Anheuser-Busch Demons Hop Yard IPA

Anheuser-Busch Demons Hop Yard IPA - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

See that interesting looking tap handle with what looks like a devil holding a nice cold beer, it's not a micro brew, it's an Anheuser-Busch Demons Hop Yard IPA. I ordered it at Common Man in Concord and the bar tender asked me if I'd ever tried it before. I told him no, so he gave me a taste. I didn't like it. Then he told me that only 1 out of 10 people like it and that it's made by Anheuser-Busch. I got a Smuttynose IPA instead. Nice.

Trying on a Coat

Trying on a Coat - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Trying out the new wide angle lens while Carol tries on a coat.

Gore's Other Global Warning: Iraq War

That is Global Warning, not Warming. The guy is a class act, stands out on his own.

clipped from consortiumnews.com

As Al Gore steps into the national spotlight because of the Academy Awards and his global-warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” it’s worth remembering that in fall 2002 Gore sought to warn the American people about another “inconvenient truth,” the folly of invading Iraq.

The former Vice President did so at a time when it was considered madness or almost treason to object to George W. Bush’s war plans. But Gore was one of a small number of national political figures who took that risk and paid a price, subjected to widespread ridicule and disdain from the Washington news media.

“I am deeply concerned that the course of action that we are presently embarking upon with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century,” Gore said. “To put first things first, I believe that we ought to be focusing our efforts first and foremost against those who attacked us on Sept. 11. …

Clipping the Web

I'm glad Clippy isn't their mascot.

clipped from clipmarks.com

Free Audio and Video Software

Audio Video Edition: Specially Selected Free and Open Source Software | Audio/Video ngo-in-a-box.
via [ Chris Pirillo ]

Vlog Hot: Vote

VLOG HOT: Nerdboys Heat 2 - Valleywag.

Humor me and head over to Valleywag and vote. Kevin Rose and I are neck and neck. LOL.

Thanks. ;-)

Video: Speed Date

On The Lot: Speed Date.

Nice job.

At the Beyond Broadcast conference and MIT this weekend we were talking about video production quality.

Here's a good example of a short video made with very good video and audio quality.

Human Skateboarding

CC Chapman passed along a link to this Human Skateboarding site that he was involved in putting together.

I like it a lot.

Mobile VOIP and Event registration online

I just registered for the Mobile Monday Boston - March 5th event, Mobile VoIP using Eventbrite.

Eventbrite looks like a fully featured online event registration system.

ABC, CBS, NBC News Video Compared

Tyndall Report February 23, 2007:

"The Tyndall Report monitors the weekday nightly newscasts of the three American broadcast television networks: ABC World News with Charles Gibson, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. "

If you are interested in how the news is covered, this is an interesting site. You can contrast and compare the lead stories of the major networks.
via [ Lost Remote ]

Kid-filmed Videos and Cool New Flash PLayer

reality blurred TLC debuts kid-filmed, adult-edited My Life as a Child tonight:

"Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, TLC debuts a reality series that was actually filmed by its subjects: kids. My Life as a Kid follows kids ages seven to 11, and TLC says “[e]ach episode inter-cuts the stories of three to four children from different backgrounds.” All together, the six episodes follow 20 kids’ lives."

I like the idea of this.

COOL FLASH VIDEO PLAYER

If you follow the link, notice the video player on the right hand side of the page. Very interesting

It's a Flash 9 player and has some really cool features.


If you click on 'playlists' you get this. Sweet. I want this.

2007 Beyond Broadcast

2007 Beyond Broadcast 021.jpg - Originally uploaded on flickr by kino-eye.

The Neighborhood Cat

The Neighborhood Cat - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

This cat always comes up to us on our front porch. Today I found out it's name is Kittles. Kittles and I had a photo shoot this afternoon and this is my favorite shot.

