Podcast: Sex, Capitalism, and the Perfect Album
Here's a longer podcast I did with my friend Tony (hi Tony!). It's fairly long (1 hr 15 mins, 35.5MB), so be warned. Also, we were trying (yet again) to get Skype up and running as a way to do remote podcasts, and due to many reasons the sound is pretty crappy (I've done what little I could to clean it up). There is a lot of crackling as we were too loud. I appologize in advance.

Here are some of the topics we touched on:

• searching for porn


• setting up a blog on blogspot.com


• bluefish and privacy


• advertising and capitalism


• making personal connections via the Internet


• perfect albums


• rob's complicated music listening process


• collaborative filtering


• the podcasting network walk idea


• is podcasting revolutionary?


• sex and the internet


• let's do this again!

- posted @ 7:58 PM 0 comments

 
Amazon.com Yellow Pages
I haven't quite figured how yet, but I think the step that Amazon took to get photographs of locations listed in its Yellow Pages will be revolutionary for location-based services.

One thing that would be interesting (if not revolutionary) would be if the Amazon images could be added to Mapquest so that each time you had to make a turn, the Mapquest map contained an image of the intersection (or other feature) in question so that you knew what to look at.

Anyway, it's definitely worth checking out.

Thanks Ben!

Amazon.com Yellow Pages
- posted @ 12:20 PM 0 comments

 
Investibles: Are collectibles reasonable investments?
Here's the second installment of Investibles with Matt Schiffman.

This time we talk a little bit about specific markets (like fine art, or comics) that have shown a history of postitive return on investment.

We also touch briefly (to be explored in future installments) about specific risks involved in investing in collectibles.
- posted @ 1:05 PM 0 comments

 
Podcasting and the Challenge of Content
On a podcast/post I did in response to a podcast I heard on Openpodcast.org, I received a comment from kinrowan. I thought I'd post my response in a new thread so the discussion didn't get buried.

Hi Kinrowan,

I definitely believe that review sites like yours (why did you choose not to make a podcast of your reviews?) will be a valuable resource in the early stage of podcasting, but I think that podcast reviewing is going to face some non-trivial challenges as podcasting becomes more pervasive.

Challenges for Podcast Reviewers
Acting on Review Podcasts
Part of the allure of listening to podcasts, I would argue, has to do with their portability and on-demand nature. So the challenge with a podcast review podcast is how I, as a listener, am going to be able to act upon your advice while I'm away from my computer. If you say I should listen to a particular podcast, or even several podcasts, how do I remember that long enough to add it to my list of feeds (of course I have a suggestion about that ;).

For non-podcast podcast review sites (such as podcastreviews.net), this is less of a problem, however they may suffer from a lack of listener penetration given that they don't take advantage of a few of the benefits that makes podcast listening particularly alluring (portability, and not having to look at the content to consume it being the most obvious).


The Explosion of Content
It seems extremely likely that the amount of podcast content will explode to a size akin to where blogging is now. This means millions of podcast sources.

I'd guess that there are something like 200 major movies produced each year. Probably about the same number of new TV shows. There are probably a few thousand CDs released with reasonably wide distribution, and maybe double that in books (I'm sure these are all wrong, but hopefully the orders of magnitude are at least in the ballpark).

Right now, there are, what, 2000 podcast feeds? Next year at this time, we can expect something like 50,000 or more. How does one stay in front of that number? Obviously, there will be room for many sources of podcast reviews, but if there are tens of thousands of podcasts, and dozens of podcast review podcasts, and maybe even several podcast review review podcasts, how does one navigate through this space? Certainly we can rely on those we come into contact with to help filter what we listen to, but what concerns me is that this will lead us back to a version of the broadcast model where only those podcasts with enough mass appeal will spread virally, and podcasts that would be of the most interest to you as an individual may never find you.

How do you choose which podcasts to review? I suspect you probably can't listen to every podcast that springs up these days already, especially if you base your reviews on more than one post in a podcast. Perhaps you choose them based on the ones that sound interesting in their descriptions. Perhaps based on ones you have heard referenced in other podcasts. Perhaps ones that have been referred to you by friends, family, and your listener base. Probably some combination of all of these. But as the amount of content continues to explode, these methods would seem to become less and less useful as the content that arrives at you through these filters becomes overwhelming again.

Even now, I've noticed that your queue of podcasts to review contains podcasts I haven't heard any activity on for at least a month.


An Individual Podcast May Change Over Time
How do you handle the fact that pretty much any aspect of a particular podcast might change qualitatively as the podcast matures, or even from post to post? TV critics revisit shows they have previously reviewed (assuming, of course, that the show survives long enough), to see if it is still up to snuff (or as bad as it once was). If you intend to do this, your workload would increase even more, especially since, unlike in the TV industry, podcasters who create bad content don't have any financial pressures to quit producing content, meaning that the volume of surviving podcasts won't necessarily be culled over time like bad TV shows are.


Reviews May Have a Niche Audience
To remain relevant, it would seem that review sites might soon have to become an ecosystem of very specialized participants. This probably more closely matches the reviewing community of music or books than it does TV or movies. A reviewer might have to pick an especially small genre of podcasts to review (e.g. Southwest Missouri Agriculture News) and foster a loyal listenership, while other reviewers will have to become metareviewers at various levels, choosing to review only the best (and/or worst) podcasts reviewed by a niche reviewer for a wider audience and cover more subjects (e.g. Midwest Agriculture News).


Subscriptions as a Reflection of Me
Podcasting (and microcasting in general) is about getting you the content that YOU are most interested in. Much like movie reviewers, people who want to hear podcast reviews will want to find someone whose tastes match theirs, which, of course, brings up the question of how to find the right review podcast.


A Podcast as a Series of Shows?
Because anyone who wants to can produce a podcast an virtually no cost (beyond owning a computer, of course) it may not be fair to characterize podcasts as entertaining (as you mentioned), per se, in ways that blogs are not. Certainly some podcasts are entertainment oriented (such as the Radio adventures of Dr. Floyd), but others are not (e.g. Texas A&M System Agriculture Program News). We are so early in the medium that it may not be fair to characterize podcasts generally as "shows". For example, there seem to be a large number of people podcasting their music, one track per post, with no talking. Does this really qualify as entertainment as we are used to experiencing it through other mediums?

An interesting questions about the life of different podcasts come to mind. For example, if I put out an album's worth of my music in a podcast and then stop, is that worthy of a review?

I can envision certain kinds of podcasts where it would make sense to review individual postings and not the entire podcast itself. How do you stay on top of that?

None of this is to say that there won't be a place for review sites, but it would seem that they are unlikely to become they way that most people come into contact with a podcast (or specific post)


How Do We Prevent Individual Podcasts From Being Lost in the Shuffle?

Text searching is fairly useless on podcasts as it currently stands, and even if it was not, text searching assumes you know what it is you are looking for. The podcasts that you might find the most interesting might be things you never think to go looking for.

It's probably true that not all podcasts will NEED to be reviewed by someone, but it should be the case that all podcasts can have the hope of reaching interested people even without an enormous marketing effort.

I see podcasting's future as being (among other things) analogous to creating your own radio station that has exactly the kinds of content you want in it in exactly the way you want to listen to it [more detail]. Ideally, then, there should be a way for you to find exactly the content you want, and I'm guessing that review podcasts are going to be a sweet spot for only a minority of podcast listeners (though at this point I see them as terribly valuable).

