Tag Archives: digital

Books, Crypto, Entertainment, Etherum, Movies

Ridley Scott to Produce ‘The Infinite Machine’ ETH Origin Story from Camila Russo’s Book

The future of Ethereum, DAOs, Defi and Web3 set to become mainstream with movie tracing its history

Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free Productions, is slated to produce a feature film based the book, which tells the story of Ethereum, ‘The Infinite Machine‘ written by cryptocurrency crusader and journalist Camila Russo, and has Shyam Madiraju attached as director. Tom Moran, Vera Meyer, and Alejandro Miranda are also onboard, according to Deadline.

With Ridley Stott’s credits running the gamut from ‘Blade Runner‘, to ‘The Last Duel’, to Alien, to Gladiator, and too many more to count, plus production credits for Scott Free that are no less impressive, the upcoming films appears set to be big.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin will play prominently in the story, showing the early and incredible initial launch, inspired by the self-taught 19 year-old, into what is now the world’s second largest cryptocurrency (Ether) and, according to Ethereum.org is a technology that’s home to digital money, global payments, and applications. The current ‘market cap’ for Ethereum is nearly $400 billion.

The story up to the present day is fascinating enough, with the meteoric rise of Ethereum from the founding in 2015 to the announcement of this project. Particularly noteworthy is the connection between the Ethereum blockchain technology and the invention of NFTs (Non-fungible tokens), DeFi (decentralized finance), D.A.O.s (Decentralized autonomous organizations) and more.

Camila Russo, author of “The Infinite Machine”, also founded TheDefiant( thedefiant.io ) which “curates, digests, and analyzes all the major developments in decentralized finance, so that you can stay informed and smart about the most cutting-edge and fastest-changing corner of crypto and finance” according to the site itself.

The film project has already started to make waves and accomplish meaningful buzz in a deep layered, totally coherent approach to its creation. Namely, the fact that part of the fundraising for the film is taking place via NFT collections. This bold move has been incredibly well timed and successful, with the first @ETHMovie collection selling out completely within 28 hours and raising $670,000 in the process.

This funding, along with subsequent NFT collections offered are being managed via The Infinite Machine DAO community treasury, along with traditional film financing techniques. The DAO is, itself, the executive producer of the movie.

According to the official site for the film, the NFT collection sales will be equally distributed amongst the 36 intervening artist which will receive 22.5% of the budget. 10% will be sent to a community treasury pool to fund the DAO, and the 67.5% will be used for the movie.

‘It’s incredibly exciting to have Ridley Scott and the crew at Scott Free produce the movie of The Infinite Machine alongside us. I can’t imagine a better team to turn the riveting story about the people behind the most revolutionary technology since the internet into a feature film that will capture the hearts of our generation.‘

Camila Russo as per ‘DeaDline’

This groundbreaking funding mechanism, in this case for a movie that is intended to “become a blockbuster movie for the mainstream”, is part and parcel of the radical yet optimistic and hopeful changes that DAOs, NFTs, DeFi all were created to achieve, within the greater context of Web3 and the Ethereum blockchain itself. In other words, making this film is itself proof that the subject matter is alive, kicking and becoming more real (and dangerous, to some) in real time.

Traditional funding and monetary distribution channels, from the creative genesis of an idea (in this case the book) to a fully formed commercially released product and its proceeds, are by comparison, woefully inadequate and generally corrupt and unfair, according to many artists and creators super-pumped for the transition to these new methods made possible by Ethereum, blockchain, and soon, Web3.

So from the story, in both book and movie, to the NFT collections, the the DAO created to executive produce and partially fund the film, there is a thread of real-life proof-of-concept running throughout.

That proof is that, far from being a far flung, possible flash-in-the-pan, the entire saga, beginning with 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin’s idea to expand the potential of block chain, is destined to come to spectacular fruition, and sooner than you might believe.

