mediageek

On today’s radioshow I interview WFMU station manager Ken Freedman about the station’s very cool Free Music Archive project. The idea of the Archive is to take the fundamental idea of sharing Creative Commons-licensed music online, as seen with sites like Archive.org, and add a curatorial element. According to Ken, the goal is to replicate [...]

Those of you following these little flash-memory pocket-cams like I am might be interested in Wired’s Gadget Lab review of the new Flip Mimo, which is a smaller, slightly more feature-rich version of their signature $150 Flip camcorder. Though slimmer and prettier the Gadget Lab concludes: It’s a solid little cam that’s easier to transport, simpler to [...]

The face of digital photo and video is changing as we speak. Well, not really the face, so much as the skin and innards. Until very recently video = tape and photo = memory card. Now, tape is on its way out, and digital still cameras are getting much better at doing video, too. One of [...]

I’ve finally broken down and abandoned my beloved minidisc for mobile audio recording. I held out for as long as I could, which wasn’t hard. Until recently the format that never caught on (in the US) was the best portable digital audio recording format, especially when Sony finally unveiled Hi-MD four years ago finally allowing [...]

Ever wondered how the FCC tracks down and busts pirate radio operators? Anyone familiar with the subject has heard about radio tracking equipment that helps agents triangulate a signal, but what other tools are in their arsenal? Google is a big one. Another tool? Taking pictures of the buildings where they find signals, and photographing the [...]

Matthew Lasar continues his excellent reporting for Ars Technica with an article on a recent letter from House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and Internet subcommittee Chair Edward J. Markey (D-MA) to the FCC urging an open platform for satellite radio if the Commission approves the Sirius/XM deal. What they’re calling for is [...]

Links and notes related to the May 2 mediageek radioshow: FCC Proceeding on localism: http://www.fcc.gov/localism Public Knowledge’s Orphan Works Act page: http://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/ow Matthew Lasar’s Ars Technica article: NPR’s war on Low Power FM: the laws of physics vs. politics You can read the full test of the show’s news headlines after the jump. mediageek 2008-05-02 The House Energy and Commerce Committee [...]

It’s been eight years since the FCC voted to establish LPFM, and in that time NPR has only seen its fortunes rise, with listenership and income rising in sharp contrast to the fortunes of the Clear-Channeled commercial radio industry. Yet, as Matthew Lasar reports in Ars Technica, the nation’s largest public radio network continues to [...]

This one’s for the video/photo geeks. Back at my last gig we used a pile of Spiderlites, which are pretty easy to use and relatively inexpensive lights that accommodate five bulbs, switchable in banks, that can be either incandescent or fluorescent. They’re not super-cheap–several hundred dollars–but for flexible continuous lighting they’re not bad. Lighting is [...]

The Benton Foundation has compiled an excellent wrap-up of testimony and press coverage of yesterday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on network neutrality.

After listening to Chairman Martin’s testimony [PDF / webcast] to the Senate Commerce Committee today, along much of his Q&A with members of the committee, I can’t help but think that Martin is really walking a tightrope. On the one hand, he asserts quite confidently that the Commission has the legal right to enforce its [...]

Stanford law Prof. Larry Lessig apparently recorded his own testimony at the FCC hearing last week, and sync’d it up with his PowerPoint/Keynote slides into a nice little video that he’s posted to his blog. I tuned in too late to catch his presentation last Thursday, and the hearing wasn’t even over by the time I [...]

I didn’t even know it was happening, until I saw Free Press’ tweets this morning. They’re live-twittering it right now if you want to follow along: Martin: Failure to disclose network management practices or tolls would be unreasonable. Actual practice of discrimination may or may not be Dorgan is questioning Martin, trying to make a point that [...]

On today’s radioshow I also played a portion of Tim Robbins’ not entirely scheduled keynote speech to the National Association of Broadcasters convention on Monday, in which he excoriated the mainstream media industry saying, ““We are at an abyss as an industry and as a country.” Robbins’ excerpt is in the first part of the show, [...]

I was able to listen to a pretty good portion of the testimony at yesterday’s FCC hearing on broadband network management at Stanford University. My overall impression is that the public interest in a free, open internet got a pretty fair hearing, overall, with even some of the more “free market” economists having to admit [...]

I only two weeks into my Twitter experience, but I’m starting to drink the Kool Aid. Following these Tweets is giving me the best updates from the Stanford hearing when I can’t be listening live: https://twitter.com/simX https://twitter.com/jjtoothman https://twitter.com/freepress Thanks to @nsputnik! for the Tweet refs.

Monk–the captain of the original, but departed Boulder Free Radio–observes the apparent resurrection of the mantle. The new captains say: Pirate Radio lives again in Boulder! We may go by others names and on different frequencies. We may broadcast live on the air, or streaming over the internet, or both. We may [...]

Free Press is keeping a live blog of the FCC Hearing on Net Neutrality at Stanford University. Looks like at least 300 people have showed up to be in the audience so far. I got too hung up with work to tune in right at 2 PM and the FCC’s RealAudio feeds are all full and [...]

Thanks to hardworking geek IMCistas Radio Indymedia is back online, providing a great resource for uploading and sharing radically independent, non-commercial audio and radio content. This is great because the extensive and valuable archives are again available, but also because it’s open to new content, too. For the six months or so that Radio Indymedia [...]

The FCC finally announced the lineup for the hearing on Network Management at Stanford University tomorrow, and it looks pretty good, including: Lawrence Lessig, C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; Rick Carnes, President, Songwriters Guild of America; Jean Prewitt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Independent Film & Television Alliance; [...]