Visual memories

Karlin Lillington has written a memorable piece about the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation set up by Steven Spielberg after he made Schindler’s List.

Apple overtakes Google as the world’s leading brand

Apple has unseated Google to become the most influential brand of 2004. According to a survey of 2,000 advertising executives, brand managers and academics, Apple is the hottest brand in the world. Hmmm…. after hubris comes, er, nemesis.

Lessig on Wilco

Larry Lessig’s column on a band that really understands the Net. Excerpt:

“The band Wilco and its quiet, haunted leader, Jeff Tweedy, is something different. After its Warner label, Reprise, decided that the group’s fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was no good, Wilco dumped them and released the tracks on the Internet. The label was wrong. The album was extraordinary, and a sold-out 30-city tour followed. This success convinced Nonesuch Records, another Warner label, to buy the rights back – reportedly at three times the original price. The Net thus helped make Wilco the success it has become. But once back in Warner’s favor, many wondered: Would Wilco forget the Net?

We’ve begun to see the answer to this question. Wilco’s Net-based experiments continue: the first live MPEG-4 webcast; a documentary about the band in part screened and funded via the Net; bonus songs and live recordings tied to CDs. Its latest album, A Ghost Is Born, was streamed in full across the Net three months before its commercial release. And when songs from it started appearing on file-sharing networks, the band didn’t launch a war against its fans. Instead, Wilco fans raised more than $11,000 and donated it to the band’s favorite charity. The album has been an extraordinary success – and was nominated for two Grammys.”

How to record a podcast

Useful detailed guide by Glenn Fleishman.

The technology bubble

My Observer column on the redefinition of social space brought about by the Walkman/iPod and the mobile phone is here. Audio version here.

Gadget wars — new front opened

I had some time to kill before my meeting in London the other day, so I went to the new Apple Store in Regent Street (purely in the interests of scientific research, you understand). Amazing place. Should have a wealth warning prominently displayed on the door. Came away with this neat little speaker set for my iPod.

Volume and quality of sound astonishing, given its size. Wonder how JBL do it. What was also astonishing is the scale and ingenuity of the product ecosystem that has evolved around the iPod. It really is the Walkman de nos jours.

Spreading freedom

“Ukraine is the right way to spread freedom, Iraq the wrong way. Has this lesson come too late for Iran?”. Thoughtful piece by Timothy Garton Ash.

Objectivity and imperialism

The chaos in Iraq, together with the growth of Western impatience with so-called “failed states” and calls for a new kind of ‘benign imperialism’ (i.e. us telling them how to run their societies) has led to an interesting outbreak of collective amnesia in Britain about the whole imperial adventure. As an Irishman, I’ve never succumbed to the concept of the British Empire as one of nature’s Jolly Good Ideas, but feeble-minded folks in Britain — under the tutelage of right-wing media historians like Neil Ferguson and Thatcher-worshipper Andrew Roberts — seem to have donned rose-tinted spectacles when looking back at the imperial past. All of which makes this fierce polemic by Seamus Milne very timely and appropriate.

Wot — no pyjamas!

From BBC Online:

“A devout Baptist couple who bought a Doris Day DVD from a supermarket were shocked to find a sex film instead. Alan and Anne Leigh-Browne, from Wellington, Somerset, had been expecting to enjoy The Pajama Game. Instead they were confronted by Italian sex film – Tettone che Passione, which translates Breasts, What a Passion. ‘Some topless young women appeared and started talking in Italian… it’s not what you expect from a Doris Day film,’ Mr Leigh-Browne said.

Retired doctor Mr Leigh-Brown, 67, said he picked up the film, which was sealed in plastic wrapping, for £2.99 from the bargain bin of a Safeway supermarket in Taunton.”

Thanks to James M for the link.

Blurred images

Up to now, most blurred images were the fault of the cameraman (or woman). But perhaps that may change.

CNET has a report about recent patent application by HP for a system in which digital cameras would be equipped with circuits that could be remotely triggered to blur the face in any images captured by the camera.

“U.S. patent application 20040202382, filed in April 2003 and published in October 2004, describes a system in which an image captured by a camera could be automatically modified based on commands sent by a remote device. In short, anyone who doesn’t want their photo taken at a particular time could hit a clicker to ensure that any cameras or camera-equipped gadgets in range got only a fuzzy outline of their face.”

There’s a thoughtful posting on Slashdot about this. What if a cop who’s beating a demonstrator could use this technology to prevent news photographers from capturing his image?