Culminating the relatively short history of the last 7 years, all the way to the present day explosion of work, massive capital investments and development of Ethereum, along with its various applications and use-cases, we could be inexorably headed toward a moment in the near-future when the film will crash head-on into the realization of the very dream scenario it depicts. Oh boy howdy.

Below, the breakdown of the The Infinite Machine DAO funding plan:

Before the Movie Budget is Covered

Distribution of primary and secondary sales:

  • 22.5% in an equal basis amongst the 36 intervening artists
  • 10.0% to a community treasury pool used to seed The Infinite Machine DAO
  • 67.5% to cover the movie budget up to $16M. That number may be reduced depending on the amount of funds raised via traditional means.

After the Movie budget is covered

Distribution of secondary trading fees and any other revenues from all collections:

  • 22.5% will be received by the artists in this collection 
  • 25.0% will be received by the NFT Collection core team and contributors 
  • 52.5% will be used to fund a community pool to seed The Infinite Machine DAO

Camila Russo spent eight years at Bloomberg covering the Argentine market (bonds, stocks, FX) for 4+ years based in Buenos Aires; she wrote about European stocks with a focus on Southern Europe in Madrid; analyzed macro emerging markets moves for the Markets Live blog in New York; and was one of the most prolific and dedicated cryptocurrency reporters.

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LA Local, News, Observation

The World’s Largest Wildlife Crossing starts construction today ( Earth Day 2022)

Photo Credit / Living Habitats and National Wildlife Federation

Magnificent bridge for LA wildlife survival

In conjunction with the #SaveLACougars movement, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and partners will begin the start of construction officially on April 22 to commemorate Earth Day. The groundbreaking will mark the world’s largest wildlife crossing which will cover 10 lanes of traffic on the very busy 101 freeway near Los Angeles. The project is currently slated for completion by early 2025 and has been dubbed as the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

The Wildlife crossing will cost nearly $90 million, with 60% of the price already covered by private donations and the remainder from public funds meant for conservation purposes. Philanthropist Wallis Annenberg donated $25 million to the project

The overpass proposal and funding was inspired by a Los Angeles cougar named P-22 who crossed two freeways to settle in Griffith Park. Unfortunately most wildlife aren’t as lucky to make it safely and roam as nature intended, and this crossing will finally represent a potential solution to this problem.

“This crossing will save the local mountain lion population from extinction, stand as a global model for urban wildlife conservation — and show us that it’s possible for a structure of this magnitude to be built in a such a densely populated urban area”

-Beth Pratt, California Executive Director for NWF

The positive environmental impact will be coupled with an aesthetic improvement that should also please humans, based on the renderings above. With some of the most congested freeways in the world in and around LA, this exception to the endless asphalt sprawl would be a welcome change from the status quo. The crossing is slated to be completed within three years.

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AI, Cutting Edge, Esoteric, Gaming, Observation, Tech

What is the metaverse? 2 media and information experts explain

Video

Above: Photo / Pixabay

The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and the web. 

The metaverse is a concept from science fiction that many people in the technology industry envision as the successor to today’s internet. It’s only a vision at this point, but technology companies like Facebook are aiming to make it the setting for many online activities, including work, play, studying and shopping.

Metaverse is a portmanteau of meta, meaning transcendent, and verse, from universe. Sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson coined the term in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash” to describe the virtual world in which the protagonist, Hiro Protagonist, socializes, shops and vanquishes real-world enemies through his avatar. The concept predates “Snow Crash” and was popularized as “cyberspace” in William Gibson’s groundbreaking 1984 novel “Neuromancer.”

There are three key aspects of the metaverse: presence, interoperability and standardization. 

Presence is the feeling of actually being in a virtual space, with virtual others. Decades of research has shown that this sense of embodiment improves the quality of online interactions. This sense of presence is achieved through virtual reality technologies such as head-mounted displays.

