This episode is work safe.As you listen to this episode you may be driving in your car, you might be at work or maybe you’re at the gum working out. Wherever you may be, you are surrounded by art and design. Your steering wheel, the lid of your coffee cup, the cover of your favorite magazines, your computer, your MP3 player, the billboards and buildings around you, all have been meticulously crafted. All of them have been designed to provide form and function. Each one of them, in their own way, is a work of art.This episode features interviews with Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief of I.D. Magazine; video artist Benton C. Bainbridge; minimal sculptor John Powers; graphic artist and illustrator Alejandro Fuentes; and Frances Anderton, host of KCRW’s Design and Architecture.Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief of I.D. MagazineJulie Lasky is the editor-in-chief of I.D. Magazine. Julie Lasky was previously the editor of Interiors and the managing editor at PRINT. During her tenure as editor of I.D. Magazine, the magazine has earned four consecutive National Magazine Award nominations. She is the recipient of a Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program fellowship; a Richard J. Margolis Award for journalism; and was a Journalism Scholar in 1995 atNorthwestern University. Lasky’s essays and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The American Scholar and Forward.Benton-C BainbridgeBenton-C Bainbridge is a Bronx-based artist who has worked with video as a painterly and performable medium for nearly 25 years. Using custom digital, analog and optical systems, Benton-C makes movies as a dialog in an emerging global language.John PowersJohn Powers is a minimalist sculptor based in New York.Alejandro FuentesAlejandro Fuentes works in the apparel industry as a graphic designer/illustrator and moonlights as a creative artist.Frances Anderton, Design and ArchitectureFrances Anderton along with hosting DnA, is a producer for Warren Olney’s Which Way, L.A.? and To the Point on KCRW. In addition, Anderton is the LA Editor for Dwell magazine and a contributor to The New York Times and other publications.The incidental music on today’s show was provided by Lamplighter, Splinters and Choncey Langford, courtesy of Woodson Lateral Records.Click to download the standard version of this podcast.
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Garto

Source: www.cartoonland.de

Getting your company exposed to the world via iTunes
Okay — we accept that getting your ‘brand’ out there is a good thing. The nice thing about iTunes and vidblogging / vlogging / video podcasting / vodcasting… whatever you want to call it… is that the playing field is again levelled. Just as YouTube has allowed the ’small player’ to compete with (and beat) the multi-national for ‘eyeball exposure’, so too does iTunes allow the SME (small to medium sized enterprise) to compete for eyes or ears against massively well-funded corporates. The beauty of Web2.0 is that “content is king” once more (praise the Lord!) — a multi-million dollar advert is a joy to behold (very often), but equally a $5 video shot with passion and authenticity can compete and very often win. In the online world, ’slick’ is considered ‘hype’ whereas ‘amateur’ is considered ‘real’. Not in all cases (witness the Dove YouTube ad that I rave about, and if you haven’t watched it yet WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!?!?!), but in many cases the ‘law’ holds true. Hence my determination to prove to you that getting a video out so that the iTunes audience can watch and be entertained is another medium that you NEED to pay attention to, if for no other reason than your 15-30 year old audience demographic is already there and you need to be there too. If you are not constantly in their minds why should they pay attention to you — especially if you only run ‘print’ ads in the boring ol’ MSM (mainstream media), which most 15-30s are avoiding because the MSM lacks any ‘authenticity’ and credibility. If you want to stick to the way things have gone for the last decade (print ads in newspapers and trade journals, radio ads) then fine. Great. Go for it. Prepare for an early retirement. Your ‘next generation’ that will keep your business afloat is not paying attention to print ads in in newspapers and trade journals, radio ads and the like. They are listening to their peers, using MySpace to create their online network of peers, and parties to create their offline network of peers. They use mobile phones like we used to use the television — their phones are never off (they keep them on silent, even in church and at the cinema), they txt (aka ’sms’) everything, they are digital natives. Tap into them in the way they expect to be tapped into, or else languish and end up selling only to those who refuse to try anything new. HOWEVER… If you want to ‘tell your story’ to a new generation in the way THEY expect to receive it, then Social Media (aka blogs) and iTunes are the way to do it: you blog you podcast you vidblog You do all three with authenticity, without corporate ’spin’, without the lawyers fine-tuning every last word out of legal threat. Pop Quiz: how do you kill the ‘authenticity’ that today’s 15-30s so crave?A: you get your lawyers to ‘vet’ your blog, your podcast, your vidblog, your Press Release… Lawyers are like your bean counters — there to protect you and stop you from taking ANY risks. Without risk there is no business growth. Your choice. Okay, rant over. Up next, the ‘how to’… To get your easy-to-create video into people’s iPods can be a convoluted process if you are not prepared to pay $$$$ for a video studio to do it for you (and forget Zune and Creative and all the other players out there — iPod HAS the market sown up and all the others are ‘wannabes’; if it works in iTunes it will work in Zune or Creative or any other video player). But for those of you willing to try (and I believe you should, or else call me and I’ll do it for you…) the ‘how to’ is below. The whole point of me creating my videoblog is NOT to foist more of Lee Hopkins on the world (there is already enough sickness and madness in the world, no point adding to it) but to prove to you that creating something that iPod owners (who are the ‘movers, shakers and deal makers’ of the next generation) will download and watch is not hard. Note: I am assuming you are a business that uses Windows XP — if not, I apologise but the vast majority of my clients are, so I work from that base. Use your camcorder, mobile phone or a webcam (which is what I use - create a 320×240 video) to record your vidcast. Figure out in advance roughly what you are going to talk about then stick roughly to the script but have fun and improvise — let your true passion shine through! Record, have fun, save to disk (your pc); Open up Windows Movie Maker (free with WinXP both in the Pro and Home versions); Edit, cut bits out, add visual effects between shots, add sound effects if you have them (there are plenty of sound effects on the web — google them) and create a masterpiece (or a mess, it REALLY doesn’t matter as long as your passion for your subject shines through); Save the final masterpiece/mess as a file you can play on your pc (let the Movie Maker software sort out the best deal - stick with the recommendations); You will find that you have saved a .wmv file — bloody useless to the web world except for fellow Windows users who might want to download your masterpiece (unlikely) Download the free STOIK video converter, unzip and install; (and thanks to Jake for pointing me to it) Convert your masterpiece from wmv to avi (quite a quick process): Wander over to your local Apple website (e.g. in US it is Apple.com, in Australia it is Apple.com.au) and purchase a copy of QuickTimePro (US$29 / AUD$45) to be able to convert from avi to m4v (which is the iPod-preferred format); Use QuickTimePro to convert your avi file to m4v (which takes a mind-numbingly long time — go out and buy a nice big cappucchino from your local coffee shop while you wait, because you don’t want to be tying up your computer and slowing down the conversion process by attempting to do any PC work while the conversion is taking place); Once it is converted, double-check the file in your QuickTime player to ensure that your sparkling wit and dashing good looks are still there; Wander over to the iTunes store — check your country for the local offering; in Australia try iTunes.com.au Download iTunes to your own PC — honestly, you won’t regret it (you used to, but Apple have really paid attention to the local community and made it far less ‘crashy’ and ‘trashy’ than before); install and open up iTunes on your PC Find the ‘podcast’ section on the menu; Scroll down the page to the bottom and check out the ‘technical specifications’ bit to give you some peace of mind that I’m not leading you astray; (see also Apple’s tutorial) Have your designers (or some design-savvy consultant… ahem, me perhaps) create a suitable 300×300 pixel logo (examples: CommsCafe podcast logo / my vidblog logo) for use on your iTunes page (my iTunes page for my vidblog) Just above the ‘Tech specs’ link in your iTunes software is a link called ‘Submit a podcast’ — enter the link to your video podcast’s RSS feed (okay, that is a whole other story about getting an RSS feed for your podcast, and that’s why people pay me to sort it out for them; let’s assume you have a tech-savvy young gun on your payroll who does understand and can set an RSS feed up); yes, you will have to create an iTunes account if you don’t already have one; no, it is not a laborious process; yes, you should do it; Wait a couple of days; Once you receive confirmation that your vidblog has been accepted and approved, notify your clients that you are now on iTunes (they will think you are incredibly cool, because they have no idea how to do what you have just done but they also know they should be thinking about doing it); If you also want your video ‘playable’ on the web via Click.TV (and I suggest you do) then you need to convert your wmv file to flv — which you can do either with the free Riva FLV encoder or if your webdesigners or graphic studio have installed Macromedia Studio 8 they will have a copy of Flash 8 Video Encoder. You can use either to convert your file from .wmv to .flv which Click.TV needs (but again, go out for a cappucchino because its a s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-w process — my 7 minute video took around 80 minutes to convert; Follow the instructions on Click.TV to set up your video player on your blog or website (if you have a WordPress blog you need to read my previous post); VOILA! You are now a certified member of the digital literati — well done! Don’t stop now - keep creating new videos and build your audience. Remember, what they want to see/hear is very often not what you think they want (your smiling mug); instead they want content that will amuse, entertain, enlighten and educate. No, you don’t have to be drop-dead gorgeous to be a ‘talking head’ on a video podcast (after all, I’m no Heidi Miller), but you DO have to let your passion for your subject shine through! Remember what I always say: communicate with PASSION! Think about what sort of information you could convey via video… updates on new staff members (of interest to your clients, for sure) interviews YOU have with key industry players (good for your credibility) interviews with key clients (great for further cementing that relationship, plus if you do it well it doesn’t come across as sickeningly ’sucky’ but adds credibility to you — your credibility and reputation are strongly based on who you do business with!) interviews with staff — a ‘day in the life of…’ stories are great (think local inspectors, people who deal with people, people who deal with animals) Remember: your video doesn’t have to look like it’s got a multi-million dollar production budget behind it — in fact, that would work against you in the iPod world. Check out the Rumor Girls — they don’t have a big budget (you can tell) but they have one heck of an audience! Even if you are a business who sells services to other businesses, do not believe for one moment that your clients wouldn’t be interested in knowing what is going on ‘behind the scenes’ in your world. Don’t forget, the decision makers of the future already own iPods and they download video podcasts; if you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors you need to get into their iPods. Creating compelling, interesting, information-led, honest, passionate video podcasts about your industry and your company is the way to do it! If you want to see my video podcast (or vlog, or vodcast, or whatever else it is called this week), go to the iTunes store, pick up a copy of iTunes for your computer and subscribe to my video podcast. It will download and play in your iTunes software. If you have a video iPod, then it will sync with it and you can watch me (or even better, YOU!) whilst walking the dog. And so can your clients and prospects! Donna Papacosta, in a trans-global hookup with Allan Jenkins and I for one of his clients, hit the nail on the head when asked ‘why do it if your audience size is so small [compared to the readership of mainstream media]?’; Donna replied that it was because of ‘who’ her audience (her listeners to her podcast, the readers of her blog) were: they were influencers in her market, they were decision-makers, they were people as passionate about communication as she is. I can’t agree more — don’t worry that you don’t have thousands of people downloading your masterpiece! An audience of 10 is a powerful audience if they are exactly the niche people you want to reach and influence! Technorati : allan jenkins, ask jake, avi, click.tv, commscafe, content is king, donna papacosta, dove, heidi miller, ipod, itunes, jake luddington, m4v, quicktimepro, rumor girls, stoik video converter, vidblog, vidcast, video podcast, vlog, vodcast, wmv, youtube Powered by Zoundry
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gamer theory 2.0 - visualize this!
