Pick My Campaign Song: Round 2

Free Twitter Reminder Service

Twitter / timer:

"Need to remember something? Send me a direct message, and I'll tweet you back. For example, 'd timer 45 call mom' reminds you in 45 minutes."

This works great. I used it this morning.

Was Lindeman Flea?

Blogger unmasked, court case upended - The Boston Globe:

"It was a Perry Mason moment updated for the Internet age.

As Ivy League-educated pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman sat on the stand in Suffolk Superior Court this month, defending himself in a malpractice suit involving the death of a 12-year-old patient, the opposing counsel startled him with a question.

Was Lindeman Flea?"

What kind of question is that?

Oh I get it. It's not in quotes.

Reading further along it's explained more clearly:

Shortly before the end of his second day on the witness stand, while focusing on Lindeman's views of a pediatric textbook, Mulvey asked him whether he had a medical blog, she recalled. He said he did. Then she asked him if he was Flea. He said he was.

I wonder if I'm the only person who read this, thinking that "Was Lindeman Flea?" was the question.

Grammar Girl? What do you think?

A Photo Walk: Copley and Newbury

View a slide show of a walk I took through Copley Square and Newbury Street.

Henry Jenkins on YouTube

Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube.

OpenMass

OpenMass "brings together official government data, news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what is going on in Beacon Hill."
via [ The Alliance for Community Journalism ]

Also see Red Mass Group, it's like Blue Mass Group, but red.

Ron Paul :: DomeNation :: Episode 4

David All and Jerome Armstrong interview Dr. Ron Paul, Republican candidate for President.

In the interview Dr. Paul talks about the recent Republican debate.

Ron Paul on Bill Maher.

Broadcasting LIVE

Jeremiah Owyang has a nice list of companies and services that provide live web video.

This is very timely since I'm trying out a lot of the services he mentions in his list.

Like blogging and web video before it, live broadcasting is becoming popular because the tools are finally available in an easy to use package.

Prior to this you had to sign up for QuickTime broadcasting with a hosting service and some hosting companies didn't even provide it. That's why I never used it other than suggesting it to conference organizers.

Now, with web based solutions that only require a webcam or cellphone, lots of people will start experimenting.

If it was January 1st, I'd call 2007 the Year of LIVE Video. But since it's almost June I guess I could say that 2007 is the half-a-Year of LIVE Video. ;-)

Broadcasting LIVE from the mall.
Broadcasting LIVE from Boston Media Makers.

Getting Personal with the Candidates via Twittter

I've recently unsubscribed from two of the presidential candidate's email lists because is seemed like it was just a constant stream of requests for contributions to their campaign, wrapped around current issues.

The most personal way the candidates have begun to communicate with me is via Twitter. Twitter is an easy to use group instant messaging tool which allows you to send out 140 character text messages to your friends. You can send and receive these messages on the web or on your cell phone.

Take a look at Barack Obama's recent tweets

From 3 days ago: "In DC voting No... "We should not give the President a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path.”"

Obama has posted 9 updates since joining Twitter and is using in a way that's more conversational and less like spam. I'm staying subscribed.

John Edwards is also on Twitter

Two days ago he posted this:

"Thrilled to be in Iowa with Elizabeth and the kids…working with Iowans to support our troops and bring them home."

He's made 36 updates since signing on to Twitter. He also has staffers twitter for him and notes this by putting (from staff) in front of the message. That's the kind of transparency from a candidate I like to see.

What I want is a personal connection to the candidates. Twitter makes me feel like I get that.

Update:
The preceding quote is in this article on BostonNOW, and this post is linked to from there. Very cool for a newpaper/online site to link to a blog post from someone who was interviewed for a story.

Happy Sad Memorial Day

U.S. Troops At War Being Honored For Memorial Day:

"Americans have opened nearly 1,000 new graves to bury U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Memorial Day a year ago. The figure is telling — and expected to rise in coming months."

Bring Them Home Now.

Bill Richardson - "...de-authorize the war and withdraw ALL troops by the end of the year."

Barack Obama - "...What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war."

Mitt Romney - ""Voting against our troops during a time of war shows the American people that the leaders of the Democrat Party will abandon principle in favor of political positioning."

Iraq Action Camp - "With more than 3300 troops dead and the majority of Americans in opposition to the war, it's time for a realistic plan to bring our troops home safely."

