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Dinosaurs June 25, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : video , add a comment

I went dinosaur watching yesterday.

Some things dinosaurs have in common:

The Jobs market is broken June 9, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Microjobs, video , add a comment

StandoutJobs believe that “Fundamentally, the job market is broken. It’s all the process instead of the people” so they made a video instead.

I hope they find the Ruby Guru they’re looking for and I wonder if maybe there should be embedded videos enabled for describing microjobs and pajamaworkers.

( via chaosncoffee )

Cider videos December 17, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : video, cider, Wiki , add a comment

In my role as technology steward as well as convenor for the ukcider community, I need to keep an eye on mainstream developments on the web. Now 2006 was the year that webstreaming video really came of age, especially since the format wars were finally settled with Flash coming out the winner, and YouTube the social video platform of preference. So people are starting to post links to videos in the mailing list which others can then watch and share the experience. But just as with Flickr for still photos, only a minority in the community are actually going to sign up for an account, learn how to upload, tag, favourite, playlist and join groups etc. Others will just consume.

So I’ve added a plugin to the ukcider mediawiki to enable it to display videos from YouTube and GoogleVideo directly onto the page, which means that in future it will be possible to add relevent media to the narrative text within the pages of the dynamic work of reference and generally wonderful thing that is the cider wiki

For now, here’s a page with a few choice cider videos:

http://ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Cider_Videos

Point November 10, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : video , add a comment

Fish! November 3, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Music, video , add a comment

Monopoly on the net October 10, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : video , 1 comment so far

In the wake of the Google aquisition of YouTube, Dave Snowden at Cognitive Edge writes “What is truth? or, the old patterns repeat” concluding with

We can’t afford for one company (or any algorithm) to organise information for the world.

I have a response which is waiting in the moderation queue, which for some reason prompts me to publish it here right away. ( Impatience appears to be one of the possible negative by-products of a connected lifestyle).

….

The trend for markets to become dominated by irreversible giant monopolies has been documented for a century or two now, so this process is hardly new. Perhaps there’s nothing intrinsically different about internet technology which is going to somehow protect it from the greater influences of ownership and control in society. But that isn’t a forgone conclusion for me. I suspect that the network infrastructure itself is a progressive thing, but that the superstructure which is built on top of the network, by such as google, is subject to the normal laws of prevalent economic and social relations.

So having said “We can’t afford for one company (or any algorithm) to organise information for the world.” what do you propose we do about it?

More anti-trust laws?

Intervention to try and reverse market forces in order to preserve the illusion of a healthy market?

Siezure of the means of production and distribution of information as a commodity, to be reorganised under international democratic workers’ control and management?
(Well you did mention Trotsky…)

Back to the primacy of the network, I suspect that if services such as Google begin to become not useful to the network, then the network will innovate once more and pretty rapidly come up with alternatives to reliance on Google.

Douglas Adams - Hyperland September 21, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : video , 1 comment so far

I’ve been exploring YouTube a bit recently, mainly because my initial experience was a positive one, uncovering more and more rare bonzo dog band footage. This one was found on google video though, and I missed the ability to save it to favourites within the application, so the best option seemed to be to blog it.

This archive BBC video has everything.

Multimedia, Hypermedia, Micons, Douglas Adams, Tom Baker, Kurt Vonnegut, Bach, Picasso, Gernika. Shape, Language, DNA, Non linear fiction, virtual reality.

The future looked good in those days, perhaps. (date?)

But as commented, the dream has not become reality yet. Who was supposed to make all the media clips, link it all together and provide it for free. Instead all we have is Wikipedia and blogs. And YouTube, of course.

17 years old according to Epeus’ epigone

Do Not Adjust Your Set September 16, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Music, video , add a comment

YouTube allows the rediscovery of highlights from very distant memory, in this case the seminal TV series ‘Do not adjust your set” featuring the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Here they are performing “Hunting Tigers Out In Indiah”:

“I really did see them in black and white!”

Somebody called ‘Dormouse’ in the alt.fan.bonzo-dog newsgroup put me onto these videos, but with YouTube it takes no time at all to browse around and find more rare gems. The live concert in Belgium, extracts from films, interviews, alternative performances and outakes - they are all there.

Incidentally, alt.fan.bonzo-dog was the first online group I ever founded, in February/March 1998 the the process of which I learned a lot. Here is the original charter:

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 20:46:11 -0000
Organization: ESBI
Lines: 54
Sender: richard.bryant@ukonline.co.uk
Approved: richard.bryant@ukonline.co.uk
Message-ID: 
NNTP-Posting-Host: p81-as2.dubexs.tinet.ie
Summary: Newgroup message
X-Newsreader: Anawave Gravity v2.00
Xref: news.isc.org control.newgroup:17319

For your newsgroups file:
alt.fan.bonzo-dog The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band: Neil Innes, Viv
Stanshall etc

DISCUSSED IN alt.config:

proposal for alt.fan.bonzo-dog posted by andyrobts@aol.com on 19th March
1998. reply from Sysop 20th Mar. Justification posted, various contributions
demonstrated strong international interest and traffic in newsgroups. Name
finalised without -band.

Richard.Bryant suggested posting a Charter, charter posted No further objections.

JUSTIFICATION:

A dejanews search on bonzo+dog indicated 2100 matches. There is a mailing
list with 65 subscribers which is intended strictly for low volume informative
posts. It is envisaged that this would continue and the ng will attract wider
ranging discussion, probably medium volume traffic.

References to the Bonzo’s regularly crop up in alt.fan.capt-beefheart,
alt.fan.frank-zappa, alt.comedy.british, alt.fan.monty-python newsgroups.
Also in rec.music.beatles, rec.music.dementia, rec.music.rock-pop-r+b.1960s.

CHARTER:

A forum for fans of the ‘The Bonzo Dog Band’ previously known as

‘The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Topics might include the recorded output of the Bonzo’s, TV shows and videosand
the careers of former band members. No commercial advertising allowed unless
for goods or services related to the subject of the group. Private individuals
may advertise their Website or business in their
signature files . Binary postings are forbidden. All Binary files should
be posted onto the relevant group with a pointer to them in this group Format:
Text files only, HTML , graphics and sound files should be placed on the
Web with a pointer to them in this group

Moderation:

The newsgroup will not be moderated. We are an anarcho-syndicalist collective
with a rotating chair.

Thankyou Mr Hubble September 14, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Music, video , 1 comment so far

Thankyou Mr Hubble, for your telescope……

MP3

Unrecorded song written by Loudon Wainwright III

update:

Linda suggested I post these links - I recorded this song in order to use it in a soundtrack for a short video called “specks of dust” which was in turn part of a triptych “minute by minute“

Canal cruise July 7, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : video , 3comments

Canal cruise waterbus
The emergency service on the Lancaster canal waterbus finished last weekend, with the reopening of the Lune Aquaduct, but on Saturday we had the 72ft traditional packet boat all to ourselves for the whole day.

It was quiet, beautiful and the narrowboat created a slight breeze on that very hot day. Amongst other things, we saw two or three Marsh Harriers, which I’m told are quite rare in the Northwest.

The above video clip is an embedded Flash version, as requested but you may also download a high quality quicktime movie (15Mb) or a smaller one (7Mb)

Marsh Harrier
Marsh Harrier photo by Andy Roberts

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