The Star Trek A-Team

Jordan's brings back Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins!

At Jordan’s, not Jordan Marsh - The Boston Globe:

"(Eliot Tatelman) even lured a Jordan Marsh baker out of retirement to recreate the department store’s classic blueberry muffins, now available for purchase."

Obama is having the best first year of any president since Franklin Roosevelt

Obama's Brilliant First Year. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine:

"When it comes to foreign policy, Obama's accomplishment has been less tangible but hardly less significant: He has put America on a new footing with the rest of the world. In a series of foreign trips and speeches, which critics deride as trips and speeches, he replaced George W. Bush's unilateral, moralistic militarism with an approach that is multilateral, pragmatic, and conciliatory. Obama has already significantly reoriented policy toward Iran, China, Russia, Iraq, Israel, and the Islamic world."

Buy Nothing Day

Buy Nothing Day, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Visit the Buy Nothing Day site.

You participate in news creation along with your audience

You can't stop rock and roll by Tawny Rockerazzi CC BY-NC

Brownen Clune writes Journalists are the audience formerly known as the media:

Participatory media doesn’t mean you letting your audience participate in the creation of news, it about acknowledging that you participate in news creation along with your audience.

It still astounds me how many journalists on Twitter, many of whom have spoken here today (I know because I checked) only follow other journalists – and who are the first ones to complain that the internet is an echo chamber?

My second point about journalists using Twitter is the need for full transparency, which can run counter to the notion of objectivity.

How can you be honest and open about things – or have a personal opinion – when it might align you with one party in a story over another? It was something Mark Colvin and Leigh Sales touched on in their talks with regard to being cautious in letting their opinions on a subject known. I believe that if we knew where journalists stood on a matter, it would in fact increase their credibility and create a greater trust with their audiences.

As journalist Amy Gahran put it “when journos pretend to have NO opinions/biases, it *undermines* their credibility.”

Read her whole post. She gets it.

Follow her on twitter.

Adam Lambert: CBS - The Early Show singing What Do You Want From Me 11/25/09

Voting for me is like taking a dump in a diaper.

Voting for me is like taking a dump in a diaper., originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

YouTube video: "Change Washington" - Alan Khazei for Senate

Twitter: Everything that pops into my head is fascinating!

More Cowbell

Classically trained servo motor can play cowbell along with any song you want!

IMSBos09 - Day 2 - Session 09 - Steve Garfield - One Step to Putting Video Online

Martha Coakley, why haven't you saved more money?

Democratic Primary Debate at WGBH: Transcript Time! - Bostonist:

"ER: Coakley, why haven't you saved more money?

Coakley: I've worked as a public servant for a long time now. I put money into a house, sold it to run for office. State pension, money in home, insurance. Husband has assets. 'I think we've focused on what's important to us.... I've never made a big salary.'

ER: Is it a point of pride not to have money?

Coakley: It's neither here nor there."

What do you think? Do you want someone representing us that hasn't saved much money?

Managing personal finances and planning for the future are important personal triats.

Can we entrust Martha Coakley to represent Massachusetts?

SARAH PALIN BOOK SIGNING - Interviews with Supporters

Martha Coakley: 18 Questions

IMG_3968, originally uploaded by Martha Coakley. CC BY-NC-SA

Coakley at Cup & Saucer in North Adams -- the girl who got away; 18 questions.





[PDF] QUESTIONS FOR MARTHA COAKLEY HAND-DELIVERED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009 TO MS. COAKLEY AT THE CUP & SAUCER CAFÉ NORTH ADAMS, MASS.

Finder Preferences Mac OS X 10.6.2

Finder Preferences Mac OS X 10.6.2, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

I had a problem where USB drives were showing up on the desktop, but not in my finder's sidebar.

The solution was to go into Finder->Preferences... Click on the Sidebar icon in the top of the preferences window. There are 5 checkboxes listed under DEVICES under Show these items in the sidebar:

The third choice is External disks. Click that and the next time you insert a USB drive, it will show up in the finder as well as the desktop.

Learning My Lines for the iPhone Rehearsal App

http://www.rehearsalapp.com/

Highlights from "Great Web Videos Made Easy" Video Workshop

Highlights from the pre-140 Characters Conference video workshop, presented by Kodak, featuring Steve Garfield, author of "Get Seen: Online Video Secrets". Steve talked about producing video for the web, gave some tips on editing and publishing, and highlighted the features of the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera.