Green: Recorded and edited on a train with an N95

Steve Garfield's Video Blog: Green: Recorded and edited on a train with an N95:

"I recorded this movie, edited it, added credits and a soundtrack on the Nokia N95 while riding the Orange line train from Green Street to Downtown Crossing. That's about a 15 minute ride."

Jonny Goldstein - The Claw

Jonny Goldstein - The Claw - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

I'm Going Beyond Broadcast

I'll be at Beyond Broadcast 2007: from Participatory Culture to Participatory Democracy today.

TV will be Acceptable on Monday

Just wanted to link to the DEPARTMENT OF ACCEPTABLE MEDIA which is a placeholder for VH1's Acceptable.TV website which goes live Monday. Acceptable.tv is being produced with the people from Channel 101 and Jack Black.

This is going to be good.
via [ Lost Remote ]

LOST Peanut Butter and Beer

LOST Dharma labels.

Get the pdf's and print them out.

Collect them all.
via [ boing boing ]

HP Vista driver downloads

This is where I had to go to get the inbuilt microphone working on the Vista laptop Microsoft sent me to test Vista on.

HP Vista driver downloads - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion.

You'd think it would work out of the box.

Nope.

There's even an online petition about Vista driver issues.

I also found a link on this forum for the HP Update program that ends up throwing up a page not found when you try to access it from the HP site.



I used to own a PC for a long time, and hunting down drivers like this for installation makes me remember all the reasons why I moved back to a Macintosh.

The other thing is that I'm finding suggestions on message boards to look for new drivers on Microsoft sites and Hewlett Packard sites.

Guess what? I don't want to spend all my time hunting down drivers on multiple sites.

It's so much easier on a Mac. All you do is click System Update.

When I got the HP Laptop, I told myself that I'd hold off on comparing it to a Macintosh and that I'd evaluate it on it's own merits.

It turns out that it's a hard thing to do. I'm spoiled by the elegance of the Mac OS. I feel the pain of Windows.

It feels like I'm in one of those Mac/PC ads.

Video: Transparent City

David Finch liks to this amazing Transparent City video.

Dave Winer asks Public Media to do more

Audio podcast of today's Dave Winer and Doc Searls talk at the Public Media conference in Boston.

I watched the live video stream from the comfort of my office.

It's worth a listen.

Audio of How To Video Blog

Check out this podcast of me teaching videoblogging at a recent Boston Social Media Club event.

Tech PR Gems: Audio from February's Boston SMC event on video.

The first part gets cut off when the desktop microphone thinks I stopped talking. They used Hipcast and when it thought we were done recording it asks, "Do you want to save or re-record?"

I joked that I wanted to re-record the initial five minutes I had already done. Ha ha.

So they started up the recording again.

"Steve Garfield continues his excellent tutorial on video blogging."

We rejoin the presentation where I am talking about Momentshowing!!!

Custom User Ads Now on Blip.tv

Working closely with blip.tv, I've now implemented custom Amazon ads at the end of the videos for my client Nina Simonds of Spices of Life.

Take a look at this video, Spices of Life - Chinese New Year: Year of the Pig. At the end of the video, you'll see an Amazon ad for the book that she is reading from, in the video.

This is the perfect ad for Nina since she is also the author of the book.

Thanks blip.tv for working with us to implement this exciting new revenue generating feature, Do-It-Yourself advertising.

Yiddish Class: Sweet Potatoes

There's new video on Millie's Yiddish Class, this lesson is Sweet Potatoes.

This video was shot on a Nokia N93. The mp4 file was run through MPEG Streamclip and then edited in Final Cut Pro. Finally it was exported using Compressor and uploaded to blip.tv where it was converted to Flash.

Steve's Show

I'm testing out SplashCast which provides you with a player that can play all the videos from someone's YouTube channel, among other things.

Here's all my YouTube videos.

Looking for a Podcast player

Dave Winer is looking for a Podcast player.

I'm still thinking about the ideal podcast player.

