THIS IS JEFF KLEIN

The Future of the Internet (and how to stop it)

jeff — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:20:20 +0000

Jon Zittrain has been on my radar for sometime now, as he’s in that circle of hopelessly dedicated Ivy Law Professors fighting for digital rights and free culture. And now his new book, and a great interview last night on Charlie Rose, have really got me thinking about our future in the digital age.

Although, while everyone who knows me knows I’m a huge Apple/Mac proponent and super user, I’ve been a bit skeptical of a few decisions on their part. However, they always seem to redeem themselves (iTunes Plus anyone). Well, Zittrain’s on the same page talking about some REAL possibilities of what we are looking towards. He also accurately, albeit biasly, points out some very interesting questions (and answers) about hacking, fighting virus’ via networking, and the future of social networking and opensource.

He also said that Lessig was one of the smartest people alive. I agree. I’ll shut up now.

Get the book :

Download the book free: http://futureoftheinternet.org/download
Read the book free: http://yupnet.org/zittrain/
or Buy it at Amazon

FWD:FYI: GASOLINE…I mean FYI: BULLSHIT

jeff — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:17:08 +0000

So I seem to receive this email about once a month– probably because of my relatively extensive automotive background– and at this point, my frustration with misinformation concerning this topic has reached a head. I know gas is insanely expensive right now (especially to those of us in California), but this sort of rhetoric can spread like wild fire and begin to lull us away from some of the REAL technologies or tips that actually can have a meaningful impact on fuel savings. Moreover, I’d really like to put this to rest… and I guess have a link to send back to the many ill-informed folks buying into this.

View the intitial email in its entirety here .

Let me start from the beginning:

“Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.”

This CAN be relatively true, however, the temperature of your car and its tank is what’s relevant here–NOT THE GROUND. The ambient temperature changes of anything more than 6 feet of earth is relative. Its the same reason you don’t notice much of a difference when you use your facet on a hot summer day (that is once you’ve let it run for a bit), or the same reason that the gas doesn’t freeze in the middle of winter- Ambient ground temperatures at twenty feet below the surface just don’t change that much. You should fill up your car in the morning because the CAR IS COOLER… however, it again is relative, because if you park it out in the sun, more gas will evaporate than what you’d save in the “morning ground temp.” Moreover, you’re pretty much hosed in CA, AZ, & NV, because they use SO much alcohol(10% or more) in their gas which evaporates much quicker than other states “normal” gas. It is also VERY important to note that in many states that see winters or more major seasonal changes, they use “seasonal” gases which have different additives and characteristics that respond to climate differentiations.

“A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. “

FALSE. A 1 degree temp change is not a big deal. The reality is that there is generally a 1-2% shift in gasoline expansion/contraction for every 15 degrees. This is really only important to RACING and Above ground Storage. However, again, this is really more relative to YOUR cars temps. Just beacuse you get a 1/16 more of a gallon in your tank from filling up in the morning, doesn’t mean it gets to your engine. Especially if you fill up in the morning and go park it in an hot, unshaded parking lot for the day. But then again, if you have a black car vs. a white car, you could see other differentiations. Moreover, most states that are hot or use seasonal gas use additives that REDUCE evaporation so that hot fuel lines don’t cause Vapor Lock- which some of you older folks may remember 15+ years ago. Regardless, we’re talking about very minute changes - generally only really taken into consideration when discussing Race Cars (performance only) or storing HUGE amounts of fuel OUTSIDE.

“When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money. “

Only a few states actually use a proper vapor return (California is one of them), but the vapor also escapes through you car’s charcoal canister, which makes the above statement false. And if your car is around 1985 or newer, you do have a fuel vapor and charcoal filter system. If its older, it doesn’t matter, because the fuel system isn’t sealed. And while it may save you a few cents (maybe 3-10 cents across 15 gallons), it has no real bearing on how much gas actually goes into your tank. By the way, the purposes of the “vapor vacum” in the California pumps is for environmental issues…and that “vapor” is recycled back into the system, then condenses back into the tank because of the ~50-60 degree temp, and is then passed on the next person getting gas. Its a VERY negligible amount and what goes around comes around.

“One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.”

Not many tanks have a “floating roof”…. Maybe a hand full of cars (can’t remember the last time I saw one), and really only race cars - but the “floating” or “bladder” is for safety, nothing else. And again, his experience has to do with LARGE volumes. However, you should never wait until your car is totally empty- its just bad for the cars fuel system, and has nothing to do with “savings.”

“Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.”

