Our very own Jess Louwagie and former employee Tim Bramer both made an appearance on Robert Hodgin’s blog – the conference’s closing speaker.
See for yourself here – and be sure to check out some of Robert’s amazing Processing experiments while you’re there. (Thanks for the inspiration Robert – Amazing presentation!)
Video can’t do everything, but for specific things, it outshines any other medium on the web (text, pictures, audio, interactivity). Here are my top five:
Next time you make a run for the border don’t forget to bring along all the old decrepit cell phones from your junk drawer. As our rock-n-roll programmer Shawn demonstrates, recycling your old phones is easier than ordering two bean burritos.
Taco Bell’s new marketing slogan is “The only thing greener than our guacamole is our phone recycling bin.” Although catchy, I think “The only thing greener than our guacamole is any other restaurants guacamole” would be more accurate.
All joking aside, it’s nice to see big companies making an effort to help out the Earth, which has given so much to them.
Pardon the diversion, but I have to share.
Gas prices are steadily rising and the AC on my 1998 Honda Civic is teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown. So as of June 1st, I decided to embark on a mission to get through the summer* on one tank of gas**. (Driving is for sissies!)
With approximately 11 gallons in a full tank, and let’s say conservatively I get 25 miles to the gallon around town, that leaves me about 275 miles of driving through the end of August. That’s approximately 20 miles per week.
In the 20 days since I’ve started my quest, I’ve already burned through maybe 1/5 of a tank. Fortunately, if you can call it that, divine intervention is preventing me from burning through any more gas at the moment. I very flat tire. I’ll probably just let my car chill till the weekend and get it fixed then. In the meantime, I am getting used to walking and biking just about everywhere — the grocery store, the gym, work.
Not only does the flat tire prevent me from immediately driving, it also forced me to clear out all the junk from my trunk in order to access the spare and jack. I bet I’m at least 40 pounds lighter back there. I knew I had junk in my trunk, but not that much junk.
I realize that this is nothing. Many people take the car and gas problem totally out of the equation all together. Still, I think for me, this is a reasonable and positive goal for my wallet and the planet.
Take that, oil cartels of the world!
And check out Nick’s post on Gas Saving Tips for some more ways you can save on gas.
*My “summer” will run from June 1st to August 31st.
**I’m also cheating — I can’t count the one trip to Duluth I have planned (which pretty much burns exactly one tank of gas.)
Today, Brian Clark from Copyblogger posted on a video where NPR’s Ira Glass talks about the building blocks of storytelling in broadcasting. (Video embedded below.) Like any Monday morning, I had plenty of email to slog through, but I had to watch this video. For those of you who are fans of Ira, you know what I mean -– that something in his voice and manner of speaking that compels you to stop everything you’re doing and listen.
In the video, Ira talks about how to take traditional story structure that we learned in school and turn it on its head. That is — forget the topic sentence followed by a set of supporting facts — it isn’t effective for TV and radio. Instead, Ira’s got two key building blocks of storytelling:
Brian’s right, Ira’s approach isn’t just for TV and radio. Read the rest of this entry »
The traveling Star Wars exhibit “Star Wars — Where Science Meets Imagination” has finally come to Minnesota. I had the opportunity to check it out, and I can say it certainly lives up to the hype.
Patrons are invited to view original movie costumes and props, examine the incredible detail of model ships, watch exclusive behind the scenes clips, meet storm troopers, and even climb into the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit for the jump to light speed.
To get a small glimpse of what’s in store for you, see my photos above. I used Wonderfile’s tag sharing feature to create the interactive slide show. To start making and sharing your own slide shows for free, sign up for Wonderfile.
Although I like Guitar Hero quite a bit, sometimes it leaves me wanting less. By less I mean a game more pure and simple in its musical mockery. What I came up with was “Cowbell Hero”.
As you can see from the above product mock-up, it consists of a simple Wii accessory in the form of a white plastic cowbell. The nunchuck plugs into the bell allowing you to swing it to and fro with a realistic cowbell playing motion.
A variety of classic 80s rock songs will provide hours of cowbell playing fun. If anyone at Nintendo is reading this, please, please make my dream come true.
Well, it’s June 9th. We can expect the announcement 10 am PST (noon here in Minnesota). Will the new iPhone go on sale today? Tomorrow? This week?
Will it be cheaper than ever?
Will I buy it in white, black, or red?
Will it be thinner, sleeker, more beveled?
Will it have solar panels?
Will Twitter crack under the strain of the anticipation and excitement?
You can check WWDC 2008 live blogging coverage over at CNET for news as it comes in…
What do you get when you splice Mary Poppins with some creep-tastic music? One impressively sinister movie plot:
Videos like this are the natural offspring of popular video and social networking sites; you can see mash-up spawn all over the web on YouTube and beyond. You don’t have to be a genius to make one yourself. Here are some examples and websites to whet your appetite:
1. The Trailer Mash: Users create new twists to movie spots by remixing and changing up the soundtrack. Scary Mary, above, is just one example.
2. Terminator vs. Robocop is a mash-up with some of that video annotation that Nick mentioned a few posts ago. It was created by the people at AMDS Films, but I’m guessing most of y’all don’t speak French.
3. Vader Sessions includes Star Wars clips with quotes from James Earl Jones’ various roles spliced in. It gets really good when he starts talking about being a breadwinner (3 minutes in or so).
4. Total Recut has it all — source clips, video editing tools, and contests, with categories from political to education to advertising to trailers.
5. Check out The Recycled Cinema for a history of found video footage and a more academic approach to mash-ups.
6. For the politically bent, Political Remix is a blog-style video mash-up site with some very moving and politically charged messages.
7. Jumpcut is Yahoo’s answer to the video and social networking equation. You can use it to upload source material, edit your clips, and share your remixes. Still in beta (what isn’t these days), but the is design slick, unobtrusive, and very user-friendly.
Happy Mashing.
I have noticed a trend emerging in my decidedly urban Minneapolis surroundings: places that have Wi-Fi that should not. For instance, Arby’s. Although I love a hot-from-the-fryer potato cake as much as the next person, grease slicked fingers and laptop keyboards don’t mix.
Another inappropriate place for Wi-Fi, I feel, is busy intersections. With the Minneapolis municipal Wi-Fi network it is possible to check your email in traffic and surf the web while waiting for the light to change. I have actually seen people do this.
Since I express myself best in Haiku, here it is:
Wi-Fi signal finds
All who seek a connection
So please drive safely