I can’t stop playing with my phone
I’ve had my new phone for 2 months, and I just figured out how to get photos off of it. (I’m the type of user who tends not to use nifty extra features of most products) The detailed karen-proof instructions for connecting a motorola razr with mac os x via bluetooth
Though I’d much rather carry a camera with me all the time, I often forget it, so the phone is a workable substitute. It’s been difficult to upload the video from the phone to jumpcut. I don’t think the transcoder works for 3gp format, so I tried to convert it with divx converter, but it is an unsupported format. Fortunately, it’s supported in imovie (ya for macs!), and I just used imovie to export the file in mp4. It was absolutely a pain in the ass.
I would have gotten really frustrated if I had no experience dealing with video files.
Groovr has lately been my favorite topic of conversation. It really scares me, but it is strangely compelling. The scary part is that in the future I can see my phone automatically sending my location to some centralized site. Hello big brother. However, the people who lived in the wild west several hundred years ago probably would freak out about the gun control laws of today. Hospital records? Drivers Licenses? We willing give up private information for certain benefits with the understanding that it is closely guarded. On groovr it makes me uncomfortable that I can easily look up where someone lives just because they ‘check into’ “home”. Naturally, the site allows you to create a private profile so that all your activities are only seen by friends. I can’t imagine it would be hard for a court to demand this data and get it.
I am drawn to “checking in” for a reason I cannot clearly articulate. There is just something interesting about looking at my profile and seeing the places that I have marked. I like creating the places (by being the first person to check into and name a location) because it satisfies some early adopter-type desire. I will note that dodgeball has been offering a similar service for 2 years. Like webvan, though, they were a bit ahead of their time. I didn’t sign up for that service because I don’t want all of my friends texed each time I check in somewhere. Currently there is no benefit to my checking in to Groovr because I have no local friends. I imagine it would gain popularity in a college setting, where one is far more likely to find friends nearby. My friends will probably never use it. Large gatherings are pre-planned, and calling friends is cheaper than texting them (unless both parties have a texting plan).
EDIT: it turns out that jumpcut does support 3gp format. The problem was that we were so slammed with traffic yesterday (due to the Doritos add thing) that the site was behaving strangely.
I don’t mean to sound like the tinfoil hat wearer I am, but law enforcement already asks for, and receives, cell phone location data from your phone company. I saw a talk about a year ago where someone discussed this. He had the amusing anecdote that it’s gotten to the point that if the data shows you’ve left your phone at home, then the prosecutor tries to use this as evidence that you were planning something evil. (I’ll have to see if I can follow up with him.)
For a more documented approach, here’s some articles on recent rulings about cell phone location data. The key issue is whether law enforcement needs probable cause and a warrant to ask for such data:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051222-5823.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/cat_cell_tracking.php
February 5th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
ffmpeg would do the conversion job. I rhetorically wonder what you guys actually use for conversions at jumpcut? I’m sure it’s NDA…. if I were to write a poorman’s jumpcut through CGI, I’d throw everything through ffmpeg though.
dodgeball (and Groovr, apparently) don’t appeal to me, somehow. And yet, I see where I would use them if they hit that critical-mass point.
I will have to admit that I have a certain thing for technology aiding (not replacing, mind) real-life social networks. Because those are the ones that matter. Social networking sites are all well and good, but they attempt to merely project the idea of interpersonal-relations into a digital media. The best points of these sites (esp. Facebook) is when they act correspondingly in the real world.
Bah, I dunno. Cool stuff to look forward to though, if not in this exact form.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:46 am
hey, I’m about ready to wear a tin foil hat too.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Ya, it’s nda, but it turns out that whatever we use does support the 3gp format. I was just having trouble uploading.
I don’t think that these networks are simply reflections of existing relationships. They also create and soldify relationships. Because we are given more information about each person, our perception of that person and our interaction with him changes. Without facebook, for example, I wouldn’t have known that you have an interest in french. I agree, though, that they are not a substitute for physical interaction.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:50 pm