How the RIAA sues people

A very interesting piece on the "due process" the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) employs to sue people. Good stuff to know if you're an Evil Grandmother or Pre-teen criminal who recieves a subpoena in the mail.

Link via digg.

History of Computer Graphics

A Critical History of Computer Graphics Animation -- a fairly interesting history of CGI up to the year 2000.

Link via MeFi.

BBC on "Star Trek"

As "Number One" (actress Majel Barrett) says on the surface of Talos IV in the episode "Menagerie Part II": "CAN YOU GIVE US ANYMORE!" :-)

The BBC reports: "The Sci-fi series Star Trek is the show most people want to see returned to their TV screens, a survey has found." Link to BBC via digg.

Disclaimer:
I'm not a 'hard core' Trekkie, I just love this trick photo.
Circa 1992, Seattle, WA
:-)

Gwynn Dyer's Year End Roundup

Canadian journallist and war historian Gwynne Dyer's Year Ender is an interesting analysis of global war and peace -- thoughout 2005.

Link via MeFi.

Bad Day at 30,000 Feet

Jeremy Hermanns was on an Alaska Air flight that lost pressure. He took Treo 650 photos of the scene and, thank God, lived to blog about it
(via BuzzMachine & Lost Remote).

Xeni on NPR's covering pearLyrics

Tech journalist and BoingBoing co-editor Xeni Jardin has a segment on NPR's "Day to Day" today talking about pearLyrics, something I posted about last week. As mentioned, pearLyrics is probably the best tool I've played with, since, well -- iTunes. It's a fantastic little companion app to help retrieve lyrics from the web for music I already LEGITIMATELY own and listen to in iTunes.

Xeni's piece is solid on the issues and it's always nice to hear a beautiful alpha geek on the radio! -- especially when she's discussing important stuff like "freedom to innovate" if you're a software developer.

Link to the NPR segment stream (requires RealPlayer).

RIP Vincent Schiavelli

From "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" to "Amedeus" to "James Bond" this guy was one of my favorite character actors. I will miss him.

Link to Yahoo! via MeFi.

Vive La France!

They support file sharing.

Is nothing sacred anymore?

So now we know.... how they get that Caramel into the Caramilk bar...

If you really want to know here's a link via Paul Kerodsky's "Infectious Greed".

Merry Christmas from Saturn!

"Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings."

Link to NASA's Cassini-Huygens home page - via digg.

Yer Typical Navizon Users :-)

If Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg of Saturday Night Live were using the "Navizon Wireless Positioning System" on their WiFi enabled Windows Mobile PDA's and/or WindowsMobile Smartphone or Symbian OS Cell Phones, they could have easily:

* tracked each other all over NYC, using Navizon's
"Buddy-Tracker" technology

* Geo Tagged the location of "The Magnolia Bakery" with the comment:
-- "I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling" or added any photo, video or sound to the "GeoTag"

* snapped Photos of the cupcakes and added them to their flickr photo stream

* performed Mobile Local Searches to find even BETTER cupcakes!
and get directions and a route map to exactly where they can be found

* searched for Movie Times & Locations AND obtained directions to the closest theatre on the Upper West Side

* obtained those directions and an accurate route map to the theatre
at 68th & Broadway ABSOLUTELY FREE!
WITHOUT A CELLULAR CARRIER ROUTE NAVIGATION FEE
showing up on their monthly cell phone bill!

* and performed all of this -- WITH or WITHOUT a GPS device!

and oh yeah,

* Navizon uses GoogleMaps -- "TRUE DAT! DOUBLE TRUUUUUE!"

...absolutely FREE!
(for personal use -- currently in use by over 20,000 people in 20+ countries).


Exceprt from "Chronic (What)-cles of Narnia" rap:
"Yo! Where's the movie playin'?, Upper West Side Duuude!, Well let's hit up Yahoo! Maps to find the dopest route!, I prefer Map-Quest, that's a good one too, GoogleMaps is the BEST, True dat! Double True!"