Imagine an RSS feed that you subscribe to through a service. As you listen to individual posts on your iPod, you rate how much you like the content using the 1 to 5 star system supported by the iPod and iTunes. A plug in for iTunes looks for new ratings (perhaps only on specific playlists) and reports any ratings you have provided back to the service. Based on your ratings, and the ratings of others, the service adds and removes content from your RSS feed. This content may be complete feeds of certain podcasts, and only selected posts of others. It might even delete posts from your hard drive automatically if you gave the post a low rating.

In this way, your iPod becomes a radio station geared towards you specifically (or, more probably, towards a small group of people who share very similar interests to you).

If this service had your ratings in it, then it might allow you to browse categories of podcasts on the service's web site and as you looked at different available feeds it could give you the odds that you are going to like the feed.

Granted this is an Apple-technology-based solution. I don't know if other MP3 players have rating systems, and I feel fairly confident that ratings are not part of the standard MP3 ID3 tags (pity), but it wouldn't necessarily be difficult to modify existing software and firmware to allow for ratings, and the iPod/iTunes combo would probably account for a large percentage of the listening audience anyway.

If podcasting really does become custom content, then Adam Curry's penchant for short podcasts will probably be reinforced in the market as people steer away from long shows with a variety of content, to collections of shorter shows that match a listener's tastes more accurately. I expect, frankly, that this will be a relatively minor trend as people will still enjoy shows architected by a specific individual (e.g. Howard Stern).

Anyway, enough of my rambling for the moment.

Thoughts?

- posted @ 2:25 PM 1 comments

 
Podcast: Investing in Collectibles
Here's a podcast (4.82MB, 10m 32s) of a project I'm putting together with Matt Schiffman, collectibles dealer extrodinaire. The idea is to put together a series of podcasts delving deep into why and how you could invest in collectibles, much like you'd invest in stocks.

This is not a get rich quick scheme, but a way for those who have an interest in collectibles to learn to invest wisely, and maybe to lure in those people who don't have a current interest in collectibles.

If this project moves forward it will have it's own feed, but since this was as much a test run as anything, I thought I'd throw it up here for comments. If you have a topic you'd like to hear discussed, feel free to post it here.
- posted @ 4:25 PM 0 comments

 
No Mystery Sweepstakes for Coke?
I just glanced at the bottle of Coke on my desk and noticed the words "you won a FREE 1 liter!". Of course, these were under the words "Look under the cap to see if" written in smaller type.

Of course, this is what Coke wants you to see, but it made me wonder: do they even need to hide the answer at all? What would happen if Coke just put "this bottle wins a free liter", and "this bottle is not a winner" on their bottles?

Sure, those who wanted to cheat the system would, but those who don't care about the promotion would just ignore it. People for whom promotions are important get more out of them, the rest, who don't care, don't care. Better use of promotional dollars it would seem.

My guess on why they are unlikely to do this is probably because they expect a certain number of winners will get into the hands of those people who don't care. Those people are less likely to redeem their prize, while still reinforcing their brand affinity.

Thoughts?
- posted @ 4:13 PM 0 comments

 
Barry Schwartz on ITConversations
Just thought I'd point you towards Barry Schwartz's "Less is More" presentation as given at Pop!Tech 2004, made available by ITConversations.

I just got finished listening to the podcast and found the presentation delightful (sadly, I did not find a link to the document he presented; much of the presentation references it, but mostly to the amusement of the audience). Basically he describes how having more choice leads to lower overall satisfaction.

Interestingly, in line with my earlier entry in response to Scott Fletcher's podcast, the issues raised by Schwartz I think are very solvable by technology, which gives me great optimism that we will be able to offer a wide variety of anything you can name, but largely mitigate the downside of potentially having to make all of these decisions.

Hopefully I'll get a chance in the next day or so to write up more detailed comments on where I think Schwartz is exactly right with some of my own thinking and observations that support his thinking, where I think more study is probably warranted, and how technology might begin to solve the issues raised by Schwartz to make having a large amount of options not quite so punishing to choose between. (Of course, if history serves, by virtue of having said that I hope to post more details later, I have now guaranteed that it won't happen. ;)

- posted @ 7:53 AM 0 comments

 
Accelerating Change 2004 Podcasts
I've mentioned the Accelerating Change 2004 conference a couple of times here before. I enjoyed it tremendously, and would strongly encourage anyone who likes pondering a wide variety of technology-related topics to attend.

I've discovered that ITConversations is creating podcasts of the various speakers at AC 2004. Yay!

I've just finished listening to Jim Spohrer's presentation on Service as a Science, which I didn't get a chance to attend while I was there. I found it wonderfully thought-provoking, and keeping with what we're discovering at the company I'm working with. I'd love to hear more from his group as they dig deeper into it.

Perhaps the most interesting stats were the fact that IBM is a 50% services organization, and that GE is a 70% service business!

Also on ITConversations' coverage of AC 2004 are presentations from Helen Greiner of iRobot (makers of the Roomba automatic vacuum cleaner), author David Brin, Gee Rittenhouse from Lucent Technologies (I think this is the presentation I was at when Spohrer was presenting in a different room).

I'm looking forward to hearing again presentations by Maxis founder Will Wright, and PayPal founder Peter Thiel specifically (though I think I left with the DVD of both of their presentations) and of course all of the presentations I wasn't able to attend.

If this sort of thing might interest you, I encourage you to check them out.
- posted @ 6:06 PM 0 comments

 
The RobCast: A Response to Scott Fletcher
This podcast touches on some points brought up by a podcast by Scott Fletcher that I found on OpenPodcast.org.

I'm currently reworking my audio transcription setup, so instead of the usual bad transcription, here are the notes that I made (and then strayed almost entirely from) for the podcast.

Show Notes
Sunday, January 9, 2005
The RobCast
An audio supplement to my blog at theroblog.blogspot.com



Scott Fletcher (diagonaluniverse.com)
"Podcasting will make us like the French"

Yes, Podcasting is the new Word (or Aldus Pagemaker if you're talking about publishing)

Podcasting is the enabling technology. It's not about "improving the selection or the quality of the content" per se. Arguably it improves the selection over traditional radio, and even satellite radio, but this technology is only in its infancy; less than 6 months old!

Certainly, as the amount of content explodes, we will need ways of filtering through all of the stuff that is uninteresting, offensive, or just plain bad; this applies to the Internet as a whole (and Internet publishing is probably a better metaphor than paper publishing).

"Broadcasters" as Fletcher defines them, are exaclty that: People who communicate to a large audience. All forms of commercial radio rely on mass adoption to pay for the costs of distributing the content (owning radio stations and transmitters, or satellites). To reach a mass audience, a "broadcaster" needs to have qualities that are appreciated by some large segment of the population. This often starts with a "broadcast" quality voice, which Fletcher himself has in spades. From there, the requirements drop off rather quickly. Ability to read copy in an interesting manner is definitely up there. The ability to make statements that a large number of listeners can support (or love to hate) is as well. The ability to prod callers and guests into saying things people find interesting probably rounds out the top of the list.

Notice that none of this means that a broadcaster must have a high degree of intelligence or subtlety (though a good deal of broadcasters do). To reach a mass audience, you often need to appeal to those things that reach the largest audience, and those things are frequently not those parts of humanity we like to show off.

This is nothing against broadcasters in general, it is rather a reflection of the state of the industry. "Broadcasting" requires equipment large enough to reach the masses. This equipment is expensive, therefore as many people as possible must become listeners to pay for it.

