And He Blogs

Do you recognize this place? Let me give you a hint.

Still don’t recognize the place? Maybe you’re not a Windows XP user, but if you are, the chances are good that you’ve considered putting this scene on your computer desktop.

The place depicted in this photograph, called Autumn Lane, was the subject of an epic search by Nick Tosches in a Vanity Fair article. It all started with a computer tech changing the standard Windows XP desktop image, called Bliss, to Autumn on Tosches’ computer. After seeing this image, he deploys what he calls “Team Autumn” to track down the photographer and the location. Microsoft was not very helpful, at least at first. Eventually someone at Microsoft does come through with a location, and one of the team members comes up with the name of the photographer, Peter Burian.

The Vanity Fair article is a great read, and the story (thanks to David Pogue for the lead) of finding the place where the photograph was taken was intriguing enough to me to seek permission to use the photos here, from Peter Burian himself. I went to Peter’s website and filled out a contact form asking permission to use the photos in this post. FOUR MINUTES LATER, I had a reply from Peter saying, “Ok, can do.”

Peter also sent me a few other links to stories that appeared in newspapers near the location of the photograph - Burlington, Ontario, Canada. The Hamilton Spectator and the Toronto Star both ran stories about “the search”. Burlington is between Hamilton and Toronto, and the more accurate location of the photo is Kilbride, Ontario, which is a small village that is part of the Burlington township. I’ve taken many trips through this area on the way to Toronto.

Burian says that it wasn’t until this past December that he discovered his image was a part of Windows XP. After being contacted by Vanity Fair, he was as eager to find the location of the photo as Nick Tosches was. It’s amazing the power of a photo to literally move us.

One last point. Getting permission to use photos with a copyright can be quite easy, if you just ask. Thanks again Peter.

6 Comments »

Several months ago I was working on specifying a computer to serve as our video editing workstation. I wound up ordering a Dell with dual Xeon processors, 2GB of RAM, 1TB of hard disk space, etc. Horsepower (baby) is what you need to do video editing, and the more the better. Which is why it is quite strange that I am now researching online video editors (that’s right, online!). Word comes today that there will soon be two “powerhouse” online editors. Jumpcut has been around a while (you know, a while in Internet time). Now Photobucket has partnered with none other than Adobe to offer their version of online video editing. Their advantage will obviously be the massive resources behind the Adobe Premiere software and the platform that they now own, which is Flash. It hardly seems fair, but we’ll see how it turns out. I signed up for a Photobucket account I don’t know how long ago, but never used it. It’s in limited public beta now for pro account users (of which I am not), and by early March it should be ready for all Photobucket users.

So why am I researching online video editors? Because Jim Groom is starting to horn in on my territory that’s why! Check out the great resource (and example of online video editor) that he found called the Propaganda Filmmaker.

UPDATE: It has a name, Adobe Remix, and here is a review.

2 Comments »

Lawrence Lessig is doing some great online presentations (again) with a whole series of Internet Policy “videos”. The first presentation, featured above, talks about a little-known subject regarding copyright called “Orphan Works”. Lessig’s presentations are always informative, and the presentation style is highly engaging. I look forward to this whole series dealing with subjects like, Remix Culture, Network Neutrality, Spam, Material Harmful to Minors, and Deregulating Spectrum (which is already posted).

No Comments »

I’ve been holding a post in my Bloglines account for a couple months now about news of a new version of the “Levelator“. In the above video, from Robert Scoble, Doug Kaye talks about some other gizmos that make a podcaster’s life easier.

Get The Levelator at Gigavox.com.

3 Comments »

One of the challenges I and my colleagues face on a daily basis is answering the question “what are blogs?”, and “what are they good for?”. Blogumentary (now available on Google Video) is an attempt to show the importance of blogs by showcasing their inherent ability to facilitate conversations in our daily life. Chuck Olsen is the writer/director/producer of the film. Before Blogumentary, Olsen started the website Minnesota Stories. Its focus was and remains about “citizen media”, great stories about life in Minnesota, as told by regular citizens of the state. In Blogumentary, Olsen provides copious amounts of evidence for how blogs are changing our everyday life, and our access to information. There’s even a not so hyperbolic statement to the fact that blogs can save lives (watch the film to find out). While the prediction by participants in the film of blogs kicking George Bush out of the Whitehouse didn’t come true, blogs have changed how the media cover stories in the news, with bloggers often times making significant contributions to stories. Blogumentary ultimately points out that information in today’s society is not a one-way street. Citizens can participate in society in ways previously unimaginable, and that’s a good thing. Cheers to Chuck Olsen for a fine contribution to the conversation.

1 Comment »

OK. I got my silliness out. On the serious side, this new service from Netflix has got some potential. When I first discovered that my “Watch Now” tab had appeared and played some video, I was impressed with the quality. However, the selection was lacking. Now just a few days later and new movies are being added like Once Upon a Time in America, The Worlds Fastest Indian, Born Into Brothels, and of course The Jerk. The ultimate test will be how it looks on the home theater.

2 Comments »

I’m Somebody Now!

Watch Now:

 New Phone Book [0:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Comment »

It’s worth a quick mention (and showing) what the new Mojiti service is capable of. Martha pointed to the Mojiti interpretation of the viral Web 2.0 The Machine is Us video, which inspired me to investigate further. The service does depend on a third-party service like YouTube to host the video. The above example uses a favorite video of mine, the Sony Bravia Balls video. Here’s hoping that they don’t take the video down at YouTube or everything comes to a screeching halt.

1 Comment »

Sometimes I need to see things twice before they get my attention. I first saw Picnik at Tim Lauer’s site, but it didn’t register until Will Richardson posted about it today. Picnik is a “Flashy” type online app that covers the basics like resizing, color touchups, cropping, and saving. It’s real power comes from it’s tight integration with your Flickr photos. Just point it to your account and now you have instant editing of your Flickr photo sets. In addition to feeding it your Flickr photos, you can point it to your computer’s hard drive, a web site, or even your webcam. I’m starting to agree with Will. It’s time to start throwing away all that software I am paying for

1 Comment »

Quite a brave attempt to emulate the OK GO “treadmill” video that was a favorite of mine. This video was found thanks to the connection I made with the Digital Ethnography folks.

No Comments »