MediaCoder 0.6.1.4185
September 12, 2008
Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Friday 12 September 2008 at 00:00:00
Encode or decode AV media
Working with video and audio codecs can be a real pain, for the professional media designer and for the home user who wants to playback old video they’ve downloaded from…
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Review: Techsmith Snagit 9 screen capture
August 20, 2008
Tim Smith, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 20 August 2008 at 10:00:00
Capture and organise screen grabs and videos
Research on the internet is now a full-on multimedia experience and simply being able to capture text is no longer enough….
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Friday Night Fights: the 90s were scary edition
August 15, 2008
I apologize in advance for putting you through this, but Tazar sent me this gem earlier today and I couldn’t get it out of my head. You know those "the following content is for mature audiences only" warnings? This video is the reason they exist.
Now I don’t normally sway too far away from videogame-related topics for these Friday Night Fights posts, but this video was too frightening for me not to share with the rest of you.
Should you not feel queasy immediately after watching Brian Austin Green do whatever it is he’s doing in the clip, why not join us for some gaming?
Feel free to drop me a line by way of email, comment, or private message if you’d like to be a host tonight.
[Thanks, AgentMOO, EuroFNF, insomnia, Professor Pew, ScottyG, wilbo, and Y0j1mb0!]
Zumobi Olympics widget launched by Lenovo and Intel
August 15, 2008
With the Olympics running in full flow it is obvious business are going to try and cash in on a little media coverage, and now it is the turn of Intel and Lenovo, who have teamed to release a free mobile phone widget via Zumobi.
Everyone wants to get in on the Olympic news, business want to grab some spotlight advertising while ordinary folk just want to keep abreast of what is going down in Beijing.
Well with this cool Lenovo/Intel widget is showcases content from lebovo’s “Voices” and “Olympic Podium” websites, and will keep mobile phone users updated on the news and athletes in Beijing.
The Olympics widget uses the “Zumobi 4” interface, which no doubt existing Zumobi fans will be delighted with. The mobile Olympic widget by Lenovo and Intel is available on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, BlackBerry Curve, Pearl and Series 88xx, and for the first time the Apple iPhone.
Source – zumobi via intomobile
Gateway P-7811FX
August 15, 2008
<-125x125 Button - right->
Finally we have the pleasure to tell you about a new notebook from Gateway, while there has been a long time since we haven’t heard news from this company regarding new portable computer additions. The latest laptop is optimized for video gaming and entertainment on the go as well, included in the P-Series FX Edition line of Gateway laptop computers, and being powered by the Intel Centrino 2 processing technology.
Besides the strong high-end capabilities, Gateway P-7811FX is also an affordable model and the company’s first powered by the newest Intel technology with faster multi-tasking support at lower power consumption.
“The Gateway P-7811FX is a great choice for customers such as students and professionals who want a notebook that can handle all of their computing needs - from creating videos and playing games to tackling work, school and home projects,” said Todd Titera, senior manager, notebook product management. “And while the new notebook is ideal for demanding gamers and enthusiasts who want the latest technology, its affordable price also makes it perfect for digital media hobbyists and casual PC game players.”
Coming at a retail price of 1,399.99, Gateway P-7811FX has other cool components such as the NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS video card with 512MB DDR3 dedicated graphics memory for real-time 3D imaging, 2.26GHz processing speeds, 4GB memory, 200GB HDD storage capacity, second drive bay, all working to display the best results on a 17-inch large wide screen with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels.
Additional elements include HDMI connectivity, cool illuminated multimedia keys for direct access to audio and video controls, built-in 1.3MP web camera for char conferences, VoIP support, wireless 802.11 Draft-N support, a 5-in-1 media card reader, 3 USB ports, Multi-Format Dual Layer DVDRW w/DVD-RAM with LabelFlash, and the Microsoft Windows Home Premium 64-bit Edition operating system pre-installed.
Mobiles at the Movies
August 15, 2008
Following on from our recent post about the James Bond themed Sony Ericsson C902, coupled with the fact that I recently watched the new Batman flick, The Dark Knight, at the cinema, I thought a quick peek at mobile phones in the movie might be nice! Now if you ask me (and I don’t care if you didn’t, I’m telling you anyway), when it comes to the king of cool gadgetry, Batman surely wins hands down! The utility belt, Bat Vision and the Batmobile; our friend Bruce Wayne has got the lot!
So it should come as no surprise that he is ahead of the curve when it comes to mobile phones too. The Dark Knight features a range of different phones but the eagle eyed among you will have spotted that they were from a sole manufacturer; Nokia. Where Nokia have hit the nail on the head is with the choice of handset. The main phone we see in the movie is the Nokia 5800 XpressMedia, nicknamed the “Tube”. This as yet unannounced and unreleased mobile phone is already picking up quite a bit of interest on the web and this endorsement by none other than Batman himself should only increase the buzz. Also spotted is the Nokia 5100 and a member of the 8800 series that I couldn’t quite put my finger on (answer anyone?).