Podcasting, or, more generally, microcasting, is a different phenomena altogether. The production of the content is cheap. The distribution is also cheap. This means that in order to pay for it, you have to reach relatively few people; in fact, it's cheap enough that content producers may have no particular interest in getting financial remuneration at all. Currently to produce my iPod content I use a computer I already had for other reasons, Audacity to record and process the audio, a headset that came free with another piece of software I own (IBM's ViaVoice, if you're wondering), Blogger to host my blog, FeedBurner to create the RSS feed, and Liberated Syndication to host my podcast mp3s. Total upfront cost to me: $5 (for 100MB a month file storage on Liberated Syndication (libsyn.com).

Much like having a web page, and almost exactly like having a blog, I don't have to have any particular capability as a content creator in terms of format, style, or content, in order to produce something anyone can consume.

The import of podcasting is its ground-leveling nature. Sure, a bunch of people are going to create a bunch of crappy content, but if that crappy content is liked by even a couple of responsive listeners, then it has often paid for itself.

I think it's not very useful to lament the quality and glut of content on its own. Much like the Internet, the web, and blogging, we probably won't really see how podcasting will transform media (though many of us are happy to guess), but like all of those other things, it most likely will.


It's not "everybody must hear what I have to say" necessarily, rather it's "somebody might be interested in what I have to say". This is not broadcasting. It's microcasting.

A quick point: Fletcher says that "if everyone is delivering a message, no one will have time to listen." This is true in the sense that if there is that much content out there in the world, no one will be able to listen to it all. But this is an engineering problem, not the limits of the system. Nothing precludes those of use who talk from also being people who do. Fletcher seems to believe we will be either talking constantly, or not talking at all. Of course he's a talker, and I'd suspect he's a shining example of a doer as well.


I have no doubt that podcasting will be a transformative medium. What may reduce it's impact, however, would be a glut of content that cannot be reasonably sorted through, much like the Internet itself. There are a couple thousand podcasts out there right now. That sounds like a lot, but it's still a manageable amount to be filtered through. As the number of podcasts reaches tens of thousands, listening to them all quickly becomes not an option.

Certainly, podcast review sites will spring up (I've already heard one podcast review podcast), but if podcasting reaches anywhere near the popularity of blogging, even that will become a difficult proposition. What this will mean is that we'll start to hear about podcasting either by randomly running into them, or ones that are passed along from friends, or other podcasts that interest us. The result of this very well may be the broadcasting infrastructure all over again (albeit with some important changes).

To cut through all of this content, we need at least two complementary technology approaches: 1) Automatic transcription of podcast content; and, 2) Collaborative filtering applied to podcasting. The first technology will improve the chances that we can stumble upon podcasts of interest to us. The second allows us to become a giant filter of all the podcasts out there to recommend to us the ones we are most likely to find interesting.



Adam Curry has just made a change to his show that proves my point about exploration (in fact, I wish he would have waited until I was able to get this podcast recorded before changing his format so that I would seem less like a follower). His last show took him out onto the streets of Miami where he talked as he walked and recorded the sounds and people he heard and talked to along the way. This may not be entirely new, but it is new enough, and now easy enough to do that people might explore all kinds of variations on this theme. People might record their entire vacation, describing what they see, or just letting you listen; potentially appealing to the escapist traveler, or the voyeur crowd, or any number of small sets of people that "broadcast" could not hope to support.

After I introduced one of my co-workers to podcasting, he mentioned that it would now be possible to do podcasts totally drunk or high. This may or may not result in interesting content, but now anyone who wants to explore this, can; and it may result in something that large numbers of people are interested in, or it may result in something we can call art, or it may result in something we can call crap, and we may all disagree on which it is.

A good analogy might be paints. At some point, paints became available to the masses. I have no doubt that many people took up painting and much bad work ensued. But I think it is a long way from there to saying that painting should always be left in the hands of those who we might pick to best use it. I have little doubt that some wonderful painters would never have sprung up if paint wasn't readily accessible.

In music, the evolution of popular music often depends of what was being experimented with years before. Because someone was experimenting with some tape in their basement and handed out hand made copies, someone else gets an idea to build upon it. And someone else gets an idea from THAT person's work. I guess the point is that the best uses of media come from a boot-strapping process whereby a bunch of crap is produced, it gets weeded through for the more interesting stuff, and MORE crap is produced with hopefully less crap in the next generation, and more content is produced with increasingly less crap, and so on. The best ideas emerge, but the crap remains the fodder for future great ideas.



- posted @ 2:25 PM 0 comments

 
If I remember who you are, do I violate your privacy?
Student Ian Curry has created a system called bluefish whereby everyone who has a bluetooth device that walks into range of the system gets their photo taken by a webcam, and gathers whatever information it can from the bluetooth device (presumably information primarily consisting of what services are offered on the phone).

When a person passes the system a second time, the photo that was initially taken is sent to the bluetooth device (if it's capable of receiving unsolicited files).

This raises the obvious question of the security of the bluetooth device (can people interact with the services on the device without authorization?). But Mr. Curry goes on to state that it brings up issues related to privacy, and I wanted to explore (tease, really) the idea a little.

What other identifiers do we carry around with us that might be as useful as bluetooth in terms of identifying us against our knowledge?

Cell phone radiation signatures?
Face?
Walking patterns?
Voice patterns?
RFID cards?

Certainly these are not all as easy to use as a bluetooth signature (in fact, none of them, with the exception of RFID are, and RFID may be too rare to be interesting at this point), but they will likely be soon enough.

What exactly are the "very real privacy concerns" that this raises? Perhaps we'll discover that the problems aren't as deep as we feel they might be, or perhaps they are worth the tradeoff we get from the enabling technology (equally likely, so that people don't think I'm that much of a zealot, we may discover it is not worth the tradeoff).

Is this significantly different from an ad server that knows everywhere you go online? Certainly it feels like it is, but why, exactly?

We're very used to feeling violated by technology these days (perhaps even trained to do it by major media), but I wonder if this is something to feel violated about at all.

What do you think?

Via Smart Mobs
- posted @ 3:41 PM 0 comments

 
Podcast: A bit of Poetry
Here's a podcast (~3 min, 1.7MB) I just did where I read a short piece I wrote some time back.
- posted @ 7:09 PM 0 comments

 
Podcast: Transcribing You Podcast
Here's today's podcast (~14 minutes, ~6.5Mb)

This one is about my belief that people should use voice recognition software to transcribe their podcasts.

I'm including my show notes as they may be more informative this time than usual, but they're pretty crude. The transcription (which is horrible this time, no doubt because the universe has a sense of humor) is below the notes.

Show Notes
January 4, 2005
The RobCast
what is quickly becoming a frequent supplement to and likely replacement for the RoBlog
theroblog.blogspot.com
theroblog@thenetatwork.com


It is time to start automatically transcribing your podcasts.
Yes it sucks but you should do it anyway

why?
capturing knowledge is the first step in building on it

this is what has made the Internet so great; it's a knowledge capture mechanism
people can go and find information out there in the world in ways never before possible, and build upon that information

but the internet is still heavily text based, meaning that your audio content is locked inside of its file. transcribing your content helps people use search engines to find you

podcasting has the right kind of visibility to spur development in voice to text, which I believe will be transformative in other ways

won't people just consume the text version?
let's start by asking what would be so bad if they did
It would be fairly equivalent to blogging, which most podcasters were probably already doing anyway

now it seems likely that people are interested in podcasting (especially receiving podcasts) because they like the SPOKEN version better. They like the personal dynamic as well as the portability.

And for all the reasons that portable podcasts are useful (so you can consume content when your eyes are otherwise occupied) it will continue to be

I strongly believe that adam curry is wrong to get hung up on the fact that people who have access to his show notes. People like you for your personality Adam, and reading your podcast is just not the same experience.

