Dave Morris shows off the HP Elite webcam. This little bugger ($60?) does face-tracking and auto-zoom/auto-focus. The audio on this demo is with a pro mic, however. Not sure what you get on the webcam
Update: I misunderstood. Dave says the audio was recorded with the webcam’s on board mic.
Side note: I’m surprised the Blogger video didn’t offer option of embedding. Perhaps Dave simply didn’t have that enabled.
This might be the most painful five minutes of video ever recorded. It features an old friend, Leigh Mullen. I grew up with her husband Larry and shared some of my best times with one or both of them. As so often happens, we lost touch over the years. This photo is from their wedding.
Leigh has resurfaced in this YouTube video (shot by her son Will) of her trying to free her (middle) finger, which somehow got super glued to a vent behind her bathroom toilet. This is a powerful testament to patience, good humor and long-suffering mothers everywhere.
Podcating News points to (and excerpts) CIOZone article that takes a look at the IT strategy behind Obama’s campaign, which includes Chris Hughes, who was one of the three co-founders of Facebook and now runs the campaign’s my.barackobama.com, which itself is a sort of social network.
"The Web site allows the campaign to be “owned by the masses,” Spinner says, but he encourages even big donors to complete the transaction through the Web site, saving himself the time it would take to drive to their home or office to collect a check. Although hillaryclinton.com eventually matched most of the features of barackobama.com, the Obama campaign embraced the Web more enthusiastically and fielded many of those capabilities about six months ahead of the competition, Spinner says. “The DNA of everyone working on the Obama campaign is very much a startup mentality, where what matters is how you build it, how fast you roll it out, and how you tie it together.”
Six months. A long time in the online world. Will be interesting to see how the McCain campaign does in this space.
A man of character in peace is a man of courage in war. — Sir James Glover
When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends. — Japanese Proverb
Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter. — Paxton Hood
Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. — Unknown
Civilizations in decline are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity. — Arnold Toynbee (1889 – 1975)
The character of a man is known from his conversations. — Menander (342 BC – 292 BC)
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
"Never discuss religion or politics." It was one of the few rules I set for myself that I actually followed.
I’m not a fan of organized religion so it hasn’t been difficult to avoid talking about it. The same was true for politics until Obama began running for president. Sure, I’d been bashing Bush for years but it was only when I came out for Obama that friends started trying to pull me into mini-debates.
In my enthusiasm for Obama and the better future I hope he represents, I broke my rule and engaged in these discussions. Big mistake.
Looking back, I now see the point –the only point– of these encounters was to convince the other guy he was wrong. Even with friends, there was a negative undertone to these discussions. I’d go in feeling up and positive… and come out down and negative.
So I’ve decided to avoid discussing politics. We can talk about anything else you want… my sex life, books and films, The Office, whatever. But no politics.
I’ll post on political topics here, but that’s strictly therapeutic. I don’t expect anyone to read these posts and, frankly, discourage it. smays.com has always been, first and foremost, a personal journal. A place to write some things down.
There. I feel better already. You should, too.
“In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down — my opinion. Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.”
I bought a Flip Ultra video camera last week, just to play with and show friends. Henry has it now and I can’t wait to see what he (an extremely talented professional digital artist) comes up with. Everybody that sees this little gadget seems to love it.
And now there’s a smaller/cuter/cooler version. The Flip Mino is 40% smaller than the Ultra and comes with 2GB of memory (records up to one hour of video). Pick one up at Amazon for $179. Shit. If I had waited a week…
Lightning started a fire at the Magellan Petroleum factory in Kansas City, MO and uber-blogger Chuck Zimmerman share this video shot from the downtown Marriott hotel.
As the days dwindle down to a precious few, Bill Clinton is bringing back fond memories of those early American Idol try-outs. You know the ones I mean. A large woman (seems like it was usually a woman) comes storming out of the audition room, pushing past Ryan Seacrest screaming, "Fuck Simon! Fuck him!" At least that’s what I assume she was screaming. Idol producers bleeped the audio and covered her mouth with a little "censored" sign so we couldn’t read her lips (Did she say "Freak you,Simon!? What does that mean?").
Maybe Hillary can be the Syesha Mercado of the primary contest. Go out with a little style. A little class.
I’m telling you, this will make one hell of a movie if and when someone good gets around to making it. Like, oh… how about Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Maybe get John Travolta to play Bill. You know who would be good as Hillary? That British actress… what’s her name? Emma Thompson! She’d be perfect.
A little gem from “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story,” the new autobiography of retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the onetime commander of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Following the the killing of the four contractors in Fallujah in 2004, W tried to go all George C. Patton in a video conference with his national security team and generals:
“Kick ass!” he quotes the president as saying. “If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.”
“There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”
Can you imagine being in combat with dick-wad like Bush commanding your unit?