(Published in Metro magazine, Australia – Nov 2004 )

Information hunter-gatherers the globe over are abuzz about the benefits and potential of RSS. Media junkies, news hounds, webtrawlers, writers, bloggers and DIY publishers alike, are almost evangelical in their praise for the web syndication format known as RSS or “Really Simple Syndication”. At it’s most simple RSS allows you to keep track of many information sources in the one place. Think of it as a web syndication protocol that allows easy automatic notification of news. Importantly though, you choose what is news – whether it’s the BBC site, a new post on your friend’s blog, some item you want to watch on ebay, the weather guide or writings by your favourite author or film reviewer. Whenever any of these are updated, the news will come to you. Given you’re already reading the technical back pages of a thick media magazine, you know you want it. Even better – RSS can be easily implemented on your own site.

The Mechanics of RSS
It’s worth prying under the bonnet of this automated news delivery system a little, before unveiling it’s features and applications, for despite it’s simplicity, RSS offers a glimpse of where media delivery is headed – and is understood better with it’s distribution architecture under your belt. Not to worry though, we’ll be serving you custom news feeds in no time.

Firstly, RSS is based upon XML ( eXtensible Mark-Up Language ), which is similar to the HTML (hyper-text mark-up langauge ) used to make webpages, except XML is designed to describe data and focus on what that data is, and HTML is designed to display data and focus on how it looks. That means it’s a meta-language of sorts, and this stored information about a site can be accessed by other applications such as RSS ‘Newsreaders’.

Newsreaders (also known as an RSS aggregators or feed readers), automatically check at determined intervals through a list of RSS enabled websites picked by the user. If any of the chosen sites have updated since the last check, the Newsreader will download a headline and brief description of the updates and present these within a single interface. The benefit and convenience for the user is having these fresh summaries all in one place, automatically delivered as soon as published, rather than having to wander through to each of the sites to browse their news. If a site has no updates you wont receive any news, and won’t need to bother visiting. A wider range of news can be easily skimmed, and with a click, the news you prefer most can be followed through to the full story at it’s website.

Such news delivery represents a subtle but evolutionary step in the media environment, part of an inevitable shift towards highly customised, personal news services. At the time of writing, RSS coders are busy promoting and refining the first generation of ‘podcasting’ software – essentially an automatically delivered audio news or music service. Using RSS podcasters can simply post regular audio files online, and their audiences will automatically be notified about the new files. The podcast software streamlines the process of downloading the audio first to your computer and then to your ipod ( hence the coined ‘podcast’) or portable audio player of choice. Of course video can only follow, and the small file size of RSS can be great for keeping up to date with websites via mobile phones, but let’s deal with computer text & RSS for now.

Saving Time With NewsReaders
It’s nice to occasionally remember that the machines we once thought of as time-saving devices, can actually be put to use for that purpose. For anyone whose business or pleasure requires a lot of online reading, RSS Newsreaders will save you large amounts of time. In theory. In practice, all those hours saved by not having to search for news or check for updated pages, can often be swallowed up by the additional news sites and fascinating news items that now seem available. At any rate, auto-delivery = good. Here’s where you get yourself a Newsreader and get news delivered in 2 easy steps.

Step 1 : Choose A Newsreader for Your Platform
Mac – Netnewswire ( http://ranchero.com/software/netnewswire ) is one of the most popular Mac Newsreaders, combining a smooth interface with lots of features – including the ability to post messages to your website about any news items you wish to comment on from the reader.
PC – Radio Userland ( http://radio.userland.com ) is mac & pc. RSS Reader (www.rssreader.com ) is PC only.
Linux – Try aKregator ( http://akregator.sourceforge.net )

OR Via The Web : In place of a desktop client, Bloglines ( www.bloglines.com ) allows your news to be compiled via a single webpage.

Step 2: Subscribe to News Feeds
If you started reading this piece with the niggling feeling you’d somehow known about RSS before, it’s probably because you’ve surfed past a million little RSS or XML buttons dotting the bottom of webpages. Clicking on one of those will take you to a page of code. This is the code which describes a webpage ( rather than says how to display it), and the address of this page is what you need to give your newsreader. This can be done either by copying the URL from this page of code – or by copying the link address from the RSS or XML buttons themselves, then after finding a ’subscribe’ or ‘new channel’ or ‘new feed’ button in your newsreader, pasting the URL there. Do this to ten sites, and your newsreader will check those ten addresses periodically for updates and display the headlines and introductory sentences for any news. Once you get the swing of it, you’ll soon get a hankering for more RSS sites. Help is on hand at the end of the article, in the form of RSS directories.

