Dateline: Direct to Video
A fairly freakish Nor'easter hits the East Coast and takes out power in at least 200,000 New Jersey homes, but I manage to post this video anyway.
Make of this what you will. Many trees and even more branches were falling all over roads, and presumably a lot of them took out powerlines too. Friends have been calling to see if I could store some of their stuff in my refrigerator if the outages persist as long as they're being told they might. PSE&G is telling customers they might not get power back before Halloween ends.
Expect some more insulin supplies getting trashed. If I'd stocked up last week, though, I just know I would have lost power here too. Reminder to self, check out which stores lose power for more than several hours, this happened a few months back with the flooding to the north of Princeton as well.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Capturing a 3D Flame
Dateline: Science Friday (NPR)
It's as awesome as they said it was, especially the wax travelling up the wick.
It's as awesome as they said it was, especially the wax travelling up the wick.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Google+ (And, no, I can't invite you... yet)
Dateline: "This link might upset you"
Or maybe I just don't know how to do an invite? I've read they opened up the gates again sometime last night, but I only read that this morning.
Some sources are calling it the "stealth roll-out." Not sure I buy that, but it's what they're saying. Three paragraphs and I haven't gotten to the point? What's this world coming to?
We're talking about Google+, or I am.
Most of my real-world friends and acquaintances aren't quite on it yet, unless they work for or work with Google in some heavy way. On the other hand, in a sense they are, at least those whose e-mail addresses I've managed to add to my various circles, circles whose names and contents are none of your business, but I half-expect to find you'll some day wind up with full access to them anyway.
Then again, who am I kidding? A lot fewer people are stalking me than would be good for my bank balance.
And I hate to be so cynical, but one has to wonder how much of the enthusiasm (among the Googlers most excited about this) is real and how much is tied to knowing that bonuses this year are heavily tied to the social media revolution that Larry Page apparently considers essential to Google maintaining its status and leadership on the web, or the net, or the cloud or whatever this mess is that we're using to distract ourselves from much that is real and important.
I'm actually hoping this will make some sorts of work easier...after all, in its present state it does allow me to contact anyone I want, as long as I know their email address, and many people I may not know except by way of their Google+ profile. This could be of use, since Facebook only allows me to contact those people who agree that they are my friends, and for many people, friend has many and varied definitions. Where Google+ is different, it seems, is in realizing that you and only you can define your circle of contacts, and that not all of them are necessarily friends, nor should they be.
It will be interesting to see how this all hashes out.
In the meanwhile, here's some hyperbole, I hope.
Or maybe I just don't know how to do an invite? I've read they opened up the gates again sometime last night, but I only read that this morning.
Some sources are calling it the "stealth roll-out." Not sure I buy that, but it's what they're saying. Three paragraphs and I haven't gotten to the point? What's this world coming to?
We're talking about Google+, or I am.
Most of my real-world friends and acquaintances aren't quite on it yet, unless they work for or work with Google in some heavy way. On the other hand, in a sense they are, at least those whose e-mail addresses I've managed to add to my various circles, circles whose names and contents are none of your business, but I half-expect to find you'll some day wind up with full access to them anyway.
Then again, who am I kidding? A lot fewer people are stalking me than would be good for my bank balance.
And I hate to be so cynical, but one has to wonder how much of the enthusiasm (among the Googlers most excited about this) is real and how much is tied to knowing that bonuses this year are heavily tied to the social media revolution that Larry Page apparently considers essential to Google maintaining its status and leadership on the web, or the net, or the cloud or whatever this mess is that we're using to distract ourselves from much that is real and important.
I'm actually hoping this will make some sorts of work easier...after all, in its present state it does allow me to contact anyone I want, as long as I know their email address, and many people I may not know except by way of their Google+ profile. This could be of use, since Facebook only allows me to contact those people who agree that they are my friends, and for many people, friend has many and varied definitions. Where Google+ is different, it seems, is in realizing that you and only you can define your circle of contacts, and that not all of them are necessarily friends, nor should they be.
It will be interesting to see how this all hashes out.