Web 2.0 Expo NY 09: Baratunde Thurston, "There's a #Hashtag for That"

Whoa @baratunde keynote just blew my mind #w2e

Budget Cuts Could Shorten School Year

Budget Cuts Could Shorten School Year, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Used here without linking back or posting CC license info:
www.gpb.org/news/2009/11/20/budget-cuts-could-shorten-sch...

iMake MakerBot

iMake MakerBot, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

iMake desktop manufacturing system
www.boingboing.net/2009/11/19/maclife-imagines-app.html

MakerBot
makerbot.com/

New Apple Products--as Imagined by the Elite Gadget Press
www.maclife.com/article/feature/apple_their_eyes

Digital Designs in iTunes?
www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/11/19/digital-designs-in-itun...

Star Trek (Three-Disc +Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] (2009)

I was in Target the other day and walked by this Star Trek Blu-ray disk. It was on an end cap. The perfect position for an impulse buy.

I've got a Panasonic Blu-ray player that I got as part of the Panasonic Living in HD program, but haven't watched that many movies with it since we are always backed up with TV shows on Tivo.

This movie though was so good in the theatre that I wanted to get it to watch with my wife. I'm also interested in watching the extras including behind the scenes, deleted scenes and director commentary.

We All Have Sleep Cycles: Light, Deep, REM

Last night I started sleeping with a personal sleep coach to better understand how I sleep.

My wife is ok with it though since the coach is a Zeo which is made up of a headband and a bedside display.

You wear the headband when you go to sleep and the Zeo monitors and records your brain waves.

Very cool.

Disclosure:
I was sent the Zeo on a trial basis and have not been compensated in any way for this review.

Here's what the Zeo looks like on my bedside table:



It's no iPod, that's for sure. All the controls along with their text descriptions are very intimidating. The button descriptions are on a plastic strip that can be removed.

Here are my first impressions after unpacking the Zeo, which I sent in to the company:

I read over the instructions and plugged it in, it's charging.

1st impression is that it's way too complicated.

2nd impression is that there's no information to tell you how to use it.

There needs to be a Step by Step guide to using the headband at night.

If it's in the box, I didn't see it.

One pamphlet tells you how to set up the base unit, another tells you how to wear the headband, and the third tells you how to log in and send data.

Where is the step by step nighttime instructions?

Like:

1. charge headband
2. put on headband
3. sleep
4. wake
5. place headband in base unit to transfer data

There isn't any explanation about how data gets captured nad transfered.

It might be obvious to the designers, but to me, I have no idea.

How would I know when the data gets transferred, much less saved?

As a user, I'd like to know that I'l be wearing the headband and capturing data.

Question: How does the headband know you are going to sleep.

Where is the start button?

My guess: There isn't one.

;-)

I sent in the email at 7:38 PM.

Zeo replied at 8:10 PM.

THAT is responsive. Most companies only work 9-5. I think it's great that I got a response after normal workign hours. It makes sense since people are going to be setting the Zeo up at night time.

Here's Zeo's response to my email:

LOVE the feedback. Definitely noted - and will certainly make sure to get it over to the Zeo team.

It only takes about 2 hours to charge - so depending on how late you head to bed tonight, you should be able to use it tonight.

Zeo starts working as soon as you take the headband off the dock. So that's the equivalent of the start button. :)

Hope this helps for when you are ready to head to bed:
1. Take the headband off the dock and put on your head, with the sensor pod touching your forehead.
2. Adjust the headband using the Velcro tabs on either side of the sensor pod.
3. As soon as you put it on your head, instead of the battery symbol on the Bedside Display an image of a dash with half circles on either side will appear. This means it's engaging.
4. You'll also see the graph at the bottom will start flashing a line up to the "W" marker. It's showing how it's tracking your sleep stage - you are in "wake".
5. Head to bed as soon as you put on the headband for the most accurate monitoring.

In the morning:
1. Wake up.
2. Put the headband on the dock.
3. Give it a second, and then it will show your ZQ score and your sleep graph at the bottom.
4. Use the ZQ button on top of the Bedside Display and the arrow keys to display your data.

FYI - up to 2 weeks are stored on the Bedside Display. But you can upload it to myzeo.com and it will be kept there for a long time.

Hope that clarifies some of your initial concerns. Sleep well!

Great email!

So I followed these steps and wore the headband to bed.