It's International Bubble Gum Week!

It's International Bubble Gum Week! - Originally uploaded on flickr by Brooklyn Hilary.

International Bubble Gum Week (May 27-June 3).

People snapping their gum used to drive my father crazy. One time when I was little I was snapping my gum in the back seat of the car and he told me to stop it.

So I snapped it one more time.

He almost crashed the car turning around to yell at me.

I stopped after that.

I don't chew gum anymore.

MacBook Pro Damaged Power Cord

MacBook Pro Damaged Power Cord - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

I just walked in to the Apple Store in Chestnut Hill, MA and asked the first sales person I saw if he could swap out my damaged power cord.

He could!

Tim helped me. He didn't send me over to the Genius Bar, and he didn't say it wasn't his job.

He helped me.

I was hesitant at going into the store for help, but was pleasantly surprised at how awesome Tim was.

Praise Tim.

He also took a look at my non-functioning IR remote and we made an appointment for service for next week since it seems like it's a hardware issue.

Tim should get a raise.

Praise Tim!

Healthy American Food Exposed

I just posted a new video, Spices of Life - Pyramid on a Plate #2: Healthy American Food Exposed:

"I found it interesting that you don’t have to always order low fat salad dressing. After the shoot I go to eat the Arctic Char. It was amazing. I got so caught up in the filming of the episode, I asked Nina waht kind of salmon it was because it tasted so good. She told me that it was Arctic Char. HA! I really enjoyed it.

Technical notes: This episode was filmed using a Nokia N93. It records at 640 x 480 30 frames per second. I converted the .mp4 files to QuickTime .mov files using MPEG Streamclip, then edited the video with Final Cut Pro. When done editing, I exported using Compressor at 320�240 H.264 and uploaded to blip.tv. Blip.tv then converts the video to Flash and cross-posts... to Spices of Life."

Yay!

It's International Four Eyes Week

Flickr: Photos tagged with internationalfoureyesweek.

Add yours.

International (TBA) Week on flickr.

I made that animated gif with Online Image Editor.

TiVo Owners Get Apology From FOX

FOX apologizes for Idol finale overtime:

"FOX has apologized for extending American Idol 6’s finale nine minutes past its scheduled conclusion, which caused DVR users to miss the show’s results."

Stupid FOX.

You can see clips from the end on Idol Critic.

How to Host a Newtwork Solutions Domain Elsewhere

On Your Host ex: 1and1.com
Setup the site you want to create
Go to control panel and add the domain, add it as an "external domain", meaning it's registered elsewhere
Get the name server IPs from your host

Network Solutions
Change the name servers for the domain in question

Wait for the DNS to propogate across the internet

We're live:

http://www.capecodhasbeatlemania.com/

Jeff Pulver Broadcasts on blogTV

Co-hosting with Jeff Pulver on blogtv.com.

This is what's missing from other live streaming sites.

Yay history!

stevegarfield's Show - blogTV

Jeff Pulver blogged about this new live video site and I'm trying it out this morning, stevegarfield's Show - blogTV.

The cool thing is that you can have live co-hosts!

Bank of America: Bring Back Fast Cash

My BostonNOW blog post asking Bank of America to bring back FAST CASH is in today's BostonNOW.

Fall 2007 Pilot Preview

Watch previews of the new Fall TV programs.

Here are some of the show's I found interesting:

Pushing Dasies, The Big Bang Theory, Kid Nation, Aliens in America, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Journeyman, Chuck, Bionic Woman.

Of all of them, Kid Nation had the best preview.

Here's the 2007-2008 Network Fall Schedule Chart.

via [ Tim Shey ]

Chris Brogan is more responsive than the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about me and my mom, Using YouTube for Posterity. They misrepresented the facts. They made stuff up in their account of my mother and my relationship to fit in with the theme of the story.

This is the part of the article about us, which isn't freely available online at the WSJ:

"While some are looking to trace back through decades of history or document big events, others are recording more mundane moments. To help preserve her memory, 81-year-old Millie Garfield of Swampscott, Mass., decided to feature herself in a series of videos documenting one of her... son Steve's pet peeves - namely, her persistent requests for his help opening coffee cans, rethreading dental floss or opening other tightly sealed bottles. Steve, a video producer in Boston, has helped her film and post the series, called "I Can't Open This," on a blog, Mymoms blog.blogspot.com, and on YouTube. Millie's friends - and random users who find the clips through searches - have posted comments like "Those pesky plastic containers, they are a pain.""

