Rocketboom: Jason Scott

Rocketboom: Jason Scott, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

I had fun introducing Rocketboom today.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008: Before The LOL at ROFLCon

"The gift of Boston is Stephen Garfield," Jason Scott.

www.rocketboom.com/vlog/rb_08_apr_30

Burger King Loaded Steakhouse Burger

Burger King Loaded Steakhouse Burger, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Burger King Loaded Steakhouse Burger:

When The King isn’t watching you sleep or molesting your children, he’s in the corporate test kitchen. He’s probably molesting the chefs too, but what he’s really doing is finding ways to slowly kill you with fat so that he may harvest your organs to pay for the medical bills that come from maintaining that abnormally large head of his. It’s no surprise that he managed to get this gut-busting Burger King Loaded Steakhouse Burger green-lit.

YouTube video: Burger King hurry to get steakhouse.

Flickr FINALLY Adds 'Share This'

Flickr now gives you a litle 'Share This' button to click on which gives you HTML code to copy and paste.

Yay!

Doesn't work on Safari on a Mac, and I can't find a way to adjust the size.

Also, it'd be nice if the photo title, username and license info were added under the photo. Is it that hard to think of these things?

Like this:
A Certain Sense of Hopelessness by Thomas Hawk. CC BY-NC

And while I'm at it, could you put the HTML on the photos' 'All Sizes' page like it is for your own photos?

Here's my first shared photo:

Vote: Obama in 30 Seconds

Obama 2012.



Time to vote, Obama in 30 Seconds.

Social Networking Wars

via [ Amanda Gravel ]

Exploring Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor Nantucket, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

I'm exploring the tripadvisor travel site after getting Free lunch, a Free T-Shirt and Free ice cream from them at ROFLcon. They were a sponsor.

I've been looking for a good travel site where people share their travel stories.

My Page:
www.tripadvisor.com/members/stevegarfield. I uploaded a video and the quality is very good.

I'm wondering how people will ever find it though.

N95 Qik Crash Prevention

From Qik:

The problem with the N95 is that the US version can't switch between 3G and GSM without crashing the phone if there is a load on the DSP (like there is when Qik is running), even if Qik is using WiFi.

The solution is to lock it into 3G mode (which should be fine anywhere in AT&T's 3G coverage cities). In rural areas it can be locked into GSM instead.

Go into tools -> settings -> phone -> network -> network mode -- set to "UMTS" (not "dual mode"). This locks it into 3G mode and prevents it from crashing while streaming when the phone gets the bright idea to switch networks (which it should not be doing so much to begin with). You can also lock it into GSM mode if you're someplace outside AT&T's 3G map.

Steve Garfield chasing me w/ N95

Steve Garfield chasing me w/ N95, originally uploaded by davefishernc.

Menino's $575,000 Plan for Boston never Published

John C. Drake writes a great article in today's Boston Globe, Promises Unmet:

Charles Euchner began his work at Boston City Hall with an ambitious directive from Mayor Thomas M. Menino: Build a plan for the city's next three decades of growth. But even as he began, Euchner had a nagging suspicion that the project had been effectively abandoned.

Menino told area business leaders in 1997 that Boston 400, as the planning process was called, would be the "boldest thing to happen in this city in a long, long time," asserting that it would "not become a document collecting dust on a shelf."

It is true that the plan, which was developed with a budget of $575,000, is not collecting dust and sitting on a shelf. But that is only because it was never published, making it what Euchner considers an embarrassing flop.

"To this day, I still hear from people saying, 'Whatever happened to that thing?' and I'm kind of embarrassed and sad," said Euchner, the urban planner who earned about $125,000 over nearly three years as a full-time consultant on the project...

A draft report briefly had a home on the city's website, but has been removed. Euchner went on to lead Harvard University's Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston before moving to Connecticut, where he teaches English at Yale University.

Today, Euchner contends that without a final report to be used as a guide, the city got nothing out of its investment of time and money. But city officials contend that its conclusions - even unpublished - pervade much of the city's planning. Menino scoffed at Euchner's criticism.

"Some people want to have documents. I want to get things done," he said. "I'm the mayor that makes the promises, not him. . . . It's easy to sit there at Yale and make judgments. I sit at City Hall and make commitments and take action."

