mediageek

Month: December 2004

  • 3-chip Camcorders Getting Cheaper

    According to an article in the NY Times Circuits, 3-chip DV camcorders are dropping in price. Most inexpensive camcorders have a single pick-up chip for recording images. While efficient, a single chip is more prone to noise and color aberrations. A 3-chip camcorder dedicates one pickup chip for each of the primary colors in video:…

  • Interviewing Yes Men for Dec. 24 RadioShow

    In about half an hour Drew and I will be calling over to England to interview Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men, who recently pulled off a brilliant prank wherein they impersonated Dow Chemical representatives to the BBC, telling the network that Dow would be taking responsibility for the Bhopal chemical disaster 20 years ago.…

  • Sinclair’s Mark Hyman Unclear on the Concept of Public Airwaves

    Yesterday a coalition of media and activist organizations, including Moveon.org and Media Matters for America, launched a protest campaign against Sinclair Broadcasting. They’re pressuring Sinclair’s advertisers with letters complaining of the TV station owner’s partisan leanings evident in programs like vice president Mark Hyman’s nightly wacko conservative commentary, The Point. In response, Hyman told Broadcasting…

  • U-C IMC Alum Produces Short Documentaries on Guatemala Reconciling with Painful Past

    My friend Brent MacDonald is a World Fellow for PBS’ Frontline and traveled to Guatemala earlier this year “to uncover the history of a village that was caught in the crossfire of Guatemala’s civil war.” A series of six short documentary videos are now at the Frontline/World Fellows website. Brent was one of the founding…

  • On This Week’s Radioshow: Interview with Radio Free Moscow’s (Idaho) Leigh Robartes

    Last night I had the opportunity to interview Leigh Robartes, who is one of the founders of Radio Free Moscow KRFP, in Moscow, ID. KRFP is one of the three stations that currently airs the mediageek radioshow. We talked about how the station got on the air and the media scene in the Moscow area.…

  • news headlines for 12-3-04 radioshow

    These are the news headlines as read on the Dec. 3, 2004 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Patrick Thompson’s Eavesdropping Charge Dropped; Champaign Considers Educational Programming for City Cable Channel; FCC Hearing on Media Consolidation; Michael Powell Says Ownership Regs a Way Off; PA Law Limits Municipal Wireless.

  • For What It’s Worth — Belkin TuneCast II Mod Works

    Earlier this year I threw in my two cents regarding the iPirate meme circling the blogosphere, with people modifying the iTrip mini FM transmitter for the iPod in order to eke out a few more feet of broadcast power. And just last week I mentioned in passing that some other mini transmitters, like the Belkin…

  • Berkeley Daily Planet on FRB’s Pirate TV

    The Berkeley Daily Planet covers Free Radio Berkeley’s unlicensed TV plans: Starting next week, would-be TV producers can get from Free Radio Berkeley the parts they need for an estimated $500 to $1100, depending on the power level. Once assembled—a process Dunifer claims is no harder than putting together a stereo—the transmitters are capable of…

  • Pennsylvania, a State Captured by the Telecomm Industry

    Sascha very meticulously deconstructs the recent “victory” for the city of Philadelphia to continue with its free municipal wi-fi network, as part of a legislative compromise that still hands over control of future municipal wi-fi to the telcomm industry. After a couple of years, communities in Pennsylvania will be allowed to construct their own wi-fi…