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.
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.
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…
There are just so many things I like about The PageCast, I’m not sure where to begin. First, what is The PageCast.
It’s a 60 second video by Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin, previewing the three stories that he thinks you should be watching for today. You’ll find it on the top/right of The Page. Big whoop, right? Okay, here’s some of the things I like about this simple idea (and this particular PageCast):
The news directors of our radio networks would be great at this. And their listeners/readers/viewers would eat it up.
UPDATE: My buddy Kay reports that Mark Halperin records PageCast between 7-9 a.m. (usually), wherever he happens to be and in whatever he happens to be wearing. If he’s on the West Coast, he usually records them at night. He thinks of what he wants to say just before he begins recording (or in the shower or at the gym), on his MacBook Pro (edits with iMovie).
The idea was prompted by the desire to put video on The Page, while keeping it easy to produce and watch. Just as I suspected. Simple idea, well executed.
I make and receive about three phone calls a week. All to and from Barb.
"Want me to bring you some Chinese?"
"Pick up some dog food. We’re out."
"Did you try to call me just now? (No) Huh."
So I don’t really need a cell phone. Let alone an iPhone. But boy are those buggers cool? All my pals have them and love them. Can’t imagine going back to whatever they had before.
And next month we’ll probably see the new and improved (3G) iPhone and the flames of my iPhone lust will be whipped as by Santa Ana winds.
When asked why I don’t have an iPhone, I mumble some variation of what you just read. But the real answer has more to do with my MacBook Pro. I always have it with me and have big chunks of my life recordable or accessible there.
Think of the MacBook Pro as a sleek, high-performance racing car. And the iPhone as a sexy, top-of-the-line motorcycle (Candy Apple Red).
It would be fun to ride the motorcycle (zoom! zoom!) but that would mean leaving the MacBook Pro in the garage. What a waste. Why not take both along? I could, but that would be like towing the motorcycle behind the sports car on a trailer. Cumbersome (and silly).
I’d love to see some data on this. Do new iPhone users tote their laptops less often? Perhaps at the molecular level, we are laptoppers or iPhoners. I think I’m the former.
I don’t know if this is breaking news or something everyone already knows. But AgWired’s Chuck Zimmerman Twittered what might have been news (Chuck’s tweet is the one on top).
When I demo’d Twitter to one of our reporters, all he could see was ("Who cares if someone’s plane is delayed?"). For some the online glass is half full, for others…
UPDATE: More from Lost Remote.
Scott Adams thinks Israel will eventually create the technology that will make oil irrelevant:
“The oh-my-God moment came when I realized that Israel can destroy all of its local enemies by inventing solar technology that makes oil uneconomical. Such an invention would do more harm than any military attack. And it’s all legal and moral. The politicians and business people in Israel have all the right incentives times a thousand. Their very survival is at risk. Israel is one patent away from crushing every oil producing country in the world.”
In his post, he links to the article that provided his ah-ha moment.
Amy Gahran is a former full-time journalist, editor, and managing editor. Today, her work mainly involves conversational online media (weblogs, forums, wikis, e-mail lists) as well as feeds, podcasting, and e-learning. Here are a couple of excerpts from her recent post at E-Meida Tidbits:
“I’ve been getting quite aggravated at the close-minded and helpless attitudes I’m still encountering from too many journalists about how the media landscape is changing. I realize that right now is a scary time for journalists who crave stability. I have immense sympathy for good, smart people (many of whom have families to support and retirements to plan) who fear the unknown. Many of the news orgs that have sheltered and supported these journalists as they ply their craft are crumbling due to their inability or unwillingness to adapt their business models — leading to layoffs, buyouts, attrition, dwindling resources, overwork, and general demoralization.
I also know — first hand — that the prospect of learning new skills can be daunting. Plus, many of us have spent lots of money on j-school and many years in professional journalism honing our writing and reporting skills. We don’t want to learn how to think like an entrepreneur, or an information architect, or a community manager. We just want to keep doing what we know how to do; we didn’t sign up for all this extra stuff.”
This is an insightful post, worth a full read. (Shirts available in S, M, L, and XXL)
I was scanning AdRants when the quote above caught my eye. Here’s a couple of chunks from the post:
“Want to hear an interesting conversation about social media and it’s impact on marketing, advertising, public relations and journalism? Want to know how the role of public relations is changing in the world of public relations? Want to explore the differences in mentality between new media and old? Want to now whether or not it’s sinful to publish a story before every last detail of the story is known? Want to know why readers, who are now commenters, are so important to the whole of the story? Then give this podcast a listen.”
I caught about 15 minutes over lunch and look forward to hearing the rest. It sounds like a pretty good peek into the minds of some PR pros, with the focus on New Media (whatever that is). If you blog, send or receive news releases… I think you’ll find this worth the listen.
“Quick decisions based on the smallest scraps of data. It’s not fair but it’s true. Your blog, your outfit, the typeface you choose, the tone of your voice, the expression on your face, the location of your office, the way you rank on a Google search, the look of your Facebook page… We all jump to conclusions and we do it every day. Where do you want me to jump?”