Photo of the Day: Playing with the Sun

Photo of the Day for November 14, 2013.

Today's "Photo of the Day" look quite similar to yesterday's photo. In fact it is from the same series of "Sunset at Kaka'ako" photos that I shot yesterday. The reason this photo was chosen was to highlight the effect and software that I used to get the image.

The photo was manipulated with a piece of software called Fotor. Fotor is an application that runs on Mac OSX, Windows 7 and 8, iOS, Android and online. This software can create a number of special effects with digital photos including collage, HDR, high contrast, intense color and lomo to name a few. I applied several effects to the image above to achieve this look. Isn't it nice?

Fotor is a free app available for the aforementioned platforms. You should try it.

Oppsed to SOPA and PIPA

Yes, I'm opposed to censorship of the internet by the music and movie business. The bills written to do this should be opposed by everyone who values a free and open internet. Don't let government take this away from us.

LINKS:

https://blacklist.eff.org/

http://www.redstate.com/neil_stevens/2012/01/18/sopa-and-protect-ippipa-an-update/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Steve Jobs: 1955 - 2011

Forever Steve, Forever Apple. Thank You.



Apple Store Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, HI. The light is off. Photo by Ryan Ozawa.

http://www.apple.com

More on Mel's Macintosh Universe Blog

Apple iPhone Bars Inaccurate

I find it rather funny that Apple iPhone users have been duped since 2007 that their hi-tech phones have been giving them strong signal strength when for many, it just was not true.

The company released a statement saying that it discovered (to its surprise) that its algorithm for calculating signal strength for display as one to five bars has been incorrect since 2007. - Tidbits, July 2, 2010

 Users of the new iPhone 4 have reported significant loss of signal strength when the devices were held in a certain way. Too funny. You spend all of that money for an expensive, fancy phone and suddenly it does not perform as expected.

I am happy I never bought into the iPhone or any other cellular devices in all the years that cellular have been available to consumers. (Generally I don't like the monthly pricing of all cellular phone plans nor do I like to be bothered by ringing phones when I am away from home or the office.)

This latest technological setback for Apple comes on the heals of recent data bandwidth rollbacks imposed on the iPhone and Apple's iPad by their only cellular vendor, AT & T.

• Apple admits iPhone bars Inaccurate

Your Own Images on Google

Google on Chrome Full Screen, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.

Google now allows its registered users to upload their own photos for use as background images on their popular search engine page. Don't have your own photo? They also have a set of images from their own collection that you can also use.

This screenshot was captured using Google's new Chrome browser in Mac OSX. Shown in full screen mode.

Hot Hawaiian Surf

I made this video short over the weekend. It's a bodyboarding surf video taken from the top of the Kapahulu Groin in Waikiki.

This project began innocently enough over the weekend after I attended a car show (photos coming soon) at nearby Kapiolani Park. After taking numerous photos at the show I walked over to the beach, shot a few pictures and shot a dozen or so video clips of the kids body surfing.

Next thing I know I was at home, on my Apple MacBook Pro looking at the clips on iMovie and starting the assembly process. I was expecting to make like a clip of about 40 seconds to a minute long. After cutting the clips and assembling them, I decided I need music. So I hunted on the internet for some good instrumental tracks which I found on GarageBand.com.

Got this song called "Action Theme" by Matthew Shell. Great guitar piece of about 2:50 in length. After merging the music with the clips, I decided I needed more clips. So back to the beach I went on the next day to take more video.

Last night I was at home, and assembled the rest of the pieces together with iMovie. Cleaned up the video, tweaked the audio, trimmed a little more here and there, added titles and finally had iMovie export the clip as an m4v file and played it in Quicktime. It looked great at full screen mode on my Mac.

Shortly after the clip was uploaded to YouTube.

This whole process was a learning experience for me as I got myself more familiarized with iMovie 09. I still consider myself a novice to iMovie even though I've been using it since Augustr 2009. So far this clip has turned out to be my most polished of edited works since I started using the app. I've mostly made one shot, political oriented clips for Senator Sam Slom, the Hawaii Tea Party and a couple of campaigns. I've dabbled with other clip subjects such as recording airplane landings and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

This time I learned how to mix music with the native audio source, manipulate the transitional elements and even how to do a voice-over, which I abandoned during the final cut.

iMovie is a great little program that Apple bundles for free with all of their currently shipping Macintosh computers. It's a great little program if your video production needs are not too ambitious. It's great for cutting clips that will go to YouTube or possibly over to your local cable access channel. Depending on the camera you use, your video can either be output as a standard definition or high definition show.