Let's take a look at what was printed and the actual facts:

"To help preserve her memory, 81-year-old Millie Garfield of Swampscott, Mass., decided to feature herself in a series of videos"

WRONG

My mom didn't decide to do these videos to preserve her memory. I
decided to do them to capture fleeting moments. My mom usually says
writing a blog helps keep her mind healthy.

"documenting one of her... son Steve's pet peeves"

WRONG

Helping my mom open stuff is a pleasure and in no way a pet
peeve.. I never said that.

"namely, her persistent requests"

WRONG

This makes my mom sound like she is always complaining and
asking for help.

WRONG

She saves up items for whenever I visit.

"Steve, a video producer in Boston, has helped her film and post the series, called "I Can't Open This," on a blog, Mymomsblog.blogspot.com, and on YouTube."

WRONG

The title of the videoblog series is "I Can't Open It"

When I was first misrepresented by the Wall Street Journal, I called the reporter. She left a message with me explaining why she wrote the story the way she did.

THE REPORTER RESPONDS
"I am deeply sorry that the final wording didn't come out as you liked. Pet peeve was not meant to be negative and it wasn't in quotes. Your mom and I did have a very thoughtful discussion about what the series means to her in terms of preserving her memory. She brought up and you once gave her a book to encourage her to write her memoirs and that she never got to that and appreciated this as an alternative. I read her back the section Monday afternoon."


Photo by JD Lasica

This isn't right. So if it isn't in quotes, reporters can make stuff up? Neither my mother nor myself ever said the words 'pet peeve'. It's not in our vocabulary. It mis-characterizes our relationship. The reporter didn't get it. She didn't get us. It's wrong and should be changed.

Just because my mother agrees, after the fact, that the videos will be like her memoirs, that doesn't change the FACT that these videos were not started for that reason and that I decided to record them and not her.

If the Wall Street Journal can't even get the facts right in a human interest story, what are they doing on the real news?

IT'S NOT FREE ONLINE ANYWAY
I stopped trying to get it corrected thinking that the article didn't need any more visibility by my posting it to my blog. It's behind a paid firewall anyway so not many people will ever see it.

Or so I thought.

Then this turned up in my Google reader:

Seniors go online to save legacy
Myrtle Beach Sun News - Myrtle Beach,SC,USA

"We have fun with it and it captures our relationship," says Steve Garfield, who also has his own video blog. "I am very proud of her."

The erroneous article was now out in public.

Syndicated in all it's dis-informational glory for all to see.

And it was spreading.

You see, even the title of the article is incorrect. That's my point. We didn't go online to save a legacy. We went on line for fun. That's the lede of the story and our truth was changed to match the storyline. It's not right.

And how can I correct the story on the Myrtle Beach Sun News site. Let's look at my options:



Email, print, reprint or license, AIM, del.icio.us or Digg it

Nothing there allows me to comment. No way to email the author or contact the paper for a correction.

I wrote to them:

Hi,
You reprinted a story from the Wall Street Journal that has factual errors in it.

I have not been able to get the Wall Street Journal to agree to corrrect the errors in the story and now they are syndicating the story and you have posted it to the web.

Seniors go online to save legacy
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/101/story/67063.html

Is there any way for you to correct your online version of this story?

I'm waiting to hear back.

BLOGS ARE MORE RESPONSIVE TO CORRECTIONS
Chris Brogan is more responsive than the Wall Street Journal.

He recently wrote, An Autobiography of Sorts. I saw something that he left out, I emailed him, and he added it.

And unlike the Wall Street Journal, he allows comments too! Plus, his blog posts are not behind a pay-per-view firewall.

A RECENT EMAIL EXCHANGE
The most recent email from the writer of the article on me and my mom:

"The article can't be changed at this point. Would you still like to
have my editor follow up?"

Ummm, yes.

I'm still waiting for an editor to contact me.

Jordin Sparks - This is My Now

Jordin Sparks — Fighter, Broken Wing, This is My Now.

Yup, the recap video was filmed during the rehearsal.

Comcast: Where's Your TiVo?

