How the Ideas and Events of 1993Created the World We Live in Today

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Turning the tables on MP3s

Summer 2008 Volume 3

Contents

13 Events of 1993 How They Created the World We Live in Today

15 Prediction Markets Are Hot But Here's Why They Can Be So Wrong

21 8 Best Non-Wikipedia Pedias

27 Nintendo DS

The Secret to a Better, Stronger, Dorkier You?

30 Internet Addiction Nominated for Entry in the Manual of Mental Disorders

33 Space Programs Is There Any Country That Doesn't Have one

37 5-Megapixel Phonecams under $100

42 IPhone W hy IPhone Games Wi l l Ru le

45 Happy Accient Opens Doors to Cheaper, Higher Resolution Cameras

21 453027 37

Features

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Summer 2008 Volume 3

10 From the Editor

54 blare DIGITAL AUDIO

62 glare DIGITAL MEDIA

70 stare DIGITAL GAGETS

Departments»

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75Turning the Tables on MP3s

summer 2008 volume 3 54

b l a r eDIGITAL AUTO

Wh e n e v e r w e g e t

introduced to a site that features some kind of “digital fingerprinting technology” to power a music recommendation engine, it’s hard not to be skeptical. Fingerprinting works well for identifying the same song in multiple places for example, duplicate songs in a music library. But when it comes to music recommendations, automated systems rarely work well, which is why Pandora relies on a team of 50 +analysts to drive its recommendation engine, and most other sites rely on social suggestions and meta data. Today sees the private beta launch of Mufin, an automated music-recommendation engine that actually seems to work(and it’s really, really cool when it does). The technology is sophisticated, but this isn’t surprisingly giving Mufin’s pedigree: the site is an offshoot from the Fraunhofer Institute,

the German research organization that originally created the ubiquitous MP3 audio compression algorithm. You can grab an invite to the private beta here. After searching the site’s 3.5 million song database for one of their favorite songs, users can press “Similar Tracks” to view a short list of songs that have been determined by the site’s powerful algorithm to contain similar characteristics. The algorithm analyzes 40 characteristics of each song, including tempo, sound density, and variety of other factors. Users can search for songs both from Mufin’s homepage and through an embeddable MySpace widgets.. In practice, these recommendations seem to work very well - at least more than 75% of the time in my testing. Many of my searches for popular songs (such as Here Comes The Sun) yielded results that sounded very similar, though many of these matches were in a different language or were recorded by obscure bands. To rule out the possibility of pre-determined matches, I tried a few more obscure recordings. The Darkness’ timeless classic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” yielded “Sucker” by Europe. And Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki” was

Mufin:Automated Music Recommendation

by Jason Kincaid

Mufin: The first MP3 Management Tool in the world that knows what you want to listen to before you do.

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DIGITAL MEDIA

g l a r e

summer 2008 volume 3 62

5 Alternatives To Apple TV

by Don Reisinger

As an Apple TV owner, I typically find little

reason to use different solutions to take media from my computer and view it on my television. That said, there are a number of products out there that may be able to give you what you want, in some cases without having to pay the $299 it takes to have an Apple TV. You decide.1. The D-Link Media Lounge streams music, videos and photos to any television with the help of an 802.11g network, and it can even handle Xvid. Unfortunately, the player won’t play native iTunes songs and can only support MP3, WAV, AIFF, WMA and Ogg Vorbis. But if you don’t mind the absence of iTunes support and you want a more advanced remote to drag audio and video back and forth, the $189.99 device may be a nice place to start.2. The Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD connects to a home network via a wired or wireless connection and can stream movies, videos, music, Internet radio, and photos from a PC straight to your HDTV. Unlike the D-Link Media Lounge, the EVA8000 supports AAC files and sports an HDMI port for a solid HD experience. Its biggest issue? It only supports Windows and will not work on a Linux or Mac. If you ask me, it’s not worth the $349.99 direct price tag if I can’t use it with a non-Windows OS.3. Zensonic Z500 series If you’re in the mood for something from a company you may not have heard of, Sure it may not be the best-looking device on the planet, but it supports a host of audio formats and has a nice collection of inputs on the back. Even

