google

tripp reminded me today about the recent web-debate over google. The link he sent me is here. I read a post a couple of days ago off the blog of Steven Johnson was in response to the criticism he received after the slate article was published. Don't be like me, and read the slate article, followed by the post.

most interesting line, I think (especially for our purposes, as the crux of the stuff we're doing is searching, filtering data, etc.):

"We're wrong to think of Google as a pure reference source. It's closer to a collectively authored op-ed page—filled with bias, polemics, and a skewed sense of proportion—than an encyclopedia."

mp3 image tags

here's a question for all two or three of you that are *maybe* reading this. I have a feeling mark might know this, but I'd probably forget to ask him the next time I see him...

So I've gotten a little addicted to downloading albums (I'm still an album person -- singles are for no-talent ass clowns) on the iTunes music store. Apparently, a ton of other people have been afflicted in a similar fashion, although probably in a more singles-oriented way. The issue I'm having is that I want the art in some form. Give it to me digitally, even - that way I can at least see if it affects me in bit form.

So iTunes itself allows you to fix at least a bit of image information to the album - although at this point it appears that you have to locate an image file and affix it to the track manually.

So the question is, has anyone done anything about attaching either a image file, or a pointer to an image, as one of the tags. Then when I download an album, I've got this self contained digital version of the album, art and all. It might alter the way that mp3 players look, if they need to come up with a better way to deal with images, but it might be cool.

There's something to be said about the tangible, physical cd + jewel case + artwork, but more and more I find myself buying a cd, opening it, then slapping it in my cd drive and ripping it. I've definitely been ignoring the cd-art more than I did pre-mp3 ubiquity. And surprisingly, I've been pretty engaged by some of the web album-previewers out there, which typically try and integrate the artwork some how. Two examples are below.

http://www.flaminglips.com
http://www.zwan.com

Extending Flash

more and more, flash is looking to finally be a factor in non-desktop, mobile environments. this automatically is good for content on these different platforms; just look at the impact that flash has had on the web. so yeah, flash is misused most of the time, and i still hate sites that are done entirely in flash, but there are some cool possibilities. And it will someday mean I can author for mobile stuff more easily. original point - the blog pete's eats is tracking all this pretty carefully. check it out.

siggraph talks

Sunday: Introduction to Computer Graphics 8:30 am - 5:30 pm

Monday: Courses chair Rick Barry picked a few sessions that people in studios might find particularly interesting: 3D Models from Photos and Videos (10:30 to 12:15)

14. Tracking a Baseball for Broadcast Television
Monday, Tutorial, 10:30 am - 12:15 pm
Room 6 C-F
Level: Beginning/Intermediate

23. Building Interactive Spaces
Monday, Half Day, 1:45 - 5:30 pm

30. Building Physical Interfaces: Making Computer Graphics Interactive
Monday, Full Day, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm
Room 17 A-B
Level: Beginning/Intermediate

36. Physics-Based Sound Synthesis for Graphics and Interactive Systems
Tuesday, Half Day, 1:45 - 5:30 pm
Room 15 A-B
Level: Intermediate

Thursday: Expect a good turnout in room 20 A-C at 1:00 for the Special Session: Finding Nemo, with five Pixar panelists talking about story, art, technology, and triage.

pro vs. consumer

Part of the FOB / EVE project is trying to create an authoring system that caters to the needs of both the lowest and highest common denominators of users. For example, our authoring tools would need to allow 'professionals' to create deep and compelling content -- narratives, comprehensive histories, etc., while at the same time making the system easy and quick enough that the average user -- who wants to tag a few resturants he likes for his family -- can do that as well. This is a tough problem, and certainly one that the web has struggled with over the years -- html, flash, DHTML, javascript, etc. But these are all still individual tools -- we need to make one that will work for everyone.

Part of it would hopefully be solved by 3rd party developers.

But just something to think about -- this is relatively uncharted territory for authoring systems as far as I know. Apple is a good example -- they make iMovie for the consumer and Final Cut for the professional. They are coming out with a consumer audio editing tool, but realize that professionals will still use proTools. And electronics are the same way -- home movie cameras vs. professional models.

So what sort of things do we need to think about when designing our system. One idea that comes to mind is that perhaps we can't do this, and therefore we hav to make the authoring tool extensible enough that people can mold it, or build upon it to suit their needs.