Video recording - Kodak's response to the Flip recorder

Theocacao.com has a review of the zi6 from Kodak - a handheld videocam running on AA batteries, SD/SDHC cards, and does 60 fps 720p video.

Want to record something on the go? Gizmodo is saying the Kodak "might be the best pocket camcorder yet" - and doing both VGA video and also 720p HD, I can imagine why.

Cost? $180 though a decent SDHC card and the batteries will rival that!
When? Next month.
How? Turn on, point and shoot, plug into USB, get those videos onto your PC, whack them up to Youtube. You can playback via the 2.4" LCD screen, with slow motion playback available.
Bonuses? Tripod mounting hole, ability to get stills from video. H.264 files so it's straight to editing on a Mac!

Apple could so easily implement this, it's harsh to see it not implemented - to release the 3G iPhone without video, presumably waiting until at least the 3rd version for 209 to bring in video (presumably unlocking it for v1 and v2 handsets in the process). It's worse to know it's technically feasible, and that the current sensors can do video of some sort. Here's to hoping the CMOS job postings for Apple come through soon.

Demo of the quality here and here - both from Scott Stevenson. Hit the large versions to truly see the potential.

Whilst there are some very nice HD camcorders going round - they're triple the price currently.

Wonder if there will be a way of reading a memory card into an iPod or iPhone as storage of the files. I'm pretty sure there was a device that enabled you to copy from iPod to iPod.

SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH throws up a lot. There is a video on fastcompany.tv with Scoble and a professor I think from Harvard talking about recent events that year.
http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/videoEnhancement.htm
shows something like it.

You can delete sections of the image post production. Get some pictures without a subject, or with something in, then take the video, then merge the two. Either add or subtract whatever you want.

This is going beyond any repetitive simple pattern being used to alter a section of an image. This is large alterations. the tech has been there in different guises, but to see it after a while, you see the jumps the area is making. It could be used for good, but also for bad.

When wikis go wrong. Why salsa deserves better.

Why wikis are sometimes not the answer

A site calling itself salsanirvana.com is just asking for review. Is it nirvana for a salsero? The site is based on the premise of making a wiki for people interested in finding information about salsa around the world.

It's in format, very similar to wikipedia.org. Searching for London, I get directly to the London page. Unfortunately, it currently has only 1 company listed - LondonSalsa. If you try and find it the old fashioned way, you have to navigate through 3 pages just to get there. Very inefficient. I'll admit it's primarily for those in San Diego, or Texas - if you live there, you will be in luck.

It is a little disconcerting to have a .com site for what is being marketed as a Copyleft site, with wiki intentions. Whilst I know MediaWiki, and it's one of the few systems around currently, I pine for Snow Leopard's wii system to go Internet, rather than just stay intranet.

My feeling is that salsanirvana is barking up the wrong tree. But this is all terribly web 1.0. Where's the mashup? Where's the simplicity hiding harnessed power?

Salsajive.co.uk is one example of something a little better: It splits listings into weekly clubs/classes, special events, news, chat room (forum), then submission/modification sections for these.

For my money - a Google map mashup may be part of the answer. Why navigate 3 pages, when you can just pop your desired location in, and not only find out classes and events locally, but also see what's happening nearby, and have a great way to get traffic, picture, navigation information. Beyond that, by actually making a salsa "overlay" for want of a better word, you can then link each event or class to reviews, and also video, pictures and more.

An (iPhone) web app

Whilst a fully blown app would be great, A web app would still work within any browser, on Macs and PCs. The premise could get ported over, and features added, but it would demo and showcase the concept.

Concept 1: An iPhone web app showing a map locasting salsa classes & events.

Start with up to date information about salsa classes. The UK and the US would be more than enough to get started with. Possible uses in conjunction with a current up to date database, or from scratch. Depending on web scraping/copyright, it could be a relatively quick thing to do.

Convert this into a KML form. I'd imagine that it would be better to have 1 database, and then give the classes a day of the week tag, and hopefully have a 1 time period only tag for events.

This in my naive mind, seems to run into the problem that KML and Google maps mashups don't really push the possible uses for geotagging calendar events either recurring or non-recurring. I'd imagine digging into this would probably find this was not entirely accurate.

The end result wanted is a search function: You type in London. You get a view, you pick a day or date you want to salsa. You then zoom in, and see what's happening. If you're interested in an event, click on the pin, get the address, zip/post code, contact telephone. So you can call them, or add them into your phone, or Outlook etc.

