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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

My American Idol Top 3 Girls 2/29

My American Idol Top 3 Girls 2/29


JESSICA SANCHEZ - Lots of power and personality. [ Facebook ]



ELISE TESTONE - Very talented. I liked that she played piano too. [ Facebook ]
"For me, you're one of the best singers -- maybe the best singer -- here," Jennifer says. "I hope that America got it, because I know that you are one to watch."

BAYLIE BROWN - I've liked her from the start and would like her to stay in the competition to give her a chance to do better. [ Facebook ]

Rickey.org: American Idol 11 – Top 12 Girls – Who’s your favorite? Poll

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My American Idol Top 5 Guys 2/28

My American Idol Top 5 Guys for 2/28

JOSHUA LEDET - Best Voice. Brings passion and feeling.

PHILLIP PHILLIPS - Love his creativity. Definitely not Karaoke.

HEEJUN HAN - So funny. Want to keep him in as long as possible. He gets my vote for mouthing the words of Ryan's intro.

REED GRIMM - Quirky and multi-faceted.

CREIGHTON FRAKER - I just like this guy.

The Documentary Group at #TVnext Tom Yellin shows us that Quality Matters

The Documentary Group, Recorded on 2/27/12 hillholliday on USTREAM. Conference
Image: The Documentary Group at #TVnext - Tom Yellin



Video streaming by Ustream

This was my favorite session.

I loved how Tom showed us that tv show themes keep repeating these four categories: Man of the House, Independent Woman, Misfit, Crusaders.

The Documentary Group, Recorded on 2/27/12 hillholliday on USTREAM. Conference

The Documentary Group produced America in Primetime, which goes into this topic.
The new Golden Age of television is now. In the expansive world of modern television, more groundbreaking shows are being created today than ever before. America in Primetime showcases this iconic American art form.

This series is structured around the most compelling shows on television today, unfolding over four hours and weaving between past and present. Each episode focuses on one character archetype that has remained a staple of primetime through the generations--the Man of the House, the Crusader, the Independent Woman and the Misfit--capturing both the continuity of the character, and the evolution. The finest television today has its foundation in the best television of yesterday.

Watch all the #TVnext sessions On Demand on Ustream.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Brass Monkey - Site of the Day 2-26-12

www.thefwa.com/site/brass-monkey

This is very cool. I shot and co-edited the video that plays full screen on the home page.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Hill Holliday's TVnext Summit on USTREAM: February 27, 2012 @ 9:30am (EST)

Hill Holliday's TVnext Summit on USTREAM: February 27, 2012 @ 9:30am (EST)

Watch the live stream and check out the schedule:

www.tvnextsummit.com


I'm going to be doing the #TVnext live stream with Ustream Producer Pro. I'm using Ustream Producer Pro because it allows you to archive video directly to Ustream as you broadcast.

The stream can remain live while I save individual segments to the archive.

Here's my setup:

#TVnext Ustream Setup with AT&T 4GLTE
Image: Ustream setup

I'm using an AT&T 4G LTE device, supplied by AT&T, for the internet connection. Its really, really fast. I've got a Verizon MiFi an AT&T 3G dongle, and a wired connection as backup.

Here's a close up of the Ustream Producer Screen.

#TVNext Ustream Producer Pro Setup

See you on Monday!

Here's an embedded live stream:

Stream videos at Ustream

Norman Spinrad's Lost Star Trek Script "He Walked Among Us"

STAR TREK - He Walked Among US [Kindle Edition]

The original unproduced script by Norman Spinrad for "He Walked Among Us" for the original Star Trek series in 1967 and disappeared for 45 years!

Commissioned by Gene Roddenberry as a vehicle for Milton Berle as a serious actor, this original version was rewritten into an unfunny comedy by the line producer Gene Cook that was so bad that Spinrad complained to Roddenberry, asking him not to have it shot, and Roddenberry agreed.

Nothing to do whatsoever with HE WALKED AMONG US the novel written decades later.