I just blogged my customer service experience with Comcast over on BostonNOW, Steve Garfield is the Media - Comcast: Where's Your TiVo?:

"Comcast: Where’s Your TiVo?

Comcast’s DVR is the worst and I’d be happy to get a TiVo software upgrade to it, but no one it telling us when that is going to happen.

I have to resort to message boards from customers all over the US who are getting conflicting answers that say it could be out this year or 2008.

TiVo has a sweet feature that lets you see ahead about five seconds, so that when you stop fast forwarding, you’re exactly where you want to be. The Comcast DVR doesn’t work this way.

When will we see TiVo software onthe Comcast DVR?

I just had an online chat with Deborah, a Comcast Service rep."

Click the link to read the whole sad story of my chat with Comcast customer service.

Eric Rice got me going on this issue...

Amazing President Facts

Richardson Won't Need on-the-job training

Jack McEnany of LostNation.tv reports, Richardson Makes it Official:

"Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) told a Los Angeles crowd at his formal presidential announcement yesterday,

“This nation needs a leader with a proven track record and an ability to bring people together to tackle our problems here at home and abroad,” he said. “I am that person - not because I say so, but because of what I have done.”

And, unlike the git who holds the office now, he’s done it all. Given the utter incompetence and failure of the current administration, a hard-working politician like Richardson, who has come up through the ranks on his own, toiled as a staffer, a member of Congress, a diplomat, a cabinet sec’y, and now a very successful and progressive governor, would restore credibility to the office of the president.

When you look at the field of Democrats running, it’s hard to imagine any of them as ready for the job as the NM governor is. No president has inherited a worse mess since Andrew Johnson took the oath of office after Lincoln’s assassination, so there’s no time for on-the-job training. Richardson is the only candidate who doesn’t need it. "

What is Creative Commons?

Freevlog: What is Creative Commons?:

"A Creative Commons license amends your Copyright with the permission for others to use your work in certain ways. Creative Commons licenses span the gap between Copyright - All Rights Reserved and Public Domain - No Rights Reserved. It’s a “Some Rights Reserved” Copyright."

Many civil wars in Iraq

Iraq: Not 'a' civil war, but many civil wars | Press Esc:

"There is not ‘a’ civil war in Iraq, but many civil wars and insurgencies involving a number of communities and organizations struggling for power, according to a damning report released today by the independent British think tank Chatham House.

The author Dr Gareth Stansfield states that the surge is not curbing the high level of violence, and improvements in security cannot happen in a matter of months."

Flickrvision 3D

Flickrvision 3D is very cool.

Thomas Hawk for Mike Gravel

On the Zoomer Mark III launch broadcast, Thomas Hawk said he'd vote for Senator Mike Gravel:

"A Fair Tax

Eliminate the income tax and replace it with a progressive national sales tax - Fair Tax."

Paull Young in Boston

Paull Young in Boston from stevegarfield on Vimeo.

Paull Young.

MJ O'Connor's Irish Pub Tonight

Say "G'day" to Paull Young at MJ O'Connor's Irish Pub (Monday, May 21, 2007) - Upcoming:

"An informal meetup to say 'G'day' to Paull Young, the Australian who has recently moved to the USA to work at New York City-based agency Converseon. "

G'day!

Family Winemakers' lawsuit against Massachusetts progresses

I just watched a great report by Channel 5's Janet Wu on the problems with the current direct ship wine law in Massachusetts. [ video ]

Here's an online text version of Wu's story, Mass. Law Restricts Shipping Wine Into State:

The Commonwealth's restrictive law does appear to be keeping out-of-state wineries at bay. In 2006, only 12 small out-of-state wineries sought licenses to ship to Massachusetts.

The current direct ship law is a joke.

The State of Massachusetts is being sued over it.

From Family Winemakers of California:

The Family Winemakers lawsuit against the State of Massachusetts, on behalf of its member wineries, continues to progress. FWC sued to overturn the state's 30,000-gallon production cap, which prevents many out-of-state wineries from shipping to Massachusetts consumers. The case is expected to go to summary judgment in early fall 2007. Click here to view the complaint.