Overall the process took me some time: About 4 hours for the two days at the beach actually filming the clips (I also took a lot of still pictures). Another 2 or 3 hours searching Garageband.com looking for music, downloading and auditioning a number of instrumental tracks for the clip. Finally assembly of the clip in iMove took another 4 hours or more at least. There were 26 separate clips to go through, many segments with only churning water and hardly any action (all cut), a tiny fragments of good stuff that had to be clipped and edited together.



Hardware used: Canon S5 iS Digital still camera. This is one of two low end video cameras that I own. The Canon is primarily a still camera but has a decent, standard definition video capability. Most of the videos I posted to YouTube in the last few years were made with this camera.



Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch laptop computer running Snow Leopard 10.6.3. Bought this last year and have been enjoying it since.

Software: Apple iMovie, Apple iTunes, Apple iPhoto, and Mozilla Firefox.

How Private is Your Facebook Profile?

Facebook Privacy, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.

Have you checked to see how "secure" your Facebook information is? As many of you may know, Facebook has one of the poorest privacy policies and reputation on the internet. They share way too many items of information about you with third parties, many times without your knowledge.

You can analyze and fix most of your privacy levels by running the scanning tool from www.reclaimprivacy.org/.

A good article on Facebook privacy can also be found at Tidbits, the online Apple Macintosh resource. The Facebook privacy article there applies to users of all computer platforms - Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, etc.

How to Protect Your Privacy from Facebook
db.tidbits.com/article/11282

In this screenshot from my Facebook page above using the reclaimprivacy.org scanner the green bars at the top indicate that my Facebook profile is in good shape because I have opted out of many sharing options, don't do third party apps and games. I basically set my privacy levels to the most secure possible setting. A red bar is generally not very good. In my case the scanner flagged the red item and gave me a link on where I can go to fix it.

If you are extremely concerned about your Facebook privacy, the best thing to do is discontinue your Facebook account and delete your profile. The Tidbits article has information on how to do that.

Just remember that anything you post on the internet is "not private" and stays on the internet practically forever.

View a larger version of the screen above

Korean Firm to Assemble Electric Vehicles in Hawaii

Governor Linda Lingle and CT &T CEO Young Gi Lee signed a "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) in which the State of Hawaii will support the Korean firm's plans to build an electric vehicle assembly plant somewhere on Oahu. CT & T is a South Korean firm that builds several models of electric vehicles designed for personal and fleet use.

The company's proposed plant will employ up to 400 people and build about 10,000 2-seater electric vehicles per year. The location for the manufacturing facility was not disclosed at today's press conference, but will be built somewhere on Oahu.

The vehicles are all electric and are about the size of large golf carts. They are designed for light industrial, government and commercial use as well as for personal transportation. They come in two distinct model classes, the more car-like and upscale eZone and the utilitarian cZone. Each vehicle can be configured for different types of uses. The models on display at the State Capitol included a police cruiser (for use in parking patrol), a personal transport, lunch wagon, utility car, plate lunch truck and pick-up truck.

Cost range from about $8000 to $20,000 per vehicle depending on model and options. The cZone models are able to reach speeds of up to 25 mph. The eZone can reach speeds of up to 60 mph.

It remains to be seen whether or not these small electric cars will be successful in the Hawaii market. A handful of firms have sold or are selling electric cars. Most recently Nissan announced that the Nissan Leaf will be available for sale in Hawaii starting next year.


Governor Lingle talks about the CT & T assembly plant proposal.


CT & T's eZone coupe. The vehicle will be assembled in Hawaii.


Video by Tom Berg.


Architect's rendering of proposed assembly plant.

Shuttle Discovery Returns

The Space Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth this morning after a successful supply mission to the International Space Station (I.S.S.). This is the 4th to last Shuttle mission with only 3 more flights left before the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet is retired by the end of the year.

After the last Shuttle flight in September, the U.S. government will be without a manned spacecraft for several years until either a modified Orion type vehicle flies for the government or a fleet of commercial space vehicles can be established. U.S. astronauts will still have limited access to space by hitching rides aboard the Russian built Soyuz capsule for trips back to the I.S.S. Unmanned cargo missions to the space station will be handled by smaller Russian, European and commercial spacecraft.