The features that matter most to me are:

1. Self-contained, untethered synchronization, much the same way a Blackberry gets email.

2. Read-write, two-way, should be able to record and connect with a publishing system for automatic upload and feed production.

3. Must be a platform, that is, people other than the manufacturer can add apps.

That's it, those are the three main features that PPs need and don't today have, imho.

I left him a comment:

This video was recorded on a Nokia N95 and uploaded via WiFi to VOX via the embedded VOX uploader.

Here I am watching YouTube and Rocketboom on my Nokia N95 after subscribing to their feeds using the Nokia Video Centre application

Disclaimer: Nokia sent me the N95 to try out and there's a lot here that meets your requirements.

Maybe I can show it to him on Thursday when he's in Boston.

Jeff Pulver just bought a Sony DSC-T50

Steves Digicams - Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T50 - User Review:

"MPEG Movie: 640x480 w/audio at 30fps, length limited only by media"

Interesting specs. Too bad it uses memory sticks. Looking forward to seeing it.

Blog with Video Comments

Now you can add comments to a blog using FTP. Ha ha.

RavelBabel, Hybrid Blog Encourages Viewers to Submit Video Comments:

"RavelBabel, a new web site, has combined the best features of a regular blog with that of a video blog to create what they are terming a 'hyblog.'"

Hyblog?

They require FTP to add video comments. Much more cumbersome than YouTube or Mobasoft.

My internet connection is slow

MyVoIPSpeed VoIP connection test, bandwidth test, test VoIP performance.

My internet connection used to be faster and now it's slow. Time for some rewiring.

SXSWi 2007 Interactive Panels Schedule: EXPANDED

The SXSWi Interactive Panels Schedule is out.

Now I remember how horrible the SXSW schedule is. Click a topic, read it, click back, click another topic, click back.... This is horrible…

Can someone re-design this so I can read everything on one page.

Give me either a really long page with every session and description on it so all I have to do is scroll down, or put some AJAX in there to let me read them all by mousing over each session name…

Thank you…

I've started with the complete Friday schedule:

The Real Story Behind Snakes on a Plane

Room 9ABC

Friday, March 9th

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

How did Snakes On A Plane become cult phenomena before it even came out? Thank the bloggers, a snake crazed Internet fan base and the best movie title ever. Surprisingly, New Line Cinemas was disappointed. They thought the Internet hype would bolster box office receipts more than it did. Is New Line not viewing the whole picture or is the hype created by blogs and social network sites overrated?

Moderator: Alex Williams Dir of Community Dev, SplashCast

Alex Williams Dir of Community Dev, SplashCast
Corey Denis IODA Digital Mktg Mgr, IODA
Molly Wright Steenson Girlwonder.com

How to Rawk SXSW

Room 9ABC

Friday, March 9th

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Moderator: Min Jung Kim , Photobucket

Min Jung Kim Photobucket
Glenda Bautista Agendacide
Tantek Çelik Chief Technologist, Technorati
Nick Douglas Dir, Look! Shiny!
Andrew Huff Editor & Publisher, Gapers Block
Lynne d Johnson GM New Media, fastcompany.com
Tony Pierce Editor, LAist.com

Your Video Blog Can Save the World

Room Carver Library

Friday, March 9th

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Learn how you can effortlessly set up your own videoblog -- and contemplate the immense power inherent in this new form of media. We'll show you what people are doing today, take you through the basics of getting started and look at what makes videoblogging different than filmmaking or television.

Moderator: Michael Verdi , freevlog.org

Michael Verdi freevlog.org
Jay Dedman Spinxpress
Ryanne Hodson Prod Editor, RyanIsHungry.com

lonelyjesus15

lonelyjesus15 - Originally uploaded on flickr by Zadi Diaz.

Watch the video.

Birth Of An Apple Store

Tech Superpowers has webcam coverage of the construction of the new Apple Store in Boston on Birth Of An Apple Store blog.