Interoperability means being able to seamlessly travel between virtual spaces with the same virtual assets, such as avatars and digital items. ReadyPlayerMe allows people to create an avatar that they can use in hundreds of different virtual worlds, including in Zoom meetings through apps like Animaze. Meanwhile, blockchain technologies such as cryptocurrenciesand nonfungible tokens facilitate the transfer of digital goods across virtual borders.

Standardization is what enables interoperability of platforms and services across the metaverse. As with all mass-media technologies – from the printing press to texting – common technological standards are essential for widespread adoption. International organizations such as the Open Metaverse Interoperability Group define these standards. 

Why the metaverse matters

If the metaverse does become the successor to the internet, who builds it, and how, is extremely important to the future of the economy and society as a whole. Facebook is aiming to play a leading role in shaping the metaverse, in part by investing heavily in virtual reality. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in an interview his view that the metaverse spans non-immersive platforms like today’s social media as well as immersive 3D media technologies such as virtual reality, and that it will be for work as well as play.Hollywood has embraced the metaverse in movies like ‘Ready Player One.’

The metaverse might one day resemble the flashy fictional Oasis of Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” but until then you can turn to games like Fortnite and Roblox, virtual reality social media platforms like VRChat and AltspaceVR, and virtual work environments like Immersed for a taste of the immersive and connected metaverse experience. As these siloed spaces converge and become increasingly interoperable, watch for a truly singular metaverse to emerge.

Originally published on The Conversation by Rabindra Ratan & Yiming Lei and republished under a Creative Common License (CC BY-ND 4.0).

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Hot-Lynx

‘They should be worried’: will Lina Khan & the FTC take down big tech giants?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash



There’s a storm brewing and tech mega-monsters like Amazon, Google & Facebook know it

Practically since the day that Lina M. Kahn was appointed chair of the FTC, big tech giants have shown that they are worried. Both Amazon and Facebook filed suits asking that she recuse herself almost immediately.

Khan’s famous 2017 article; “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox“, published in the Yale Law Journal was both the obvious initial catalyst to her becoming chair of the FTC and also Amazon being unhappy that she would be at the helm of the FTC while antitrust actions are being brought against them.

The idea of removing her would have obvious appeal for those that fear her dedication to a new antitrust stance at the FTC, one that no longer allows digital behemoths to skate, monopolize and grow unchecked. But there is likely little chance that they can get her off their metaphorical backs that easily.

As per the Guardian: “Khan does not have any conflicts of interest under federal ethics laws, which typically apply to financial investments or employment history, and the requests [for her recusal] are not likely to go far.”

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Apple, FaceTime, iOS 15, OS Software, WWDC2021

FaceTime gets Portrait Mode in iOS 15 to give the look of DSLR prime lens systems

Video

The “Pro-Vlogger” look popularized on YouTube now available to all…

Above: The stunning Portrait mode from the Camera app is now optimized for video calls in FaceTime.
Photo Credit / Apple

If you are a prolific FaceTime user or if you don’t use it as much as you would if the aesthetics were a bit better (read: more flattering selfie styles) you are in luck. In a twist which takes advantage of tech that was initially created to make portrait mode a reality in the iPhone camera app is now coming to FaceTime on iPhone and also on iPad.

The maturation of features across platforms is paying big dividends

Portrait mode was added to the camera app as a way to get a DSLR style “prime lens” look with “bokeh” which is a Japanese term for the beautiful background out of focus blur that a long lens focused on the subject in the foreground will produce.

The computational fireworks required to produce this effect are nothing short of…. well check out Apple’s description:

” It’s a depth-guided, people-focused segmentation mask generated from a proprietary Apple neural network trained to detect people. It separates an individual in the foreground from whatever is in the background, with greater detail and clarity than with the depth map alone. It achieves this clarity in part because the matte image has higher resolution than the depth map.”


So this effect, which has been in the iPhone camera app since iOS 12 is now, likely due to the ever beefier potentials of the proprietary Apple neural network can now, starting with iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 be applied to video. Live.