The Space Shuttle has been a successful but expensive vehicle for the U.S. space program. And of course it has had its major setbacks with the loss of the shuttles Columbia and Challenger.

The Obama administration has drastically scaled back the U.S. manned spaceflight program, canceling the Bush administration's Constellation program that would have set a goal of landing man on the moon again by around the year 2020. The Constellation space vehicle with its Orion capsule was also to be the manned spacecraft that would ferry astronauts to and from earth orbit and the space station.

Our country will not have an official U.S. man in space program until private vehicles are tested and become readily available in a few years.

First Impressions of Apple's iPad

The following is based on a very few minutes of hands on tryout of an iPad at the Honolulu Apple Store.



Got my first look and try on the Apple iPad at the Ala Moana Apple Store. It's a nice device that can do a lot of things like web browsing, book reading and purchasing, music playing, some movie viewing, youtube, word processing and office tasks with iWorks, photos and a more. It's bigger than an iPod Touch and Nintendo DSi, but smaller than most Netbook computers. It is not a full on computer as it cannot do things like flash or be connected to a wired network. It is a nice device that I may reconsider purchasing in the not so distant future.



The big problem I have with books and other content that is available for sale through the iTunes books, app and movie store is DRM. I was not given a very clear explanation as to whether or not the purchased, proprietory content can be easily transferred at no extra cost to another iPad or iPod Touch or iPhone that the end user may own. I was clearly told that book content from the iTunes store cannot be viewed on your regular Macintosh computer.

The nice thing that I found about book reading on this device is that you can turn the book in either the horizontal or vertical mode and that the fonts and type size can be adjusted to whatever you like. Pages turn seamlessly with a move of a finger.

There is a kindle app available for the iPad as well as other Apple hardware such as the Macintosh. Books bought from Amazon.com to play on the Kindle are not compatible with the book viewer that comes standard with the iPad. Again, DRM getting in the way.

While I did not try it, I was told by the salesperson at Apple that the iPad can also read PDF. There are a lot of public domain books as well as millions of other types of documents available online as PDF files, usually for free. But then again most every other computing device can read a PDF which means you don't need an iPad to view them.



The onscreen keyboard is nice and easier to type with than the ones on the iPod Touch or iPhone. A better choice would be an external keyboard which is available for the device.

One thing about the all touch interface... it leaves the glass surface of the iPad full of fingerprints and grease streaks from hands. A daily cleaning of the touch surfaces will be the order of the day.



There is a YouTube app that specifically plays any and all YouTube videos. Shown above is my video of a Hawaiian Airlines Being 717 landing in Honolulu Hawaii.

While the iPad does not do flash, it seems this app and a few others have managed to get around this limitation. There was an ABC app on the iPad I tried out that also lets you view video content from the ABC TV network.



iPad does iTunes, which means that it can play music, podcasts and other audio content as well as purchased video content from the iTunes music store. Funny how all the main features of the iPad is connected to you purchasing something from the iTunes store. I hope the music I already own and have on my Mac is transferable to the iPad.

Shown above is iTunes playing a track from a Rolling Stones album

Will I buy it? Probably will at some point. The iPad comes in two basic models of varying storage/memory sizes. All models are equipped with built in WiFi access. So if you have a home wifi network you're online. There are wifi hotspots in many places around major cities in the U.S.

The more expensive models have 3G wireles networking that you have to subscribe to from AT&T. The subscriptions are month to month and there is no long term contract. That is good. However the 3G prices are fairly high.

More Information About the iPad

• Apple iPad pages
• Meet the new Apple iPad
• iBooks for iPad
• YouTube on iPad
  
• Extended Video Review
• Steve Jobs Introduces iPad
• iPad Launch in Hawaii
• Dumb Ass Destroys an iPad
• 
  

Photos taken with Sony Cybershot U30 at the Apple Store Ala Moana, 4-12-10.

Pictures From the Auto Show

The annual Motor Trend First Hawaiian International Auto Show was held in Honolulu this past weekend (March 26 - 28) at the Hawaii State Convention Center. Dozens of new cars from various dealers and manufacturers were on display for the public to see, touch, sit in, compare prices and photograph delighted the thousands of people who attended the event. In addition to the current models, several classic and custom car clubs had their wares on display including vintage Ford Mustangs, Chevy Camaros, Volkswagens and cars from many years ago.