Making Your Own RSS Feed
If you are wishing to let people know about updates to your website, it’s possible you are already using some blogging software such as movabletype.org or a content management system or some fancy database. In those cases, RSS publishing functionality is probably already built in, and can be harnessed by reading some manuals online – ie your RSS meta-data is probably already there, you just need to find the address for it, and learn the process to customise it. If not using such web-publishing software, RSS coding is easier than HTML to learn ( try here – www.frugalmarketing.com/dtb/rss-feed.shtml) and simple RSS Feed software is available ( http://softwaregarden.com/products/listgarden ) for simplifying that process. Aside from integrating RSS into your own site, and notifying others of your updates, RSS can also be used to integrate constantly updated headlines from other news sources into your site.

RSS Resources
Daypop (www.daypop.com ) – A search engine for RSS-based news.
Feedster: ( www.feedster.com ) A search engine for public RSS feeds that can also provide the results of a search as an ongoing RSS feed.
Submitting : www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55 – Lists the top 55 Submission sites to let search engines know about your RSS Feed.
Finding Feeds: www.syndic8.com & www.blogstreet.com/rssdiscovery.html
News Is Free ( http://newsisfree.com ) – A Web-based news reader, which also does some third-party scraping – this means it can generate RSS data for sites which do not have it.

Jean Poole is a Melbourne based writer who enjoys exploring real-time audiovisual performance technology. Some words, AV snippets & his RSS Feed can be found here

Like the backwards dancing midgets on checkerboard tiles say: “Eeet ees happening a-ga-i-in.” Resfest is back in town, with another pixel-punching program of screen melt & cinematic surprise. Pick of the bunch may be the Shynola animation rarities, though Jonathan Glazer’s collection might be worth it for his surfing horses alone ( finding even a pic of it online might sell you ). Unsurprisingly, there’s a stack of the best music-videos around, a lot of short films, and an emphasis on tweaked digital design. The Australian shorts section is very strong, but from a diverse and stellar looking bunch – the mesmerising ‘We Have Decided Not To Die’ stands tall, just for it’s sheer ambition. Responsible for this is Daniel Askill of the Collider design & film group in Sydney. Speak, Daniel-son:

What surprised about overseas reaction to ‘We Have Decided Not To Die’ ?
After it moving quite slowly in Aus. the initial overseas reaction (particularly at Clemont Ferrand where it won it’s first major prize) was very exciting. I guess in particular the fact that people seemed to really understand and appreciate the project. After that first bit of recognition in France the film really just seemed to take on a life of it’s own and has since screened at countless festivals. It has been quite overwhelming. The guys at Res have been particularly supportive – our first screening with them in LA in particular was a real success and secured a lot of the relationships with the production companies I am now working with in Europe and the States.

Which element of the film was the biggest thorn to execute?
Sending your little brother through a 3 metre high sheet of sugar glass in his underpants after he has just recovered from a stroke is never going to be easy I guess, not to mention dropping your girlfriend on her back from suspension wires into a swimming pool for 2 days straight.

What film-tools ( both high and low budget ) excite you?
I can’t seem to let go of high frame rate slow motion (usually using photosonics cameras…I just finished work on an UNKLE video where we shot a huge fire ball at 1000 frames per second…it can be very beautiful)…but lately I seem to have been doing a lot with re-animated digital stills.. which is basically free as long as you have a digital camera…we just finished a mini epic for France TeIecom with the technique, I guess both of these are about seeing time in a way we can’t with our own eyes… but they are just techniques at the end of the day.

What do you think are some emerging ’short film aesthetics’ best avoided?
Anything goes I guess. I would never try and dictate what someone else may or may not want to make. I think any approach/aesthetic etc is legitimate as long as there is an integrity in it.

What did you dislike about the Cremaster Cycle series?
Well maybe I’m the wrong person to ask because I really like it. Whether you like it or not, it is great that this kind of work is starting to make it’s way into the public consciousness.. it just really begins opening up the possibilities for what a film can be… and what the general public’s expectations of a filmed experience is.

As graphic design & film-making continue to merge, we should expect a more visually lateral cinema. Where is it?
Well it’s in the Cremaster Cycle, it’s in Res Fest, it’s in the movies of all the music vid directors who are making features now: Gondry, Jonze, Glazer…I mean it’s in the bloody Matrix, Moulin Rouge, the short films my little brother Lorin is making at COFA …to be honest it is everywhere at the moment and I think it still has a long way to go, I think it is just going to get stronger.