Although this does have some truth to it, there are multiple filters on the gas stations system AND in your car. It really doesn’t make any difference, because half the additives they put in the gas do a great job of clogging stuff up by themselves - hence the average of 2-3 fuel filters in an average car. The reality is, that while some of the above instances can be measured, even if on a SUPER small scale, your car’s condition and your maintenance diligence have WAY WAY WAY ( I mean EXPONENTIALLY) more of an effect on fuel consumption. If all the people reading these emails are really that concerned about MPG’s, they should spend the time checking their tire pressure at the pumps instead of talking on their cell phones. It has been PROVEN time and time again, beyond ANY reasonable doubt, that properly inflated tires and proper oil changes/ maintenance have a HUGE impact on fuel efficiency. This guy is talking about incredibly small variations… not even changes that would register in most tests.A improperly inflated tire can have a ~1-2 MPG drop, and continued use on an improperly inflated tire can lead to other issues that would in turn cause more losses in fuel efficiency.

New Work: Cinemocracy.org

jeff — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:28:04 +0000

So I just wrapped up doing a few intros for Cinemocracy.org with my good buddy and design icon Rick Griffith @ MATTER.They’re 3 pretty simple explorations that will be used for the video competition concerning the DNC in Denver this year.Even though there’s 3, they’re pretty much the same…

Check em one time:

http://thisisjeffklein.com/uploads/movs/cinemocracy/CINEMOCRACY_INTRO_EXPORT_2.3_PIECE-iPhone.m4v

http://thisisjeffklein.com/uploads/movs/cinemocracy/CINEMOCRACY_INTRO_EXPORT_2.3_FREE-iPhone.m4v

http://thisisjeffklein.com/uploads/movs/cinemocracy/CINEMOCRACY_INTRO_EXPORT_2.3_KID-iPhone.m4v

Trent Reznor is Awesome. Again.

jeff — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:43:44 +0000

Trent Reznor (aka Nine Inch Nails) has once again shown his love for the free culture and open source world with the lates FREE release of his latest record The Slip.

That’s right… You can visit http://theslip.nin.com/ to get the link to download the new album. What’s more, as usual Trent isn’t messing around with just mp3s: you have the option of downloading high quality 256kbps MP3’s, lossless FLAC files, or Apple Lossless files, or even High DEF Waves… “better-than-CD-quality 24bit 96kHz audio” as Trent says:

for advanced audiophiles only! although you will be able to play these files with most players that support WAVE format, you will not get any benefits from the higher resolution audio unless you have extremely high-end audio equipment. if you’re not familiar with 24/96 audio, this download is not recommended.

Once again, Trent is continuing to break the mold here. Not only did he give us his last record (a full 36 tracks!) for a mere $5, he’s thanking us for our “continuing support” by kickin’ us down this one “on him.” And of course this new one is available in full remix form @:http://remix.nin.com/.

Thanks Trent. And keep pissing off the labels.

NEW WORK: SVBC

jeff — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:05:17 +0000

Now that I’m back in the Bay Area– and back into riding a bit more– I was recently hit up by the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition to do some “pro bono” work. I haven’t been able to do much in the way of helping out the struggling since my days as a Music Video creator for my local Denver hommies. I figured it was time to give back a little again, and since I’m a supporting member of the SVBC, I gladly hooked a brotha up so to speak.

Here is a “quickie” layout they’re using for the Bike to Work Day Half Sheet card:

48 HOURS WITH THE BIG CAT

jeff — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:44:21 +0000

Anyone that knows me knows that I was one of the hapless drones standing in line last Friday for Apples new and much improved OS release. Though I got a chance to see a lot of it in an early ADC seed over the summer, I really didn’t get to put it through its paces because of my more “professional” status as a working designer–meaning, I don’t have the time anymore to deal with buggy new releases that my geekyness would have allowed for before. That said, I like many have been anxiously waiting since June (when Leopards release was postponed for the iPhone debacle) for this new superstar powerhouse OS.

Most of us PRO users all know that Adobe pointed out Apple’s procrastination in properly delivering stable versions of Leopard–in fact many ADC members supported this claim–so I wasn’t counting on CS3 to fully function properly. I’ve definitely been upset with Apple a little over the past year, they’ve contsantly come up short in delivery on products and been a bit disingenuous to their mac faithful, but I got my rebate and I’m happy Leopard is finally here with at least a little CS3 functionality.

So I’m now 48 hours into cranking on Leopard, though I have only installed it on my MacBook Pro and my girlfriends iBook 1gig G4. So far so good, however here are a few of my issues:

1)

No Firewall Settings!!! WTF! Hopefully they will add a GUI for this, as opening ports can only be done via terminal. OUCH!