Emphasis this year was on promoting the "green agenda" with a number of alternative fuel cars. The usual hybrids (gas and electric models) such as the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius are readily available. Experimental fare included all electric cars such as a Prius on display by Hawaiian Electric, an all electric Mini Cooper and a hydrogen powered fuel cell SUV from The Gas Company. The Tesla Roadster which comes in a $100,000 a pop is an electric car that was also on display.

I am not crazy about the so called "green cars" as all current models cost significantly more than conventional and more plentiful gasoline powered vehicles.

Speaking of expensive, the exotic car corner that usually features Ferraris and Lamborgins were there with the highlight being a $1.4 million Masseratti M12 roadster. It's not a very practical car but it certainly would turn eyes if the owner used it as a daily driver. I wonder how large his insurance premiums are.

Lastly several brands of cars were not on display this year. They included Hummer, Saturn, and Pontiac, three brands that met their demise by the end of 2009 after General Motors declared bankruptcy and took a huge government handout financed by you and I, the taxpayers. A similar fate also befell Chrysler Corporation, who by 2009 did not shed many divisions since Plymouth had fallen a few years before. They however were acquired by Italy's Fiat corporation and may someday soon refocus to smaller, tinny vehicles (well known to European consumers who buy Fiats). Also noticeably absent were Volvo, Cadillac and for some reason BMW, though I may have simply missed their display.

Overall, a good time was had by all for anyone who showed up at the Auto Show.

• 2010 First Hawaiian Auto Show Photographs
• 2010 First Hawaiian Auto Show Classic and Custom Car Photos

This car cost $1.4 million.



This Apple Macintosh Mini computer was mounted in the rear of the tiny Smart Car on display from Security and Sound Systems (below).





The Ford Taurus has been redesigned for 2010.



Of the several smaller SUVs I saw, this one was the best for me. It is the roomy 2010 Subaru Forester. Pricing is reasonable if I wanted to commit to buying one. At the low end this vehicle sells for $20,000 and the high end is more than $26,000. This one was at around $22,000. Below is the roomy interior shot of the Forester.





Electric Mini Cooper.

LCROSS - No Lunar Impact Cloud

Early this morning at 1:30 AM, NASA crashed the LCROSS space probe and Centuar rocket booster into the moon. The goal is to confirm whether or not there is water at the polar regions of the moon.

Upon impact the LCROSS booster was supposed to kick up a huge cloud of lunar stuff into the barren air. The smaller LCROSS space probe loaded with sensitive instruments and cameras was supposed to record the impact for 3 to 4 minutes on the way to its own impact with the lunar surface.

There was a lot of media and NASA hype building up this event. The public was told that the stuff kicked up by the vehicle impact would be visible to anyone with a good telescope and certainly to those large ground based scopes and the live TV coming from the LCROSS.

I watched NASA TV early this morning. Sad to report at impact time I saw nothing of the fact. There was no impact cloud of stuff strewn into the air. NASA did get confirmation that both vehicles did impact the moon.

NASA TV was broadcast online as well as on Olelo Channel 56 in Honolulu.

With all the build-up of this event, I was expecting a spectacular explosion like the one that happened a few years ago when a space probe was sent crashing into a comet or when comet fragments impacted Jupiter many years ago.

Regardless, it is hoped that NASA did get some kind of data from this $79 million experiment and that results and photos be released to the public later.

Photo: The moon as photographed by LCROSS, courtesy of NASA.

Space Shuttle Landing

One of the neatest things I always love watching is the landing of the space shuttle. Today the shuttle Endeavour landed in Florida after completing a successful 11 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts added another section to the nearly completed space station. They took more than 4 spacewalks while completing several tasks in the orbiting facility. A crew of 7 astronauts went up on the Shuttle to join 6 other astronauts already staying at the ISS. While the shuttle was docked with the ISS the 13 men and women set a new world record for having the most people in a space station at the same time.

There are not many shuttle missions left. All of the remaining missions will have something to do with completing the assembly of the space station, which is scheduled to end by next year. After that NASA plans to retire the shuttle fleet and concentrate on their new rocket system, which won't be ready for manned launches until 2015 at the earliest.

