Entries tagged with “web” from O'Reilly Digital Media Blog

On March 21, I'll be leading a workshop on “Web Presence” at BAIPA's annual Get Published Conference in San Anselmo, California. I put that in quotes because it's a wonderfully vast topic, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. What creative ways have you discovered to promote (or find) books online?...

I gave a tech scorecard for emergency infrastructure after a major earthquake here two years ago. I return to that scorecard for the island-wide power blackout we had over the weekend. The results aren't good. The only bright spot was Twitter.

George Gilder once pointed out that when the availability of a given resource shifts from scarcity to surplus, a lot of wealth is created. In the technology realm, one can think of processing power, storage and bandwidth as the great “wealth exponential-izers” of first the PC era, then the Internet era, and now, the Mobile Broadband era (as these...

I keep waiting for the magical convergence box in my living room. You know the one; it’s the Web TV that actually works. In Boxee (social media center), Apple TV (iTunes in my living room) and Square Connect (iPhone/iPod touch based Universal Remote), I finally see the framing for a Smart, Connected Living Room to emerge. Never confuse 'Chicken...

What's probably the easiest, cheapest, and most flexible way to add an audio player to your site just got a whole lot better. Yahoo Media Player version 2 launched yesterday, adding a bevy of new features, including faster load time and support for several new audio formats beyond MP3.

Here's a clever Web service: Find a CD or DVD online, click the Paper Case link, and it will print the cover image and details. Then you fold the paper, tuck your disc inside, and slide the package into a binder, saving lots of space.

While sweeping some of the detritus off my desktop today, I discovered a free MP3 download code I'd sliced off a disposable cup from a sandwich shop. Seemed like a good excuse to try out Amazon's MP3 store. So I entered Amazon's MP3 Downloads area, input the first disposable song title that popped into my head, and clicked. Amazon prompted...

A few weeks ago, my General Manger, Dan Brodnitz, asked me to create a new feature for our Digital Media site. He showed me a sample video of an online editor chatting about recent topics his site was covering. Dan wanted something like that for O'Reilly Digital Media. "But," he said, "I don't want you to spend a lot of...

Guitarist and programmer Lucas Gonze made an interesting observation about my new experimental Web audio player. Although it's clunky compared to his work, he focused instead on its "cool new ideas" and how they evolved.

Film composer Mark Isham has written zillions of elegant soundtracks. Now he's posted some rare cues (including one of my favorites) in a slick online player. The technology has some interesting twists — and you can use it for free.

Electricity flows. So does information. This is an attempt, to describe a metaphorical 'socket,' light bulb and currency flow by connecting the dots between three potent technology trends: Widget-ization of the web. Ascendance of mobile platforms, like the iPhone. Ascendance of mobility platforms, like the iPod touch. Imagine a device called a ‘wall widget’ that functions as a piece...

Todd "Mobile Views" Ogasawara just tipped me off to Hobnox Audiotool, a free electronic music studio that runs online in Flash. My first thought was that it looked like Propellerhead ReBirth reborn in a Web browser. But Audiotool points the way to an interesting musical future. Hobnox Audiotool is an online electronic music studio based on emulations of Roland TR-808,...

As part of a redesign of their real estate Web site, German immobilienscout24.de have added interactive maps based on Microsoft's Virtual Earth technology. Unfortunately, though, Safari users don't seem to be welcome to navigate those maps just yet. Question is, why?

Clicking an MP3 link is annoyingly unpredictable. Will the file blank out the page? Will it start to download? Will it throw an error? You never know. So, inspired by Del.icio.us Play Tagger, I whipped up this one-click Web audio player.

If you suddenly find that your ftp listings no longer work right, and the BLasted-UnnamEd-HOSTing service won't take responsibility for fixing httpd.conf, you can fix things by adding the variable definitions to .htaccess files yourself.

I just downloaded the new Miro player (formally Democracy Player). It's very nice, seems to organize videos reasonably well, is free, multi-platform, open source and includes features I believe all video players should provide. But, when I got to checking it out, I was disappointed with the audio quality on many of the videos featured on Miro's Getting Started page....

Instead of telling people what you are doing, show them!...

Social Networking is exploding -- that much is clear. But did you know that sites such as Facebook, Friendster, and MySpace are more than online watering holes where kids gather and socialize? They're creating social change in tandem. Facebook recent launched a "Causes" application tab, allowing members to participate in what the creators have dubbed "equal opportunity activism". Over 35,000...

The second leg of our on AIR Bus tour is a week in and we've had some great events. We took a weekend detour on Saturday to visit a user group in Raleigh, NC which turned out really well. It was more intimate than our other events but it had a great vibe. On the east coast our legs have...

If you've been following Brad Fuller's blogs on the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) movement, you're probably as intrigued as I am by the creative potential of these tools. Today, though, I received a press release touting a more sinister use of laptops. The Spy Laptop, from an Indian company called SpyInvent, is built around a remote-controlled pinhole camera that...