This Just In: Onion News is Real

Evening's Events Immediately Recapped With Digital-Camera Slide Show | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

"DENVER—Family and friends attending a two-hour birthday dinner for 26-year-old Josh Kebbekus at The Cheesecake Factory yesterday concluded their meal by watching a slide show of themselves ordering drinks, talking, eating, and taking photos of one another.

'Look, here we are waiting for our table,' said Kebbekus' older sister Rebecca, one of the six attendees who had brought digital cameras to the event. 'Oh, here's Josh with that yummy cheesecake we had. And here's another one of the cheesecake.'"

Ironic.

A night out with the boys...


Vlogger drinks and shenanigans at Burp Castle NYC. Wee!

Burp Castle by fld1970.
action.girl's photos
Jared Klett's photos
gpiper's photos
Bill Cammack's photos


BXL in NYC by ThinkJose.
Andy Carvin.

Personal Democracy Forum People

Personal Democracy Forum People - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

At the Personal Democracy Forum I did some hallway walking, and captured some fleeting moments in video.

This video is authentic and unedited. Captured on a Nokia N95 cellphone, that I'm evaluating for Nokia, I uploaded the videos to blip.tv, which automatically converted the .mp4 videos to flash and cross-posted them to my video blog.

It's easy to create this type of video and I'd enjoy seeing video like this from the candidates running for president.

Cross posted at techPresident.

Technorati Tags:
pdf2007

Grace Beer

burp_castle07.JPG - Originally uploaded on flickr by fld1970.

Who Will Be America's First TechPresident?

techPresident – Who Will Be America's First TechPresident? A Challenge to the Candidates:

"...we are more connected than ever before and have more access to more information and more tools for identifying and solving problems than any generation in American history, thanks to the Internet.

As we prepare to pick the next President, we’d like to challenge all the candidates running to tell America: How should this public resource be used to make our country more competitive, more democratic, healthier, better educated, more secure and financially sound?"

Tags: Personal Democracy, Personal Democracy Forum, PDF2007

Larry Lessig at PDF

Larry says, "Watch This"

IRAQ FOR SALE: The War Profiteers.

Rip. Mix. Buen. Politics.

Tags: Personal Democracy, Personal Democracy Forum, PDF2007

Steve Across America: NYC 5/17 - 5/18

Steve Across America lands in NYC today for lunch with Scoble, a meeting at CBS, then a speakers reception for the Personal Democracy Forum which is on Friday.

At the Personal Democracy Forum I'll be presenting Videoblogging in 5 Minutes during the Idea Market on Friday afternoon. It's an informal roundtable where I can answer your videoblogging questions and show you how it's easy for anyone to capture and share fleeting moments.

Check out Aldon Hynes' post about Interaction and Interactivity.


There's a Personal Democracy Forum unconference on Saturday too.



Ta da!

Thursday Night - CONFIRMED

The Ginger Man
11 East 36th Street
New York, NY 11016

Phone: (212) 532-3740

Hoping to see ThinkJose, Andy Carvin, and Hilary McHone! I'm confirming this today.


Friday Night - CONFIRMED

Burp Castle
41 E 7th St
New York, NY 10003

1 212 982 4576

Grace Piper and Chuck Olsen are planning to attend. Yay!


Follow my Twitter stream for updates.

Tags: Personal Democracy, Personal Democracy Forum, PDF2007

Slow Down Boston

Slow Down Boston I - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

To get this shot, I followed these instructions from Glenn at BostonNOW:

With slow shutter try some panning with moving objects.
Shutter about 15th sec. Lens greater than 50mm is best. Have subject moving from left to right (or right to left). You stay stationary and pivot your body with the subject. Snap shutter in middle of "twist".

Fun.

When is Friday Night Lights on?

Here's a look at NBC's schedule...

For the new season...

Friday.

Good move.

Why it was on another day, I'll never know.

Sovereign Bank: That's Not Right

Sovereign Bank requires you to enter your home phone number in this format, ###-###-####.

If you enter your home phone number as ########## you get an error message that says:

Home Phone must be entered in the format ###-###-####

Why?

Why is that?

It's a computer.

A computer is able to auto format this ########## to ###-###-####.

But it doesn't. It's not programmed to do it.

This is a human error.

The Real Story of JPG Magazine

Derek Powazek – The Real Story of JPG Magazine:

"I chose to tell this story because I wanted the community I spent three years growing to know that I didn’t leave on a whim. As sad and embarrasing as it is to tell, I put the truth out there because my personal and professional credibility is on the line."