Making your content easier to access will bring more, not fewer listeners

What if I don't do, as Dave Winer calls it, the "soliloquy" format?
may be best for rambloggers like me who just talk and less good for those that integrate other things into their podcast

If you can isolate your voice track from the rest, however, you can transcribe just that portion.

It would be nice if there was a service that allowed you to upload your podcasts and get back a transcription, but there would likely be challenges learning and updating your voice model (though if you used something like Flash Communication server, you this could probably be made much easier)

Please send me your comments

IBM ViaVoice's Garbled Transcription
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- posted @ 9:35 PM 2 comments

 
Podcast: Solving the Show Notes Problem
Here's my second podcast (15 minutes, ~7MB)

This podcast discusses an idea I have that might make show notes more useful for podcasters. I describe (poorly) a potential application that would allow mobile podcast listeners to request particular show notes via their mobile phones using SMS.

Here's the garbled transcript, provided by IBM's ViaVoice:
It's January 3, 2005 and listen to the robcast the robcast is an occasional supplement to and potential replacements for the raw blogged my regular blog @ ve Rob blogged dot Blogspot dot COM that Steve er zero P L O G dot Blogspot dot COM six is that you have any French indeed leading any comments about this uh podcast please to reduce cellular on the blogged entry accounting this article or is podcast or pun duty only at the door Rob blogged at the net at work not, deaths and the Rob blogged at T H E N E T A T W O R K dock, has to be pretty quick entry because EDS status settlement of the first of inspiration, or redress are out there because of to is to do is in about it but hopefully and dress of of taking too was a of a quick note to us that there of to of like a last podcast and recorded this essentially north through my iPod and recording this one directly into my computer we will see a sign that makes a civilian defense it probably will thief island lacks a certain amount of the season and portability of the iPod and and they switch to this uh this of the design is a charge of worked well so descriptive entry is about to S M S and podcasting addresses the of short messaging service I believe is what it stands for essentially it's the ability to text message through your piece their reinvestment and in give jurors thinking Baden's youth as the masses interested me for quite some time because I think it is really in dicty the of the the the the missing portion we're talking about an hour for example marketing online, or even it would require error a response of Mr. you might normally do via computer and of so much of much of what we do is mobile of we're we're about about what we exposed to things that debt is its its best in and we have no way of some ofs the we haven't come up with some way ofs allowing us to engage further is something that we sent interesting or of about of without having to go back to say f to Fuertes cells of so if this is specifically for a talk about podcast officials of General cigar are pre useful as a supplement the supplemental information for podcast and the loss is not this year's second television accretive some of those as such having the support to podcast and enlisted to a bunch of hot castors the it it sounds like shows tend to include proposals include via URL links to some articles that were mentioned in degrees to download the service in will bull extra bits of content of that there is not possible aura in the of the problem is that to the rebels hold interesting part about podcasting to begin with is the idea the you can't take a essentially this upon Internet experience this this online media and you can ticket with an sh lawyers who do your grocery shopping in unison today's corner Reuter to Excel to service its characters are beholden to zero doctor Wilson is a curious taken his lovely media with in some respects it's delicious and those are not a disservice or use the services because John's and on it if hyperbolic but the really it did its and less useful in Manila and increase local law backed the surprise entry into it and since they never looked at I think it's probably a slight the Canara least at Shearson and because such a run into a song people show notes as I subscribe to respond is there's no easy way to and during that in the uh podcasting Harris as readers but that more Latimer test in the those people mention that the Indians in your alluringly to something annually about
In a car wash and workers and the night that its zero what I do want is some and dozens of show moves don't relieve the city that slow downs and zero other proposal for an on-line service and and that essentially allows you creators show of shows is is a worry are built in this or displays his triumphs whistled lookism-go some place I did that tonight I commence my shows by a single camera type the title of additional monotype and the constancy and there may not be your own in the not include your all this and a do that and then to analyze data all in there and done everything arranged well want to on his it stays the on this web applications website and one legged back to his eighth lists of the notes with a list of the titles of the notes and perhaps to be lethal an analyst of the tunnels and roads and associated constant ID number of safety note ideas you well that goes with each of the of so ofs then when I I can use this page has I'm actually doing 9 podcast 2 to gunna preference to have my notes and as a goal on a night when I'm on to refer you to something Honda this House are blog or me because they view digest add an additional nine automation and blog your eyes just type in the zeroth saw the police doesn't fit in with via Swiss as with the show was persevered real-time this show um then that you can read through those the state House to consent case time and you can slide this URL business and these three financial notice 4216 up end death what when I went to the Solicitor this to and during a course your podcast for a to be near the end of uh I expect you tell me a is phone number the Aiken has a message to end of I would become vice my cellphone which I have to assemble some I wouldn't attack in a similar ruling course I like to show beyond the dollar since nine and then that I would type accounts and IBM release and united stand on my song and moral lasted be done in essence of what would happen meet music's stands when Joe its you and S M S process in service sooner rather couple some of their and debt announcing on talk to them and passenger services turn out to be absent critiques the U.S. tour on the the message to sign a server associated with the somber alleges give it an offense and to bring about some numbers um there he exists * allows you to creekside digit phone numbers and the purpose of the text messaging they've been trying to get so you can do given us at amount universally across all phone carriers sent this in IDs a dozen always work ofs as our only five digits after 20,000 uses some rounds of resources and and the possession and so many of these artists launce the visitors a shortcut to us in the anonymous buyer tenses in number because um be hard for people are remembering can get some sort of vanity Merck's flight the plus and souls of in Britain on a crucial task of the service of back and did the messages shows you the form an earlier given it some routes that message to the appropriateness transfer and and and and your server reduce the high person's phone number that that sent you a message and they get the haulms be no idea it is a and file where the notes IDs could include deep to be for the entire show of so if you use your other options wells under the new server to says okay this here's the person's phone number here is the IDs it nears the show ideas to warrant um hum look to see is our behalf and yellow dresses those in the number of the Madonna of Hamas and back a message sense if I'm the person who set trends are request from Agamas summer storms as as in your e-mail address or a continuous on all the replied that in my e-mail address and send it this time to an and an e-mail address will restore its highest number until such time as sites designed changes are glial together and this this service why Lindsay's you by e-mail that particular show amount of so you'll it and you're probably automatically bundles in is like what show data was in what so ofs Peugeot was and who did it in what a show title was won may be generally well as a bounce whether you entered into your Shona Manager application Venus and then it which sit is shipped off to to the recipients of events if I hear is of particular legal matchup tonight to ask the House Un-American tie against an increase our gross or example and decrees on a non-religion cullis but podcast notes number of and then type in his bid because of constant and I wanted sense a little shot in my e-mail box and its German bass in the computer on and yo < happens in the vicinity of an industry to the Urals to additional blog in your also larger our article or bonds and the reason you're also else up and deported to use that money back to my desk, or my Computer those things those in July decided were interesting fight and I captured at I was out in the steel as I was out be you'll like this is all about um I would have all this is always interesting stuff back here to to settle a strike in go get this Sal-n back in place and a half minutes and exit to activity section download the files I conclude in uniform of articles is this new way of some delivery and added value at St. John's sense to me to your listeners challenging things you can do it matter sublicense from the one used by you can't allow older users based on EDS's from from email is to have a single click to allow people to subscribe to hide your podcast for example sonority horror I in a unanimous occasion if you have refused to hear during notifications or e-mail newsletter the youths come seeking union to ask those people who have an additional interest in your contents on not not any kind of mean-spirited and around and and a stamp marking sort of way of but dead people who are generally interested genuinely interested in your cylinder Constantine can subscribe to this jury more modest Boston Edison's is a it in potentially determine his release be alerted likes when here in the area that you're in their career whenever issued want to capture their e-mail address for maybe 20¢ out Christmas e-mail's a Hans Smits of whatever where that happens to be of also discussion luncheonette the it that when I look into S and services for other applications under a small cost to believed both receive and stands on the back and sides and not from the consumer side you reduce whenever costs you incur would be in to Mr. with your cellphone plan the end the you to initially cover that by sponsor and you're you were females sponsor so that the year you could partner with a member makes sense treated to possibly result of your carrier unless at and so that the messages could say and perhaps if you're the person who designed to actually made this service into reality on businesses in a disservice of cells that sells the gas um but potentially to do it as as a user of the services well so whoever sponsors a show or maybe some of his sponsors if specifically You're notifications will analyst you get an agent to information and a U.S. of persons receiving content of and that this shows some of these accounts and to your question and underneath interest on my arrival absence or tax matter some sort of sinister bass 0 uraeus service then cinched useful to the consumer if the blood and services useful for them as as a producer of consent and that the up the people who are acting as a year earlier to connect to the of the mission of content of to consumers from the producer of also get something on the Web also a of I S zero step yet in in that sell well a very the very large net seller loses to the metals like to trade on this is the idea not to hope be some you'll the assessment the 16 ministers so that if you listen to this uh podcasting this is actually useful idea on and but added that day asked to more willing to do some linguists East you do, who love to hear about it I knew you in your interest in getting started with it around your eye of an accomplice of the consent some of us reason winsome one of the abortions and phone numbers as to the and get in contact to um but dead just does least be required Grammy skills of patients are are beyond the end of lease of this in and slice whenever solar no use use its use Release one is interested in how coursers us and to your do with this concept and uncertainties in yet in email at of the Rob blogged at the network doctor of were visit my blog at the RoBlog dot Blogspot dot, since her adult couple of articles of on my blog for related to asbestos and acquisition as messages for marketing in general and at least one resident mischievousness and stunts on my blog if I know I a so I actually if the minister did touched this last week his son article related to how surrealistic star in store sells organs from homes now housed in a an idea the concurrence is a horse race in the months wore on the House Waterston near the end of the idea I believe this so that U.S. investors number with it with the House a regular property more of but a description of what is of what the is stored on what moral summation of the House if I install new novel is I hope you enjoyed this to Ms. podcast
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Self-Documenting Life (Images)
My First Podcast


