlayStation 3, I got dedicated enough to try and solve the media streaming issues to really use this high-powered gaming console as a network-enabled home media center. It turned out that it was finally impossible to get PS3 to connect to anything without investing to more hardware: our home network has been build gradually, connecting piece to piece, and universal plug-and-play and other necessary media discovery protocols did not work if PS3 was connected wirelessly into a separate Wi-Fi router, and that was connected to another ADSL-modem-router (plus external switch) combo that I had piled up in our network cabinet. After getting rid of the old ADSL-modem and Wi-Fi box, and instead getting a combined Wi-Fi-modem-router device (Telewell TW-EA514, pictured), the problems appear to be solved. Now PS3 can at least see the Vista machine downstairs having a Windows Media Player 11, and connect to media shared through it. Several steps were, nevertheless, yet required before anything else beside music files could be seen through the media player. I am still unsure whether the settings in Control Panel/Network and Sharing Center/Media Sharing, or the paths added into the Media Player Library, or paths in the Windows Media Center finally did it, but now I seem to be able to access all my media also through the PS3. (Oops, while writing this, Vista crashed, lets see whether anything at all works after this…) Only thing I can say is that the era of effortless, transparent home networking and media device interoperability is not yet here.
PS3 unboxing
Our full hd television finally got a partner that can play Blu-ray movies as we got our PS3. It was a bundle deal, with Little Big Planet thrown in. Tweaking the video inputs took some time, and finally changing the HDMI cable to a better quality one changed the situation: there was a twitter and flashing in the 1080p screen mode before the cable was changed. Curious, but it looks that the gold plating is not recommended for nothing in PS3 HDMI cable connectors. After this, the quality of full hd movies was real eye-opener (the quality of digital tv signal in Finland is particularly bad, so the point of comparison was good for Blu-ray, to start with). It will take some time to experiment with the gaming capabilities of the new system more, but one thing is obvious already: the system is technically superior to anything out there, but the Sony “XrossMediaBar” user interface is a missed opportunity. I do not know the exact background of this particular choice, but it feels like a system designed by a group of nerdie engineers and cool graphic designers. No usability experts required. Pity. Great engineering, though.
IR9.0
Ok, Internet Reseach conference 9.0 in Copenhagen is now over, and I am back home, recovering (I am having one week holiday wiht my family, so no email for a while, yippee). The conference itself was informative and fun, and it was nice to experience this kind of mixture of game researchers with researchers of other aspects of the Internet. My own paper dealt with that very question: what does it mean for game studies that games mingle and mix more and more with other online media, and ‘playfulness’ becomes a mode that is allowed in multiple contexts, including work and education related ones. “Towards contextual gaming” was my tagline. Anyways, thanks to Lisbeth and all the other organisers, and all the speakers and participants for interesting three days! You can explore IR9 photos in Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=ir9&m=tags
Marc Davis in MindTrek
Today is the second day of MindTrek conference, and I am happy just to lean back, listen, and participate as an audience. This camera-photo is taken during the opening session, showing the chief scientist (Yahoo’s Connected Life) Marc Davis speaking about social media from a system oriented and ecosystem perspective.
Alma Media: only for heterosexuals
There was a nasty piece of news yesterday that revealed how Alma Media (a major news corporation in Finland) had cancelled the work contract of journalist Johanna Korhonen after finding out that she was living as a family with another woman and two children. It appears that CEO Kai Telanne and his associates believe that one can be an editor-in-chief only if one is living in a heterosexual relationship, and failing to reveal such personal information as one’s sexual orientation in a work interview is close to a criminal act. It is sad and funny that they apparently claimed that because the work would have involved leading Lapin Kansa newspaper, which is located in Rovaniemi, Lapland, it is particularly impossible to consider “this kind of woman” for that position any more — even after being elected as the most competent candidate in the first place. Lapland, the black hole of intolerance, hmm. Great, they managed to insult the Lappish people, too.
There is serious lack of credibility towards Alma Media right now, and I can only hope that they will soon realise that they need to change their executives. Meanwhile, a boycott campaign is growing; I myself cancelled my subscription to Aamulehti (another Alma Media newspaper) starting from today.
More news in Finnish: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/oikea/id103204.html
A Facebook support group: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42373236060
A cartoon from Kaleva, by Jari:
Kauhajoki school shootings
Less than a year ago I wrote about the Tuusula/Jokela school shootings; today, the same seems to repeat in Kauhajoki, another peaceful small town. I can only feel sorrow, and repeat what I have said earlier: there appears to be deep lack of dialogue and contact in our society, particularly between generations. If there is no real contact and wellbeing constructed daily in close human relationships, then the road is open for self-destruction. And one should never forget that these incidents are, after all, suicides. The child of media age will be drawn to a media spectacle, rather than the quiet and lonely death of previous generations… Another grim day, indeed.
Advisory for MLL
Today I had again a visit to Helsinki, through kind invitation by the executives of MLL (Mannerheimin Lastensuojeluliitto, the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare – the biggest organisation of its kind in Finland). I am bringing the perspectives of digital culture and game studies to the media education work that the association is carrying out, hopefully playing some small part in increasing “games literacy” in our country. Links: http://www.mll.fi/ & http://www.mll.fi/in_english/
TV for Mac
Probably the most useful feature in a digital television is the capability to define search terms to run automatic scheduling of recordings. That way, you can e.g. record every piece of “news” or “Buffy Vampire Slayer”, regardless of from which channel and at what time they appear. It is a small and intermediate step towards true VoD (“Video on Demand”), but a necessary one in a broadcast dominated media reality. Continue reading “TV for Mac”
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