I'd like to see the document published to the city's website.

Mayor Menino, publish the report.

The citizens of Boston paid for it.

Hillary should not be answering the White House phone

Boston Globe Editorial, Hillary Strangelove:

AMERICANS have learned to take with a grain of salt much of the rhetoric in a campaign like the current Democratic donnybrook between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Still, there are some red lines that should never be crossed. Clinton did so Tuesday morning, the day of the Pennsylvania primary, when she told ABC's "Good Morning America" that, if she were president, she would "totally obliterate" Iran if Iran attacked Israel.

This foolish and dangerous threat was muted in domestic media coverage. But it reverberated in headlines around the world.

Responding with understatement to a question in the British House of Lords, the foreign minister responsible for Asia, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, said of Clinton's implication of a mushroom cloud over Iran: "While it is reasonable to warn Iran of the consequences of it continuing to develop nuclear weapons and what those real consequences bring to its security, it is probably not prudent in today's world to threaten to obliterate any other country and in many cases civilians resident in such a country...

A presidential candidate who lightly commits to obliterating Iran - and, presumably, all the children, parents, and grandparents in Iran - should not be answering the White House phone at any time of day or night."

BarackObama.com

Rick Astley would never...

Rick Astley would never..., originally uploaded by roblord.

As seen in Alice Marwick's ROFLCon talk on microcelebrity.

Shooting the ROFLcon Group Portrait

Shooting the ROFLcon Group Portrait, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

iJustine and Brookers

iJustine and Brookers, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Medical Center

MBTA prepares to do some serious name-dropping - The Boston Globe:

"Taking 'New England' out of the name of Tufts-New England Medical Center last month was the easy part.

But the hospital's rebranding will be more difficult for the MBTA, which has to make the name change at its New England Medical Center stop on the Orange Line. In addition to the signs at the station, the T has to make changes on thousands of signs at each of the transit system's stations, as well as on printed maps, recorded announcements, and websites."

""For Hynes/ICA, the name change was really more of a name reduction, and only involved eliminating or obscuring three letters. The Orange Line revision, however, entails substituting one name for another.""

Why?

Why add the Tufts branding to the T signs? If they want to purchase naming rights, have them pay.

Otherwise, just get some white paint and white stickers and change the name from New England Medical Center to Medical Center.

Simple.

ROFLcon Day One: Featuring Tron Guy

Please Enjoy The Bubble Project

Please Enjoy The Bubble Project, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Check this picture of me taking this picture.

Tron Guy at ROFLcon

Tron Guy at ROFLcon, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

MARMADUKE EXPLAINED

MARMADUKE EXPLAINED:

"Marmaduke is paralyzed by the pressure of choosing which of two objects he should spend his day chewing on. Marmaduke's owner-lady mocks his plight while cradling an armload of either towels or enormous lasagna noodles."

Wired is Clueless!

It's Hard Out Here for a Meme: Lifestyles of the Microfamous | The Underwire from Wired.com:

"'The number of potential cultural memes goes up in a straight line with the increase of internet population,' said David Weinberger, a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society and author of Clueless Manifesto, a book on the economy of the internet. 'More and more people online have great ideas and funny things to say.'"

ROFL.

The Cluetrain Manifesto.

TV should show crazy baseball fans but not political attack ads

Dave Winer: The crazy baseball fan rule - The Huffington Post:

"Every so often a beer-drunk fan will run on the field during a baseball game causing a delay while the cops chase him down. Back in the days of streaking sometimes these fans would run out on the field naked.

You'll never see one of these scenes on TV because there's a rule that the broadcasters are not allowed to follow the drunk baseball fan onto the field. If they were to broadcast the drunk fan, the theory goes, that would just encourage more people to do it, meaning more delayed games, annoyed players, offended fans and busted streakers.

It seems to me this very simple rule should be adopted by news networks when it comes to the most hideous attack ads.

Example. The North Carolina Republican Party has yet to spend a dime running a racist attack ad against Obama, one that McCain and the national party swear they don't want them to run. But millions of TV viewers have seen the ad, repeatedly, run for free on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. This seems grossly unfair, and how does it not count as a campaign contribution?"

