Posts by jon_knox

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  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    actually the organisers are already making a podcast available...and the book is available for free, with people encouraged to buy it if they enjoyed it.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Self-satisfactorily Yours,

    After some success in viewing Media7 from TVNZ's On-Demand site last week, I am back to commiting the crime of attempting to watch content from outside of NZ....guess that's why the youtube link has been provided.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • The importance of the Kaipara,

    http://202.7.7.90/rnz/ckpt/ckpt-20090303-1755-Kaipara_Harbour_Snapper_Nurseries-048.mp3

    Radio NZ clip (mp3, 3mins 36sec) regarding NIWA research that attempted to determine the importance of the Kaipara as a fish nursery.

    The result is a little surprising.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Casino,

    seems to me that this stuff is a bit like bootlegging a concert.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    For those in London interested in such stuff, James Boyle (author of The Public Domain) is giving a lecture on 10 March

    cheers Mark. I'll head along and enquire if they would like to make a podcast available.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Casino,

    Sorry, just to clarify what the underlying issue(s) are?

    Is it?
    - lack of control over the author's ideas?
    - lack of consideration/royalties for the additional format?
    - automated text-to-speech readers seem to be built on the chasis of a 2-stroke lawnmower with a broken throttle?
    - format shifting becomes easy, royalty-free & awful with kindle-like devices.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Casino,

    I liked Gaiman's comment that, when a machine can do read aloud better than a human, we will have other things to worry about.

    That's hardly setting the bar very high...in some cases. I happend to listen to part of Cory Doctorow's latest audio book yesterday and had to wonder if giving the "reader" (apparently a human) a credit was some sort of AI joke.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Casino,

    Whether we like it or not, it just so happens that the (variable) reward patterns of gambling are perfect for creating addiction.

    Nothing against a harmless flutter, other that gambling addicts all start the same way....but it's the same for addicts of all kinds.

    Thankfully gambling isn't as deregulated in NZ as it seems to be in the UK. If you don't have at least 3 different betting shops within a stone's throw, you're probably living in too upmarket a surburb and may as well be living back on the Shore.

    I bet those on-line casinos are soo proactive in dealing with addicts too. (see Louis Theroux intro Gambling in Las Vegas)

    I'd like to know how much of the iceberg the casino's & betting shops represent.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Casino,

    Apologies Mark if I'm being obtuse: I've been having 'differences of opinion' with several people of several b. different sites, but my loathing of the Kindle-attempted audio coup has been quite consistent. I just dont see any point in relitigating it, as it were-

    Islander I'm very interested too. Happy if it is an email.

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Casino,

    How will they ever sell audiobooks if Stephen Hawking is prepared to read them all aloud for free?

    Odiogo can do this (free) for you....Mangles tech content particularly well.

    Heading in the other direction, turning audio content into text (ie a transcript) should improve efficency when searching audio content, enabling potential listeners to more accurately answer the question - Do I not want to consume this audio content? (at least from a subject domain perspective)....consider that "good tagging" should not only enable people to find content that they may want to consume, it should also enable the elimination of a false positive.

    The BBC has currently suspended use of microformats (a html fudge to tag content) because of problems caused for the blind in the interpretation of microformat (meta) data by reading software. Am unsure what progress (if any) should be expected, but suspect if someone gets it right (one way or another), the benefits of the semantic web suddenly start looking a bit more like low-hanging-fruit.

    Am not sure if the reader software currently available is capable of doing a good job? Anyone got any insight into reader software?

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report Reply

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