smays.com

Weekend Update

No, I didn't piss away the weekend. I put together a little page indexing my fledgling video efforts. One future project will be to do something in ten seconds. I also started reading Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. "In the 25th century, it's difficult to die a final death. Humans are issued a cortical stack, implanted into their bodies, into which consciousness is "digitized" and from which-unless the stack is hopelessly damaged-their consciousness can be downloaded ("resleeved") with its memory intact, into a new body." Another good book (series, actually) about life and death is Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer. Take a moment to read the review on Amazon. Or check out this fan page.

Because she's hot.

The sum of all human knowledge at your fingertips, and you're searching for "Britney Spears". Rebranding.

Note to self.

Don't invite Scott and Andy to dinner until after the war. Unfortunately, neither of these nimrods offer perma-links so don't dawdle.

Blogging from Baghad?

I have no idea if this is the real deal. But if it is, well, it's kind of amazing. Or maybe not. If it IS legit --and at least one person has done some research-- it's just such a good example of blogging.

"...half an hour ago the oil filled trenches were put on fire. First watching Al-jazeera they said that these were the places that got hit by bombs from an air raid a few miniutes earlier bit when I went up to the roof to take a look I saw that there were too many of them, we heard only three explosions. I took pictures of the nearest. My cousine came and told me he saw police cars standing by one and setting it on fire. Now you can see the columns of smoke all over the city."

Assume for the sake of discussion this what it appears to be. No governments. No big news organizations. Just some guy in a city under attack, publishing his thoughts, feelings, whatever... to the entire world. The Internet has changed/is changing the world and blogging is an important part of that change.

Sunny & Warm.

Barb is attending the first meeting of the homeowners association. This is looking like a better idea all the time.

Tall, sweaty, high school girls.

The Iowa Girls State High School Basketball Tournament is underway in Des Moines. I joined Radio Iowa Sports Director Todd Kimm for the game between Regina and Tri-Center (?). As a sporting event, it was damned exciting. But everywhere I looked... young, high school Amazons. I found someone with Security and asked them to escort me from the building. But not before shooting some video. It'll take me a week or two to work it up but I'll post something here.

The First Fifty-Five

I always thought bios were pretty dumb until I read William Gibson's. Summarizing your life in a few paragraphs might leave one a little depressed (mind did not) but, like a will, seems like something everyone should do. And a birthday is probably as good a time as any.

World of Ends.

Doc Searls and David Weinberger explain some Net fundementals. "When we look at utility poles, we see networks as wires. And we see those wires as parts of systems: The phone system, the electric power system, the cable TV system. When we listen to radio or watch TV, we're told during every break that networks are sources of programming being beamed through the air or through cables. But the Internet is different. It isn't wiring. It isn't a system. And it isn't a source of programming."

1. The Internet isn't complicated
2. The Internet isn't a thing. It's an agreement.
3. The Internet is stupid.
4. Adding value to the Internet lowers its value.
5. All the Internet's value grows on its edges.
6. Money moves to the suburbs.
7. The end of the world? Nah, the world of ends.
8. The Internets three virtues:
- a. No one owns it
- b. Everyone can use it
- c. Anyone can improve it
9. If the Internet is so simple, why have so many been so boneheaded about it?
10. Some mistakes we can stop making already

Blogging from Jan's bedroom. It's her birthday and there's a bunch of really loud people in the next room. Halley said this was fun and she was right.

Feel like shit.

Look like shit. As far as I can tell, the only difference between working at the office and working at home is the Golden Retreiver between my feet.

Oh shit

In 1989 the company I work for hired a great big helicopter to move our great big satellite uplink dish. Matt Lear videotaped the event. I've taken the liberty of editing his original footage and adding some voice-over by Chief Engineer Charlie Peters. Runs about 1:50. Might take a while if you're on dial-up and you'll need latest Media Player codec.

Six Feet Under

returns to HBO tonight. Season #3.

Just pretend I'm not here.

Spent most of one morning last week at an elementary school near Kansas City, videotaping pre-schoolers. Part of project for one of our advertisers. The jury is still out (and asking for their jammies) on whether I'll wind up with anything usable. Didn't think I'd be able to shoot kids at all, given concern for privacy. But several of the classes had signed media releases back at the beginning of the school year.

Telling a story with consumer video gear is more difficult...and easier...than I expected. My current strategy is to just shoot lots and lots of video. Make as many mistakes as possible, as quickly as possible. Next piece you're likely to see here is The Great Satellite Disaster. As Charlie points out, nobody died, so it's not much of a disaster. Matt Lear shot the video in 1989 so it's just an editing project for me. Amazing how quickly you can take 15 minutes down to two. I promised him he'd get first look and with his permission I'll post here in a day or so.

Laptop News Gathering System.

ABC News and the BBC have licensed new technology that will enable journalists covering Iraq can easily send back broadcast-quality video back home via the Internet or satellite phones. It compresses video files at high bit rates to achieve broadcast-quality playback. Full story on CNET

Radio Influenced by the Internet. CBS MarketWatch's Internet Daily newsletter did an interesting story about a new service for radio stations, which tracks music files being transferred across the Internet via peer-to-peer networking services like Kazaa and Gnutella. It's designed to help radio stations know which songs are most popular among online-music fans -- thus, it could influence what you hear on music radio -- and be an early warning system to identify new artists who are building up strong followings.

Journalists With Photo Phones. The CBBC Newsround kids TV news show sent a reporter equipped with a photo phone to the Brits music awards ceremony. Here are the results. The BBC is definitely a trend leader here in adopting the latest technology for journalism purposes.

Found the items above at CyberJournalist.net ; E-Media Tidbits ; and Online Journalism Review .