Another Day at Fenway - Panning Time Lapse - HDTV

Another Day at Fenway - Panning Time Lapse - HDTV from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Amazing HD time lapse shot at Fenway Park.

Watch a larger HD version of 'Another Day at Fenway' at Vimeo.

When I was working at an HD studio in Natick, I wanted to shoot a time lapse at Fenway, but with a still camera. This one far exceeds what I had planned.

Tom Guilmette - Official Website.

Tom Guilmette - Blog.

Cell Phone Waiting Lot

Cell Phone Waiting Lot, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

I spent an enjoyable 20 minutes at Logan Airport yesterday in the new Cell Phone Waiting Lot. It's right next to the Hyatt hotel, nicely landscaped and convenient to all terminals.

My mom called from the plane nad let me know that she had landed. After that I got a second call and overheard her saying:

I just called my son and told him that I landed. He wanted me to call...

The sound started to become muffled. I think after she hung up, she dialed me again and didn't know it, then popped the phone into her pocketbook.

So I started yelling into my phone:

Mom! Helllloooooo! I'm in your pocketbook... Hellll...lllooo! It's me! Pick up.

After a while I gave up and hung up the phone.

I walked outside and took this picture of a big sign.



Lots of rules. Too bad you are limited to staying there for 30 minutes. It'd be a nice place for a summer picnic. :-)

After a while I got another call from my mom:

Hello.

Where are you?

I told her I was sitting in the cellphone waiting lot and that I'd be right there to pick her up.

When I arrived at Terminal C, there she was, sitting on a bench.

I grabbed all her stuff and we took off to have dinner at Gourmet Garden in Swampscott.



That's a Happy Family. What a great dish.

After dinner we hit the Market Basket and did some shopping to re-stock her fridge.

Despite breathless media reports of food shortages, especially rice, I saw no shortage.



We picked up some Jazz apples, which are both sweet and tart.



Good times.

Seesmic Wordpress Plugin Released

Seesmic Blog: Seesmic Wordpress Plugin Released:

"Whit Scott on Seesmic de Jour today, explained the new Seesmic Wordpress plugin."

I left this comment:

Brilliant.

Congratulations.

Left my first Seesmic video comment on TechCrunch.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/22/the-ozzie-memo—software-is-dead-long-live-the-web/#comment-2216881

Does code allow for people to leave descriptive text along with the video comment?

Thanks!
--Steve

Here's what it looks like:



Funny!

96.9

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While earlier in the day on 96.9 FM TALK in Boston Jay Severin calls his listeners the Best and Brightest, at night Michelle McPhee calls her listeners morons.

There is wisdom in the crowds Michelle.

96.9 FM Talk is only listenable when Jim and Margery are on.

Harvey Tru-Channel Storm Windows

I've got (6) brand new Harvey Tru-Channel Storm Windows for sale.

Here are the sizes:

22 x 37 1/2
26 1/2 x 48
32 x 65
32 1/2 x 69
26 3/4 x 45
26 1/2 x 52

Let me know if you are interested in them. Pick up in Boston.

My MySpace Interview

Paul Armstrong, MySpaceTV Promotions Manager, interviewed me about web video, INTERVIEW: Steve Garfield (stevegarfield.com) .

PA: You started in "old media" - how has that affected your vlogging?

SG: Many of the skills I learned and ingrained from doing old media for so many years, help me tell stories. I've always been a student of production, both audio and video. Now, when I produce a video, I'm editing it in my head, prior to and during the shoot. Sometimes, if it's a commercial shoot, I'll edit the participants during the shoot if I see something that would solve an editing problem later. Some of these problems might be people who misspeak or talk to long. I'll have them do a retake and give direction such as, "Say the same thing you just said only use a lot less words."

Thanks for the interview Paul.

You can read the whole interview over here.

Artboy Meets Artgirl

Artboy Meets Artgirl, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

See the "Artboy Meets Artgirl" video

Boston University MFA Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 2008 Music: Moi Caprice "Artboy Meets Artgirl" from "Once Upon A Time in the North" (GLORIOUS RECORDS)

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by stevegarfield with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

No More Training Wheels

No More Training Wheels, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

It was never explained to me how training wheels on a bike are supposed to work. This is a little story about riding my bike with training wheels and taking them off.

Part of the 90-Second Stories Pool.

