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.