The Ole filter makes another pass...

So, it is the end of September.  Nine months of blogging.  Seems like only yesterday I started...  Looking back at "old" posts, I see that I've slowly begun blogging more "news" and less "commentary".  In particular, a lot of electronics "news".  I'm going to slow that down; check out Gizmodo (linked from my blogroll), which is a great site for electronics news (and their RSS feed).

Johan Hari has a great post, The Iraqi Homecoming, about the experience of some young Iraqi exiles from the UK who spent the summer in Iraq.  Fascinating, a great inside look at what's really happening.  Overall the picture is positive, especially in the longer view.  [ via Steven Den Beste ]

Wow - check out the Fanimatrix.  A terrific amateur effort, another segment in the Matrix saga...  They absolutely nail it, with the music, the sound effects, the green tint, everything.  Awesome!  It is spreading like wildfire over the 'net, fueled by word of mouth and P2P distribution.

Speaking of P2P, have you checked out Bittorrent?  The Fanimatrix is a great way to check it out.  First, download this program (the Windows client), and run it.  Now click on this link.  Man, it works.  High-speed P2P downloading of movies.  And there are a ton of them out there...  This looks to me to be the Napster of video; although great for music, Kazaa is just too slow and unreliable for 1GB movies.

Here's a great PDF paper which explains how Bittorrent works.  Author Bram Cohen has analyzed the philosophy of P2P in detail to craft a tool which has the right incentives.  The biggest thing is that clients only receive download bandwidth if they give upload bandwidth.

P2PUnited: fighting for the future of peer-to-peer technology.  "P2P United is the unified voice of the peer-to-peer ('P2P') technology industry's leading companies and proponents."  The members of P2P United are LimeWire, Blubster, Grokster, Streamcast Networks (Morpheus), BearShare, and eDonkey 2000.  Essentially "everyone" except Sharman Networks (Kazaa).

Meanwhile ACLU Takes Aim at Record Labels.  If nothing else P2P is keeping lawyers employed :)

internetnews.com: Remote Power: Can PVRs Kill TV Spots?  Lots of detail about PVR penetration figures and projections.  Everyone understands now that PVRs will take over, the 30-second spot is dead.  Now what will the industry do about it?

CNet reports Disney unveils video-on-demand service called MovieBeam.  It uses a dedicated set-top box which has PVR-like features (pause, rewind, etc.).  The experience will be similar to that of hotel video-on-demand, but for consumers in their homes.  Content distribution is via broadcast (cable), not over the 'net.  "It's a very TV-centric box. It doesn't face the same challenges that PC-based services have experienced, because the content is delivered directly to the living room."  Interesting, this will be one to watch!

James Cramer thinks MovieBeam Will Fade Like a Moonbeam.  "No more devices.  Sorry, I don't want still one more device attached to my television set.  And I certainly don't want to pay for it."  But people are buying Tivos, and ReplayTVs, and ...

Battery Ventures: Rays of Sunshine after a Perfect Storm.  Less interesting for the detail as the mindset.  As VCs think more positively, more startup activity will occur.

Check out Klockwerks.  Excellent!  I want one.

This is cool!  "Volumetric rendering" of movies.  "The basic idea is simple: Video is composed of a large number of individual frames, each with X and Y dimensions.  Just stack each frame on top of the next and you've got a Z dimension to place into a volume renderer."  Wow.  [ via Cory Doctorow ]

Finally, we have Duct Tape vs. Duck Tape.  Proving once again that you can find everything on the 'net, and that "everything" is much more than you ever thought.