This post is my first shot at podcasting. If it works well enough, expect to see more of these in the future.

This particular post is the second part in my Self-Documenting Life series, and deals with how I went about capturing images of my daily life.

The images at right are some of the ones that I've captured so far, and should link to my Flickr archive of images I took throughout the day a week or so back.

What follows is the transcript of the podcast as performed by IBM's ViaVoice software. Obviously I have a long ways to go to get the transcription up to readable quality.

TRANSCRIPTION
The listing to broadcast audio supplements soon as possible replacements for my regular blocks which a sound that of the raw blogged thought what spot talks Kolffs today all be up by cashing in a true sense witches of abusing by iPod to be to record this some of pot cast and the the inn as such will be of limited to the of bits of that debt allows in the regular iPod operating system I take a look it then the pods Alum product for Lenox Becker and will have a working for a fourth generation iPod to live music and also using the bulking universal microphones adaptor which if you read any of my previous blogged and you probably haven't I am still no and I suggest I selected that essentially but Griffin's I talked on to to technical issues with the I talked today Hannah and I'll be talking about a is something that I've previously can't capture by blogged the self documenting life of the previous version of my blogged was about to of how I hate use my iPod for capturing conversations that I have a regular life of the setup that using and how well performs why that's potentially interesting this time of will be doing the same thing I except wheat instead of talking about audio will talk be talking about images on with the uh the audio portion of my steps and then recording the my iPod using exactly the same set up that I would using for a up transcribing conversations that have of all will come out of this is that not only will I have it pot test with and listen to that also has been automatically generated transcription of and now that's in go a can of of farther off of a not quite in the realm of from the real world quite yet because um my a current transcriptions s success rate is about 40 of 50% so I use IBM's ViaVoice take the lead in the wave file that's generated for my iPod of and then run transcription against using a voice markets boy's model that I used that the recorded using my iPod I like to set it's about 47 percent success rate amusing thing of course it is that when you recording and and you and go back and have it transcribes things of IBM Software I'm guessing from probably nobody's commercial software is set up to really handle the account conversational type speech of similarly it's not set up to handle a lot of background noise like you might get in real conversation, it doesn't handle your stammering which you hardly notice probably that I did have a lever well it doesn't handle if you slur words together or speak rapidly but he does try a tribe of to transcribing everything so it tries to transcribe Loy's it and here's the background might be other people talking in Ithaca under capture and faintly so let end up happening is you get this long string of the um attempted transcription that since the of ViaVoice uses in the context to try and figure out what you're what words you're using it to pieces when you have said to can predict we will beat St. within a few words but if you read the transcription of something he said it turned out that is pretty amusing because the go from having a discussion about what's for dinner in the uh uh in the transcription to suddenly that talking about very specific details of the Middle East when really you were just to go positing or it in quite figure out the words and on and so it picks it tries to guess those words and in search whole other conversation in any case on this time I'll be talking about alike said the image portion of self myself document in my project of this the image portion of at this point, Mr. Bacchus a second I have a Nokia 3650 cellphone and I really perched it because I did have to capabilities it had a really nice big screen on it of and it had the camera on and that it will have any idea what I reduce those things I want to fiddle around with glue to since the how well were not well it worked because it fit in with some of the thing that I am I imagine will be needing in the near future of and in fact some things better target come true of but turned up the phone also has the city and 60 operating system on it which of well it's not as not Windows or even when necks on it stiffer from a lot of phone switch don't have any operating system to speak of their least one that is generally available for applications to be built on by the public of and I didn't think of it the time is really interesting um but since it's been nice to half of the occasional applications Aiken down on my phone to do things gains in be popular the orderly downloaded in in those found there's like for example in Game Boy emulators it to download gave away a the ROMs essentially in on your of your phone in a complete game Boy games of the my success of recently since I've been thinking a lot about how old computing mobility cameras and that sort of thing will affect our lives and not be interesting to go ahead and trying to some of the things that kind thinking they're probably going to happen anywhere, and I'd like to have the technology and steadily up the skills to do those kinds of things um hmm mal-least take a stab at something the approximate how I think technologies are renewable. The near future and explore many what the Dodgers are Y Y might not be interesting at and then what debt what other issues like sociological so when that in mind I decided to turn mind cell phone into a an automatic recording camera, the IDA is essentially that I would have some piece of software set up on my camera that would periodically take pictures I and that treaty to be specified. Data or it could be just whenever the camera things that significant amounts of detail of you or does really matter to me on it and to that effect I downloaded a couple of applications of for my 3650 phone 22 trying to accomplish that the two applications I have had the success and all with the time downloaded number that of were in use by by Tegea and spy by I'll and on the new spy application both of these are essentially supply applications as they say in there and which I on are supposed to allow you to set of sums for alarm of based on what kind of motion will support a motion that happens when the camera and so you directly in the in a nice world set this up at my your front door and then that as you work out to a camera would detectives only light came in through the front door in case and that perhaps it is open and send you a photograph of perhaps a burglar trying getting your house now ahead of the it's any surprise to anyone that would what probably generates the sales for these are dirty old man who won a put their camera somewhere and take photos of an unsuspecting women on and of course lots to be continuing and a continuing we more the importance privacy issue Korea touch on each year on the case the espy application that will take will once the was the son of it will take a photo and have opportunity not an option any number of things in excess messages are written an MMS messages including the photo of but it also just say the photo to you our camera a larger phone and then in that some amount of time interval the use that to reactivate the war the and so I use that that set up to have the phone take a picture essentially been in since since the high image by application is a really very good detecting what is real change and on and what on the interesting change for like a better word on in essentially meant that every time it activated the alarm take uh picture react to it in orbit take a picture, and then wait some of time and I said that for 65 seconds because there was for some reason the and and Van Ness we set the alarm and so would that it amounted to taking a picture and upper had some success in the early going with this and the good thing is you could of the 16 Meg and/or modified car but the 16 Meg of memory in addition to regular and the so I could specify that extra egad their memory card and of and that it worked reasonably well and of endeavor it took the pictures back when workers were extremely well it took pictures all the time every 60 seconds of end up the problem with image spine particular area that uh uh uh it kept crash in in effect of it went from crashing every couple hours, and were unusable and all of I paid for the version of image by because the demo version was of I couldn't set up and away you could access the controls to set up and whether the and so now I'm in the process of the other application and I tried was called spying by island of and this application of moral lasted the same thing you did have a kind of interval which it would reset your award it to stick picture become a lot some things changed since it took a few seconds it is taking pictures I would say every time the good thing is seen to be pretty stable application in the end of is able to download a demo version and given a shot the downside is that the you could specify which major media to store your images to some the phones built in memory of the could specify where and so it the its best it saved its images into a specific directory that turns out I couldn't figure how to get that from my computer of which were ultimately on the other problem was that the once it reached a hundred images it crashed en up with a confined any way of having it take the first file name would be called image 71 become a call image 01 02 03 and to adopt some 99 and then the next image it would try and take presumably 100 crested public because did so to that to date and have had the large