Buy the Kindle version on Amazon for $9.



via [ The Verge ]

Flickr implements 'nopin' code to block Pinterest from private photos (update) | The Verge

Here we go:

T.C. Sottek writes for The Verge: Flickr implements 'nopin' code to block Pinterest from private photos (update) | The Verge
Popular photo sharing site Pinterest has recently been the subject of copyright concern over its handling of third-party content, and on Monday it responded to that concern by implementing a "nopin" code that allows content creators to prevent their works from being pinned.
I wanted to see how this works so I went over to Flickr and tried to pin one of my own photos which is public and sharable with a Creative Commons license.


Image: Pin It

When I clicked my Pintrest Bookmarklet, or Pinmarklet, it allowed me to pin the photo by bringing up the Pin dialog box. I pressed Pin It, and the photo end on to my Pintrest board. Yay beer!


Image: My beer photo on Pinterest

Next I found an image that would not allow sharing and tried to pin it.


Image: Fashion by Nikita Ostroymov. This site doesn't allow pinning to Pinterest.

Up popped a dialog box that said,
"This site doesn't allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!"
Well,, obviously that's not exactly right since flickr does allow pinning of public photos that are sharable. A quick look at the code shows how the no pin code shows up.


Image: Flickr no pin code

Per Flickr:
The photo page now includes this tag if you have opted out of sharing (or if it is not a public photo).

Here are the settings on my account where I allow sharing.


Image: Flickr - Allow others to share your stuff setting set to 'Yes'

If flickr users don't want their images to be able to be shared they just have to change this setting to 'No'.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Buying a Chip and Pin Card in the US for England

I've been researching how to pick up a Chip and Pin card to take to London.

It's so convenient to use one of these cards.

The easiest way seems to be to buy a Cash Passport from Travelex.


Image: Courtesy Travelex

First, here's what it costs to buy $1,000 US Dollars worth of British Pounds CASH from Travelex:



TOTAL: 569.00 GBP
1 USD = .5690 GBP

Here's what it costs to buy $1,000 US Dollars worth of British Pounds on a Travelex Chip and Pin Cash Passport:



TOTAL: 569.00 GBP
1 USD = .5690 GBP

Finally, here's what Google says it costs to exchange $1,000 US Dollars worth of British Pounds CASH:


TOTAL: 629.4450 GBP
1 USD = .6294 GBP

So there seems to be a foreign exchange conversion rate that Travelex makes on the transaction, whether it's to cash or Chip and Pin card.

In this case, it costs $60.445.

You can learn more about who is offering Chip and Pin cards in the US by taking a look at this Google Doc: EMV cards available in the US. Not many options.

Let's go USA and make these Chip and Pin cards more widely available and also add places where they can be accepted.

Update:

MasterCard joins Visa in pushing PINs into America:
MasterCard has published its roadmap for getting Americans to use chip-and-PIN cards in stores, following Visa's lead in proposing to replace swipe cards by April 2013.

Over the next year, Americans will have to get used to entering a PIN when using a credit card, rather than scrawling a name (any name) as they do today. That's because MasterCard has joined Visa in pushing an April 2013 date on the implementation of chip-and-PIN terminals in US retailers.

10 reasons Top Chef should come to Boston - Boston Business Journal

Boston Business Journal just ran an article titled, 10 reasons Top Chef should come to Boston.

I've got a few issues with it.

IMAGE GALLERY #FAIL
First of all, the article doesn't even include the 10 reasons in it. You have to click throughout 10 pages of photos in an image gallery so they get page views.

#YouGottaTryBoston Hashtag
Second, the Digitas campaign isn't consistently using the #YouGottaTryBoston hashtag in advertising. You don't see it in the Boston Globe ads.

In today's @bostonglobe @BravoTV #TopChef #YouGottaTryBoston
Image: Globe Ad

Seek First To Understand
Third, based on published reports, the city has to agree to kick in $200 - 300K and Seattle seems to already be in the running.

