March 16, 2007
Need another diversion?
I'd finally heard enough people talking about Twitter that I could no longer resist. I signed up for the service yesterday and am still trying to make sense of it.
The explanation I've come across that makes the most sense is that it is like a mini-blog in which users post current bits of information - answering the question, "What are you doing now?" It becomes interesting when you add other users as friends and you get updated everytime they post their answer to that question.
On the surface it seems like an incredible waste of time and energy. Perhaps it is. But as Dave Winer says,
"What matters about Twitter, btw, is that people are using it."
Here's a prediction: Twitter will soon either become yesterday's news or it will become too big to ignore any longer. You might want to check it out before either eventuality comes to pass.
For those who care, feel free to add yourself to my twitter list.
Posted by scott at 04:11 AM | Comments (6)
October 28, 2005
Buddy, can you spare a clue?
Somehow I've managed to commit myself to "teach" a ten week course on blogging in the community education department of one of the joints where I work. Having to reinvent myself as an impresario, I turned to DEVONagent to search for descriptions and overviews of blogging workshops.
The folks putting on the Blog Business Summit Seminars might be worth emulating. Seems they've got some BIG caliber guns in their holster. If you're in Seattle this weekend, you might want to check out the Business Blogging 101 event on October 29, 2005.
The course here is being designed to examine and explain how blogging and other social networking tools might be used by business folk, writers and NGO staff to get the word out and to learn what others are saying. Fortunately, most folks have no idea what any of this Web 2.0 stuff means anyhow. A climate is thus created whereby a rube such as yours truly can pass himself off as one who knows what is happening. I guess it is time to finally read Cluetrain.
What I'm here to tell 'ya about is a new project from Seth Godin I just discovered called Squidoo. Here's what their weblog says:
Squidoo makes it easy for you to create, share and discover meaning online. It's a co-op of everyday experts, called lensmasters, who build lenses on topics they care about. What's your topic?
I have just read the 32 page eBook that describes what they have in mind. Needless to say, I've signed up to be invited to their double-top secret closed beta.
If you've got a podcast you want people to know about, you might want to do the same. Tell 'em Japan's First Podcaster sent you.
Posted by scott at 08:04 AM | Comments (1)
October 12, 2005
People Wanna Know
Pictured is the Sanyo ICR-B90RM Diply Talk voice recorder that I use to record the audio for soundscapes featured on Japan's First Podcast. More often than not, I use the built condensor microphone. The device does have a mini-plugin for a microphone.
This particular device is available only in Japan. It costs roughly 18,000 yen. A shopper will encounter dozens of such IC recorders at any electronic shop here in Japan. I imagine similar equipment can be found in other parts of the world.
With the USB connection, the ICR-B90R is instantly recognized in Windows 2000 or XP. With Linux, editing the FSTAB file and creating a mount point make it easy to access. With OS X things are a little more curious.
Up until 10.2 it appeared as a storage device as soon as it was plugged into the USB port. Since upgrading to 10.3 it won't mount. I imagine there is a way to get to it from the command line (but the method I used with Linux doesn't bear any results).
So my solution, since retiring the Intel box 4 months ago, has been to get to it through windows using Virtual PC. Other than playing minesweeper, this has been the only reason I have found for using Virtual PC.
I will have more to say about how I record soundscapes in general and this curious little device in particular in a future episode of Tokyo Calling.
Posted by scott at 04:50 AM | Comments (7)