Month: July 2005

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Found

Role Reversal

I’m puttering around on my machine tonight, playing some games and doing the usual rounds online, when suddenly my Wireless Intellimouse Explorer stops responding. I go through the usual rigamarole – unplugging/replugging the USB base for it (no help), trying to re-connect the wireless signal (doesn’t work), swapping out the batteries in the mouse (no use). It is, in effect, toast.

Amusingly enough, though, I’m able to continue using my Mac, even without a mouse. Sure, I could plug one in from my collection of Apple mice acquired over the years, but…what’s the point, really? I can login just fine. I can launch all my apps without it (thanks to my Quicksilver triggers). I can web browse reasonably well without it – well enough to make this blog post.

It just struck me sort of odd how the platform that for years was so frequently bashed for making people rely on the mouse so heavily is now at a point where I can function just as well without. I don’t feel like I’ve had a limb removed or am in any way really disabled at this point. I’m not even sure how much I need to purchase a replacement mouse…

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Found

One Step Away From Perfect Convergence

You know that feeling – when you’re so close to finishing off a hack you can taste it, but you’re one small step away? I’m there right now.

As could be expected from my post on Wednesday, I’m still monkeying around with the PSP 2.0 firmware – which apparently Sony has [advised people not to install on their US PSPs](http://psp.ign.com/articles/637/637582p1.html) until they officially release it.

Over the last year and a half – the length of time I’ve owned a Sidekick – I’ve found a lot of useful mobile sites. [Bloglines Mobile](http://www.bloglines.com/mobile) has been a boon for feed reading, and as of late, [Flickr Mobile](http://www.flickr.com/mob) has provided mobile photo viewing. And sure enough, both load plenty quick on the PSP. I was digging through my friends’ photos – always a fun activity – when I noticed a little button I had never pushed before. One I had wanted to push on my Sidekick, but it just didn’t work. Like Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, I had wanted to push this button for so long but I never had reason to.

The button is labeled “UPLOAD”.

I click through, and there’s a little button to pick a file. I click it, incredulously. Sure enough, up pops a pane to let me pick a file – either out of `/PSP/COMMON` or `/PSP/PHOTOS/`. Having only my wallpaper in the Photos folder, I select it. I click Submit. A few seconds later, [it’s on my Flickr account](http://www.flickr.com/photos/remydwd/29582525/).

Immediately, my brain races – my camera also uses Memory Stick Pro Duo media. The PSP will show you photos off of it, natively – it knows where to look on the stick. Could it be possible that I could upload to Flickr from my PSP directly off my camera’s memory card?
Sadly, the answer – at least for right now – is no. Those two folders available for upload are the only two, even if you have a memory stick with a properly formatted Sony camera directory. There is no easy way, just using the PSP, to copy your photos into the `/PSP/PICTURES` folder.

For now, my dreams are dashed, but I will keep my fingers crossed that maybe someone from Sony will see this and add a feature in 2.0.1 to allow us to pick files from the root of the Memory Stick, rather than restricting us to just a few folders.

Categories
Found

Party Ben Gets DMCA’d

This is really, really bad news for the entire mashup community. [Party Ben](http://www.partyben.com/), maker of the Sixx Mixx and other fantastical mashups, has gotten a DMCA notice from Yahoo:

SIXX MIXX 94 – 07/15/05
EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M INSANE EDITION
Currently unavailable…
From: Yahoo Webhosting
RE: sixxmixx.com The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (“IFPI”) and/or IFPI’s agent has notified Yahoo! Inc. (“Yahoo!”) that you have posted copyrighted material in connection with your Yahoo!® Web hosting service, which is proprietary to IFPI. IFPI and/or IFPI’s agent has further notified Yahoo! that you are not authorized to use the material in question at: http://www.sixxmixx.com/SIXXMIXX94-071505.mp3 Yahoo! respects the rights of both its users and the owners and rights holders of intellectual property. Accordingly, and in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and/or other applicable federal law(s), Yahoo! expeditiously removed or disabled access to the copyrighted material in question. Through your use of Yahoo!® Web hosting services you agree to abide by the Yahoo! Terms of Service as well as any additional Terms of Service applicable to you. The current Yahoo! Terms of Service may be reviewed at: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms. Pursuant to Section 6 of the Terms of Service, Member Conduct, you agree not to use Yahoo!® services to “upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights . . . of any party.”

Ben writes:

> I’ve got too many enemies… It was bound to happen someday. I have just received a “Notice of Infringement” letter from Yahoo, my webhosting company, regarding, weirdly, only Sixx Mixx 94, which was posted on the Sixx Mixx page. They have removed the “offending file.” (If you ask me, the mixing in #92 was more offensive, wocka wocka wocka).
> Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine that the rest of this little website and its myriad of other mp3s will be ignored. Yahoo has notified me that “reciept of another notice of infringement… may result in the termination of all Yahoo! services and your Yahoo ID.” So, this may be goodbye, interschnitzel friends: if you come by partyben.com and you get a “not found,” you’ll know why. If that happens, I promise I’ll try and find a way to come back.

See also [this discussion thread on GYBO](http://www.gybo-v3.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=6831), which lots of posts from Ben as well as dj BC and others in the community.