Have you met TED?

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an invitation-only event where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration, and this year I was lucky enough to get the nod from my good friends at GREYnyc.

There will be so many people blogging and twitting about TED that you won't see any of that on this site, but I have been ask to shoot video of the event. So I will post that here after TED wraps.

Stay tuned.

Train Blogging

So this post is being written on the 6:42pm New Haven express train from Grand Central to South Norwalk, CT. Usually I keep my blog postings to techie things I find/make/covet, but I felt like posting on something the usefullness of those gadets.

I'm currently in the middle of moving with my company to the New York City area, and now I'm finding that all my tech toys are really more suited to the commuting life style I have now than the one I had in Cincinnati. (This post is a testament to what a free hour on the train and a bag full of gadgets will force you to do.)

So I'm sitting here, shoulder to shoulder with other commuters with my Acer Aspire One netbook in my lap. It's teathered to a Sprint Centro phone via a USB cable and I'm surfing the internets at oldskool dial-up speeds. It's enough to check email and write blog posts, so who knows--maybe I'll be a blogger again someday soon.

I'm also liking Pocket Tunes on my Palm based phone. I just found out that it not only will pause the music when an incoming call comes in, but it will play the callers audio over the ear buds and still let you speak into the phone like in hands-free mode. Of course I look like an idiot talking into my music player, but the sound on both ends is good.

Of course I've been loving GoogleMaps Mobile and 1-800-GOOG-411, they've both been a big help finding my way around a new city.

So from gadget collector to gadget user in only a few days. Who knew?

Cincinnati Digital Hub

I was a last minute add to the speaker roster at the Cincinnati Digital Hub Initiative Non-conference. It was a good time as well as being my 2nd un-conference of the year. Will I ever pine for the days of just a good old conference-conference?

Glenn Platt's AIMS blog for Miami University  has a round-up of what went down at the conference that's better than anything I could write. (It also doesn't hurt that e liked my talk on Consumer Behavior.)

So check it out.

BeeReader URL

A reader asked me to post the URL to BeeReader... http://beetagg.com/

BeeReader is a QR Code reader for Palm

BeeReader is a new QR Code (or Semacode) format that has alot going for it right now. It reads QR and DataMatrix codes and has it's own format that can scan from about 3 feet on a computer monitor. (BTW, that's impressive.)

It's internal format supports URLs, feeds and contact info from it's web builder, and has pretty tight integration (at least on the Palm OS) to the Web browser and contact tools.

The image above is my RSS feed.

Memes, Rats and such...

I seem to be pretty attracted to the idea of memes. A quick wiki-definition for those of you not familiar with the internets...

The word meme (pronounced /miːm/)^[1] is a popular neologism denoting any learned thought, feeling, or behavior. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a "culture" in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus. As a unit of cultural evolution, a meme in some ways resembles a gene.

I stumbled across a interesting new meme that I think is incredibly funny. Take a look at GraphJam...

So my idea is to take the various memes out there and apply them to my meme-mock site LolRats.com. (Believe me, photoshopping rats gets old real quick.)

Enjoy!

OMG Force (48 hour film version)

Hello all,

I know I've been slacking on the posting lately, but I've been busy. The video below is Shooting Bridge's entry in the 2008 48 Hour Film Project. I had the pleasure of directing a cast and crew of around 25 people--mostly amateur--to deliver a pretty rocking idea in just 48 hours from start to finish.

Mad props to everybody who contributed, and check out www.omgforce.com soon for production photos, scripts, etc.

ZenBurger

This is an actual email I sent to my wife today about the "restaurant" ZenBurger

From: Wilson, Michael
Sent: Mon 4/7/2008 11:31 AM
To: stuntmom@???????.com
Subject: Ate a vegetarian breakfast today....


...by accident. I was walking around Lexington Ave and I saw this "burger" joint that has "breakfast" sandwiches...

http://www.zenburger.com/

Can you believe there was no line!?!? So I stepped up and ordered a "Sausage" and "Egg" sandwich on an Whole Wheat English muffin. It came back fast and I sat down and started eating. ($8 for a McMuffin and Coffee, I pondered? Well it is New York...)

