Author Archives: c0up

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Data is the pollution problem of the information society

Data is the pollution problem of the information society… all processes produce it, it stays around, it has to be dealt with, and its secondary uses are what concern us.. so, just as, we collectively look back at the beginning of the previous century, and sort of marvel at how the titans of industry in their rush to build the industrial age would ignore pollution, I think we here will be judged by our grandchildren and great grandchildren by how well we dealt with data, with individuals and their relationship to their data in the information society

I stumbled across this fascinating 8 min clip of Bruce Schneier speaking at EWI Cybersecurity Summit 2010, and decided it needs to be shared, on a “sticky” platform, like this blog.

Bruce speaks primarily about data and socialising in this increasingly data-producing Information Age we are in, and with the recent #locationgate uproar over data, privacy, etc, I found it most relevant.

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Rationalising my digital media purchases, or lack thereof

@juleshughan tweeted an interesting Guardian post titled In the digital era free is easy, so how do you persuade people to pay?, and it got me thinking about why I pay for some forms of digital media, and why I refuse to for others.

The article is a good read, and speaks of motivations, which is something I’ve been very interested in lately, but this list, or whatever the post will turn into, is a lot more, colloquial, I guess.

<time jump> I’ve ranted too much [yes, I’m jumping in time], so I’m going to just list my rationale / motivations—generalised—below, and if you’re still interested, you can read about why it was basically World of Warcraft that got me paying for digital media. </time jump>

Note: The following rationale may likely be highly irrational to some.

The short of it

Games

  • Features [the social, multiplayer aspect in 99% of cases] not accessible through pirated copies
  • Ease of purchasing and the convenience of digital delivery
  • Supporting Indie developers

Music

  • Supporting something I’m passionate about
  • It’s cheap
  • Convenience

Television

Good luck trying to get me to pay for television.

Movies

Can’t justify it, and I’m more than doing my bit to support the movie industry by paying $20+ each week at the cinemas.

<time jump 2> Ok, I’m jumping in time again, but I realised I’d forgotten about mobile, and it feels a little different in my mind.

I would more than happily pay for an app I use regularly, but at this point in time, all my favourite, and most used apps, are free. In saying that, I do feel like, for whatever reason, I would hesitate / consider buying an app a lot more than I should, for the relatively small amount they cost. This Oatmeal comic sums it up  </time jump 2>

And now, a wordier version…

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Where I went yesterday, via my Android phone

You know what? I’m glad this whole phones keeping track of everywhere you go thing happened, because, pushing all those pesky, minor concerns about privacy away, it’s really kind of cool!

Hot on the heels of the iPhone tool that showed us the smorgasbord of data that’s being stored, someone decided to see what Google / Android does. It turns out they store location information as well, just, no way near as much as Apple

After a period of time, 12 hours for cellular data and 48 hours for WiFi data, has passed, the location data is renewed by a new request from Google. It is also limited to a maximum number of entries so that the database doesn’t grow too large. 

Swindon says that the location file pulled from his phone contained roughly 13,000 entries related to cellular network tracking. By contrast the Android file is limited to only 50 entries in the cellular location database.

via The Next Web

Maybe it is just a bug, or lazy programming or whatever on Apple’s part, but it makes sense, especially in Google’s case, where they delete / refresh the data, and you can see it being useful for location-based services.

This same someone that decided to see what Google do, created a Python script that you can feed the Wi-Fi and Cell cache files into, and then output into a .gpx format, to eventually visualise on Google Maps, so I just went ahead and tried it out, purely with my Cell cache file.

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Today I learned about motion interpolation

Our tv at home is around 10 years old, maybe older. In general, I don’t watch tv on my tv, and if I ever do, there’s a 99% chance it’ll be sport, hence my visible disgust as I turned on the tv in my hotel room today, excited to watch Kill Bill: Volume 2. 

I still remember the first time I came across motion interpolation. I was drunk, at a mate’s place, and Spiderman was on tv. Ten seconds in, I was wondering what the hell was going on, and why the movie was looking so… real or non-cinematic. I put it down to my lack of sobriety. Nope, that wasn’t it at all.

