media, culture and society
There is apparently something called ‘Read an eBook Week’ being celebrated during the first week of March (talking about festivities I did not know existed). A real eBook would require a real ePaper/eInk solution, and unfortunately those are not yet at our hands (even if Amazon Kindle and its kind are making fast progress). But there are actually some worthwhile points to support literature to go ‘e’; see:
http://epublishersweekly.blogspot.com/2008/02/30-benefits-of-ebooks.html
Today the Bluetooth adapter I have been waiting for finally arrived in mail. The model (Sony TRM-BT8iP Stereo Transmitter) appears not to be available outside the US yet, so I had to use eBay (which led into extra costs and extra hassle; some US dealers appear to have blacklisted European customers using PayPal with their credit cards). But now that I can finally experiment with the Sony DR-BT50 headphones Bluetooth link with my old iPod, all seems very promising. My old experiences with wireless headphones were from the infrared period, filled with hiss and breaking connections. But these things seem to be from totally different era. The DR-BT50 could have a bit more room for ears, so the size is an obvious compromise in travel headphones. But the isolation is good, the silent parts sound beautifully clean and all tones from low bass to high tones have also that clear and powerful quality you’d expect from hi-fi headphones (true hardcore audiophiles will probably disagree, of course — but these are for MP3 listening, to start with). The actual range of Bluetooth stereo is according to my experiments around 4-5 meters (12-15 feet), and the music will break if you go beneath thick walls or to another floor in the house. But in the pocket, in a bag, or in the table — no problem: complete freedom of movement, liberated from the wires. The downside of this system as compared to traditional wired headphones is that you need to charge them after travel or other use, but then again, you’d probably also charge your iPod in any case. Great! Now, if I’d only have a mobile phone that would connect with DR-BT50; so far no success with my Nokia E70. That phone is still Bluetooth 1.2 technology, and thus might never really work with a wireless stereo hands-free set.
One of the essential utilities in the media ecology of our home is the PRV — personal video recorder with search functions and a hard disk. We have the Topfield TF5100PVR, suitable for the DVB-T standard we use here in Finland. Since ‘Toppy’ has a hard disk, but no CD/DVD burner, the media archiving has its challenges, though. I think I have now finally figured a process to transfer Topfield recordings into DivX files for archiving and sharing:
This is another great little gadget: Squeezebox (by Slimdevices, which is now part of Logitech) is an easy-to-use device for playing all those mp3’s and other media files that reside in your media server disk through the speakers in your library or living room. It can use both Wi-Fi and wired ethernet to connect and can also connect to Shoutcast and other net radio stations. I had some trouble in configuring the Slimserver software in Ubuntu server to access files in my USB hard disk. Here are couple of useful links to help in that:
This morning I updated the WordPress installation running this site into version 2.3.2. At the same time I also installed WP-cache plugin, which speeds up WordPress by using static, cached pages instead of making a PHP database query every time a single page is needed. What left me wondering though, is that will Google Analytics report correct numbers after this trick? I suppose it should work, since the actual usage database is being collected into Google servers, and they only need to get info about the page load (dynamic or static, no difference) every time the site is being accessed. But I am not sure about that, though.
Here is a Google Analytics screen shot of the Map Overlay for users accessing this site (I typically get c. 100-200 visitors per day; top countries, United States 1,867 for the last month; United Kingdom 630; Finland 474 [click for the full-sized map]):
Edit: It looks that there is a bug, and you need to manually comment out line 48 (add ‘#’ in line beginning) in file /wp-includes/cache.php; see: http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4045#comment:4
One thing that I have been missing in my travels and also while working is a wireless pair of headphones which would also work as hands-free system for taking those incoming calls. Ability to pair with both MP3 player (or: adapter) and a Nokia phone is thus a must. So far, it seems these are still first generation products and user experiences vary a lot. Some examples Continue reading “Bluetooth stereo headsets?”
STM meeting
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
Today will be spent in Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, where I will be presenting views of digital culture and game studies in a working seminar on children, youth and wellbeing/malaise in contemporary society. Pictured is Minister Paula Risikko.
Blade Runner Baby
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
The long-waited-for 5-dvd-box of Blade Runner collector’s edition arrived today, just to be eaten by our baby. Oh, bummer.
In today’s news: the merger of Activision with Blizzard aims to create “the world’s largest, most profitable pure-play video game publisher” — whatever that “pure-play” part means. More competition towards Electronic Arts, no doubt, but at the same time another example of how games industry is under similar kind of merger development and concentration into bigger units that has faced media industry previously. See e.g.:
Children and Media day
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
Today I am participating in an expert forum organised by the Ministry of Education in Helsinki. Director Jukka Liedes (pictured) gave an overview on children and media initiatives in Finland. The entire field is currently very fragmented and lives from one temporary project to another. The positive thing is that there are many people working in the field who are eager to explore the positive, constructive potentials in media. Nevertheless, the violence and media effects issues still continue to dominate the floor space in events like this, I am sad to say.
frans goes blog 
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