And He Blogs

I’ve raved about a creative video from the music group “OK Go” in the past. Well here’s another one from these talented boys. Watch it again and again.

3 Comments »

There’s been lots of talk lately, in our office, and in the blogosphere, about Mobile Phones/Mobile computing. I plan to talk more about it, as I do some (what I think are) valuable experiments. I start by showing the screenshot above of my blog on my Cingular 8125.

The software that I used to get the Windows Mobile screen capture is called Capture Screen Utility 1.0.0007. Catchy!

No Comments »

This is an attempt to do something that I’ve been meaning to work on. It’s the principle that I would like to be known as “blog at once”. It’s the idea that I have the tools at my disposal to drop everything (within reason of course) and blog quickly (and include some kind of media) about my thoughts. Here is my first edition of doing just that.

I’ve been reading blogs at home on my laptop this Saturday morning and what has afforded me this luxury even while my wife is out Christmas shopping is a video game. It is called Professor Fizzwizzle, and my 4 year-old son is hooked. You see, he is able to make his own levels and then test them to see if they work. The basic premise of the game is to enter the screen and find the way out. You come in through one of those tubes that resemble the ones at drive through windows at the bank. The object is to get to the “exit” tube. In the way are crates that need to be pushed aside, barrels that you can ride and/or push, ice that you can slide on, and the all important freeze guns that allow you to turn an immovable crate into an ice block that can then be pushed out of the way. Beware the “rage-bots” that come after you. Just listening to a 4 year-old try to explain a video game’s objective is vastly entertaining in and of itself. He has spent, literally, hours creating various levels in PF and then testing them. So, I just had to take a picture of my little videogame developer.

I also talked myself into blogging about it right away because the tools were right there. Now to blog about the process . . .

1 Comment »

The good old days.

So the inimitable Jim Groom beat me too it (commenting on the previous post), by referring to my new theme. I don’t think I made an announcement for every new theme so far, but the new one has a purpose. The old one that I announced previously was becoming an eyesore frankly. Oh, that neon-green stage of my life. It was based on Canvas, which I (and Martha) thought would “catch fire” because it added drag and drop customizability. Well, it still hasn’t gone anywhere really, and Automattic is “widgetizing” everything. The WordPress Theme site allows you to search for “widget ready” themes and I narrowed it down to a few. I wasn’t looking for the perfect theme, just one that had a basic structure that I could customize. I settled on Coffee Spot. The banner is a photo that I took of the facade and columns of the building that I work in at UMW, DuPont Hall.

The other important consideration of this theme is how it looks on a Windows Mobile PC phone, in my case i have a new Cingular 8125. There are a lot of cell phones in use by students here and I think that use is only going to go up as they add more computer like capability. Not only does my phone do the normal cell phone stuff, but it has built-in 802.11 wireless. It can also do voice recording, take pictures, and record video, all in varying qualities. It also functions like a PC as it can view Word, Excel, PowerPoint (viewer only), and PDF files. It even has a built in keyboard. I’ll continue to report on how I’m doing with it as I think that these devices are at least some part of the future in instructional technology.

Oh, and Jim, thanks for stealing my thunder. As for your recommendation about K2, I already climbed it! (though I reserve the right to return).

3 Comments »

This has all the ingredients of a great instructional video. “Why Don’t We Do It In Our Sleeves?” has timely information, demonstrations of technique, and some campy humor. All in all a very memorable video. I’ll never look at someone cough or sneeze the same way again.

3 Comments »

Watch the video for my reaction to Jon Udell going to Microsoft. Now that you’re up off the floor, listen to the interview he does of himself answering the pertinent questions. It sounds like a great job and I can think of few people more capable. Good luck Jon!

UPDATE: Scoble’s Take. Rex Hammock’s Take.

UPDATE 2: I apparently made Jon’s Day . . . and I’m switched on. All the best to you, Jon.

8 Comments »

Video: Demetri Martin Sober

How great is this -

Obviously I’ve been watching a lot of video lately, but I came across a new (beta) video service called Soapbox (see my previous post). It has the MSN branding so it obviously is a Microsoft product. The great part is that they are using FLASH to deliver the video content (right-click the video for proof). Boy, if that is not a concession in the web video format wars, I don’t know what is. The Demetri Martin video is funny too.

3 Comments »

(Click on thumbnail for large version)

Chris Pirillo is at it again. He’s now done two posts comparing the popular video sharing/hosting sites. The first was comparing YouTube, Google Video, and Revver. The next one compared 9 different services - Soapbox vs. YouTube vs. Break.com vs. Vimeo vs. Jumpcut vs. Blip.tv vs. Metacafe vs. Revver vs. iFilm. As instructed by Chris, I started all nine videos one right after the other and noted some interesting results (yours will vary). Like I said, I started them all in order, but the finishing order was different. First to finish was Soapbox followed by YouTube, which makes sense since they started first and second. Third place was a surprise - my favorite, Blip TV. After that it’s was a bit of a jumble so don’t quote me. I believe Revver and Metacafe did pretty well, but Break, Vimeo, Jumpcut, and iFilm choked. I literally had to move the mouse over them to get them to finish. I don’t know what would have happened if they were in different positions on the board. Also, Blip TV was the least garish looking. It was very clean, and didn’t end with an advertisement (click on the image above to see how it all ended). So give it up for Blip, the winner of a very unscientific and uncontrolled study, featuring a video of a lunatic singing Jingle Bells over and over. Man, how much more fun can the Internet get.

3 Comments »