What the internet did next

[imomus]

If you notice me talking to my screen as if it can hear me, that's because it can. There's a mic in it, and it's hooked up to Skype. Skype is free software that allows you to use your computer as a telephone. There's no charge unless you dial real telephones run by those dinosaur-like entities, telephone companies. If your correspondent has Skype and a machine with a mic and speakers (headphones work a lot better) you can chat away in real time, totally free, for as long as you want. Now I know this isn't particularly new. I first saw my friend Florian Perret using IP Phone to talk to his girlfriend in Japan back in 2003. I didn't rush to copy him (as usual, Mac-compatible software took a while to reach the level of what PC people had). But this winter, stuck in Hokkaido without a telephone, I found Skype a godsend. I chatted for hours with my girlfriend back in Europe, at better-than-telephone sound quality, with no bill to pay. What's not to love?



Mixi is the new Friendster. Correction: Mixi is the Japanese Friendster. But nippophile Westerners are adopting it to meet Japanese people, who tend not to venture outside their own language group. And Mixi is more lively than Friendster, thanks to its incorporation of blog-like diaries and communities. Language is the big problem here; the navigation is pretty tricky if you don't have kanji skills. Personally I use the status bar to see what the buttons do; the web pages linked usually have English names which describe what they're for. I translate Mixi descriptions and diaries with Sherlock -- you can do it with any Japanese-English web translation tool. (NB: Mixi membership is by invitation only. Please don't ask me to invite you. I want to use the service for connections to Japanese people rather than have it duplicate my LJ friends list.)



I've mentioned that I'm spending this month writing a book for Thames and Hudson about photoblogging. Although I've photoblogged myself for some years, in the loose sense of posting my photos on my website and my blog, I haven't joined any dedicated photo hosting services. Until now. I just joined Flickr, but I haven't put any photos up yet. I'm also very interested in Fotolog... for reasons which will become apparent when the book comes out!



Finally, a pressing need to watch Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker's Nathan Barley made me sign up with UK TV torrent service UK Nova, and I'm loving the ability to download UK terrestrial TV wherever I am in the world. I'm also finding myself listening to a lot of mp3s people are hosting on You Send It.

So there we are, what the internet did next. It ate the telephone for breakfast, re-made the private club over lunch, jazzed up the photo album at tea-time, and ate television for dinner. Not bad for a day's work.

Comments

[spoombung.livejournal.com]

Email will transform back into a telephone call and multimedia will transform back into a book...or something like that....

[spearminthead.livejournal.com]

photoblogs.org, a rather nice blog resource, may be of interest. although it seems to be more of a photography community than a hosting service.

the dinosaurs

[jozefpronek.livejournal.com]

Skype rules! I had a very similar experience during a two-week long trip - Skype made it completely different - the hours of conversations with no bill are just, as you say, a godsend.

However, angry dinosaurs may try to put up fights ... here (and in other countries), traditional phone companies are trying to "offer" VOIP international calls, and building up on the ignorance of people - some PR officials in those companies have already used the word "illegal" to refer to things like Skype. They seem to be waking up (always late) to the changes brought about by the internet, and in some cases try to stop the change.

I would add webradio to the list of amazing accomplishments of the day for the internet! Being able to listen to radio from Berlin or the UK (or other parts of the world), and without having to get fancy radio equipment, even from this corner of the world, is also amazing.

[nickink.livejournal.com]

You Send It looks very useful.

Thanks !

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

The following article on Taxonomies and Tags (http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/misc/taxonomies_and_tags.html) highlights some of the reasons Flickr is so cool. The rumour is that they may well be acquired by Google.

I've been on there for a little while but so far I'm finding it somewhat quiet. Perhaps I just need more contacts. There are a few Click Opera enthusiasts on already. Perhaps today's entry will encourage more to sign up.

Another resource (actually resource of resources) you may enjoy if you have not already found it: del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us). It's like a Flickr of URLs.