better, it has a built-in DVD player in case you don’t want to waste time sending files over a wireless network. Unfortunately, the Zensonic Z500 is a bit difficult to find, but for a relatively cheap price of $199.99, it’s a nice competitor to the Apple TV.4. Xbox 360 will also do the trick if you want to take media from one device to another. Of course, the main drawback with the Xbox 360 is the need to have a Windows box that’s equipped with Windows Media Center. But if you have a Media Center device and you’d like to play the Apple TV game, you may find this is the easiest way to go about it. By connecting the Xbox 360 to a network, it quickly interfaces with the Windows machine and will stream media to your TV in a matter of seconds. Is it as simple to use as the Apple TV? Yes. But unfortunately, the barriers to entry (mainly cost) are a bit too high for those on a budget. You can have the Xbox 360 at most major electronics retailers for $279.99 (core system) to $449.99 (Elite).5. Mac Mini if you don’t want to deal with an under-powered Apple TV. The Mac Mini can do everything your Apple TV can do as long as you have iTunes installed on it. And with the help of Front Row, it should work much better than the Apple TV. Installation is simple: plug it into your HDTV and use it as the monitor. Once you have your files on the computer, take out that handy Apple remote and find what you want. Although it’s a bit more expensive ($599 direct), it’s the best alternative to the Apple TV, hands down.

Photography by Dean Larsen below from left to rightD-Link Lounge, Netgear EVA 8000,Zensonic Z500, Xbox 360, Mac Mini

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DIGITAL GAGETS

summer 2008 volume 3 70

s t a r eby Andreas G

The Fashionable Light weight S101

Fashion-on-the-go Made Eeeasy With its elegant styling and slender profile, the

Eee PC S101 cuts a striking profile that complements any sartorial ensemble. Its unique colors emanate confidence, success and dynamism, and its incredible portability—weighing a mere 1 kg and svelter than most fashion magazines at just 1.8 cm—enables users to carry themselves with effortless grace, without the slouching and strain that often plagues users of regular notebooks. Its fantastic slimness, which has an uncanny ability to snare attention, enables it to tuck easily into most bags. Substance in Equal Measure Its head-turning looks and astounding portability aside, the Eee PC S101 is equally impressive in terms of features. It supports Wi-Fi 802.11n, enabling high speed Internet access virtually anywhere. It also features Bluetooth V2.0, ensuring fast and convenient connectivity with a vast range of Bluetooth-enabled devices. Every Eee PC S101 comes with an encrypted 20 GB Internet storage facility known as Eee Storage, allowing users to store and subsequently access their important documents and media securely whenever, wherever. Also keeping users’ data safe and sound is the Eee PC S101’s shockproof Solid State Drive (SSD) which maintains the integrity of the stored data even when subjected to knocks and shocks. The SSD has further advantages over traditional hard disk drives, such as silent operation and reduced energy consumption. The SSD comes in capacities of up to 64 GB. Rounding off the Eee PC™ S101’s comprehensive storage capabilities is an integrated 4-in-1 flash card reader that supports more formats than other Eee PC models. The supported flash memory types are MMC, SD, Memory Stick and MS-PRO. The Eee PC S101 is also equipped with a vibrant 10.2” wide active matrix LED-backlit display which

is capable of running at WSVGA resolution, thus providing more-than-ample space for viewing documents and perusing other media. Long Five-hour Battery Life with Super Hybrid Engine The Eee PC S101 features the exclusive Super Hybrid Engine (SHE) which greatly enhances its energy efficiency, letting users enjoy longer battery life per charge—enabling up to five hours of continuous use—thus eliminating the need to lug power adapters along with them. SHE also offers a choice of performance and power consumption modes that allow users to make quick and easy adjustments to suit their usage scenarios. Choice of Operating Systems Catering to users across the full spectrum of experience levels, the Eee PC S101 is available with either Microsoft® Windows® or GNU Linux. The Microsoft Windows version offers users with moderate to substantial computing experience with more configuration avenues and a wider spread of applications. The incorporation of Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail ensures that all of the user’s communication needs are fully met, and the inclusion of Microsoft Works equips the user with the ability to work efficiently while out of the office. Less experienced users, on the other hand, will appreciate the icon-driven, point-and-click simplicity offered by the Linux version. An additional boon of the Linux version is that it comes with over 50

Eee PC Model, S101 has a exterior in three gorgeous colors Brown, Champagne or Graphite accentuated with delightful details such as premium Infusion finishes and crystal-adorned hinges.

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75 blur summer 2008 volume 3 76

Turning the

By Alex Williams

table

s on

MP3s

Durning his freshman year at Point Park University in Pittsburgh a couple years ago, James Acklin, now 20, felt lost among the social cliques on his new campus until he got to talk with a student who was in some of his classes. She seemed unusual, and it wasn't just her look: thick-framed eyeglasses, bangs and vintage dresses.

