Spark

210521 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/spark-93-november-29-december-1-2009/Spark+93+-+November+29+%26+December+1%2C+20092009-11-27+21%3A31%3A44Dan+Misener

Have you ever played around with a gadget or application, only to discover it’s absolutely perfect for something different from its original design? This kind of inventiveness, or playfulness, happens all the time in our digital environment, but it signals a major shift in the relationship between the inventor or designer and the user.

Nora interviewed Clay Shirky about just that earlier this week. Clay is a big thinker on internet and culture, and he has a lot to say about how users shape the tools they use and how designers should respond to this new “interaction loop.”

A shorter version of that interview will air on Spark 93, but you can listen to the whole thing now, or download the MP3.

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If you like hearing these extended interviews, why not subscribe to Spark’s enhanced podcast? You’ll get regular weekly episodes, plus additional blog-only content like this. [Subscribe via RSS] or [Subscribe with iTunes]

[Original image by Joi Ito]

Full transcript after the jump

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20893 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/full-interview-clay-shirky/Full+Interview%3A+Clay+Shirky2009-11-26+17%3A57%3A48Hannah+Classen

Over the past decade or so, digital piracy has been a major headache for the music business, the movie business, and the television business. Less so for the book publishing industry. But that may be about to change.

Yesterday, Nora talked to Gabriella Coleman about online book piracy. Gabriella is an assistant professor in the department of Media, Culture, & Communication at New York University. They talked about why online book piracy is poised to shake up the book biz, and what smart publishers can do to stop it.

A shorter version of this interview will air on  Spark 93, but you can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3. [runs 21:11]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you like hearing these extended interviews, why not subscribe to Spark Plus? You’ll get regular weekly episodes, plus additional blog-only content like this. [Subscribe via RSS] or [Subscribe with iTunes]

[Original image by mecredis]

206345 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/full-interview-gabriella-coleman-on-digital-book-piracy/Full+Interview%3A+Gabriella+Coleman+on+digital+book+piracy2009-11-26+13%3A00%3A58Dan+Misener

Today, it’s exactly one month from Christmas.

In a few weeks’ time, I’ll be sitting at my in-laws’ house, and I’ll wish I had access to my home computer. Sure, my in-laws have a perfectly decent laptop. It’s fine for surfing the web, and checking email. But here’s the thing: their computer doesn’t have any of my stuff on it. Wouldn’t it be great if I could access all my music, photos, bookmarks, and other files from their computer?

So as Canada prepares for a holiday season full of visits to homes with foreign computers, I’ve put together a remote access toolkit, designed to help you get at all your stuff, no matter where you are.  If you can suggest other tools for holiday remote access, let me know in the comments.

Remote Desktop: LogMeIn Free

Recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple’s OSX operating system have remote desktop functions built-in. VNC is another (slightly geekier) option. In theory these are great, but in practice I’ve found that getting remote desktop to work reliably is a headache, full of port forwarding and firewalls.

Enter LogMeIn Free. It’s a software program that works on Windows and Mac. Once it’s installed, you can access your remote desktop from any computer with a web browser and an internet connection. The free version allows you to view your screen, open files, and do pretty much anything you ordinarily do when you’re sitting in front of your computer. A paid version allows you to transfer files, hear audio, and print remotely. I’ve used LogMeIn Free for almost a year now, and I’ve never had a problem connecting to a remote computer through routers or firewalls or other internet obstacles.

Music and Photos: SimplifyMedia

Want to show off photos from your recent trip? Or maybe escape the non-stop Carpenters Christmas for a while? SimplifyMedia allows you to stream all of the music and photos from your home computer. Best of all, if you have friends who also use SimplifyMedia, you can stream their music libraries, too. Add on the iPhone and iPod touch application, and you have your own personal version of Spotify.

Bookmarks: Xmarks

Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) is a great app for synchronizing bookmarks (or “favorites” for you IE users) across multiple computers. It works with Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari for Mac. Aside from syncing, Xmarks also has a feature called Online Access, which saves a copy of your bookmarks at my.xmarks.com, so you can access them on the web wherever you are.

