Jack Sullivan || The Internationalist

.torrent RSS & Comcast Docsis 3.0

sullivan.jack — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:08:53 +0000

Comcast is currently upgrading its national footprint to support the newest cable technology, Doscis 3.0. The service became available throughout the Bay Area earlier this year, and I upgraded my modem and service immediately. Without installing new fiber lines, Comcast can compete with Verizon FiOS offering download/upload speeds of 12/2, 16/2, 22/5, 50/10 (all MB). Price varies depending on other Comcast services purchased, but I pay approximately 60USD/month for 22/5. While I have been consuming video as local downloaded files for quite some time already, with such vast bandwidth I have accelerated my migration from television to computer. Behind the walls of private tracker forums, current shows are available in 720p, often before they have even aired on the West Coast. However with member lists in the thousands, this is clearly not a mass distribution method.

The holy grail of (free) media distribution is the .torrent RSS feed. Until recently I had never seen it employed legally – see ezRSS.it for example. Democracy Now!, a non-profit broadcaster, is experimenting with this method. The daily news show airs via satellite on LinkTV, carried on DirecTV and Dish Network, streams online at their website, and is made available via a video podcast. However, with a little digging, one learns that they also create a .torrent file for each episode, boasting video quality about four times greater than the podcast. Bandwidth costs prevent them from offering such a large direct download, so the burden is shared amongst the audience. The Democracy Now! torrent feed is located here.

For the technically inclined, using FeedRinse one can customize the RSS feeds associated with most public and private trackers, and create a powerful, automated video delivery system.

International Hustlers

sullivan.jack — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:34:49 +0000

The Fall 2009 issue of LTD arrived today, the cover a collaboration between Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami and cultural renaissance man Hiroshi Fujiwara. While Jeff Staple’s interview with Fujiwara provided some insight into his enigmatic aura, it was the introduction to the feature “International Hustlers” that most caught my attention.

What exactly is a hustler? It’s meant different things across the ages, everything from shamans selling spells to high priests selling stories of salvation to alchemists selling the power to make gold. It’s also meant Robber Barons selling steel and railroads, gangsters selling booze, kingpins selling weight, and politicians selling themselves. Almost every major act in history has had a hustler behind it.

The feature goes on to chronicle five hustlers “doing big things in fashion, art, design, marketing, and music”. I am grateful for all the hustler mentors in my life – from the Bay to the Bronx to Beijing.

“How American Healthcare Killed My Father”

sullivan.jack — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:21:34 +0000

In the September 2009 issue of The Atlantic, David Goldhill, a senior media and technology business executive, provides a refreshing analysis of the United States healthcare system. Two years ago his father, not yet retired, entered an American hospital to treat pneumonia. He would die from hospital-borne infection and disease five weeks later. This incident propelled Goldhill to explore how the US system came to exist, and identify the entrenched market distortions and incentive structures that maintain the status quo. His rational approach, informed by decades of business experience, results in an essay I’ve been waiting years to read. At the end he proposes his own solutions, and it is clear that the political battle for “reform” ought to include some radically new thinking.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Home

sullivan.jack — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:03:16 +0000

In his cinematic debut Home Yann Arthus-Bertrand shifts the venue from outdoor gallery to the big screen, presenting two hours of stunning imagery worthy of his name. Glenn Close’s narration is a touch light on the science for my taste, so I paid her little heed and focused on Earth’s aerial beauty.

Impossible is Nothing

sullivan.jack — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:19:22 +0000

From the Adidas store in SoHo, Manhattan. I need not say more.

General Motors has “Advanced Technology”?

sullivan.jack — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:01:46 +0000

I am a member of the Equinox gym in Palo Alto, a happy neighbor to General Motor’s local Advanced Technology unit. The sign gave me a good laugh the first time I saw it last year, before the company had collapsed into the hands of the US federal government. Now I find any association between GM and advanced/technology pathetic. But at least some in the Big Three ecosystem are still living the good life. While factory workers are laid off with reduced benefits, and loyal dealers shuttered with no reimbursement for standing inventory, a team of GM elite cruise to sunny Palo Alto, CA in hybrid Yukons, those trophies of innovation that represent a sustainable, efficient future.

Moscow

sullivan.jack — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:12:14 +0000

Last week I went to Moscow – my first trip to any country of the former USSR. First thirty minutes once the plane had touched down in Russia: I must wait to deplane until the lone health official made her way down to my seat, and then checked me for swine flu using a wireless thermometer (apparently temperature must be a symptom). Once I passed through customs – visa in order and no checked baggage – I met the driver and walked out of the airport. His car was illegally parked and hitched to a tow truck – a short conversation ensued, the car came down, an exchange took place. And off to the countryside…

Pop-up Popularity

sullivan.jack — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:44:16 +0000

Pop-up stores were once strictly the domain of Nike and other trendsetting brands as they sought to reach a limited audience of urban tastemakers. Earlier this month, on my way to Uniqlo on Broadway in Soho, I saw a new take on the medium. Instead of hawking exclusive limited edition wares, Vitamin Water was distributing free bottles of vitaminwater10 for the first ten days of the product’s launch. The display girls were inviting, and the store was crowded. It appears Vitamin Water has retained its hip hop marketing expertise even without 50 Cent as a shareholder.

Nokia E71 and Skype

sullivan.jack — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:12:02 +0000

A good friend of mine moved to Manila in January. I ran into his cousin in San Francisco the other day. It was late – the middle of the day in the Philippines – so we decided to give him a call. Neither of us had his local mobile, but I retrieved it from his Facebook profile. I added this to his contact info on my Nokia E71, which is synced to my Google Contacts and integrated with Skype for outgoing cellular calls (versus Skype contacts for VOIP Skype to Skype calls). Logged in to my account with some SkypeOut credit, I type the first few letters of his name and select his Manila mobile. After first asking for permission, it then dials a domestic number which makes the international VOIP connection. In less than thirty seconds, I have not only retrieved his number, but have him on the phone half a world away.

The cost is the domestic minutes from your carrier, whether contract or pre-paid, and the SkypeOut rate for the country you are dialing. China landlines and mobiles are just 2 cents per minute but some European mobiles are more than 20 cents. You also can adjust your Skype Account settings so that your number appears on the receiver’s caller ID. One drawback is that your phone log will read the domestic numbers that route the calls, and not the actual contacts called. You must navigate to your Skype account online to review these details, including the cost of the call.

LTD Mag

sullivan.jack — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:22:51 +0000

The Spring 2009 issue arrived in the mail a few weeks past, providing the usual mix of interviews, brands, products, photography, and design. LTD Mag is the print publication of LTD+, a New York boutique marketing and media agency led by “Hawaii” Mike Salman. With an American focus but international presence, the quarterly lifestyle magazine ships free to its limited invite-only subscriber base. The print run, capped at ten thousand, has recently evolved to also include paid subscribers, but they first must submit an application, gain approval, and pay the annual 100 USD fee. The exclusivity seems a bit intense, but given the magazine’s name, I guess that’s the point – and advertisers seem satisfied with the concept. Regardless, four times a year I’m happy that during my Hypebeast and HighSnobiety phase a few years back I sent an unsolicited email stating my case as a tastemaker. Ever since the reply from Mike himself, I have been privy to the LTD print experience. The aesthetics of the medium are exploited, and engaged I turn from the computer display.