Cafe Bucky

Not sure why it took me so long to get around to seeing Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”. Time has not diminished it …

Very moving & effective ….

I just noticed that Thomas Dolby is a bloggin’. Science! It’s good to get the look into the creative process. Check out his video clip from the TED Conference.

Over on the video and digital media side, check out What Alex Lindsay is doing. He’s leading up to a 1080p videocast called MacBreak. The first few episodes are wonderfully video geeked out, and I can’t claim to understand it all. It’s a subject that I wish I could take a year off and dive into. Alex is also doing a podcast called “This Week In Media”.

Two Pioneers!

So I was wondering why my PowerBook was down to 5gb of space. It’s very simple: dl.tv with Robert and Patrick is a video podcast, and they’re frikken prolific with the 45 minute shows. Those guys are taking up 7gb of my space! It’ll all resolve when I start commute busing to the City, armed with a Video iPod. Then I’ll catch up. Scouts Honor, I will.

Of course, that leads to the question of When to get a video iPod. The idea of a touch screen that’s 3x bigger is very appealing. But maybe it’s vapor. It seems real enough, and close enough (April 1st, perhaps?) to wait. Decisions x 2.

Huh? It’s Super Bowl Sunday? Oh, yes. That.

At some earlier point, I used to care about the NFL and the Super Bowl. I was a big 49′ers fan (sitting in the rain at Candlestick for a big game versus Green Bay was a highlight - going to a couple of Championship parades down Market Street, etc.)

But then I went to 6 World Cup games at Stanford in 1994 … I probably have more of a handle on what’s happening in the English Premier League than the NFL. Maybe the sports authorities will have me deported to the UK for some sort of Unpatriotic League Allegiance. Yeah, and I much prefer to Formula One to NASCAR! (ed note: digging a hole here.. just got dropped from a lot of party invites) In both cases, I’d say the level of skill is higher! (ed note: well, that’ll do it, just got added to lists of parties involving English, Brazilian, Dutch, Italian, and German fans).

But aside from all that, I’ll watch the Game for the Ads. I’ll also root for Seattle, because I love that town - almost bought a house in Green Lake once. By the way, Pittsburgh, I like your Warhol Museum and the river and hills, and hope to visit again someday.

Go Madison Avenue! Go Seahawks!

So CBS has decided to do downloadable shows …. Let’s see if they understand this brave new world. For the most part, Apple’s got it down. So what about CBS?

The Ondemand page gives an overview of the service. Let’s see what we can do with it:

• You can download a show at midnight after it airs
• The files are about 600mb for ~45-50 minutes, so the quality is likely to be decent

… and.. that’s about it!

There are a number of things about their plan that indicate they haven’t done their homework:

• Windows only - Windows Media with DRM. No Mac or Linux. Strike One!
• Can’t play on portable media devices, such as the Video iPod. Strike Two!
• It’s a rental?! The show expires after 24 hours?! Are they not looking at the iTunes video store? Strike Three!

It’s astounding, right? :-) Never mind that all they have is “Survivor”. It’s a bit like they’re dipping a hangnail in the water. Hopefully they’ll get it right in their next iteration. In the meantime, they’re providing a great example of what not to do in the downloadable content space.

Updated!

And let’s not forget the Beer!

I have a wild idea for a party: mix Social, Creative, and Tech types for an evening, and have fun digitizing the gig itself. A main goal is cross-pollination: someone who knows GarageBand can talk to the person that can edit video - a photographer can talk to someone who groks Flickr - writer meets Wiki person, and so on. It’s an intersection of Artists, Yakkers, and Hackers. Part Geek, Part Performance Art.

To back up a bit, I’m inspired by what I’ve been reading about BAR Camp, an impromptu weekend hackfest that took place last month. My thought is to have a party where sites & creative apps are demoed, and there’s WiFi all around, but also to cross pollinate a bit with, say, a few people who can get something going in GarageBand…. take that music and throw it into iMovie, and mix with scenes from the party itself. Now have someone wander around getting stories / commentary from the guests, and have them quickly demo how they do a podcast. Others tap in an entry or two into a Wiki (links to what got demoed). Someone writes funny captions that go in the video. Some are taking photos, and learning (or showing) the bit about making a slideshow.

Whatever … those are just some ideas. Part Geekfest. Part OctoberFest. Part Art. Bad News: can’t do it at my house. Good News: I can come up with a wee bit of $$ & some equipment to help make this happen (monitors, a few airport express/extreme base stations, a midi keyboard, game consoles, charcoal, lighter fluid, etc :-)
More Good News: this will be at my house

With Microsoft’s “Evolve” campaign, the company toys with new heights of arrogance.

If you haven’t seen the posters & other ads, the campaign depicts a bunch of Office 97-using office workers. They all have dinosaur heads, and the ad suggests that they “evolve”. As in, “upgrade now”.

Maybe I didn’t take Sales & Marketing 101, but it seems to me that depicting your own customers as dinosaurs because they bought your product a while back is something of an insult. Making fun of your competitors is cool (Apple does this all the time, with posters such as “Redmond, start your photocopiers”). Giving your competitors customers a reason to switch is cool. But insulting your own customers, because they haven’t upgraded?

So what Microsoft is saying is “we have so much market share, and control so many of you, that we can peg you as dinosaurs, and that will prod you into giving us even more money!” Wow.

I do hope that Microsoft customers respond to the arrogance of the “Evolve” campaign. They can take a stroll over to OpenOffice.org.