Call for participation: Visualize This! How can we ’see’ a written text? Do you have a new way of visualizing writing on the screen? If so, then McKenzie Wark and the Institute for the Future of the Book have a challenge for you. We want you to visualize McKenzie’s new book, Gamer Theory. Version 1 of Gamer Theory was presented by the Institute for the Future of the Book as a ‘networked book’, open to comments from readers. McKenzie used these comments to write version 2, which will be published in April by Harvard University Press. With the new version we want to extend this exploration of the book in the digital age, and we want you to be part of it. All you have to do is register, download the v2 text, make a visualization of it (preferably of the whole text though you can also focus on a single part), and upload it to our server with a short explanation of how you did it. All visualizations will be presented in a gallery on the new Gamer Theory site. Some contributions may be specially featured. All entries will receive a free copy of the printed book (until we run out). By “visualization” we mean some graphical representation of the text that uses computation to discover new meanings and patterns and enables forms of reading that print can’t support. Some examples that have inspired us: Brad Paley’s Text Arc Marcos Weskamp’s Newsmap Chirag Mehta’s US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud Kushal Dave’s Exegesis CNET News.com’s The Big Picture Visuwords online graphical dictionary Christopher Collins’ DocuBurst Stamen Design’s rendering of Kate Hayles’ Narrating Bits in USC’s Vectors Brian Kim Stefans’ The Dreamlife of Letters Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries Understand that this is just a loose guideline. Feel encouraged to break the rules, hack the definition, show us something we hadn’t yet imagined. All visualizations, like the web version of the text, will be Creative Commons licensed (Attribution-NonCommercial). You have the option of making your code available under this license as well or keeping it to yourself. We encourage you to share the source code of your visualization so that others can learn from your work and build on it. In this spirt, we’ve asked experienced hackers to provide code samples and resources to get you started (these will be made available on the upload page). Gamer 2.0 will launch around April 18th in synch with the Harvard edition. Read GAM3R 7H30RY 1.1. Download/upload page (registration required): web.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory2.0/viz/
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Online Publishing Platform Allows Full Syndication And Distribution Of Multimedia Content: Splashcast
Every week it seems to become a little bit easier to get involved in multimedia content delivery and syndication - whether through sharing videos using Youtube, photos through Flickr, or your thoughts using popular blogging platforms. The ability to upload, embed and easily share media content is now something we take for granted, but until now there hasn’t been an easy way to gather all of this content together into a personalized online channel. That is all about to change starting today. YouTube was revolutionary in that it made it easy for all kinds of people to quickly upload their home-made video content, and let other people embed the resulting videos straight into their blogs and websites, or watch it directly from YouTube. Services like Slideroll made it easy to add soundtracks to your photo collections, and SPresent took the pain out of putting together great looking, animated presentations online. They are all great in their way, but they stand alone, and the content made using these tools functions in discrete, one-off units. One video (or playlist), one slide show, one presentation. For those working in the field of video, Brightcove offers a great step forward in that it allows you to create your own Internet TV channel. This means that you can add video content as you go along, and the video player embedded in other peoples’ websites will update every time you add new content to your line up. In this sense, content becomes dynamic, something that is forever changing and updating rather than displaying the same one-off information over and over again. But what if the same idea were applied to a service that allowed you to create your own truly multimedia online channels featuring audio, images, video and text? And if this service allowed you not only to create multimedia content easily from your browser, but also pull it into your channel from all over the web, placing your favourite YouTube videos side by side with your own webcam introductions, photos, text and mp3s? What you’d have is the world’s first multimedia content delivery and syndication tool. Today, that tool was launched. In this full review of the service, I explain exactly how easy it is to put together your own content-rich, personalized Internet media channel. The details follow: Introducing Splashcast Splashcast - which officially launched in public beta at the DEMO conference today - is a media syndication service and more. The service offers an easy way for users to create and grab all kinds of media from around the web, and bring them together in an RSS-updated embeddable player. If you think of the feel and ease of use of the ubiquitous YouTube player, you will be in the right ballpark. The major difference is that Splashcast takes things a thousand miles further down the line, bringing all kinds of content under your control, whether photos, mp3 audio, text or Internet video. Effectively, Splashcast makes you both a presenter and curator of online media content, which you can gather into new contexts, for new audiences. In the following video introduction (1′ 49″), Splashcast’s Director of Content (and veteran tech blogger) Marshall Kirkpatrick talks you through the basics of what Splashcast is, and what it aims to do: The ultimate web widget What makes Splashcast so refreshing is the way that it combines the video-embedding trend popularized by YouTube with the flexibility, content syndication and ease of use of web widgets. A major breakthrough in the evolution of Web 2.0 has been the ability to easily share and recontextualize online media and data to suit the needs of different audiences at different times. By plugging different media players and micro-applications directly into websites and blogs, it has become