amounts success of this by giving sh by working often on an for a full day on Aum and the cooks and added taking pictures every 60 seconds I'm and then not I took those pictures and I uploaded them to my flicker count my blogged entry the if it the transcription of this idea works well of then I'll put that Lincoln mayor of but the blocking to the companies this will have an image is sample images that came from that day of a taking a and then links back to my flicker count will of the entire of images of what the things that I tried to do with this of was that what I started downloading these photos of my phone true blue to was on grains and in some sort of date order which than but once it was the images got copied from my phone on to the computer in the apparently random order come to the computer assigned the the date and time but that image was copy that is the the time it was written to the computer as book to create and modify day, so I action was using another application to rename all these files that can cross by the date and time so that the eye to sort of some other application Iraq with them to either the pilot of labor by the modified or creation David Conn, but the sense the copying the process predicates for all intents and purposes the phones creation in modified date of the image then I am but a force led lost it a bit of utility with the so hopefully I'll and this in mind my ideal world what I would like is at a working application for my phone the ticket picture every 60 seconds or some time interval that I testified on not as interested in ones that detect changes on screen and then right Aetna and Cigna image but if you seven interval timer that one to use the current date and time the phone as the file met at 8 that would put ultimately the most useful way of getting salt and work so what I've done and of this is an astute will bit more background on this this that one day where I was able to take a lot of pictures is I just hung the phone around my neck and a strong some yo-yo string of era it for my phone and wrapped around my neck in and the to wander around most people thought of course that does to an act of just one of my phone here, of all those interesting to find that almost to a person of people would say no be really funny it gets you could get that thing to record images are record video as runaround year-end and data so I would debt let people who mention that no law was in fact doing that very fanning the and the new peak have taken aback because suddenly on what was amusing and interesting idea was some sort of invasion of their pricier this perceive but suddenly they win for thinking he that can funny in Cowell to where those photos going and who's seen the up so one of the issues that no doubt in this is this is fairly obvious to rewrite have to deal with in general is that the world according to an and done some interest on my block of related to that and I was that the accelerating that change conference in that Stanford a zero-month crackdown was a Sept. Oct. some or and then on and there's some discussion about privacy issues and technology and there's no doubt a thing that that both the surveillance cameras cell phone cameras leave more more kinds of sensory recording devices from some of that right after can reconsider what it means to have privacy and the trade-off of having access to information and that is gathered to the sense sensors and other people happy access to that same information anyway I've got a few entries about privacy and that sort of thing on my block indefinitely in a future pot test all probably addresses for more formally of that at this the funny thing was is that that and this is where the things that then I hope to actually keep this but is that I captured a lot of notice that I never would've captured of the law and so on for example and captured some I I went to pick my daughter did her day care right sat down and played with the kids and well they're reading books and one, and that's a couple key pictures of my daughter and a couple other kids all play around there, and went to my dog and that at some pictures of that, having the enormous number of pictures of my computer which is worse in the vast majority of my day it interesting photos of where I went to lunch her to have lunch with a mom some played a few photos of me eating food which is the and not from straight on the problems that had personally with it with this process is that up could really find a good length to hold the camera at a where it wasn't affected by of the convex abdomen and a hat of which even by and large taking pictures up words which is fine when you're talking to somebody directly of more often than not means you get a lot of photos of of the use of force and not Aiken of Lord the phone down and quite a bit, so that it was looking more and on but that that would have to lower it for up or both Mosul I've got would've gotten the been torso shots of people were of the head shots of so of the experiment around with a uh different angles on the phone and ways of achieving those angle there haven't found anything satisfactory at the form factor my phone is public part of the problem my wife had a data put phone clamshells type of for phone and data and the incidence is still smaller it probably would be less affected by the issues I am so that that that can of what I've done and will bit about the whites interesting but that " the reason this start doing this wises some ways it what is as real interest income manyfold and all try to touch on them on and so much is said to her like remember all of them have some notes here and talk from of but that their their approach and not all lead to 0 08 are back in touch on a couple what that is taking pictures with image spot which is the one that was able to take most pictures of course the day it was taking photos of once every 65 seconds that end would amount to about 64 megaphone rose a dead so his seventh technical known on on how much data it was captain of user 640 by 480 I would say at best photos on and so they're they're definitely not high resonance and ultimately of the debt it was in some respects it a surprise and how little space a bomb that 64 Meg was feel pretty much from when I when I woke up and was dressed up to when I was going to sleep of the so eager to capture some of the amount of information are pre small car and preshrinking get 64 my character in the 16 the courtroom from of which will allow me just capture drop the course of their legal in the just download of I have to say that in this is probably no surprise to most people or can perform and that the image is not spectacular of if there will low light a law or any real amount of motion you do a lot of border of what Paul R A and so a good deal of the photos and have really glories most of with Deion really in can use of so when I would also like an ideal world this is a camera that I'm was less sensitive to low like the if it was sensitive to low light would probably at have faster shutter speed because the problem I ran into more than it being in low light procuring which when you're in the Northwest High in the winter there's certainly plenty of was that that the
Photos were well I was a motion for a year while I was not this fairly walking but the you know to have bobbing back-and-forth for talking and the leaders of such but so some sort of faster shutter speed would probably do a world of good that you be nice to find some way to make that happen along with Kevin better low light quality that know how we would do that on another camera can experts are distorting and attempt to to think about how we would do that the death if somebody has a of a line on a good camera phone that does well low light and especially motion and you should hear about it especially if it says something with either of the smart phone of ours, the Nokia said in an operating system or a store some other operating system that would that would be it be interesting to the next next step of this process so where I see this as going and of in terms of just Kenneth of data is that caravan using a single camera and and taking about one picture of the next generation of this process Raleigh BS-ing 0 camera taking one picture second or the a single camera taking one picture minute with higher resolution of item in our rich use or the other right probably choose the more often than not then the higher resolution because. Resolution is not as critical of some because we're not doing any post processing it's mostly just for the ability to look of I would I would be fine with the current resolution but I think that that so the next seven progress should be in volume of information and captures so currently might my phone and will and in fact capture video and the deal of the camera unable font will capture video of but it will capture video of giggle in cash microphone only captures on and I'm sure that I could find a different order application allow mature or of the amounts of video but it quickly ran of space of for some proposals about of etiquette Hamas he was a Samsung is going to be releasing the first the first cell phone with a a and once again to like having the iPod style hard drives of attached to or cellphone 3 have died tens of get some data and dicing recall letter at a recent for Media jukebox players and have zero hundred giggling and then we could really talk seriously about capturing video think I did a calculation 0 about a year ago or so that you can of oil low resolution of not not quite 24 frames per second of would take something like a one essay he to hundred the year to capture all of video of your entire day everyday if war in zero your entire waking time on and here again its low blow resolutions zoa but still it's it's a it's achievable about inflation with the current the current generation released the coming generation and from there from a single camera range at 30 frames per second on will probably move something that has multiple