So as I ate, I was like, "This thing is horrible, but I'm hungry." (Which says a lot about my personality that would continue to eat a bad breakfast as long as I thought there was some meat inside.) And it wasn't until my last bite that I saw a menu next to where I was sitting that said everything was vegetarian.

So can you guess if I ate that last bite?

RockBand Rock-a-thon for the Arts...

My work is doing a RockBand/GuitarHero "rock-a-thon" to support the Fine Arts Fund. We did some sweet shirts, posters and other nonsense to promo the event. The image below links to our blog that has the full rundown and info on how to donate.



Also, check out the Web Cast starting today at noon.

FindingMy.org

A good friend of mine has created a site to help him find a new career in the non-profit world. He's a smart person with the unique ability to get things done.

I want people who are already experienced in the not-for-profit world to show me how things work and I want/need their help in directing me towards the best possible position for me to chase. If you want to directly help me get there, thank you very much. If you want to just read-along that’s cool too.

via FindingMyDotOrg

On my way to the Game Developers Conference...

Yes, it's that time of year again. The GCD is in full effect in San Francisco and I'll be leaving in a few short hours to rub elbows (hopefully just elbows) with the best and brightest in the video game industry.

"Got plans," you ask?

Why yes I do. I'm hoping to meet the peeps from Qube and get a demo of their Q Middleware solution...

Q is a new middleware for games and other real-time 3D applications, the result of everything we've learned through our history, creating Reality Lab at RenderMorphics, and Direct3D at Microsoft, working with game developers and hardware vendors whilst integrating real-time 3D into the world's biggest selling operating system.

I also met the ScaleForm GFX crew last year, hopefully they have a Indie solution for me this year.

Last, but not least, I was really impressed with the TorqueX system from GarageGames and that coupled with the XBox 360 content creation account I expect to see some great stuff at the Independent Games Festival this year running native on 360s.

If Hollywood was a Person...

Wacky stuff going on in the on-line comics space. The "Funny Pages" might be the canary in the coal mine of what will eventually happen to TV/Music and radio.

Click around Subnormality and you can find a wealth of free (and paid) content that's as good (if not better) than the crap in your local paper.

Added ShareThis to the Site

I met a few of the principles from ShareThis at my work yesterday and decided to add their tool to my personal blog, just to try it out.

It's the green button below...

UPDATE: It looks like I messed something up that's keeping it from working with IE. I'll take a look at fixing it later this evening.

UPDATE: Working again. Looks like I had a case of RTFM.

UPDATE: Interesting Password Generator

You probably don't know, but I'm a password junkie. I have well over 100 sites that have user names and passwords.

To stay secure, I try to different passwords for each site I visit. That way if someone discovers my password on one site (like the OC fansite message board) they can’t use it on another site (like the Desparate Housewives fansite message board.)

So, I try to use a combination of a single password (awesomesauce) with the site that I’m on (ebay) into a new password (ebayawesomesauce). You can imagine how complicated that gets on hundreds of websites and how easy it would be to crack that code if you saw a few passwords.

Here comes the SuperGenPass to the rescue. It will generate new passwords based on the domain of the site you are using in conjunction with a “master password” encrypted to the point where no one can see the master password in the first place.

Confused yet? Check it out and keep your identity safe(r).

Stupid Stat: 5 Big MMORPGs Have More People than Poland

When you total the subscriber bases of 5 of the largest  MMORPGs they hit a whopping 45,000,000+ users. As of 2002, the total population of Poland was 36,983,720.

Want proof? Here's a chart :) **

I picked these five pretty much at random to show a mix of free, paid, US and Asian. Numbers are rounded and are probably made up by the companies themselves.

** Of course, finding these numbers isn't easy. Here's the sources for each of these numbers. Ragnarok Online, GameSpot Article. World of Warcraft, Blizzard Press Release. Lineage I + II, MMOCharts.com. Gaia Online, GigaGames.com Article. RuneScape, MMOCharts.com.

Take that, Bob.