a cinch to add rich content that adds value and interest to site visitors. But having a page full of separate videos, maps, RSS aggregators and other plug-in tools can be wearing on the most capable broadband connection, and there is something counterintuitive about placing videos and widgets in a vertical line down the body of a blog post or MySpace page. With the Splashcast player, you ultimately hand over more control to your site visitor, who instead of having to wait for six videos and a couple of widgets to load, can go straight to a single player and choose from a range of mixed-media content. Maybe they want to go through your photo-collection, or listen to a podcast you have put together, but then again, maybe all they are interested in is your selection of hand-picked YouTube videos. With Splashcast embedded into your website, it’s as simple as choosing from an intuitive channel guide that will be familiar to anyone that has ever used cable TV. What we have here is a simple way to have your content splashed out across the farthest reaches of the web, while keeping it totally under your control. Make one change from your console, and regardless of how many thousands of people have tapped into your online media channel, that content is going to be instantly updated in every single player. That’s quite an achievement on the part of the Splashcast team. Creating, syndicating and displaying content Putting content together has been made very easy indeed, and one of the things that really sets Splashcast apart is the range of media that you can draw on in creating your online channel. To break this down, you are given the option to use the following types of content:Audio files - which can be brought in from a URL, uploaded from your browser, or searched for from within Splashcast. Photos - which can be accessed in all of the same ways as audio files, with the addition of the ability to grab pictures directly from Flickr. Video - which can be uploaded, searched for, recorded directly from your webcam, or else grabbed from YouTube. Text - which is inputted directly into a familiar, easy to use WYSIWYG online text-editor. Any number of these files can uploaded to your ’show’, and sequenced as you see fit. You are also given the option of choosing whether there will be a fade in / fade out between discrete items, and if you would like items to auto-advance after a certain time, or wait for the user to click before moving to the next item in line. Sequencing your mixed media components is as simple as dragging and dropping them into the position you want them within your playlist. You might begin with a still photo, with accompanying background music (this is another option - the ability to choose a background music track that will play underneath your media elements), before moving onto a video, and finishing with a transcript or summary of the video. A fifth option allows you to bring whole RSS feeds in either from Flickr or YouTube. These can be put together using a range of parameters, including keyword and username searches that will bring back the content you are looking to collect. So if you have a collection of videos all gathered under a YouTube username, this provides a great shortcut for you to import the lot into a compilation ’show’. The ability to choose the size of the player will make this a great tool for the display of portfolios, web-comics and other visual media that will be able to make the most of the combination of still and motion elements. The biggest drawback with a lot of the current video sharing services is the inability to determine the size of the player window. Splashcast have taken a big step forward here, and offer player sizes that range from the standard 320 x 240 online video resolution right up to a much more accommodating 800 x 600. If it wasn’t enough that you can select from a vast range of preset sizes, it is also possible to create a player according to your own custom parameters. Given that different websites, and even types of content, call for differing display sizes, this seems like an essential aspect of online media publishing, and yet few others have picked up on it. Hopefully, those that emulate or draw on Spashcast’s well thought out design in the future will take this into account. In short, then, Splashcast makes it easy to quickly put together mixed-media, multi-file content from around the web, and bring it to a single destination. The Russian doll effect - granular differentiation of content Different users of the service will have different needs for it, and Splashcast offers a good degree of flexibility in terms of how it is used. Effectively, what you have is a granular means to either aggregate or differentiate your content. Content is ordered on four basic levels, one nested inside the other like a Russian doll:Discrete media files - your starting point for any use of Splashcast is the raw material you will either source from elsewhere, or record directly into the console. Initially what you have is a bunch of photos, video, audio and text with not much of a relationship. Shows - these items are now arranged using a simple drag and drop interface, so that you create a sequence for the media clips to run in. This is where aggregation comes into play, as you gather content from around the web and bring it together in a new context of your making, whether that be skateboarding mishaps or political commentary. Finally, you have a show. For some people, this will be as far as they need to go in differentiating and forging an identity for their content. Channels - for those looking to diversify and specify their content even more precisely, you can next arrange your shows into their own channels. You might have a gadget review show, game review show and Web 2.0 application review show all gathered together under the banner of a tech review channel, for instance. This gives you a further opportunity to create choice within a specific niche, as your content grows. Players - channels are then gathered into players, which you can select the size of. Should you finally end up creating more content than even your channels can contain, you can make selections of your channels within different players. Furthermore, by being able to create different players you are not only given the opportunity to create different contexts for your aggregated work, but also to allow for different player sizes, depending upon the needs of your audience. What I want