cameras or one single three and 60 degree camera capturing day that at 30 frames per second for use of the entire 360 view or upon so what is interesting when a white why bother even during a so I have a blogged entry that I've done previously in of that was oriented around virtual presence and edited that background of Thanksgiving of and basically what I meant by that was the ability to have somebody tagalong with you got and get some idea of the experienced leader having a discount hang out the way that people normally handouts of the Eddy was that U.S. as a friend of mine would be able to tap into my video stream and up by the stream would be 360 for all intents and purposes either done by one single friends 60 degree capturing camera or by multiple cameras probably had mounted a mom and honestly in the near term that look pretty stupid but an innocent passion must be sacrificed for the sake of the sake of technological change and what you're connected to my stock might of the deal of point in of a as a side note are the reason I was thinking about this kind of application was because of various um mobile phone manufacturers Orangemen my phone manufacturers this fairly But-mobile phone carriers of the been talking about bandwidths in years to come up around three turns 60 megabits per cent, and of course in Japan I think they're trying have 10 gigabit per section per second into the house of via fiber so as the what would you do with all this and what up to zero is fine things to do with the bend with is not is not a problem is a at I think fewer people these days say well gosh where we never going to do with that amount processing power band with we've learned and by been bludgeoned every every time we get new bursts of hard drive spacer processing power were band with that weak we can definitely consume it such a thing about what we how we would be consuming and future and this large amount of video coming at you from out from one person to another person to my good fit for the so far have up in some either with using water multiple cameras recording freelance 60 degrees around me for around for all of and to, and I was to send that to you and tickle of ban would of the what to do with that is that if if you were if you're getting my video stream it applies in image processing and set and based on amended data of you could look around the scene independent from how I was looking around since the news in its processing and he could look left well as looking right thumb and either your image processing coupled with my meditative it told you told you howl I was moving up and down and left to right or possibly post reprocessed on my side Ellison's a less likely will hold your view for you steady as I blogged up and down with collected rent so you're going to cure with in a tree behind me and he said they'd look at history behind you and I turned around your image processing software would keep your view on that tree in add that I moved around look get so if you in the freezing multiple cameras I have a couple careless with cutbacks market size of and fried as I switched from as as you were to switch from being on my back inside cameras to side of the cameras in front of the campus your imaging process and image processing software would handle that seamlessly on and at the same time handle was bobbing up and down roof my head orientation terms of looking different things which would allow you to really lead experience when I was doing etiquette more realistic way you be able look Ramstein that what everyone on similarly if if there were microphones tracking where is your orientation wasn't the new stereo procreant audio based on an orientation you could listen to things as well as the hear the of the know what the ambient sounds were close allows you have a virtual tell presence of virtual well where or virtual presence still presents the latest dance meaningful effect in when it's a that nearly tangible sleek have a conversation invite one or more friends and have a conversation I am sharing obviously a as I walk down the street on people people to tap friend of mine who buy a lot could happen the minute stream my audience in we could talk directly with talk of raw walking and the allow for think a more natural interaction of sunlight current cell phones e-mail's and on and instant text messages with the is really to communicate to get across the and it would transform this tell presence in to relieve the idea of being there having a simultaneous experience I'm and not necessarily be required to communicate so there could be long pauses as there might normally be is your strolling down a bit of the conversation when it made sense the rock and occupied and as along so I'm but that's one thing I think that the is interesting will be interesting output of our really can meaningful to share on another day so that is easy to do this I'm obviously of mention this in my audio portion ve itself our committee live by the people it your life so you could say steamy you could say well what it what it had to say whether it is here who just said that on or hunt was I looking at earlier,
I know saying something to somebody by care or who remember when I was talking of get a chance to have searched for your life and your people like your than that is to begin to be very useful if your personal up like my life tends to be right something to be bad for people like me and when we spin back he said you said there's no I said that um well as a stroll back and are seldom wrong so I tried to tell my wife of an interesting couple of one other thing that touched on before was that the if if we if you're able to do some processing on this on the stuff your sins of you get up of some competing the with few minutes robusta nothing to do is processing your post losses in real time it it it it matters in the fact in the tenant impact of the effect on the effect itself of you could have it do things like the record and of recognize people by facial expression of by Gates about how they walk on it could have text written text recognition in real time optical character recognition of so some get talked about previously it when we talk about confirmation swarming but the others this site out there of that allows you to note to the drought to find out what gas prices are in your area both high and low based on the fact that people as they see these cash prizes they drive by with me to their computers the type commands a well on the corner of 34¢ in the this gas station had this price Hi Ed and his price for these various so those kinds of applications can be enable automatic you say Aum still whenever I pass this gas station of look up look over here which is rarely the Finance figure out what the prices and then up give that information over here similarly I'm for personal use on you can do things like track automobile license plates on which sound can more nefarious than I think it probably would be similarly with um but just to see whose cars nearby and whether not seen this car before using sperm or if it's a card your friend is and so whether you're wondering by order in know you can conceive that that's their car as they're driving by the way for what ever but I I think having that information on it does open the door of course for things like police officers wanting access to this big network of things to identify license plates increases to find out how to track stolen vehicles in a row criminals of various sorts suspected people wanted people and and I understand there's a can of Big Brother and aspect to this I'm and I have some proposals for how the deal have a can take the Big Brother out of that um but again subject for different then again blocks of this before of the what enables a low of a touch of one last thing so the Alaskan into thinking that the exit of about one some family knows that if you're able to always record your account world around you if you always have a live streamed then it may have an interesting impact and to personal person to person " criminal activity to lock down 911 and 91 could see what I emcee in than in in that in the case of where to place emergency than that they can get capture video of who is sailing the and how critical it is where to at and of course if they capture the video on their and progress of what happens to me they will have potentially some evidence that on hot that they can use to capture this personal the help Capt. this person on all so um if you were at able to say roll back the last 30 seconds and called 91 an idyllic scene unfolding of the event of and if people were capturing the stuff law and and and you had the ability to convict 911 it um and then send informational long of a it can have an interesting impact on on on person to person crime probably your people would figure out a way to be more on misleads the old or ski masks that I just did just another tool in in enabling your own protection so who would enable all this stuff is not just that the active of what it enables the stuff is amended data that go along with that so this is this is the critical point on and as much as identically care for Gordon Mills presentation of Microsoft's my life its technology, at the the accelerating change Conference on to was right about the fact that mitigated is all important and and the debt then is that a lot of meditated is easy to capture for example most things captured in, right so if you are if you only know the canton and are able to search your audio and or video record of your personal and on your personal self documenting life media is still unable to do lot of old useful things you can say what was I doing X time on me know what I say I am taking transcriber audio than you could say well what time did I say this and and that's where things that need time on which were already used to operating as a primary tracking system for October were for a live at and the disease is easy to track of it is excellent at a Dedekind's Inc. in that respect um your location