Seeking Nerdvana

Sitting in the fifth row of the recent Make Poverty History concert in Melbourne, I was amidst a sea of cameras and camera phones clearly capturing video clips and as well as still photos. Some of the results were already up on YouTube the next morning, with more popping up over the next few days including clips from the next day's telecast.

Read the full post at http://www.hydrapinion.com/index.php/play/2006/11/24/make_stupidity_history_concert_needed_in

* NOTE: This post is on Hydrapinion, an opinion-based, multi-headed blog - or hydrablog - I've started with four other freelance technology journalists. My topic is Play and my day is Friday so from now on I'm going to point to Hydrapinion every Friday, but Friday is also the day I'll post TechVidReviews here at Seeking Nerdvana and reprints of my magazine products reviews that don't appear online elsewhere.

Logitech's mother of all remotes has come to Australia, the Harmony 1000i Advanced Universal Remote. It's also got the mother of all price tags - $AU699.

There's little chance of losing Logitech's Harmony 1000i in the couch.

The Harmony 1000i has the ability to control up to 15 components but it only has nine fixed buttons and a directional navigation pad. The 3.5 inch colour touch screen covers the rest, which changes display depending on what you're controlling. According to the website, "your Harmony 1000 will control everything from HDTVs to PVR/DVRs, from laser discs to VCRs—even lighting controls! Logitech's online database now includes 4500+ brands and 150,000+ IR devices — and the list is growing every day".

The website doesn't say if it's a learning remote, which means you can point your existing remote at it and teach it the codes. Googling "Harmony 1000 learning" brings up a few websites which imply that it is, but I'd want to be dead sure before handing over my cash. Otherwise, what happens if you're unlucky enough to have a device not on their list? I got sick of this happening with the cheap remotes I'd buy - even though all of my appliances are well-known brand names, some are old and there was always one that didn't want to play nicely. That's why I bought a Sunwave SCR-300 backlit touch screen remote. They were about $AU200 at the time, but I got one for $AU100 at Dick Smith, as the DSE 8-in-1 LCD Touch Screen Learning Remote Control is really just a rebadged SCR-300. It's a learning remote and it even has non-volatile memory so it doesn't forget everything when you change the batteries.

At the time it seemed like a lot to spend a on a remote, but now I wouldn't live without it. Sure it's not a kool as the Harmony 1000i, but at least I know it will control anything I throw at it - even the aircon I'm hoping to buy when Seeking Nerdvana makes me my first million. If you're thinking of laying down some cash on the remote of your dreams, make sure you can teach it new tricks.

I had a bit of fun recently writing yesterday's cover story for Next - the joint IT section of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald - on ubernerds and what they get up to at home. I was set the challenge of finding four nerds doing awesomely geeky yet kool things at home and I was pretty happy with my final Fab Four who are definitely seeking Nerdvana. None of them were offended by the term nerd, like me they wear it as a badge of honour.

While most people lie on the couch complaining about the shows on television, Matt Moran is up in his loft making his own.

Matt Moran has built a digital television studio in his loft and started his own online television network. I've written about Matt before, he's on the cutting edge of this kind of technology and he was the first person I thought of for this yarn.

The other three have been posted online as one story.

Mark Withers has built a server room in his shed which powers a wireless network for his neighbours and I found him through Melbourne Wireless - a group I've written about before that runs a free metropolitan wireless network.

Chris Venter has converted his shed into an observatory and can control his telescope from his lounge room, which would probably win my vote as the ultimate nerdy wet dream. I found him through the Astronomical Society of Victoria, which I've written about before. Detecting a pattern? Some call it lazy, I call it making the most of your resources ;-)

Aaron Rigg is installing a modified Xbox in his car, running Xbox Media Center so he can play movies, music and games thanks to an LCD in the dash. It even has wifi so he can download files from his home network when he's in the driveway. I meet Aaron when he came to my house to calibrate a Pioneer plasma TV I was reviewing (the 50 inch Pioneer PDP5000EX, an exquisite 1080p plasma which I highly recommend if you've got a lazy $AU15,000 to spare). The work he's putting into it is amazing and it's a story that will inspire nerds everywhere to start hacking Xboxes and drilling holes in their cars.

It was a lot of fun to write and I hope you find it a good read.

After recently looking at the all-work, no-play Nokia E60, we went in search of a phone that makes both a good business partner and after-hours companion. We found the Nokia N73...

Read the full review at http://www.theage.com.au/news/upgrade/work-rest-and-play/2006/11/20/1163871338592.html

Is it possible to spend your whole life using the internet but not be an internet addict? That's the question I had to ask myself after recently writing a story on internet addiction for The Age.

Most internet "addicts" don't know the real meaning of the word.

I decided the answer depends on your definition of addiction. As the psychology professor I quoted said; "You can use any repetitive behaviour which is rewarding and creates some degree of harm and you can call that an addiction - from excessive television watching to excessive exercise - but it makes the term quite meaningless."

I would definitely struggle to live without the internet and I do feel unsettled on the rare occasion my internet access it out, but I'm not so dependent on it that my life and my relationships suffer. While I'm sure there are some extreme examples out there, I'd say it's an insult to real addicts to describe most people's experience with the internet as an addiction.

Interactive television and user generated content are supposedly the future of entertainment and, on Friday night, I had a vision of where they could take us. Sitting in the tenth row of the Make Poverty History concert in Melbourne, I was surrounded by people capturing still photos and video clips on cameras and mobile phones - the quality of which would have rivalled what was in the papers and on the television the next day.

My pic of Eskimo Joe, or is Jet? With a VGA camera phone it's hard to tell even from the tenth row, but there are much better camera phones around.

For me the highlight of the night was Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly and John Butler signing From little things, big things grow - a story of Aboriginal land rights. Above the stage a big screen let people down the back see what as happening, with a few video cameras zooming around the stage, supplying the feed to the screen and for the television the next day.

I got to thinking how cool it would be if we could see on the screen what the audience could see. It would be easy to flash up a mobile number on the bottom of the screen and invite people to MMS their shots to someone back stage who could put the best of them up on the screen. From there it would be a simple step for fans to upload video clips, or even stream live clips to a back stage computer via Bluetooth or wifi. It would take some mucking around to get it set up, but the result would be awesome. That of course is until Australia's ridiculous copyright laws come into effect in January. Police will have the power to issue on-the-spot infringement notices incurring $AU1300 fines to people recording concerts, but have already said the laws are unenforceable, according to the Herald Sun. Just another example of Australia's luddite government passing unenforceable laws about technology it doesn't understand, just so it can claim it's doing something.