Las Vegas 2/18/07

Las Vegas 2/18/07 - Originally uploaded on flickr by Barack Obama.

The comments over on flickr suggest that the Barack Obama team needs to upload bigger photos.

Others are bigger.

Spring 2007 VON: Bloggers Plenary Session

General Session: Blogging as a New Media: Bring the Message
Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 3:00pm - 4:30pm

That's quite a cast of characters.

Best of Boston

We've been busy with some home improvements lately. Here are companies I've done business with and have been very hapy with.

City Lock
1977 Centre St
West Roxbury, MA 02132
617-327-2600

We had the front lock on the house break and they fixed it within the hour for $10.



Lumber Liquidators
1455 VFW Parkway
West Roxbury, MA 02132
617-327-1222

I went in and talked to Brian Sorensen the manager and he helped us decide on a floor that was perfect for our kitchen and it was in stock and on sale.

Floor Sanding of Mass
51 Greenwood Ave
Hyde Park, MA 02136
617-364-9719

Anh Nguyen came over to sand our kitchen floor and it turned out that it had to be replaced. His crew did a fine job and installed the new floor in a day.

I've had great experiences with local companies.

Tell them Steve sent you.

Add Cash to CharlieCard

New find sheds light on an old T stop - The Boston Globe:

"T officials said this week that based on customer complaints, they also plan to clarify the language on the screens of fare vending machines this spring.

We took the T to task a while back about the screen term 'Stored Value,' prodding them to add the words 'Bus/Subway' to make it clear to customers what button they need to press to buy a bus or subway ticket."

I have two questions:

1. Who designs these screens? It's clear to me that 'stored value' means nothing. Adding Bus/Subway is a start, but they've got a whole big screen to work with. How about: Add Cash to a CharlieCard for Subway and Bus.

2. Why will it take until Spring to make the change. They're computers, right?

Update:
I just bought a CharlieCard online.

After logging out of the system I got this message:

"You are logout."

Ha.

Maybe they can fix that in the Spring too.

The premiere online video festival

pixelodeon - the premiere online video festival - from the computer screen to the big screen.
via [ Steve Woolf on Twitter ]

Things Are Not Working

Hello friends,

If anyone can help me fix any of these outstanding problems I'm having, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!
--Steve

Blog This! makes my title a link, in the new blogger, so I have to edit and repost to make the link go away. [ New Blogger Issue? ]

flickr blog posting no longer posts the body text that I enter over in flickr, when I choose post to my blog using the new blogger. [ New Blogger Issue? ]

Internet printing to my laser printer doesn't work anymore.

My MacBook Pro is running out of disk space. [ FCP Sometimes Puts Render Files Here ]

blip.tv is having a problem creating Technorati tags when posting to a Wordpress hosted blog. [ blip.tv is researching ]

QuickTime can't export files to an external USB hard drive. [ Need New Firewire Drive. Seagate vs. LaCie? ]

Skype cuts off calls with Zadi and Steve in LA. [ Possibly my Concast Cable Modem needs and update, or is there a configuration issue? ]

Everything in between

Joho the Blog: A day at NPR.

NPR is a product of member stations, but as audio content gets "miscellanized" and available to anyone at any time, member stations are at risk of becoming just another play list — to shorter term hurdles such as the assumption that the growth of listener-created-content means lowering NPR's standards.

To the standards point, I tried to respond that this isn't a matter of posting listener's content as if we're all now as good at telling stories as NPR reporters are. Rather: (a) There are lots of ways that listeners can and will contribute, beyond posting their own NPR-ish reports; (b) Metadata saves the day. We humans are good at sensing the metadata that tells us that this is a comment someone dashed off, that is an audio piece NPR's staff has picked out as meeting its professional standards, and everything in between.