[phntmpwrsource.livejournal.com]

I added you on flickr momus, watching you on TV in Australia tonight!

hey it's my life !

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Nick on utilise les memes outils, comme d'hab'.
Et il neige a Paris aujourd'hui, Mixi et Skype sont parfait pour des temps comme ca.

Antonin

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Eh? I'm on TV in Australia tonight? How come?

[phntmpwrsource.livejournal.com]

The bodysnatchers doco is being shown in about an hour. Looking forward to it!

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

I note the following from the April edition of Mojo. Maybe it's been mentioned here already. I've been rather poorly...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha, "furtive, crepuscular art-rudeboy Momus"! That's almost as good as "a shy and creeping lust-mole"! Fame at last... as a doll rather than a pop star! And my doll is bigger than David Bowie's! Thanks for that... and get well soon!

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

That's a good cut-up! Momus lies somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and the Earl of Moray, which is about right.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh my! Keep a sick bag handy.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Skype is pretty good for calling out; where I live now, I don't have a landline at all, and haven't been tempted to pay for one. I'm wondering when LiveJournal will add a "Skype" field to the AIM/MSN/ICQ fields on their user info pages.

I've only used Skype to call someone using Skype once; most of the time, I find myself using it to call phones (mostly as the people I call don't have it and haven't been interested in getting it), which is still cheaper than going through a normal phone company.

Btw, I'd be wary of any BitTorrent sites that require a signup or any identifying information, given how LokiTorrent betrayed its entire user base to the MPAA. I managed to find Nathan Barley on TVTorrents (http://www.tvtorrents.ws/), a no-signup site.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

That's "skiffle-era survivor" (http://www.canongate.net/FredDellar) and old NME hand Fred Dellar (http://www.rocksbackpages.com/writer.html?WriterID=dellar) who wrote that by the way.

VoIP

[jqmark.livejournal.com]

I use to work tech support for Dialpad back in 1999 and so we got full run of the product and would use it keep in touch with all my friends back in Canada and the UK. Although at that time the quality was a little suspect.

Flickr is amazing. I use the iPhoto Flickr plugin made by the same dude who wrote the xJournal app which I lurv.
http://speirs.org/flickrexport/

I also you flicker to blog photos straight to LJ which is why I bought a camera phone in the first place.

flickr activity

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Sparklig,

if you're looking for more activity join some groups and post your pics to the group pool. Also start commenting liberally on other people's photos and add people as contacts and things should pick up.

[robotar.livejournal.com]

Hello, Momus. I invite you to come participate in my latest social experiment, the Choose What Clothes I Wear Competition.

These are also some great links. Since I'll be travelling to Hong Kong next year, Skype should be incredibly handy. By the way, can Skype work across systems, Mac to PC?

flick flick flickr

[(Anonymous)]

glad to see you're going to start posting on flickr. it's a great site.

signed,
a long time reader, first time commentor

tom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meadows/

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, it can. PCs don't always have a built-in mic, though, and your PC friends might have to buy extra hardware, like a headset with a mic, to talk to you.

[robotar.livejournal.com]

Ah, the wonderfully equipped mac!

skype

[(Anonymous)]

My mom has Skype, but says she mostly gets calls from funny-named Swedish men calling any likely females in the directory. She claims she just lets it ring, and writes down the really silly names. Just think, free silly Swedish names, delivered free to your door...

An ILX search for 'yousendit' organized by date always yields something good, or at least previously unhad.

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, my employer was just bemoaning the lack of reliability with 'data people' (as opposed to the providers of utilities such as electricity, sewage, etc.) and I handed him a printout of the 'Taxonomies and Tags' article, explaining as I did that the expectations of these utilities are much less chaotic, tree-like perhaps, than the somewhat disconnected relationships between information technology and its users (not to mention what they think they're looking for; what they think they're getting). He immediately changed the subject and handed the papers back to me.