I'm sorry this happened Derek. Thanks for sharing the true story.

BostonNOW Lilac Sunday

BostonNOW Lilac Sunday - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

As seen in BostonNOW, May 15, 2007.

BostonNOW Water Pipe

BostonNOW Water Pipe - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

As seen in BostonNOW, May 15, 2007.

iJustine Meets Matthew Ebel

Watch the current episode of the web video series Something to be Desired where iJustine meets Matthew Ebel.

My friend Justin Kownacki is the Writer and Producer. Great sound, video and editing... I love the ending on this one.

Millie's Yiddish Class: A Joke

New video: Millie's Yiddish Class: A Joke.

Three Lilac Watchers

Three Lilac Watchers - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

PHOTO SET - Mother's Day 2007 - Lilac Sunday at Arnold Arboretum.

Happy Mother's Day

My mom sent me this...

Window: 3 photos per second

I recorded 3 photos per second with my Nikon D80 and then brought the photos into Final Cut Pro and set each photo to display for a duration of 1 second. Then I put a dissolve between each.

That's how I created this effect that you can watch on Vimeo.

Boston Media Makers: Copyright Discussion

Boston Media Makers: Copyright Discussion - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Philippe Lejeune's video from the May 6th Boston Media Makers including a discussion on copyright.

Click on bottom left image for copyright discussion.

Traffic Calming Idea

This video was made by the Danish Road Safety Council and aims to draw attention to speed signs and speed limits in Denmark.

VIDEO: www.speedbandits.dk [ NSFW ]

via [ video-link.tv ]

Jeff Jarvis Gets an Office Makeover

Jeff Jarvis Invests in Black20 and gets a Super Awesome Office Makeover [ Watch the Video ].

Spices of Life: Preparing the Table

Spices of Life: Preparing the Table - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Preparing the table at Legal Sea Foods for shooting a Pryamid on a Plate episode of Nina Simonds Spices of Life videoblog.

Water Pipe Full of Crap

Water Pipe Full of Crap - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

This is what a water pipe looks like after years of providing drinking water to a neighborhood of Boston.

Before using this type of modern pipe they used hollowed out trees!

"In 1795, private water suppliers developed a delivery system, using wooden pipes made from tree trunks, to carry water from Jamaica Pond to Boston Proper."

http://www.mwra.com/04water/html/hist1.htm

Delta Air Lines is my Twitter Friend

A real person added me as a friend and messaged me on Twitter after seeing that I was boarding a Delta flight earlier today:

Twitter / Delta Air Lines: @stevegarfield - enjoy your flight!

It seems that this person is working on this Delta website about change.

Meeting Atlanta Media Makers

Steve Across America: Atlanta May 9th

Join me, Michael Bailey, Justin Kownacki, Vergel Evans, Sherry Heyl, Rusty Tanton and Amber Rhea in Atlanta at Manuel's Tavern on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 6:00 for an informal gathering of Atlanta area media makers.

Please RSVP at upcoming.org

NY Times sent me 34 visitors

This blog, Off On A Tangent, and my video blog get most of my traffic.

SteveGarfield.com is an informational page for people to get an overview of my sites and see the projects I'm working on. Call it a portal if you'd like.

The New York Times sent me 34 visitors yesterday.

If you have had a site linked to from the NY Times, how much traffic has it sent you?

Internet Podcast Genius

Epicenter - Wired Blogs:

“It’s Jerry Time” is about as close as you’ll get to Internet podcast genius.

Yay!

I Consent To Being Recorded

Self Identify for New Media at Conferences:

"Ever go to a conference, take a bunch of photos and recordings, and wonder about fair use and all that? I have. Here’s an idea to help make the flow of information more simple - give away free armbands to let people opt into the kind of coverage they want to experience. I’ve made a sample PDF with 3 levels of Creative Commons licensure - non-consent, consent for non commercial use, and consent for commercial use. Print one out and wear it at the next conference or event you attend!"

White Castle Theremin Video

This is a really interesting article in today's Boston Globe about Jon Bernhardt and his theremin, The geek who captured the Castle:

"When advertising executives saw a video of Boston theremin player Jon Bernhardt performing the old Buggles song ‘‘Video Killed the Radio Star’’ on YouTube, the MIT math grad was headhunted for the White Castle fast-food chain’s new advertising campaign."