In the meanwhile, here's some hyperbole, I hope.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Again I ask myself, why all this damage?
Dateline: Tallscreen
Here's the net result of another round of YouTube frustration. I feel guilty now, and more than a little dirty that I persisted so much in trying to find a solution for the compression artifact problem this user was having, when the simpler solution was known to me. But I suppose I did persist in part because when I recommend Vimeo instead, I'm usually faced with the statement, "But YouTube is where all the viewers are!"
Sure they have that huge audience. But so much of the video is damaged, and one has to wonder, why persist at trying to address the problems when there is practically no transparency, and much of the guidance on rendering for YouTube, at least in the official "support" pages, is insufficient, or even (frequently) dead wrong? Well, at least this latest head-scraper made me go back and look at where the good videos are.
When YouTube manages to do this, I'll start to think they mean something about quality. Granted, you could probably do it in an embedded player? Not sure I really want to go to the trouble to test it, though, when I do have many other more pressing issues to deal with.
For more "tall" videos, see the Vimeo ||tallscreen group.
Here's the net result of another round of YouTube frustration. I feel guilty now, and more than a little dirty that I persisted so much in trying to find a solution for the compression artifact problem this user was having, when the simpler solution was known to me. But I suppose I did persist in part because when I recommend Vimeo instead, I'm usually faced with the statement, "But YouTube is where all the viewers are!"
Sure they have that huge audience. But so much of the video is damaged, and one has to wonder, why persist at trying to address the problems when there is practically no transparency, and much of the guidance on rendering for YouTube, at least in the official "support" pages, is insufficient, or even (frequently) dead wrong? Well, at least this latest head-scraper made me go back and look at where the good videos are.
When YouTube manages to do this, I'll start to think they mean something about quality. Granted, you could probably do it in an embedded player? Not sure I really want to go to the trouble to test it, though, when I do have many other more pressing issues to deal with.
For more "tall" videos, see the Vimeo ||tallscreen group.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Blogger hosts video
Dateline: Puzzletown
Someone told me that Blogger now hosts video and I found that hard to believe, but apparently it is true. Ain't freedom a kick in the pants?
The video below is hosted directly from Blogger. Wonder how long this feature will last?
Apparently some people think YouTube is the only host for videos. This should add some new confusion.
However, given the relatively low quality available and a seeming lack of options for customization, it doesn't look like this feature is going to be a huge threat, and after all, content on Blogger is just about as strictly policed as it is on YouTube.
Someone told me that Blogger now hosts video and I found that hard to believe, but apparently it is true. Ain't freedom a kick in the pants?
The video below is hosted directly from Blogger. Wonder how long this feature will last?
Apparently some people think YouTube is the only host for videos. This should add some new confusion.
However, given the relatively low quality available and a seeming lack of options for customization, it doesn't look like this feature is going to be a huge threat, and after all, content on Blogger is just about as strictly policed as it is on YouTube.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Epic camera work
Dateline: Pollen Town
I was working on a really massive reflection about free will and determinism, but then I found this moment of Zen. Lord, I hope The Daily Show hasn't trademarked that phrase.
I was working on a really massive reflection about free will and determinism, but then I found this moment of Zen. Lord, I hope The Daily Show hasn't trademarked that phrase.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Is This the Future of Video News?
Dateline: Attention Deficit Spending
I've been bogged down in other, "serious" projects and then I realized that serious is not the way to go. Blame the video below if you need to. This one needs to go viral, even if it spells the end of serious journalism. Is The Nation the next domino to fall?
It's actually fairly clever, especially when one considers how lame these XtraNormal videos can be. Sometimes lameness can be used to advantage, plus they are fairly easy to make, assuming you have a script in your head.
Do I smell a trend?
I've been bogged down in other, "serious" projects and then I realized that serious is not the way to go. Blame the video below if you need to. This one needs to go viral, even if it spells the end of serious journalism. Is The Nation the next domino to fall?
It's actually fairly clever, especially when one considers how lame these XtraNormal videos can be. Sometimes lameness can be used to advantage, plus they are fairly easy to make, assuming you have a script in your head.
Do I smell a trend?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)