Windows Live Writer gives Blogger a GUI

Check out Windows Live Writer--a free download from Micro$oft. It gives you a great WYSIWYG editor for your blog even if it's hosted by Google.

Download and installation took quite a while for such a small program, but configuring it for my blog took no time at all. It even grabbed a sample post from my site to allow me see in real-time what my post will look like. I've made major updates to the templates Blogger gives you and I'm self-hosting so that's no small feat.

Small centered text? Check.

It also gives you drag and drop image support (see above). I'm planning to step up up posting on the myriad (yep, spell check works) of blogs I've started and abandoned, so this should keep me engaged for a while.

I totally found this on Timmy's TechToolBlog so blame him if it destroy's your system.

The Hurdle Book

Many people struggle with basic business principles, and it's amazing how even a rudimentry knowledge of enturpernial business frameworks can help in every day work situations. While doing some research on entry level bunisness planning books I stumbled on a link to a free online version of The Hurdle Book.



The site says, "The Hurdle Book was created to help encourage people to empower themselves and to learn the process of business planning to better accomplish their business goals."

Even though I haven't read it, after a quick scan of the pages it seems to deliver.

Enjoy!

Console Points Exchage Rates

Both the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii have addtional "live" content that can be downloaded via the internet if you so choose to give your console a network connection. Some of this content is free, but most of the content is paid for with "points" that can be purchased on-line or from various retailers.




The interesting thing about a Points Model is that it abstracts the true cost of what you are buying. The live links above (at the time of this writing) put a Wii point at $0.009495 (a little under a penny) and a Xbox point at $0.01186875 (more than 10% over a penny). Of course you would have to calcualte shipping and/or tax (maybe?) into any equation to come up with a true cost. Then you could look at discounts (i.e. coupons) that could be applied to the overall exchange rate.

Wikipedia has taken a good shot at exchange rates based on average cost of Wii and Live points. I would be interested in seeing the cost to the distributer of these cards and the cost of manufacture, because these are surely devaluing the royalty payments the content owners are getting.

Putting together a good deal on points doesn't look to be that hard. Buy.com typically carries the Microsoft 4000 Point card for $48.99 no tax, no shipping. First time Google Checkout uses can knock off $10 anything at Buy.com wich drops the point cost to $0.0097475 which makes buying something like Puzzle Quest (a 1200 point game) to just $11.70 with points to spare. It simple economics--and I'm sure all the video game kids are all about that.

It's amazing that the console manufatures are making their consumers jump through all these hoops. Hasn't anyone learned anything from NetFlix? Consumers like to feel like they are getting a deal not like thier getting ripped off.

Bridge Worldwide

My company Bridge Worldwide has been selected again as a top 25 best small business to work for in America and to celebrate we're going on a talent hunt.

Image from our Grass is Greener Campaign

If you think you've got what it takes check out our Careers Page.

Michael Vick T-Shirt (or fun with iron-on letters...)

I had my second fantasy football draft of the season and I decided to make an iron-on T-Shirt with my team name on it. Being the dog lover that I am, I brainstormed some anti-Michael Vick team names and settled on "The ConVicks." In the long run I dropped the name because I felt it might be construed as supportive of Vick (and iron-on letters don't come in upper and lower case.)

But, I still bought all the stuff, and I did want a T-shirt for the draft, so I chose a simple one word shirt--CONVICKTED.


I had an old red "ringer" t-shirt that I had planned on making a Cincinnati Reds shirt out of once they got good. Needless to say it's been sitting in my closet for more than a few years.

First I laid out the letters in what I thought was a pretty straight line using a sheet of paper as a guide.


Nice and clean, but I wanted to give it a bit more of an athletic shirt feel, so I used a serving dish that had more of an elliptical curve to it.


Much better. Now all I had to do was break out the iron. (I hope my wife doesn't read this and realize I know how to use an iron...)


Ironing was a bit tricky. You have to time hitting the letters long enough to get them to stick, but not so long you burn the shirt. I tried about 15 seconds on the front, then turned it inside out for another 5 on the back side.

All said and done, the shirt cost about $6 in supplies and took about 20 minutes. Not too shabby...