In the morning I saw these statistics on the Zeo:


I took out the SD card on the ZEO and plugged it into my Mac and upload the night's data to myZEo. There it was graphed:



This got me interested in learning more about sleep cycles, which I'd never paid much attention to. Over on the Zeo site they have explanations:

Why REM is More Than a Rock Band:

A sleep cycle is a period during the night in which you go through each of the sleep phases, and perhaps some wakefulness. A typical sleep cycle involves: going into Light sleep, which deepens and can become Deep sleep, especially earlier in the night, then back into Light sleep which then transitions into REM sleep. It is very common to wake up either as you enter or exit REM sleep while transitioning out of or into Light sleep. This is the most natural time to wake up and can occur during any of the usual 3-6 sleep cycles over the course of a night. Notice that the body does not simply go into a sleep which just gets deeper and deeper over the course of the night until you wake up. Sleep deepens and lightens several times over the course of a night and waking up is often a normal part of this natural process.

The site also has you answer questions about your sleep habits and sleep environment. Each day you can enter "sleep stealers" to help determine how to get a better night's sleep.

All this info, that I'm entering, along with the sleep data, will result in personal recommendations. I'm interested in learning how this will all work.

The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach costs $249 and $399 and is available at www.myZeo.com. They also have a limited trial offer where you can try the Zeo at home for 30 days for $19.95.

Marissa, will you marry me?

Marissa, will you marry me? from justin on Vimeo.

Retweet

There are too many characters, 136, in this tweet by newmediajim to retweet the whole tweet the old way (copying the tweet and prefixing it with RT @newmediajim):



Integrated retweet at twitter.com allows you to click retweet, and have newmediajim's tweet show up on your timeline:

Integrated twitter retweeted tweet


I don't see any way to see who the 3 others who retweeted this are.

Integrated twitter retweeted tweet in timeline


When you click on the permalink of my tweet, it goes to Jim's original tweet.

I can't see who the 3 others are that retweeted this though. I saw that feature in a preview. Probably will be rolled out later.

To see your retweets, and who's retweeting them, you can go to your Retweets by you page:



To see who's retweeted your tweets, go to your Your tweets, retweeted page:



There's also a retweets by others page, which for me, has no data at the moment.



In search results though, the integrated retweeted tweet gets shortened.

Search results, leave off important trailing content from Jim's original tweet.



kthxbai! </snark> is missing!

Hmm... That doesn't seem right.

Meep Emailer Reported to Danvers Police Department

School-girls #1 by Ed Yourdon, on Flickr CC BY-SA

Danvers High School baned students from saying the word "meep", Theodora Michaels sent an email to the school principal:

An open letter to Principal Murray of Danvers High School (MA):

Meep.

Sincerely,
Theodora Michaels

Here's the reply email from Assistant Principal Mark Strout, which said (in full)

"Your E-mail has been forwarded to the Danvers Police Department."

via Universal Hub.

TedxSF Live Tonight on Livestream

TEDxSF Partners With Livestream to Stream Event Live for the First Time Tonight: "

Watch the live event unfold at www.tedxsf.org, http://www.livestream.com/tedxsf or on your iPhone at http://iphone.livestream.com from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. PST/ 7p.m. to 11 p.m. EST."

If you have an iPhone, you'll want to check in and watch the stream to see how awesome the H.264 HTTP streaming technology is.

Social Media: Blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr

Photos
Take your own photos or search for Creative Commons licensed photos on flickr. Add tags to your photos so they will be discovered.

Northeastern University - Recent - Creative Commons

Blog Posts

11 Must-Dos for the Serious Blogger by Jay Baer.

Your titles and text will be indexed by Google. Make them search friendly.

Make your blog posts more interesting by adding photos, videos and multimedia.

Video

Add video to your blog posts to make them more interesting. Link back to your site from YouTube.

Citizen Reporting


Broadcasting Live with Qik from a Cellphone


Twitter
Listen to twitter.



Twitter Search: Blogging Tips

Post, retweet, shorten links. Make your posts retweetable.

Blog Post: Tips For Getting Started With Twitter


newmediajim: @stevegarfield hello Northeastern class!!! #

newmediajim list: Whitehouse Press in Asia

Facebook


Share your posts on Facebook. Share links on Facebook. Share other people's links on Facebook. Participate in the conversation.

Ryan Seacrest attempts to get an answer out of Robert Pattinson as to whether or not he's dating co-star Kristin Stewart

Twitter: Add Automatic DM Filters for FREE

If anyone sends me a direct message on twitter with the words, ringtones, quiz, mafia, thanks for following, thank you for following or find out how smart, their message will be ignored and deleted.

You can set this up for free with Socialtoo.