My question, have city officials been in contact with TopChef and have we offered the cash it takes to get the show here?

Without that involvement and commitment, all the social media in the world won't make it happen.

Right?

ZangZing Isn't So Easy to Create Albums With Friends

Saw this post on Mashable about ZangZing so I decided to try it to make a shared photo album.

Photo StartupMakes It Easy to Create Albums With Friends

It's not so easy.

I'm now trying to use this with my family.

INVITES and SHARING

Image: Invite Friends

See how it says INVITE FRIENDS up there? That's not how you invite friends to add photos to your album. If you click that, they are invited to the site, THEN you have to re-invite them to your album. It's SO not clear.

It seems that after you invite people to join the site, you then have to invite them to join an album. I'm getting emails from my cousins telling me that they can't find my album, after I invite them. They create their own album, even after I invite them to my album, so now I need to try to see theirs. I can't see their album.

They just sent me a link to their album, but I can't see it.



I had to write and email with screen shots to help them navigate the site to make their album visible to me.

The site navigation is not consistent. There are menus at the top, and bottom, with multiple layers, and varying places to click. It's like trying to navigate a graphic adventure game.

Here's what I sent, annotating the ZangZing help notes:


Image: How to Change Privacy of An Existing Album

The Mashable article made it sound so easy:
the best part about ZangZing is its group photo-sharing features. When you create a public or private album, you have the option to invite others to contribute. Friends can simply send a reply email to your album’s designated address (i.e., albumname@yourusername.zangzing.com) — no signup required — or they can head over to the album’s URL to import photos from any of the previously mentioned services that ZangZing supports. It’s an easy way to gather shots from a big group event like, say, a baseball game or a birthday party, particularly for those whose familiarity with the web doesn’t extend much beyond email.
I'm going to see if they can just email in photos.

Update:
I invited myself to join my album.

I now see the problem.

It's not clear.

This is what it says in the email:
Click to add photos or reply to this email with your photos attached.
When you click reply to this email, the email address populated in the TO: field is the sharing email address that they need to use to send in photos via email.

The ZingZang welcome email needs to make that clear. It needs to explicitly write out the exact email that people can use to share photos and tell them to use it to email them in.

Hiding the email under a link doesn't work.

It's not clear.

Maybe something like this:
To ADD your photos to the album email them to: party-pics@billjohnson.zangzing.com
I just tried this and it works very easily.

USER INTERFACE
I have to use the help system to figure out how to tell them how to share their album with me. I have to make screen shots to explain how to share and make public their album. The user interface has menu items at the top and bottom, and under icons. Nothing is consistent.

HELP
The email help from ZangZing is great and everything I've gotten back from them is spot on.

It's just that it's not easy to use.

UPLOADER APP isn't an APP
The ZangZing Uploader App isn't even an App. It's a utility that runs in the background and changes the web interface. So after you click it open five times, you email support to tell them it's not opening. That's because it's not an app.

SLIDESHOW
The slideshow feature show one photo per page at a time. It's very basic. Nothing like any of the other current slide show apps that can show multiple photos per page. No music either.

I need to make a family slide show so after I figure out how to get my cousins photos downloaded I'm going to use something else to make the slide show, like iPhoto, Stupefix on YouTube, or Animoto.

Social Media Club Talks to Steve Garfield at #BWENY 2011



Thanks to Social Media Club for posting this video from BlogWorld Expo NY 2011.

Love it.

Scotty McCreery gets a shout out.

Click the affiliate link below for details on the next Blog World Expo NY.

Register Now for BlogWorldExpo 2012 in New York City, June 5-7!
BlogWorld and New Media Expo NYC 2012

Boston Globe Removes All The Good Stuff From New York Times Syria Article

I usually read the paper version of the Boston Globe at breakfast. When I see a story that I want to share, I search Twitter for the title, then retweet it out.