I think despite its setbacks, the Shuttle program has been mostly good for the United States' man in space efforts and presence. Surely there have been tragedies and cost overruns that eventually spelled the end for the program. But overall the shuttle program has been successful in helping man build the space station, shuttle astronauts to and from the facility as well as the earlier MIR station put into orbit by the Russians. The shuttle was also an important component in the early days for sending satellites into orbit and deep space as well as launching and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope which has been a valuable asset and companion to ground based astronomy.

The exploration of space through manned and unmanned flight should certainly continue. The commercialization of space including space tourism is a good thing. And ground based astronomy, especially here in Hawaii is a welcomed industry that should be fully supported.

Addtional links:

• NASA Space Shuttle Page
• STS 127 Mission Page
• International Space Station (ISS)
• Hubble Space Telescope
• NASA Constellation Project
• Mauna Kea's Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)
  

Olelo Capitol TV Studio

A mini TV studio opened at the Hawaii State Capitol on Monday Feb. 2. The studio has a simple set, cameras, TV editing stations, computers (2 Macs and a PC), lighting, video tape recorders, sound mixer and more. An open house was held on Monday. The facility is operated by Olelo public access TV. The studio is located on the 4th floor in Room 414.

Olelo will train interested legislators and their staff on how to produce a show. Legislators will be able to produce shows and have them air on the Olelo and other public access channels throughout the State of Hawaii. Programs will also stream over the net.


One of the production stations in the studio.


One of two studio mini cameras that I noticed.

Top photo: People sitting at the TV studio set.

20 Days into the New Year

So I haven't blogged in nearly 20 days. Today is the last day of the Bush administration, tomorrow a new America supposedly starts with the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president. The hoopla and celebration surrounding Mr. Obama's inauguration will climax at noon ET when he is sworn in and makes his first speech as Commander in Chief shortly after.

I voted for the other guy and girl last year. Despite that, I wish Mr. Obama the best of luck in the next 4 to 8 years. Hopefully he can use his skill and wisdom to carefully guide the United States in these challenging times. Good luck Mr. President and God Bless.



January 14 saw the commencement of the 33rd annual Small Business Hawaii Conference. This year's conference like others before was held at the Ala Moana Hotel and featured a line-up of speakers from the business and government sectors of the state. The keynote speaker was Mr. Robert Kiyosaki, author of the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He spoke on how to become successful in what you do.

My favorite 2 speakers of the conference were Mark Dunkerly President & CEO of Hawaiian Airlines and Peter Kay, web and internet commerce guru of "Your Computer Minute" and Cybercom fame. Dunkerly spoke on Hawaiian Airlines' history and importance to the State of Hawaii. He said that airlines have to play with the discount carriers by matching their low prices in order to stay in business. He stated that is just part of business. When I asked Mr. Dunkerly later about Hawaiian Air's decision to go with the Airbus A330 and A350 series of jet aircraft, he told me that decision was made mainly for the carrying capacity of each plane. He also said that Hawaiian's Boeing 717's will remain in inter-island service for at least another 10 to 15 years.

Peter Kay spoke on content management systems such as Joomla, Drupal and WordPress. He made remarks regarding blogging, using blogging and content management systems for corporate websites and touched upon online social networking as part of doing business. Familiar social networking sites such as Facebook and Linked-In were mentioned. I asked him about firms turning to hosting companies that build custom content management systems. Is it a good idea to go with these custom systems or go with free open source software such as Joombla and WordPress. You don't want your firm's content to be stuck in a "walled garden".

January 15 was a landmark day for Hawaii television broadcasting. Analog TV broadcasting came to an end and digital broadcasting became Hawaii's standard. It will soon be the standard for the entire country as all high power TV stations are being mandated to abandon analog and switch to digital broadcasting in an effort to free up more bandwidth for other uses. The switchover went fairly smoothly though some households lost their over the air signal due to a variety of factors. Cable and satellite TV subscribers were largely uneffected by the switchover. I'll blog more about digital TV at a later day.

Besides the inauguration of President Obama tomorrow, on Wednesday, January 21, the 25th Session of the Hawaii State Legislature will begin. Talk in the capitol focuses on more taxes, belt tightening and Hawaiian issues. Hold on to your wallets!

PodCamp Hawaii: A Brief Wrap-Up

I spent two days this past weekend at PodCamp Hawaii, an "unconference" that gathered geeks, computer users and mere mortals together for a number of concurrent workshops that focused on podcast production, podcast advertising, marketing, blogging, WordPress software and its use, and how social media platforms can impact life and business.