Try some Collider film clips on for size : www.collider.com.au
RESFEST 2004 dates: Dec 3-7 ACMI, Melb, Dec 9-12 ( Dendy Opera Quays & Syd Opera House )
Timetable Info & pix : www.acmi.net.au/resfest2004.jsp

Resfest 2005
Resfest 2003

Nirvana’s first album was their best, hip-hop used to be innovative and no software sounds as good as the hardware it emulates – all arguments mostly irrelevant in the face of today’s software samplers. Soft synth and hardware synth nuts may validly argue for hours, but when it comes to software samplers, the sound quality is there, the processes have been streamlined and artists are jumping ship to the convenience of software. Kontakt by Native Instruments is revered as the finest, but Native also produce the decent samplers : Kompakt & Intakt ( see www.native-instruments.com )

Kompakt
Pitched as a pro-quality sampler, Kompakt essentially allows the loading or kom_pakt.jpgcreation of sample instruments for triggering or sequencing, with
a range of sound shaping and filtering available. Like most Native Instrument software the sound quality is grand, and the one-window interface keeps things simple for quick execution of ideas – but the mac interface seems to suffer slightly from being ported from PC. Kompakt also claims to support all popular sampler formats, helping make the transition to software for existing hardware sampler fiends.

A rack style interface allows up to 8 simultaneous instruments to be loaded at once, allowing custom combination instruments for performance. These might include instruments from the library such as a house organ, a weird robot loop, violins, african percussion etc. Each instrument can be adjusted using volume or panning LFOs, filter envelopes, reverb, chorus, delay or master filtering. A modulation section also allows three adjustable envelopes and four LFOs. While not nearly as comprehensive as their flagship Kontakt, Kompakt is still a solid and effective workhorse.

Also Features:
*more than 200 instruments ( 2gb of samples from East West and Zero-G! )
*Eightpart multitimbral, 256 voice polyphonic
*Integrated file browser with drag & drop
*Professional sound quality with advanced 32bit processing
*Powerful filter offers six types, including lowpass, highpass, and bandpass

Import and Compatibility : AKAI S-1000/S-3000, EXS24, EXSP24, HALion, Gigasampler, SampleCell, KONTAKT, BATTERY, SoundFont2, LM4, AIFF and WAV up to 32 Bit and 192 kHz

Interfaces : MAC: VST 2.0, ASIO, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS (Mac OS X only) SoundManagerOMS
WIN: VST 2.0, DXi II, ASIO, Coming soon: RTAS (under Win XP), MME, Direct Sound

Kompakt Requirements: US$229 : Mac OS 9.2 or higher, G3 500 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 2.2 GB free hard disc space
Windows XP/2000/ME/98, Pentium III/ Athlon 500 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 2.2 GB free hard disc space

Intakt
On the sampler flipside, Intakt offers a versatile package as a dedicated rhythmic loop player and manipulator. Again it comes with massive libary – 1.2Gb of loops from breakbeat, percussion to house, drum n bass etc. Aside from the beatslicing inherent in it’s loop mangling, and the similar range of effects and modulation to Kompakt, Intakt provides 3 different modes for working – each with it’s own special capacities:

1. Sampler
Sampler mode plays audio files back like a classic sampler – load up a sample int_akt.jpgfrom the built in browser window, and it is easily drag and dropped onto whatever range of keys you wish – on the onscreen keyboard. This sample can now be played instantly as a musical ‘melody’ using either a midi keyboard or conveniently – the keys on your keyboard also. Combined with the range of effects, filters and envelopes, interesting territory can emerge to play in very quickly.

2.Beat Machine
In this mode, Intakt can automatically slice the audio into individual slices, allowing parameters, playback direction, effects and modulation to be set for each slice. The whole loop can then be played back as an entire loop – or played back by slice using your keyboard or midi keyboard, allowing all sorts of fragmented mayhem or breaking an existing loop down into a new drum kit. A random slice mode plays the loop back continuously – but from random slice-points within the loop, again – mayhem. A midi file can be exported allowing manipulation in host sequencers. The Beat Machine can also directly open REX files which already contain marker information.

3.Time Machine
Enabling high quality time stretching and compression, this mode can adapt sounds from any source to suit whatever key or tempo your song requires.