This morning I found the New York Times version of the story about Syria on twitter. After reading that version, I realized that The Boston Globe has edited it down and reprinted it, leaving out all the links.

The New York Times version is a lot better.

Marie Colvin's Last Article
Boston Globe: Ghastly images from shattered Syrian city:
Colvin’s last article, published in The Sunday Times of London just days before her death, began by describing what the rebels called “a widow’s basement,’’ a cramped room under a factory where women and children huddled while the men went out to forage or fight - and often did not return.

New York Times: Ghastly Images Flow From Shattered Syrian City:
Ms. Colvin’s last article, published in The Sunday Times of London just days before her death, began by describing what the rebels called “a widows’ basement,” a cramped room under a factory where women and children huddled while the men went out to forage or fight — and often did not return.

Khaled Abu Salah's YouTube Video
Boston Globe: Ghastly images from shattered Syrian city:
NO VIDEO LINK

New York Times: Ghastly Images Flow From Shattered Syrian City:
Three days earlier, Ms. Colvin had quoted Mr. Salah in an article in her newspaper. Now, he had turned citizen journalist and was reporting her death. Within an hour, his video report would be posted on YouTube, and then picked up by networks around the world. “They were killed because of the random shelling of the Baba Amr neighborhood,” Mr. Salah said, angrily shaking the forefinger of his one good hand at the camera; his other hand, wounded by shrapnel, was bandaged. “This is a call for rescue to save the remaining residents while they are still alive.”

He finished his report in 51 seconds, and then fled, lest the bombardment resume.

Bashar al-Assad has made every Syrian into a journalist
Boston Globe: Ghastly images from shattered Syrian city:
Assad “shut off the Internet and cut us off from the world,’’ said Abu Jaffar, a Homs activist, who helped dig out bodies from the apartment building and then videotaped the effort and posted the results. “So he has made every Syrian into a journalist.’’

New York Times: Ghastly Images Flow From Shattered Syrian City:
“Bashar al-Assad shut off the Internet and cut us off from the world,” said Abu Jaffar, a Homs activist, who helped dig out bodies from the apartment building, and then videotaped the effort and posted the results. “So he has made every Syrian into a journalist.”

It'd be nice if the Boston Globe could at least include links in the story. Might even be a good idea to link back to the source story over on the NY Times site for people who want to read the whole thing.

I'm wondering why not post the whole version on the Boston Globe site in the first place.

BTW, here are embeds of the videos:


Video: Khaled Abu Salah


Video: Abu Jaffar

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Alert @GrammarGirl: Female shot in leg


Image: Boston Globe Headline - Female Shot In Leg

Woman Versus Female:
It's my recommendation that you use female as a noun only when you are speaking about animals or writing scientifically. When you are talking about female humans, the favored nouns are woman and women. Likewise, when you're talking about male humans, the favored nouns are man and men.

Make that Woman Shot In Leg.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

1 Way to Create Compelling Content Using the First-Ever Copyblogger Infographic

Infographics are very popular right now. Brian Clark, Copyblogger, just posted one titled 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue [Infographic].

Brian has some really great tips and ideas for creating content.

Some of my favorite ways to create content:

- Review Something - Sharing info and explaining new tech is my favorite thing to do.
- Get ideas from movies and TV - In addition to getting ideas from movies and TV I love sharing my thoughts
- Celebrities - Talking about famous people is fun.
- Trends - I like experimenting with News Jacking

Some ways to create content that I need to do more of:

- Get Personal - I've written some personal posts in the past and my mom always says that she'd like to see more.
- Recycle old posts into something new - I've got some great posts buried in my archives. Time to bring some of them back.

And the easiest way to create new content is to copy and paste great content from others, when they encourage to to. ;-)

Here you go:

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content - Infographic
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

My first two cimemagrams

5 Minute Hake cinemagr.am


Created with cinemagr.am



Carol Looks Up At Me cinemagr.am


Created with cinemagr.am