Broadcasters Ask Brazilian Government To Protect Them From Interesting Foreign Content On The Web

Last week Techdirt wrote about a draft of a civil rights-based framework for the Internet that is being considered by lawmakers in Brazil. It seems like the Brazilian Radio and Television Association didn't get around to reading it, because they want the government there to "regulate" foreign web content flowing into the country (Brazilian news report): 

On Techdirt.

Radio Opendotdotdot...

...is off the airwaves for a couple of days. Back soon.

Linux-Powered Radios

Linux is already widely-used for embedded systems. Here's another interesting application, from a UK company, too:

EVOKE Flow brings you the huge variety of audio available on the internet, as well as traditional DAB and FM radio and your own digital music collection. All in a stylish portable radio that you can take with you wherever you go.

EVOKE Flow uses the same Wi-Fi technology as portable computers to connect to the internet wirelessly. Through this connection you can access thousands of radio stations from across the world, catch your favourite shows with listen again or enjoy a huge variety of podcasts. You can even use EVOKE Flow to browse and play music stored on a Wi-Fi-enabled PC.

In addition:

EVOKE Flow is powered by Imagination’s innovative hardware multi-threaded META processor and UCC (Universal Communications Core) technologies, which give the product advanced real-time signal processing and 32-bit application execution resources, as well as unique multi-standard high performance communications capabilities. EVOKE Flow is also one of the first radio products in the market to use the Linux operating system.

One of the first, but I predict it won't be the last....

DAB Dying?

It might seem strange that an avowed lover of high-tech and music should not have a DAB radio: but so it is with me. In part, it's because DAB in the UK seems to be worse than FM (at least that's what Jack Schofield says, and his argument looks pretty reasonable).

But it's also been from a gut feeling that this is the wrong way to go. It looks like I'm not alone:

In a sign of crisis for digital radio, UK commercial radio leader GCap will, as expected, sell its 67 percent stake in the DigitalOne DAB multiplex

...

”We believe that broadband is the ideal complementary platform to analogue radio given the interactivity that they both provide, creating social networks and communities on-air and online.”

I suppose what I'm looking towards is a radio with built-in Wifi to pick up radio-over-IP signals sent out by one of my computers. One reason for that is the extremely high quality of music online these days: BBC Radio 3, for example, is broadcast at 64 kps, which is pretty much CD quality in a domestic setting. Who needs DAB?

Radio Silence

For anyone that cares - well, there might be someone - Radio Opendotdotdot is falling silent for a few days. Back soon.

Radio Spectrum More Valuable Than Oil?

Hm, now here's a thought:

Martin Sims, of the UK organisation Policy Tracker, asked the regulators and ministers in attendance to ponder if radio spectrum is as important for economic growth in the 21st century, as oil was in the 20th century.

Does that mean soon we'll have wars fought over wavelengths? And what are the implications for the open spectrum movement? (Via openspectrum.info.)

The BBC's Other Virtual World

You could argue that radio is already a particular kind of virtual world - one created by the wetware between your ears on the basis of the code downloaded by your radio (television clearly isn't a virtual world, because there's little processing or no degrees of freedom involved). But not content with that, the BBC is apparently launching another one:

A virtual world which children can inhabit and interact with is being planned by the BBC.

CBBC, the channel for 7-12 year olds, said it would allow digitally literate children the access to characters and resources they had come to expect.

Users would be able to build an online presence, known as an avatar, then create and share content.

The youth of today....

Open Source Radio

I mention this for the sake of completeness, since I can't imagine many people will be interested in buying one of these high-end software-defined radios. But the idea of a device - any device - totally controlled by software, preferably open software, rather than through physical buttons and knobs is clearly the way of the future for certain classes of systems. (Via Digg.)