The moral of the story?
+ =

Link to Navizon and to a related PC Magazine article from earlier this week.

Top 50 Photos of 2005

Some pretty cool shots in this collection...
Link via digg.

Google Earth and Norad Tracking Santa?

Google Earth and Norad may indeed be tracking Santa but the sad reality is -- the U.S. National Security Agency already knows where he's going.

Merry Christmas!

Afrikaans: Gesëende Kersfees
Afrikander: Een Plesierige Kerfees
African/Eritrean/Tigrinja: Rehus-Beal-Ledeats
Albanian: Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic: Milad Majid
Argentine: Feliz Navidad
Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Bahasa Malaysia: Selamat Hari Natal
Basque: Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!
Bengali: Shuvo Naba Barsha
Bohemian: Vesele Vanoce
Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo
Breton: Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian: Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Catalan: Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou!
Chile: Feliz Navidad
Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Chinese: (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
(Catonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Choctaw: Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito
Columbia: Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Cornish: Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Corsian: Pace e salute
Crazanian: Rot Yikji Dol La Roo
Cree: Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian: Sretan Bozic
Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish: Glædelig Jul
Duri: Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak
Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
or Zalig Kerstfeast
English: Merry Christmas
Eskimo: (inupik) Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo!
Esperanto: Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian: Ruumsaid juulup|hi
Faeroese: Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar!
Farsi: Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish: Hyvaa joulua
Flemish: Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuw jaar
French: Joyeux Noel
Frisian: Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
Galician: Bo Nada
Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! German: Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek: Kala Christouyenna!
Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew: Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi: Shub Naya Baras
Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaian: Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou!
Hungarian: Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic: Gledileg Jol
Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish: Nollaig Shona Dhuit, or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Iroquois: Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut. Ojenyunyat osrasay.
Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Jiberish: Mithag Crithagsigathmithags
Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin: Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!
Latvian: Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!
Lausitzian: Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto
Lettish: Priecigus Ziemassvetkus
Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu
Low Saxon: Heughliche Winachten un 'n moi Nijaar
Macedonian: Sreken Bozhik
Maltese: IL-Milied It-tajjeb
Manx: Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori: Meri Kirihimete
Marathi: Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo: Merry Keshmish
Norwegian: God Jul, or Gledelig Jul
Occitan: Pulit nadal e bona annado
Papiamento: Bon Pasco
Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu
Pennsylvania German: En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Peru: Feliz Navidad y un Venturoso Año Nuevo
Philipines: Maligayan Pasko!
Polish: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie
Portuguese: Feliz Natal
Pushto: Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha
Rapa-Nui (Easter Island): Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Rhetian: Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn
Romanche: (sursilvan dialect): Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn!
Rumanian: Sarbatori vesele
Russian: Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Sami: Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Sardinian: Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou
Serbian: Hristos se rodi
Slovakian: Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Sami: Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scots Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serb-Croatian: Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
Serbian: Hristos se rodi. Singhalese: Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene: Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish: Feliz Navidad
Swedish: God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Tagalog: Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tami: Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Trukeese: (Micronesian) Neekiriisimas annim oo iyer seefe feyiyeech!
Thai: Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian: Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese: Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh: Nadolig Llawen
Yugoslavian: Cestitamo Bozic
Yoruba: E ku odun, e ku iye'dun!

and Peace on Earth, Good Will towards ALL!

Amazing Macro Shots

This flickr set of amazing macro photos reminds me of the times I used to turn the pages reeeally fast in National Geographic magazine...

Link via digg.

"GPS Finds the Mainstream" - PC Magazine

"New York-based Mexens Technology LLC announced this week the official launch of its peer-to-peer GPS network Navizon, which the company has been testing since August.

Navizon enables drivers and pedestrians to navigate cities wirelessly. It works by synchronizing Wi-Fi and cellular signals to a central repository, offering public access to GPS data for major cities in the United States.

The software-based positioning service doesn't require a dedicated GPS device. It is compatible with Windows Mobile devices—including Pocket PCs and PDAs—or on cell phones that use Symbian Ltd.'s operating system.