to point out here is that Splashcast is very scalable, and will readily adapt to the needs of both the social networking crowd, and those looking to put together professionally produced or aggregated mixed-media content. If this all makes it sound needlessly complicated, and all you are really looking for is the ability to throw together some YouTube clips and put them on your MySpace page, Splashcast will not give you any problems in doing so. In fact, the whole process feels very intuitive. Nevertheless, should you wish to use Splashcast to create an independent network of syndicated content, this is also well within the service’s reach. In short, then, Splashcast is incredibly scalable and has been built to cater to a range of users. The interface The Splashcast console’s interface has been well thought through, and will take you step by step through the process of adding, switching and tracking the success of your content. The very clear graphical dimension of the interface features colourful, easily identifiable icons that leave little room for confusion. If I want to add video content, I click on the movie camera, and make my selection from the well illustrated list of video options. I feel confident that I could find my way around the console if it was written entirely in a different language, and that is a good thing in terms of overall usability. In addition to the use of these clear icons, text-box hints appear for almost anything on screen that my cursor rolls-over, so that I am constantly being guided through the process of putting together my custom media channel. There is never a point in the process that - even as a complete newcomer to the service - I feel out of my depth, or confused as to what I should be doing next. There are a good few media sharing services that could learn a thing or two here. Putting together a selection of media files to make a ’show’ is drag-and-drop easy, and importing these media components - from your own computer, or from an online source - is made utterly painless from start to finish. From the end-user perspective, the Splashcast player itself is well designed. All menu options fade away if I move my cursor outside of the player’s window, which allows for full, uninterrupted images and video. With the cursor inside the window, I gain access to the usual video controls, the ability to quickly skip back and forth from one media file to the next (rather like skipping scenes on a DVD player), along with menu controls that allow me to subscribe to the channel, leave comments along with a number of other options. What I’d like to see next It’s hard to find room for critique of what is already a very polished and well put-together service, despite having only just entered the public beta phase. The fact that the service is in the early stages of its beta release means that there are still some questions waiting to be answered. Chief among them for independent media publishers will be the issue of monetization. As YouTube have just announced their intended use of advertising, and the resultant revenue-sharing they have planned, it seems that monetization is no longer something that can be ignored by Web 2.0 start-up companies. At the time of writing, the Splashcast team have not arrived at a monetization model, although they have expressed an interest in avoiding pre- and post-roll advertising - the insertion of videos or advertising images before or after a clip. At this stage that certainly isn’t a problem, and it makes good sense for the service to build an active community and develop their service before deciding on such an important issue. However, in a competitive marketplace consumers (and especially those looking to produce professional quality content) are increasingly coming to expect compensation for their work. Given that Splashcast has such rich potential for the creation of entire mixed-media networks, channels and shows, this would definitely seem like an important step for them to consider before too long. In conclusion Splashcast’s chief appeal is in its ability to bring together a range of content, regardless of medium, and recontextualize it for specific audiences. By putting at your finger tips an easy-to-use toolkit for the creation and aggregation of text, audio, photo and video based content Splashcast have succeeded in creating a unique venture with a whole lot of appeal. Added to this groundbreaking creation of the world’s first multimedia content delivery and syndication player, the inclusion of RSS at the heart of the service is the cherry on the cake. What this effectively means is that as a content producer, you can change, update and overhaul your content from a single online destination, and have the resulting content instantly relayed to your global online audience. Every show, every change in your line-up, every addition to your network will be instantly beamed to the Splashcast players embedded in the websites of your audience. Now that it’s here, it all seems so obvious - but then, the best inventions always do. Reading blogs site visitors have come to expect the ability to receive instantaneous updates every time new content is published. They have also come to expect the inclusion of rich media components, whether in the form of mp3 players, embedded video, or any number of web widgets. The age of text and scant images are coming to a close. What makes Splashcast so groundbreaking is that it brings these expectations to the world of multimedia. Now I come to think of it, why shouldn’t my media players update as often as my news feeds? Why shouldn’t I be able to bring my photo collection into dialogue with a video I just shot, and that video into contrast with last night’s TV news? Splashcast have taken the mashup and made it as accessible as Internet video. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to come up with next. Additional resources If this review has made you hungry for more information about Splashcast, you might want to take a look at the following websites:The Splashcast website TechCrunch’s preview of the service last November Technorati search feed on Splashcast
Source: www.masternewmedia.org

Regularly Scheduled Linkdump - Sexy, Funny, Celebrity and Tech links for 2006-12-27