Sound the alarm: Boston.com Sucks

In this story about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Bomb Scare in Boston, Sound the alarm, writer J.M. Berger writes about the many parody videos on YouTube:

"One of the slickest -- and funniest -- entries is a parody of the Fox Network's terrorism thriller '24.' Clips from this season's jarring weapon-of-mass-destruction storyline were digitally edited to replace suitcase nukes with the Mooninite LED signs that prompted Boston's day of not-quite-terror.

The video, created by the National Lampoon, climaxes with action hero Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) torturing cartoon characters in an unsuccessful effort to avert nuclear catastrophe."

There's NO LINK TO this YouTube Video!

There are links to two other videos mentioned in the article. Why not this one? No link to the Zebro video either.

How many times do I have to blog about it, write to the editor, write to the article author, to get the Boston Globe to link to websites when they are the main topic of the story?

THE MAIN TOPIC!

Here's a link to the video on YouTube for those who are interested in seeing it, 24: Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

And here it is embedded on the page.

Right here on the blog.



They've been able to do that for a while now.

Here's the Zebro video too:

YouTube - Zebro on Boston's Aqua Teen Bomb Scare.

Stupid Globe.

I wrote them an email, let's see if I get a response. If they end up leaving a comment on this blog, I'll fall of my chair. And post a video of me doing it.

Josh Wolf is a journalist only in his imagination

Public Radio Manifesto, part 1:

"When Judith Miller went to jail, I was against her getting a special deal because she's a journalist. I want all of us to have equal protection, everyone is a journalist now, or no one is.

The case of Josh Wolf re-opens these issues. The prosecutor said Wolf is a journalist only in his imagination, and I agree, and that's the point."

Beyond Broadcast Dinner Sign-Up

Sign-ups are now open for the Beyond Broadcast 2007 Birds of a Feather Dinners on the Beyond Broadcast Wiki.

This is mine:

A New Look At Content: Capturing and sharing fleeting moments, a video production studio in your pocket, broadcasting from the street.

Let's talk about how new portable media making devices can
put broadcasting power in the hands of everyone. Cellphones that
include high quality video capture, editing and distribution will
enable lots of people to share their stories. This will change
everything.

Beyond Broadcast 2007, , Feb 24 2007, Cambridge MA.

For 50 years broadcast media have played a powerful role in shaping political culture and mediating citizen engagement in the democratic process. Now a participatory culture is putting the tools of media creation and critique in the hands of citizens themselves. We invite you to MIT—to explore the means, the message, and the meaning of the post-midterm, pre-presidential YouTube moment.

Twitter: It's Alive!

Steve Woolf writes, Reasons to Love Twitter:

As a Twitterer from way back in the day (offline translation: 6 weeks ago), it's been fascinating to watch this service ebb and flow. Or, at least, ebb and flow with the people who I'm friends with on the service.

I resisted Twitter for a while.

Chris Brogan was on it, and wanted me to join, so one day I sent him an SMS telling him I was at the train station.

I didn't get it.

Then I joined.

Added friends, yet again, on yet another social network.

But this time it was different.

Although I had thought that it would be silly to post about what I was doing every minute of the day, I found that I could send out a question to my friends and get a quick answer.


There is a living and breathing community here. It's not static. It's alive!

I asked Casey to join. She hasn't yet.

I told her, "Resistance is futile."

I thought that was funny.

I hope she joins soon.

Grey's Anatomy Blog - Over 3,000 Comments

The blog by the writers of Grey's Anatomy, Grey Matter, now has over 3,000 comments on the most recent entry.

Chinese New Year Video: Best Food

Chinese New Year is Sunday and I just posted a new video, Chinese New Year: Best Food Exposed

VIDEO: Doc Searls Static Web

Doc Searls: The Static Web vs. the Dynamic Web:

"Doc Searls talks about two of the competing metaphors that exist on the Internet - the static Web vs. the dynamic Web - at an NPR brainstorming session"

Rocketboom on the Nokia N95

Rocketboom on the Nokia N95 - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Here I am watching Rocketboom, from February 7th, on my Nokia N95 via the N95 Video Centre. The N95 grabs the videos off the web and downloads them. I am using a WiFi connection. I also watched YouTube videos. These two vlogs showed up on the Nokia video Service Catalogue in a list of six feeds. Other feeds were Reuters, Startcooking.com, Unicef and Tagesschau.

