WiredPen

The iPhone ships next week, and Apple announced today that it will stream YouTube clips. Apple said YouTube will also work on Apple TV, a home media hub.

We talked about convergence, indirectly, in my Net Economics class last night. Well, actually, we talked about timeshifting and media and complementary goods (CD + CD player, VHS tapes + VCR). It’s almost 30 years later, and we still call CDs “records.” How long will it take for us to come up with a new name for a “TV show” … when that “show” is delivered to us via a computer, not a “television”?

I think Apple is positioning itself to be the “middleman” as we transition to new delivery models. (As a stockholder, I say “thank you.”)

The big question: how long will the Apple TV (or Windows MediaCenter) be a bridge technology? And why even worry about the BlueRay/HD-DVD battle if most of us are going to get our entertainment content from something akin to BitTorrent or iTunes (iow, a digital download)? Truly that technology is a bridge — and lifetimes (with the exception of the 8 track) seem to be getting shorter with each iteration (Beta/VHS/LaserDisc -> VHS - DVD - ? … LP record -> 8 track ->cassette -> CD -> DVD -> ?)

I’ve had several “older” friends send me Facebook invitations lately. One of them was Kris Krug, who founded a group, PETITION: Free CitizenZiggy. The group description says:

CitizenZiggy is a leading internet activist and researcher and outspoken advocate of Net Neutrality.

He has been asking questions like “Does what happens in the Facebook stay in the Facebook?” Check it out at: http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/

Whether or not you have a Facebook account, the story CitizenZiggy tells is an important one. Did you know that the VC funding for Facebook is linked to In-Q-tel, a CIA funded group? That little-known fact alone is reason enough to watch this Flash movie.

Aside: the music reminds me of Googlezon (EPIC2014).

To set up your account, go to WordPress.com. Follow the “create account” links. You’ll need to use a “real” e-mail address Life is easier for me if you use your UWNetID as your login, because it means the blog URL (address) is UWNetID.wordpress.com.

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This tutorial shows you how to access an article in a University of Washington Library database (such as ACM) from off-campus by beginning at the UW Library website.. If you are on campus, the steps are the same, except there is no need for the off-campus login steps.

However, some people use the library proxy bookmarklet rather than beginning research at the UW Libraries web site. More info on that option is available at http://www.lib.washington.edu/help/connect.html

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Yahoo! reporter Kevin Sites has launched a new project: “People On The Web” that focuses on “people behind the websites.” From Scott Moore, head of Yahoo news and information: “[m]any of the people who are [blogging] have societal goals in mind. This is a window into what’s happening in our society and how technology is impacting our daily lives.”

Last year, Sites traveled to war zones around the world. From Sites: “This year, the idea is to put a human face on the Internet. This is a nice change of pace for me, because there weren’t a whole lot of positive stories that came out of what I did last year.”