The two day conference was held at the Hawaii Convention Center on October 24 and 25 and attracted more than 330 attendees. I learned several things at PodCamp. In a short nutshell they included:

• Use of WordPress software as a good content management system for general blogging and podcasting front ends.
• How to customize and get the most out of WordPress.
• It is difficult to install WordPress on your own hosted server. It may be best to go with a host that truly supports WordPress or hire a true geek who can install and possibly maintain WordPress and its associated files and database.
• A good hosting company is better than a bargain basement host.
• Most people who start podcasts burn out after 7 episodes.
• Don't invest too heavily in hardware on your podcast until you pass 10, 20 maybe even 50 episodes.
• Maintain a tight podcast format, know and be passionate about your subject matter, and stick to a regular podcasting schedule.
• Learn how to market your podcast and put it in all the right places (like iTunes, etc.)

There was a whole lot more including the introduction to a new version of WordPress that is supposedly easier to install and maintain.

PodCamp is also a good place to meet fellow geeks, business people and network with them. I don't do very well in active networking, but if I am invited to join in with an individual or a small group, I warm up to the situation in time.

• PodCamp Hawaii 2008 Website
• PodCamp Hawaii Tagged Photos @ flickr
  
• My PodCamp Hawaii Photos

Photo caption: The laptop brigade soaking up information at PodCamp Hawaii.

Hawaii TV to go All Digital January 15, 2009

Hawaii will convert all of its full power over the air TV stations from analog to digital broadcasts on January 15, 2009. The new deadline will put the state one month ahead of the rest of the nation which is mandated to make the switch by February 17, 2009.

The digital switchover will affect all full power broadcast TV stations and those viewers who get their TV reception over the air through a rooftop or "rabbit ear" antenna. The changeover for cable TV and satellite TV subscribers will be transparent and unnoticeable. There will be no need for cable or satellite TV customers to buy a digital converter box. Cable TV and satellite TV subscribers already have digital boxes supplied by their service providers.

For antenna users with standard analog TV sets, a converter box will be required to accommodate the change. The federal government is subsidizing converter box purchases with a coupon program. Digital converter boxes are available at most major electronics retailers.

Antenna users can also buy a new TV set. All new TV sets ranging from low end CRT models to high end flat screen HDTV sets now come with built in digital tuners. Antenna using consumers who already have a TV with digital tuning or who are going to buy one by January 15 will not have to get the converter box.

Hawaii's local TV stations will be launching a public information campaign over the next 120 or so days to inform the public about the switch. The P-R campaign for the February 17 deadline is now a moot point in Hawaii.

The switchover from analog to digital is being hastened in Hawaii mainly in an effort to move Maui's TV transmitters from the top of Haleakala to a new location a few miles downslope from the present place near the mountain's summit. This is being done to accommodate the nesting habits of some rare birds on Haleakala.

Over the air consumers will be impacted by this switchover for all islands except Kauai, who get their analog signal from low power (LP) transmitters not currently mandated by the digital change.

Some Maui and neighbor island antenna viewers who will get their over the air signal from the new digital transmitters at the new Maui location may get a weaker signal or no signal at all since some of the digital channels on Maui were relocated from the VHF portion to the UHF portion of the dial.

Hawaii Radio & Television Guide will be updating its TV channel grid in the next few weeks to accommodate the change.

Links to more information

• DTV 2009 Hawaii Goes Digital
• Hawaii First State to Make DTV Switch
• Broadcasters May Budge for Birds
• DTV 2009 - Federal Government
• Hawaii Media Forum Discussion Topic
• DTV 2009 - Audio & Video Media
• DTV 2009 - Coupon Redemption Program
• DTV 2009 - FAQs

This was originally posted to the Hawaii Radio & Television Guide website.

RIAA Closes Muxtape.com

One of my favorite music sharing websites, Muxtape.com is apparently closed this week and perhaps for good. It seems the Recording Industry Association of America, (RIAA) finally caught up with the site and shut them down for copyright violation.

The site allowed users to upload music mixes containing 12 songs each and share those mixes with other members and the public through Muxtape's streaming capability. At no time could anyone download a song from Muxtape for free. For every song that was uploaded, Muxtape provided a link to a music sales site, such as Amazon.com, where listeners could buy a legitimate copy of the song. There were some songs that are not available at Amazon or any other online music store because of it being out of print. However these were on Muxtape, made available for people to listen to.