*
2)

There were serious changes to the AFP threading, so if you connect to a server, you won’t see the volume on the desktop. However, there is a preference in the finder prefs for showing volume–but you must connect via GO menu rather than “shared macs” panel.
3)

Adobe CS3 support. Most apps seem to be working fine, but Adobe has reported Video apps (After Effects!) and Acrobat issues. See Adobe’s recently posted doc HERE.
4)

Dock shelf anoyying and makes it hard to see what apps are open. Luckily someone has already hacked it.

There are also a lot of networking apps and third party plugins not working. One of the most notable issues for my girlfriend is the lack of support for the Sidetrack extension that allows for a scrolling trackpad on older Mactops. They say that apple redesigned the keyboard/trackpad architecture, so I’m assuming many 3rd party devices and extensions won’t work for the time being. Furthermore, the apache and network architecture has DEFINITELY changed quite a bit, though config files seem to be in the same places. When running little snitch, names for the background connections do have different names and more of them. And though the firewall still seems to be an ipfw configuration, there is NO FRIGGIN GUI for it. Many people may not seem to mind this–there is an app whitelist for in/out access–however, I run a regular OS (I just don’t need the full OSX Server) install on my server, and I’ll need a GUI for these functions.

I can say to certain degree at this point that the new OS is pretty much all its cracked up to be. Spaces is AWESOME, and the rest of the updates to older apps (ichat, iphoto, mail, etc) are great. I’d also like to point out that the Keying technology in photobooth and ichat is PRETTY FRIGGIN amazing!

On the Adobe front, most apps seem to be fine–although I haven’t had the chance to put them through their paces. Photoshop seems to start up SUPER fast–with in 6-10 seconds on my MBP. And although, Adobe is claiming issues with After Effects, it starts up and seems to run smoothly. I’ve got my Trapecode plugins installed, and a short demo seemed to work fine–no hiccups yet. I’ll keep you updated on this.

Check back for updates to this post…I’ll be3 updating regualry (I hope).

*Updates:

10/29/07

I’m noticing the “ol” fan kick up on my MBP when the screen saver starts…Has Apple still not figured this out???
10/30/07

Just completed the install on my G5 DP2.3 with CS3 Master & FCP2. So far so good, except for my RAID. As with all G5’s, to run a good RAID, you have to use a 3rd party PCi-X RAID or Serial Host card. I’m using one of the best–the Highpoint RocketRAID 2220. HighPoint just released a driver as of yeasterday, but “Legacy” formatted drives DON’T WORK!!!! I haven’t reformatted yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
11/6/07

Correction!! I found the Firewall!! However, its been moved to the security section of the System Preferences! And to boot, its now a blatant rip off of the v.1 Little Snitch! Read more here I of course found this today, after purchasing the new version of LS…But I can say that v.2 of LS is WAY better. I also hunted down a nice GUI for the Firewall, but didn’t install it yet based on my findings….

I CALL IT “CRASHTOBER”

jeff — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:17:57 +0000

Yep that’s right…Although our own Denver ball club has been attempting to trademark “ROCKTOBER,” I’d like to submit “CRASHTOBER” as a much more appropriate pun on the the Rockies amazing post-season feat and front office ticket DE-feat…

As many of you may have heard, the Rockies club went 21-1 in the latter part of the 07 season, and sweeping everyone in the postseason–and all of this with a truly all-american, underdog, “home grown” club. That’s right, you won’t find any big money players on the team (save for the “Elwayesque” Helton), just REAL players playing for the game. What a huge feat on the normally dismal western div franchise.

However, that pun “ROCKTOBER” may really only describe the players efforts, not much can be said for the excecutive office, who pretty much screwed the pooch on ticket offerings. When tickets for the 07 Fall Classic went on sale Monday morning, the “ONLINE” only sales saw a reported 8.5 million hits in 2 hours, crashing the AMAZINGLY unprepeared servers. As local fans were already in a frenzie the week earlier about ONLY offering 18,000 tix and ONLY selling those tix on www.coloradorockies.com (instead of the normal avenues: stadium box office, dugout stores, etc..), Monday afternoon saw hundreds of locals conviening on 20th & Blake screaming for their chance to see THEIR team make it to the Serious for the first time ever.

Though the Rock’s front office screamed about a malicious attack (read: using bot hearders) on their servers, it was pretty much evident the following day that the Rockies were NOT prepared for this. At all. They fucked it all up. They reported a measley 500 tickets sold on Monday morning before the servers crashed. Tuesday worked a bit better, but hundreds of people that actually got in to the system were able to fully take advantage of it and purchase unlimited quantities (was suppsed to be 4 tix per person per game).