Twitter Question for the Democratic Senate Candidates

I think the candidates for Senate should answer questions like a job interview. I'd like to understand how they'd work in the job environment.

Question #1: How do you handle disagreement within a work team?

@MarthaCoakley How do you handle disagreement within a work team?
@stevepagliuca How do you handle disagreement within a work team?
@AlanKhazei How do you handle disagreement within a work team?
@capuano4senate How do you handle disagreement within a work team?

I sent this question to them on twitter.

Let's see how they respond.

Update:

USPS - The United States Postal Service - Click-N-Ship on a Macintosh

Although the requirements of the USPS - The United States Postal Service (U.S. Postal Service) Click-N-Ship service require Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, or Netscape Navigator 6.0 or higher, you can use the online service with Firefox on a Macintosh, by saving your printed label to your computer and then renaming it from:

com.usps.cns.web.pdf.LabelGenerationServlet

to

com.usps.cns.web.pdf

and then printing it with Adobe Acrobat or Preview.

Update:

Please add the ability to CHANGE a Click-N-Ship address. The current process to request a credit. then re-enter the whole order is painful.

Greatest Mascot Dance of All Time

A Kodak Zi8 Walks into a Bar and Shoots a Video

Derek Wilmot video, shot with Kodak Zi8, Sima light, ATR 3550 microphone, after #SMCBoston at Cambridge Brewing Company with @stevegarfield @jimstorer @realtweeter @mattsearles @gregpc.

World's Largest Cruise Ship Arrives in Ft. Lauderdale - Oasis of the Seas

Click to view at CNN.com.

Viewed 67,232 times.

Inbound Marketing Summit 09 attendee gets on CNN iReport:

Uf Tukel of iCruise.com was on the top deck of the midport parking garage at Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale as the 225,000-ton Oasis of the Seas arrived for the first time. She was met by a half a dozen helicopters and flotilla of fire boats spaying large jets of water to welcome the ship to her new home.

Get your report on CNN, visit the Assignment desk.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shows - LIVE 1978

Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Winterland (San Francisco, CA)
06.07.1978

Chase Credit Card Rewards Program is No Longer Rewarding

Chase provides credit cards for the Amazon.com Rewards Credit Card.

The Good Old Days
The program used to run smoothly.

When you spent $2,500, you'd automatically get a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate in the mail.

The good part about it was that you didn't have to do anything, and happy little $25 surprises would end up being delivered to your mailbox.

I used to wonder why they didn't credit the $25 directly to my Amazon.comn account, but figured that they make money on those people who never cash in the gift certificates. That's one way they make money.

Improved System Isn't
Now the Chase Amazon.com Rewards Credit Card has been improved. Now you can choose from a wide range of rewards including retail establishments, travel, and magazines. You can also choose the Amazon Gift Certificate, but there's a catch.

Now you have to visit the Chase.com site to redeem your points.

It's another impediment to claiming your reward. So for someone like me, who liked it the way it was, the improved system is a downgrade.

Three Weeks to Get a Reward
Here's my rewards redemption from today:



Ordered on Nov 13.
Shipping on Nov 17.
Delivery on December 3.

Automatic and Electronic Would Be Better
It would be so much better if my Amazon account was automatically credited online, and I didn't have to deal with the Chase redemption system, or keying in the gift codes from hard copy certificates that are delivered, weeks later, via US Mail.

Get Seen: Framed Book Jacket

Get Seen: Framed Book Jacket, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

I ordered a framed print from the Kodak Gallery for the cover of Get Seen. Came out nice. Getting closer to the final book. Available nationwide in January.

SteveGarfield.com QR Code

Make your own QR code wit this web based QR Code Generator.

QR Code Reader for iPhone

Cinematographers Round Table - FilmFellas

FilmFellas Cast 6: “The DP Edition” features an eclectic mix of cinematographers from all spectrums of the independent film scene: Robert Primes, ASC (Thirty Something), Trent Opaloch (District 9), Philip Bloom (If I were Prime Minister) and first time host Jens Bogehegn, Cinematographer/Producer of FilmFellas/critics.

The dynamics of such an award winning cast of major players brings forth lively round table discussions from a unique set of perspectives and diverse points-of-view. FilmFellas Cast 6 covers such topics as: creative freedom; the art of collaboration, maintaining the vision/direction of the film, the challenging DP/Director relationship, and cutting edge “game changers” and techniques in cinematography.