Apparently the RIAA has been in contact with Muxtape over the legal issue: "For the past several months, we have communicated our legal concerns with the site and repeatedly tried to work with them to have illegal content taken down. Muxtape was hosting copies of copyrighted sound recordings without authorization from the copyright owners. Making these recordings available for streaming playback also requires authorization from the copyright owners. Muxtape has not obtained authorization from our member companies to host or stream copies of their sound recordings."

Attorneys have opined that Muxtape should fight this case: ""According to Fred Von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier Foundation’s senior intellectual property attorney, the site is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which provides for a so-called “safe harbor” for hosting material on behalf users, and the same defense used by user content sites like YouTube.... I think they have a strong legal defense,” Von Lohmann told RollingStone.com. “The problem is if they might not have that money to go to court and take on the RIAA.”"

Muxtape is not the first popular site to be closed by the RIAA. Earlier this week, Cliff Bolling's 78 RPM Records website was also shut down. The site made songs from his large 78 RPM record collection available as free MP3 downloads. Most of the songs have been long out of print. It is a good bet that the RIAA had this popular site closed too.

The RIAA not only wants to shut down music sharing websites (as has long been their practice), but are also going after many streaming websites and online radio stations to get them to pay higher per-song royalty fees. The higher fees are being applied only to online music content and not to traditional broadcasting stations.

If the RIAA gets thir way, the prospect for listening to music online will be greatly diminished. For music fans, this will be a sad time if streaming music of all types go away.

Creative Students & Their Robots

Hundreds of students from several Hawaii State public schools converged on the State Capitol yesterday for a 21st century style robotics exhibition. Here are kids who are on the cutting edge of technology. Most of them who participate in the program have formed teams where they build robots of all shapes and sizes to perform specific tasks.

There were large robots that were used to lift light objects such as colorful oversized balls to tiny little robots that just did stuff on a small table. Several robots were built from lego sets while others resembled re-assembled Nintendo Game Boys that were tasked with duties ranging from moving small objects around to just racing around a track. A couple of them did their tasks underwater.

Most of the robots were remote controlled, several of which were operated from laptop computers.

The robotics program is being pushed by the Lingle administration as a way for students to become interested in mathematics, science and technology. It is hoped that the skills they learn in the program are carried over into the students' adult lives so that they could one day work and develop new technologies for the future. Whatever the motives, the robotics program can only be good for Hawaii.

Links to additional information

• Robots Rock, Roll at Capitol
• Robotics Students Flex Their Chips
• Hawaii State Robotics Exhibition
• More Photos

These robots are programmed to lift and catch these balls.


Students remote controlling their robots.

Another Costly Recycling Mandate

I hate environmentalists. They cost consumers more money every time lawmakers fall under their spell and concoct bills to "save the environment".

Think the dreadful beverage container tax. Every time consumers buy something in a beverage container, 6 cents is slapped onto the cost of the each container as an additional tax. Consumers who want to get the recycling tax back have to wash and collect the bottles and return them to a redemption center. Problem is consumers only get 5 cents back per bottle. The State of Hawaii pockets a penny on every beverage container purchase. This tax is slapped on top of the 4.72% General Excise Tax consumers pay for the product.

It has been reported that the bottle tax has allowed the state to land a multi-million windfall. It is nothing but a money grab, not an environmental law.

Now comes the new "Electronic Devices Recycling Program" in the form of SB 2843. This new bill will create a new mandate that "requires manufacturers of electronic devices to collect and recycle electronic devices. Establishes the electronic device recycling fund. Establishes a working group that includes TV manufacturers to develop a plan to recycle TVs."

This legislation will place many burdens on electronics manufacturers and retailers, both in and out of Hawaii.

The bill also establishes a new special fund to administer "all fees, payments, and penalties...." The state will collect an annual $5000 registration fee from device manufacturers.

The costs associated with this recycling mandate is certainly to be passed on to consumers. And that is very bad when Hawaii already has the rotten reputation of being one of the highest cost of living and taxed states in the union. The madness of more government mandated cost increases has to stop!

Hawaii consumers have long had opportunities to recycle their old electronic devices through several community based, volunteer recycling campaigns. Like the bottle bill, the public certainly does not need another forced mandate on recycling.

The Hawaii Electronic Devices Recycling Program is just another money grab, just like the Beverage Container Tax.

Photo: Voluntary computer recycling day.