either buying the things it right that easily yourself on to the nose which tower your nearby in which what those towers where those towers go in the world they're physically located on or GPS um which would know where you were going home for girls with nine head yourself with the city would have a continuous in three space tracking of where you were physically going um of toil around with the idea after playing with the GPS over over the winter holiday of debt with up at the GPS for myself and just having always on recording the information become of and then adding into this mess today a stream and developing of and the bond fell to 19 like cream content for not not trading technologies handle latches of something that I should be doing but the night and had to Baltica and put the skills and corporations to make that happen but time we can integrate this GPS stream of which tracks not only on what action my accordance Iraq if you have a also track your orientation that is what we're facing north northeast of um and your elevation so on there's a whole bunch of men a day and that that exists right now for example that the major to can be amended data exist knowledge is not been incorporated is the audio for example lock on on the images for example myself of and to the GPS and or sell a of so those those are all things mechanics estimate that already exists to read there's they're already out there talking transcribe my audio and tell which direction I was facing an actor potentially time stamp for all these um so some other things you could potentially do um so I bought some some while back you could fax to of having this discussion of again that via and the accelerating change conference in view of that was, and potentially an important event for me to because I it was could be on talk to people really smart people who were who were thinking along the same lines as I was of some disagreed which all the more useful on any case the we talk about the possibility of tracking who was nearby U.S. F men a day, and I thought well you can produce at the blue to the sprawly the easiest way during the and you probably have to set something up says okay, I will look to service and win the right person comes along like trust and when the tellable and well I just read in net new site is in this issue is a couple of that up at the good folks at MIT on Aum is specifically made an eagle and San dependent on have created an application based on the Isle of another application called context of which is designed Bayern home me get of essentially the it keeps track of of what blue to chips used in counter I and I presume that you still have to do the manual steps of setting who and who's associated but it does mean that it automatically it be used to blue to that work which is to say a discount to its request to see his nearby it captures the ideas of who those people of whose nearby on it and with that in place to capture who was with the that interesting because that helped the cipher on a silicon said yo if you're looking at person if you're looking in particular direction, and you took a photo you would know potentially that some some subset of people are nearby it could've been in that picture so you can of level of picture with the location by GPS signal location orientation date and time the end people there, and and and that hasn't interesting implications on and on top of this you have other that a data things like body sensors my heart rate monitor body chemical monitors on small this concrete this big Ministry met at 0 talk about on low and put it and thinking get out of all this stuff and I always manage data including the audio the video on a location is in infrastructure have amended data infrastructure 99 necessarily an imminent problem the best meaning of that term of up is not necessarily a structure of the constructor for an infrastructure the decree the decreed in the for step in building on knowledge which is capturing all insured your providing aid big stream that information about your daily Le which you can herself mind of man and the number of applications can common and any number of smart people can approach will from different ways and build upon the fact that there's all this data hear much like we built upon the Internet um to do new and revolutionary things that's why Colin infrastructures because and it have in this are round creates huge opportunity for people to build on this in a transformer it was a thick puree capturing the data as as I'm trying to do is not necessarily that transformed it because the promise that right now can all talk to each other the even when it does all talk to each other will have you'll be able small a small set of ought the admittedly still interesting things to do um but it won't be until somebody comes along on what people always do it take technology and think about and the way it has really ever been thought about before and transformed this this informations that into something truly excelled the art was read in New Scientist for example talked-about the devil to predict what you're doing by whose nearby, men and where you are at high and then taking some sort of action so that that's interesting definitely on and but you can also data mine all this other information in capturing and figure out what your preferences longer tendencies on the you can do some interesting things as well like you can give some of this information of other people and might do that because you want to on to merge with their data streams for example of talk about in my on in the audio of the portion about transcription on self documenting what's the fun documenting my text, not many everything nice and transcribing the I can send that he knew you can send me yours and the interweaving them I will have a description I'll have I will have a record of what now if we could for example we didn't time with the words and unsettled of the what he can do it year we've time with each word to say okay will hears the words I said hears the words they sat on in the weave them based on the time on amine interweave all the other method of the text in terms of each word each individual word is stake with with meta data that adds to the strange new text becomes the the data at similarly to give image processing market simple for about facial recognition or OCR our game identification humps in terms of like walking in the other thing as more and more benefits to Billy up this huge amount and the guinea blocked and that I firmly believe in able interesting things to one of the IDs for for audio for simple is of real-time translation the Universal translator as seen on stark um because it on record when I say and I'm sending me to any of you speak a different language than I do what I need your text be part of that today is which language in speaking on Aiken said that off to third-party service to say okay here is the text and I got to the this back to me in English I can get back in English I can either have it read to me by synthetic voice in real time sailor their real time, or potentially I can have your or a key to have your voice model and Maya in Mike mobile computing probably not Honda but up more likely I can give you give me access to voice model so I keep all the text of the translated back your voice model and you can send me back the audio of house you would've said this so so it would he would sound like your voice and might even be your speaking patterns on but Keller suggested table by the fact that capture text and transcribing real time and then of course in the table past of the other person I am so will just those sorts of them in the and the Saudis will largely technology involved here but would enable up the really interesting possibility of Universal translator content and much as one of the things that I could think about up I could think of him off the top my head so all this is to say that I think this kind of technology capturing all the information about your wife is important that can always put my finger on why and I think the reason is that I can do some things which leads me to believe that they're bigger and better things are will probably never think about other people will so just enabling the stuff which the any moment of it is a think fairly straightforward will allow us to create some really interesting opportunities I think at this point, and since I'm already over the amount, plus my life I would take I will go ahead and cut this off, please do let me know if you like this on this block by awareness of pot to ask why a leading a message to comment on by blogged at the raw blogged data blood spot on, of or seen the email Act of at of the Rob blogged at the net at work not, and its Chi-Chi's an ET 8 T W O R K I a little note to thank you think it's horrible and pleased to of we'll have some constructive criticism for some beach and the constructive criticism on the actual concepts rather than just name-calling and all talking at the keep

- posted @ 10:25 PM 0 comments

 
iCODE deliveres real estate information to cellphones
Again via Engadget, this time SMS-based acquisition. You SMS a code found of a property For Sale sign to a predefined number and get back more details on the house you are looking at.

This is similar to an earlier entry I posted relating to using SMS to subscribe to email newsletters, and nearly dead-on to a discussion I had with a friend a week or two ago about using SMS codes on outdoor advertising to get emails with more details on what you had just seen.

iCODE deliveres real estate information to cellphones - Engadget - www.engadget.com
- posted @ 3:40 PM 0 comments

 
LAPD tests facial recognition technology
Engaget is reporting that the LAPD is testing facial recognition technology in the field. Too bad they don't cite their source and I'm too lazy to Google it.

One step closer to my earlier prediction about law enforcement.

LAPD tests facial recognition technology - Engadget - www.engadget.com
- posted @ 3:18 PM 0 comments