My Favorite Videos via VodPod

I'm testing out VodPod. Works well with YouTube, not so much with my vlog.

Cellphone Video Slush Report via WiFi

I just got in from the wet rain, shoveling inches and inches of slush. I shot some video on my Nokia N95 cellphone and uploaded via the phone's WiFi to my VOX blog.

Exciting times...

Cellphone Video Slush Report via WiFi.

Spices of Life

Spices of Life is a new food, health and lifestyle vlog I'm working on with Nina Simonds. Nina is an award-winning author and one of the foremost authorities on Asian cooking.

We've got two videos up right now, Chinese New Year: Year of the Pig and Needling Nina: Accupuncture with Dr. Zhu.

Check them out and leave some comments. Thanks!

FRONTLINE Interviews Josh Wolf

FRONTLINE: news war: interviews: josh wolf | PBS.

Sub Floor

Sub Floor - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

We had the kitchen floor ripped out down to the sub floor. Now we need to buy a new floor in the store.

Barack Obama: Shallow Depth of Field

RD3P1809.JPG - Originally uploaded on flickr by Barack Obama.

Nice photo.

Imogen Heap Unplugged

Imogen Heap Performs 'I Megaphone'

"On Tuesday 13th Feb and Thursday 15th Feb Imogen will perform 2 very special shows - one on each coast of the USA. The shows in LA and NYC will be very special piano-only performances, during which Imogen will exclusively play songs from her recently re-released 1998 debut album 'I Megaphone'. There will be no 'Speak For Yourself' tracks, and non of the usual 'gadets', just Immi and her piano, playing songs she hasn't performed for a very long time, and is unlikely to perform again for a long time!

There will be 2 performances each evening, at 'The Silent Movie Theatre' in Los Angeles (8pm & 10pm) and 'The Box' in New York (6pm & 9pm)."

I saw Imogen perform songs from I Megaphone on one of her first US tours. It was an amazing performance. After seeing her recently at the Avalon in Boston, I remembered back to that early live show and wished she'd do a show like that again. Well she is, but it's not in Boston.

So if you are in either LA or NYC I suggest that you immediately go buy tickets for this before they are sold out.

Presidential Campaigns and the web

techPresident just launched today and will cover how the candidates are using the web, and how the web is using them.

I'm a contributor.

The New York Times covers the site launch, Here’s the Online Line on Online Politics

Wordpress API Endpoint

When a blogging system like blip.tv asks for your Wordpress blog's API endpoint, it's going to look something like this:

http://sitename.com/xmlrpc.php

Wine Expo - Where's Carol?

Wine Expo - Where's Carol? - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Barack Obama on flickr

DSC_0047.JPG - Originally uploaded on flickr by Barack Obama.

Hi Sen. Obama,
I know you are pretty busy, but I asked you to be my contact on flickr yesterday morning and you still haven't approved my request.


You are also using a lame default image as you picture on flickr, try uploading something more fun!

And finally, you have your photos © All rights reserved. Please change that to a Creative Commons license so we can post them to our blogs without having to ask permission. For this one, I'm thinking that you probably want us to share.
Thanks,
--Steve

PS. I cross posted this over on my blog at BarackObama.com and the IMG tags are not being evaluated correctly, so pictures aren't showing up.

PPS. Does my URL at BarackObama.com have to be http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/stevegarfield, can't it be something like http://stevegarfield.barackobama.com/

Obama Announcement: Stream vs. TV

Obama Announcement: Stream vs. TV - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

I tried to watch the Barack Obama presidential announcement today on their webstream from Barack Obama.com. It was a stuttering frustrating experience. After spending some time trying alternate streams and reloading the page I realized that the announcement was probably being covered on TV too. D'oh! So I turned on MSNBC and there is was. The sound actually was a little rough but the added benefit of watching on TV was hearing some instant analysis.

