ETCon is live! Check back throughout the week for updates from O’Reilly’s coverage, especially the ETech blog coverage and official ETech moblog. You can also discuss the goings-on via the ETech IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.
IT Conversations is providing audio coverage and transcripts for the event. Keynotes will be posted here. Also of particular interest to those following the impact of blogging on politics: IT Conversations is streaming today’s Digital Democracy Teach-In.
Other ETech coverage: Check out photos from Joi Ito, Russ Beattie, and Matt Croydon for a visual update of conference happenings. There will no doubt also be updates from Dan, Sue, and other other java.net bloggers at the conference.
As readers of my java.net blog know, I’ve become very interested in cellcams during the last year. I’m always looking for news on the latest cellcam developments, especially when it pertains to real world uses.
Reiter’s Camera Phone Report made me aware of a recent Forbes article on The BBC deploying video cell phones to reporters. The “Beeb” in fact has taken Nokia’s off the shelf 3650 and then worked with Phillips to enhance the video software to produce higher quality, longer duration video clips.
My first question is: Where can I get a copy of Phillips’ software? According to comments posted from the Beeb’s project manager in a related Camera Phone Report article, this new software allows the phone to record many minutes, even hours worth of MPEG4 video, a big improvement beyond the 15 seconds or so of video recording supported by Nokia’s default 3650 Video Recorder software. Phillips’ software sounds like a real improvement, but so far I haven’t had any luck finding a download link or purchase information.
And what bigger trend does this news reveal? As Rachel Attwell, Deputy Head of television news at the BBC, said in a related article:
Using this software on a mobile phone is a breakthrough addition to the way we cover news. It is very probable that it will become standard practice for our reporters, and even the general public, to send instant reports of breaking news, as it occurs, before a satellite truck can be there.
Moblogs meet old media! Power to the (mobile enabled) people, indeed!
Brent Staples’ Op-Ed piece sums it up nicely:
“Average Americans tend to see the Internet as safer and more secure than it is partly because they operated under a simplified notion of what the Net is.”
Let’s hope MyDoom has tossled a few more folks into awareness of the threats they face. Hope for it, but cover your bets for your own systems and networks just in case. The next threat’s usually only a few net hops away…
The Australian provides an interesting, albeit brief, review of the history of Christ in movies in “Jesus Christ movie star“.
This is all part of the media onslaught leading up to the release later this month of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ“. I’ve had a bit of a glimpse in that my brother has been involved in the production of Passion TV commercials being used by churches to promote interest in the movie (and of course, ultimately, Christianity), but I haven’t yet seen the film itself.
Time, box receipts, and church goers will tell if it lives up to the buzz.
I’ve made a number of updates to the J2ME Archive the last couple of months. Changes include:
- 7 February 2004: Formerly text based “What’s New” section has been replaced by posts to the BillDay.com blog (subscribe via RSS 2.0)
- 30 January 2004: Added Samsung’s Java SDK to “Emulators and SDKs” as well as my java.net blog RSS feed and the Nokia Developer Discussion Boards to “Related Sites“
- 24 January 2004: Added J2ME for palmOne devices and Mobile Basic to “Emulators and SDKs” and the J2ME Web Services Specification (JSR-172) to the “Specifications” section
- 11 December 2003: Added AT&T Wireless devCentral to “Carriers” section of Related Sites.
Subscribe via my RSS 2.0 feed to receive future J2ME Archive updates.
Alan Reiter responds in his Wireless Data blog to my comment in his Camera Phone blog and my own java.net blog entry on cellcams.
Oh, the wonderful interconnections possible with blogging and bidi trackbacks!
Ever wonder just how many forms of RSS there are, or why your aggregator/reader chokes on some feeds but not others? Read this, though I warn you you may need an antacid first.
(via James Robertson)
OSCon proposals are due February 9th.
Learn more about the conference from the OSCon homepage. Slides from last year’s event are also available.
ETCon next week in San Diego looks like a fantastic event, especially for interesting mobility and wireless related sessions (see the Untethered track).
I was originally supposed to be traveling in Europe on business next week, so I didn’t propose a session or otherwise try to wrangle my way in. Now it turns out I’m not going to be traveling, but it’s a bit too late to attend logistically. Oh well, I’ll have to participate vicariously via the Wiki and O’Reilly Network coverage.
Interested in Internet content syndication and RSS but missed the free two day RSS Winterfest in January 2004? Never fear, RSS Winterfest Wiki is here!
BillDay.com 