Jens Bogehegn (Cinematographer/Producer of FilmFellas/critics)
Robert Primes, ASC (Cinematographer)
Trent Opaloch (Cinematographer)
Phillip Bloom (Independent DP and Director)

A fundamentally journalistic impulse

Citizen journalism: I’ll take it, flaws and all:

"I’m glad people feel a compulsion to “report” things that are happening wherever they might be. That is a fundamentally journalistic impulse, and the more people who have it, the better off we will all be — even if we have to put up with errors and misunderstandings along the way."

via Zadi.

Making TV at PodCamp NH

Making TV at PodCamp NH, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

I only made it up to PodCamp NH for Sunday, but it was a great day. Everything was wonderful about this PodCamp. The venue, the people, and the sessions.

I loved how they put on a live tv show in 45 minutes using Livestream. Great job on that. I took the opportunity to learn how to shoot video with Roger H. Goun on his Canon EOS 7d. We collaborated on a quick edit and posted to YouTube. I can see why people love the video capabilities of this camera. Next time I get to try one, I'll do a rack focus.




NH Media Makers was also fun. Great meeting lots of new people.

Here's my Great Web Videos Made Easy Presentation. It highlights from my book, Get Seen, that I normally present in 3 hours. This time I had 45 minutes. What a blast.

Great Web Videos Made Easy Slideshare

View more presentations from Steve Garfield.

My mom's blog is at My Mom's Blog. ;-)

First Look: EpixHD.com

Here's a quick 3 minute screencast looking the the http://epixhd.com interface.

Emerson College 11/06/09: Blogging and Multimedia

Class Roll Call:


Recorded on Qik and cross-posted to YouTube

Students on twitter: A List.

Get Seen on Screen:


Class Panorama:

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Video Cameras and Accessories

The quality of video you can get from consumer level video cameras is amazing. It's HD everywhere.

Here's a list of my Top 10 suggestions for getting started with video for this holiday season.


1. Ground Breaking Pocket HD Video Camra - Kodak Zi8
The Kodak Zi8 is the first consumer pocket HD video camera that supports a mic in jack. It's a big deal. I've written about the different kinds of mics you can use with this camera, but the favorite seems to be the ATR-3550 lav mic. Also consider the Flip HD Version 2 which is an update of the origianl Flip camera that gives you a larger screen. You can see some Zi8 videos on my video blog.


2. Inexpensive Lavalier Microphone - ATR-3550 lav mic
This microphone has a 20 foot cord and is a great entry level lavalier mic to get great sound on the Kodak Zi8, or any video camera that supports a mic in jack.


3. Best Phone with Video - iPhone 3GS
The iPhone 3GS adds video recording to the iPhone. It's a great example of using the device you record video with to also share it. Once you record a video, you can share it via YouTube, MMS or Email.


4. Awesome New Macintosh with Big Screen - iMac
The new Apple iMac is beautiful with it's 27" screen and enough processing power to handle HD video. Included with every new Mac is iLife which includes iMovie for editing video.


5. Fun Camera Extender - X-Shot
The X-Shot is a neat camera extender which lets you take photos and video of yourself. It comes in handy for cameras that start to focus farther away than your hand can stretch.


6. Flexible Camera Tripod - Gorillapod
A small flexible tripod that helps hold your camera steady. The flexible legs let you secure the tripod where you might not usually be able to.


7. Bright LED Light - Sima Light
Extra light for low light conditions. There's a larger version too which provides even more light. The smaller one might be better since it's less bright and won't annoy your subjects as much.


8. Fast Memory for Video - SD HC Memory Cards
Faster memory cards that support recording video. Older memory cards aren't fast enough. Get the biggest you can. 32GB would make a nice gift.


9. Chris Brogan's Favorite Digital Still Camera - Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
I like a lot of consumer level digital still cameras that also shoot video. I've been using the Panasonic Lumix FX37 for a while and enjoy it's wide angle lens. Chris Brogan just reviewed his Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. A good choice to consider.


10. Breaking Barriers in Video - Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR
Go crazy and indulge in the newest HD shooting technolgy that gives you control over exposure and depth of field without having to invest in an even higher cost video camera. Check out The Bui Bros work with this camera.


Extra. A Book to Explain it All
My book, Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building your Business, will be shipping nationwide in January. It includes chapters on choosing a camera, microphone and lighting. Provides step-by-step guides on how to produce, edit and share video online. Teaches you how to stream live and shares stories and interviews on how to be successful with online video.

Get Seen is now available for Pre-Order.

Many of these products are available on Amazon.com and listed in my Get Seen Store.

Disclosure:
I received the Kodak Zi8 as a gift from Kodak.