For James Bond, Sony Ericsson chose to feature a mobile phone that was available while the movie was still being filmed and offer exclusivity in the form of a new colour variant. So we find that 007 uses a Titanium Silver C902. Nice, but when the film meets its release date at the end of October, the C902 will have been readily available to civilians for over four months. The Dark Knight would not stand for this 
of course.
Anyone who has seen the film (and don’t worry I’m not about to ruin it) will know that the 5800 XpressMedia plays a key role in one of the films most exciting scenes. But what do we know about the actual handset? Well, running on the touch screen Symbian series 60 UI (the first phone to do so) and rumoured to be sporting a 3.2 Megapixel camera, 3G HSDPA connectivity; because of course Batman wouldn’t put up with anything slower, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And all this in a touch screen device no bigger than the N82.
All speculation of course as we wait for the official announcement, personally I’m holding out for the full spec list to reveal some sort of Batman Grappling hook! Keep your eyes peeled on the blog in the coming weeks for any new developments.
Game store
August 15, 2008
Next time you cut down a monster in an online game or punch a supervillain into the next county remember that your actions are helping to write the history of a new world.
To ensure that the big and small events in these fledgling worlds are not forgotten, erased or overlooked, the University of Texas, Austin has kicked off a project to study the best way to preserve their history.
“It’s a huge challenge for archivists to deal with digital information,” said project co-ordinator Professor Megan Winget from the School of Information at the university.
Prof Winget’s interest in preserving massively multi-player games grew from her involvement in digital artworks that do not hang on a wall but invite interaction, and change as a result.
“One of the most interesting problems for digital preservation is interactivity and how difficult that is to preserve,” she said.
“Video games offer all of the same problems as digital art,” she said. “They are interactive, very complex and a lot of people get involved in making them happen.”
Oral history
The game preservation project aims to interview game makers to tease out the process of creating a game and the materials, such as sketches, doodles and early code, involved in bringing one to life. The experiences of people who play the beta, or trial, versions would be useful as their feedback often shapes the final game.
The insights from the interviews will help the project define how to go about preserving such malleable media, said ProfWinget.
"“You cannot just throw everything into a box and put it in the attic so in 50 years your kids can look at it"Prof Megan Winget
“When you are trying to preserve anything you are trying to preserve the most important things about that artefact,” she said. “With video games we do not yet know what is important.”
The project will establish a repository that, Prof Winget hopes, game makers will come to use as an archive for games.
She also hopes that the project gets game makers thinking about the steps they need to take during game creation to preserve materials.
“We want to raise the consciousness in the industry about how important these records are,” said Prof Winget. “I do not think they save anything or it’s saved in such a way that they would not be able to recognise the significance of what they are holding.”
As well as talking to game makers the project will conduct interviews with players who took part in or witnessed the significant world events seen in some online games.
Examples of this, said Prof Winget, were the assassination of Lord British in Ultima Online, the death of Morpheus in The Matrix Online and the “Corrupted Blood” plague that killed hundreds of characters in some parts of World of Warcraft.
Prof Winget wants to get hold of oral histories of these events plus any media that people collected while they were unfolding.
During preliminary work many people mentioned the importance of the murder of Lord British - actually the avatar of Richard Garriott, co-creator of Ultima Online.
“A lot of people have mentioned that to me as a pivotal moment in their lives,” she said. “I would like to talk to people who experienced that, saw it happen or where they were when they heard about it.”
“Maybe we can talk to the people who did it and whether they knew Lord British was Richard Garriott,” she said.
Future proof
But, said Prof Winget, it was not just game makers and games that faced a problem when it came to preserving important documents, images or videos memories held on a computer.
“You cannot just throw everything into a box and put it in the attic so in 50 years your kids can look at it,” she said. “That’s not going to happen, because digital media degrades so fast.”
Rory McLeod, digital preservation manager at the British Library, said some webmail providers were starting to put archiving and backup systems in place to help people preserve records. However, other technologies were proving more troublesome.
“Old digital cameras do pose a problem,” he said. “The RAW formats that cameras capture images in are proprietary in nature so this raises issues around accessibility if the information about that RAW format is lost.
More broadly, he said, librarians and archivists often bumped up against copyright and legal deposit legislation.
“Those are two areas that we need to address to do our jobs successfully not just for today but for the next generation,” said Mr McLeod.
“As more and more information is published in e-only formats, the legislation must keep pace so that we as digital librarians can keep this information safe without the threat of legal issues hanging over us,” he said.
“We are far from drowning in digital data as our skills have come a long way,” he added. “It’s more a case of not drowning but waving.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
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