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Why do we do what we do on the web?

SXSW. Day two keynote. Seth Priebatsch’s The game layer on top of the world. Didn’t know what to expect.

Came out beaming, energised, in awe of what a room of 3000 people had achieved in one minute [this crazy card swapping experiment that highlighted the power of decentralised networks and people working together for a cause], and of the new layer that was going to sit on top of the web and make everything better.

Talked about it with everyone, came back home, talked about it some more, ardently defended it in a Twitter exchange just yesterday, and then tonight, after a day ruined by some areshat walking through the wrong door, I started reading up on gamification yet again. The doubt seeped in, and now I’m writing this.

Or maybe it started with that Twitter exchange yesterday, and Pon quoting Josh Williams, co-founder and CEO of Gowalla.

Badges are bullshit. Social validation is the primary driver of activity on the web.

I have been thinking about this over and over, nodding to myself in agreement. He’s right, you know.

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SXSW – The context layer

There was plenty talked about at SXSW Interactive, and for the most part, it was reaffirming my existing knowledge more than anything else. One thing that did stand out, and that I’ve found myself talking about since I’ve returned, is this whole concept of a Context Layer to sit on top of all the content that exists on the web, and specifically in relation to Location.

This is isn’t something new or revolutionary, but it makes sense in feeling like the logical next step.

We’ve already seen Web 2.0 push personalisation, and the Social Web push relevance via social graphs [no doubt this will continue *cough* +1 *cough*], but utilising location, especially through mobiles, is still in its infancy.

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SXSW 2011 in films. Q&As, lines and the 15 I saw, ranked.

SXSW Film is pretty special. Sure, there’s Sundance and Cannes, but SXSW Film really opens up its screenings, and gives the people access to all films that are screening like no other film festival. It was my first SXSW, and I had absolutely no idea to expect. It’s pretty clear now though, that by far, the Film component was my favourite.

Where else would a movie fanboy like me get to sit in on so many world premieres and screenings and interact with the cast, director, writer and producers of films?! The Q&As were a part of film I’d hardly experienced, and I grew deeply in love with them, and the context derived from them, with the movie being so fresh in your mind.

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SXSW – The Beaver [spoilers, duh]

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Boy I love being surprised by films. The Beaver is not the film I expected it to be.

Jodie Foster introduced the film, and with a wry smile on her face, she warned the audience that this would not be a lighthearted, uplifting story, and well, she was right. Thank god she made the movie she did.

The Beaver tells four stories. A clinically depressed man that has tried all he can and is on the verge of suicide, stuck in a box that he cannot break out of. A wife at the crossroads of a broken relationship, a son desperately trying not to be his father, and a girl struggling to truly express herself.

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Drive a cab or pedicab at SXSW? Check the Explore tab on Foursquare!

I’m in Austin, Texas for SXSW. I had two experiences with cabs yesterday.

The first was being pretty much stranded at a Burger King near Walmart in the middle of nowhere, off a highway :O “serves you right”, I hear Alex saying. We waited for a good hour I’d say, and when we finally got in the cab, the cab driver, amongst other things, was ranting about how terrible their dispatch is, and the distrust, almost, that they have in them. And this is apparently the best of the bunch, when it comes to cab companies in Austin.

I didn’t pay much attention to it, and was actually appreciative of how decent Sydney is in getting a cab to you, when called for.

The second experience was when we were all severely intoxicated, evacuating a closing bar, and wondering where the hell to go next. What did we do? We checked out the Explore tab on Foursquare.

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Oscars 2011 – My predictions

I did this last year. I ended up getting ~14 out of 16 right. I don’t think I’ll do as well this year, because it seems like it’ll either go heavily the way of The King’s Speech, which has a LOT of the recent momentum, or, it’ll go with The Social Network, the film that ran away with all the early awards, including, for what it’s worth [not much], sweeping the Golden Globes.

I’ve omitted a few categories I have no real idea about, but the full list of nominees and awards can be found here.

KEY:

What I *predict* will win – italics

What I *want* to win – bold

What ended up winning – red

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