by cameron | Aug 12, 2009 | Australian media
I was doing an email interview with a journo this morning about the introduction of digital radio in Australia and I was asked if I thought, as the radio industry is apparently claiming, that the introduction of digital would lead to an increase in radio listenership. I explained that this certainly hasn’t been the experience in the UK, where radio listenership is STILL in decline five years after the introduction of digital.
(source)
I remember a few years ago when the radio industry in Australia wanted the Howard Govt to give them an exclusive license for “digital radio” in return for their investment in the infrastructure to roll out their digital stuff. This had some folks predicting podcasting would be outlawed. Telling the radio folks to go to hell was one of the Howard Govt’s better decisions.
by cameron | Aug 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
SpiralFrog was the music industry’s attempt to defeat iTunes. It failed miserably. Here’s a fascinating post-mortem. As a start-up guy who had no funding, these stories of start-ups pissing tens of millions of dollars up against the wall always make me sick. Why do these clowns get so much money? I know what I could achieve with just a single million to spend on my business and to see them waste $26 million just makes me furious.
Anyway, there are some interesting facts in here… such as “in order for a tier-1 account to place ads on a site like SpiralFrog, (it) needed a minimum of 5 million monthly unique (visitors).” Even a start-up with the amount of funding SpiralFrog had, struggled to make money from advertising. They bought their traffic through search engine marketing and had to keep spending to maintain it. Lots of lessons in here.
Read the article:
Inside the short, troubled life of a music start-up | Digital Media – CNET News.
Here’s a 2007 interview with SpiralFrog founder Joe Mohen:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItF7y3knp5E&hl=en&fs=1&]
by cameron | Aug 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
According to the quiz, I’m a Centrist. What are you?
by cameron | Aug 10, 2009 | coolhunter
OMFG. I must have one of these. It’s a ring that turns into a bluetooth earpiece. The company behind it is Hybra Advance Technology.
(via If It’s Hip It’s Here)
by cameron | Aug 8, 2009 | US politics
August 6 and 9 are the 64th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, perhaps the greatest single acts of terrorism committed in human history.
Here are some links worth reading.
by cameron | Aug 6, 2009 | Australian media, Podcast
I’m running a twtpoll today about the launch of ‘digital radio’ in Australia. Of course, as far as I’m concerned, ‘digital radio’ is a pretty silly concept. Podcasting has been around for five years and with iPhone and iPods and the like becoming pretty mainstream, podcasting already gives audiences a digital experience. Why would you want to go out and buy ANOTHER device?
Let’s see what exciting benefits digital radio offers, according to the industry’s own site, and compare that to podcasting:
- Clearer sound and improved reception – Check. If you’ve downloaded a podcast onto your own device, you have PERFECT reception.
- Extra features such as extra channels – Check. There are tens of thousands of podcasts.
- pause and rewind radio – Check.
- downloadable music – Check. It’s called “iTunes”, bitch.
- more details about the advertised product – Hmmm. I’d say “Bonk” to think one as we don’t carry much advertised product.
- slideshows – Check. Podcasts in Apple’s AAC format contain slides, if that kind of thing excites you.
- scrolling text – Check. Ye old iPods scroll, but iPhones are far sexier.
- Electronic Program Guides – Check. It’s called your iTunes playlist.
- updated news, sports and racing information – Check. It’s called “the web” and it comes fully-integrated into iPhones.
- Extra channels potentially doubles the number of commercial stations – Oooh “doubles”! That’s twice as much Kyle Sandilands! Podcasting has released tens of THOUSANDS of new ‘stations’.
What do you see in that list that is innovative? Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last five years, you already have most or all of these features on your iPhone, iPod or mobile phone. And, if you don’t, you will when you buy one. And you’ll have a far wider choice of options that digital radio will offer you.
So far on my poll, 87% of respondents say they are not interested in digital radio. What about you?
by cameron | Aug 5, 2009 | Podcast, science, space travel
David Horn works with Microsoft in Seattle and is one of the organisers of the 2009 Space Elevator Conference. What is a “space elevator”, I hear you ask? Only the coolest idea you’ve ever heard! Imagine a day in the not-too-distant future where getting into space involves jumping into something like a luxury train that travels VERTICALLY – up into the air – traveling along a ‘ribbon’ made of carbon nanotubes – for a week until you get outside of the earth’s gravitational pull and THEN you jump in your space vehicle, which is attached to the other end of the ribbon, detach, and get flung into space via centrifugal force!
Links:
Wikipedia entry on Space Elevators.
Book your ticket for the 2009 Space Elevator Conference here.
Music:
Chris Garneau
“Fireflies” (mp3)
from “El Radio”
(Absolutely Kosher)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album
by cameron | Aug 4, 2009 | Australian media, Australian politics, Melbourne
Reports today about the AFP arresting 4 men in Melbourne who were allegedly planning to attack a military base in Victoria is being called "terrorism" by the Prime Minister and the mainstream media. For example, News.com.au claims the attack, if it had gone ahead, would have been "the worst terror attack on Australian soil". However, if they were attacking a military target, does that qualify as terrorism? Wikipedia states that there isn’t an internationally agreed definition of terrorism, but I normally associate it with attacks on civilian targets outside of wartime. A small group of Somali and Lebanese labourers and taxi drivers attacking a military base doesn’t sound like the definition of terrorism to me. It sounds more like the definition of "stupid".
(UPDATE: in discussion with @napper, I said I think an attack by citizens of a country on its own army and inside the country’s own borders is more accurately defined as “revolution” or “insurrection”.)
So – why is it being referred to as terrorism by the Govt and the media? Are we back to the days where The Great Corporation feels the need to frighten the masses? What should we be watching out for? Is there a new law coming soon that will disappear more of our civil rights? Will Rudd use this to help push through his Internet censorship?
UPDATE: I also meant to add – as Terry did in the comments – that I hope the AFP have actually done their job this time, unlike in the Haneef debacle.
by cameron | Aug 3, 2009 | Podcast
Wolfgang Puck is one of the most famous chefs in the world.
Antony Van Couvering is the founder of Minds + Machines.
On today’s show they chat with me about their bid to own the new “top level domain” – .FOOD.
Do you want an independent media?
The Podcast Network is supported by:
neo.org – a social network with a purpose – to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves
and
our first TPN Patron – Tony Kynaston.
by cameron | Aug 3, 2009 | Cuba, Iran, US politics
Iran? North Korea? Cuba? China?
No – the United States of America.
If President Obama and the Democratic Party aren’t willing to prosecute the people responsible for torturing and imprisoning a 12 year-old child, without a trial, without hope of defense, then what does that say about the current American administration?