The problem, once again, is that the Boston Globe does not provide links to the video that's the main part of the story.

No links in the paper and no links online.

I'll provide the links to the theremin videos I found on YouTube here: Theremin 1, Theremin 2.

I also found Theremin Killed the Radio Star, the video that got White Castle interested in the first place. This video rocks!

A quick Google search leads us to Christopher Lydon's Open Source blog post, White Castle Thereminist Speaks, which has a link to the video and a link to Jon Bernhardt's blog.

The irony here is that Christopher Lydon's blog is for a radio show, and he has video!

How many times do I have to blog about this?

Grammar Girl in the NY Times

My friend Mignon Fogarty is in the NY Times today too, Book Not Ready for Print? You Can Whip Up an Audiobook for a Podcast for Now:

When you are a budding author and you appear on television, it is sure to enhance book sales.

But what do you do if your book is not even written, never mind in stores?

For Mignon Fogarty, who is host of a popular podcast called Grammar Girl, the answer is to scramble to record a short audiobook in just a few days between the time the show tapes and is shown.

We had fun meeting her in Phoenix. Congratulations.

Fun, fulfillment, and friends

I'm in the NY Times today - "A Boston Newspaper Prints What the Local Bloggers Write."

What's ironic is that after a 30 minute interview with the reporter, the quote they chose to use, is now out of context.

John Wilpers, editor in chief of BostonNow, a free weekday daily introduced last month, said he wanted to fill the paper with items that local bloggers submitted to the BostonNow Web site... Also appealing to bloggers is that they retain ownership of their submissions even after printing. They have not, however, received money from the paper for their work.

Last week, BostonNow ran a post and photograph by Steve Garfield, who has been blogging for a decade, now at stevegarfield.com. He said cash payments would be nice, but he planned to contribute even if that did not happen. “The whole thing I do in blogging is to get seen, get visibility,” he said.

That quote answers the question of how do you make money by blogging for free. It's an answer I often give that says my blog ends up being a promotional vehicle for my consulting and video production business.

It IS NOT the main reason for my blogging.

I blog for fun, fulfillment, and friends. Friends I have, and friends I haven't met yet.

The visibility comes as a byproduct of doing what I love.

It would be nice if reporters would let interviewees proofread articles. I have had reporters let me do a technical edit on a piece, but when I ask if I can review a story before they publish, they usually can't do that.

It would also be nice if the NY Times had an area for comments... They don't.

In the end, BostonNOW is a step in the right direction. They let bloggers write articles and submit photos AND they allow comments on every story.

Let's see the NY Times and Boston Globe allow that!

My BostonNOW Post - BostonNOW is ours.

My BostonNOW photo - Lindsay and Goose.

Boston Media Makers 5/5/07

Boston Media Makers 5/5/07 - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Meeting Report: Sunday May 6th with text, pictures and video. Yay!

Contended

Contended - Originally uploaded on flickr by Shaolin Tiger.

From the 24 hours of flickr.

People all over the world are taking pictures today and adding their best one to the 24 hours of flickr pool.

I'm heading outside now...

Nina, Sonia, Ravi, Steamed Salmon and Bok Choy

Spices of Life - Dinner Doctor: Busy Young Couple, No Dishwasher (Part II)
In this video Nina, Sonia and Ravi make Steamed Salmon and Bok Choy. It’s a healthy dish that requires minimal preparation, and you don’t have so many dirty dishes afterwards.

Where To Host Web Video

David Tamés writes about delivering video on the web:

"Prepping and Posting your Video to the Web
Which of the many video sharing sites should you use? The answer really depends on your goals for the video."

Nice article.

the Grove Family

the Grove Family - Originally uploaded on flickr by Paul V Specht.

Microwave Oven Safety Breakthrough

Microwave Oven Safety Breaktrhough - Originally uploaded on flickr by stevegarfield.

Tired of burning your fingers when taking hot dishes out of the microwave? Well, those days are over.

Now with the Microwave Oven Finger Protector, you can easily remove hot dishes without getting burned. Just place the Microwave Oven Finger Protector under the dish PRIOR to heating. Then when heating is completed, remove dish by handling only the Microwave Oven Finger Protector.