David Emery Online

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene

Really interesting stuff – I particularly like the object removal demo (fast forward to 5:58 to see it):

Changes for Some SMS Users - Good and Bad News

Let’s start with the bad news. Beginning today, Twitter is no longer delivering outbound SMS over our UK number.

Twitter needs a business model, stat.

In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t take this opportunity to roll out a similar ‘pro’ scheme to Flickr, where you can get SMS updates and maybe no API rate limits for $29.99/year. I think for twitter it could really work, especially considering that – due to the high API usage amongst the userbase – traditional banner/adwords based advertising models may well not work that well. It still mystifies me that they haven’t tried that yet though – surely it wouldn’t hurt?

Minotaur Shock - Amateur Dramatics

We’ve just launched a new site for Minotaur Shock which has a bit of a different twist – he’s rated and priced each track differently, based on criteria like ‘Musical Difficulty’ and ‘Computer Crash rating’:

The record company that releases my music, whilst steeped in history and home to a lot of my favourite records, spunks a lot of money on lavish felt-lined gilded box-sets made by nimble-fingered faerie folk who live in the woods. This means that artistes such as Minotaur Shock who will only ever sell a limited amount of records (because discerning listeners like yourselves are few and far between), do not command the same kind of influence over the Powers That Be and their kingdom of jewel-case goblins.

Consequently, this release, the third album proper I have created as Minotaur Shock, is no longer an album in the physical sense, it is content. Not content as in satisfied, but content as in digital bits and binary bobs. Now, you may think that I am less than enthusiastic about this, but you’d be mistaken. After initially being a bit miffed (I’m being honest; we’re all friends here), I started to think about the nature of an album, and how the way people listen and use it is changing.

The site also features some beautiful illustrations for each track, and utterly gratuitous slidey javascript stuff – well worth a look.

The Twitting Point. Or An Ode to Saturdays.

We sit dehydrating in front of the computer screen after hours in the gym trying to reduce years of beer gut cultivation. The sitting got boring and geeking out became our last bastion of escapism, to have all the knowledge and therefore, all the power. Some thing has happened to me and a whole generation of the tech-related fads: I don’t need nor want the power/knowledge, it seems like i just wanna digest it and get it away from me.

Knowledge digestion is my favourite hobby. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Becky by Be Your Own Pet

Great video for the best song off their last (and sadly final) album:

Worth the wait

After standing in an exceptionally long queue along with scores of other similar minded fanatics people last month, coupled with the obvious inability of O2 to sell large quantities of anything, multiplied by the constant stock shortage in Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores (where I had to go, being an existing customer) I had almost given up on getting a 3G iPhone.

Until yesterday, when I ambled past my local Carphone Warehouse and noticed a large ‘Now back in stock’ sign. And low, they had them – I got the feeling that they were as surprised about it as I was.

As a slight aside; why are mobile phone shops in the UK so woefully awful? They are by far and away the most unpleasant shops to frequent, full of sales staff that simultaneously manage to both not give a shit about you and be really pushy at the same time. For the past few weeks I’ve been popping in to my local Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores and this has been the typical conversation:

Me: Do you have any iPhones in stock?

Them, not looking up from whatever they are doing: No

Me: Err, thanks

It’s hardly good customer service, is it? And a...

Olympus / Panasonic announce Micro Four Thirds

Olympus and Panasonic have just announced a new type of sensor for digital cameras, which is probably the biggest innovation in this space we’ve seen in a very long time. It means that they can now make interchangeable lens cameras without the bulky mirror box, meaning (hopefully) we will get much smaller cameras that retain the image quality (and lens swap-ability) of an DSLR.

‘Why Free Software Has Poor Usability, and How to Improve It’

Put another way, if you have to ask for better design, you will lose. You need to be in a position to demand it.

Very true, in my experience.

Modern Romance

Teen girl: I was so mad at him that I unfriended him on Facebook.

Friend: What does that mean?

Teen girl: I was mad, but not mad enough to break up. This way we can still message each other, but he can't poke me anymore.

Friend: So, technically, would this be symbolic or metaphorical action?

Teen girl: What?

Friend: Nevermind.

I know I'm late to this party, but Overheard in New York is my new favourite blog.

So open it hurts

It would be unfair, I think, to only link to one side of this story so here’s Chris’ take as well. A thoroughly modern affair.