Once installed, the application automatically maps the local landscape by calculating specific locations for all wireless access points and cell phone towers in the area.

At the same time, the software syncs to Navizon's Network Server to retrieve data from other users.

"Instead of satellite signals typically used by GPS devices, Navizon uses signals from nearby Wi-Fi and cellular towers," said Cyril Houri, founder and CEO of Mexens Technology. "By looking at the surrounding wireless landscape, the device knows where users are located and can thereby offer location-based services."

Navizon utilizes a P2P system to make available a communal database that houses positioning information for most major metropolitan areas in the United States. Each time a user synchronizes with the system, any new data is instantly saved."

Link to PC Magazine / Yahoo!

Reasons for Re-Ripping

This issue is not going to go away until consumers educate themselves on what's involved in the "conversion" of the CD's they own to a file format they can play on their iPods or other MP3 players.

That music kids have downloaded off Napster and Kaaza? Pure crap, audio files of quality so poor you can hardly listen to them on a stereo. Most of the audio on file share networks is rarely ever encoded above 128K kilobits per second (kbps), to keep the files size small and manageable for easy dowloading via P2P networks.

Apple claims their AAC format delivers "superior" quality -- which may or may not be true. Much depends on the bit rate you encode the CD in. In my view Apple's AAC file format simply delivers more efficient file compression (of around 25-30% over MP3) definitely NOT superior audio quality.

The reality is that MP3 is an excellent and OPEN audio file format/standard for encoding music. Period. Apple is pumping the AAC format like there's no tomorrow because this technology has a built in encryption scheme that makes AAC music difficult to freely play on various other digital devices -- this is a trade off Apple had to make to keep the music industry happy while they sell music via the iTunes store.

My unsolicited recommendation for anyone encoding their own CD's for playing on an iPod or any other MP3 player device is:
ABSOLUTLY DO NOT USE THE DEFAULTS ENCODE SETTING IN ITUNES!

I strongly suggest going into iTunes preferences and setting your encode rates as:
* MP3 format
* 256K (kbps)
* VBR (variable bit rate)
* Best Quality

This recommendation comes after extensive testing I did with a group of friends in Silicon Valley a few years ago. We each took 2 of our favorite songs, encoded them at various bit rates and then compared notes of the audio quality (on highs, lows, dynamic range, etc.) It was literally impossible for us to distinguish between an actual CD and a high quality MP3 encoded at a bit rate of 256K VBR (varialble bit rate).

With the price of hard drives plummeting it's easy to keep your main iTunes library on a cheap external USB 2.0 or Firewire drive in the event you have hunders or thousands of CD's and the main library doesn't fit on your existing internal hard drive. This strategy is a minimum hassle approach and provides "primo" quality for the music you already own.

Link to Digital Media Thoughts.

Now don't even try and get me started on ripping DVD's to the MPEG4 h.264 video file standard... that's a rant for another day.

and this just in via Dave Winer, a link that points out why it's still a good idea to purchase CD's and encode them yourelf, rather than "purchase?" poor quality, encrypted music off the iTunes store.

UPDATE: Mike Arrington of Crunchnotes chimes in with this sage comment.

"Yup, them cans blowed up real good!"

"Watch a Bullet Blow through Seven Soda Cans at 2000 Frames Per Second. Oranges, Melons, and Balloons explode in slow motion and High Detail right before your eyes."

Link via digg.

"Warm in all the ruuums..."

Somebody was asking me today what I do to keep warm during the winter in Canada. After thinking of the usual suspects when it comes to keeping cozy, I was reminded of this strategy -- from some friends across the pond:

More Google Map Mashups for TO

Links to "360 Degree Panoramic Views of Toronto", "Find a Sweet Shop in Toronto" and "Mississauga Real Estate Map" are but a few new offerings that Mike of Google Maps Mashups (Waterloo) offers up.

Check 'em out via this link to Google Maps Mania.