Erin McNaught does FHM Magazine (tags: Erin McNaught does FHM Magazine) The Sexy Pamela Camassa Does Fox Magazine (tags: Sexy Pamela Camassa Fox Magazine) Lindsay Lohan s 2006 Partying + Cocaine & Alcohol Time Line (tags: Lindsay Lohan s 2006 Partying) Britney Spears s chronic boozing takes a harsh toll on her looks (tags: Britney Spears) Britney Spears continues her out-of-control antics Pop beauty Britney Spears continued her out-of-control antics during a drinking spree at Hollywood s trendy Le Deux nightclub Wednesday night, Dec. 20 reports Star Magazine. Britney was drunk off her ass. She was completely trashed. She couldn t walk (tags: Britney Spears) Keith Urban Cheats on Nicole Kidman, with Amanda Wyatt ? Just months after slamming rumors of banging a hooker during a booze filled bachelor party, ex-coke user Keith Urban has been accused of cheating Sexy Amanda Wyatt says that Urban was unfaithful to his superstar wife, Nicole Kidman throughout their cou (tags: Keith Urban Cheats on Nicole Kidman) Not So Blind Item: Ray-J Sex Tape with Kim Kardashian or Superhead? Desperate times call for desperate measures! Sources say a certain R&B singer, who has never really caught a major break, is peddling an X-rated home video to adult entertainment companies in hopes that it will do for his career what it has done for Paris (tags: Kim Kardashian Superhead Ray-J Sex Tape) Seal and Snowbunny in Aspen Seal and his sexy snowbunny model wife Heidi Klum were spotted over the Holiday in Aspen where they are vactioning with their kids. For some reason, I think this couple will last longer than the typical Hollywierd shelf life of 1-3 years. (tags: Seal) Cheating Michael Jordan Just Can t Call Timeout with the Ladies NBA great Michael Jordan hit town last week and played the role of ultimate wingman for friends like Derek Jeter and Patrick Ewing. First, Jordan had a dinner at Tao with Ewing and Charles Oakley, where the trio rang up a tab upward of $1,000 and tipped (tags: Michael Jordan) Video: The Killers - A Great Big Sled (tags: Killers) Beyonce in New York (tags: Beyonce) Britney Can t Handle Her Drink Alcohol had a Toxic effect on Brit at the popular Hollywood club Les Deux, for after downing drinks till about 2 AM, she puked all over the place the former Princess of Pop also made such a mess that no one wanted to clean it up [The] singer s han (tags: Britney) Sam Heuston Crotchless Panty Upskirt. (tags: Sam Heuston) Jennifer Lopez See Through Boob Shot From Christmas Past (tags: Jennifer Lopez) Kid Rock Visits Troops in Iraq for Christmas (tags: Kid Rock) GIRLS GONE .NOT SO WILD (tags: GIRLS) BEACH BODY ALERT: JESSICA BIEL EDITION (tags: JESSICA BIEL) Eddie Murphy s Worst Nightmare Mel B pulled out the big guns in her ongoing paternity suit with Eddie Murphy and hired some hot shot lawyer I never heard of who represented Cher, Fleetwood Mac and Meatloaf. That must have been back in the 70s. Anyway, she want half Ed-die! (tags: Eddie Murphy) REVEALED! THE DISHY, SCANDALOUS DETAILS BEHIND THE DONALD-MISS USA SCANDAL! (tags: DONALD-MISS USA SCANDAL) OOPS! BRITNEY BINGE DRANK AGAIN DON T READ THIS IF YOU RE EATING RIGHT NOW! (tags: BRITNEY BINGE) Paris Hilton Gets Googled [edstrong.blog-city.com] Paris Hilton has topped the list of Google news searches for 2006! I mean, can you believe it? (tags: Paris Hilton) Google Holiday Doodle 2006 count the seconds till new year right on the Google homepage (tags: Google Holiday Doodle 2006) Kid Rock s XXXMas in Iraq If there was ever a dude that appealed to the troops, it s Kid Rock . The Detroit native got to bang Pamela Anderson , gets to screw tons of groupies, and he rocks out! Rock just spent five days visiting the troops in Baghdad and Kuwait, giving hope to ou (tags: Kid Rock) Milena Roucka - Random Hot Chick of the Day (tags: Milena Roucka) Saddam to Hang: American Mob Lynching The real reason he s been sentenced to death is because he dared to challenge US foreign policy and to condemn its Zionist ally. He stood against US hegemony in the face of a decade of bullying, blackmail and collective punishment by foreign powers. (tags: Saddam) Use 8GB SDHC cards with Treo 650 and Treo 700p What s so great about SDHC? Well, it can hold up to 8GB capacity at the moment, and there are already a few relatively affordable cards out in the market. For example, you can buy the 8GB 60x Class 2 SDHC Secure Digital Card by Ultra from Amazon at just (tags: Treo 650 and 700p) Palm - Support - Infrared (IR) Software Update for Treo 700p Smartphones This software update is designed to resolve an issue when using the IR port on Treo 700p smartphones with certain 3rd party devices. Once installed, the Treo 700p smartphone will work as expected. (tags: software treo Infrared (IR) Software Update) Amazon.com: Ultra 8GB 60x Class 2 SDHC Secure Digital Card: Electronics Ultra 8GB 60x Class 2 SDHC Secure Digital Card (tags: Ultra 8GB 60x Class 2 SDHC Secure Digital Card: Electronics) Paris Hilton @ Seductive Photoshoot Paris Hilton @ Seductive Photoshoot (tags: Paris Hilton) Paris Hilton Bikini Pictures Hmm there is something very odd about these Paris Hilton bikini pictures. For instance, where are all the people at the beach and why is she sunbathing alone? One begins to wonder that perhaps these pictures aren t authentic candids and just a staged (tags: Paris Hilton Bikini Pictures) Top Ten Sex Questions of 2006 What are people really thinking about sex? When they can ask sex questions and get answers with anonymity, what do they really want to know? Taking the sexual pulse of any society is near impossible. How can we distinguish media hype from actual experienc (tags: Top Ten Sex Questions of 2006) 2006 Sex Blog Awards Actually, this is not really a sex blog (thank goodness or it would be very boring!) but if you want to nominate me for Sexiest Sex Blogger, be my guest. I would recommend surfing on over to Viviane s Sex Carnival for most of my favorite sex bloggers both (tags: 2006 Sex Blog Awards) Beach Gallery (tags: Beach Gallery) Toyota 400HP hybrid sportscar / 0-60 in 4sec / $35,000 = Nice knowin ya GM (tags: Car cars Concept hybrid Toyota 400HP sportscar) Photos of iPAD Tower in Dubai (tags: architecture) Flaws Detected in Microsoft s Vista (tags: vista security windows software microsoft) Paypal announces FREE Virtual Debit Card - throwaway online credit cards Those of you that are jealous of the Visa throwaway credit card that creates a new unique one-time use number for your online transactions can stop worrying, anyone can now get on the fun! Paypal will offer this service FREE to all users once it leaves be (tags: paypal Security SHOPPING web) The Reason Why Widescreen is Better (tags: widescreen movie movies tv DVD hardware video) Paint.NET Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. It started development as an undergraduate college (tags: software graphics freeware Photo tools Free images) Convert PDF + TXT Files To An MP3 Recording Using a few tools such as Mp3 My Mp3 which I previously demonstrated could easily record Skype calls, you can turn PDF and text files into an mp3 file. Mp3 My Mp3 records sound directly from the sound card, so it should be noted that you can t have any (tags: MP3 pdf howto audio recording Hack RSS) Google Predictions, 2007 Google had an exciting year in 2006 stealing headlines with almost everything they did, even if the news wasn t particularly exciting. Will the excitement carry forward in 2007? Like most of you, I don t know, but I have a few predictions about what w (tags: google 2007 prediction enterprise apps blog health) Permanently Activate Windows Vista by Skip Activation with Patched TimerStop.sys Crack Hackers are going all out to crack Windows Vista activation procedure which is enhanced by Software Protection Platform (SPP). (tags: vista WINDOWS crack activation hack) Naomi Campbell s Nude Livescan Gazelle-legged, phone-brandishing, housecleaner-disciplining glamazon Naomi Campbell took a much-needed break from her anger management classes to train her genetically perfect snarl back toward a camera for a few hours, and posed nekkid for photographer (tags: Naomi Campbell s Nude Livescan ) Global Orgasm For Peace (tags: Global Orgasm For Peace) Taschen s Big Book Of Breasts (tags: Boobs books) Jelena Veljaca Sex tape Jelena Veljaca is a Croatian soapstar, but if we take a good look at her home made sextape she could easily have been a (future) pornstar. Jelena has neither confirmed nor denied being the peson in the tape. We feel she should not feel ashamed and simply (tags: Jelena Veljaca Sex tape) Prehistory of Netporn The word Amateur in connection to Porno has always been used. But in the early days of Netporn it was popularised along with another one, Action. Amateur Action (AA) has been the most popular porno BBS ever, and it has an interesting history. Launched in (tags: Prehistory of Netporn) Denise Richards & Neve Campbell - Oh Yeah Video Denise Richards & Neve Campbell (tags: Denise Richards & Neve Campbell Video) Console Websurfing Test: Wii vs PS3 (tags: hardware web wii) Your Wii and the secrets it holds (tags: Wii) YouTube - DONALD TRUMP VS. ROSIE DONALD TRUMP VS. ROSIE (tags: DONALD VS. ROSIE funny Trump video)
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My Experiences with Windows Vista and Why I m Still Using XP
Yesterday Bill Gates announced to some of the CES attendees some features that will be part of the Windows Extras. One of the new features that really stood out to me was the Windows DreamScene which allows you to add videos (MPEG and WMV) to your desktop to give an extremely unique experience. This is truly something that I would love to be able to do because it adds another dimension to your Windows desktop. There is one thing though…it requires Windows Aero to be enabled which means your graphics card needs to support it. If you don’t have Windows Aero you’ll be able to position stationary images on your desktop for a more customized experience…but it doesn’t quite stack up to the videos. Checkout this video that Microsoft posted on their new Windows Vista Ultimate site: <a href=”http://www.windowsultimate.com/photos/storage/extras/dreamscenesmall.wmv”><img src=”http://www.windowsultimate.com/photos/storage/extras/dreamscene.png” border = “0″ width=”460″ height=”260″></a><br /><a href = “http://www.windowsultimate.com/photos/storage/extras/dreamscenesmall.wmv”>View Video</a><br />Format: wmv<br />Duration: 00:16 I had used Windows Vista RC2 for several months as my primary operating system. Within the last week I finally decided to take the plunge back to Windows XP. There are several reasons that I did this, but the biggest is that my primary PC did not support Windows Aero. Without having Windows Aero I think users will lose out on “the ultimate” (no pun intended) Vista experience. There are several things, like Flip-3D and the new DreamScene, that normal users will never be able to experience without upgrading their PC’s. The transparency that can also be enabled around the Windows is something that I can live without, but some of the features that go along with Aero take away from the “wow factor” that undoubtedly impresses people. Now what about the theme that non-Aero users get to use? It is called Windows Vista Basic and it isn’t exactly to my liking either. It is a light blue theme that can be seen in screenshots that I have taken over the past few months like this one. I wouldn’t say that it is horrible, but Microsoft offers no color choices like users had when Windows XP was released (blue, silver, or olive). Color adjustments can be made if you enable Aero in Windows Vista, but then again your graphical hardware needs to support it. Not being able to use Aero isn’t the only reason that Vista isn’t installed on my computers. The last release that I was able to get my hands on from Microsoft was Vista RC2 which was by far the most improved release at the time. As time went on, and I installed more and more of my favorite software, I started receiving various prompts of important Windows services crashing and having to be restarted. Then while submitting a crash report it would tell me that this was a known bug and has been fixed in the final release of Vista. That’s great to know, but that doesn’t help me at that time because I am still stuck with a pre-release version that doesn’t have a patch available to fix the problem. I managed to work through a lot of small issues like this enough to continue using Vista for several months. Now I’m sure that the result of some of the crashes is not directly a result of the operating system, and has more to do with me installing a bunch of my “XP only” applications. Applications are slowly shifting towards officially becoming Vista compatible, but there are still so many that have not released updates or patches to make sure their programs work correctly. For example, iTunes works great for me in Vista…except when it tries to update my Podcasts. That will cause the whole application to freeze up. That was really hard to troubleshoot at first, trying to figure out why iTunes would freeze every time it started. I’ve stumbled upon