77 blur summer 2008 volume 3 78

ne rainy day in February, the two skipped class and went to her apartment. As soon as she opened her door his instincts were confirmed: she had a turntable. So did he. They both spoke the language of vinyl.Their bond was sealed as soon as she placed

the stylus on an LP by the band Broken Social Scene, he said in an e-mail message. “There was this immediate mutual acknowledgment, like we both totally understood what we define ourselves by,” continued Mr. Acklin, who considers his turntable, a Techniques model from the 1980s that belonged to an aunt, a prized possession. “It takes a special kind of person to appreciate pops and clicks and imperfections in their music.”The ranks of vinyl devotees are growing.

Lately, the anachronistic LP has experienced an unlikely spike in sales, decades after the mainstream music industry wrote off the format as obsolete. Major labels are expanding their vinyl offerings for the first time since

they left records for dead nearly two decades ago, music executives said.While the niche may still be small measured

aga inst overa l l sales of recorded music, the surge of interest in vinyl and, particularly, its rising cachet among young listeners is providing a rare glimmer of hope in a hemorrhaging industry.

“Even if the industry doesn’t do all that well going forward, we could really carve this out to be a nice profitable niche,” said Bill Gagnon, a senior vice president at EMI Catalog Marketing, who is in charge of vinyl releases. He said that people who buy vinyl nowadays are charmed by the format’s earthy authenticity.“It’s almost a back-to-nature approach,” Mr.

Gagnon said. “It’s the difference between growing your own vegetables and purchasing them frozen in the supermarket.”

The category virtually collapsed in the late 1980s with the advent of the compact disc. And despite the efforts of various subcultures of supporters club D.J.’s, audiophiles, hardcore punks to engineer a vinyl comeback, sales continued to wither as MP3s joined CDs as competition over the last decade. The industry had shipments of 3.4 million LPs & EPs in 1998 and just over 900,000 in 2006, according t o t h e R e c o r d i n g I n d u s t r y Association of America.

But shipments jumped about 37 percent in 2007, to nearly 1.3 million records. Three years ago Warner Bros. Records returned to the format when it opened becausesoundmatters.com, an o n l i n e vinyl store stocked with reissues and new releases. At first, any vinyl release that sold 3,000 copies was considered a success, said Tom Biery, who oversees vinyl sales for the company. By comparison, the 2007 Wilco album, “Sky Blue Sky,” surpassed 14,000 copies.Vinyl is suddenly chic, he said, even among

people too young to have grown up with the familiar crackle of a needle carving through the grooves of an album. “I have friends who have younger kids 13, 15 years old, even 10” and all those kids want turntables, he said. “Their parents are like: Wait a minute. Wha t a r e y o u talking about?”Mass-market retailers like Virgin Megastore

and smaller record stores like Mondo Kim’s in Manhattan are devoting more floor space to the antiquarian 12-inch disc of late. Newbury Comics, a chain of 29 music and merchandise stores in New England, has sold 400 turntables since it

s t a r t e d s e l l i n g t h e m i n June, D u n c a n B r o w n e , a c o m p a n y executive, said.Despite the spike, records

still represent a sliver of the music business as a whole. In 2007, for example, the industry shipped 511 million CDs. But given the declining interest in compact discs those half-billion CDs represented a drop of more than 17 percent from the year before any growth was welcome, executives said.This year Capitol/EMI is in the process of

reissuing its first substantial vinyl catalog in decades. Some of those albums, like “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys, are classic rock leviathans aimed at nostalgic baby boomers. But many are albums by contemporary artists, like Radiohead and Coldplay, who appeal to young music buyers, Mr. Gagnon said. Most are pressed on acoustically superior 180-gram vinyl, and many are packaged in gatefold jackets, so they can serve as collectors’ items for young fans that might also have the music in its digital form.With music so abundant on the Internet,

record label executives said they needed to make physical copies of albums stand out as desirable objects in order to get people to buy

“It’s almost a back to nature approach”–Mr. Gagon

"He thought it was stupid that I wanted this old technology"–Ms. Galewski

Four top places to check out for Turntables

Technics www. panasonic.comCrosley www.homeaudiosuperstore.comEbay www.ebay.com Ion www.ionaudio.com/turntables

O

To the left is James Ackline thumbing threw the vinyls at Earwax Records in Williamburg Brooklyn.