Paper Hats Parade

Paper Hats Parade, originally uploaded by masterslate.

Tobin: Annual Spring Breakfast

Tobin: Annual Spring Breakfast, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Watch the video of Councillor Tobin's speech.

Yearbook turned into Cartoon

53, originally uploaded by Robot Johnny.

Route 1

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Boston.com wants to OWN your Wedding Video

Boston.com - Weddings - Lifestyle:

Welcome to Boston.com's newest wedding feature! Send us romantic, funny, or touching video clips from your wedding ceremonies and receptions. Share your love and your special day with us!

"By submitting your video(s) to Boston.com, you agree that such videos(s) and the accompanying information will become the property of Boston.com and you grant Boston.com, The Boston Globe, Boston Metro and their sublicensees permission to publicly display, reproduce and use the videos in any form or media for any and (all editorial and related promotional purposes) purposes.You also warrant that (i) the video is your original work, or is properly licensed, and does not violate the copyright or any other personal or property right of any third party, and (ii) you have obtained any and all releases and permissions necessary for our intended use. Your submission also allows Boston.com to edit, crop or adjust the colors of the image(s) on an as needed basis."

If your wedding video becomes the property of Boston.com, does that mean that you don't own it anymore?

What If you send in the cute shot of the flower girl walking down the aisle?

Does Boston.com now own that and do you therefore have to license it to get it into your own wedding video?

I'd love to send Boston.com some videos, but only to borrow for a while while I retain all ownership rights.

I prefer having them feature my videos on the front page and linking to them. That way everyone is happy.

Would you share your videos with Boston.com under these terms and conditions?

Boston Public Garden and Swan Boats

Carol and Steve show you the Boston Public Garden, established in 1837, and The Swan Boats of Boston.

The Swan Boats open Saturday April 19th for the season.

Note: Steve also did the web site for the Swan Boats

BostonNOW is Gone

Media Nation: The demise of BostonNOW:

"When BostonNOW started out, it was supposed to be a state-of-the-art meld of print and Web, with readers setting up blogs that would be excerpted in the paper. That did happen, but it never really garnered much attention after the initial flurry of interest."

I was excited when BostonNOW came to town. I met with John Wilpers and shared some advice on how to get bloggers involved with the newspaper.

It was exciting to participate in an experiment of getting readers to actually contribute content to a newspaper.

I wrote some blog posts that were published in print and on their web site, but what was most exciting was getting my photos printed in the newspaper.

Here are some of my favorites:











I'd love to see the Boston Globe or Boston Herald pick up where BostonNOW left off.

Universal Hub: Read and Talk About Boston Area Blogs

Adam Gaffin and Universal Hub are profiled in this Commonwealth article by Dan Kennedy, Your Blog of Blogs: Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin may be the most influential editor you’ve never heard of:

"[Gaffin] offers something of a mission statement: “There’s a lot more stuff happening out there than you might see in the daily papers. Here’s a place not only where you can read about it but you can talk about it, how are you affected by it.”"

I'm happy to be a part of Universal Hub's success.

Check it out.

When to Use Live Streaming from a Cellphone

Veronica Belmont is thinking of ways to use her Nokia N95 and the Qik live streaming service.

She posts: Veronica on Qik: I’ll try to be more exciting, I promise

I've been using Qik for a while and replied with this:

Hi Veronica,

This is a great question.

One thing I love about Qik is that once I press the button to stop streaming, the video is posted to the web and there's no further capture, edit, export, upload, and post procedure to complete. It's a very freeing feeling.

Here are some ways I use Qik:

STORY TELLING
When I turn on Qik, I think of it as crafting a short story, with the emphasis on short.

As an editor, I think about how the whole stream will come together in the end, and shoot that way.

So I first point the camera at what will become the thumbnail, then introduce what is happening. Usually it's an interview, so I'll do a quick interview and then end.

Camera off.

I like seeing this as storycasting vs. lifecasting.

EVENTS
The other time I like to turn on the Qik camera is when I am at an event and want to share it live.

One good example is at an Obama rally in Boston where people could chat back to me and guide my coverage. I loved that two-way experience.

PRESENTATIONS
I've also used it to live stream presentations where they were not being broadcast and people wanted to see the presentation. In those cases it was good to have as an archive too.

