Video Streaming…a Nearly Epic Fail Live



How many of our geek readers attempted to watch the inauguration online yesterday? I did, as did some of my coworkers. We had the best streaming on our enterprise machines that are on the clearest, non-proxied connection. Machines in proxied labs could not keep the feed running no matter where they went.

We opted for cnn.com’s coverage in my computer lab on campus. We logged into an early stream, about 9 a.m. Central time, and managed to keep it running with only a few pauses throughout the next three hours. My desktop machine did okay for a while, but by the time we got to the speech, I was losing my connection pretty regularly. There were at least a dozen of us gathered around one monitor to watch the proceedings.

I’m glad that we were able to watch this rather historic moment. But I am disturbed by the epic quality of the live feed fails that seemed rampant. It didn’t seem to matter what news or video site you tried, the live feed was just not there for people. At this point, live feed of important information to large amounts of people (a million or more) is just not possible in any kind of quality, dependable form.

As much as we’d like to think that the Internet may replace our televisions soon, I just don’t think “soon” is going to cut it. Yesterday’s online sluggishness rather proves that point, in my mind. Yes, more bandwidth can be added, more proxy servers to serve up content, more and more powerful servers can be purchased and put online, but that all costs money, and I don’t see it being spent in this way any time soon.

I think yesterday was a good litmus test for live online delivery of media. We have a bit of ways to go before it can give us what comes out of the boob-tube during a major event.


Viable Hearing Impaired Products – CES 2009



Viable CES 2009Viable continues to lead the way in Hearing Impaired products and their team was back at CES this year. Their portable communications device has come a long way.

Viable Vpad CameraVPAD allows hearing impaired users to communicate with other hearing impaired users or even family members. This is a product that is easy to use and built and used by those that are themselves hearing impaired.

The touch screen is compact, the camera is excellent and you will not find a better video product as this. They have done an amazing job at keeping the video image quality very high. The price is $699.00 and is available today there are no subscription fees once you own the unit.


HyperSpace – CES 2009



Hyperspace Super fast BootingHow many of you are sick and tired of waiting for your laptops to boot up or shutdown. The folks at Phoenix Technologies have a software solution called HyperSpace that allows you too quickly boot-up your laptop / netbook. Designed to quickly get on the net and then as quickly shutdown your machine.

Their are two HyperSpace Products version dependent on the type of machine you have. I should note here that this is not a product that boots you into windows faster, this is a product that boots you into the Hyperspace OS.CES 2009 Hyperspace

The product retails from $39.95-$59.95 check out their online community for more info if you want to check them out before pulling the trigger on this software product.


DisplayLink USB Graphics – CES 2009



DisplayLink USB Graphics Monitors CES 2009 Innovation AwardeeDid you know that you can now run your monitors via a USB cable? The folks at DisplayLink have introduced some new products that will allow you to run multiple video displays off a single USB cable.

Andy McCaskey Team member of the Tech Podcast Network team at CES 2009 takes a few minutes to talk with the folks at DisplayLink about their new product offerings. Ces-2009-displaylink2

Today many manufactures like Toshiba, Asus, Lenova have DisplayLink enabled products. Standard USB Connection with a DisplayLink enabled device allows for uncompromised performance.


Krown Sign Language Translator at CES 2009



KrownmfgWhile at CES 2009 we saw several hearing impaired products. The product that Krown Manufacturing released is a Sign Language Translator that is pretty unique.

You can type in a word and it will give you the video clip of the actual sign. This product will be available in May of 2009 with a price point of $199.99.

This product will be good for people looking to learn sign language or use as an assisted device when studying.


The folly of big brother technology



There is no such thing as a perfect system and the more complex the system the further the best possible solution diverges from perfect. This is as true in human systems as it is for technological ones. A work group, or a company, or a society rely more on people being willing to strive for the benefit of the group than on rules or systems designed to force them into a course of action. The inherent imperfections mean that anyone that wants to get around it can, so it only impedes those that would have acted in the desired way anyway.

Prohibition meant reasonble people couldn’t have a glass of wine with dinner while the drunks had no problems finding booze. DRM limits what comsumers can do with their property while doing nothing to prevent piracy. New corporate legislation increases the costs of honest companies while dodgy ones just find new ways to get around the laws.

It is no surprise to most intelligent people that a distracted driver is more likely to crash, and the advent of mobile phones has added to the list of possible distractions. Some concerned parents have turned to a technology that blocks cell phones from making calls when it detects the user is driving. It does this by using GPS to detect when the phone is moving over a certain speed.

I am surprised this idea made it all the way to production without the obvious flaw being spotted. Moving at driving speed does not mean you are driving, and there are times when you might want your kids to be able to use their phone. Maybe when they are the passenger in a car, or on the train. Well it seems that the Washington Post came to these conclusions as well.

This technology is looking to become more pernicious as well, with the possibility of adding in tracking options including notifying parents if their child steps out of a defined area (anyone seen Running Man?). The rules of inadequate systems work the same in this situation. The system will put unnesessary restrictions on kids that are well behaved and those kids that want to get around the system will simply avoid it. Often the way to ensure the right thing happens is to give people the option to do things wrong.


GNC-2009-01-20 #444 Lots of Tech despite Inaguration



Pile of tech news tonight. Had fun getting reports of people watching the live stream on Ustream.TV from their iPhones. Also had fun telling those that hang after the show about things that happen when I replay the show.

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Listener Links:
ABC Coverage of Inauguration with Flip Camera
Word Game on Apps Store Ohana Application
Good Day to remember Veterans
Mathematical equation to Dating
Hawaii DTV Switch
Travel Recording Gear 1
Travel Recording Gear 2

Show Notes:
New Dehli to outlaw Plastic Bags
Netflix HD Streaming Roundup
Windows Worm Infections Exploding
Judge makes ruling on downloads versus lost sales
Hubble continues to Impress
Google Overhead for Inauguration
37% to Ignore C&D via ISP’s
Better fix that Washing Machine
Smallest Found Exoplanet near earth size
10 WordPress Starter Tips Minus #9
FontPicker way Cool!
FBI rolls out Hardware in DC
Dutch Say P2P Has Positive Economic Effect!
Discounted Xbox Gold Subscriptions
USB Travel Mate Adapter
Circuit City RIP
MYKA P2P Video Box
Win 7 Wordpad Tip
Ustream iPhone app Broadcast Video from iPhone
Tweetdeck gets Funding Ridiculous
Identi.ca Gets Funding for Twitter Clone Good
Buzznewsroom Check it Out!
RIAA drops College John Doe Cases
What to do with Netbooks?
Clear goes Live with Wimax in Portland
Skype Resells Boingo Access
RIAA to Bribe ISP with Settlement Cash
New FCC chair

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