Why Google? Proprietary styles just seem to be awful
The other is that you could add review information on the back of this.

The bad news is that of all the web sites i've contacted (salsajive.co.uk etc) they've all not replied, or not really had an appetite to change any of this.

The good news is that there is a market for this. It's not too hard coding really - in the raw form, it's linking an updating KML file to a web app that shows this. Not rocket science, but not ABC ObjC.

Even better news is that there seems to be a desire for this, and people are wanting to try things to see what works. Maybe using a wiki in this particular way is a false start, but for many other functions, it could work. There are a lot of people who would say yes to trying salsa, given a nudge and the right encouragement. There are a lot looking to see what's on, what they could try. For my money, the salsa scene, like many others, hasn't yet quite caught on to the possibilities of the new media that popped out in the last few weeks :)

But there is progress: Ritmo Bello and the salsa meetup.com meet up group for their salsa, Anthony Persaud's HD video podcasts - with linked youtube streams, for very easy on the go access for referral, catch up and review.

I wish Apple would get their act together for video - qik.com and youtube upload would be a scream, and create big opportunities and developments. The flip camcorder is the nearest thing currently, with rivals popping up. But with the iPhone coming from the fully fledged PC side, i'd hope the 2 sides - video recording and a computer that fits in your pocket, that also does calls - can meet up soon.

Airlines axe 60 million seats. And Heathrow terminal 5 was built over
a stable oil price, and a big increase in travel, as the base assumptions
that made it viable. Here's your sign.

Civilisation in denial, as Monbiot has been known to say.

Don't know why psychologists haven't done more papers about the
denial complex we have about the future.

The details from The Guardian

Costs of expansion The economic case for expansion calculates net benefits to the UK economy of £5bn over 60 or 70 years if a third runway is built by 2020 and if restrictions on landings and take-offs are lifted. The key to this argument is so-called generated user benefits, which estimate the value of flights that are created by extra runway capacity and are valued at £9bn. Without their contribution, the SEI report states, the costs of expansion would outweigh the benefits.
The £9bn figure is calculated by estimating the difference between the maximum fare a passenger would pay to travel through Heathrow and the lower fare they would pay if a third runway unleashed a fresh supply of cheap tickets. That figure is then multiplied by the number of new customers that an expanded Heathrow could attract.
However, the argument starts to look fragile if prices do not fall and more people do not fly, the SEI report adds. "If demand for flights is smaller than the DfT expects, or if airfare is higher (owing to increases in fuel prices, for example), then generated user benefits will be smaller, and so too will the total benefits of airport expansion," said SEI. The government predicts that the number of air passengers using UK airports will double at least from 228 million a year to between 460 million and 540 million in 2030, with the number of Heathrow flights rising from 480,000 a year to 702,000 if a new runway is added.
Passenger growth forecasts also came under attack. The predictions in the consultation document are based on a projected oil price that varies from $65 a barrel in 2006 to $53 a barrel in 2030, which in turn underpins predictions of low ticket prices that will boost demand for air travel.
The SEI report said the government is "strangely out of step with common predictions for oil prices", going against a futures market that predicts a price of $140 a barrel in 2016.

Water water everywhere

and not a drop to currently efficiently and economically use as a power source via solar power and some catalytic action.

Whilst you have to be cautious about these things, it's interesting to see the catalytic reaction of water to hydrogen and oxygen can be done at RTP (room temperature & pressure).

Wired has the article.

Naming children

The Baby Name Wizard, at babynamewizard.com/voyager graphically shows how names have changed. It looks like most of the "biblical"/Gospel names (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) all peaked in the 70s.
The main point is that the number of different names has increased - and the top names are a much smaller percentage of the total babies named.

Another fun point, is seeing the fast relative rise of less well established/previously conventional names. A rise in names starting with Q, and Y for example.
For example, Tom seems to be now less popular than Tomass. So there are more crazy cats being named than Toms...

In a sex obsessed world, why so few legal bordellos?

//Time to rewatch before writing. Consider the below a stub article

Having watched the Women's Institute (WI) programme on Channel 4, it did seem to me, that there were issues between the various positions taken.

UK - Estblishments for prostitution not legal, but some given a blind eye. Given the apparent number per county, it must be fairly well hidden, and fairly well tolerated.


UK Holland New Zealand
Worker's agreement No No Yes
Legal No No Yes


Why no not for profit brothels? The WI members who went out to Nevada didn't seem to like the Bunny Ranch style, but did like the New Zealand laws.