several other applications (especially screencasting software) that initially appears to work great, but after digging a little deeper you’ll find that it might not be as perfect as you thought. To review software on the site I also find myself installing and uninstalling things frequently. Windows XP never had that much of an issue with that happening, but then again, the applications I were testing were designed to work with Windows XP. In Vista I found my PC becoming slower and slower over time until it got so slow that I felt like my computer was 160MHz instead of 1.6GHz. Vista has slightly different folder structures (especially for user’s profiles) so the uninstallation process of the applications would probably silently receive errors that would eventually lead to the demise of my Vista installation. So what do I miss from Vista now that I am back to XP? Search! Vista has an astonishing search system built-in throughout the operating system. Finding files, folders, and just about anything else has never been so quick and easy. One prime example of this is in the Control Panel where you can start typing the name of an option you are looking to change and it will return a list of Control Panel results that match the option you want to change. With Vista’s search engine you are also able to instantly search other Vista PC’s since everything gets indexed…so the results are near instantaneous. Secondly, I miss the Windows Update feature. I never opened Internet Explorer (well, maybe when testing for website compatibility but that’s it) because Windows Updates were performed through the Control Panel rather than through the browser. Not that I go to the Windows Update site often, but it was nice not having to open a different Web browser just to see if there were any optional updates that were worth while. The thumbnails and preview feature in Vista was also a really great and something I already find myself missing terribly. It would always give me a sneak peak at a PowerPoint presentation, an image, or a text file…all without ever having to open the document or picture. Vista also doesn’t create those dreaded “thumbs.db” files which quickly become annoying in XP if you want to use thumbnails in your folders. There are a lot more features that I have fallen in love with in Vista, but I’ll save that for my review. Hopefully I am able to write that review on a PC with Aero enabled because then I will be able to share a better experience that involves a larger array of features. Will I ever go back to Vista? There is no doubt in my mind that I will, but it probably won’t be until some of the software developers release updates to their applications which should happen shortly after the January 30th consumer launch. Not only that but I am going to hold off until I purchase a new laptop (hopefully later this year) that can handle the graphical demands of Aero, and to me that is very important. At that time I’m sure all of my favorite software will work flawlessly on Vista, and the hardware will be much more compatible as well. Vista is a great operating system, but I think they should have put some more focus on making features for the non-Aero theme as well. Of course, almost all new computers will be able to support Aero so it isn’t that big of a deal since a lot of consumers wouldn’t go out to purchase Vista separately. Since I plan on upgrading our laptops soon there is no sense in going out to upgrade the operating system separately, so we’re going to hold off for a little while.Read more and comment: tech.cybernetnews.com/2007/01/08/my-experiences-with-windows-vistaand-why-im-still-using-xp/Related Posts:Zooomr Experiences DOS Attack - New Version DelayedFirefox Experiences Continued Growth With More than 15% of the U.S. MarketUh Oh! GMail Experiences Some Outages And Data LossCyberDays: A Funny Look Back At Windows 1.0 To VistaReview Of Symantec pcAnywhere 12
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Art and Design
This episode is work safe.As you listen to this episode you may be driving in your car, you might be at work or maybe you’re at the gum working out. Wherever you may be, you are surrounded by art and design. Your steering wheel, the lid of your coffee cup, the cover of your favorite magazines, your computer, your MP3 player, the billboards and buildings around you, all have been meticulously crafted. All of them have been designed to provide form and function. Each one of them, in their own way, is a work of art.This episode features interviews with Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief of I.D. Magazine; video artist Benton C. Bainbridge; minimal sculptor John Powers; graphic artist and illustrator Alejandro Fuentes; and Frances Anderton, host of KCRW’s Design and Architecture.Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief of I.D. MagazineJulie Lasky is the editor-in-chief of I.D. Magazine. Julie Lasky was previously the editor of Interiors and the managing editor at PRINT. During her tenure as editor of I.D. Magazine, the magazine has earned four consecutive National Magazine Award nominations. She is the recipient of a Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program fellowship; a Richard J. Margolis Award for journalism; and was a Journalism Scholar in 1995 atNorthwestern University. Lasky’s essays and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The American Scholar and Forward.Benton-C BainbridgeBenton-C Bainbridge is a Bronx-based artist who has worked with video as a painterly and performable medium for nearly 25 years. Using custom digital, analog and optical systems, Benton-C makes movies as a dialog in an emerging global language.John PowersJohn Powers is a minimalist sculptor based in New York.Alejandro FuentesAlejandro Fuentes works in the apparel industry as a graphic designer/illustrator and moonlights as a creative artist.Frances Anderton, Design and ArchitectureFrances Anderton along with hosting DnA, is a producer for Warren Olney’s Which Way, L.A.? and To the Point on KCRW. In addition, Anderton is the LA Editor for Dwell magazine and a contributor to The New York Times and other publications.The incidental music on today’s show was provided by Lamplighter, Splinters and Choncey Langford, courtesy of Woodson Lateral Records.Click to download the enhanced version of this podcast.
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Keywords: Printing,Publishing,Graphic Design,Printing,Color Copies,Publishing