BREAKING NEWS
Finally, Qik is great for breaking news. As more people get this technology, we'll see newsworthy events being captured and streamed live.

Looking forward to see what you do!
--Steve

I am in to iminta, but I hate this phrase!

stevegarfield @ iminta - what are you inta?

stevegarfield obviously has some spare time to burn

Dear iminta,

Please program your computers to never show me this phrase. It's insulting.

Just because I'm an active user of social media, it does not mean I have spare time to burn.

Thank you,
--Steve

P.S. You also said this about my friends:

"rickrey should probably turn off the computer and go outside at some point."

"stevewoolf obviously has some spare time to burn."

Also insulting.

Ford Hall Forum - Danny Schechter Recap

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Ford Hall Forum - A Little More Danny Schechter

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Ford Hall Forum - Danny Schechter

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Danny Schechter on the Web.

Danny Schechter News Dissector Blog.

Media Channel.

MediaChannel is concerned with the political, cultural and social impacts of the media, large and small. MediaChannel exists to provide information and diverse perspectives and inspire debate, collaboration, action and citizen engagement.

In Debt We Trust.

In America's earliest days, there were barn-raising parties in which neighbors helped each other build up their farms. Today, in some churches, there are debt liquidation revivals in which parishioners chip in to free each other from growing credit card debts that are driving American families to bankruptcy and desperation.

IN DEBT WE TRUST is the latest film from Danny Schechter, "The News Dissector," director of the internationally distributed and award-winning WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), an expose of the media's role in the Iraq War. The Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer's new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan advisor Kevin Phillips calls "Financialization"--the "powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit industrial complex."

Berkman@10

Berkman@10

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is proud to celebrate its tenth year as a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Running through the 2007-2008 academic year, the celebration includes an event and distinguished speaker series; major releases of books by Berkman projects and people; a culminating conference - "The Future of the Internet" - May 15-16, 2008; and a gala on May 16

The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It
This Friday, hear Berkman co-founder and faculty co-director Jonathan Zittrain talk about the book that's making waves, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.

My Tweet Cloud

My Tweet Cloud, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Zadi did one too.

Follow me on twitter.

Twitter Got Student Out Of Prison

U.C. Berkeley student's Twitter messages alerted world to his arrest in Egypt - San Jose Mercury News:

"When Egyptian police scooped up UC Berkeley graduate journalism student James Karl Buck, who was photographing a noisy demonstration, and dumped him in a jail cell last week, they didn't count on Twitter"

via [ Chris Brogan - College Student Twitters Arrest in Egypt ]

Governor Deval Patrick at Jamaica Pond

Governor Deval Patrick at Jamaica Pond, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Watch the video: qik.com/video/57225 (4:42)

Also: A Big Fish Hugs Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Stocking Jamaica Pond.

Stocking Jamaica Pond

Governer of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, Boston City Councillor John Tobin, Representative Jeffrey Sanchez and others turned out to stock Jamaica Pond in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Also: A Big Fish Hugs Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Stocking Jamaica Pond.

How To Painting Tip: Remove Paint Odor

How To Painting Tip: Remove Paint Odor, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Prior to painting, pour some vanilla extract into the paint. Dave suggested this and I tried it. See what happens. In the end, I had vanilla White Paint!

Watch the video:
How To Painting Tip: Remove Paint Odor

As seen on Boston.com!

The thought of shooting a video with the GL2, and capturing, and editing in FCP, exporting, uploading and posting would have kept me from shooting this How To video. That's why a lot of times I decide it's not worth all the hassle, but with Flickr and it's 90 second limit, it gives me the freedom to shoot something shorter, and also the limitation and challenge to tell a story in that shorter length of time.

Combine that with the ease of use of the N95, and it's ability to do in camera edits, I can look at filming these short clips as less of a hassle and more of a challenge.

Doing the whole edit in QuickTime is also sweet.

Carol was sitting beside me and called out an edit as I was watching... In the exact right place... That was a great moment.

:-)

My Mac Takes A Year to Display HTML Email

This is what my email looks like when it arrives in my Mac email.

After a random period of time, when I go back and take a second look, the HTML is rendered into something I can read.

Anyone else experiencing this or have a solution?