That was fun… Nick and Lorne came over with pork chops. Carol made some blueberry grunt and I shot some timelapse.

I received the following video in an email from a pal of mine. I thought it might be worth sharing.

Here’s the text that came with the email:

During the late 60′s, most television programs and commercials were live. There were no “pre-recorded” programs. There were some obvious problems with this method. No “retakes” and “bloopers” were a regular occurrence.

This is no blooper! This guy was just very upset with his boss and told it like he thought it was. What a great job of ad-libbing. He never misses a beat while the camera man is just about to lose it. The commercial got on the air … but only once.

We have to assume he quit right after the commercial — one way or another.

[jwplayer mediaid="6632"]

Who knows what the real story is behind this. Thanks to Mad Men we’ve seen that a sense of humour, albeit somewjhat cornball, sometimes blue and often racist, was not entirely uncommon in the early 60′s. Perhaps this salesman and his boss actually got along well and this was merely a taped joke. That would be my bet.

The other explanation reads like someone trying to make something out of nothing. If it is true, however, what an epic way to quit your job.

Over the years we have, perhaps stupidly, paid to purchase many films in various formats from VHS to DVD and Bluray. It’s cost us a boatload of cash and we haven’t watched a lot of them more than once. Lately we’ve been looking at other options that will save us money, time and physical space.

Digital conversion, storage and streaming media is where it’s at.

We purchased an new 2TB hard drive, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum & began the process of converting our DVD’s to digital, typically Xvid encoded AVI’s. A full film takes just over 20 minutes and the files are around 1.5 GB’s each. The video quality is excellent when played via our Boxee Box connected to our HD TV. Sound quality is also fabulous with the encoded files holding 5.1 surround sound using the mp3 or aac codecs.

The Boxee Box is also great for enjoying streaming video or audio podcasts, downloaded TV shows we’ve happened to miss or even Netflix.

We’re converting music too. As well a second 500 GB hard drive that lives in my office attached to my computer is where our music collection is. This too is a large project as our media buying frenzy included CD’s. We use Twonky Media server to stream our music, but am looking at XBMC as a more Boxee compatible option as Twonky and Boxee seem to have stopped communicating.

We’ve already given away a few of our DVD’s and will probably sell some more either via eBay, craigslist or at a second hand store. We may even have some kind of yard sale. We’ll sell them cheap.

We even have adapters for our VCR and cassette decks and have been slowly converting old tapes as well.

This has been a big job, but, so far, worth it. Eventually we’ll have a lot less clutter and will continue to enjoy our media in a more streamlined way.

I’m a little antsy about the durability of our hard drives. We’ve already had one catastrophic failure. Hopefully the price of solid state drives will come down before we have another crash.

We’ve stopped buying DVD’s. If we really want something we’ll purchase digital copies… or do something else. *wink* *wink*

Our friend Mark picked up an old photo album at an estate sale that he went to last year. For some reason he gave it to us. It has been sitting in Carol’s office gathering more dust for the past months. After a visit from another creative friend last week I felt inspired to deal with it.

I have decided to scan the photos and postcards within to try and determine who the creator was, what their lives were like, where they traveled and perhaps learn a little bit. Oddly enough there are many pages with no photos or photos missing. I presume this is where the photos of people used to live as there are not many faces in this album. It sort of adds to the mystique.

So I have set up my special scanning station at the kitchen table for this undertaking.

This is the set up I am using to import the photos so I can share them. From left to right on the table are the photo album, MacBook Pro and a Brother MFC-210C scanner. On the chair is my assistant, Oscar Madison Bigglesworth Browne.

As of this writing I’m three pages in and have many, many more. I am uploading the scans to a Flickr set to share with folks and, maybe get more information about the photos as there is not a lot to go on other than the pictures themselves.

Here’s a Flickr slide show of the progress so far.

This is going to take a while.

I love HootSuite. Since their most recent update that included support for Facebook and other social media networks, like Ping.fm and LinkedIn, as well as beta support for twitter lists, it has been my application of choice for updating my status across all of my social media profiles.

There was only one thing missing — mobile support. I have been using atebits’ Tweetie 2, TweetDeck for iPhone and SimplyTweet, but have not really committed to any of them. Hopefully, that is about to come to an end with the upcoming release of the HootSuite iPhone application as announced via email this morning:

Coming Soon to an App Store Near You

Our HootSuite iPhone app is coming soon! Once it is released, you will be able to schedule your tweets, check stats and manage multiple accounts from the palm of your hand.