New features in FaceTime help users look and sound their best. – credit: Apple

This, like so many other upgrades revealed today at the WWDC2021, is a great idea. High end YouTube videographers know it’s a great idea which is why they buy special DSLR camera with prime lenses just to get the very beautiful and flattering effect of a sharp subject in the foreground and a compressed, blurred “bokeh” effect in the background.

New features in FaceTime help users look and sound their best.

Not only visual but also audio upgrades are coming

They are also adding another obviously useful feature “spatial audio”, which creates the effect of having the perceived source location of each speaker match where they appear on the screen.

This is combined with “new microphone modes” which can reduce background noises and audio interference when in a chaotic sound environment and, alternatively when appropriate pickup an entire soundscape all at once.

All in all these improvements to both the visual experience, and the audio are a much needed change from the often ugly reality of bad-webcam zoom style meetings we all endured during 2020.

And with the front facing camera, lighting and software beautifications constantly getting better, we can, at least those with great internet and high end devices, look forward to a much more sensually pleasing level of FaceTime interactions.

Additional new upgraded features for FaceTime include, but are not limited to:

A new grid view that makes it possible to do a “zoom” like stack of equal size boxes.

SharePlay which is a somewhat odd sounding option to share “Apple Music, watching a TV show or movie in sync, or sharing their screen to view apps together”. Additionally, sharing can include anyone using an iPhone, iPad or Mac and if shared playback controls are active any of the parties that are sharing can play, pause or jump ahead.

Users can now share experiences with SharePlay while connecting with friends on FaceTime, including listening to songs together with Apple Music, watching a TV show or movie in sync, or sharing their screen to view apps together. SharePlay works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and with shared playback controls, anyone in a SharePlay session can play, pause, or jump ahead.

There’s an expanding list of sources that can be used, including, of course, Apple TV, but also third party services that opt in, and currently, according to Apple the list already includes: Disney+, ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass, Paramount+, Pluto TV, TikTok, Twitch, and many others

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/videos/apple-ios15-shareplay-music/large_2x.mp4

FaceTime calls that use all of these new features will continue to be end-to-end encrypted, so privacy is not compromised.

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AI, Cutting Edge, Tech

2021 CES will be an all Virtual Conference and you can View it too

Video

 Zoom panels, product unveilings all to take place while you have no pants

This year CES2021 is scheduled from Monday January 11-14. It’s a bit later than usual due to lot and lots of strange things happening in the world, and, oh yes, cause they had to shrink it into a phone-sized screen, or at least a zoom-panel for your desktop.

While attempting to put a happy face on it all the exhibitors described it thusly: ”an all-digital experience connecting exhibitors, customers, thought leaders and media from around the world. The new format will allow participants to hear from technology innovators, see cutting-edge technologies and the latest product launches, and engage with global brands and startups from around the world.“

In all seriousness if you want to check out the new gadgets, trends and progress you can now attend without “borrowing” somebodies pass who had to leave a day or two early. Wuuhuu! An infinite virtual exhibit hall will be replacing the 3 million square feet of actual exhibition space, but the more than 100,000 attendees will not be renting rooms in Vegas.

Or getting room service on the company tab, or watching pay-per-view from same said tab. Which is all not great for Vegas – but there will be better news next year – we hope seriously and sincerely.

As for this year let’s try to get the hang of this whole virtual thing! There are almost 2,000 exhibits for 2021 CES, to see the in detail, check out CES exhibitor list.

We can recommend, for those who will not register as an official attendee to view the action on CNET’s livestream. They’ll be broadcasting all day on Monday, Jan. 11 and you can follow along for press conferences, product reveals, a CES keynote presentation and expert commentary from the editors and hosts.

At least one special treat for attendees will be iHeartMedia’s exclusive performance by Billie Eilish as part of CES2021:

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