INTAKT ships with mega-loops, and also imports WAV, AIFF, REX1 and REX2 files, AKAI S-1000/S-3000, EXS, BATTERY, LM4 and KONTAKT instruments. It also features:

*up to 128 stereo voices, professional sound quality with 32 bit processing, up to 96 kHz sample rate support
*Easy synchronization of loops to MIDI tempo
*Integrated effects: Group filter including low-pass, high-pass, band-reject or band-pass modes, global filter, lo-fi, distortion, delay
*Modulation section with AHDSR envelope, two individual LFOs, envelope follower and a DBD pitch envelope
*Fast rearrangement of the slice order directly in INTAKT
*Integrated keyboard for triggering multiple samples, sample mapping and fast selection of groups, plus latch function (holds a key down automatically)
*Keyboard quantize for live application triggers loops right on beat and in time (from 1/1 to 1/64 triplets)

Import and Compatibility
Kontakt, REX, AKAI S-1000/S-3000, SF2, EXS24, EXS24P, EXS24mkII, BATTERY, SDII, LM4, AIFF and WAV from 8 to 32 bits with 44.1 96 kHz

Interfaces
MAC: VST, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS
WIN: VST, RTAS (nur Win XP), DXi, ASIO, Direct Sound

Intakt Requirements: US$229
Minimum: Mac OS 10.2.6 or higher, G3 500 MHz, 256 MB RAM
Minimum: Windows XP, Pentium III/ Athlon 400 MHz, 256 MB RAM

While there’d be a different US President in power today if the world had votes, those who wish a better world are working away regardless. Recognising the importance of oil and energy within global politics and quality of life, the Global Energy Network Institute continues to push for a global interconnected electricity grid powered by renewable energy. Say Geni – ‘Two billion people on this planet have no electricity. How can we make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone?’. Ambitious Australian GENI rep and author of ‘Cosmic Accounting’ Mal Green, drops some alternative futures into the mix:

Drawing attention to the actual energy costs of products seems useful, but actually implementing ‘energy’ as the core of monetary system seems problematic. How do you envisage merging the ‘accounting systems of nature and human society’ in your lifetime?
All that is required is for there to be set up computerised interconnected personal energy accounts. As soon as people ‘own’ energy accounts with a balance of energy that can be depositied into and drawn upon, and when people can transfer their energy credit from themselves to another, then the Cosmic Accounting system begins, and none of this has to interfere with the current economic money accounting system at present. For this to work there will need to be the cooperation of the electricity grid. The administering authority of the grid would have to oversee and monitor that your energy credit (of electricity) has been released onto the grid, that then allows the receiver entitlement to recieve that quantity of energy deposited into their energy account. You might see at this point electricity can become a currency (’electrical current currency’). Who owns and controls the electricity grid will have bearing on this. In Queensland the state owns the electricity grid. In other states of Australia corporations own the electricity grid. The technology to do all this already exists, is becoming better and cheaper and is doable in my lifetime. Indeed it is doable in the next few, say, eight years.

What are the benefits of networking the electricity grid?
Globally networking the grid allows an integrated world real-wealth wealth-transfer/exchange system (aka Cosmic Accounting). Also there are physical benefits, where electricity generators can match their outputs to loads better, for loads vary over different times through the day, and times vary over distance. Also global grid means that it would literally be possible to send harvested solar sunshine energy from the daytime side of the world to the nighttime side of the world, or at least one/quarter way around the world. It is technically possible at present to economically transmit electricity 7,000 kilometres. Therfore it would be possible to send solar energy from a sunny afternoon in the Sahara to power the evening lights of Turkey, for example. Therefore an interconnected grid can provide (renewable) energy security. And remember that is where we are heading – to power the whole world with renewable energy! GENI stands for these two things – global grid, plus feeding that grid with renewable energy – the two go hand in hand.

What is the progress on the 10m community solar dish in SA?
I’ve just returned from Whyalla and the people of the TAFE college there are giving more and more effort toward realising and building this solar dish. The current state of play is taking the preliminary drawings of the solar dish, as provided by the inventor, Professor Stephen Kaneff, and making detailed engineering drawings of the dish, from which actual fabrication of the dish can occur. The engineering lecturer in metals fabrication, Bevan Austin, at the above TAFE college has taken this effort on. A hopeful finish date for building the dish is mid June of next year.

The Australian Government could support large-scale solar energy development with a large grant of money toward building a 200 solar dish power station in Whyalla. $25 million would be an appropriate level of support – which is about one third of the cost of this solar power station. That amount of money would go a huge way toward helping to make this whole project attractive, and is not such a huge sum of money for a (rich) Federal Government. Furthermore, it is appropriate to support an industry like this in its infancy, one that can take a big step toward developing and ensuring Australia’s clean energy future.

A ‘timeline for everyone to become a billionaire’?
I will continue to stand by the person who was my inspiration, R. Buckminster Fuller who contended that it would be engineeringly possible to make the transistion to a ‘world that works for everyone’ in a ten year period.