Now its Wednesday morning and we’re all trying it again. Seriously. WTF!

The bottom line is that I, like many locals, tried fiercly to purchase tix for any of the three homestands in Denver for three days with no luck. I’ve never seen such a schotty attempt. EVER. And the only chance I have to see the game now is by paying some dickhead scalper $500 to sit in the nosebleed (literally because its Denver) rockpile seats that normally cost $4 during the regular “rocks are in last place” season. Furthermore, on the heals of the “Hanna Montana” scandal a few weeks back, why the hell did the Rockies even attempt to do a web only sale? When are we going to take back our ticket industry? Why couldn’t Pearl Jam dismantle ticketmaster. Why can’t we contain scalping. It seems pretty easy….

2pm UPDATE:
Well, maybe here in CO, it may be soon…Like any good cause, the voters have flooded our Gov:

DENVER - In the wake of the Colorado Rockies World Series ticket problems, Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) and state lawmakers are studying whether to introduce legislation creating a statewide anti-scalping law.

Six states currently have anti-scalping laws, including Massachusetts where the Rockies are playing the Red Sox in Games 1 and 2 of the World Series.

At Fenway Park for example, tickets could be re-sold for $2 above face value plus service charges, but nowhere near twice the ticket price as currently being advertised online for Games 3-5 at Coors Field.

See the rest here

NEW SITE

jeff — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:37:44 +0000

The new site is finally up! Though the design isn’t done, I wanted to finally get TIJK up and intact. Lots to follow. Not every post is in the database yet, so stay tuned…Much more to come.

I’m currently using the Modicus theme by Upstart Blogger. Keep checking in though, I’m working on a pretty hefty template/theme for this WordPress Powered Site

REZNOR DITCHES “MAJOR” LABEL

jeff — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:59:28 +0000

YESSSSS. In another “Free Culture” anti label industry move, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have opted out of resigning with their Major Studio Label Interscope (a subsidiary of Universal Music Group) and have become in a sense…Free Agents. However, from the tone of Trent’s post on NIN yesterday, he’ll follow the likes of many indie’s such as Aimee Mann and Prince to self promote and self release NIN’s music.

Here’s what Trent posted:

As a huge NIN fan, as well as a huge Trent Reznor fan in general, I’m extremely glad to see that he now has the ability to really pursue his concepts of art and culture–and more importantly, to see those two worlds intersect. Some of you may not know that Trent is a true “21st century” pioneer. He’s one of the first musicians to soley produce and mix a record on a Mac (as well as a huge apple proponent), helping to bring arts and technolgy to the mainstream. And even more importantly, his rather liberal views on intelectual property have helped bring Creative Commons licensing and the concepts of Lessig’s remixing culture to the mainstream–check out his garageband downloads.

Hopefully, NIN’s freedom, and the possibility of Radiohead doing the same, will usher a new age of “labelless” musicians helping to create a truly free culture of art…One where artists get paid for what they create, not the label execs.

MOBY RELEASES FILM MUSIC (for FREE!!!)

jeff — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:44:40 +0000

Yes, that’s right. Free.

Last month Moby, in his generous and Free Culture faithfull approach to his work, Moby set up a site were his faithfull followers and other NON-Profit film makers alike can freely download and use dozens of ambient, electronic, and film scorish tracks.

Though I’m not an enormous fan of Moby’s studio and label recordings, his work in the ambient and electronic department for film scores is amazingly sick…(read: Michael Mann films). His work in many of Mann’s films such as HEAT, Miami Vice, etc., as well as small scoring in tons of other TV shows and Films is freaking TOP-NOTCH. Moreover, as a tech geek, music lover, and MASSIVE Free Culture supporter, I can’t help but increase my support and love for artists of this caliber. A year or so after Trent and his infamous remix blog and download, now Moby is releasing some of his AWESOME work in the hopes that other creators will create something beautiful–a true and real scenario of what Lessig’s theories of Free Culture are and can be…

Check it out HERE

Here’s what Moby had to say:

hi,
i’ll keep this brief.
this portion of moby.com, ‘film music’, is for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short. to use the site you log in(or on?) and are then given a password.
you can then listen to the available music and download whatever you want to use in your film or video or short. the music is free as long as it’s being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, video, or short. if you want to use it in a commercial film or short then you can apply for an easy license, with any money that’s generated being given to the humane society. i hope that you find what you’re looking for,
moby

Thanks to Twan for putting this on my radar…