It's funny how you get so used to watching video on the web and can forget to turn on the TV when there's a live event happening.

Obama'08 Website Goes Live: Let's Click Some Buttons

It's 9:16 AM in Boston and I just visited BarackObama.com to check on the time of his live webstream. It's at 10:50 AM EST, but even more interesting is his new website.


Lot's to see here and explore before the announcement. The first thing you notice is the campaign's logo. It's the letter O in blue with red and white stripes at the bottom. There are menu options for Learn, Issues, Get Involved, Blog, Newsroom and Donate. You've also got In the News and an Obama Store.

There's a section called My.BarackObama.com which is subtitled, "This Campaign is About You" and has options to Create a Profile, Find Supporters Near You, Plan and Attend Events, Network, Become a Fundraiser, Write a Blog. There's also an Upcoming Events section.

On the far right is BarackTV. Clicking on that brings you to a page with an embedded Brightcove video player. There's a large video on the left with a listing of five videos on the right. When I play the video is smooth with no stuttering. You can also increase the size and make it bigger. I don't see any way to subscribe though to be notified of new videos.

I'd like to spend more time exploring all the features of the site, but right now I'm going to take a closer look at the buttons at the bottom of the page.

At the bottom of the page there are links for the following:

Facebook, partybuilder, register to vote, YouTube, flickr.

Let's click each button and see what happens:

Facebook

Visiting his Facebook page, I see that Barack wrote a note this morning:

Barack wrote a note. 8:54am
Barack Obama Presidential Announcement
Saturday in Springfield, Illinois, Barack Obama will make his Presidential Announcement. This event will be available to everyone through a live webcast at BarackObama.com beginning at 10:50 EST.

Other options on the side of the page are:

Read Notes by Barack (10)
Send Barack a Message
Poke Him!
Support Barack

The "Poke Him!" option isn't clear to me. It's like mystery meat navigation. I clicked it was presented with this:

"You are about to poke Barack. He will be informed of this the next time he logs in.

Also, if you poke Barack, he will be able to see your profile for one week."

Not sure what this is all about. I remember back a few years ago when a college aged cousin was showing me Facebook he told me that he spent a lot of time poking cute girls.

Clicking Support Barack results in this message:

"Would you like to add Barack Obama to the list of candidates you support?"

I clicked on "Support Barack" and got the message, "A friend request will now be sent to Barack Obama for approval."

Ahh, so that's how you add him as a friend. Maybe the link should say something like "Add as a friend."

Partybuilder

Clicking this takes me to a page titled, "The Democratic Party."

At the top of the page I see, "Barack Obama has 4 Friend(s)!"

Clicking on the My Friends tab prompts me to sign up. I go back to barackobama.com.

Register to Vote

Clicking this page brings me to a page that displays:

"Register to vote now! You can't vote if you're not registered. We've made it easy. "

YouTube

Clicking on YouTube first returned this error:

"Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, web@youtube.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache Server at www.youtube.com Port 80"

Refreshing the page brought up user BarackObamadotcom, with this information:

BarackObamadotcom
Joined: 5 months ago
Last Login: 15 hours ago
Videos Watched: 69
Subscribers: 686
Channel Views: 7,177

Flickr

Clicking on this link brings me to Barack Obama's photos.

Barack Obama's contacts (0)

I click "Add Barack Obama as a contact"

Now he's been added to my contacts list. In order for him to show up on my contact list he has to approve my friend request.

I'm looking forward to exploring the features of this new site and it'll will be interesting to see who the numbers of friends and subscribers change over the coming days and weeks.

Please comment with your thoughts.

Disclaimer: I'm an independent voter and haven't decided who I am supporting in this presidential race.