The green factor

SimplifyMedia and LogMeIn both require that your remote computer is powered up in order to work. Obviously, leaving your computer running 24/7 over the holidays isn’t the greenest gift to the planet. So to reduce power consumption, I recommend looking into Wake-on-LAN or WOL.

Most modern computers can be set to wake up from sleep mode remotely, so they only need to be awake when you’re using them. There are many small, free software programs you can use to wake your computer up remotely. Just type “WOL” and the name of your operating system into your favourite search engine. Note that WOL usually requires a wired internet connection (though some newer computers support Wake on Wireless LAN).

Also, be sure to test everything out before you actually skip town for the in-laws’. There’s nothing worse than bragging about your remote access skills, then having them not work during your demo for Grandma.

What about you? How do you access your computer remotely? Share your techniques and software suggestions in the comments below!

207024 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/holiday-remote-access-toolkit/Holiday+remote+access+toolkit2009-11-25+12%3A30%3A53Dan+Misener

The map above shows the geographic distribution of Wikipedia articles. Darker blues mean more geotagged articles per country. According to researcher Mark Graham, who created the map, Wikipedia has some pretty prominent blind spots:

Almost all of Africa is poorly represented in Wikipedia. Remarkably there are more Wikipedia articles written about Antarctica than all but one of the fifty-three countries in Africa (or perhaps even more amazingly, there are more Wikipedia articles written about the fictional places of Middle Earth and Discworld than about many countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia).

This morning, Nora talked to Mark about representation on Wikipedia, and how sometimes, our virtual worlds don’t match up to the real world. A shorter version of this interview will air on Spark 93, but you can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3. [runs 15:56]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you like hearing these extended interviews, why not subscribe to Spark Plus? You’ll get regular weekly episodes, plus additional blog-only content like this. [Subscribe via RSS] or [Subscribe with iTunes]

20627 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/full-interview-mark-graham-on-wikipedias-geographic-blind-spots/Full+interview%3A+Mark+Graham+on+Wikipedia%27s+geographic+blind+spots2009-11-24+17%3A38%3A15Dan+Misener

We’re now less than a month away from most of Canada Post’s suggested mailing dates for the 2009 holiday season. If you’re anything like me, most of your holiday greetings will find their way to the mailbox dangerously close to the deadline.

Nowadays, we have an increasing number of ways to reach out and touch someone¹ over the holidays, many of them electronic. There are e-cards, Facebook/Twitter messages, email messages, text messages. Dominic Girard, who is a cold, unfeeling, dispassionate jerk friend and sometimes-guest-producer on Spark, said this after installing the someecards application for the iPhone:

I can instantly send someone something that makes it look like I care, I’m thoughtful, I’m thinking of them, and I’m clever. But in reality, it’s simply because it’s there, it’s easy and it takes five seconds.

That’s what I like about e-cards. It takes the “thinking” out of “thinking of you.”

According to a fact sheet published by the Greeting Card Association in 2007 (PDF), “An estimated 500 million E-cards are sent each year worldwide.”

All this got me thinking: when it comes to holiday greetings, to what degree is the medium the message?² Does an e-card mean more than a paper card sent through the mail? Does a paid e-card mean more than a free e-card? After mulling it over, I put together my own personal hierarchy of holiday sentiments, listed from most-to-least meaningful:

1. Paper card
2. Telephone call
3. Email (personal, 1 to 1)
4. E-card
5. Personal Facebook/Twitter message
6. SMS
7. Email (bulk, 1 to many)

What you think? What does your hierarchy of holiday sentiments look like? Am I missing a type of holiday correspondence that you regularly send or receive? Leave your list in the comments, or call it in to 1-877-347-7275.

¹ McLuhanism number one
² McLuhanism number two

[Original image by Matti Mattila]

205717 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/e-cards-and-the-hierarchy-of-holiday-sentiments/E-cards+and+the+hierarchy+of+holiday+sentiments2009-11-23+21%3A44%3A56Dan+Misener

20435 Commentshttp://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/spark-92-november-22-24-2009/Spark+92+-+November+22+%26+24%2C+20092009-11-20+20%3A43%3A11Dan+Misener