You’ll have to salivate a little while longer, but don’t worry, we’ll let you know as soon as it is available.

Follow HootSuite for all the latest info:
Twitter | Facebook

I am looking forward to the app for sure. The was no mention what the cost was going to be for the application in the email. I will look into it further and update this post with what I learn.

Also, Facebook fanpage integration has also been added to HootSuite as of this morning according to their latest twitter update:

UPDATE Hootsuite dev team pushed Facebook FanPage integration. To add your FanPage go to Settings > Social Networks (FanPage) and add. [source]

Way to go invoke. You folks are awesome.

In case you haven’t heard, augmented reality applications for your smart phone and other devices are the next big thing.

What the heck is augmented reality?

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on top of the real world view. [source]

Augmented reality applications are another reason, besides the ability to shoot video, that I really want to buy an iPhone 3GS. As my current iPhone 3G does not have a built in magnetometer which allows for the use of a “compass” and augmented reality apps. There are already a number of apps in the Apple App Store like the Layar browser, wikitude and Yelp! that are using the iPhone’s GPS and magnetometer functionality to offer augmented reality.

Rocketboom, one of my favorite video podcasts, did a recent show about augmented reality. It highlights a particularly useful app for Lodoners with AR capable iPhones stumbling home after a night of debauchery in a strange neighborhood and needing to find a tube station. It’s called Nearest Tube from acrossair.

Sounds fun right?

How big is it going to be?

A new report from Juniper Research has found that the market for mobile augmented reality (AR) services is expected to reach $732 million by 2014, with revenues derived from a combination of paid-for app downloads, subscription based services and advertising.

The Mobile Augmented Reality report found that annual revenues from AR are unlikely to exceed even $2 million during 2010, due to the fact that only a small minority of smartphones will be AR-enabled. However, this proportion will rise dramatically in the medium term, the result of increasing adoption of Android handsets and iPhones, along with greater deployment of AR enablers such as digital compasses and accelerometers by other leading vendors. [more at source]

The applications seem endless. Imagine applications that will allow you to stalk your twitter and facebook friends in real time. They’re coming. This is going to be interesting.

If you want to hunt ghosts and have an iPhone 3GS, you can snag ARGH (Augmented Reailty Ghost Hunter) for the iPhone now. You are surrounded by otherworldly entities where ever you are. Boo!

While perusing the feeds of local websites that I have in my google reader (an easy way to get all of you content in one place) in the vancouverisawesome.com feed I came across a little blurb and video about an event on Monday December 7th at 7:30 pm at VIFC called The Found Film Festival:

The Found Footage Festival is a live comedy show featuring clips from videos found at thrift stores and garage sales across the country. This is a small sampling of some of the footage on display in Volume 4, coming to your city in 2009-2010.

If for some weird reason you can’t see the video go here to view it.

You guessed it. Carol and I have tickets already and will be there with bells on to see all the cheesy video goodness. You can buy tickets directly via this link at the VIFF.org site.

Looks like it will be a good time. If you’re unable to get to Vancouver, worry not, we are but one stop on the tour.

Still not convinced? We’ll send Pretty Boy Floyd along to talk you into it:

In this instructional video, entitled “Secrets of Pool Hustling,” professional pool shark Pretty Boy Floyd espouses his opinions on just about everything except pool hustling. More Pretty Boy Floyd is featured on the Found Footage Festival Vol. 3 DVD.

As well as bookmarking their website you can follow Found Film Festival on twitter, become a fan on Facebook or watch more videos on their YouTube channel.

See you there!

I am definitely a soda pop lover. I know the dentist says it’s like giving your teeth a sugar bath but I adore it. I like real cane sugar pop, like those from Jones Soda. I am really sick of the Pepsi and Coke high fructose offerings and am grossed out by the taste of sweetener.

So where does one find good pop? Here’s where:

Obsessives: Soda Pop from CHOW.com on Vimeo.

John Nese is the proprietor of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lover’s destination. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John has made it his mission to keep small soda-makers afloat and help them find their consumers. Galco’s also acts as a distributor for restaurants and bars along the West Coast, spreading the gospel of soda made with cane sugar (no high-fructose corn syrup if John can avoid it).

What a cool place, interesting man and a great story. The next time I am in LA I will be checking out Galco’s Soda Pop Stop.

If anyone knows where to get a decent bottle of pop in Vancouver I would love to know. Please leave a comment.

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous